Ahoy, there. I have been lurking these fora since September, and actually joined last month. I was not ever expecting to play in an Adventure or Epic, as I have yet to master Prince difficulty without crazy variants. But when I saw Sullla post this adventure I thought, "Hey, maybe I can have my dreadful debacle become legendary foddor for jokes years from now!" And from that came this report.
I have never posted a report before, obviously, so if I did something wrong please tell me. As of this posting, there are no pictures, but if I decide to get off my lazy bum and set up a photobucket account, there might be. If you don't give a crap about the journey, just skip straight the the section titled "Reflections".
Thoughts on the game:
The main doozy for this game is that you cannot build tile improvements. This means workers are essentially useless except for chopping jungles; chopping forests doesn't seem worth the permanent -1 in production. This variant is actually pretty suited for me though, as I consistently suck at worker micromanagement anyway! Also, as a side effect, early religion becomes much more attractive without the need for early worker techs.
I decided pretty early on while thinking about this game that I wouldn't try to do an early attack on the AIs. Why? Because they can build tile improvements, and consequently can best be attacked mid-way into the game or later for a good amount of land improvement. So I came up with a preliminary plan:
1. Go Polytheism->Preisthood, snagging Hinduism along the way.
2. Oracle Aesthetics, then go Literature for Great Library.
3. 1st great person will either be a scientist or a prophet; scientist=early academy, prophet=early shrine, either of which will help my research.
4. Expand and turtle, defending with hwachas+longbows.
5. Tech along the Paper-Edu-Lib line; this is useful because
-Paper allows me to build University of Sankore, which jives with my religious buildings and boosts the tech rate.
-Edu allows me to build Seowans [and Oxford in my academy city], which even further boosts my tech rate.
-Lib allows me to get Nationalism, for drafting... [foreboding laugh]
After this, I wanted to draft out an advanced army and eat an AI. But... rifles or grenadiers/cannon? I selected the latter, because Printing Press/Replaceable Parts will matter less because I cannot choose my improvements. As for ultimate victory, I was unsure. Culture and Time were already both pretty much out, and Conquest isn't really my style. This left Domination/Backdoor Domination [okay, technically known as the U.N.], which I could feasibly accomplish with my technologically advanced position, and Space, which I would probably have the tech lead and land to do pretty easily. I decided to decide later, as I had already planned and speculated enough. Now, I was to see how much I could screw my plan up!
What Actually Happened:
I scouted around a bit with the warrior and settler [those roads were a massive help], and decided that it wasn't worth giving up those grassland cottages for a silk, so I settled in place, naming my cap Alpha. My plan began to fall apart right away. Hinduism was founded on TURN 5 [!], so I [in a fit of weed] tried to research Meditation, and predictably, Buddhism was founded midway through researching the tech. Surprise, surprise. I finished Polytheism and researched Priesthood while cranking out a settler for a city 1 W of the city ruins in the NW, which I named Beta [I have such creative naming themes]. After that, I made a run at Judaism, which I fortunately landed.
By this time I had found Charlemagne to my west and discovered with the aid of roads that I was pretty much on a peninsula. Knowing that Charlemagne expands like an explosion, I began to engage in Operation:Expand-West-Aggressively. I realized this was going to tick him off a little, but I was already planning to make him a Jew because the only other AIs I'd met were Buddhist [Justinian] and Hindu [Brennus].
The game continues pretty smoothly for a while... Charlemagne converts, I oracle Aesthetics and build the Great Library successfully [I also build the Parthenon, just for kicks]. I do have some issues with road-traveling barbs, but nothing major happens. My first Great Person is a Scientist, at only ~10% odds; I use him for an academy in Alpha.
Then, on Turn 78, Brennus and Asoka up and declare war on me! Asoka doesn't send a stack in [they're both Hindu, so he was probably bribed], but Brennus sends a mini-stack of 3 gallic warriors and two axeman at my city Gamma, which I placed 1 E of the marble by the lake to the SW. The city is defended by... 1 warrior. I rush out two archers, but to no avail. I send all my spare forces to gather at my city Delta [4 W of Alpha], and I bribe Charlemagne into war with Brennus for Alphabet; that pretty much cut Brennus off from me completely, though Charlemagne refused to close borders with Asoka. So I whipped out some axeman and some hwacha, and that was that. Charlemagne apparently took the brunt of the combat, as I saw one city change hands a few times.
Now... at this point I decided to take a break and unfortunately, one thing led to another and soon several weeks had past. I only had three days to play the game, so I became a bit rushed but... my planning skillz were never excelsior anyway. The worse thing was that I had no idea at all whatsoever what I had been doing; it was like playing a succession game with myself. So I regrouped and decided to assess my situation.
It was not that good. I was in the middle of the pack in most categories, although I was pretty good in GNP and had a tech lead on all AIs... EXCEPT for Justinian, who was somehow kicking everyone's asses in everything! And I did not even know where he was. Expansion in the near future would be difficult, as except for one filler city north and one city east of the cap I had no more room; Charlemagne took it all [and I wasn't about to backstab my only ally]. At this point, decided that my lib/nationalism beeline would need take on a new importance; why? Because at this point it was obvious I could not out-tech or out-build the AI; I needed to kill and conquer [and some AI-improved land would be nice, mwa-ha]. I could not decide who to attack, because I had not been good about scouting that much outside my borders. Paper would help me with that. First, unfortunately, I would have to get Civil Service for Buraucracy, and Feudalism for Longbows, and some other basic techs... but then, straight to Liberalism, I swear!
