Adventure 9 - Jonathan's report

[jonottawa]

Hi, first timer, my report is pretty sucky but here it is:

1 AD

Started the game. Doesn’t look too challenging (or stagnant, even.) Sweet city spots and the worker prohibition is almost meaningless (Seville grows in 3 turns to size 6, Barcelona in 6 turns, Cordoba in 7 turns, Madrid in 8 turns.) I plan to build workers in Seville, Barcelona, and Cordoba and to grow Madrid, so I hammer the granary out a little earlier in Madrid at the cost of a few slices of bread.

I note that I’m running some unit cost and delete the warrior in Salamanca, the warrior in Madrid and the warrior in Toledo. I send archers out exploring.

I also max out hammers in Salamanca to get that obelisk out and get at those cows. Moo!

I switch research to Alphabet (not that I’ll be discovering it anytime soon with my 0% research rate, which I probably won’t switch until I build some libraries) and switch most city production to granaries. I even have hereditary rule, so unhappiness is not an issue.

25 AD

I see forces massing on Saladin’s border. This does not rock. Hope it’s a false alarm.

50 AD

The Axeman/Chariot pair enters my cultural borders, but thankfully no declaration of war.

75 AD

My first worker build begins in Seville.

125 AD

Oops, guess I should have noticed I haven’t researched mining yet. That’s one technology I can afford and so I switch from Alphabet (5 bulbs down the wrong pipe, oh well.)

150 AD

Parthenon built somewhere. Saladin gets Theology. I meet Mansa. Worker#2 production begins in Barcelona.

175 AD

Great Lighthouse built somewhere. Saladin adopts Theocracy. Uh oh. Worker#3 production begins in Cordoba.

200 AD

Guess Saladin was going after that Barbarian city on my east. I’m going to follow him in and see if I can take it with a couple of archers after he weakens the defenders. Unfortunately, Hatty got it from the other side, just barely too, sigh.

325 AD

Saladin sent some workers over to help me with road construction. Thanks Buddy!

400 AD

Sistine is built somewhere.


520 AD

I’m up to 7 workers. That’s more like it.

640 AD

Caesar declares on Elizabeth. The two civs that history has forgotten duke it out.

660 AD

Empire is finally connected by roads

1040 AD

Catching up is hard. Great Library is built somewhere else.

1200 ADish

Declare on Qin. Capture city (only had 1 defender.) He immediately recaptures it with an unexpected horde of defenders. War goes poorly, stalemate.

1360 ADish

Finally first to discover a technology, Paper. Will hold it until one other gets close so I can start on Education.

1450 AD

Hatty is close to discovering Paper but I think I can squeeze one more turn out of it.

1460 AD

Doh! Hatty discovers Paper. I get what I can for it. 5 turns until I discover Education. Hope that’s soon enough.

1505 AD

I’m first to discover Education, but Hatty is offering me a pittance for it. I just know she’s going to beat me to Liberalism by 1 turn, sigh.

1510 AD

I catch a big break. Hatty hasn’t discovered Education yet so I can still get max trade value for it and have a decent shot at first to Liberalism (4 turns.)

1520 AD

2 turns until I get Liberalism. If I get it first, I really like my chances. Please, please, please … A flurry of trades this turn so I can pick up economics first as well.

1525 AD

Woo hoo! Stagnant no more! First to liberalism and economics

1610 AD

I discover rifling. Nobody else has replaceable parts. On to Steam Power and Assembly Line.


1645 AD

I got sidetracked by Democracy. With only 7 cities, the Statue ain’t all she’s cracked up to be, but laying some Emancipation hurt down is always nice and better the lady in my hands than in someone else’s.

1800 AD

Finally have a nice-sized Infantry stack to go after Qin with. I retake Xian (Qin’s Forbidden Palace is in there and even if I can’t hold it this should cripple Qin since his empire is pretty mediocre anyway.)

1834 AD
I build the Pentagon and prepare to take out 3 of Saladin’s cities.

1844 AD

I capture Sakae (Versailles is a nice bonus.)

1860 AD

After a reasonably quick and painless war against Saladin, it’s time for a ‘civil war’ in order to knock my last serious rival, Hatty, out of contention. She’s got 2 cities (Heliopolis and Sarmatian, the barbarian city I just missed out on eons ago) I could surprise attack with tanks and neither one is well defended but since they both also have forest cover, I decide to chance it and send the marines in with cannons to soften her up first. I hope I’m not being too complacent, but I begin building Rock N Roll and the Eiffel tower on the same turn that I declare on Hatty. She’s got a few infantry, but hasn’t discovered combustion yet, so I don’t have to worry about the choppers of death or tanks.

1862 AD

Both cities fall without friendly casualties. Hatty is a pretty inept general, she didn’t reinforce either city. I expected peace to rapidly ensue, but Hatty just never got her act together and I ended up conquering virtually her entire empire, knocking her from first place to last place in 13 turns.

1886 AD

After capturing all but 3 of Hatty’s cities, I’m ready to go into spaceship mode. I give her a peace treaty.

1902 AD

I build the dam.

1910

I build Hollywood, completing all 3 of the modern happy wonders.

Time passes ... UN built (I'm Sec Gen, but no hope for diplomatic.) Internet Built. I get bored. Let’s finish off Qin!

Qin puts up a whale of a fight. He’s outgunned and outteched, but the Chinese hordes manage a few tactical victories on the way to strategic defeat. I take Xian (I gave it back to Qin when it threatened to flip to Hatty,) Shanghai and Hangzhou and make peace with Qin again in 1941 (a turn after I built the elevator.)

1953 rolls around, my spaceship is a handful of turns from completion, I decide one last war will work. I declare on Saladin and by using English territory as a launch pad, capture Neapolis in 1953. With one turn to go before the spaceship I capture Medina and Basra in 1958.

I launch in 1959.

Was a fun adventure. I thought it was too easy at first, then I thought I'd never catch up (I was probably 20 techs behind the tech leader at one point) and once the modern era arrived (Paper was the turning point) I dominated, although I wasn't able to bring proceedings to the appropriate conclusion as quickly as I would have liked.

[Sirian]

Sistine is built somewhere.

Not sure why, but that struck that me as funny.

I like the pithy and somewhat irreverant comments. Could be the beginning of a style point that helps build a voice for your efforts. The dates are too intrusive and tend to dominate over the writings, though. Some dates are needed, but anything that makes your report read more like a log or sheaf of notes could be improved.

I'm sure that if you have the inclination, you could chisel away some of the rough edges and end up with a very smooth and entertaining read. This is meant to be encouragement for the future. Hope to see you again soon. Maybe in Epic Six? (Still time to jump in on the first AW!)


- Sirian

[jonottawa]

As I said, it was a sucky report. Given the exceptionally high quality of reports out there and the elevated skill and experience levels of most of the players who write them, I don't see investing that amount of time unless I play a game that I'm really proud of. This wasn't one. I look forward to seeing if I can improve on my performance in Adventure 10.

Kudos to others, though. I've been blown away by what I've seen and read.