I am sorry about posting the report at the last possible second. I was going to post just a summary earlier, but these things tend to grow and I ended up spending the whole evening to turn it into a complete, although mostly brief, report.
This game was the closest space race I've had in a while and featured losing a city to barbarians, a backstub by Alex and space race that ... well, let's talk about things in order.
Pre-game Thoughts
My initial assumption was that a team of 2 AIs is similar to a single AI with double production and research output, which would make this game harder than Deity. I later realized that more accurate comparison would be to a single AI that starts with 2 settlers and has significantly lower maintenance costs. However, it eventually turned out that we were faced with a team of 3 Financial AIs (luckily they didn't have much cottagable land on their continent), and a team of 4 Industrious AIs. So my initial assumption that the game would be "very hard" turned out to be correct after all.
I thought there would be two ways to approach this scenario:
1) A military campaign with a beeline to Astronomy to get to the AIs on the other continents before you have to fight infantry with Maces.
2) A space race.
I am sure some people have successfully tried the military approach, but I've had enough warfare in Epics 4 and 6, and fighting is my weak point, so I chose the space race.
My assumption that game difficulty would be comparable to Deity, combined with prohibition against attacking neighbors, caused me to ignore early wonders and religions and focus entirely on expansion and super-economy (and diplomacy) beeline of Writing (Library and OB) -> Math -> Currency (trade routes and $ deals) -> CoL -> CS (stronger capital) -> Paper -> Education (Universities) -> Liberalism, or Printing Press (more income). After that, I was going to either try for a Permanent Alliance, or continue space race on my own, but my initial plans didnât extend that far.
Initial Expansion
My initial build order was Warrior (letting city grow to size 2) -> Worker -> Warrior (interrupted with 1 turn left when city hits size 3) -> Settler
My strategy was to expand as quickly as possible to claim good city spots before AIs got there. I did a lot of scouting with the first 2 warriors, taking the risk that the capital would be able to finish its partially built 3rd warrior if a human barb was spotted. Later, I used chariots for Barb-control, because Iâve had good experience with them in Adv. 4, and Copper was too far away. Unfortunately, Adv. 4 was played with Egypt, whose War Chariots have strength 5 vs. strength 4 for normal chariots. This caused my losses to be much higher than expected and forced me to spend more time building military. However, the greatest advantage of chariots is that they can move 4 squares per turn along the roads, allowing me to always have at least 2 units in a threatened city, with 1 or 2 more nearby. My decision not to research hunting and archery might have been a mistake, but more on that later. I wanted to research only techs I absolutely needed and Chariotsâ main advantage was that they required no extra techs to research.
Technologically, I got Fishing from the hut east of Mecca, but got just cash and experience from 3 other huts Iâve popped. The regular research went into
Agriculture -> Animal Husbandry (pasture and horses) -> Pottery (cottages) -> Mining -> Bronze Working (reveal metals) When I saw how far from capital Copper was, I decided to stick with chariots instead of taking the risk of researching IW. Next I started the primary economic path:
Writing (Libraries) -> Sailing (2nd city was coastal, so this enabled foreign trade with both Alex and Cat around 1500BC, letting me start working on those diplomatic bonuses from âyears supplied with resourcesâ and âfair tradeâ) -> Math -> Currency (letting me get some gpt for resources I was donating, and doubling number of trade routes)
Meanwhile, Medina was founded 5 tiles west of the capital in 2520BC. It had tons of food from a couple resources, and lighhouse-on-a-lake, a couple hills for production, and lots of grassland and plains for cottages. Happiness was the only limit, but I was going to build the Globe Theatre there, planning to research Alphabet and Drama just for that (and Theatres would be useful for culture wars and would provide extra happiness with dyes.)
I see Russian border in the south in 1800BC. This causes me to panic, because Cat is about to get all those floodplains. I rush a settler down there and found 3rd city NW of Gold in 1560BC. The city has no food bonus aside from 2 floodplains, but with floodplains cottaged and gold mined, it becomes a research powerhouse right away. Replacing all grassland forests with cottages allows the city to maintain its research contribution later, despite never growing past size 10 or 11 due to lack of food.
Alex founded Hinduism in 2600BC, so it was very possible for the player to get it, but I didnât know it at the time and, expecting Deity research rates, preferred not to risk it. The religion spreads to Medina while I am researching Currency, so after Currency I take a detour to Meditation -> Priesthood to be able to fully benefit from it. I also adapted Hinduism almost right away, getting both AIs up to Pleased due to shared religion bonus.
After the Priesthood detour, I research Metal Casting (Forges will give happiness bonus), with an interruption for IW. After that, I return to the main line researching CoL -> CS.
Final Expansion
![[Image: arabia1adnorthfc9.th.jpg]](http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/6791/arabia1adnorthfc9.th.jpg)
![[Image: arabia1adsouthrr3.th.jpg]](http://img205.imageshack.us/img205/193/arabia1adsouthrr3.th.jpg)
Here you see the Arabian Empire in 1AD. Narjan was founded east of Mecca to start developing the good land there. Baghdad in the south locked in Cat, letting me settle the jungle site in far south at my leisure. The lands around Baghdad arenât very good, but the city controls 4 resources, including extra horses and marble. Finally, Kufah was founded in the north to get Iron, 2 Deer, and more Marble, and set the border with Greece, hopefully denying some resources to Alex.
