Epic One - Beef's Report

[BeefontheBone]

Heh, at least one other person has posted a losing report, so I needn't be too embarassed about this
If there's any problems with the formatting / display of these screnies, please let me know, though I won't be able to fix them before January as I'm not at my own computer. Anyway, without further ado, here we go:

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4000 BC / 4th December 05, 13:53:

I start my first Epic experience by organising myself with Irfanview for screenshots, adjusting my config to run windowed mode and increase the autosave frequency, opening the variant rules in another notepad window and (slightly counterintuitively - that Reminder mod would have been handy) renaming my CustomAssets folder - having been using Blue Marble, the first thing that strikes me on loading the save is that the plains look really yellow
As for the actual game, I decide to look up Louis in the 'paedia (and add that 'a') since I've not played as France yet, discovering that he's Industrious and Creative. I also notice that the Honourable Frenchies have started right next to some stone - methinks Stonehenge is going to be high on my priority list.
My Warrior begins to scout to the north-east, noticing some coastline and a lot of jungle to go with the lakes around Paris (which is founded on top of the hill for maximum defence bonus and tile use). We begin construction of a second Warrior and research of Mysticism with Stonehenge in mind.

In 3840BC, Paris' borders expand and my exploring warrior notes that there's a good location for a city to the northeast, with some corn and furs and not too much jungle. There's also a tribal village to the west which could be useful.

3760BC: A jungle grows near Paris, intruding on its nice clear area. It's almost like that was ... deliberately made. Despite the fact that we're still a couple of hundred years short of being mystical, the people of France start to believe that some sort of higher being, or beings, had a hand in the design of the world.

3600BC: Disaster! Our brave exploring Warriors are improbably cut down by a pack of marauding panthers - clearly we've yet to learn how to make full use of jungles when defending ourselves. Before their slightly feeble deaths, the warriors were able to learn that the terrain beyond the peaks to the northeast is pretty ugly, but that there might be some viable land due east of Paris. The following turn, however, their replacements are trained in Paris and set out to avenge their predecessors' deaths - it's the only honourable course of action! Paris begins work on a Barracks - it looks like we're going to need some well-trained troops to defend ourselves against vicious animals; budgies, rabbits, even the occasional earwig.

3520 BC: The people of France decide that there might be some merit in the idea that a number of higher beings are watching over them (and laughing at their warriors' performance).

3440 BC: We (somehow) become aware that a new faith, known as Buddhism, has been founded somewhere in the world. Our warriors receive a gift of trinkets worth 41 gold from a friendly tribe.

3320 BC: Perhaps France's warriors are not as pathetic as we had thought - our replacement explorers achieve the amazing feat of defeating some wolves without sustaining a scratch.



3160 BC: We make contact with Genghis Khan of the Mongols, residing to the south-east of Paris. For some reason our diplomat feels compelled to yell the word "Khaaaaaaan!" - who knows what impact this will have on relations?



2800 BC: While exploring the borders of Mongolia, we discover our first river, a tremendous torrent of water crashing through the jungle and then winding majestically across the plains. The land around it seems very fertile, and we become a little jealous of Khan and his people.

2760 BC: Our sages have come to the conclusion that there are many higher beings or 'gods' watching over us, and the people of Paris call their new faith Hinduism. We quickly adopt it as our official religion, and the people spend the next turn celebrating our wise decision.

2720 BC: We make contact with Washington of the Americans in the far east beyond Karakorum. I also discover that alt-tabbing out of the game window pauses the sound mid-play in a pleasing manner.

2600 BC: The culture of Paris is a thing to behold, our newfound faith having stimulated much creativity in the people. The small tribe to the west of Paris decide that we are so wonderful they must tell us of their Animal Husbandry techniques, which will be useful when we want to make use of the cattle near Paris. The people take this as a sign that cattle are holy, and become reluctant to eat beef - luckily there is still plenty of fish to go around.

2480 BC: We meet a scout who owes his allegiance to Montezuma of the Aztecs. Our warriors take up a position on the same hill and bravely prepare to defend it against the lions who have been tracking the scout.
They are highly successful in this endeavour, and become highly skilled at defending in jungles - the earlier loss of their predecessors still weighs heavily on the minds of the French people.

