Civ 4 BTS Succession Game

[Enoch]

The Round:

 

First, I looked around our empire to see what needed changing.

 

1) Really deficient exploration. We know very little about even the territory of our closest neighbors. To remedy this, I traded our world map and 205 GP to Zara for his map. It revealed an opponent we haven't met yet, the Byzantines:

 

 

2) Non-focused city specialization. Port Avellone is supposed to be a specialist farm. As such, it should have no cottages, at all[/u[]. Everything should be farmed to help feed more specialists. Similarly, Peragus is a production center. Every tile there should be either a farm or a mine/watermill/workshop. This also goes for improvements-- since Peragus is a production city with very limited commerce, it should not be building a Bank (as it was when I opened the save). That's a waste of hammers that could be making military. Also, DOOM is a pure commerce city. As long as it has enough food to work every tile it can under the happiness cap, there's no need to irrigate anything. I changed 3 or 4 irrigated tiles there to cottages.

 

3) Espionage allocation. It was still set 100% on Babylon. They're not really a threat any more, so I spread it out more among our rivals.

 

4) Civics. A few turns in, I had a revolution into Slavery and Theocracy. (That's just the kind of guy I am.) I also converted to Hinduism. Under slavery, I whipped out some needed improvements in our specialist cities (mostly specialist-enabling buildings like libraries and markets).

 

5) Defense. All of our non-frontier cities had pitiful defenses. I tried to upgrade most of these with at least 1 modern unit (i.e., Riflemen).

 

On to what happened in the turn:

 

On turn 222, Wang Kong (and his Vassal, Tokugowa) declared war on us. Bastard.

 

 

His invasion force, though, was kinda pitiful:

 

 

2 Knights, 1 War Elephant, and 1 Pikeman. There was also another Pikeman down by DOOM. The local garrisons made short work of them.

 

On turn 225, our Great Merchant completed his Trade Mission in England. That got us 1900 GP, most of which went to upgrading our Longbows, Macemen, Pikemen, et al., to Riflemen (and, later, our Knights to Cavalry).

 

The next several turns went without major incident. I bribe Zara to join the war against Korea (for Gunpower, which we didn't have a monopoly on anymore). On turn 235, we got a beneficial random event:

 

 

I took the chance on doubling it, and it paid off. This event comes up pretty frequently, which is why I try to avoid building new improvements over city ruins unless I have to.

 

A couple of turns later, something nasty happened. There was a borders pop in Nippur, which left Whatever-the-hell-we-renamed-Babylon surrounded by Babylonian-controlled tiles on 3 sides. I decided that Nippur (and Akkad, to the North) needed to be razed. I made peace with Wang (who gave me 100 GP for my trouble), assembled a stack of Riflemen, Cavalry, our Medic, 2 Trebs, and 1 Catapult (the remaining seige engines from our earlier war).

 

When the stack got to Nippur, it found it woefully under-defended (1 Longbow, 1 Knight, 1 Axeman, 1 Horse Archer). I assaulted right away, suiciding the Cat and 1 of the Trebs, then marching my gun-toting troops all over their medieval remnants. As promised, I razed the town to give Urq-Burg some much-needed breathing room. The army now looks northwards toward Akkad, and awaits the next player.

 

God_Emperor_Feargus_AD_1650.zip

Edited November 5, 2007 by Enoch

[Pidesco]

Good job, as usual. It seems like this game is as good as won.

[Enoch]

Good job, as usual. It seems like this game is as good as won.

I'm not so confident just yet. The English and the Ethiopians are nearly even with us in technology. If we go Space Race, they could be right there in it with us. Although this is Noble, so we should be able to out-tech them generally. But with so much of our rivals together on this continent, I think Domination is the victory condition for us. Raze Akkad, vassalize Babylon, then turn the army south to Egypt (Hindu Holy City!) and Korea.

[SteveThaiBinh]

His invasion force, though, was kinda pitiful

I love it when they do that: "Fear the wrath of my axeman and two catapults!!!"

