Civ-4 GOTM 01: Rome
- A brave new world
- Early expansion
- War (huh!)
- Planning
- Fixing my broken economy
- Meeting everyone
- Spreading the faith
- The UN
- Victory and conclusion
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
Okay so my goal is a diplomatic win, and to do so as fast as possible. So that can be divided into two main goals. One, build the United Nations as fast as possible, and two, in that time, get enough votes to win. Each of those can be subdivided into sub-goals.
- Build the United Nations as fast as possible
- Research the techs - there are 3 techs left, Electricity (4 turns), Radio (5 turns), Mass Media (4 turns) - though really, since I've got 6 turns left on my golden age, the last 2 will go up. Say 17 turns.
- Build the UN. At 1000 shields, that's a lot. Factories come with Assembly line, and that's 9 techs away from me. The former barbarian city of Mauryan is my current best hammer producer at 33 (in a golden age). One good thing about building it there potentially is there are a lot of forest still left to be chopped. I estimate 20-25 turns to build the UN, then 4 turns till the vote to win. Actually, now that I think of it, a far better way would be to get a Great Engineer or 2. Mauryan will produce a great person in about 8 turns, but it's likely to be a Great Prophet. Actually, that would be okay since it would mean another golden age (if I save my great artist and at least one of the great scientists)
- Of course, now comes the hard part. Getting 60% of the votes.
I'm currently at 37% of the vote. Bismark is very pleased with me for now, so if I count him that's another 12%. I think I need one more country. Here are the ways I can get the votes:- Increase my own population - I go through each of the cities and try to micromanage them for growth.
- Convert other countries to Islam and in other cases butter them up - I think Monty is my best bet.
- Increase the population of the countries that support me - I can gift resources to Monty and Bismarck, which will also be nice for good relations.
- Decrease the population of the countries that don't support me - I thought about converting to Emancipation, but don't want to go through another turn of anarchy. I will cancel my deals with the other countries.
So, recap of the plan.
- MM my cities to increase population, especially Mauryan, which needs to be as productive as possible.
- Cancel deals with Saladin, Mao and Isabella. Gift resources to Monty and Bismarck.
- 2 Islamic missionaries are already on their way to Aztec lands - need to make some more.
- Send workers down to Mauryan.
Okay then here we go. At first I was worried about cancelling my deals since they would take away resources from me, but I'm not close to my hapiness limit. Hmm one problem is that Montezuma is 2nd in population and therefore would be my opponent. I'm going to try and convert Mao. He's already pleased with me.
I have 2 great scientists, so I can use one. Newton can do 2000 beakers towards Electricity, or build an Academy. Golden Age beakers in Rome (top science city) is 163, so an Academy would add 82/turn. 13 turns that matter (till Mass Media), so seems like the beakers towards Electricity would be the way to go. Electricity now in 2.
1560 - I'm up to 38.03% of the world's population, and Mao is now in 2nd at 13%. I resend the galley with the missionaries towards Aztec lands.
1565 - Electricity->Radio (in 4). Saladin finishes the Hagia Sophia. Woah! How dare he.
1575 - Mao starts a golden age. This could definitely be an indicator that he'll be #2 in population and therefore my opponent.
1580 - Radio->Mass Media (in 3 turns). Islam spreads in Teno and Teto. Queue up 2 more missionaries in Rome and Cumae, and MM them to be done next turn.
1585 - Golden Age ends, Mass Media still in 3. Mauryan will pop a great person in 2 turns.
1590 - Monty asks me to cancel my deals with Isabella. She is annoyed towards me, so I'm going to do it. He still "doesn't like me enough" to convert to Islam though. So, now with Mass Media in 2, time to do a little trickeration Mauryan (since I doubt I'm going to get a Great Engineer).
Walls cost 50 hammers. I set Mauryan up to do 49 hpt. So, next turn
(Mass Media in 1) it will be one hammer short. Then, the turn after
that (when I get Mass Media), I will go for max hammers, and get a bunch
of overflow for my next build, which will be the UN.
