TheGrimm - Epic 7

[theGrimm]

Although the closing date is supposed to be today, I'm a little wary of posting my results before the official "reporting is open" notice.

But, I'm reserving my spot as "first to report".

Hey, some of us can't compete against the better players in civ, we need to grab what little victories we can.

----------------------------------------
Considering that Epic 6 was played without any thought to an overall strategy (I've said I never intented to play out Epic 6, and I'm sticking by that excuse!), I think I'll provide some insight into how I usually approach the opening of a game.

Summary: I'm facing a lone, unpredicably warlike AI on an island map. The difficulty level is Immortal, something I've never tried before. I've played on Deity, although that game was tampered with enough that it didn't give a realistic impression of the difficulty of the game. Not that I have any evidence that THIS game wasn't tampered with.

Fortunately, the AI has shown a severe weakness on archipelago maps, in that islands off the home continent are poorly managed. The AI seems to leave the development of such islands settlements to themselves rather than shipping defenders and workers across en masse. Thus, islands are poorly developed and poorly defended. In addition, the AI often does not prioritise it's navy.

Since there is only one AI competing for wonders (albeit an immortal AI), there is ample opportuniy to build them myself provided I prioritise them early enough. On an archiplego map, the Colossus and Great Lighthouse combo are awesome, and the AI is often slow to build them due to the prerequisite structures. They are very powerful wonders where every one of my cities is likely to make heavy use of ocean based trade.

(Okay, it's a cheesy strategy, but this IS an immortal game, and I think it's fair that I pull out all the stops to win, rather than imposing mini variants on myself before I know what's up on this difficulty level.)

Another note, regarding barbarians. On Immortal, they won't be a pushover, and with small islands, it'll be easier to scout the land then fend off waves of barbs. I'll lose out on some experience this way, but I want to focus on infrastructure in the beginning. I can probably fend off Alex with my navy, so every shield than can be saved on units in the beginning can be spent on offensive units later.

Oh, in case it wasn't obvious, I'm relying on the fact that Alex' island is small enough to allow domination. If not, having a superior landmass can hopefully be converted into some other kind of victory. One other potential strategy killer is if I can't reach Alex via the coast.

Right, with that verbose analysis out of the way, let the game begin.

***
--Landgrab--

With the starting position offering no compelling reasons to move my settler from the initial point, I found in place. The hut pops a scout. I began by building a warrior at Thebes. The scout will hopefully give me an early indication of how large a barbwatch force I need. Fishing First ™; Thebes can grow while I build a workboat.

After fishing, I pursue a religion. With only one competitor (who isn't known for his religious piety), I'm sure to grab one if I don't leave it too long, and the extra happiness will be welcome with such high happiness penalties. The religion I pursue is Hindisum, since it's on route to Judaism and Organised religion. Does anyone know whether Organised religion affects Wonders?

Early exploration reveals some very interesting things:
-My "island" runs from pole to pole; to control the seas I'll need at least one "Panama Canal" city.
-I have ivory. This is beyond incredible. Elephants and Catapults can defeat everything up to rifles with decent odds, with pikemen the biggest threat. And both are in the same place on the tech tree.
-My island can be secured from barbs with around 4 or five warriors...a negligable investment.
-Stone! Yes! I actually have a decent shot at the Great Lighthouse.

Following the founding of Hinduism, I pursue Hunting -> Archery as my scout is nailed by a barb archer...Bronze Working follows as my archer heads north to establish a barb watch, followed by a couple of warriors.Memphis (Panama) is founded to claim pigs and silver in 1960 BC, and begins a workboat (can't think of anything better to build, and city 3 will need the fish ASAP...) and barbwatch is set up soon after:


Heliopolis is founded to claim the stone in 1000BC. Assuming no major interesting developments, I'll look to clean up the bottom of the tech tree, then metal casting and iron working, and finally beelining to construction if I've found Alex by then. Assuming I get the Great Lighthouse and / or Colossus, the merchant will be used to nab currency. I think that's a slick move, don't you?

***
--Infrastructure--

All goes according to plan...by 295 BC, the Lighthouse is complete, Elephantine has been founded to nab the ivory (I didn't plan it, I swear!), the wheat and the bananas, Alex has been "found", and Memphis / Panama is making great progress with the Pyramids (I couldn't resist, what with all that available stone and nothing better to build...)

Here's my civ in 115BC (Thebes is suffering from the Great Lighthouse whip, and maintenance costs from 4 cities is taking it's toll on my research):


Show Me the Money! I pop currency in 545 AD with my Great Merchant generated in Thebes:


Also, I decide to get Code of Laws before Construction as maintenance costs where beginning to bite, and I didn't (yet) have the infrastructure to churn out elephants and cats.

