Warnings: This is loooong and picture free. Read at your own risk. I tried to make it interesting, though. This is an incomplete game. I got to 1866 AD as of Monday night and am still playing.

Epic 1, Part the Zeroth: Pregame Strategery
I’ve only ever played on Noble level, and not much of that. So I didn’t go into this game expecting to win easily, if at all. I can’t say I had much of a strategy, either, beyond “take advantage of the industrious trait by building a lot of awesome Wonders”, and even that didn’t really happen. I suppose “don’t get wiped out for lack of military” was a strategy. Heck, it's worked so far.

I liked the look of the start. I can’t remember where I sent my warrior on turn 0 (due north?) but he didn’t see the wheat. So I settled in place, reasonably happy with the site, but wishing I had a river.

I’ve also rarely played on epic speed. The last time I did, I decided to go worker-first, and nearly made an early exit when Gandhi popped a nearby hut for barbs. Given that, 23 turns seemed just too long to me, so I decided to go with a warrior first and build a worker at size 2. I also decided that I didn’t need Stonehenge, being cultural. And I decided I would try for one of the later religions (note from the perspective of 1866 AD: Hah!). So I started with hunting for the ability to build scouts.

Epic 1, Part the First: The OCC Era
In 3640 BC, a few turns after popping a hut for 31g, I was overjoyed to meet both Genghis and Montezuma. Overjoyed, I say! No, really. Hunting also came in, and I had to decide what was next. Animal husbandry or archery, archery or animal husbandry? With such neighbors, I decided on archery.

In 3160 BC, I finished a scout and at long last started on a worker, thus delaying much longer than is normal for me. I’m still not sure whether it hurt me. The scout quickly popped another from the hut to the west, and the two of them mapped out most of the peninsula between them. The hut to the south of Paris gave XP to one, and I promoted it to Woodsman II.

In 2760 BC, I had a nice bit of luck. A panther had attacked my woodsman II scout, leaving him injured. There was a lion in sight, so I retreated north onto a jungle-covered hill for defense, only to find that
a) there was another hut one tile north
b) Monty would get it next turn
c) Woodsman II also gives two moves on hills!, if they happen to be covered by jungle.
So I popped the hut and got a warrior. The warrior headed back to Paris to double up the garrison, saving me the building of one later.

After AH, I went for mining, as Paris was clearly set to be a production powerhouse. Cash, on the other hand, not so much. Anyway, 2400 BC was the start of a nasty little trend, as every single unit I sent to explore out beyond the Aztecs and Mongols died to animal attacks. The death toll amounted to both my scouts and a warrior. So the rest of my contacts were from AIs finding me: Washington in 2440 BC and Alex in 2120 BC. Gandhi I apparently didn’t write down, but he was the last contact by a fair margin.

At about this point, the tech plan (such as it was) went totally to pot. I need a guidebook to the tech tree, seriously. Failing that, enough free time to play about 20 games of CIV between now and Christmas would work. Anyway, the next several techs were fishing, pottery and bronze-working. Meanwhile, Paris built a barracks and an archer, then finally started a settler at size 4.

In 1300 BC, Paris completed its first settler. Orleans was founded a couple of turns later south of the wheat. I had wanted to build it a couple of tiles east, grabbing the rice and copper as well, but Genghis beat me to the spot by a handful of turns with Beshbalik. Therefore, no metals for Renata.

Epic 1, Part the Second: Not-So-Rapid Expansion. Also: Metal, What Metal?
I did not revolt to slavery immediately upon learning bronze-working, and made relatively little use of it once I did. Even more than the unhappiness, the loss of population seems a rather harsh penalty in a game where cities and population points are so very hard to come by. Has anyone put it to extensive use in core cities?

About 840 BC, I agreed to Open Borders with both Genghis and Monty. I was still two turns from writing myself – first sign of my research woes. At 800 BC, I finally started work on Masonry (after that, sailing) – far too late to help any early wonders along. I never went for the Oracle, believing that without marble, it would take too long to build.

By this time, I had realized that I wouldn’t have an ocean resources in my borders for a very long time. I went ahead and built a work boat out of Orleans as its first or second build, anyway, and sent it out to explore. My land exploration had failed miserably, and I was really wanting some trade routes. By the time sailing came in, the work boat was well on its way to opening up trade routes with Gandhi, Alex, and George. So that much worked all right.

In 380 BC, I finally settled my third city, Lyons, in the eastern jungle, pulling in (eventually) the dyes and bananas. I was alarmed to see it was so unhealthy it was negative food. Whoops. Well, iron-working next, certainly. In retrospect, there may have been better places to put the city. Lyons did close up my borders, but I had already opened them to everybody and his cousin so that was hardly important. It did give me a more defensible border than if I had conceded the spot to Genghis, though. Also, this was the point at which I realized I was without metals. And I couldn’t count on iron popping up anywhere useful, either. I built barracks and more archers, and set my eyes on the horses to the west of Paris.

Actually getting them was a bit of an adventure, though. My work boat traversing the south coast, besides locating a couple of barb cities, also alerted me that Genghis was sending a settler pair along in a galley. My horses! I wound up having to whip Paris for a population point to ensure I got there on time. And with my three cities capped at a total population of 13 for the foreseeable future, that hurt, let me tell you. But I got the site (Rheims), and Genghis’s settler wound up in the islands.

Open borders with Genghis probably bought me some time, but in 60 BC it ran out. He declared war, killed a warrior I had on barb lookout, and marched on Orleans. All I had for defense were a couple of guys with clubs and several more with bone-tipped arrows. Horses were still ten turns away; iron probably even further. So all I could really do was turtle up and get pillaged until I had enough archers to be able to sacrifice a couple on offense. Peace was finally made in 140 AD, with much less damage than I had feared but much more than I wanted. I had horses and iron shortly after, though, and committed myself to building a real military.

