Warnings: This is loooong and picture free. Read at your own risk. I tried to make it interesting, though. This is an incomplete game. I got to 1866 AD as of Monday night and am still playing.
Epic 1, Part the Zeroth: Pregame Strategery
Iâve only ever played on Noble level, and not much of that. So I didnât go into this game expecting to win easily, if at all. I canât say I had much of a strategy, either, beyond âtake advantage of the industrious trait by building a lot of awesome Wondersâ, and even that didnât really happen. I suppose âdonât get wiped out for lack of militaryâ was a strategy. Heck, it's worked so far.
I liked the look of the start. I canât remember where I sent my warrior on turn 0 (due north?) but he didnât see the wheat. So I settled in place, reasonably happy with the site, but wishing I had a river.
Iâve also rarely played on epic speed. The last time I did, I decided to go worker-first, and nearly made an early exit when Gandhi popped a nearby hut for barbs. Given that, 23 turns seemed just too long to me, so I decided to go with a warrior first and build a worker at size 2. I also decided that I didnât need Stonehenge, being cultural. And I decided I would try for one of the later religions (note from the perspective of 1866 AD: Hah!). So I started with hunting for the ability to build scouts.
Epic 1, Part the First: The OCC Era
In 3640 BC, a few turns after popping a hut for 31g, I was overjoyed to meet both Genghis and Montezuma. Overjoyed, I say! No, really.
Hunting also came in, and I had to decide what was next. Animal husbandry or archery, archery or animal husbandry? With such neighbors, I decided on archery.
In 3160 BC, I finished a scout and at long last started on a worker, thus delaying much longer than is normal for me. Iâm still not sure whether it hurt me. The scout quickly popped another from the hut to the west, and the two of them mapped out most of the peninsula between them. The hut to the south of Paris gave XP to one, and I promoted it to Woodsman II.
In 2760 BC, I had a nice bit of luck. A panther had attacked my woodsman II scout, leaving him injured. There was a lion in sight, so I retreated north onto a jungle-covered hill for defense, only to find that
a) there was another hut one tile north
b) Monty would get it next turn
c) Woodsman II also gives two moves on hills!, if they happen to be covered by jungle.
So I popped the hut and got a warrior. The warrior headed back to Paris to double up the garrison, saving me the building of one later.
After AH, I went for mining, as Paris was clearly set to be a production powerhouse. Cash, on the other hand, not so much. Anyway, 2400 BC was the start of a nasty little trend, as every single unit I sent to explore out beyond the Aztecs and Mongols died to animal attacks. The death toll amounted to both my scouts and a warrior. So the rest of my contacts were from AIs finding me: Washington in 2440 BC and Alex in 2120 BC. Gandhi I apparently didnât write down, but he was the last contact by a fair margin.
At about this point, the tech plan (such as it was) went totally to pot. I need a guidebook to the tech tree, seriously. Failing that, enough free time to play about 20 games of CIV between now and Christmas would work. Anyway, the next several techs were fishing, pottery and bronze-working. Meanwhile, Paris built a barracks and an archer, then finally started a settler at size 4.
In 1300 BC, Paris completed its first settler. Orleans was founded a couple of turns later south of the wheat. I had wanted to build it a couple of tiles east, grabbing the rice and copper as well, but Genghis beat me to the spot by a handful of turns with Beshbalik. Therefore, no metals for Renata.
Epic 1, Part the Second: Not-So-Rapid Expansion. Also: Metal, What Metal?
I did not revolt to slavery immediately upon learning bronze-working, and made relatively little use of it once I did. Even more than the unhappiness, the loss of population seems a rather harsh penalty in a game where cities and population points are so very hard to come by. Has anyone put it to extensive use in core cities?
About 840 BC, I agreed to Open Borders with both Genghis and Monty. I was still two turns from writing myself â first sign of my research woes. At 800 BC, I finally started work on Masonry (after that, sailing) â far too late to help any early wonders along. I never went for the Oracle, believing that without marble, it would take too long to build.
By this time, I had realized that I wouldnât have an ocean resources in my borders for a very long time. I went ahead and built a work boat out of Orleans as its first or second build, anyway, and sent it out to explore. My land exploration had failed miserably, and I was really wanting some trade routes. By the time sailing came in, the work boat was well on its way to opening up trade routes with Gandhi, Alex, and George. So that much worked all right.
In 380 BC, I finally settled my third city, Lyons, in the eastern jungle, pulling in (eventually) the dyes and bananas. I was alarmed to see it was so unhealthy it was negative food. Whoops. Well, iron-working next, certainly. In retrospect, there may have been better places to put the city. Lyons did close up my borders, but I had already opened them to everybody and his cousin so that was hardly important. It did give me a more defensible border than if I had conceded the spot to Genghis, though. Also, this was the point at which I realized I was without metals. And I couldnât count on iron popping up anywhere useful, either. I built barracks and more archers, and set my eyes on the horses to the west of Paris.
