Adventure 4 - theGrimm

[theGrimm]

“Your Majesty.”

Hatshepsut stood on the river bank, watching the sun rise over the river. She was ankle deep in dark, moist mud, and the river lapped at her calves.

“Your Majesty,” came the voice again. The volume was the same, and yet the voice was subtly more insistent.

She turned her head slowly to eye her senior advisor.

“What do our warriors report? What of the land?” The queen turned her head back to survey the sunrise.

“This river winds backward and forward,” said the advisor, beckoning. “All along the banks of the river, the soil is dark and moist. Our women believe that our crops would grow well. To the south, two of our warriors were wounded by a large beast with two long, white teeth which sparkle and glitter in the sun. And to the North East, small, fat beasts wonder the land. They are, I hear, most tasty, but devilish to catch.”

The queen considered the man’s words for some time. He did not interrupt her thoughts, and when the sun had finally risen, she spoke. “Have our people find ways to catch the great beasts of the south.”

“Your majesty, if I may be so bold. Our people feel that greater forces are at work the world. There is a yearning, as it were, to find them. Should we not bend our efforts to such a task?”

Hatshepsut considered his words. “Tell me, ” she said finally. “When we discover these greater powers, what will we offer them in tribute? Dark mud from the riverside? Or fine jewellery from the southern beasts?”

***

What a marvellous opening position. A warrior move to the south west doesn’t offer any compelling reasons to move my settler, and I certainly don’t want to move away from the river or away from forests with so much flood plain. Settling in place reveals nearby gold and marble, too. Two happiness resources in close proximity.

I open with hunting research, followed by animal husbandry. My opening research plan is Hunting->Husbandry->Fishing->Pottery. I only slot fishing in as my scouting warrior reveals two health resources near the ocean; and since fishing reduces the tech cost of pottery, it’s not an expensive detour, and one I want soon anyway. The choice of research path is based on getting cottages on the flood plains ASAP.

Worker first, and it conveniently happens that Husbandry comes in on the same turn my worker completes a road onto pig hill. I’ve identified city sites two and three by scouting warrior. Site two has decent food (for growth), and more importantly, good potential for production in the short and long term. Horses, so I get to experiment with a chariot-based early military, cows (health, good early production) and rice (HEALTH) are available. Health is important, because Thebes can be a commerce AND GP city if I can offset the floodplains health penalty.

I’m working on a scout, growing Thebes, and returning my warrior for happiness duty in Thebes. My initial scouting is usually centred around finding the perfect site for city two. I’ve found space for my next two cities here already, although city three won’t be an end game monster (too many tiles overlapping with Memphis) it can whip some infrastructure and be a decent to good commerce city forever.

And note, it will be some time before I pursue a religion. Despite being religious, Hattie doesn’t start with Mysticism. And it’s monarch difficulty. There’s nothing worse than being beaten to a religion, except being beaten. Indeed, Buddhism and Hinduism are FIDAL in 3640BC and 3040BC, although Judaism only in 1480, so I might have had a shot. Doubt I would have gone there, even with foreknowledge.

Research path goes on: Pottery->Mining->Bronze Working->Mysticism->Polythiesm->Priesthood->Masonry->Writing

Thebes goes Scout->Warrior->Settler->Worker->Worker->Warrior->Worker. Give or take a warrior or worker here and there, depending on whether I wanted Thebes to grow some more (based on the happiness or health limits).

2200BC saw the founding of Memphis, which began a barracks. I was the largest civ in 1960BC, according to Herodotus or Odysseus or some similarly named scholar. Huh? This is monarch. How did I manage that?

Memphis completes the barracks and begins war chariots. Workers focus on hooking up (in pretty much this order of priority) Rice, Cows, Horses, Marble, Gold, Copper (which turns out to be in range of Thebes. Nice, from a production point of view.)

Early barbs turned out to be a huge nuisance. I never really had many barbs in Adventure 2 (too little land? Chokepoints?), or even adventure 3!!!, but here they’re insane. Initially the war chariots did fine, but when barb axemen started appearing, it got vicious. I tried bait chariots, but the barbs would wander merrily past and head for my improvements, sticking to defensive land and forcing me to attack at a penalty. It makes perfect sense when the barb is only a tile or two away from my improvements, but they simply never attacked my units in the open, instead beelining for improvements or cities four or five tiles further on. I eventually settled for building some axemen and fortifying them in defensive fogbusting locations, at significant supply cost to myself.