However, twas not to be so easy. For a scouting axeman noticed several Byzantine units trickling up towards Gamma [in the meantime, I found Justinian in the south... in a spot that would be relatively easy to expand into... hmm...]. I also discovered a Celtic assault division moving up [I had made peace with Asoka, but was still at war with Brennus], although it seemed to be heading towards Charlemagne. Sure enough, next turn [200 BC] Justinian declared, and moved his mighty stack into play... a chariot and a sword. Against my four axes, and one spear, hwacha, and archer each, I was underwhelmed. However, I did know that more units would be coming through [I tried to get Charlemagne to cancel deals in order to have some Screwy Teleporter Fun [TM], but apparently Cautious relations are enough to be a close friend of Charlemagne's].
And then nothing much happens... I have fun with Justinian's warrior that snuck behind my lines a millennium ago and manages to kill a worker AND a missionary because I don't notice that it is woody II... Brennus refuses to take peace [he wants Gamma] and Justinian refuses to talk at all... I found my seventh and eighth cities, making me have the highest city count [except maybe for Justinian]... I realize that I never met the sixth AI [right now I only know Brennameister, Asok, Justinian, Charlie, and Ramesses]... But all is not well in the world...
That Celtic mini-stack I saw in the south earlier must have had back-up, because it tore through two of Charlemagne's cities... straight towards me! In response, I crank up the hwachas from Beta [which has built the Heroic Epic in the meantime], and slave out some L-bows. Apparently, though, the Celts decide to do... nothing, because I don't see anymore combat units than a random Horse Archer. In other new, most people would die for a Great Scientist over a Prophet... but after my FOURTH scientist in my cap [which has National Epic], I kind of get desperate for a prophet to use for the Jewish shrine and hire a priest. Meanwhile, I finally manage to get a map trade with Charlie and discover that I own significantly more land compared to the AIs than I previously thought [also, the sixth AI is on another landmass?! Is this a Terra map?]... things are looking up!
Justinian sends out another mini-stack, of mostly mounted units; I have a bit of trouble taking it out with my force of mostly axes, but it works out. I manage to build University of Sankore, speeding my path towards Edu... And after that, I saved a scientist special for bulbing Liberalism, only to find that he wants to discover the wonders of compasses. Oh well, that is what Golden Ages are for... [just in time for Seowan production, yeah!]
At this point, I am doing _significantly_ better. I am top in pop, land, GNP, production, and food, although my GA somewhat inflates this. I have a fairly good tech lead on the AIs, with the only major hole in my tech tree being Metal Casting/Machinery/Engineering, while the AIs lack lib-enabling techs. Then I look at the year. IT IS ONLY 375 AD! It looks like those pre-built improvements really screwed everything up. Oh, and I also finally get a Prophet, building the shrine for a cool 12 or so gpt [geez, looks like Charlemagne didn't bother to spread Judaism about at all].
Not much happens for a bit... I crank out Ankor Wat, kill some piecemeal Justinian/Brennus units [I would make peace, but both ask for ridiculous terms]. I also discover the Lost Island Of The Barbs, with FOUR warriors on one tile alone, many more walking around. In BS news, a Celtic war elephant attacks a fortified Combat II spear, and DOESN'T EVEN TAKE A SCRATCH! Oh, and I crank out the Taj for another Golden Age, while beelining towards MilScience/Steel...
I finally get Justinian to make peace and give me 20 gold, so I decide to put together a small task force to take back some of Charlemagne's cities from Brennus [and not give them back, natch]. In the meanwhile, the Apostolic Palace causes Asoka and Ramesses to close borders, hurting my economy... but by that time I am 1 turn from discovering Steel, and researching MilScience should take only 6 turns. I upgrade one City Raider II trebuchet to a cannon, but somehow it gets killed by a cat and a crossbow. Oh well. I manage to take the Celtic city of Vienne [right on the borders of Gamma], but I am quickly forced to retreat after another stack shows up to kill my ragtag survivors.
MilScience is discovered, and I go to draft out an army of grenadiers... and discover that that is physically impossible. After smacking my head, I begin the fest o' whippin. Brennus sends a stack at me, which I shred with cannons, and Ramesses and Asoka DOW Charlemagne, probably due to the AP. I finally begin to gather a sizable force, and press forward into Brennus [who, notably, I have been at war with continuously from 950 BCE, when it is currently 1100 AD]. Charlemagne comes asking for my support against the Evil Indians, and I agree, since I was already planning on attacking that region. The more, the merrier!
Vienne falls without a stumble, while Charlemagne captures one of his other cities, causing Brennus and Charlie to make peace. I almost immediately move my forces in on an isolated Indian city on the east coast, and on Brennus's next city to the south. Unfortunately, 1 tile away from the Indian city, due to a misclick in the AP voting I make peace with Asoka [meant to defy resolution, argh]. At least this lets me press further on into Justinian. Speaking of which, just 2 turns later, Justinian DOWs Brennus... and captures a city from under me. You know what this means.
