Hi,
I really wanted to play this Epic, as I have some very fond memories of the original Civ 3 huge map Epic...but I also knew I wouldn't be able to finish it. I decided to start to play anyway, seeing how far I would come, if only to get a feel for the game when reading the other reports. I managed to invest approx. 8 hours into the Epic, less than I had hoped, which took me to 1555AD. For those interested, here's a quick recap of what happened:
As I knew I wouldn't complete the game, I didn't strategize much about how to maximize my score. The only gameplan I had was to expand as quickly as possibe since land was the most important factor for score, and not to care much about the other scoring options.
A huge map would mean lots of barbs, and building miltary to escort settles wasn't what I wanted, so I decided to build the Great Wall. Seeing that America had no cheap way to expand borders, I also wanted to have Stonehenge. Two early wonders I really wanted to have meant I had to build them before building my first settler - not exactly the kind of fast expansion I'm used to do, but it would allow me to play a mild form of farmer's gambit afterwards. Actually, my first four settlers all went out unescorted to found new cities on the first ring, until my second city had finally built barracks and could supply archers for MP and escort duty.
I also decided to found my cities wide-spaced from each other, losing some tiles, which is not optimal in normal CIV games but hopefully better here to be able to control more land tiles in the end. Due to lack of time I didn't micromanage much, for example I never whipped a settler or a worker, but I still felt I did okay with my land-grab. The only wonder I build after the Great Wall and Stonehenge was the Mausoleum of Mausollos, as I expected to have several GAs later on. Other wonders, like the Oracle? No thanks, needed to produce settlers instead!
The first great person I got was a prophet, which I settled. The second was a great spy, which was sent out exploring and snatching huts from under barbarian guards, and who was then used to Pie bomb Hammu and to steal some techs.
Speaking of techs, I crashed my economy and crawled along only very slowly. I recovered just in time to get first to Liberalism though, sling-shotting Nationalism.
Another Great Prophet was used for a golden age, and a self-bred great scientist built an academy in my Oxford city, which had three dyes, two gems and only cottages on the other tiles. Too bad I never found out just how powerful this city would have become...
Saladin declared on me in 1130AD, but was in WHEOOH mode for some time so I knew what was coming. It turned out he wanted only to probe my weak defenses, and I made peace with him only a couple of turns later without losing any unit of my own.
In 1500AD, I noticed he was rapidly building forces again - he wasn't in WHEOOH mode, but it was clear that only I would be his target. I built military as well and was prepared when he declared again in 1555AD - or so I hope, as I stopped playing at this time. He has a huge amount of cats but not a lot of other forces, but I have macemen and will have cuirassiers and musketmen in two turns. I also predicted correctly where his stacks would appear, so I guess I would only lose some tile improvements and not much more.
When I stopped playing, I was two turns away from Gunpoweder, two turns away from completing Taj Mahal, and had still six turns of a "normal" golden age left.
Major weed on my part: I completely forgot to try to reach the other continent until then! A lot of warring seems to happen there, as more than five great generals have been born and the Zulus destroyed already. That would have given me the option for blood enemy on the other continent...
Here are my sparse notes for those who are interested; see some screenshots in next post.
-----
Plan: Stonehenge, Great Wall
Fast expansion then! But wide-spaced cities
Huts: 43g, XP, 46g, warrior, warrior, warrior (er...), 43g, 46g, 34g, Sailing, 42g, 29g, Iron Working!, scout, XP
4000: Found on spot. Mining->BW. -Warrior (exploration! and worker would have nothing to do after irrigating the corn)-worker-warrior-stonehenge-great wall
3040: ->Mysti->Masonry (wonders!)
2760: Hammurabi
2400: ->The Wheel->Pottery
2320: Stonehenge!
2000: Great Wall!
-settler-worker-...
1800: ->Hunting->Archery->Animal Husbandry
1560: Saladin, has Writing already
1200: Great Prophet - settled
1160: ->Writing
950: ->Math->Currency
650: Sitting Bull
200: ->Calendar
50AD: ->Metal Casting
150: Great Spy! Scout, then steal
425: ->Alphabet
620: ->CoL->CS
640: GG born FIDL
880: Use Great Spy to infiltrate Hammurabi. Hammu more advanced than Saladin, but slightly less than Sitting Bull - but nearer
1000: Mausoleum of Mausollos
GS finally generated: Academy in 2gems/3dyes city (long-term best)
I'm at 0% science now :-P
1020: Saladin WHEOOH
Probably against me, as I have him choked (nice map design - I'm in middle!). He doesn't have horses, so build axes and swords mainly, and will steal construction from Hammu for catas. Long front, though...build some chariots for scouting his forces
1110: Steal Monarchy...finally, revolt to HR
1130: Saladin declares
Only a relatively small stack of 3 catas and 2 axes advances on Atlanta, plus some axes/swords roaming around. Less than I had expected, and luckily where I had it expected.
1150: ->Paper
Aha, now stack is 6 axes, 1 spear, 3 catas...slightly better
1180: Peace, get 90g for it. Can work on infra again.
1420: Discover Drama, which promptly gets stolen by Sal...
1430: Yay. Saladin didn't want to open borders again ("maybe later"), and now he won't b/c I'm his worst enemy. Pfff.
1460: ->Liberalism
1515: Lib 1st: Nat.
->Music->Mil Trad
1525: Great Prophet: GA
Masses of GGs are born FIDL...
1545: Zulus have been destroyed! Potential blood enemy...
