Many thanks to T-hawk for sponsoring this game, which was tremendous fun to play. I had never played a solo OOC before (I have done a couple in succession games), and I plan to try a few more -- without the wishlist and most certainly not at immortal. 
My thoughts after reading the scenario were focused on how to get all the things a civilization needs from one city. I wanted:
- Plenty of food to grow large, but also concentrated food so I could grow rapidly early while working only a few tiles
- Plenty of hammers, since my capital would have to produce everything itself including wonders (and later SS parts)
- Lots of commerce, to get and keep a tech edge so I could survive and also to beat immortal AIs into space
- Early happiness, so I could grow my city large early
- Health resources, so I could grow my city large
- Strategic resources, for military strength and wonder building
It seemed obvious that non-resource tiles like floodplains could not compete -- a grassland with a food resource could give everything they did, plus greater food with a farm and no unhealthiness. Among possible resources, I wanted those with early doubler buildings for both happiness and health: precious metals, grains, seafood, and market resources.
Here is what I came up with (the tiles NW and 2N1W of the city have horses and iron):
![[Image: T0initialresources0000.jpg]](http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa104/haphazard1/RBCiv-Adv48/T0initialresources0000.jpg)
Everything but the corn and wheat are forested for chop hammers (forests would be kept on deer, ivory, and furs obviously). I have 9 early health (15 with granary and harbor) plus 5 early happiness (10 with forge and market) to allow me to rapidly grow to significant size. My fish are in a lake for even more food. I have stone, marble, and horses. And of course multiple golds as my primary commerce tiles.
I was somewhat concerned about not having copper, but with the dog soldiers the only real risk was a very early chariot rush before I got IW and could build a spear or two. If necessary protective archers could be built to handle early chariots. This allowed one more gold tile for additional commerce.
I got started, and met all three of the local continent's AIs by T10. Isabella had already founded Buddhism on T9, and Hinduism followed quickly on T17 to someone on the other continent (eventually revealed to be Hannibal). Judaism took a while, but was founded by Shaka on T50. I founded CoL 4 turns later and sent the missionary to convert Sury to set up some serious religious hatred on the continent. My primary goal of keeping the AIs fighting one another rather than me was not completely successful, but overall it was effective. Isabella, Sury, and Shaka would all declare on each other multiple times.
I went for the Oracle and took CS in 1600 BC -- an obvious move, but not knowing how quickly the other continent was teching I did not want to press my luck further. The Stonehenge/Oracle combo did give me grief by spawning my first three GP as prophets, even with 2 library scientists running.
I settled them all, and never worried about gold again -- my slider would remain at 100% until the end of the game. The 4th GP finally was a GS for my academy; all other GP would be settled until much later; I would eventually use 1 and 2 GP golden ages, burning 2 artists and a scientist for them.
Shaka decided to declare on me in 150 AD with some HAs, chariots, and cats. I had macemen and had just produced my first two knights, so he was easily crushed. I sent a small force and burned down one Zulu city, and Shaka agreed to peace. He would declare again in 1842 AD, sending about 20 rifles, half a dozen cav, and some trebs. I smashed him with artillery, cavs, and infantry and annihilated his entire stack in one turn.
He would agree to peace shortly afterwards.
That was all the fighting I did, other than about 3 barb units early on. I kept to my teching and wonder building (16 world wonders, plus the Internet) and stayed out of the numerous AI wars. I made no attempts to incite fighting or trigger wars, other than converting Sury to Confucianism early on. Having no state religion helped greatly, but I slowly accumulated negative diplo from refusals and conditions were very tense in the late game. For a long while I was respectable in total power, as I built quite a number of units and kept them upgraded with all the gold my many settled great people produced. But by the very late game I was quite weak compared to the AIs, and was very worried about a possible declaration by Hannibal who had built the Manhattan Project. All of the other AIs had dog-piled Isabella and wiped out the Spanish, and I knew additional wars were going to break out.
Fortunately Hannibal decided to go after Sury, who was the #2 power. Multiple tac nukes took out much of the Khmer core in a single turn.
