Well, my report fell foul to hubby cleaning up his computer while I was on holiday. I seemingly forgot to save it on my partition.

I have to play on his computer as my laptop has overheating issues. I got my own partition there which he never touches, but I can hardly blame him if I save it in the wrong location.

All I have now are a few scibbled notes on post-its and the impression that somebody mixed something into my tobaco while I was playing. I just can't have done what I wrote down! Seriously

It ended with a Loss in 1938. Ghandi won the Space Race. Washington must have been ready any turn as well.

I founded on the spot and at that point didn't know that you can check who you are up against, so went for Hinduism. (Thanks Sulla, learned about that F8 from your report)
I got it as well.
I guess I built a few warriors in Paris to explore and then a worker and a settler. That's what I usually do.
I researched Masonry, Anumal Husbandry, Hunting and Archery.
I remember that I explored and decided to put my first city up at Wheat/Silk/Pigs. Unfortunately Ghengis could settle immediately after, before my borders could expand.

In 1250 BC Stonehenge was complete and further research went to Pristhood and Pottery.

Now my notes are a bit unclear. I must have built another settler now to seal off my part of the world to the south. There are too many years without anything happening otherwise. I guess I built a lot of archers as well, to keep Ghengis at bay.

In 600 BC Monty converts to Judaism. He founded it the turn before I think and snatched it from me by a turn or two!
I revolt to OR in 560 BC
Discover Writing next.
In 200 BC Hinduism spreads to Beshbalik and I'm quite disappointed when Ghengis converts to it. That madman is going to be my ally!
I also complete the Oracle that turn and choose code of Laws as free tech and found Confucuanism.
Discover Mining.

I must have been expanding to the east now, slowly as money allows. Moses is born in 40 AD and builds the Hindu Shrine right away. I need that gold and Hinduism is spreading nicely in my cities and Ghengis (Missionaries I guess).
Discover Bronze Working.

210 AD Alex declares war. Why?? He's so far off and declares before Monty?? That guy mus hate me big time. It's a phoney war.
230 AD Pyramids come in and I completely forget about changing civics due to Alex unsettling me.
Discover Iron Working and the Fishing (Might have traded for fishing).
Didn't get the Parthenon.
Finally discover Alphabet in 920 AD and finally remember that I had built the Pyramids. Representation and Slavery are adopted.
1025 AD I finish chitzen Itza. Why would I build that? I have no idea!
Now Currency and Metal Casting are on the research list and I finally get some more commerce and production.

Now my notes get sparse as I went over to directly writing it into the report now. Sorry.

I research towards Music, picking up Feudalism on the way and don't get the Free Artist.
Peaceful research until 1610. Washington and Ghandi have a slight tech lead on me, but I figure I can catch up as my cities finally start to look good and I just discovered Education.

Well, Monty declared on Ghengis and as he is my friend, I feel obliged to help him out when he comes asking.
That must have screwed with my mind because I suddenly reseached Nationalism and not Liberalism as I was about to. That'll pay off bad later when Washington snatches Liberalism with me having only 3 turns to go. At least I got The Taj-Mahal and a few Atztec cities.
Unfortunately Ghengis made peace when I just was ready to anhilate Monty. Big arghhhhh.
He declares again on Ghengis in 1692 and I, of course, help my dear buddy again when he needs me.
I get the rest of the Aztec cities now and that was a mistake. I now border with Washington who sees his chance and declares on me.

Well, you have chosen unwisely!...Errr...wait a minute...are those two stacks for real?....how many cavalries are that exactly? I couldn't count them all as they went over the display limit.
I let him take that one Aztec city he was after and made peace as soon as possible.

Time for military buildup.
Researched Tanks and Infantry and build a bunch awaiting his next declaration.
Uh, that's wrong. Why is Alexander declaring war? I can't reach him! He drops off a few units in the former jungly east, but I have oil and soon a destroyer. Yeah, I forgot about my navy. I anhilate his troops and ships a bit later and he soon accepts peace.
Now Washington declare, but not on me. Ghengis is his target.
Same for me, I think. I have about 20 tanks and complemantary infantry and cannons sitting around waiting for Ghengis' invitation...that never comes! I have to sit there and watch Ghengis getting anhilated. He's gone soon after and I later get a few of his cities via culture flip.

Meanwhile the space race is on and Ghandi, Washington and I are close at it. I eventually loose by 2 parts.

Sorry about this completly dry report with much information lacking. It was the best I could muster up. I'll be more careful where I save for the next one!.

Closing thoughts:
Ghengis getting my religion and being my friend was bad!
I could never get out of my small peninsula because of that.
I seriously messed up my research.
After Ghengis adopted my religion I should have solely concentrated on Space Race and building up.
I missed a lot of crucial wonders due to my messed up research.

I was considering to change religion to Confucianism to make ghengis mad at me, but didn't think that was honorable.
(Comments on this please?)

Thanks a lot for this experience Sirian. It was fun and taught me a lot. I'm sure I'll learn even more from all the reports coming in now.

No screens and a defeat......oh well....

As I sit entertained by a visiting tribal band from Africa or some such place apparently, I contemplate my nations’ future. For too long we have sat idle waiting for such things to visit us. It is time that our name was known throughout the world. Yes I, Emech the 1st would advise my leaders to see that the French Empire would be revered as honourable and strong in the annuals of history. So, timidly I approach Louis XIV about my bold visions.

It is 4000BC. If our name is to be known, we must know others I reason. Thus I send a small group of warriors off in search of foreign lands. Having some awareness of the lands to our immediate east, they head North Westerly with pride knowing they carry with them the hopes of our tribe.

For indeed a tribe we were. But how things were to change. Those of us left behind saw no reason to excert any more effort than necessary (having been accustomed to a laissez-faire life-style) and thus settled on the spot and ordered up another generation of warriors to protect and serve our nation as seen fit at future times.

40 years passed and reports of water supplies to our north were received from our brave warriors. Thus it was directed that we should examine means of collecting the fish from the seas. After all, we could hardly rely on the odd passing boar anymore now that we had decided the caravan life was no longer for us. Our people needed food gosh-darn-it and fish is said to be good for the brain. We would be wealthy and wise for sure!

Another 80 years pass with little news as our village grows in peace. Still, our warriors request advice. Should they explore the unknown further or approach the huts in the near distance? We must meet people I advise. Head to those huts and make contact. And thus it was that the warriors moved SW.

3840BC - Oh what a year! Our settlement has indeed taken root. So pleased were the people with the new lands that we experience a massive land claim so that we officially occupied about 2/3rds of the known lands. Also, our warriors mad contact with our neighbours’ huts. Clearly in awe of our expansion they showered us in gold and promptly dispersed to the wilds. What? You think 3 large club-welding warriors approaching scared them off their lands? Never... we are honourable people. Truly it was their voluntary decision. Forceful occupancy is not the French way! Our brave warriors re-commence their exploration of the lands to the west.

3680BC - Our exploring warriors report what appears to be a coast to our direct west and write of their finding a "field of feast" to their North, where domesticated pigs roam free. Were these pigs once belonging to another great nation or simply the offspring of another hut-village herd? Further investigation was required, and thus the warriors were sent to the north and early thoughts of expansion entered our minds.

3600BC - A hook on some string. How simple! No more swimming out amongst the sharks to catch out meat! This fishing is a marvellous idea! But of course man cannot live on fish alone. There were calls for us to discover some means of breeding the known pigs nearby, but we would have none of it! We are warriors are we not? No, let us also hunt some game perhaps allowing further exploration as well as we search the wilds for food and friends.

3560BC - Some suggest that our newly trained warriors resented being posted on watch duty in town, rather then being out exploring as did their forebears. In revolt they rebelled and killed their king. Others suggest that perhaps it was poison. Let it be known that the REIGN OF EMECH rose directly through the unknown fish allergy of King Louis XIV. With no heir it was only "natural" that his most trusted advisor directly rule the people.

3480BC - As our warriors continued their searching of the NW lands, drawings on caves in the forest covered hills revealed that another had the noble goal of working their way towards nothing through multiple rebirths, or at least that was all we could figure. The discovery of rice fields north of this hill gave further rise to the notion that there must have been other civilisations nearby at some point. The warriors’ journey continued, as our own town prepared for expansion with children being taught the means to establish another town in some future time.

3360BC - The wasted years. Our wandering warriors reach a dead-end as a natural bay is fully mapped to our NW. No other civilisations found and no means of crossing the seas means that they must now retrace their steps somewhat. At least this journey should be somewhat shorter given their newly gained knowledge of the land and the mechanics of turn measurement.

3240 - A stone on a stick! Will our nations’ thinkers ever cease to amaze! Now we not only have a means of sublimenting our fish meals but also a means of defence! Perhaps we will train mighty "spear" wielders. Perhaps. For now we continue in the quest to expand via the establishment of another town with a future generation of settlers. With no immediate threats to our nation present, it is decided that the means of pig management would at least be researched. For surly the knowledge of spears would be means enough of defence for now?

3080BC - Having rested in our northern boarders, our wandering warriors commence their exploration of the NE. Some quiet expectation and fear rests amongst them as lions were seen to pass this way not many seasons ago.

2960BC - More pigs at the base of impassable mountain peaks. The mysteries of this previous pig taming nation linger on. Still, with only a narrow pass between the peaks we are relaxed about the security the "choke point" will provide. Satisfied of safety, our warriors head SW into the darkness.

2920BC - Lo - A scout approaches bearing word of a white haired male claiming to be an American. There is much speculation as to whether it be a wig he wears and why it may be sported. None the less we welcome his greeting, declaring peace amongst our peoples.

2880BC - Is there some convention to which we were not invited. No sooner do our warriors leave the American scout to his devices and prepare to further investigate the mysteriously tame pigs then ANOTHER messenger greets us. This time a rather imposing man suggests that "crushing the world beneath our sandals would be way cool" - We of course would have none of such silliness. Sandals on our shoes and leaves in out hair indeed. NO, these Greeks were told that it would be peace we seek.

2680BC - As our warriors decide to explore the regions immediately surrounding our town, heading south down our eastern boarders, we discover foreign lands. A warmongering Mongol makes much of his perceived strength and despite the temptation to call his bluff we again re-iterate our desire for peace and continue on our way.

2600BC - FENCES!! Of course. By restricting the animals movement we can control their life cycles, breeding and milking as our needs demand. At last those free-range pigs will be controlled providing bacon to the nation. Hmmm - bacon. Being somewhat concerned with the proximity of the Mongols our research moves towards shorting our spears and expelling them at force. Meanwhile the discovery of some fancy blue dyes on our SE boarders suggests that we might attempt a settlement claim in that direction when the time comes. After all, why shouldn’t we French have the finest coloured clothes? The warriors return to their westward journey, to scout out southern boarders and examine if we can fish the waters near the dyes.

2520BC - Their discovery of wide waters and cows to our SW inspires us with joy. However the true celebration is the greeting provided from some peaceable warriors representing some elder individual from India. Despite his condescending tone (us? annoying? hardly....) we welcome peace with this civilisation also.

2480BC - And there is parties in the streets as further land claims are made and our boarders expand. Regrettably there is no new resources made available to us, but the upcoming expedition of our settlers will surely rectify that.

2240BC - The woe and misery - a hut village is discovered to our Southwest. The hasty Indians however beat us to the spoils. Still, a race well won. We resist the urge to re-claim via the blood of the victor, after all we are nothing if not honourable! Still perhaps the Gods are watching, for no sooner is the village plundered than...

2200BC - VICTORY - Our noble warriors survive an unprovoked attack from some warrior bandits, our wise ones develop a bow and are directed to discover an efficient means of recording our dealings and the Indians are attacked by wild wolves. Whilst we take some pleasure in this natural justice, we are also happy to report their survival, although surely in need of care.

2120BC - The discovery of horses to our far SW prompts some indecision as to where our future expansion best truly lies. It is decided that we will settle to the SE, letting our boarders protect us until such time as new settlers can be raised to tame the horses to our SW. In recognition of this our wandering warriors return eastwards to prepare for the defence of the soon to be settled boarder town, and a scout is ordered up to continue the fine work these founding fighters have done.

1975BC - An international survey has found us only 2nd to the Indians in the culture stakes and we are reliably informed that some have decided to worship cows. Cows I say! I could understand the worshipping of the mysteriously tamed pigs, but cows?

1900BC - Our expansion commences. Orleans is founded (as planned) to our south-west. On the advice of others perhaps wiser than ourselves, we settle inland sacrificing the immediate claim to the dyes. We do not fear however as surely our esteemed culture will see our boarders expand to ensnare all the varied resources available to us in the immediate regions. With two towns established and cows to fence up, a worker commences training in this new city as our warriors arrive to defend it from would be oppressors.

1800BC - As our Parisian scout commences his (automated) journey SW, a Bowman is trained to enhance the defence of our fine Capital. Yes it is pleasing to be able to claim that title for our town as we are now seen as an expanding nation with the highest score (173) of all known civilisations. A nagging doubt remains however that this is just the calm before the storm.

1700BC - Orleans celebrates as its boarders expand as expected, claiming both nearby cows and dyes. We hold our breath in expectation of our soon to be skilled worker group prepares to bring forth the means to display the bold purples of our cloths.

1575BC - Writing is discovered. At last we are able to record this history in a form that can be truly understood by others. Despite calls to sail the oceans or mine the hills, we instead embark on a means to build better houses and storage devices out of dry mud.

