Epic 26: Pb's Most-excellent report on how NOT to win a space race

[pocketbeetle]

Greetings all.
No doubt drawn by the thread title, you've come seeking failures and calamities galore, for which I promise you will not be disappointed

A quick piece of background: this was my second ever played Civ4 game, but to back me up I had a decent amount of Civ3 experience and plenty of lurking credentials.
My first ever game was a single player: I went Rome fully expecting their UU to be decently overpowered, and wasn't let down.
After praet rushing and taking out a couple of the AIs, I gained control of my continent and settled down to collecting shiny wonders.
The game ended in the 1900s after my stockpiled 100+ nukes forced the remaining AIs to capitulate, Noble difficulty.
The tactic which won that game for me was mass producing a single type of unit and taking over my continent. The standard tactic in Civ3 was to mass produce a single type of attack unit (combined with a couple of defenders).
Guessing what type of tactic I used in this scenario should therefore not be taxing, with one small problem: no Early Age UU.
Oh dear.


So enough foreshadowing, let's take stock of this game.

The title of the game is 'Epic Isolation' and our Civ is England/Victoria (Financial & Imperialistic).
Straight off the bat, this screams to me a continents/archipelago map, very likely with me on my own and the other AIs all on a landmass together. (Something akin to that evil, no resources, 'Surprise!' game a while back.)
The other map conditions are restricted diplomacy/trading (accept/decline only), Immortal difficulty and Space Race victory preferred.

Space Races need two things: research and production, in that order.
Combine this with the restricted trading, and that tells me I'm going to have to be researching a lot of my own techs.
In my limited experience, the thing the AI is most likely to offer on its own initiative, is Open Borders.
Hence my game plan is going to be to set up a commerce based teching civ, based around coastal cities, relying on the harbour + customs house (+ stock exchange), and tying in nicely with the Financial trait.
Priority wonders will be the Colossus and the Great Lighthouse which will underpin this.
Early turns will be spent exploring and expanding (Imperialistic trait) and since it's Immortal difficulty, I'll try and avoid chasing any other early wonders. I'm expecting to be on a landmass on my own, or at most one other AI, that will need to be killed quickly.
Priority techs will be Optics, Economics/Corporation (trade routes) and of course those necessary for the aforementioned wonders.

Let's go.



Initial impressions: Nice start, 2 food resources plus floodplains, however not on a coastal square.
I've already said I intend to prioritise coastal cities, and the extra clams resource makes the settler move 1N a no brainer for me.
Warrior moves 1S to follow the hills. Spice revealed.



Found the city and set production to a worker.
Techs known are fishing (nice) and mining, set research to agriculture in order to take advantage of the irrigated corn which is the most powerful food square, borders expand in 8 turns. Decent amount of trees around also.

At some point I'll be building 1-2 work boats, to take advantage of the clams and explore.
Aiming for coastal cities means I need to prioritise exploring the shores fully (I hate finding awkward, out of range sea resources after founding a city).

Moving warriors SW reveals some fish and 3 wines.

Turn 17: Hinduism founded by AI.
Warriors have run into 1 lion and 1 panther, on 4XP. Have promoted to Woodsman I, in anticipation of having to explore a large jungle North of London (revealed by border expansion)

Turn 19: Buddhism FIDAL.



Turn 20: Lion attacks warrior in mountainous trees 1N of the screenshot, and loses, giving me a 5XP warrior with Woodsman II.
Warriors move North, and contact! Saladin greets us with his scout. Turns out he's the founder of Hinduism.

Expansion will now be directed to the North to push towards Saladin, there appears to be a river to the East of our warriors.

Turn 26 - Notice Saladin isn't adding EP to me, implying he's met someone else. (This will eventually turn out to be Sitting Bull)

Turn 34 - Saladin founds his second city on a hill towards me.



So far research has been Agriculture -> Bronze Working (no copper revealed on map) -> Wheel.

Turn 38-56 - Revolt to slavery and set about whipping warriors out (fog busters) with the overflow going into a settler.
In hindsight this was a mistake - I should have approached building a settler more directly, instead of trying to whip overflow into one.
There were plenty of hills around London to work, and enough forests to chop, rather than trying to save the trees for wonder building.



Turn 62 - York founded 2450BC.

It's an aggressive placement, jumping over the jungle to bump borders with Saladin's second city. No resources near it except for spices, but there is a river and plenty of peaks, with the idea that this will be a production heavy city.
Barb archers are already starting to appear, causing me problems, research Wheel -> AH for the cow. Stonehenge built by AI.

Turn 83 - Hinduism in London for a nice +1 happy. I didn't see any missionaries, and I don't have OB with Saladin, so must be natural spread.
Research AH -> Pottery -> IW for swordsmen. May not get G Lighthouse now.

Turn 92 - Nottingham founded 1700BC in another aggressive placement, establishing a border with Saladin. It's a nice spot also.



In other news, Barbs are getting problematic; clearly I haven't built enough fogbusters/ placed them right. Lose 2 warriors in a 2 warrior/1 archer barb offensive on London.
Would probably help if I had a barracks in London, so switch production to build that next.

Turn 121 - Hastings founded 975BC.
I started building the settler for this early, with the intention of settling iron asap.
Hastings is the result. However, spot the newbie error:



Yup, 2 squares away, needs a border expansion. And guess who doesn't have Mysticism for monuments, and by extension, no monasteries to spread my new religion?
Sigh, start researching Mysticism after IW.

