[SPOILERS] Parkin brings the rain down in Africa: Churchill of Zulu

[Old Harry]

Good luck! Have you read many games here?

[Grimace]

Good luck! Have you read many games here?

Thank you! I'm sure I will need some.

I've read through most of the pitboss games and a few of the PBEM and SGs. I've also read a lot on civfanatics, and I've been playing Civ IV on and off since it came out. My weakness is micromanaging...I'm not as good at doing everything at the optimum time as most of the other players. But on single-player, that's partly because I never feel like I have to against the AI. I'm hoping this experience will help me out in that respect, since I will be able to spend a lot more time on my turn and not feel like I'm wasting most of it.

[Grimace]

Ok, just took my first "real" turn where I started to make my own decisions. Took screenshots and everything, so I'll post a full update hopefully later tonight. Definitely would appreciate some input!

[Grimace]

Turn 126

I’m not sure if Seven offered us a peace treaty or responded to a peace treaty Parkin offered him, but we confirmed it, so we’re no longer at war with him.

Two great people (a GS and GM) were generated, and we had Confucianism spread to Ning-hsia, one of haram’s nearby cities. Not sure if he’s spreading it or it was autospread. Still trying to generate a GP in Antelope…two more turns. It’s most likely going to be a prophet, but I’ve seen the RNG hit on the small percentage ones way more often than it seems like it should happen, so we’ll see what happens. Could also be an Engineer (from the Hanging Gardens).

We’re currently researching Machinery and should have it in 3 more turns (1 more turn of 100% gold, then 2 turns of 100% research). After that, what do you think? We can do Iron Working in 1 turn (which is my inclination), but I’m open to other ideas. Here’s the tech tree:

Porcupine was producing a Forge, but I put a Monument in front of that. It’s only size 2 and we’re getting border pressure from haram, so I want to at least keep the initial ring of the BFC ours. I’ll whip the monument and then probably follow that with a Monestary.

I used a missionary that was already built to spread Confucianism to Leopard, then switched its production from Wealth (which was holding hammers) to a Courthouse. I wanted to do one of the religious buildings, but I would have lost overflow if I did, so I went with something that had a high enough cost. And it’s important…maintenance in Leopard is over 6 gold, so cutting that in half isn’t a bad thing.

A settler was built in Duiker and its site is already planned…just waiting for the worker to finish chopping the forest there:

Also whipped a forge in Meerkat. Here’s a screenshot of the domestic front:

I also swapped espionage points around to work on getting graphs on the few other players I don’t already have.
Current power:

As you can see we’re middle of the road, but mackoti is way ahead (though he’s lost some during his fight with Gavagai). Given that we’re on the other side of Gavigai from him, I don’t want to be caught unable to defend myself against him.

Near term plans :
-- Get Confucian buildings up and running in all cities
-- Once Heroic Epic is built in Fox, start pounding out units
-- In addition to the next city (which we’ll have in 2 turns, after forest chop), I have space for one, possibly two more cities that I want to settle.
-- There’s a barb city near GermanJojo that I’m surprised is still there and hasn’t been captured…I could be kind of a jerk and take it myself if it’s still there in several turns.

[Grimace]

Oh! Also forgot to mention (and take a screenshot) that we won the Apostolic Palace election because we have the dominant vote. Retep actually had several people vote for him, but I have like 70% of the votes.

[Old Harry]

Well I've unsubscribed from all the other threads so eventually I'll be unspolied enough to give advice but until then I can try and give you fairly general help. I've got no idea how this mod works though so you might want to take that with a pinch of salt!

First point of advice is have you tried the screenshot tag? I like it better than spoilers as you can read your text and look at the pictures at the same time!

What kind of force mix do you need against Mack (or others) - I see you're producing a bunch of elephants (which is a good start), but it's a fine balancing act to run the smallest army you can get away with...

[Grimace]

Thanks Harry, I appreciate the help.

I have not...I was sort of following Parkin's format, but I'm willing to give it a try. I know he used the spoiler tags to speed up the loading time of the thread since it wouldn't load the images until you opened them. But I guess if you don't have high-speed internet these days, you shouldn't be here! Next update I'll use that.

