Challenge 2 Walkthrough (3f) From spawning to developing

Challenge 2 Walkthrough (3f) From spawning to developing

France's start-up 7 cities are almost in place. The next stage - city development, begins simultaneously. Ideally, I should control the empire's happiness on a very weak positive. Extra happiness are exchanged for lump sum gold to sign RAs. After Education, most cities can be used to raise specialists with Universities to further boost research.

Naturally, I want to start building the National College in the capital as soon as possible. Therefore, the last found city will start with a Library instead of a monument.

1134. Stealing Workers from Sidon is like clock-work! Thank you, come again.

1135. I sent two Scouts to discover more AIs for trading oppurtunities - one through Europe and the other through Africa. The Europe-bound Scout has to purchase Open Border from Spain for 75 gold - and Isabella refuses to pay for my Open Border. Spain is plagued by barbarians. What a shame - get some units out and start fighting!

1136. On Turn 56 Germany finally declares war on Songhai. They are a little too far away to make any good contact, though.

1137. In order to sustain the happiness of France's rapidly-growing Empire, I need a number of exotic luxurious resources in early game. Fortunately, I have some extra for exchange.

1138. There is a Horse tile SE of Orleans, but the game isn't smart enough to aim for it. After failing the random roll for two expansion opportunities, I sank 55 gold so the game correctly aim for nothing but the Horse on the next expansion.

1139. Germany and Songhai declared peace on Turn 58 (they declared war on Turn 56)! Hotseat mode introduced a pretty bad feature- a peace treaty can be signed as soon as 2 turns after the war declaration (in regular game the forced war lasts 7 turns). I am not sure whether this is a bug. The good side of this "feature" is that a powerful AIs can rarely make a significant advance on a weak neighbor, essentially leaving the game a lot more winnable. The bad side of this is that the AIs rarely gets a chance to get their army killed off. But if the player does not aim for a Conquest victory, there is not to much to be feared.

1140. Thank you - one more Sidon worker!

1143. Again, for France's bid on Porcelain Tower, I should have signed this RA a little sooner. The level 9 AIs reaches Renaissance as early as late turn 70s. So Porcelain Tower could be completed as soon as early turn 90s.

1144. After making peace Germany, Askia declared war on the City State Genoa. I am quite happy to see Askia's war campaigns - this means that Askia prefers more conquest than science. As we all know, AIs are terrible at war, especially on such a large map.

1145. Finally, the last city of France is established (Chartres, on the very left). This city has eventual access of Gold, Horse, Marble and Silver. But it is a little far away from the rest of France, so I probably won't bother connecting a road to it.

1146. Got some extra cash from the Golden Age. Signed an RA with Askia a couple of turns after the RA with Elizabeth.

1149. Thank you, come again! Now I have a Great General to help the warrior to survive. I think City States are dumb enough to keep building new Workers when they lose their only one. So Sidon will never be able to build military units if I keep stealing its Workers. Even if I already get enough Workers, I can still keep kidnapping new and use them to lure out defenders as I did with Hanoi. I can also disband extra workers at home for 17 gold each.

1150. Songhai declares war on Singapore, too. Now both Genoa and Singapore have become permenant enemies of Songhai. I don't think they stand any chance.

1151. Bought another Fur tile in Paris to work on the camp, and to chop the forest for the Natioanl College later.

1156. Met Arabia. Harun and Askia are the two richest and most advanced AIs in this game. Naturally, Elizabeth and Napoleon will have to do something about them later - but Songhai is a much closer target.

1158. Completed the Liberty tree, picked free Great Engineer, and rushed the Hagia Sophia with it. Again picked a free Great Engineer for Porcelain Tower.

1160. Sidon actually manged a Wall before giving me yet another free Worker. In order to better protect my Warrior, who could be killed quite easily by the city's bombardment and Trireme combo, I sent forth the Scout-promoted Archer to distract Sidon.

1162. England was running low on happiness, so France offered one free Sugar in addition to Silver.

1163. Met Augustus Caesar of Rome, on the very west of North Africa. Took a long time to reach him! Caesar is in financial trouble just like many others. Didn't even have extra resources to exchange for Napoleon's extra Fur.

1164. Luckily there is Suleiman! Now all of Napoleon's extra resources have been traded away, and the French empire sits in a comfortable happiness margin for a while.

1166. Askia's attitude towards Napoleon has deteriorated, as Napoleon robbed his Hagia Sophia. Now I am pretty sure Askia is going for Conquest-Science. I hope he doesn't complete the Porcelain Tower before Napoleon does!