Turn 145 - FINALLY get iron hooked up. Ironically (ooh pun!) Nottingham turned out to have an iron source nearby also, which it hooked up earlier than the purpose settled Hastings. The reason being, that I wanted a border expansion at Nottingham also to prevent Saladin's settlers skirting round.
Sword spam commences.

GLighthouse was built on turn 132, so after researching sailing I start on Metal Casting for the Colossus.

Turn 150 - Contact and OB with Sitting Bull via a Native American workboat.
Saladin wants OB so he can settle behind my nicely expanded Nottingham/York front. I delicately tell him where to place his offer.

Turn 175 - With 13 swordsmen running around, I declare war on Saladin and take his 2nd city, Medina.
Quickly learn that attacking protective archers on a hill city is painful.
My solution: build more swordsmen. (I sigh reading this now).

Turn 181 - Metal Casting researched. I start building a forge in London, and trees all around London start being prechopped.

Turn 184 - Saladin is continuing to expand despite the war going on. He's used galleys to settle cities both on SB's continent, and also a couple of cities behind England's front borders.
That doesn't surprise me, I'm expecting the AI to be daft from Civ3 days.

What DOES surprise me however, is a galley depositing 2 Arab axemen in the hills above Hastings, well behind the front lines.
Hastings has 1 warrior defending it.
Oops.
Swordsmen are rushed back and the capital garrison sent, but due to no Engineering and multiple rivers around London, can't reach in time.



The next turn English swordsmen retake Hastings, but are too late to prevent the Arab pillage and rape, and what used to be a nice 3xp sword spamming city is now a no-barracks 2 pop wreck.

Turn 190 - During this time London has been building a forge asap, and then switched to building the Colossus.
Prechopped forests are all chopped with a vengeance, but despite this, at 285 hammers out of the 375 required, The Colossus is built in a distant land.
Much swearing ensued.
285 gold refund for the hammers was admittedly nice, given the ongoing war, but would have much preferred the wonder. Lack of copper for double production speed hurt here.

Turn 193 - Saladin's capital, Mecca, taken!
English swordsmen start moving West towards Damascus, with the intention of splitting Saladin's empire in half, ala divide and conquer.



Turn 201 - SB offers me my first trade: Metal Casting for Monarchy. I greedily accept.
Economy-wise I'm starting to struggle now thanks to my newly acquired 2 cities. Realising I need courthouses asap, start researching writing.

Turn 205 - Gems appear near London. 1 extra happy everywhere, and much help towards flagging English research.
After Writing -> CoL.

Turn 224 - Damascus taken, the third Arab city to fall.
Around this time, Saladin's horse archers are beginning to spank my swordsmen.
I'm starting to realise that my all-sword spam approach is not being entirely successful. Arab axemen were causing some severe casualties also, but my solution to that was to build some axemen of my own and promote them with GGs.
I look up the counter to HAs. Spearmen. Right okay, research switched from CoL to pick up Hunting quickly (yup 750 AD and I still don't have 97 beaker essential military tech.)

Turn 250 - Najran falls to English swords (and the occasional spear). Saladin has only 3 cities left on the English continent, but now he's got longbows, and I'm really struggling: my army is running on fumes.

No siege weaponry, plus Saladin's annoying tendency to found cities on hills, means I'm having to take cities barbarian horde style. Namely, by sending in masses of 3xp swordsmen first, so that the higher xp veterans can climb over the walls on their dead comrades' backs.

I think it's at this point that the combined arms approach properly hits me, so I offer a white peace to Saladin to get rid of the war weariness (which he accepts) and start to examine options.
No construction means no cats, I don't have construction's pre-req masonry, and my faltering economy means I can't divert too much from going mathematics/currency.
Similarly HBR is pretty expensive and at this point, half formed plans of stealing the tech from Saladin are emerging.
So research is briefly diverted to alphabet (currency pre-req so should make currency research cheaper) and my first spy whipped out of a recently emerged from revolt Najran.
However I do begin to produce a few chariots from a recently captured Arab city with horses (Kufah).

Turn 259 - Canterbury settled 1140 AD to pick up the wines. That +1 happy, combined with a recent revolt to Hered rule, should mean I can take the WW when the Anglo-Arab conflict resumes.
The first English spy makes his way to Baghdad which I intend to attack soon (revolt to remove cultural defense maybe?).
However two turns later he gets caught while buying groceries. Typical. Okay, forget the espionage idea for a while.

Turn 267 - Declare war again. English horde resumes it's swarm tactics, 5 swords and an axe lost to take Baghdad.
Shortly after I get my 5th GG. 3 have been used to produce super units (2 offensive 1 medic) and 1 has been settled in York.
Use this fifth GG with a trireme, which should stop Saladin from shipping men over from his cities on SB's continent.



Contact with a French (Louis) caravel, along with his vassal, Lincoln of the US. Both have massive scores, oh dear.

Turn 280 - Meet Russia (Peter) who has a similar score to the French.
First Great Person born, a Great Prophet, who I use in Mecca to create the Hindu shrine.
Around this time France makes his first tribute demand, I tell him where to go stick it.
Courthouses going up everywhere, Saladin down to 2 final cities on the English continent.

Turn 285 - Currency finally finished, accountants everywhere throw wild parties. Beaker overflow directed into Machinery, with construction to follow.
In a resurgent interest in the sneaky side of the game, English spies finally pull their act together enough to steal Masonry from Saladin.