[img] http://www.realmsbeyond.net/userfiles/fi...bwatch.jpg[/img]

I timed the Oracle to begin with the connection of marble, and the Oracle to complete at around the same time as writing. Grabbed Code of Laws, and Conficianism. I chose Confucianism because Theology is favoured by Great Prophets, and because I expected to make use of Caste System at Thebes, but I never did because slavery was far too useful for those times. I’d allow my cities to grow past their happiness limit, and then whip them. All three of my cities had extra food, and Thebes especially since all those food plains produced extra food as well as lots of commerce.

[img] http://www.realmsbeyond.net/userfiles/fi...,750bc.jpg[/img]
***
Hatshepsut stood at the top of the steps to her palace, watching the bustling activity below her. Word had reached her that Heliopolis had been founded on the banks of the great ocean, and even now her people where labouring on a fleet of grand triremes to map the oceans, and perhaps discover the lands that Qin called home.

Below her, her people were labouring to construct a library; a place of learning and centralized knowledge. She had instructed her people to move with all haste, and she watched as a guard began beating a lazy slave. At this, a young man who had been meditating near the Oracle, and who had witnessed the event, ran to intervene. A scuffle broke out, and the young man began screaming, “Why should the poor be made to carry the burdens of the rich?” Another guard ran to assist, but the young man struck him to the ground, and then fled the city.

Hatshepsut only watched, and indicated to the guards that they should let the man flee unhindered.

“Tell me of that man,” she said slowly to her chief advisor, after a long pause.

“Ahem. I believe his name is Moses. He teaches at the Oracle. He is somewhat radical, and I believe he teaches that all men are equal under the law, and that no man should be the slave or servant of another. He is clearly insane. Should we have him hunted and killed?”

Hatshepsut was silent for some time, before answering, “No. I do believe his thoughts intrigue me…”

Some time later, word came to Hatshepsut that Moses had fled to Memphis, where he had constructed a Holy Shrine, and taught that not man should be the slave of another.
***

With the completion of the Oracle in 1160BC, I began Settler number 3, and began researching Monothism for Organised Religion and Missionaries. In the short term, I planned on using missionaries to convert my neighbours. Qin had no religion, so research went Monothiesm->Sailing, and when Heliopolis was founded in 550BC it began a galley (rather than sending a missionary through barb infested jungles). Capuc was already Buddhist and so I’d focus on making Qin a religious ally.

In the long term, I hoped to get three or four religions into my cities, for 6-8 extra happy faces with Free Religion (and cheap temples).

A nice tasty barb city sprang up on the river amongst all the dyes, and around 400BC I sent a five-stack of chariots to introduce them to civilization (waiting for size 2, of course). I also took a detour from my research into mathematics, to get iron working. Thebes produced quite a lot of workers. In 325BC, Great Prophet Moses was born in Thebes and built the Confucian Shrine in Memphis. I don’t remember if I was constructing a library at the time, or if I whipped it, but it made for a good story

The first 500 AD years saw me founding Elephantine in the north, snagging sugar (I build ON one sugar plot) and stone and more pigs. I also researched Calendar for the dye, and currency, then Theology (snagging Christianity, founded in Elephantine). My worker stacks slice the jungle near Cuman, and build plantations, and continue on towards Elephantine. The general strategy is for them to fan out to build roads (one worker per plot), and then to combine for the other tiles. Food resources first, then farms if necessary, then cottages or mines, depending on the terrain. Cumen, with little in the way of bonus food, got mines on the hills first and a few farms. Later, it would all be converted to cottages, even the grassland hills.