The barb axe near Kufah shows one of the most serious dangers my cities had been in. The road is still being built, so second chariot canât get to the city in time. However, that city was saved by Alexâs Horse Archers, whom you see west of the city.
In 75AD, a Barbarian Swordsman approaches Narjan, resting in a cornfield. There are 3 shock chariots in the city, and while 2 of them are slightly wounded, I am not too worried about the outcome. First chariot attacks at 33% and loses. This isnât unexpected and second chariot attacks at 56%. It loses again. This is a significant setback and in some circumstances could cause me to lose a city. However, I still have a 3rd chariot left. It attacks at over 95% odds ... and also loses. I whip out an archer, but the sword gains so much experience from his unlikely wins, that he heals by promotions and captures the city on the interturn. I canât even recapture the city, because itâs now down to size 1 because of whipping and capture, and I donât want to have to train another settler.
So I have to wait until connecting Iron around 275AD and training a couple axemen, before I can recapture the city in 375 with the help of same 2 HAs from Alex, who saved Kufah earlier.
I later founded 4 more cities:
- A production center west of Kufah, which generated little commerce, but became a production powerhouse when all forests were lumbermilled.
- A research center in the southern jungle, getting 2 Dyes, 2 food resources, 2 mines, some cottages, and lots of coastal tiles. Due to liberal application of the whip (I had +5 anger from it at some point), this late city finished its infrastructure faster than most others, including some early ones.
- A fishing village in the north to grab 2 Silvers (this city was able to work both silvers and still grow due to crabs and lighthouse-on-a-lake). It eventually even built a spaceship casing for me.
- A city on the site of Apache in the east on the picture below to grab last good location on the continent.
![[Image: arabia1000adsa5.th.jpg]](http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/1264/arabia1000adsa5.th.jpg)
I limited myself to these 10 cities, because by that time only tundra locations were left and while these locations would eventually become profitable, I preferred to save RL time and run my research at 80-90% by having only 10 cities. This allowed me to build only science boosting buildings and ignore Markets and Banks.
Meanwhile, Philosophical trait proved to be more useful than expected. I wasnât prioritizing great people very heavily, but my first Great Scientist still appeared early enough to construct Academy in Mecca in 200BC. Second GS appeared in 300AD and at that time heâd do the most good by settling in Mecca. Later I got enough Great Scientists to construct Academies in 5 more cities, ending up with Academies in 6 out of 10 cities.
One thing that helped my GP generation is that I adapted Pacifism right after discovering Philosophy and stayed in it during all times I wasnât running Free Religion. With my entire military consisting of 1 warrior/chariot per city (and 3 barb watchers), Pacifism was the cheapest civic to use.
Meanwhile, after discovering CS in 250AD (and revolting to Beurocracy right away), I researched Monarchy (Hereditary Rule is useful even if I have only 1 unit per city and gives diplomatic bonuses with both Cat and Alex). After that I resumed Liberalism beeline with Paper->Education, interrupted for Masonry (connecting Marble) and Calendar (Connecting Dyes). After discovering Education in 880, I take the time to research Alphabet->Drama, because Theatres would give extra happiness, I want Globe Theatre in Medina (should have built it in southern city instead), and Drama will make Philosophy cheaper.
Around this time I notice that Victory Screen shows only 4 rivals, implying that we are faced with teams of 3 and 4 AIs. This means PA is a must, so I go on a direct beeline towards it. I actually meet the other teams shortly afterwards, encountering Financial team in 900AD, and Industrious team shortly afterwards. Surprisingly, they are not as far ahead as I expected. Financial team didnât even have Feudalism when I met them.
Securing a Permanent Alliance
My research decisions at this time became very simple. After being the second person to discover Philosophy (Cat founded Taoism earlier, but wasnât a contender in Liberalism race due to low GNP), I researched Liberalism in 1090, taking Nationalism as the free tech. After that I researched Military Tradition for Defensive Pacts and went on a straight beeline to Communism. First I go for Machinery->Printing Press, discovering Printing Press before any AIs. Then I go for Compass->Optics->Astronomy->Scientific Method... When Optics is discovered in 1320, I realize that nobody knows Astronomy. They are up by a bunch of other techs, but Iâd expect large teams to be much further ahead at this point.
The main difficulty at the time comes from the diplomatic situation. The major teams are barely cautious with me due to religious differences and trading with the enemy. Going into free religion would solve this problem but would drop my allies down to net +10, which means that any negative would drop them down into Pleased (can attack without warning) territory. I immediately started resource-for-gpt deals with the 2 AIs I had a trade route with (due to galley crossing from Vickyâs culture into Catâs culture), but that will take a long time to have an effect.
