Ack! If I only had highspeed broadband. So many pictures, so little time...

So, for now, I am sorry, but no pictures for you guys. All right, maybe one or two--dozen... out of the 227 I took.

Foreword: I did not know it was a pangaea map. Silly me never looked at the map details, or number of civs, or any other important information other than ruleset. Going in blind? You bet!. My plans were three-fold

1) Absolute minimum on forest chops. Jungle chops OK, except for outward colonies, used for defense (which I abused much later on vs Monty). Heck, no starting forest chops. This slows down my initial growth curve a bit.

2) Military victory! I want one to spearhead the challenge. Only honorable wars? Can do! I found khan, and made fast friends with him. Monty on the other hand... I should've made pals with too, but I didn't like him

3 ) I'll create unit commander personalities, and I'll listen to them. Athos, Porthos, Aramis, here will your tale begin.

Start of a great new frontier:

4000 Athos, warrior, sent north. Settlers too. Wheel. fishing! I think I started researching sailing. Is that a glug glug glug move? Probably. Not grabbing any religion techs early on was probably a mistake too, but mine to make. This game isn't that hard... right? RIGHT?!?!

3960 Paris, take picture. Athos, you shall have a friend. Porthos is coming, then aramis. Go southeast my friend.

3840 Drinking with villagers, waking up, you've slept on their map? That's exactly what we needed Porthos!

3800 To the southwest frontier!

3760. Mongols... ooooh Athos, find those mongols! further south!

3720 Mongols probably west.

3680 Maybe east, Porthos that will be your mission

3600 Sailing, sailing, over the shores. We shall be first

3560 Panther? that's new.

3480 Porthos back to borders, rest here. That's two goodie huts genghis has beaten me to.

3240 BC Aramis's warrior unit is trained, told to head southeast, defeats a lion. Porthos laughs at Aramis, because he slew one this round too, and Ararmis is behind.

3080 Ararmis sees a wolf, and is determined to slay it! Take that Porthos

2960 Athos is no slacker either, he discovers a panther to slay! Bwahaha. A hunting we will go, a hunting we will go, hi ho a merri-o a hunting we will go! My warriors have a collection of animal furs now that greatly impress the ladies. They continue to scout the jungles for more animals and more glory! Further along, they'll find barbarian warriors, then archers to defeat. Woodsmen II is their promotion of choice in this jungle.

2840 Sailing finished, Animal Husbandry next. Then I'll beeline towards libaries.

2800 Porthos slays another lion! I'll have to give him the lionhearted epithet.

Head westward aramis, comb the jungles for cats, you too Athos.


2600 Stanley, our first worker is trained. He declares he'll make our first wheat-farm too.


2520 Athos discovers a new animal, and skins it! He calls this monster a grizzly bear. Athos deserves a new name... From now on, he will be Athos the Bear!

Aramis sees fish in the distance.

Porthos gets a goodie hut... Experience? Don't tell me what you were doing with those villagers... and their daughters. Just. Oh. Uh. I won't ask what kind of experience you got from them.

2400 Athos shows the rest they're not he only ones who can discover fish

2200 Porthos discovers Montezuma, he is not impressed by the stuffed chicken head. Off to another lion to slay!

2160 He is disappointed the lion did not choose him, but he meets another fellow warrior by the name of washington. Kind of ugly. Montezuma was prettier.




2080 Bearslayer! Aramis defeats his first bear.

2000 Porthos defeats another lion. Stanley begins herding cows into a wooden fence. He calls them pastures.

Lighthouse completed, time to fish on a lake

1825 D'artagnan trains his first warrior unit. May he escort a settler soon. Porthos heals, and is ready to explore again.

1750 Porthos Discovers Ghandi. He is not impressed by the nappy. Athos continues to patrol the western jungle, while Aramis scouts south of our city. Stanley sees pigs and decides to connect roads to it.

