Civ-4 GOTM 01: Rome
GOTM 2
RBCiv4 Epic 1
Theta Tau
RBCiv4 Adventure 2
RBCiv4 Adventure 1
RBCiv4 Adventure 3
RBCiv4 Adventure 4
GOTM 3
Fatal Errors 1
RBCiv4 Adventure 8
RBCiv Epic 4
RBCiv Epic 5
GOTM 8
RBCiv Adventure 9
RBCiv4 Epic 6
RBCiv4 Epic 7
Adventure 42 - Joy to the World
Adventure 45 - Hannibal's Muse



 The north:

Room for one city up here, it will probably go S of the horses. I have a praet up there guarding, and a worker who is tree chopping to speed things up in Neapolis. 4 cities in this "province"? - Rome, Neapolis, Cumae and Magyar.

The west:

Pisae - I think it already has a theater but the borders just haven't expanded yet. The workboat is for the crabs W-SW of the city square. We need some workers here to hook up the stone and copper. Could do some tree chopping down here too. 2 cities here - Antium and Pisae.

I doubt I will wait for the barb city to grow to 2 before I take it, though I guess I'm not really in a hurry, and it's in a decent place. There is an axe down there on a hill making sure nobody gets frisky, and I believe a praet or 2 is on the way. Room for 1-2 more cities down there if/when I want them. Also probably room for 1 between Antium and Sparta - lotta desert there so it may not be worth it.

The east:

Probably all full over here - there's a few tiles of wastage in the middle of these 4 cities, but not enough to justify another city. So that makes 10 cities total in the empire.

So, time to step back and formulate a general plan. Now that it appears that I'm not getting off this continent before caravels, what are the most pressing issues.