Actually getting them was a bit of an adventure, though. My work boat traversing the south coast, besides locating a couple of barb cities, also alerted me that Genghis was sending a settler pair along in a galley. My horses! I wound up having to whip Paris for a population point to ensure I got there on time. And with my three cities capped at a total population of 13 for the foreseeable future, that hurt, let me tell you. But I got the site (Rheims), and Genghisâs settler wound up in the islands.
Open borders with Genghis probably bought me some time, but in 60 BC it ran out. He declared war, killed a warrior I had on barb lookout, and marched on Orleans. All I had for defense were a couple of guys with clubs and several more with bone-tipped arrows. Horses were still ten turns away; iron probably even further. So all I could really do was turtle up and get pillaged until I had enough archers to be able to sacrifice a couple on offense. Peace was finally made in 140 AD, with much less damage than I had feared but much more than I wanted. I had horses and iron shortly after, though, and committed myself to building a real military.
Epic 1, Part the Third: The View from Last Place. Also: The Fine Art of Poaching
Gandhi had built the pyramids at some point, and was charging out ahead in score with Washington following. The nasty boys clogged up the middle. And who was last? Why, that would be me.
The Oracle was built somewhere, and yet another religion fell as someone got Philosophy. I started research on alphabet to try to catch up. In 460 AD, I founded another city, Tours, NW of Paris on the coast.
Meanwhile, I had had an archer sitting on a hill between the two barb cities for hundreds of years. The workboat had alerted me to a worker on the southern horses, and the last thing I wanted to deal with was barbarians on four legs. So I sent an archer down to keep the worker pinned â he stayed there even throughout the kerfuffle with Genghis. Now, I noticed Monty marching a stack of jaguars and axemen in that direction. I decided I would try to poach the towns out from under his nose and dispatched a chariot to join the archer.
The strategy paid off in 470 AD. Montyâs attack left resource-rich Gepid (horses, sugar, rice and three!!! dyes) with just one wounded archer. I attacked with my chariot and collected 70g and a worker. Wheee! Gepid would eventually turn out to be my best town for commerce, by far. I was unsuccessful at a repeat with Hsung-Nu, and Monty captured that one.
In 490 AD, I got alphabet, and it was still a monopoly. (Is it just me, or is this a *very* easy tech to get to first?) I started a slooooow crawl up out of last place in both score and tech. Tech-trading ainât what it used to be, thatâs for sure, but it did help. I picked up mysticism and math, then started on Calendar before deciding I might be better off getting some cheap religious techs first so I could get better trade value out of alphabet with one of the more expensive ones. Except for the religious tree, few civs had any techs available that alphabet could pay for. I didnât get calendar until 900 AD.
In 570 AD, the first religion spread to my lands (Confucianism). I didnât convert, wanting to preserve my decent relations with the two non-aggressive civs, who were Buddhist and Hindu. (Taoism and Judaism followed later, but never either of the two I really wanted.) But I did make use of the religions to finally start growing my cities.
Around 600 AD, both of my neighbors cancelled open borders. There were no immediate war declarations, though. I made use of the respite to autoraze yet another barb city on the southeast coast, then parked units down there until I could send a settler. The town I eventually founded would be called Chartes.
In 840 AD, I actually completed a wonder in Paris: Hanging Gardens. So much for strategery, but yay for great engineer points! The population boost was very welcome, too, and thanks to some silver that had popped up in my territory, an ivory deal with Gandhi, and my new religions, I had enough happy to make full use of it.
Almost 1000 years of relative peace on earth finally cracked in 950 AD: Alex declared on Gandhi. Genghis joined in a while later, and the two of them relieved the old guy of three of his cities before they stopped for a breather. Gandhi lost his lead for good and was the designated AI punching bag until he finally exited the game.
1035 AD: Currency researched, and I could finally start relieving the relatively backwards civs of some of their cash from time to time. I say ârelatively backwardsâ because as Toynbee constantly saw fit to remind me, I was still dead last in that area. I had crawled out of last place in the standings, though: I got to look down my nose at Alex.
Epic 1, Part the Fourth: Genghis, Alexander and Montezuma are Whackjobs
My own reprieve from war ended shortly after 1160 AD, when Genghis asked me to join in the beatdown on Gandhi, and I refused. (Heck, at that point, Gandhi was the only halfway sane leader who liked me. Alex did, too, but heâs crazy.) He demanded something else a few turns later and I told him to bring it on, figuring with all his war elephants wandering around India, Iâd be safe enough.