1675 Porthos finally reports the position of ghandi, having discovered it last turn, and being too busy boozing to tell me until now. He doesn't like Ghandi's nappy. He reports he prefers the look of the mongol best so far. Writing completes, I'll need axemen soon when Monty comes. Begin mining, bee line to quarry, then axemen.

1650 Porthos discover's alexander's position. He likes the greek wine. Party whore. I accept open borders with alex next turn.

1400 Ghandi opens borders, I accept. Porthos wants to try Ghandi's booze. Stanley heads towars orleans for a ricefarm.

1325 I notice Paris has hit its pop happiness limit, so I change workers around a bit


1300 Aramis sees archers for the first time. Jungles getting dangerous. Time to call back porthos.



1175 Porthos defeats his first archer on the way back.

1150 Continued warrior patrols.

1125 Porthos sese a barb warrior, and he's too injured to fight. He must run.

1075 I start work on great lighthouse in paris. Aramis spots a warrior he wishes to face in battle.

1025 Mongol wants me to cancel deals with indians. Hmm. Fine. I like your leather better than Ghandi's nappy anyways. I negotiate open borders with him afterwards..

980 Work begins on what Stanley calls a 'quarry'

840 Bronze done. I decide cottages are needed next. Orleans will be a prime cottage center. !! Copper discovered near Orleans. Lucky us.

820 Borders opened with Monty. I offer free rice to Khan. I'll have more soon.

760 New borders with Monty.

740 Aramis defeats more barb warriors. He laughs at their pitiful attempts to fight him.

680 Open borders with washington. All right, for now. Pyramids in action.

620 Porthos reaches Orleans, people celebrate. Unhappy citizens love him.

560 Stanley begins work on road connecting copper.

540 Ghandi bugs me for open borders so his warrior can escape. No way!

500 BC Library done next turn. Since copper's discovered, Orleans might be able to crank out a barracks and axemen after all. Cottage building on plains to enhance that effect, since rice farms will provide plenty of food.

420 Barbarian City of Thracian discovered. not a bad spot. I might keep it if I have enough units later.

260 Pyramids complete! Time to check civics. Representation, I choose you!

220 New warrior. Name him Pari Gari! He'll stay in paris.

200 Chat with monty. He's built jaguars. Damn. I'll need axemen soon, and lots of them.

160 Stonehenge built in far away land.

100 BC Archer bar spotted south of paris. Axemen begun in orleans. Settler in Paris.

60 Washington demanded I stop trading with Mongols. I tell him to stuff it.

20 BC Axemen built. I'll put him under Aramis's command. Ararmis 2nd order.

1 AD Porthos supervised Axemen training in Orleans. This will be Porthos 2nd order. I'll send them toward the barbarian city. Aqueducts begun in both cities.

20 AD two rounds of battle, both won under Aramis's command.

40 AD Darn it! Khan beat me to the spot I wanted to build a city... best laid plans of mice and men. Change of plans now.

60 Iron discovered. Definitely know where to go next.

210 Hanging gardens begun in Paris. One city raider attack.. and I win!

240 Great merchant born... I'll send him to Athens.

260 Aqueduct finished in Orleans. Settler begun.

350 Hanging gardens completed in paris, workers begun.

370 Trade mission conducted to Athens. Lots of gold to play with. I can build colossus in 12 turns if I do it next eh? Do it!

410 Washington demands again to cancel deals with mongols. No way. You're my highest scored competition. Settler built. He'll head south towards predesignated position. Worker built, he'll head toward bananas. I rush an axeman in orleans because pop was maxed there.

430 Too crowded in paris eh? I'll slave rush the forge there then.

440 Work begins on colossus

450 Lyons founded. Workboat then Lighthouse. Worker set on route

470 I notice a Monty attack squad towards the barb city. i better capture it first!



480 What luck! Monty was silly enough to eliminate the first of two archers for me. I upgrade porthos immediately and capture.

