Epic Forty-one: Balance of Power

[Griselda]

You all know the drill, right? You have until Monday night, your time, to complete your games. You have until Tuesday to post your results as a reply to this message.

If you finish your game by Monday, but can't write a full report by Tuesday, you need to post at least your scoring information by the reporting deadline. Then, you can take as much time as you need to write your report.

If you can't finish the game by Monday, you can save the game by Monday night and get a partial score based upon the ages that you have completed in your game.

-Griselda

[Kylearan]

Preliminary thoughts: From the scoretable for this Epic, it was clear that you have to try to go for a honourable diplomatic victory if you want to be competetive, so that was what I tried to do. To keep the balance for the in-game score, I planned to do all I can to help any of the four weakest civs, and do all I can to weaken any of the best four civs. Which one exactly wouldn't be important: If I allied with the 5th or 8th civ to help in times of war would be the same, because only the average score of the four civs will count for the scenario scoring.

In-game score comes from happiness and territory. AI territory will be hard to control for me, especially if I want to play honourably, so it would be nice to have lots of luxuries and resources to give away to the weaker civs and keep away from the stronger ones. I would have to limit myself, too, and try not to play too efficient this time, because I don't want to increase the average of the better civs too much with my own high score. That means limiting myself in the expansion phase: Once I would gain too much score from land, the "no self-destruction" rule would make it hard to change anything about that.

So let's go...



Not necessarily the best start I've seen... it looked like there will be flood plains to the southeast, so I moved the worker south first and was pleased to see I was right. London was founded on the starting spot, and the worker first mined the oasis, then irrigated the wheat flood plains.

Scouting will be important to see where and how strong my opponents will be, so I built two warriors, then a worker for the difficult terrain around London, then another two warriors out of London before starting a granary next. Going over the unit support limit is something I won't do normally, but I had to play non-optimally anyway to limit my score. Research-wise, I planned to try the philosophy-republic gambit and thus went for writing first.

I met the Dutch in 3500BC, got warrior code from a hut in 3350BC, then met Turkey in 3150BC. Only a turn later, Italy, Russia and France where found, and a first round of trading ensued, getting me masonry, bronze working and ceremonial burial plus some money.

In 2590BC, Lady Luck smiled upon me: I received a settler from a hut! He founded York, south of London on the river and near the hills. During the next centuries, disease struck London, writing was discovered (CoL next), Spain was met and two more cities were founded, Nottingham on the dyes and Hastings to grab ivory. London was now set up as one of the best settler-factories I've ever had: With a little micromanagement, it was able to produce a settler every four turns while providing an additional scientist for two turns! These additional six beakers in four turns helped my research quite a bit.

In 1575BC, another round of trading got me iron working, the wheel and horseback riding. Now look at this:



There were two resources of iron near my territory, and I had founded three cities exactly out of reach of both! That's what you get for founding cities before knowing where the resources are... Well, the one near Coventry was lost to Utrecht, but the other one was unclaimed at the moment, so my next settler went to the hill one tile south of the iron, founding Warwick. That city had to be heavily protected against flips, as it shared two tiles with the Dutch capital, but I needed that iron!

Another problem was that I had no horses yet either, but Warwick would grab some as well, only they wouldn't be available for some time. But I already had a short-term solution for that - more on that later.

In 1425BC, I oberved that Russia and Italy were at war, but couldn't decide yet if that was good or bad for the balance of the world. What I did know, though, was that I had to stop expanding further or I would become too strong, so a last settler went out to a site west of London on the coast with wheat, whales and fish - and had to found Newcastle two tiles away from it on a far-from-optimal location because two barbarian horses threatened to destroy my warrior escort. Argh. Meanwhile, London built a temple and then went for the great library.

In 1375BC, Prussia was finally contacted. In 1300BC, I discovered philosophy first, got the republic with it and immediately revolted, drawing a mere 3 turns of anarchy. Nice!

In 1125BC, trouble began. I noticed two Russian archers on a sneak attack vector towards empty York. I was still very thin on units, and London was tied up with prebuilding the great library, so all could do was to rush a regular spear in York and hope for the best. And indeed, Russia declared war, but made the mistake to attack the spear across the river, netting me my first elite unit. I was lucky to have kept York! I had only one archer, and that one died attacking a Russian archer later, too, so when in 850BC, the Russians had three archers near York, which still was defended by only one spear, I paid them 120g for peace. Ouch.

