The Fate of the Mausoleum of Maussollos

In 75 AD (turn 118) I establish a new city called Bursa on an island west from Ankara. Bursa is established next to a herd of horses. I then start to research Mathematics in order to get the Calendar technology, so that I could build plantations and get some silk. I then change my government civic from Despotism to Representation and the religion civic from Paganism to Organized Religion. On turn 128 (325 AD) I also establish Konya on an island south from Bursa and west from Edirne. The island has mostly jungles but rice and spices too. There is also a tribal village, so I start training a scout to pop it. The scout gets to the village in 520 AD (turn 136) and the villagers give me a settler! I use my scout to explore the Babylonian lands and have my settler wait for a galley to take it away.

On turn 130 (375 AD) I complete the Moai Statues national wonder in Edirne. This is excellent, because the Moai Statues give +1 production from all water tiles for the city it is built in, and most of Edirne's surroundings are water. On the same turn I complete the research of Calendar and start researching Currency.

Some time pass with nothing out of the ordinary. I find a new island south from Konya. The island is very special, because there are three gold veins right next to each other! This definitely calls for a new city, but unfortunately there already exists a Barbarian city called Jute, size 5. I unload a warrior, a scout and a settler for placeholders. There is also a tribal village which is guarded by a Barbarian archer, but as my troops have the high grounds, I doubt they will attack me. I definitely won't attack the fortified archer with just a warrior so I am waiting to get better units to help. On turn 159 another archer kills my warrior but dies attacking my scout the next turn.

The Ottomanian Empire holds 1 millions souls when entering the Medieval Era in 920 AD (turn 159). More or less at the same time Edirne completes the Hanging Gardens. A little afterwards I get reinforcements to the island with the gold and the Barbarians, destroy the archer guarding the village and establish a new city called Samsun.

The subject of this post refers to perhaps the most annoying event that can happen in this game. I was one single turn away from completing the Mausoleum of Maussollos in Istanbul, when I get the message that it has been built in a far away land! The Mausoleum of Maussollos would increase the length of a Golden Age by 50 % and I even had a Great Propher waiting, ready to start the Golden Age. Instead I just had to start the Golden Age without the Mausoleum on turn 175 (1150 AD).

Hammurabi

Now that I established Ankara I can use my galley to explore the map. On turn 88 (675 BC) I find a new island with rice, west from my current cities. I enter the Classical Era on turn 90 (625 BC) when my scientist discover Machinery. I set the next research goal to Hunting to get camps, because it turned out that the galley does just fine on its own and I won't need Astronomy any time soon.

On turn 97 (450 BC) I make contact with the leader of the first foreign civilization in this game, Hammurabi of the Babylonians. We agree that there shall be peace on our time and after a couple of turns agree on open borders, too, because I need that to explore the world further.

On turn 107 (200 BC) Tipu Sultan, a great prophet, is born in Islamabad. I use him the next turn to build the holy building of Judaism, the Temple of Solomon, in Edirne.

A while after that I learn the Alphabet-technology, which enables technology trading. On turn 112 I contact Hammurabi. He knows three technologies that I don't and I know three techs that he doesn't. I offer him Monotheism and he gladly gives me Priesthood and Animal Husbandry. The next turn they ask for the Metal Casting technology, but "it's not a rose garden over here either", so I deny them this request.

Istanbul completes the Pyramids on turn 114 (25 BC) and I start training a Settler unit.

New Game!

So, it's the Christmas holidays and I have some time to play. I thought that an archipelago map might be interesting for a change, so I choose that one in standard size, temperate climate, high sealevel and the warlord difficulty. I believe that an organized leader would be good because they get double production speed for Courthouses and Lighthouses, both of which are needed in the circumstances I chose. I end up selecting the Ottoman Empire and renaming Mehmed II to Zerohmed I.

I establish my capital city, Istanbul, right where the Settler starts:


I had the idea of rushing for some sea-going vessels as fast as possible, but instead I figure that I'd actually like a religion, too, so I start researching Mysticism. By turn 4 (3840 BC) I have explored my entire little island -- there's barely space for another city but nothing special except for the elephants. On turn 5 Istanbul finishes training a Warrior and starts training a Settler unit.