Following this minor revelation, English strategists decide to take stock of their situation:
As the old Civ3 advisor would have said: "We are backward people!"
Saladin is well on the way out, with only two small cities on the continent left, but I'm never going to be able to kill him, he's already expanded and built a bunch of island cities.
I need a way to catch up in tech, fast, and one of the two remaining Arab cities, Anjar, seems to offer a solution.
It's small, and importantly, close to London (reduced distance cost for EP activities). More spies built.

Turn 300 - Monotheism stolen from Anjar.
Here’s a decent screenshot. Note the second spy waiting to roll right in, the proximity of Anjar to London, and in the top left corner a trireme blockading to keep Anjar’s pop (read: whipped out longbowmen) manageable.

[img] http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/5390/ci...0163kf.jpg[/img]

Overall, this spying thing looks like it could work. Spy specialist started in Baghdad to create a G Spy in the future.
First catapult rolls off the production line.

Turn 308 - 3 catapults advance on Basra. Basra captured and razed. Hmm, a lot easier. So that's how you're supposed to do it. Case of too little too late, but oh well

With the exception of Anjar, the continent is now mine. Time to cottage up and settle any gaps. GG trireme is chewing up Saladin's galleys, with +2 movement meaning he doesn't get caught exposed. 40xp and counting. Create another GG trireme and go pure combat promotions (with +100% xp).

SB liberates some colonies to Isabella of Spain, he also switches to mercantilism shutting England down to internal trade only. Thanks SB.
Steal Archery (lol)

Turn 320 - Isabella offers me Sugar for Iron, which I accept. This will turn into a really good trade later, and lasts for a long time.
Coventry and Warwick founded 1495 AD, which are mainly fishing villages.

At this point I'm faced with a Tech decision:

Can either go Compass/Optics (caravels), Engineering (Castles for +25% EP) or Feudalism/Guilds/Banking for England's UB the stock exchange.
I decide that I'm feeling rather alone with no trading partners, and I keep getting OB offers from France, Russia and co (which I've been rejecting since I can't trade with them).
So the decision is made to go for Compass/Optics, get caravels, and then while they set out to find new trading partners (and more importantly trade routes), research will be shut down, and all commerce directed to the sneaky side of life, namely EP.

Turn 330 - Cue dumbstruck look on English scientists' faces as they realise that even with Optics no ocean trading is going to be taking place. Apparently that requires a knowledge of Astronomy, something a touch beyond the English people, who have yet to master how to ride those horses.
This is too late for Compass, which has already been researched, but all research now ceases, spy schools spring up all over London, DIY codebooks distributed across the empire.

A rogue barb city captured, Newcastle founded 1540 AD near Basra's ruins (I didn't like Saladin's placement).

Turn 340 - HBR, Feudalism and Civil Service stolen from Saladin via Anjar. Saladin has no more techs to offer, so basic EP output from courthouses etc is directed at Isabella, while labs are briefly reopened.

English strategists, buoyed by the successes so far with their bugging of Saladin's tents (earwigs work well apparently), decide the next course of action should be Guilds/Banking for extra cash, then Philo/Nationalism/Constitution for full on EP action (+25% Nationhood, +50% jails).

Anjar will be captured, and another white peace signed with Saladin, which will last a bit longer this time. Meanwhile SB decides to declare war on the rest of the world, including France and Russia. This kicks him out of mercantilism, for which England is grateful.

On a sidenote, Civil Service gave Bureaucracy.
However the aforementioned strategists quite liked how things were running, and after comparing the cost of a 2 turn revolution (300 gold) with the expected benefits (+15gold/turn from London), decided to stick with what they already knew.
Little did they realise that Bureaucracy multiplies the -base- commerce of the capital, which probably would have given London an extra 30+ or more gold/turn. A 10 turn payback is a lot better than a 20+ one, and might have convinced me to switch. (Ooops)
And so the foreign concept of Bureaucracy was thrown into a pile in the corner, in favour of the current Barbaric Govt, and it would be a good 500 years or more before England revisited it. xD

In other news, the Kremlin has just been built...serious case of runaway AI here folks.

Turn 350 - Guilds and banking researched, now turn to Philosophy and Nationalism, while doing my best to get Stock Exchanges everywhere.



Turn 370 - Saladin agrees to become a vassal of SB. Russia appears to be getting beaten up, possibly by Babylon?
Silver appears near Nottingham, which is very nice.

Turn 380 - Nationalism researched. Switch briefly to get Optics, then back to Constitution. Use Optics to upgrade my two GG triremes to caravels, and send them off to explore.
A 2nd G Prophet also born (yuck), which will be stored to use for a Golden Age.

Turn 390 - Okay, slight problem here.



English sailors, venturing out bravely in their recently researched and highly advanced caravels, have come across improbable floating objects the French are calling "Deee-stroi-yeurs". English sailors are not particularly sure what this word means, but are seemingly very reluctant to sail in front of the big metal tubes sticking out the front of these ships.

Finish Constitution research, start on Gunpowder @0% tech. So seriously, France has destroyers, I have caravels and no gunpowder.
Time to take drastic measures.

Economic output is either 770gold or 730beakers or 650 EP per turn depending on which the slider is set to.
Compare this to a tech cost for Gunpowder of 3000 beakers, so approximately 4 turns to research, but remember that's deficit research at around -300 gpt.

