Adventure 9 - Ronald's report

[Ronald]

How can I upload pictures on this site? Please, any help welcome

RB Adventure 9 - Stagnation

The economy is struggling and we are allowed to train workers only in cities with size 6 or larger. Research is at 0. We have not much money, so what to do?

Here is the initial plan:
Switch all cities to libraries. With libraries, I can use 2 scientists per city to get some research going.
Research alphabeth. It is usually low on the priority list of the AI and enables tech trading. If I can get it quickly enough, I should be able to trade for all the early techs I'm missing.
After libraries build workers if the city is size 6 if not start granary untill city is size 6, then worker.



There is also a nice little barbarian village, only defended by two warriors. This will provide some nice cash, let's go and get it.





Seville, Cordoba, Madrid and Barcelona have libraries and are set to 1 or 2 scientists while building workers. The scientists will slow down the worker production somewhat, but I thought it is more important to speed up research.
Alphabeth is now due in 11 turns, down from 200 without scientists



Alphabeth was researched in 640 AD and after 2 trading rounds we got: Mining, Bronze Working, Mathematics, Currency and Horseback Riding and additional money - not bad.
Next researhc goal is Code of Laws. This is important in two ways. First and most important to build courthouses to minimize maintenance costs, secondly to switch to caste system for unlimited specialists.

CoL gave me another nice trading round (Iron working, Calender and Construction) next is Civil Service (for Bureaucracy)

This is my empire at 1010 (had no save at 1000): The first courthouse is being built and research is already at 50%



I am still behind in techs:



During the next few hundred years, I just built infrastructure and thought how to win this game.
Egypt, Arabia and Mali are still somewhat better in research, my territory is just not big enough. So I have to prepare for war. China seems the right target. Nice lands next to me, rather isolated and therefore easily defendable.
I switched to free religion as soon as possible and improved my relations with Egypt, Mali, and England.



The next 3 centuries were spent for war preparation.

At 1750 I was ready for war.



The diplomatic relations were complicated. I had defensive pacts with Mali and England. China had one with Arabia.
I demanded techs from China untill they were really mad (-20 relation) and hoped, that they would declare war, but they did not.



So in 1785, I finally decided to start the action: I declared war on China, Arabia declared war on me. I bribed Egypt to declare war on Arabia and stop trading with China. I also brought in England and Mali against Arabia. I did not want anybody against China, because I wanted all their land for myself.

This war was rather risky when you look at the power graphs:



Arabia was the most powerful county at that time, But I hoped that Egypt and England will take some of the heat.

I had a big offensive war against China, taking the first city on turn 1 and a defensive war against Arabia planned. The only Arabian city I wanted was Sakae in my back yards.

War weariness was a problem from the beginning. I had to run 40% culture after 5 turns of war and increase that over time to 70% and still many cities were shrinking because of unhappiness.
The wars went well. China was just a matter of time to fall. I destroyed the first waves of Arabian cavalery with minimal losses (infantry is king at that time).

Arabia refused to talk peace, so I started to take a more offensive approach on this front as well and took one Arabian city after the other.

In 1872 China was defeated and Arabia was down to 3 cities which would fall over the next few turns. The problem was, that I am now hopelessly behind in techs. Egypt is an economic powerhouse and Mali is doing fine as well.





I still have excellent relations with Egypt, Mali and England, only Rome is not friendly.



So I decided to go for a diplomatic victory.

In 1884, after 99 years of war, the final battle is fought. Arabia is destroyed and a peaceful time begins.



Now it was maximum research to mass media, building the UN in a hurry since Egypt already started to build their first spaceship parts.

I built the UN in 1922




The elections were easily won with the votes of England and Mali







That was a wonderful scenario. Now I know much better how to get the economy going.

[blid]

Hi Ronald,

Congrats on the win. Now, to know how much votes you got there, let's see those pictures

You can use photobucket or imageshack to upload your pictures then use [img] tags to link to them in your post

[Ronald]

I am not familiar with imageshack or photobucket. How exactly do I get pictures on the server? Can anybody let me know?

Thanks

Ronald

[Compromise]

Hi Ronald,

To upload images, go to http://www.imageshack.us

Then, find the "Browse" button and use it to select the file on your computer that you want to upload (and hit Open).

Back in the same window where you hit "Browse", there is another button labelled "Host It". This will upload your image to their website. Then, you can copy the [img]...[/img] link and paste that into your post. Then, the linked picture will appear in your thread.

Good luck, and congratulations on your win!

-Compromise

[Ronald]

Hi Ronald,

To upload images, go to http://www.imageshack.us

Then, find the "Browse" button and use it to select the file on your computer that you want to upload (and hit Open).

Back in the same window where you hit "Browse", there is another button labelled "Host It". This will upload your image to their website. Then, you can copy the [img]...[/img] link and paste that into your post. Then, the linked picture will appear in your thread.

Good luck, and congratulations on your win!

-Compromise

Thanks very much. That was nice and easy.

[Kodii]

Nice game! I don't think many players managed to capture Sarmatian, and although it was another setback in economy very early, I'm sure having it paid off in the end.

[Iustus]

Wow.

Alphabet was researched in 640 AD

What a difference those scientists made! You are the first person to make it to Alphabet, even though many people researched that first. I was 5 turns away at 760 AD when Hatty attacked me. Several other people were in the 750-950 range.

I definitely need to pay more attention to specialists than I currently do.

-Iustus