 

Is razing Akkad really the way to go? Are we planning to put another city where Nippur used to be? I suppose another civ would, if we didn't. Have we placed our Forbidden City yet? What would be a good location for that, given that we seem to be expanding at an alarming rate?

[Enoch]

Is razing Akkad really the way to go? Are we planning to put another city where Nippur used to be? I suppose another civ would, if we didn't. Have we placed our Forbidden City yet? What would be a good location for that, given that we seem to be expanding at an alarming rate?

My thinking was that, if we were to keep Akkad, it would be in the same dilemma that U-Burg is in now-- half of its workable area in the cultural borders of it's former owners. Were it my decision, I'd want to ask for Hammy's capitulation as quickly as we can. I think that we might be able to get him to agree, after the fall of Akkad. If we were to capture it, I'd rather go on and raze the next town over so that it can use all of the tiles in its fat cross.

 

Also, Akkad is in a terrible location. Maybe we could replace Akkad and Nippur with one new city midway between them (1 NW of the horses)?

Edited November 5, 2007 by Enoch

[Pidesco]

Also, Akkad is in a terrible location. Maybe we could replace Akkad and Nippur with one new city midway between them (1 NW of the horses)?

 

That seems to be the best way to proceed. I hate it when large cities have to be razed because of the AI's incompetence. Nippur and Akkad were really a huge fork up.

[Enoch]

Also, Akkad is in a terrible location. Maybe we could replace Akkad and Nippur with one new city midway between them (1 NW of the horses)?

 

That seems to be the best way to proceed. I hate it when large cities have to be razed because of the AI's incompetence. Nippur and Akkad were really a huge fork up.

By the way, clearly, I did not mean that 1 NW of the horses (on the peak) would be a good location. I meant to type NE.

[Walsingham]

Who's next?

[SteveThaiBinh]

Who's next?

You and/or Tale, I think.

[Pidesco]

Or whoever wants to. No one has taken dibs.

[MrBrown]

I'll take a shot at it, if there are no objections?

[Pidesco]

Go ahead.

[MrBrown]

Okay, will do in 3-4 hours.

[MrBrown]

I'm done. I'll report by topic rather than by turn.

 

 

I researched Assembly Line and Fascism. I also got a Great Scientist, which I used to create an Academy at Crossroads Keep, the second highest commerce city. Traded for Scientific Method and Democracy from Elizabeth. I'd research Steel next, as that way we'd get Cannons instead of Trebuchets.

 

Changed civics to Universal Suffrage and Emancipation.

 

Also got the great general from Fascism, hasn't been used yet. Started building the Pentagon in Irvine, as I figured it'd be good for our future war efforts. Which we should be doing, since that's our best chance to win, besides score.

 

 

Built Dikes all over the place, with the help of Universal Suffrage. They're just too good.

 

 

Anyway, regarding the war effort... Messed up a couple of times. Hammurabi originally had only sligtly more defenses than in his last city, so it was just a question of how fast I could get my Trebuchets there. He tried to circle around with a Knight and a War Elephant, but no big deal. But I had forgotten about the 2nd explorer, which Hammurabi promptly killed, and got a Great General for it.

 

It just delayed the inevitable anyway, and I razed Akkad... But not before he capitulated to Wang Kong, who declared war on me, along with his other vassal, Tokugawa. Not that they had much to attack with (2 Knights and 1 Galleon)...

 

I eventually made peace with them, as I figured the distance from the Obsidian lands would make the war effort rather pointless. It'd be better to attack Egypt first. I placed the attack pile next to DOOM, near the Egyptian border.

 

 

I also made a new city, to the place Enoch recommended.

 

There were a couple of events, but nothing big.

 

 

 

Anyway, the big question... City specialization. Geez, what a mess. Here's what I'd recommend doing with the cities, and what some of them are actually already doing:

 

Irvine & Crossroads Keep - Commerce->Science. Cottages and Windmills (Windmills with Electricity give +2 commerce, +1 with Financial). Oxford and Wall Street should go to these cities, slightly depending on whether you'll be continuing with Bureucracy.