1450BC - A far distant land prays to the one God in wailing voices near a wall. We wonder what all this religious revolution is about and consider perhaps commencing our own sometime down the track. In the meantime our first archer makes his way towards Orleans to strengthen our defences there and another one is placed in training to protect our glorious capital.

1325BC - Upon the archers arrival in Orleans, a worker is ready to perform his duties. Having trust in the people the worker is automated. It is suggested this is lazy and uncommon amongst other honourable leaders, but these calls are shuggred of as this leader is mindful of the bigger picture and leaves the micro managing to his entrusted servants. A new settler is called upon to be raised in order to claim the horses to our SW and ensure that our fair nation continues to prosper.

1250BC - Celebrations over the discovery of pottery are abandoned when news reaches us that our brave scout has been defeated by lions. Mothers morn the years of sacrifice that went into their creation. Despite the slow growth of the nation there is public outcry and Emech the 1st resigns as leader, passing the rule to the "leader of the people" Mccrae. Mccrae immediately takes steps to appease the people, calling the great minds to commence the study of the ways of religion. He is aware that the nation is lagging well behind in this field, but he is a leader of the people, and the people demand happiness. Thus it was. Pleased with the training of the Parisian archer, he turns his attention the feeding of his peoples ordering the building of a granary so as to prepare for droughts that may in future days occur. And so many years of construction will pass with little exploration of the rest of the world.

1175BC - And lo it came to pass that the age of diplomacy had arrived. It appeared that a Mongol scout was unable to explore further without permission to cross through our boarders to the west. Yet it was India who made the first request for the exchange of boarder passes. With no units to scout further at this time there was no opportunity for France to make use of such a policy. Further it suited us to delay our warmongering neighbours exploration efforts by refusing access to their scout. Therefore in the interests of fairness to all, this request was denied.

1100BC - The Greeks request for open boarders was also denied in accordance with precedent. Mccrae did not feel this was a huge loss to his neighbours given that the lands to the west denied to them had a little but a shore line to show. It was felt better to have them uncertain of our nations size then confirm for them what was thought to be a potential weakness of position.

1050BC - At last France had some "higher" thought. The discovery of Mysticism excited many (despite its long overdue usefulness) Being aware of the Mongols expansion to the east and the waters to the west, in a rare practice of foresight Mccrae embarked in the research of the means of expanding across those waters to provide growth opportunities.

840BC - Amidst public concerns about what appeared to be a lack of any development or action on the behalf of Mccrae, barbarians dared to approach our cities from the south. Although they were noticed several years earlier, Mccrae kept his defences in the cities rather than meeting the foe in the open and after many years the expected boarders request from the Mongols arrived. Genghis appeared quite stern in his approach clearly frustrated by his scouts inability to explore further. In the interests of maintaining peace, and indeed opening the possibly of receiving aid against the approaching barbarians this request was granted. Mccrae long wondered what effect this would have given the previous denial of passage to some of his less aggressive friends.

820BC - Just as Mccrae was wondering if there were any others on this fair land of us, an emissary of the Aztecs introduced himself. Sensing that this warrior tribe was "friendlier" then his neighbouring Mongol nation he quickly declared peace amongst the peoples in the hopes of developing a strong military ally should the need later be found.

780BC - A report of the nations showed that as feared, Mccrae had lead his people to a weak position. The nations power was said to be "pathetic". Despite his calls for patience as projects developed, Mccrae was summary castout for his perceived inaction in protecting the true interests of the nation. A wide search for a new ruler was made, and an illegitimate child of Emech was found. His mother claimed the child was found amongst some tumbleweed on the plains. Whilst she had called the child Mesos, he was crowned Emech II. As would be expected in this same year the granary was completed in Paris. Emech II of course took the credit for Mccraes’ foresight and immediately strengthened his popularity by training another contingent of archers to protect Paris from the roaming barbarians.

760BC - Emech II status as a leader was further raised when these years saw the final preparations of a new settler group. It was of course forgotten that it was Mccrae that had instituted their original order. Emech II set about training more archers for Orleans protection and sent the settlers on their way to settle the "promised lands" of horses to the SW.

720BC - The settlers hastened a quick retreat as the barbarians aggressively approached them and the faint outline of a barbarian boarder was seen settled on OUR horses. It also appeared that some Indian warriors were trapped on our western boarders. Perhaps they would lend a hand ridding the lands of the foul smell of the unwashed?

680BC - Sailing is discovered and some mysterious means of stone working is to be researched in the hopes of further protecting our cities at some later date, whilst our settlers complete their retreat to Orleans to await the arrival of their archer escorts.

640BC - India again requests open boarders and Emech II happily agrees given his predecessors grant to the less polite Mongols. Sensing an opportunity he then sends his settlers to the East in the hopes of settling on the coast beneath the Mongols thereby avoiding barbarians for the moment and securing access to the ocean for expansion. There is some consideration about the liberation of lands from the Mongols that such an action MAY cause, but it is deemed that at this stage that remains an unknown possibility and can be dealt with upon the settlers arrival. They do, of course take an armed escort with them.

580BC - A new scout is ordered from Orleans once the archer reinforcements are complete. There are calls for a library to be built in Paris, but this is put aside for the moment as the completion of its archer reinforcements is some time off (the last lot been sent escorting the settlers) and other needs may be more pressing at that time. The settlers arrive at the coast. Engineers suggest an off-shore location for the building of the town, and indeed it appears that Mongol boarders would be affected should the land be settled. The Mongols are contacted in the hope of offering compensation for their potential loss, but it seems we have not yet the means of offering such to them. Thus Emech II was faced with a momentous decision. Despite his desire to move the nation forward, and the argument that Genghis did have the advantage of the first years of open boarders (which was denied to others), Emech II deferred to the constitution of honour and withdrew his men to refocus on the reclaiming of barbarian territories. There was great fear that such a move would negatively effect the French nations future, but it was deemed the right thing to do.

520BC - In the settlers retreat to the West, it is noted that settlement beneath the engineers recommended spot would have no immediate impact on the Mongols existing boarders and remain on the coast. The cities proximity to the Orleans (and thus "poaching" of resources) was a concern, but Emech II took the view that this was rather a good sign of the co-operative nature of the French and ordered its honourable construction non-the-less. Perhaps this was out of fear of barbarian strength? Emech II would be heard to say "discretion is the better part of valour - we may yet need our exsisting troops in the defence of our current boarders rather then lose our few available resource to an as yet strength undetermined foe" - take that as you will. And thus Lyons was founded and immediate preparations for its defence via archers were made.

480BC - The means of masonry are made. Having forgone the opportunity of securing horses, the means of their riding is left for another day as instead means of retrieving more varied rocks from the ground are researched. Some cowboys said this was mean, but Emech means well and hopes that this discovery may mean more means for the nations economy. If you know what I mean. Meanwhile satisfied with the defence of Orleans, and having sent another scout out into the great unknown, a granary is ordered to further facilitate the nations growth. To the west, some Parisian archers tentatively approach the barbarians territory to see what future our nation faces there, discovering "Aryan" to our immediate south. As feared, Aryan is heavily guarded by 3 archers, and so our sole troop head west to scout out what is expected to be a 2nd barbarian city.

440BC - The larger barbarian city of Alemanni is discovered, but despite its size it is defended with fewer archers. Deciding to strike before these heathen grow reinforcements are called to assist in the first battle of the ages.

420BC - Things take a further turn for the worse as the Mongols cancel our open boarders policy. We are greatly aware that this disadvantages us since his boarders block our eastern movements. Still it is not all bad news. Our scout still has an opportunity to explore beyond their lands , Orleans is successfully joined by road to Paris and the barbarians remain contained in their cities....for now.

400BC - whilst our troops await reinforcements before commencing the barbarian liberation we are approached by America for open boarders. We gladly accept (although again there is no immediate benefit to us) in the hopes of what is expected to be a much-needed ally. The Aztecs are likewise afforded this luxury. More archers are raised for the cause and at advisors request a settler is ordered for the still planned expansion to the west.

380BC - Greece request we cancel our open boarders with India. Noting that Alexander is (surprising) below us in word standings we politely refuse this request. Meanwhile the scouts opportunity to explore past the Mongol boarders is frustrated as Ning-hasa expands its boarders to the NE. Genghis refuses to open his boarders to us and so again there is much grief at the wasted lives invested in the scouts development.

340BC - The Aztecs also request we cancel our deals with the Indians. This, again, is politely denied. We discover mining and, frustrated by our poor trading opportunities, commence the development of the alphabet to better facilitate communications. With some alarm we note we only have 2 gold in the treasury and we are losing -5 per turn. The governors are ordered to emphasise commerce, and science is regrettably lowered to 80%. The Aryan barbarians commence an attack on one of our approaching archers firing the first salvo in this war. Emech feels fully justified in the decision to take their towns without mercy no longer driven by the desire for horses but instead seeking justice for his people.

260BC - Genghis also approaches us about our boarder policy with India. Sensing that there must be something to it if 3 nations make such a request, and looking for the re-opening of Mongol boarders to our scout, Emech agrees, and regrettably Genghis doesn't. Indeed...

240BC - Genghis DECLARES WAR. Archers are immediately recalled from the barbarian boarders.

220BC - Mongol archers approach Paris. Orleans boarders expand with no effect on Mongol boarders and failing to provide any additional resources which Lyons had not already claimed. Of course with the declaration of war, perhaps this is no bad thing.

100BC - The Mongols bypass Paris and head from North towards Orleans and the East towards Lyons. Lyons is clearly under-defended, but Emech concentrates on reinforcing Paris and Orleans as the Parisian setter is placed on hold and all cities develop archers.

40BC Orleans archers successfully hold of 3 Mongol archers and a warrior, gaining a promotion in for their efforts, which of course was a 20% in city defence. Emech prefers to let this advantage be made use of and holds of on a retaliatory attack, preferring that the Mongols bring the attack to him. This is partly due to his lack of knowledge as to if an attacking unit has a bonus.

20BC - Genghis complies and loses another two archers to the French defensive forces, providing for another group of archers' promotion and clearing our boarders of Mongol troop encroachment.

20AD - The Mongols don't send any more troops in, the Aztecs have a sole scout moving through out boarders and the barbarians decide that perhaps it is time to make a nuisance of themselves and approach out SW boarder.

60Ad - Lyons position seems poor. Despite surviving the Mongol invasion (perhaps thanks to Genghis focusing on Orleans instead) the fastest it can produce anything is 22 turns (whatever that is) Still given our war status an archer is ordered.

100AD - In the interests of self-preservation (although some have suggested revenge) Emech approached his neighbours for assistance in the war (which in truth has seen no further troop movements from the Mongols since the defeat 20BC). Alexander "has enough on his hands" but accepts open boarders in the interest of peace. Despite their willingness, the Aztecs don't see how such a call to arms could be arranged. Despite Americas' warning as to the Mongols nature it seemed they didn't like us enough to assist and India refused even listen to us. It seems that in this world we were alone.

120AD - the Mongols remain quiet, but the barbarians make an advancement upon on soils.

160AD - the barbarians’ initial attack on Paris fails. Sensing no further troop movement from the Mongols, and wanting to not face two fronts, Emech approaches and receives a peace treaty with the Mongols. Troops are gathered for an assault on the Barbarian towns.

180AD - Further barbarian assaults on Paris fail, providing further enhancements to our troops.

210AD - The barbarian assault on Paris continues to no avail. We sustain no losses and quietly build our forces for the assault. A world report states that Greece is in fact less powerful than us (a side benefit of the war induced troop creation perhaps) but we remain at the bottom of the score table (316)

220AD - Greece declares war on India - the current score leader (596)

290AD - Our troops arrive at Aryan to the south of Paris and the attack commences. We lose three archers and a warrior to their one archer. Two archers remain entrenched in the city, though weakened.

300AD - Our remaining warrior receives double city attack promotions. Fresh archer reinforcements approach from the east. Weakened, our remaining warriors retreat to join with them.

310AD- The two remaining archers in Aryan are fully healed. With only one warrior (although enhanced) and one archer left to attack with, the assault is postponed pending arrival of fresh troops.

330AD - Greece approaches with a request to assist in his war against India. With an active enemy to our south, a passive enemy to our NE and his refusal to assist in our time of need he is politely refused. We do however exchange bronze working for the alphabet, perhaps reducing his disappointment some what. Given our current situation we continue our war research with efforts focused on iron working.

340AD - Aryan archers attack our fortified troops (in the NE corner of their boarders) to little effect. Two archers remain in their city following their defeat.

350AD - Washington offers us Iron working for the alphabet. We accept in the interests of maintaining strong relations. They refuse to share horse riding and fail to see a deal in regards to meditation.

360AD - With other advances more than 30 turns away (whatever that is) Emech follows his cultural leaders advice and endeavours to investigate if there is just one God, or in fact many. Finally the books show a positive income flow, yet science remains at 70% to facilitate this. Fresh troops arrive from Paris to assist in the Aryan assault, however they have now doubled their numbers and appear well trained. We press our luck losing a warrior and archer to little effect on their defences. This may be a protracted battle.

370Ad - We endure their counter attack as they lose two archers and provide us with a first strike chance promotion. Our troops weakened (and despite the risk of more troop production as evidenced in the last delayed attack) Emech orders his troops to heal before pressing further, also allowing more reinforcements to complete their journey to the front.

410AD - Whilst recovering with no further attacks from the barbarians, the Mongols re-declare WAR. Although not surprised Emech II is visibly stressed about the prospect of a two front battle. Having moved troops to the barbarian front which are now poised to attack he decides for one last push into Ayran before re-focusing on the defence form the Mongol scum. A round-table call-up sees no ally prepared to assist in the Mongol defence, and no trades being available to us. India remains defiant refusing to talk to us at all.

