[SPOILER] Victoria of Babylon - Greens - seifer_md

[seifer_md]

[SIZE="5"]seifer_md presents:[/SIZE]


[SIZE="6"]VICTORIA OF BABYLON[/SIZE]




[SIZE="4"]Game Settings
Map: Inland sea
Speed: Quick
Espionage: No spies
Huts/Events: Off
Map Trading: Off
Tech Trading: Off
Mods: No mods
Contacts: Allowed, but only after in-game contact
Cristo Redento and Nukes are banned.[/SIZE]

[seifer_md]

Reserved.

[seifer_md]

[SIZE="4"]Civ/Leader Analysis:[/SIZE]

Victoria of Babylon (seifer_md)
Traits: Financial & Imperialistic
UU: Bowman (replaces archer)
UB: Garden (replaces colosseum)
Techs: The Wheel & Agriculture

Speaker has been kind enough to provide me with a financial leader for this no tech trading game. There are 3 of us altogether, and it should be interesting to see how the others cope against our potential to out-tech them long-term. The imperialistic trait allows me to get faster settlers out which will probably be a strong part of my early plan. Our world remains barb free and I imagine most of us less experienced players would be hesitant to declare war so early on. With bowman to protect my early expansion this should be very achievable, but if I start near Egypt I’ll have to be wary of their War Chariots. My gardens will allow me to bypass aqueducts for some time since they also offer 2 health and are cheaper to build. My starting techs are quite strong and allow some flexibility with my early research direction. Additionally my workers will always have something to do, even if that is just building more roads.


Pacal II of China (Strike700)
Traits: Financial & Expansive
UU: Cho-Ko-Nu (replaces crossbowman)
UB: Pavilion (replaces theatre)
Techs: Mining & Agriculture

Pacal is another financial civ so I expect Strike700 to be one of the tech frontrunners. His cheaper workers and faster granaries will also allow for strong early expansion like me, but without a defensive UU to back it up. I don’t have much experience with China but the Cho-Ko-Nus sound quite useful since they offer collateral damage, but the pavilion doesn’t seem very strong as far as UBs go. China possesses some nice starting techs at least.


Suleiman of Inca (Malakai)
Traits: Philosophical & Imperialistic
UU: Quechua (replaces warrior)
UB: Terrace (replaces granary)
Techs: Agriculture & Mysticism

From what may be unfair of me to assume, Malakai is likely the greenest of the people playing this game. However since he has real life friendship ties with Kyan then I expect a little extra favouritism between these two players. The philosophical trait allows him to do some good things with great people but even I acknowledge that I am not very good managing them so I don’t know how strong this trait will be for him. Similar to me, imperialistic offers strong early expansion with Quechuas to back that up. Since I can’t see an early rush from Malakai I think his UU will be outdated very quick. At least he has one of the best UBs in the game as the Terrace means he doesn’t have to waste time or hammers building monuments in early cities. Malakai also starts with Mysticism and will probably head for an early religion. I’ll keep an eye on what he chooses (assuming he does) and maybe consider trying to sneak one of the other religions.


Catherine of Maya (Kyan)
Traits: Imperialistic & Creative
UU: Holkan (replaces spearman)
UB: Ball Court (replaces colosseum)
Techs: Mysticism & Mining

Kyan is playing our only creative civ and I’ve mentioned the strengths of imperialistic before. Hopefully this guy is not my neighbour, or at least decides to not settle all his cities in my direction. The Holkan offers an early defensive unit that I guess has its biggest bonus in that they don’t require copper to produce. If Kyan starts next to Jowy then I would be concerned for whoever Jowy’s other neighbour was. The ball courts offer extra happiness (another 2 on top of the colosseum’s 1) and I suspect Kyan will go for an early religion as well.