490 Stanley reaches the cows by Lyons, his apprentice will be there next turn to help. I need more workers. Looking good in paris, Colossus in 6 turns with some worker management

520 Barb City of Thracian comes out of anarachy and I order up workers.

550 Colossus finished in paris, currency next turn. Things looking up. I'll bee-line to literature next.

580 Monty declares war on me. Nuts. Rush axemen in Paris, cost 2 pop.

600 Iron for Ivory... i accept.What luck! Barb city popped up where I considered to settle next. I move my axemen north, since I have an iron mine to the south already. Lyons completes a workboat, and will have fish next turn, working on a lighthouse next.



640 Manuevers. Stanley heads towards bananas. Calendar next turn. Porthos leads the new axemen in the front line defense, taking the axeman from paris this turn.


660 Another Great merchant born. I'll send him through Mongol territory and get my money from india. It was the same as athens last time.

670 Monty chose unwisely. His jaguars threw themselves at my axemen on two seperate occasions and died like they should.

680 Judaism spreads to lyons. I convert so I may be further friends with Khan and the rest

710 Thracie workers complete. Construction in 8 turns, can't convince Khan to hate monty, but he certainly hates ghandi. I'll keep that in mind. Portho's Axemen pillage monty's village last turn... Sees horse archer this one. Time to bail southeast to the jungle mountains.

720 Horse archers went south. Don't want him to get to my copper mine. Going to be costly but... hey I lucked out! I thought I needed both my axemen to beat him. Porthos covers the newer axeman. Meanwhile, Portho's second unit takes out a Monty scout.

740 Horse archer didn't take bait. I'll manuever axemen around to try to bait him.

750 He takes the bait. Khan wants a tribute of 170g. I cannot afford a war with him right now. I'll give him it, besides I'll have over 1000 more gold from the Great merchant in a few turns.

760 Pillage Monty.

780 Construction Discovered. I want engineering next. Road movement and pikemen? Yes please. Damn. I notice a archerx2 settler trio heading west. I'll need my own setters before that.

810 Rheims founded.

820 Monty raids my copper mine and offers me money for peace. Ok, fine.



850 Swordsman and Axe city raiders reach the barbarian city. Shall I? Dare I? Yes I shall.

890 Ghandi offers me a lot of money plus mysticism for construction... I'll take it.. and hunting too



970 Founded marseilles and tours, which later become some of my best cities.

1000 AD I see khan's galley. I need a navy of my own, and settlers to settle new lands.

1020 Rejected a cow threat from monty. Christianity founded in Ning-Hisa, wherever that is.

1045 I accept sheep for rice from Monty. Archimedes, the Great engineer born in Paris. Save him for later. Finish Galley then queue hagia sophia.

1065 Washington wine for my rice

1070 Monty declares war on me. Again.





1095 Lots of battles. lots of screenies. Two units at my doorstep, one pikeman defending... definitely going to rush an axeman.

1100 Failed Jag attack on paris. Alphabet and Poly and 130 gold for my Compass

1105 Tech bartering, mongol gave me a free tech too . Offer free iron to Mongol

1115 AD Lost portho's 2nd order axemen. Porthos is still fine. He'll make the stack he's in his third order.

1120 Alex demanded gold tribute, and I caved.

1125 Alex declares war on ghandi! Great! haha. Queued Chichen itza in Lyons

1145 Mongol Samarqand flips to me. It was only a matter of time. Free archer too.



1170 Tech Report

1180 Alex asks me to declare war on ghandi, and I accept.

1195 Sheep for dye to monty. Fanangle marble from washington with bananas and dye. Sistine chapel will be built in orleans

1200 Washington demands I cancel with alex, i refuse. He declares war on alex! Wonderful.

1210 Washington Demands i go to war with alex. no way.

1225 Alex demands I stop trading with washington. Can't. I need marble, and you don't have it. Hagia sophia finishes. Revolution to serfdom. Build cottages on grasslands.

1255 I complete chichen itza. god my economy needs work.

1265 Guilds complete, Banking en route, grocers and markets queued all throughout.

1275 Khan declares war on washington. Good for me.

1295 Monty wants drama, a relatively low cost tech. I'll give it to him, and rice.

1310 Great merchant! Cha-ching!

1315 Banking finished.

1350 Dang, beat to notre dame. Lyons begin ankor wyat

1360 Sistine Chapel complete.

1365 paper complete. lots more money now.

