Epic Forty-two: Summer Breeze - Reports

[T-hawk]

You have until the end of this Monday to finish playing, and until the end of Tuesday to post at least a scoring summary of your game. You can complete a full report any time.

I'm afraid that I wasn't able to find time to play a shadow myself, but I'm looking forward to all the lovely postcards. B)

[Kylearan]

Pre-game strategy thoughts: Since scenario score will come from happy citizens, I will want to have lots of them. And since capturing cities from other civilizations would incur an increasing penalty, once again fast expansion will be the key for success. Looking at the scenario parameters, this is an archipelago map with minimal aggression opponents, so minimal military in the beginning will be the way to go: Don't lose time building escorts! I *will* want to have some scouting units, though, and maybe a few units acting as happiness police.

But the score will be averaged over all turns until 1700AD, so an explosive expansion phase will only lay the basis for a good score, but won't be enough. What must follow is fast growth, and the Pyramids would ensure that. Normally, I would let my second city immediately start to build them, but with the given variant worker rules, I would be unable to optimize a given city for wonder building manually and might lose the wonder race to an AI. So I decided to build them in my capital, even if that will slow down my expansion - the acceleration in growth the Pyramids would provide will be worth more.

So here we go...



I founded Grand Cayman on the starting spot and followed T-hawk's advice on how to manage the worker in the beginning, then set him on shift-I. Three warriors were produced, two for scouting and one for defending the city, then a granary (yes, pottery was researched first, as usual). Meanwhile, my scouts found this:



Add "no settlers from random events" to my wishlist for civ4, please. The settler founded San Juan in 2710BC between the wheat and the cow on the river and immediately started to build a worker, which was ordered to build a road net, then to further improve the capital.

Grand Cayman built a settler after the granary, then two curraghs: I wanted to scout the rest of the world ASAP, both to see where everybody else would be (with only 50% research allowed, I might need the trading partners) and to find more places to settle, although the island I was on seemed to be quite large.

Santo Domingo was founded near the luxuries halfway between Grand Cayman and San Juan in 2470BC. Another hut gave me warrior code, and I met France across the sea in 2390BC. I still hoped to be alone on my landmass, but was disappointed to meet a Greek warrior in 2150BC. I gave them pottery for bronze working, ceremonial burial and some money. Okay, so my next settlers will go south to claim as much land as I could, and then I will expand back towards my capital.

Byzantines, India and England were contacted during the next centuries, and another hut gave me a warrior. After Grand Cayman had produced four settlers, it finally started to build the Pyramids, which was very late but still should be sufficiently early for this level. After researching writing, I went for map making next, to get galleys to settle islands. When MM came in in 1275BC, I still was the only one with writing (I was careful not to trade it away!, so I tried the philosophy-republic 'gambit' (not really a gambit here...) and researched code of laws next.

My capital building a great wonder has slowed down my expansion quite a bit. I had traded for iron working before, and one of my settlers went south to grab one iron near Greece, but I also wanted to establish a productive core to speed up expansion (producing settlers, galleys, and military), so I couldn't afford to send all my initial settlers south to block off Greece completely with cities. But there was a small isthmus I could block with warriors...



CoL came in in 1000BC, and philosophy was researched next. Still nobody had writing...it was a bit depressing that I had such a tech lead although I could research only at 50%. Philosophy and republic came in in 800BC, but I didn't revolt yet, as the pyramids were due in 4 turns and I feared losing them (the automated workers had done a poor job on optimizing production!. Literature was looked into next, to speed up my research. Here's my growing empire (except my southern iron city) the turn before the pyramids would be complete:



Unfortunately I forgot about revolting and continued to play in despotism before I noticed my mistake in 490BC...

Anyway, so now Grand Cayman could contribute again to my expansion efforts. I felt it was time to have more military so Greece won't get any ideas. Unfortunately, my stupid workers had improved Grand Cayman so that it was at 14spt, one spt short of producing a NuMerc every two turns. #%?&$! It needed some more centuries to grow until it finally was at 15spt.

There was a pitfall for my growth curve I'm glad I noticed before it was too late. The north had lots of sources of fresh water, but the south had not, and there was jungle seperating these two parts of my empire. So if I wouldn't act now, my workers would start to mine all southern tiles, leading to smaller cities and to less happy citizens! So I interrupted most of my workers in their tasks, and ordered them to clear wetlands.



Note how most of my cities were still undefended; I was relying on the low aggression setting to help me here.

I had galleys sending out units now, and popped some more huts. In 270BC, one gave me polytheism, and I entered the medieval age; another gave me 50 gold. I started to settle several islands. San Juan completed the forbidden palace in 460AD, and I got Sistine's in 500AD. Because there still were so many unsettled islands everywhere, my cities had difficulties keeping my military production on par with my settler production. I made sure that every city founded on an island had a NuMerc for defense, but two thirds of my cities on my main landmass were still undefended. So when France landed a swordman and an archer near one of my cities, I was lucky it was a defended one...

France declared war and attacked, but my defender held, so my golden age started in 560AD. But this was monarch, and I really don't fear monarch AIs, especially with such a great unit for defense (which even can counter-attack when needed!, so I shuffled my NuMercs around so that every NuMerc was able to defend two to three empty cities, and calmly continued with my expansion. The days when I would start to sweat about undefended cities are definately over... :P

The same NuMerc who held off the initial attack and who had promoted to elite in the process was able to attack a French warrior, and...



Not that I needed him...I made peace again on the same turn, and I'm afraid I forgot what I did with the leader. Probably shipped him over to the main continent and formed an army.

I managed to sneak in four cities on the two islands in the southeastern corner, and finally was finished with my land-grab in 690AD. Wow, had been a long time since I had the opportunity to grab unclaimed lands for that long!

Since the game was all about happiness, I built Bach's in 750AD. In 860AD, I got my first-ever SGL while discovering engineering, and he rushed Smith's. I sold techs whenever I could to feed my 50% research, and after completing Copernicus' in 860AD, I went industrial in 1210AD, just before I completed Newton's. I immediately beelined to sanitation even before steam power: I wanted to have more happy citizens! Sanitation came in in 1290AD, and steam in 1325AD. Then, I went with only 10% research for a long time, to accumulate cash to rush aqueducts, hospitals, marketplaces and granaries everywhere. No tech after sanitation and steam would help my happiness score, so I felt rushing was the way to go now.