Anyway, so I was correct enough about Genghis. He did come with a few war elephants, but my spears made short work of them. I captured Beshbalik in 1195 AD, revenged some pillaging by Lyons, and sent a handful of units east to try to clear some tiles by the Mongol capital. The next turn I got my first great engineer in Paris. I had nothing useful to do with it (still hadnât researched Metal Casting, and that was just too cheap; no wonders available), but still, I was feeling good.
Then Alex decided to join the party. In 1230 AD, he marched a stack up to Beshbalik, slaughtered its 3-unit garrison, and razed it. My city! Granted, Iâd only owned it for a few turns, but Iâd coveted it for long enough that it felt like one of my own.
The stack moved on towards Orleans. Time to make peace with Genghis, eh?
The first Greek stack was dispatched with little difficulty. The second -- two more units at Orleans and a three-unit landing by Chartes -- was nastier. The RNG was not kind, and I took three losses including one of those frustrating âstab-counterattack-stab-dieâ jobbers where the attacking unit is left at nearly full strength. More pillaging, but I finally got the Greeks evicted.
Then in 1280, Monty decided he needed to pile on, too. There was killing going on, and he wasnât part of it. Felt left out, I suppose, poor thing. There were a bunch more skirmishes and a few scary moments before Alex would finally accept peace without my having to give up Orleans. I was tempted to go after Hsung-Nu (the Aztec town marooned in my territory) after that, but I didnât really have the resources. So I took peace with Monty for a 30g payment shortly thereafter. I sent in the workers to repair the extensive pillaging around Lyons and Chartes. (That poor banana plantation got nailed every time. I suppose I could have tried to defend it, but meh. Not worth the effort.)
In 1350 AD I founded Avignon as a buffer three tiles east of Orleans. It took quite a while to get control over the tiles around it.
Epic 1, Part the Fifth: The Power of Religion. Also, an Account of Some Wonders
I had delayed converting to any religion for a very long time. Only two civs were pleased with me (Washington and Gandhi), and neitherâs official religion was present in my territory. I had spread Confucianism around, though, as it was the most widespread religion in the world, and by the 1300s I was thinking I really should convert sometime soon. I had a ton of infrastructure to build, and I really wanted Organized Religion. I bit the bullet in 1395 AD, and revolted to serfdom and organized religion in 1415.
The results were better than I could have guessed. The hit with Washington and Gandhi was not critical to trade ⦠and all of a sudden Genghis liked me! What the heck? Oh, heâs a Confucian headcase. Nice luck, that (he was still pagan when I started spreading Confucianism) -â I now had three trading partners. He hit me up for 70g in 1420, but I think that was just a little ribbing among friends, if you know what I mean.
So I had another lengthy respite from war, this time with a decidedly less dangerous eastern border. I used the time to get some infrastructure finished, and my research ability slowly crept upward, though I was still hideously behind. I also got some assorted Wonders and such built, mostly of the National variety. Orleans got the National Epic (this was actually somewhat earlier). Paris used a great engineer to rush the Hagia Sofia, and built whichever national wonder it is that gives a discount on military units. (Very nice to have indeed in production-powerhouse Paris.) High-commerce Gepid got an Academy from an Orleans-produced great artist. The Hermitage went to Rheims and the Forbidden Palace to Lyons.
Meanwhile, wars continued elsewhere. Monty got into it with Washington, and everyone continued to take potshots at Gandhi. I stayed out of everything, although by the 1600s I sort of wished someone would declare (or ask me for help) so I could actually use some of the military I had sitting around bleeding money. In 1610 AD, iron popped on a hill by Chartes â which already had iron.
That turned one of my smallest cities into one of my most productive. I also took the opportunity to plop down two filler cities south of Paris. Aztec Hsung-Nu was getting squeezed.
In 1692 AD, Monty decided he couldnât take the pressure anymore.
Epic 1, Part the Fifth: In Which I Take it to Monty a Bit. Also: The Beginnings of a Plan
I didnât actually write down much of this war, because it was late Sunday night and I was having enough trouble just keeping track of which units were whose. But I had some fun. Hsung-Nu was a sitting duck, and I had already had a stack of elephants and cats sitting right next to it. (And when I say right next to it, I mean right next to it, thanks to culture from Gepid and Marseilles.)
Another stack of units went after Tlaxcala and captured that, too. Iâd have liked to stay at war longer, but war weariness was creeping in, and I just couldnât afford any loss of commerce. So I made peace and went to bed.
By late Sunday night, I was very doubtful of my ability to actually win the game. I had recovered nicely from the bottom of the rankings, and was hanging out about 400 points behind Washington, in second place. Iâd been more than holding my own militarily against three of the biggest crazies in the game. But tech? Tech continued to be bad, bad, bad. I could still only run 70% research. Even with two fairly reliable tech-trading partners now (Gandhi and Genghis), I never got more than one additional tech for each one I researched myself, and sometimes got none at all. Washington was miles ahead. I never even got to start researching something he didnât already have. And I wanted to win by space race? Urk. I had no idea if that was going to be possible. My vague backup plan after confucianism had been to try to ride Genghisâs coattails to a domination victory, but that was so chancy. And darn near impossible to pursue both goals at once unless the opponent Genghis decided to harass was Washington. And those two hadnât been at war for eons.