I was very pleased to not be Hannibal's target. I might have been able to hold out -- my space ship had launched the previous turn, and I had built SDI, bunker, and bomb shelter in Cahokia -- but with multiple nukes Hannibal probably could have taken me out before it reached Alpha Centauri.
Space victory in 1892 AD (T316). Hannibal and Sury had completed their Apollo Programs and the SS Docking Bay, but no other parts.
I had completed the tech tree, and there were seven techs not known to any AI: Ecology, Fusion, Fiber Optics, Superconductors, Genetics, Composites, and Advanced Flight. So 7 points total scenario score.
At the end of the game, my capital had exactly 100 base hammers. I managed 1 turn with max overflow, and with forge/factory/power/IW/Bureaucracy/resource doubler/lab on an SS part got a ridiculous 1000 hammers in one turn. I was generating 1479 beakers per turn at 100% research, with cash flow at +27 gold per turn. (Lots and lots of unit maintenance.)
Settled great people:
4 prophets
3 artists
10 scientists
4 merchants
2 engineers
2 generals (as instructors)
1 spy
All the Rep beakers were critical, and the food and hammers did not hurt. But the cash was probably the most interesting aspect -- I can not recall another game where I literally never had to worry about cash or drop the science slider. It felt...weird.
My national wonders were Oxford (of course), National Epic (of course), and Iron Works. I would eventually build the Globe Theater with about 25 turns left in the game when Emancipation unhappiness really kicked in, and Heroic Epic after the SS launched (mostly so I could pump out some 1-turn ICBMs for emergency defense/deterrent). I could have built Wall Street any time in the later game, but never actually needed it to remain cash flow positive.
A look at Cahokia at the end:
![[Image: T316cityscreen0000.jpg]](http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa104/haphazard1/RBCiv-Adv48/T316cityscreen0000.jpg)
One mistake in this game is amusing in retrospect, but I was very unhappy when it happened: I lost Liberalism to Isabella!
I was stretching to get a really juicy tech from it, and saw she had finished Education. I needed one more turn to take Industrialism from it, but she bulbed the tech. Could have improved my finish date by several turns if I had not made that little blunder.
In any case, this was a tremendously fun game. Thanks again to T-hawk!
My thoughts after reading the scenario were focused on how to get all the things a civilization needs from one city. I wanted:
- Plenty of food to grow large, but also concentrated food so I could grow rapidly early while working only a few tiles
- Plenty of hammers, since my capital would have to produce everything itself including wonders (and later SS parts)
- Lots of commerce, to get and keep a tech edge so I could survive and also to beat immortal AIs into space
- Early happiness, so I could grow my city large early
- Health resources, so I could grow my city large
- Strategic resources, for military strength and wonder building
It seemed obvious that non-resource tiles like floodplains could not compete -- a grassland with a food resource could give everything they did, plus greater food with a farm and no unhealthiness. Among possible resources, I wanted those with early doubler buildings for both happiness and health: precious metals, grains, seafood, and market resources.
Here is what I came up with (the tiles NW and 2N1W of the city have horses and iron):
Everything but the corn and wheat are forested for chop hammers (forests would be kept on deer, ivory, and furs obviously). I have 9 early health (15 with granary and harbor) plus 5 early happiness (10 with forge and market) to allow me to rapidly grow to significant size. My fish are in a lake for even more food. I have stone, marble, and horses. And of course multiple golds as my primary commerce tiles.
I was somewhat concerned about not having copper, but with the dog soldiers the only real risk was a very early chariot rush before I got IW and could build a spear or two. If necessary protective archers could be built to handle early chariots. This allowed one more gold tile for additional commerce.
I got started, and met all three of the local continent's AIs by T10. Isabella had already founded Buddhism on T9, and Hinduism followed quickly on T17 to someone on the other continent (eventually revealed to be Hannibal). Judaism took a while, but was founded by Shaka on T50. I founded CoL 4 turns later and sent the missionary to convert Sury to set up some serious religious hatred on the continent. My primary goal of keeping the AIs fighting one another rather than me was not completely successful, but overall it was effective. Isabella, Sury, and Shaka would all declare on each other multiple times.