Epic 1, Part the Third: The View from Last Place. Also: The Fine Art of Poaching
Gandhi had built the pyramids at some point, and was charging out ahead in score with Washington following. The nasty boys clogged up the middle. And who was last? Why, that would be me. The Oracle was built somewhere, and yet another religion fell as someone got Philosophy. I started research on alphabet to try to catch up. In 460 AD, I founded another city, Tours, NW of Paris on the coast.

Meanwhile, I had had an archer sitting on a hill between the two barb cities for hundreds of years. The workboat had alerted me to a worker on the southern horses, and the last thing I wanted to deal with was barbarians on four legs. So I sent an archer down to keep the worker pinned – he stayed there even throughout the kerfuffle with Genghis. Now, I noticed Monty marching a stack of jaguars and axemen in that direction. I decided I would try to poach the towns out from under his nose and dispatched a chariot to join the archer.

The strategy paid off in 470 AD. Monty’s attack left resource-rich Gepid (horses, sugar, rice and three!!! dyes) with just one wounded archer. I attacked with my chariot and collected 70g and a worker. Wheee! Gepid would eventually turn out to be my best town for commerce, by far. I was unsuccessful at a repeat with Hsung-Nu, and Monty captured that one.

In 490 AD, I got alphabet, and it was still a monopoly. (Is it just me, or is this a *very* easy tech to get to first?) I started a slooooow crawl up out of last place in both score and tech. Tech-trading ain’t what it used to be, that’s for sure, but it did help. I picked up mysticism and math, then started on Calendar before deciding I might be better off getting some cheap religious techs first so I could get better trade value out of alphabet with one of the more expensive ones. Except for the religious tree, few civs had any techs available that alphabet could pay for. I didn’t get calendar until 900 AD.

In 570 AD, the first religion spread to my lands (Confucianism). I didn’t convert, wanting to preserve my decent relations with the two non-aggressive civs, who were Buddhist and Hindu. (Taoism and Judaism followed later, but never either of the two I really wanted.) But I did make use of the religions to finally start growing my cities.

Around 600 AD, both of my neighbors cancelled open borders. There were no immediate war declarations, though. I made use of the respite to autoraze yet another barb city on the southeast coast, then parked units down there until I could send a settler. The town I eventually founded would be called Chartes.

In 840 AD, I actually completed a wonder in Paris: Hanging Gardens. So much for strategery, but yay for great engineer points! The population boost was very welcome, too, and thanks to some silver that had popped up in my territory, an ivory deal with Gandhi, and my new religions, I had enough happy to make full use of it.

Almost 1000 years of relative peace on earth finally cracked in 950 AD: Alex declared on Gandhi. Genghis joined in a while later, and the two of them relieved the old guy of three of his cities before they stopped for a breather. Gandhi lost his lead for good and was the designated AI punching bag until he finally exited the game.

1035 AD: Currency researched, and I could finally start relieving the relatively backwards civs of some of their cash from time to time. I say “relatively backwards” because as Toynbee constantly saw fit to remind me, I was still dead last in that area. I had crawled out of last place in the standings, though: I got to look down my nose at Alex.

Epic 1, Part the Fourth: Genghis, Alexander and Montezuma are Whackjobs
My own reprieve from war ended shortly after 1160 AD, when Genghis asked me to join in the beatdown on Gandhi, and I refused. (Heck, at that point, Gandhi was the only halfway sane leader who liked me. Alex did, too, but he’s crazy.) He demanded something else a few turns later and I told him to bring it on, figuring with all his war elephants wandering around India, I’d be safe enough.



Anyway, so I was correct enough about Genghis. He did come with a few war elephants, but my spears made short work of them. I captured Beshbalik in 1195 AD, revenged some pillaging by Lyons, and sent a handful of units east to try to clear some tiles by the Mongol capital. The next turn I got my first great engineer in Paris. I had nothing useful to do with it (still hadn’t researched Metal Casting, and that was just too cheap; no wonders available), but still, I was feeling good.

Then Alex decided to join the party. In 1230 AD, he marched a stack up to Beshbalik, slaughtered its 3-unit garrison, and razed it. My city! Granted, I’d only owned it for a few turns, but I’d coveted it for long enough that it felt like one of my own. The stack moved on towards Orleans. Time to make peace with Genghis, eh?

The first Greek stack was dispatched with little difficulty. The second -- two more units at Orleans and a three-unit landing by Chartes -- was nastier. The RNG was not kind, and I took three losses including one of those frustrating “stab-counterattack-stab-die” jobbers where the attacking unit is left at nearly full strength. More pillaging, but I finally got the Greeks evicted.

Then in 1280, Monty decided he needed to pile on, too. There was killing going on, and he wasn’t part of it. Felt left out, I suppose, poor thing. There were a bunch more skirmishes and a few scary moments before Alex would finally accept peace without my having to give up Orleans. I was tempted to go after Hsung-Nu (the Aztec town marooned in my territory) after that, but I didn’t really have the resources. So I took peace with Monty for a 30g payment shortly thereafter. I sent in the workers to repair the extensive pillaging around Lyons and Chartes. (That poor banana plantation got nailed every time. I suppose I could have tried to defend it, but meh. Not worth the effort.)

In 1350 AD I founded Avignon as a buffer three tiles east of Orleans. It took quite a while to get control over the tiles around it.