All was quiet for a few thousand years. I built (and whipped) markets, and military (barracks, elephants and catapults), but ignored libraries, temples and monastaries wherever possible. If this game wasn't won with elephants, Alex would have an unacceptable tech lead.

Egypt shortly before peace ended abruptly:


***
--War--

However, Alex, frustrated either by the lack of room to expand, or our religious differences, or maybe just by being himself, declared war with a single unmanned galley. I had seven in the general vicinity, along with catapults and elephants, so while it was a little earlier than I would have liked to begin rumbling, it was hardly something to cry over. In my favour was what seemed like a single coastal route to my lands, making defence by sea a viable option.

The battle of Corinth marked the begging of a series of Great Wars between Egypt and Greece; on that occasion (as in most others), Greece was the loser, as two longbows fell to catapults and war elephants. My losses were greater in terms of units, Alex lost out on territory:


I would have accepted peace, to complete the assembly of my army, but Alex wouldn't settle for anything less than the return of Corinth. Uhm...what weed are YOU smoking, Alex?

War continued. My Galleys ventured out to find Greek Colonies to vanquish. My advanced guard discovered two islands, and I guessed that the southern island with barbarian culture was almost certainly NOT the Greek homeland, so without further ado my armies set sail.


Over the course of a few years, I captured two Greek cities on the southern island, a barbarian city (with Stonehenge!!) and razed a third Greek City. Pharsalos, on the island slightly south west of the Greek motherland, also fell:


Following the fall of Pharsalos, Alex was finally ready for peace, and this time, HE was willing to pay. I guess that his source of WEED was cut off by my galleys. 470GP and 4 GPT were pocket change compared to the TRUE treasure, his world map!

Back on the home front,, a Great Engineer had been used to build the Great Library, but all further scientific advancements where largely pointless. This was a battle for territory...Alex had the technology, but not enough of the right units in the right places. But could I take enough land to reach the 74% required for domination without touching Alex's homeland?

***
--One…more…TILE!--

Corinth revolted frequently, and was a constant worry. A huge chunk of territory, but highly volatile. There were a couple of little island around, and I had settlers waiting on them to found cities, but if they didn’t bring me to the domination limit, I would be crippled financially. As it was, I was running on 10-20% science.

Following the 10 turns of mandatory peace, during which I had prepared my fleet, I launched my second and hopefully final invasion on Greek territories. Alex has nothing to match my fleet…an occasional galley or caravel, and his final colonies fell in the region of 1650AD to an onslaught of galleys, catapults and elephants:


Oh, so close!!! 1673, and still 5% territory to go! I still had some island states to found, and some borders to pop, but would it be enough?


And then, with only 8 tiles to spare (I’ve circled them):


Domination Victory in 1685. Alex’ homeland remains untouched. Thank you all for watching.

[pindicator]

Amen to that Grimm!

(Although I haven't written my report yet...)

[Qwack]

I come here looking for some Epic 7 reports, to find out reporting hasnt even yet been opened :mad: . Anyways, reserved TheGrimm as first report ill read

[darrelljs]

I was happy to see this post simply because I didn't want to be first twice in a row!

Darrell

[Griselda]

Eek, it is late. I went ahead and posted the "reporting open" thread, and we'll grandfather you in.

[mostly_harmless]

Well done to the early victory.
What do I have to do to see your picture a bit bigger?

[theGrimm]

Well done to the early victory.
What do I have to do to see your picture a bit bigger?

Early domination: +5 points.
Doesn't know how to use ImageShack: -50 points.



Okay, I've patched what I could. Hopefully I'll get it right next time.

[theGrimm]

Summary for Darrell:

Research: Fishing->Mysticism->Hinduism->Hunting->Archery->BW->(Mining)->Masonry
Build: Workboat->Warrior->Worker->Archer->Warrior->Warrior
Second City: Panama-By-The-Pigs
Third City - Grab stone and fish
Strategy: Great Lighthouse + Colossus, Galley spam, Domination with cats and elephants.

Finished: 1685 domination

[darrelljs]

Summary for Darrell:

Thanks...I had just finished reading your report and was starting to type up the summary, you saved me some effort

Your game went a little differently than some of the others I've read in that you built up your home continent quite a bit before the war began (from the screenshot it seemed war broke out around 1296 A.D.). The end result was the same though, early domination

Darrell

[Bede]

Nice fast finish, and fast first report too!

Panama-by-the-Pigs was a good stroke. I missed that problem (pole to pole island) and struggled with getting my navy in the right place at the right time while fending off Alex's destroyers with frigates and galleons and caravels.