Adventure 6 - Professor12's first report

[Professor12]

Well I've been a lurker here for quite some time and participated in the last adventure, waiting for the patch, and won my first prince/space victory. I didn't feel ready to tackle Epic 2 (and being a university student I certainly didn't have the time) but this adventure seemed to be right up my alley.

My initial incination here was to go for space again, mostly because I have only won one space race victory (this is only my 7th game or so overall... damn school : ). Given the leader traits and the size of the map, my early focus should be on quick domination of at least one of my neighbors and then a land grab, exploiting my naturally popping borders. Overall this game was a lot of fun and I ended up winning (unexpectedly ) in 1808 by domination.

Report:
Initial Thoughts:

As Persia my two traits are expansive and creative, both conducive to major early land grabs without the expressed need for a religion. Also my UU is an immortal which replaces the chariot and could be used both for early scouting/fog busting but perhaps an early war. With the map being small I think an early war against my closest neighbor may be beneficial in securing my position. Right now the preliminary plan is early war to defeat one neighbor and then consolidation for an early space victory.

4000



Initial spot looks pretty good with 3 flood plains, at least 4 hills, freshwater, and forests. The only resource I see is the ivory. I will settle in place as long as my scout doesn't reveal anything more interesting from the hilltop in the west.

And the scout ventures fearlessly west.

Some cows are revealed southwest but nothing to motivate me to move so I settle in place.




Well even better we have our own cows up north and some rice near... what's that? The sea! Thanks to those trusty villagers I have a view of the ocean and it looks pretty frosty up north. Now however I am wondering what kind of map this might be. Continents? Inland sea? I'll need to do some major scouting to find out and soon.

I go worker first, working a flood plain and set research to animal husbandry.

3960-3360




Explore a bit with my scout. Border pop in 3880 and another goody hut with gold. Meet my first neighbor in 3720 and who would have guessed? Why the friendly Monty is right on my doorstep. Buddhism falls in 3680 (it was Monty) and I choose to go Mining---->Bronze Working next as AH revealed no horses. I go worker --> warrior and start on the cows. With further scouting I spot a couple horses and make an important discovery. It looks like Monty and I are buddies on our own continent or at least section thereof. If this is one larger continent then I am stuck near the top and Monty and the rest of the gan seem to be lower down. Further scouting should iron this out.




3280




Uhoh looks like I have another friend in Toku to the southeast. Things may be getting a bit hairy here soon.

3000

Bronze Working comes in but no copper! I decide to go for the wheel in the off chance I discover some horses in the north west or some copper. I also spot a nice potential city site in the east with stone, wheat and fish.

2960

Hinduism falls, rather late, and the goody hut by the capital gives more gold.

2800

City grows out to 3 and I decide to make a bold move for my second city. I will try and capture the horses between Toku and Monty. I set to work on a worker then a settler.

2760

Wheel comes in and I set to work on IW hoping for some iron and to cut the enormous jungle to the south.

2640




Copper at last in the inhospitable north. It's in such a bad spot I think I might forgoe it for now.

2520




My scout, dodging a barb lion, discovers copper in the west and I have a change of plans. My second city will take the copper and my worker/warrior road team heads west.

2200




My first settler is built and heads out to the copper spot while my warrior defends my road building worker.

2080




Iron working comes in and what do you know? Iron right next to my capital. Looks like Toku is going to be having a rough day

1560




My scout finally dies to a barbarian in the south. Also my next settler heads out and my first axes get queqed up. This city for the stone should be the last one I found for awhile. It's conquest time

1440

I found Susa by the stone and discover Masonry in 1320 to get it hooked up.

1160

Not much happens for the next few years as I slowly build up my army and think about the pyraminds. Stonehenge gets built in 1160, not that I am much concerned but it's the first wonder to be built so far.

800

More building. I connect the stone up in Susa and my time for the pyraminds drops to 18 turns in pasagardae. My research path until now has been pottery, fishing, writing, alphabet, and now mathematics. Looking at the trade screen I am only up alphabet on either Toku or Monty so not much to do there. My invasion force is going to be four swords and a couple axes which I hope will dominate Toku's two cities.