420AD - Mongol spearmen defeat our archer in Lyons. We lose an archer attacking Aryan.

430AD - Lyon archers successfully defend against Mongol Spear. Orleans archer moves to Lyons to reinforce. New archer ordered to replace. Our Aryan assault force heals.

440AD - Mongol spearman approach Paris. Aryan assault force heals.

450AD - Mongol Chariot enters boarders. Our Aryan assault losses two archers. The remaining archer is badly wounded and retreats to Orleans.

460AD - As the murdering Mongol chariot approached Paris, with no attack yet from its accompanying spearman, a much-postponed settler is created and sent on his way west.

470AD - The Paris attack comes! Our archers defeat their spears. The chariot sits outside the city. Orleans defence strengthens too 4 archers and a warrior as two Mongol axemen approach. Our settler moves to the hills between the pigs and rice paddock to the NW. An archer is sent to protect them.

490AD - Despite these pressures, our nation manages to conclude that there are in fact many Gods. Despite these pressures, the advisors seem intent on recommending cultural improvements. Despite these pressures Emech concurs and starts work on compiling books of greatness in the hope that they survive long enough to build a giant depository and therein perhaps learn a great deal more from our neighbours. Mongol chariot kills the archer on approach to new settlement to the NW.

500AD - Rheims is founded in the NW, but has no current defence. With everything taking more then 20 turns (whatever that is) there is little hope for much self-preservation there. With the Mongol invasion moved on past Paris towards Orleans, an archer is sent to assist Rheims. Pressing its advantage an Orleans archer attacks the weakened Mongol chariot to great effect. Emech II orders that no such attack be made on the sole remaining Mongol in our boarders (an axeman) instead allowing it to die against the city defences (hopefully)

510AD - A sword man and chariot approach from the far NE boarder above Lyons. Lyons defenders hold off the swords and force the chariot into retreat. The axeman attack a reinforcing archer on his way to Lyons from Orleans, succeeding in killing our man. Meanwhile a barbarian archer attack on Paris is also repelled by our brave defenders, prompting archer promotions in both Lyons and Paris. City defence is of course the order of the day. Again our Orleans archers hold off on the counter-attack to the axemen, sensing that whilst one of them is severely weakened, he is supported by a full strength (and superior) brother.

530AD - Alexander comes demanding to know how we came to acknowledge many gods. Boldly Emech II denies him, knowing that his position is not much greater than our own and his boarders too distant to provide any benefit or produce any harm to us. Seizing the day, a Lyons archer attacks the weakened chariot obtaining an easy victory. Buoyed up and perhaps over confident, the Orleans defenders decide to attack the encroaching axemen. One archer falls, then another. A third succeeds. Emech considers. Does he move another archer in removing the final weakened axeman from our lands. Emech II: the bold (as he was to become known) tried his luck...with a decisive victory. Twice the mongrels...opps.. Mongols had attempted to take our lands, and twice been repealed. Whatever criticism could be made of French attacks, its resistance was to become legendary. Our boarders were free of oppressors. Our cities intact. Ceasing the opportunity the Mongols are approached about peace. Although reluctant, once we share with them the wisdom of our many Gods a 10 turn truce is accepted. Emech II relaxes, knowing that an continued attack may have seen the loss of Lyons (which considering its resource drain on Orleans and it very slow production wouldn't be a great loss...although he never told Lyonians that) and the still poorly defended Rheims.

540AD - Alas peace was not to remain yet. The barbarians continued the assault on Paris, losing an archer for their efforts. Rheims finally received its first defensive archer, and our chariot killer receives his 2nd city defence promotion. Lyons also sees an archer promotion.

550AD - barbarian archers again fall to Parisian defenders. More surprising was Alexander again requesting co-operation in his fight against India. After demanding poly form us? And refusing further trades? We didn't think so.

560AD - barbarian archers again fall to Parisian defenders, providing an archer promotion as all existing troops return to city fortification status.

580AD - A quiet year of cultural expansion of Paris and Rheims.

610AD - Several years passed in peace. Orleans begun construction of a barracks (finally?) and Emech retires, handing the reigns to Chief Chiswick.

620AD - Aztecs come requesting the end of negotiations with America (why can we still not access diplomacy details prior to making these decisions laments Mccrae II) but is refused on the grounds of not annoying the worlds current score leader (720 to our last place 409) - he refuses to trade any other tech.

630Ad - After a period of peace, the barbarians again approach our southern boarders as the truce deadline approaches. Mccrae steals himself for an Mongol declaration......

660AD - Which does not come. Whilst the barbarians simply patrol the boarder without actually crossing the line.

670AD - It would seem rather that Genghis has been examining our progress, as he comes requesting the alphabet in the name of "peace" Despite many reservations Mccrae agrees.

680AD - The expected immediate betrayal of good faith war declaration doesn't come. The barbarians do enter our boarders though and progress towards Paris.

700AD - A distant land is said to develop wise sayings on fortune cookies. America comes requesting that we cancel our Aztec trade agreement. Choosing our sides Chiswick agrees, speculating that with America being the only current civilisation of a suitable size to take on the hated Mongols they make a valuable ally to have. Many suggest this was simply letting vengeance override prudence. Only time would tell. Despite this huge gesture, Washington remains cautious towards us and refuses to trade any tech.

710AD - A world survey confirms that we trail all the rest in technology and that America leads giving Chiswick some hope in his recent dealings with the potential ally. More reassuring is the announcement that the Mongols also trail the others. More surprising is the approach from the Indians regarding open boarders. Chiswick recalls the many requests to join the fight against India, but seeking friends where he can find them he agrees. Many speculate if this new approach to international diplomacy is folly, but Chiswick maintains: "we have sat on the fence long enough, it is time to develop bold partnerships" As expected India refuses to trade any tech in reciprocation of Chiswicks great gesture and some quietly comment that unprotected partnerships lead to disease, but Chiswick fails to take notice.

720AD - barbarian archers again fall to Parisian dofenders (notice the deliberate spelling mistake --- as opposed to the MANY unintentional ones bound to be in this report --- showing that this is not just a cut and paste comment)

730AD - barbarian archers again fall to Parisian defenders AND also to Orleans defenders...Orleans completes its barracks and orders up a worker to get some sort of development happening in our lands.

740AD - and there is much rejoicing a great works of literature is written. Now to go about finding the plans for that book depository. Hmm, what are all these numbers doing around here? Can't we do something with them? You! Go find out...

760AD - Paris produces a worker. Thanks to its focus on keeping the treasury in the black (1 gold per turn) it is deemed that it would take too long to create our library. Thus its production is turned towards a barracks and Orleans finds itself redirected into a building phase.

800AD - the years pass, and Genghis approaches regarding opening our boarders too him. Chiswick the risk-taker as he comes to be known agrees, reasoning that it may improve our relations and he may assist in driving the barbarians from our lands. "This man be a fool" many say.

850AD - many years of peace pass and … go on... Guess...Barbarian archers again fall to Parisian defenders. Alex comes again requesting war with India. Chiswick politely declines. Alex offers a trade of priesthood and meditation for our literature. We tell him to take his religiosity elsewhere (hoping to gain them from our great library...when that building gets underway...."Damn dreamer that Chiswick the risk taker" many are heard to say)

860AD - Alex closes his boarders to us. He refuses to negotiate. A Parisian archer receives his second promotion and Aztecs come a calling to discuss our Indian boarder agreements. Chiswick refuses their request. He also again refuses religion for literature deal.

950AD - Many years of peace pass when the Aztecs again request open boarders. Chiswick agrees stating this new agreement and proceeding years of peace being signs of his inspired leadership. "Years of boredom" many said, but as usual they were ignored.

970AD - Yep.... Barbarian archers again fall to Parisian defenders. The Mongols request we cancel trade with the Indians. Given that their position has now dropped beneath our own, and that others had previously sort similar assurances, and that Chiswick was scared of the Mongols (although that was never actually said...just thought and ignored) Chiswick the fickle (as he was called in some quarters) agreed. In an effort to strengthen our union stone was offered to Genghis, but was refused. "Apparently he doesn’t like us?" Chiswick was heard to exclaim.

980AD - BAAFTPD (I’m sick of typing that) - and we discover maths. Looking to increase the productivity of our ocean cities Chiswick requests that some new-fanged device for providing direction be investigated.

990AD - Rheims constructs a work boat and commences a granary.

1005AD - Genghis the untrustworthy cancels our boarders agreement. The voices against Chiswick become somewhat louder.

1010AD - Our pagan lands hear that opposites attract or balance or destroy others or some such nonsense. Chiswick is dismissive of Taoism development in foreign lands but again the voices against turn it up a notch. In a fickle move Chiswick postpones the granary of Rheimes and instead orders up a galley with off-shore expansion perhaps on his mind.

1020 - In a surprise move, barbarian archers fall to Orleans defenders, promoting them in the process. Some say it wouldn't have been a surprise if Chiswick was watching troop movements, but Chiswick ignores them. In a rare moment of indecision ("LOL" says many voices) Chiswick mingles amongst the Parisians to decide what to order up next, his preference for a settler being discouraged by a 30 turn (whatever that is) delay. Upon entering the city he discovers STARVATION in the city. Horrified he sets to fix the problem, visiting all other cities as well. This is the final straw. The voices rise up and deafen Chiswick. Being unable to hear anymore, he does not notice Damus sneaking (at full pelt with a broadsword) up behind him and assuming the throne by force. Damus orders a worker for Paris figuring that this would productively employ a population member, therefore reducing the food burden and in turn allowing greater food production as the worker does his stuff. He worried about if the game dynamics actually worked this way, and if in fact forcing a starving person to work was honourable, but decided that as leader his logic (even if mistaken) would be followed...even if it forced him into the shadows.

1025AD - BAAFTPD and then also fall to travelling archers making there way from Orleans to reinforce Paris. Damus, being far more decisive than Chiswick, but thinking on similar lines, authorises the Great library project in Orleans.

1040AD - Damus wonders if he choose the right time to take over as the en-route archers are taken out by barbarians and a large force of Aztec horse archers enter the boarders via Mongol territory. In an attempt to stave off an invasion he offers the Aztecs stone and rice for 3 gold for turn. Many say this is a wasted effort, but Damus is decisive.

1045AD - sees the Aztec retreat. Damus breathes easy feeling he has averted certain conflict. The Aztecs appear again and demand a cancellation of deals with the Americans. Reasoning that they are here and the US isn't, Damus decisively agrees.

1080AD - Damus takes great delight in seeing barbarians evicted from their southern cities. Many others show great concern as the Aztecs take up residence in their place.

1085AD - A Jewish man is ordained as a representative of god. Of course the French still only believing in the plurality of Gods dismiss any such notion as nonsense.

1095AD - India approaches us seeking open boarders. Wary of our new and old neighbours (Aztec and Mongols) and our precarious position between the two, Damus politely declines.

1105Ad - sees the barbarians destroyed and the Aztecs entrenched as out new southerly neighbours. World reports again confirm our somewhat backward status, but with the galley and a Paris worker nearing completion Damus quietly contemplates his plans to explore across the seas.

1110AD - Making the most of his new position, the Aztecs demand a cow. Damus caves, for now.

1120Ad - Perhaps it is their coastal location, but somehow the citizens of Rheims take to this King of the Jews. Damus wonders where such things may lead.

1125AD - the expansion of Rhiems boarders somewhat allays any fears Damus had about this spread of religion.

1150Ad - Iron resources crop up providing much cheer to those worried about our ongoing military weakness.

1160Ad - Despite the pressure to train up swordsman, Damus decisively orders an aqueduct in Paris to facilitate its further growth. Somewhat disconcertantinly a single Aztec horse warrior sits on the boarders of the town.

1180AD - Gnashing of teeth ensues when the great library is built elsewhere. At least that Aztec horse moved on, and the Rheim settler is ready. Damus counts his blessings and looks forward. "Hell, we have survived this far. How bad can it get?" he is heard to say.

1195AD - America comes requesting we stop dealing with the Aztecs. Damus decisively declines. The compass is discovered and having fallen way behind in the tech race Damus orders up Metal casting to attempt to get the economy going…sometime somehow. In a somewhat funny move the galley carries our settlers three squares south to land on the same continent with the hopes of settling near some just noticed horses in some sort of attempt to even up our troops with the now neighbouring Aztecs. "Tis folly" many said. Yet, Damus was decisive.

1200Ad - India request for Open boarders is again denied, yet we trade horse back riding for our compass which pleases the old codger no end.

1205 - Damus the decisive is challenged. The Aztecs demand a war against the worlds greatest empire, the Americans. Again deferring to his they are there, he is there logic, Damus agrees pleasing the Aztecs greatly. "Tis folly" many again say. Damus further strengthens the Aztec bonds by trading compass for the hither-to rejected religious tech. and swings an extra 410 gold in the deal. Tours is founded in the east, ironically requiring an expansion to obtain the nearby horses. "Tis folly" many again say.

1220AD - India again seeks open boarders. Figuring our new Aztec bond could handle it, Damus finally agrees. "Tis folly" many exclaim, citing Indias close ties with the US. Damus is decisive. (Hey, noone said he is wise)

1230AD - Orleans starts worshipping cows. Damus shakes his head......decisively.

1235Ad - the bright gold shields of the nations first spearman shine from Rheims. The people wonder if its granary will ever be built as Damus again orders a settler with dreams of overseas expansion.

