Hi! I'm new around here, so I figured I'd introduce myself. I'm probably best described as a "casual" player of Civ4. While I was obsessed with Civs 1 and 2 when I was a kid, I was never very good at them and was prone to frequent use of reloads. (I never discovered the ICS, for instance, probably because I'm a perfectionistic builder.) I was unenthusiastic about some of the changes made in Civ3 and never really got into it. I like Civ4 more, though it still has things that aggravate me. Two things that haven't changed are that I'm still probably not very good at the game and like to reload a lot. (Those perfectionistic tendencies are hard to shake.)
I've never played Catherine, an Ice Age map, or patch 1.61 before, so this will be a new experience for me. I see Catherine is Creative/Financial. Creative is the, "I don't need a religion," trait, or at least, it undercuts one of the major uses I've found for an early religion, expanding cultural borders, and it also makes it easier to use culture to control disorder later on. Financial used to be a power pick but, from what I hear, got nerfed badly in the 1.61 patch with the removal of cheap banks. Worse, as the opening screenshot shows and some playing around with ice age maps verified, the vast majority of tiles will probably be plains, which can't be effectively cottaged for massive commerce. I used to favor Mining for early Bronze Working and lots of forest chops, but 1.61 nerfed chops (again!) and Slavery, so I don't know if that strategy is still applicable. I've always been lukewarm about Hunting, though the scout is nice. Finally, I've never been a fan of the cossack, though I think that probably shows my lack of experience. I prefer to play as a builder, bypassing Military Tradition altogether on the way to modern technologies; while the cossack has some virtues, like the 30% withdrawal chance, in my experience it's only useful in a fairly short window and requires a serious commitment to war during that time to be significant. (Napoleonic-era wars have all the worst elements of modern warfare without any of its redeeming qualities, IMO.)
I tried generating some more ice age maps to get a feel for what else I'd be facing. Without knowing more the map could plausibly be any of the types, but small islands are unlikely, since most starting locations have water tiles on both sides. Wide continents look more like a normal Civ4 map, so I'd almost expect to be in the middle, but it's possible that chance generated a coastal starting location. Islands and narrow continents are hard to tell apart without lots of exploration, but at least require similar strategies.
This is going to be a very strange play experience no matter how you slice it. The frequency of plains will cap the early sizes of cities at small, but settlers and workers won't be much harder to build than usual. If it's continents, those will be the major differences. Narrow continents or islands will make sea power a high priority: building early galleys to settle outlying islands, and teching to early Astronomy to establish cross-sea trade, will be essential. At this point, I'm also considering trying to use ocean tiles to provide the commerce for Financial, which will combine well with sea-tech strategy.
I don't have any idea what "great" is. I'm sure the other players will come up with interesting things to do, but I think I'm probably just going to go for a quick victory. I'm most familiar with cultural victories, but while Creative gives lots of early culture, Russia doesn't have Industrious for the wonder production boost and cheap forges and doesn't start with Mysticism for early religions, both of which tend to be the real keys to cultural victory in my experience; the game settings don't mention the number of civilizations, so I assume it's seven, which means getting wonders without a tech lead will probably be quite difficult. Fast tech can make up for a lot of sins, so if I find stone, marble, or both, I might still give it a shot, but if not, I'll probably beeline to Liberalism and see where I stand.
To summarize, my plan is first to scout ASAP and find out what kind of map I'm on. If it's narrow continents or islands, I go for sea power, either on a straight beeline, or using Liberalism to get Astronomy. If not, I reassess the situation, but still plan on a fast tech strat.
This will also be my first game experience taking notes. I don't know how well I'll do at that, but maybe describing what I'm doing will help me improve my play.
The Opening
I send my scout north, taking one of the two paths that let it move two. It reveals some grasslands--maybe I shouldn't give up hope of cottages yet--and, oddly enough, no resources. I'm guessing there must be something hidden there on one of those northern tiles, but there's a tundra hill up north so I must be near the northern polar cap anyways, which should mean that territory is safe from AI colonization for a bit. There looks like there might be another floodplain two diagonals south of my starting position; I can't avoid the temptation of moving south one onto the plains hill, picking up the extra hammer, the defensive bonus, and the possible floodplain; I get two ocean tiles, but that won't matter for a long time. I move and uncover a floodplain; Moscow looks set to become a commerce city.
![[Image: 4000bccz8.th.jpg]](http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/3600/4000bccz8.th.jpg)
My scout moves northeast, on the way to the hill, spots a village, and diverts, finding a map. I'm leaning towards assuming this is continents, but we'll see.
![[Image: 3950bcwm4.th.jpg]](http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/4868/3950bcwm4.th.jpg)
I now face a difficult choice. My traditional strategy would be to develop Bronze Working, finishing the tech and completing a worker in the same turn to start hacking down the forests to speed build, most likely, a settler. With only 20 hammers from chopping now, though, I decided to go for Animal Husbandry, to try to put the sheep under early production, hoping that would make up for the difference.
Another village map reveals a lot of land and some resources, including stone. Looking more like continents every minute.
And then I discover the French, right next to the stone, sitting in the way of any possible expansion on my part.
![[Image: frenchsk4.th.jpg]](http://img86.imageshack.us/img86/4277/frenchsk4.th.jpg)
There are really only two approaches that will work here: extremely fast expansion past the bottleneck, hoping the French don't declare war on me, or early war. At this point, I'm leaning towards early war. I almost wish I'd developed Bronze Working first.
Hinduism is founded in 3600 BC; glad I didn't go down the religious path.
I decide to go for The Wheel next, to connect resources and maybe get chariots for an early war (but it turns out there no horses anywhere in sight). I wish I had a useful UU.
I realize I'd missed a hut and have to backtrack; I net an extra scout, so it's well worthwhile.
With no horses, if I want early conflict I'll need Bronze Working. The thought of leaving floodplains without cottages pains me enough that I decide to roll the dice and go for Fishing and Pottery first, planning to go back to Bronze Working ASAP.
I send my warrior southeast hoping to look around for a new city site. The French are there, but I can get back in time. I discover stone due southeast of my capital.
The French get horses, but I don't.
![[Image: frenchhorsesid4.th.jpg]](http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/4648/frenchhorsesid4.th.jpg)
I plant my second city up the river from Moscow, for once building on the blue circle; this wastes the forest and grassland tile and has some overlap with my capital, but building on the coast gives the city almost no food, breaks my grid, and I'd rather have the stone sooner than later, so I judge it's worth it. I have Pottery now and am going for Bronze Working.
In 2560 BC I meet the Indians, and 40 years later I find their boundary. By 2400 BC I've also met the Americans and the Egyptians; is everyone on the same continent? At least all three of those civs make better neighbors than the French.
I discover that the closest copper resource is southeast of Paris, of course. It's becoming increasingly clear to me that unless I expand east fast, I'll get cut off from the rest of the continent when the French colonize that river system. Worse, I'll be stuck without copper or horses, which will cripple my military for a long time unless I'm sitting on iron; that's not a gamble I want to take unless I have to, so I put off the cities I have planned in the north and strike east. I'm going to put up a fight for the stone with Paris. This is going to be expensive, no question about it, but I don't see a whole lot of options. There's probably some more clever approach, but I'm not good at subtlety.
