Adventure 45 - Coggen's TGL^2

[Coggen]

The first choice is of course, which two wonders do I want? This mostly depends on what my plan is going to be. Something like Heroic Epic/West Point would be fun for an early rush (9xp Numidian Calvary!). I tend to be too much of a builder to really enjoy early war though, so those combos are out. Oxford would have to be included in any power science combo, possibly with The Great Library and self built Pyramids. That would also ensure the 2nd GP was a scientist, for the early Academy, after which the Engineer points would certainly be welcome. That's probably overkill on pure science though, and while I intend to have some fun here, that probably breaks the game a little too much for my tastes. I'm not looking for the fastest finish here.

Another powerful wonder would be Kremlin, which combined with something sciencey for early Bureaucracy could lead to a pretty monster capital. I'm not doing that either, but I hope someone does! Then there's any number of slightly less powerful combinations that could certainly lead to a fun game. National Park/Globe Theater springs to mind, along with Collosus/Great Lighthouse for a water themed game.

Ultimately, I'm a builder, and I like going to space. So instead of being TOTALLY boring and picking Oxford/(TGL or Pyramids), I'll be just slightly less boring and pick TGL/TGL. The ring script should give plenty of coastal city placements, science should be taken care of by the capital for quite some time, and The Great Lighthouse makes founding new cities practically free in the early game. My plan will be to grab as much land as possible early on.

I'm aware that the lighthouse bonus doesn't really kick in until after it could be pretty easily built manually, so it's definitely not an optimal choice. I expect that the library itself will be more than enough to carry me through the early game though, and as I confirmed in a shadow after this game was completed, TGL/Oxford with chopped Pyramids totally breaks the game. I'm looking for a somewhat more normal game than that, hence my choices.



The starting warrior is going to head east, carefully checking for good coastal city locations. I never know what to do with seafood starts, but eventually I decide to go worker first. With an oasis to work initially, and fresh water corn to follow, those clams can wait. The worker can chop out work boats later, and once that's done this capital should be an excellent settler pump.

Bronze Working is dialed up first, since I can get both that and Agriculture before the worker comes out. The capital popped the hut and gave us Hunting, which I believe it should do for everyone. Hopefully I can slip a scout out at some point to head west.

We meet Ramesses on T7, so he's probably pretty close. If we're too crowded on both sides, my dreams of peaceful city spam are probably going to be interrupted. His jerk scout also stole a hut.

BW comes in, and I don't see any nearby yet, though I've revealed nothing to the west. None of the potential city sites I've revealed to the east look all that exciting. Decent food, but not much in the way of hammers, which I'd like for city number 2 so the capital can spam workers and settlers instead of boring military.



Great Person number 1 (on turn 10, hehe) is a merchant! The Scientist was 80% odds, but since we have to settle number 1 anyway, I'm quite happy to see Mr. Mill. I probably won't get any more huts, so the gold is welcome, and the extra food probably matters more early on than the science, since I'll be researching pretty quickly anyway. Hopefully number 2 will be the Scientist though, for the obvious Acadamy.

I didn't plan for a merchant though, so now the worker is going to come out one turn ahead of Agriculture. This may or may not end up being a good thing, because I changed my opening plan quite a bit. It occurs to me that I could chop a work boat first, slave it at size 2, putting the overflow into a scout, then build a warrior or two while the worker farms the corn and mines the hill. Once I hit size 4, I should have enough improved tiles to get the first settler out quickly, followed by another worker. I don't know if this is a good idea, but let's try it!

I revolt to Slavery after the worker finishes, and start the Work Boat. The next tech is Animal Husbandry, because I feel like we almost certainly have horses nearby. Hopefully they're on one the plains near the capital, but there are several eligible tiles in the third ring that might not be quite so overpowered (this capital doesn't really need another resource).



And my first setback. Woody 1, full health warrior in a forest dies to a panther at 3.3% odds. And we do have horses, which I think makes C1 a good spot for city 2 (yes yes I see the wasted tiles). I'll check out those fogged tiles to be sure before he settles down though. Research is set to The Wheel and then Iron Working.



The scout was mauled to 0.2 health by a lion, and also reveals a nice sheep/grass gems location that can be put on the coast. It's got a desert and 2 peaks, but still should make a nice cottage location. Rather than spend 9 turns healing, I try to keep to flatland scouting to stay away from threats. A panther will no doubt make a mockery of that plan.

Carthage finishes its second warrior just as it grows to size 4. I decide to chop out another worker before starting on the settler. There is lots of land to be improved here, and it'll only take 3 turns. GP2 is a Scientist, hooray! Academy in 2760 BC. I'm not sure why there was a restriction on engineers but not scientists. Well, yes I am. 2 Engineering wonders would essentially yield at least 2 more free wonders, since the Pyramids would speed along engineer number 2. That really just leaves scientists as the obvious power play, but I guess that'd be hard to avoid.

We meet a scout from Louis on T36. Two industrious civs as neighbors, goody. If they have stone, my Oxford/TGL + manual Pyramids plan might have been hard. On turn 37 our scout discovers Malinese borders, so Mansa is the neighbor to this side. So far, lots of peaceful civs.

Carthage whips the settler for 2 pop, and starts a work boat while growing. Iron Working comes in, and the only source nearby isn't very nearby. We'll have to send some chariots to watch that location, and be ready to grab it quickly. Research plan is now Pottery->Sailing->Writing.

Utica is founded on turn 40. I managed to miss the screenshot, but it's on the C1 tile from the last picture. It doesn't have to worry about a border pop until libraries, so it starts a work boat by working the horses while the 2 workers rescue delicious bacon from the jungle.