Peter of Egypt (Jowy)
Traits: Expansive & Philosophical
UU: War Chariot (replaces chariot)
UB: Obelisk (replaces monument)
Techs: The Wheel & Agriculture

One interesting game play I noticed with this civ-leader combo is the generation of some quick and easy Great Prophets. The obelisks allow for two citizens to become priests which could be good for bulbing techs (founding religions) and building shrines. The War Chariot poses a very strong threat assuming Jowy can get his hands on some horses. I’ll definitely be trying to keep Jowy on my side until I can get copper or iron connected. Again the same starting techs as me.


Darius of the Ottomans (Cull)
Traits: Financial & Organised
UU: Janissary (replaces musketman)
UB: Hammam (replaces aqueduct)
Techs: The Wheel & Agriculture

Cull has the last financial leader and will have reduced maintenance costs throughout his empire. Fortunately we’re not playing a toroidal map but I’m sure Cull will get at least something out of this trait anyway (like more cities). The Janissary is a fairly late UU which will do well against ancient units (it doesn’t get any extra bonuses against gunpowder units however). The Hammam is almost like a reverse of my gardens (providing extra happiness) and will be a useful UB no doubt. No surprises, starting techs are The Wheel & Agriculture (Speaker sure did a good job picking balanced civs).



So that’s a quick rundown on the players and their respective civs. I don’t know if I could comment too much on players in particular since most of us are new at this. Jowy and Kyan have a bit of pitboss experience (and I’ll likely keep an eye on Kyan’s PB3 – he might inadvertently teach me a thing or two about playing Babylon!), Malakai seems quite new to Civ4 in general, and I know nothing about Strike’s and Cull’s experience (approaching each player cautiously is probably the safest bet). As far as my aims go for this game, I hope to use this a stepping stone into Civ4 MP and in the end learn more about the game. Darrell is my mirror buddy so hopefully he can do well to benefit me in that regard. From here I’ll set my goals at trying to stay as competitive as I can for as long as I can, and trying to be in the top 3 players for this game. They seem like very realistic goals and they tend to be the more achievable ones.

[seifer_md]

There’s been a bit of a delay to this game due to the original worldbuilder file containing a different player order than we eventually decided on. However that should be fixed up real soon and fortunately for me I was one of the lucky ones that got to see my start up before we realised something was wrong.

So here’s my starting position:

My biggest concern here is that corn tile that would not make it into my capital’s workable tiles if I were to settle on the plains hill. Yet Speaker has decided to start my settler on the plains hill which makes me wonder if there is another food resource I just can’t see yet. At this stage I am leaning towards settling in place for the extra production and defensive bonuses, and if there is no other food resource I can always farm the flood plains for a 6 food surplus (4 from pastured cow and the extra 2 from the farm) which would still allow decent growth. Perhaps I’ll wait till I settle before deciding on the direction to send my warrior (yes that does seem a little backwards...) to scout out a nice place for early exapnsion.

[seifer_md]

At last this game is a-going! - with the slight exception that we are no longer going to be using the NoScore mod. It just turned out to be too much of a hassle in the end...

As mentioned previously, I decided to gamble on my start and settle in place.





Damn. Well I didn't get that extra food resource like I had hoped but I knew the risk of that happening and maybe with a few extra farms I won't be too disadvantaged. The positive side is I get an extra hammer in my capital which I'm sure will boost my speed in getting my 2nd city started. Here's my capital, Vault 13:





I'll be building a worker first, followed perhaps by another worker and then maybe a settler. The forested plains hill offers my 1 pop-capital 5hpt so if I do get an unexpected guest I can knock out a warrior in 2 turns if need be. I'll probably continue this gambit for a short while since I have this production comfort, and although slightly risky this often appears to pay off in the long run. I sent my starting warrior (Cyclops) west to begin scouting for my 2nd city. Research naturally goes into Animal Husbandry to get those cows hooked up once the worker completes. Lastly, I checked the info screen to see the three players before me had chosen to settle this turn.