I trigger GA using G Prophet, which bumps those numbers up nicely. (1100gpt/960bpt/850EP), and configure a G Spy to (hopefully) pop from Baghdad in 10 turns. Slider is left at 100% gold.

Turn 400 - Meet Aztecs, Monty wants to sacrifice 50k slaves to celebrate, I say whatever floats your boat.

At end of GA, I revolt to Nationhood.
Jails are either built or building in every major city, and I'm sitting on a nice surplus of 13k gold.
Naturally France wants a piece of that, 3k gold to be precise, I tell him where to stick it. (Louis doesn't really like me after all this. He and Peter (Russia) have been making lots of tribute demands. Where it doesn't impact me, say asking for surplus resources such as wines, I gladly give, but asking for materials such as gold or to declare war vs someone gets an instant rejection.)
Baghdad pops a Great Spy which is hugely important.

Turn 404 - Scotland Yard founded in London. Slider is now set to 100% EPs. Compared to the previous figures of 650 EP/turn, England is now outputting 1,300 EP/turn, while the beaker figure has remained little changed at 770bpt. 1.3k EPs is almost enough to steal a tech a turn.
So let's do it, all EPs directed at Isabella, spies shipped over to her.

Turn 410 - Stop EP production vs Isabella at 11k EPs, now directing it at Lincoln of USA. (France's vassal and relatively closer).
Time to steal! Aesthetics, Astronomy, Engineering all acquired illegally.

Turn 415 - Steal Drama, Gunpowder, Music.
Moai statues built in Warwick, which is located to the south on the incense/fish/clams desert peninsula. Could be a nice little city.

Turn 420 - Steal Mil Tradition. I've basically got 6 spies and 3 caravels constantly rotating over to Isabella's 3 main cities. Success rate is around 95%, ie almost never fails, and thanks to trade routes, religion (used a couple of missionaries) the discount is huge.



At this point I start getting a few trade offers from the AI. Monty offers Paper + some gold vs Astronomy, while Saladin offers Education + some gold vs Mil Tradition. Both are obviously accepted, the aim being of course, catch up, rather than keep the weak AIs down.
Now have 20k EP built up vs USA.

Turn 430 - Continuing to rob Isabella blind, at one point getting 5 techs in one go. (It seems there are no restrictions on how far up the tech tree you can go in one turn via EP, unlike trading where you have a forced delay of one turn if something is a pre-requisite).
I'm now up to Liberalism and Rifling in the tech tree, and am starting to cherry-pick techs from Lincoln that Isabella doesn't have.

The good news is all this sneakiness has resulted in England reaching #3 on the scoreboard.
The bad news is that Russia just completed the Apollo Program.

Next GP will be coming out of Baghdad, and English strategists are beginning to look thoughtfully at Sid's Sushi. If its a G Merchant, he'll probably be kept and stored until biology, but that will mean I'll have to manually revolt to Emancipation (unhappiness due to slavery is growing), rather than switching during a GA.

Turn 440 - Steal Steam Power to reveal 2 coal on English continent, previous techs have revealed 1 oil also on land near York.
France demands a change of religion to his Confucianism (he has the AP also). Getting lots of demands now, most likely based on England's low power and paper thin military.
On the plus side though, London is now producing 450 EP/turn on it's own thanks to a new Intelligence Agency. EP output (at deficit) is around 2.5k/turn overall. Isabella is now out of techs, and attention is now completely focussed on Lincoln and the USA.
Biology stolen.

Turn 447 - Steal Radio and enter the Modern era. Notice Peter has Medicine which Lincoln doesn't, so quickly ship a spy and a missionary over to one of Russia's small colony cities to aid global knowledge dissemination.

Overall strategic viewpoint:
England's civics need changing. Everyone else in the world is now in Emancipation, resulting in +6 unhappiness pressure in the largest cities, and Universal Suffrage for +1 hammers per town would be a nice change from Hereditary Rule.
The recently acquired tech, radio, may hold the answer to this via Cristo Redentor, which has yet to be built.

In terms of the Space Race, I realise I could really do with Mining Inc and the Space Elevator. Warwick has a chance of producing a G Eng soon, but it's appearance will be delayed by the soon to appear GP from Baghdad.


Turn 448 - Finally complete the Globe Theatre in Coventry, which is a 3 fish colony which I've been whipping to high Hell. (Surprisingly difficult to whip out the Globe Theatre however, even in parts/via overflow.) Unhappiness was around +9 (128 turns), which magically vanishes. Sweet.



Turn 449 - G Merchant born in Baghdad. Run him down to the Holy City of Mecca to incorporate SS fast. Will build Wall Street there eventually.

Turn 450 - USA keeps trying to build Security Bureaus, which add +50% cost to EP actions. Strangely, these buildings keep falling down.
When brought up in US-UK diplomatic talks, the English diplomat politely suggests shoddy workmanship. US factories also tend to fail shortly after, slowing down rebuilding efforts.

Peter (Russia) offers Combustion for Assembly Line. This will be the first time I reject a tech deal from the AI. Not only is it insulting in terms of beaker comparison (12.1k vs 8.8k), but Peter is looking like a serious competitor along with France and possibly Babylon. England is now #1 on the scoreboard having just stolen Fascism.
However that's no cause for celebration, as it's military is not even paper-thin, and the rapid tech advancements has meant that cities are lagging behind in terms of buildings (only just building factories, no universities or observatories anywhere).