Oh, I forgot to mention: I also bought luxes whenever I could, and nearly everywhere "We Love The Beach" days were celebrated, and markets were rushed in all other cities.

I finally traded for maps in 1380AD; this is the world from that time.



Oh, and I lied when I said no tech after sanitation/steam would help me: Electricity came in in 1410AD. Now I was able to irrigate the islands which had no access to fresh water for faster growth - or, better, I would have been able to if this had been a normal game. But my workers were on automation and had already mined my islands! Well, this is where I decided for once to go the T-hawk way of playing and push the rules a bit to improve my score. Every turn I would scan the map to look for workers that happened to be on a mined tile, because they were railing it, or because they were cleaning pollution. I then would interrupt them, and then tell them to irrigate to the next city. That was actually more tedious than managing workers manually, and so not really in the "relax on the beach" spirit of this scenario, but...this is my 38th Epic ( ), so please cut me some slack here, will you?

I was selling my techs mainly to England now, who was 2-3 techs behind and the only one with a significant amount of gold. The other AIs were nearly broke and more than half an age behind. When I completed the theory of evolution in 1555AD, I had already researched steel and refining, and got atomic theory and electronics with it. In 1565AD, England declared war on India, but not much came out of this war.

I became modern in 1655AD, completed Hoover 1675AD, and discovered Fission in 1695AD. Too bad I hadn't payed attention to proper prebuilding, or I would have been able to win the UN vote exactly in 1700AD, but as it turned out, my flawless election to leader of the world happened in 1745AD.

In 1700AD, my happy citizen score was 1285.4. Together with the 100 points bonus for victory, and no penalty for capturing any cities, I claim 1385.4 points for this Epic.


Afterthoughts: I could have had more cheese by setting up worker factories and merging workers into the cities that hadn't maxed out population yet, but I really dislike this strategy.

The scenario concept had been a lot of fun, even if it was "only" a mixture of old ideas - thank you T-hawk for sponsoring this! The only rule I didn't like was the "keep the lux slider at least at 50%" rule. Why? Because this took away some strategical options, like trying to rush to hospitals faster and only then maxing happiness - would this have been a better or worse strategy? - and so on.

What I had originally thought about was to switch to communism, to help my far-away cities in catching up. But I had discarded the idea because of the long anarchy period, and because I suspect cash-rushing cathedrals and hospitals in republic had been even better.

Thanks for reading!

-Kylearan

[Sir Bugsy]

I had a lot of fun with this game. Here’s the way I read the start:

Here is our leader:

“Look mon! Dis is a great place to live. We have beautiful beaches, dat forest has tasty spices for our food, and we all know what we can do wit dat sugar over dere.”
“Ya mon, we can make de rum!”
And so it was decided to settle where they were. Bob Marley told his workers to do whatever they liked. Well they liked to work, and work hard, but they also liked their rum. Sometimes the rum affected the quality of their decisions. But Bob didn’t care. In fact he wanted everyone one to be happy.

“I say dat one half of every ting we make should be spent on tings dat make us happy!”
And so it happened that the Caribbeans became the happiest civilization on earth. Bob also had a lot of ideas running around in his head (granted many were induced by the rum.) He instructed that 10% of their income should be spent on figuring out a way to use these letters they had.
“Who wants to walk over dere and see what is dere is to see?”
Bob’s son Ziggy spoke up. “I’ll go.”
“But shouldn’t we prepare him for da journey?” asked his mother.
“Ok, we shall prepare him,” replied Bob. And so the next few seasons were spent preparing young Ziggy to be an exploring warrior.
After Ziggy left with a band of messengers, it decided that someone should take a boat and sail up the coast to see what else could be seen. So the Caribbean nation under took a great project to build five curraghs and explore their world.



In the year 3700 (for some reason, Bob had decided that they should count backwards) a messenger arrived from Ziggy that they had found some remarkable weed that could be smoked. He said that the land had a label on it called incense, but he had called it ganja and that it was powerful stuff. A sample was sent to Bob, and he deemed it powerful stuff also. Since he had no way to get the ganja back to his people, he decided to keep it a secret, and keep feed the people rum.

In the year 3600 the first of the curraghs was finally ready and it sailed off into the north.



For 100 years, no one hear anything from the curragh, and people feared the curragh was lost at sea. Then in 3500 word came that the crew of the curragh had met a warrior in a pink toga. They shared some rum with the man. He took them to meet his leader, a fiery young lady in a low cut fur tunic named Joan. They tried to trade with Joan, but she didn’t have anything of value to trade.



Then in 3350, Bob Marley made an interesting discovery. He noticed that his workers had walked all the way past the closer beach to the far beach. The trip was difficult. Then they built a nice road at the far beach and a mine and then walked all the way back to the city through the difficult terrain. He suspected they had gotten some but it turned out that the rum and the sun had affected their brains a little. “You need to tink aboot what you are doink,” he instructed. “Maybe not so much rum while you work.”

In 3250 a report came back from Ziggy that he had found a small hut and knocked on the door. Three mean, angry yokels came running out and he eventually had to use the skills he was taught to kill them. He recommended that these skills be taught to anyone else that is sent out to be an exploring warrior.

The Caribbeans continued to build curraghs and send them out. Finally in 2850 it was decided that another city should be built. A group of people were prepared to go out and find a suitable location.



Then in 2800, word was received that one of our curragh crews had met a laborer who had taken them to meet his leader Theodora. Our crew made a smart trade and sold the secrets of masonry for their warrior code and 10 gold pieces. Bob Marley was very pleased and he had a crew sail over to France and see what WC would bring with the French. The French gave him the secrets of Bronze Working plus 10 gold pieces for warrior code. We could become wealthy taking the secrets we learn from one tribe and selling them to another.