So on Monday, I started thinking about how to best proceed. I figured that if I was going to have any chance at the space race, I desperately needed more beakers. With relatively few turns left, that translated to farming over each and every cottage on the map (not enough turns left to turn into money-bags, anyway) and forcing the cities to grow. Once they got large enough, itâd be scientists all-around. Iâd also want to get to the high-commerce civics as a priority.
But that raised another thought. With free religion, Washington should go âfriendlyâ on me. And with his tech lead, I could expect him to be making mincemeat of the aggressive civs sooner or later, so heâd only be getting more and more votes. Could UN be an option? I checked out the tech tree and found that it was only a handful of techs away. I had a 2/3 chance of another engineer in Paris by then, to boot. So I had my goal: civics techs and mass media, pronto.
Epic 1, Part the Sixth: The Road to the UN, the End of Gandhi, and the End of This Report
In 1736 AD, I traded with Gandhi for most of the cost of education, and started in on a round of university building. Shortly after, Paris popped its next great person, and it was indeed an engineer. I built a nice little hut for him on the shores of Lake Paris. In 1760, an odd little ethical dilemma presented itself â Genghis wanted my help against Gandhi. Gandhi had been pleased with me longer than anyone else, but checking the stats right now, my reputation was actually higher with Genghis! All due to religion, of course. At any rate, I joined in the war, but never actually sent any units, and Genghis signed peace a few turns later. (It took me much longer to get out of it, as Iâd done no damage.)
It was the beginning of the end of Gandhi, though. Alexander was at war even before Genghis joined in, and each had taken a town. Washington took a third before getting distracted by a war with Monty. (Monty actually asked for my help with that one â hah! No ethics debates necessary there.) Alexander kept plugging away at the last couple Indian holdouts, and Gandhi finally exited the scene in 1802 AD.
Meanwhile, I had started Oxford University in Gepid, which was already up to 94 beakers per turn. OU made it over 200 by the time it was completed. I got a great scientist from somewhere or other, and used it on Physics. I was researching generally one tech from the mass media beeline, then one useful tech from elsewhere, then back again, all throughout the 1800s. Genghis continued to be a useful trading partner (though the trades were all in his favor), and I got some cash infusions from Alex from time to time for older techs. I had been shocked to find shortly before Gandhiâs demise that I was still only second from the bottom in the tech race, but that finally changed during this period, and rapidly -- everyone but Monty at the bottom and Washington at the top was pretty tightly bunched.
In 1824 AD, Washington decided he wanted my help in his war against Monty. As it was navy seals versus musketeers, I wasn't quite sure why, but still ... Happy to help, sir! Again, though, my progress was limited. I took Teotihuacan (allowing me to build another city on the peninsula to the west), but couldnât mobilize enough units to get much further. We both made peace around 1850.
The early 1800s were also the time of the great civics switch. Two anarchies, a total of four civics changed. Universal Suffrage, Free Religion, Emancipation, Free Speech. IIRC, one of these changes coincided with the completion of OU in Gepid, and whoo! Two turns off my current research. That was nice. My relationship with Washington went to friendly, and even Alex went up to cautious, but Genghisâs opinion of me went back in the toilet. Câest la vie, no?
Mass media was researched about 1860, and lo and behold, that was the very first tech I had up on Washington since Alphabet, way back when. My great engineer got kicked out of his lakeside retreat and was made to design the UN. It would take 6 additional turns to complete. Meanwhile, Washington was running around with tanks.
I headed off to catch up on military techs, starting with Steel.
Then Genghis attacked. Aaarrghh, not now! There was a huge stack at Avignon, another one almost as bad at Chartes, and one random cavalry at Lyons that took out the banana plantation (again). It took all my gold to buy in Washington as a distraction, and I had nothing left for upgrades or rushes. Happily, Avignon was well-defended. Chartes, however, was not. It had a decent number of units, but those included some obsolete ones. Eep. I arranged my forces as best I could, but it was going to be down to the RNG.
Chartes survived with a half-strength knight. Everything else died. Avignon took only one loss. I thought Chartes was doomed then, until I noticed how wounded all the Mongol units were. Reinforcements from inland managed to take out that invasion (and a second stack at Avignon) by 1865 AD, though the war continued.
In 1866, the UN was built in Paris. (Yes, Iâd kept building it all through the war â no guts no glory!) And thatâs when I called it a night, and thatâs the end of this report. If you actually made it to the end, thank you for reading.
