Epic 13 - Ug goes mad and orange

[Ug the Barbarian]

A return for me to the Epics after missing a couple with real world issues.

I start as the Dutch. I've never played them before but Creative and Financial are two of my favourite traits.
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[size=2]After recent dealings with Shell Oil and their large dutch contingent, I thought I'd use 'Mad Orange Scientists' as a personal theme to the game.
Hence my objective is to win by Space Race (so I can check out new changes) but I also want to check out Apostolic Palace options if possible on the way.

Whilst the UU will probably be fairly useless on a fractal map, the dikes could be really useful. Deliberately won't use the known issues (Great Wall->Early Spy Bomb, early Military Academies) but old favourites (e.g. Oracle boost, push to Civil Service) are fair game.

Start looks nice enough spot. Decide to move 1 north to get Plains hill, Incense, Flood Plains and grassland at cost of Clams.

Warriors go off exploring to NW and SE. Start Animal Husbandry and Worker build.

Pop a scout from hut to SE and he in turn pops gold from huts twice and another scout as well as contacting the Khmer.

Meanwhile a hut map pop to the NW shows the Mayan border and eventually makes contact with them.

As AH and worker complete simultaneuosly, move onto Mining and Barracks.

Continue exploring lots of territory - find the Babylonians and Byzantines (with Buddhism) but still to encounter a foreign unit. Are they exploring ?

Also Mining -> Wheel. Locate the Portugese in what looks to be the SE point of the continent in 3250AD and still haven't seen an opposing unit so far. Surely the other civs must have started with 2 units as well ?

Barracks -> Settler. Exploration continues despite loss of a scout and a warrior to ferocious bears :-(

Wheel -> Pottery -> Hunting

Tragedy strikes as a forest fire rages near Amsterdam - costs me 10g to put it out

Hunting -> Archery and Settler -> Granary

Utrecht founded up near Justinian's western border, hopefully netting Fish, Silk, Cows and Wheat in 2575BC. Its coastal hill location is hopefully strong enough to resist any attacks it might receive.

One of my returning wounded scouts gets assistance from villagers (1 xp) - they're being posted into fog busting roles now that I've explored almost all that I can without open borders. Unfortunately the scout in question gets eaten by panthers a couple of turns later.

Archery -> Writing - slip an Archer build in middle of Amsterdam's Granary.

Find second Mayan city to the south so the other civs must be expanding even if I don't see any of their units moving outside their borders.

The Byzantine do the same a couple of turns later, founding a city in what I hope to be a cultural hell for them soon



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[Ug the Barbarian]

We move onto Writing -> Mysticism -> Sailing and Amsterdam goes Granary -> Settler

The Khmer grab Judaism and I sign open borders with Justinian, hoping to get some religious spread.

Sailing -> BW and we strike motherload for extra gold near Amsterdam.
Not popping a new resource but a bit of extra cash for flavour
Buddhism spreads to Utrecht and I sign OB with the Babylonians.

The Hague is founded in 1800BC, surrounding my first potential victim



Give in to Justinian's demand to adopt Buddhism and start building the Oracle in Utrecht

Alphabet comes in 1250BC and we try some trading - Writing for Polytheism is all thats available. Yeah - Mad Orange Science is in the lead already with my nice starting location.

Oracle built and we take Metal Casting for Forges

[Ug the Barbarian]

Expansion continues and we get a religion with Code of Laws - not that I really plan to use it.

Amsterdam gets a master blacksmith as the miltiary buildup starts with linkup of iron and horses.

Unfortunately Byzantine's culture trapped city is holding out too well and keeping my scientists from lots of lovely flood plains. More direct measures are called for ...

Declare war on the Byzantine's in 350BC and Thessalonica is first to suffer , falling in 335BC without loss.

Great Prophet born next turn and put to sleep for a bit - there's a plan brewing here :-)

Constantinople falls in 200BC and now I have the Buddhist religous city - one of the two main religious blocks forming. Its worth noting here that a number of city defenders seem to be whipped chariots. Probably be good against attacking axes but little use against my swordsmen. In Constantinople's case, defence consisted of 2 CG1 Archers and 3 Chariots



The Buddhist shrine is built there soon after and then Antioch falls in 65BC, inspiring the birth of my first General, Erwin Rommel :-)

He boosts the recovering main stack, taking all Swordsmen to City Raider 3. This then takes Nicea in 25AD. I then sign peace for all Justinian's gold (40) whilst I consolidate



The Khmer pop over next turn urging me to adopt Org Religion as I finish Construction - funnily enough I was just about to do so and can agree - relations boost is always nice even if you do expect a war soon. This is primarily as they head the Jewish religious block and the new closer borders don't help much either. However this might postpone matters until I'm ready

Hanging Gardens built in Amsterdam in 115D and then Byzantine war restarted in 235AD and we lay siege to hilltop Adrianople and its huge stack of defending archers.

Adianople falls in 445AD leaving Justinian with only one remaining city - I also finish Music for the free Great Artist the following turn. He's used to start a Golden Age.