Mysticism has been researched on turn 6 and I start researching Meditation, which gives Buddhism to whoever discovers it first. On turn 10 Buddhism is founded in a distant land (d'oh!) so I start researching Polytheism to get Hinduism, but on turn 11 Hinduism is founded in a distant land (double d'oh!). At this point I decide to go with my original plan and research Fishing and Sailing, which gives me galleys.

Istanbul completes the Settler on turn 25 (3000 BC) and starts constructing a work boat to explore a bit and to make use of the clams on the coast. Sailing is completed on turn 26 and I continue researching Meditation. On turn 27 I establish Edirne to the other end of my little island, west from Istanbul. Edirne starts producing a galley.

After the work boat and galley have been completed a (yet another?) fault in my plans unveils: galleys cannot enter the ocean squares! This means that my galley won't go anywhere from my own coast... Turns pass fast: Istanbul is building the Stonehenge and Edirne is building a lighthouse. Only the scientific research gives me something to do. After Meditation I continue Polytheism. Then I realize that there are still religions available and decide to go for Judaism, which I indeed get when Monotheism is researched on turn 50. I then start researching Mining to get Bronze Working so that my workers could chop down forests.

On turn 52 something great happens: the expanding cultural borders of my civilization push back the fog surrounding the map and I see a hint of another island in the north. This alone is not that great -- what makes it great is that when I try to approach the island with my galley, it succeeds: a galley can enter ocean squares after all! It just needed the ocean squares to be within my cultural borders. (This, of course, took me a while to notice... The end result was that I didn't establish a new city, Ankara, on the new island until turn 86.)

Istanbul completed Stonehenge on turn 58, giving a free Monument to all of my cities, which is great, because Monuments produce culture, which then expands the cultural borders. Istanbul then trained a worker. Here is yet another mistake: I didn't notice there were hills next to Istanbul, because they were covered with forests. It took me quite a while before I realized that I can actually build mines there, greatly boosting Istanbul's production... By turn 86 my world looked like as follows:

The End

Around the time Churchill capitulates Hammurabi completes the United Nations wonder and initiates the U.N. Secretary General elections. The U.N. Secretary General can, in turn, initiate the vote for the diplomatic victory. In the previous post I also noted that I completed the Apollo Program, which allows me to start building the space ship for the space race victory. I also complete Fission which allows me to start building the Manhattan Project wonder, which in turn enables the building of the ultimate Doom's Day weapons, Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. As if all this wasn't enough, I also get a menacing counter telling me that there's only a hundred turns left. So it is quite obvious that the game is going to end sooner rather than later, the way it will end is just not clear yet.

In any case, I managed to win the U.N. Secretary General election. Me and Pacal voted for myself and Churchill and Hammurabi for Hammurabi. Note that this was shortly before Churchill capitulated, otherwise he would have had to vote for me. After Churchill capitulated I initiated the vote for the diplomatic victory. The sole competitors in this voting were Hammurabi and myself. Unfortunately I did not get enough votes to win -- but neither did Hammurabi. We voted for ourselves, Churchill voted for me and Pacal abstained. Result: I got 247 votes when 260 would've been needed. Well, at least I didn't lose, so the game continues.

In 1980 AD I complete the first part of the space ship, the life support unit. New York and London are complaining: they would wish to join the English empire that, in retrospect, I probably should've conquered entirely. I keep the cities to myself and watch the Mayans and the Babylonians build more and more cities on the lands that I conquered from England. Well, I'm not only watching, I do establish Kazan on the coast, next to a source of silver.


In 1985 AD I enter the Future Era because of finishing the research of Fusion. I complete an ICBM or two and the space ship cockpit before I get another opportunity for the diplomatic victory vote, which I win by receiving 296 votes -- 295 votes was needed. :) I get a score of 9086 and my leadership abilites are compared to Charles de Gaulle. Even though I won, I know I can do better in the future games, as this was my first game of Civilization IV.

The history of the world is summarized in the four images below. Just click them if you want read the texts in them.

The Story Goes On

The razing of Canterbury is soon followed by the burning of Hastings. I also conquer and decide to keep York because the city is located strategically near the Babylonians. In the process a Great General, Michiel de Ryiter, that I had attached to one of my units is killed but such is life.


