I've never done this before, but this is a historical precedent. I have to go out of character for a minute and say that David Tyree's insane catch on the way to the Giant's winning touchdown drives is one of the greatest Superbowl catches ever. It's on par with the Steeler's Immaculate Reception and the San Francisco 49'ers The Catch.
And now back to our regularly scheduled programming!
Sorry for the brief report and the lack of screenshots. If your imagination is running low, feel tree to check out Guernica or The Scream to get a sense of things.
Are there no resources? I haven't played a game this year due to my living situation, so I probably just have forgotten how to play.
After 15min of trying to figure things out, I've come to think that maybe there are no resources on this map after all. I decide to settle in place after moving the Warrior; I can now see 32 tiles with nary a special resource.
Maybe the surprise is "Haha! You're screwed" (please use your best Nelson Munz voice-over while repeating this mantra).
Is it just me or are "surprises" supposed to be happy? Doesn't anyone ever come up to you and tell you "Surprise! You have rectal cancer!" ?!?
Good thing we started off with Agriculture and Fishing! If there are no resources, then AH will be useless. Hopefully there will be some metals, Bronze or Copper. The American Unique Unit and Building are both very late game and unlikely to be much of a factor. Great...
I decide to research Mining to see what's up. Bronze Working for Slavery is probably a good plan anyways. Even though we don't have any food resources, we do have Flood Plains for a good food intake. Not being Financial, and not having any food resources, I will probably farm at least a couple of those to fuel the whip.
3680 BC -- Mining shows no cool playful rocks
Having popped Mysticism from a hut, I decided to try and build Stonehenge. I wasn't going for any religions, but with Washington's Charismatic trait, the free Monument would mean +1 happiness in all cities. Given the complete and utter lack of resources on this god forsaken island, that seemed like a decent plan.
Sulla... remember when I said I was going to kill you last?... I lied...
So I guess that Washington was chosen as the leader to help on the Happiness (Charismatic) and Health (Expansive) front.
I stayed away from religions early, mostly because I don't have much of a game plan. Once I figured out that I was alone on my island, I figured having a religion would only hurt me when I met the other civilizations.
Research wise, I headed for Mathematics and then decided to bee-line towards Optics. My hope is that I will be able to catch up research wise once I can make some overseas friends.
But I have a little problem right now. Or rather, I'm about to have one. So far the barbs have been easily manageable, but it won't be long until they start showing up with Axes, and that's not going to be pleasant. Without any metals, I'm going to have to rely on Archers as my only significant troops. I don't have Archery yet, but I plan to bring it online next.
A Great Prophet appears in 500 BC, much to my surprise. It's been a while since I played... good thing this is an Immortal game with no resources... just freakin' swell... About that Prophet, I take a look at what tech I can pop, and it looks grim. Guess he will settle in Washington, the capitol.
Somewhere along the way I tried to build the Great Lighthouse in New York, my second city. It's one of the few Wonders that doesn't have a resource doubler, and given the island that I am on, it would be a nice Wonder once I establish some foreign contacts. But alas, someone beat me to it (by a lot).
Some turns later, I briefly entertained thoughts about building The Colossus when I researched Metal Casing. That same turn, it was built in a distant land. At least I didn't waste any time, and my dreams were dashed early. But that's probably the best way to have one's hopes crushed: swiftly and without prejudice.
In 350 BC, Tacitus the Traitor announces that I am the weakest civilization. Shocking. Here's my obvious vision of the present "real estate in California is teh suck". And now back to your regularly scheduled programming...
A Great General is born in 1 AD in a distant land. Finally some good news. Let those suckers beat each other up. That's pretty much the only way I can catch up.
In 350 AD, the glorious American empire finds its way to the Medieval ear with the discovery of Machinery. I don't think I've ever felt this far behind in a game before. On the bright side, once I get to Optics, I will know if the game is over or not.
In unrelated news, every single "random" event has been a disaster. The options have been on the order of "fork over a lot of cash" or "your city dicks around for a couple turns"... As Gary Larson said, Damned if you do... Damned if you don't.
In 820 AD Thucydides reveals that the glorious American empire... err... has the technological IQ of G.W.Bush. I really hope that the Creationist God starts smiting some foes!
Once Optics is discovered, I build two Caravels and send them to explore in opposite directions. I soon discover Genghis Khan. Much to my surprise, I discover that this game does in fact have resources. Or rather, the AIs probably have plenty. I had assumed there were no resources at all. Whoops.
Genghis has at least 8 techs that I do not: Polytheism, Priesthood, Alphabet, Aesthetics, Animal Husbandry, Construction, and Currency. Meanwhile, all I have is Compass and Optics (which I won't trade if I have the monopoly on it).
