Adventure 54 - Ambling around the hills

[kjn]

I haven't finished a Civ adventure or epic here, though I've started on several, both when then they were new and historical ones. The tournament games I've finished has all been for MOO.

For that matter, I'm quite bad at finishing my Civ games, mostly because I find the mid-late game to be a slog. This will be readily apparent later on in the report, where I dither around and switch between making no decisions and bad decisions.

My openings thoughts for the game were that hopefully there would be no Celts in the game, that guerilla promotions will be very powerful, food will be quite hard to come by until Machinery, and that mounted units will be quite worthless, with the exception of Keshiks. Better no Mongols in the game. Or Zulus, for that matter.

Starting the game

Looks like Tundra to the north, and the rivers are flowing north as well. Probably ocean up there, which can be scouted via borders. I send the scout 1NW, to continue counter-clockwise around the capital.

I see no reason to move the settler, and settle in place. The village gives me a map, which confirms my earlier thoughts on the map. There is a nice later spot to the NE, with crab, sheep, and silver.

Worker first, and research AH. Get 42 gold from the hut, and spot a desert hill flood plains! Quite rare, that.

Buddhism founded on T9 - 3640BC.

My scount encountered a lion on T12, and danced around for a while trying to avoid it or meet in on favourable ground (ie forest or jungle). AH in on T12 as well, and the question is if to go for BW or The Wheel. Decide on BW in the end. Tech path AH -> BW -> The Wheel -> Fishing -> Pottery.

Hut results: gold, experience - taking Guerilla 2. Which leads to... Writing on T19! Mysticism on T21! Aesthetics on T31! Iron Working on T36!

Hinduism founded in distant land T19 - 3240BC.

Find my first grain circa T20, which means we have to research Agriculture after all - I had some fancy thoughts of never researching it in the game. Pity it couldn't be irrigated.

My very original plan is to chop Oracle to Metal Casting, chop a forge, run an engineer, and bulb Machinery.

Contact with the first AI on T36 - Catherine of Russia.

Stonehenge built in faraway land on T49.

Near perfect execution of the Oracle-MC slingshot: both Pottery and the Oracle finish on T53, and lots of overflow and a chop in Yasodharapura which will finish the forge in just 2t, ie on T55. I had a second chop incoming, but it wasn't needed...

After Pottery on T53, the question was what to tech next. The obvious early wonder to go for scoring purposes would be The Great Lighthouse. After much deliberation, I decided on Mathematics. It would make chopping more efficient, and it is on the way towards Calendar (for MoM). Then Sailing, for the GLH.

I lose the GLH on T85 (750 BC). I was still 5t away from completing it. After much dithering, I set Angkor Thom to a monument - it will get the fish online quicker than the Library.

Goethals born in Yasodharapura on T89 - 650 BC. I had turned in 30% tech on Machinery on T88 - enough to just get the required beakers with bulbing, so the tech finished the same turn. Teching continued on with Currency. My workers are all ready, and I've built some extra worker in anticipation of this.

Took a chance on T103 (300 BC) with an C2 8 XP axe against an archer - and won! The Heroic Epic-enabling unit has arrived!

Gaul (barbarian city) captured on 25 BC, after taking out three archers.

Completes the Hanging Gardens on 25 BC too, for max effect on the 1 AD scoring date. All my cities had been set for max growth for quite a while in anticipation. Total population is 50. (Every pop point counts right, even unhealthy, unhappy, or resisting?)

Forgot that I was supposed to keep track of the 88 beakers target by now - I probably reached it several turns back. Checking the old saves and autosaves shows I got 103 beakers on T112 - 75BC.

Colossus completed on T134 - 475 AD.

A second Great Engineer was born in 620 AD, the turn after I researched Engineering. Time to rush-build Notre Dame! The overflow from researching Engineering was enough to 1-turn Archery and Agriculture... at 0% tech!

Around this time I went a little wonder crazy - even starting to build the Statue of Zeus - I could 1-turn a third monument in a city, and then finish off the statue in a mere three turns, but some other civ beat me to it with 2 turns. I was also starting to consider a cultural victory.

Angkor Thom hits size 15 on T156 - 920 AD. Yasodharapura hit size 15 on T157.

Contact with Korea on T159 - 980 AD. No idea where it happened, though, unless it was through the Apostolic Palace.