In 2750 BC, one of our curragh crews spotted the distant signs of a new tribe. It took an entire season to finally meet them. So after struggling with winds and storms for an entire season, our crew finally landed next to India. Since there was no one to meet them, they marched up to the leader’s cave and met a wizened little man named Gandhi. He fed them some vegetarian curry, and our people shared their rum with him. Then they traded the warrior code for the secrets of making pots and 17G. Bob took the new secrets and sold them to Theodora for Ceremonial Burial.

Our crew spent an entire season with Gandhi and the Indians. Then as they were sailing away, a stranger shouted from the shore.



It turned out to be a warrior wearing the orange toga of England. Our crew meets Elizabeth, a pasty shrewish woman. She wasn’t very friendly and had nothing to trade.

Finally in 2630, our settler was prepared to leave. She was sent towards the south. Bob Marley secretly hoped she would settle near the ganja, but he just pointed her in that direction. They also started building a place to store their food also that too would take many seasons to build.

In the year 2510, the village of San Juan was founded to the south. While it didn’t have the ganja in its boarders, it would on expansion.

In the year 2270, our intrepid explorers came across this situation:



Our sailors tried for years to meet the Greeks, but it was Ziggy who finally made contact in 2030. We traded our warrior code and the secrets of the wheel for Iron Working skills and 10G.

Our scientists learned the secrets of writing in 1790 and for fear that others my learn the secret first, started in on Philosophy.

Tiring of the constant travel, Bob assigned some trade representatives to deal with trade. Plying their hosts with fine rum and ganja, they were able to keep our civilization at the technological forefront.

With our granary on line, we were able to quickly found new cities.

Our skilled trade representatives 1750 France trade Myst for IW. Buy Math from India for Myst & 9G. When the wonders of Philosophy were finally discovered in 570 BC, a skill known as Code of Law was already known by other civilizations, but expensive to trade for, even with much rum and ganja. Bob Marley wisely instructed his scientists to learn about currency.

Then in the year 550, something different happened. As our settler was founding Montego Bay, a native from a nearby hut stepped forward and taught us a new skill.



The following shots are from my 530 BC save:






In 490, it happened again. The settler founding St Vincent had this experience:



In 330, Bob Marley was saddened to find that Theodora had settled the western island. A too bad. Time for more

In 150 , our skilled trade representatives executed this trade, which allowed us to pull our dreadlocks out of our faces.



Then in 130, our world view was dramatically changed. Mademoiselle Joan placed a sword to our trade reps’ thoat and demanded that we teach her about horseback riding. Here is a transcript from a conversation Bob Marley had with his military advisor.

“Hey boss, me tinks dis Joan of de Arc is going to get nasty wid us.”
“No, I don’t tink so. Me tinks she just need some more rum.”
“No boss, we have bean sending her plenty of de rum. We be making good money from de rum. De French dey like it. No boss, our reggae band in Paree hear de sojers talking ‘bout when they own our rum factory.”
“So you tink, they will try an’ attack us for de rum?”
“Ya boss, I do.”
“We betta start to make us a army to defend our rum.”

And so the Caribbeans started training their men to be defenders. They didn’t have a good name for their defenders. Bob read in a book about a mythical civilization named Carthage and he liked their name for their defenders, Numidian Mercenary. Not that our men were very mercenary. They were quite happy with their hourly rum ration.

When our calendar makers reached the year 0, the civilization reached a crisis. What are we to do? Shall we die? What will happen. It was feared that their abacuses would not work properly if the year was less than zero. Then Bob had a moment of inspiration while smoking the
“We will start counting up”
“But boss, we will get mixed up with de old year numbers.”
“We will just call de old years, ‘Before de new Calendar’”
“Boss, no offense, but putting BDNC after de year is a lot of letters.”
“OK den, just make it BC”
“Shouldn’t we have some letters for de new years?”
“Ya, let’s make it, ‘After De new calendar’”
“So we should make the letters AC”
“No Rasta, says it should be AD”
“OK boss… who’s Rasta?”

And so it came to pass that the years were AD and BC. Everyone was suspicious of this Rasta fellow who was talking to Bob Marley though.

In 90 AD, our trade representatives were able to trade for CoL and we started researching a government known as republic. This also caused our civilization to enter into a new era of prosperity and happiness. Bob Marley called it the Middle Ages cause Rasta told him to. The venerable Bede, published a book, calling us the happiest nation in the world.
“Ya mon, we already knew dat. Pass da rum.”

90 AD – buy CoL =>MA

In 300 AD, the Caribbeans had an interesting experience. Two workers were sent across to the marshes in northern Byzantium. Bob demanded that they work, but they wouldn’t.



“Hey mon! It is in de contract. We don’t work outside our boarders.”

In 340 AD, Republic was discovered and five seasons of anarchy ensued as the bumbling Caribbeans figured out how to run a representative government. Finally in 390, the Republic of the Caribbean was born.

As the world was finally filling up, our brave settlers traveled to far away places and founded city named Trinidad, the Virgin Islands, and one of our favorites – Wailer Town, named after our favorite reggae band. Our last attempt to settle in the far southeast failed when the Byzantines settled Ancyra.



Edit - Tidied up the pictures.

[Sir Bugsy]

Many years of peace, prosperity and happiness followed. Here are some screen shots from my 760 AD save.
















In 880 AD, Theodora got a little snotty and demanded that we give her 88G. Another sign that our military was too weak, so we renewed our build up effort after slacking off for many years on the beach.

Then our alcohol and ravaged leader had an idea.
“We need to have a Golden Age.”
“How can we do dat, boss?”
“We need to build us some wonders. We can send dis fellow Magellan ‘round de world for starters. But we need to know how to navigate our vessels far from land. See if we can have someone teach dat to us.”

Our amazing trade reps, immediately purchased the required knowledge from the French for 95G, a copy of our world map, and an installment plan of 15G every year, for 20 years. Magellan was sent off and in a short ten years returned. No one was ever sure what ever happened to the Sistine Chapel they were building in the capitol though.



“So boss, is dat enough for de golden age?”
“No, we need someting more.” Maybe a big dam.”
“What is a dam?”

In 1270 AD, the concept of Democracy was learned from the Byzantines and after six long seasons of trying to figure out the new government, the Caribbean Democracy was born.

