16-12-1999 10:34									#1
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I hope you will all forgive me if this is a subject that should be intuitively obvious to the most casual observer but I keep seeing references to keeping a log. Is that a normal practice? Does it help with a current game or future games? Is there a standard set of entries? Thanks.

	15-12-1999 23:14									#2
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A log is a record (on paper or in your favorite text editor/word processor) of what happened in the game. It's useful when you want to compare games to evaluate different strategies. The level of detail is strictly up to you, but other people keep track of:

Advances
Cities
Tribute
Trade routes
Wonders
War/peace

See http://apolyton.net/forums/Forum3/H...html?date=23:19 for one of my log files. I think I'm way out there on the detailed end of the spectrum.

	15-12-1999 23:37									#3
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Here is what I posted a little while ago about logs, hope this can helpas well...

In the many strategy/war games that I have played, I have always kept detailed spreadsheet-based logs. Some think I'm strange but to me, keeping logs is just as fun as playing. The advantage is that it helps you figure where you need to go by analyzing where you have been. Also, despite what someone posted last week, a log for a losing game is very valuable because it show what went wrong and in reviewing it, you can learn what to do better next time. Also, logs are good for doing an inventory of your cities and their productions. It helps in organizing and managing such a complex and variable situation.

The contents of my log are:
Year
Gold
Total Pop
City/Size
Food - Supply/Surplus
Trade - Tax/Lux/Sci/Corr
Shields - Support-Waste/Prod
Producing - Units/Wonders
Advances
Research
Improvements - Units-Action (finished or current unit and their orders, eg, Phalanx - Fortify)
Battles - Attacker/Results, Defender/Results (eg, Amer Musk/vet - Barb Elephant/killed
Notes (AI contacts/messages, tax rate, etc.)

Whenever there is a change in a turn, I record it. For examples: change in city production due to size increase, settlers or changing squares; production of a changed or new units/improv/wonder; discovery/researcing of an advance and what to do research next; and of course, battles.