Used a one-artist golden age in T170 (1100 AD) to fuel me to Nationalism and Taj Mahal (built in 1170 AD), and win the Liberalism race. Pacal had three turns to Paper now. After Nationalism I one-turned Paper while building Research. That way I could take advantage of the 1.4 Paper modifier.

My fourth GP was a prophet, for the Masjid al-Haram on T175 - 1150 AD.

After Nationalism I still had 7 turns of Golden Age, followed by the Taj Mahal. The demographics were starting to look silly by now.

After getting Music I noted that I could get the Sistine Chapel in 5 turns, so why not? After checking the research tree I decided to go on to Constitution, which I could get in 3 turns. Pacal, had started on Metal Casting, which would take him 2 turns, so even if he had Paper he was hardly a contender in the Liberalism race.

Ramesses asks me to attack Sury, but I decline. Neither of them are happy with me anyway.

Replacable Parts in 1260 AD, which comes with ridiculous production levels.
Liberalism in turn 194 - 1340 AD, after I had putzed around quite a bit while waiting for Pacal to get around to it. Picked up Democracy.

Around 1500 AD I fired off a three-GP Golden Age, using a Spy, a Merchant, and an Engineer, with the result that I'd have had 48 consecutive turns of Golden Ages. Plan is to rush towards Electricity, perhaps with a detour to Biology for the National Park.

Total population on T210 (1500 AD) is 188.

I decide on a corporation strategy, and going for military domination. The three corporations I will target are Sid's Sushi (food is great, and there is a decent amount of seafood but few grains), Creative Constructions (hammers are great), and Civilized Jewelers (money and culture).

That will require Medicine, Mass Media, and Combustion. I already have all the great people I will need, too.

Possible military targets are Catherine, Pacal, and Bismarck.

Against Catherine I can hit six cities on the first turn of the war, and I can use naval forces to attack her southern cities. However, I have only one usable harbour city to build those from, and it's poorly placed for that. Will give 7 sushi resources and probably two overseas cities.

Pacal would imply a long land war.

Bismarck would be a naval campaign. All his cities are coastal. Would add 7 sushi resources, several overseas cities, and give an good strategic position against Pacal. I decide on targeting Bismarck first.

Here I ended my notes, but I obliterated Bismarck with relative ease (riflemen and cannons versus longbowmen, and just when he got riflemen himself I had infantry...), though I had to send out a few naval task forces to take out several far-flung German island cities. A war declaration from Sury blindsided me, and he managed to take Hamburg. Any future stacks from him were quickly shredded in the hills south of Hamburg, however.

After Bismarck I set my eyes on Catherine, but also decided I couldn't be bothered to go for a Domination victory, so I switched gears to a cultural victory. Thanks to Rep-powered artists and other stuff I still teched at a decent pace, so I could use tanks against her, though the real winner in that campaign were fast transports with Medic I (from my Red Cross city) loaded with marines.

Reached a cultural victory in 1834 AD. My cities reached legendary culture on 1832, 1834, and 1834 AD, though the first city could've reached it much sooner by building culture.

Scoring:

Machinery: T89 - 650 BC

Replacable Parts: 1260 AD

Size 15 city: T156 - 920 AD (Angkor Thom) hits size 15 on T156 - 920 AD. (Do I get points for getting Yasodharapura to size 15 on T157?)

Any wonder: Hanging Gardens 25 BC

Wonder of 550 hammers: Notre Dame 550 AD

Population at 1 AD: 50

Population at 1500 AD: 188

88 beakers: 75 BC (probably earlier, but I forgot this scoring)

Any win: Culture in 1834 AD.

Note: I've used log dates for wonders and techs.

[T-hawk]

Worker first, and research AH. Get 42 gold from the hut, and spot a desert hill flood plains! Quite rare, that.

There was one batch of flood plains that became hills in processing the map. I saw it and liked the idea so made a few more such areas, to break up the monotony and get some variety on the map by doing something you don't usually see. Same went for the hill oases.

Hut results: gold, experience - taking Guerilla 2. Which leads to... Writing on T19! Mysticism on T21! Aesthetics on T31! Iron Working on T36!

Not much a mapmaker can do about that, besides deleting huts completely and killing all the fun.

After Pottery on T53, the question was what to tech next. The obvious early wonder to go for scoring purposes would be The Great Lighthouse.

