Chevalier Rides Again: A City Lights exploration

[williams482]

Sucks about the turnpace. I'm glad you're continuing to report.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

We're up to turn 36 of our friendly city lights game, and my religion is the first to go onto the board. I take what is probably my standard setup: Work Ethic because duh, and Tithe because gold is so precious always in this setup. I also learn that in fact my holy site was 6 adjacency, not 5, meaning in the 5 turns early I net my profit I gain 30 production, not 25 - meaning in turn that the 30-hammer Prayers project is entirely free of charge. Pure profit, basically! That worked out well - I ensured I got the belief I needed to fuel my major expansionism on my home island, plus bonus gold to boot, and I netted era points on top for first religion (forgot we flipped the age 6 turns back). 

Next steps:



Canterlot will finish its next settler in 3. In those same 3 turns I will finish Horseback Riding and then Wheel, unlocking a water mill. That, in turn, will go down at Canterlot, boosting Construction, which in turn will boost Games and Rec and allow me to place a Classical Urban district, keeping Canterlot out of trouble for a while as it works on those projects. It's up to 20 production/turn compared to my other cities' 8ish production per turn, so Work Ethic already has its doubling effects in place, helped along by many trade routes. Canterlot is at present the best trade destination but I'll work on getting Baltimare set up. 




Definitely Not Rapa Nui is going to finish the Holy Site for the needed + production per turn, then crank out the Ancestral Hall, before tackling probably the Pyramids as a wonder snatch. 

Baltimare will begin to develop itself with rural districts, working on boosting Fuedalism and making itself as attractive a trade route destination as possible - my wave of new cities incoming will want to send traders here ASAP to boost growth. 

Civics-wise we grab Theology for the precious Scripture card, doubling our holy sites from +5/+6 to +10/+12 or so, vastly goosing production across the empire. Then we'll head to Games and Rec while I try to slot in a second campus district at DNRN. 

Overview:




In Game 1, we have our cordon around Germany and the settler is out next turn:




It proceeds slowly.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Soldiering On

Sorry for the slow pace, everyone. I know that kills all interest in this game, but with luck maybe in a few years someone will stumble on the thread and can read the whole thing all in one go. As it is, turns come slowly enough that I have to refer to this space basically to see my own notes on the game and what my plans were. 

Game 2 - Turn 37




Things continue to spin on. I am going to finish the holy site in DNRN in two turns, same turn a settler pops in Canterlot and a farmer pops in Baltimare. Then I will march the settler to join the other two on the map and quick-build the Ancestral Hall (it should take 7 turns or so), building all 3 cities the turn it finishes. Essentially, I am giving up the culture, science, and production from those cities for ~10 - 1 turns depending on the city in order to pop out their builders faster. I haven't done the math to see if that results in a faster growth curve but the morale effect of popping so many cities at once should be similar to what it was in PBEM20 (when, uh, it provoked Suboptimal into launching a jong attack on our team that ultimately proved fatal to our chances, although I maintain that better play would have probably resulted in a Russian win. I get a second chance here). 

Unclaimed land on the far side of the Gulf of Hamammet, south of Baltimare:




I will definitely set up a few colonies here. Korea and Phoenicia are on this landmass somewhere, but I've only seen scouts and no real settler map yet. 

Korea is very well-developed, with lots of builder connections and cities:




Willing to bet he doesn't have the same investment in religion, government plazas, or rural infrastructure that I do, though, to achieve this. 

Game 1 I try out an experimental pantheon:




No pantheon jumped out at me, as no terrain ones were really suitable. But the extra trickle of faith might resemble Earth Goddess and reinforce a monumentality push later in the game. Work Ethic really isn't going to shine here as much as in Game 2 and I think my gameplans are bleeding into each other here - a push doesn't make as much sense in this game, but the damned holy site is finished so I guess I'm committed. 

Settler is under escort to Baltimare and a third warrior is completing to help clear the river valley from the massive barb infestation. Germany withdrew his settler and settled a city to the east, and has left a despairing note visible in the northeast. Things are looking okay here but this game is much less advanced than Game 2.

[williams482]

Unfortunate about the turn pace, but what can you do? Glad you're still posting.

EDIT: Apparently I posted almost the exact same comment three weeks ago. I hope the hypothetical future reader likes repetition from the peanut gallery.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Game 2 - Turn 39

Semi-big turn in our second, more advanced game (which will probably get lead billing henceforth until Game 1 catches up, if ever). 






Mining the Iron a few turns ago inspired Wheel, which will let Canterlot 1-turn a Water Mill, which will inspire Construction, which will enable our first Urban District at Canterlot. I'm already in an amenities crunch but I have no luxuries connected yet, so I'm hoping I can afford the district. Theology is more significant, because it unlocks the Scripture policy card, doubling our Holy Site adjacencies and therefore our Work Ethic production! 





