Civilization: Random Leader: Random Difficulty: Emperor Game Speed: Normal World Size: Standard Opponents: Six Map Script: Tilted Axis Sea Level: Medium Climate: Temperate Landmass Size: Random Rules: Default Victory: Any Version: v1.00

I got my copy of Civilization IV from the local Electronics Boutique the day it came out. When I got it installed, this is the game I launched. Since I chose Random landmass type, it could be anything from pangaea to tiny islands. I drew an Archipelago layout, a 4 on a scale of 1 to 5 for landmass sizes, with 1 being the biggest. My first game of Civ4 on the retail version would be on a water map! I left the leader random as well, and it just happened to choose America and FDR, with Navy SEAL unique unit, and Organized and Industrious traits. That's a good fit for the map type I drew.

There were Deer at my capital, so I started research in to Hunting. Both huts on my starting island popped Maps, revealing how small my starting island would turn out to be.

Actually, the landmass was quite a bit bigger, but it was bisected by a Peak, and everything on the other side was ice, so in net terms, I drew the smallest starting landmass on the map. Woops!

Lots of resources around: Deer, Corn, Sheep, Incense, Fish, Crabs. Spices on an island to the south, Horses on the back end of my continent, beyond the Peak, across the bay. (I can see the Horses as this was v1.00, before you had to research Animal Husbandry to reveal Horses.)

My capital was smack in the middle of the landmass, leaving room (in effect) for three or four "fishing villages" on the outer fingertips. I decided to delay Sailing (somewhat) and go ahead and settle all five spots on the home island first. I would try to take advantage of my Organized trait with quick lighthouses, quick courthouses (both half cost!) and lots of early Slavery. Each of my first five cities had at least one food bonus, although I had to settle ON the Corn with Boston as the only location that would not waste a Fish. It was waste the Corn or the Fish, so I wasted the Corn (as far as the bonus for not building on it goes).

I focused on Bronze Working and Iron Working early, needing Slavery and wanting to get my metals going sooner rather than later. A source of Copper was there at my capital, so I got that hooked up quickly. No Iron in sight anywhere on the entire map!

This being Emperor, I was stuck at size 4 cities until I could get some kind of happiness boost going. That was rough! Two luxuries on hand, but both Calendar-enabled. No early religion. Too far to get to Drama comfortably, after my metals-branch emphasis. So it was Monarchy or bust, and in order to prevent simply WASTING tons of production, I spent a lot of those early years churning settlers and workers, which halt city growth, or using Slavery to whip things at the newer cities.

Eight cities by 1AD! Don't try that in every game. Organized can handle it, but not every trait combination can.

The food was quite thin, actually. Every city but Chicago had a food bonus, but only Philadelphia had two of them.

I've met three of the AIs, and Catherine's religion has spread to my borders. I stayed neutral on religion for now, though, not wanting to make enemies yet.

Catherine and Victoria, two Financial leaders on a water map. That's going to get ugly! Could hardly have drawn a worse pair of neighbors.

I came close to circumnavigating, but Caesar beat me to it by a couple of turns. Drat!

I managed to grab two more cities, one at the Whales on the small island just north of Philly, and the other at the Stone on the tiny island between Chicago and Russia.

That was it for a long time. Despite spreading out far and wide by 1AD, and adding those other two cities, I ran in to natural barriers or other civs, and I was unable to easily and safely expand any farther. (No use spending a ton of resources to stretch out my neck and invite the AI to chop it off!)

So from about 250AD to 1000AD was a building period: teching along, building up my cities, trying to compete. Catherine became my best friend, and I agreed to convert to her religion, which also improved relations with the Aztecs, who were Russia's best friend. (Unusual that spiritual Aztecs would not found any religions, and end up following that of a neighbor!)

I thought I had a shot at a wonder or two so I tried for them. I tried for Hanging Gardens in Boston and Colossus in Washington.

I was getting nervous about the Hanging Gardens so I actually whipped the tail end of it, rushing it along. I have no idea if that was necessary or not, but I went the safe way and got the wonder.

Four cottages, one forest, one Fish, and a Spices at Boston, and the rest is all water!

I also managed to build the Colossus in Washington, at what was a fairly late date.