So when Vicky and HC go up to cautious in 1190, I take advantage of Spiritual Trait by switching to Free Religion for 5 turns. In 1240 I open borders with everybody, return to Pacifism (getting back +6 shared religion modifiers with Alex and Cat), and sign Defensive Pacts with Cat and Alex. I was able to sign these pacts a couple turns earlier, but was waiting to switch out of free religion first to make sure the pacts wouldnât be broken if Alex made a demand I couldnât meet.
I generally agreed to all demands aside from breaking trade deals. With tech trading disabled, AIs could demand only cash and maps anyway.
I was delaying Taj Mahal to complete Oxford University first, because I felt confident about tech lead on the Nationalism branch. So Taj Mahal was completed only in 1380. This was the first wonder Iâve even tried building in this game.
While the diplomatic situation was causing a lot of worries (Vicky cancelled OB at some point, but never refused resource-for-gpt deals), research was proceeding at a good rate. After Scientific Method we discover Physics (for a free Scientist) and discover Communism in 1525. However, we still need some more turns of Defensive Pacts before Permanent Alliance becomes an option. I donât want to duplicate existing research that Iâll get by signing Permanent Alliance, so I continue the beeline up from Physics, checking whether PA is available every turn. Electricity is discovered in 1565, and Radio some time later. We even start researching Computers before Permanent Alliance finally becomes available in 1620. The picture below is the perfect illustration of my research strategy for this game. How often do you reach Modern Age without knowing Construction, Feudalism, Polytheism, or Gunpowder?
[img] http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/4623/beelineut6.jpg[/img]
Space Race
Alex doesnât like me enough to sign Permanent Alliance despite a +18 overall modifier. However, Cat does want a PA and she has stronger economy anyway. It turns out that you can only have a PA with a single AI, so it was a choice between Cat and Alex. I guess Alex is the PA partner for warmongers and Cat is here for builders.
Allying with Cat gives me all techs up to Rifling, Chemistry, and Theology, as well as most of research into Constitution, because we are able to discover it in 2 turns after taking just a turn to research Economics. After that, Catâs research capacity seems to be about 50-70% of mine, and becomes even lower near the end of the game.
After discovering Economics, I swap to Free Religion (primarily for diplomatic reasons), Free Market, Free Speech (I finally have enough towns to make it worthwile), and Serfdom (Slavery is no longer useful and I have some lumbermills to build).
After that we discover Corporation and go on to Steam Power -> Assembly Line. When that finishes in 1680, Vicky switches to Emancipation, causing a detour to Democracy. However I wait until researching Steam Power -> Railroads and building Rails for most Lumbermills and Mines before switching From Serfdom and Hereditary Rule to Emancipation and Representation in 1735. (Representation switch should have been done earlier, but I forgot about it.)
There was recently a discussion about value of gpt deals. At this point in the game, I was getting 83gpt in foreign income, giving away only surplus health resources. This covered most of my 149gpt expenses and allowed me to run 100% research most of the time, which mean I didnât have to build Banks or Markets.
The insanely early research into Radio and Communism allowed me to start several wonders early on and we get Rock'n'Roll in 1770, Broadway in 1775, and Kremlin in 1780. Cat completes Eiffel Tower in 1785.
The research proceeds towards Plastics (3 Gorges Dam) -> Robotics (Space Elevator) before I will start the primary spaceships research of Artillery->Rocketry->Satellites, Fusion->Fiber Optics->Fission, Biology->Medicine->Genetics->Ecology. That is my standard space research order, letting my start Genetics spaceship part in top production city and Ecology part in second city, while third city is finishing up Fusion part.
The endgame proceeded according to plan with a single interruption... (Following passages are taken directly from my notes for higher dramatic effect.
)
In 1802 relations with Alex dropped down to Cautious after I refused his demand to adapt Hereditary Rule. I'd be more worried if he wasn't defending his cities with Rifles while we are about to discover Tanks. This reminds me: for some reason Cat has only 4 workers, so she isn't connecting her resources very quickly.
In 1804 Alex attacks! I guess I should have paid more attention to diplomacy, instead of going on auto-pilot for the last hour. My cities are still defended by Warriors, and I don't even have a cash reserve! It looks like I will lose Kurfan in the north, because 2 Knights and a Canon are threatening the city which is protected by a single Chariot. Everybody else is Pleased with me, but begging gets me only about 100gp total, so I also sell my map and ask cat for 40$, which allows me to upgrade the chariot to Cav. I also shuffle all spare units (the 3 units that had been doing Barb watch for a millennium and are now in Catâs territory) to the front, so I can use railroad to send another warrior up to Kurfan without leaving any city empty. I also drop research down to 0, so I'll be able to upgrade a couple units next turn. I start training units only in 2 cities, because I am still not taking this war seriously enough. As long as I don't lose any cities in the first Blitz, Cat should slaughter Alex for me. We aren't allowed to capture any cities of AIs that start on the same continent, but I wonder what the rules will say about our Permanent Ally capturing cities of neighbor who "chose unwisely". Just to be on the safe side, I'll make peace as soon as I can anyway.