![[Image: nearestcopperzx6.th.jpg]](http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/7674/nearestcopperzx6.th.jpg)
I pick up Archery to compensate for my lack of military resources, then get Writing. With so many civilizations, it seems getting Alphabet early would be prudent so I can serve as technology broker. I make open borders treaties with everyone but Napoleon, whose settlement efforts I'd like to make as inconvenient as possible. Novgorod starts costing me money.
Soon after I build it, though, the French have cut me off from horses and copper.
![[Image: frenchjerkshm3.th.jpg]](http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/6736/frenchjerkshm3.th.jpg)
After developing Alphabet, I make a few minor trades for technologies I'd skipped, Agriculture, Mysticism, Masonry, and Polytheism, usually going down in beakers, unfortunately; Roosevelt asks for Writing, but he's all the way at the other end of the continent so I see no reason to concede it. I start developing Iron Working.
I start cutting some forests near Moscow for more cottages and to speed building construction. I'm worried about my weak military and Moscow is the best production city I have on hand. My manufacturing goods have always hung behind my opponents and that's starting to worry me.
I discover Iron Working and the hidden resource that I guessed must exist near Moscow was iron. I decide to get Mathematics for the forest chop bonus, since with the poor food supplies of my cities are limited in size anyways and I need production; it also puts on me on the path to Liberalism. (With no marble and no Industrious, I figure the Oracle is pretty much a lost cause this game.) I start building some more archers to defend my cities if I decide to go to war with Napoleon (or vice versa). Meanwhile, my scouts have reached the far end of the continent. Five civilizations--I'd much rather be on the other continent, wherever it is, with less competition. A little more exploration reveals the Indians have both stone and marble, which is an amazing starting location for a cultural victory.
The French have two axemen in Orleans. I decide to beef up my outer garrisons in case of war, and to deal with any barbarian problems. I have five cities now and can run science at 80% without a deficit. That's still a little high and I need more production, so I'm going to put a sixth city by the wheat and iron in the north. After that, my options are probably between building up rather than out for awhile, or taking out the French.
Speaking of the French, I use a forest chop to build an obelisk in Novgorod to speed the takeover of the stone. (The French workers kindly built a quarry for me.)
I develop Sailing to get foreign trade routes, luckily just before a barbarian cuts my road network in a way that Sailing can maintain, then go for Currency. I'm still positive at 80% science; I can easily maintain some more expansion, at this rate.
Gandhi builds the Oracle in 575 BC (no surprise there). I'll be surprised if I get any wonders this game until the modern era.
Greater Russia
I decide that I'm going to at least trim Napoleon back, if taking Paris isn't realistic (which it may or may not be, at this point). With Mathematics, I start clearcutting the forests around Rostov and Novgorod (those cities won't have health issues until after Biology, at which point other factors will be more important for health) to build swordsmen. Noting that Confucianism is still up for grabs and that I want Code of Laws soon anyways, I go for it. I'm not sure whether to go for Construction for catapults, elephants, and bridge-building, or Civil Service for macemen, bureaucracy, and irrigation spreading. At the moment, I'm inclined to the former just because it's cheaper and there are so many rivers on this map.
After the French war, I'm going to turbo expand to the east. This will tank my science for awhile, but I have the tech lead and lots of potential cash power to support it, and I want to claim the territory up to Indian and Egyptian borders. Diplomatically, with Buddhist America on the far side of Hindu India/Egypt, there should be conflict there I can manipulate to my advantage. After thinking about it for awhile, I decided to detour to Metal Casting because I needed the
production.
In 50 BC, I declare war on Napoleon. Annoyingly, Napoleon has just built a city on the southern coast, cutting off my trade routes and ganking my income. However, I only suffer one casualty in the capture of Orleans. The French build Tours on the city site I had planned, but I don't have time to let it grow so I just autoraze it. Paris is not going to be fun to capture, but I'm building more catapults and it's not a necessary objective, since my goal at this point is to capture a path through the French, not necessarily annihilate them. (Though capturing Paris would go a long ways to making the war pay for itself.)
![[Image: orleansfallsb5.th.jpg]](http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/328/orleansfallsb5.th.jpg)
During the war, I trade Roosevelt construction for Calendar.
A lucky horse archer near Paris takes out two swordsman before succumbing. I decide to advance on Paris to begin reducing it and discover, to my great surprise, that its defenses are pathetic. Another horse archer pillages the quarry the French built for me--I wish, very much, that I'd actually had horses so I could have mobile units capable of countering those. However, my first war elephant kills it handily. Rheims falls, opening up my foreign trade routes again. As I'm besieging Paris, a barbarian city appears on the future site I have a city planned for, but I don't think I can afford to give it time to grow: I need to be able to concentrate my forces. I burn it to the ground.
![[Image: weakparispc0.th.jpg]](http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/7163/weakparispc0.th.jpg)
I capture Paris, at last, and wait for my army to heal before I proceed north to another French city I intend to keep. This was has been pretty expensive in terms of opportunity cost, but I expect that territory and resources I've captured will make up for it quickly once I manage to rebuild.
In 250 AD, one of the unknown civs builds the Lighthouse. Another barbarian city appears further away in the South. In the interturn before 325 AD, I develop Civil Service (which has my favorite quote in the game) and revolt to slavery/bureaucracy. I don't expect to get much use out of slavery because food is such a limiting factor this game, but it doesn't cost anything so I might as well.
My healed-up army goes up and attacks Lyons. I lose a veteran swordsman in a 98.5% chance attack, of course, but the city falls. This leaves one French city to dispose of, the one they captured from barbarians earlier, then I need to spend a lot of resources settling the frontier.
![[Image: lastfrenchmo4.th.jpg]](http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/6816/lastfrenchmo4.th.jpg)
I spend some time plotting out city placements. I doubt the Egyptians or, especially, the Indians, will be happy with what I've come up, since I'm going to end up pressing rather a lot on Calcutta. My ultimate goals are the deer resource near Thebes and the wheat north of Calcutta, and all the grasslands in that area. I'm very disappointed with the meager development the French managed; no wonder they were such pushovers. (Look at Lyons' absence of boats.) The old cities in the west don't have as many urgent terrain projects, so I start sending my workers east to chop trees to speed up construction of settlers, build improvements for the captured cities, and road into the east. I'm concerned I'm not being brutal enough about forest felling, so I start cutting more aggressively. I'd like to get as many of these cities as possible founded before I build the Hanging Gardens.