London starts building the Cristo Redentor, I think there's a decent chance of getting it, as only Saladin and Isabella are Spiritual (for the +100% boost in production), however there is the ever annoying Louis with his Industrious trait monopoly. 21 turns to completion.

Turn 460 - Babylon incorporates Mining Inc. *$%"*&^. However in a strange twist, Hammurabi thereafter swiftly changes to State Property.
Mining Inc executives will continue to accumulate in Babylon, but no more branches will be founded for a long time. AI stupidity or deliberate denial of a high value corporation following England's acquisition of SS?

Turn 470 - Steal Artillery/Rocketry/Refrigeration etc. Starting to upgrade units now to Infantry.
France declares war on the SB/Isabella/Saladin trio. France's power is literally off the scale compared to everyone else. We do not want a war with him, as our navy is still pretty much caravels and galleons.

Steal Industrialism from Babylon via a nearby colony city. However with no Open Borders agreement, and hence no religion or tech discount, the cost is very high. Reveals 2 Aluminium on English continent, which is good, as it appears to be essential for a Space race (Al not only gives a discount on Spaceship parts, but also gives a +100% production boost to producing the Space Elevator, which you guessed it, provides a boost to spaceship part production. In essence it's like a double-quadruple whammy if you don't have Aluminium, ouch.)

Turn 473 - Steal Fission. Upgrade GG caravels to attack subs.

Turn 475 - Cristo Redentor built!
Revolt to Uni Suffrage/Free Speech/Emancipation/Free Market, stay at Organised Religion.
Commerce slider is set to 100% gold to build up a surplus.
Will take a break from EP production to try and grow more towns via Free Speech, before switching back to Slavery/Nationhood for periods at a time.

London is now producing 90 hammers/turn, so start building the Ironworks there.
Spreading Sushi to English cities, it's currently bringing +9 food and +34 culture.

Turn 478 - G Eng born in Warwick. Since Mining Inc gone, he can either be used for Creative Construction or to hurry a Spaceship part, will use him for Spaceship parts.

France is making a lot of threats now, so decide to start causing him hassle. Switch his civics via Bayonne, a tiny ice colony to the North of the English continent. Switch State Property -> Free Market, which considering all his attacking ships that are out bothering SB, should seriously hurt his income.

Picture of Bayonne, and the Suez canal chain of forts I had to build to get ships around the North end of the continent. (That spy is just hanging around innocently, honest!)



Turn 480 - France offers a Clam for Aluminium, looks like Louis has no Al, good good, rejected.
Currently not connecting oil to my trade network, England doesn't need planes or tanks, and has uranium to build the necessary ships, and could really do without the extra +2 unheathiness.
Montezuma capitulates to Russia, making France and Russia my main two enemies.

Turn 484 - Start Apollo Program in Medina (28 turns).

Turn 487 - Steal Plastics from Babylon for 11.5k EPs (ouch!), unfortunately Hammurabi was the only one who had it.
Begin Three Gorges Dam in London (18 turns).

The French people spontanteously decide that Emancipation is over-rated and demand a return to slavery. This action, coupled with a switch from Louis' preferred civic of Hered Rule -> Uni Suffrage combines to have a noticeable effect on France's demographics. Bear in mind Louis' huge power probably meant lots of troops sitting in cities keeping the population happy. Now he has no policing effect from them, and a +5 slavery unhappiness to boot.

However that by no stretch means Louis is a pushover. SB's population is currently getting smashed by blockading French destroyers, with his capital Cahokia down from 20 pop to 8. Feeling generous, I decide to ship a Sushi exec over to him, as I want him to keep fighting for as long as possible.

Turn 490 - Of course, SB then promptly decides to sign peace with France. Sigh. Peter completes SS Life Support.
All during this time, I'm using the Cristo Redentor to switch between Nationhood/Free Speech and Slavery/Emancipation.

Starting to build battleships now, as the effect of blockading on my Sushi powered cities could be really nasty.
Wall Street is up and running in Mecca, giving me 500 gold/turn on 80% gold. Having to run 20% culture now to keep everyone happy, but that's having a nice effect on a couple of cultural border disputes with Saladin.
Engineer specialists are being set up everywhere to help with hammer production and to encourage G Engineers.

Turn 495 - Hammurabi completes Hollywood. Realise that he now has The Eiffel Tower + Hollywood + Rock&Roll + Broadway for a minimum +6 happiness in all cities. Better keep an eye on Babylon's culture also.

Turn 500 - Global Warming icons are turning up everywhere now. I hold my breath as one strikes near London, but thankfully hits a tile not in the city’s BFC.

G Engineer born, which I store up for another Spaceship part. Flight stolen.
Saladin offers me fish for coal, which I accept even though rounding means it gives no benefit.

France is back to his normal civics, although I note that Paris dropped from 20 population to 15.
French serfs decide that Hinduism is the one true religion and abandon Confucianism.

Turn 502 - Lincoln incorporates Aluminum Inc. Smart move by the AI as Aluminium is something the USA/France team both lack. For the rest of the game Lincoln will continue to spread Al Inc into English cities via our OB agreement. Although annoying, it's not enough to make me switch to Mercantilism for.

Turn 506 - Three Gorges Dam complete. Unhealthiness +2 strikes everywhere, and it takes me a little while to realise that's from the power.
Ouch. Steal Computers.