The AI didn't have many heavy-land cities, either, though, and Fresh Water was in short supply on most islands, so I knew that many wonders would fall later than is typical, which is why I went for some of them.

I intended to ride the Colossus for all it was worth! I'd delay Astronomy as long as possible and get the most I could out of it. (This would turn out to have side effects, though!)

THE WAR WITH ROME

In 1100AD, I spotted this stack sailing toward my border.

I correctly surmised that this attack force was coming for me! That they would land at Houston and try to take the city. As you can see, I had only one Archer there. However, next turn (as you can see) I will learn Feudalism! That will be JUST IN TIME to upgrade that Archer to a Longbow, and I have barely enough in the treasury to make it happen.

Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good!

I swapped production in Houston from whatever it was doing to a Spearman, and I was able to pull just enough shields in to its production to reduce the whipping cost to one population point. Talk about the hair on my chinny-chin-chin! This is as close as a call can get! The next turn, I upgraded my Archer to a Longbow and whipped the Spearman, which WOULD BE produced before the enemy's turn. (Your production comes at the end of your turn, but before the AIs take their turns.)

So instead of a single Archer, I would have a Longbow and a Spearman in place when they attacked.

My Longbow and Spearman killed three of his Chariots and forced the other two to Withdraw From Combat, then his lone Archer killed my Longbow. MY TOWN HAD SURVIVED!

There was only my Spearman left, but I promoted him and attacked their wounded Archer and killed it, leaving only their two wounded Chariots.

The next turn, they promoted one of their chariots (got an XP in the withdrawl) and attacked with it, losing. I then attacked and wiped out the last wounded Chariot, and I HAD WON THE BATTLE OF HOUSTON!

Caesar's ships (Caravels mostly) gave me some hassles, ripping up some of my Fishing Nets, but there were no more invasions. I bought Spain in to the war with me, bribing Izzy (the weakest AI in score and tech) with two techs for her to attack Caesar. (Perhaps that is why he never sent a second wave.) I accepted peace from JC once he was willing to make peace without needing any further concessions from me.

Here is where things stood at the end of the war.

New York is training a Settler to try to grab some colonies to the north. (I would end up securing only two colonies up there, one at a Horses with two Fish, one in the tundra at a Deer and a Fish.) Blah.

I did not get the Sistine Chapel, nor any more wonders. Victoria was hated by most civs, and my religious bloc of Russia, America and Azteca was dominating the game.

Victoria was the next to declare war on me. I spent a lot of resources preparing to fend off another land invasion, but it never came. All that she sent was ships and more ships: Caravels and Galleons, to rip up my Fishing Boats. At one point, I burnt a stack of three galleys and two Caravels attacking an enemy Galleon/Caravel pair AND I LOST ALL FIVE SHIPS WITHOUT SINKING EITHER OF THE ENEMY!

This was the cost of delaying Astronomy to prolong the life of the Colossus: I put myself in a helpless position in regard to my nets, which were the lifeblood of my civ! I lost literally every net I owned at one point, but Vicky finally took peace, after crippling my growth, production and research for a couple of centuries!

Eventually, I became desperate to grab some Iron. My two northward-reaching colonies were meant to grab Iron, but both failed, with all Iron in the area grabbed before I could get there, in one case by only a few turns!

I pored over the map and found two unclaimed Irons in the west, in some very nasty desert locations. Planting colonies in those spots would literally be JUST for the Iron! I went for it anyway.

My first choice was here, (on the left edge of the screenshot):

I missed that one by a couple of turns! So there was only one chance left. And literally, it was poaching an Iron from under the nose of the Aztec colony planted there. I could plant my colony three plots away, with the Iron between us (closer to me than to them) and then win the culure war vs his city, and the Iron would be mine! So that is what I did, having a craptastic Iron Colony far in the west, near Spain.

I built Ironworks in Washington, but in v1.00 that national wonder was broken and nonfunctional. I was also playing this game on my old computer, the one that would crash a lot with Civ4 over a driver bug (that is still not pinned down as of this writing -- for more on that, read the Cuban Isolationists succession game and my Epic One report). Around 1700AD or so, the crashes became too numerous and frustrating to deal with, so I shelved the game until after I got my new computer up and running early in December, at which point I could play on any map or era without any crashes (and a lot faster performance, too, as it was a major upgrade for me!)

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