275AD Theology->Civil Service
400AD The Khan demands Monothiesm. Sure.
450AD Great Prophet Zoraster is born, and I hold onto him for a while in the hope he can be used to found philosophy.
560AD Monarchy + Construction + Archery (!!) +40GP from the Khan for Theology + Code of Laws. Pigs for Sheep. Civil Service is discovered, and it turns out Zoraster will contribute to Divine Right and not Philosophy. Idiot. I have him build a Christian Shrine in Elephantine. Meanwhile, I begin Philosophy Research.
680AD Huayna demands, and gets, 70GP. Idiot.
700AD I discover Philosophy (and Toaism). Three religions, which meets my quota. Self founded, which wasn’t part of my quota. Begin Feudalism research. A tech surge is all well and good, but I need units, and paper cutouts of chariots and axemen won’t hold the line forever. Fortunately, the land grab is still on. Lots of land. And lots of jungle.
800AD Hanging Gardens completes in Thebes.
820AD Fuedalism (longbows) -> Paper. Build longbows.
Around 1000AD I found Alexandria, effectively cutting Qin off from further expansion in my direction. Now I had better have a large enough military. Longbows abound, and there are a number of settlers vacationing in sites I’d like to settle. These spots, while fertile, are beyond my economic desire to build on at the moment, but I’m keeping an eye out for foreign settler pairs. If they look to be settling a spot, I’ll just drop a city right there. I’ve effectively already settled the spot, but am not paying maintenance or improving the city.
1070AD a mongol stack (6 units) makes me nervous, but it’s either just a show of power by Kublai, or he’s heading somewhere else.
[img] http://www.realmsbeyond.net/userfiles/fi...lokhan.jpg[/img]
During this period of growth and settling, I switch backwards and forwards between theology and organised religion (units or buildings) and slavery or serfdom (improvements or buildings).
1130 Education comes in. Gogo Printing Press.

***
For a Very Long Time, the words of Moses refused to leave her head. Hatshepsut sighed. The Egyptian people shared this world with many peoples. From the warlike Kublai, to the tiny Roosevelt. Qin, she sensed, was quiet and broody, and harboured secret hostile thoughts. Beyond the vast oceans, she sensed there were more people, more great nations. Who knew what thoughts THEY harboured.

But what made the Egyptian people different? Where they merely another race of humanoids, striving for their piece of land? Mere animals, obeying the laws of Power and Land and Science?

No, she though, finally. Egyptians…the Egyptian People…were more than that. Unlike the animals who populated this nasty world, the Egyptians would be different. All men and women would be equal. Free to choose what work to do and which gods to serve. Free to speak their minds, and free to live their own lives.

Hatshepsut looked up from her throne at her assembled councillors, who had graciously refrained from interrupting their queen during the last four hours while she had sad quietly thinking.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” said their queen, “I have decided on the way forward.”
***
The years leading up to 1430 are focussed towards only one goal. The Egyptian people continue to expand and improve their lands, and research is focussed. I have a significant tech lead, and hold on to it for now.

Note the Egyptian Cottageland. Also not the longbowman, who’s hiding a settler. I have a number of these settlers in good spots, but they have not founded cities as I don’t feel my economic situation justifies it, nor do I have the workers available yet. However, if a foreign settler comes near…pop goes the city.


Events of interest include:

1250 The Khan seeks war against America. It’ll be phony, and America is small, so I agree. The Khan is big, and I don’t need his animosity.

1260 The Germans show up, and are similar in tech to the AI’s on my own continent. That is, they are behind me.

1290 A couple of cities suffering from unhealthiness are whipped to build universities. Healthy body, healthy mind.

1320 Nationalism->Constitution. I still have a monopoly on Paper and Philosophy. It feel surreal. Start the Taj Mahal in Memphis.

1350 I’ve lost my monopoly on Philosophy. Kublai (friendly) asks for paper. Uhm, no? But maybe later.

1390 Constitution to Liberalism.

1400 Qin asks for paper. Uhm, no? And not later, either. You can damn well pay!

1430 A picture says more than 1000 words. But you guys are smart, you’ve seen this coming all along, haven’t you? Plus, I don’t use misdirection like Sirian does.