Pottery comes in, and Carthage switches to a granary. I plan to double whip it into the work boat, then build some military while growing, stopping for another settler whenever we reach the happy cap. We also meet Caesar on turn 43, and discover our first barb archer, though far from our lands currently.

The next several turns go smoothly, with both cities working on chariots while they grow into their improved tiles. I'll need quite a few apparently, as barb cities have already started popping up.



My scout gets crowded by barbarians and eventually ends his turn next to a warrior, though at least I got most of the settling land to the west scouted out. Writing comes in, and after a brief stop at Archery we head to Mathematics. I'm already researching well past my ability to build infrastructure, so this is mostly for the benefit to chops. It's past time I started spamming settlers.

The Oracle fell on turn 53, 1880 BC. I feel like that's really fast. Stonehenge and the The Great Wall are also gone, on turns 46 and 51 respectively, I believe. Judaism didn't fall until turn 54, which seems late. It was definitely there for the taking, had I wanted it.

After the settler from Carthage completed, I paused for 5 turns to build a lighthouse and grow to size 6 now that the whip unhappiness was gone. Then it should be right back to settler spam while Utica builds military and the occasional worker.

After math, research turned to Masonry and the religious path to Monarchy. I don't have wonder plans until the Colossus, don't need Currency or Code of Laws yet, and could definitely use the happy cap boost. Turn 61 saw GP3, another low odds merchant. This one is kind of irritating. I have plenty of money, and no need to bulb Currency (it'll be awhile before I use up all my TGL trade routes), so he settles in Carthage again.



Here's my capital, in 1520BC. Even without the overflow from the chop, it's producing 5 turn settlers and 3 turn workers. I always feel like I'm too slow about settling, but hopefully I'm doing a little better this game.

So, I haven't mentioned the third settler from Carthage for awhile. Did he fall into the sea?



I'm looking to seal off this entire portion of the ring from Mansa. The problem is that there really should be two cities doing the job, as I can't really find a good way to fit just one in there while sealing the land with only one border pop, all while being on the coast. The next settler needs to seal the land to the east though, so I think I want to place this 2W of the cow. Coastal, blocks all the land with one border pop, and has enough food to work those hills for some solid production.

I once again managed to miss taking a screenshot (a theme on this east side, sadly), but in the east I'd like to settle what turns out to be the only available Iron, a pretty good distance from the capital. Metals aren't gimmies in this game (only bronze was the one shown in my previous picture). There's a settler hanging out in Memphis though, so I may lose this one. Depending on exactly where Ramesses settles, I may still be able to challenge the Iron tile with a different city.

While scouting Egypt, I notice a worker building a workshop. Colossus is probably not looking good. I think I can guess who landed the Oracle.



Well, I won this location, but the borders won't pop in time to stop Mansa if he wants to go further south. Not sure what I would have done about that, but they were gone the next turn, so I assume he went north. West side, secure!

The east side, however, was less secure. I can still put a city that grabs the iron, but it won't be quite where I want it. It should be ok so long as I'm quick with culture. I'm glad we don't have Hatty here. Carthage put out another worker, and is set to triple whip a library into a monument. I'll eventually need to get some cottages down and start making use of financial, but for now I think I can abuse TGL for a bit longer. Utica also double whipped its granary into a monument this turn.

I had met Justinian earlier, and now find Alex to round out the list of opponents. A few aggressive guys here, but with my neighbors being so peaceful, I think I'm in good shape diplomatically for the early game.

And Hippo is founded to claim Iron. Again, no screenshot because I'm a bit dim. A monument chop into a library whip is probably best here. Hinduism also spread to Carthage. I haven't converted yet, but with a Hindu Egypt and Mail still without religion, it might be a good move later.

Not a whole lot happened during the next several turns. I revolted to HR when Monarchy came in, and started research on Currency to further boost the trade route income, which was starting to become significant. Justinian showed up with alphabet, so I put beakers into it until he was willing to trade it for maths. He must have been researching it himself though, so I ended up just trading it for Meditation and finishing the research myself.



Sigh. Despite my thinking that Hinduism might be a good idea earlier, I really don't want the anarchy right now, and he's kind of the natural target if I want to do some warring. I decline. Alphabet came in this turn, how are we doing?



We're uh, doing ok. Egypt engineered the Pyramids in Thebes. Hmm.

And the turns rolled along, Currency added more research power (almost every city has four 2 commerce trade routes), followed by Calendar and Code of Laws. More cities were settled, and infrastructure was built. The AIs continued to make irritating demands.

Carthage worked on The Hanging Gardens, using whip overflow from a worker to start things rolling. Mali landed CoL, which made me happy I had decided to remain godless. GP4 showed up in 525 BC as a scientist, and why does he bulb Compass? Oh yeah, need to finish CoL to open Philo up. Two turns later:



Utica was not the greatest place for that to go. The missionary will help out Hippo against Egypt, at least. That shot also shows that I've finally run out of money for 100% science. 96 turns isn't too bad, and I'm breakeven at 60%. The early advantage of the library has pretty much run it's course, though obviously it's still helping tremendously. Cottages start to go down at the capital and several other cities. I need more workers, so badly.

The Hanging Gardens completed in 350 BC, and our cities grew. Before the year was out, the cities had mysteriously shrunk again, but no one was too unhappy because they all had shiny new courthouses and libraries to play with. Civil Service finished in 175 BC, and I revolted. Traded Currency to Mansa for Construction, and dialed up Metal Casting next, since Egypt was still the only civ who had it. Christianity was also founded by Justinian, who had also founded Buddhism, so probably not a big deal.

Fast forward a few turns, and it's time for the ever popular 1 AD overview. First, some shots of the empire.




My demographics are not incredibly impressive, though I am number 1 in GNP. My land and population numbers are very average, but I have quite a bit of room for growth left, and those numbers should rise steadily over the next thousand years. Most of my later cities have finished their basic infrastructure and can now grow into the cottages my workers are free to put down, rather than being whipped quite so heavily.