Turn 510 - Babylon builds the UN. The vote is drawn, with England being the leading candidate, France, Russia both abstain.
A second gems pops at London! Means a plains mine now produces 4h7c vs 5h previous. Base commerce at London is now 155coins. Nice.

Turn 512 – Sneak Attack! Of all people, SB declares war on England. Saladin and Isabella follow suit.
A huge stack of galleons head for the English East coast, but that's pretty minor. More annoying is the lost Sugar for Iron deal to Isabella and fish from Saladin.

France completes the Apollo Program, so I knock him into slavery again.
Shell out 2.5k gold to complete West Point in Coventry (the Globe 3 fish colony).
Use a sleeper spy to try and knock Isabella out of Hereditary Rule, get caught.

Turn 514 - With seafood being plundered everywhere, English gold is being splashed around liberally to try and complete some pretence of a navy. 850 gold for a battleship here, 1k gold there...
SB troops land near Medina.



That's not too bad, with the stack easily being wiped up for a loss of only one English infantry and a cavalry.
The massacre also spawns a GG, which is settled in Nottingham (can be seen in the bottom left corner) so I can start producing some 6xp boats in combination with drydocks + Heroic Epic.

Start Oxford University in London. Steal Robotics from Babylon for 13k EP = Mech infantry and Missile cruisers.

Oh, and rushing workboats from scratch costs 204 gold, as I learned time and again. ^^

Turn 516 - Finish Oxford Uni in London.
Interestingly, it turns out the Palace is not classed as a National Wonder(?), since London has Ironworks + Oxford Uni + Palace. Didn't know that.
I'm still on the defensive in terms of sea combat, with subs picking off enemy destroyers one at a time and then hiding in cities rather than roaming in packs. Means fishing boats are continuing to die, but with shiny new Missile cruisers being churned out, the tide is turning.
Start building some transports to possibly exploit my Mech infantry advantage over SB.

Currently have 2 G Engineers sleeping in London, with 3 more expected soon, plus a bonus one if I manage to tech Fusion first (apparently the AI tends to leave this til last according to one guide I read). 6 GEs should allow me to rush multiple Spaceship parts and guarantee a win.

Turn 520 - G Eng born. National Park completes production in Warwick (Moai statues city). Not exactly the best tactical move, but I didn't have any forests left around, and what the hell, it looks pretty. xD



USA builds Apollo, SB still refusing to talk.
Sid Sushi is now everywhere in England, start ferrying over Mech Infantry to SB continent, landing on a hill.

Turn 522 - Peter incorporates Creative Construction. More Mech Inf ferried over to SB, including my 3 GGs (2 offensive, 1 medic).

Turn 523 - Moved Mech inf onto plains tile outside a SB city, at which point SB went crazy and threw everything at them, killing them all.
Lost 8 mech infantry including all 3 GGs, SB lost 1 cannon, 7 cavalry, 2 Infantry with around 3 cavalry withdrawing.
My noob fault for moving them before I'd shipped enough mech inf over, note to self: send more men next time.

Baghdad production switched to missiles (ooh irony!)
Still founding/capturing from barbs the occasional fishing village to boost Sushi.

Turn 525 - Saladin airships becoming irritating to English subs and Missile Cruisers. Destroyer production upped to compensate.
Finally return to doing some honest work rather than sneakiness - begin researching Fibre Optics. Several new species of moth discovered when ancient libraries reopened in London.

Turn 530 - France declares war on SB/Isabella/Saladin trio, USA follows suit.
Babylon incorporates Civ Jewelers. Another G Eng born!
Red Cross built in York which is on constant land unit production. Mech infantry (automatic March) + Medic 1 seemed like a fun combination.

Turn 531 – Babylon declares War on England also. It never rains but it pours...

I win a couple of the initial ship sneak attacks, and get another GG. Settling in Nottingham, bumping into Theocracy, combined with 150% production rate on naval units, results in a 10xp Missile Cruisers every 2-3 turns. Yes please.

The following Babylonian stack lands near Anjar.

[img] http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/427/c...ot0122.jpg[/img]

Since it's in a forest I can't jump it like I did SB's stack. But thanks to railroads, it's not too hard to get enough Mech inf to Anjar and the cities around it. There's not many cottages around there, (Anjar running mainly workshops) so I'm happy to turtle up while producing a few more artillery to cope.

In a show of solidarity with their French brethren, Babylonian serfs adopt slavery.

Turn 533 - Babylon stack gets bored of sitting and decides to re-enact Charge of the Light Brigade, attacking Anjar (thanks for founding it on a hill Saladin).
5 cannon, 5 M Inf, 3 Inf, 3 Cav die for a cost of only 2 English Mech Infantry. 3 Babylonian Cavalry and 1 cannon withdraw and are easily picked off next turn to end that Babylonian invasion.
In the seas most coastal towns have moved to naval unit production and control of the seas is being established. It's unlikely Babylon will get a second chance.

Copper appears near Mecca. Better late than never. Helps with a spaceship part also.

Turn 535 - Capture Santiago from Isabella (more fish) and extract a white peace from SB.
Russia declares on Babylon. His groupies (Aztec, Khmer) follow suit. Eeeexcellent.

Turn 537 - Complete Space Elevator + Apollo Program. Lose one of my GG subs. Still got the highest xp one however.

Peter completes SS Docking Bay, steal Advanced Flight from him. In the process realise that you can sabotage spaceship parts, and for the low low price of 4k EP. When you consider I've been shelling out 10k+ EPs for certain techs, 4k is peanuts. Should any nation get even close to finishing a spaceship, they're almost certainly going to experience some 'accidents'.