Epic 1, Part the Fifth: The Power of Religion. Also, an Account of Some Wonders
I had delayed converting to any religion for a very long time. Only two civs were pleased with me (Washington and Gandhi), and neither’s official religion was present in my territory. I had spread Confucianism around, though, as it was the most widespread religion in the world, and by the 1300s I was thinking I really should convert sometime soon. I had a ton of infrastructure to build, and I really wanted Organized Religion. I bit the bullet in 1395 AD, and revolted to serfdom and organized religion in 1415.

The results were better than I could have guessed. The hit with Washington and Gandhi was not critical to trade … and all of a sudden Genghis liked me! What the heck? Oh, he’s a Confucian headcase. Nice luck, that (he was still pagan when I started spreading Confucianism) -– I now had three trading partners. He hit me up for 70g in 1420, but I think that was just a little ribbing among friends, if you know what I mean.

So I had another lengthy respite from war, this time with a decidedly less dangerous eastern border. I used the time to get some infrastructure finished, and my research ability slowly crept upward, though I was still hideously behind. I also got some assorted Wonders and such built, mostly of the National variety. Orleans got the National Epic (this was actually somewhat earlier). Paris used a great engineer to rush the Hagia Sofia, and built whichever national wonder it is that gives a discount on military units. (Very nice to have indeed in production-powerhouse Paris.) High-commerce Gepid got an Academy from an Orleans-produced great artist. The Hermitage went to Rheims and the Forbidden Palace to Lyons.

Meanwhile, wars continued elsewhere. Monty got into it with Washington, and everyone continued to take potshots at Gandhi. I stayed out of everything, although by the 1600s I sort of wished someone would declare (or ask me for help) so I could actually use some of the military I had sitting around bleeding money. In 1610 AD, iron popped on a hill by Chartes – which already had iron. That turned one of my smallest cities into one of my most productive. I also took the opportunity to plop down two filler cities south of Paris. Aztec Hsung-Nu was getting squeezed.

In 1692 AD, Monty decided he couldn’t take the pressure anymore.

Epic 1, Part the Fifth: In Which I Take it to Monty a Bit. Also: The Beginnings of a Plan
I didn’t actually write down much of this war, because it was late Sunday night and I was having enough trouble just keeping track of which units were whose. But I had some fun. Hsung-Nu was a sitting duck, and I had already had a stack of elephants and cats sitting right next to it. (And when I say right next to it, I mean right next to it, thanks to culture from Gepid and Marseilles.)

Another stack of units went after Tlaxcala and captured that, too. I’d have liked to stay at war longer, but war weariness was creeping in, and I just couldn’t afford any loss of commerce. So I made peace and went to bed.

By late Sunday night, I was very doubtful of my ability to actually win the game. I had recovered nicely from the bottom of the rankings, and was hanging out about 400 points behind Washington, in second place. I’d been more than holding my own militarily against three of the biggest crazies in the game. But tech? Tech continued to be bad, bad, bad. I could still only run 70% research. Even with two fairly reliable tech-trading partners now (Gandhi and Genghis), I never got more than one additional tech for each one I researched myself, and sometimes got none at all. Washington was miles ahead. I never even got to start researching something he didn’t already have. And I wanted to win by space race? Urk. I had no idea if that was going to be possible. My vague backup plan after confucianism had been to try to ride Genghis’s coattails to a domination victory, but that was so chancy. And darn near impossible to pursue both goals at once unless the opponent Genghis decided to harass was Washington. And those two hadn’t been at war for eons.

So on Monday, I started thinking about how to best proceed. I figured that if I was going to have any chance at the space race, I desperately needed more beakers. With relatively few turns left, that translated to farming over each and every cottage on the map (not enough turns left to turn into money-bags, anyway) and forcing the cities to grow. Once they got large enough, it’d be scientists all-around. I’d also want to get to the high-commerce civics as a priority.

But that raised another thought. With free religion, Washington should go “friendly” on me. And with his tech lead, I could expect him to be making mincemeat of the aggressive civs sooner or later, so he’d only be getting more and more votes. Could UN be an option? I checked out the tech tree and found that it was only a handful of techs away. I had a 2/3 chance of another engineer in Paris by then, to boot. So I had my goal: civics techs and mass media, pronto.

Epic 1, Part the Sixth: The Road to the UN, the End of Gandhi, and the End of This Report
In 1736 AD, I traded with Gandhi for most of the cost of education, and started in on a round of university building. Shortly after, Paris popped its next great person, and it was indeed an engineer. I built a nice little hut for him on the shores of Lake Paris. In 1760, an odd little ethical dilemma presented itself – Genghis wanted my help against Gandhi. Gandhi had been pleased with me longer than anyone else, but checking the stats right now, my reputation was actually higher with Genghis! All due to religion, of course. At any rate, I joined in the war, but never actually sent any units, and Genghis signed peace a few turns later. (It took me much longer to get out of it, as I’d done no damage.)

It was the beginning of the end of Gandhi, though. Alexander was at war even before Genghis joined in, and each had taken a town. Washington took a third before getting distracted by a war with Monty. (Monty actually asked for my help with that one – hah! No ethics debates necessary there.) Alexander kept plugging away at the last couple Indian holdouts, and Gandhi finally exited the scene in 1802 AD.

Meanwhile, I had started Oxford University in Gepid, which was already up to 94 beakers per turn. OU made it over 200 by the time it was completed. I got a great scientist from somewhere or other, and used it on Physics. I was researching generally one tech from the mass media beeline, then one useful tech from elsewhere, then back again, all throughout the 1800s. Genghis continued to be a useful trading partner (though the trades were all in his favor), and I got some cash infusions from Alex from time to time for older techs. I had been shocked to find shortly before Gandhi’s demise that I was still only second from the bottom in the tech race, but that finally changed during this period, and rapidly -- everyone but Monty at the bottom and Washington at the top was pretty tightly bunched.