You may have noticed the Compass research in those screenshots. Have I forgotten about my suddenly super awesome UB that fits perfectly with my gameplan? Of course I have.

A word on my military: I don't really have any. Mali is cautious and Egypt is pleased, and neither have shown much in the way of aggressive military buildup. I'd actually really like to attempt some war with Egypt with maces/cats, but I don't know if I'll have the forces ready before he catches up on military techs. He'll certainly have longbows, at the very least. I've certainly beaten longbows with maces and cats before, and Egypt's land looks pretty good, so if I can produce an army quickly, I'll definitely take a shot. Otherwise, the plan is to develop and settle my land, and keep teching.

After discovering Compass, I flipped it to Mansa for around 340 gold and Monotheism (forgot to SS it). Mansa showed up with 500 gold, and I'm not really sure where it came from. The last wonder was the Colossus some 10-15 turns ago. Oh well, no complaints here.





Ramesses built the Statue of Zeus in 175AD. Why, in every game, does my first target always build this? I would like to load up a few galleys and take Thebes first, but I don't even know if I'll have the hammers for an acceptable stack as it is. In happier news, The barb city in my backyard has 1 archer in it, and I have 2 swords ready to go next turn.



And things go smoothly, CR1 sword wins at 75% and takes the city. I like the location and could certainly use the settler savings, so I keep it. The screenshot shows paper, but I first decide to head to Music for a shot at the artist. Maybe a poor move, as both Louis and Justinian could be researching it right now, and the AI seems to love GP techs. But it's only three turns at a slight deficit, and I'm well ahead on the Liberalism path, so why not? Of course, one turn into this plan Justinian completed Music, so uh, Paper due in 3! And Egypt got their 63rd Great Engineer, which I had hoped would help make Thebes even tastier, but of course instead built Chichen Itza.

Paper came in, and I did a bunch of map trading with everyone who wasn't someone's worst enemy. Made about 150 gold and got a pretty clean picture of the ring. Obviously, no one's been to the center yet.



You can see on the minimap how things shaped up, and the screen shows why Justinian is the only one really keeping up on tech. Some nicely sized cities, working a fair amount of cottages. Mansa, who normally does so well, got really screwed in the landgrab. France and I have squeezed him somewhat, and though he does have 8 cities, there isn't much room for more. Meanwhile, I have 9, with room for at least 5 more.


I stopped playing the game for quite some time at this point, so I took some time upon my return to look over my empire and evaluate my gameplan. I currently have a fair number of cities, but many are essentially fishing villages or cottage centers. Production is hard to come by, with only my capital and Hadrumetum (on Mansa's borders) really well suited to it. Utica is pretending, but maxes out at 13 shields/turn. This certainly has my economy humming, but is going to make war somewhat difficult.

Speaking of war, I would really prefer to target Egypt at least as far as Thebes. Unfortunately, they have Chichen Itza, elephants, cats, and will probably have longbows by the time I can a muster a stack and declare. So I'll definitely need a lot of units, and what does my military look like right now?



Not super. I'm not going to get the units I need by building them slowly, that's for sure. So, should I abort, develop my empire, and come back later when I've got a tech lead? Yeah, I think I need to. I'd love to whip the hell out of cities and swallow him now, but I decide to play it safe.

Research is set to Education, and then we'll see how far up the tree I can get before I have to cash in Liberalism. All the AIs are missing Philosophy, and only Justinian has Civil Service, so I'm hoping I can get a bigger prize than the traditional Nationalism.

My next Great Person shows up in 425 AD as a merchant. All the options are initially appealing. He'll bulb most of Guilds, which I'll want shortly. The best trade mission I could find earns me 1300 gold, and I'm losing 68/turn at max science, so that would fuel several turns of deficit research. This is normally a great time for a golden age as well I think, in order to help the universities get built, but I'd like to improve my land a bit more, and I'd also like to see if my flyer at the Mausoleum works out.

I'm trying it in Hadrumetum, and of course a slave revolt popped up there this turn. Louis would turn out to win it anyway. That was entirely my fault, started it way too late.

Ultimately, the trade mission seems to have the most value. I gain nearly 100 beakers by going from break even to max science, and he only gives 1086 for guilds. I can run that for more than 11 turns, plus I have the flexibility of upgrades should I want or need those, so he heads off to see Mansa.

Several boring turns go by, though they are occasionally broken up by AI hilarity.




Uh, no. Thanks for stopping by!

So far it's been quite the peaceful game, but in 620 AD I saw that both Alex and Justinian had enough on their hands. They're far enough away that I'm not particularly worried, especially when there are other AIs they hate more. I did keep an eye out for suspicious stacks of units far from home though. Mansa also reminded me to get moving on settling my remaining land.



He was actually pretty aggressive about it, sending another galley behind my lines which no doubt carried more poachers. To add injury to insult, I missed this spot by one turn!



This one really bugged me. Mansa's city was a no resource space filler, this had my stone! Totally my fault of course, I've been way too slow about expanding, but still irritating. I ended up planting two cities as close to Abydos as I could, and got culture into them as quickly as possible. Would this do any good? That answer and more, later in this report!

My teching continued to go smoothly. I was hoping to lib rifling, but was ready to settle for replaceable parts if need be. I made a detour to economics for the free merchant, who would fund several more years of 100% research.

In 900 AD, finally some excitement!