There are several large stacks heading towards Kurfan, so I'll definitely lose the city. I use Spiritual trait to switch to Universal Suffrage and Nationhood. I Draft in Kurfan and Medina, upgrade a couple outdated units, Rush-buy Marine started in Mecca last turn using Cat's money, and prepare to rush-buy several Marines next turn. I also get a Great Engineer in Basra. This will be very useful if I have trouble finishing 3-Gorges Dam or Space Elevator in time.
Next turn Mecca starts work in the 3 Gorges Dam anyway, even thought my research is still stalled to finance military purchases. At Kurfan I just hide in the city, while at Mecca I counter-attack, destroying 2 pillaging Knights. I also ask Cat to attack Argos in far north, hoping that this will encourage her troops to leave their cities.
Defenders at Kurfan easily slaughter attacking knights. It's possible to win with knights and Rifles against Marines, but throwing a few units a turn at them isn't the way to do it. At Medina, I counter-attack again, killing even more pillagers.
In winter of 1812 I suffer a first loss: an Infantry dies defending Kurfan, while I destroy over half a dozen attackers there. Cat's small stack heading for Argos helps clean up the attackers. Pillagers at Medina have been completely cleared, and I am thinking of ending the military builds.
Cat somehow managed to lose a mainland city to Alex's landing party! I don't understand AI's stupidity. How can you lose a city in the middle of your empire when you have plenty of troops nearby?! The city was razed and she rebuilt it right away, but a newly built city isn't a good replacement for an original powerhouse.
In 1818 I switch back to Representation and Free Speech. This significantly hurts my production, but I don't really need to build anything at the moment.
In 1824 we discover Robotics and start research on Artillery->Rocketry. Only my 2 southernmost cities are eligible to build the Space Elevator, so I start it in Basra, the "fishing village" with 3 Engineers, 2 mines and some towns. It's scheduled to take 43 turns, but this will decrease when 3 Gorges Dam comes online.
Meanwhile, the pointless war with Alex continues. Apparently he already suicided all his spare forces, so now I am beginning to advance west from Medina, pillaging as I go to recover at least some costs of the war. Cat might actually capture Argos, so I tell her to attack Athens on the other side of Greece instead. Hopefully that will divert her stack. If not, there is not much I can do about it. After all, rules don't say that our AI ally isn't allowed to capture any cities on our continent.
Financial team discovers Artillery in 1828, just a turn ahead of us. So the space race is heating up again. Meanwhile, the war with Alex has practically stalled. Cat listened to my request and held her stack in place just 1 step away from Argos. So I am pillaging west of Medina, while Cat is getting her nets pillaged by Frigates while her Sub watches on, doing nothing.
1838 is a very important year for the Arab Empire. First, we discover Rocketry and start researching Satellites. After that we will go for Fission->Fiber Optics->Fusion, with the traditional finishers of Genetics and Ecology. We also start Apollo Program due in 12 turns.
Second, this year our progress on 3 Gorges Dam becomes significant enough to allow a Great Engineer to completely finish its construction.
Finally, Alex is willing to talk and offers 1250$, 10gpt, and his map for peace. This is as much as he can give in a tech trading disabled game where I am not allowed to capture cities. So I accept this deal to get Cat out of her war mode and end this 34 year war. The only good thing about this war was that it made the space race exciting again.
Production will probably be much larger bottleneck than research, so I switch to Universal Suffrage. However, this doesn't help my main production city building Apollo Program, because that city has no towns.
Apollo Program completes in 1862 and I assign as many ship parts as I can, to avoid Cat starting them in weak cities. That year we are ranked second most advanced team, but the industrious team is still researching Satellites, so we probably don't have to worry about space race.
Cat started a single Casing in Moscow, but aside from that I am able to schedule all the parts.
Gandhi completes UN in 1866. I wonder what this will lead to. In 1872 the Industrious team elects themselves Secretary General with Cat voting for Financial team and me and Alex abstaining.
That year we discover Fusion, but Cat is the one who finishes research, so she gets the Great Engineer. This doesn't matter, because Space Elevator has only 9 turns left.
Industrious Team completes Apollo Program in 1880. They are still researching Robotics. Financial team just researched Radio and started on Fission, so they are unlikely to be in the running.
UN Passes Free Religion and Free Speech. Meanwhile, our research is nearing completion. With just 1 turn left on Genetics, I switch to Ecology to let Cat discover the tech, so that I would get first shot at starting the part. This delays Genetics by a turn, but it's better than risking Cat starting it in one of her cities.
Space Elevator is Complete in 1890, when I am about to start construction of final parts.
Cat started Stasis Chamber herself right after discovering Genetics. So I guess the tech's discoverer is the one who gets a chance to start the corresponding Project/Wonder. Luckily, Moscow is a production powerhouse with base production 39, as opposed to 36 in my best city.
UN passes Free Trade in 1896, just as I start the final part.
Financial team completes its Apollo Program in 1908, while Industrious team is finishing several parts per turn. Unfortunately for them, my final part is about to complete.