![[Image: messyfrontierfb7.th.jpg]](http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/1558/messyfrontierfb7.th.jpg)
![[Image: noboatsve8.th.jpg]](http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/5649/noboatsve8.th.jpg)
I've detoured to get Literature, Drama, and Music. I am the first to develop Music, so I must still be leading in tech. I stash Homer, since I have no immediate need for more culture anywhere; I'll probably either consume him in a Golden Age or blow him in a culture bomb on the Egyptian or Indian borders. I'm still not too sure which tech I want to get using Liberalism. I'm tempted to go for Communism, for state property, which is a civic I like quite a bit in general but like even more in a food-deprived environment like this ice age map.
The French offer me some gold and Monotheism for a treaty, but I blow them off: I want them out of my hair forever. The conquest of Vandal goes smoothly and the French are dead.
Manifest Destiny: The Settlement of the East
As of 600 AD, I am now first in every demographics category, even the bad ones, except for Imports/Exports. (I've never understood how that is calculated, but I generally ignore it since it doesn't seem to measure anything important.) I was slightly ahead of Gandhi when I started my preparations for the war, and while I waged it, I fell noticeably behind. I'm close again, now, though, and once I get this continent settled, I'm sure I'll be ahead: it's just not possible to compete with twice the number of cities in any Civ game, and I have the resources to handle that many easily. I'm chopping forests at a rapid pace to build forges, since I badly need to increase my production.
While I'm desperately trying to build the settlers necessary to fill in this territory and to close it off from the computer, the Egyptians make a grave strategic error: they build a city in the exact location I just raised Vandal. I don't really want to go to war with them, and I'm a little short on resources to actually fight a war, but they're the weakest civ remaining on the continent, and Alexandria is in a terrible location that precludes me from building a good city that will provide sugar and silk. There really isn't a question what I need to do, though it's doubtless going to be more annoying than I want: the AI will no doubt be angry at me for quite awhile for blatantly breaking the treaty. Oh well. I didn't go to all that effort just to hand those resources over to the Egyptians.
Since I don't really want to try to invade Egypt (there's no way my economy could support another raft of cities at the opposite end of the continent), my goal is just to make the war so miserable they'll want to make peace. That means the pillaging horse archers. I thought about using explorers, but that requires more tech and offers less combat ability for the hammer investment. I also thought about using chariots, since they're half the cost and have withdrawal, but decided I'd risk the computer using spearmen offensively and go for the better unit. (Hopefully, more of them will survive the war to get promoted to cossacks.)
I trade Hatshepsut for Monotheism and Monarchy, develop Philosophy (founding Taoism in a tiny city on the outskirts of Greater Russia). I could have traded Roosevelt for Horseback Riding, but I decided that since the technology didn't take much time and I still needed buildings before I converted over to military production, I'd just spend the time. Then I declare war and raze Alexandria. All the computers are annoyed with me now; I didn't think Hatshepsut would be so popular. Oh well.
Another barbarian city appears in the gap, so I raze it too. I found the last cities I intend to for awhile, since I need time to rectify my declining balance of payments, and set my army to healing in new cities. I'm considering going to take the Egyptians' marble, either by direct conquest or razing and recolonization. However, that's a little bit in the future. I build the Hanging Gardens--my first wonder--for the population boost to all my cities--the health is all but irrelevant in this game, but the population is golden. I'm developing Machinery, with an eye to the possibility of using Liberalism to grab Communism via Scientific Method; an even sillier plan would use it to get Biology.
![[Image: easternfrontwm5.th.jpg]](http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/1045/easternfrontwm5.th.jpg)
It turns out Hatshepshut is willing to make peace, so I do. I need to spend resources on building courthouses and the Forbidden Palace ASAP, not fighting with Hatshepshut.
![[Image: ad860demographicsfv9.th.jpg]](http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/9251/ad860demographicsfv9.th.jpg)
My approval rating has fallen because my population is increasing, but for the most part I'm still leading all the demographics. I'm most worried that someone seems to be catching up to my GNP. On the score front, I now have a solid lead over Gandhi. I trade Gandhi Civil Service for Feudalism so I can switch to Serfdom. It amazes me that centuries after developing Calendar, the Americans still haven't built any plantations on the five spice resources in radius of Washington, but what can you say? Luckily, a few turns later, my GNP skyrockets ahead of my nearest competitor again.
In 1090 the Indians steal Notre Dame. This wasn't surprising, but it was a little disappointing. However, with the low populations, that wonder isn't as essential as it is in a normal game. The following turn, Roosevelt offers me a quite good trade, 370 gold and Compass for Feudualism (which of course isn't a monopoly tech). In 1120, the computer asks me to build a settler at Novgorod. Huh? While I'm oscillating between 80% and 60% science for the moment, I'm still running a deficit. (I still have no idea how inflation works.) I'm working on rectifying this, but it's going to take a few centuries to tune my economy so I'm ready to expand again.
In 1130, I get a horse archer back over to the far east side of the continent and discover that there's another civ over there. A little further and I make contact with Tokugawa. He is both uninterested in trading with me and far behind on technology. I can finally develop Liberalism. Now that I've seen at least one of the remaining civs, I feel confident I still have a commanding tech lead, with Gandhi having neither Philosophy or Paper, so I don't develop it immediately. At this point, I'm still aiming for taking Scientific Method, Communism, or Biology using Liberalism. I'm pursuing a rather unusual tech path, obviously. I don't know if I'm going to make it; if I see Gandhi getting closer, I may have to switch over.
In 1160, I get a great merchant in Moscow. Seeing that I'm essentially in a race to get farther up the tech tree than my opponents, and the farther up I get in the time before Liberalism, the better off I am, and that I have no immediate other use for either of those great people, it's time for a Golden Age. (I'm tempted by a trade mission to Washington, but I don't have engineering yet and I'll get another great merchant from Economics if not sooner.)
Trading maps with the Indians revealed the Greeks. The Indians have Optics and I'm worried they're going to try to grab the circumnavigation bonus because they won't trade me the tech, but when they offered to trade maps, I didn't see any sea tracks. In 1220, the Indians are willing to trade it and the Americans show up as having it too. The only tech that's in the same beaker range is Paper, and I don't want to give that to the Indians (I want them to have develop the Liberalism prereqs themselves), so I sit tight; maybe Roosevelt will offer me a deal.
I use my Golden Age to tech through Gunpowder and Engineering; I realize, belatedly, that I'd forgotten Printing Press, so start that as soon as it nears the end. Meanwhile, I build courthouses and libraries and start universities. I start construction of the forbidden palace in Anasazi; I'd considered building it further north and more interior, but I'd like to put some culture pressure on Calcutta to help Smolensk, and I expect that before the end of this game I may end up going to war against Egypt or India.
![[Image: forbiddenpalacepc4.th.jpg]](http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/4535/forbiddenpalacepc4.th.jpg)
In 1250, the Indians offer to trade Optics for Paper; again, I turn them down. The Americans also declare war on Egypt, which can't help but be good for me; too bad it wasn't India. By 1270, it looks like Gandhi has discovered Philosophy, which is unfortunate. I estimate I have about 10-11 turns before I discover Scientific Method, so I may have to give up and develop Liberalism sooner. I give the Egyptians Metal Casting for 40 gold in the hopes they'll give me open borders and thus, new trade routes, which they do. (Every little bit of fuel for my science machine helps at this point.)