Summary of the war effort for the next few turns: I grind through the AI. Interesting side note: when I capture the city Nuremburg, I notice it has FIVE different nationalities in it: the HRE founded it, the Celts captured it, the Indians culturally sandwiched it, the Byzantines conquered it, and then so did the Koreans [huzzah!]. All the while, I was building banks and other infrastructure in my cities as I teched... Rifling. I WAS going to utilize the draft. So my plan, as my grenadier-cannon army marched through Byzantium, was to draft out a bunch of rifles while building cannon, and use it against India. Then disaster strikes: my new city Nuremburg is surrounded by Indian culture, cutting it and the rest of my army off! And my peace treaty with India doesn't expire for several turns. Blarg.
Just so you know: as far as my enemies go, Asoka is the most dangerous, with the best economy and tech. Brennus and Justinian are okay tech-wise, but caught up in wars with each other [and me]. Same with Ramesses and Charlie. And I still haven't even met the last AI, who is probably crippled from isolation. However, 1 turn later I get a fantastic deal for peace with Brennus [The 2170 year war is over!] and discover via his world map that there is another island, with Hammurabi on it! There also appear to be several other landmasses, but I think I can get some sort of Domination simply by killing India, Celtia, and Byzantium.
Things then promptly take a turn for the worst. Justinian slams my stacks in the south with cataphracts and trebs, and I have no choice but to withdraw. There is still no way to get down reinforcements because of stupid Indian border.
Finally, when the treaty ends, I swoop into action! A detachment marches on the isolated city while I gather rifles to push into the Indian core. And in the meanwhile, Hammurabi manages to get a caravel to me; he has Optics despite not knowing basic techs like Calender or Code of Laws! Techwise, I decided to go to Communism for State Property, though it would hurt to lose out on the Great Library and all the monestaries. However, after I got SciMethod and looked at my oil spots, I realized there WAS NO WAY TO CONNECT THEM! My dreams of tanks were ruined, and I realized Domination might not be so easy. But I had another option: Charlemagne would certainly vote for me in the U.N., so I still had a chance if I conquered fast enough. On the southern front, however, it was not going spectacular; Justinian kept sending stacks of cataphracts at me, and Asoka's first core city was a slog; it took three turns total to bombard the defenses and kill everyone inside. Since India had contemporary units, and a lot of them, I elected to make peace and focus on Byzantium for now. The Celts would also be a target, but not yet.
After some skirmishing and conquering, I notice something bad: the Byzantines discovered Rifling, which would stall my advance seriously. I resolved to take Constantinople [settled near the floodplains] in order to turn the front with Byzantium into a one-city one, and then turn towards Brennus, who had neither rifles or grenadiers.
My plan was executed flawlessly [not counting the several mis-clicks and mistakes I made, along with the inherent flaws in my plan], and by 1500 AD I was at peace with everyone for the first time since... 985 BCE! My first period of war was finally over, and after it, I was top of score, soldiers, pop, territory, GNP, production, and food. I was going to win this game barring some cataclysmic event, so now I just had to rush it to the finish [I say rush, because this was only a couple of hours before I was supposed to leave on vacation]. First, I planned to take several Celtic border cities to consolidate my hold on the area; then, I would finish off the Byzantine scum. The Celts would follow, and finally, I would sweep north and kill India. Simultaneously, I would research up to infantry and artillery to maintain my military advantage, and then go for the U.N. I expect Asoka to be my opponent, and thus I hope that Charlie and I can elect myself the winner of the game with Justinian's and Brennus's population before I am forced to kill India.
Of course, the turn after I DOW on Brennus, Asoka does the same to me. I retreat from the captured city to regroup for a counter-attack against his stack of mostly cuirassiers and grenadiers. Of course, I forgot about the idiotic “re-pop all your defenses and borders” feature, so this becomes more difficult than I thought. After some back-and-forth, I finally take a few border cities on both ends, and make peace. In order to slow Asoka [who is researching Steel] and prevent him from DOWing me again, I get Charlemagne [who just made peace with Ramesses after reducing him to one random island city] to attack India, while I go to finish off the Byzantines. Hopefully, this will largely be done by the time I finish research on Assembly Line, allowing for a massive troop upgrade.
Sure enough, I take Justinian's cap and one of his border cities, and then do a massive upgrade before making another push. Then I notice a galleon... which he loads a settler onto and sails off. I take a look at his city count and realize that Justinian already has one city on the island to the west, and is building more. Gah, those islands are making getting the land count high enough a pain. Oh, and somehow despite his tech advantage Asoka is getting annihilated by Charlemagne, which means that Charlie will be my opponent in the U.N. Great.
With the help of infantry and a dozen cannon, Justinian's core fell quickly, and he was left with only two cities on the island; I made peace, and prepared to destroy Brennus, which I did. Mid-way through the campaign I even began upgrading my cannons to artillery, and soon enough the Celtic core had fallen. Of course, Brennus somehow managed to escape to an island somewhere, so I had to make peace with him, too.