In 1824 AD, Washington decided he wanted my help in his war against Monty. As it was navy seals versus musketeers, I wasn't quite sure why, but still ... Happy to help, sir! Again, though, my progress was limited. I took Teotihuacan (allowing me to build another city on the peninsula to the west), but couldn’t mobilize enough units to get much further. We both made peace around 1850.

The early 1800s were also the time of the great civics switch. Two anarchies, a total of four civics changed. Universal Suffrage, Free Religion, Emancipation, Free Speech. IIRC, one of these changes coincided with the completion of OU in Gepid, and whoo! Two turns off my current research. That was nice. My relationship with Washington went to friendly, and even Alex went up to cautious, but Genghis’s opinion of me went back in the toilet. C’est la vie, no?

Mass media was researched about 1860, and lo and behold, that was the very first tech I had up on Washington since Alphabet, way back when. My great engineer got kicked out of his lakeside retreat and was made to design the UN. It would take 6 additional turns to complete. Meanwhile, Washington was running around with tanks. I headed off to catch up on military techs, starting with Steel.

Then Genghis attacked. Aaarrghh, not now! There was a huge stack at Avignon, another one almost as bad at Chartes, and one random cavalry at Lyons that took out the banana plantation (again). It took all my gold to buy in Washington as a distraction, and I had nothing left for upgrades or rushes. Happily, Avignon was well-defended. Chartes, however, was not. It had a decent number of units, but those included some obsolete ones. Eep. I arranged my forces as best I could, but it was going to be down to the RNG.

Chartes survived with a half-strength knight. Everything else died. Avignon took only one loss. I thought Chartes was doomed then, until I noticed how wounded all the Mongol units were. Reinforcements from inland managed to take out that invasion (and a second stack at Avignon) by 1865 AD, though the war continued.

In 1866, the UN was built in Paris. (Yes, I’d kept building it all through the war – no guts no glory!) And that’s when I called it a night, and that’s the end of this report. If you actually made it to the end, thank you for reading.

I’m definitely going to finish this game – it’s far too much fun to abandon – and I’ll update with news of victory or defeat once I do.

http://www.regoarrarr.com/civ/replay.php?story=3

Short story - I conceded defeat in 220 BC after dropping down to 1 city. Learned a thing or two though

Not sure where I'm supposed to submit my save though (if I still have it)

Well, it isn't really much of a report, but I would rather be put in the "Incomplete Games" then nothing at all. I have been very busy since the Epic first came out, so I never had time to finish.... I've only barely started . I will continue to play my game and report it in the near future, as well as refrain from reading other reports for the time being. I'll be sure to get the next Epic done on time ^__^~

Since I'm new to this place, I'd first of all like to say hi, and thanks for taking the effort to make people like me feel welcome, even though I haven't posted before now. Something about the attitude and the atmosphere...

It's almost a cliché to mention it at this point (I've read the announcement thread) but I came here through the Cuban Isolationists... like so many others. Great marketing there, S&S. I'm still hitting refresh on that thread every day to check out the new posts.

Anyway, on to my report. I've been a casual player since Civ1, so don't expect much. I'm just hoping to entertain in some fashion.

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Epic One: The Honorable French

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From the primordial ooze rise the glorious people of France. Feeling defiant, they refuse to accept the trite “standard” names for their cities, and enact a naming convention filled with the pride of a state standing at the dawn of time. Grand Justice (that’s with a French pronunciation!) is founded.

Discovering the futuristic “stone” resource outside of their capital, the people of France decide to learn how to harness it, envisioning great pyramids being built in their new home. Indeed, the people of France have visions of grandeur.

After spending 40 years going the wrong way due to their fickle god (imagine if Moses spent those years in the desert due to mouse-related mistake made by God!), the French warriors wander west and discover barbarians living in harmony with the land. Wanting none of that, the intrepid French burn the village to the ground and liberate 40 gold. (Other stories say they were simply given the gold by the barbarians, who then decided to go see what the fuss was about in Grand Justice… but I digress.)



Our warriors choose a northern path, curious to see what the horizon holds.

On their journey, the warriors encounter black-furred beasts who strike in the darkness of the jungle. After a harrowing battle, the men arrive at a place where pigs frolic in fields of rice. The French people rejoice, and resolve to one day master the secrets of Animal Husbandry and Agriculture in order to enrich their lives and bestow glory upon their god.



To the south, the French warriors are instructed in the ways of war by cunning barbarians. In this land, the proud fighters see a future for their people: A glorious homecoming that would one day lead to a bittersweet end… Admittedly, it is a place of many riches! The people of France decide to send settlers to this spot before long.



Having discovered the secret of Masonry, the warriors of France travel east and find a hill overlooking a river delta. Climbing the hill, they come into contact with the mysterious Indians, led by the equally enigmatic Gandhi! Though suspicious of each other, the warriors of these two people share a night of celebration, and party like it’s 2920 BC.



Having spotted something strange that glimmers to the north, the French warriors pursue the mirage of glory and stumble upon a settlement of a strangely green people—the Aztecs! The people of France extend their noble hand in friendship to Montezuma, leader of the people from across the rivers.



Hearing tales of wondrous lands filled with treasure from the people of Tenochtitlan, the French warriors travel north towards the icy cold. Crossing an isthmus, they step into unknown lands with fear and wonderment in their hearts.



Back in the known lands, the discovery of bananas is taken as a sign, and lo, the people of Mongolia did descend from the hills to meet with the gracious envoys of France. Though friendly, the Mongolians are inhospitable, and insist that the French warriors do not cross through their lands. What secrets do these people hide…?