The Indians went for Nationalism, which is going to cost me the Taj Mahal. Again, it's annoying that the Indians got such an enormous advantage in wonder building this game. I don't care that much, though, because it means their chances of beating me to the Liberalism/Biology combo are all but nonexistent now.
In 1340, Roosevelt asks me to declare war on the Egyptians. I'm tempted, but defer for the moment; if I'm going to fight another war, it will be with cossacks and rifles, not the muskets I have now. I also build the Forbidden Palace, which reduces my maintenance costs to something almost reasonable. Time to found more cities!
Moscow births Archimedes, and that tempts me to do something reckless: can I develop Nationalism before the Indians finish the Taj Mahal, then spend Archimedes to beat them to it? I don't know, but it seems worth the gamble: they still don't have Paper, which means they need to develop at least three technologies, and even if they're most of the way through Paper, Education is an expensive tech. I only have to finish Scientific Method (five turns to finish at this point) and Liberalism itself. Even with my much higher tech costs, past experience indicates I'm getting techs faster than they are. Given my better tech and my substantial size advantage, this discrepancy should, if anything, increase. The real variable is how far along they are on the Taj Mahal and how much Archimedes will give me to its completion.
In 1390, I finish Nationalism and go back to Scientific Method (now four turns, and it will be even shorter once my second Golden Age gets started). Gandhi has finished Paper, but now he has to plow through Education: he's far too late. This is a fairly inefficient use of a great person, but denying the Taj Mahal to Gandhi makes it worthwhile, since he's my major competition as I look at the endgame. I just wish I had better infrastructure to spend the golden age hammers on.
After starting my golden age, the Americans offer me Optics and 90 gold for Civil Service; since I like the Americans (or, at least, I suspect they might be useful to me in the endgame) and it's really past time for me to finish exploring, I make the trade.
In 1440, I make what will probably be the most critical transition of the game: Liberalism discovers Biology. With grassland, going from 3 food to 4 food isn't that important, in most cases, but going from 2 food to 3 food on plains is critical. When I discover Communism in 5 turns, I'll switch to State Property and Free Religion, and prepare for the endgame.
The Egyptians put a city down in the last location I had planned for colonization without warfare, but I just displace it one up. When my galley reaches Tokugawa, I give him Drama and Music to get him to be willing to trade with me, exchanging wine and open borders; I then repeat the process with Alexander, who my galley runs into right north of Tokugawa, picking up Theology for Paper as well.
When I develop Communism, I switch to State Property, Free Religion, and Hereditary Rule (which is free to add on, since it's still a two-turn revolution). I'm planning one more switch this game, once I develop Democracy, but I don't want to give up Bureaucracy yet: I'm getting a lot of tech from my capital, and industrial capacity is still at a premium. Eventually, I want to end up on Universal Suffrage, Free Speech, and Emancipation; I'd consider Representation, but the food constraints make it difficult to run specialists.
In 1500 AD, Gandhi steals the Hagia Sophia. I don't care that much, though the wasted hammers bother me. However, the era of the modern wonders is coming, and most of them don't have marble as their key demand.
The Space Race
1500 AD passes and my government reforms in 1505. It's to reexamine my goals for the rest of the game.
I've finished the vague plan I started out the game with, become a tech powerhouse and reach Liberalism first. I've burned enough bridges with the AIs that I don't want to have to try for a diplomatic victory. That leaves domination or space race. Domination is probably easiest: get Military Tradition and Rifling, build lots of cossacks and draft rifles, then overrun my continent. However, while fast in the game, it's probably not likely to be that quick in real time because of moving all those units. Thus, given my tech lead, I think I'm going to try to win via spaceship.
Given this, rather than gearing up for epic warfare, I'm going to push for industry and science from hereon out. From here, I'm going to beeline to Assembly Line (the health constraints shouldn't matter as much because my city populations will still be small). When I get there, I'm going to do a mass chop of most of the remaining forests to construct factories and coal plants. After that, it's back down the tree to Astronomy, Physics, and Electricity for mass commerce, then from there straight to the Space Elevator and the spaceship.
The Egyptian-American War continues. The Egyptians are losing, badly. If the Americans advance much further, I'll probably attack and help them finish off Hatshepshut--no good reason to see a capital like Thebes fall into American hands.
In 1520, I circumnavigate; I guess I didn't need to worry about that after all.
By 1555, I've got Steam Power and revealed that it was a good decision to force my way as far east as I did, as the only coal in my entire sprawling area of the continent is at the far end of my country, right next to the Egyptians. I decide to develop Rifling and upgrade some of my old units so I can take out the Egyptian capital before the Americans get there. In 1565, Roosevelt asks me to declare war; Rifling still has one turn to go, but since I'm going to do it anyways, I figure I might as well move now and get points with Roosevelt. (The attentive will notice that this is the fulfillment of the edges versus the middle strategy I envisioned much earlier in the game.) Earlier, I took a great merchant to Washington to collect some spare cash for unit upgrades.
In 1580, I get a great scientist for the first time, and build an academy in Moscow. Unfortunately, it looks like someone beat me to Economics, because I never got the great merchant.
I'm a little nervous about beating the Americans to Thebes, so once I have two rifles and two horse archers in position, I attack. City raider rifles are amazing when pitted against medieval units. Borrowing a leaf from the computer's playbook, I stick a city in between Thebes, Memphis, and Krasnoyarsk, thus obtaining access to marble for the first time this game--after its usefulness is all but past, of course. Thebes has an academy, and I anticipate it will be a good city once I get some time to build it up.
The next period consists of a lot of boring building up. I industrialize, massively increasing my production and commerce, while blitzing for the spaceship techs. Gandhi steals the Statue of Liberty, I'm guessing through a great person hurry. Roosevelt cancels his open borders treaty with me; I bribe him with Liberalism to get him to keep his spices treaty, and soon he signs open borders again. My relationship with Alexander has been costing me points with Tokugawa and Gandhi, but Gandhi has kept open borders with me and I'm not going to gamble the trade with Alexander on the chance Tokugawa might sign a treaty if I break mine with Alexander.
I find out there was another reason for the game's original choice for Moscow: there was aluminum right below, which I'm now sitting on. That's unfortunate, but I stand by my decision. Amusingly, I accidentally founded another city on aluminum in the south. Meanwhile, with no fewer than four available in the west half of my empire, I think i can put my fears of not having the resource available for the space race to rest.
![[Image: aluminumtd5.th.jpg]](http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/2027/aluminumtd5.th.jpg)
My actual spaceship attempt is horribly disorganized. I'm not exactly sure what sequence you're supposed to do that in, but I finish some components sooner than others, and the Space Elevator is done too late to be much assistance. I think I should have used the great engineer I got from Fusion to hurry it, rather than setting off another golden age. (By the end of the game, I'd accumulated three useless great artists in my capital, only one of which I consumed in starting the golden age, along with a great scientist and the great engineer.) I take off in 1896, which is rather late by the standards I've seen around here.