775




I pull the trigger on war with Toku. I take Osaka on the first turn of the war and raze it. The extra cash comes just in time to keep up deficit research.

[Professor12]

675





Bastard Toku sneaks a worker from me with a chariot. He is also threatening Susa with the same chariot. I manage to capture Kyoto with the loss of two swords and I continue to chop for the pyraminds in Pasargadae.

650

I survive the attack from the chariot and upgrade my defending warrior to an axe. I also confirm that it's just the three of us on this island. Therefore my plan is to dominate the island, reconsolidate and try to expand to any fresh territory as soon as possible.

600



Monty is on a religion binge, founding Confucianism in his newest city to the south of my capital. This will be my first target in the comign war.

575



I lose a sword at 90% odds taking Edo but it falls well enough. Just one more city for Toku and he's finished and then onto monty. I'm at happy limit in Persepolis and Pasargadae.

550

Ugh the war weariness begins and I go unhappy in Persopolis and Pasargadae as well as the newly captured kyoto. This will only be temporary as Toku is not long for the world and the pyraminds are hopefully only 4 turns away or so. Mathematics come in and I take on sailing next to get some exploration going as well as some lighthouses for my coastal cities.

450



I magically lose 1 ww in Pasargadae? Me no understand... but I'm not complaining On the war front I'm about to take on Tokyo next turn. Here goes nothing.

425



I get the pyraminds and immediately switch out to representation/slavery. Tokyo falls with the loss of two swords and Toku is history.

325

I start the Great Lighthouse in Pasargadae. It would be a nice addition to help out with my economy which is starting to strain underneath the burden of my expanding empire. I'm building a settler in Susa to go where Edo once stood and pick up the cows/gems.

250

Research has dropped to break even at 40% with the founding of Arbela. I think I'll wait for construction to come in and a couple catapults before I begin on Monty.

200

I finish an aquaduct in Persepolis and start on the Hanging Gardens which should be done in 10 turns.

1 AD





I finish the Great Lighthouse and am about to declare on Monty. I have built a few immortals as Monty seems to be relying on archers at the moment and I still have my left over stack of upgraded swords/axes.

50

Second turn of the war and I easily take Txcoco with no losses and get the Hanging Gardens. Unfortunately the extra pop point causes temporary unhappiness in a couple cities which should be remedied the next turn with the addition of a gold mine. I have a galley heading south to hopefully get over to next island and meet some of my other neighbors.

275

Not too much happening over the last few turns save bombarding down Tenochtitlan with a lone catapult. Monty has nothing to show of an offensive force save a lone Jaguar which he is parading around south of Texcoco. I've made a few war elephants and catapults; cities are going to markets to bring up my abysmal research rate. Also I discovered that there is no land bridge for my galley so I must research for caravels and soon.

300





Ugh but researching it won't be much fun... three prerequisite techs and no one to trade with. Where is Mansa when you need him? Oh yeah that's right probably on the other island racing up the tree as usual :P In other news, Monty displays his total mastery of the combat system... by removing one of his defending archers from his capital as well as an axeman. The chorus of applause from my units is scarcely heard as they massacre the remaining troops in Tenochtitlan. However I lose three units in taking the city including a CR3 sword at 75% odds. Ah well. I now have the holy cities to two religions I don't even have the techs for :P

325

I get my first great scientist who is heading off to Persepolis to build an academy.

540

I capture Tokyo with no losses. It seems in the intervening years that Monty has captured a barb city just south of Parsagardae.

620

I take Tlaxcala without incident and I am getting close finally to caravels with 4 turns to go on machinery. Monty should be gone in 15 turns at most. Once he's out of the way I'll focus on infrastructure and filling out the island plus scouting the rest of the world.

[Professor12]

720



I take Tlatelolco without too much loss but the ww is starting to really bite, causing some of my cities to go into unhappiness. This will be temporary though as the war is very nearly over. Optics in 5 will let me start exploring elsewhere.