Turn 542 - UN elections continue to be locked with no winner, England ships begin to blockade Babylonian ports.

Turn 546 - Fusion research completed, giving me G Eng #6.
Superconductors stolen.

Turn 541 - G Merchant born (15% chance, should've been G Eng).

Turn 555 - Fire GA using GM and GE. Still need 2 engines, stasis chamber and docking bay, plus 1-5 casings and thrusters.
Start producing casings + thrusters in all high hammer cities.
Distribute the 5 G Engineers around various cities so can 1 turn insta-complete the 2 engines/chamber/docking bay when the casing/thrusters are done.

Turn 559 - Land a mini-SOD next to Babylon's capital.



10 Guided missiles later from the accompanying Missile Cruisers, the attack begins.
1 artillery dies, 1 w/ds, 1 Mech Inf dies, rest roll through. (Reading this back I realise I still wasn’t sending enough siege rofl, 2 artillery ooooh!)
Babylon has 3 military instructors, a Mil Academy, Hollywood and Mining Inc HQ.

As a result I chose not to raze it, but that turned out to be a mistake. Having lost his capital, a weakened Hammurabi promptly capitulated to Russia, joining the Aztec/Khmer clique. That meant I couldn't raze any further Babylonian cities without half the AIs declaring war on me, and cultural pressure on Babylon kept the borders to literally just 1 square. After finishing I played on a few turns and via Sushi (+culture) and Free Speech (+100% culture) managed to get Babylon to 'Influential' status, 7,500 culture, ie the step before Legendary. And -still- the borders wouldn't pop.

Turn 560 - G Eng born. Sabotage Russia's Docking Bay for the lol.

Turn 561 - Research Genetics, cease all further research. 2nd Thruster complete.

Turn 565 - 4 Thrusters 3 casings finished. G Eng born. I now have 7 G Eng total, with 1 more coming.

Decide to use them all and finish the spaceship.
Can't.
LOL.
Experience a wide range of emotions ranging from confusion, bafflement, gradual dawning comprehension, full on screaming tantrum, complete with lying down and thumping fists/heels on the floor, tears and all out bawling.
And then I got a little emotional.

Went for a run, calmed down.
Returned and decided to settle all the GEs in London, queued up the remaining parts in high hammer cities (York, Nottingham).
With London running at 500 hammers/turn, they didn’t take long.



Turn 580 - Launched Spaceship fully complete.



Turn 585 - While waiting for Spaceship to arrive, G Sci and G Eng born. Used towards Future Tech.
Tried switching to Representation, with all the settled GEs/Mil Instructors/Free Engineers from Industrial Park + Sushi end up with a respectable 0% science rate. I know Specialist economies often struggle mid game, but does Representation get more powerful late game?
Sabotage French, Russian, USA projects.

Turn 595 - Victory. July 1972 AD. Definitely not going to be the earliest by any margin, but it was an enjoyable ride.


Lessons to be taken from this game:

1) Missile Cruisers are fun.

2) EP is overpowered.
Not only was I able to produce more EPs per turn than beakers, but I was stealing techs for less EPs than the beaker cost thanks to the various reductions of trade routes, religion, stationary spy and EP expenditure (I had most AIs around the 60% mark, ie 40% discount for me).
And that's just the tech stealing side to it. Towards the end of the game, I think England could produce around 5k EPs/turn, ie could happily sabotage a spaceship part a turn and have 1k+ leftover.
I was left wondering if this is considered a 'lame' method of winning, but then I guess most vets simply wouldn't have ended up in such a dire hole in the first place. A dire hole that was brought about by my lack of understanding of...

3) Combined arms. Yeah okay. Don't war with a protective AI unless you've got cats, preferably waiting for your UU. England's war with Arabia went on for 2000+ years (500 BC - 1500ADish).

4) Ahem. G Engineers can't rush projects, namely Spaceship parts.
Before starting this game, I read through a few space race victory guides. I could've sworn that one player advocated rushing to Fusion to get the G Engineer, which would then guarantee an easy and free engine. I can't find it now, but if I ever do find the author again, I will probably strangle him. xD

5) Maintaining power to ward of AI invasions. I got away with a paper thin military thanks to my early aggression in securing the continent for myself. But in a pangea map, I suspect the story would've been very different.

So I bet you're wondering how many techs did England steal exactly?
Well here's the list!

Masonry
Polytheism
Monotheism
Archery
Civil Service
HBR
Feudalism
Aesthetics
Astronomy
Engineering
Drama
Music
Gunpowder
Mil Tradition
Literature
Theology
Printing Press
Democracy
Replaceable Parts
Economics
Corporation
Rifling
Scientific Method
Chemistry
Liberalism
Communism
Steam Power
Physics
Steel
Divine Right
Assembly Line
Biology
Railroad
Electricity
Radio
Combustion
Fascism
Medicine
Artillery
Refrigeration
Rocketry
Industrialism
Fission
Ecology
Plastics
Mass Media
Flight
Computers
Robotics
Satellites
Advanced Flight
Superconductors
Composites
Laser

I think that makes 54 techs.


Other random thoughts:

Cristo Redentor is powerful, particularly for this strategy. Let's you switch between Nationhood to run EP at a deficit, then switch to Free Speech without cost so that you can rebuild your gold reserves and speed up cottage growth. Being able to switch to slavery was also useful, both for dragging AIs into that civic and the occasional whip round, although limited towards the end by emancipation.

