Au 101 Dar 1: 4000 Bc - 1520 Bc

[V3nom]

difficulty: emperor

My tactic for this game never wavered. it was a rush for polytheism and then monotheism, ignoring meditation entirely (getting all 3 early religions on this difficulty is virtually impossible.

due to my strategy a worker first was out of the question because I wouldnt have any worker techs for probably the first 30 turns at least. Warrior first allowed for early verticle growth but that isnt AS important for a religious rush strategy (by the time the city grew polytheism would be nearly done so the 1 extra commerce would make less than a turns difference. Monotheism was always going to succeed with a direct beeline so again the 1 or 2 commerce from a larger city wasnt that important). So I opted for a settler first approach, to help this out I moved onto the plains hill 2N (spend one turn to get a settler out 5 turns earlier and thus have virtually no threat from animals)..

Polytheism was done in 3520, Barcelona was founded in 3080 and monotheism was completed in 2720. The nice result of this ordering was that Barcelona got Judaism and since i had no state religion expanded its borders extremely quickly, bringing in marble with no real effort on my part (it was founded 3E,1N of my capital).

After this intial flurry both cities took the time to build a warrior for the protection, happiness and to give them time to grow to size 2. Each then proceeded to build a worker as I quickly grabbed mining, the wheel and agriculture.

from here things diversified in my cities. My capital started alternating between warrior and settler while my second city began working on two temples to allow greater growth (and thus, a faster oracle). I know I'm leaving the oracle rather late because of my religion detour, but I still have enough breathing time doing it now at this difficulty especially given that I have marble (also the fact that stone henge has yet to be completely weighs in my favor as well).

On the research front pottery was skipped altogether, instead I went through priesthood to writting and then on to code of laws.

At 1520 my 3rd city is one turn away from being founded (see map). Some of you may question my city placement and yes it certainly is going to hamper my short term research efforts, as is the speed at which I'm generating cities. However the aim is simple, cut off the french with my first wave of cities from the land below (my third city will get confuciunism, so it will quickly solidify the border), then I have the luxury of building my empire vertically so I can support myself once more and then expand horizontally once more back into the space below. Yes its possible (probably even) that some settlers will be transported in galleys to behind me, but these will be easily to press with culture and in the meantime will help drain the AIs superior economy (because of difficulty level) with maintenance costs.

The plan from here is to use the CS slingshot with the oracle. After that I'll grab bronze working (and possibly iron working, depending on what I find). After this my research will probably start to lag as my cities start to become too cumbersome and are not yet producing enough commerce to make up for it. However I'll use this time to concentrate on my defensive military so the AI doesnt find me a tempting target (war makes it hard to spread religion :P). From there its strikes out to Islam, christianity and Taoism.

[Dubhghlas]

Two Years Later, 101

Ok, I'm behind a bit. I did AU-100 way back at the beginning of the CIV IV AU, but then I got tired of playing and was still all sucked into Europa Universalis, and then into going back to college, so I never progressed. So now, I'm gonna try to progress. We'll see how it goes.

I feel like I should do well with AU-101 because it's using my favorite culture, the Spanish under Isabella. I love playing this religious approach in large measure because I love the bloodless revolutions. So we shall see if I can keep up with this course.

My Goals will be as follows: Found at least four, and preferably five of the religions, and convert each and every other country to my religion. Also, I intend to engage in war only when needed to spread the one true word.

I have agonized over reading the DARs prior to playing this scenario, but have decided against it. I want to compare how I think about the game with how others thought about it. I have, however, glanced through them before posting this DAR.

Noble Difficulty, Normal Speed (man does that make having a long drawn out war hard!)

4000 BC: I consider moving the settler before founding Madrid, but decide against it. It's tempting to move to between the rivers for some defensive protection, but that loses a food unit in the exchange, and I've decided Madrid, with all this food production possible, is going to be a monster sized city, with lots of specialists, rather than a center of commerce, so the more the food the merrier. I don't like the look of things to the West, and my warrior finds that things to the NE may be equally barren. So I'm going to settle right where I am.

Now comes the other big decision, the one that sets in motion my course for the whole game: first tech to research. My goal is to get 4 of 7 religions, but I'm going to have to figure out which of the first two that get researched I'm going to give away, since the chance of getting both is miniscule (Buddhism and Hinduism). Since I've discovered it's about 50/50 beating the AI to Buddhism, and since I'm not producing a ton of beakers at the start, and don't have time to wait to discover how to build cottages, I'm going to go for Hinduism. I've never yet been beaten to it by the AI when playing Isabella, and I think I'll have a good chance of getting Judaism shortly after. From there, it gets interesting.