1250Ad - Ghadni comes demanding we cancel our Aztec deals. "Dont be foolish" Damus decisively declares.

1255Ad - Aztecs declare peace with America. Relived, Damus dials up Washington to restore relations. Washington will have none of it, but Damus offers half his Aztec bounty (200 gold) and seals the deal, at least for 10 turns (whatever they are) a couple of resource trades later, and Damus is satisfied that relations are on the mend, even if Washington remains annoyed.

1310AD - Damus gets somewhat lazy at recording history, but that’s largely because little of consequence happens. Some swordman are trained, the galley returns to collect the soon to be finalised settler, Paris commences work on the hanging gardens ("cause we can" says Damus, "Tis folly" says the crowd) and the 10 years peace treaty expires. Orleans boarders expand quite a distance to the south and we take a screenie of the current world.

1315AD - Our new settler loads up with a swordsman and our galley heads north in search of greener (well actually less Aztec green) pastures.

1325Ad - Our settler unloads on a due north of Paris, and to the SE of Delhi. The galley is set free to explore at will.

1330AD - the people of Lyons reject the notion of a king of the jews being born and instead prefer to be just Jewish. Damus again shakes his head. Meanwhile our settler has too choose between the NE or SE wings of his triangular island, potentially imposing on either Aztec or Mongol lands. Having stronger relations with the Aztecs, and given the SW wings closer proximity to his own lands the settler moves SE wondering if again his actions were dishonourable. Given the unprovoked attacking of the Mongols in the past he doesn't lose too much sleep over it.

1335 - Marseillesis is founded on the island.

1355 - A world report reveals that we are more cultured than the Indians. "Well that's something" Damus exclaims. Metal casting is discovered and Damus delights in the possibility of forges and orders up "you know, gears and pullys and things" to further progress this "industrial revolution"

1365AD - India comes offering currency, and well currency (30 gold) for metal casting. Damus accepts. Marseilles seeks balance in all things adopts Taoism. Damus shakes his head as to the differing whims of his people and the tribute of gold that he knows is flowing to his rivals through the adoption of such superstitions.

1375 - The Mongols come demanding 170 gold. Damus caves. The people wonder will they ever be free of such bullying.

1380 - America comes demanding we cease trade with Aztecs. We politely refuse. The Aztecs then counter demand we cease trading with the Americans. Damus figures our relations can handle it and politely refuses.

1385 – “AT LAST” the people scream. The long awaited access to horses from the South-east arrives. Whilst pleased, Damus postpones any use of the resource till after the construction of forges.

1390 - Judaism spreads to Paris, Rhemis FINALLY completes her granary and Marseilles’s sees her boarders expand and our nations boarder unite.

1395 - Our first wonder is complete. The hanging gardens are built in Paris. Some say its because no-one else wanted it. Damus simply declares it was because he decided.

1405 - The Mongols come demanding we cancel trade with the Indians (again) - Damus caves (again) - the people wonder if we will they ever be free of such bullying (again) - this is followed up in 1410 by an open boarders request, with the same response.

1415 - although initially done out of fear (denied by Damus, but known to be true) - the 1410 boarder activation with Mongol FINALLY allowed our Lyons grounded scout to be reactivated and sent on his way east across Mongol lands into the hither-too unknown. Praises for Damus abound. Silly Silly people...

1420 - Buddishm spreads to Tours, and again Damus shakes his head.

1475 - Many years pass with only a little history recorded, where little actually happened. Most towns commenced forge and market production, a new settler was loaded up for the cross-sea navigation (although the reliance on a galley for this somewhat limited options) and Islam was founded someplace far away.

1490 - the discovery of machinery excites some, but only further demonstrates our lack of tech. Knowing that a domination victory was out of the question, Damus orders a tech beeline for the U.N. perhaps Frances only hope of success.


1500 - Chartess is founded on a island west of Marseilles and south of Delhi. Again Damus questions how honourable his action is, given a imposition on Delhi’s boarders, but throwing caution to the winds he again flirts with the shadows (and posts a clarification post to the forums)

1515AD - America renews its request for non-Aztec trade. Again denied. A successful trade for horses helps ease the tension though.

1530 - Tours boarders expand

1535 - As expected, the Aztecs want us to cease trade with the Americans (am I on a merry-go-round here) - again denied.

1540 - Chartess boarders expand, further encroaching on the poor Indians. We almost hope for a war, as perhaps here we can win. Our advisors remind us that even declaring a war first, whilst being honest is not being just.

1545 - Calendar researched, Optics ordered up. Having scouted across the large Aztec and Mongol territories, we finally discover the American boarder and the city of St Louis

1595 - many peaceful years ensue with coastal towns mainly developing harbours and lighthouses, Marseilles boarders expand. A tour of the cities reveals no starvation (thankfully) but health is a major concern.

1600 - Paris embarks on Heroic epic and we are again reported to be 2nd last in culture (ahead of Ghandi)

1610 - Aztecs declare war on Ghandi! If Delhi is their last city (and I suspect it is) then I foresee their extinction and our surrounding by Mongol/Aztecs. Damus suspects a VERY fragile peace, and decisively decides to retire while the goings good.

1625 - The people remain leaderless, and yet much progresses peacefully with optics being discovered this turn. "Change for changes sake can be just as damaging as no change don't you think" and so in the absence of a leader to advise otherwise research towards the U.N. via astronomy continues.

1650 - As expected India is destroyed. Yet Delhi remains. Closer examination reveals that it is in fact owned by the Greeks. Some of the nations guilt is allayed in the knowledge given there being no love loss with Alexander’s dealings with us. "Besides" they reason "it was that Damuss' doing...nothing to do with us. By the way, is it time we got a new leader or what? I mean it has been 40 years...."

1658 - Paris builds its heroic epic. The nation celebrates and calls for nominations for a leader. Meanwhile most inland cities start to train some crossbowmen.

1662 - America arrives demanding the cancellation of deals with the Aztecs. The crowds murmur as Washington awaits a spokesperson to come forward. John is pushed forward by the crowd. Clearly amused Washington asks...."Well”....” Umm sorry we can't. Would you like some Bananas though?" "Certainly," says Washington "and you may have some gold in thanks." "Well then, perhaps you might like some dye too?" "Indeed," Says Washington "and here is some wines to demonstrate good will amongst our peoples” The people cheer as they start getting drunk. John not only denied America his wishes but got some grog and dosh out of him!! A quiet hush falls over the crowd as a voice booms "Well, what’s all this then" - Although pleased, the Aztecs demand trade with America ceases. Somewhat buoyed by his recent success, this request is politely refused and the crowd renews its celebrations with John as their new leader. John however announces his retiring to bed having already devoted over 11 straight hours to the thoughts of the nation. And with that he orders a screenshot and falls into bed.

1682 - Having slept through several years, John awakes to discover most of his cities have continued swords & crossbow production, our scout has pretty much travelled all of the Mongol and Aztec territory and reports slip through that the American have discovered something called Liberalism.

1684 - Zhang Heng comes to town sharing his vast knowledge of Construction. With no elephants in sight John isn't overly pleased, but takes what he can get. Perhaps his enthusiasm was tempered by the recognition that there was a financial crisis. It seems there was less the 50 gold in the coffers and we were losing 5 a turn (whatever that is) and so it was with a heavy hear that production was slowed in each city to bring the budget back into balance. There was to be no surplus, and growth at Chartess, Paris and Orleans was halted but none would starve.

1698 - And it happened. Unprovoked our scout was destroyed by Khan. John quickly consulted his allies looking for support, but none was to be found. Compounding matters the budget was back in the red at -9 per turn. The people wondered if all those years celebrating should have been put to better use. None the less john rose up, ready to defend our boarders.

1700Ad - The battle of Lyons sees all defenders killed by Mongol knights with only the lose of a single Keshik to the enemy.

1702Ad - Lyons is destroyed. "Well at least they didn’t keep it" John is heard to say. "Tis the end of the world as we know it" the people cry.

1704 - Mongol knights commence the pillage of Orleans improvements.

1708 - The Aztecs and Americans both cancel deals with us and commence to war against each other. "Well, at least they are too distracted to attack us" says John "Well there goes any chance of allied assistance" says the people. The first battle of Orleans sees our spearman stand victorious against a Mongol knight. John is quietly pleased. The people are not so quietly concerned.

1710ad - perhaps this defeat surprise Genghis as he refrains from a further attack on the cities, preferring to destroy surrounding improvements. John use the lull to order more spearmen in other cities to aid in the defence of the Mongol knights.

1714 - The pillaging continues. Paris defence is said to have fallen to 51% The budget is now 2 gold (and -1 per turn) John crawls into bed and cries whilst the people continue to await the oncoming assaults.

1716 - Our allies fight each other, the Greeks threaten to join in the assault against us and the Mongols refuse peace with us having no more than towns of offer. John refuses seemingly preferring to see people die than hand cities over the Mongols. "he probably will" the people say.

1718 - Paris is attacked. A crossbow falls to a knight. Paris defence drop to 42%. John is reminded of our galley and the opportunity to load up, but our sole galley is boarder trapped many miles to the SE. Nation-wide panic ensues.

1720 - Paris defenders hold of a maceman and knight, but lose many more. The pillaging continues. "Perhaps those Mongols won't be so bad - at least they are more pro-active than John" the people are heard to say.

1722 - The battle for Paris ensues. Our brave swords kill off a catapult, but it was a hollow victory as Paris falls to the invaders. The Orleans hold off a mace man and for now sustain no further loses. Still, Orleans finds its boarders now separated from our own. "Hey, we now have a 11 gold per turn surplus" John announces. The people just shake their heads. "What, financial responsibility doesn't please them? They want an end to war? Very well" - The people just don't know what to feel as John hands over Orleans to the Mongols in exchange for a peace treaty. "There is just no pleasing some people" John exclaims.

1728 - And thus there was some peace. The Aztecs continued to ask our support against the Americans. John continued to deny. Our galley remained trapped between Greek boarders and Alexander continued to deny passage. "At least our sacrifice of Orleans has meant our remaining cities can be better fortified" john said "sure - but we also lost our wine exchange" lamented the people.

1730ad - Genghis comes seeking open boarders again. The people just shake their head as john agrees "in the interests of peace"

1732 - John laments the whole honourable constitution. "Damn it, if they can't be why should we be?" Desiring desperately for his Galleys safe passage he again pleads with Alex for open boarders but to no avail. Frustrated he remains knowing that to enter the boarder otherwise is to declare war. Whilst consulting the constitution on this matter he is reminded that he may never ask tribute from another nation. He seeks the head librarian to recall if any previous leader had cast them into the shadows.... and finds no such demand recorded in the history --- and yet Alexander insist that an "arrogant" demand has been made.

1740ad - America cancels its horse for marble deal. John contemplates his options when Aztecs next come calling,

1744 - The Mongol peace treaty expires without further aggression - John sighs a breath of relief.

1748 - A caravel is request for Rheims in hopes of seawards exploration.

1760Ad - quiet years as we enter the renaissance with the discovery of astronomy

1772 - Fear grips the nation as Genghis cancels open boarders agreements, citing our trading with his worst enemy, presumably Washington as he is pleased with Alexander and gets on fine with the Aztecs.

1778 - our caravel commences its exploration of the oceans. Greece enters a golden age.

1784 - In a surprise move, Genghis demands Astronomy suggesting we are ahead on tech? In the interest of peace John caves. Subsequent trade attempts reveal we are as far behind as expected, just apparently on different tech paths.


1786 - Deals with the Americans are cancelled at Aztecs request figuring we have little to lose and the Aztecs to gain. John is somewhat pleased to accept Monarchy, laws, Drama, theology and 30 gold for astronomy, and regrets giving it away so easily to the Mongols. Trying his luck he approaches other civs. America of course refuses an audience. "In the interests of peace" John accepts 40 gold from Alex for the study of the skies, changing his status from annoyed too cautious. Pushing his luck he asks for (and receives) an open boarders agreement, freeing his galley to return to the homelands. He further straightness Greek ties by trading fish for bananas. "We would prefer wine" the people say, but John takes what he can get. Freed from its boarder lock, our galley is ordered to return to Chartess to act as a bridge between it and Marseilles. John relaxes feeling "literally" intoxicated and wonders if his is in a fit state to continue ruling the nation at this point.

1794 - Rheims boarders expand, forcing our boarders to rest adjacent to Paris.

1800AD - John wonder what to do with 9 inactive workers in our cites as Tours completes its granary and follows advice to commence a theatre (despite fears of the need to enhance military defence)

1802 - Citizens of Rheims commence a religious quest to nothing. Like is predecessor, John wonders how much tribute others are receiving.

1804 - "in the interests of peace" John throws the budget into deficit by 10 gold per turn in exchange for cows from the Mongols. Genghis remains cautious.

1808ad - Charters commences work on a forge, having completed its granny. 2 Greek knights approach Rhiems as John commences to sack 3 workers in the hopes of recovering some gold towards the budget deficit.

1822ad - As Marseilles completes its barracks and commence work on a theatre, primarily to relieve unhappiness, John gives up all hope as cross-sea expansion as our caravel fails to find land to the east.

1830ad - Paper is discovered in our ongoing quest to found the United Nations.