I start to think about how I might win such a game (if it's even possible for me at this point). Cultural is out due to the lack of religions. Space is probably out of the question as well due to lack of Copper and Aluminum, although it might be possible to secure those later in the game. I have no idea how I might mount a credible military attack being so far back tech wise, but it's still early. A UN win might be possible as well, but it's far too early to tell for that.
In the coming years, I would meet the other civilizations and learn that Mao has more than double my score, not to mention Compass and Optics. Yikes.
Pacal discovered Liberalism 20 turns before I got to Education; I also still don't have Philosophy.
The entire world with the exception of Genghis is Hindu. Hinduism did spread to one of my small cities so I decided to convert to beef up relations. My problem is that I have no resources to trade, so won't be able to get extra diplomacy points that way. Of course, the *real* problem will be being the first to build the UN -- and doing it before every other civ gets to space would be nice too. To be honest, I think there's no way I will win, but I'll keep playing to see what happens. Another thing that I did not realize until later was that although I was #2 in terms of land area, I was dead last in population. Not having food resource tiles will do that. Not to mention the happiness and health problems from larger cities on Immortal difficulty with no resource.
In back to back turns, two civs adopt Emancipation. That's going to suck.
I score my first resource (not including the Fish I am paying for) in 1605 AD when a random event gives me Spices! Woohoo, gaining a resource is one of the victory conditions, is it not?
I spot a Chinese transport not far from my coast, followed by a wandering Battleship. My defenses are pretty solid though: I have exactly one Archer per city. Who would possibly attack such well fortified cities??
Pacal II won a Cultural Victory in 1907 AD despite Mao winning in every single other possible way. Mao was the UN Secretary and twice fell just a little short of a Diplo win. By the end of the game, the Chinese had vassalized Hammurabi, Genghis, and Caesar.
On the bright side, despite trailing score-wise the entire game, I managed to come in third to last, thanks to the Chinese conquest of the Mongolian and Babylonian empires.
This game did not end with a Chinese invasion as I had expected. Although that would have been reminiscent of my very first Civ game ever. In that game (circa 1992 or 1993), I had my own little continent and was happily minding my business when Battleships and Tanks showed up on my shores. The only difference this game would have been that I saw it coming...
On a final note, I will be truly impressed if anyone manages to win this game. No resources and a huge tech whole (from lack of neighbors) is a seemingly insurmountable challenge on Immortal difficulty...
And now back to our regularly scheduled programming!
Sorry for the brief report and the lack of screenshots. If your imagination is running low, feel tree to check out Guernica or The Scream to get a sense of things.
Are there no resources? I haven't played a game this year due to my living situation, so I probably just have forgotten how to play.
After 15min of trying to figure things out, I've come to think that maybe there are no resources on this map after all. I decide to settle in place after moving the Warrior; I can now see 32 tiles with nary a special resource.
Maybe the surprise is "Haha! You're screwed" (please use your best Nelson Munz voice-over while repeating this mantra).
Is it just me or are "surprises" supposed to be happy? Doesn't anyone ever come up to you and tell you "Surprise! You have rectal cancer!" ?!?
Good thing we started off with Agriculture and Fishing! If there are no resources, then AH will be useless. Hopefully there will be some metals, Bronze or Copper. The American Unique Unit and Building are both very late game and unlikely to be much of a factor. Great...
I decide to research Mining to see what's up. Bronze Working for Slavery is probably a good plan anyways. Even though we don't have any food resources, we do have Flood Plains for a good food intake. Not being Financial, and not having any food resources, I will probably farm at least a couple of those to fuel the whip.
3680 BC -- Mining shows no cool playful rocks
Having popped Mysticism from a hut, I decided to try and build Stonehenge. I wasn't going for any religions, but with Washington's Charismatic trait, the free Monument would mean +1 happiness in all cities. Given the complete and utter lack of resources on this god forsaken island, that seemed like a decent plan.
Sulla... remember when I said I was going to kill you last?... I lied...
So I guess that Washington was chosen as the leader to help on the Happiness (Charismatic) and Health (Expansive) front.
I stayed away from religions early, mostly because I don't have much of a game plan. Once I figured out that I was alone on my island, I figured having a religion would only hurt me when I met the other civilizations.
Research wise, I headed for Mathematics and then decided to bee-line towards Optics. My hope is that I will be able to catch up research wise once I can make some overseas friends.
But I have a little problem right now. Or rather, I'm about to have one. So far the barbs have been easily manageable, but it won't be long until they start showing up with Axes, and that's not going to be pleasant. Without any metals, I'm going to have to rely on Archers as my only significant troops. I don't have Archery yet, but I plan to bring it online next.