The amazing discovery of Masonry inspires the people of France and revives the ancient dreams once dreamt by its people. Workers are trained in order to bring stone to the city, and great plans for the Pyramids are drafted. God-King RBCiv-Epic1 commands his people to raise a monument suitable to his deific majesty.



After a harrowing journey across uncharted lands, exploring the legends of the Aztecs, the expedition of French warriors and treasure hunters aims to carry their bags of riches back to the mainland, and their beloved home in Grand Justice. On the other side of the isthmus, they find a barbarian village. The warriors, eager to find rest, and relate their stories to other humans, enter with great friendship. Weep; grieve; for the barbarians did betray the weary wanderers. With clubs of wood and spears of bone, they broke both the flesh and hearts of these noble souls, stamping on the dreams of the French people.

It was a dark time. The legend, however, shall never die in the hearts of all who live in France.



St. Augustine, wise to numbers and the collection of glimmering artifacts, accounts for the wealth of the peoples in the world. Though supposedly a saint, he fails to account for the love within the bosom of the French people, and thus finds us sorely lacking.



The people of Grand Justice wave goodbye to a convoy of settlers in 1100 BC. They travel east, in order to settle where they have found rice and a strange metal known as “copper.” However, they soon find their path blocked by the borders of Mongolia—the Mongolian people have supplanted the fields of their dreams! Dejected, but filled with hope, the people turn back and journey towards the destined location south of Grand Justice, where their martial forefathers saw the future of their people.



Having rebuilt their hopes and dreams, the settlers keep moving… only to find that the spot they so craved has been taken by barbarians. It seems that the friendly people that taught their warrior tradition to the French people have turned to thoughts of conquest under the harsh rule of an ambitious new king. The settlers, and their escorts, find that they are not welcome, and barely escape with their lives. Enmity brews, as the barbarian king of Khazak declares war on the people of France.

Due to starting a week late, work keeping me from getting on 4 days last week, and my son having to type his senior paper (he passed business school! YES! ), I couldn't finish my game. I will post the details tomorrow or the next day, for now the abbreviated report is that I ran out of time in the mid-1700's; after trailing in 4th or 5th place for most of the game, I'd pulled ahead into a (distant) second behind Washington in the last 100 years or so . Not too shabby for not having played since the Civ2 days , I had a roaring good time fighting off Monte and Genghis, and learned a heck of a lot...

/gnarlo

Hi.

I am a new Civ player and this event was very fun for me. (Although it was a bit too time-consuming.)

I've just finished the game and the report is still in progress. (As the game progressed, I dropped the RP style and later even dropped the details, so while I have all my notes, I have a lot of editing to do.)

Part 1 of the report is here: http://www.geocities.com/zeviz2/RBEpic1/part1.html

I will update this thread when the rest of the report is done.

There is one thing that technically might have shadowed my game, although I've stayed to spirit of the rules: One time I forgot to hit save when closing the game and my latest save was from 2 turns before. I've exactly recreated all my actions in intervening turns (there was no fighting, just a couple builds starting), but technically it was an older save. I didn't even act on the information that I was beaten to Liberalism, recreating all research choices and builds as they were.

Aside from that one problem, I've never reloaded even when losing a highly experienced unit to a game UI oddity (go order into unexplored terrain was interpreted as an attack).

The outcome of the game was:
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The outcome of the game was Spaceship victory in 1855, which is earlier than I've launched the other time I've won a space race, so I've done pretty well, especially considering the bad start.

In 1908 the glorious cities of Paris, Orleans and Rheims achieve legendary culture, and the American and Greek civilzations concede victory to the Honorable French.

Here's the final world map and score graph from the replay:



Final Score: 24096
Game Score: 6706

Lessons learned: You can too neglect your military! Check out the power graph:




Power? Bah, who needs it? When you've got....

Culture!



How did I do it? Wonders of course! At the beginning of the game I took one solid look at Louis's Industrious trait and decided I would just go on a wonder-building rampage and then see where we ended up.

Well here's where Paris ended up:



Can you count 'em all?

Anyway, I apologize, I've never done this Epic-playing, report-writing thing before and I don't really know what people want to know... so... here's how it went down, roughly.

As soon as I ran into Genghis and Monty I knew that war was inevitable. Those two are haters. Still, I neglected my military, as usual, and concentrated on wonders, building the Pyramids in 960 BC and Stonehenge in 800 BC. In 300AD, I refused some unreasonable demand from Genghis, and he declared war, of course. Soon, Genghis swept through the south coast of the peninsula, burning down two cities of mine that I had captured from barbarians earlier. Jerk.


However, I was building up Chariots, Archers, and Spearmen, and managed to turn the war around, capturing Old Sarai, Beshbalik, and Ning-hsia before negotiating peace in 590. During this period, all of the civs were at war, Monty with Washington, and Ghandi with Alex, creating rivalries that would define the entire game.

All was well for a while. I was cheerfully building wonders and ignoring my military, when in 1020AD Monty declared war! Shocking, I know. Well, we fought border skirmishes with horsemen, swordsmen, and axemen, that I was cranking out using Just-in-Time manufacturing techniques, until in 1085 Genghis joined Monty against me! Well, for someone dedicated to ignoring their military this was just too much. I captured Teotihuacan, negotiated peace with Monty, and turned to focus my efforts on Genghis. In 1220 I had taken all of his cities on the continent, so I negotiated peace and left him with two on the northern islands. Here's the map:



For a while followed another period of wonder-building and military-ignoring. In 1550, Alex asked for my help in exterminating the quarrelsome GenghisI didn't have any military to speak of, but what the heck, I whipped some up quick and sailed them to the islands to mop up the last of the Mongols. As this was winding down, Washington asked for help in his war with Monty, so I said sure, two simultaneous wars ain't no problem for someone who ignores their military, and we carved up Monty's territory between us, vanquishing him in 1658.