Iâm definitely going to finish this game â itâs far too much fun to abandon â and Iâll update with news of victory or defeat once I do.
Epic 1, Part the Zeroth: Pregame Strategery
Iâve only ever played on Noble level, and not much of that. So I didnât go into this game expecting to win easily, if at all. I canât say I had much of a strategy, either, beyond âtake advantage of the industrious trait by building a lot of awesome Wondersâ, and even that didnât really happen. I suppose âdonât get wiped out for lack of militaryâ was a strategy. Heck, it's worked so far.
I liked the look of the start. I canât remember where I sent my warrior on turn 0 (due north?) but he didnât see the wheat. So I settled in place, reasonably happy with the site, but wishing I had a river.
Iâve also rarely played on epic speed. The last time I did, I decided to go worker-first, and nearly made an early exit when Gandhi popped a nearby hut for barbs. Given that, 23 turns seemed just too long to me, so I decided to go with a warrior first and build a worker at size 2. I also decided that I didnât need Stonehenge, being cultural. And I decided I would try for one of the later religions (note from the perspective of 1866 AD: Hah!). So I started with hunting for the ability to build scouts.
Epic 1, Part the First: The OCC Era
In 3640 BC, a few turns after popping a hut for 31g, I was overjoyed to meet both Genghis and Montezuma. Overjoyed, I say! No, really.
Hunting also came in, and I had to decide what was next. Animal husbandry or archery, archery or animal husbandry? With such neighbors, I decided on archery. In 3160 BC, I finished a scout and at long last started on a worker, thus delaying much longer than is normal for me. Iâm still not sure whether it hurt me. The scout quickly popped another from the hut to the west, and the two of them mapped out most of the peninsula between them. The hut to the south of Paris gave XP to one, and I promoted it to Woodsman II.
In 2760 BC, I had a nice bit of luck. A panther had attacked my woodsman II scout, leaving him injured. There was a lion in sight, so I retreated north onto a jungle-covered hill for defense, only to find that
a) there was another hut one tile north
b) Monty would get it next turn
c) Woodsman II also gives two moves on hills!, if they happen to be covered by jungle.
So I popped the hut and got a warrior. The warrior headed back to Paris to double up the garrison, saving me the building of one later.
After AH, I went for mining, as Paris was clearly set to be a production powerhouse. Cash, on the other hand, not so much. Anyway, 2400 BC was the start of a nasty little trend, as every single unit I sent to explore out beyond the Aztecs and Mongols died to animal attacks. The death toll amounted to both my scouts and a warrior. So the rest of my contacts were from AIs finding me: Washington in 2440 BC and Alex in 2120 BC. Gandhi I apparently didnât write down, but he was the last contact by a fair margin.
At about this point, the tech plan (such as it was) went totally to pot. I need a guidebook to the tech tree, seriously. Failing that, enough free time to play about 20 games of CIV between now and Christmas would work. Anyway, the next several techs were fishing, pottery and bronze-working. Meanwhile, Paris built a barracks and an archer, then finally started a settler at size 4.
In 1300 BC, Paris completed its first settler. Orleans was founded a couple of turns later south of the wheat. I had wanted to build it a couple of tiles east, grabbing the rice and copper as well, but Genghis beat me to the spot by a handful of turns with Beshbalik. Therefore, no metals for Renata.
Epic 1, Part the Second: Not-So-Rapid Expansion. Also: Metal, What Metal?
I did not revolt to slavery immediately upon learning bronze-working, and made relatively little use of it once I did. Even more than the unhappiness, the loss of population seems a rather harsh penalty in a game where cities and population points are so very hard to come by. Has anyone put it to extensive use in core cities?
About 840 BC, I agreed to Open Borders with both Genghis and Monty. I was still two turns from writing myself â first sign of my research woes. At 800 BC, I finally started work on Masonry (after that, sailing) â far too late to help any early wonders along. I never went for the Oracle, believing that without marble, it would take too long to build.
By this time, I had realized that I wouldnât have an ocean resources in my borders for a very long time. I went ahead and built a work boat out of Orleans as its first or second build, anyway, and sent it out to explore. My land exploration had failed miserably, and I was really wanting some trade routes. By the time sailing came in, the work boat was well on its way to opening up trade routes with Gandhi, Alex, and George. So that much worked all right.
In 380 BC, I finally settled my third city, Lyons, in the eastern jungle, pulling in (eventually) the dyes and bananas. I was alarmed to see it was so unhealthy it was negative food. Whoops. Well, iron-working next, certainly. In retrospect, there may have been better places to put the city. Lyons did close up my borders, but I had already opened them to everybody and his cousin so that was hardly important. It did give me a more defensible border than if I had conceded the spot to Genghis, though. Also, this was the point at which I realized I was without metals. And I couldnât count on iron popping up anywhere useful, either. I built barracks and more archers, and set my eyes on the horses to the west of Paris.
