View Full Version : ***Robi's quest for Spoilers*** Spoiler***
Ok, everyone will probably have the jist of what is going on by now.
I am de gaulle, Start isn't anything to write home about.
http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/3751/civ4screenshot0074.jpg (http://img72.imageshack.us/i/civ4screenshot0074.jpg/)
http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/9444/civ4screenshot0075.jpg (http://img39.imageshack.us/i/civ4screenshot0075.jpg/)
I've already met Stapel and we agreed a ten turn arrangement. I found him as well, i figured i'd build up a stack of chariots and then hit him as his lands look nice with silver and gold nearby.
http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/8653/civ4screenshot0076.jpg (http://img824.imageshack.us/i/civ4screenshot0076.jpg/)
Is that a 10 turn warning or the agreement is for only 10 turns?
10 turn warning, the complete uselessness of a ten turn peace treaty stopped me for going for that! :D
I would have thought so to but the way you wrote it had me wondering;)
I picked up the game; BC wants a chariot rush but researches iron working; he is Chm and needs border pops but he doesn't have myst for monuments ... someone isn't focusing hard enough.
So while the situation rectifies itself, I'll get an axe and settler or two, settle agressively towards our antagonist Stapel the english (who oh so kindly blocked us all the way across from exploring further inland), build chariots and rename everything I can. More to come when something happens, aka lion meat and iron ore.
Settler queued up in the capital when it reaches size 5; it'll grow on chariot production right after.
Barbu reached me with a galley, hopefully it's an empty one. If he lands 2 warriors I might be ok, 2 archers and I'd be toast. I guess we'll see.
Barbu came and went in peace, which is most agreeable. Settler out next turn, I'll post screenies in a turn or two when exploration is significantly improved.
I built two axes to flash at Stapel so he can prepare with axes and be met by chariots. Or not prepare at all, whichever.
Pictures!
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u204/CFC_Beorn/Civ4ScreenShot0019.jpg
That's the North, pretty dull although there's 3 coast-connected islands where sending the eventual galley+scout might be worth the trip. The first voyage however is bound south:
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u204/CFC_Beorn/Civ4ScreenShot0018.jpg
That river spot with clams, cows and elephants is just too good. 12BFC forests, hills, flood plains, minimal coast. It'll be my 4th city for sure. For now however, my mandate was to build chariots and settle agressively towards Stapel:
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u204/CFC_Beorn/Civ4ScreenShot0017.jpg
And this is where it will happen. Notice Barbu who will soon come to the sad discovery that this land is tribal village poor, although his landed scout sure looks optimistic and opportunistic. Good for him. I'd call it lion food but on low levels it'll live until barbs, and probably survive even one of those...
Anyways, I'm headed towards the Food+Prod site with a settler and chariot, plus a worker and an axeman shortly after. The food+prod is not on a hill but it has the advantage of being able to conceal chariots, while I flash an axe or two in the woods. Stapel has a looming warrior in the surroundings whose sighting I am trying to avoid by snaking along the western coast - though it may take an extra turn to get there, surprise is key.
Aerial whole-picture view:
http://i169.photobucket.com/albums/u204/CFC_Beorn/Civ4ScreenShot0020.jpg
Looks like you have it all planned out :D
Btw where did the portugese galley come from?
The East, right over Stapel's StoneHenge He floated up to my borders, saw the impass, and doubled back while dropping the swift-legs. BC is back, so I handed the reins over to him; he founded "Beorn" on the Hammers+Food tile :)
He's been rethinking his chariot rush plan because of the 10 turns warning agreement - kinda kills the mood for chariotry - and is going for a settler spree. We'll need pots for cottages if we go that way because economy will kill us without infra or some kind of economic relief. Tuskers and clams will help but they're not the end of the world. The big commerce city in there is the dyes one and it's a jungle mess.
So we have 4 quickies and then 2-4 more cities that will take more work to get on par. With all resources though - including ivory - we should have no problem building up any kind of military to crush anyone. We could, for instance, settle close to home on the Moai spot real quick and fill it with cottages. That would help a lot in the short run and it connects ivory.
I should hire you to chronicle all of my games!
thanks again!
My pleasure!
Now, do you think there's any remote possibility of you dropping off the map again and me subbing back, or can I go out and devour every other spoiler thread?
Must ... lurk ... it itches ... but playing is fun too.
I don't mind, you're welcome to play the game with me but also welcome to go and lurk the other threads. Completely up to you!