[img] http://www.realmsbeyond.net/userfiles/fi...cegypt.jpg[/img]

I’ve put the Taj Mahal on hold for a few years, as I have no serious infrastructure to build over the next few turns, and no competition. Having no great need of some of my monopolies anymore, it’s time to get some of those techs I’m missing. I’ll be protecting my constitution and democracy monopolies.
Philosophy to Inca for…something + 20g. My notes fail me.
Nationalism to Qin for Guilds + 290g
Nationalism to Freddie for Engineering an + 70g
And that’s it? What HAVE these AI’s been doing? Well, EVERYONE keeps offering me alphabet. Don’t you understand, we don’t want your filthy “letters”.

There is some interesting religious separation here, too. The Khan is Islamic. Qin is heavily Confucian. Capuc is mostly Jewish. And the rest of the civs seem to be Buddist. With my own Free Religion and their factions, I hope they eat each other first.



1480AD Taj completes and banks start going up.
1500 AD Asoka finds me. Economics->Replaceable Parts. The AI will be fielding Cavalry soon, and riflemen are THE defender of choice. For now. However, I put cash to 100%, to buy some improvements, for a few turns.
1510AD Nationalism – Capuc for Optics+90. Printing Press->China for Gunpowder+150
1515AD Issy makes an appearance. I still have no real navy, but I have a few cities preparing the infrastructure.
1520AD Isabella demands an obsolete tech (Gunpowder). I refuse and take a -1 attitude hit. Then I turn around and sell it to her for 50 gold, and get +4.
1570 Rifling comes in and I start saving the money necessary to mass upgrade my longbows (3000 gold)

1595 Qin converts to Theocracy. I’m thinking I’ll be needing those rifles soon…
1600 Rifling->Freddie for Astronomy. Both are near monopoly techs, but I don’t fear Freddie landing a killer stack of rifles from across the seas just yet, so I hope it’s safe.

1605 Hatshepsut suspected Qin all along of harbouring psychotic tendencies, and when the war horn sounds his nature is revealed. I’m nervous of monarch killer stacks; I saw them in Adventure 2. Luckily, Capuc is the unlucky soul. Hatshepsut, in her magnanimity, sells rifling to Capuc on the cheap. Fight fair now, boys. Qin already has rifling. Oh, and the Statue of Liberty comes in.
I’ve been saving my Great People now, and when a Great Engineer is born in 1635 in Memphis, I have five great people and two Golden Ages ready whenever I want them. Meanwhile, research is aimed at getting destroyers patrolling my waters.

1685 Khan declares war on Roosevelt, and I, valuing a fair fight, provide Roosevelt with cheap rifling. I don’t want a runaway civ here. I’m the biggest, and barring mass landgrabs, will remain that way. It’s still early enough in the game that a landgrab can be consolidated into a winning position. I get another great person, and the engineer builds the ironworks in El-Armana. (I expect attacks from my own continent to be mostly land based. El Armana with provide a navy to ward off attacks from the other continent.



1755 Qin-The-Nutter gets bored with Capuc and makes peace, declaring instead on the Khan. Who’s troops are still in the USA, slowed down by my rifles And these are the big boys, hopefully this war just slows them both down a bit. A great merchant (wow, lots of great people, thanks to the Parthenon build earlier in Memphis, and lots of specialists) makes 1700 in Mongolia.

1804 Assembly Line -> Radio. Peace between Khan and Qin. Khan lost a city, though. Probably made up for it with American cities, so the balance of power is fair. I upgrade some, but not all, riflemen to infantry, mostly on border cities. It’s the first time since border pressure began that I went cheap on the military.

***
The queen sat in her chambers, overcome with a feeling of heaviness quite unlike anything she had experience before. A messenger had arrived that day with the news. Qin had declared war on the Egyptian People.

Despite all her efforts to make the Egyptian Lands appear impregnable and intimidating, War was come to Egypt. She had failed, and now Egyptian free men and women would die in the defence of their freedom.

With her heart heavy, she sealed the orders. Egypt WOULD defend it’s lands.

And then, as she often did, she turned to her telescope to gaze upon the stars.
***

1830 Qin-The-Nutter practices oscillating war. I’m next in line. I wasn’t quite prepared for war. I had the infantry to defend my cities, and even to counterattack occasionally, but those damn two move cavalry can move and plunder before I can get them. I didn’t feel like having all my towns plundered down to the ground at Alexandria, so I had to stretch myself thin for a while to get units to the front and protect the land. Once I had the line defended, Qin wasn’t too eager to impale his troops, despite the fact that he could probably have broken the line at any time (I only had a unit or two per tile).