A Great Prophet appears in 500 BC, much to my surprise. It's been a while since I played... good thing this is an Immortal game with no resources... just freakin' swell... About that Prophet, I take a look at what tech I can pop, and it looks grim. Guess he will settle in Washington, the capitol.
Somewhere along the way I tried to build the Great Lighthouse in New York, my second city. It's one of the few Wonders that doesn't have a resource doubler, and given the island that I am on, it would be a nice Wonder once I establish some foreign contacts. But alas, someone beat me to it (by a lot).
Some turns later, I briefly entertained thoughts about building The Colossus when I researched Metal Casing. That same turn, it was built in a distant land. At least I didn't waste any time, and my dreams were dashed early. But that's probably the best way to have one's hopes crushed: swiftly and without prejudice.
In 350 BC, Tacitus the Traitor announces that I am the weakest civilization. Shocking. Here's my obvious vision of the present "real estate in California is teh suck". And now back to your regularly scheduled programming...
A Great General is born in 1 AD in a distant land. Finally some good news. Let those suckers beat each other up. That's pretty much the only way I can catch up.
In 350 AD, the glorious American empire finds its way to the Medieval ear with the discovery of Machinery. I don't think I've ever felt this far behind in a game before. On the bright side, once I get to Optics, I will know if the game is over or not.
In unrelated news, every single "random" event has been a disaster. The options have been on the order of "fork over a lot of cash" or "your city dicks around for a couple turns"... As Gary Larson said, Damned if you do... Damned if you don't.
In 820 AD Thucydides reveals that the glorious American empire... err... has the technological IQ of G.W.Bush. I really hope that the Creationist God starts smiting some foes!
Once Optics is discovered, I build two Caravels and send them to explore in opposite directions. I soon discover Genghis Khan. Much to my surprise, I discover that this game does in fact have resources. Or rather, the AIs probably have plenty. I had assumed there were no resources at all. Whoops.
Genghis has at least 8 techs that I do not: Polytheism, Priesthood, Alphabet, Aesthetics, Animal Husbandry, Construction, and Currency. Meanwhile, all I have is Compass and Optics (which I won't trade if I have the monopoly on it).
I start to think about how I might win such a game (if it's even possible for me at this point). Cultural is out due to the lack of religions. Space is probably out of the question as well due to lack of Copper and Aluminum, although it might be possible to secure those later in the game. I have no idea how I might mount a credible military attack being so far back tech wise, but it's still early. A UN win might be possible as well, but it's far too early to tell for that.
In the coming years, I would meet the other civilizations and learn that Mao has more than double my score, not to mention Compass and Optics. Yikes.
Pacal discovered Liberalism 20 turns before I got to Education; I also still don't have Philosophy.
The entire world with the exception of Genghis is Hindu. Hinduism did spread to one of my small cities so I decided to convert to beef up relations. My problem is that I have no resources to trade, so won't be able to get extra diplomacy points that way. Of course, the *real* problem will be being the first to build the UN -- and doing it before every other civ gets to space would be nice too. To be honest, I think there's no way I will win, but I'll keep playing to see what happens. Another thing that I did not realize until later was that although I was #2 in terms of land area, I was dead last in population. Not having food resource tiles will do that. Not to mention the happiness and health problems from larger cities on Immortal difficulty with no resource.
In back to back turns, two civs adopt Emancipation. That's going to suck.
I score my first resource (not including the Fish I am paying for) in 1605 AD when a random event gives me Spices! Woohoo, gaining a resource is one of the victory conditions, is it not?
I spot a Chinese transport not far from my coast, followed by a wandering Battleship. My defenses are pretty solid though: I have exactly one Archer per city. Who would possibly attack such well fortified cities??
Pacal II won a Cultural Victory in 1907 AD despite Mao winning in every single other possible way. Mao was the UN Secretary and twice fell just a little short of a Diplo win. By the end of the game, the Chinese had vassalized Hammurabi, Genghis, and Caesar.
On the bright side, despite trailing score-wise the entire game, I managed to come in third to last, thanks to the Chinese conquest of the Mongolian and Babylonian empires.
This game did not end with a Chinese invasion as I had expected. Although that would have been reminiscent of my very first Civ game ever. In that game (circa 1992 or 1993), I had my own little continent and was happily minding my business when Battleships and Tanks showed up on my shores. The only difference this game would have been that I saw it coming...
On a final note, I will be truly impressed if anyone manages to win this game. No resources and a huge tech whole (from lack of neighbors) is a seemingly insurmountable challenge on Immortal difficulty...