Epic 26 - Isolated Olodune

[Olodune]

Epic 26

Variant: You may not initiate diplomatic contact with any of the AI civilizations, only respond to deals that they propose. You can accept or reject their offers as-is, but you may not bargain or make counter-offers. Since the AI rarely initiates contact with the player, this will remove most of the diplomatic side of the game.

The key aspect of this game is going to be self driven research, since the usual tech brokering is all but removed as an option for the player. Luckily, we have a fantastic leader in Victoria (Imperialistic, Financial).

The Start:



The move to the NE is calculated to bring more riverside tiles into the BFC, since I will certainly want a powerful commerce capital.

As I want early commerce to start flowing quickly, I actually decided to delay Bronze Working and Animal Husbandry in order to get London working on some early cottages.



We have a lot of land between ourselves and Saladin to the north so I really would like a strategic resource to help will the barbarian pressure. Since I have sailing nice and early hooking up these horses won’t be a problem:



The reason why I had been focusing on early commerce and picking up Sailing is that I wanted my second city to chase one of the best wonders for self driven commerce. I’m thrilled that I landed it:



By 1AD I have sealed off Saladin from the juicy jungle, and claimed most of the land for my own:



Technological development is coming along quite nicely:



Most of this is driven by the city of London:



Saladin was nicely cooperative offering a couple of friendly deals:




While setting out to settle the eastern islands I saw that Saladin had already claimed a few for himself – hmm, that guy is getting a little annoying:



While building towards Liberalism I was mildly surprised to find that there is at least once decent techer out there:



Losing Liberalism isn’t much of a problem since its value is much lower than in a standard game. There is a source of stone that I can snag to help with the construction of Oxford in London:



Even with the Liberalism loss there are signs that the long term health of the English Empire is favourable:



What is this? A bright green border I see?



Hmm. That would explain the earlier Great General announcements … In fact Monty has conquered most of Russia including Moscow.

With the free tech from Liberalism off the table, the next best prize is the free Great Merchant from Economics. I used an earlier GM to give me the cash to research quickly:



Upon meeting Louis I am offered a nice deal:



So now I can see the current state of the world:



There are two released colonies, and Peter has capitulated to Hammurabi. Clearly the main competition in this game is from Saladin, Louis, Monty, and Hammurabi. If I could trade with all those vassals the tech pace could have been much faster. Oh well.

Instead of heading to Democracy first, I chose to go to Communism for State Property. This choice means that I will likely stay away from Corporations this game. The civics swap immediately saved me over 200 gold per turn.



Meanwhile Montezuma started his second major war:



I decided to follow the great Aztec leader and mobilize for war myself:



Attacking Saladin is the natural choice since he has decent land and is easily accessible. Most of his army consists of Camel Archers, Musketmen, and Longbows – all of which are shredded by Redcoats:



Mecca has the lucrative Hindu shrine:



Unfortunately, I’m losing a lot of seafood to Saladin’s Galleons. If I could only propose a trade …



Towards the end of the war Emancipation unhappiness and War Weariness are adding up, so it is a good time for a 4-turn civics swap (which will be the last for this game):



More action from Monty, with his third war.



Taking down the last Arab city on my continent:



And the final Arab island city, ending a very long war:



My new land acquisition includes most of the island territories:



Typically, I’ve fallen a little behind in the tech race, especially with respect to the French. I’m down six fairly major techs:



The resource trading screen is a sad sight:



Checking the victory conditions shows that the French may be a cultural threat down the road, so I will need to build an amphibious attack force.



I was planning on entering a pure empire building era but the Babylonians have other ideas. Since my main army is on the other side of the world, this small stack (which is perfectly composed to kill a few Redcoats) poses a bit of a problem. I will temporarily lose this city:



Since I need to be able to sign a white peace treaty I know that taking down a Babylonian city is crucial. Luckily they have a remote city on a northern island that I can snag:



A white peace is signed.

Monty continues to keep people busy …



The French cultural progress has been slower than I had thought it might be, meaning I have a large idle army. Sitting Bull is a juicy target:



I only captured a few cities before Sitting Bull Capitulated to the Aztecs, so that war fizzled. With a free hand Monty can re-declare against an ancient adversary:



Even though he in nearly an entire Era behind the French the shear size of the Aztec army is impressive:



With the fall of one of the three French cultural cities to the Aztec forces the last major threat to my eventual victory is removed



Meanwhile, I build an Apollo program:



I also landed my only resource deal:



The two engines completed together:



Monty declaring once again:



To the stars we go for a 1908 victory.



Final power graph showing the Aztec power lead:



This was s fun game. I think the early Great Lighthouse was extremely powerful, but I’m not sure if avoiding corporations in favor of State Property was the correct move. Doing so let me avoid burning a few great people, and saved hammers on Courthouses and Executives.

[darrelljs]

You were able to seal off Saladin and land The Great Lighthouse...very nice .

Do you think the wars sped you up or slowed you down? I always seem to reach a point in my games where I decide to go for Domination (gear for war) or Space (gear for tech). In this game the latter was kind of forced on us, so I just focused on vertical growth.

Darrell

[Pegasus]

Great Lighthouse was a nice wonder to snag. The fact you managed to seal off Saladin to the North was also a very wise choice. If only I could see and realise these things in my games

Anyhow, very well done is what looks like a fairly straight forward accomplished game

[Olodune]

Do you think the wars sped you up or slowed you down? I always seem to reach a point in my games where I decide to go for Domination (gear for war) or Space (gear for tech). In this game the latter was kind of forced on us, so I just focused on vertical growth.

I basically committed myself to going Communism first around 1000ad, and I could only really justify that decision by claiming more land. I don't really think that was a big mistake, but maintaining a large (and mostly modern) army to sack a French Cultural threat turned out to be overkill. Those hammers/upgrade gold/upkeep gold probably cost a handful of turns by the end of the game. For post industrialization (ie post Assembly Line) wars I think warring almost always slows down the Spaceship. Of course those wars are often needed to ensure a win in the first place.