The prime intention of that scoring goal was to create a push towards the Hanging Gardens. The Great Wall would be the other major competitor and a temptation to sacrifice civilization development for scenario points -- a curveball that Sirian liked to throw in back in his days of scenario designing. I didn't think the Great Lighthouse would be easily accessible or worthwhile without a coastal capital.

The win condition was deliberately left open-ended. I was hoping someone would try culture, to see how it would go without the usual reams of cottages, and looks like it did work out pretty well. Yes, you picked the usual three corporations for culture. Nice showing, that's earlier than I would have guessed for a culture win under these conditions.

[Lewwyn]

Find my first grain circa T20, which means we have to research Agriculture after all - I had some fancy thoughts of never researching it in the game. Pity it couldn't be irrigated.

I never actually teched Agriculture. I let my opponents farm the grains and then I captured their cities. :D

[kjn]

Not much a mapmaker can do about that, besides deleting huts completely and killing all the fun.

Yeah, but aside from getting my iron online quick, it didn't really help me. I didn't eg build libraries until later. Mysticism early helped me towards Priesthood, but it's a cheap tech.

The prime intention of that scoring goal was to create a push towards the Hanging Gardens. The Great Wall would be the other major competitor and a temptation to sacrifice civilization development for scenario points -- a curveball that Sirian liked to throw in back in his days of scenario designing. I didn't think the Great Lighthouse would be easily accessible or worthwhile without a coastal capital.

Yeah - comparing my game with Lee I think I did the right choice in skipping that category. He got a super-early Great Wall, but it wrecked his chances of early Machinery.

I think pushing the Oracle -> MC -> Forge -> Engineer -> Great Engineer -> Machinery as hard as I did was the key here. Then I had built lots and lots of workers too. I had 8 workers in 350 BC, and most of them had been built by the time I bulbed Machinery.

The win condition was deliberately left open-ended. I was hoping someone would try culture, to see how it would go without the usual reams of cottages, and looks like it did work out pretty well. Yes, you picked the usual three corporations for culture. Nice showing, that's earlier than I would have guessed for a culture win under these conditions.

With better planning, I could've done the culture win a lot earlier. Culture was mainly incidental to my corporation choices too - Sid's was interesting since there were few grains, CJ interesting because it generated gold, and CC because it didn't conflict with anything else and could help my island cities under cultural pressure from Pacal.

I hardly used Great Artists at all, either for bombing or for settling.

I built the Hermitage in a non-legendary city.

Two of my legendaries had only two cathedrals each, the third had three.

The only real planning for culture I did was splitting the three happiness wonders between the three legendaries.

[kjn]

Here, have some screenshots!

My empire in 2040 BC, a few turns before I'm about to build the Oracle and bulb MC:




An overview of my cities on 1100 AD, just as I had triggered my 48-turn GA:




The capital and one of the legendaries. I focused on GE-generating wonders here early on.




My second city, where I built the Oracle. Built the Parthenon here, but it didn't fill a major role otherwise in the game.




My third city, and my supposed GLH city (where I lost the race). With plenty of food it became my first size 15-city, and it ended up the Islamic holy city, so I put Wall Street there and all my corporate HQs. It also had the Maoi, since it could do so relatively early and had a decent amount of quality water tiles.




A push city against Catherine. It was culturally pressured after founding, but I countered that with the Great Library. I ended up putting the Ironworks here, and it became my main wonder producing city and the second legendary.




My Heroic Epic city (though it spent most of the Golden Age building infrastructure). Turned out to be capable of 1-turning almost any unit.




Pushing east here. Got a lot of missionaries and garrison troops out of this city.




Pushing southwards. However, since I already had iron at the capital, I was slow to expand there, and Catherine and Bismarck beat me to most of that land.




This was the barb city I captured on 25 BC. I turned it into my GP farm with National Epic and the National Park.




This was my only port city on the southern seacoast until the war against Bismarck. It claimed marble, and I put the Red Cross in here at the end. It built mainly transports and machine guns.




Another barb city I captured, and the end of my eastern expansion. I put the Hermitage here to put cultural pressure on Pacal, and also Versailles since I expected to expand into Pacal's land at the time.




A filler city.




Another filler city. I ran a lot of spies here.

Some screen shots from 1834 AD:

First the legendaries







My Wall Street city



My HE-city