Stapel continues to make his civ look more and more attractive;
His capital now has stonehenge and the great lighthouse. Whilst his second city is the hindu capital.
http://img825.imageshack.us/img825/8158/civ4screenshot0077.jpg (http://img825.imageshack.us/i/civ4screenshot0077.jpg/)
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Meanwhile I'm finishing another settler on the upcoming turn and shall be moving it to north west of Stapel's territory and planting it to grab fish, crab, ivory and stone. Slightly different to a space you suggested beorn but only by a tile. I'm not leaving Stapel much land to expand into when i do settle this city so i expect the relationship to get frosty fairly quickly. I'll complete my border cities and build some more military just incase (an axe or two), he doesn't have horse so no need to worry about spears.
I settled the fish, crabs, stone, ivory site just north west of Stapels capital. He has just given me ten turns warning. Understandably so, it was quite aggresive settling when considering Beorns location also. I do think he's given me it too early though (for him that is).
http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/1324/civ4screenshot0078.jpg (http://img688.imageshack.us/i/civ4screenshot0078.jpg/)
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Luckily my military production early in the game should have paid off to some extent, the hardest part will be reinforcing my outlying cities.
http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/7458/civ4screenshot0080.jpg (http://img180.imageshack.us/i/civ4screenshot0080.jpg/)
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I've not switched to full military production at all just yet. The capital is finishing a settler on the next turn to complete the ring around my cities whilst bigbum is finishing a worker because its production is relatively poor at the moment anyways so until its borders expand and it can work the iron there is little point in building military.
http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/4039/civ4screenshot0081.jpg (http://img824.imageshack.us/i/civ4screenshot0081.jpg/)
Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)
http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/552/civ4screenshot0082.jpg (http://img820.imageshack.us/i/civ4screenshot0082.jpg/)
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My workers are concentrating on joining my cities together so they will have to continue to do that rather than spend time developing my cities. I was already working on a road to darce so that'll be done in the upcoming turns but the hardest city to reinforce will be Beorn due to its location and the lack of roads, if i can get a road there i can at least whip an axe every few turns or so. Unfortunatly i don't actually have much forest for chopping but neither does Stapel and nor are his cities especially good for production (with the exception of his capital which can pump out axes every two turns.
Hunting is done in 3 turns so i'll put a couple of spears in each city just incase he tries a chariot attack. Beorn and Darce will be my two major areas of defence, perhaps leaving a mobile force halfway between the two to cover either. I'm not going to bother attacking Stapel for the time being, it would be too costly unless he doesn't actually manage to build much military in the meantime.
I don't have sailing so if i see boats coming i'm going to have to ensure my other cities are still adequately defended (an axe or two) however beorn and darce take priority. I can pump out at least 4 axes in the time being before the ten turns are done and can get at least 3 of them to darce but i'll move at least 2 to beorn because i feel that will be the focal point of any attack. Beorn itself has a monumnent in it and will have 20% by the time of any attack whilst Darce will have a monument but it is unlikely to have 20%.
My demo's suck and with this war will likely to do so for awhile but having overriding control of the continent will be worth it in the long run.
http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/9605/civ4screenshot0083.jpg (http://img714.imageshack.us/i/civ4screenshot0083.jpg/)
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I've also met donovan, azza and ynnek. I've agreed to a ten turn warning with azza as he has sea access to me and i didn't want to have to deal with him at anypoint in the near future should I have too. I might see if i can extend my agreement with barbu, just to be on the safe side.
Settled the new city and so the rink protecting my capital and second city are complete. Here's a picture and a few potential city sites.
http://img842.imageshack.us/img842/756/civ4screenshot0084.jpg (http://img842.imageshack.us/i/civ4screenshot0084.jpg/)
Best of all was that the hut I had been saving outside bigbum popped me Metal Casting on the turn roll over when the borders expanded [goodjob]
My defences in my outlying cities aren't brilliant but judging by the power scores Stapels potential attacking force can't be too brilliant either. I have a feeling he has given me this notice but doesn't intend to use it immediately, rather that at some point in the future he will want to use it. This isn't going to stop me reinforcing however but it will mean I'll need to develop my cities under the cloak of a potential war.
Nice move to block off most of the continent for yourself, taking a risk with an aggressive move it will be interesting to see if it works.
GNP is a little sick though
Yeah it's awful, i'm going to run an SE for a bit I think as i have a decent supply of food and an SE will allow me to easily switch to and from war production where cottages could be easily smashed.
As soon as i get writing and, hopefully, i'm not being put to the sword i'll library up in every city and just have the scientists running which should easily give me another scientists to get me back in the game.
