How I stopped worrying and learned to love the (culture) bomb: A Civ IV BTS AAR

[bayonetbrant]

there was a *lot* of granularity in the units in Civ IV, and they had to put them all somewhere

[MetalDog]

It's Civil Service and another Tech, which escapes me at the moment, that get you Macemen.  And I appreciate the faith :)  No matter how this game ends, it should constitute the longest I have made it in a game on Monarch.

[MetalDog]

Lincoln started this turn by offering me Theology and some Gold for Music.  I countered with Engineering for Music.  He threw in a few GP and I made the deal.  Guilds is next in order to make my Horse Resources useful in turning out Knights. It also allows Grocer.  Grocer provides a GPT boost and Health to my cities for having certain Resources available to me.

[MetalDog]

The next person to visit is Churchill.  I proposed Music for Theology and he offered some GP to balance things out.

[MetalDog]

Finally, I am going to try to get Guilds from Genghis for Music.  I will have to wait a few Turns to Research part of Guilds, but, I'm hoping he will still need Music when I am ready to trade.  A risk I need to take. 

Peter is currently Researching Constitution.  And from the screenie, you can see the Techs each civ is ahead of me as well as what they can research next.  So, Peter is ahead, but I can see where he is going.  It's still a slog, but, I am seeing a little hope.

[MetalDog]

This is a great deal!  The Luxury Resource, Wine, will help immensely.  And the fact that we are trading will add +'s to my relationship with Peter.  Currently, it is +2 for Open borders and +1 for Peace.  The longer the trade continues, the higher the bonus.  In addition, Peter just went Free Religion which eliminates the - negative against one another for being different Religions.

[MetalDog]

Marseilles gets Forge with SCT.

[MetalDog]

And in the final exchange of Music, I get Guilds and some Gold.  That's three Techs for Music.

[MetalDog]

With the addition of the Grocer building through Guilds, I can now add Bank with, oddly enough, Banking.  Both of those buildings will be spread rapidly with the use of SCT.  The more Gold I have coming in each turn, the faster I can research, grow and move the Culture slider up in order to jump start the Culture Victory Condition.  And you can see that, with the exception of Astronomy, everything is Researched in a short amountf Turns.

[MetalDog]

Genghis plays trading partner again as I turn Theology into Banking and some Gold.  You will note that he will stop trading with Lincoln, declare war on Churchill or Peter.  All for a price, of course.  Interesting information to file away for later.

[Martok]

Sounds lik things are finally starting to look up a little.  Let's hope it continues! 

[MetalDog]

Now.  Here, I think, is the turning point.  So far, the only Civ with Astronomy is Peter.  Each of the other four Cis will trade for it.  If I can discover it before any of the rest of the others, I have a VERY valuable commodity.  The double edged sword is that, while I can now leave my island for anywhere, others can get to me.  But I am still too many Techs behind and, if I get there first, Astronomy will net me several Techs for free in trade.  The crusher is the time it's going to take to Research it.

The other thing to note at this time is that at the end of the Research, I hope to have most of my Grocers and Banks built.  That being the case, I will expand my Civ again with at least three more cities.  One should be prosperous fairly quickly and the other two will provide Resources I do not already have uder production, or, provide extra to trade.  Which is another thing Astronomy will do. Allow me to trade overseas.

All of the above is optimism.  The possibility is that I will fall behind in Tech even further Researching Astronomy and by the time I am done, noone will need it.  My expansion will be slowed or halted because I have ravaged my cities using SCT to create Grocers and Banks for Gold.  And with the discovery of Astronomy by the other Civs before me, they will have had time to build their fleets and will come to Settle on my continents empty spaces, or worse, to conquer.

[bayonetbrant]

would you have any luck going for Gunpowder first and trying to get there in trade and deal with Astronomy later?

[MetalDog]

would you have any luck going for Gunpowder first and trying to get there in trade and deal with Astronomy later?

Everyone but Peter and myself, already have Gunpowder.  They do not, however, have the ability to bring it to bear against me.  So, if I can make Astronomy in time to be useful, Gunpowder would be an easy one to trade for.

[bayonetbrant]

I mis-read the screen above, then.  Sorry