India, all of its forces dead or tied up in Holy Roman lands, was a cakewalk, and I even eliminated Ramesses [trapped in a desert city with a single rifle] while I was at it. And then I discovered a miracle: it was Hammurabi, with his vast island cities, who was the U.N. opponent! Plus, it turned out that I had some 70% of the world population and could vote myself victor anyway; I was sure to win with Charlemagne's extra ~10%!
So I made peace with India after taking the last core city [he was now stranded on an island, too], and rushed towards Mass Media, cranked out the U.N., elected myself secretary [and it was something like ~590 votes out of ~670!], and...
...
There is NO OPTION TO HOLD A DIPLO VICTORY VOTE.
I don't know why, but the option DID NOT SHOW UP, even after I had an oppurtunity for a resolution FIVE DIFFERENT TIMES!
Suffice to say, I was pretty pissed, and since my vacation beckoned, I gave up on the whole thing. So there you have it: had the game not prevented me, I would have won a Diplomatic Victory in 1830. However, I technically never finished the game, so I will leave it up to the sponsor as to how my game will be sorted.
Reflections:
This game was actually a lot of fun, despite the stupid lack-of-a-victory at the end. I enjoyed liberation from constantly having to move around workers and build improvements, as it allowed me to focus more on warfare. That said, I actually got quite a lot of use out of the one random worker I built, as he chopped some 6 or 7 forests I couldn't work anyway. This game taught me quite a lot on industrial warfare, as I had to conquer several enemies with near-equal units.
The map itself was pretty interesting. The number of religious zealots [Asoka, Charlemagne, Brennus, and Justinian] all made it difficult for my religious plan to work [as I suspect it was planned], and it lead to very interesting diplomacy in my game, with several small blocks forming: the Buddhists [Justinian], the Confucists [Ramesses], the Hindus [Asoka and Brennus], and the Jews [Me and Charlemagne]. Hammurabi kind of just floated around irelevently, converting the Christianity eventually [I think?]; I never really paid attention to him, as he was to far behind in tech to matter to me. That said, the worst part of the map, in my opinion, was all the extra landmasses hanging about. They could never really be leveraged by the player because of their unimproved state, and consequently simply existed to give the AIs a refuge and raise the land count [I suppose one could wait until the AI developed the land and then took it, but that could only have occured very late in the game]. I could have easily won a Domination victory without those landmasses.
On my decision-making and play in general in this game, I actually did better then I was expecting. After the flubbed-beginning, I managed to do quite well, and had the game essentially won by 1500 [a first for me on Prince]. My best decision, easily, in the entire game, was to convert Charlemagne. It secured my western flank forever, so that I only ever needed a military presence in the southwest, and Charlemagne took a lot of the beating that would have otherwise been directed at me. He was at war for me almost continuously ever since that fateful first war with Brennus and Asoka; he attacked Brennus, and eventually Asoka, and eventually Ramesses, on-and-off the whole game [I think he was even at war with all three, for quite some time]. Of course, this prevented me from ever having a tech partner, which slowed me considerably, but it was definitely worth it. Frankly, I fail to see how India failed to destroy Holy Rome, as for quite some time Asoka had a secured south via fellow Hindu Brennus, and had large amounts of cuirassiers to fight Charlemagne's macemen and longbows. The only time India ever came close to a major victory was near the end of the game when their cavalry and trebuchets marched right up to the HRE cap [Berlin], which was still defended by longbows; however, I had a number of infantry in the area who destroyed the stack. This was because, due to pillaging barbs in the earlier years, Charlemagne had a MUCH better road network than I did, and so many of my units went through him. Pillaging was actually one of the biggest problems I had in this game; barbs or enemies would come out of the fog all of a sudden on the pre-existing roads and pillage my improvements, with nothing I could do to stop them. So my roads in the west eventually came to be single lines of roads, guarded preciously by my sentries. Ultimately, I atribute my success in the wars that plagued this game to the fact that I always had a stream of units funneling south from my cities Alpha [the cap], Beta [Heroic Epic/Wall Street for Jewish Shrine], and Eta [a city 1N from the southeast corner with Moai/Ironworks] producing cannon and grenadiers [and later infantry and artillery] for literally the entire rest of the game as soon as I discovered Steel.
So anyway, that was my game! I suspect that many of the more experienced players easily have done better [I have not read any other reports yet], considering even an inexperienced player like myself could get to Liberalism around 500 AD [I don't remember the exact date, but I know it was Turn 136]. Here are some brief stats:
Victory: Somewhat [see my note above]
Victory Type If I Had Won: Diplomatic
Theoretical Victory Date: 1830
Number Of Cities: 32 [8 self-founded, 1 barb-founded, 2 HRE-founded, 8 Indian-founded, 1 Egyptian-founded, 5 Celtic-founded, and 7 Byzantine-founded]
Enemies Defeated: Ramesses
Enemies Exiled To Offshore Islands: Justinian, Asoka, Brennus
Most Awesome Unit Ever: Combat II, City Raider II, Pinch Rifleman [KIA in the India Campaign]
Runner-Up: Medic Explorer [KIA in the India Campaign; stupid mis-clicks!]
My Rating Of This Variant: Pretty cool! It made the game significantly easier, but I definitely thought that it made things interesting.