Following writing i'll grab sailing to protect my coasts, I am still concerned stapel might launch a naval force. Following that i'm unsure the way to go; it's either grab machinery for the xbows (because i'm already likely to be the furthest along that route) or go and try and grab monarchy for hered rule.
Lt. Killer M
25-09-2010, 17:38
watch out - two galleys full of axes can be an ugly surprise if sneaked behind your lines.
Metal Casting is awesome. Forges!
watch out - two galleys full of axes can be an ugly surprise if sneaked behind your lines.
Yeah, that's the worry. The only good thing is that there is no way he can reach my land without me noticing it first. Unless he can get through barbu's territory which I will have to double check.
I've extended my peace with barbu to 500ad with definitely no war and 10 turns warning after that.
Ok so an update for anyone interested/reading along. The war with Stapel continues with not much progress by either side. The only source of action was when my chariot went on a wander into Stapels territory and managed to capture and kill a worker before destroying a spear and in turn be destroyed by a followup axe.
So on to the cities, here is the capital;
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/174/civ4screenshot0087.jpg (http://img220.imageshack.us/i/civ4screenshot0087.jpg/)
Due to a few beneficial luxury and health trades my capital can grow to size 11 without the need for any new civics as well as having enough food now to maintain a 2 food growth whilst still working all the hills. There is the obvious lack of infrastructure which is a bit annoying but the war with stapel means that i feel the need to keep at least two cities building military at all times, this leads me on to my second city;
http://img145.imageshack.us/img145/2015/civ4screenshot0088.jpg (http://img145.imageshack.us/i/civ4screenshot0088.jpg/)
The second city is building a tireme with the idea to build two more after if i can find the time. The plan is to always have one outside the city with another being able to stay there but also move down the coast should the need arise. The third tireme i want to send down to Stapel's capital and cause as much trouble with it as I can, i'll probably be able to destory all his sea resources down there and perhaps blockade because I think I am one of the few with MC and therefore tiremes.
Beorn is next up;
http://img413.imageshack.us/img413/1759/civ4screenshot0089i.jpg (http://img413.imageshack.us/i/civ4screenshot0089i.jpg/)
I was running scientists for a few turns in this city but in a bid to get production finished quicker i've switched them off. Once this finishes the granary the only thing it realistically could do with for the time being is a forge but i'll probably have it building military for a bit so the capital can switch to a settler and then a granary (this should take about 6 turns). At which point i'm undecided whether to turn the scientists on or just leave it, my tech has increased recently but more about that later.
Darce is going to be a scientist city until i've wiped Stapel off the map
http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/9296/civ4screenshot0090.jpg (http://img251.imageshack.us/i/civ4screenshot0090.jpg/)
It serves little purpose otherwise, though it could potentially whip a lot of units should stapel acquire a significant military advantage. I might try and hook the stone up so I can take a cheeky crack at the great wall as currently it is turns in the capital without stone so I can only imagine it'll change to 3/4 turns if i get it connected.
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/7627/civ4screenshot0091.jpg (http://img177.imageshack.us/i/civ4screenshot0091.jpg/)
Freddy definitely looks like it will be a worthwhile city, it also has plenty of forest to chop to get things done quicker. I'm going to refrain from whipping there for as long as possible due to this and may just turn it in to a commerce city due to the lack of any reasonable production in the long term.
Now I have plans for 5 (possibly a sixth city in the south if i build enough military muscle up);
http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/9951/civ4screenshot0092.jpg (http://img691.imageshack.us/i/civ4screenshot0092.jpg/)
http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/2641/civ4screenshot0093.jpg (http://img139.imageshack.us/i/civ4screenshot0093.jpg/)
The dye city will probably be the best city but I am in the least rush to settle it as it requires calendar and plenty of workers to be good, both of which i lack. INstead I will probably settle the left hand cities first. The far left city has fish in its initial borders also which makes early growth appealing and the second left city could have rice inside a border pop as well as plenty of hills for production. Either way I would like to get them all settled as quickly as I can, DZ now has 8 cities and Matrix has 7 cities so I don't want them getting too far ahead and my aggressive settling with Stapel would be wasted if I don't make use of it as early as possible.