2320 BC: Having completed its Barracks, Paris begins training a worker - those cattle aren't going to build a pasture around themselves!

2240 BC: Alexander of the Greeks pays us a visit. He seems like an honurable man - perhaps a great friendship will blossom between us.

2200 BC: Far to the east we encounter the lands of Gandhi and his Indian civilisation. Their Buddhist faith leads to some frostiness at our initial meeting, and everyone eats a large quantity of Ferrero Rocher in order to avoid having to talk to one another.

2080 BC: We have discovered Masonry, and will soon be able to construct glorious monuments to French engineering prowess. Then we'll probably end up giving them to Washington.
A number of our people feel that perhaps our polytheists are mistaken, and that they are merely seeing reflections and distortions of the one true divine entity. They are allowed to pursue this train of thought to see where it leads.

1975 BC: The great Livy informs us that we are the least wealthy of all the world's peoples. We care not, for there is little honour in the accumulation of wealth.



1925 BC: We notice that Gandhi has access to some Horses near his capital, as well as some fertile-looking land to the south.

[img]www.realmsbeyond.net/userfiles/files/beefonthebone_beefepic1screen4jpg[/img]

1825 BC: Our worker is ready in Paris, and immediately rushes to build a quarry - that stone will help us greatly in our efforts to construct Stonehenge. We have also discovered what appears to be a great ocean beyond India.

1475 BC: Our scholars' efforts have paid off, and the Jewish faith is founded in Paris. A number of our citizens now choose to believe that there is only one true God, and He therefore deserves capitalisation. The citizens of Paris are ordered to maximise their production efforts in order to complete Stonehenge - we need to expand our territory!

1375 BC: A great stone monument has been completed near Paris, leading to much celebration. We are now putting our efforts toward the outfitting of a settler - there's some territory to the east which we'd like to get our hands on ahead of the primitive Genghis Khan. Our benevolent leader goes to make a sandwich.

1320 BC: Our people are worried by the appearance of barbarians armed with bows near our borders - our defences have been neglected too long! We immediately begin efforts to replicate the archers' weapons for ourselves.

1175 BC: Thanks to their mastery of jungle terrain, our warriors are able to stave off an assault by oafish barbarians to the east of Karakorum, the trees providing cover against their arrows.

1075 BC: Having take the risky decision to head for home before healing, our warriors are regrettably slaughtered by barbarous thugs. The people of France are greatly saddened.

1050 BC: A flurry of activity in France, as Paris finally completes its Settler, our borders once again expand, and we master the use of bows. We will now be able to build some defenders for our nation.



1025 BC: The city of Orleans is founded on the coast three tiles due northeast of Paris, granting access to some corn, pigs and spices, many of which we are currently unable to make use of. The Mongols have built a city near some rice to the east - our cultures may soon clash, causing tension. The French people, wary of being attacked by less honourable peoples, begin to train many Archers.

860 BC: Having created the priesthood, French sages decide that our military abilities are still too limited, and that we will soon need tools capable of clearing the trees around our lands. To this end, we begin research on Mining. Paris has also started The Pyramids, but may soon switch to a second Settler.

780 BC: France is apparently the largest nation in the world, much to our surprise. Our workers have little to do without a wider selection of technology at their disposal, so are ordered to build roads throughout the nation.



700 BC: The Jewish belief system has become prevalent in France (an unlikely sentence if ever I wrote one) so a quick volte-face is performed and we make it our state religion. We are developing bronze working in the hope of improving our military standing and assisting in deforestation efforts. We have also begun work on a great Oracle.



320 BC: The French people have had some mixed blessings from their God; The Pyramids were successfully built in Paris, but The Oracle was completed elsewhere - its cultural effect would have been extremely important in our efforts to put pressure on the city of Beshbalik, which is blocking our access to the nearest source of copper.

220 BC: The newly-constructed walls in Paris are put to the test, her brave defenders easily seeing off assaults by barbarians armed with bows and axes while her people begin outfitting another Settler unit - there's an attractive location to the northwest of Paris.



160 BC: The mighty French culture of Orleans is rapidly outstripping the nearby Mongol town's - Genghis' spearmen are daunted by our intellectual might. We are also aware of an Aztec city to the north, and yet another Mongol town to the southeast of Paris.