[img] http://www.realmsbeyond.net/userfiles/fi...nawar1.jpg[/img]

I was pretty nervous, though, as he had a huge (in my experience) army holed up at Hangzhou, complete with transports and defence ships. If he made a landing, I had the troops to kill off the landing party, but not without removing almost my entire maginot line force and chasing after the transporters. That would have split my force and been a serious setback.

I had a destroyer and a battle ship in the area, but they would likely not have been enough to get to the transports before they could land troops.

Oh, and speaking of cavalry:


Fortunately, Industrialism was next on my list of techs to research on my way to robotics, so I didn’t even have to change my research path. It came in 1848, and prompted a huge change of plans. See, I was already in a winning position (superior land, tech and production), and has no desire or need to be fighting wars. The war against China was a minor inconvenience to be played out as fast as possible.

***
War is ugly, thought the Egyptian queen, once again gazing through her telescope. Egyptian blood was being spilt. And would be spilt again, once Qin had regrouped his forces. Perhaps next time, he would buy the assistance of the Khan. Or Isabella, who had been showing jealousy at Egypts success. It must be a girl thing.

Unless Egypt showed that they were not to be trifled with. Unless they set an example. The world had to learn that hostility against Egypt was an EXPENSIVE proposition, or the Egyptian Free People would be the worlds target forever.
“War is ugly,” said the queen, aloud this time. Her advisor remained silent, as he had been for some time. “War is truly ugly. But let it be known that the price for hostility against the Egyptian Free People is Very High. Very high indeed. We shall set an example. We cannot afford to let this example go misunderstood, councillor. ”
***

The war against China was a minor inconvenience to be played out as fast as possible. That is, until Industrialism revealed that the nearest Aluminium was quite nearby, in China. I wasn’t sure if Aluminium was necessary for a spaceship win, but I knew it was significant. So:
Step (1) 10 turns of peace with Qin as soon possible, to fend of war weariness and buy time.
Step (2) research Facism, to allow police state; a second war with China, in Chinese lands, would be expensive in terms of unhappy faces.
Step (3) Kick off a golden age and build tanks. I’d been planning my second Golden age for building space ship parts, but plans never survive contact with the enemy. Or something.
Step (4) Muahhahahahaha. Sorry.

1860 – 10 turns of peace to China for 570G + 11GPT (Uh, they paid). Perhaps I should mention my first 5 tanks razed Shandong shortly before my emissary arrived at Qin’s court. Perhaps this affected the price for peace, eh? Silly China, building cities adjacent to my cultural border. Oh, Qin says they weren’t next to my cultural borders when they where built. Hehe…good culture for an uncultured civ.

I kick off a Golden Age, and build some tanks. Research started on Robotics. And, uhm, I’m third most advanced? Despite being up on Industrialism, Plastics and Radio? I’m down on five other techs (alphabet dependant), but in beakers the ones I have must be worth WAY more. It would appear that “Most Advanced” is based on raw number of techs, not beaker cost or level in the tech tree.

1866 My spy carefully counts 22 ground units in Hangzou, including four or five infantry.

How many turns between 1870 and 1880? That’s how many turns it takes to research flight. Rocketry is started.

1882 – The second war with Qin-the-Nutter begins. My staging force is prepared. Once more, a picture says more than a thousand words; the advantage of fighting on a narrow front.





Interestingly, I’ve moved from almost last in power to a resounding first. Thanks to El-Armana, my ironworks city, and two tanks every three turns. I can’t build the Epic remember. As a matter of curiosity, what happens in terms of overflow if you build something faster than a unit per turn?

Hangzhou, and Shangdong’s replacement, fall in the first turn. I lose only three tanks at Hangzhou; my collateral damage sacrificial lambs. During the war I raze five Chinese cities, to Xian and Beijing. This cuts off iron, copper, oil and aluminium to the Chinese. Beijing was building catapults the turn before it fell. <Insert evil laugh here…> I don’t need or feel like managing new cities.