I had shut down research after literature, and completed the great library in 750BC. I still had no horses and wouldn't be able to connect them soon, so I had to use the short-term solution I had mentioned earlier: London immediately started to build the Statue of Zeus next, which I completed in 570BC. I established embassies with the other civs, and was disgusted to see how horribly underdeveloped the other capitals were. London, on the other hand, was making 24spt, so maybe I could get a third wonder there? I produced a barracks first for the ancient cavalry, then started a prebuild for whatever I would be able to get, preferably a non-happiness wonder because I was already #3 in score. Spain on the other hand was #7, and they were the only one without republic, so I "sold" it to them for 10g.

I left the ancient age in 450BC, so time for the first score breakdown: France 419, England 413, Prussia 409, Russia 402, Italy 346, Netherlands 334, Spain 323, Turkey 315. Make that 16 points for me for the ancient age.

In 330BC, the Dutch got the hanging gardens (good!, the French the great wall, and Spain the pyramids (great!. I switched London to Sun Tzu's.

In 90BC, Prussia demanded tribute! Bad move, buddy. They were #2 in score now, and had settled annoying Hannover earlier, so I refused. They declared, and since they were the aggressor, I was allowed to capture Hannover honourably.



That reduced their territory and thus their future score. Unfortunately, this also increased my territory (and thus my score) and didn't help much with the average score of the four first civs. But this also decreased the price the French wanted to have for an alliance vs. Prussia from 500g to 300g, and so I made the deal and was happy that #1 was fighting #2 now.

Unfortunately, some turns later the Dutch were bought in against me by Prussia. But the Dutch were #7 in score, so I only defended against them and tried to hurt them as little as possible. But things heatened up now: Russia demanded 110g as well! I refused - and they backed down.

I had no problems defending against the Dutch thanks to my ancient cavalry and trebuchets, but France led the score now, had chivalry and had already captured a Prussian city. Uh oh, that's what you get for inciting wars far away you cannot really control...so I paid 20g to the Dutch and then signed a RoP agreement with them so that they could help Prussia against France (whom they were at war with as well).

Of course the whole situation threatened to go out of control next. Alliances were signed all over the place, and new wars were declared, and suddenly, in 390AD, I had a diplomatic mess I really had liked to avoid.



The worst thing was that the only nation at peace, Russia, was #1 in score now! I had my wars under control, but had little control over the other wars and could only hope for the best.

A short time later, the Dutch made peace with France, and since the Dutch were still #7, I gifted them my only dyes, both to decrease my own score and to increase theirs. I then paid the Turks for peace too, to encourage peaceful growth. Later, I gifted ivory to the Turks for the same reason.

In 440AD, education came out of the GL. Gunpowder had come out some time before already, and I began a deficit research on banking next. I gifted education to the Dutch to increase the tech pace: As long as the balance wasn't totally out of whack, a fast tech pace is my friend. In 460AD, I made peace with Italy and gifted them education as well.

So now I was still at war with Prussia, although it was only a phony war, but then Russia got bought into the war against Prussia as well. Finally, a means to do something against #1 Russia! I made peace with Prussia and immediately signed an alliance with them against Russia. According to the honourable ruleset, I was only allowed to fight Russia in my own borders (or Prussia's), but I intended to keep them at war as long as they were #1 in score. They lacked both iron and horses, so they weren't that dangerous.

I began to fear for Prussia, though. They lacked iron and saltpeter, and unfortunately I was unable to trade with them, and now Italy was moving a frightening amount of units towards their lands. I wasn't yet able to fight Italy as well, but prepared to do so now. Italy had also built the knight's templar earlier; good thing that crusaders are so slow...