Space Race victory in 1910!
EDIT: It's obviously 1910. I hope nobody was confused by the typo.
This game was the closest space race I've had in a while and featured losing a city to barbarians, a backstub by Alex and space race that ... well, let's talk about things in order.
Pre-game Thoughts
My initial assumption was that a team of 2 AIs is similar to a single AI with double production and research output, which would make this game harder than Deity. I later realized that more accurate comparison would be to a single AI that starts with 2 settlers and has significantly lower maintenance costs. However, it eventually turned out that we were faced with a team of 3 Financial AIs (luckily they didn't have much cottagable land on their continent), and a team of 4 Industrious AIs. So my initial assumption that the game would be "very hard" turned out to be correct after all.
I thought there would be two ways to approach this scenario:
1) A military campaign with a beeline to Astronomy to get to the AIs on the other continents before you have to fight infantry with Maces.
2) A space race.
I am sure some people have successfully tried the military approach, but I've had enough warfare in Epics 4 and 6, and fighting is my weak point, so I chose the space race.
My assumption that game difficulty would be comparable to Deity, combined with prohibition against attacking neighbors, caused me to ignore early wonders and religions and focus entirely on expansion and super-economy (and diplomacy) beeline of Writing (Library and OB) -> Math -> Currency (trade routes and $ deals) -> CoL -> CS (stronger capital) -> Paper -> Education (Universities) -> Liberalism, or Printing Press (more income). After that, I was going to either try for a Permanent Alliance, or continue space race on my own, but my initial plans didnât extend that far.
Initial Expansion
My initial build order was Warrior (letting city grow to size 2) -> Worker -> Warrior (interrupted with 1 turn left when city hits size 3) -> Settler
My strategy was to expand as quickly as possible to claim good city spots before AIs got there. I did a lot of scouting with the first 2 warriors, taking the risk that the capital would be able to finish its partially built 3rd warrior if a human barb was spotted. Later, I used chariots for Barb-control, because Iâve had good experience with them in Adv. 4, and Copper was too far away. Unfortunately, Adv. 4 was played with Egypt, whose War Chariots have strength 5 vs. strength 4 for normal chariots. This caused my losses to be much higher than expected and forced me to spend more time building military. However, the greatest advantage of chariots is that they can move 4 squares per turn along the roads, allowing me to always have at least 2 units in a threatened city, with 1 or 2 more nearby. My decision not to research hunting and archery might have been a mistake, but more on that later. I wanted to research only techs I absolutely needed and Chariotsâ main advantage was that they required no extra techs to research.
Technologically, I got Fishing from the hut east of Mecca, but got just cash and experience from 3 other huts Iâve popped. The regular research went into
Agriculture -> Animal Husbandry (pasture and horses) -> Pottery (cottages) -> Mining -> Bronze Working (reveal metals) When I saw how far from capital Copper was, I decided to stick with chariots instead of taking the risk of researching IW. Next I started the primary economic path:
Writing (Libraries) -> Sailing (2nd city was coastal, so this enabled foreign trade with both Alex and Cat around 1500BC, letting me start working on those diplomatic bonuses from âyears supplied with resourcesâ and âfair tradeâ) -> Math -> Currency (letting me get some gpt for resources I was donating, and doubling number of trade routes)
Meanwhile, Medina was founded 5 tiles west of the capital in 2520BC. It had tons of food from a couple resources, and lighhouse-on-a-lake, a couple hills for production, and lots of grassland and plains for cottages. Happiness was the only limit, but I was going to build the Globe Theatre there, planning to research Alphabet and Drama just for that (and Theatres would be useful for culture wars and would provide extra happiness with dyes.)
I see Russian border in the south in 1800BC. This causes me to panic, because Cat is about to get all those floodplains. I rush a settler down there and found 3rd city NW of Gold in 1560BC. The city has no food bonus aside from 2 floodplains, but with floodplains cottaged and gold mined, it becomes a research powerhouse right away. Replacing all grassland forests with cottages allows the city to maintain its research contribution later, despite never growing past size 10 or 11 due to lack of food.
Alex founded Hinduism in 2600BC, so it was very possible for the player to get it, but I didnât know it at the time and, expecting Deity research rates, preferred not to risk it. The religion spreads to Medina while I am researching Currency, so after Currency I take a detour to Meditation -> Priesthood to be able to fully benefit from it. I also adapted Hinduism almost right away, getting both AIs up to Pleased due to shared religion bonus.
After the Priesthood detour, I research Metal Casting (Forges will give happiness bonus), with an interruption for IW. After that, I return to the main line researching CoL -> CS.
Final Expansion
![[Image: arabia1adnorthfc9.th.jpg]](http://img227.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arabia1adnorthfc9.jpg)
![[Image: arabia1adsouthrr3.th.jpg]](http://img205.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arabia1adsouthrr3.jpg)
Here you see the Arabian Empire in 1AD. Narjan was founded east of Mecca to start developing the good land there. Baghdad in the south locked in Cat, letting me settle the jungle site in far south at my leisure. The lands around Baghdad arenât very good, but the city controls 4 resources, including extra horses and marble. Finally, Kufah was founded in the north to get Iron, 2 Deer, and more Marble, and set the border with Greece, hopefully denying some resources to Alex.