140 BC: One of the defenders in Paris is forced to make a sortie in order to prevent her infrastructure's destruction at the hands of invading barbarians, and succeeds. The Lord smiles on us this day.

100 BC: Inspired by the presence of Stonehenge, the great Moses is born in Paris. He offers to teach us the technique of Meditation, but instead we order him to build the Temple of Solomon. This allows us to return our science rate to 100% in order to keep our wise men well-supplied with abacuses and pebbles (with any luck we'll develop calculus quicker that way).



20 BC: The city of Lyons is founded in a rather snazzy location to the northwest of Paris, giving us access to pigs, rice and fish. Its production capacity is very low at this stage, but it will grow quickly. We also become aware of some horses farther along the coast, which will almost certainly come in handy in the near future. Our bronze tools are still not sufficiently strong to clear the thick jungles of France, so we're working on an iron replacement.



230 AD: An uneventful few turns have passed in France, but the Jewish faith has spread to the faraway city of Sparta. This should improve our standing with Alexander.

250 AD: As predicted, Alex converts to Judaism. With any luck, the faith will spread around his lands in shrot order - he has the potential to be a great ally for France. We are also tremendously excited to discover a source of iron right next to Paris - the Lord works in generous ways!

260 AD: Both Alexander (who is unfortunately in last place according to the score system) and the much better-placed Washingtin sign Open Borders agreements with us - cultivating good foreign relations is a highly honourable thing to do. In 290 AD we sign similar agreements with everyone except Genghis. His boastful nature also causes him to reveal that he has two sources of copper as well as some iron.



300 AD: You have chosen unwisely! Genghis declares war on the great nation of France, presumably hoping to get the jump on us before our iron supply is connected. His invasion force seems to consist of a lone Archer, though, so we're not yet too worried.

350 AD: A few years ago we learned that confucianism had been founded, but we are mildly surprised to learn that it was the Aztecs who discovered it. This is in fact quite irritating since the Jewish faith has spread to the city of Teotihuacan, cleverly located on an isthmus to the northeast of Orleans.
Meanwhile, Genghis' invading archers managed to pillage a single road near Orleans before throwing themselves fruitlessly against the city's defences. We are training several swordsmen and axemen in order to take the city of Beshbalik for ourselves.

420 AD: A well-timed Axeman trained in Paris allows us to see off a Mongol horde attempting to cut our iron supplies, but I fear there may be a long war of attrition ahead. I also realise that I failed to make use of the Pyramids earlier, which was extremely stupid, so France adopts Representation.



470 AD: A galley lands two units near Lyons, and it is quickly razed, angering the French people. In our heartlands we fare better, although a lone swordsman does take out two of our attackers in an irritating fashion. Genghis' near-endless supply of units means that things are not looking up for France.

560 AD: After several turns of fighting the tide appears to be turning - there are no Mongol units in our territory, but many of our improvements have been razed. Our workers are rushing to replace them, but our cities can't afford to produce anything other than military units.

650 AD: In a slightly odd development, Alexander has declared war on Gandhi - not a particularly honourable development, but hindering Gandhi plays into our hands. Our forces are present outside Beshbalik, but its Walls make an assault at this stage somewhat suicidal.

660 AD: The birth of Zoroaster in Paris (the Great Person birth rate in this game seems to be rather slow - Gandhi has constructed the Mahabodhi but I've not noticed any other Great People actions) allows us to construct the Kashi Vishwanath - we're now pulling in 6 gold every turn at 100% science, but our lack of cities and damaged infrastructure are hurting us.



670 AD: I decide to attack Beshbalik after the garrison drops to two units, an archer and a spearman. The former eliminates one of our swordsmen and an axeman, but the two remaining axemen take the city. I opt for peace with Genghis - hopefully he's learned his lesson, and until we get the ability to build catapults, war will be remarkably inefficient. I'd also like to hold on to the 24-experience axeman now stationed in Beshbalik until we get some Epics built. Our scouts report the presence of a barbarian city to the south of Paris on the edge of our territory - the only honoruable course of action will be to take it and allow its inhabitants to bask in and be improved by the culture of France.