I miss out on the Colossus but I'm near to completing the Great Library in Amsterdam when I also pop a Great Engineer.

Water of Life rumours at Oasis by the Hague boosts commerce and Great Library completes in 580AD. Great Engineer completes Sistine Chapel in Rotterdam soon after.

The last Byzantine city falls in 715AD and we have peace.

I had a long think at this point about how the Mad Orange Scientists should win the game. It would have been easy to push further for a domination victory as I had experienced Macemen with Trebutchets and Longbows facing archers and swordsmen. However most of the new content is late game military or other areas so I decided we'd continue to pursue the space race (with our significant tech lead) but add some more religious play as well to spice things up.

Unfortunately Jose II builds the Apostolic palace for Judaism before I can complete it and then wins the election - I wonder what would happen if I convert him to Buddhism ? Will the palace follow suite or stick with Judaism ?

[Ug the Barbarian]

The MOS are first to Liberalism in 1050AD as befits their rationale



and we also grab the free Great Merchant from Economics in 1240AD. As an experiment in the same year, I now get Jose to swap to Buddhism (I've converted all his cities) in a deal with Optics and 60g for Education. Hopefully the Apostolic Palace might swing over to Buddhism as well. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to at votes or next election :-( At least Jose is now a firm friend and isn't calling for a holy war against me.

I eventually find the Members tab from the Victory Sceen which makes the AP use a lot clearer...pity it took so long.

Perhaps the only route to sorting this one out is to conquer the Jewish holy city from the Khmer and swap to Judaism.

Quick military build up and then I invade Khmer with rifles and cavalry against their knights, macemen and longbows in 1445AD.

Hariharalaya falls in 1490AD - along with 2 shrines, Hagia Sophia etc.

First to Physics in 1530AD and Great Scientist goes onto build my third Academy for Mad Orange Scientists, this time in the Hague.

Angor Wat (the city) falls in 1545AD and I sign peace to consolidate - running the offence with one moderate stack while I continue to build infrastructure makes for slow going.

Notice something I hadn't seen before - Suryavaman becomes a vassal of Zara Yaqob immediately after I sign peace with him and the peace deal terms become immediately null and void (including gold per turn)....how annoying.

However with the arrival of Steam Power in 1555AD, I can build dikes...a real production boost on my river heavy territory.

Convert over to Judaism in 1595AD once all cities have it as religion - I'm still in Organised religion. Now we'll see if we can stop these annoying votes (stop fighting, give back cities) which I've been having to defy.

After a further period of peace and building, I get bored and a bit frustrated with the cultural pressure on one of the captured cities, Angor Wat. Only one easy solution - remove the source :-)

The Khmer have nicely stopped being vassals of the Ethiopians so they're vulnerable with only three cities on the main landmass. War declared in 1704AD with Infantry, MGs and Cannon against Grenadiers and Musketmen.

Angor Thom falls in 1710AD and Nagara Jayasri in 1722AD. I'm advancing on the final city when the Khmer surrender to Zara Yaqob and I find myself in a war with him as well. Lucky the northern border choke point is well defended :-)

Yasodharapura falls anyway in 1732AD and I would negotiate a peace deal as I no longer share a border with either opponent but neither will talk to me.

Here's a view of the Demographics - Mad Orange science ruling starting to dominate

[Ug the Barbarian]

I swap to Free Religion at this point. I have enough votes in the Apostolic Palace to defeat any motion raised so I'll settle for that as my repeated defying previously seems to have barred me from taking power indefinitely. Only sign of Zara Yaqob's forces is a landing of macemen and trebuchet's next to my chokepoint city. Not really a fair match & they're butchered immediately (I now have Tanks backing up my Infantry)

They finally concede peace in 1746AD giving me all their gold, 7g per turn and their world map. Now for the push the race to space.

I start the Apollo Program in 1786AD and completed in 1820AD. A lot of cities are building Labs and I've got GPs tucked away to start a Golden Age at a good point.

I also drop a Great Spy into Lisbon to boost my espionage with Portugal as despite being significantly behind me on techs, they have Fission which I'll need and they won't trade. As I've invested 0% all game, it'll need a few more turns before I can steal it though. Also building the Internet in one of my non space production cities as a fallback.

Start Golden Age in 1843AD to help finish thrusters, docking bay and Space Elevator. Complete the Internet in 1857AD for missing techs but will have to research Fission as it looks like a unique tech costs vast numbers of eps (32188 in this case).

Space Elevator complete in 1860AD - a bit late as I've only three modules to finish but every little helps.

My top production city focuses on the last spaceship part



and completes an SS Engine for Launch in 1884AD



I play around with building the UN and Hollywood while waiting for it to arrive - here's a quick view of the empire in 1900AD



Finally in 1903AD we win a space race victory.



A nice and relaxed game - it was interesting to try out the new units and some of the options. Certainly not an optimal approach & could probably have shaved at least another 20 turns off the launch date if I'd focused on it properly. Definitely in parts

Here's a quick view of the world map in 5BC



and final demographics



Thanks to Sulla for organising an interesting learning session for BTS - definitely a fan of the Dutch for water maps now