Epic 13 Mike P in Cambodia

[mike p]

Epic 13 - Mike P’s Report

I drew the Khmers. The starting location looks OK, but it’s got water on two sides. I decide to move east along the coast and figure we can backfill the initial location with a somewhat production poor, but otherwise quite nice second or third city. This should also lower upkeep costs a bit my making my capitol more centralized.



By 3950BC, I founded Yasod...over the next bunch of turns, I popped just over 200 gold and Fishing from huts.

In 3575BC, my worker is done. I start a workboat for the fishies and build a camp on the jumbos. I’ll pasture the cows once Animal Husbandry is researched, which completes in 3500BC. No horses in immediate area, so we’d better research Archery, finished in 3250BC.

Research the Wheel next, to keep the workers busy and hook up the ivory and gold.

In the year 3200 BC, having already met the Buddhist Justinian, and Hammurabi and Pacal, I stumble across Willem and the Dutch. They’ve got about 20 flood plains and are Financial. I’m going to kill them first.

At this point, I’m spamming archers until Yasod reaches size 5, and then I’m going to pump out some settlers. Seeing that Willem also has gold and will be teching like a Musa, I’m going to spend the next couple thousand years coming up with a causus belli or two for a pretext to declare on him.

In 3050 BC, I catch a huge break when I develop Tower Shields. All of my melee units get free cover promotions which means we’re definitely going for some sort of conquest or domination victory. They really ought to do something to balance out this type of event better. Perhaps if one my units gets defeated then the enemy Civ could start building units with Tower Shields as well or something like that, presuming that they’ve copied the technology captured from my defeated units. It just doesn’t make sense that no other Civ picks up on something so militarily useful.



In 2950 BC Hinduism is founded by Pacal. Is that some sort of record? Seems awfully late to me. By 2350BC I’ve founded my second city, which we’re going to just refer to as Hari. If Firaxis had added Canada as a Civ, I might have fewer spelling problems with my reports at least.

Shortly thereafter I complete a granary in my capitol and on the next turn get the event that causes all of my stored food to disappear. Since this event doesn’t come up until you’ve built a granary, the net effect is that building a granary slowed down my growth, at least for now. Sometimes I guess it’s just better to let food pile up in the streets or something.

I’m cruising along now and it’s 2050BC, I’ve just completed Iron Working and I see two iron deposits within reach, one east of Yasod and the other north of Hari. The northern spot is probably a little bit better, as it is on a river and can work gems and sugar as well, but the eastern spot also gets a flood plain and a jumbo, and can push back Hammurabi and keep him away from the iron, so I’ll settle there first. Meanwhile I want to build a farm at Hari but realized that I never bothered to research Agriculture.

Here’s a shot of my capitol circa 1950BC:


By 1875BC I have a library up at Hari, which is food rich, so I’m going to hire scientists and use the GP to build an Academy in my capitol. By 1700BC Angkor Thom is built by the eastern iron site, which really hems in Hammurabi. As it turns out, by moving east and then settling further east, I’ve trapped him between the sea and a couple of Imperialistic civs and Hammurabi will be in the basement for scoring for as long as he survives due to lack of good terrain.



I finish up Math and start on Calendar so we can get the sugar hooked up, and dye with another border expansion from Angkor Wat (my fourth city, and the last one I built myself).

In 950 BC the Academy is built in Yasod. I spend the next 800 years building up Catapults, Ballista Elephants, Cover Swords and Axes. I’ve got four cities and they’re all pumping out units for a while.

In 140 BC I declare on Willem. Here’s my stack:

He’s got just archers, axes and spears, which are no match for my more advanced forces. He’s wiped out by 40AD. He did manage to found Judaism at some point prior and it’s well on its way to becoming the dominate religion in the world. Someday I’ll need a Great Prophet for the shrine.