That should slow things down. Caesar is on top of the scoreboard and teching well, while Justinian is the AI leader in GNP. Alex is right in between both of them, and I'm hoping he's stayed true to his usual self by building tons of units. Sadly, he's rather behind on tech, so I imagine he'll be beaten in the end. Just do some damage before you go, Alex! The fact that Justinian got a Great General the very next turn was probably not a good sign. The following turns would see Alex and Caesar get one, as well as a second for Justinian. So they're certainly throwing hammers away! On turn 162, the first of Alex's cities fell to the Romans.

Mansa discovered Gunpowder, and despite being the worst enemy of Caesar, Alex, and Justinian, this trade was too good to pass up.



We're 5 turns from Rifling! I will hopefully have the Taj by then, at which point it is drafting time. I've been grinding out some siege for the past several hundred years, so things are not looking good for the Egyptians, who have fallen well behind in tech.

Sadly, Caesar somehow managed to land the Taj before me. On that same turn, Alex made peace with Justinian and Caesar, only to get declared on by Louis. With so much land between them, I don't expect too much to come of that one. One city changed hands, and clearly several units died, but otherwise it looked like your typical nonfactor AI war.

Liberalism came in, with Rifling the prize. The question now is whether I wait 9 turns for another GP from my capital for the Golden Age, or just eat the 2 turns of anarchy to switch. Well, I can get a theater up in 2 turns, which will add two more artists, which brings the time down to 8 turns. So I'd lose 6 turns of drafting, but gain 2 turns of production for the rest of my empire.

Egypt is two turns from Guilds right now, so I think I need to just eat the anarchy. Muskets won't really stop me, but I'd prefer to go as far as I can against longbows. So we switch to Nationhood/Free Market/Free Religion, keeping HR and Slavery. I can use the golden age after the war to switch to my endgame civics.

In 1150AD, I'm finally ready.



I also have a couple rifles ready to take a boat to Abydos, which is defended only by a knight. The plan is to march straight to Thebes, taking Heliopolis and Memphis on the way. Reinforcements are already on their way and will take care of garrisoning the new captures, as well as taking Alexandria and Byblos. This would be an excellent time to run up both coasts with galleons, but with production so scarce, something had to give, and as usually seems to be the case for me, this time it was the navy.

So let's get this party started! I had 64% odds right off the boat to take Abydos, so I don't bother landing.



This was originally where I planned to place my city, but since I've planted two others nearby to put some pressure on it, I razed it. I guess I kind of forgot about the whole plan to wipe Egypt from the map thing when I did that. Oh well. Egypt's counterattack turned out to be one catapult, which I shot with guns until it died. After bombing the defenses and moving away from the river surrounding Heliopolis, it was time to move in. The screenshots somehow died, but it wasn't terribly exciting. 2 wins at 88% and another at 98% meant my first mainland conquest was a success, in 1180AD.

Tech note: I've continued to pull away from the AIs, leading by ~5 techs over the leaders and absolutely crushing the lesser civs. I'm not incredibly happy about how I managed my empire really; I definitely needed more workers and could have settled my land faster, but the TGL/TGL combo really helped make up the shortcomings and then some. I wasn't all bad either. I was pretty good about managing the whip I think, getting lots of key infrastructure up and running in a timely manner. Once that was up and the cities could grow into their cottages a bit, my science really took off, and of course the two trade missions were an enormous help in powering up the tree. That money is nearly gone (1180AD), but now that cottages are maturing and I'm adding more land, I should be able to maintain my pace and get to space well ahead of my competition. Well, my AI competition anyway. We'll see how well the RB experts do; I'm hoping I'm not blown away by too much, though it was never my goal to submit a fastest finish.

The very next turn, I was in position in front of Memphis, which contained 3 longbows and a crossbow. Three trebs took out half the city's defenses, and then the the rifles moved in. All the battles were at ~70%, one of which I lost without even managing to damage the defending longbow. The others were successful though, and the city was mine.



I'll heal up here for a couple turns while my forces regroup and absorb any counter attacks, then move straight to Thebes. Memphis came with several buildings still intact, including the now mostly irrelevant Chichen Itza. I'm heading for steel, which should come soon enough for cannons to speed things up. After that I'll likely grab steam power before heading to democracy. I'm hoping the AIs will research constitution for me by then, but they rarely seem to care what I want.

Ramesses threw 3 cats at my rifles on the interturn, which was good enough to get me my first GG. He'd head to Thaenae (the city Mansa nearly beat me to) to settle down. It's still a bit busy on infrastructure, having been founded late, but it'll eventually be an ideal HE city. Pretty late for the HE sadly, but it should do a good job of keeping my power rating respectable while the rest of the empire works cottages. Most of my troops needed to heal in Memphis, but some siege started moving up to Alexandria to meet up with fresh conscripts in order to remove that irritating culture from my lands. Ramesses is researching Constitution at the moment, so this war should continue to be a cakewalk. Silly AIs.


Someone blew up Carthage's Cothon. Spies are irritating. I haven't done anything with them this game, and I never do. Let's say I am not a fan of this mechanic.

In 1220AD, Oxford was completed in the capital (with a 5 pop whip, just good enough to keep all the cottages worked) and a Great Scientist was born I put him on ice for a Golden Age. I start running merchants in hopes of going after Sid's Sushi, which is a pretty natural choice on this seafood rich map, and something I should have prioritized long ago. Justinian showed up with
Constitution but won't trade it yet.

This quest popped up next turn:



Internet, tell me what the game already should! I can get either Combat 1 for all ships, Navigation 1 for all ships, or 1 commerce for all harbors. Nothing spectacular, but since I'm building them anyway I'll make sure to spam a few Caravels and pick up the commerce. Though, I'm not sure what's up with that Industrial Age thing. I found a chart that claims I already have several techs belonging to the Industrial Age. I eventually find out that only certain techs from that age fail the quest, Steel being one of them. I can head to Democracy in the meantime, since I won't be able to upgrade my siege until Thebes falls anyway. I wish the game would be more clear about this sort of thing.