Actually getting them was a bit of an adventure, though. My work boat traversing the south coast, besides locating a couple of barb cities, also alerted me that Genghis was sending a settler pair along in a galley. My horses! I wound up having to whip Paris for a population point to ensure I got there on time. And with my three cities capped at a total population of 13 for the foreseeable future, that hurt, let me tell you. But I got the site (Rheims), and Genghisâs settler wound up in the islands.
Open borders with Genghis probably bought me some time, but in 60 BC it ran out. He declared war, killed a warrior I had on barb lookout, and marched on Orleans. All I had for defense were a couple of guys with clubs and several more with bone-tipped arrows. Horses were still ten turns away; iron probably even further. So all I could really do was turtle up and get pillaged until I had enough archers to be able to sacrifice a couple on offense. Peace was finally made in 140 AD, with much less damage than I had feared but much more than I wanted. I had horses and iron shortly after, though, and committed myself to building a real military.
Epic 1, Part the Third: The View from Last Place. Also: The Fine Art of Poaching
Gandhi had built the pyramids at some point, and was charging out ahead in score with Washington following. The nasty boys clogged up the middle. And who was last? Why, that would be me.
The Oracle was built somewhere, and yet another religion fell as someone got Philosophy. I started research on alphabet to try to catch up. In 460 AD, I founded another city, Tours, NW of Paris on the coast.Meanwhile, I had had an archer sitting on a hill between the two barb cities for hundreds of years. The workboat had alerted me to a worker on the southern horses, and the last thing I wanted to deal with was barbarians on four legs. So I sent an archer down to keep the worker pinned â he stayed there even throughout the kerfuffle with Genghis. Now, I noticed Monty marching a stack of jaguars and axemen in that direction. I decided I would try to poach the towns out from under his nose and dispatched a chariot to join the archer.
The strategy paid off in 470 AD. Montyâs attack left resource-rich Gepid (horses, sugar, rice and three!!! dyes) with just one wounded archer. I attacked with my chariot and collected 70g and a worker. Wheee! Gepid would eventually turn out to be my best town for commerce, by far. I was unsuccessful at a repeat with Hsung-Nu, and Monty captured that one.
In 490 AD, I got alphabet, and it was still a monopoly. (Is it just me, or is this a *very* easy tech to get to first?) I started a slooooow crawl up out of last place in both score and tech. Tech-trading ainât what it used to be, thatâs for sure, but it did help. I picked up mysticism and math, then started on Calendar before deciding I might be better off getting some cheap religious techs first so I could get better trade value out of alphabet with one of the more expensive ones. Except for the religious tree, few civs had any techs available that alphabet could pay for. I didnât get calendar until 900 AD.
In 570 AD, the first religion spread to my lands (Confucianism). I didnât convert, wanting to preserve my decent relations with the two non-aggressive civs, who were Buddhist and Hindu. (Taoism and Judaism followed later, but never either of the two I really wanted.) But I did make use of the religions to finally start growing my cities.
Around 600 AD, both of my neighbors cancelled open borders. There were no immediate war declarations, though. I made use of the respite to autoraze yet another barb city on the southeast coast, then parked units down there until I could send a settler. The town I eventually founded would be called Chartes.
In 840 AD, I actually completed a wonder in Paris: Hanging Gardens. So much for strategery, but yay for great engineer points! The population boost was very welcome, too, and thanks to some silver that had popped up in my territory, an ivory deal with Gandhi, and my new religions, I had enough happy to make full use of it.
Almost 1000 years of relative peace on earth finally cracked in 950 AD: Alex declared on Gandhi. Genghis joined in a while later, and the two of them relieved the old guy of three of his cities before they stopped for a breather. Gandhi lost his lead for good and was the designated AI punching bag until he finally exited the game.
1035 AD: Currency researched, and I could finally start relieving the relatively backwards civs of some of their cash from time to time. I say ârelatively backwardsâ because as Toynbee constantly saw fit to remind me, I was still dead last in that area. I had crawled out of last place in the standings, though: I got to look down my nose at Alex.
Epic 1, Part the Fourth: Genghis, Alexander and Montezuma are Whackjobs
My own reprieve from war ended shortly after 1160 AD, when Genghis asked me to join in the beatdown on Gandhi, and I refused. (Heck, at that point, Gandhi was the only halfway sane leader who liked me. Alex did, too, but heâs crazy.) He demanded something else a few turns later and I told him to bring it on, figuring with all his war elephants wandering around India, Iâd be safe enough.
Anyway, so I was correct enough about Genghis. He did come with a few war elephants, but my spears made short work of them. I captured Beshbalik in 1195 AD, revenged some pillaging by Lyons, and sent a handful of units east to try to clear some tiles by the Mongol capital. The next turn I got my first great engineer in Paris. I had nothing useful to do with it (still hadnât researched Metal Casting, and that was just too cheap; no wonders available), but still, I was feeling good.