1832 - Despite our small size we are surprised to learn we are the 2nd most wealthy (at 444 gold) civilisation on the planet (lead by America). Buoyed by this news, and with the resent discovery of paper, John goes shopping receiving dyes from the Aztec as a "good friend" (does this constitute a demand in contrary to the constitution - considering our many possible shadow crosses John accepts this grey deal happily --- especially considering the Aztecs appeared to want 22 gold per turn in exchange previously) While no further tech can be brought, John is pleased with his friendship with the Aztecs following the revelation that they have acquired riflemen, but disappointed that they feel the Mongols are "the bomb". An offer of 250 gold to the Mongols for Feudalism is rejected, yet John takes heart that that Genghis calls us "friend" though he remain cautious. 40 gold to Greece sees us secure a corn source., but he remains cautious and no other trades seem possible. In deference to his neighbours foreign policy he does not seek deal with the Americans.

1836 John laments his lack of access to advice screens as he refuses to convert to buddhism at Greeks request, noting that both Genghis and the Aztecs are more firmly beholden to the worship of cows. Post-negotation analysis shows the wisdom of this choice given that two of our cites (ironically the two island towns nearest Greece) have no knowledge of such worship.

1846 the Mongols (cautious) seek open boarders with us (although John was surprised to discover that such an agreement was not already in place) and agreement was made, facilitating our galleys ongoing return to our island cites (apparently some 28 turns away) to act as a bridge.

1848 Marseilles builds a theatre with no apparent culture expansion reward so returns its focus to defence by ordering walls. Rheims completes its walls and follows advice to build an observatory.

1851 Chartess builds it forge and orders its own theatre saying that the water crossings without that damn galley are just too hard. Meanwhile our caravel completes its coastal exploration revealing the outline of the continent upon which our nations are formed. In a desperate hope to maintain a budget of any sort, science is reduced to 10%

1855 the Americans demand we cease deals with the Aztecs. Given the preceding years of peace the French have received, John declines. Trade enquires reveal that both the Mongols and Aztecs have rifles and the Americans alone are interested in our resources. Deciding to respect our nearby neighbours, John maintains the trade embargo with the Americans.

1859 Charterss completes its theatre and continues its cultural quests via ordering a coliseum

1867 - the Aztecs deem to cancel their supply of dyes, but negotiation enables us to secure coal in a friendly exchange. Yet no sooner is these negotiations compete then they pillage nearby improvements and destroy a crossbow at tours. As small compensation, our galley is forcibly removed from their boarders shaving years off their trip to our island states.

1869 - despite falling to an Aztec knight, our defending swordsmen successfully sees of an invading grenadier. Genghis refuses to assist us citing friendship status with the Aztecs and encourages us to cease trades with the US (despite no active agreements in place). Greece likewise asks us to cease non-existent deals and likewise sees no way to assist us. Out of curiosity john approaches Washington (given the Aztecs backstabbing) to find out they have artillery and no intention of assisting us in our defence.

1871 - the Aztecs pillage many improvements, destroy our galley and cease control of tours. The only bright spot John sees is that two of our remaining cites remains off continent, and we still have our exploring caravel to re-call home as a bridging device. Montazuma seems intent of continuing the conflict, refusing to even see our raised white flag.

1874 - the citizens of Rheims panic as pillaging continues and several cannons wait outside her boarders. Montazuma continues to hear out pleas of mercy as our caravel is destroyed by Aztec frigate. John again cries in his pillow as the people scream in the streets.

1876 - the pillaging continues as Rhemim defenders bravely fight off a knight, musketman and rifleman. John flees to island k

... could be found here

No comment as you have to read the first pages for suspense ...

Feel free to comment as usual (well I know the html pages are full of useless craps, but that is what I get using Word trying to do it fast as deadline was quite close...)

Jabah

Enjoy!

Hello. Now teh usual newb stuff. Ok first time here yesterday (sunday), so I had to hurry and get teh game doing if I wanted to participate. The game runned for a little less than 5hour ok I'm good to post a newb report on time. A little more before I start, I'm french (not france though haha) so my english may cause some trouble to some of you. Secondly, this is my fourth game I finish, second epic one. I started playing GotM at civfanatic and found this place while waiting for the second game. ok now to the report. (no screenies ... sorry)

4000+ BC: At teh start I sent my warrior up to teh hill found wheat moved my settler to that position. Started researching animal husbandry (to find horses and work that cow) and made an immediate worker. I always start by a worker, never really gotten to a point that I needed a warrior for defense and the slower growth is fast offsetted by improved ground.

I moved my warrior toward my starting position to see what I missed there not much but found a hut with a map. Decided to go south and met with the mongols. Kept going south and found anothere hut, map, interesting if the left of my capital is water I'm on a kind of peninsulla... sent warrior there, yes it is...

3280+ BC: Worker and first tech pop at teh same time perfect... I start mining followed by Masonry. I get the worker to build a pasture and when he finishes send him for the wheat, than he build roads to paris and to the cow, when he finishes masonry pop and he goes working on the stone quarry and make a road. I start a warrior followed by a barracks that will be interrupted at pop 2 for a settler (usually wait at pop 3 but with the great start (worked cow and wheat) it will be fast done.. and pop 3 would only add 1 toward the settler since the quarry is long from done.)

2200+ BC: Settler is ready and masonry popped last turn so I go for mysticism, will have a really fast start on culture (what I need for my first "aggressive" strategy)(also you see what I mean by teh thirs pop of paris useless for my settler masonry if long from now and I finished building the wheat in the beginning of the settler). I send him south east. next to teh cost 2 case north from the cow down there... with fast cultural growth I'll block the path with 150 culture down there. So the west belongs to me, unless they make galley. Which would be unusual this ealier and I guess there is still lots of ground left for them to fight over. At this point I made contact with much everyone but I only now that the mongolian are right next to me, didn't trouble exploring knowing I can't declare war and that my first warrior died.

1700+ BC: Stonehenge is built by the pagan druids of paris, it took six generations of druids and 200years of hard work to make this wonderful wonder of the world that will spread culture thorough the land. Finish the turn left on the last warrior and start a settler. Paris is 4 now and rumor of 2 large religion has been founded in the far east. I plan my tech priesthood than writhing to get confucianism with the oracle, the courthouse will be quite helpfull for my plan.

1400+ BC: Third settler ready sent him west to settler on the hill north east of the pigs, looking at the end replay I now learn that my second city was earlier than the other civ but my third was mostly on time, but my fourth will be late by a few turn but immediatly followed by my fifth. Not yet ready to build the settle to fully take control of my land I build a few fast warrior to prevent barbarian city from popping down there (with so many ressources it wouldn't be long they get interested, seeing from other review it was a wise move.) My third location is a little far from the horses (that I stupidly didn't not explore) so I'm still stuck with warrior... not time for archery yet... Start the pyramids in paris and started worker in both orleans and lyons (well as soon as they were settled so orleans a bit earlier)

1225+ BC: Learn priesthood stop pyramids (confident with my stone quarry and industrial traits) I stop it short fo being build to get writing and get for free confucianism in 780BC! The pagan druids shun the old ways, remembered by the great stonehenge and spread confucianism across the lands from their holy city of Lyons.

740+ BC:I start a settler in paris and a few turns later in orleans. When both are made (resume pyramids in paris) I sent them to the West and soon I'll get a magnificient beast for war called horse. Moses arose to lead the enlightement of his countrymen and build the Holy Kong Miao in 460BC.

With 5 cities my empire looks sharp Miss 1 in teh middle but later nee da few courthouses now. But I'm starting to see a problem: How will I win?? Can't go conquest or domination, I must plan my war and that is not honorable. Space... hum the american is following me close in teh tech race and I fear he may get ahead of me. Diplomacy? no way three agressive AI already hate me. Darn gotta go cultural and belief me that is not easy for me.

Oh and from there it gets less interesting.
Got Bronze Working in 120BC figure I'll culture flip basbeluk... (something like that mongol city)
Got iron working in 280AD (used great engineer same year for metal casting)
Founded marseilles in 440AD At that time I start replacing my warriors with archer in all my city (bluffed my way so far... no open borders) Been lucky with the ai attacking themself. Followed my swordmen and axemen, not much to build.
Got a great prophet in 650AD, create christianity in orleans. Badly start to focus my three cities for 75k as paris lyons and orleans will switch orleans to tours, much better spot (south of starting position cow horse and clam). I spread both religions in my empire.
Found Chartres in 1050AD North of my empire in the small island.

In 1205AD Mongols tried to invade me with keshik, I swiftly push him back with maceman and crossbow man and declare peace in roughly 1240AD. Make a few more milatary units.
Found islam in 1330AD in Rhiems my south western city, spread it to all my city 2 more 50% culture building. Paris will be well ahead need to focus on lyons and Tours.
In 1656AD I make a dive for Mass Medi last tech I need for cultural win. It gets me 3 50% wonder and early eiffel tower (got great enigineer for that one take me only 9 turns) Send two great merchant to washington bot net me 2350gold each I hurry the three 50% wonder and get free happy ressources. I get a total of 4 great artist in my game. 3 in tours 1 in lyons.
In 1780 I take a look athe world jus got washington to give me a map... hum the aztec almost wiped out mongols not doing much better but... darn I watch both of his city next to my culture... lot of military units .. means one thing War comming soon. I manage 2 cavalry before he hits me in full knight glory.. against my maceman and crossbowman... manage to get washington on his ass and push him back declare peace and culture flip two cities before washington finish him all but one city.
In 1871 I finish the UN nation in marseilles.. don't know why I did it since I win a culture victory the same turn, My only ally teh american was now well ahead me in points. oh well. I won anyway I got the 5 top cities of the world missed barely a few wonders (great lighthouse... the only one that comes to mind)

11038 1871AD 3186 victory

916 Population
478 Land
1140 Tech
652 Wonder

So that's it...



Got comments? let them flow, just don't bash me to the floors ok?

Hi all, you can find my report at :

http://www.geocities.com/pacerdart/Epics.../intro.htm

Unfortunately, it will have to be a "shadow" report, as I messed up and violated the honorable rules.

Report further down in this thread

Won by Spaceship in 2031 AD

PS: The saves from 1480AD, 1666AD, 1968AD and the Replay are available.
(yes I needed 4 sessions to play it)

ALERT: Shadow game only. I failed to re-read (and re-read, and re-read) the Honourable Ruleset, and therefore adopted Vassalage and Theocracy in a later war. Entirely my bad.

Oh well. Report follows anyway.


Initial thoughts (direct paste of what I wrote at the time)

Louis XIV is Industrious and Creative. Creative makes for a strong land-grab, which is likely to be important on this sparsely populated map (one fewer than default civs, and low sea level), and Industrious is of course perfect for building wonders. Coupled with the Stone right next to the initial start, this could be very powerful for a wonder/cultural game. Assuming I can keep up in tech, it should be possible to build quite a few wonders. The lands are tropical, which should lead to commerce powerhouse cities with lots of grassland and possibly flood plains, once all the jungle is cleared. It certainly will for the AIs, so I should make sure I have at least some cities with lots of cottages, to keep up.

Scoring is fastest finish per victory condition, and I think I've got enough practice with the game to at least *try* to do reasonably well, so I shall try to aim for a cultural victory, since I haven't had enough of those yet. Space will of course hopefully be a backup plan if things go completely pear-shaped. It may depend on whether there's a location for a decent specialist city, there's no point in setting things in stone at this stage.

Louis starts with the Wheel and Agriculture, which is an interesting pair. It can free you up to tech for something other than worker techs since you will definitely have something for the first worker to do, but on the other hand it gives you no assistance along either the religious path or the militaristic one. I'll be wanting Masonry fairly early to get some wonders to help my cultural victory attempt along, and that should fit nicely into a religious push to try to get at least one early one, also to that end. A detour to Animal Husbandry will of course be in order at some point to get those cows, of course. The map's a Pangaea, which makes relations with the AIs fairly important so as to be able to pursue a cultural victory without having to build too much military, so an early religion seems even more important, to attempt to spread it to them. The Honourable Rules themselves also speak slightly against military, or at least against military efficiency, without Vassalage or Theocracy, so I'm inclined to indulge my natural tendency to run low military and just do my best to compensate with diplomacy instead.


Beginning of Game:



As to the initial city location, fog-gazing before moving the warrior suggests that there's water to the north beyond those hils, and possibly north-west as well. I move the warrior onto the hill to his NW to get a better picture on that. Yep, I'm not wrong there, and I get to see a wheat over in the NE to go with the silks there. The water is salt, so one tentative plan that I had that it might be interesting to settle actually on the stone to speed up Stonehenge doesn't look nearly so promising, and nowhere else nearby looks worth losing a turn on the city to get to, so I settle in place on the hill. The capital should still have some reasonable shields from two other hills, the stone and the plains cows.

(Ed: reading the other reports where most people moved, I can only think that I hadn't twigged that I could get the wheat with the same city as the cows and stone. Can't think of any other reason I wouldn't have moved.)

Nothing interesting is revealed in the fog westwards once Paris is founded, but all the numbers look wrong since most of the games I've played have been on Normal so far. There are a couple of things for him to do straight away, and I anticipate having Masonry not long after getting him anyway, so despite the fact that there aren't enough forests around to make an early chop strategy appear beneficial I start on a worker immediately, due in 23, of course. I select Mysticism in 12 for my first tech, despite being slightly low on commerce compared to the field since I have no tiles with any on to work, to go for the aforementioned religion if possible. The success of this may depend on which AIs are in the game, since Isabella and/or Saladin will definitely make this much harder, but here we go.

Well, I seem to have finally run out of things to do, so I hit End Turn.