I was planning on waiting a bit to rebuild my forces before declaring on Justinian, but I definitely didn’t want to wait around for Cataphracts. The next turn after the Dutch were eliminated, I saw him sending an escorted settler by my borders, so after checking the power graph, I attacked early to wipe out the settler.


Justinian had built a couple of cities in the jungles between me and the Dutch, so he definitely had to go next anyway. At this time I also get the literacy quest, which is nice because I’m Creative, already have six libraries built, and am about 5 or 6 turns from completing the Great Library in Yasod. Quite a fortunate little coincidence there.


In 115 AD, I complete the Mausoleum in Angkor Thom, which pretty much guarantees that I have cultural dominance over Hammurabi to the east, and I use the Great Artist from Music to start a Golden Age. I complete the Great Library in 160AD, whip my last library, and take the free scientist as a reward.

Later on, I missed the Colossus by 3 turns, partly because I didn’t have copper and partly because I had something else in the queue behind the Forge and forgot to switch to the Colossus when the forge was done. Oops.

In 580 AD, I get another very easy quest, the master blacksmith quest. I check through my cities and having captured two forges from Justianian and built one in Amerstadam, I appear to already have the seven forges required. I decide to finally adopt a state religion to open another reward, and convert to Judaism. Next turn I take a free engineer specialist in my capitol.

My good luck continues when Portugal completes the Apostolic Palace for Judaism a few turns later. I lose the first election, but every one has at least 2 Jewish cities, so the AP is obviously going to be pretty important. I figure I might be able to use it to force a diplomatic victory. I also finally discover where Portugal is. I thought for about 4000 years that the ocean started after Babylon. I definitely could do a better job scouting, that’s for sure.

I don’t recall when exactly I finished wiping out Justinian, but he never got more advanced than Horse Archers, Archers and Swords, so he went down pretty easily. He also popped a great prophet in Constantinople while my catapults were reducing its defenses. He was nice enough the build the Mahabodhi there on the turn before I captured his capitol.

In 775, I’ve declared on Hammurabi. My initial plan was to wipe him out and then, with my eastern flank secure, go after the Mayans. Of course, knowing what I know now about geography, the Portugese will still be there to the east. But since Hammurabi is the only Civ without Feudalism, I absorb him quite easily. Luckily, one of his Bowmen wandered into my territory and I got a free golden age from the Marathon event in 775 AD. I’m getting huge boosts from the random events here.

In 860, the national sports league quest comes up. Someone’s already built the Statue of Zeus, but I have a couple of Coliseums built already, and I’m Creative, so the rest will be cheap. I queue up a bunch of Coliseums and in a few turns take the reward that gives Coliseums an extra happy face.

By 930 Babylon is done and I have tough decision to make - Portugal or Maya next? The Mayans are somewhat weaker, and heathen and I’ve built the Forbidden Palace in Amsterdam, so they’re nice and close to that too. Lisbon has Chichen Itza and the Statue of Zeus, along with the Apostolic Palace, Parthenon, Colossus, and Great Lighthouse. Portugal will be a much tougher nut to crack, also because Joao has Engineering and some castles, but the rewards will be much richer.

I decide to go after Portugal, which means I’m going to need Drama, for the culture/happy slider, and cheap theaters to fight War Weariness from the Statue of Zeus. I’m comfortably ahead in tech so it’s worth it if I have to run at 20% or more culture until I capture Lisbon. With Dyes, and the national sports league bonus, at 20% culture I get 6 happy faces from theaters and coliseums.

My plan is take a border city, then take Oporto in the heart of Portugal, then march all the way across Portugal to Lisbon. Once I take Lisbon, then I can take down the remaining Portugese cities on the mainland, and Joao will be the one dealing with War Weariness from the Statue of Zeus.

Meanwhile, I pop a Great Scientist and use him to lightbulb most of Education. I have a lock on Liberalism so I’m going to hold off and see how far I go before taking it.

In 1040 AD I get the insect paste event in Yasod and get another free specialist. It’s critical in BTS to keep 150 gold or so on hand at all times for opportunities like these.