Then Alex decided to join the party. In 1230 AD, he marched a stack up to Beshbalik, slaughtered its 3-unit garrison, and razed it. My city! Granted, Iâd only owned it for a few turns, but Iâd coveted it for long enough that it felt like one of my own.
The stack moved on towards Orleans. Time to make peace with Genghis, eh?The first Greek stack was dispatched with little difficulty. The second -- two more units at Orleans and a three-unit landing by Chartes -- was nastier. The RNG was not kind, and I took three losses including one of those frustrating âstab-counterattack-stab-dieâ jobbers where the attacking unit is left at nearly full strength. More pillaging, but I finally got the Greeks evicted.
Then in 1280, Monty decided he needed to pile on, too. There was killing going on, and he wasnât part of it. Felt left out, I suppose, poor thing. There were a bunch more skirmishes and a few scary moments before Alex would finally accept peace without my having to give up Orleans. I was tempted to go after Hsung-Nu (the Aztec town marooned in my territory) after that, but I didnât really have the resources. So I took peace with Monty for a 30g payment shortly thereafter. I sent in the workers to repair the extensive pillaging around Lyons and Chartes. (That poor banana plantation got nailed every time. I suppose I could have tried to defend it, but meh. Not worth the effort.)
In 1350 AD I founded Avignon as a buffer three tiles east of Orleans. It took quite a while to get control over the tiles around it.
Epic 1, Part the Fifth: The Power of Religion. Also, an Account of Some Wonders
I had delayed converting to any religion for a very long time. Only two civs were pleased with me (Washington and Gandhi), and neitherâs official religion was present in my territory. I had spread Confucianism around, though, as it was the most widespread religion in the world, and by the 1300s I was thinking I really should convert sometime soon. I had a ton of infrastructure to build, and I really wanted Organized Religion. I bit the bullet in 1395 AD, and revolted to serfdom and organized religion in 1415.
The results were better than I could have guessed. The hit with Washington and Gandhi was not critical to trade ⦠and all of a sudden Genghis liked me! What the heck? Oh, heâs a Confucian headcase. Nice luck, that (he was still pagan when I started spreading Confucianism) -â I now had three trading partners. He hit me up for 70g in 1420, but I think that was just a little ribbing among friends, if you know what I mean.
So I had another lengthy respite from war, this time with a decidedly less dangerous eastern border. I used the time to get some infrastructure finished, and my research ability slowly crept upward, though I was still hideously behind. I also got some assorted Wonders and such built, mostly of the National variety. Orleans got the National Epic (this was actually somewhat earlier). Paris used a great engineer to rush the Hagia Sofia, and built whichever national wonder it is that gives a discount on military units. (Very nice to have indeed in production-powerhouse Paris.) High-commerce Gepid got an Academy from an Orleans-produced great artist. The Hermitage went to Rheims and the Forbidden Palace to Lyons.
Meanwhile, wars continued elsewhere. Monty got into it with Washington, and everyone continued to take potshots at Gandhi. I stayed out of everything, although by the 1600s I sort of wished someone would declare (or ask me for help) so I could actually use some of the military I had sitting around bleeding money. In 1610 AD, iron popped on a hill by Chartes â which already had iron.
That turned one of my smallest cities into one of my most productive. I also took the opportunity to plop down two filler cities south of Paris. Aztec Hsung-Nu was getting squeezed.In 1692 AD, Monty decided he couldnât take the pressure anymore.
Epic 1, Part the Fifth: In Which I Take it to Monty a Bit. Also: The Beginnings of a Plan
I didnât actually write down much of this war, because it was late Sunday night and I was having enough trouble just keeping track of which units were whose. But I had some fun. Hsung-Nu was a sitting duck, and I had already had a stack of elephants and cats sitting right next to it. (And when I say right next to it, I mean right next to it, thanks to culture from Gepid and Marseilles.)
Another stack of units went after Tlaxcala and captured that, too. Iâd have liked to stay at war longer, but war weariness was creeping in, and I just couldnât afford any loss of commerce. So I made peace and went to bed.
By late Sunday night, I was very doubtful of my ability to actually win the game. I had recovered nicely from the bottom of the rankings, and was hanging out about 400 points behind Washington, in second place. Iâd been more than holding my own militarily against three of the biggest crazies in the game. But tech? Tech continued to be bad, bad, bad. I could still only run 70% research. Even with two fairly reliable tech-trading partners now (Gandhi and Genghis), I never got more than one additional tech for each one I researched myself, and sometimes got none at all. Washington was miles ahead. I never even got to start researching something he didnât already have. And I wanted to win by space race? Urk. I had no idea if that was going to be possible. My vague backup plan after confucianism had been to try to ride Genghisâs coattails to a domination victory, but that was so chancy. And darn near impossible to pursue both goals at once unless the opponent Genghis decided to harass was Washington. And those two hadnât been at war for eons.
