Adventure 7 -- Dark Savant's game

[Dark Savant]

I played a test game with one partner first. It demonstrated to me that if you have an AI partner, you will crush the opposition on any level below Deity if the other AI's are not also teamed. I also learned a few things about micromanaging tech discovery so that a specific team member gets a tech first. I also discovered the irritating lack of an announcement of when your partner pops a new tech from a hut.

Since this was not a gentle Adventure, I then assumed that some of the AI's were in teams as well. Our team doesn't start with Mysticism, so I assumed that an attempt to grab an early religion would be very risky.

I founded right at the start, started on a worker right out of the gate, and popped Pottery from the nearby hut, like I would presume most other players did. Montezuma beat me to the other nearby hut. Shortly thereafter, we meet the Russians, who are part of a team.

Uh. This is kind of cramped, isn't it? Why don't we research Archery for defense, then Mining and Bronze to see if we've got any copper? After I finished the worker, I built a barracks. Nope, no military here, I'm taking a risk there will be a grace period until I can get up a 4-XP archer.

I should say a word about Tokugawa in this game. For those of you complaining about his performance this game -- did you see how wretched his start position is?

The discovery of Bronze Working reveals copper in the third ring from Karakorum. Great! Here is The Plan: I will not ever settle another city. Those settlers cost a lot, why bother when you can have others pay for them? Instead, I'll take all of them by means of war, starting with city raider I axes. It looks like Montezuma is my first target, as he's nearby and NOT part of a team.

I get up my barracks and an archer (phew), while next researching Agriculture (to develop the nearby corn) and then Animal Husbandry (to check out if we have any horses).

To be continued ... as usual. 8)

[Dark Savant]

Pity, no nearby horses. Research continues Mysticism (obelisks) -> Writing (libraries and open borders) -> Iron Working (iron, and all that jungle Tokugawa is stuck with).

I get up a cheap granary in Karakorum ... and somewhere along the line I notice that somehow we have Metal Casting? Tokugawa must have popped it. Hehe, well, time to build a forge in Karakorum as well before cranking axes.

Cathy founds St. Petersburg close enough to Karakorum to threaten my control of the copper. I'll have to keep an eye on that.

Tokugawa turns out to have iron, but takes forever to connect it. And by forever, I mean a couple thousand years ... Anyway, Mathematics is next, en route to catapults.

I have four axes and an archer ready in 1420 BC, and I declare on Montezuma!

[Dark Savant]

I have a bit of bad combat luck and lose three axes, but I take Tenochtitlan in 1300 BC. However, I had taken the time to build a library in Karakorum , so I have to wait a bit before I can move on to Montezuma's other city (cities? eh, unlikely).

The capture of Teotihuacan is accomplished in 825 BC, eradicating Montezuma, and I promptly set about to develop his former land (very good land, incidentally, complete with horses and iron). When it became clear I had enough axes, I had Karakorum work on Stonehenge, which completed in 930 BC, and I followed it up with a try at the Pyramids, which completed in 440 BC, the same year China finished the Oracle.

Somewhere in here, Team Europe (Cathy and Frederick) declared war on Team Asia (Asoka and Qin Shi Huang), but it didn't accomplish anything other than relieve my worries of a sneak attack by one of them.

[Zeviz]

How did the rest of your game go?

I'd like to see how well your early aggression worked out.

[Atlas]

Tokugawa turns out to have iron, but takes forever to connect it. And by forever, I mean a couple thousand years

Same thing happenned to me it was very :mad: .

[Dark Savant]

Right, sorry for being slow. This is late enough to count as shadow-land, perhaps, but I played and finished LONG before the deadline. Sorry again!

I was wrong about the Team Europe vs. Team Asia war; it wasn't obvious at all until I saw the replay, but several cities were captured and/or razed, but left neither team at a clear advantage.

Team Middle East is researching at a good clip, though, and wraps up the Hanging Gardens -- in AD 50! I usually get that one by an enormous margin, but not this game, especially because I was too tied up building axes and catapults. Team ME also wraps up Angkor Wat in AD 140. Sheesh.

War is declared on Russia/Germany late in the BC era; the first move of the war is to capture that doggone St. Petersberg claiming my copper, and it falls quickly. Team Asia also takes this opportunity to start another war with Team Europe and keeps them busy on the other side. It is, however, still a serious struggle to take Moscow (just when I thought I had it, Germany shows up with this big stack of reinforcements! :mad: ), which falls in AD 530, and I immediately take peace to regroup (Tokugawa in the meantime has successfully picked off a city in the backlines, go Japan!) I celebrate by finishing the Great Library in AD 550.