But then hold on a second!
What were the odds! No really, what were they? I was curious, so I saved, then went back to the latest auto-save and took a look.
There was an engineer specialist there on that last turn, so the odds were slightly higher, but still - defying nearly 5:1 odds to pop a Great Engineer. What's that I've heard a *few* times lately? "Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good"
I have to say when I went back to the save, I was *terrified* that I was somehow going to have messed it up and lost my great engineer, causing me to have to replay that turn and then the odds were going to go against me and I was going to pop Moses or something. But all is well... :-) I carefully make sure not to use Zhang to hurry the last hammer of my walls, and hit next turn.
My elaborate scheme with the walls does not appear to have worked as I start back out at 0/1000 for the UN. Zhang only gives 780 hammers - I thought he might not finish it off. UN in 7, though it might be slightly less with some chops. Indeed, a few chops come in immediately and it's down to 5 turns. I start on Computers even though I hope to have won the game by then.
1605 - Couple more chops and Mauryan is at 963/1000. But with all those forests gone, it can now only do 25 hpt. I try to get it higher, but even at super-starvation, I can't get it to do those final 37. So UN in 2.
1610 - Thermopylae's borders expand (at 500 culture) and this guy can take a break. He's been standing there for probably 1000 years - the square he is on was the only square that was not in my cultural borders. Not that it means as much as it would have in Civ 3 (since multiple units can occupy the same square) but it felt good to have a sentry there :-)
1615 - Bismark comes asking for Music. I say sure buddy! Remember this okay? He's now +15 with me. UN comes in.
I believe it's 40% to become Sec. General, so this tells me I'm at 39% and change. I vote for myself of course but I don't see if I won. Maybe that will be next turn? In any case, Islam spreads to 2 Aztec cities. Arrgh he still won't convert.
1620 - Well this is good news!
I guess I just had to be patient...he wouldn't do it for me. I guess he just wanted to surprise me... after all Islam is in all of his cities except Seville (which is his lowest populated one).
1625 - Angkor Wat is built - forgot I was still building that. I've put most of my cities on Research.
1630 - Wait a minute, why haven't I been asked to vote on diplomatic victory. I get worried that I messed something up, but then I look at things and it should come up in 4 turns. Okay. I had had some plans about getting everyone to declare war on Mao (Bismark would have done it for about 5 techs) but I decide not to. Mostly because I think that it's kind of hokey and "gamey". Okay not really - really it's because I think I will win anyways :-). If we assume about 500 votes again, 300 are needed to win. I had 196, Bismark (+16 relations with me) had 60 and Monty (+9) had 61 votes, which would be enough.
1630 - For good measure, Islam spreads to Cologne. It has spread everywhere on my continent except for 3 of my cities that each had another religion spread to it already (so it couldn't auto-spread). Oh and Athens. Yup the most populous city in the world. I do have a missionary heading on his way there, but he might not make it before the game ends. Islam is currently at 38% spread.
And the winner is...
Oh bite me.
Man I don't know what to do here. I've gifted him tons of things. He won't declare war on Mao. Hmm but he will declare war on Isabella for Nationalism. She doesn't have Astronomy so I'm pretty safe I think. I'll build a few galleons to protect the shores. Monty and I both declare war on Izzy. That gives him another +1 for "Our mutual military struggle brings us closer together". I look what Monty's favorite civic is, but it's Police State and I don't have Fascism. I do switch to Theocracy for Saladin - Pacifism is good but I hope to be done before it has much of an effect on my great person generation.
1650 - I get a free Great Merchant for being first to econ and use him (and the other 2 I have stored) to start a 3rd Golden Age!
1660 - Vote comes in again and once again Monty and Saladin (and Izzy) abstain. I got 263 votes (202 for me and 61 from Bismark) and I needed 320.
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