Adv 35 - Vive La Difference!

[Swiss Pauli]

Adventure 35 – Mach Five

A cute filler game during the long slog that is Epic 24, this Always Peace game can be won by diplomacy, or space. Space is the ‘purer’ builder’s game so I decide on this as my victory. With an AI that understands neither the implications of AP, nor of no barbs then this is simple race to space against the other players; my own victory is surely inevitable With no tech trading, and no events, the game itself will be, well, less than eventful, so it’s a good choice to have a quick game and a small map.

Picking up the action 1 turn in, I switch to Fishing, and change to a WB when the tech is complete (BC 3860, according to the log date). Seems like the best move, as the only worker action would be to farm the lakeside wines. After Fishing, AH (3520) is next to get the hammers from those plains cows. Then it’s the ol’ Mining-BW 1-2 (3340-2980).

Initial scouting with the starting warrior has revealed a small island with a good few decent coastal locations, so Great Lighthouse looks interesting, as does Colossus, seeing as we get 3c from coast, and there’s not so many grasslands for cottages. The first settler heads for the fish/silver/horse site near the capital, founding Orléans in BC 2620. With Sailing learnt in BC 2720, it’s already connected to Paris.

Here’s a map showing my planned cities:






I can see that our sponsor has presented the player with a dilemma: Stone or Marble? I think Pyramids, HG, and Oxford will be of primary importance, so I choose Stone. Conveniently, choosing stone will also speed Maoi, thus improving an otherwise mediocre fishing village. To settle this site will require a galley, and I don’t see any extreme urgency for the stone, so I first settle further west, founding Lyons (crab/silver/wines) in BC1960.

Techs learnt in between city two and three: Pottery (2560), IW (2260), Masonry (2080), and Writing (1960).

I get something of shock in BC 1720 as I learn of a distant civilization circumnavigating the globe! So much for ‘no contact until Optics’ that I was planning on. In other foreign news, Oracle completed in 1840, and I assume CoL was taken as Confucianism was founded the same turn. Great Wall completed in 1720.

I meet Rameses’ and Brennus’ WBs in 1600, having completed Great Lighthouse on the inter-turn. Maths completed in 1600 as well, and MC (completed 1120) selected for cheap forges and happiness as much as for Colossus. Rheims (see below) is founded and Pyramids started:





With the aid of one chop, Pyramids are completed in Paris in 1060. Stupidly, I adopt HR rather than REP pure as REP would give more happiness by far, as well as the tech boost, so let’s have another Moving swiftly on, may I present Tours:





Currency completed in 880, and I get a Merchant in Orléans in 800: Coco Chanel settles is Paris Hanging Gardens in Paris in 760. Having discovered CoL, I switch to Rep and Caste in 720. With some good food sites, Rep Merchants will allow me to expand rapidly without crashing the economy. Start work on CS. Colossus joins GL in 680, and I meet Asoka in 560 via cultural contact. My galley is out exploring, but has so far only mapped some of Egypt’s coast.

More cities:










As you can see, I’m about to complete CS, and shortly afterwards I get a GE who, far the lack of anything better, gets settled in Paris as I’ve decided this is a pseudo-OCC game. NE goes in Paris (bien sur) in BC 40 (the only marble building I needed was cheap in BUR-capital). Academy in 1AD. Another GE settled in 260AD. Let’s have a look at Paris, shall we:




Artist spam should be fairly under control, even with the pollution from the Salon’s artist. Onwards to Liberalism: with the tech rejig at the end of the tree, I don’t think sandbagging is quite as strong as it was, and Asoka is pretty competitive, so I bag Electricity in 650AD. I think I revolted to FR but my screenshot is inconclusive :blush: Decided to grab the free Spy from the Commies (680); no idea whether that paid out…I’ll let T-Hawk do the maths


Get a GM in 770, who’s sent to Bibracte (cashed in 900 for 1407g). That’s how to make up for one lousy freakin’ musical from Broadway:





Actually, I’m sure it doesn’t really pay out, but doubling the happiness made me feel better

With Radio in hand, it was time for some backfill on the Medicine path: Guns (800), Construction (820), Eng (840), Chem (860), Bio (880), Medi (920). Va-va-voom, indeed. At this point, I now think it would have been wise to adopt Environmentalism, but I don’t think I did…hey-ho. Paris still had its forests, but already had NE and Oxford, so no Nat Park fun here