The barb axe near Kufah shows one of the most serious dangers my cities had been in. The road is still being built, so second chariot canât get to the city in time. However, that city was saved by Alexâs Horse Archers, whom you see west of the city.
In 75AD, a Barbarian Swordsman approaches Narjan, resting in a cornfield. There are 3 shock chariots in the city, and while 2 of them are slightly wounded, I am not too worried about the outcome. First chariot attacks at 33% and loses. This isnât unexpected and second chariot attacks at 56%. It loses again. This is a significant setback and in some circumstances could cause me to lose a city. However, I still have a 3rd chariot left. It attacks at over 95% odds ... and also loses. I whip out an archer, but the sword gains so much experience from his unlikely wins, that he heals by promotions and captures the city on the interturn. I canât even recapture the city, because itâs now down to size 1 because of whipping and capture, and I donât want to have to train another settler.
So I have to wait until connecting Iron around 275AD and training a couple axemen, before I can recapture the city in 375 with the help of same 2 HAs from Alex, who saved Kufah earlier.
I later founded 4 more cities:
- A production center west of Kufah, which generated little commerce, but became a production powerhouse when all forests were lumbermilled.
- A research center in the southern jungle, getting 2 Dyes, 2 food resources, 2 mines, some cottages, and lots of coastal tiles. Due to liberal application of the whip (I had +5 anger from it at some point), this late city finished its infrastructure faster than most others, including some early ones.
- A fishing village in the north to grab 2 Silvers (this city was able to work both silvers and still grow due to crabs and lighthouse-on-a-lake). It eventually even built a spaceship casing for me.
- A city on the site of Apache in the east on the picture below to grab last good location on the continent.
![[Image: arabia1000adsa5.th.jpg]](http://img206.imageshack.us/my.php?image=arabia1000adsa5.jpg)
I limited myself to these 10 cities, because by that time only tundra locations were left and while these locations would eventually become profitable, I preferred to save RL time and run my research at 80-90% by having only 10 cities. This allowed me to build only science boosting buildings and ignore Markets and Banks.
Meanwhile, Philosophical trait proved to be more useful than expected. I wasnât prioritizing great people very heavily, but my first Great Scientist still appeared early enough to construct Academy in Mecca in 200BC. Second GS appeared in 300AD and at that time heâd do the most good by settling in Mecca. Later I got enough Great Scientists to construct Academies in 5 more cities, ending up with Academies in 6 out of 10 cities.
One thing that helped my GP generation is that I adapted Pacifism right after discovering Philosophy and stayed in it during all times I wasnât running Free Religion. With my entire military consisting of 1 warrior/chariot per city (and 3 barb watchers), Pacifism was the cheapest civic to use.
Meanwhile, after discovering CS in 250AD (and revolting to Beurocracy right away), I researched Monarchy (Hereditary Rule is useful even if I have only 1 unit per city and gives diplomatic bonuses with both Cat and Alex). After that I resumed Liberalism beeline with Paper->Education, interrupted for Masonry (connecting Marble) and Calendar (Connecting Dyes). After discovering Education in 880, I take the time to research Alphabet->Drama, because Theatres would give extra happiness, I want Globe Theatre in Medina (should have built it in southern city instead), and Drama will make Philosophy cheaper.
Around this time I notice that Victory Screen shows only 4 rivals, implying that we are faced with teams of 3 and 4 AIs. This means PA is a must, so I go on a direct beeline towards it. I actually meet the other teams shortly afterwards, encountering Financial team in 900AD, and Industrious team shortly afterwards. Surprisingly, they are not as far ahead as I expected. Financial team didnât even have Feudalism when I met them.
Securing a Permanent Alliance
My research decisions at this time became very simple. After being the second person to discover Philosophy (Cat founded Taoism earlier, but wasnât a contender in Liberalism race due to low GNP), I researched Liberalism in 1090, taking Nationalism as the free tech. After that I researched Military Tradition for Defensive Pacts and went on a straight beeline to Communism. First I go for Machinery->Printing Press, discovering Printing Press before any AIs. Then I go for Compass->Optics->Astronomy->Scientific Method... When Optics is discovered in 1320, I realize that nobody knows Astronomy. They are up by a bunch of other techs, but Iâd expect large teams to be much further ahead at this point.
The main difficulty at the time comes from the diplomatic situation. The major teams are barely cautious with me due to religious differences and trading with the enemy. Going into free religion would solve this problem but would drop my allies down to net +10, which means that any negative would drop them down into Pleased (can attack without warning) territory. I immediately started resource-for-gpt deals with the 2 AIs I had a trade route with (due to galley crossing from Vickyâs culture into Catâs culture), but that will take a long time to have an effect.