At this point I began to weigh my victory options.



I was way ahead, and only needed to choose the method of my win. I dreamed of Conquest, with 2 out of 5 already defeated, or at least Domination, but to get either of those I would need wars with 2 out of the 3 of Ghandi, Washington, and Alex. Not likely, while remaining honorable. I had won space race before, but never cultural, so I decided to focus on that. This basically involved spreading as many religions as I could and building many temples so I could build all of the cathedral type buildings at +50% culture in my three target cities, as well as all the wonders I could eat.

Along the way I signed a defense pact with Ghandi, thinking that there might be strife between him and Washington, or at least Alex, so I could get my war on one last time, but of course, I was totally ignoring my military.

Then in 1840 Ghandi declared war on Alex, tearing up our defense pact in the process. Oh well. But then... in 1848, Alex pleads with me to intervene and save him from Ghandi's wrath. This was interesting. Ghandi's power was 3 times mine. He had mech infantry. I had mostly a bunch of archers. On the other hand, I was bored with sitting around waiting for culture to grow, and had a bunch of cities with nothing else to do. Besides, anyone who attacks poor helpless Greece deserves to be crushed!

So I joined in the war, building units as fast as I can, and aside from a lot of pillaging over my border, barely suffered for it. I eliminated Ghandi in 1889, and thought domination was mine... except, I couldn't quite get to 66%, at victory I had a measly 62.5%. Especially no thanks to these two cities, who just wouldn't flip.



Tenochtitlan is 23% American and Chicago 25% here. What does it take to flip a city, anyway? Sheesh. I felt bad because Chicago was once large and prosperous, but obviously chose American culture, Big Macs and starvation, rather than the plentiful baguettes, cheese and wine over in Frenchland.

Oh well, at least I still had the culture machines running.

Thanks for the awesome game.

Edit: fixed innacuracies relating to exactly when I vanquished Genghis

The good news: I played an honorable game. I finished the game. I have the savefile. It was my first Prince game and I can say I didn't suck.

The bad news: My report is going to be bad. Since this was my first report (ever), I naively assumed that I could capture the autolog somehow and make a report from there. So, I have very few notes; and since I've played the CivFanatics GOTM since then, I've forgotten much of this game. I captured a few screenshots, but made the mistake of using the Shift-PrintScreen for the first few, which leaves the dialog box open.

Lesson learned: Next time I will have an awesome report. Reading the examples of those already posted has given me many good ideas.

By the way, I enjoy any criticism, as long as it's well-worded. I know I made a lot of mistakes, but I like to learn from them. Civ4 has already changed my playing style a lot from Civ3 (and Civ2 and Civ), and I plan on continuing to change.

Without further adieu...

The Game Starts
I chose to settle in the starting position. I liked the idea of the close resources and the lake tiles. Religion should be an easy grab, right? Well, the Holy Hydra was not to be. I grabbed Buddhism, that's it. My main focus at this point was to scout out the territory and find the best place for my second city. I think this is often one of the most critical (and debatable) decisions. My scouting was helped greatly by my doubly-upgraded super-scout.



You can see at this point that I've discovered Monty's lands and scouted out my side of the continent. At this point, I've decided to make my second city near the narrow neck so that I can cut off expansion to my side. I've also made it a priority to build Stonehenge as I enjoy the free early Obelisks. And with the Stone, it's an easy one to build.

But, here's the biggest risk I've taken (in this game as well as any other). In my rush to explore and build infrastructure, I've left Paris completely undefended. And, once Stonehenge is built, I decide to build a barracks before an archer.



I'm interested to see what others think about this. Is it as risky as I make it out to be? Was I bonkers? Yes, I was getting various barbarian excursions, but my scouting warriors were knocking them out before they got to Paris. Anyway, eventually, I got the barracks built and an archer to defend my capital.



Here's a very typical shot for me. I always seem to focus on infrastructure and the various wonder which gives my a great cultural lead. On the plus side, culture is good. On the negative, I do this more often than I should and often neglect my military side. Civ4 punishes me for that too often.



The Middle Game

It is about this time that I discover the source of the barbarian excursions. There are TWO barbarian cities in the south of my side of the continent. I have not seen this before and I noticed that many others have reported the same thing. Is this hard-coded in a map at the start?



I originally view this as a great blessing as I will be able to get some free cities without spending shields on settler points. In hindsight, however, I handled this very poorly. While I scheme how to take the cities, I do FINALLY build my second city placed so that I can cover the neck (seen in this shot from 1 AD).



Here's also a shot of where I stand in 1 AD. I am sorely lagging in most categories, even the ones covered up by the silly dialog box. :mad:



My goal for the next bit is to expand quickly. I need to take out the barbarians and fill up the rest of my side. Unfortunately, this was easily the worst part of my game. Also unfortunately, it was about this time that I became so engrossed in the military campaign that I forgot to take screenshots.

Here are the mistakes I made during the barbarian military campaign. Over and over, I refused to bring enough troops. I would knock down all the defenders but one and then have to start over. I was smart enough to bring City Raider swordsmen, but would then waste them attacking barbarian pillagers, sometimes losing, but always having to waste time to heal. The military side of my skills has always been neglected, but Civ4 is refusing to let me neglect them any longer. I am slowly learning to become a warmonger. Unfortunately, too many lessons were learned to late in this game.