So on Monday, I started thinking about how to best proceed. I figured that if I was going to have any chance at the space race, I desperately needed more beakers. With relatively few turns left, that translated to farming over each and every cottage on the map (not enough turns left to turn into money-bags, anyway) and forcing the cities to grow. Once they got large enough, itâd be scientists all-around. Iâd also want to get to the high-commerce civics as a priority.
But that raised another thought. With free religion, Washington should go âfriendlyâ on me. And with his tech lead, I could expect him to be making mincemeat of the aggressive civs sooner or later, so heâd only be getting more and more votes. Could UN be an option? I checked out the tech tree and found that it was only a handful of techs away. I had a 2/3 chance of another engineer in Paris by then, to boot. So I had my goal: civics techs and mass media, pronto.
Epic 1, Part the Sixth: The Road to the UN, the End of Gandhi, and the End of This Report
In 1736 AD, I traded with Gandhi for most of the cost of education, and started in on a round of university building. Shortly after, Paris popped its next great person, and it was indeed an engineer. I built a nice little hut for him on the shores of Lake Paris. In 1760, an odd little ethical dilemma presented itself â Genghis wanted my help against Gandhi. Gandhi had been pleased with me longer than anyone else, but checking the stats right now, my reputation was actually higher with Genghis! All due to religion, of course. At any rate, I joined in the war, but never actually sent any units, and Genghis signed peace a few turns later. (It took me much longer to get out of it, as Iâd done no damage.)
It was the beginning of the end of Gandhi, though. Alexander was at war even before Genghis joined in, and each had taken a town. Washington took a third before getting distracted by a war with Monty. (Monty actually asked for my help with that one â hah! No ethics debates necessary there.) Alexander kept plugging away at the last couple Indian holdouts, and Gandhi finally exited the scene in 1802 AD.
Meanwhile, I had started Oxford University in Gepid, which was already up to 94 beakers per turn. OU made it over 200 by the time it was completed. I got a great scientist from somewhere or other, and used it on Physics. I was researching generally one tech from the mass media beeline, then one useful tech from elsewhere, then back again, all throughout the 1800s. Genghis continued to be a useful trading partner (though the trades were all in his favor), and I got some cash infusions from Alex from time to time for older techs. I had been shocked to find shortly before Gandhiâs demise that I was still only second from the bottom in the tech race, but that finally changed during this period, and rapidly -- everyone but Monty at the bottom and Washington at the top was pretty tightly bunched.
In 1824 AD, Washington decided he wanted my help in his war against Monty. As it was navy seals versus musketeers, I wasn't quite sure why, but still ... Happy to help, sir! Again, though, my progress was limited. I took Teotihuacan (allowing me to build another city on the peninsula to the west), but couldnât mobilize enough units to get much further. We both made peace around 1850.
The early 1800s were also the time of the great civics switch. Two anarchies, a total of four civics changed. Universal Suffrage, Free Religion, Emancipation, Free Speech. IIRC, one of these changes coincided with the completion of OU in Gepid, and whoo! Two turns off my current research. That was nice. My relationship with Washington went to friendly, and even Alex went up to cautious, but Genghisâs opinion of me went back in the toilet. Câest la vie, no?
Mass media was researched about 1860, and lo and behold, that was the very first tech I had up on Washington since Alphabet, way back when. My great engineer got kicked out of his lakeside retreat and was made to design the UN. It would take 6 additional turns to complete. Meanwhile, Washington was running around with tanks.
I headed off to catch up on military techs, starting with Steel.Then Genghis attacked. Aaarrghh, not now! There was a huge stack at Avignon, another one almost as bad at Chartes, and one random cavalry at Lyons that took out the banana plantation (again). It took all my gold to buy in Washington as a distraction, and I had nothing left for upgrades or rushes. Happily, Avignon was well-defended. Chartes, however, was not. It had a decent number of units, but those included some obsolete ones. Eep. I arranged my forces as best I could, but it was going to be down to the RNG.
Chartes survived with a half-strength knight. Everything else died. Avignon took only one loss. I thought Chartes was doomed then, until I noticed how wounded all the Mongol units were. Reinforcements from inland managed to take out that invasion (and a second stack at Avignon) by 1865 AD, though the war continued.
In 1866, the UN was built in Paris. (Yes, Iâd kept building it all through the war â no guts no glory!) And thatâs when I called it a night, and thatâs the end of this report. If you actually made it to the end, thank you for reading.
Iâm definitely going to finish this game â itâs far too much fun to abandon â and Iâll update with news of victory or defeat once I do.