In 520AD, banking came in. I traded it to Turkey for chemistry, and while they were willing to pay an additional 43gpt, I didn't take it, as Turkey was still in the lower half of the scoring table. For the same reason, I gifted banking to the Dutch and to Spain, the others should buy it if they want it. Here's a picture of my empire at that time:

[Kylearan]

During the next decades, several AIs I feared for signed peace treaties: Spain and Prussia, Spain and Turkey, and Prussia and Russia. Nice! Now the only thing I needed was peace between Italy and Prussia. That didn't happen though, and in 610AD, the first Prussian city fell to Italy. I had to do something about that, and soon! Italy will have overtaken Prussia in score soon anyway, so they have to be stopped. A war against the huge number of Italian crusaders and knights would get ugly though, so I grudgingly decided to make peace with Russia to free up my units bound there. My goal had been to throw Russia out of republic, but hadn't succeeded yet - probably because of the WW bug, the one bug I hate the most in C3C.

Anyway, I demanded that the Italian units should leave my territory, and war was upon me. I also sign in the Dutch against Italy, because they had a lot of units near Italian cities, and they had been bought against Prussia earlier, and I wanted to protect Prussia, which was still in the upper half of the score table but already sinking.

The Italian units still in Prussian territory managed to capture another of their cities, and Spain got bought against them again as well, so I gifted Prussia banking and astronomy, for what it may be worth.

I had built Leo's earlier, and now the rest of the available wonders fell: Turkey got Sistine's, and the Dutch Bach's. That was very nice, as both nations could need some happiness, which would improve their score! I was still gifting luxuries to Spain and Turkey whenever I was able to, especially my only dyes.

The war with Italy went well: I managed to defend against them without much problems, and Italy and Netherlands were at a stalemate as well. But Prussia was still at war with France and Spain, and they only had four cities left on this continent, so when I discovered physics first in 700AD, I gifted it to them, hoping they would be able to make peace with that tech. And indeed, they signed peace with France for it the next turn! Not with the Spanish, though.

In 720AD, Italy and Netherlands signed peace again, which was fine because Italy had already lost a city and now I was able to make peace with them too whenever I wanted to. Next turn, Russia declared on the Dutch! Although the Dutch were still lacking in score, I could live with that as well because Russia still only had longbows, and the Dutch should be able to deal with them and keep #1 Russia busy.

In 740AD I was horrified to see that Berlin was Spanish now! I no longer could remain passive with this and only sign alliances and gift things to keep the balance; now it was time to play a more active role and send out some expeditionary forces. Although Spain was still last in score, I signed an alliance with Prussia against them, made peace with Italy, and signed a RoP agreement with Turkey to get to the Prussians faster. Unfortunately, Turkey had been horrible with improving their lands, and the jungle made may way to Prussia a real PITA. I feared I might have acted too late to save Prussia - would my forces arrive in time?

I was #2 in score, by the way - nothing I was proud of or had planned. Seems I had expanded too far in the beginning! On the other hand, I needed all the cities to support my balance-keeping wars. In this regard, this Epic was really great: You had to limit yourself somewhat so not to dominate the score, but that also weakened your abilities to interfere in other's wars, so there was a real trade-off that made it very interesting. To counter my high score, I had neglected building colisseums and cathedrals until now, even if my cities had still potential for growing. But somehow avoiding them hadn't helped much, as my high score showed. Well, I planned to delay building hospitals for some time to offset that later.

My forces were able to deter the Spanish somewhat, but could only slow them down but not stop them completely from taking Prussian cities. So when I discovered magnetism first in 790AD, I again gifted it to Prussia, yelling "Make peace you fool!" at Otto. The Dutch had somehow lost their horses, so I gifted them my only ones. I love the concept of this Epic - I never have done so much gifting and trading before; this time, the F4 screen actually meant something.

I had traded for navigation before, and now traded for maps.



I was delighted to see Prussia had two cities on the island. Unfortunately, France got bought into the war against Prussia again...

London completed Smith's in 830AD, and that sparked my golden age. As it is always the case for me, this caught me by surprise - I actually had liked to avoid the GA to prevent an even further increase in score. Bummer.

The stupid Prussians had used my latest gift not to make peace, but to trade for techs. So when I entered the industrial age in 850AD after most of the AIs, they also had the complete first row of techs aleady, together with Turkey, the Dutch and Russia! I was amazed - they had lost another city to Spain, and were still on par with rest of the world? That wasn't the thing I had in mind when gifting them techs...