690 AD: We finally begin research of meditation - the French people need to relax after the horrors of war, which have set us back a long way.

730 AD: Having adopted Organised Religion, I begin training a Jewish Missionary in Orleans - spreading Judaism (and Hinduism) around the globe will be very productive for us. Christianity is founded far away. Both Greece and India ask for our help in their war, but I refuse both - they are far away and I have more pressing concerns. Besides, the Greek attack on India was not an honourable one.



750 AD: The spread of Judaism lets me see the Mongol army massed in Karakorum. We're very concerned.

790 AD: The city of Rheims is founded on the ruins of Lyons, and a day of rememberance declared across the nation. Meanwhile, a barbarian archer has irritatingly cut off our iron supply - our existing forces are diverted from their attack on Vandal (which I intend to rename - adjectives are not good names for cities, as all civilised people know) to deal with him. The following turn, he decides to throw himself at the city walls, solving that problem for me.

810 AD: Judaism spreads to Rheims, and on the far side of the world Montezuma declares war on Gandhi. The Indians are certainly proving unpopular.



1000 AD: It seems Genghis failed to learn his lesson earlier, as he declares war on France once again, moving a number of chariots into our territory.

1030 AD: Despite a valiant effort by its defenders, Beshbalik falls to the Mongols, who opt to raze it rather than recapturing it, which strikes me as both very odd and very dishonourable behaviour.

1055 AD: I discover the location of a Mongol town farther west than I though they'd got. Even more shocking, the town of Rheims is again razed by invaders from the sea. Perhaps this time we truly are looking at the last days of France.

1070 AD: Having just razed Rheims, the Mongols replace it with Tabriz. Genghis' priorities seem a little bizarre to me.



1090 AD: The city of Old Sarai falls to our swordsmen, but Khan refuses to make peace with us. No matter, I shall simply take Tabriz from the dishonourable dog first.

1105 AD: The defenders of Orleans see off attacks from an axeman, a chariot, a spearman and a swordsman, and are promoted to City Garrison II and III respectively - that should put off the two Mongol axemen left outside!

1115 AD: I was mistaken - one of the archers is improbably killed by an attacking axeman. Taoism is also founded in Texcoco.

1180 AD: The Mongols retake Old Sarai, but it shall be mine again. I've constructed my first catapult which will help, and the Great Library has been built elsewhere - I'm technologically behind the rest of the world; Alphabet might help to reduce the gap.

1185 AD: Disaster! Second-placed Montezuma has pitched into the war against me, and has Horse Archers. This could be very painful.
My forces at Old Sarai are extremely flukily destroyed by the defenders.

1200 AD: At great expense I capture Tabriz, but Aztec and Mongol forces are rampaging across my Eastern territory, and Khan refuses to sign a peace treaty with me.



1210 AD: A combined Aztec and Mongol force is able to raze Orleans, and my Iron supplies have once again been cut. On the bright side, the birth of Imhotep in Paris allows us to gain knowledge of Metal Casting. This is small recompense, however.



1215 AD: A close-run battle prevents the fall of Paris to Montezuma's Horse Archers, but the Mongols are close by; it's just a matter of how long we manage to cling on, now.



1225 AD: The valiant defenders of Paris hold off several attackers but are ultimately overrun, leaving France with two slightly naff cities, an archer and an axeman to her name. Erk.

1240 AD: The axeman in Tabriz defeats two Aztec Horse Archers, but the third is too much for him and the city falls.



1255 AD: Islam is founded. A lone Horse Archer fails to take Tours, a city I founded during the early stages of the second Franco-Mongolian war. France is now almost devoid of life - only Paris, now in Mongol hands, remains as a testament to her former glory.



1270 AD: Six Horse Archers and a Catapult are spotted approaching Tours through the jungle. The French sages complete their work on Alphabet in the hope that they will be remembered by those who come after them.

1280 AD: Montezuma, bizarrely, offers a Peace Treaty in exchange for a large quantity of gold. We acquiesce, but two Mongol units begin their march toward Tours.