So when Vicky and HC go up to cautious in 1190, I take advantage of Spiritual Trait by switching to Free Religion for 5 turns. In 1240 I open borders with everybody, return to Pacifism (getting back +6 shared religion modifiers with Alex and Cat), and sign Defensive Pacts with Cat and Alex. I was able to sign these pacts a couple turns earlier, but was waiting to switch out of free religion first to make sure the pacts wouldnât be broken if Alex made a demand I couldnât meet.
I generally agreed to all demands aside from breaking trade deals. With tech trading disabled, AIs could demand only cash and maps anyway.
I was delaying Taj Mahal to complete Oxford University first, because I felt confident about tech lead on the Nationalism branch. So Taj Mahal was completed only in 1380. This was the first wonder Iâve even tried building in this game.
While the diplomatic situation was causing a lot of worries (Vicky cancelled OB at some point, but never refused resource-for-gpt deals), research was proceeding at a good rate. After Scientific Method we discover Physics (for a free Scientist) and discover Communism in 1525. However, we still need some more turns of Defensive Pacts before Permanent Alliance becomes an option. I donât want to duplicate existing research that Iâll get by signing Permanent Alliance, so I continue the beeline up from Physics, checking whether PA is available every turn. Electricity is discovered in 1565, and Radio some time later. We even start researching Computers before Permanent Alliance finally becomes available in 1620. The picture below is the perfect illustration of my research strategy for this game. How often do you reach Modern Age without knowing Construction, Feudalism, Polytheism, or Gunpowder?
[img] http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/4623/beelineut6.jpg[/img]
Space Race
Alex doesnât like me enough to sign Permanent Alliance despite a +18 overall modifier. However, Cat does want a PA and she has stronger economy anyway. It turns out that you can only have a PA with a single AI, so it was a choice between Cat and Alex. I guess Alex is the PA partner for warmongers and Cat is here for builders.
Allying with Cat gives me all techs up to Rifling, Chemistry, and Theology, as well as most of research into Constitution, because we are able to discover it in 2 turns after taking just a turn to research Economics. After that, Catâs research capacity seems to be about 50-70% of mine, and becomes even lower near the end of the game.
After discovering Economics, I swap to Free Religion (primarily for diplomatic reasons), Free Market, Free Speech (I finally have enough towns to make it worthwile), and Serfdom (Slavery is no longer useful and I have some lumbermills to build).
After that we discover Corporation and go on to Steam Power -> Assembly Line. When that finishes in 1680, Vicky switches to Emancipation, causing a detour to Democracy. However I wait until researching Steam Power -> Railroads and building Rails for most Lumbermills and Mines before switching From Serfdom and Hereditary Rule to Emancipation and Representation in 1735. (Representation switch should have been done earlier, but I forgot about it.)
There was recently a discussion about value of gpt deals. At this point in the game, I was getting 83gpt in foreign income, giving away only surplus health resources. This covered most of my 149gpt expenses and allowed me to run 100% research most of the time, which mean I didnât have to build Banks or Markets.
The insanely early research into Radio and Communism allowed me to start several wonders early on and we get Rock'n'Roll in 1770, Broadway in 1775, and Kremlin in 1780. Cat completes Eiffel Tower in 1785.
The research proceeds towards Plastics (3 Gorges Dam) -> Robotics (Space Elevator) before I will start the primary spaceships research of Artillery->Rocketry->Satellites, Fusion->Fiber Optics->Fission, Biology->Medicine->Genetics->Ecology. That is my standard space research order, letting my start Genetics spaceship part in top production city and Ecology part in second city, while third city is finishing up Fusion part.
The endgame proceeded according to plan with a single interruption... (Following passages are taken directly from my notes for higher dramatic effect.
)In 1802 relations with Alex dropped down to Cautious after I refused his demand to adapt Hereditary Rule. I'd be more worried if he wasn't defending his cities with Rifles while we are about to discover Tanks. This reminds me: for some reason Cat has only 4 workers, so she isn't connecting her resources very quickly.
In 1804 Alex attacks! I guess I should have paid more attention to diplomacy, instead of going on auto-pilot for the last hour. My cities are still defended by Warriors, and I don't even have a cash reserve! It looks like I will lose Kurfan in the north, because 2 Knights and a Canon are threatening the city which is protected by a single Chariot. Everybody else is Pleased with me, but begging gets me only about 100gp total, so I also sell my map and ask cat for 40$, which allows me to upgrade the chariot to Cav. I also shuffle all spare units (the 3 units that had been doing Barb watch for a millennium and are now in Catâs territory) to the front, so I can use railroad to send another warrior up to Kurfan without leaving any city empty. I also drop research down to 0, so I'll be able to upgrade a couple units next turn. I start training units only in 2 cities, because I am still not taking this war seriously enough. As long as I don't lose any cities in the first Blitz, Cat should slaughter Alex for me. We aren't allowed to capture any cities of AIs that start on the same continent, but I wonder what the rules will say about our Permanent Ally capturing cities of neighbor who "chose unwisely". Just to be on the safe side, I'll make peace as soon as I can anyway.