In addition to the war my other businesses are going pretty well and I am finishing many wonders: Cristo Redentor, Mount Rushmore, The Internet, Globe Theater, Apollo Program and The Three Gorges Dam. The last one of these is an interesting case because it was built in Ning-Hsia which is of size one! Apparently I had toggled the citizen automation off at some point and forgot to put it back, allowing the city to shrink because of unhealthiness or something. Surely it must have been larger at some point... I think... The city still has pretty good production values which is rather strange. Around this time I also finish researching Medicine, which enables the Environmentalism civic, which I adopt immediately, because it makes the cities healthier.

Anyway, meanwhile in the war zone I destroy Nottingham and Coventry and, much to my annoyance, find that the Babylonians have established a new city on the areas that I conquered from England! However, I cannot do anything to that at this point.

In turn 393 Churchill does something weird: he adopts the Pacifism civic. Seriously? In the middle of a war? I reward him by having my submarine sink his frigate and by capturing London. London turns out to be a pretty nice place with several wonders: Parthenon, Temple of Artemis and the Mausoleum of Maussollos. At this point the Englishmen have only one city left, on an isolated island, under the constant bombing of one of my warships. I contact Churchill who has no choice but to capitulate: England becomes my vassal state.

War!

On turn 358 I finally declare war on England! I take Oxford on that very same turn and Newcastle just four turns later. This means that Beaver Island is now completely mine! The English Redcoats were no match for my tanks. I also complete the Forbidden Palace in Circassian on the Beaver Island, reducing the city maintenance costs there.

I also dominate the seas: the English sailing vessels are no match for my modern ships. With the support of my war ships I get my first transports to the English mainland. The first fights there yield three dead units from my side and about six of their units dead. Using Marines I also take Liverpool, which is located right next to the Beaver Island on a lone, 1x1 island and was completely defenseless.

In 1947 (turn 367) I get a message informing me that a new computer game called Civilization has been developed in Mongolia. I get to choose whether to sell its rights away, use it to make my citizens happy or, because of it's historical accuracy, use it in the education system and as such use it to boost my scientific research. I choose to use it to boost the scientific research, even though my funds are running low because of the new cities I have conquered... I solve that problem by taking some money away from the research.

I also get my first Mechanized Infantry units and ship them to the war zone. The Redcoats are helpless! In spite of my aggressive war, the Englishmen act like gentleman: they have healed some of my units and returned them to my capital city. This is called a "heroic gesture", but as it happens, no good deed goes unpunished and I just decide to ship the units back to the battlefield.

My units get something to listen to from their field radios when Beshbalik completes the Rock 'n' Roll wonder on turn 376. Maybe because of this they conquer Canterbury immediately. I choose to raze the city because defending it would take too many units out of the main business.

Modern Age

In 1923 AD my scientists develop plastics and the Modern Age begins! I'm also constantly hauling more and more troops to the Beaver Island. I also finish constructing my first tanks and get them into the ships. Soon after that I also get my first Battleships that will dominate the seas...

My preparations for the war turn out to be useful when suddenly some English agents get caught in one of my cities! I try to declare a war immediately but apparently we have a peace deal that cannot be canceled for 10 more turns. Well, too bad for them, I'll be even more prepared and motivated when the time comes...

This is also a productive time for wonders: in a short period of time I finish constructing the Pentagon, the Statue of Liberty and the Broadway!

Good Company

On turn 323 I get queried for my vote in the "Apostolic Palace Election"; I could vote for one of the other leaders but not myself. I have no idea what this is so I choose to abstain. The next turn I'm informed that Pascal II has won the election. Well, good for him, I guess. I know Civ III had the United Nations which you could use to win the Diplomatic Victory, but I don't think they'd add another such possibility... This must be just some minor business. It still bothers me a bit that no one explains me what's going on.

On turn 324 I found Sanchu on the Beaver Island -- in the south-east corner, next to a source of iron. The terrain is mostly desert over there but the place is strategic.

Around this time I also complete the Assembly Line technology, which enables Infantry. Naturally this is not enough so I set the technological target to Robotics, which enables Mechanized Infantry.

It is clear that at some point I must declare a war against England because I want the resources of the Beaver Island. I try to be arrogant towards Churchill and demand that they give me the Music technology for free, but he just gives me the know-how smiling, remarking that he's happy to help. Well, we'll see later how happy he is doing business with me...