960 saw the first GA from Paris. Merde alors! He gets settled. With Steel completed on the same turn, I decide to put Ironworks in Tours. This is rubbish as Lyons, though having less hammers now, will be a better choice as it will benefit from a levee, and can build 3GD

Another GM cashed in 1040 for 1541g. Fridge was completed that turn, with Superconductors in 1080, and Genetics (and another GE) in 1140. The last one wasn’t strictly necessary, I just fancied entering the Future Age during the historical Dark Ages

Time to backtrack down the Feudalism path: Feud (1160), Guilds (1180), Banking (1210), Rep Parts (1220). The last tech being the goal to get those Parisian forests lumbermilled; the Banking path was rendered unimportant by 100% research due to cash bombs. More techs: Steam (1240), Rifling (1260 – no idea why), Rails (1280). Pretty obvious Steam-Rails combo. Now I have to get up to Democracy, as I actually had an angry citizen in Paris in 1280: quelle dommage! So, Nat (1300), Consti (1320), Demo (1340), Econ (1360). The latter tagged on the end for immediate Eman and FM switch. Another GE settled in Paris in 1360.

Arty (1380), Rocketry (1400), Corp (1420), Assembly (1440), Indy (1460), another GM bombed (1470 – 2077g). We have Alu, so time to get cracking with Apollo which is finished in Paris in 1500, where I settle another GS the same turn. Not much else to say about the game, as we’re onto parts. The only odd things I did was to go Fusion first to get the GE to complete 3GD in Lyons (1620), and complete the internet in Paris to get a whole bunch of annoying pop-ups: damned realistic this game, eh?

Spaceship launch in 16somethingorother…maybe 1695, and Asoka builds the UN soon afterwards:




Nice try, Mr No-Mates :neenernee



La Gloire:




















Corporations? *spit* :nono1: :nono1: :nono1: We French have no need for your stinking Anglo-Saxon scams! I fart in their general direction :thumbsdow

[Olodune]

Another GM cashed in 1040 for 1541g. Fridge was completed that turn, with Superconductors in 1080, and Genetics (and another GE) in 1140. The last one wasn’t strictly necessary, I just fancied entering the Future Age during the historical Dark Ages.

Genetics before democracy, eh? Well that is a tech path I don't see every day!

Nice read. And very fast tech in mid-game -- if you had those corps ... :neenernee

[T-hawk]

BTW, you know you can take off sign markers after you build the cities with Alt-S

Yeah, I thought as I started playing that marble would be better, but now I think stone was the better choice (for those not educated in the evil ways of forts ). Stone makes lots of builder wonders: Pyramids, Hanging Gardens, Sankore, Moai, and Oxford. Conversely, many Marble wonders were neutered or entirely obsoleted by this game setup: Parthenon (its short lifetime is not worth the permanent artist pollution), Mausoleum, Sistine Chapel, Taj Mahal, Heroic Epic.

Decided to grab the free Spy from the Commies (680); no idea whether that paid out…I’ll let T-Hawk do the maths

Ha, hard to say without knowing what you used the spy for.

Genetics before Feudalism

[Swiss Pauli]

Nice read. And very fast tech in mid-game -- if you had those corps ... :neenernee

I'm so lame at Corp management that on a quick replay, I managed to finish one later in that game than the original

Actually, a quick glance a my screenshots shows me that the AI used Merc a lot less in my original game. In the corp game, all three were in Merc/SP for a long time. Ill luck , or is the AI now aware of the danger of foreign corps?

Ha, hard to say without knowing what you used the spy for.

REP Superspecialist in Paris with all the science multipliers, bar Lab which came later (ca 1100).

[T-hawk]

680 AD would be about 70 turns before the tech tree was finished. We'll count half of the laboratory. 6 beakers x 337.5% x 70 turns = 1417 beakers, not quite equal to the cost of Communism. Plus the opportunity cost of researching Communism which delayed later techs (labs) slightly. So unless you got some use out of his EPs or some other benefit from Communism, it wasn't worth it.

(edited, forgot Oxford)