I also start the siege of Oporto. It has 125% cultural defense, so this could take a while. Joao also finishes Notre Dame, which I was two turns away from. Still, if I have to lose it to someone, it may as well be the guy I’m about to take out.

A century later, Oporto is mine, at the cost of one 0xp Catapult. In 1240, I capture Lisbon, which supercharges my economy. I was running a -35 gpt deficit and getting 311 beakers per turn. After taking over the Colossus and Great Lighthouse, and being able to adjust my Cultural slider downwards since I took Notre Dame and the Statue of Zeus, I’m running a 23 gpt surplus with 444 beakers per turn.


In 1270, my great merchant from Economics reaches Cahokia and nets me 2850 gold on a trade mission.

Next turn, Joao capitulates.

His only city is on a island, and he’s already learned Astronomy, which I plan I trading for from him eventually. However, there’s no religion in his only city, so I queue up a Jewish missionary for him to help our relations and make a Diplomatic Victory via the AP possible.

I’ve also been spamming all of my cities with Judaism to help my vote count. At some point, I pop rush a couple of temples at Constantinople and hire 5 priests to get a great person to build the Temple of Solomon.

I discover Liberalism in 1335AD and take Steam Power as a free tech. In 1360 I finish Scientific Method, because I wanted to obsolete the Great Library so that Constantinople would be able to push out a great Prophet before Yasod gave me a scientist or engineer. The downside of all of those free specialists in my capitol was that it became much harder to control my Great Person generation.

I’d also whipped a caravel out of Lisbon and one turn east into the ocean I run across a Native American caravel. Presumably Sitting Bull will be able to get the circum nav bonus next turn, if he’s ever bought Joao’s map (and they both were Jewish, so they’ve probably been trading.) Instead, I buy Sitting Bull’s maps for 25 gold and I get the circumnav bonus. Stupid AI!

This kind of event is fun. Pacal’s days are numbered anyway, but I figured maybe if I provoke him, he’d declare on me, and better relations with the other Jewish states couldn’t hurt my chances for diplomatic victory.


I’m ready to declare on Pacal, but I realize that he has only two Jewish cities, the two closest to me, and if I take them both, then he won’t have AP votes and diplomatic victory will be disabled. So I decide to leave his easternmost city intact and start up the war machine in 1365:


I have a bunch of knights, muskets, trebs and about a half dozen CR3 Cover Riflemen. This war won’t be difficult, against longbowmen.

By 1405, I’ve built the Temple of Solomon. It generates a base gold amount of 38 gpt. It’s in a city with about twelve flood plains and one mine, but I’ve just finished a levee there and will get a Bank, Market, Grocer and, post Corporation, Wall Street there too.

Except that in 1425, I finally get a chance to vote for a diplomatic victory and thanks to 24 votes from Joao, I have 666 of the necessary 660 votes, for a final score of 177512.



Looking back, I’d say I did really well with the random events. Sure I had a couple of forest fires, a mine collapse and a volcano, but I also ended up with bonus happiness for all of my coliseums, 2 free scientists, a free engineer, +3 health in my capitol, a mother lode or two and free Cover promotion for all of my melee units.

I did almost nothing with espionage. In fact, I never built a spy. The only thing I really used it for was passive espionage to make sure no one else got liberalism first. Mostly I just ignore the active espionage missions, I don’t really like them much.

The Barays worked out nicely for the Khmers as well. The bonus food really helps you grow. The Ballista Elephants were OK, but not really much better than regular Jumbos, in my experience. Over all, the Khmers have nice traits as well. Creative, with cheap Theaters and Coliseums, go nicely with Expansive. You can get lots of large happy, cities going.

Edited to add: Apparently I was wrong about the Statue of Zeus, the built up WW doesn't go away, the difference I saw was due to my capturing Notre Dame. And sorry about some of the pics. I guess I need to spend time cropping more of them because the resolution gets downshifted on photobucket.