Score breakdown: Russia 906, England 844, France 841, Italy 803, Prussia 704, Turkey 674, Dutch 672, Spain 630. Score: 16. Unfortunately, I forgot to save at this point, the only save missing.

Anyway, I paid Prussia 144gpt for steam power, hoping they would use the money for peace. Well, what they did before in fact making peace with Spain was to sign an alliance with the Dutch against France. Hrmpf, the Dutch now were fighting #1 Russia and #2 France, grand...I supported them by gifting them my only saltpeter.

As usual, alliances, new wars and declarations of peace of the puzzling and senseless kind followed during the next decades. What it boiled down to was that Sipahi were fighting Cossacks, that the French tried to sneak-attack my capital with a landing commando but were slaughtered by Italian units before they were able to declare (which I laughed very hard about...), and that I had to gift resources, luxuries and money left and right to try to get at least some control of the situation. In the end, Russia was gaining ground against the Dutch, capturing Rotterdam and Utrecht. So I had to sign an alliance with the Dutch against Russia to stop them somehow, killing their units on Dutch ground. I also gave 300g to Turkey and electricity to Italy for an alliance vs. Russia. I also had to gift my only saltpeter to Turkey in mid-war to make their Sipahi reappear!

Then, Russia signed an alliance with France against me! Nice, finally a war where I'm allowed to take enemy cities. I captured Iznik which had been captured by France earlier, and wished I would be allowed to gift it back to Turkey. This finally triggered the FP message by the way, and I built it in Warwick.

Theory of Evolution was completed in London in 1210AD. I traded scientific methods away for replacable parts, and then gifted atomic theory around for a faster tech pace, as the scores became more and more unbalanced. Unfortunately I had no rubber.

The Dutch were losing against Russia now despite me gifting them saltpeter and horses, but at least Russia wasn't able to keep Utrecht:



In that picture, you can also see an opportunity for me to honourably acquire rubber: I founded a city near the rubber on an now-uncontrolled tile near Rotterdam and rushed a temple there, bingo! :D

A word on bad AI tactics. On several occasions, I had to watch how the Russians used the blitz ability of their cossacks: When a cossack retreated from a fight, they immediately attacked the same target again with the redlined cossack, dying most of the time.

The fronts were clear now: #1 Russia and #2 France were fighting me and the lower half of the score table, so I helped the Dutch, Turkey and Spain where I could by gifting them techs/resources/luxuries and by honourably killing Russian units. Italy was at peace with me, but they were fighting Russia as well. But since they were #4, I never gifted them anything. I also captured Chartres, Berlin, Heidelberg and Bonn from the French before making peace with them again. By rushing a harbor there, I now was able to gift away furs and a second source of rubber, too.

Russia was #1 still, and I wished I would be allowed to pillage their luxuries...

In 1320AD, war weariness kicked in, although I hadn't fought a single battle the previous turn...? Anyway, I welcomed the WW because it would reduce my score a bit. :P I scored some leaders which formed armies, but apart from that, nothing significant happened for the next hundred years. In 1435AD, I nearly had the optimal diplomatic state: Except for Prussia who was still at war with Russia (which was more a phony than a real war), civ #1 to civ #4 were fighting among themselves, while civ #5 to civ #8 were at peace. Nice! Too bad the WW bug prevented most of the AIs from being thrown out of representative governments, otherwise their score would have dropped lower. I was only fighting Russia defensively, for which my armies were more than sufficient, but I would have been in trouble in case serious war would have come to me: Being a dirty arms dealer, I had neither rubber nor horses at that time, as I was supplying those to Italy and France to help them in their war against Russia...

There was a real downside to all the warring, though, a downside I hadn't anticipated. My plan had been to not build any hospitals except in London, so that my smaller population would reduce my score compared to the rest of the AIs. What happened though was that all AIs were drafting like mad, and most cities were really tiny, ranging from size 4 to size 8 only! Argh.

In 1465AD, the Dutch foolishly declared war on me. Don't they remember who had been their patron all the time? Who had supplied them with critical resources during times of need? Who had gifted them luxuries since the ancient age? Hrmpf. I fought only defensively and made peace again as soon as they were willing to talk, which was in 1500AD. I then gifted them ivory, yet they were now annoyed with me. Then, they immediately declared war on Prussia next turn- man, why can't you just rebuild your empire in peace like a good AI?