I went for the Oracle and took CS in 1600 BC -- an obvious move, but not knowing how quickly the other continent was teching I did not want to press my luck further. The Stonehenge/Oracle combo did give me grief by spawning my first three GP as prophets, even with 2 library scientists running.
I settled them all, and never worried about gold again -- my slider would remain at 100% until the end of the game. The 4th GP finally was a GS for my academy; all other GP would be settled until much later; I would eventually use 1 and 2 GP golden ages, burning 2 artists and a scientist for them.Shaka decided to declare on me in 150 AD with some HAs, chariots, and cats. I had macemen and had just produced my first two knights, so he was easily crushed. I sent a small force and burned down one Zulu city, and Shaka agreed to peace. He would declare again in 1842 AD, sending about 20 rifles, half a dozen cav, and some trebs. I smashed him with artillery, cavs, and infantry and annihilated his entire stack in one turn.
He would agree to peace shortly afterwards.That was all the fighting I did, other than about 3 barb units early on. I kept to my teching and wonder building (16 world wonders, plus the Internet) and stayed out of the numerous AI wars. I made no attempts to incite fighting or trigger wars, other than converting Sury to Confucianism early on. Having no state religion helped greatly, but I slowly accumulated negative diplo from refusals and conditions were very tense in the late game. For a long while I was respectable in total power, as I built quite a number of units and kept them upgraded with all the gold my many settled great people produced. But by the very late game I was quite weak compared to the AIs, and was very worried about a possible declaration by Hannibal who had built the Manhattan Project. All of the other AIs had dog-piled Isabella and wiped out the Spanish, and I knew additional wars were going to break out.
Fortunately Hannibal decided to go after Sury, who was the #2 power. Multiple tac nukes took out much of the Khmer core in a single turn.
I was very pleased to not be Hannibal's target. I might have been able to hold out -- my space ship had launched the previous turn, and I had built SDI, bunker, and bomb shelter in Cahokia -- but with multiple nukes Hannibal probably could have taken me out before it reached Alpha Centauri.Space victory in 1892 AD (T316). Hannibal and Sury had completed their Apollo Programs and the SS Docking Bay, but no other parts.
I had completed the tech tree, and there were seven techs not known to any AI: Ecology, Fusion, Fiber Optics, Superconductors, Genetics, Composites, and Advanced Flight. So 7 points total scenario score.
At the end of the game, my capital had exactly 100 base hammers. I managed 1 turn with max overflow, and with forge/factory/power/IW/Bureaucracy/resource doubler/lab on an SS part got a ridiculous 1000 hammers in one turn.
I was generating 1479 beakers per turn at 100% research, with cash flow at +27 gold per turn. (Lots and lots of unit maintenance.)Settled great people:
4 prophets
3 artists
10 scientists
4 merchants
2 engineers
2 generals (as instructors)
1 spy
All the Rep beakers were critical, and the food and hammers did not hurt. But the cash was probably the most interesting aspect -- I can not recall another game where I literally never had to worry about cash or drop the science slider. It felt...weird.
My national wonders were Oxford (of course), National Epic (of course), and Iron Works. I would eventually build the Globe Theater with about 25 turns left in the game when Emancipation unhappiness really kicked in, and Heroic Epic after the SS launched (mostly so I could pump out some 1-turn ICBMs for emergency defense/deterrent). I could have built Wall Street any time in the later game, but never actually needed it to remain cash flow positive.
A look at Cahokia at the end:
One mistake in this game is amusing in retrospect, but I was very unhappy when it happened: I lost Liberalism to Isabella!
I was stretching to get a really juicy tech from it, and saw she had finished Education. I needed one more turn to take Industrialism from it, but she bulbed the tech. Could have improved my finish date by several turns if I had not made that little blunder. In any case, this was a tremendously fun game. Thanks again to T-hawk!
I don't think I've ever seen the AI bulb Lib before (normally it can't due to it's love of Machinery). It was likely a single bulb + 1 turn research + beaker overflow.