Thanks for reading to the end!
And if anyone could shed some light as to why I was unable to select a Diplo victory option, I would be most grateful.
I have never posted a report before, obviously, so if I did something wrong please tell me. As of this posting, there are no pictures, but if I decide to get off my lazy bum and set up a photobucket account, there might be. If you don't give a crap about the journey, just skip straight the the section titled "Reflections".
Thoughts on the game:
The main doozy for this game is that you cannot build tile improvements. This means workers are essentially useless except for chopping jungles; chopping forests doesn't seem worth the permanent -1 in production. This variant is actually pretty suited for me though, as I consistently suck at worker micromanagement anyway! Also, as a side effect, early religion becomes much more attractive without the need for early worker techs.
I decided pretty early on while thinking about this game that I wouldn't try to do an early attack on the AIs. Why? Because they can build tile improvements, and consequently can best be attacked mid-way into the game or later for a good amount of land improvement. So I came up with a preliminary plan:
1. Go Polytheism->Preisthood, snagging Hinduism along the way.
2. Oracle Aesthetics, then go Literature for Great Library.
3. 1st great person will either be a scientist or a prophet; scientist=early academy, prophet=early shrine, either of which will help my research.
4. Expand and turtle, defending with hwachas+longbows.
5. Tech along the Paper-Edu-Lib line; this is useful because
-Paper allows me to build University of Sankore, which jives with my religious buildings and boosts the tech rate.
-Edu allows me to build Seowans [and Oxford in my academy city], which even further boosts my tech rate.
-Lib allows me to get Nationalism, for drafting... [foreboding laugh]
After this, I wanted to draft out an advanced army and eat an AI. But... rifles or grenadiers/cannon? I selected the latter, because Printing Press/Replaceable Parts will matter less because I cannot choose my improvements. As for ultimate victory, I was unsure. Culture and Time were already both pretty much out, and Conquest isn't really my style. This left Domination/Backdoor Domination [okay, technically known as the U.N.], which I could feasibly accomplish with my technologically advanced position, and Space, which I would probably have the tech lead and land to do pretty easily. I decided to decide later, as I had already planned and speculated enough. Now, I was to see how much I could screw my plan up!
What Actually Happened:
I scouted around a bit with the warrior and settler [those roads were a massive help], and decided that it wasn't worth giving up those grassland cottages for a silk, so I settled in place, naming my cap Alpha. My plan began to fall apart right away. Hinduism was founded on TURN 5 [!], so I [in a fit of weed] tried to research Meditation, and predictably, Buddhism was founded midway through researching the tech. Surprise, surprise. I finished Polytheism and researched Priesthood while cranking out a settler for a city 1 W of the city ruins in the NW, which I named Beta [I have such creative naming themes]. After that, I made a run at Judaism, which I fortunately landed.
By this time I had found Charlemagne to my west and discovered with the aid of roads that I was pretty much on a peninsula. Knowing that Charlemagne expands like an explosion, I began to engage in Operation:Expand-West-Aggressively. I realized this was going to tick him off a little, but I was already planning to make him a Jew because the only other AIs I'd met were Buddhist [Justinian] and Hindu [Brennus].
The game continues pretty smoothly for a while... Charlemagne converts, I oracle Aesthetics and build the Great Library successfully [I also build the Parthenon, just for kicks]. I do have some issues with road-traveling barbs, but nothing major happens. My first Great Person is a Scientist, at only ~10% odds; I use him for an academy in Alpha.
Then, on Turn 78, Brennus and Asoka up and declare war on me! Asoka doesn't send a stack in [they're both Hindu, so he was probably bribed], but Brennus sends a mini-stack of 3 gallic warriors and two axeman at my city Gamma, which I placed 1 E of the marble by the lake to the SW. The city is defended by... 1 warrior. I rush out two archers, but to no avail. I send all my spare forces to gather at my city Delta [4 W of Alpha], and I bribe Charlemagne into war with Brennus for Alphabet; that pretty much cut Brennus off from me completely, though Charlemagne refused to close borders with Asoka. So I whipped out some axeman and some hwacha, and that was that. Charlemagne apparently took the brunt of the combat, as I saw one city change hands a few times.
Now... at this point I decided to take a break and unfortunately, one thing led to another and soon several weeks had past. I only had three days to play the game, so I became a bit rushed but... my planning skillz were never excelsior anyway. The worse thing was that I had no idea at all whatsoever what I had been doing; it was like playing a succession game with myself. So I regrouped and decided to assess my situation.
It was not that good. I was in the middle of the pack in most categories, although I was pretty good in GNP and had a tech lead on all AIs... EXCEPT for Justinian, who was somehow kicking everyone's asses in everything! And I did not even know where he was. Expansion in the near future would be difficult, as except for one filler city north and one city east of the cap I had no more room; Charlemagne took it all [and I wasn't about to backstab my only ally]. At this point, decided that my lib/nationalism beeline would need take on a new importance; why? Because at this point it was obvious I could not out-tech or out-build the AI; I needed to kill and conquer [and some AI-improved land would be nice, mwa-ha]. I could not decide who to attack, because I had not been good about scouting that much outside my borders. Paper would help me with that. First, unfortunately, I would have to get Civil Service for Buraucracy, and Feudalism for Longbows, and some other basic techs... but then, straight to Liberalism, I swear!