Here are my tech choices, with beaker cost in beakers. I'd estimate that I'm currently doing about 30 beakers a turn at 60%. And I'm still hemorrhaging cash (-10 gpt)
  • Polytheism (100)
  • Priesthood (60)
  • Metal Casting (450)
  • Compass (400)
  • Literature (200)
  • Philosophy (800)
  • Construction (350)
  • Currency (400)
  1. Religion - it's pretty much all or nothing on Taoism now or wait for awhile. Music is coming in 10 turns. The problem with Philosophy is that it's 800 beakers and that's going to be at least 25-30 turns + the 10 to finish Music, not counting if I have to turn down science to make sure I maintain a positive treasury (which I undoubtedly will have to do before too long - 227 gp at -10 gpt).
  2. Unless I missed something (and I'm sending the galleys back around to make sure I didn't), I'm isolated until Caravels. Caravels come with Optics, and that's 4 techs away (Compass, Metal Casting, Machinery and Optics - 2150 beakers).
  3. My empire is too big. I know "this isn't Civ 3" TM, but I just can't stand other civs settling on "my" continent. I guess though I don't really have to worry about that since there's nobody out there. There are 2 settlers in production right now (Rome and Antium). But now I worry about the empire-wide effects of 1 or 2 more cities.
  4. So. What can I do to combat the empire problems. Code of Laws and my 1/2 price courthouses would be nice. I know it's been discovered since Confucianism was founded, but given that I'm not close to contacting the other continent, I'm not going to be able to trade for it before I need it (which was yesterday). Currency gives markets and +1 trade routes. It will probably only be 1 GP, but that's 1 GP per city which would be 10 gpt. Which brings me to another thing to add to the to-do list - finish up the trade routes. Actually upon further review 8 of the 10 cities are hooked up. Pisae needs 3 squares of road SW of Antium and Magyar needs 6! tiles W of Rome. I need workers, for that as well as other things.
  5. I guess I don't have to found a religion. I don't have the techs for the civics that use it, and if I can't get Philo and Taoism, I can always try for Christianity or Islam or just convert to please one of my neighbors on the other continent. I think I have talked myself out of going for Philo next. I just can't justify waiting 35 turns for something that is not going to give me anything but a religion. I think I'm okay with happiness. I believe I'm at 7 happies (8 in Rome due to the palace). I also need to hook up my sugar and dyes, which will each give me a happy face, making each city be able to be size 9. My next 2 techs after Music have to be Currency and Code of Laws. But which order? With my high maintenance costs (I'm sure I have lots of distance maintenance), I think 60 hammer courts are a much better option than 150 hammer markets. So on the one hand, I feel like I should go CoL first. On the other hand, just discovering Currency is going to give me 10 gpt from extra trade routes. The clincher is that I just noticed that CoL requires either Priesthood or Currency. So if I do CoL first I have to first do Priesthood. And even though Priesthood is only 60 beakers, it's 60 beakers I don't really need.
  6. What to do about the Great Artist. If I'm not going to get it, I don't want Music. I realized that I can check in the logs (I think) and it will tell me all the great people that have been born ("in a far away land"). If I can't figure out what type they are, I can always Wikipedia them. I can't remember more than 1 or 2 great people total being born. If I do get the G. Artist, what to do with him? If he's going to discover something nice (like Philosophy!! or even Currency) then that's a no-brainer. Otherwise, I don't really see the need for a culture bomb - so I might save him for a Golden Age with my next GP. Though the more I look at it, if it's true that a Great Person typcially gives the option to discover a tech in its "area of expertise" - I can't see any that are more artistic than Philo (and even that I might argue should go to a Scientist). Poly and Priesthood - Prophet. Metal Casting and Construction - Engineer. Currency - Merchant. Literature - Scientist. Compass - Engineer or Merchant.
So, checklist of plans for the next play session:
  • Check to see if any great artists have been born.
  • Technologies: If Music's great artist hasn't been born, finish that, otherwise proceed directly to Currency and then Code of Laws. After that, I can revisit if I want to do Philosophy - otherwise head for Compass to get 1/2 price Harbors - 7 of my 10 cities are coastal (though not my 2 biggest) and Compass is also on the path to Optics. After Currency, CoL and maybe Philo, I can't see anything I need more than Caravels. Though Priesthood->Monarchy to hook up the wines is a possibility at some point.
  • Military: I need to build some military from some of the core towns to make sure that I have more than "paper-warriors". Also send some sentinels to places without cities to take care of any barbs. I want at least 1 real defender (spear, axe or praet) in every city, with 2 in border or coastal cities.
  • Wonders: The Hanging Gardens looks good. If I do end up getting it, I'll have to make sure to pay attention to see how exactly the +1 population per city works. Angkor Wat would be okay except that it expires with Compass which I expect to get before long. Chichen Itza is no good since I don't expect to be doing much defensive warring, if any. Great Library might be okay - I do have some marble down by Athens but it's not going to be in borders any time soon. Notre Dame looks okay but it's expensive. Globe Theater should be built probably in Rome, sine it looks like it has the highest food potential - or maybe Sparta.
  • Workers: Need more. Most important tasks - hook up the dyes and sugar. The easiest dyes to hook up are the ones to Magyar. Which made me realize that really I only need 3 turns of roads to get to the Rome River - I can road E-SE-SE from Magyar. Sugar is NW-N of Cumae. Hopefully Cumae's borders only recently expanded so it's not too much of weed that I haven't hooked them up. Also hook up the stone near Pisae to get 1/2 price on the HG. Of course I also could use some forest chops to speed up builds in some of the smaller cities.
  • Cities: Need to grow them. Any city with a food bonus (And there are several) needs to get up to the happiness limit. Bigger cities mean more commerce, which I need. Also want to ensure that the tiles being worked by each city are improved, as much as possible.
  • Builds: Veto settler in Rome for Aqueduct to get the HG. I think I will make Antium my military producer. I do want a settler or 2 on hand for when my economy comes back around, but I don't think I'm going to want to actually settle the city any time in the next 20-30 turns. Will have to check the save to see if I should let Antium finish its settler (10 turns) or veto it to let it grow. 3 workers in production (Cumae, Sparta, Athens) but probably still need a few more. I think I only have maybe 4-5 total. Once Currency comes in, I can check to see if any city would benefit from a market (probably not more than 1 or 2 in Rome, Antium, etc.) Otherwise, wait for Code of Laws and build lots of Courts. Any city that has maintenance cost of 4 or more would benefit from a court. Any city with lots of science can build a library. I really wish I hadn't built a lighthouse in Neapolis - it could have used a Theater or Library first - till it expands it only has 3 water tiles! I have 1/2 price granaries (30 hammers) - so that's worthwhile in any city that's likely to be growing (which should be most of my cities).
 
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