To limit collateral damage, I shield my main tank stack with small groups of tanks and mechanized infantry. I think I had a group of 24 tanks, protected by three of four groups of tanks and mechs (2 per group). The line was broken once (two units killed after heavy artillery attack), but Qin didn’t have the artillery to follow up on my main stack. The advance was inexorable, slowed only one turn to allow bombers to reduce the defences of Beijing to 0, operating out of El-Umin-Um built ON the aluminium, in case of counter attack. Destroyers handled the defences of the other cities.



For the first time, the No Alphabet rule is hurting me, as I cannot produce culture to prevent war weariness. Fortunately, before I’m crippled completely, I make peace in 1900, in exchange for Turfan and some change, which I give back to Mongolia. Ugly city, no wonder the Khan isn’t grateful (not even a +1 modifier for “you liberated our city”?) I also plant a city near the wines, although it’s probably a moot point by now.

Another interesting aside; many civs are sending settlers to fill the gaps left by Chinese cities. How did they know there were gaps?



After the war, I switch to 100 cash for a while to make some use of the Kremlin before Optical Fibre comes in. I buy the Space Elevator, Rock ‘n Roll, Eiffle and the 3 Gorges Dam. My spaceship begins in 1916.

1924. Beautiful. Einstein is born, and contributes to the research of Fusion.

1932. World War One begins. The Khan declares on Rosie again, but this time he’s bought friends; Asoka and Freddie. Oops. Bitten off more than you can chew there, my friend. He asks for some assistance in 1939, but I’m one turn away from my spaceship, so, uhm…no?

***
As she reached the top of her staircase, she turned and looked over the city. It was a habit. Without fail, upon reaching the top of the staircase to her palace, she would turn and gaze over the city for some time, absorbing all that unfolded before her.

This time, however, Hatshepsut was NOT standing at the top of the palace stairs, but at the top of the metal staircase to the spaceship, Freedom. For the last time, the queen observed her empire, though it was not to remain hers for much longer. Soon, it would pass to her chief advisor, Ramses. As for her, she would commandeer the Freedom to a new home amongst the stars. In stasis for the trip, behind her in the Freedom, were 40,000 scientists, engineers, doctors and specialists of all kinds. Men and women handpicked by the queen for their intelligence, ingenuity, health and above all, beliefs in the principles of freedom and equality for all men.

Hatshepsut had seen enough blood spilt on earth. And with the likes of the Khan, there would be more. But perhaps, in a new place, on a new world, there would be true freedom.
***

Space Race victor in 1940. A good game for me, though I suspect I’ll be seeing Space Race victories in the 1700’s from some of the others Ah, well. I won’t say no to my first monarch victory!

And here is the proof (together with a little screenshot of the world):



Summary - Spaceship win 1940.

[theGrimm]

Interesting. Although all the reports I've read so far show faster wins than my own, I seem to have had a greater edge over the AI tech wise than other players.

I wonder if beating the AI to democracy by a good 40 turns or more had something to do with it...

And thus, by holding up the AI, I created an ever increasing gap in research, to the point that the AI never had tech to trade me. Thus I had to do all my own research.

Edit: Still, for the life of my I can't understand why my launch date was so late. I wasn't specifically trying for an early launch, but looking back, I can't think of anything obvious that held me back.

CCMW!!! (Constructive Criticism Most Welcome)

[theGrimm]

A couple of additions, looking back on my replay:

-Both Spain and USA LOST a city to Barbs, so it wasn't just the human with lots of barbs around. Not as bad as a civ being destroyed, though! I wonder if one could win a game by conquest with barbs.
-I never get PAO (Popped another one), but it can have quite an effect on a game like this...all things not remaining equal. Especially having Alum pop!
-My AI's didn't fight many wars (the Other continent fought none till the end), but were really backwards. Both Uber and myself had backwards AI's and got Democracy relatively early. I think the democracy unhappy faces can be quite significant. Issy had the AI lead with only four parts when I launched in 1940. ONLY in 1940.

And i still can't work out why I launched so late. Overall inefficiency, maybe...