In 1385, Bob arranged for a secret Forbidden Palace to be built in San Cristobal. It would have been built much sooner, but he had too much and spent too much time on the beach. In 1420, the secrets of steam power were purchased. I’d tell you who we bought it from, but the scribes spent the night before at the rum and reggae festival and didn’t write it down. Our workers started building rails almost immediately, but their consumption of the was quite evident.

The consumption went all the way to the top, as our weedy leader made the biggest mistake of our history by signing an MPP with Theodora, Joan and Gandhi, and then renewed it.

The first war in history occurred in 1515 as Alex declared on Elizabeth. A tangled web ensued and in 1575 an MPP we had with Joan forced us to declare war on Greece.

Our vacationing civilization, didn’t quite know what to do and every unit we had was sent to the frontline city of Havana. A few units were shuffled over to the Virgin Islands, and some prayers were offered to Rasta for our far flung cities.

1580 was a momentous year. First our brave troops at Havana held the city in the face of a withering attack. During that attack, one of our Numidian Mercenaries defeated a Greek attacker and:



Then our crafty trade reps traded for the wonders of Scientific Method. A new palace that was being built was miraculously turned into the Theory of Evolution wasting 176 shields. Since our beloved city of Wailer Town, was being threatened, we gifted it to Theodora. It would eventually changed hands five times over the next two centuries.

The completion of the Theory of Evolution taught us Atomic Theory and Electronics. AT was traded for replaceable parts. That allowed our smoking workers to work more rapidly at useless tasks. We also find out that Wailer Town had one of the few sources of rubber in the world.

1595 saw this unhappy event:



Finally in 1610 our MPP had expired, we canceled it and made a straight peace treaty with the Greeks.

War would rage across the globe for most of the rest of time. Here is the Caribbeans happy score in 1700 AD -



While the game could be considered a success, Bob Marley wanted more. He wanted the whole world to embrace the concepts of Rasta. He wanted to be the Secretary General of the UN.

In 1740 the Hoover Dam was built. And our trade reps found it harder and harder to trade for new techs as we fell farther and farther behind. Beginning in 1758 with the completion of our Intelligence Agency, we started to plant spies… unsuccessfully. It was found that our habit of smoking , wearing our dreadlocks and drinking rum, made us very noticeable and our spies became very dead. We had failures in 1758 and 1762:



We went back to the drawing board and found that if we cut our dreadlocks and stayed sober, we actually had a chance of not being noticed. In 1770, our first spy was finally planted in London. The in 1776 we got this message:



The tech was mass production. Hoping to engender goodwill throughout the world we started to make gifts and favorable deals. In 1780, we sold the knowledge of Mass Production to Alexander. Then in 1786, he returned the favor by launching a sneak attack on Havana. Rumor had it that he was tired of paying our high prices for the cigars.

Having survived the initial attack, we upgraded all our soldiers to infantrymen, and in a desperate act, ordered our spy in London to make an immediate steal. He successfully stole Motor Transportation. Several builds were changed to tanks and rushed, and the Greek threat was beaten back. Since we were now a modern nation, we gifted the Byzantines to the Modern Age as well. Theodora got Rocketry. Now our scientist put the bottle and the aside and studied the secrets of fission as quickly as they could and still make it to the beach every day.

After many years of a stalemate, Alex finally agreed to peace in 1804. Our sly negotiators were able to get us 39G and the promise of 7G per year for the next twenty years.

In 1820, England declared on India and our Indian friends began to wither. We gave them everything we could to keep them alive.

In 1824, our diplomats canvas the potential UN delegates. We have a pre-build that can be quickly turned into the UN. They determine that our opponent in the vote will be Elizabeth. They say several votes are sure things. Gandhi will vote for us. Theodora is gracious, but we give her 5 gpt just to keep her in our good graces. I give Alex 10gpt and he is polite. I gift Joan 10 gpt also and she is Gracious to me. Then Elizabeth and Joan sign a military alliance against Gandhi. Joan will probably vote for Elizabeth. Something must be done.

In 1826 we discover the secrets of Fission and we can have the UN completed in 1832. We gift Gandhi Amphibious War and Fission in the hopes he can stay alive, since he is down to two cities. In 1828, Gandhi has just Hyderabad left. Since we need him alive for his vote, we gift the city of Tobago to the Indians.

In 1832, with the UN due at the end of the year, We give Alex some incense and sign an MPP with him. We also sign an MPP with Joan since I don’t think Gandhi can attack any of her cities.





Well that’s a surprise. 100 points for a victory (official year – 1834), and no penalty for capturing cities.



Final score - 856.1 points, victory year 1834.

Edit - Tidied up the pictures.

[microbe]

This my first RBCiv game.

Not sure how to upload the images here, so I just uploaded to CFC. If anyone knows how to, please let me know.

Some thoughts before I play: the final point is capped at 1700AD, so we shouldn't win before that. Since capturing cities isn't encouraged, the initial expansion is extremely important. We know this is archipelago, so the key point is to deny Map Making from AIs as long as possible. With this in mind, a slow tech pace is in our favor. I'll also try to grab the wonders for growth and happiness, namely Pyramids, MoM, Hanging Gardens, Sistine Chapel and JS Bach's.

If you don't want to read the detailed report, you can read the summary.

This is the starting location:



I found Grand Cayman on the spot and shift-A the worker. This seems to be a small island so I order up a curragh first.

I then raise lux to 50, and start min research on Writing.

3700BC: The curragh spot a pink border. France? But we couldn't meet it yet.

3450BC: We pop a hut which gives us Pottery. I then start a granary. We still cannot meet France!

3350BC: We finally meet France, and we are up Pottery.

3100BC: France has Bronze Working but wouldn't trade with us.

2750BC: another hut gives map.

2590BC: France has Warrior Code.

2470BC We meet Byzantines. She is up Bronze Working, Wheel, Warrior Code and Ceremonial Burial, and lacks Masonry and Pottery. So I get Wheel + Ceremonial Burial by Pottery+Masonry+19g.

