Adventure 4 Atlas Abstains from Alphabet

[Atlas]

Summary: 1949 Space Race Win, Hammurabi, score 14486, in game score of 3573

There on the vast floodplains of the Nile river a group of Egyptian nomads had decided to settle and form a city. The group of nomads was led by two brothers, Crayon (who loved to draw and paint) and Bic (who loved to make abstract symbols that represented words). The settlers were accompanied by a group of Egyptian warriors. These warriors were committed to protecting the settlers and to exploring.

Crayon and Bic were unsure where they wanted to begin the new Egyptian civilization. They saw a bright blue circle right where they were standing and the circle frightened them and the people. So Crayon and Bic sent the warrior group to a high hill that was occupied by a strange beast with a curly tail. From the heights the warriors spied a rock called marble that might prove useful in the future. They reported this information to Crayon and Bic and they decided that it was good to stay on the sacred Nile river, but that it was important to be closer to this interesting rock called marble. So the settler group of Egyptians decided to move off of this strange blue circle and go one square to the northwest. There they founded the great city of Thebes in 4000BC, revealing that one day (because of the move) gold will be within the city in addition to pigs and marble. The people rejoiced at the wisdom of Crayon and Bic, but they had been scared by the blue circle, they were anxious and curious about the powers that could create such a phenomenon. Thus Crayon and Bic, being kind rulers decided that the people should learn of the gods and that the people should grow and multiply. Then 720 years after the founding of Thebes the people learned the philosophy of many Gods when they discovered Polytheism before all other people and founded Hinduism.

[Atlas]

Crayon and Bic rejoiced with the people as they now understood about beings greater than themselves that could create the mysterious blue circle that scared the people in the beginning. The people now understood the purpose of the blue circle, the purpose was to warn the Great Egyptian People not to build a city on the spots with the large blue circles. The Egyptian people continued to learn and advance and even began to work the surrounding countryside. Since discovering Hinduism the people felt it was best to build a great structure to honor the gods. Crayon and Bic approved of this plan and recommended that the structure be built of that excellent stone north of Thebes, and so it was finished in 2040BC.


This event was a momentous one in the history of the Egyptian people, for the Oracle allowed the great people to advance their knowledge and they did for they discovered how laws were to be made, drafted and enforced. This “Code of Laws” was important and the people were happy for it brought another religion to join Hinduism, the also great religion of Confucianism.

Unfortunately this new found knowledge brought a disagreement between Crayon and Bic. Having learned to communicate through Crayon’s drawings/paintings Bic became jealous and wanted to formulize his system for written communication and learn about the so called “Alphabet.” Crayon disagreed as he thought the pictures and paintings were both sufficient and more beautiful than his brother’s sterile and ugly “Alphabet” and wanted to learn the Code of Laws. The brothers argued and fought and Bic was defeated in single combat by his brother. Crayon decided to allow his brother live, but his brother was banished from the Egyptian lands forever and the idea of an "Alphabet" became anathema in the land.

Bic became jealous and his heart began to turn black. He began to gather nomadic warriors under a new banner, the banner of the white skull on a black background. He called his new civilization Barbs. They were and ugly and hateful people that fought with each other and the Great Egyptian peoples for they were twisted by their leader Bic.....

[Atlas]

The city of Thebes began to grow large. There was crowding in the city and disease began to spread. Crayon decided that there were too many people and that maybe it was time to spread the great Egyptian people to other areas. An area to the east was found were great production could be had and great beasts called horses could be tamed, fish could be caught and cows herded. This city founded on the coast was Memphis (1240BC) and would create war units for the Egyptian Empire. This city specialized in military and thus its fighters were of superior quality. Memphis built war chariots for millennia on end to deal with the twisted fighters of Bic’s Barbs. The chariots would hunt down his archers, warriors and axemen. Eventually Bic organized his people into settlements, that Crayon’s war chariots consistently destroyed.