However, twas not to be so easy. For a scouting axeman noticed several Byzantine units trickling up towards Gamma [in the meantime, I found Justinian in the south... in a spot that would be relatively easy to expand into... hmm...]. I also discovered a Celtic assault division moving up [I had made peace with Asoka, but was still at war with Brennus], although it seemed to be heading towards Charlemagne. Sure enough, next turn [200 BC] Justinian declared, and moved his mighty stack into play... a chariot and a sword. Against my four axes, and one spear, hwacha, and archer each, I was underwhelmed. However, I did know that more units would be coming through [I tried to get Charlemagne to cancel deals in order to have some Screwy Teleporter Fun [TM], but apparently Cautious relations are enough to be a close friend of Charlemagne's].
And then nothing much happens... I have fun with Justinian's warrior that snuck behind my lines a millennium ago and manages to kill a worker AND a missionary because I don't notice that it is woody II... Brennus refuses to take peace [he wants Gamma] and Justinian refuses to talk at all... I found my seventh and eighth cities, making me have the highest city count [except maybe for Justinian]... I realize that I never met the sixth AI [right now I only know Brennameister, Asok, Justinian, Charlie, and Ramesses]... But all is not well in the world...
That Celtic mini-stack I saw in the south earlier must have had back-up, because it tore through two of Charlemagne's cities... straight towards me! In response, I crank up the hwachas from Beta [which has built the Heroic Epic in the meantime], and slave out some L-bows. Apparently, though, the Celts decide to do... nothing, because I don't see anymore combat units than a random Horse Archer. In other new, most people would die for a Great Scientist over a Prophet... but after my FOURTH scientist in my cap [which has National Epic], I kind of get desperate for a prophet to use for the Jewish shrine and hire a priest. Meanwhile, I finally manage to get a map trade with Charlie and discover that I own significantly more land compared to the AIs than I previously thought [also, the sixth AI is on another landmass?! Is this a Terra map?]... things are looking up!
Justinian sends out another mini-stack, of mostly mounted units; I have a bit of trouble taking it out with my force of mostly axes, but it works out. I manage to build University of Sankore, speeding my path towards Edu... And after that, I saved a scientist special for bulbing Liberalism, only to find that he wants to discover the wonders of compasses. Oh well, that is what Golden Ages are for... [just in time for Seowan production, yeah!]
At this point, I am doing _significantly_ better. I am top in pop, land, GNP, production, and food, although my GA somewhat inflates this. I have a fairly good tech lead on the AIs, with the only major hole in my tech tree being Metal Casting/Machinery/Engineering, while the AIs lack lib-enabling techs. Then I look at the year. IT IS ONLY 375 AD! It looks like those pre-built improvements really screwed everything up. Oh, and I also finally get a Prophet, building the shrine for a cool 12 or so gpt [geez, looks like Charlemagne didn't bother to spread Judaism about at all].
Not much happens for a bit... I crank out Ankor Wat, kill some piecemeal Justinian/Brennus units [I would make peace, but both ask for ridiculous terms]. I also discover the Lost Island Of The Barbs, with FOUR warriors on one tile alone, many more walking around. In BS news, a Celtic war elephant attacks a fortified Combat II spear, and DOESN'T EVEN TAKE A SCRATCH! Oh, and I crank out the Taj for another Golden Age, while beelining towards MilScience/Steel...
I finally get Justinian to make peace and give me 20 gold, so I decide to put together a small task force to take back some of Charlemagne's cities from Brennus [and not give them back, natch]. In the meanwhile, the Apostolic Palace causes Asoka and Ramesses to close borders, hurting my economy... but by that time I am 1 turn from discovering Steel, and researching MilScience should take only 6 turns. I upgrade one City Raider II trebuchet to a cannon, but somehow it gets killed by a cat and a crossbow. Oh well. I manage to take the Celtic city of Vienne [right on the borders of Gamma], but I am quickly forced to retreat after another stack shows up to kill my ragtag survivors.
MilScience is discovered, and I go to draft out an army of grenadiers... and discover that that is physically impossible. After smacking my head, I begin the fest o' whippin. Brennus sends a stack at me, which I shred with cannons, and Ramesses and Asoka DOW Charlemagne, probably due to the AP. I finally begin to gather a sizable force, and press forward into Brennus [who, notably, I have been at war with continuously from 950 BCE, when it is currently 1100 AD]. Charlemagne comes asking for my support against the Evil Indians, and I agree, since I was already planning on attacking that region. The more, the merrier!
Vienne falls without a stumble, while Charlemagne captures one of his other cities, causing Brennus and Charlie to make peace. I almost immediately move my forces in on an isolated Indian city on the east coast, and on Brennus's next city to the south. Unfortunately, 1 tile away from the Indian city, due to a misclick in the AP voting I make peace with Asoka [meant to defy resolution, argh]. At least this lets me press further on into Justinian. Speaking of which, just 2 turns later, Justinian DOWs Brennus... and captures a city from under me. You know what this means.