Then, a Great Engineer Norbert Rillieux is born in Karakorum! I immediately use him to start the Mining Inc. corporation. Corporations are one of the new features of Beyond the Sword. They work a bit like religions. Mining Inc. consumes coal, iron and some other minerals and increases the production of the cities that it is present in.

Beaver Island Revisited

Bad news... Churchill has also spotted the Beaver Island and quickly established two cities there. The cities have several resources within their reach, including coal and uranium. I also rush to establish Tiflis near a source of oil, north-east from Circassian, and Otrar, north from Circassian, to hopefully conquer the uranium from England with just its culture.To keep up the good neighbor relationships, I exchange a couple of minor technologies from Churchill for the Replaceable parts. Next, I am contacted by the Mayans who wish to exchange their world map with mine. I deny this request but negotiate another deal: I give them Physics and they give me Drama, Literature, Liberalism and Democracy! Not the worst deal, I think. I choose to change my labor civic from Serfdom to Emancipation and the economy civic from Decentralization to Free Market.

Edit/Add: The Liberalism technology, like all the technologies in the game, comes with a quote from a famous person, in this case Benjamin Franklin. I thought this one was particularly wise:

"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both."

Spreadsheets and the Wiki

Here is a table I crafted with Google Spreadsheets: Civs by leader traits. The main point is to show the traits the various leaders have and as such possibly make it easier to choose your leader and civilization. There is also a view with the civilizations sorted alphabetically and a view without the expansion packs.

I have also been working on the Civilization IV Wiki. I was made an administrator there and I have really been revising it. I have pretty much got rid of duplicate work and concepts that would cause duplicate work to be done, and I have started adding data about units and such. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Beaver Island

It's turn 300 when I suddenly realize that one of the cities on the map is not inhabited by the Mayans, the Englishmen or even the Babylonians, but by barbarians! This was not possible in Civilization III. The city, called Circassian, is on an island north from my main continent. The island also contains a lot of beavers which are a good source of furs. I shall call that island the Beaver Island from now on.
Naturally it's clear that the city cannot continue under a Barbarian reign so I immediately begin shipping my riflemen out to the Beaver Island. I conquer the city after just eight turns. In the process one of my rifleman units gets killed against Barbarians with longbows but other than that it's a flawless victory.

Somewhere along the way Hammurabi contacts me and we negotiate a deal: they give me 150 gold and the knowledge of Nationalism and I give them Replaceable Parts. The former technology enables the Nationhood civic and the latter one leads to Rifling and also allows building lumber mills. I then change my legal civic from Vassalage to Nationhood, mostly because it is cheaper and I have some budget issues. I have already begun building courthouses to cut the maintenance costs of my cities as well as groceries and markets to increase commerce.

Peace

What was left from the previous diary entry for the sake of continuity was that on turn 277, 1814 AD, my civilization entered the Industrialization era. Also right after that I exchanged some technologies with the Babylonians: I gave them Printing Press, which makes villages and towns produce more commerce, and they gave me Education, which enables building Universities. There was also a gold rush in Tenochtitlan, which increased the city's population.

On turn 283 the Versailles was completed in Tenochtitlan. It reduces maintenance costs in nearby cities. On the same turn the Mongolian empire reached 10 million souls -- only about 30 turns after reaching 5 million souls! My scientists also finished researching Steam Power, which "makes a ship sail against the winds and currents by lighting a bonfire under her deck"!

On turn 290 I established Tabriz to where Shangian used to be. A while after that Churchill contacted me, demanding that I stop trading with the Mayans. Too bad, not going to happen. Instead I made an Open Borders deal with the Babylonians and agreed over trading ivory.

On turn 299 my civilization learns the art and science of railroad building and my workers begin a huge road upgrading task.

Other Worlds

After conquering my continent I realized I had almost completely neglected the research of anything related to naval vessels. This became apparent when I tried to explore the island with the remaining Aztec cities but the Aztec ships quickly sunk my poor boats.

Luckily I already had a prospering research organization and the necessary technologies were quickly studied. On turn 249 I also achieved my long-term scientific goal, rifling, which enables the training of riflemen. Around the same time I was also informed that Mongolia now holds five million people.