1295 AD: The chariot is seen off, but a galley appears on the horizon, filled with Mongol infantry.

1300 AD: Genghis offers us peace in exchange for Monarchy, but the French people refuse to bow to these barbarous aggressors, and the city of Tours is destroyed, its defenders fighting right down to the line. Six and a half hours of play later (which wasn't intended to be one session either - damn addictive game!), the only remaining qustion is whether the honourable Washington's technological advantage will be enough to see him triumph over the militant Aztecs and Mongols, who now control the bulk of the available land. The Americans were perfectly placed to take advantage of the early wars between Alexander and Gandhi and the Aztecs' anti-Indian agression, but the more aggressive nations may well be able to defeat them. Regrettably, the Honourable French will not be around to find out, their early cultural and technological efforts having led to a stunting of their growth and a lack of military funding.

[Atlas]

Beef you made a good go of it. I also lost, so no worries there. It was a difficult task to have a builder Civ, an honorable ruleset, all jungle terrain, and two ultra militant Civs as neighbors. What was your score?

Atlas

[Kylearan]

Hi,

ouch - a rather early conquest loss, my condolences. Being attacked by the two most aggressive civs in the game is a tough fate, and not easy to handle. You fought well, but maybe you should have withdrawn your forces into your territory when Monty declared too, to fight on your own soil protecting resources and using the terrain and the cities to your advantage.

Great report though, with lots of laughs in the beginning! You showed great spirit fighting this out until the bitter end; I hope you'll play the next Epic as well.

-Kylearan

[BeefontheBone]

Yeah, I think I could have played that a lot better now - I completely failed to build anything like enough military. Next time will be better
If I hadn't been playing an Honourable game I would probably have attempted a preemptive strike on Khan nearer the beginning of the game to get that copper.

@Atlas: It was a Conquest loss, so score was zero. Not sure offhand if my game score was recorded, though.

[Sullla]

Losing warriors to panthers early on is a tough break, especially if it happened in jungle terrain. Having lost both my scouts in this game, I know how that kind of setback can hurt you.

Animal Husbandry from a hut, wow, nice break there! In fact, that's about the best tech possible you could have popped in that situation there, allowing you to get Hinduism basically without penalty from neglecting worker techs. That was really quite fortunate.

Question - why build the quarry before putting a pasture on the cows? It seems like the extra food from the cows would be a lot more useful than hooking up stone at that point. Something to consider, in any case.

Umm... is it just me, or are BOTH of your cities undefended in that 1025BC picture?! I think I can already see where this is going, unfortunately... Looking at the next picture, with one unit in each city and both cities tied up on long-term wonder builds... yeah. There's a serious neglect of defense going on. (I'm sure you've already realized this in retrospect.) I might do that with Gandhi next door, but NOT with Temjin over there. Dude is crazy!

Temujin declares war in 300AD - to be honest, I'm surprised he didn't come earlier. You were running really, really light on the defense and had a city pushing him back culturally. Nice job fighting off the initial stack, but beware the galley landings! The pillaging was probably the deadliest thing that Temujin did in that war though. You fought off Temujin well the second time, but the entrace of Monty into the war was obviously a killer stroke.

Thanks for reporting, even though the game didn't go as planned. From looking at these other reports, hopefully you'll be able to see how other players handled those aggressive neighbors, either by conquering them or allying with them through religion. I hope you had a good time.

[Drasca]

Did you mean to keep running judaism even after your far flung (useless) ally alex switched over to buddhism?

I like war as much as the next guy, but I knew I couldn't piss off everyone. Khan was my next door neighbor, and dangerous, but Monty's on a war-timer. Maybe it is 'that time of the century' for him and he feels the need to declare war. I picked khan to be my friend rather than the far flung wash or ghandi (who both usually refuse to go to war for you.

Painful! Very painful!

[BeefontheBone]

Umm... is it just me, or are BOTH of your cities undefended in that 1025BC picture?!

Nope, that was a display error whereby none of the units was drawn in my screenshot. I might have to try the game's own ss next time rather than Irfanview.

@Drasca: IIRC I didn't have Buddhism or any other religion present in the empire; not sure offhand though.

[notque]

Excellent report, I too delt with early wars that really hindered my game, although I made it to a space race defeat.

You did much better than I did in the early game however, being left with two cities for most of the game was not good times on my part. Even the concept of taking another city would have been a blessing.

Fair thee well for next game. Very entertaining report, especially the honorableness of taking the barbarian city