Wheel to France for Bronze Working + Warrior Code + 10g.

We also found Port-au-Prince.

It looks like Greece shares the same island with us.

2030BC: We meet Greece. It has Iron Working but lacks Masonry, Pottery, Wheel and Warrior Code. It has a worker for sale, but we are not allowed to buy. So Warrior Code + Wheel + 12g for Iron Working. Hopefully he will research HBR.

1990BC: We found our 3rd city. It has two food bonus.

1870BC: We meet India. He lacks Masonry, Wheel and IW.

1750BC: Writing in. Set to CoL. Since it's Monarch I think I can get Philosophy next as first then pick Republic as the free tech.

1650BC: We meet our last foe, England. She has Mysticism and lacks Masonry+Writing. I get Mysticism + 4g by Masonry. I raise sci to 50 to get CoL in 25 turns with -2gpt.

This is the world.



1275BC: Byzantine has Mathematics.

We form a small blockade at the choke.



1200BC: England has Math too.

1175BC: India builds Colossus.

1100BC: Code of Law -> Philosophy in 11 turns.

1025BC: France has Math too.

950BC: India gets Math too.

900BC: Philosophy in, and we get Republic as free tech. Revolt immediately. Draw a 5-turn anarchy.

825BC: Greece has Polytheism. Since our strategy is to delay Map Making to the AI, I hold Writing monopoly not to trade.

775BC: We are Republic!

Start max research on Map Making. We need to settle the islands.

Hut gives us Mathematics.

670BC: England has Construction. Byzantine has Currency. I don't trade. Focus on expansion.

570BC: England builds Oracle.

490BC: Byzantines now have Writing.

430BC: England has Poly as well, so I get Polytheism + 22g from Greece by Math.

410BC: Map Making due.

I sell Poly to France for 105g.

Then I shut off research for now.

330BC: Byzantine establishes embassy with us. She doesn't know anyone else.

310BC: We build Pyramids.

230BC: Byzantine has Map Making. She will soon meet other AIs.

I start research on Lit due in 4 turns.

Greece has Monarchy.

150BC: Literature is researched and I set 1 scientist to HBR.

90BC: India builds ToA.

70BC: France builds Great Wall. Greece builds Hanging Gardens.

10BC: England builds Zeus. Byzantine dromon reaches us.

30AD: Move two galleys to block the dromon from meeting France. They are rotating between the current location and the pink dots. The red dot can be blocked by a single galley, but then the AI might give up and find other paths. The current trap works perfectly.

From the minimap you can also see I've settled the homeland, and started expanding overseas.



90AD: We build Great Lighthouse. And..we entered Golden Age!

130AD:

I establish embassy with the remaining AIs.

India: size-6, seems in a GA. 17spt building a worker. No resources.
Paris: size-4, 8spt building a temple. 2 lux and iron.
Greece: size-7, 8spt building colosseum. 1 lux and iron.
England: size-5, 8spt building a spear. 2 lux and iron/horses.

Only India/England know each other (they are on the same landmass).

150AD: I buy Currency + 78g from Byzantines with Philosophy + Polytheism, and start building markets.

170AD: England has HBR.

190AD: I get Construction and Horseback Riding from England with Currency and enter Middle Ages.

I then start research Feudalism in 13 turns with 30 sci.

230AD: IBT Our FP is completed. Income jumped about 15gpt. Raise sci to 40 to get Feudalism in 6 turns.

So now I have two wonder cities. One is the capital, Grand Cayman, currently size 12 with 27spt in the GA. The other is the FP city, currently size 9 with 18spt in the GA (could be MM-ed to 21spt).

270AD: England is the second AI that knows Writing.

280AD: India knows Writing too.

290AD: Feudalism -> Monotheism with min sci. MoM is completed.

310AD: Greece knows Writing as well.

330AD: England and India know Map Making too. The AI still haven't met each other.

370AD: Our GA ended.

390AD: England enters Middle Ages. I buy silks+134g from Byzantines with HBR+incense. More happy faces are good for score.

410AD: The first time AI made contact across water: France knows India. What has Byzantines been doing? She has known Map Making 640 years ago!

3 Byzantine dromons enter our territory..what is it trying to do?

IBT Byzantine landed 2 warriors and 1 spear.



420AD: I ask Byzantine to leave and it declares war. I kill the spear and a warrior.

This was kinda lucky. I have a lot of empty towns but it didn't land in my weakest point. Apparently even with "least aggression", AI would still declare war.

440AD: England also drops 2 warriors next to San Juan, the island NW to our capital. I ask it to leave and we are at war. It seems we will lose a worker..



I can MA with India against English straight up. This is the first time I see we can make MA without paying the AI. However India is weaker to England so I don't do it.

450AD: Vet archer loses to reg warrior and promotes it.

500AD: England drops two Ancient Cavalry in to our core! We lose 2 horses and one archer and kill those tough guys.

Byzantine now agrees to talk.

520AD: England agrees to talk too.

I make peace with Byzantines, and give it CoL for 122g just to see which free tech it gets. It gets Engineering. I start research on Monotheism in 5 turns.

530AD: England starts Sun Tzu's too.

540AD: England drops 2 more AC next to Antilles, the small island west to our capital. I cannot defend that so I make peace and get 21g.

I have to build more military. The lesson is even with least aggression the AI would still attack you if your military is thin.

Now the expansion is almost over. I have 23% land and 36% pop. Here is the map:



I have two major wonder cities: the capital 15spt, and the FP city 13spt. Both are size-12 and have lots of food. All other cities have very poor shields and high food.

I sell Lit + incense to England for Dyes + 18g for extra happiness.

IBT Byzantines demand incense. I refuse and nothing happens.

570AD: Monotheism -> Theology.

650AD: England now knows everyone except Greece.

I sell HBR to Greece for 70g+2gpt. It gets Engineering for free tech.
I then sell Feudalism to Greece for Engineering + Monarchy + 13g + 7gpt.
I sell Lit to Byzantines for 90g.

690AD: Theology in. I start min research on Education.

710AD: Feudalism to France for Furs + 1g.

750AD: Sistine Chapel and Sun Tzu's are completed.