DOOM - Commerce, and science if you're going to play with more than 50% of commerce going into it.

Port Avellone - Specialists. Farms.

Peragus & Meatytown - Hammers->Armies.

 

The other cities aren't that specialized yet, I think.

 

 

 

So, anything to ask? Or did I mess up anything?

 

GodEmperorFeargusAD_1750.zip

Edited November 8, 2007 by MrBrown

[SteveThaiBinh]

Looks pretty good to me.

 

Does everyone agree we're committed to a domination victory strategy now? If so, I guess Egypt is the next logical target, though the Koreans might help them (depending on their relationship with each other).

[MrBrown]

The Koreans and their vassals (the Japanese and the Babylonians) as well as the Egyptians only acquired Gunpowder a few turns ago, so I doubt they'd pose much threat even 4vs1.

 

Elizabeth and Zara also dislike each other, so it might be wise to make them fight, or at least cut all deals, at some point. They're the biggest enemies, really.

[Pidesco]

Great job!

 

I say that the Great General should go to whichever city has the Heroic Epic. Is that Peragus? The attack on the Egyptians should start as soon as possible.

 

Who's next? I want more!

[Tel Aviv]

Discovered this thread mere moments ago. Its a good read. Don't stop the music.

[SteveThaiBinh]

Discovered this thread mere moments ago. Its a good read. Don't stop the music.

Welcome. Wanna play?

[Tel Aviv]

Discovered this thread mere moments ago. Its a good read. Don't stop the music.

Welcome. Wanna play?

Can't. No Civ 4. :sad:

 

Might reinstall Galactic Civilizations II to fill the void.

[Pidesco]

What was this doing on the second page? Who's up to play the game next?

[SteveThaiBinh]

I'll go. I'm not due a turn yet, but who cares. See you shortly with the results.

[Pidesco]

I'll go after you, then.

[SteveThaiBinh]

261 (1755AD) - sent the Great General to Peragus to become a drill instructor, as that's been designated a military/army production city.

 

262 (1760AD) - declared war on Hatshepsut

 

263 (1765AD) - captured Elephantine

 

264 (1770AD) - another Great General to MeatyTown as a drill instructor.

 

266 (1780AD) - captured Alexandria

 

269 (1795AD) - Hammurabi has become a vassal of Elizabeth, replacing Wang Kon.

 

271 (1805AD) - captured Thebes. Also we built the Pentagon in Irvine.

 

276 (1812AD) - captured Heliopolis. Hatshepsut capitulated, and is now our vassal. As a result, we met Justinian of the Byzantines.

 

280 (1820AD) - End

 

Okay, one of the not-so-great decisions I made was to let Egypt capitulate in 276 rather than head down and destroy Memphis, so that Thebes would be less likely to revolt from its cultural influence. The reason was that there was a Wang Kon stack heading through Egyptian territory, probably to attack Thebes, and I felt our army had rather overextended itself. As soon as the war with Egypt finished, Wang Kon ran away, but I'm sure he'll be back.

 

As I felt the army was spread rather thin, I set most cities to pump out infantry to fortify the front lines and to rebuild the army for a potential attack on whoever's next - I'd say Wang Kon, since he'll probably attack us soon anyway. In any case, the army needs some re-organisation once we have a few more infantry to play with.

 

I left the Great Scientist who appeared just before the end of my go in Irvine, for the next player to deal with. A corporation might be useful to fund our soon-to-be massive empire, if we want to avoid communism.

 

I researched Railroad, and our workers are now creating a rail network. We're currently researching Combustion.

 

Newly-conquered formerly Egyptian territory:

[Pidesco]

So, I've been nosing around in the save game, and I was wondering if we were still playing towards domination. It seems like we are a bit late for it as it's the year 1820, and we still need to double our land area. If Domination is still our goal, the Wangman should be next in line to get his ass handed to him. If not, we could just stop with conquering, and focus on a Spaceship victory, which should be easy enough to achieve.

 

What do you peeps think?