During this campaign, a most peculiar thing happened. I had sent a big stack of swordsmen south to the barbarian cities when suddenly a barbarian pillager appeared to the west of Paris and advanced directly over my only source of Iron and right next to Paris. I only had one defender in Paris as I was focusing my military down south. I had a choice to make - stand fast and lose the iron or send the defender in a risky mission to take out the pillager. I debated this for a while and went with the more risky "No Pain, No Gain". I could not lose that Iron. I had a slight combat edge (I forget the combatants). Everything would work out, right?

WRONG! The Fighting Pansies lost horribly to the barbarian and suddenly I was faced with losing my iron AND my capital. At this point, I figured my game was over and I was trying to figure out to lose quickly so that I could fade into oblivion. Here's the surprise. I had an open borders with the Mongols. On the turn that I lost my defender in Paris, he moved in THREE UNITS to Paris. Because we were not at war, I kept my city and the barbarian died the next turn. I quickly built multiple defenders and the Mongols moved out. Why did he do this? Pure chance? Looking out for me? I have no idea, but it saved my whole game. As the saying goes, "Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good."

The best part about having open borders with the Mongols was what I just described. It also strengthened our relationship so that I was able to maintain peace for a while. However, in the long run, this really hurt me. Not only did he establish a few cities on my little side, he also took one of the barbarian cities (after I knocked it down to nothing). At the end of the expansion phase, instead of having my little empire with one border to the east, I had 3-4 Mongolian cities dotting my side. I took one through culture, but the rest haunted me to the end.

In hindsight, this phase was the worst for me and it's where I lost the game. I started out near the top in tech and ended at the bottom. My military ineptitude and open border policy with the Mongolians was the cause of all of this.

End Game

At this point, I was fighting a losing battle. I badly needed to catch up in tech and I needed to prepare myself better for war. I was doing ok in infrastructure, but with fewer cities than I expected, research was too slow. I also knew it was only a matter of time before I had an AI war.

I founded a few more cities and used some Great Artists to quickly expand some borders, flipping one city and stealing some critical resources. With the closeness of borders, the Mongols quickly became annoyed with me and eventually declared war. I was slightly more prepared this time and was able to ward off the offensive, suffering only pillaging losses. Still learning militarily, I conquered a few of the cities on my little neck of the woods, before finally having to settle for peace. My wars are inefficient and stretch on too long so that I am forced to make peace before I fall behind in other areas.

After this, I kept up my efforts to catch up in tech. I was eventually able to jump up from last place all the way to third based on these efforts. During this time I was stuck in a hate triangle with Monty and the Mongols. Each one would take turns threatining me and then asking for my help against the other. Based on the closeness of borders, I decided to start helping the Mongols and rejecting Monty. Soon, the Mongols and I were back to open borders and Monty had declared war. I either joined the war as he declared on me, or as the Mongols invited me. Can't remember which. I had a small tech lead over both of them, so my units won most of the battles. I was even able to retake a fallen Mongol city and regift it to him. Never done that before, so that was fun.

Although I was constantly at war with Monty, I was never able to make much of it. I took a few cities, but never developed them and they were separated from my others by Mongol territory. I was now solidly in third place, trailing only Gandhi by a little, but Washington by a lot. Being way behind on tech, I knew a spaceship victory was impossible. Cultural was going to be hard as only Paris was close to legendary. Somehow I was going to have to pull out a military victory. In an honorable game. With my weak military skills.

With this goal in mind now, I played closer attention to my wars with Monty. Unfortunately, every time I started to make headway, I would lose a stack of units in a dumb attack. Suddenly, Alexander, who had always been threatening, made good on his threats, declaring war, and shuffling galleys of units over behind my lines. Being poorly protected, I lost one of my main coastal cities to razing. I was able to wipe out the rest of his forces, but this was yet another lesson learned.

Soon after, Washington completed the spaceship. Yes, I lost, but I had fun. My first game on Prince and I ended up 3rd. Some good moves, some gutsy but dumb moves, and some dumb moves.

Obviously, I need to hone up on my military manuevers. I need to pay closer attention to what is going on in each city. I lost out a wonder once by one turn. I should have focused that city on production. I need to keep more defense at home. That hurt me a few times. I need to be more careful about my Open Borders agreements and make I sure get my good settlements earlier. (I didn't have my second city until about 500 BC!)

Great fun and I'll be back for more.

<Almost forgot> 1971 AD, Spaceship loss (to Washington), 3312 points.

In the Beginning

Despot Bruindane surveys the land and decides the Pyramids be his to build. The hilly plains near the silk forest prove a boon to early production and research. The French found Paris with a clear view over a salty sea with cows, wheat, silk, and stone in its domain.

The jungle trek to found Orleans as a second seaside Paris with dairy nearby.



Build orders prior to 1000 BC
Paris (Worker, Barracks, Archer, Archer, Settler, Pyramids, Granary)
Orleans (Barracks)

Research Path prior to 1000 BC
1. Pasture & Defense (Hunting, Animal Husbandry, Archery)
2. Pyramids (Mining, Mysticism, Masonry)
3. Growth (Fishing, Pottery)
4: Offense (Bronze Working)

Tribal Hut Lottery
1. Scout (Got mauled by a bear the next turn!)

Pyramids complete in 1125 BC!

1000 BC - 650 AD Barbarian Wars

700 - 1050 Genghis Khan's Blunder

We reject open border requests and laugh at Genghis Khan’s repeated demands. Humiliated, Genghis declares war in 700 AD while embattled with Gandhi and Montezuma. Within a century the barbarian-blooded French troops knock at the gates of Karakorum. By 1050 France claim the pictured cities and New Sari further to the East.