820



Shangian falls and I am one city away from wiping out Monty. Optics comes in and I start on a caravel and set research to civil service with an eye towards liberalism.

860



Monty is very nearly finished in the south and I get a great engineer which I put to sleep for future wonders.

880



Monty is history as I raze his last town in the south. I am going to spend the next few turns getting myself out of the research hole I'm in and go from there depending on what I see with my new caravel.



Note the lingering WW.



And the southern portion of my little empire

960



Caravel heads off to search for new lands while I continue to try and rebuild my infrastructure.

980



The Colossus comes in giving me a slight monetary boost.

1000

I start Chicken Itza for the hell of it. I figure if I don't get it, I can use the cash and if I do its nice denial for the remaining civs, plus the 25% defense is good in a pinch.

1010



Land sited! This might get interesting... I also revolt to beaurocracy.

[Professor12]

1020





Meet Washington and trade for Calendar which gives me some perspective on the globe.

1050



Our last civ, Hatty ( something's missing...). Neither Washington nor Hatty have anything interesting to trade so I say hi and move on.

1070



Paper comes in which allows me to trade maps with Washington. The other continent is similiar to the other in many respects. I am not sure which victory condition I want to pursue as all are open right now but I am tempted to go for another space victory as I only have won one once before.

1090



I trade compass for archery, horseback riding, and mysticism to Hatty (my how advanced we've become ).

1180



I circumnavigate and get the ship bonus. I have founded a junk city in the south to grab happiness resources (1 silver, 3 furs).

1300

First to liberalism; I take nationalism for Taj Mahal and revolt into free religion.

1320



Finish Taj Mahal (courtesy of a GE) and start my golden age.

1330-1400



I spent my golden age building theaters and other infrastructure. I want to put myself into good position to go into full production mode to pump out some units to take out Hatty as I race for space. In 1400 I found Sidon in the firigid north to grab the fish and copper.

[Professor12]

1525



Over the last few turns I have beelined to rifling and am starting to building up an invasion force in Sangian.

1575

I pop a great prophet in the capital which I use for another golden age.

1610

Second golden age ends as I put the finishing touches on my invasion force. Just need to get enough galleons to transport my troops and the invasion will begin.



The view on the eve of war

1700





I declare war and one turn later take El-Amarna with the loss of one rifle (at 75% odds). Unfortunately I must not have been paying attention because Washington has also declared on me. I am not worried as I have a significant navy which should keep any offensive actions by either party under control.

1804





I sue for peace the previous turn, having captured seven cities leaving Hatty with 5 left. I also took one from Washington and am still at war with him for lack of a better reason not to be. Neither made any offensive action during the war (and my fleet on both coasts would have dealt with it if they had. Overall the war did not go as smoothly as I had hoped since Hatty got rifles midway through and I lost a few crucial battles at terrific odds. However I still have a stack of 8 or more catapults and some infantry on the continent with more coming and flight around corner.

1808

Holy $&#@ batman. I win a domination victory without noticing. Arrg I'm a little frustrated as I hadn't even check the victory condition to see how close I was but no use crying over captured cities eh? Overall I'm very pleased with the progess I made in this game, even though it was Noble. I have confidence that Monarch is doable; Epic 3 here I come!

























I won with my highest score ever, 43763.

Please excuse the somewhat amateurish nature of this first report as these notes were written as I played and have not been edited yet.

[Sullla]

Wow, congrats on an excellent game and report. You may want to try and crop the screenshots just a bit so that the reader doesn't have to scroll left and right to read through it (or maybe you just use a larger screen resolution than I do!) Based on your dominance in this game, I think you're absolutely ready to take a swing at Monarch.

Thanks for playing, see you in Epic Three!

[Professor12]

Thanks for the compliment Sulla and sorry about the pics; I played in windowed mode at 1024x768 on a 1680x1050 desktop. I'll try cropping them in the future.

[phlucas]

He, someone who built Pasargadae and Susa in the same places as I did!

Quite impressive win, well done.