I cleaned up Alexandria with no losses.



We once again tear down the Libraries with their devil's literature, and the granaries with their devil's...food? Anyway, it's still size 14, so nice catch.

In 1250AD, some jerk traded Ramesses Gunpowder. Alas, Riflemen still kill muskets with only moderately more trouble than longbows. In response, I finish the Globe Theater and resolve to draft and whip until the game is over. Ok, I would have done that anyway.

Justinian shows up with Constitution, so I trade Chemistry and about 800 gold for it, and start working on Democracy while the last of the Caravels finish up for the quest.

I start attacking Thebes in 1270AD. I lose only one suicide treb, but fall 3 units short of taking the city. It's a similar story in Byblos, though I do lose a rifle at 80% there. Thebes should fall next turn, and Byblos the turn after. At that point, I think I want to make peace for awhile to recover a bit.

Ramesses found several extra defenders for Thebes next turn, but it didn't matter. It fell in 1280AD with no losses.



Look at all those wonders! Most are no longer useful, but Notre Dame and the shrine are both welcome additions, as well as taking that damn statue out of play. (Stupid wonder, or stupidest wonder?)

Byblos does fall the next turn with no more losses. It was close though, as more defenders entered the city, forcing my Medic chariot dealing the finishing blow. My trebs made sure he had 99% odds, so no big deal. The city came with exactly zero buildings intact, and it's some pretty bad filler, claiming nothing but 7 coastal tiles and some ocean, so I burn it. Ramesses wants to capitulate, but speaking of mechanics I hate...

I instead just take this deal for peace, after some haggling over cities.



He actually wouldn't give me Divine Right, so I just took his map but forgot to screenshot it.

Our citizens forgot all about the war when a scientist did something that was apparently really impressive, and the world trembled at the mighty Carthaginian Golden Age! I swapped to US/Free Speech/Caste System on the first turn, intending Emancipation 5 turns later. Production problems, solved!

I completed the quest, which turned out to be one gold per Cothon instead of commerce. Oh well, Democracy in 2, then we finish steel. Also of note: Louis and Alex have been at war for hundreds of years, have generated several great generals, and not a single city has changed hands. GG AI.

The tech situation:



The AIs have caught up a bit while I was off warring, but this infrastructure push should put be right back on top. As soon as I typed up my complaint about AI wars, Louis captured a city and then made peace with Alex. I'm not sure if I'm chagrined or vindicated.

Oh that's it, now you're definitely dead.



He replanted that stupid city. At least it sort of makes sense now, since he lost the sugar. Enjoy it while you can, there are 5 turns left on the peace treaty!

My next GP was another scientist (had about 45/45 sci/merch, with the rest random other stuff). He sticks around to found a corp or start another golden age. Caesar declared on Mansa, good to see he's keeping himself amused. I now make the switch to Emancipation. I'm attempting the SoL, but Louis has Democracy, so I expect I'll be beaten. It's due in 20, and there's not much I can do to speed it up.

Steam Power comes in, and I dial up Railroad. It turns out I have no coal, but Egypt does! Our treaty expires next turn, so it's time to declare.



The bulk of my stack is going to head to Pi-Ramesses, while a few rifles head south to take out whatever city is blighting my land down there. They'll meet up again and Elephantine. I expect they'll be able to split again there to take out the remaining Egyptian cities without much trouble. It'll take some time though, as there's a lot of land to cover.

Declaring war predictably results in a stupid amount of war weariness in the former Egyptian cities. The rest of the empire is doing ok though.



Just super.

Mansa vassalized to Louis, causing Rome and France to be at war. Stupid rule, but this time it works out for me! In more important war news, my cannon dies at 50%, but the rest of the units are then easy pickings for my rifles, and the recently refounded city, whose name I didn't bother to look at, is gone. If the citizens of Thebes would quit whining and actually work, I'm sure they'd be grateful for the new tiles.

The war march continues, with Ramesses using Frigates to bomb the defenses of cities he'll never reach. In 1420AD, cannons do their thing while rifles do theirs:



The resulting Great General makes his way to the front lines so I can finally make my chariot a proper medic.

WHAT IS SO GREAT ABOUT THAT CITY SPOT??



Thanks for the worker, I guess. It is almost railroad time, after all.

Louis is starting to carve up Caesar. He's taken two cities, and I'd kind of prefer he not take yet another vassal. Unfortunately the price for peace is all my tech, so I'll just have to hope Jules gets his act together.

Elephantine is adequately stocked with units, and my forces are currently on the other side of the river. You can also see the settler insanity continuing.



I attack anyway. Cannons die at 80% and 84%, but it's mopping up time after that.



And so in 1450AD, I add the first non-coastal city to my empire. I feel like I have a decision to make at this point. Ramesses is down to 4 cities, and there are zero cottages at any of them. Meanwhile, WW is really starting to suck. I hate leaving civs alive because that motherland unhappiness is a real pain, but I think I have to here. It'd take at least 15 more turns to finish him off, and while I was never hoping to compete for the fastest spaceship, I'd prefer not to be overly slow about it. So I take this deal:



He'll capitulate, but won't give up techs. Ok then. Anyway, I make a pass through all my cities, making sure the extra happiness hasn't inspired the AI governors to do something silly. I've got more than enough land to win a space race, so unfortunately for anyone hoping for an interesting report, that's where I direct my efforts.

I grab Corp from Ramesses and Scientific Method from Mansa, finally obsoleting my original wonders. Thanks TGLs, you were fun!

A few turns later, it's 1500AD, which always seems to be a good time to step back and take a look at things. Caesar is still at war with the Louis/Mansa team, and several cities in bizarre locations have changed hands. Louis took one on the Rome/Greece border, while Caesar managed one in between Louis and Mansa.

