Pre-Game Planning

After reading the scoring system, I decided right away that my goal would be to go for 50 in each (to earn the doubling), that seemed pretty doable without twisting the game too far in any direction.  The 150 in each just seemed pretty out of reach, it will be interesting to see how many people can achieve it.  (I’m sure it can be done, but I didn’t feel I had enough experience with Civ IV yet to really stretch that far).  My plan for achieving the 50s is to start with a builder-heavy game, settle a decent area, then go for an early war to grab the Soldier points.  I wasn’t going to go for one of the early religions, my hope was to get one of the second-tier (Confucianism or Taoism), but if another religion appeared, I’d probably take it and then go for the Holy City if it was close.  Most of the civics choices looked good, except for Hereditary Rule, I don’t usually like it, and with a philosophical civ, I wanted to use using a lot of specialists, so I knew I would prefer Representation when I got the chance.  I’ve never used State Property yet, but that would be interesting to give it a try. 

As for the starting location, I debated moving SE for the pigs, or settling on the spot and counting on the fish.  My scout moved to the desert hill, spotting another hut but nothing that would change my decision.  I eventually decided to move 1 E onto the plain, to save the forest for an extra chop. (Only after settling did I realize that moved me out of range of the other pigs to the W, I should have stayed put!! )  My plan was to get the fish in action as soon as possible, so my initial research choice was Fishing (7 turns), and I started building a warrior (due in 8), so I could then build the workboat. 

Early Exploration

 My initial scout moved NE to investigate the hut, and was rewarded with another scout.  One went east, while the other went south, leading to this situation in 3840BC:

The naming dialog box blocks the view of the NE scout, but he is about to pop one hut, my other scout is near the hut to the S, and my borders are about to expand at Moscow, revealing the hut near the start.  The end result of these three next turn was 42g, 30g, and Masonry.  A few turns later I made contact with Qin Shi Huang (3600BC), the same turn that Buddhism was FIDL.  Continued exploration netted me a total of 86g, The Wheel, and some lion skins.  I also met Saladin (3040) and Isabella (3000), who was our Buddhist. 

Meanwhile, back in Moscow, my workboat was followed by a worker, while I researched Bronze Working to enable me to clear some forests.  I was pleasantly surprised to find I already had Copper in Moscow, although it would have been more valuable if I hadn’t moved my starting settler. 

I started on Animal Husbandry so I could utilize the pigs for my second city.  The worker was completed in 3000BC, and I started on a settler, planning on using at least one chop to hurry it along.  I also took advantage of the local copper and hut gold to upgrade one of my warriors to an axeman, which was sufficient to deal with any animal I saw.  My first settler completed and moved to found St. Petersburg in 2640, just east of the pigs (and NW of the rice).