There are several large stacks heading towards Kurfan, so I'll definitely lose the city. I use Spiritual trait to switch to Universal Suffrage and Nationhood. I Draft in Kurfan and Medina, upgrade a couple outdated units, Rush-buy Marine started in Mecca last turn using Cat's money, and prepare to rush-buy several Marines next turn. I also get a Great Engineer in Basra. This will be very useful if I have trouble finishing 3-Gorges Dam or Space Elevator in time.
Next turn Mecca starts work in the 3 Gorges Dam anyway, even thought my research is still stalled to finance military purchases. At Kurfan I just hide in the city, while at Mecca I counter-attack, destroying 2 pillaging Knights. I also ask Cat to attack Argos in far north, hoping that this will encourage her troops to leave their cities.
Defenders at Kurfan easily slaughter attacking knights. It's possible to win with knights and Rifles against Marines, but throwing a few units a turn at them isn't the way to do it. At Medina, I counter-attack again, killing even more pillagers.
In winter of 1812 I suffer a first loss: an Infantry dies defending Kurfan, while I destroy over half a dozen attackers there. Cat's small stack heading for Argos helps clean up the attackers. Pillagers at Medina have been completely cleared, and I am thinking of ending the military builds.
Cat somehow managed to lose a mainland city to Alex's landing party! I don't understand AI's stupidity. How can you lose a city in the middle of your empire when you have plenty of troops nearby?! The city was razed and she rebuilt it right away, but a newly built city isn't a good replacement for an original powerhouse.
In 1818 I switch back to Representation and Free Speech. This significantly hurts my production, but I don't really need to build anything at the moment.
In 1824 we discover Robotics and start research on Artillery->Rocketry. Only my 2 southernmost cities are eligible to build the Space Elevator, so I start it in Basra, the "fishing village" with 3 Engineers, 2 mines and some towns. It's scheduled to take 43 turns, but this will decrease when 3 Gorges Dam comes online.
Meanwhile, the pointless war with Alex continues. Apparently he already suicided all his spare forces, so now I am beginning to advance west from Medina, pillaging as I go to recover at least some costs of the war. Cat might actually capture Argos, so I tell her to attack Athens on the other side of Greece instead. Hopefully that will divert her stack. If not, there is not much I can do about it. After all, rules don't say that our AI ally isn't allowed to capture any cities on our continent.
Financial team discovers Artillery in 1828, just a turn ahead of us. So the space race is heating up again. Meanwhile, the war with Alex has practically stalled. Cat listened to my request and held her stack in place just 1 step away from Argos. So I am pillaging west of Medina, while Cat is getting her nets pillaged by Frigates while her Sub watches on, doing nothing.
1838 is a very important year for the Arab Empire. First, we discover Rocketry and start researching Satellites. After that we will go for Fission->Fiber Optics->Fusion, with the traditional finishers of Genetics and Ecology. We also start Apollo Program due in 12 turns.
Second, this year our progress on 3 Gorges Dam becomes significant enough to allow a Great Engineer to completely finish its construction.
Finally, Alex is willing to talk and offers 1250$, 10gpt, and his map for peace. This is as much as he can give in a tech trading disabled game where I am not allowed to capture cities. So I accept this deal to get Cat out of her war mode and end this 34 year war. The only good thing about this war was that it made the space race exciting again.
Production will probably be much larger bottleneck than research, so I switch to Universal Suffrage. However, this doesn't help my main production city building Apollo Program, because that city has no towns.
Apollo Program completes in 1862 and I assign as many ship parts as I can, to avoid Cat starting them in weak cities. That year we are ranked second most advanced team, but the industrious team is still researching Satellites, so we probably don't have to worry about space race.
Cat started a single Casing in Moscow, but aside from that I am able to schedule all the parts.
Gandhi completes UN in 1866. I wonder what this will lead to. In 1872 the Industrious team elects themselves Secretary General with Cat voting for Financial team and me and Alex abstaining.
That year we discover Fusion, but Cat is the one who finishes research, so she gets the Great Engineer. This doesn't matter, because Space Elevator has only 9 turns left.
Industrious Team completes Apollo Program in 1880. They are still researching Robotics. Financial team just researched Radio and started on Fission, so they are unlikely to be in the running.
UN Passes Free Religion and Free Speech. Meanwhile, our research is nearing completion. With just 1 turn left on Genetics, I switch to Ecology to let Cat discover the tech, so that I would get first shot at starting the part. This delays Genetics by a turn, but it's better than risking Cat starting it in one of her cities.
Space Elevator is Complete in 1890, when I am about to start construction of final parts.
Cat started Stasis Chamber herself right after discovering Genetics. So I guess the tech's discoverer is the one who gets a chance to start the corresponding Project/Wonder. Luckily, Moscow is a production powerhouse with base production 39, as opposed to 36 in my best city.
UN passes Free Trade in 1896, just as I start the final part.
Financial team completes its Apollo Program in 1908, while Industrious team is finishing several parts per turn. Unfortunately for them, my final part is about to complete.
Space Race victory in 1910!
EDIT: It's obviously 1910. I hope nobody was confused by the typo.