I slot the new card immediately, replacing Colonization as my third and final (for the moment) settler finishes, goosing production in my two major cities. Baltimare has no holy site and no immediately accessible desert, but will be building cheap rural districts to serve as the imperial trade hub. Very satisfying all around. Now, on to the business of the turn:




Scouting reveals more of the continent - not an island - to the south, revealing space for 3 or 4 cities for certain. We are the first to scout Hudson Bay, too. Not sure if I'm entering a deep bay or a real channel between landmasses. Need more galleys to scout - I'd like 3, one for the east, south, and west, ideally. Might queue up another soon. 




The investment in religion starts to pay off, as Canterlot can build...well, anything, really, in only 1-2 turns. I expect this city will rapidly empty its build queue and become a builder pump, so I'm thinking about settling Liang here and relocating Pingala to Not Rapa Nui. First, though, we'll build that water mill, then probably a library or temple with the two down turns until Construction unlocks a Classical Borough. 




Holy Site + Scripture is doubling the capital's production, and from completely uninspired terrain, too. 




It more than doubles DNRN's desert production, but amenities are costing us 4 hammers/turn here. Connecting Cotton next turn will help, and there are whales, pearls, and amber available nearby, so we should be okay in the near future. Entertainment Districts are definitely a priority soon, though. How to fit them in with Holy Sites, Campuses, and Commercial Hubs? Each city would need to be a size 10 to have all 4 districts, and I don't know which ones to cut! Difficult city-building challenge, for sure. A normal setup would be able to do away with Holy Sites, but the goose to production, particularly early when the snowball is spinning up, is hard to forgo. 

Anyway, out west, the settlers near their positions:



The 3 cities of Manehattan, Cloudsdale, and Ponyville will go down on turn 44, taking me to 6 cities at that point. Korea has 4 cities and is presently the largest civ, I think. Era ends in 12-22 turns and then we'll be in Monumentality for a while, spending this accumulated faith on a massive settler wave. 

Today we look at Phoenicia. 3 cities, at least one Cothon placed but not completed:




Lots of luxuries, so he's been industrious with his builders or farming towns. I invested in Holy Sites and military to start, and don't regret my choice one bit. We'll catch up and pass him soon. Our science and culture are already drawing near Korea despite no Seowons or Culture pantheons. 




Trade routes starting to blossom. Baltimare might be home to a campus someday, since it'll be worth 1 science to every trade route to the city - might be as high as 10 or 12 science in the mid to late game, not a lot but not to be sneezed at. We'll see how district slots go. 

City overview:



Expect the next major update from this game in 5 turns, so 3 weeks or so. 

Game 1




Another German settler appears in the northeast, but nothing can stop Baltimare Manehattan from being founded next turn. It looks like an excellent urban city candidate. I have 2 warriors, my oki, and the scout available to clear barbs, and then I can divert forces to Hattusa. 

I actually forget what I had planned next for Canterlot here and start a settler for want of better ideas. Will probably swap to galleys next turn to get out on the sea and start exploration there, since overseas colonization will be vital in this game. 

Overview:

[RefSteel]

(Note: The Game 1 Overview picture in your latest post seems to be broken.)

I'm enjoying reading about these - sorry they seem to be moving so slowly.  (I empathize with the others too though; I haven't played in any of the Civ4 games here in ages mainly because I know I couldn't keep up a turn-a-day pace or even necessarily a turn-every-two-days one.  A super-relaxed pace like these I could handle ... if everyone actually kept it up....)

[williams482]

How is a +16 holy site in Game 2's capital giving 14h per turn?

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Interesting catch. I think one of the adjacency points comes from completing Rapa Nui's holy site next to it - perhaps that's not being factored in to Work Ethic, since the city converted before that HS was completed? If so, reveals a lot about Work Ethic behavior.

[williams482]

That would be consistent with the ridiculous bug where pillaging a holy site removed the production bonus permanently. I am to understand they fixed that specific issue, but naturally it seems they didn't fix the general case.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Successfully found Manehattan in Game 1, while Grotsnot's Dutch declare war on Rapa Nui to their south. That means I might have a small window to take Hattusa after clearing the barbs from the river valley and founding Seaddle. That should establish a base of 6 cities (7 once I get the fleets to take Bologna to the south), which will be an excellent homeland. 

Game 2




We inspire Construction, which will in turn inspire Games & Rec. We've done a good job hitting inspirations in this game and are tied with Korea in terms of techs and civics, despite Korea's substantial research edge in both categories at the moment. The two of us are outstripping the other 4 players by a handy amount already and my snowball is only at the top of the slope. 

Scouting reveals two separate large islands to the south. I will land and clear the western one, while a single warrior scouts the eastern one. I intend to settle on both as soon as I can and make this sea a Cree lake. 




The eastern one is home to Phoenicia and Korea, but no view of the cities yet. We'll find them soon enough, and I want to make contact with Rome, England, and the Netherlands as soon as I can as well. 

Homeland:




4 turns to doubling my city count, and as soon as the era flips we're hitting Monumentality. 28 faith per turn will soon hit 32 faith per turn, and that's going to skyrocket up as these 3 new cities get Desert Holy Sites in place.