[Spoiler] Fintourist loses his multiplayer virginity

[Fintourist]

PS. Somehow my computer sucks and only some screenshots show the information that I wanted to show with my mouse.

I had that problem for a long time, and it's apparently due to using Alt-PrtScrn instead of just PrtScrn by itself. The latter method just stores the screenshot files with a number (e.g. Civ4ScreenShot0033), but always includes the mouse text. You also don't have to deal with the title box obscuring part of the screen.

thanks! I wonder how i can apply your advice with my laptop though. Until now i've found only one way of taking screenshots. :/

[Fintourist]

Turns 150-151 (part 1)

Okay, it's time to discuss some domestic stuff again! Here's the summary of the main events that will/might take place during the next turns:
T153: Finish Taj
T153/154 Tech Chemistry
T154 Switch to Nationhood
T154-157 Draft Janissaries and accumulate gold
T159 Switch to Bureaucracy & continue teching
T161 Tech Scientific Method
T162 Launch a new golden age
T164 Tech Communism
T165 Switch to State Property/Caste/Nationhood

So that's the plan more or less! Meanwhile my targets include expanding with full speed and possibly capturing opportunistically some island cities of BaII/Hydra. Let's see how it goes. Basically the strategy is now to keep adding new cities either through natural expansion or aggressive means until I'm so much bigger & more developed that everybody concedes. Possibly that means that I'm forced to attack everybody (especially Azza) before the game is over since it might well be that people are not willing to give up before they experience a similar attack as Sareln. So there is potentially still a long way to go...

I'll provide screenshots & comments of my empire later today.

[Old Harry]

I'll provide screenshots & comments of my empire later today.

Thank-you Lord Vader.

[Qgqqqqq]

Late to the party, but well down on a successful crippling attack (and turns since have been good too)!

[Fintourist]

Turns 150-151 (part 2)

Thanks Q and sorry Harry

So let's show you what I'm doing! It actually probably makes sense to present first my latest expansion:



"Net Roller" was founded couple turns ago and is thus still size 1. I just found out last turn that Commodore has put some ready tile improvements on these islands, which is of course nice.. free money! The galleon on the right has a settler and a worker in it and I plan to unload them on the tile that says "Pillage & Settle". The galleon on the left has two Janissaries and a worker in it (it is arriving from the Sareln front). Thanks to circumnavigation bonus I actually will have time to pillage the hamlet before settling! (The timing is complete luck in this case)

The next screenshot is mostly black:



So here you can('t) see the area that seems to be unreachable for everybody before optics. I would have loved to explore it beforehand, but the attack on Sareln basically required all my unit/navy-building efforts/concentration. Therefore my ships are pretty much sailing with settlers into fog and unloading them as soon as I see an attractive site. I hope that I won't screw up my dot map too bad with my first couple of plants. My hypothesis is that there is a good junk of land still available (might be wrong) and I wan't to get most/all of it under my control! As the state property is coming closer and closer and my cities have pretty reached the maximum no. of cities maintenance cost, all the new sites should become very quickly profitable.

My strategy is to push first couple of sites really fast and develop kind of an independent region that can produce settlers and draft Janissaries/Rifles while I dedicate the production of my core to pressuring my opponents.

And here is my core area:



I've kept my nerves and haven't whipped Taj yet, although I keep debating it with myself every turn If I get it, this must be the slowest Taj-build ever, 26 turns or something is a lot Viqsi is still my only opponent with Nationalism, she does not have marble and she isn't using OR. She seems to have some forests left, but I've concluded that it is unlikely that she manages to slow-build the wonder in time. She also just received a Great Scientist, which very possibly could have been a Great Engineer (Engineer points from Hanging Garden). That would have forced me to whip the wonder.

Otherwise, my cities are in the economy mode. I plan to use drafting for producing most of my units, but of course I will pump out some Frigates and later probably Cannons & Cavalries through regular production.

You can also see that I finished a settler in Diving Volley. That will also head towards those islands to my Northwest.



Above you can see the island, which is located North of Sareln's core area. As you might remember, Rafa's spin was the city that was founded to enable my surprise attack. Previously I considered this area completely indefensible, but now with weakened Sareln with no Astronomy yet, I will actually try to settle two further cities on it. They will still be somewhat in danger, but now with everybody approaching Astronomy, so are all the other cities too. Sareln and Azza are both couple of turns away from the tech. Viqsi does not yet have Optics.

