Blow by blow of my first real game.

[Brasiduss]

I really tend to love these things when I don't have the game myself, so maybe some one else out their might enjoy this.

My Civ is the Persians, I'm playing on a huge map with 7 other civs. I start out on a continent that is of a fair size. I soon find out I'm not alone as I have contact with the Irish to the West. On first contact they seem pretty hotile in theri tone, but we remain at cease fire status for some time. I get my first two cities up really quick and begin both my quenes with hoplite to granery to settler. While doing this I decide to set a goal of monarchy as far as research (When they say in the manual to try to get out of tyranny as soon as possible they mean it, everything is low and unproductive.)

It takes a little time, but I get my two toher settlers and I also build a warrior to search the continent. I soon get two other cities started, and put them on the same build path. I am also building farmland during this period (I still can't get production as high as I want it.)

Skip forward a few hundred years, and I now have 6 cities, but I am still a few advances away from monarchy. About this time, I believe it is around 1000 to 500 BC , I may be wrong. Those Irish start to get a bit antsy... they were staying off my border, but they are suddenly starting to amass along it (not too unusual). Well only a few turns later the bums decide to attack me without declaring war, because my guys are fortified I manage fight off the first set of attacks without taking much damage. For the next 10 turns or so the irish and i have a bit of a border war where no cities are hit, just unit attacks along our respective borders. But soon thereafter the Irish hit below the belt as three of my cities beganto get hit by slavers, by the time I discover and kill them they have enslaved a settler, and 3 population groups. needless to say this pisses me off and right about that time I hit monarchy and get iron working for my samurai.

If you'd like to hear more let me know, I have actually gotten farther but need a little rest from typing. I'm at work so if you have any questions fire away as i have little else to do.

[Yoleus]

keep on... why did it take so long to you to discover monarchy? What difficulty level are you playing at?

[Brasiduss]

I'm playing on medium difficulty, and my dates may be a bit off.

Well needless to say once I hit monarchy I begin to push through some advancements. I also get a lot better production, and the samurai come pouring out. Soon I have about 9 samuraiand some horse archers on the border and I can fell those irish getting scared. Now i start pounding those hoplites into next week and i am soon upon one of the enemies cities. So what do you guess happens now?
... We the Irish are a peaceful people and would like to negotiate a cease fire.... (paraphrasing) My answer you ask..... HELLLLLLL NOOO!!! Would you forgive the enslaving of the people of your nation. I then begin to take a few of their cities for my own 2 to be exact, by the time I reach the third, they ask for a cease fire again and this time I accept on the condition that they give me a city, which they do. Ahhhh.. now the enslvement of my people has been revenged. With the cease fire on i take this time to build up my cities, especially on the scientific front. Almost all cities begin work on an academy.

More to come.

[Ralf]

quote: Originally posted by Brasiduss on 11-17-2000 11:01 AM I'm at work so if you have any questions fire away as i have little else to do.

Game-mechanical Yes/No questions:

(I always play these TBS-games without mayors or queues, so below small details really counts).

1: Units without orders: i want the map automatically re-centered (with auto-cycle turned on), the unit-name turned yellow AND the whole unit (or the unit-name) blinking. Does CTP-2 have blinking order-waiting units, just like Civ-2?

2: Cities without orders: Automatic map re-centering on that city; name turnes yellow AND the whole city (or the city-name) blinking. Is the latter correct?

3: Where on the screen do you get pop-up messages? In a dragable popup-window, or in a pre-designated place in some corner of the screen?

[Brasiduss]

Well to answer some questions the map will center on those units that have no orders most of the time, some of the time they do not, I have not figured ot why yet. Also when a new unit is built in a city it skips to that unit and thus the city also. But the way I normally find out what cities have an empty quene is the message board. It is located to the bottom right in a box that I always keep up. When you have a new message, the mesage icon turns red.

On to my Civ game:
With having a ton of academy's i am able to research a few things in 5-10 turns. Mostly some old things i skipped due to getting to monarchy as fast as i can. I do want to stress getting to that new form of government as fast as possible.... it really helps because tyranny sucks as it should. i am really begging to move quicklt and now I have knights and catapults, and i tink I'm just one advancement away (Classical education) from gunpowder and the ability to create infantry. Once i get that i plan on taking the 3 cities left of the Irish, and having the continent to myself. Aquiring those three will give me a total of 12 and there seems to be room for about 2 more.

[Mad-Kat]

I was finding that it would not go to units who had no orders automatically also. I go into the habit of pressing o to make sure had no waiting units. Look at the end turn button, if it's not flashing then you have units left to move somewhere and should hit o.

[Brasiduss]

So far I am really impressed with the diplomacy. There are a lot of optioons, and for the first time I truly feel as though i could fight a cold war. I can now see myself enacting trade embargos, sending religious types to convert enemy citizens, and other such things. i have yet to hit the point where i can use some corporate type action against another civ, but having that ability makes it that much more fun. Its also impressive that other countries use things against me. in an earlier game i had a country which i had trade routes with actually threaten a trade embargo, now that was cool. What has impressed you guys so far?

[Joseph]

Yoleus
It does not matter what level you are playing on. Monarchy is on the number 5 level. I'm looking at the chart right now and it saids you have to discover Agriculture, Trade, Religion, Drama, Philosophy, Writing and then Monarchy. Discovery take longer now. I have not seen any under 10 turns. I pick up the game last night and so I only played from 7:00 to 11:00PM. Last night I used the goal button for Monarchy. So the AI is suppose to take you to Monarchy the quickes way. In my games (I restarted 4 times) the AI is aggressive and will trespass alot. I had a city with 2 hoplite and one archer defening (no city wall). The Japanesse did a Pearl Harbor with out warning and attack with 2 hoplites and 3 archer and took my city.
For those of you who wanter 16 or more civs you will find out right away how close the other civs are to your 1st city. In the game that I,m playing now the Scots have there no. 1 city and 6 tiles away they have no. 2 and 3 cities, and they are only 5 tiles away from one another, making a triangle set of cities. (I,m playing at the beginner level (sorry)).

Ralf you and I were posting at the same time. So far you must use the queues to built anything whether you build one item or 10 items you have to use the queue.
The game will not recenter unless you hit the "O" key for units and then used the "A" key for each unit. The Japanesse where able to sneek up because I was exploring the country side and the game would not show enemy moments. Also a feature from CTP is still there. If you build a Unit and don't go change the queue it will built unit after unit until you change it.
After a improvment is built, the queues will stay blank until you add something to it. Also it will not add shields until you tell it to build something. I forgot to add something last night for three turns and when I did add a wonder it started at zero. PW is easier now. It is automatic set at 20%. Have not found any key to change it yet.
Also now, some trade require more than one camel to start the trade route.
When a city reaches 6 pop., the city is City center and 8 tiles. At 7 pop. the city expance to 21 tiles. I have 12 pop. city and it has not expaned to the next level yet. Hope I have answer some of your question.

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[This message has been edited by Joseph (edited November 17, 2000).]
[This message has been edited by Joseph (edited November 17, 2000).]