The War Chariots of Memphis explored the great lands near Thebes and there was much jungle and many resources to be found. Crayon decreed that as the Egyptian drawers and painters were the “Chosen” people and that they should spread peacefully across these lands and they began to send settlers into the wild to find new resources and city sites. They spread well and quickly with the help of their courthouses and the Empire was peacefully and learned. Using their beautiful character system called hieroglyphs they acquired knowledge about metal, religion, the sea and ocean. They learned mathematics. They meet peoples from other civilization like HC of the Incas, the Qin of the Chinese, followed by FDR of the Americans and finally Kublai of the Mongols. All of these people were far from the Egyptians and told tales of encounters with the minions of Bic....

In 425BC a great religious leader was born in Thebes by the name of Moses, he surveyed the Oracle and considered that it was good to have religious buildings, but that Hinduism was a very great religion and should a build specific to it and he ordered the construction of a great building called the Kashi Vishiwanath.

At this time Crayon was so impressed by the wisdom of Moses and decided to go on a lark. He determined that for the start of the new millennia a new great building should be built of marble so that more great people would be attracted to Thebes and all the Egyptian cities. So in 1AD a building called The Parthenon was completed and the people rejoiced.


The Egyptian people continued to learn with their great system of beautiful pictographs. After many, many years it became apparent that some of the other people like Qin and Kublai knew how to exchange information with the Egyptians, but the Egyptians had nothing that they wanted. But FDR and HC still did not know how to exchange information with the Egyptians and the Egyptians did not care for Qin and Kublai used a system (Alphabet) like Bic had wanted. Crayon knew this system of learning to be corrupting for he had seen how it had twisted Bic and he rejected learning this and decided that the Egyptian people would never learn this for it would corrupt their righteous progress.

[Atlas]

Other religions, besides the true path of Hindu/Conf., were founded, Kublai learned of Taoism. These religions were of minor importance to the Egyptians, as they cared for Hinduism, but above all Confucianism would come to hold sway in Egyptian lands and have great influence across the known world. In 520AD Ananda the Great Prophet was born in Thebes and he like Moses wanted a special building so he built the Kong Miao.


Many cities were built some claimed metals like iron and copper, other cities were founded to make use of items that would make the people happy and healthy, like rice, dyes and bananas. Some cities were to become so prosperous that they would be slave centers.


At 1000AD trading is still only possible with those followers of Bic, Kublai and Qin. Crayon decided that he wants to learn about Liberalism before all others and sets his pictographers the task of learning all they can in pursuit of that goal.

1210AD We meet Freddy the Foul for he also uses Bic’s nasty system of sounds.

1260AD Is the first exchange of knowledge. The great Egyptian painters and drawers were tired of etching stone and wanted to be able to draw more quickly and store their writings with greater ease. They discovered Paper, and it would appear that those possessing their foul Alphabet and thinking themselves so advanced did not know of this, HA!! So the first ever exchanges of knowledge occur between the Egyptians and the foul alphabetists. Paper to Kublai for Theology and 150 gold piece. Paper to Qin for Horseback riding and Monarchy, and Freddy gets Philosophy and gives Machinery and 60 gold pieces.

It would appear that this first ever exchange of information was very frightening for Qin for after this one trade he now declared that he “fears we are becoming too advanced.” When Crayon heard this he threw his head back and roared with laughter “Qin! The fool, of course we are more advanced and of course he fears our superior knowledge and superior scholars. He is a foul alphabetist, with no understanding of the beauty of our written form.” And Qin was right to fear Crayon and the Egyptians for they got to Liberalism first and were able to simultaneously learn Nationalism. They were advanced and the world feared their Hieroglyphs!!

It would not be until 1330AD that FDR would get into the tech trading game, and he would prove to be a good partner. HC of the Incas would eventually learn to trade technological information with Crayon and his people. They were not a backward people, they merely understood the righteousness of hieroglyphs much longer than the others, they were strong, but eventually succumbed to the twisted creation of Bic.

Things like the Sistine Chapel and Taj Mahal were built. And technology progressed with Egyptian hieroglyphs on the cutting edge of science and learning. Eventually buildings like Eiffel Tower, Broadway, UN, and Hollywood were built in the Egyptian empire. Many civs were now Confucian and admiring of the great civilization built by Crayon and the great Egyptian people.