760AD: incense + silks + 80g to England for ivory.

770AD: In the past due to our culture push we could found a town on the French land. I just realize it fails the ICS check. But I keep it anyways. It's actually a ring-1 city. It's the only city that fails the test in this game.



790AD: Greece has Invention. I don't trade yet, of course.

I also find a nice spot in Byzantines land that we could settle with 3-tile overlap. However, it overlaps 6 tiles with one of our own town. I decide to resettle our own town and then settle on the Byzantine land as well. So I switch St Martin to settler.



800AD: Greece starts Leo's. I sign RoP with Greece, and send a horse to check its territory. I think I should be able to build it first.

810AD: England gets Monotheism. I ask it to leave and it does so.

I ship Monotheism + horses + incense to Greece for Invention.

830AD: India completes Great Library. This is very good. The cascade ended. But I then do an investigation on Athens, it's 13spt and will finish Leo's in 26 turns, while I can only get it in 32, so I'll lose Leos. Then I'll turn it into JS Bach's. I raise sci to 20 to get Education in 11 turns.

850AD: Engineering to France for 2 workers + 9g.

900AD: Greece has Gunpowder. Wow it researches really fast, especially considering it only knows us.

910AD: Monotheism to France to renew furs.

940AD: Education -> Music Theory in 10 turns.

IBT England starts Knights Templar.

980AD: Greece gets Chilvary by itself. 8-turn research..

1040AD: Music Theory -> Astronomy in 13 turns, just to complete the prebuild.

1050AD: Greece has Theology. 7-turn..

England has Gunpowder, so I sell Theology + incense for Gunpowder + ivory + 7gpt + 68g.

Theology to India for Chivalry. I actually can steal Knights Templar in 4 turns, but I'd rather get Copernicus sooner. With Greece's fast research I am not so confident in getting all the wonders now.

We have saltpeter on an island, not our homeland.

1070AD: Greece completes Leo's. England completes Knights Templar.

1100AD: Greece drops an archer next to New Santo, our town on the Byzantine island defended by two NMs.



IBT Greece declares on us. The archer loses miserably, but it manages to kill our galley.

1110AD: Greece now knows Byzantines. I MA with Byzantines by Theology. Dromons will be helpful!

I upgrade two knights.

War happiness makes everybody happy!

1130AD: Astronomy -> Banking.

1150AD: JS Bach's and Copernicus completed.

1170AD: Sell Music Theory to England for 35gpt+66g.

1200AD: Greece and Byzantines make peace.

1210AD: I make peace with Greece too, get 41g+12gpt.

Greece has Astronomy already! I could sell Music Theory but I hold.

England has Banking! We'll get it in 2 turns.

Looks like AI research is speeding up.

1220AD: Banking in. I then set min research on Economics.

Sell horses to Greece for 18gpt + 115g.

Theology + silks to France for furs + 6g.

1260AD: England has all techs. Greece has Navigation but lacks Banking and Music Theory.

1285AD: This year is a milestone for the AI: finally they meet one another as Printing Press spreads around. We are very successful in delaying AI contact.

As the AI research speed is picking up (especially Greece), I now mostly use the "follow the leader" approach to research at a discount price. The sci bar is mostly kept at around 30.

1295AD: Incense + 188g to India for Printing Press.

1300AD: Looks like France is going to sneak attack us.. a vet MDI, a reg pike and a reg warrior move next to New San Juan.



I sell incense to France for worker+12g, and ask it to leave. It agrees but doesn't move.

I switch market to wall and send over musket from our homeland.

IBT France declares war.

In the next few turns lots of French units are thrown at us but we hold the town by the wall and another rushed rax. It was very close. At one time I have one 1-hp musket defeat two musketeers and promote itself!

We also get Economics during the war.

1335AD: Make peace with France and get 9g.

IBT England demands Incense, I give to her.

1360AD: Economics + 4g gets us Navigation from Byzantines.

1385AD: Greece builds Magellan's.

1390AD: I buy Free Artistry from India with silks + WM + 312g and switch Magellan to Shakespear due in 9 in our FP city.

1395AD: Renew horses deal with Greece.

1430AD: We build Shakespear. It's great for our wonder city.

1435AD: We research Chemistry.

1440AD: Greece starts Newton's!

1455AD: We build Smith's.

India then builds Newton's.

1460AD: England/Greece/India all entered IA. I start ToG in 4 turns with -44gpt.

1480AD: Theory of Gravity in, start on Magnetism.

1495AD: Some resource deal expired, and I have 2 turns left for Magnetism, so I buy Magnetism from India with silks + 114g. All 3 AIs have Nationalism and Greece is up Steam.

Start Medicine due in 7.

Byzantines and India sign MPP.

1530AD: Medicine in. I buy Steam Power from Greece by Medicine + horses + incense + 5gpt + 35g. Medicine + Steam to England for Military Tradition + 100g + 62gpt + dyes + ivory. Medicine + Steam + WM + 11gpt + 102g to India for Nationalism.

Greece has Facism.

Set to Industrialization in 10 turns.

We have coal directly under St Martin.

1530AD: Greece starts Universal Suffrage!

1545AD: Communism also known.

1560AD: Greece has Ironclads!

1570AD: We get Industrialization. I start on Sanitation due in 7.

1585AD: Greece has Corporation.

1635AD: England also has Corporation. No trade yet. I'm not in a hurry. The more we defer Sci Method the better.

1640AD: India seems to be researching Sanitation, so time for trade:

Sanitation to England for Corporation + 51gpt. Greece has Refining.
Sanitation to Greece for 226g + 40gpt.

I start on Electricity.

1650AD: Greece has Steel.

IBT Greece and India sign MPP.

1675AD: We get Electricity. Start on Sci Method in 5.

Endland has Refining.

I'll hold Electricity for a couple of turns and sell, to be sure we can end the cascade for ToE.

IBT Greece builds Universal Suffrage! This is really surprising. It built this wonder in 30 turns. It's like 24spt. Is it in a GA?

1680AD: Capital switches to Stock Exchange and waste 173 shields. We have 677 shields in FP city already, and Palace is due in 7 turns. Fortunately we'll get Sci Method in 4 turns.

