Epic 9 - zakalwe

[zakalwe]

I played this one to completion and had a great time. Looks like I won't have time for a full report, though, so here's a short summary in text/plain, written entirely from memory.

I decided to build no boats and play for a spaceship victory. I founded 7 cities, their placement influenced by the (correct) assumption that most of my sea squares would be unworkable due to naval blockades. My second city went directly on the southern stone, which meant I could grab the 'henge and pyramids without founding a city in the arid north. (Once I had chain irrigation, I founded my Iron Works city in the "true" Iron Works location N-N-NE of the original capital). City #3 was my main commerce city, founded two north of where many people founded, on the east coast just south of the dyes. I founded a military factory on the plains on the west coast (another popular site) and two more filler cities. In total I wasted a grass hill and a desert hill.

I founded christianity and islam, both by means of great prophet lightbulbs, and both in my commerce city. (This was not entirely coincidental, as I took steps to make this outcome more likely.) I also moved my palace there, for a few more commerce (from the palace, not Bureaucracy). My research prioritized calendar (lots of yummy resources), civil service (for chain irrigation), banking (for mercantilism), liberalism (grabbing astronomy) and then railroads. From that point on, it was a traditional space race, which went mostly according to plan, except that Peter executed a successful beeline to physics while I wasn't looking, nabbing the free scientist.

I think I literally saw a single landing before I got to railroads; at least the first one was two combat I axemen from Tokugawa (guess they were upgraded warriors, why else would he build them without barracks?) and the second one featured grenadiers. With railroads, I could hit any landing with my best forces, which combined with my tech lead gave me an insane kill ratio. (I have to look up the numbers, but it was on the order of 100:1). I believe my highest losses were in mechanized infantry (!), since I was using ambush-promoted MIs as tank busters, and eventually lost a couple of those.

At first I was slightly worried that I might not get the required techs in time, and that could indeed have been a problem if I had gone for more of the optional techs (like flight). My main concern, though, was losing to a UN vote, but Gandhi only completed the UN in 2021, the same year that I launched my spaceship. Gandhi was my prime competitor, having landed all of the important wonders that I missed: The oracle, great library, colossus, taj mahal, and statue of liberty. (Boy was I hoping to pop a bronze for that last one!)

Writing this summary reminds me how fun I actually had playing this. The suspense was great, as I was very unsure just how strong my economy could grow without trading partners and coasts (health was a minor issue as well). I only wish I had the time and skill to convey that suspense in a well-written report. I'll post an update if I get around to writing one, but don't hold your breath

[Compromise]

Awesome! I wondered if it was possible to not attack and win by spaceship. And after playing, I actually didn't think it was. Great job!

[sooooo]

Sweet! I'd be very much interested if you have time to write a full report .

[LKendter]

Congrats - you actually achieved the goal I hoped to pull off.

[zakalwe]

Thanks guys, I'll see if I can upload some screenshots tomorrow to make this a bit more interesting. I'm pleased that no-one beat my launch date so far; I guess you were all too busy conquering the world or something .

One thing I forgot to mention is that the lack of both bureauracy and free speech obviously hampered my research (either one could have been leveraged to great effect). As usual, the three most important things in pulling off the space win were research, research, and research. To that end, 5 of my 7 cities were focusing solely on commerce. Maybe that should have been 6 out of 7, or even 7 out of 8 (which would have enabled the forbidden palace). The main thing, though, was to build one super science city, which I did. It had just enough food to cottage every available land tile, while still on the coast to get a not entirely insignificant boost from the great lighthouse. It got a number of merged specialists and almost made it to 500 beakers in the end. I was running 90% research all the time except during the early expansion - despite my two shrines and some settled moneymakers I never made it to 100%, due to inflation.

Expansive was a nice boost for me, since I had very few health resources and few of my cities had fresh water. I even took the time to research the off-path medicine, for hospitals, since I really couldn't spare any food to unhealthiness.

Heh. Looks like this might incrementally turn into a report after all

[zakalwe]

Congrats - you actually achieved the goal I hoped to pull off.

And you popped the copper I was hoping for! I was actually considering going for a time victory as well, though it would certainly have been risky. My thinking was, that staying third in population (actually I think it was more like last) I would avoid being a candidate and thus hopefully a UN loss. But sand-bagging the spaceship in order to win by time didn't feel right, so it was really more of a back-up plan.

I can relate to your pain regarding AI landings. Trust me, it was a lot easier with just a single, railroaded continent

[zakalwe]

Some screenshots from the final turn.

My northern cities.



The south. There used to be more cottages (and forests), but I farmed over some of them late in the game.



My Iron Works city, producing the final space part. That great engineer was actually merged just a few turns previously, shaving a single turn off the build



My commerce city, with two shrines. I also got hinduism from Toku early (that's how we gained contact) and used that to improve the holy city odds by spreading it to all of the other cities.



Finally, my not-so-heavy losses:



And kills (OK, I did exaggerate my kill ratio, but just 5 casualties in AW is pretty neat):

[uberfish]

Congrats, looks like you made very good use of the available space.

I like the shot where you're being harrassed by a mix of battleships, ironclads and galleys...