1167. Signed an RA with Harun. This is Napoleon's 3rd RA of the game.

1171. After conquering both nearby City States, Askia has become a regional superpower. Is he going to expand towards France, or Germany? Napoleon needs shift his focus to military soon.

1174. With a single Scout-promoted Archer, which happens to be blocked from the view by the in-game message, I killed two barbarian units close to Lhasa and destroyed a nearby camp. Free alliance with Lhasa! Nice!

1175. With Colossuems being constructed all over France, the French empire will enjoy a good growth period. Money is getting low, but situation should improve once I get the trade routes connected and Markets built across the Empire.

All eyes on the Procelain Tower! If I can't get it, I will go for Notre Dame.

Challenge 2 Walkthrough (3e) Stepping stone to Egypt

Challenge 2 Walkthrough (3e) Stepping stone to Egypt

After getting the two oceanic wonders, I have to get back to science and rush to Longbow at full speed. So I decided not to spawn any additional cities so I can build the National College in London as soon as possible.

1141. I timed the completion of Philosophy with two vanilla archers. Along with the Scout-promoted Archer and two Warriors already up there, they should find some EXP-gaining oppurtunities around Hanoi, and eventually I will need to take Hanoi as a stepping stone to Egypt.

Songhai completed the Chichen Itza at Turn 63 - insane!

1142. French scout reported that Egypt is massing a Chariot army close to the Spanish border. Egypt and Spain is at war.

1143. Signed an RA with France. I was too trigger-happy with unit buying with France since there are too many barbarians. This RA is signed a little late for Napoleon. There is a danger that Napoleon will miss the Porcelain Tower by just one or two turns. But for England, the timing is great. I want to minimize the RAs signed for Elizabeth since she needs all the cash she can get to upgrade to Longbows (170 gold each).

1147. The scout-promoted Archer has been training with a Hanoi Warrior for a while - the Archer gained 3 levels of Open Terrain, the Warrior gained 3 levels of Rough Terrain. If it levels up again, I am afraid that the warrior will pick up Blitz, making it a little too deadly. I want to take it out - but it is campiing on the Hill.

Knowing that AIs LOVE to capture Workers, I moved a Worker unit, which was probably captured from Hanoi, into the Marsh tile just SW of the Hanoi Warrior. The Hanoi Warrior took the bait! Three Archer units rained death on the Warrior, which gets no bonus in the Marsh. No more tough Warrior.

1148. There is another tough Archer stationed in the city - took it out with the same trick! The AIs can't learn from mistakes - they follow rules. This rule says: capture a Worker if you can.

1152. Spain and Egypt are enemies - good news for England. Spain took a defensive approach (Great Wall), so Isabella could be eyeing for a Science victory more than Conquest. Egypt opened the game with the Tradition policy, and has not been expanding much beyond the original 3 cities. I wonder whether the AI "malfunctions" here? On a large map and after patch 332, each additional city only costs 10% extra culture points to open the next policy. I'd say any city that harvests 2 luxurious resource is a worthy spawn.

1153. Sent a scout west to discover more Civs - finally met Alexander, who gets the entire Iberian Peninsula (present-day Spain) to develop. Met Alexander during the end-turn, and he immediately denounced Elizabeth after the greeting! I didn't even say a word!

Alexa is angry because Elizabeth robbed the oceanic wonders from him. With a whooping 50% World Wonder building bonus and still lost the race - loser! Ha-ha.

1154. After completing the National College, which didn't take long given London's strong production power, England's science finally returns to an acceptable level. Full speed to Machinery! But first I want to settle a few cities for resources to make more money later. I won't miss any nearby site that offers the access of 2 luxurious resources - 3 such sites are available nearby.

But my priority is to settle on strategic choke points. Hanoi, which is located right in the middle of Egypt and Spain, is to be conquered! And I need a base close to Hanoi so I can upgrade the Warriors to Swordsman quickly.

1155. Got mocked by Alexander, who thinks my empire is too small. Yes, I am working on expansion right now.

1157. Marble to Egypt expired. I was hoping to sell it to Ramey again, but Ramey can't afford it probably due to his puny Empire's puny economy strength. In my previous run, Egypt spawned a large number of cities and had almost 1000 gold in the bank at one point. Too bad - sold the Marble to the always-rich Askia instead.

1159. I used the Worker to clear the Marsh tiles around Hanoi to provide safer standing grounds for my units later. A just-graduated Archer from Hanoi robbed my Worker, which as you know dual-functions as a death trap. The third Hanoi units killed this way! That's just too sweet!