Diplomatically, the ring map allows you to be pretty sloppy in that area, and I have taken advantage of that. I'm not great friends with anyone, but no one except Ramesses and Alex really hate me, and they're not threats. Mansa is teching just fine as Louis's vassal, so I should have at least one partner for the rest of the game, and no credible military threats. I expect I'll be (mostly) playing the builder game the rest of the way. Again, not compelling report material, but I enjoy doing it. Now, it's time for you to enjoy some screenshots!

Here's where I stand on tech:



A small lead, which I'm hoping to improve on as my infrastructure push continues. The demographics:



The number one GNP AI is Justinian, which is why I said I'd be mostly playing the builder. There's still some military action in my future, and here's why.



Justinian has decided to try for culture. Constantinople is coastal on the inner ring, so I'll build some ships and raze it at some point. It looks like I have plenty of time.

Here's my territory. First my western half, which is my original core.



Here's the eastern part, made up mostly of former Egypt.



You might notice on the minimap that I've done nothing with the middle islands. I was busy with Egypt, and most of the land there isn't that great. There's still a barb city which will claim silver, and I have a boat full of rifles on their way. That one would be nice to grab. The only other resouce there that I don't own is Furs, which I can trade for if I really need to. The only really noteworthy project right now is the SoL. I'm 5 turns away from it, so I expect Louis will be finishing it shortly. Everything else is banks for Wall Street in my shrine city or other random infrastructure.

It turns out that in 1525AD, I won the race to SoL. Turns out Louis doesn't have copper. That and the war must have slowed him down. It would be lovely to be able to run Representation, but I really, really need the hammers from US. It's still a nice boost.

Biology did the usual, allowing cities in mediocre terrain to rapidly grow into all their tiles, while cities which were already doing well really took off. I like this point in the game, as the full set of tile improvements lets you do almost anything you want with any city. Railroads were also starting to go up, boosting production. The full set of gold buildings in my Hindu shrine bumped income significantly, as did their construction in cities accross the empire. My beaker count is rising rapidly with every turn, and that should continue for pretty much the entire game.

My next GP was a scientist again, despite running four merchants in the capital. Neither corp is appealing, so he went on ice next to the other one. I am hoping for two more late game golden ages, though my luck with GPs this game has not been exceptional. It looks like Sid's is going to come too late to really matter here, which is sad. I don't often mess with corps, since they seem like something of a win-more type of mechanic in most of my games. Here's a game where I'm motivated enough to pay attention to it, and I strike out twice at 50% odds.




Settler or Deity, the AI is always fun to watch.

Here's the tech shot from 1600AD.



Compare the beakers from the 1500 shot. This is why I love being a builder. Half again as many beakers, in 20 turns. Wall Street, which is going to be good for another notch on the slider, is now five turns away. Several production based cities are about done with all their necessary buildings, and will be set to crank military until it's time to build the spaceship.

Louis demands Electricity at this point, reminding me that despite having the ability to build a modern military, I haven't actually done so yet. I give in, as he's not teching nearly as fast as I am.

Crap.



Thank goodness Egypt is free of Buddhism. I had myself a little panic until I saw that. With Combustion came oil, which made everyone sick. Time to windmill the coal! The last several offline games I've played have seen me end up with cities which are right on top of coal, so I was glad to be able to finally pull this little stunt. I hate coal.

[Coggen]

In 1630AD, Alex declared war on Justinian. On that same turn, Justinian got a General. Justianian later came asking for help, a request I quickly declined. I don't want Alex getting distracted, and he's Caesaer's friend as well. Alex thanked me by taking a city the following turn. He has two possible targets now, and one of them is Justinian's third legendary. Go Alex!

Here's the odds for the next GP.



He would turn out to be an engineer. Mining Inc? I think so. I'm pretty sure I'll make money with it anyway, and even a 6-8 extra base hammers will be pretty huge for all my cities. He heads to Thebes to make it so. Also, I know you can trade to the AIs for corp resources, but I will not be doing so. Would you trade them to a rival like they were just any other resource? Probably not, but that's what they do. Feels shady to me. Here's an example of why, taken from later in the game. I didn't take this deal.



Alex has no metals and no horses.



He's such a trooper.

And here's another fun one.



No. Just no. He beat me to the Eiffel Tower by three turns. I get mad and start planning in earnest to raze his capital. I have tanks, he does not. He also has only one source of oil, offshore and unconnected.



In 1695AD, I declare with this stack ready. Hardly an overwhelming force, but all I really want to do is take his capital. I can sit and defend the city while the tanks make their way to the front. I'm going to take the AP city with the second wave of troops, which will be mostly tanks.

Attacking right off the boat, I win the first two battles at 30% odds, which pretty much seals his fate. The odds rapidly rise, though several were in the 70-80% range. I win 9 straight battles in all, which was pretty amazing RNG. The city comes with a shrine and not much else, so I raze it. That ends the cultural threat, and really makes everyone else mad. I'm watching my Malinese border just to be safe, as Louis does have enough on his hands. I'm guessing he's after Caesar though.

The troops heal up, and Nicaea burns. It occurs to me that I could have kept the cities, and I imagine he'll vassalize pretty quickly, but this close to the end, I don't know if it's really worth it. I'm targeting his island cities now, hoping for the vassalization. I don't want to have to deal with him later, and I think that helps my power graph? If not the graph directly, I feel like I read somewhere that the AIs take vassal's power into account when deciding whether or not to declare, so if that's true I think it's worth it to get him on my side.



I guess I'll have to face the wrath of the Byzantium swim team?