I decide to send the warrior east to look at the potential city locations around that wheat rather than to the goody hut to the west, though I may circle round and get it later it won't be *all* that long before my borders pop it anyway, being Creative. Nothing much happens all that immediately afterwards, though the Mongols show up a mere 5 turns after the start, in 3800BC, though they have a scout, so could have come a reasonable distance by then. After another turn I've scouted the area around that wheat, finding the pigs. Two food resources there seems quite nice, a potential location for a specialist city. In aid of fitting a city in on the lake 3 east of Paris, I decide to put the city in the region on the hill NE of the wheat (blue dot), rather than the forest S or it, since the silks can be taken by this other city instead (purple dot).



I sweep the scouting warrior back down around the edge of my sight radius, finding the corner of the Mongol territory somewhat closer than I was hoping, and the rice and bananas that it would appear he's going to get to before I have a hope of doing so. I'll need to keep an eye on him to see what order I need to build my cities in, and possibly how aggressive he's going to be. When the tech choice comes due, I go for Masonry to get the stone connected as quickly as possible, since after starting without Mysticism I don't expect to get Hinduism anyway, at this point I'm aiming for Judaism, and Masonry is still on the way to that. Buddhism being founded a mere turn later is a good indicator of that, and gives me proof that there's at least one mysticism-starting civ around somewhere.

A hut popped in 3440 gives me a much-appreciated scout, I send it off to scout around the Mongols, so I can keep the warrior closer to home, for when I need him back to be MP. He continues around the edge of the sight range from Paris. 3660 sees me finding that the scout cannot get around the south of Karakorum, which does not bode well for him expanding away from me and leaving me in peace. He seems to be on the east edge of the landmass. I send the scout back around to the north again to check this. (Ed: Boy, was I wrong there)



In 3320 I find my first wild animal, one of the rare (and dangerous) panthers. I move the warrior onto the jungle to give him a 3-to-2 advantage, so he ought to win, but in doing so he also sees a lion south of him. Oh well, that's probably that for him then.



Scratch that, he's barely scratched. A full 1.7/2 left, after some luck. I decide to promote him to Woodsman I and then heal, since it should only take one turn. To borrow a phrase, sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

A couple of turns later I meet Washington, a scout to Genghis' north. No idea where he is yet, but he seems friendly enough. Or at least he says so... Alexander, also, in another couple of turns, but I still haven't found whoever founded Buddhism. It's starting to look like the lands over there might be a bit larger than I thought, hopefully Genghis was just in a little dent on the coast, rather than on the far edge of the landmass.

Further exploration in the south reveals another nice city site, with rice, cows and clams all in range of one city should I want them. Admittedly Tropical produces lots of nice lands, but that's still a rather nice one. (Ed: one of the best I've seen, still, I think)



The hut next to it gives another warrior, which I send home, albeit with a slight detour. This gives me a significant bonus, since I'd expected to need to build another warrior after the worker, but since I have another already, I can get straight onto Stonehenge! I send the worker to road the stone, which will take 3 turns. Masonry comes in in 4 turns, so I can get on that soon.

Having finally explored my area of the continent, in 2840 I decided to take a big shot and think about a dotmap:



Well, there you go. A couple of general observations first: It is immediately obvious that, despite the huge jungle everywhere else, neither Paris nor Karakorum (borders in orange and black respectively) have any jungle in their fat cross. Sirian, you wrote the map script, is that forced? Second, far from the Mongols being pushed back against the east side, there's no-one to my west, leaving a big wodge of space that should stand me in good stead if I can manage to fill all of it.

As to the dots themselves, Red looks like a decent site for production with a few hills, though perhaps a workshop or two may also be in order, and more importantly it, with the border expansion from being creative, will lock off the entire east of the continent from all the AIs, assuming I don't open borders while that's an issue. It will therefore be my first or second city, depending on how hard I think I'm likely to get pushed. Probably first.

For the rest, the green dots are extremely high food locations, with 3 food bonuses each, for use as specialist farms, and the pink and blue each have two. Blue will probably be an early city if I can get to it, since the AIs will be coming that way, and the more land west I can grab, the better the empire I'll have in the long run. The yellow and the grey dots are mostly filler space, not grabbing so many interesting things, so they may well wait until my economy has stabilised somewhat. The white dot would be similar, but since I don't know all of the terrain there, but I do already know there's a cow, the details will wait until I can divert one of my scouts back that way (I have a second of those as well now, as well as the warrior from the hut), and see whether there's even *more* to recommend it.

The only thing left to think about is the location of the purple dot. Quite apart from the fact that the entire discussion may be moot due to the Mongols expanding this way before I can do anything anyway, there's a definite uncertainty as to where I might want that city. The defensive location to the west, being the one I was suggesting before, only really has the fresh water to recommend it now that I'm intending to build red dot as well, so probably isn't all that good. The next one out gets the bananas, but that really isn't all that exciting since both Genghis and I also have another source, and there's still significant overlap with Red. The farthest gets both bananas and rice, for another decent food city (not that those are few on tropical maps, as we see), but leaves some wasted space between it and Paris, and is also far the most likely to get pressured by Karakorum, or blocked by another city Genghis founds. I do want to put a city somewhere in there though, and probably sooner rather than later, since if I don't Genghis is almost certain to, which might be a mess even with significant cultural strength in my cities. So overall I'll leave the jury out on purple dot. Let the game unfold, see what happens. It's barely begun yet, after all.

As to the cultural victory, Paris picks itself as one of the cultural cities, as ever, and Red Dot, with some hills and early placement, for another, most probably. The third doesn't seem so obvious to me, perhaps one of the specialist cities with their artist culture will do.

So, after something of a pause there, back to the game once again:

Nothing much happens for a while though, of course. Scouts beat up on a few more animals, discover the fish down by White Dot to go with those cows, making it another decent site, and Gandhi turns up as the Buddhist. Well, no surprise there then. Better watch out for him over there on presumably the other side of the continent, his traits make him one of the most powerful AIs in a peaceful game, and I have no particular intention of making this anything other, for my part.

Paris grows to 2 and I start working the stone, retaining one food for a small amount of growth but getting Stonehenge finished in a mere 8 turns, after which I'll probably go straight to a settler, the second hut warrior should be able to provide the escort.

A rather nice bonus a few turns later again when I discover Polytheism and discover that no-one else has it yet, so I get Hinduism! I abort the plan to get Monotheism and head for Animal Husbandry to connect my cows for the nice bonus to yields. I have no reason to switch to Hinduism right now, though, since it'll only cost me a turn on Stonehenge (just 2 away) and hurt my relations with Gandhi, I don't need the happy at the moment. Stonehenge coming in is of course next, nice to actually have hold of it even though there was no way anyway was going to beat me to it, I pushed that really rather early. I do indeed start on a settler, for Red Dot.

Again a large period of not much occurs: I lose a scout to a lion, meet Montezuma (on 2 cities already) with the other, get Animal Husbandry and start Hunting to head towards some archers to defend my intended expansion, but nothing that really requires any actual thought from me. Monty is first to adopt Slavery, and adopts Buddhism at much the same time, which will make my hope of a peaceful monoreligious neighbourhood that much harder to achieve. That's a very early natural religion spread, over what I suspect must be a fair distance, so somewhat lucky for Gandhi there.

Barracks after the settler, which is sent off to Red Dot with a warrior escort, and I reconfigure Paris for full growth, switching the citizen from the stone onto a farm by the lake that I put in whilst waiting for Animal Husbandry, that's 4 food and 4 shields once the pasture finishes next turn. Orleans starts a warrior that I'll probably send to check on Genghis' expansion, before probably using it as another settler escort if I can't get the archers in time.

Well, I had a State of the Union shot here, but it seems to have been lost somewhere. Ah well.

Only a couple or turns later do I realise I've got Orleans on the wrong hill with respect to the Red Dot on my dotmap. What a muppet I am! Well, I guess that makes purple somewhat more important in one form or another, and relegates white to later status despite the two food resources. At least Orleans still blocks the AIs. Oh well, the city site considered for itself is still fairly decent, so I can play with it.

In 1100BC a barbarian archer appears out of the fog to the west of Paris. Thankfully I've just started my own archer that should appear just in time, but I was hoping to have a little more time before those, since I'd only seen the first such warrior a few turns ago with my remaining scout, who's pressing on to try to find Gandhi's lands in the short time he has left before one catches him.

Since that archer hasn't come in, though, I decide to risk starting another settler after it, rather than any more archers, I'm building a barracks in Orleans so hopefully that'll be able to take over the military duties, since I want to build the pyramids in Paris shortly after the settler, to push the stone advantage whilst I have it. I'm on the Mining -> Bronze Working -> Iron Working line for military and the ability to chop the massive jungle, but since I have NO tiles with any commerce whatsoever in the radius of either city, I also really need Pottery to get some cottages started early.



Genghis finally founded his second city in 940 just NW of his rice, nicely nixing my plans for any of the purple dots, though leaving me my plan for blue intact. I might be able to get a New Purple Dot in down between the bananas and the dyes, though, if I get a decent amount of culture in it it'll be OK, but if I get it wrong it'll be horribly pressured by Karakorum. Also in that year I notice a barbarian city founded out to my southwest, on a plot between the big load of dyes and some horses, which I forgot to look for when I got Animal Husbandry, not being used to that change in the patch yet. The city site isn't inherently bad, but it loses the fish to the west from my original dot between the sugar and the rice, which were cropped from my original screenshot. It'd also cause even more conflict with the central grey dot I had, but it would pick up the horses, which wouldn't be in any city radius on my map. So not too bad if I end up capturing it, but probably worth razing, objectively.



(ED: I did recall that the Honourable Rules don't allow razing of cities, including barbarian ones, in plenty of time, making that decision for me. I decided that didn't really change the rest of the dotmap, just some priorities)

Bronze Working in 620 (shortly after founding Lyons on what I checked was actually Blue Dot this time) shows me that the only copper I can actually see is over in Mongolian territory. Genghis' placement of Turfan is looking pretty good now, given that he know the copper was there at the time, and I didn't. He probably wasn't to know I was going to steal those pigs off him with a border expansion from Lyons, which wasn't even founded at the time. It even fits perfectly with Karakorum.





Here we see my lone archer getting ready to defend Paris from a forested hill immediately outside it , against the two barbarian archers that have finally mustered up enough courage to come and have a go. I've given him Combat I as well, so he should have odds of better than 2:1 on defense, which ought to be good enough to take them both out. Let's hope it is...



(Ed: bah, that picture didn't come out very well. I'll have to work on the timing for combat shots)

Nooooo! Now I have to hope my warrior and his fortification and city defence bonuses are enough to beat that archer, on 1.4/3 health. Hopefully it won't attack just yet, and the reinforcements I'm sending will be enough... I can't send the warrior from Orleans, though, as there's another archer coming in there, and the archer I'm building there won't finish for another three turns. I really should revolt to Slavery for situations such as this, but if I do so now, that archer will hit before mine is built, so I'll have to wait till afterwards...



Phew! I can continue building the pyramids in peace. Possibly after that I shall be needing a bit more military, though.

(Ed: Again, you were meant to be able to see the dead barbarian archer there, but it didn't work out.)

Amusingly, that archer that I thought was going to attack Orleans has trekked all the way through my territory, and all the way past Turfan, without actually attacking anything. I can only hypothesise he's going to defend another barbarian city in a completely different part of the map.

Washington founds Judaism, and chooses to switch to Organised Religion before switching to the religion itself.
Couple turns later I get my prophet that's been building from the GPP points from Stonehenge all this time, who I use to found the Kashi Vishwanath, since I won't be getting enough of the other religious techs in time for him to found another religion anytime soon as I've just started a long run on Iron Working. Ideally I won't get any more prophets anyway, artists and engineers will be much more useful. To further which end:



I decide to solve my soon-to-be happiness woes with Representation, rather than with the religion, which doesn't currently seem all that necessary; I have plenty of culture in all my cities from Creative and from Stonehenge, and I don't need the diplomacy penalty with the now 4 civs with different religions.



Irritatingly, as you see, Genghis has founded Ning-hsia right up against the cultural borders of Orleans. Now not only does this stop me founding even New Purple Dot (though the leftmost of the original purple dots may still be worth it, it really has been reduced to a spacefiller grey), but he's already losing tiles to Orleans, so our relations will suffer due to close borders. War with Genghis really is going to be inevitable, I suspect.

Gandhi asks for Open Borders in 20BC (Ed: Screenshot of this didn't take), and I decide that Gandhi is far enough away that I can afford to sign for the diplo bonus. I'm starting to fill my land anyway and that should only speed up as I get more cities. Hopefully the religion will be enough to keep the economy stable until I get markets/courthouses, even with the rapid expansion push.

Iron Working shows that, thankfully, I have Iron near Paris, though irritatingly I've already farmed the tile, so I'll have to go back over it. There's another down in the south by that old White Dot, which is looking better and better. I'd be settling it fairly soon if it wasn't rather going to impinge on Orleans since I misplaced it. The iron'll be much appreciated, though, a few swords should be able to take out that barb city and then provide a bit of a deterrent for Genghis. I decide to go for Writing -> Alphabet next, I should be able to fill in the rest of the first couple of ranks of tech by trading by the time I get it.

(Ed: Bah. I really wish screens worked in diplomacy windows. It's just not the same without the war declaration shot here)

Oh. Uh... That really wasn't the plan. I'm not *ready*, dammit! Two axemen have just wandered into my territory, capturing the worker trying to connect the pigs at Lyons, and I've got all of an archer and a warrior there. The archer might hold one, since it's on a hill, and I have slavery in place now, so there's still a chance I can hold it. Production changed from settler to archer, to be whipped next turn, just in time (I hope). The iron will be connected in 2, so I'll hopefully be able to get enough production online quickly enough to hold, but it might take some more whipping. I send the archer from Paris up that way as well, but hold the one in Orleans against a possible attack from his other cities.