1161. Nottinghan is found just SW of Hanoi, making it a perfect base of invasion. English Warriors can be upgraded to Swordsman by just stepping to the side.

An alternative site of Nottingham is to sit on the Gold directly. I will get 1 extra hammer to start, get access to the Sheeps, but delay the access to the Fish, and lose the (much later) access to the Pearl. It is a hard call. In my previous run I went sat on the Gold. Now I simply want to try something different.

Crossgate2003 in our succession game was building a Machu Pichu on Nottingham, which was founded on the Gold tile. This wonder is a great moneymaker, which is usually ignored given that the player can make a lot of money anyway.

Not the case for England here. Not many Civs have access to high mountains in this game. Machu Pichu is pretty much left for the human players to build. Now I can't build Machu Pichu in Nottingham. I hope to build the Machu Pichu in England's 4th city, which will be found close to a mountain.

1165. All preparations are ready - the full-force assault starts with 3 Swordsman and 4 Archers! I plan to get 5 Archers for the assault on Egypt.

1168. Mocked by Alexander again - this time for my weak army. Indeed, even with 3 Swordsman, 4 Archers,  and 3 Triremes, England's army is the smallest in the world. If Alex thinks Elizabeth is weak, why don't he mass an army here? By the time the Greek army gets here all the way from Iberia, England will already have Artillery. Welcome to Mediterranean!

1169. Took Hanoi! With all its defenders lured out and killed and the Marsh tiles drained, the attacking units remained safe throughout the short siege that lasted 4 turns.

1170. The infrastructure of Hanoi is pretty complete, but there is absolutely no improvement on the tiles thanks to constant Worker kidnapping from England and probably also barbarians. After harvesting and reparing the Sugar and Horses, I need to get some trading posts on the Hill and plans to slow down the population growth.

1173. There is an RA between England and France due in 10 turns, which could accelerate Machinery by about 4 turns. So the projected completion of Longbow is likely Turn 104 or so.

Alternatively, I can use the Liberty tree finisher, which will be available in Turn 94 or so, to get a free Great Scientist to rush Machinery to save about 10 turns. That sounds like a neat idea - it could make the difference between success and fail - if 5 Longbows get to Egypt before Ramey gets Mustketman, it is over for Ramey. However, that will delay more progress for Scholastism by about 20 turns.

I prefer to wait a bit longer while popping a city very close to Ramey (I have a good site in mind), and move my army to that location before hand. This way, as soon as the tech is completed, I can upgrade the Archers right beside Ramey and launch the invasion immediately. In the end, I will not lose as many as 10 turns, and will be able to declare war with a convenient base of operation. That new city will be good for resource harvesting and other purposes later.

1172. Strangely, although England has fewer techs than France, the demograph claims that England has a higher literacy rate. Songhai has become a little too powerful - Elizabeth and Napoleon must suppress Askia together in the future.

1176. Conquering Hanoi also fulfilled nearby Military CS Budapest's request. Free Marble and Gems - a great addition for Elizabeth's economy - now she can afford to sell away a few more of her existing resources. It will be even better if Elizabeth gets 2 Iron ready and the City State decides to give free Catapults!

Challenge 2 Walkthrough (2f) Spawning Spree

Challenge 2 Walkthrough (2f) Spawning Spree

Contrary to Elizabeth's confined tip of the Balkan peninsula, Napoleon is located in a relatively remote and vast area - the upstream of Euphrates, which was also featured in Challenge 1's Mesopotamia. Napoleon has a huge front and backyard to expand into, but not all lands are profitable. Resource is relatively scarece in the neighborhood, just like Challenge 1. But Napoleon is still a millionaire compared to Elizabeth!

This is also a very rare oppurtunity of "free spawn". Napoleon's closest neighbor is more than 30 tiles away. Napoleon can found any number of cities uninhibited! This could be a good textbook exercise of what to consider to spawn good cities. My personal criteria for city spawning sites are:

(1) Number of profitable resources (strategic, luxurious)
(2) Distance of the resources. I avoid sites where profitable resources are 3 tiles away on Hills/Forests/Water - these terrains are given a very low expansion priority, even with a resource on it, and therefore tile purchasing could be very expensive.
(3) Distance to the main cluster. I avoid founding cities too far away from the main city cluster to cut down road maintenance.