So, back to the seafaring technologies. I quickly trained some new ships and sent them out to explore. I soon met Pacal II of the Mayans, Hammurabi of the Babylonians and Winston Churchill of England. Pacal was a bit hostile but it was only words, Churchill on the other hand sold me their world map. No good deed goes unpunished, though: my new fleet of privateers, unmarked rogue ships, destroyed one of Churchill's caravels as well as some other ships by some other civilizations. Tough luck for them.

I then also destroyed the naval resistance of the Aztecs and unloaded my units onto the other island. My first victim city there was Shangian which I burned down because I didn't want to use my resources to defend it. I then captured Texcoco, north from Shangian's remains and finally Tlaxcala, east from where Shangian used to be. This ended the war, because the Aztecs are no more! Here is my current map:

Renaissance

In 1290 AD (turn 189) my civilization reaches the Era of Renaissance! This happy piece of news is slightly shadowed by the fact that right after this event Montezuma declares a war on me. It was supposed to be the other way around! Montezuma immediately moves a large stack of units towards Beshbalik, but fortunately that was exactly where I had stacked my units too.

At this point I complete the Notre Dame, which adds happiness, which is good because of war weariness. A great engineer also emerges from one of my cities. I use him to start the Golden Age, which enhances the production and commerce output of my cities. I also adapt the Police State civic which reduces war weariness and speeds up the training of military units. A couple of turns only and I have destroyed Montezuma's first wave of attackers, and can begin my counter-offensive.

A great general has also emerged in one of my cities so I use him to lead my troops, which gives them more experience. In turn 206 I capture Teotihuacan from the Aztecs and loot a good amount of money from their vaults. By the turn 226 I have also conquered Tlatelolco and Tenochtitlan, which makes the continent mine and only mine. The Aztecs still have some cities in a nearby island...

Noon of Time

Because Montezuma requested a "donation" from me in quite a rude fashion, I'm building up my army. I also had the Pyramids in construction in Karakorum, they were completed on turn 122. I then establish Ning-hsia to what might be called the south-western part of my continent, next to a nice river, and Old Sarai (I'm confused: how can it be "Old" when it has just been founded?) next to a source of iron in the middle of the triangle formed by Karakorum, Turfao and Ning-hsia.

Very soon after acquiring the source of iron my civilization enters the Medieval Era and I also complete my first National Wonder, the Moai Statues. This concept of National Wonders is new to the Civilization IV, too -- I hadn't even realized the concept's existence before I got the message informing me about it. Nice.

A while later I establish New Sarai (d'oh) to the southern coast of my continent. I also adopt the serfdom and vassalage civics that allow workers to build improvements faster and new units to receive some experience points, respectively. I also establish Samarqand to the west, south from Turfao.

I have now pretty much filled my continent with cities. I think any new cities would start to overlap with the old ones' areas or just have too many tundra or such tiles that it wouldn't be worth it. I'm also almost ready to attack the Aztecs to make some room for myself. I have been stacking units to Beshbalik, close to the Aztec city of Teotihuacan...

Observations

I have been meaning to describe how the game actually feels like after Civilization III. My first impression was that the game has been sugar-covered into something like The Sims. Pastel colors, round shapes, etc. Luckily I have already gotten over it and to be honest it isn't that bad.

The city view has lots of stuff going on, which is pretty confusing at first. There is a large section reserved for listing the resources (silk, ivory, coal, iron, horses, ...) the city has an access to. Then there is the map with the yielding symbols (food, hammers and commerce) like before, but the people have new professions and some space has been reserved for handling them. Previously there were just scientists, tax collectors and entertainers, but now you have merchants, engineers and such. A nice addition is the production queue. I haven't tried completely automating the cities yet.

The 3D graphics are very nice and the fighting animations are fun to watch. Archers, for example, use knives to defend themselves but bows when attacking. You can zoom the camera out into the orbit or very close to the cities. The orbit view actually provides different commands to the closer view. You can use it to see the influence of religions, unit locations, and such. The cities actually expand over their tiles and you can literally see all the improvements in the city when you zoom in.