In fact, this seems like a decent time for a state update:



The fact that a Combat I archer on either a forest or hill is 4.8 against an axeman's 5 is somewhat irritating right now... I fortify one on a hill a couple of spaces away from the advancing axes (which seem more intent on pillaging than on attacking Lyons, which I whip anyway), in the hope that the fortification bonus will build high enough before they actually get there. I also start an axeman after my granary finishes in Paris, very well timed with both the iron mine and a previously-planned forest chop on the hill NW of Paris finishing in the middle of the turn, so the axe is due next turn. Not that that will have more than a 50% chance against Genghis' axes anyway, but he's the best I can do right now, I don't have any horses in range yet.



Strangely enough, those axes seem perfectly happy to sit still after pillaging my roads and the farm on the wheat, so I'm taking my own axe round the side of them to reinforce the defences in Lyons, rather than attack at a completely flat 5.5 against 5.5. Hopefully with more axes coming in a few turns I'll actually be able to fight them back. My one pillager is finally in place too, they don't seem too interested in doing anything about him yet.

Yay! Immediately after saying that they were sitting still (obviously) they both attacked Lyons, both dying to archers on defense... I send the axeman in to try pillaging his copper as well, and expect to stop building military again roughly after the two axes I've got going at the moment finish, since Genghis hasn't shown any sign of having any more disposable troops.

Success! Copper pillaged after my axe beats another one in a straight fight attacking him out of Turfan. Pity about the chariot the next turn, really. That makes two, both of which head straight into my lands on pillaging missions (Blast! One of them got to my cows and pillaged that, though it died for it), and they're irritatingly hard to catch with an axeman. I start building a spear in Paris, and watch Genghis' link on the scores for signs that he might be willing to talk peace, I'd quite like to get back to expanding, really.
Of course, it's quite difficult to sign a peace deal before you can trade either techs or gold, really, as the AIs just *love* to ask for your cities instead.

Thankfully, killing the second chariot with my newly healed axe is enough to make him see sense and take peace at even, but Genghis then has the gall to tell *ME* that *I* have "chosen wisely"! He will pay for that, should he ever declare war on me again. He will have Chosen Unwisely! (Methinks a certain group of people might have had a little influence on quite a lot of areas of the game, with this line showing up here :D )

Back to the real game here, I start 2 settlers as projects finish, in the belief that I have enough escorts for them after that military push. The other leaders keep asking for things, mostly Open Borders which I'm happy to sign now that I'll have my lands near enough locked up after those two settlers, but also Alexander asks that I stop trading with Washington, the lone Jew in a world of Buddhists. I'd love to join that big bloc myself, but I need Buddhism in one of my cities before I can do that, and the owner of the Mahabodhi, the only one really likely to spread it to, is way on the other side of the continent. I'm rather hoping I'll get it spreading naturally into a city with no religion, both for that reason and so I can get more cathedrals in my culture cities once I really set in on that road, so I have no intention of spreading Hinduism very actively for a while yet.

...

Which lasts all of half a dozen turns or so, until Alexander, in last place, on the other side of the world, decides to declare war on me. With a chariot and a warrior. Now I assure you, my military isn't so weak that I can't fend that off, and I'm rather surprised that he ever thought it was weak enough to make it worth it, even as opportunistic as he is. I'm a bit worried about what those two Jaguars are doing there as well, though, so I make some effort to defend. The re-pillaging of the pigs was irritating, too.



(Ed: apologies that this report completely changes tense here, but I realised that it made much more sense to write in the past even when writing during the game as I did, I'd just already written too much for it to be worth going back and changing what I'd already done)

Well, there really weren't any teeth to that attack. I never saw any more troops, and indeed nothing further of interest happened until I got a Great Engineer on about a 1/3 chance a full 100 years later, who I used to rush the Parthenon. I hadn't been intending to build that, since of course I had no marble, but the bonus is nice, and I'm hardly complaining about that! Otherwise it was back to infrastructure. I desperately needed more workers to make a dent in all that jungle, more settlers to fill out the empire, more culture(of course), and so on. In the same turn I also finally realised what those Jaguars had been up to all that time ago when they reached the other side of my empire and razed Scythian, the barbarian city that I'd been just about to go and capture. I wasn't really complaining, since that meant I could found my own city out on the coast in the original dotmap location.

(Ed: Yes, yes, I know *now* that I was still desperately short on military. I'm still having problems training myself away from Civ 3 defense mentalities)

Alphabet (590AD) was worth most of the missing techs, notably including Fishing so I could connect those Clams in the south and fish in the north (Ed: really should have researched that earlier, but I would appear not to have been paying attention), Priesthood and Meditation for the temples and monasteries. Hinduism kept spreading in my cities, which was great for my economy, except that what I really wanted was at least one of the other religions, so I'd be able to spread it around for cathedrals. Preferably Buddhism, so I could adopt it and get friendly with most of the world. Monty getting Code of Laws and adopting Confucianism made that seem *slightly* less important, but...

Of course, with a true sense of irony, Buddhism spread to Rheims, my last non-Hindu city at the time, immediately after I typed the previous paragraph. I converted immediately for the relationship boosts, planning to switch to Organised Religion once I had free time to build missionaries from the city.

Nothing interesting... Nothing interesting... Working on the Hanging Gardens... Nothing interesting...

(Ed: Genghis declares war again, 910AD. No shot.)

You Have Chosen Unwisely! I decided not to rest, not to take peace with that pathetic warmonger, until he was wiped from the face of the planet, as specified before. Despite that I knew full well that this would make me fall behind Gandhi (even more) in tech, there was just no escaping the fact that such a monster must be removed, for the sake of all free people!

(Ed: The best (and worst) laid plans...)

Unfortunately, since he was technically of the True Faith, nobody else both liked me enough and disliked him enough to join me in the quest. Very well, then! This was my time! *My* Crusade! My shining glory! The fact that I had two axes, a sword, a spear and a scattering of archers and warriors would not come into it! Genghis would pay for his crimes!

So, I immediately mobilised everything that I could legitimately call a military, and got it moving to the places of greatest need. For starters, I wasn't going to lose those pigs again!



That axe was hurt due to just having killed a sword. There was a keshik raiding in the south, so I diverted the spear that way, with the sword, and upgraded a couple of warriors with money from selling techs to people. No need to stop building the Hanging Gardens though, right, even though he's got a galley with a keshik/archer pair heading off round my far-too-unprotected south coast? I found a couple of cities that I probably *could* spare, and set them to units, ready to as and when necessary. Now, does everybody remember that Keshiks have no terrain movement penalty, and that therefore leaving a worker two spaces away with a forest between is a bad idea? Good, because I didn't. :weed: Still, he didn't kill the worker, and it left the keshik adjacent to a spear, and being a jungle doesn't save a keshik since it doesn't get defensive bonuses *either*... so maybe it was all to the good.

In order to better prosecute the war I had, I actually paid Montezuma when he came demanding iron, something I would do in very few situations to very few AIs. But because it's him, and Jaguars don't take Iron anyway, it doesn't really gain him anything. But it might keep him out of this war, which if he joined against me could... get... ugly. It turned out that right at the start of the war defending against Genghis was about all I could manage, as after the first probe that I easily repulsed he simultaneously sent in three pairs of units, somewhat stretching my defensive capabilities.



(Ed: It's a real pity to have to cut this down from the original resolution, it seems barely visible now)

I love this game! This could never have happened in Civ 3: The Mongols were at war here, (albeit probably only a Limited War, as those don't look aimed as city-killing stacks) but they've sent three simultaneous assaults, for which I've had to scramble three completely different sets of defense, whilst trying to do anything I can to slow him down with my own pillage, before even starting to think about my own personal vendetta against him... it's just beautiful. I, for one, can never go back.

Meanwhile, back to the actual game:



I was keeping sources of GPP that weren't engineer points away from Paris, for the most part, in an attempt to get another Great Engineer.

The rest did not go so well, though. The attack at Rheims did not materialise, the two swordsmen in the north continued next to Lyons, forcing me to pull back off the pigs to defend it, the galley in the south that dropped off the troops efficiently pillaged the fish there, I noticed that the galley that used to just be scouting round the coast was going to pillage the other fish shortly also, and another Keshik made a pillaging strike down at Orleans. I was likely to lose the cows there before I could heal a spear enough to take him out. Even once I did work out that there was only one unit I could actually afford to kill, being the Keshik down at Rheims (it split from the archer), my spearman lost to him, with 4.4 to 3.1 odds. Bah!

And I noticed that Gandhi had beaten me, by some distance, to Music, and its free Great Artist.

Couple of turns later, after I had beaten back the two sword at Lyons but had them replaced by pillaging keshiks, which had taken out the wheat and the pigs, the city was in forced starvation



I decided that the variant rules should not require me to switch to the Aqueduct since I could not finish that in time to save the city, but that my only chance of avoiding actual population-loss starvation was to finish out the sword, bring in some other units, and try to kill the keshiks quickly enough to replace the tile improvements.

(Ed: Seems like I managed to get both the spirit and the letter of that rule right, for a wonder)

Long story short, it took me another 4 turns or so to actually clear out my lands of pillagers, one turn short of them getting to my stone, and that only because of a lucky unpromoted sword vs combat 1 keshik victory. More were coming, but at least I had a slightly more stable situation. My two pillagers were still alive, having destroyed a plantation and three mines, giving me a few more turns of 70% research on Code of Laws before I had to drop back. Yup, I'd significantly overexpanded, and was having trouble catching my economy up to speed, especially with this second round of pillaging going on. This whole plan to not rest until the Mongols are dead was really quite a silly thing to do, but at least I knew that, right?

Once my pitiful pillaging force got killed, taking a couple of spearmen with them, I was forced to drop right back to 30% science, though I then (Ed: FINALLY) realised that Organised Religion was costing me far too much, so I switched away from it, putting research back up to (nearly) 50%. Still horrifically low, of course. I desperately needed to get hold of Code of Laws and get some courthouses built, but it was still 16 turns away, so I thought the best chance I actually had of getting there was to try to capture a city for the money. Turfan, specifically, the one founded by the rice and copper northwest of Karakorum. I assembled a small force and set off:



Against that, I had a spearman for keshik defense, two swords, and three axes, one with 14xp already! Hmmm, this already wasn't looking so good...

Meanwhile, Alexander declared war on Gandhi, with no prompting whatsoever (who says there are no AI-AI wars in Civ 4?), and I got a Great Prophet in the same turn. Pity that, I was hoping for an Engineer, what with having the Gardens and the Pyramids both. (Ed: So much for keeping non-engineer sources away. That was solely from the shrine) Oh well, I could make good use of him as a super specialist, the gold would be very useful, and the research beakers since I was running Representation for the happiness could hardly hurt. In fact, in the final reckoning he managed to generate enough additional commerce to drop my remaining research time from 14 to 9 turns, by himself!

Back to the war, which was apparently still going on. :crazyeyes: I decided that I just didn't have enough strength to take that city. There were 7 units in it by the time I could attack, and not a single one of my 6 had odds in their favour. So a-pillaging we went!

(Ed: Apparently I had a shot of a typo in Genghis' peace offer here. Ah well.)

That might be a small error, there. Ah well. You may be offering concessions, Genghis, but You Have Chosen Unwisely! No deal!

In other news, I'm sure spearmen shouldn't lose to Keshiks without doing any damage to them. Nor is that same keshik then supposed to be able to take out my (only) archer defending Lyons, at 7.2 vs 8.55 according to the combat log. Genghis seems to have been having altogether too much luck with his keshiks, that day. To add insult to injury, he razed it to the ground! That Was Not Honourable! He was already going to pay, but now... Now I was mad.


Gandhi requested help against Alex, but for some strange reason I thought I had a bit much on my plate already. I'm sorry, my friend, but I already had a Righteous War on my hands, I really couldn't afford to help you, despite that Alex, too, isn't playing nice.



That's more like it! I think my pillagers had moved too close to Karakorum, so he pulled out some of the spare defence to go there instead, defending his capital. Unfortunately for him, my pillagers were *also* just in position to recombine into a single force just between those archers (two, with city garrison I apiece), so he couldn't get back to reinforce Turfan. You also see in that shot that I'd just researched Code of Laws and started the tech I'd need to really get somewhere against Genghis, running deficit research fuelled by the pillaging I'd done. Right at that moment, the immediate gold from the villages around Turfan was worth more than leaving them in place, especially since I hadn't expected to take the city anytime soon, though I think I would have made the same decision even with foreknowledge.

(Ed: A shot of the capture of Turfan appears to have failed to take here, which surprises me more. Ah well.)

Yay! Note also that in doing that I'd managed to get a 17xp axeman already. That might come in handy...



Well, wasn't that just an annoying place for him to build that city?! I was desperately hoping it worked like Civ 3, and get a force to destroy it quickly enough that it neither grew nor expanded borders. Hopefully, that would cause it to autoraze, since if I got the choice, I had to keep it, and that would just not be kosher, destroying my city and then refounding one nearby in a worse spot that I had to capture. However, I'd diverted half the offensive force off to the south to try to take Ning-hsia, while that was still also lightly defended by only an axe and an archer. Not that that worked, since a combat II axe fortified behind walls in a city with any sort of culture isn't really something one can take out with swords and axes, but it was a nice thought.