In 1924 there was a great gathering of 7 great people from all over the empire. The seven of them threw a great party and meeting. This party invigorated Crayon and the people and a great Golden Age began, there had been other golden ages in the history of the Egyptian people, but this one would be twice as long. The increased production of the people aided in a great quest of Crayon’s. He wanted to conquer the heavens. His hieroglyphologists had conceived of a vehicle that could conquer the heavens and it was almost entirely build during this 15 turn golden age. The Great Ship was launched in 1949 and the great Egyptians began to spread their great hieroglyphs throughout the heavens.


1949 Win, Hammurabi, score 14486, in game score of 3573


Notes. This was a very fun game and actually differs greatly (IMHO) from no tech trading games. Not having the Heroic Epic is actually a real handicap in the early game when good military units take a long time, but the main disadvantages were not being able to trade tech early, build research and build theaters. Once the player gets to Alphabet he can trade with everyone, but when he has to wait for everyone it is much more difficult. This is especially true since on higher levels the human will always start behind and will normally play catch up until the renaissance or industrial ages. Even when Qin and Kublai had Alphabet I did not have anything to trade to them. Normally I go for Alphabet early and trade with the stragglers, but since HC and FDR took so long to get to Alphabet I really had to catch Qin and Kublai by depth research and trading back. On a crazy note I was only able to trade tech with Qin once, before he went WFYABTA. It was true we were advanced-but, just wow! Once FDR (who is a good friend in all my games) got Alphabet we traded all game, HC too, but he was less reliable.

I only had fake wars that Izzy or Freddy asked me to undertake against each other or Asoka. Asoka was just crushed between too powers, Izzy was huge, but backward and a non entity. Freddy was very advanced, but had only a moderate amount of territory. I had no wars and as I recall there were no real wars on the continent. There was one early Qin-Kublai war, but the Mongols only took one Chinese city then it was peace for the rest of the game on the home continent. Probably as a result of Qin, HC, Me, and FDR were all Conf. (FDR eventually went free religion in the late game). I think that Egypt had the best start of all the civs. A good game.

[Snaproll]

Atlas,

It's always nice to read a report with more of a story flavor, quite refreshing. I found myself deeply engrossed in the trials and tribulations of Crayon and Bic, and, I'll be honest, the tears flowed when I heard of their schism.

you grabbed Confucianism with the Oracle as some other players did, despite already having one religion! Interesting move. I think all the other Oracle-Confucianism people did it because they skipped out on the early ones. Am I the only one who went the old Metal Casting Route? Maybe! And the Parthenon too! Nice opening game there.

Byblos - one tile off the coast, right on the hill? Strange location! I see that you wanted to grab the rice AND the fish for whipping purposes, but I think you would have got more benefit from a lighthouse and a harbor in the long run.

Nice peaceful game there, and a nice report. You mentioned in my thread that we should start some Emperor games up, and I agree! I'm feasting with 4 SG's right now, but then again, there are no more RB games to play...

[Gaspar]

Love the storytelling, nice game. :D

[Sirian]

there are no more RB games to play...

There will be. Some day.

[LKendter]

There will be. Some day.

Well I hope so. I hope I didn't upgrade to 1 Gig to play epics, just to have less competition games. Now that I am limiting myself to 3 1/2 games I have the time to play the next epic.
Now we just need the next epic. Though I really hope it isn't emperor like some people are hoping for. I am just starting up on monarchy...
Adventure 1 was hard enough with stepping up to prince.

[Sirian]

Well I hope so. I hope I didn't upgrade to 1 Gig to play epics, just to have less competition games. Now that I am limiting myself to 3 1/2 games I have the time to play the next epic.
Now we just need the next epic. Though I really hope it isn't emperor like some people are hoping for. I am just starting up on monarchy...
Adventure 1 was hard enough with stepping up to prince.

It won't be Emperor.

Also, these patches are a limited time deal. Things will settle down, and then there won't be any delays tied to waiting on patches.

Fear not, your RAM upgrade was a good investment.


- Sirian