The units now only have one strength-value instead of separate attack- and defense-values. They have, however, been divided into logical categories such as mounted units, gunpowder units, melee units, etc. The siege weapons exist pretty much like in Civilization III. The units now have special attacks against different types of units. For example, pikemen excel against cavalry units, like they should. This is definitely a nice, intuitive update to the units. However, I'm not yet as convinced about another update, the promotions. The units can be updated in a role-playing fashion with promotions such as City Defense (which makes them better at defending cities, d'oh) or Amphibious, which enables them to attack straight from a cargo ship. Previously this option was only available for the Marine unit. I guess they do make the game more interesting and especially the Medic-promotion is useful, because it enables one unit to slowly heal others.

The technology tree has been expanded a lot, which makes it difficult for a newcomer to know what are the key technologies. You can also choose multiple paths to the same tech, which is interesting. There are, however, some techs that do not seem to have any prequisite techs yet they still have them. I haven't quite figured out the logic behind this yet. Maybe it's just that they need one of the techs that are on the previous "level" behind them in the tree, I don't know. You can still click on a tech and the game then automatically chooses to research everything that is needed for it so it doesn't really matter.

All in all the game is just as or even more addictive as the previous versions of the series, which is either a good or a bad thing, depending on the point of view. :) Also check out this Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword gameplay video I found from YouTube.

8 to 11am of Time

So, I have explored my continent (minus the Aztec parts) and am sending out my settler to establish another city. I choose to place it south-east from Karakorum, near the Aztecs just to stop them spreading my way. I call the new city Beshbalik.

Right after founding Beshbalik I discover Confucianism. It becomes my main religion. After that I also change my labor civic from Tribalism to Caste System. I should probably mention here that I have automated all my workers after some initial playing with them. I believe they are quite capable of doing their job without me micromanaging them.

I finish my first great wonder, the Stonehenge, on turn 81 (850 BC) in Karakorum. After that I train a settler who proceeds to found a new city, Turfan, to the western end of my continent, right next to not only one but two gold veins.

I proceed by adopting the Hereditary Rule -civic, which actually makes people draw happiness from military units garrisoned to cities. That suits me well, because I am going to start producing more military in fear of the Aztecs... My fears actually come true just a couple of turns later when Montezuma requests an audience and demands that I pay him some money. I don't wish to start the war just yet so I pay him, but this only makes me haste the production of military units. I'll get the money back many times when I loot their burning cities...

Dawn of Time

Very early on, on turn four, my scouts meet with Montezuma's scouts. We have a quick meeting and agree to go in peace. I'm just hoping he doesn't expand too fast, or else I may have to destroy the Aztecs altogether...

On turn seven my great nation learns the animal husbandry technology. We also spot a herd of horses near Karakorum. This gives my scientists the funny idea that it might actually be possible to ride a horse. We'll see about that, but I'll let them work on it anyway...

In other news, Montezuma wanted Open Borders and I agreed. I then found his capital city, Tenochtitlan, while exploring my continent. The continent spans to east and west and is quite narrow in the north-south axis.

First Game!

Right, time to start my first game of Civilization IV! I'm choosing fractal map, small world size, medium sea level, temperate climate and chieftain difficulty. I'm commanding the Mongolian empire with Genhis Khan as the leader. Mr. Khan is aggressive and expansive. I'm renaming Genghis to ZeroKhan, though. The special unit of the Mongols is the keshik that is a cavalry unit.

My settler starts with a scout in a forest next to some hills, plains and a river. I'm founding my capital city, Karakorum, right there...

Installation

I install Civ IV and BtS and use the in-game update query tool... and the game freezes. :O I can move the mouse and it changes shape, apparently per what's on the Windows desktop under that point, but that's all. I cannot even load the task manager with ctrl-alt-delete, so I have to reboot my computer the hard way. Oh well, I'll just download the newest patch from the web. I suspect my firewall blocked the in-game query and the game didn't exactly like that.

I then managed to download and install the patch from the web, so the next thing to do is to start playing!

Pre-Game

Hello. I started this blog to keep a track of my Civilization IV games. My Civilization history starts from the lower elementary school, when our teacher gave us a slide full of text to copy and meanwhile played Civilization I behind his desk. Then in the 1990s I got Civilization II and played that. Later I got Civilization III and the Play the World expansion pack. I made two diaries about those games and was in the middle of a third one when the game crashed and never recovered. Now I have just received Civilization IV and its Beyond the Sword expansion pack...