Fortunately, I still had enough forces on the spot to do the job. There also you see Turfan was starving, however there are visibly no 2-food tiles around it until my Creative trait expands the borders. (Ed: If I hadn't mistakenly cropped that shot so tightly you would have, anyway)

Various fighting continued over the next few decades, with nothing especially interesting happening, though I lost a couple of workers to an unexpected amphibious keshik attack from a boat I couldn't even see the turn before, and I did manage to take Ning-hsia in 1160, when I saw the uber-axe had moved out, so I came in with two swords and my own 20xp axe. I rolled out a few catapults, and sent a galley on a mission to see what Karakorum looked like.



Ah. Longbows. However, all was not lost, as I had 3 catapults, and a couple of city raider III swords that might be able to beat down even that horrible mess, given a bit of time. The Siege of Karakorum was begun!

(Ed: Blast! I had a shot here of the combat. Oh well.)

Noooo! That was my 20xp axe, with combat III, on a hill, losing to a mere barrage catapult. My luck was not in at all in this game! And then they slaughtered the entire stack, bar two catapults, in one turn. The catapult from last turn, which I hadn't noticed retreating, attacked again, doing more collateral damage, and then their axe took out one of my swords, and the longbows that I thought were fixed in the AIs mind as defenders took out the others, and one of my catapults. Serious kudos to the AI for pulling that off, but at the same time... bah! Bit of a pathetic Siege of Karakorum, wot?

With no offensive force left, and wishing to save my catapults, I agonised for ages, and then chose to sign peace with him for some gold. Disappointed as I was to not wipe him out for Choosing Unwisely, I'd taken a couple of cities, lost most of my useful military (you don't want to *know* how weak everything behind the front lines was during that war. So bad, I thought it was Civ 3 all over again!), and pragmatically I would beat my head against that wall for another couple of centuries, fruitlessly, if I kept trying. In the end, I preferred to win the game than keep my roleplaying going. So sue me! I took the peace, but assured myself that I would not complete the game with Genghis still alive. He had still Chosen Unwisely, after all!

So, the state of the world as of 1210 AD, the end of the Second Mongol War:

(large shot, with dots, 1210)

My lands were significant, the largest of all according to the advisor screen, but I was still suffering under a significant weight of upkeep, with most of my cities still building courthouses. There were still 4 more cities I intended to found in my own lands, as shown by the dots, but they would have to wait a little longer yet. I hoped to be able to found them in another century or so, though.
My science was at least stably back up to 70%, so the light at the end of the tunnel was beginning to show itself. I was finally beginning to make some decent headway with all that jungle, too, and Civil Service (due in 6) was intended mostly for use in chaining irrigation down all the way past Orleans and out to the west side, as well, although I fully intended to change to Bureaucracy as well.

The Aztec culture down in the southwest of my lands confuses me slightly, since while they took a barbarian city there in ages past, they razed it rather than keeping it, so I wouldn't have thought they would ever have gained any culture from it. I'd really like to know the precise mechanics for applying culture to individual squares.



Gandhi was running away with the tech lead, despite only being third in the scores now, due to his earlier war with Alex. He captured Delphi in that war, but still actually lost points as well as position, he was in the lead before it. On the other hand... those were only the techs I could see. I was pretty sure that there were more I was missing, by that stage. I was still actually ahead of Alex and Genghis, but the one had nothing to trade, and the other wouldn't trade anything (no surprise there).

(Ed: a little later) I was happily able to trade Civil Service for Feudalism from Genghis of all people, who seemed to care more than I'd expected about the fact that we share a religion (but I know what a twisted snake he really is. His time will come!), and for both Drama and Compass from Gandhi, getting me a better headstart on the road back to tech parity than I had expected.

Who says AIs don't declare war on each other?





And who says they don't take cities? (Neatly reducing the current leader in the process, may I add. I think there were more of these, but I missed them. One I didn't know whether it was still a barbarian city or one of theirs)



(Ed: future references to this later in the report were removed in favour of a big discussion at the end. Let it simply be said that from pretty much this point onwards, the following was a typical diplomacy screen.)



Paper went for Metal Casting, and for Theology, and all of a sudden there I was, almost caught up in tech.

Score! Great Engineer! (And a larger empire shot for anyone that actually cares)



I used him to rush the Sistine Chapel in Orleans, since Paris had almost finished Notre Dame anyway. Those artist-producing wonders under my belt, I went to another round of military/settlers as cities finished their courthouses.

Massive building push through the next couple of centuries, very few notes from the era. I switched to Caste System and Organised Religion when the economy was closer to stable in 1510, though it cost me significantly in upkeep. I'd noticed that my high-food cities had been running some specialists for a while, though, and that they were not artists, which clearly was bad. I really wish there was a no-specialists-in-this-city button.

The upshot of which was



though this was hardly a total loss, as he built an Academy in Paris, a fairly solid science city

Amusingly, two sources of Iron appeared in my territory in a dozen turns, near Besancon and Chartres, a mere three tiles apart.

I finally built my last city, Dijon, in 1635, and finished clearing the World Jungle round about then, too.

I was pulling ahead on score



but was still worried about my military





Ah, now that was more like it. I decided it was probably late enough to be better just to keep him for culture bombing later, rather than specialist or bomb in possibly the wrong place then. I knew by this point that I'd been highly inefficient in pursuing my culture victory, not building temples until far too late, so the Stupa and Mandir in Paris were only just being built, not spreading the Christianity round quickly enough from Ning-hsia to get those temples built as well...

One notable and irritating point was this:



FOUR TIMES I had taken out scientists from this city and left it as you see it, with four artists. Why were they not staying there?

Washington had taken, and was easily retaining, a significant tech lead



But I was notably ahead of a couple others, including Genghis as you see in that shot. I began to consider pushing out towards Military Tradition, to try to make gains off him with cavalry before he got Riflemen.
(Ed: Yes, yes, no declarations of war and all that. I had temporary lapses of memory, but none that I actually acted on incorrectly)



Eep!

I mass-upgraded spears to pikes since his major force was knights, and started another major troop migration to the front. The second move of the musketeers, of which I'd built half a dozen or so, came in *really* handy here. I also swapped to Theocracy and Vassalage, since this war was quite likely to lead straight into a Mongolian one, so I might as well prosecute them properly.



Blast! Couldn't get the reinforcements into place quickly enough, so the half-dozen knights I *hadn't* already seen were quite enough to take out the musket/pike/archer/longbow that were defending Turfan went down quickly enough. They took a few with them, but they still died.



And that wouldn't have happened if I'd thought to check that they didn't have open Borders with Genghis, rather than assuming since they had different religions. What a muppet I am at times!

I switched from building pikes to building Grenadiers, since I currently had no way whatsoever of stopping the knight/crossbow teams that Monty had, since the knights were better promoted than mine were, and nothing else could fight the crossbows.
I also switched to Nationhood as soon as Nationalism comes in, to draft off a round (or two!) of defenders and get some breathing space. I set research to Military Tradition in the hope of having something to fight with if this dragged on and on.



That's after I drafted (ouch! I didn't know the happiness hit was that big!) another musketeer: I had had more units there, but his knights had had a couple of lucky rounds and killed one and the Garrison longbow, and he'd just brought Grenadiers along, before I could get any. I kept drafting, though, since most cities had enough happiness cushion (on 10% culture) to support it.



And there you have it. Two catapults for collateral damage, knights beat pike, knight beat musket, grenadier beat musket, grenadier beat archer. I didn't kill anything except the catapults, and Avignon was gone.

I swallowed my pride and paid him an expensive tech for peace (Education, I believe). All in all, the AI successfully prosecuted an almost Civ3-style war against me! He went to war with what was frankly fairly overwhelming force, spread it out beautifully against a civ with underdefended cities, destroyed a couple, and then took tech for peace. Amazing!

Now all I had to do was shore up my defences somewhat, or he'd be back, just like Civ3...

I kept drafting for a couple of rounds more, and kept training Grenadiers, although not quickly. The National Epic finished in Tours, the city with the four artists that kept turning into scientists (which I now think was because I had Emphasise GPP on, though it seems a fairly dodgy thing for that to do), but that was still only 26 GPP, I certainly couldn't afford Pacifism again at that point.

Some muppetry ensued when I tried to put both Heroic Epic and West Point in Besancon, my Forbidden Palace city, without thinking. Ditto when, on revolting back to Pacifism, I also went to Bureaucracy, forgetting all about Free Speech for some time. This has got to have been the scrappiest cultural game ever.

Somewhat surprisingly given Washington's tech lead, I got to Physics on the same turn as him. However, he was the one that got the Great Scientist

I decided since I'd got to that point, apparently already past the end tech of most cultural games (not that there was any real reason to go for culture anymore except sheer bloody-mindedness, but I had enough of that!), I decided to research through to Radio, and go for the wonders there before I turned off research. Hopefully that would also give me enough trade currency to trade up to factories, railroads and infantry.



Gandhi is dead. I had absolutely nothing to do with it. (Ed: That's 1863, by the way. I know I've skipped quite a lot of time, but frankly nothing much happened other me actually getting a decent military). The other AIs repeatedly and maliciously waged war against him, with no apparent mercy, to his complete elimination. How's that for a peaceful game? The same thing has happened to Asoka in a private game I've been playing. In fact, I barely *met* him: he was down to his last city when I did, and dead 20 turns later. I truly don't see how people are playing games without a war declared, I really don't.



On another note, Yay! That basically topped out the culture income of my cities:



You see that Paris was *massively* outculturing everything else, and would clearly attain Legendary Status long before I could get the others there, since I was only sitting on 5 Great Artists at that point. The Great Person about to come in from Paris (at 1800 GPP) had only about a 1/3 chance of being one. The culture rates weren't quite finished, you see Rock N Roll and a Hindu Mandir unfinished there in my second and third culture cities, but they were nearly there. I was preparing for the long wait to get those two up to enough culture that I could bomb them to completion, and hoping that would be fast enough to beat any potential AI spaceship.



Got the artist. Ought to shave a couple of turns off the win date, I thought.

I was still building units from a couple of cities, in the hope of not actually being attacked again.

Well, I managed to trade up to Railroad with Radio from the Greeks. So I would be able to get some more production from the mines and lumbermills, both of which I have a fair few of. If I had any coal. Oh well.

(Ed: Genghis offered me some. This whole thing would have been a lot easier if I'd remembered which shots don't take, wouldn't it? Oh well.)

Ah. Excellent! His offer, by the way, not mine.



Methinks Paris may have been a little too far ahead of everywhere else. The other two cities were on 15k +300cpt and 19k +420cpt, including all available buildings and being set to culture. I had seven Great Artists only. So I waited.

There were wars:



Cities fell:






Two more, no shots.


That one was in the next round of wars, a couple of them had signed peace in the meantime. It relegated Washington to his island holdout of Portland, in the north above my lands. Genghis promptly signed peace with him though




No more tech lead for him!



That's the first apollo program built.
Too late. It's time.



I have 9 Great Artists. Tours is 34000 or so off, and needs 6. Rheims is a mere 18168 off, so will be done with three and its own 500 culture growth this turn.

Bomb

Bomb

Bomb

Bomb!

Bomb!!

BOMB

BOMB!

BOMB!!

BOMB!!! (in red, if doable)

(Ed: I really wish Great Works produced something I could take a picture of, to insert between each of those. Oh well.)

Victory!

(Ed: And the shot of that didn't even take. Story of this report, really. Oh well.)

1978. Wow, that's dire, even if it is my first completed cultural victory.



Post-game thoughts:

1) Build More Military! I've already resolved to do this a couple of times, I just find myself completely lacking when war does come every time, somehow without noticing that I haven't been building military.

2) Oh Good Grief how warlike was that game? Counting from the replay, there were:

Twenty-One AI declarations of war (including four on me)
Thirty-Three cities captured/razed (including four of mine) (and the Greeks also had a city revolt to the Americans.)
1 (and a half) civs destroyed, both the current leader in tech and points at the time

A (not-quite) typical screen from the replay.



The final map, with Gandhi dead and Washington reduced to his island holdout.



3) Stick with your plan! I would probably have had even more fun had I stuck out the war with Genghis, even though I might well have lost due to doing so.

3a) Genghis must get some! I'm going back to this game once I have the time (I wanted to have it for this report, but simply ran out of time ) to see his head on a stick! It won't be easy, though, since I cut off tech and they didn't. Might take a while.

4) I need to learn how to play a cultural game better. Great Artists, all the way.

5) I should probably make sure to play a game where I actually play around with the diplomacy more at some point. I didn't really do anything except tech trading, and probably lost out for it. I'm still playing significant parts of this game on autopilot, and some of those are still the Civ3 autopilot! Not Good!

6) I think I had SIX 'Popped another one!' moments in this game. How cool is that?

7) I had a blast playing this. Here's to the team that conceived and produced the Epics!

8) So, when's the next one? :D

--Garath, signing off.

Hi all,

Here's what my report turned into: www.tlatelolco.azt/history/diary

I renamed the leader name from RBCiv-Epic1 to Egg, which i regret a bit now (seeing noone else changed it). I'll post a short normal report here later today. It's fun comparing opening strategies.

Big thanks to all who helped organizing this Epic

If you're quick, you can read it at

http://www.geocities.com/doug_kuhlman/Epic1-1.html

but my guess is the bandwidth will be used up soon.

If that's down, try http://cassiopeiathedog.net/arathorn/Epic1-1.html -- THANKS, Speaker!

Scroll down for the quick recap, if you want it.





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Won by diplomacy in 1812 AD. Crushed Monte when he attacked. Left everybody else alone. Had Washington's support to win.

Arathorn