I was #2 in score now, despite not building any hospitals and despite gifting away my only luxuries and whatnot. I had forced all other score leaders into wars, so the only thing I could do now was to further improve the score of the weaker civs - and so I signed RoP agreements with my friends the Dutch, the Turks and Spain, and my workers set out and began to rail their lands, to bring commerce and happiness to their cities. I even wanted to clear the huge amount of jungle still left in Turkish territory, but had to find out you weren't allowed to do so! That's really weird: You are allowed to irrigate or mine already improved tiles, but are not allowed to clear jungle? That makes no sense.

Talking about irrigation: I also started to irrigate Dutch lands to maximize their growth, but then abandoned the project because it sounds exploitative to manipulate your "friends" like that. This could be a way to manipulate the wonder race, by the way: Just sign a RoP agreement with your competitor and remove all mines at the city building the wonder...

Railing my friends didn't help their score much, because it came too late to do much difference due to the way the score is calculated, that it's averaged over all turns. But at least I've tried, and every bit counts!

In 1570AD, Konigsberg, the last Prussian city on the main continent fell, but they still had four cities on the island and one 1-tile island city out in the sea, so they won't die completely. In 1630AD, I entered the modern age. Russia 1313, England 1307, France 1215, Italy 1107, Turkey 881, Spain 844, Dutch 715, Prussia 632. Score: 19. You can see that the gap between the first and the last four is widening, time to finish the game!

I already had a UN prebuild running, so I gifted all scientific civs into the modern age, and for their free techs they drew...computers (Turkey), ecology (Russia), and computers (Germany). Argh, no fission! So I had to research it myself.

In 1655AD, the only war that was still fought was France vs Russia, which had my full approval. In 1695AD, I discovered fission, and elections were held in 1735AD. France abstained, Russia voted for herself, the rest for me: Victory!



Final score breakdown: England 1385, Russia 1369, France 1261, Italy 1151, Turkey 924, Spain 890, Dutch 713, Prussia 627. Score: 19

As you can see, I was leading in score - that had definately been my biggest mistake in this Epic: Playing too good. I had limited myself a lot: I had stopped my land-grab before all land was settled; I hadn't built any hospitals; I had gifted away my single sources of luxuries and had embraced war weariness; I had not build any happiness wonders - and still I ended up with the highest score.

Final score: 16 (ancient age) + 16 (medieval age) + 19 (industrial age) + 18 (modern age) + 20 (diplo victory) + 10 (played honourabel) = 99

Now I'm looking forward to see how good or bad this score is. Thanks to the sponsors for a really great Epic!

-Kylearan

[T-hawk]

Here it is:

http://www.dos486.com/civ3/epic41/

[bihary]

Bihary's report

Ancient Age
------------

Moved worker to hill to look around. Decided to move settler to plains. Founded
London in 3950BC. Worker builds road and mine on oasis. London builds warrior,
curagh, three more warriors, settler. I eventually scouted with 3 warriors and
2 curaghs. All rivals are contacted by 2310BC. Balance at that point is pretty
good and I am not much behind.
By 1450BC, I have a nice first ring with 6 cities. I have the dyes up north by
the sea, games and oasis north-east, worker-factory on the flood-plain-rich river
south-east, ivories and iron down south, gold south-west. I decide to expand
further west, as I need the horses. Also, it seems to make the division of land
among the southern powers most even. With a bit of blockading the Italians, I
build a second ring in the northern half of the Great Western Plains. I have 12
cities now. I also stuff a 13th city in the south-west, to poach another iron
and some ivories. My initial expansion is completed by 470BC, exactly when I
enter the Middle Ages. Disease hit me only three times, and caused no serious
setback.
Nothing preserves balance better than world peace. It was shattered by - what
else - Prussian militarism. In 850BC, Bismarck declares war on Russia. At first,
I do not worry. They are not immediate neighbors and both are strong. In 670BC
however, I suddenly realize that Russia has lost three cities, two of them razed.
I have to step up the plate! The very same year brings another bad news: France,
already very strong, grabbed the Pyramids. I muster 4 swordsmen and move to the
critical Prussio-Russian front. My ROP with Bismarck expires in 630BC, and I
honorably declare war against the Germanic hordes. I sign an alliance with France
that costs me 175g, let the northern monsters fight each other! For the alliance
with Russia, I get construction and literature for 50g + 6gpt - protection fee I
guess.
I enter the Middle Ages in 470BC. Time for a summary about the world situation.

