CIV Duel vs. robbo

[greekguy]

This is a spoiler thread for my Civ 4 PBEM vs. robbo. This game was started back in September 2006.

I'm playing as Napoleon of France and robbo is Catherine of Russia. Settings are: Pangea, small world, noble difficulty, temperate climate, medium sea level, and quick game speed.

We are currently at 3100 BC.

i'll post updates in the coming posts. please feel free to offer advice, give suggestions, or yell at me for doing something stupid. your posts will greatly valued by me, so please post! :)

[greekguy]

Here's the update for 3100 BC:

I built a warrior this turn and continued exploring with my other warriors. One of my warriors stumbled near a barb,and killed the wolf during the interturn. I think i'm doing ok, but this is only my second Civ 4 game (i beat a solo game on Chieftian w/Greece), so if you see my make some bad moves, please tell me. Here's a screenie of the land around my capital:

http://img243.imageshack.us/img243/5423/civ43100bcdp2.jpg

[Kemal]

I wouldn't build another worker yet when you already have one running around. You'll soon run out of jobs for them, while they are costly to produce.

Since this will be a small world, are your plans a quick axeman rush, or do you intend to build up a bit first? Can't see a very good 2nd city spot yet from your screen, but maybe you already have something figured out regarding city locations?

[greekguy]

there are some pigs and hills by my southern coast, so i think i'll build my second city down there. about my worker build, what do you think i should produce instead of the worker? my other options are warrior, settler, and barracks.

[Kemal]

I the city continues to increase production and hasn't reached health/happiness limits yet, I'd say build warriors until your city reaches the optimal size for producing growth-inhibiting builds such as settlers. Once this optimal number is reached, I'd go for the settler if I had enough warriors to protect him.... if not, build more warriors first, then build the settler, and go for a 2nd city.

I have to say though that I am not experienced with small maps and quick speed, so maybe this approach is too much of a builder one, someone else (with more quick game experience) might be able to say more on this matter.

[greekguy]

thanks for the advice Kemal. i'll focus on warriors and then a settler to get a second city in the near future.

[BCLG100]

find out where the bronze is and then if nearby settler it asap, otherwise yes you need more than one warrior around your capital-id say at least 3, 2 for defence and 1 for the new city.

[greekguy]

ok, i just played another turn, and i switched Paris to build a warrior. also, i misspoke before. there are sheep south of me near the coast, not pigs, but there are some pigs to my east. however, the land near the sheep isn't as good as the land near the pigs. so, where should i build my 2nd city: pigs or sheep?

[RegentMan]

A zoomed out screenie will help us decide. :)

[BCLG100]

neither are of any use (Well thats a lie they are) but bronze is more important.

[greekguy]

well, if anyone cares anymore, I'm starting updates again. so, here's the update for 790 BC.

I've built a bunch of military lately and am getting ready to attack robbo in the near future. I'm also gonna build one more city or two, since I know too many cities are a bad thing for CIV. Here's some pics of my civ, if anyone has any advice please feel free to post it. :)

http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/1787/civ4321ti4.jpg

http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/4104/civ4mapwm5.jpg

[mauer]

I'd say no more obelisk, no to the Parthenon, and axes instead of swords. If he has axes, then your swords will be worthless attacking the cities even at +10% city attack since axes are +50% vs melee units....ie 6.6 swords vs 7.5 axes.

I've played Robb before, and he's pumping military units pretty hard to kill you.

Looks like you've got an awesome city spot E/SE of Paris near the rice and cows.

EDIT: I meant W/SW of Paris

[greekguy]

thanks for the advice. btw, I think i'm building that obelisk because there's incense nearby and I'd like to get. but IIRC, that is a resource you can only get with the calendar advance, right? also, in your experience, do CIV PBEMs usually ever last as long as calendar?

[BCLG100]

More often than not yeah they do, unless there are no AI. Build libraries instead of obelisks. tbh this counts in non MP games as well.

[greekguy]

well there are no AI in this game. Just me and robbo on a small sized map.

[greekguy]

Here's the update for 160 BC:

I declared war on robbo this turn. I have a fairly strong military, with 4 warriors, 4 Swords, 5 Axes, and 4 Spears. I killed off a Russian scout and entered his territory this turn, so a good start for me. The only units of his I can see is a weak warrior in the jungle, out of his lands, and a catapult and axe sharing a tile in his territory. You can see it in this picture:

http://img49.imageshack.us/img49/6571/civ4160bc2bh0.jpg

Also, that stack of 3 French units on a hill contains a Sword, and Axe, and a Warrior. I feel like I'm in good shape to win this war, though any advice you guys wanna give will be appreciated. Here's a zoomed out shot of the battle area to give you a better perspective on the "big picture":

[http://img49.imageshack.us/img49/1949/civ4160bclb0.jpg

[dutchfire]

I've taken over this game for greekguy, and we're currently in the first millenium AD. I'll give an update when I get the next save.

[dutchfire]

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/1755/greekguy1lq5.jpg
My capital. I think it's pretty good. It has got the Parthenon (greekguy built this), the Pyramids and the Great Library. I'll have a great person soon, hopefully a great scientist to help my teching.

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/7613/greekguy2wn9.jpg
My second city, decent, but not spectacular.

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/816/greekguy3hn2.jpg
A small icy city, but it gives me the much needed iron.

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/5439/greekguy4uj9.jpg
Another small city, but it's making a small profit.

http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/2782/greekguy5qh8.jpg
My heroic epic & stonehenge city, it can 1-turn swords or cats, but I'm now trying to build the Hanging Gardens, as I'm already 20 units over my unit support limit. I'm trying to solve my economy in general, by settling some new cities.

http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/7596/greekguy6sz6.jpg
This is my newest city. I settled it 2 turns ago. I want to chop/whip a granary and a library, and use it as a great people farm. It will also give research since I'm running representation.

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/7048/greekguy7vm7.jpg
The tech tree, I was ways behind, but I don't know how far behind I am now. I am also missing fishing and sailing, but I won't need boats yet anyway. My current goal is machinery, to match robboo's crossbows and maces.

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/2448/greekguy8mz5.jpg
My razed city, robboo razed it from the sea using maces. You can also see my overly large stack of obsolete units here (there are 20 on that one tile!)