I've never played Catherine, an Ice Age map, or patch 1.61 before, so this will be a new experience for me. I see Catherine is Creative/Financial. Creative is the, "I don't need a religion," trait, or at least, it undercuts one of the major uses I've found for an early religion, expanding cultural borders, and it also makes it easier to use culture to control disorder later on. Financial used to be a power pick but, from what I hear, got nerfed badly in the 1.61 patch with the removal of cheap banks. Worse, as the opening screenshot shows and some playing around with ice age maps verified, the vast majority of tiles will probably be plains, which can't be effectively cottaged for massive commerce. I used to favor Mining for early Bronze Working and lots of forest chops, but 1.61 nerfed chops (again!) and Slavery, so I don't know if that strategy is still applicable. I've always been lukewarm about Hunting, though the scout is nice. Finally, I've never been a fan of the cossack, though I think that probably shows my lack of experience. I prefer to play as a builder, bypassing Military Tradition altogether on the way to modern technologies; while the cossack has some virtues, like the 30% withdrawal chance, in my experience it's only useful in a fairly short window and requires a serious commitment to war during that time to be significant. (Napoleonic-era wars have all the worst elements of modern warfare without any of its redeeming qualities, IMO.)
I tried generating some more ice age maps to get a feel for what else I'd be facing. Without knowing more the map could plausibly be any of the types, but small islands are unlikely, since most starting locations have water tiles on both sides. Wide continents look more like a normal Civ4 map, so I'd almost expect to be in the middle, but it's possible that chance generated a coastal starting location. Islands and narrow continents are hard to tell apart without lots of exploration, but at least require similar strategies.
This is going to be a very strange play experience no matter how you slice it. The frequency of plains will cap the early sizes of cities at small, but settlers and workers won't be much harder to build than usual. If it's continents, those will be the major differences. Narrow continents or islands will make sea power a high priority: building early galleys to settle outlying islands, and teching to early Astronomy to establish cross-sea trade, will be essential. At this point, I'm also considering trying to use ocean tiles to provide the commerce for Financial, which will combine well with sea-tech strategy.
I don't have any idea what "great" is. I'm sure the other players will come up with interesting things to do, but I think I'm probably just going to go for a quick victory. I'm most familiar with cultural victories, but while Creative gives lots of early culture, Russia doesn't have Industrious for the wonder production boost and cheap forges and doesn't start with Mysticism for early religions, both of which tend to be the real keys to cultural victory in my experience; the game settings don't mention the number of civilizations, so I assume it's seven, which means getting wonders without a tech lead will probably be quite difficult. Fast tech can make up for a lot of sins, so if I find stone, marble, or both, I might still give it a shot, but if not, I'll probably beeline to Liberalism and see where I stand.
To summarize, my plan is first to scout ASAP and find out what kind of map I'm on. If it's narrow continents or islands, I go for sea power, either on a straight beeline, or using Liberalism to get Astronomy. If not, I reassess the situation, but still plan on a fast tech strat.
This will also be my first game experience taking notes. I don't know how well I'll do at that, but maybe describing what I'm doing will help me improve my play.
The Opening
I send my scout north, taking one of the two paths that let it move two. It reveals some grasslands--maybe I shouldn't give up hope of cottages yet--and, oddly enough, no resources. I'm guessing there must be something hidden there on one of those northern tiles, but there's a tundra hill up north so I must be near the northern polar cap anyways, which should mean that territory is safe from AI colonization for a bit. There looks like there might be another floodplain two diagonals south of my starting position; I can't avoid the temptation of moving south one onto the plains hill, picking up the extra hammer, the defensive bonus, and the possible floodplain; I get two ocean tiles, but that won't matter for a long time. I move and uncover a floodplain; Moscow looks set to become a commerce city.
![[Image: 4000bccz8.th.jpg]](http://img144.imageshack.us/my.php?image=4000bccz8.jpg)
My scout moves northeast, on the way to the hill, spots a village, and diverts, finding a map. I'm leaning towards assuming this is continents, but we'll see.
![[Image: 3950bcwm4.th.jpg]](http://img144.imageshack.us/my.php?image=3950bcwm4.jpg)
I now face a difficult choice. My traditional strategy would be to develop Bronze Working, finishing the tech and completing a worker in the same turn to start hacking down the forests to speed build, most likely, a settler. With only 20 hammers from chopping now, though, I decided to go for Animal Husbandry, to try to put the sheep under early production, hoping that would make up for the difference.
Another village map reveals a lot of land and some resources, including stone. Looking more like continents every minute.
And then I discover the French, right next to the stone, sitting in the way of any possible expansion on my part.
![[Image: frenchsk4.th.jpg]](http://img86.imageshack.us/my.php?image=frenchsk4.jpg)
There are really only two approaches that will work here: extremely fast expansion past the bottleneck, hoping the French don't declare war on me, or early war. At this point, I'm leaning towards early war. I almost wish I'd developed Bronze Working first.
Hinduism is founded in 3600 BC; glad I didn't go down the religious path.
I decide to go for The Wheel next, to connect resources and maybe get chariots for an early war (but it turns out there no horses anywhere in sight). I wish I had a useful UU.
I realize I'd missed a hut and have to backtrack; I net an extra scout, so it's well worthwhile.
With no horses, if I want early conflict I'll need Bronze Working. The thought of leaving floodplains without cottages pains me enough that I decide to roll the dice and go for Fishing and Pottery first, planning to go back to Bronze Working ASAP.
I send my warrior southeast hoping to look around for a new city site. The French are there, but I can get back in time. I discover stone due southeast of my capital.
The French get horses, but I don't.
![[Image: frenchhorsesid4.th.jpg]](http://img146.imageshack.us/my.php?image=frenchhorsesid4.jpg)
I plant my second city up the river from Moscow, for once building on the blue circle; this wastes the forest and grassland tile and has some overlap with my capital, but building on the coast gives the city almost no food, breaks my grid, and I'd rather have the stone sooner than later, so I judge it's worth it. I have Pottery now and am going for Bronze Working.
In 2560 BC I meet the Indians, and 40 years later I find their boundary. By 2400 BC I've also met the Americans and the Egyptians; is everyone on the same continent? At least all three of those civs make better neighbors than the French.
I discover that the closest copper resource is southeast of Paris, of course. It's becoming increasingly clear to me that unless I expand east fast, I'll get cut off from the rest of the continent when the French colonize that river system. Worse, I'll be stuck without copper or horses, which will cripple my military for a long time unless I'm sitting on iron; that's not a gamble I want to take unless I have to, so I put off the cities I have planned in the north and strike east. I'm going to put up a fight for the stone with Paris. This is going to be expensive, no question about it, but I don't see a whole lot of options. There's probably some more clever approach, but I'm not good at subtlety.
