March 29, 2024

Classic Civ AAR: Part Four

Brant’s extended Civ V AAR, using the Gods & Kings expansion, marches along, as he angles to catch up to UCG’s Crusader Kings episode count.

This is an older AAR from almost a decade ago, represented here in case it disappears from its previous home

Last session we cleaned up some barbarians, started building a wonder, and promoted some units. Now it’s time to get some workers busy and wrap up our barbarian cleansing.

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Eeek!

That barbarian camp that might scout ran away from earlier has spawned a brute that’s menacing Carthage. Unlike some early versions of the series, Civ V gives each city its own inherent defense capability to make ranged attacks, and defend against enemies. Your ranged capability goes up with a unit garrisoned in the city, too. We’ll start by plinking the brute, and follow up with a melee attack in a bit.

 

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Early Religion.

The precursor to a full religion is founding a “pantheon”. Pantheons provide a single bonus to your civ based on their choice of worship traditions. I was able to get one pretty quick (all things considered) because of the early discovery of pottery and the building of the Shrine in Carthage.

 

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That’s Me In the Corner… Mangling the Words to an REM Song

Normally, this would be a no-brainer. You have quarries, you pick “Stone Circles” and watch your “faith” skyrocket. However, I’ve also got some silver nearby, and a few other deposits on this continent. That makes “Religious Idols” more attractive, as I can bring in both culture and faith for my mines. Hmmmm… Since I’m trying all sorts of new stuff in this game that I don’t normally do, I’m going with Religious Idols and hoping that splitting my bonuses lets me keep both faith and culture humming along.

 

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There’s an Idiot In Every Crowd.

Yeah, that scout we put on autopilot last epsiode? Instead of blazing new trails through the fog and heading east, he doubled back over ground we’d already explored and stumbled right back into a hornets’ nest of barbarians that we already knew were there. Oy. I think that scout’s mom threw away the baby, and raised the afterbirth. Now I gotta get him out of there, and get some actual carnivores in there to clean out the red menace.

 

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(I’d Make a Styx Reference, But I HATE That Song).

Carthaginians were made to get out on the waves, so it’s time to start building some boats. After I build all the other stuff I said I needed to build. Man, do I really need another city to double my production options.

 

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I Still Call It a “Boat”.

Carthage gets their own cultural unit, the “quinquereme”. Spell that three times fast! It’s a good combat boat, especially in the early game, but right now it’s stuck behind the Mausoleum in the production queue.

 

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That Idiot Scout Again.

He can’t even run away without getting his tookus kicked. And he can’t go hide near Lisbon because when I had him on autopilot, we apparently tromped right through their back yards and angered the locals. What else did he do when we weren’t looking? Kick the dog and shag the wife? These are the perils of automating a unit’s actions.

 

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One-on-Three Are Good Odds, Right? Right?

Fortunately, the archer will be there shortly, and we’ll try to pick these brutes off one by one. I’d like to get the archer on the south side of the river, too, for added protection.

 

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Juggling Assets.

I’ve got my spearman in garrison now, and I’ve got a worker that needs to move out and get busy. I probably need at least one more combat unit on the map, and a scout who isn’t dumber than a paperweight.

 

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Get to Work!

I’ve got a worker in circulation now, and he needs to start building quarries ASAP, starting with the marble. Not only do quarries give you a production boost, but marble gives you an additional boost when building wonders, and we just started on the Mausoleum. Although I selected “Religious Idols” for our pantheon, we don’t have the silver deposits in the city limits yet, so there’s no rush to get them moving.

 

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I Guess I’ll Settle for This One.

Get it, “settle” for… oh forget it. With my next cultural selection, I get a free settler, and building settlers in my cities will start to happen faster, too.

 

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Kicking Butt and Taking Initials. We Don’t Have Time To Stop For Names.

My warrior-archer combo has knocked off one brute, and my next promotion is ready to go. Normally, I want to enhance his combat power, but with (at least) two more immediate fights, I need to heal him up, pronto.

 

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Close and Destroy.

My archer can’t shoot over the mountains, so I have to move him closer than I’d prefer. To make sure he doesn’t get melee’ed to death, I need the warrior up close and personal with the barbarian brutes, too.

 

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Shazbot!

Another brute is sneaking in from the east, and my worker is about to get ganked. These barbarians are really getting on my nerves.

 

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Captured!

My worker got captured, but the brute that did it is in artillery range of Carthage, so we’re going to plink what we can while moving the spearman out to catch up with the brute and rescue the worker.

 

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Next Scorecard.

“Literate” civilizations are ranked based on scientific discoveries. Although I’m mid-table again, I’m only one discovery behind the leaders, and you see #8 is two behind me (and there’s a #9 below him yet). Again, good to know, and no cause for alarm at this point.

 

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Can He Redeem Himself?

Idiot Scout Dude put a hit on the brute with our worker, and managed to get himself promoted. I should rename him “Gene Chizik” because he keeps failing upwards, but I don’t want to completely jinx our scout. Anyhow, maybe he can help keep contact with this brute and slow him down ’til the spearman gets here.

 

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Come on and rescue me! Come on baby and rescue me!

Our spearman finishes off the brute, and now we can get back to building quarries.

 

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Hey Look! We Found a City!

Utique is now our next city, and is immediately in bombardment range of some barbarians. Time to start plinking while our warrior heals up from protecting the settler getting to this point. We wanted a city here for a few reasons. First, parking him along a river lets us build Water Wheels and Gardens, which you can’t do elsewhere. Second, there’s a “wheat” resource to the northeast that’ll help bring in more food. Finally, there’s other islands to the west, so this’ll make a nice port for exploring out that way.

 

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Queue It Up.

We set up a production queue with a pretty wishful and optimistic pick in the middle. I’m sure someone is already working on Stonehenge somewhere, but I’m going to take a shot at building it, because it’s got a nice faith boost, and helps generate Great Engineers. But first we need a Monument and a Shrine.

 

Next time we see you, we’ll have some more expansion around Carthage, and the destruction of Barbarian Group West. I’m starting to understand why the Romans hated those barbarians so much.

 


CIVILIZATION 5 GODS + KINGS CLASSIC AAR
PART ONE ~ PART TWO ~ PART THREE ~ PART FOUR ~ PART FIVE ~ PART SIX ~ PART SEVEN ~ PART EIGHT ~ PART NINE ~ PART TEN
PART XI ~ PART XII ~ PART XIII ~ PART XIV ~ PART XV ~ PART XVI ~ PART XVII ~ PART XVIII ~ PART XIX ~ PART XX ~ PART XI


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Brant G

Editor-in-chief at Armchair Dragoons

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