1695AD: IBT Byzantine and Greece sign MPP. And we switch Palace to ToE losing 216 shields. Get Atomic Theory and Electronics. We continue to build Hoover in 20 turns.

1700AD: Our score is 2224, with 955.5 coming from the happy citizens.

OK, now let's speed up the tech pace and go for a diplo win.

Trade:
Industrialization + Medicine to Byzantines for Communism + 17g.
Electricity to Greece for Steel.
Electricity + incense to India for Refining + 60g + 16gpt.
Electricity to India for ironclads + 20g + 6gpt.

Greece has Combustion.

I sell Sci Method + 666g + 17gpt + WM + oil + horses to Greece for Combustion.
Sci Method to England for 87gpt + 9g.
Steel + silks + 11g to India for Facism + WM.
Steel to England for ivory + 25gpt.

I shut off research for this turn to save some money.

1705AD: Greece/England have Espionage. I go full research on RP in 6 turns.

1720AD: Greece declares on us! Troops appear at the choke and capture our 4 workers. Apparently it wants to avoid the gpt payment..

1725AD: About 30 units enter our territory, but mostly rifles. So I move rifles to block the choke, and there is nothing I need to worry about now.

I MA with England (oil) and France (horses), but Byzantines and India have MPP with Greece. I'll just fight within my own territory not to trigger it.



IBT Greece MA with Byzantine vs England.

We lose 3 musket but kill a lot of units in defense, and the city holds.

1735AD: Greece landed troops on three islands. I draft some rifles.

Sci Meth to India for Espionage.

I sell our only silks to England for 178g+10gpt as we need gold for upgrading. Incense to France for 48g + 14gpt.

IBT all towns hold. Several conscript rifles promote. India/Byzantines declare on France.

1745AD: Replaceable Parts in. WW is 20% and some towns riot. I sell Steam to France for furs + WM + 9gpt + 37g + worker.

We have rubber close to Havana, which also has our oil.

I convert scientists in FP city to civil engineers and we can get Hoover 2 turns earlier.

Greece has Flight now, but it doesn't have oil.

Greece uploads 6 more units next to Nassau.

1754AD: All landings are pretty much taken care off.

I raise sci to 40 to get Flight in 8 turns.

1758AD: Greece and Byzantines MA vs us. India and Byzantines MA vs England.

1760AD: We get our first leader. I form a cav army and use it to kill 3 rifles.

1762AD: Hoover Dam is completed.

1766AD: France and Byzantines make peace.

IBT Byzantine and France make peace.

1768AD: Sell Communism to France for WM + 20g + 8gpt.

IBT India and France make peace.

1770AD: Flight in. Still 5-turn MA left. Byzantines have lost some oversea towns to England.

Greece no longer has MPP with India, so I send out the cav army to pillage.

1772AD: We can build Wall Street. Switch Mil Acadamy to it due in 2.

IBT I make peace with Byzantines and get some riot.

1776AD: Greece and France make peace.

1778AD: Greece has Mass Production.

I plant a spy in Greece. It has 50 rifles and 18 guerilla.

Also plant spy in England and Byzantines, but fail in India.

Start research on Mass Production in 8.

1780AD: I sign peace with Greece for 285g + 1gpt. I would like to keep pillaging but WW has been so high that I decide to stop it.

1788AD: I buy Mass Production + WM + 10gpt + 100g. Atomic Theory to England for 299g+126gpt.

Greece has Amphibious War.

I set max on Motorized Transportation in 6 turns.

1790AD: Greece and England make peace.

1794AD: Mass Production to England for Dyes + WM + 19gpt + 30g.

1796AD: Byzantines and England make peace. We get Motorized Transportation and enter Modern Ages. Start max on Fission in 10 turns. Making exactly 0gpt.

1808AD: Greece has Motorized Transportation.

1812AD: England and France sign MPP.

1816AD: IBT Fission -> Computers. UN is due in 2 turns. We have three sources of uranium.

I gift 100g to every AI except Greece. France and England are Gracious, India and Byzantines are Polite. Why India isn't Gracious? Probably because he caught my spy once. My bad. I shouldn't have done that.

I then trade Oil to India for WM + 150g, he is still polite. I then trade my only wines to Byzantines, and she now turns Gracious!

1820AD: IBT Greece and India sign MPP. Greece declares on England! France declares on Greece! Since England is the biggest country, this makes even better. We renew peace treaty with Greece. France declares on India.

We are hit by pollution makes UN delayed one turn.

1824AD:



And the vote result is:



WTF....looks like we have to MA France against England next time, or get a space race win!

It's rather unfortunate.

1828AD: I upgrade all musketmen to infrantry by 1800g. I need to be strong to not be attacked.

Steel to France for WM+40g+17gpt.
Motorized Transportation to England for 94gpt+504g.

1830AD: England and Greece make peace.

IBT India declares on England.

1834AD: Computers->Miniaturization in 9. I want the Internet.

IBT Byzantines and Greece MA vs France.

1836AD: England entered Modern Ages.

IBT Greece and England make peace.

1842AD: Greece entered Modern Ages and got Rocketry as free tech.

Steel to Byzantines for 133g.

IBT England declares on Byzantines. France and India make peace. India and France MA vs Greece.

1844AD: IBT Greece and France make peace. SETI completed.

UN will hold vote next turn, but France still has the freaking MPP with England.

1846AD: The vote is again inconclusive. Sci Method to France to renew furs.

1848AD: Byzantines and Greece MA vs India.

1850AD: Muniaturization->Nuclear Power in 9 at 40% sci.

IBT England declares on Greece.

1854AD: Cancel silks deal with England. France has no MPP with it now - hint hint.

Renew incense deal to France and get 16gpt.

IBT England and India sign peace.

1858AD: England and Byzantines make peace.

IBT Internet is completed.

1862AD: France and Byzantines make peace.

IBT we caught an English spy.

1864AD: We declare on England, and sign MA with everybody:

MA with France by horses.
MA with Byzantines by Electricity, and get 93g+2gpt.
MA with India by oil.