Summary of the war effort for the next few turns: I grind through the AI. Interesting side note: when I capture the city Nuremburg, I notice it has FIVE different nationalities in it: the HRE founded it, the Celts captured it, the Indians culturally sandwiched it, the Byzantines conquered it, and then so did the Koreans [huzzah!]. All the while, I was building banks and other infrastructure in my cities as I teched... Rifling. I WAS going to utilize the draft. So my plan, as my grenadier-cannon army marched through Byzantium, was to draft out a bunch of rifles while building cannon, and use it against India. Then disaster strikes: my new city Nuremburg is surrounded by Indian culture, cutting it and the rest of my army off! And my peace treaty with India doesn't expire for several turns. Blarg.
Just so you know: as far as my enemies go, Asoka is the most dangerous, with the best economy and tech. Brennus and Justinian are okay tech-wise, but caught up in wars with each other [and me]. Same with Ramesses and Charlie. And I still haven't even met the last AI, who is probably crippled from isolation. However, 1 turn later I get a fantastic deal for peace with Brennus [The 2170 year war is over!] and discover via his world map that there is another island, with Hammurabi on it! There also appear to be several other landmasses, but I think I can get some sort of Domination simply by killing India, Celtia, and Byzantium.
Things then promptly take a turn for the worst. Justinian slams my stacks in the south with cataphracts and trebs, and I have no choice but to withdraw. There is still no way to get down reinforcements because of stupid Indian border.
Finally, when the treaty ends, I swoop into action! A detachment marches on the isolated city while I gather rifles to push into the Indian core. And in the meanwhile, Hammurabi manages to get a caravel to me; he has Optics despite not knowing basic techs like Calender or Code of Laws! Techwise, I decided to go to Communism for State Property, though it would hurt to lose out on the Great Library and all the monestaries. However, after I got SciMethod and looked at my oil spots, I realized there WAS NO WAY TO CONNECT THEM! My dreams of tanks were ruined, and I realized Domination might not be so easy. But I had another option: Charlemagne would certainly vote for me in the U.N., so I still had a chance if I conquered fast enough. On the southern front, however, it was not going spectacular; Justinian kept sending stacks of cataphracts at me, and Asoka's first core city was a slog; it took three turns total to bombard the defenses and kill everyone inside. Since India had contemporary units, and a lot of them, I elected to make peace and focus on Byzantium for now. The Celts would also be a target, but not yet.
After some skirmishing and conquering, I notice something bad: the Byzantines discovered Rifling, which would stall my advance seriously. I resolved to take Constantinople [settled near the floodplains] in order to turn the front with Byzantium into a one-city one, and then turn towards Brennus, who had neither rifles or grenadiers.
My plan was executed flawlessly [not counting the several mis-clicks and mistakes I made, along with the inherent flaws in my plan], and by 1500 AD I was at peace with everyone for the first time since... 985 BCE! My first period of war was finally over, and after it, I was top of score, soldiers, pop, territory, GNP, production, and food. I was going to win this game barring some cataclysmic event, so now I just had to rush it to the finish [I say rush, because this was only a couple of hours before I was supposed to leave on vacation]. First, I planned to take several Celtic border cities to consolidate my hold on the area; then, I would finish off the Byzantine scum. The Celts would follow, and finally, I would sweep north and kill India. Simultaneously, I would research up to infantry and artillery to maintain my military advantage, and then go for the U.N. I expect Asoka to be my opponent, and thus I hope that Charlie and I can elect myself the winner of the game with Justinian's and Brennus's population before I am forced to kill India.
Of course, the turn after I DOW on Brennus, Asoka does the same to me. I retreat from the captured city to regroup for a counter-attack against his stack of mostly cuirassiers and grenadiers. Of course, I forgot about the idiotic “re-pop all your defenses and borders” feature, so this becomes more difficult than I thought. After some back-and-forth, I finally take a few border cities on both ends, and make peace. In order to slow Asoka [who is researching Steel] and prevent him from DOWing me again, I get Charlemagne [who just made peace with Ramesses after reducing him to one random island city] to attack India, while I go to finish off the Byzantines. Hopefully, this will largely be done by the time I finish research on Assembly Line, allowing for a massive troop upgrade.
Sure enough, I take Justinian's cap and one of his border cities, and then do a massive upgrade before making another push. Then I notice a galleon... which he loads a settler onto and sails off. I take a look at his city count and realize that Justinian already has one city on the island to the west, and is building more. Gah, those islands are making getting the land count high enough a pain. Oh, and somehow despite his tech advantage Asoka is getting annihilated by Charlemagne, which means that Charlie will be my opponent in the U.N. Great.
With the help of infantry and a dozen cannon, Justinian's core fell quickly, and he was left with only two cities on the island; I made peace, and prepared to destroy Brennus, which I did. Mid-way through the campaign I even began upgrading my cannons to artillery, and soon enough the Celtic core had fallen. Of course, Brennus somehow managed to escape to an island somewhere, so I had to make peace with him, too.
India, all of its forces dead or tied up in Holy Roman lands, was a cakewalk, and I even eliminated Ramesses [trapped in a desert city with a single rifle] while I was at it. And then I discovered a miracle: it was Hammurabi, with his vast island cities, who was the U.N. opponent! Plus, it turned out that I had some 70% of the world population and could vote myself victor anyway; I was sure to win with Charlemagne's extra ~10%!