In general, the more cities one spawns early on, the more powerful the Empire becomes in the long run. In my first run with Crossgate2003 (still in progress, now Turn 110), I spawned 3 cities, paused, built National wonders, and spawned 3 more. In my second run, I spawned 6 cities all together. The results are very similar - I got Porcelain Tower on Turn 96 in the first run, and Turn 94 in the second run. I decided to spawn 6 cities together here, which seem to feature better developed cities in mid-game.

I was also tempted to try a Cultural victory given France's unique ability (+2 Culture per city per turn until mid-late game) and the fact that Napoleon's territory is pretty much free from powerful foes (ONLY constant barbarian harrassment). However, grabbing key cultural wonders before the Level 9 AIs (50% wonder construction bonus) seem to be too luck-dependent. I decided to put Napoleon on the Science route.

So my early game plans are:
(1) Spawn 6 cities
(2) Build the National College as soon as possible
(3) Grab the Porcelain Tower

1122. Here is my policy plan for France. Due to France's unique ability (+2 Culture per city per turn), I can safely fill the Liberty tree and use the Great Engineer to rush Porcelain Tower. I even have the freedom to get one extra policy - the Honor tree opener, then come back to finish Liberty. Barbarian activites are overwhelming here.

1123. My build order for Paris is 3 Scouts (there are many ancient ruins around), then Grnary, followed by a crazy 5-Settler spam. In my 2nd (previous) run I skipped Granary and get to 5 Settlers directly. I want to try something different here and compare the results. The extra food provided by Granary will accelerate my Settler spawns so I might be able to catch up.

Due to the many Ancient Ruins around, I was pretty much guaranteed a few free techs. In early game I got two key techs for free: Mining and Writing. Very nice!

My second city (free Settler from Liberty policy) is planned on the SW of Paris, close to the Silk. I need to constantly supply the empire with new sources of happiness so new cities can be established in rapid succession. There is an annoying barbarian camp just east to my city site. So I had to use a Scout to shield my Settlers from capture. That would really suck.

1124. Since Paris has lots of Sugar, Napoleon's income looks way better than Elizabeth's. In fact, he can afford to rush buy quite a few units early on. After meeting Askia (located in current-day Egypt), I borrowed a little cash from him and bought a Warrior in Orleans. I need quite a few Workers to work on my rapid-growing empire. These Workers will come from Sidon - against their free will, of course.

1125. With the help of forest chopping, I could finish the Granary at the same time that Paris's population grows to 5. The Settler spawning spree officially kicks off on the next turn.

I only learned this recently:  chopping down the forest of Deers and Beavers(?) do not affect the Camp improvement. In above case, I can chop the forest for free - the tile yield does not change at all!

1126. Here comes the first Sidon Worker! The first one is the most difficult - I almost lost the Warrior to the 3 defending Warriors and the two invading barbarians. Pulled off just in time. Later on I need to bring in some Archers to thin Sidon's defense number down.

1127. I have a very healthy-looking Settler production rate - 17 hammers per turn. Strangely, Paris only harvest 10 hammers, but after 50% bonus the final output becomes 17. Not the first itme I see discrepancies in the city panel.

1128. The third city Lyon is spawned east of Paris. I resisted the temptation of river - I need that Silver tile very soon to sustain my Empire's happiness. Resources on a Hill 3 tiles away has a very low priority and will take forever to be expanded onto.

1129. Siden worker #2! The key to farm AI's workers is to stay 2 tiles away from its borders, and 2 tiles away from the unimproved target tile, where the innocent AI will loyalty send its new Worker to improve it - only to lose the unit repeatedly.

1130. So many Barbarians - I have to cash rush quite a few new units. In my previous runs I had too few archers and had a very difficult time against the barbarian horde. So this time I am going to have more archers.

1131. It seems that Napoleon's policies are unlocked at a good rate. I might be able to rush Hagia Sophia with the free Great Engineer in Turn 70+, and use the new free Great Engineer to rush the Procelain Tower in Turn 90+.

1132. Met England's exploration boat on the shore of North Africa. As France is needs extra sources of happiness badly, here Napoleon made a slightly biased trade with Elizabeth - exchanging one of Napoleon's Sugars for Elizabeth's only Whale. Later on, Napoleon should have excess resources, and Elizabeth will benefit greatly from them.

1133. This is the same turn that Elizabeth finishes her Colossus. Paris has pumped out all 5 Settlers, and has started working on a Library. Still two more cities to be established before I can start building National wonders. I was able to keep the happiness of the Emptire almost always on positive. More and more resources are harvested to exchange for exotic luxurious products. Things are looking pretty good!