The usual space race drill is going on in the background; superconductors is in, and labs are queued up pretty much everywhere. Mansa shows up with Artillery, and god bless him, he'll trade it For Biology and Electricity. I have several cities about to pop out great people in rapid succession, so it's almost Golden Age time. I probably can't finish the tree in 16 turns, but I'll be pretty close. I'm gonna go all autologger-ish on you now, since I sort of ran out of time to turn the last turns into a better sounding narrative. Sorry!

1735AD

Another turn, another city razed. Finally lost a 90% battle, for my first casualty of the war. I get more partisan swimmers.

After everyone is healed again, I'm going to land the troops and take out the AP city. Hopefully hitting his core will accelerate the capitulation. Most of his army is up in that area as well, so killing them off should also help. There's a helpful forest tile on the coast for just such a task. He elects not to suicide, so I step onto flatland next to Thessalonica, and let's see what happens!

I get a Great Artist from Thebes (guess those wonders were good for something), and I start a golden age with one of the sleeping scientists. I'll get another from Cherokee (a random city I farmed and run specialists in) in four turns, then another from the capital shortly after that. Hopefully that'll be enough for the 3 man GA, but if not there's always the engineer at Fusion.

I'm going to be running 100% science throughout, financed by selling old techs. Everyone will hate me for trading with their enemies, but I don't think I care too much at this point. I'm still pumping out a lot of tanks, and this game will be over before the AIs can come up with anything they can't stop.

I'm also building workshops over cottages to within one turn of completion at the capital and over farms at a couple of my biggest production cities. A Cristo switch to Bureaucracy/Caste System/State Property at some point should shave a couple turns from the launch date.

1740AD

Justinian threw two cats and a cannon at my stack, then stopped. I'm slightly injured, but I can probably go on the attack anyway.

Here we go!

CR2 tank beats C1 Rifle at 68%.
CR3 tank loses to C1 Rifle at 90%.
CR2 tank beats CG2 Longbow at 96%.
CR3 tank beats CG2 Longbow at 93%.
CR3 tank beats CG2 Longbow at 80%. (blitz)
C2/P Infantry loses to C3 Calvary at 70%.
CR2 tank beats C2 Calvary at 80% (blitz)

The rest of the units are obsolete, and all lose at 95% odds. I'm left with my medic infantry and a very injured tank. Not exactly an overwhelming victory, but it is a victory, and the AP is no more. This is also my second shrine razed. I'll probably take a few losses from random calvary in the interturn, but the plan now is to get the troops back on their boats, heal, then raze the last city on the inner coast.

1745AD

Justinian didn't hit my injured stack at all. My troops retreat to the forest fort on the coast, protected by a few healthy reinforcements. They'll get on the boat and heal next turn.



I feel like there are bigger priorities for him right now. Otherwise, a quiet turn. Also, I apologize for the lack of screenshots from here on out, but there just wasn't much going on, and I was spending more time microing my spaceship than thinking about pictures.

1750AD

Caesar comes by demanding Radio, which I give him. 10 turns! Troops get on the boat, I pillage some fish, nothing else happens.

1755AD

Alex goes back to war with Justinian, exactly 10 turns after the mediator event put them at peace. Justinian gets a general. This somehow has the effect of Justinian clearing out the city I was healing up to invade. What used to be a dozen assorted units is now a rifle and 3 longbows. I skip the healing and start the killing. Despite having razed half his cities to the ground at the cost of three units, Justinian still won't even give me a tech for peace. I guess he must have a stack running around somewhere? He has Mass Media, so I'm kind of hoping he'll build the UN somewhere so I can raze it. I don't know how he's been building anything though, since his land is almost entirely cottages.

My next GP comes in as a merchant. The next one will come from my capital in 5 turns. It's about 50/50 to get one that will allow the next golden age. If that falls through, I'm heading to Fusion next, and I probably don't want to burn the next one until then anyway.

1760AD

I make peace with Justinian. WW is starting to creep up, and it isn't worth slowing down my teching just to beat him down further. I'll declare again if he builds the UN.

Mansa shows up with a bunch of money, so I grab his cash and Communism for Radio.

1765AD

Composites comes in, and now my tank builds turn into Modern Armor. Two turns until Apollo finishes.

1770AD

Nothing much.

1775AD

Apollo completes, my Golden Age ends, and my next GP is a merchant. His bulb is Fascism. I could trade for it, but first I go see what would be next. It's Mass Media, so I guess a trade mission is best. It'll fund 100% research until the end of the game, at least. I queue up all the parts. Fusion should finish in 7 turns, at which point I'll need Ecology and Genetics. I might need to research Medicine as well, but I'm hoping Mansa will grab it by then. No one has enough on their hands.

1790AD

Fiber Optics is in, Fusion due in 4. If I were smart, I'd have told Ramesses to research Medicine long ago. Too late for him to get it now. Probably going to end up costing me a couple turns.

1802AD

While trading Caesar tech for cash, I notice he's WHEOOH. He hates almost everyone, so I think I'm ok.

1804AD

Fusion comes in, and if I can't launch this ship in 8 turns I'll eat my hat, and maybe your hat too. Golden Age fired. No one researched Medicine, so the final techs are Medicine->Genetics->Ecology. I switch to Caste System, and make Ramesses switch as well. The unhappiness sucks, but isn't going to delay anything.

1808AD

Medicine finishes, Genetics in 3, then Ecology in 2. I should be able to launch on the last turn of my Golden Age.

1810AD

I'd hoped to get the second engine done somewhere, but I just couldn't get the workers moved in time to make it happen.

1812AD

Genetics is in, Ecology due in 1. Carthage starts the Stasis Chamber, with as much overflow as I could get from the previous turn. It is initially due in 7, let's see what we can do about that. Workshopping everything and swapping to Bureaucracy brings it to 3, and that's the best I can do. So long as I can build the Life Support in 2, I'll be able to launch at the end of my golden age and won't have to eat any hats.