Back to Stapel himself, here are the power ratings;
http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/8010/civ4screenshot0094.jpg (http://img829.imageshack.us/i/civ4screenshot0094.jpg/)
You can see that recently he has overcome me in power but;
http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/2366/civ4screenshot0098.jpg (http://img183.imageshack.us/i/civ4screenshot0098.jpg/)
The numbers in this city have remained roughly equal, so he is either keeping them behind in his territory or he is making plans to launch an amphib attack. I should be fine if he does attack in the south as I do have quite adequate protection against a civ lacking in cats.
http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/5518/civ4screenshot0097.jpg (http://img833.imageshack.us/i/civ4screenshot0097.jpg/)
Stapels civ itself is very much lacking in production however;
http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/9159/civ4screenshot0096u.jpg (http://img214.imageshack.us/i/civ4screenshot0096u.jpg/)
I recognised my capabilities production wise a few turns ago, if i shift tiles around I can be easily first place but decided to try and encourage growth at the same time (hence my drop in ratings). He has had a rise in gnp so I imagine he has switched production, perhaps recognising that he can't out power me initially and therefore has begun a race to cats or something else (his gnp throughout the game has been better than mine with his silver/gold mines)
http://img63.imageshack.us/img63/7089/civ4screenshot0095.jpg (http://img63.imageshack.us/i/civ4screenshot0095.jpg/)
My demographics have vastly improved since my last update with my gnp almost trebling, this was largely helped by my discovery of sailing, giving every city i have a +3 trade route with DZ's cities. This has decreased the time it would take my to get to construction from ~60 turns to 20ish. Once I do get to construction, provided I am able to get there unscathed, every city will switch to production of cats so I can get rid of stapel sooner rather than later so I can get on with the rest of the game.
Now the observant of you may have noticed in the first picture this;
http://img687.imageshack.us/img687/6505/civ4screenshot0100.jpg (http://img687.imageshack.us/i/civ4screenshot0100.jpg/)
I built it because it only took me 5 or 6 turns to do so and i feel that on this map, having 1 extra gold per water tile will be invaluable. I already have 4 cities on the seaside and I can only imagine that will increase.
Finally, Diplomacy
http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/4012/civ4screenshot0099.jpg (http://img205.imageshack.us/i/civ4screenshot0099.jpg/)
I've met everyone except graham and arranged a few peace deals.
Furiey; 1000AD and 10 turns warning
Barbu; I think 1000AD and 10 turns
Azza; i had a deal before he was AI'd but obviously this doesn't apply anymore
then OB with everyone else
I've also opened bridges to work closely with DZ so we have an extended peace deal with the option for something further when/if the situation arises. I attemtped to do the same with Barbu, to get him to stop Stapel progressing through his territory but he refused, stating he wanted to remain neutral. I'm not sure whether to accept this at face value but I can't imagine he will become a close ally now because of this and perhaps I've found my third target if I can get rid of Stapel (AI Azza is the obvious next choice).
I think the power graph gives you a pretty good clue about the reasons for barbu desired neutrality. I would guess from it that he is minimising military in favour of expansion and/or research for a future technological edge so avoiding conflict at this stage would be in his best path for this strategy. If I was in his shoes I'd stay neutral and hope for a long resource consuming war between you and Stapel, get a generation ahead in military units and then take out the exhausted winner before they can recover. Well thats how i would approach it anyway, babru may have different ideas.
Edit- I also see he did the round the world thing, i'd be trying to keep him sweet until astronomy given your positions. Being up against Carracks in an amphib battle are bad enough without them having the extra MP
Logged in this morning and Stapel has a stack of 10 axes, 2 spears a horse unit and 3 cats in his city I can see. My city currently has 8 axes a few chariot and a spear or two. He's also whipping extensively, I have a feeling i'm going to have to rely heavily on luck to survive till I can get cats which is about 20 turns away.
barbu1977
01-06-2011, 19:17
Thanks to BC and Beorn for the good read!
I think the power graph gives you a pretty good clue about the reasons for barbu desired neutrality. I would guess from it that he is minimising military in favour of expansion and/or research for a future technological edge so avoiding conflict at this stage would be in his best path for this strategy. If I was in his shoes I'd stay neutral and hope for a long resource consuming war between you and Stapel, get a generation ahead in military units and then take out the exhausted winner before they can recover. Well thats how i would approach it anyway, babru may have different ideas.
This was the plan, but the war was too quick. I still had no cats when the war ended.
barbu1977
01-06-2011, 19:20
Pictures!
Notice Barbu who will soon come to the sad discovery that this land is tribal village poor, although his landed scout sure looks optimistic and opportunistic. Good for him. I'd call it lion food but on low levels it'll live until barbs, and probably survive even one of those...
This scout actualy seen the entire game as he fortified in a 2 tile island between stapel and Matrix to "watch" for ships.
Thanks to BC and Beorn for the good read!
This was the plan, but the war was too quick. I still had no cats when the war ended.
You came up with a better one :)
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