I went with the Kremlin and Pyramids as my wonders; idea was to switch to universal suffrage as soon as I had alphabet in (to make use of spies, from the inevitable Kremlin great spies), then cottage all the land and cash-rush everything I would ever need.
Interesting fact: I had not realized until reading some of the other Adventure 45 reports that the Kremlin bonus works for whipping as well
My game was a total mess. I never got more than maybe 8 techs out of my espionage economy early in the game, despite 3 great spies in a row at the start and investing all my EP against Mansa Musa. I badly suffered from the "quantity is its own quality" mass unit rush spam mindset that I had adopted for some of the Fall From Heaven II SP games I was playing at the same time, and attacked Egypt fairly early on with about 30 whipped, cash-rushed, and normally build Numidian Cavalry. I took all but 2 of his cities, but crippled my own civ in the process. I had to end that war after he vassalized to Rome. I came back and eliminated him entirely in the modern age, just for spite, before giving up on the game.
I later attacked Mansa with about a similar-size force of elephants & catapults, but had to call that one off after taking only 3 of his cities, because my cities had like -10 happy each from war-weariness (Mansa had airships and muskets at the time, so my losses were rather heavy).
There was only a single AI war declaration against anyone the entire game, Alexander declared war on Mansa Musa a few turns after I had made my own peace, and was able to vassalize him despite only razing a single city and residing across the ring.
Despite my badly managed economy and falling massively behind at the start due to spending far too many turns running 100% gold so that I could rush things I didn't need, having dozens of towns (for about 18 cities) & almost every econ multiplier rushed in every city led to some rather profound economic growth once I let the science flow. I was the third civ to reach the modern age, behind Rome and Byzantium. Justinian had workshopped over every single square in his empire, was about 4 techs ahead of me, and was clearly going to win by space before I could. I decided to rush-buy nukes in all of my cities to ensure that I would have plenty of time to make my own spaceship. A couple turns after I finished the Manhattan Project, however, I decided that my heart really wasn't in the game anymore, and victory by nuclear Armageddon seemed somewhat hollow. Also I had started FFH II PBEM I by that point, and was diverting most of my civ attention either to that game or the other two I'm in.
And so my game, and this report, came to a rather abrupt end.
Interesting fact: I had not realized until reading some of the other Adventure 45 reports that the Kremlin bonus works for whipping as well
My game was a total mess. I never got more than maybe 8 techs out of my espionage economy early in the game, despite 3 great spies in a row at the start and investing all my EP against Mansa Musa. I badly suffered from the "quantity is its own quality" mass unit rush spam mindset that I had adopted for some of the Fall From Heaven II SP games I was playing at the same time, and attacked Egypt fairly early on with about 30 whipped, cash-rushed, and normally build Numidian Cavalry. I took all but 2 of his cities, but crippled my own civ in the process. I had to end that war after he vassalized to Rome. I came back and eliminated him entirely in the modern age, just for spite, before giving up on the game.
I later attacked Mansa with about a similar-size force of elephants & catapults, but had to call that one off after taking only 3 of his cities, because my cities had like -10 happy each from war-weariness (Mansa had airships and muskets at the time, so my losses were rather heavy).
There was only a single AI war declaration against anyone the entire game, Alexander declared war on Mansa Musa a few turns after I had made my own peace, and was able to vassalize him despite only razing a single city and residing across the ring.
Despite my badly managed economy and falling massively behind at the start due to spending far too many turns running 100% gold so that I could rush things I didn't need, having dozens of towns (for about 18 cities) & almost every econ multiplier rushed in every city led to some rather profound economic growth once I let the science flow. I was the third civ to reach the modern age, behind Rome and Byzantium. Justinian had workshopped over every single square in his empire, was about 4 techs ahead of me, and was clearly going to win by space before I could. I decided to rush-buy nukes in all of my cities to ensure that I would have plenty of time to make my own spaceship. A couple turns after I finished the Manhattan Project, however, I decided that my heart really wasn't in the game anymore, and victory by nuclear Armageddon seemed somewhat hollow. Also I had started FFH II PBEM I by that point, and was diverting most of my civ attention either to that game or the other two I'm in.
And so my game, and this report, came to a rather abrupt end.