1055-1420 The Aztec Attack

New Sari is burnt to the ground! Rheims, Turfan, Krakorum impress spearmen (Slavery Civic) to hold on while the Aztecs pillage right to French capital. Genghis accepts our hastily offered peace-- revenge being second to survival. French axmen and spearmen battle Aztec Horsemen and Jaguars, but it is not until the Americans join the war against Montezuma that the French make their advance. Four Aztec cities including Tenochitilan and Teotihuacan are claimed.

Peace is made with Montezuma as his territory is better served as a cultural barrier to America and India. The Mongols hold onto the lands south between France and India.

1440-1900 The Great Religious and Culture Spread
1786 French Emancipation

Prime Minister Bruindane decides to exploit France's wealth of five religions to build legendary cities out of the ruins of Karakorum, Tenochitilan, and Teotihuacan. An emotional decision in part from the shock of being culturally assaulted by the defeated Mongols and Aztecs.


(Interesting to note that I kept my trade route even while surrounded by Montezuma's closed borders.)

The capital is relocated to Tenochitlan while much coin is spent to spread Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Taoism with associated temple building. The results are impressive, and defense pacts are signed in 1879 with America and India (Greece, Mongols, Aztecs being irrelevant) to start securing a cultural win. There would be no more French wars fought beyond the first two.

1900-1967 French Panic and Space Race

Washington starts building spaceship components while India's creation of the Space Elevator occurs before France researches rocketry. Panic ensues as France joins the space race late. India quickly overtakes Washington for the space lead while the might of French industry and thought go to pursue the space option.

France builds the United Nations getting Indian support over America for Sec-General. By the first vote Gandhi’s population surpasses Washington prompting an uneasy France to pass global emancipation and other resolutions. America supports France over India for the Sec-General re-nomination, supporting France fully for a diplomatic victory… 5 votes short… then 10...then 12 votes short. India is gaining population as its Eiffel Tower powerfully expands its borders. French culture came back swinging as the Mongol town of Tiflis joins the French, still 4 votes short. The voting continues until Gandhi requires only the Stasis Chamber for launch- while France struggles to learn Fission.

In 1965 the Aztec ice town of Calixtlahuata decides to defect. This with an engineered French baby boom gives France a 1967 Diplomatic Victory thanks to American support!

Post-Game

Looking in the World Builder I discovered that India was one turn away from Space Victory. I am thrilled that the diplomatic victory rescued me from the “I’m the biggest, so I can now build everything” disease that afflicted me after the Aztec conquest. Also,

I should not have switched focus to the space race, but I did panic. At the end of my diplomatic victory I had the top 5 cities with cultures of 64779, 55224, 52026, 48261, 31172 with a 6th at 30758 and a great artist in hand-- but I did benefit from two city flips!

STATS

1967 Diplomatic Victory
5179 Game Score
11326 Score : Winston Churchill

This will be my first epic. Although I lost interest to write after realizing that I broke one of the rules by razing a city. Anyway I lost this game by space to Washinghton.


Exploration of the World

4000 BC, we are French. The start location looks very good with cow and stone. I settled right on the spot. It takes 19 turns to research animal husbandry, 11 + 24 turns for mysticism and polytheism. I thought for about 15 minutes to select which one to research. In a normal game I would have gone with mysticism and polytheism. But in epic, with high research costs I decided to go with Animal Husbandry. It takes 17 turns for city to grow to size 2, which I think is same as normal game. I moved my warrior on to the hill on the NE side. I am planning to move him in that side. Hopefully nobody takes the goody hut on the west side of Paris (not visible in the screen shot). Behold the glorious Paris:


In 3860BC I met Montezuma of Aztecs. Oh man, so much for my strategy of going low on military, if we don't have the same religion, there would definitely be a war. Hope it doesn’t come to that; But for now there shall be peace in our time.



After some time I am able to locate the birth place Aztec civilization:



In 3430 BC Buddhism is founded by a distant civilization.
I also met Genghis Khan and Washinghton.
I hope we all live in peace and harmony.
In 3200 BC research on Animal Husbandry is complete and research on Mysticism is complete. I am still optimistic about getting polytheism first or else at least monotheism.
I built 5 glorious warriors and popped 4 or 5 goody huts, which gave a total of approximately 250 gold. I also lost a warrior to a barbarian archer, but killed lot of wild animals including 3 Bears. I got 3 warriors promoted to woodsman 1, 2 to woodsman 2. I started building a worker as soon as my city reached size 3.
Mongolian Lands:



Hinduism founded in my lands:



The Second French city Orleans is founded in 1425BC. This city will have 1 coastal tile and a lot jungle to work with. I built it here, so that I can claim all the land to the west of this city.



Also I built the Stonehenge in 620BC. It is completed in 7 turns. Rheims is founded on 260BC. Actually this is my fourth city. Oh the Archer in the was my first Archer. By this time I only have 2 archers and bunch of warriors.



I thought I am doing ok with 4 cities and a religion of my own. But if everything goes according to the plan, why will I play this game. At first small things seem to go wrong. I tried to build Pyramids in Paris, but Indians built it just four turns before Paris completed it. While building pyramids I revolted and changed my state religion to Hinduism. I thought I would revolt my civics after building pyramids, but since Gandhi already built it, I revolted civics for slavery and Organized religion. I got lot of money for losing pyramids (560) and Oracle (160). After seeing so much money what do I do, screw up the nice start. I built 4 settlers, thinking I can take on the maintenance costs, as I got money. But the money quickly ran out and I can not research at all.
In 780AD I captured the barb city Sakae and decided to keep it. I lost an Axeman in capturing the city.