Everybody is polite except Greece.

Sell silks to France for 11gpt, still Polite. Gift 100g, Gracious.
Gift 100g to Byzantines, Gracious. Sell incense to get the 100g back plus 4gpt.
Gift 100g to India, Gracious.
OK enough.

I sign MA with Greece as well, and it doesn't improve its attitude.

1868AD: We hold UN election:





Final score 3360.

Final game point 1055.5 (955.5+100).

Download the 1700AD save.

Some pictures:

[microbe]

Summary of Epic 42:

I start with min on Writing, then go Code of Laws, Philosophy and pick Republic as free tech. Then go full speed on Map Making to settle overseas. We become Republic in 775BC.

We meet all 5 AIs by 1650BC. England and India are on the same island, so they are the only two AIs that know each other. We are on the same land as Greece.

We build Pyramids at 310BC and Great Lighthouse in 90AD, which starts our Golden Age. In 230AD we build FP and have our second wonder city. We build MoM in 290AD.

We enter Middle Ages in 190AD.

I never trade Writing to delay Map Making to them. Byzantines knows Map Making in 230BC, but never manages to meet others for a long time. The first AI contact through sea is between India and France at 410AD.

In the same year, Byzantines launch a sneak attack on us. Then 440AD England does the same trick again. We take care of those attacks and make peace asap, but then we start to produce more military.

Our expansion is over at about the same time, with 23% land and 36% pop.

We build Sistine Chapel and Sun Tzu's, and JS Bach's and Copernicus in 1150AD.

In 1100AD Greece also sneak attacks us. We MA with Byzantines. Peace comes in 1210AD after Byzantines makes peace with Greece.

Greece has been a faster researcher since beginning of Middle Ages and England is second. We just follow their research paths.

AI make full contact in 1285AD.

In 1300AD France also sneak attacks our town on its land. We make peace asap. So we've been sneak-attacked by everyone else except India.

In 1430AD we build Shakespear in our FP city. In 1455AD we build Smith's. We enter Industrial Ages in 1495AD.

We build ToE in 1695AD and have a happy citizen score of 955.5 in 1700AD.

In 1720AD Greece declares again. With the choke we have no problem with defense. I MA with England and France, but Byzantines and India have MPP with Greece. Greece also lands troops on 3 different islands, but we manage to hold. We make peace in 1780AD.

We build UN in 1824AD, but since France has MPP with England (our opponent) and Greece abstains, so we cannot get majority vote. In 1864AD, when the vote is going to be held again, we MA with everybody against England, and win the vote.

Final game point 1055.5.

It's a fun game.

[microbe]

This is the cities view:

[microbe]

We have a similar starting strategy: expansion and Pyramids. You got an early settler from hut while I didn't. You should have built Pyramids earlier than I did. Your empire is at least as big as mine and more cities. The only difference is tech pace but you get hospital much earlier than I did.

The interesting thing is in the end my score is MUCH higer (almost twice as much, 2224 without the 100 bonus). Why is that? EDIT: T-hawk just answered my question: only the score from happy citizen counts, so mine is 955.5 instead of 2224.

Another interesting thing is your build seems much tighter than mine, although I've tried my best to put more cities within the restriction.

[T-hawk]

Glad to have you here, and thanks for the report, microbe!

CFC forbids linking from elsewhere to images hosted on their server. I'm sure they won't mind for a handful of images in one report like this, but for future games, we really shouldn't use their server for RBCiv games. This forum doesn't have a file upload feature, but if you need a place to host a report or images, ask and several kind souls will surely help.

Good calls on the initial plan. Yes, the most points were to be had by a good initial land-grab. Nice going on the blockade of Greece - I didn't even think of that possibility.

I had thought that the restriction on the luxury slider would make the free-Republic gambit harder to do, or at least require some strategic thought, but looks like it was easy enough anyway in several games. The AIs just don't go for the entire Writing branch early, especially when they're not in contact with each other to trade and don't have Deity-level accelerated starts.


30AD: Move two galleys to block the dromon from meeting France. They are rotating between the current location and the pink dots.

Very clever. I saw the picture and was trying to figure out why you were dotmapping water squares... :blink: With this level of AI manipulation, I think you're ready to take on the Deity game that the Civ Fairy promised us. ^_^

Looks like you did find one side-effect of delaying the AI contacts - they're more likely to declare war on you if you're the only rival that they know. Yes, they can still declare war even on "least aggressive"; I'm curious to see how much that happens in the different games. Sounds like the rest of your game after that one declaration was quite peaceful for quite some time until that late Greece declaration. Two wars going up to 1700 AD is still quite peaceful compared to most games.

Don't worry about that one instance of skirting the ICS rule. If your city is on a different beach altogether, you can't be overcrowding the beach.


1700AD: Our score is 2224.

Actually, the scenario score just comes from the "Happy Citizens" part of it, not the entire game score. I'd suggest reloading your 1700 AD save and double-checking that number.

No sweat on the delayed election victory; you didn't lose anything as far as the scenario was concerned. Congrats on the resounding win in the end, and hope to see you for more RBCiv events!

[T-hawk]

I can tell you had a lot of fun with this game, mon. You had me LOL at the description of the calendar change :D

The automated workers had their improving the 'wrong' beach during my brief playtests as well. Appropriate enough thematically, I thought.

I guess you didn't go for the Philosophy free tech? Getting an early blast into Republic is one of the best things you can do in virtually any game. You did well in the landgrab anyway, but getting into Republic sooner would've speeded growth and score early by shedding the despotism restriction, and later speeded tech to hospitals.


Since our beloved city of Wailer Town, was being threatened, we gifted it to Theodora.

Sounds really 'beloved' if you just give it away like that.

Really, the only reason ever to sign an MPP is to break an MPP between two other civs when you can't do so with an alliance. Despite that episode, it looks like you handled the wars well enough. Some minor losses but nothing that significantly affected the scoring in the end. You were a ways behind Kylearan's excellent game, but still in second place so far, at least until microbe looks up his real score.

Thanks again for the postcards, mon - there sure are a lot of them in that montage showing all your cities. And glad you had fun with it B) B)