(continued in next post, will do this AND Epic 3 tonight in this fashion)

[Dark Savant]

Somewhere in this time, Confucianism spreads to Mongolian lands and I quickly spread it everywhere. I spend the next couple dozen of turns re-inventing my axes as maces and cranking out wonders in my capital -- I get Notre Dame in AD1010. Just as I discover Engineering, Tokugawa uses a saved engineer to slam-dunk the Hagia Sophia shortly thereafter. Thanks for stealing the great people points! :mad:

Oh, Russia. After those wonders I declare on Russia and sweep Cathy off the map with a mean glance and a flick of the wrist, and take a decent-sized chunk out of Germany before war weariness starts to become a serious hassle and I call off the assault.

I manage to finally found a religion, Islam. Then Tokugawa uses another saved engineer to slam-dunk the Spiral Minaret. Well, ok, you can have that one. In fact, I think it's such a good idea that I slam-dunk Versailles in ex-Russia.

But what's this? I still haven't built a settler all game, and China has all these cities around mine. I have enough cultural oomph to push Qin Shi Huang, but you know, there's a faster way to resolve the cultural conflict.

[Dark Savant]

Those city raider III macemen were getting bored, so they were shifted north from ex-Russia and set loose upon China's border cities after I was done with that wonder mini-frenzy. And by border, I mean two cities right next to my territory, readily bombarded and captured.

The next city after that would be Beijing, but (again) Qin's teammate Asoka showed up with a lot of might that took a while to dispatch before I finally managed to take Beijing. With war weariness already becoming a serious pain again, I make peace and regroup.

And by regroup, I mean pull the fairly usual discover Liberalism (AD1535) -> grab Nationalism -> slam-dunk Taj Mahal with saved great engineer -> go on a building frenzy route.

That doesn't mean all was peaceful, though. I hadn't actually used Keshiks much -- they're not actually so hot at taking cities without serious groundpounder backup. Now, however, I was researching Military Tradition and looking forward to building cavalry.

Right now, though, I hadn't quite gotten there yet, so I exchanged maces for some grenades and muskets, declared war on China/India again in AD 1635, and this time none could stand against my superior technology. Tokugawa by this point was becoming a formidable force in his own right, supported by my economy, and managed to snag a couple of back-line Chinese cities. China was out by AD 1700. Among China's toys was the Confucian holy city; that plus the Islamic city helped greatly to fuel research.

[Dark Savant]

Hey, the Germans are still around? Just the perfect testing ground for my shiny new cavalry. About half of Germany falls before war weariness rises high enough for me to stop, but it's enough for me to take Berlin.

At this point we had a significant tech lead, and the only serious opponent left was Team Middle East. And you know what that means ... war is declared in AD 1835! But not until I build the Great Lighthouse in AD 1830. On the peaceful side, I next score the coup of building both big bronze statues (Colossus, Statue of Liberty) in the same year, AD 1845.

After declaring war, I wait for the inevitable wave of attackers, clear them out, then march on and take two Persian cities north of India. Peace is declared as the next city, the capital Persepolis is just too far away and too well defended for now. I take a pit stop to build the Pentagon in AD 1902, then declare on India in the next cycle.

Germany, however, puts a serious monkey wrench in this plan by being called in as a war ally against us almost right away. The cumulative residual war weariness caused unhappiness to dramatically shoot up. I had to up the luxury tax, but Tokugawa wasn't handling it well at all. I can only take a couple of border Indian cities before I have to make peace. I'm now real upset at the Germans, and I repay them by wiping them out in 1932.

By this time Japan actually has a LOT more military than I do. It would be real scary, were he not a guaranteed ally. Even so, what Tokugawa does with his monstrously large stacks is to pillage all the land around enemy cities, then bombard and capture them. Um, maybe you shouldn't have pillaged the land clean in that case?

Isabella, all alone and peaceful all this time, finally decides to mix things up by launching an offensive against Team Middle East (she had some two-headed hydra action going on and was actually doing very well considering she wasn't even on a team). Of course, this is the perfect opportunity to restart the war, in AD 1942.

By this time victory is inevitable, and the fights have become one-sided enough that I'll spare you the details. I took extra time just to watch Tokugawa use his enormous stacks to take cities. The other factor slowing me down was the absolute absence of the modern resources on our side of the map; I haven't read any reports yet in full, that might have shafted those who took too long. Domination achieved in AD 2002. Oh, and while I DID build a lonely settler, it never settled. Honest!