1550: ->Gunpowder
1555: gunpowder in 2 (cuirassiers!). Taj in 2 (still 6 GA turns left)
-----
I really wanted to play this Epic, as I have some very fond memories of the original Civ 3 huge map Epic...but I also knew I wouldn't be able to finish it. I decided to start to play anyway, seeing how far I would come, if only to get a feel for the game when reading the other reports. I managed to invest approx. 8 hours into the Epic, less than I had hoped, which took me to 1555AD. For those interested, here's a quick recap of what happened:
As I knew I wouldn't complete the game, I didn't strategize much about how to maximize my score. The only gameplan I had was to expand as quickly as possibe since land was the most important factor for score, and not to care much about the other scoring options.
A huge map would mean lots of barbs, and building miltary to escort settles wasn't what I wanted, so I decided to build the Great Wall. Seeing that America had no cheap way to expand borders, I also wanted to have Stonehenge. Two early wonders I really wanted to have meant I had to build them before building my first settler - not exactly the kind of fast expansion I'm used to do, but it would allow me to play a mild form of farmer's gambit afterwards. Actually, my first four settlers all went out unescorted to found new cities on the first ring, until my second city had finally built barracks and could supply archers for MP and escort duty.
I also decided to found my cities wide-spaced from each other, losing some tiles, which is not optimal in normal CIV games but hopefully better here to be able to control more land tiles in the end. Due to lack of time I didn't micromanage much, for example I never whipped a settler or a worker, but I still felt I did okay with my land-grab. The only wonder I build after the Great Wall and Stonehenge was the Mausoleum of Mausollos, as I expected to have several GAs later on. Other wonders, like the Oracle? No thanks, needed to produce settlers instead!
The first great person I got was a prophet, which I settled. The second was a great spy, which was sent out exploring and snatching huts from under barbarian guards, and who was then used to Pie bomb Hammu and to steal some techs.
Speaking of techs, I crashed my economy and crawled along only very slowly. I recovered just in time to get first to Liberalism though, sling-shotting Nationalism.
Another Great Prophet was used for a golden age, and a self-bred great scientist built an academy in my Oxford city, which had three dyes, two gems and only cottages on the other tiles. Too bad I never found out just how powerful this city would have become...
Saladin declared on me in 1130AD, but was in WHEOOH mode for some time so I knew what was coming. It turned out he wanted only to probe my weak defenses, and I made peace with him only a couple of turns later without losing any unit of my own.
In 1500AD, I noticed he was rapidly building forces again - he wasn't in WHEOOH mode, but it was clear that only I would be his target. I built military as well and was prepared when he declared again in 1555AD - or so I hope, as I stopped playing at this time. He has a huge amount of cats but not a lot of other forces, but I have macemen and will have cuirassiers and musketmen in two turns. I also predicted correctly where his stacks would appear, so I guess I would only lose some tile improvements and not much more.
When I stopped playing, I was two turns away from Gunpoweder, two turns away from completing Taj Mahal, and had still six turns of a "normal" golden age left.
Major weed on my part: I completely forgot to try to reach the other continent until then! A lot of warring seems to happen there, as more than five great generals have been born and the Zulus destroyed already. That would have given me the option for blood enemy on the other continent...
Here are my sparse notes for those who are interested; see some screenshots in next post.
-----
Plan: Stonehenge, Great Wall
Fast expansion then! But wide-spaced cities
Huts: 43g, XP, 46g, warrior, warrior, warrior (er...), 43g, 46g, 34g, Sailing, 42g, 29g, Iron Working!, scout, XP
4000: Found on spot. Mining->BW. -Warrior (exploration! and worker would have nothing to do after irrigating the corn)-worker-warrior-stonehenge-great wall
3040: ->Mysti->Masonry (wonders!)
2760: Hammurabi
2400: ->The Wheel->Pottery
2320: Stonehenge!
2000: Great Wall!
-settler-worker-...
1800: ->Hunting->Archery->Animal Husbandry
1560: Saladin, has Writing already
1200: Great Prophet - settled
1160: ->Writing
950: ->Math->Currency
650: Sitting Bull
200: ->Calendar
50AD: ->Metal Casting
150: Great Spy! Scout, then steal
425: ->Alphabet
620: ->CoL->CS
640: GG born FIDL
880: Use Great Spy to infiltrate Hammurabi. Hammu more advanced than Saladin, but slightly less than Sitting Bull - but nearer
1000: Mausoleum of Mausollos
GS finally generated: Academy in 2gems/3dyes city (long-term best)
I'm at 0% science now :-P
1020: Saladin WHEOOH
Probably against me, as I have him choked (nice map design - I'm in middle!). He doesn't have horses, so build axes and swords mainly, and will steal construction from Hammu for catas. Long front, though...build some chariots for scouting his forces
1110: Steal Monarchy...finally, revolt to HR
1130: Saladin declares
Only a relatively small stack of 3 catas and 2 axes advances on Atlanta, plus some axes/swords roaming around. Less than I had expected, and luckily where I had it expected.
1150: ->Paper
Aha, now stack is 6 axes, 1 spear, 3 catas...slightly better
1180: Peace, get 90g for it. Can work on infra again.
1420: Discover Drama, which promptly gets stolen by Sal...
1430: Yay. Saladin didn't want to open borders again ("maybe later"), and now he won't b/c I'm his worst enemy. Pfff.
1460: ->Liberalism
1515: Lib 1st: Nat.
->Music->Mil Trad
1525: Great Prophet: GA
Masses of GGs are born FIDL...
1545: Zulus have been destroyed! Potential blood enemy...
1550: ->Gunpowder
1555: gunpowder in 2 (cuirassiers!). Taj in 2 (still 6 GA turns left)
-----
There are two kinds of fools. One says, "This is old, and therefore good." And one says, "This is new, and therefore better." - John Brunner, The Shockwave Rider
You did great on the land-grab, I think you got more than anyone else by 1555 AD. And that inconsequential medieval war from Saladin happened in lots of games.