Game scores:
England: 431
France: 399
Italy: 377
Prussia: 374
Turkey: 360
Netherlands: 356
Russia: 352
Spain: 294
Balance ratio: 0.861
Scenario Points: 17/20 points
I am already ahead, indeed my expansion was rather greedy. Russia was hit, lost
some territory. Spain's starting position was bad, and she did not expand fast
either.

Middle Ages
------------

Well, Prussia seems unstoppable! He attacks with many horsemen. He takes two
French cities, then makes peace with France. I sign Turkey into the war, sign ROP
and send 2 swordsmen into the area. I destroy a Prussian village in Russian
territory, and say good-bye to the honorable bonus... Prussia is finally stopped,
but Turkey is still threatened. Another great problem starts now: The former
Russian territory, cleansed by the Prussian menace (and by my humble self), gets
colonized by the Dutch. Netherlands is becoming a monster, and Italy is also
very strong and has built Zeus...
In 250AD, although I see him coming and sign him up against Prussia, Italy sneak-
attacks me. He has ancient cavalries, legions, and MI's. My defenses are not quite
up yet. I panic and sign Netherlands against Italy for a whopping 23gpt. My
research slows down, and I fall behind in techs. The Dutch smash into Italian
lands, conquer two cities and soon they are at the walls of Rome!
I complete Leonardo's as the Dutch complete Knight's Templar. As soon as possible,
I make peace with Italy, position my troops against Holland, and strike at the
last moment before Italy collapses. I make an alliance with Italy against the
Dutch. Russia and Turkey had been bought into the war against Italy by the Dutch,
and now he buys in France against me. I become desperate. I buy Russia and Spain
against Holland, and finally my position consilidates. What a mess!!! All kinds
of wars break up and all kinds of peace treaties are signed, in a seemingly
random fashion. In 910AD, Turkey and France signs against me, and Holland and
Spain signs against me. This is the point when I come to the conclusion that I
cannot stay out of alliances and keep peace for myself. Not only my blood enemies,
but now my secondary, bought-in enemies also start allying against me! A new
diplomatic paradigm is thus adopted:
I shall stay in war with Netherlands and Prussia, the two monsters. I shall keep
all other civs allied against at least one of them, preferably to the one further
from them. For example, Spain should always be in war with the Dutch, allied
with me. After breaking their backbone, I exert just enough pressure on the
monsters so they cannot slice up my weaker allies (and they cannot of course
threaten me.)
This strategy works out fine. Little by little, I make peace and alliances with
everyone on board, except Prussia and Holland. I get gunpowder in 470AD,
metallurgy in in 810AD and military tradition in 950AD. I upgrade with Leonardo,
and strike! With an amphibious attack, I destroy 3 Prussian cities he took from
poor Spain, blockade the French, and make sure Spain rebuilds her territory.
I destroy Dutch cities in the south and let Italy rebuild his lost cities. I also
destroy Dutch presence in southern Turkey and north-western Russia. Turkey
however is very slow with the reoccupation of his former southern lands, and
most of this central territory is settled by Russia. Around this time I finally
get world maps and see the extra continent in the east. It is dominated by Russia,
with sporadic French, Dutch and Spanish presence. All of a sudden I realize: A
new superpower is hatching under my protecting wings: Russia!
I entered the Industrial Age in 1070AD, at times of the offensive operations
described above. Only Turkey is up, with medicine.
Game scores:
England: 1083
Netherlands: 1004
Prussia: 902
France: 844
Italy: 746
Russia: 705
Turkey: 701
Spain: 550
Balance ratio: 0.694
Scenario points: 14/20 points