![[Image: nearestcopperzx6.th.jpg]](http://img136.imageshack.us/my.php?image=nearestcopperzx6.jpg)
I pick up Archery to compensate for my lack of military resources, then get Writing. With so many civilizations, it seems getting Alphabet early would be prudent so I can serve as technology broker. I make open borders treaties with everyone but Napoleon, whose settlement efforts I'd like to make as inconvenient as possible. Novgorod starts costing me money.
Soon after I build it, though, the French have cut me off from horses and copper.
![[Image: frenchjerkshm3.th.jpg]](http://img179.imageshack.us/my.php?image=frenchjerkshm3.jpg)
After developing Alphabet, I make a few minor trades for technologies I'd skipped, Agriculture, Mysticism, Masonry, and Polytheism, usually going down in beakers, unfortunately; Roosevelt asks for Writing, but he's all the way at the other end of the continent so I see no reason to concede it. I start developing Iron Working.
I start cutting some forests near Moscow for more cottages and to speed building construction. I'm worried about my weak military and Moscow is the best production city I have on hand. My manufacturing goods have always hung behind my opponents and that's starting to worry me.
I discover Iron Working and the hidden resource that I guessed must exist near Moscow was iron. I decide to get Mathematics for the forest chop bonus, since with the poor food supplies of my cities are limited in size anyways and I need production; it also puts on me on the path to Liberalism. (With no marble and no Industrious, I figure the Oracle is pretty much a lost cause this game.) I start building some more archers to defend my cities if I decide to go to war with Napoleon (or vice versa). Meanwhile, my scouts have reached the far end of the continent. Five civilizations--I'd much rather be on the other continent, wherever it is, with less competition. A little more exploration reveals the Indians have both stone and marble, which is an amazing starting location for a cultural victory.
The French have two axemen in Orleans. I decide to beef up my outer garrisons in case of war, and to deal with any barbarian problems. I have five cities now and can run science at 80% without a deficit. That's still a little high and I need more production, so I'm going to put a sixth city by the wheat and iron in the north. After that, my options are probably between building up rather than out for awhile, or taking out the French.
Speaking of the French, I use a forest chop to build an obelisk in Novgorod to speed the takeover of the stone. (The French workers kindly built a quarry for me.)
I develop Sailing to get foreign trade routes, luckily just before a barbarian cuts my road network in a way that Sailing can maintain, then go for Currency. I'm still positive at 80% science; I can easily maintain some more expansion, at this rate.
Gandhi builds the Oracle in 575 BC (no surprise there). I'll be surprised if I get any wonders this game until the modern era.
Greater Russia
I decide that I'm going to at least trim Napoleon back, if taking Paris isn't realistic (which it may or may not be, at this point). With Mathematics, I start clearcutting the forests around Rostov and Novgorod (those cities won't have health issues until after Biology, at which point other factors will be more important for health) to build swordsmen. Noting that Confucianism is still up for grabs and that I want Code of Laws soon anyways, I go for it. I'm not sure whether to go for Construction for catapults, elephants, and bridge-building, or Civil Service for macemen, bureaucracy, and irrigation spreading. At the moment, I'm inclined to the former just because it's cheaper and there are so many rivers on this map.
After the French war, I'm going to turbo expand to the east. This will tank my science for awhile, but I have the tech lead and lots of potential cash power to support it, and I want to claim the territory up to Indian and Egyptian borders. Diplomatically, with Buddhist America on the far side of Hindu India/Egypt, there should be conflict there I can manipulate to my advantage. After thinking about it for awhile, I decided to detour to Metal Casting because I needed the
production.
In 50 BC, I declare war on Napoleon. Annoyingly, Napoleon has just built a city on the southern coast, cutting off my trade routes and ganking my income. However, I only suffer one casualty in the capture of Orleans. The French build Tours on the city site I had planned, but I don't have time to let it grow so I just autoraze it. Paris is not going to be fun to capture, but I'm building more catapults and it's not a necessary objective, since my goal at this point is to capture a path through the French, not necessarily annihilate them. (Though capturing Paris would go a long ways to making the war pay for itself.)
![[Image: orleansfallsb5.th.jpg]](http://img99.imageshack.us/my.php?image=orleansfallsb5.jpg)
During the war, I trade Roosevelt construction for Calendar.
A lucky horse archer near Paris takes out two swordsman before succumbing. I decide to advance on Paris to begin reducing it and discover, to my great surprise, that its defenses are pathetic. Another horse archer pillages the quarry the French built for me--I wish, very much, that I'd actually had horses so I could have mobile units capable of countering those. However, my first war elephant kills it handily. Rheims falls, opening up my foreign trade routes again. As I'm besieging Paris, a barbarian city appears on the future site I have a city planned for, but I don't think I can afford to give it time to grow: I need to be able to concentrate my forces. I burn it to the ground.
![[Image: weakparispc0.th.jpg]](http://img181.imageshack.us/my.php?image=weakparispc0.jpg)
I capture Paris, at last, and wait for my army to heal before I proceed north to another French city I intend to keep. This was has been pretty expensive in terms of opportunity cost, but I expect that territory and resources I've captured will make up for it quickly once I manage to rebuild.
In 250 AD, one of the unknown civs builds the Lighthouse. Another barbarian city appears further away in the South. In the interturn before 325 AD, I develop Civil Service (which has my favorite quote in the game) and revolt to slavery/bureaucracy. I don't expect to get much use out of slavery because food is such a limiting factor this game, but it doesn't cost anything so I might as well.
My healed-up army goes up and attacks Lyons. I lose a veteran swordsman in a 98.5% chance attack, of course, but the city falls. This leaves one French city to dispose of, the one they captured from barbarians earlier, then I need to spend a lot of resources settling the frontier.
![[Image: lastfrenchmo4.th.jpg]](http://img182.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lastfrenchmo4.jpg)
I spend some time plotting out city placements. I doubt the Egyptians or, especially, the Indians, will be happy with what I've come up, since I'm going to end up pressing rather a lot on Calcutta. My ultimate goals are the deer resource near Thebes and the wheat north of Calcutta, and all the grasslands in that area. I'm very disappointed with the meager development the French managed; no wonder they were such pushovers. (Look at Lyons' absence of boats.) The old cities in the west don't have as many urgent terrain projects, so I start sending my workers east to chop trees to speed up construction of settlers, build improvements for the captured cities, and road into the east. I'm concerned I'm not being brutal enough about forest felling, so I start cutting more aggressively. I'd like to get as many of these cities as possible founded before I build the Hanging Gardens.
![[Image: messyfrontierfb7.th.jpg]](http://img171.imageshack.us/my.php?image=messyfrontierfb7.jpg)
![[Image: noboatsve8.th.jpg]](http://img218.imageshack.us/my.php?image=noboatsve8.jpg)
I've detoured to get Literature, Drama, and Music. I am the first to develop Music, so I must still be leading in tech. I stash Homer, since I have no immediate need for more culture anywhere; I'll probably either consume him in a Golden Age or blow him in a culture bomb on the Egyptian or Indian borders. I'm still not too sure which tech I want to get using Liberalism. I'm tempted to go for Communism, for state property, which is a civic I like quite a bit in general but like even more in a food-deprived environment like this ice age map.