Coventry, the 3 fishies Globe + West Point didn't work so well. The idea was to whip out high xp boats, but emancipation meant I did more drafting, which of course halves the West Point bonus. Plus it was hell trying to build West point in a 1 hammer production city with no stone. Globe was good though, at one point had the unhappiness over 200+ turns.

Red Cross + Mech Inf is an okay combination. I later learned that Ships + free Medic 1 is a better combination however.


Overall, a fun game, thankyou to the map creator.

I actually enjoyed this map so much, I went back and replayed it, this time doing it -properly-.
Managed to build both the GLH and Colossus, while still grabbing most of the continent. Playing nicely with Saladin worked well, with him giving me free missionaries reliably, and at one point, despite a huge power imbalance, ie Saladin most powerful in the world, me least (ahem still haven't grasped point 5) he never declared.
Upon reaching Redcoats and a large tech lead on Saladin I then removed him off the continent, and sailed along easily. France required a couple of razing to prevent a cultural victory, but that was about it.

Thankyou to everyone, and congratulations if you managed to read all of the above.
I’ll leave you with the obligatory demographics (press the middle ‘play’ button), oh, and my final surviving GG!

Demographics link

[regoarrarr]

Awesome - really enjoyed the read. Games like this which are a struggle to win are much more exciting reads IMO than ones where you just "cruise" to victory

[T-hawk]

Great game and report, pocketbeetle! Yours was the game I wanted to play but didn't have the stamina. Yes, engineers can't rush Projects, which all the spaceship pieces are.

Amazing comeback on the espionage economy! Yes, espionage can give the most favorable math for tech acquisition, with all the discounts. And great use of the spies for screwing up your opponents on civics and sabotage. (We are starting to understand why the multiplayer games are tending towards banning spies.)

English strategists, buoyed by the successes so far with their bugging of Saladin's tents (earwigs work well apparently)

at one point, despite a huge power imbalance, ie Saladin most powerful in the world, me least (ahem still haven't grasped point 5) he never declared.

Saladin will never declare if he is Pleased or better towards you. That's true for about a third or so of the AIs.

Your second game of Civ 4, well if you're playing Adventure 43 next, that's going to really twist you around

[Rowain]

A great read which I really enjoyed
And excellent use of the spies :thumbup:

[scooter]

Great write-up, I really enjoyed it. I actually did that same thing (Great Engineers for space ships) in one of my earliest games of Civ4. Glad to know I'm not the only one who's made that mistake!

[Cyneheard]

Red Cross for a navy? That's brilliant!

[pocketbeetle]

Thankyou to all the replies, it was a fun game

Yours was the game I wanted to play but didn't have the stamina.

Yeah I've just finished reading your report, and I really felt for you.

I think it was only inexperience that kept me going - I didn't fully realise what I was up against, even after the caravels vs destroyers moment.
In terms of culture, I was slightly lucky in that France concentrated on Paris only (it went legendary at some crazy date), while Babylon picked up all the later culture wonders (Hollywood/Eiffel/Broadway/Rock&Roll).

My one comment on your game would've been: don't forget you can always knock France out of Free Speech to virtually halve his culture growth.
AI seemed to only really notice a civic switch when I altered the favoured civic (ie Hered Rule for Louis)

(We are starting to understand why the multiplayer games are tending towards banning spies.)

They do seem to be extremely powerful, as poor Soooo is finding in PBEM1.

Your second game of Civ 4, well if you're playing Adventure 43 next, that's going to really twist you around

Playing it right now!
I've played a few more games since the above, and I'm (only) partly wishing I hadn't.
It might have made me a little more flexible rather than being so confused.

Great write-up, I really enjoyed it. I actually did that same thing (Great Engineers for space ships) in one of my earliest games of Civ4. Glad to know I'm not the only one who's made that mistake!

Never again!

Red Cross for a navy? That's brilliant!

Does seem to work well

[T-hawk]

Tried switching to Representation, with all the settled GEs/Mil Instructors/Free Engineers from Industrial Park + Sushi end up with a respectable 0% science rate. I know Specialist economies often struggle mid game, but does Representation get more powerful late game?

Oh, I meant to comment on this before. Yes, Representation is my late-game government civic in 90% or more of games. If you have any significant amount of corporation food, your cities will easily grow past their available tiles and create a bunch of specialists. Rep synergizes with so many things: corporate food, Mercantilism, Statue of Liberty, National Park, Industrial Park. And the happy puts it over the top.

Universal Suffrage is the other option, but consistently underwhelming in my experience. The hammer for towns sounds good, but in practice it's rich-get-richer overkill. A city old enough to have several grown towns is also old enough to have built its infrastructure already and doesn't need more hammers. And cash rushing rarely seems optimal; better to put the economy towards research instead; if you need units, upgrade or draft or whip.

There are niches for US. It can be useful to redevelop conquered territory, with damaged cities and mature towns, especially if using State Property so no corps. And cash rushing can be used to good effect for a culture victory. But for space, it's always Rep in my book.

[Compromise]

Yours was the first report I've read in its entirety. If found it hugely entertaining! I am not sure I would have continued after the caravels met the "Deee-stroi-yeurs."

In addition to highlighting the great power of an espionage economy, this was a great example of grit: Never Give Up!

Thanks for the great read!