Brant Guillory, 3 January 2013

Starting with episode 3, we’re switching to a longer format, mainly so we can finish this AAR by the end of 2013. Maybe.

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In episode 2, we picked a few fights and upgraded some dudes. We scouted around and found some barbarians. We even got our first policy. Now it’s time to quit exploring and clean up the neighborhood a bit. How will Carthage survive their first battles? Read on, gentle soul. You too, Martok.

Picking a Fight.

Our spearman is doing his level best to clear that camp, and the archer is on the way. As noted last time, the good thing about upgrading the scout to the archer is that he retains is movement bonus.

Run Away!

Meanwhile, Scout 2 is getting the hell away from that other camp to the east. Heading south to explore some and hope we don’t get blindsided with an attack out of the fog.

Crap. Crap! Crapcrapcrapcrap.

That camp just spawned another brute, and now my spearman is damaged and has an extra guy to fight off.

Brant Guillory, 23 December 2012

The next installment in the saga of Carthage-as-Played-by-Brant, wherein we find some first steps towards conflict, greater explorations, and a dash of culture.

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Last session, we started exploring our local area, tripped over a few ruins, and found some bad guys.

Tweaking My Production

With one of those ruins, my guys discovered the secrets of Pottery, so I need to go tweak my production queue to get the Shrine bumped up. If you can found a pantheon early, you get a better choice of beliefs to enhance your civilization. So I’m going to add the Shrine, but then also move it up in my production queue, even ahead of the Monument.

Scouts Out!

My second scout is going to start poking around to the west, since I don’t know much about what’s over there. Meanwhile, my spearman is going to head north to bail out my other scout from the barbarian stew he just spilled on himself. But hey! On the way, we found another set of ruins. Hmm…

More Technology.

My first researched tech is now done, and with mining, I can get a worker moving on those silver deposits. After the Shrine, and after the Monument, and, ah, hell… whenever I get to it.

Brant Guillory, Decmber 16, 2012

Brant’s kicking off an extended Civ V AAR, with commentary on his game, and tips & tricks as he goes along.

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I’ve been playing every version of Civilization, starting with the first one back when I was in college. And I lost more than a few nights to the “just one more turn” bug. Civ III was my favorite for a long time, but Civ V is rapidly overtaking it, with the mixture of social policies, faith, and city-states really combining to keep my interest.

I’m chronicling this play-through with Carthage, and I’m also trying a few new things just to see how it goes, so expect to see a few “huh?” moments as I puzzle my way through some of these decisions. Expect this AAR to run for quite a while, with about 10 screenies with commentary for each article.

And while I’m no Civ expert, I’m pretty experienced, so you’re going to get a lot of “this worked for me” but it’s entirely likely you’ll find someone, somewhere who vehemently disagrees. But, hey – we wouldn’t be Grogs without some complaining, right?

The setup.

I’m playing as Carthage, which I’ve only played one time before. I wanted to trample folks with elephants, but I also like the idea of free harbors in each city. I’m also playing on a huge map with small continents, which should play to the harbors’ strength in connecting trade routes. I’m also playing at “quick” pace, in the hopes of finishing the AAR before 2014.

Even with a huge map, I’m only playing with 9 opponents and 16 city-states. This should give us all a lot of space to explore and noodle around.

The start.

I’ve got tundra around me, and some green stuff to the south, so I suspect I’m up against the northern edge of the map. Lots of silver, stone, and marble nearby, which will play a big role in which technologies I start to research.

Founding the first city.

I’m a fan of the production queue. It takes one thing off of my mind, and it also helps keep me on track for longer-term strategies. I end up starting and stopping a lot throughout the course of a complete game, and this lets me stay on track if I don’t get to play for a day or two – no going back and recreating a near-term strategy. I also like to get some scouts out as soon as possible. I want to know what’s over every hill in sight. Normally, I build a few warriors between the scouts in case I run into the inevitable barbarians a bit too close, but this time I’m going to get a monument built a bit earlier to get the culture numbers cranking up.