Here is the crowded center of the map:



"Hawk-Eye" has two Janissaries in it (one with city garrison promo), which should be enough at least for now. The city needs the theater very much, because of CRE Viqsi's third city. I have complained about my bad location between two strongest opponents (Sareln & Azza), but at least I have not faced border wars with CRE leader until now.

My island cities are becoming more and more developed in the west:



These cities need more defensive units now as Azza is going to reach Astronomy. In the north I'm kind of gambling that BaII/Hydra is not repeating the same feat that I performed on Sareln:



I will be vulnerable only for a turn or two from now and as his predecessor, BaII has close to no military units...

And finally, let's end the tour with demos:



GNP lead with 100 % tech is now nice with Sareln brought down, but it should be bigger. Luckily both my GNP and especially my production will get a significant boost as I enter my era of Golden Age(s) and switch to state property & workshop economy. I'm very much looking forward to next 20 turns! I hope that I will be in a very strong shape by then. Anything can still happen though

I have couple of other topics that bug my mind, but my posts are already now long enough..

[BRickAstley]

PS. Somehow my computer sucks and only some screenshots show the information that I wanted to show with my mouse.

I had that problem for a long time, and it's apparently due to using Alt-PrtScrn instead of just PrtScrn by itself. The latter method just stores the screenshot files with a number (e.g. Civ4ScreenShot0033), but always includes the mouse text. You also don't have to deal with the title box obscuring part of the screen.

thanks! I wonder how i can apply your advice with my laptop though. Until now i've found only one way of taking screenshots. :/

I tend to use this little program I found called HyperDesktop. You can set up global key combinations for pictures of the current window, your whole screen, or a selection, and then either save them to a folder or upload them online. If your laptop's problem is not having the right keys, you can use this to pick whatever keystroke is convenient for you.

[Fintourist]

Brick: Thanks! I believe that's exactly the problem and I'll try it!

Ps. Just played the turn pretty wasted, I hope I did not screw it up too bad..

[Fintourist]

Turns 152 & 153

Turns have been rolling nicely for a while and finally I reached two milestones! The first one was of course my forever project:



That was a big investment and now I will have 8 turns time to enjoy the benefits. This time I have no huge plans for the GA, couple of civic switches and finishing one great person in "Roland Garros" are on my agenda. I'm simply trying to launch a snowball by teching fast. Communism, here we come!

The second milestone was settling my 20th city in the island area:



It seems there is still lot of room for settling. I have now two settlers on their way. One of them will head again to this area and found a city either N or W of "Break Point"

Meanwhile the logistics planning for "Operation Heads Off" has started

And yeah, Azza finished Astronomy. That means that I have to be extra careful, keep my sentry units in position and improve my defenses in couple of vulnerable cities. Good thing that I can do it in a cost-efficient way by revolting to Nationhood next turn.

[Fintourist]

I'm starting to get pissed off:



again.

[Fintourist]

Turn 154

A new turn finally arrived And it started a new era for my little empire:



Yeah, as already written, I will spend 16 out of next 20 turns in the golden age and this was first of them. And yes! Drafting has begun. I can draft 3 Janissaries per turn and actually the cities that I drafted this turn are all in the picture: "Diving Volley", "Bollittieri's" and "Tennis is a.." The reason why you can't see the fresh units is that they are already loaded into Galleons and heading towards the upcoming battlefront. If you have followed my actions this kind of logistics might remind you of something similar I did a while ago.. Btw, I've noticed that getting the unit supply & logistics work is no rocket science, but definitely requires some effort.

Another thing worth noting is that I finished Chemistry this turn. I had started couple of trireme builds (one of them in the picture), which were now autoupgraded meaning that first Frigates will enter the field in the coming turns.

Switching out of Bureaucracy did really hurt my economy: My max beaker rate dropped from 1085 to 930. It will get compensated by converting 18 pop points into 18 Janissaries (1440 hammers) during my first 5 turn phase in nationhood. As a comparison, slaving 18 pop in cities with forge, would produce only 675 hammers (~8.5 Janissaries).

When taking account the GNP loss related to Bureaucracy commerce and GA boost my demos are looking quite ok, not spectacular, but strong enough.



I expect the demos to improve soon though:

My costs are currently high and consequently Viqsi, who just beelined Printing Press is not too far away in GNP. State property will help!

Azza is close in power, MFG & Food: Drafting, workshops and settling/taking new cities will help.

I'll write more about the overall picture and plans again when I manage to keep the turn report otherwise short.. I feel I have a tendency of making too long posts..