1816AD

Thanks to 3 Lumber Mills chopped into workshops, it turns out that I can indeed build it in 2. Launch due in 2 turns, win in 14.

1820AD

The golden age ends with the launching of a ship. The only thing left to do is replace some workshops with farms so my cities don't starve, because that would be mean.

Nothing happened during the 12 turn wait, and I win by space in 1844AD.

Post-Mortem

First of all, this game was certainly a lot of fun, so many thanks to T-Hawk for a great time.

Now, some shots from the replay!



Several AIs have 3 cities by the time I found my first one.



Here you can see my two blockers, which turned out to be a pretty big deal. The AIs have of course been expanding rapidly, and rather than try and outdo them there, I claimed as much land as I could by settling at my desired borders. Mansa eventually ended up with that one junky city inside my borders, but otherwise this worked out smashingly. Of course, the two TGLs helped me do this while keeping tech coming quickly.



Here's where I finally settled the last city on my mainland, while also showing Ramesses poaching that island I was so slow about, irritating me enough to seal his fate.



The first turn of the Egyptian war, removing that pesky blight from my lands.



Fourteen turns later, I make peace and do some building before resuming my conquest. I would declare again in 1400.



Just 5 turns later, and I'm satisfied with my land and vassalize Egypt. Those cities would definitely be worth the cost; they were accounting for a quarter of my end game research, built spaceship parts, and gave me access to several missing resources. Thebes also had the Hindu shrine and would eventually be a great Wall Street City.

The only other major event that might show up here was my war on Justinian, but I razed everything I took and he eventually resettled most of it, so his borders didn't change much. It did cripple his cultural bid and effectively took him out of the game though, and cost me nearly nothing. Amusingly, he still managed to vassalize Alex a few turns after I launched my ship.



The production graph looks quite a bit different from my normal games. I had a lot of trouble finding hammers early on, using the whip extensively to get things done. Once workshops were powered up and I absorbed some nice Egyptian territory, the familiar human dominance took hold.



I certainly had the power to beat up on the lesser civs, but Louis and Caesar were almost constantly at war with someone, and never stopped building units. I was never worried about them, since they always hated someone else more than me, and the geography was certainly my ally here.



Since I was aiming for space, I didn't want to get into wars that were going to be anything but cakewalks, and you can see here that I certainly managed that. I lost 17 units total throughout the game, and ended up with a 9:1 kill ratio, which you just don't get without a big tech lead.



And just for the heck of it, here's the score. Obviously not comparable to normal games, but being good enough for 3rd in my Hall of Fame probably tells you how often I go for military wins. Or you could just look at all the space races shown there.

I went and played a little shadow afterwards, with The Great Library and Oxford as my wonders, with chopped Pyramids after the first settler went out. I'm sure other reports will go into detail about just how badly this breaks the game, but it was fun to see for myself. Pretty much any gameplan you'd care to think of is on the table there, including my city spam. City 2 could probably build The Great Lighthouse as well

This obviously wasn't the fastest one could get to space, even in a normal game, but especially given the variant. I'm still quite happy with how I played for the most part though; I had a lot of fun, and the opening was certainly much different than anything

I've done before. Thanks again T-Hawk, and thanks for reading!

[Dantski]

Thanks for the report and well played

Justinian seriously had so few troops in his capital? I tried boating it with drafted rifles and cannons several hundred years earlier than you and he had at least 30 troops holed up there

[Coggen]

I forget exactly when his war with Alex started, and I may have missed mentioning it in the report. When it did begin though, he was at it a long time. I'm pretty sure the troops that would normally be defending a cultural capital were out skirmishing with Alex, and since I razed it on the war's first turn, there wasn't anything he could do about it.

The AI wars, while not resulting in much exchange of territory, actually helped me out quite a bit. Alex got his growth stunted early and never recovered. Rome and France were building units all game, and could never really reach their tech potential, while Mansa took just enough of a beating to eliminate him as a threat to outtech me while still being a good trading partner at times. The fact that the only two friendlies on the map were my neighbors certainly helped out as well.

[T-hawk]

Yes, thanks for the report. 1844 AD for space is a bit slower than a couple other games, but still very good, and you knew what you were getting yourself into with the Great Lighthouse. Glad you enjoyed it!

Nice job on sealing your borders. Yes this map was supposed to make that possible. And I like to see some warring as part of a push to space. I often want to do that but then just keep building right past all the windows of opportunity. Conquering also pulls in more corporate resources.

Hooray for windmilling coal

I'm not sure why there was a restriction on engineers but not scientists. Well, yes I am.

The intent was to reduce the impact of randomness for those who picked wonders of two different GPP types. The Engineer restriction was aimed directly at the Pyramids; I did not want some folks to luck out and get it on a 50/50 coin flip. If you want it, either build/chop it or take it directly by Muse. Either of those paths is strategy rather than luck and incurs a proper opportunity cost.

By contrast, the Great Library produces so many scientist GPP that randomness is not a factor. Its power is supposed to give you Academies and I felt it would be unfair to the GL to nerf it any harder than the restriction on the first GP. And one Scientist does not snowball into more, unlike Engineers.

If there existed a Great Engineering Institute instead of the Great Library, that restriction would have been the other way around.

The Oracle fell on turn 53, 1880 BC. I feel like that's really fast.

Good lord, yes that is fast! I got it 1720 BC and didn't fear missing it.

[regoarrarr]

Good lord, yes that is fast! I got it 1720 BC and didn't fear missing it.

Yeah I got it in 1680 BC - I was definitely nervous then but 1880 is really fast. In contrast - my Great Lighthouse fell to someone in 1560 BC, which is way faster than a lot of other folks' games (who got to build it)