Industrial Age
---------------
Towards the beginning of the Industrial Age, my new diplomatic doctrine has
been established and is operational. I stopped Holland in the south, reduced him
in the center. I kicked out Prussia from Spanish lands, and cleaned northern
Turkey. With steam power comes the bad news: I have no coal. I build a city in
the northern jungle to get it. I build the strategic railroad system as fast as I
can. I have also built some man-o-wars and get my golden age in 1335AD. I build
Theory of Evolution, Hoover Dam, Smith's and Newton's. I decided not to build
hospitals, as I am already too strong. I build strategic railroad lines through
Turkey (with whom I continuously have ROP) to the Prussian and French territories,
and also to the east. I have tons of slaves at this point, so I gifted away my
native workers to Spain and Turkey. I have good control of the situation now, but
research is slow: 8-12 turns/ tech. Unfortunately, I cannot revolt to Republic,
because of my continuous warfare.
If things stayed as they were at this point, my game would have had a happy
ending, no doubt. But it was not to be, the game would teach me a lesson I will
never forget...
Fascinated by - what was kind of new for me - the capability of pillaging by naval
bombardment, I made a crucial mistake and destroyed Prussia's only horse resource
on his northern shore. Without cavalry, Prussia ran out of steam surprisingly
fast. He lost his posessions to the French within former France, and already had
lost northern Turkey to my troops. Before I knew it, he was cornered by now super-
strong France and was fought back to his peninsula. That would still have been
OK, but soon he started lo lose his core cities too. Better late than never, I had
to admit my mistake and had to shift alliance. I made peace with Prussia, and
declared war on France. France became my new blood enemy, against whom I made
alliances across the board. Prusiia wa saved, and the balance of power in the
northern region was once again restored. But Bismarck remained furious with me,
no matter how hard I tried to please him...
On the southern front, a similar thing happened: Netherlands - the unquestionable
super-power of its region for ages - could not withstand the combined attack of
Italy, Russia and Turkey forever. It could keep its core intact, but his cities
shrank in size, its fascist leader was desperately trying to maintain his
military might by whipping his poor citizens. When an army of a dozen or so
cossacks ascended upon his estern flank, I knew I had to interfere. I declared war
on Russia, stopped his deadly cavalry charge, and destroyed his cities that were
too close to my borders. Balance of power was restored, but I had yetanother
blood enemy now...
It was not so important as it seemed at the moment, but I got myself an oil
resource in northern Russia by founding yetanother city.
I entered the Modern Age in 1760AD.

Game scores:
England: 1566
France: 1190
Netherlands: 1075
Russia: 1063
Prussia: 991
Italy: 822
Turkey: 743
Spain: 638
Balance ratio: 0.652
Scenario points: 20/30 points

Modern Age
-----------

Now it was just a matter of time to research the only tech I needed and to build
the United Nations. I have done so, and kept the military balance easily with my
superior forces. The game became kind of tedious, and I was running out of time.
In 1806, I built the UN. Just before completion, I gifted away all my techs and
money to my 5 allies. I gave most to my former blood enemies: Prussia and the
Dutch. They are still furious with me, true, but with such sweet treats, being in
war with France (and Russia), they will surely pick ME when time comes to vote,
right? RIGHT?
WRONG!!!

Voting Results...
RBCiv-41 votes for RBCiv-41.
Isabella votes for RBCiv-41.
Osman votes for RBCiv-41.
Garibaldi votes for RBCiv-41.
Bismarck abstains.
William abstains.
Catherine votes for Joan d'Arc.
Joan d'Arc votes for Joan d'Arc.

Voting inconclusive! Play on!

What? I did not think about the possibility of abstaining... Bismarck and William
did what they had to do, I have only myself to blame.
Confused and humiliated, having run out of time, the queen of England has but one
choice: Step down the throne and retire.

Game scores:
England: 1631
France: 1212
Netherlands: 1047
Russia: 1102
Prussia: 980
Italy: 826
Turkey: 765
Balance ratio: 0.647
Scenario points: 19/30 points

Final score:
-------------

I can still count scenario points for the Modern Age (EOG score). I did not
finish, but I did start the Modern Age. Of course, I do not get any extra for my
"missed victory", in fact I have to include the retirement penalty.
Total: 17+14+20+19-20 = 50 points.
I wonder if we will see a worse reported score than this... Probably not.