The obvious plan of attack is to get Priesthood, then go for writing and build the Oracle, so that the tech I grab with the Oracle will be Theology. Theology is really expensive, so it makes sense to grab it with the Oracle. However, this leaves Code of Laws in peril (the AI heads for it like an arrow). It also runs afoul of the other main interest of the Spanish: the Conquistador.

Conquistadors are wonderful troops to get. But they are tech expensive; 12 techs to research to get to Guilds, and then you have to do three more for Horseback Riding. And even then, you don't have Agriculture, nor do you have Polytheism, Masonry or Monotheism. So I'm going to have to decide if I really want to be a warring Spain, spreading my faith by the sword, or if I want to be a pantheistic Spain, with less emphasis upon fighting. Since the point to the course is to maximize the theology approach, I'll drift much more slowly to Guilds, and focus on getting the religions.

So the plan is this: Polytheism, then Monotheism, then Priesthood, then Writing, enabling acquisition of Theology via Oracle. I'll hope to win the race to Code of Laws, but even if I don't, I should still have a good chance of beating the AI to Philosophy and Divine Right. Along the way, I'll pick up cheap techs that help me expand my cities according to plan, such as Agriculture, and I'll have to find time to fit Bronze Working in there somewhere, so that the damn barbarians don't come and slaughter my city defenders.

Timeline:
3920 - Villagers give gold
3600 - Polytheism; Hinduism; I convert.
3520 - Frederick pokes his nose in. Well, at least it's not Nappy. Fortunately, my first warrior is produced the same year in Madrid.
3480 - Tundra south of me; I'm at the bottom of the world
3360 - Village 2 gives gold (darn). Also, Madrid is Pop 3, so I can start on a worker then settler, and return to Stonehenge when they are done (I always produce workers and/or settlers at Pop 3)
3240 - Buddhism founded elsewhere. Darn, I would have had time to do both.
3040 - Masonry
2960 - Village 3 yields experience. This is a lousy batch of gifts; and since Frederick has a scout wandering around, and I don't, I am betting I just saw my last village
2880 - First battle, won by my exploring warrior over a wolf unit. So far, have not seen anyone but Frederick and the barbs. Maybe I'm relatively alone here.
2760 - First resource worked (corn south of Madrid). We are gonna farm, farm, farm, baby!
2600 - Monotheism; Judaism; Organized Religion (I adopt)
2440 - First Settler produced, now working on Stonehenge
2360 - Barcelona founded (4N, 2E) To me, this was a no-brainer. It's a hill, it's got fresh water, and it puts that ugly desert square to the SE outside of the cross. Further, I'll need to go this direction to limit Frederick, who appears to be up this way somewhere. Oh, I also get The Wheel (I want Pottery for cottages, and figure I can take the time).
2200 - Barca converts to Hindu
2120 - Pottery (yippee, now Barca can have cottages)
1960 - Mining (I need some hammers for making wonders) I am declared the Most Cultured civilization. Not a shock.
1840 - Stonehenge completed in Madrid.
1760 - Priesthood

1520: Madrid is size 6 now and building the Oracle, according to plan. I've felt I had the time to complete some research into basic techs, because of the long time to the discovery of Meditation. So I've stuck in cottages and mining, allowing my worker to do some improving. This also allowed me to take the time after Stonehenge to complete another warrior for Madrid, and then build a granary. Madrid is now primed to grow, grow, grow.

Barca is size 3, and is producing a settler. I took the time to build walls, here, because I worry that this city will see some barbarian action, and walls plus hill location will be difficult to overcome for those nasty guys. Besides, wasn't much else worth building while waiting for Pop 3.

As far as the world goes, it's looking like a fair starting position. I have only met Frederick, so I am going to conclude that we are the only two on this continent, and that I have the south and west portion to myself, assuming I wall him off to the NE. I already see signs he's coming south along my East side. To the south and west of me barbs keep showing up, so I'm going to have to be cautious about them, but that means I may be able to conquer some barb cities there, later, especially to the West.

I'm going to put a city up by the stone resource in the NW, and one by the marble resource in the East. After that, expansion to the NE will depend upon what Fred does. I will go after Bronze Working soon (I'm working on writing now, for libraries and Code of Laws), so I can find where the copper is. This area isn't exactly resource rich, I'm hoping it does better on the metals.

Oracle is due to be done in nine turns. That will give me Theology, and then I can try for Code of Laws. God(s) grant I get there first!!

[joncnunn]

Well, better late than never I supose. Just note that assuming your on the current patch your results aren't going to be directly relatable to the other players.
Back when this course came out, it was fairly easy to found all seven religions if you went all out for it, now it's really difficult just to get both Budism & Hinduism.