The French offer me some gold and Monotheism for a treaty, but I blow them off: I want them out of my hair forever. The conquest of Vandal goes smoothly and the French are dead.
Manifest Destiny: The Settlement of the East
As of 600 AD, I am now first in every demographics category, even the bad ones, except for Imports/Exports. (I've never understood how that is calculated, but I generally ignore it since it doesn't seem to measure anything important.) I was slightly ahead of Gandhi when I started my preparations for the war, and while I waged it, I fell noticeably behind. I'm close again, now, though, and once I get this continent settled, I'm sure I'll be ahead: it's just not possible to compete with twice the number of cities in any Civ game, and I have the resources to handle that many easily. I'm chopping forests at a rapid pace to build forges, since I badly need to increase my production.
While I'm desperately trying to build the settlers necessary to fill in this territory and to close it off from the computer, the Egyptians make a grave strategic error: they build a city in the exact location I just raised Vandal. I don't really want to go to war with them, and I'm a little short on resources to actually fight a war, but they're the weakest civ remaining on the continent, and Alexandria is in a terrible location that precludes me from building a good city that will provide sugar and silk. There really isn't a question what I need to do, though it's doubtless going to be more annoying than I want: the AI will no doubt be angry at me for quite awhile for blatantly breaking the treaty. Oh well. I didn't go to all that effort just to hand those resources over to the Egyptians.
Since I don't really want to try to invade Egypt (there's no way my economy could support another raft of cities at the opposite end of the continent), my goal is just to make the war so miserable they'll want to make peace. That means the pillaging horse archers. I thought about using explorers, but that requires more tech and offers less combat ability for the hammer investment. I also thought about using chariots, since they're half the cost and have withdrawal, but decided I'd risk the computer using spearmen offensively and go for the better unit. (Hopefully, more of them will survive the war to get promoted to cossacks.)
I trade Hatshepsut for Monotheism and Monarchy, develop Philosophy (founding Taoism in a tiny city on the outskirts of Greater Russia). I could have traded Roosevelt for Horseback Riding, but I decided that since the technology didn't take much time and I still needed buildings before I converted over to military production, I'd just spend the time. Then I declare war and raze Alexandria. All the computers are annoyed with me now; I didn't think Hatshepsut would be so popular. Oh well.
Another barbarian city appears in the gap, so I raze it too. I found the last cities I intend to for awhile, since I need time to rectify my declining balance of payments, and set my army to healing in new cities. I'm considering going to take the Egyptians' marble, either by direct conquest or razing and recolonization. However, that's a little bit in the future. I build the Hanging Gardens--my first wonder--for the population boost to all my cities--the health is all but irrelevant in this game, but the population is golden. I'm developing Machinery, with an eye to the possibility of using Liberalism to grab Communism via Scientific Method; an even sillier plan would use it to get Biology.
![[Image: easternfrontwm5.th.jpg]](http://img214.imageshack.us/my.php?image=easternfrontwm5.jpg)
It turns out Hatshepshut is willing to make peace, so I do. I need to spend resources on building courthouses and the Forbidden Palace ASAP, not fighting with Hatshepshut.
![[Image: ad860demographicsfv9.th.jpg]](http://img100.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ad860demographicsfv9.jpg)
My approval rating has fallen because my population is increasing, but for the most part I'm still leading all the demographics. I'm most worried that someone seems to be catching up to my GNP. On the score front, I now have a solid lead over Gandhi. I trade Gandhi Civil Service for Feudalism so I can switch to Serfdom. It amazes me that centuries after developing Calendar, the Americans still haven't built any plantations on the five spice resources in radius of Washington, but what can you say? Luckily, a few turns later, my GNP skyrockets ahead of my nearest competitor again.
In 1090 the Indians steal Notre Dame. This wasn't surprising, but it was a little disappointing. However, with the low populations, that wonder isn't as essential as it is in a normal game. The following turn, Roosevelt offers me a quite good trade, 370 gold and Compass for Feudualism (which of course isn't a monopoly tech). In 1120, the computer asks me to build a settler at Novgorod. Huh? While I'm oscillating between 80% and 60% science for the moment, I'm still running a deficit. (I still have no idea how inflation works.) I'm working on rectifying this, but it's going to take a few centuries to tune my economy so I'm ready to expand again.
In 1130, I get a horse archer back over to the far east side of the continent and discover that there's another civ over there. A little further and I make contact with Tokugawa. He is both uninterested in trading with me and far behind on technology. I can finally develop Liberalism. Now that I've seen at least one of the remaining civs, I feel confident I still have a commanding tech lead, with Gandhi having neither Philosophy or Paper, so I don't develop it immediately. At this point, I'm still aiming for taking Scientific Method, Communism, or Biology using Liberalism. I'm pursuing a rather unusual tech path, obviously. I don't know if I'm going to make it; if I see Gandhi getting closer, I may have to switch over.
In 1160, I get a great merchant in Moscow. Seeing that I'm essentially in a race to get farther up the tech tree than my opponents, and the farther up I get in the time before Liberalism, the better off I am, and that I have no immediate other use for either of those great people, it's time for a Golden Age. (I'm tempted by a trade mission to Washington, but I don't have engineering yet and I'll get another great merchant from Economics if not sooner.)
Trading maps with the Indians revealed the Greeks. The Indians have Optics and I'm worried they're going to try to grab the circumnavigation bonus because they won't trade me the tech, but when they offered to trade maps, I didn't see any sea tracks. In 1220, the Indians are willing to trade it and the Americans show up as having it too. The only tech that's in the same beaker range is Paper, and I don't want to give that to the Indians (I want them to have develop the Liberalism prereqs themselves), so I sit tight; maybe Roosevelt will offer me a deal.
I use my Golden Age to tech through Gunpowder and Engineering; I realize, belatedly, that I'd forgotten Printing Press, so start that as soon as it nears the end. Meanwhile, I build courthouses and libraries and start universities. I start construction of the forbidden palace in Anasazi; I'd considered building it further north and more interior, but I'd like to put some culture pressure on Calcutta to help Smolensk, and I expect that before the end of this game I may end up going to war against Egypt or India.
![[Image: forbiddenpalacepc4.th.jpg]](http://img177.imageshack.us/my.php?image=forbiddenpalacepc4.jpg)
In 1250, the Indians offer to trade Optics for Paper; again, I turn them down. The Americans also declare war on Egypt, which can't help but be good for me; too bad it wasn't India. By 1270, it looks like Gandhi has discovered Philosophy, which is unfortunate. I estimate I have about 10-11 turns before I discover Scientific Method, so I may have to give up and develop Liberalism sooner. I give the Egyptians Metal Casting for 40 gold in the hopes they'll give me open borders and thus, new trade routes, which they do. (Every little bit of fuel for my science machine helps at this point.)
The Indians went for Nationalism, which is going to cost me the Taj Mahal. Again, it's annoying that the Indians got such an enormous advantage in wonder building this game. I don't care that much, though, because it means their chances of beating me to the Liberalism/Biology combo are all but nonexistent now.