Conclusion
-----------

This game was fun. It required a playing style very foreign for me: I usually
do not have the time and stamina to plan and execute precise military
manoveurs. I learned a lot, and I had to change strategy many times in the
course of the game. Let me try to collect some of my mistakes that I will try
to avoid in any game, and especially in balance of power-like games:

0. Before the game even started, I figured that to be strong without high score,
I need to concentrate on science and military, not on land. Then I ended up
greedy and grabbed the biggest land possible. It was partially motivated to
get strategic resources.

1. I went for the code of laws-philosophy-republic gambit, but I chickened out
and got philosophy just to get code of laws. Later I realized I have too many wars
in my hands, and stayed in monarchy for the whole game...

2. I thought I could remain in peace for most of the time, but then got myself
into the midst of a permanent world war. Rather than operate with quick, effective
strikes against agressors, and then make peace, I got stuck in permanent and rigid
alliance-structures.

3. My diplomatic doctrine of permanent and rigid alliance-structures was not a bad
idea after all. But I should have realized that 5 weak civs still corrode 2 strong
ones eventually, so I should have been much less effective in hurting my chosen
blood enemies.

4. Having failed with keeping my blood enemies sufficiently strong, I shifted
alliances not realizing that my long-time blood enemies will never vote for me.

5. Even after all the blunders, if I just sacrifized one of my blood enemies
(I could have just killed the Dutch in the last 5 turns for example), I would
have had 4 votes out of 7 in the UN, and my balance ratio would still have
remained well above 50%. What I did was the worst possible, so I lost the
diplomatic bonus AND suffered the retirement penalty.

Such is life, I gained much experience, if not many points. Thanx for Griselda
and Charis to support my idea for this game, and for all of you who participated.

Bihary

[Sir Bugsy]

I was unable to complete the Epic this month. With graduations, Father's Day(I thought that was for us?), and many required social events I almost got to the IA. I did get 15.77 points for the AA, but minus off 20 points for not completing and that puts me at -4.23.

The game was a great concept. I may have to borrow it for a SG later on (all credit given).

[bihary]

Fantastic play, as always! I wondered if anyone would get more than 100 points, you did. I do not know if it is your way of writing the report, or you are THIS experienced, but I have the impression you always know what you are doing, and you are always in complete control. Look at my report, all my blunders and misunderstanding... But really, how can you still enjoy playing civ?

Congratulations again,
Bihary

[bihary]

Very nice game indeed!
In a sense, it went sort of similar as mine. (Escalation of conflict, alliances, wars.) But you stayed honorable, never really panicked, and eventually reached quite a peaceful stage. I have the impression you tried hard to control the AI civs' development by peaceful means as long as you could, which I appreciated very much, as my original concept was exactly like that when I conceived the scenario.

Well done, with an excellent score!

Bihary

[bihary]

I am sorry you could not finish. As you can see, I also had to give up after an unsuccessful UN session.

"I almost got to the IA. I did get 15.77 points for the AA, but minus off 20 points for not completing and that puts me at -4.23. "
Not important, but: It seems you did start the Middle Ages. Wherever you stopped, you can still count score based on your EOG score. You can get score for each age you have STARTED.

"The game was a great concept. I may have to borrow it for a SG later on (all credit given). "
Please do, I am happy you liked it.

Bihary

[playshogi]

Won by diplomacy in 1776 AD +20 pts.
AA = 15.2
MA = 12.65
In = 11.99
Mod = 2.04
Honorable = 0 pts.

Total = 61.88 pts.

For AA and MA, I multiplied the ratio by 20 and the other 2 by 30, right?
I didn't see how I could influence the other civs so I played a peaceful game, then just before I built the UN, the Dutch attacked, and the Russians were eliminated. Nothing to do about it, so the vote was 3-1-1 with the Dutch abstaining. To end the game, I had to destroy the Dutch and delare war on the French to blockade Spain and Turkey who had unwisely opted to declare war on France. Also, in my game, the Prussians captured Istanbul in the very early game. Interestingly, the Russians were 1st after the AA and the Prussians were 1st after the Middle Ages, and both were eliminated before the end of the game.