All the World's a Stage: And I'm Just the Stagehand.

[Antoninus]

Interesting scenario. First, I checked the list of world wonders, since only those tending to produce
artists and engineers would be available to me. This put an interesting spin on things:

Artistic wonders:
- The Parthenon
- Notre Dame
- Broadway
- Hollywood

Engineering wonders include:
- The Pyramids
- The Hanging Gardens

And of the national wonders, I could build
- Heroic Epic
- National Epic

My overall strategy can be summed up as follows. Just win, baby. I’ll be lucky if I can win. I’ve only won at Monarch
once before, so this challenge for me has nothing to do with the scoring system. I’ll keep my score, but my strategy
here is simple: Win, on Monarch, with these scenario restrictions.

Seeing no reason to consider anywhere else, I settled in place.
Went with a worker first since it would
only take 12 turns. Needed agriculture right away (13 turns) to farm the rice fields to my capital’s east. With
Elizabeth being Philosophical, the Parthenon would really be the wonder of all wonders for her special traits.
But the Pyramids would be great, too, since it was one of the few wonders available to me to build
(because of its potential to produce a Great Engineer). Also discovered stone to the southwest of my capital,
so hooking that up would speed up the Pyramids. Could I build both the Parthenon and the Pyramids?
Must prioritize.

Wow. Those lovely villagers just to the south of my capital gave me Masonry. Perfect, since The Pyramids
were one of the few early world wonders that I would be able to build. What a stroke of good luck.
Now, if I can only get that stone hooked up just to the southwest, I’d really be in bidness.

In 3040 BC a lion takes out one of my two warriors. This was the sentry for my planned second city,
so that set me back quite a bit. In 2830 BC I lost my other warrior. Wow, I think this is going
quite well.

Research: I went agriculture, masonry (from the villagers, for the Pyramids), animal husbandry (the cows),
the wheel (to hook up the stone to the south), bronze working (to chop the Pyramids). As it turns out,
I ended up connecting the stone before getting BW, so the Pyramids finished (1030 BC) before I could really
chop any of the forests around town.

In 2640 BC some of my citizens discover Hinduism, but it’s just a superstition. Our civilization would
not consider any of these silly superstitions, at least not as state religions.

Here are my two cities in 640 BC:



In 385 BC:



If I wanted the Parthenon, I would need Mysticism and then Polytheism, and I was able to build it in 385 BC. Cool.

Next I tried beelining to Literature, getting writing and alphabet on the way. Would Napoleon trade techs with me?

I gained a great engineer, but saved him for more important things. Once I reached Literature, I queued up the
National Epic in my capital, and my Great Engineer helped me build it in one turn. Cool. My capital could now
produce Great people by the bushel (100% for philosophical leader, 100% due to the National Epic, and
50% because of the Parthenon). Now, whether I can actually DO anything with those Great Persons
is another question.

I discover Drama in 845 AD. That’s not going to win me any awards.

And speaking of winning. This sceanario cried out for a cultural victory. The farther into the game I got the
more I thought about trying for that. Could I win a cultural victory without the assistance of any of the
religions or religious buildings? On Monarch? Needless to say, I had my doubts.

It wasn’t until the 1200’s that I met any other civs. Huayna Capac sailed by in his shiny new caravel,
and we celebrated his discovery of my continent by trading a few technologies.

The Sistine Chapel was a key wonder for me, because not only would it help create Great Artists,
but it gave me 2 culture for each specialist. Since Elizabeth was a philosophical civ, I had
lots of those. Thank goodness my capital produced another Great Engineer in 1490. I quickly ordered
him to rush the production of the Sistine Chapel.



I love that wonder movie. I sometimes build the Sistine Chapel just to watch it.

My building phase continued peacefully into the 1600’s, when Napoleon finally got fed up with me,
decided that this island was not big enough for the both of us, and declared war. My strategy the entire game
was to stay friendly with him, being that he was my only neighbor, to keep him from invading, and allow
me to build peacefully. I gave him technologies as gifts. I responded positively to every demand he made.
I kissed his little Assembly Line, if-you-know-what-I-mean-and-I-think-that-you-do. But my good relations
efforts had finally run their course.

He pillaged my western border, but by using the draft to get 3 macemen each turn, I managed to survive.
Eventually I had to give him Nationalism just to get him to go home. I admit it, I have the negotiating
prowess of Dan Quayle.

Here’s why he declared on me:



”We WILL take your city, Napoleon. Grenoble is the future victim of our world class culture.”

This is interesting:



I don’t think I’ve seen a Barbarian city with three riflemen before. Usually these cities are taken
out before they get this far advanced.

Wait a minute. … What’s this?

“Mansa Musa wins a Time Victory”

Huh? In 1850?

Why isn’t it 2050? Even looking at the Victory screen, it says “Time Victory:1850.”
Guess I should have noticed that sooner. All along I figured I had until 2050, thinking I mainly had to
obtain my cultural victory before any of the AI’s launched their ships.

Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.


“All the World’s a Stage: And, do you need me to sweep up before closing down the theater tonight?”


Scoring:

o --- For winning the game
12 --- 3 pts - Per great artist you acquire (Hey? I just noticed my Statistics screen lists “0” Great
Artists, but I know I produced at least 4? Hmm.)
12 --- 3 pts - Per (legal!) world wonder (not project) built
0 --- 1 pt - Per broadcast tower your civilization contains at the end of the game
14 --- 2 pts - Per city you control of size 10 or greater at the end of the game
0 --- 5 pts - For building The Internet …
845 AD --- 5 pts - First to Drama
NA --- 5 pts - First to Mass Media (never made it there)
0 --- 5 pts - First to build the Globe Theatre (I built it, but did not document when it was)
0 --- 5 pts - First to make contact with all 5 AI civs (Did not document when this occurred)
9917 --- 5 pts - Highest culture in 1500 AD in a single city. Great works do not count, so subtract the
culture each city gained from any great works. (Wasn't sure how to subtract, but it shouldn't matter, its not like I'm going to win anything. )

[Galileo44]

Another person caught by the change to Epic speed not changing the number of turns in the game. But nice to see people reporting!

[sooooo]

Er, yeah, sorry about that. I posted in the info thread a solution, but I apologise for the mess-up.

[Clovis]

I (did not report) followed a similar stragegy to yours, except I did not expand nearly quick enough to get enough of the continent to stay alive with Napoleon edging me over the White Cliffs of Dover. As a result, I got the first couple wonders you did, but lost the rest of them to Huayna Capac, and had to retire around 1700 AD. (The reason I didn't report.)