In 1340, Roosevelt asks me to declare war on the Egyptians. I'm tempted, but defer for the moment; if I'm going to fight another war, it will be with cossacks and rifles, not the muskets I have now. I also build the Forbidden Palace, which reduces my maintenance costs to something almost reasonable. Time to found more cities!
Moscow births Archimedes, and that tempts me to do something reckless: can I develop Nationalism before the Indians finish the Taj Mahal, then spend Archimedes to beat them to it? I don't know, but it seems worth the gamble: they still don't have Paper, which means they need to develop at least three technologies, and even if they're most of the way through Paper, Education is an expensive tech. I only have to finish Scientific Method (five turns to finish at this point) and Liberalism itself. Even with my much higher tech costs, past experience indicates I'm getting techs faster than they are. Given my better tech and my substantial size advantage, this discrepancy should, if anything, increase. The real variable is how far along they are on the Taj Mahal and how much Archimedes will give me to its completion.
In 1390, I finish Nationalism and go back to Scientific Method (now four turns, and it will be even shorter once my second Golden Age gets started). Gandhi has finished Paper, but now he has to plow through Education: he's far too late. This is a fairly inefficient use of a great person, but denying the Taj Mahal to Gandhi makes it worthwhile, since he's my major competition as I look at the endgame. I just wish I had better infrastructure to spend the golden age hammers on.
After starting my golden age, the Americans offer me Optics and 90 gold for Civil Service; since I like the Americans (or, at least, I suspect they might be useful to me in the endgame) and it's really past time for me to finish exploring, I make the trade.
In 1440, I make what will probably be the most critical transition of the game: Liberalism discovers Biology. With grassland, going from 3 food to 4 food isn't that important, in most cases, but going from 2 food to 3 food on plains is critical. When I discover Communism in 5 turns, I'll switch to State Property and Free Religion, and prepare for the endgame.
The Egyptians put a city down in the last location I had planned for colonization without warfare, but I just displace it one up. When my galley reaches Tokugawa, I give him Drama and Music to get him to be willing to trade with me, exchanging wine and open borders; I then repeat the process with Alexander, who my galley runs into right north of Tokugawa, picking up Theology for Paper as well.
When I develop Communism, I switch to State Property, Free Religion, and Hereditary Rule (which is free to add on, since it's still a two-turn revolution). I'm planning one more switch this game, once I develop Democracy, but I don't want to give up Bureaucracy yet: I'm getting a lot of tech from my capital, and industrial capacity is still at a premium. Eventually, I want to end up on Universal Suffrage, Free Speech, and Emancipation; I'd consider Representation, but the food constraints make it difficult to run specialists.
In 1500 AD, Gandhi steals the Hagia Sophia. I don't care that much, though the wasted hammers bother me. However, the era of the modern wonders is coming, and most of them don't have marble as their key demand.
The Space Race
1500 AD passes and my government reforms in 1505. It's to reexamine my goals for the rest of the game.
I've finished the vague plan I started out the game with, become a tech powerhouse and reach Liberalism first. I've burned enough bridges with the AIs that I don't want to have to try for a diplomatic victory. That leaves domination or space race. Domination is probably easiest: get Military Tradition and Rifling, build lots of cossacks and draft rifles, then overrun my continent. However, while fast in the game, it's probably not likely to be that quick in real time because of moving all those units. Thus, given my tech lead, I think I'm going to try to win via spaceship.
Given this, rather than gearing up for epic warfare, I'm going to push for industry and science from hereon out. From here, I'm going to beeline to Assembly Line (the health constraints shouldn't matter as much because my city populations will still be small). When I get there, I'm going to do a mass chop of most of the remaining forests to construct factories and coal plants. After that, it's back down the tree to Astronomy, Physics, and Electricity for mass commerce, then from there straight to the Space Elevator and the spaceship.
The Egyptian-American War continues. The Egyptians are losing, badly. If the Americans advance much further, I'll probably attack and help them finish off Hatshepshut--no good reason to see a capital like Thebes fall into American hands.
In 1520, I circumnavigate; I guess I didn't need to worry about that after all.
By 1555, I've got Steam Power and revealed that it was a good decision to force my way as far east as I did, as the only coal in my entire sprawling area of the continent is at the far end of my country, right next to the Egyptians. I decide to develop Rifling and upgrade some of my old units so I can take out the Egyptian capital before the Americans get there. In 1565, Roosevelt asks me to declare war; Rifling still has one turn to go, but since I'm going to do it anyways, I figure I might as well move now and get points with Roosevelt. (The attentive will notice that this is the fulfillment of the edges versus the middle strategy I envisioned much earlier in the game.) Earlier, I took a great merchant to Washington to collect some spare cash for unit upgrades.
In 1580, I get a great scientist for the first time, and build an academy in Moscow. Unfortunately, it looks like someone beat me to Economics, because I never got the great merchant.
I'm a little nervous about beating the Americans to Thebes, so once I have two rifles and two horse archers in position, I attack. City raider rifles are amazing when pitted against medieval units. Borrowing a leaf from the computer's playbook, I stick a city in between Thebes, Memphis, and Krasnoyarsk, thus obtaining access to marble for the first time this game--after its usefulness is all but past, of course. Thebes has an academy, and I anticipate it will be a good city once I get some time to build it up.
The next period consists of a lot of boring building up. I industrialize, massively increasing my production and commerce, while blitzing for the spaceship techs. Gandhi steals the Statue of Liberty, I'm guessing through a great person hurry. Roosevelt cancels his open borders treaty with me; I bribe him with Liberalism to get him to keep his spices treaty, and soon he signs open borders again. My relationship with Alexander has been costing me points with Tokugawa and Gandhi, but Gandhi has kept open borders with me and I'm not going to gamble the trade with Alexander on the chance Tokugawa might sign a treaty if I break mine with Alexander.
I find out there was another reason for the game's original choice for Moscow: there was aluminum right below, which I'm now sitting on. That's unfortunate, but I stand by my decision. Amusingly, I accidentally founded another city on aluminum in the south. Meanwhile, with no fewer than four available in the west half of my empire, I think i can put my fears of not having the resource available for the space race to rest.
![[Image: aluminumtd5.th.jpg]](http://img154.imageshack.us/my.php?image=aluminumtd5.jpg)
My actual spaceship attempt is horribly disorganized. I'm not exactly sure what sequence you're supposed to do that in, but I finish some components sooner than others, and the Space Elevator is done too late to be much assistance. I think I should have used the great engineer I got from Fusion to hurry it, rather than setting off another golden age. (By the end of the game, I'd accumulated three useless great artists in my capital, only one of which I consumed in starting the golden age, along with a great scientist and the great engineer.) I take off in 1896, which is rather late by the standards I've seen around here.
Liberalism slingshot to Biology is a pretty nice move. 
And 1896 AD is not late at all for space; anything before the 20th century is actually pretty good; earlier than I've ever launched so far.
. It's fixed now.