So I made peace with India after taking the last core city [he was now stranded on an island, too], and rushed towards Mass Media, cranked out the U.N., elected myself secretary [and it was something like ~590 votes out of ~670!], and...
...
There is NO OPTION TO HOLD A DIPLO VICTORY VOTE.
I don't know why, but the option DID NOT SHOW UP, even after I had an oppurtunity for a resolution FIVE DIFFERENT TIMES!
Suffice to say, I was pretty pissed, and since my vacation beckoned, I gave up on the whole thing. So there you have it: had the game not prevented me, I would have won a Diplomatic Victory in 1830. However, I technically never finished the game, so I will leave it up to the sponsor as to how my game will be sorted.
Reflections:
This game was actually a lot of fun, despite the stupid lack-of-a-victory at the end. I enjoyed liberation from constantly having to move around workers and build improvements, as it allowed me to focus more on warfare. That said, I actually got quite a lot of use out of the one random worker I built, as he chopped some 6 or 7 forests I couldn't work anyway. This game taught me quite a lot on industrial warfare, as I had to conquer several enemies with near-equal units.
The map itself was pretty interesting. The number of religious zealots [Asoka, Charlemagne, Brennus, and Justinian] all made it difficult for my religious plan to work [as I suspect it was planned], and it lead to very interesting diplomacy in my game, with several small blocks forming: the Buddhists [Justinian], the Confucists [Ramesses], the Hindus [Asoka and Brennus], and the Jews [Me and Charlemagne]. Hammurabi kind of just floated around irelevently, converting the Christianity eventually [I think?]; I never really paid attention to him, as he was to far behind in tech to matter to me. That said, the worst part of the map, in my opinion, was all the extra landmasses hanging about. They could never really be leveraged by the player because of their unimproved state, and consequently simply existed to give the AIs a refuge and raise the land count [I suppose one could wait until the AI developed the land and then took it, but that could only have occured very late in the game]. I could have easily won a Domination victory without those landmasses.
On my decision-making and play in general in this game, I actually did better then I was expecting. After the flubbed-beginning, I managed to do quite well, and had the game essentially won by 1500 [a first for me on Prince]. My best decision, easily, in the entire game, was to convert Charlemagne. It secured my western flank forever, so that I only ever needed a military presence in the southwest, and Charlemagne took a lot of the beating that would have otherwise been directed at me. He was at war for me almost continuously ever since that fateful first war with Brennus and Asoka; he attacked Brennus, and eventually Asoka, and eventually Ramesses, on-and-off the whole game [I think he was even at war with all three, for quite some time]. Of course, this prevented me from ever having a tech partner, which slowed me considerably, but it was definitely worth it. Frankly, I fail to see how India failed to destroy Holy Rome, as for quite some time Asoka had a secured south via fellow Hindu Brennus, and had large amounts of cuirassiers to fight Charlemagne's macemen and longbows. The only time India ever came close to a major victory was near the end of the game when their cavalry and trebuchets marched right up to the HRE cap [Berlin], which was still defended by longbows; however, I had a number of infantry in the area who destroyed the stack. This was because, due to pillaging barbs in the earlier years, Charlemagne had a MUCH better road network than I did, and so many of my units went through him. Pillaging was actually one of the biggest problems I had in this game; barbs or enemies would come out of the fog all of a sudden on the pre-existing roads and pillage my improvements, with nothing I could do to stop them. So my roads in the west eventually came to be single lines of roads, guarded preciously by my sentries. Ultimately, I atribute my success in the wars that plagued this game to the fact that I always had a stream of units funneling south from my cities Alpha [the cap], Beta [Heroic Epic/Wall Street for Jewish Shrine], and Eta [a city 1N from the southeast corner with Moai/Ironworks] producing cannon and grenadiers [and later infantry and artillery] for literally the entire rest of the game as soon as I discovered Steel.
So anyway, that was my game! I suspect that many of the more experienced players easily have done better [I have not read any other reports yet], considering even an inexperienced player like myself could get to Liberalism around 500 AD [I don't remember the exact date, but I know it was Turn 136]. Here are some brief stats:
Victory: Somewhat [see my note above]
Victory Type If I Had Won: Diplomatic
Theoretical Victory Date: 1830
Number Of Cities: 32 [8 self-founded, 1 barb-founded, 2 HRE-founded, 8 Indian-founded, 1 Egyptian-founded, 5 Celtic-founded, and 7 Byzantine-founded]
Enemies Defeated: Ramesses
Enemies Exiled To Offshore Islands: Justinian, Asoka, Brennus
Most Awesome Unit Ever: Combat II, City Raider II, Pinch Rifleman [KIA in the India Campaign]
Runner-Up: Medic Explorer [KIA in the India Campaign; stupid mis-clicks!]
My Rating Of This Variant: Pretty cool! It made the game significantly easier, but I definitely thought that it made things interesting.
Thanks for reading to the end!
And if anyone could shed some light as to why I was unable to select a Diplo victory option, I would be most grateful.