To be honest, I don't know. He has copper, iron, horses and ivory, so depending on his tech he could be up to War Elephants or Macemen himself. That's one of the reasons I want to go Iron Working...thinking Iron Working->Engineering (if Iron is present). That would give me Pikemen, which are reasonably effective against War Elephants, and having Iron would enable Macemen as well since I'll already have Machinery and Civil Service. Then maybe shoot for Guilds for Knights.

Then the big question is what to when he finally conquers Gavagai? He'll have the largest empire by far and be right next door...If I can get my force level high enough without breaking my economy, I may go to war against him and hope others join in. To be honest, if Gavagai can hold out long enough I'd seriously consider sending some units into his territory (we have OB) and go to war with mackoti to help him out. My gut instinct is telling me that mackoti will come after me later, anyway, since I have a good chunk of land and I'm the newbie. Better to fight him on Gavagai's land with his help if I can.

EDIT: Logged in to verify and the log shows mackoti captured another of Gavagai's cities.

[Old Harry]

To be honest, I don't know. He has copper, iron, horses and ivory, so depending on his tech he could be up to War Elephants or Macemen himself. That's one of the reasons I want to go Iron Working...thinking Iron Working->Engineering (if Iron is present). That would give me Pikemen, which are reasonably effective against War Elephants, and having Iron would enable Macemen as well since I'll already have Machinery and Civil Service. Then maybe shoot for Guilds for Knights.

I'd be surprised if he was relying on one-movers, he'll have cats and stack defenders, but historically Horse Archers, Knights, Cuirs and Cav are how Mack (and most MP experts) like to strike. How many turns would it take you to get to Guilds to get your own strike force together? (Edit: or how long to put together a force of 15-20 maces and wellys?)

Then the big question is what to when he finally conquers Gavagai? He'll have the largest empire by far and be right next door...If I can get my force level high enough without breaking my economy, I may go to war against him and hope others join in. To be honest, if Gavagai can hold out long enough I'd seriously consider sending some units into his territory (we have OB) and go to war with mackoti to help him out. My gut instinct is telling me that mackoti will come after me later, anyway, since I have a good chunk of land and I'm the newbie. Better to fight him on Gavagai's land with his help if I can.

This is a really nice idea, hitting an injured stack could be a great way to turn the tide at a very low cost. That way your one-movers are effectively 2-movers to match or 3-movers to out maneuver him. Some pictures of the current war zone would be handy - do you have any units in the area?

Unrelatedly - have you given any thought to how the naval game is supposed to be changed in this mod?

[Grimace]

Question: How do you do that quoting? I know the "quote" tag will give the quotes, but it doesn't give the link back to the original post, and when I click the Quote button, it just asks me to quote the post, but I have no idea what it wants me to do. :P

I'd be surprised if he was relying on one-movers, he'll have cats and stack defenders, but historically Horse Archers, Knights, Cuirs and Cav are how Mack (and most MP experts) like to strike. How many turns would it take you to get to Guilds to get your own strike force together? (Edit: or how long to put together a force of 15-20 maces and wellys?)

Assuming I had Iron, if I skip Engineering and go straight to Guilds, in about 18-20 turns. I'd have to detour for Monarchy (1 turn) and Feudalism (4 turns), Guilds (5 turns), and then several turns to build gold. I have several cities I could work scientists in, though, so I could shave a turn or two, but it would still be a while. I could have a decent stack of maces fairly quickly if I have Iron, though. I could probably produce an average of about 2-3 per turn.

I could, however, put a group of elephants, axes, and impis together fairly quickly.

This is a really nice idea, hitting an injured stack could be a great way to turn the tide at a very low cost. That way your one-movers are effectively 2-movers to match or 3-movers to out maneuver him. Some pictures of the current war zone would be handy - do you have any units in the area?

I don't, but I think I may move a chariot into the area next turn to see what I can see. And if I lose it, not a huge loss.

Unrelatedly - have you given any thought to how the naval game is supposed to be changed in this mod?

It doesn't seem to be changed drastically, but there are some interesting aspects that I'm curious to see in play. The bonus for attacking with your first move in particular seems like it could make a huge difference, but against a human player it's going to be hard to get. This map doesn't seem like it will be heavily naval, though.

[Old Harry]

The quoting is from the reply button, then I copy and paste this bit:

Code:

[quote='Grimace' pid='498910' dateline='1410368267']