Playing as Friedrich

[polarnomad]

Cool! Just pulled off my first CS slingshot with Freddy, and he's pretty cool, actually. 1/2 price libraries and the GP bonus sure get you there quick. It was really fun to then explode across the continent with my armies of Macemen!
MWAHAHAHA!

Heeeeere itty bitty axemen.... You not such a tough bully no more!

[rush]

1/2 price universities, not 1/2 price libraries

I tried using the CS slingshot about 10 times (playing Frederick, Asoka, Catherine, Musa, Chinese etc) over the weekend in my Emperior, Continental, standard map games. Success = Zero. Not even close. The other teams built Oracle around 1650 BC (fastest) to 1300 BC (slowest). the best i can do is around 1200-1100 BC.

However, if i don't go for CS, and instead accept either CoL or Metal Casting as the free tech, then it's not a problem. CoL gives courthouse + Confusius tech and Metal Casting gives Forge and Colossus wonder, so either one of these 2 techs are good techs to have.

[polarnomad]

Originally posted by rush
1/2 price universities, not 1/2 price libraries

Um, right... Oops!

Playing on Emperor eh? Hmmm... I just managed to win my first game on Prince. Not sure I want to move up to Monarch quite yet though.

[rush]

I got Civ IV around Dec, started & won the first game on Prince level, so I jumped to Monarch. I am more of a builder going for space race victory, Monarch is winnable without War but Emperior is very difficuilt.

Looks like the game is going to start next week.

[polarnomad]

Originally posted by rush
I got Civ IV around Dec, started & won the first game on Prince level, so I jumped to Monarch.

Ok, looks like you just succeeded in forcing me to up the ante... Freddy and I are off to attempt Monarch.

[Togas]

Played a bit as Fredrich and I'm not as impressed with Creative as I thought I'd be.

It didn't help me grab territory quicker. Other civs out-grew me. My borders grew but when a neighbor beat me to a good site by a few turns, having faster culture didn't matter that much.

I also wasn't very well positioned for the CS slingshot thing that seems to be en vogue. Lost out on the Oracle to the Greeks.

Our culture advantage will allow us to claim more territory IF WE ARE THE FIRST TO BUILD A CITY THERE. To that end, early growth is critical. We will be forced to backfill later on, but doing so will result in weak early defenses. We just have to hope for a good neighbor and play up our diplomacy a lot.

However, it's going to be hard to make friends early. No one will want a mercenary team on their border. They may even start a preemptive war over the issue (as they did in the MZO Demogame).

--Togas

[OzzyKP]

Originally posted by rush
1/2 price universities, not 1/2 price libraries

I tried using the CS slingshot about 10 times (playing Frederick, Asoka, Catherine, Musa, Chinese etc) over the weekend in my Emperior, Continental, standard map games. Success = Zero. Not even close. The other teams built Oracle around 1650 BC (fastest) to 1300 BC (slowest). the best i can do is around 1200-1100 BC.

However, if i don't go for CS, and instead accept either CoL or Metal Casting as the free tech, then it's not a problem. CoL gives courthouse + Confusius tech and Metal Casting gives Forge and Colossus wonder, so either one of these 2 techs are good techs to have.

There is an alternate CS slingshot that would suit our civ.

Grab the Oracle to get code of laws, and then use a great prophet to get civil service. It won't get the full cost of the tech, but the vast majority of it.

If we had an early relgion (either homegrown or from someone else) and built a temple & assigned a priest we could start generating GP points as soon as possible. With the philo bonus it'd be more feasible.

Another thought for using our philo bonus is to use the oracle to grab metal working, rush a forge and assign an engineer. Use that to get a great engineer and use him to rush build pyramids.

Unless we find some stone or marble its going to be very tough for us to get any wonders in this game vs. the rest of them who may have those resources and may be industrial as well. This is going to hurt us a lot because wonders are a great way of getting GP points. Lacking that, our philo trait is very much stunted.

Personally I think Frederick is a crappy, crappy leader and we should never have even included him in our list, not as a 3rd pick, not as an 8th pick. If I joined up earlier I would have definitely argued against creative, and against philo as well, but alas, too late. But lacking that we need to play to our strengths (not that we have many).

So the more GPs we get the better.

[rush]

Frederick does not start with Mysticism, so it's no means certain we will grab Oracle ahead of others. Also, we need to research 3 techs to allow us to build Oracle, which means we may end up delaying research more useful techs like Bronze Working, the Wheel or Animal Husbandry.

Below are the list of wonders and the GPs they generate. Which one do you propose we go for ?


Source : got this from CFC/Poly. Sorry, forgot who posted it.

[UnOrthOdOx]

The pyramids would be great. I just have an incredibly hard time devoting that many early hammers to a wonder.

Stonehenge is interesting, we would be assured cultural dominance even over a cultural neighbor. And centering the map is usefull too.

Colossus depends on our terrain how usefull it is.

Lighthouse would be nice.

Great Library. I REALLY want this one. Especially as a philosophical civ.

The Oracle is problematic for us in this game. Any MP game really. And I've never seen a CS slingshot work in PBEM's. Usually Oracle used for metal casting or literature or something else allot earlier than CS.

[rush]

I am beginning to think Stonehenge would work for us. It's only 120 shields (3 trees + a few turns of hammer), generates 2 GPs and get our Philosophical trait rolling.

I am realise none of the teams have mysticism. So, no one will have an edge over us in Stonehenge if we really go for it.

Civ IV Traits Traits Starting Starting

Vox Catherine Creative Financial Hunting Mining
Mercs Frederick Creative Philosophical Hunting Mining
SarantiumElizabeth Financial Philosophical Fishing Mining
Horde Kublai Khan Creative Aggressive Hunting Wheel
Banana Louis Creative Indust Agriculture Wheel
GS Mansa Musa Financial Spiritual Mining Wheel
AC QinIndust Financial AgricultureMining

[Kloreep]

Keep in mind, though, that Banana is Industrious, and any team able to hook up stone gets an even bigger bonus than that. If we don't have stone around, we'll have to consider the possibility of being beaten by someone who does.

[OzzyKP]

Originally posted by UnOrthOdOx
The Oracle is problematic for us in this game. Any MP game really. And I've never seen a CS slingshot work in PBEM's. Usually Oracle used for metal casting or literature or something else allot earlier than CS.

And what of the alternate CS slingshot I posted?

Using oracle to grab code of laws is the same as using it to grab literature (both require writing). Then we just use a religious great leader to hurry CS when there is less pressure.

If we did get stonehenge then we could start acquiring those prophet points early and have something ready in time for our completion of the oracle. Then get CS not long after. Or heck, we could use a prophet to grab CoL and then use the oracle on CS (if the prophet is ready).

If we prioritized religion (we've got a shot at getting an early one) and bronze working we'll have a shot.

[UnOrthOdOx]

Honestly, I'm unaware of the specifics on the alternate one. Which techs, specifically, need to be researched to get the prophet to get CS and not some other tech.

[OzzyKP]

Just skip masonry and get meditation, polytheism and probably priesthood.