[seifer_md]

I'm posting turns 1 and 2 together since nothing really happened other than warrior exploration. Jowy was the last/only player to found his capital on Turn 1. The game is really slow at this point, barely getting through a turn a day. I think it's also exaggerated because the turns consist of purely moving your warrior and hitting enter. Still, here's what I have to show:





Cyclops moved NE both turns along a ridge of hills for maximum tile exposure. He'll likely continue this direction for only another turn since I have now found the top edge of the map (blue line). This happened when my borders expanded. I'm not a creative civ and it's only turn 2. I guess PBEM does your civ's calculations after you ended your turn as opposed to after the player before you finishes theirs. Not sure if this is something I'll have to keep in mind.

Also, the river that runs south past my capital (apart from providing Vault 13 with freshwater - just a little ironic) seems to finish down near the cows and empty into a body of water. This may mark the inland sea, although I'm not sure if that places me in a north or northeast position on this map, time will tell.

Lastly, after going worker > worker I'll let my population increase before beginning a settler, I just need to decide on what I'll build during this growth. WB sims suggest I can complete a barracks while the capital reaches size 3 (33 hammers), but I think I would be better off producing 2-3 warriors for scouting purposes - finding a nice 2nd city site and perhaps running into another player or two.

[seifer_md]

Well after bitching about turns going slowly, approximately 127 hours later I get to take my next turn.

With normally very little to do each turn I was fortunate enough to get a few extra clicks this time.





Cyclops continued his trek northwest discovering a nice little valley. I'm hoping for a food resource to be nearby as there's certainly a lot of production value. Cyclops will likely start heading south now that he's reached the top of the map.





After my borders had expanded last turn I now how the option of working one of the outer tiles. I change from the forested plains hill to the flood plains. This doesn't affect the production time on my worker, but the extra commerce speeds up my Animal Husbandry research by a turn.


Looking at scores this turn I noticed an increase in Kyan's. Six points suggest a tech was discovered.





The demographics so far have identified the leading GNP score to be 19. At such an early stage in the game this likely has to be the one creative civ since their GNP is boosted by 2 from the extra culture. Conveniently Kyan is our only creative civ so I assume it must be him. Working backwards from the GNP score calculations,

(GNP = Total Commerce + Total Culture + Total Espionage + (Total Research * Research Bonus) - Expenses)

Kyan's 19 = 0 + 4 + 4 + x - 0, where x = 11 beakers per turn. (Possibly 8 from the palace, 1 free, 1 from the city centre and 1 from a worked tile)

Four turns of 11bpt research would give him 44 beakers. Since the Power value for Rival Best increased by 6000 --> 8000 and Kyan was on 6000, I'm going to guess he either discovered Hunting (34 beakers) or Mining (43 beakers). I don't know how much C&D work I'll attempt this game. With the turns going by so slowly however I thought I'd throw a few numbers around. =)

EDIT: Actually I guess the alternative is someone built a warrior (2000 power points?) and Kyan went after a tech such as Fishing or Mysticism, but I'm going to lean towards mining.

[seifer_md]

Just a quick update for Turn 4:





Further exploration to the west reveals a flood plain and a plains hill with a gold resource, certainly two more good reasons why this would be a nice place for a city.

Animal Husbandry in 3 turns.
Worker complete in 4 turns.

This turn Malakai's score increased by 6 (tech discovery). Assuming he had the lowest GNP (17), he would still be getting 11 bpt. With no power increase and roughly 55 beakers, I'll put this one as Agriculture (52 beakers). That's it for now.

[seifer_md]

Turn 5 was a completely uneventful turn. Nothing worth posting other than to remind lurkers that this is a mirrored game to the highest order.

[seifer_md]

Turn 6.

Well I'm one turn closer to discovering Animal Husbandry (which will come in next turn) and my worker is still 2 turns away but I've been able to build it comfortably since I haven't been surprised by any unexpected guests yet. Unlike someone else perhaps:





That looks like the borders of Malakai to me. I don't know what the exact rules are for contact, but in a SP game of Civ that wouldn't quite count as contact made. I'll wait till next turn before I send Malakai an email perhaps. I have no intentions of sneaking up on him and trying to take an undefended capital. I imagine that's a bit harder to do on quick speed. Warriors are only 10 hammers and he'll be able to see me at least 3 turns away. I will try and get a view of his capital however. More next turn.