1385 Alex demands guilds. That's too much. No way.

1395 I ask washington to spare his map, and he accepts..

1420 Monty declares war on me again.... after trading for some goods just the previous turn. I ask Khan to spare war on monty for a good friend... and he does it!

1430: Do some resource trading. Got horseback riding from khan for paper. Lopsided deal, but I need knights. Queue them up in Lyons. Queue catapults up elsewhere.

1445 Barracks then Heroic epic on Lyons.

1450 Already given paper to khan... hmm. All right, i'll bite since ghandi usually likes peace. He accepts a peace offer too. Let's see how long it lasts

1455 I decide I need some workshops.

1460 Lost a pikeman defending copper mine. Lost another taking out units. Win loss ratio? 3 to 2. I need more units.

1465 got Civil service for guilds from Khan. Roughly equal techs.

Combined my great engineer to lyons so I may have knights in two turns. The military need is dire enough.

1470 Porthos the lionhearted survived a crossbowman. I could not be more proud. He says that cover upgrade really did the trick.

1490 Lost an xbowman this round, but monty lost 3 horse archers in return. Catapult slowly taking down defenses.



1495 Sheer luck. Copper near thracian.

1500 I got liberalism first... and choose... printing press for my free tech. Why? I have a lot of towns, that's a lot of cash. Observatory might've been a better deal overall, but I want money now and observatories won't help me until they're built. Switch to bureacracy and free religion. Pikeman just got 10 experience, has two combat upgrades. He's near porthos, and I could use a second medic. I officially declare him Portho's surgeon.

1505 Ghandi wants my printing press for gunpowder. Hmm. PP is too valuable for him to have free. No one else has it either, I'll hold onto it.

1510 This is where flanking may pay off. I might be able to damage the archer without losing my knight. But first, I need to get them out of the forest.

Then again.. my knights died. Oh well. Took the city anyways.

1520 Monty sends a chariot and horse archer through the jungle. Pikeman fodder. I love jungle defense! Mounted units slowed down by jungles, and get no defense, while I can just slaughter them and gain a defensive bonus for my pikemen.

1525 Take away his cows, advance scout, defend key positions since I can't kill the horse archers immediately.

1530 He plunders some workers.. but I have no clue how they got there. Offers me peace. Uh uh. I have the advantage, and I'll take it. Lost a maceman to a horse archer. I don't understand. I have a strength of 8 vs his 6. He doesn't even have first strike. Must be difficulty bonus for him.



1540 I am at a crossroads for techs. I am not sure which I want first. So many good ones. see pic. I'll take replaceable parts, so I may build lumbermills. Beeline towards rifling after that.



1550 Porthos is shocked at how that knight failed. He had a combat 2 promotion, 12 to 9 odds! Cowards. Must've had Sir Robin lead the charge. In honor of that charge, I'll name the city after Sir Robin... Robin's folly.

1560 More pikeman fodder.

1585 Portho's surgeon died defending Gascony. His apprentice will now take his place.

1590 I raise culture by 10% to counter unhappiness. Great engineer born. Horse archer in way. So annoying my macemen can't take them out. Pikemen can

1600 I move some workers around to forests in preperation for replaceable parts next turn.

Porthos's third order macemen destroyed by their macemen this turn.



1610 The siege begins!

1615 Lost one knight, a combat II knight too! Doc surgeon is mean with his knives. I'll be a geek with this city name... Forever Knight? No, Gotham city! Hail batman.

1640 Knights healed and moving out alongside cats, musketeers defending Gotham City, and medics on the way. I'm feeling good.

1645 Pikemen at Orleans take care of a marauding horse archer.

1650 Ghandi and I swap maps.

1654 I am at Monty's capital, and he threw a lot of archers at me.. but I still stand. I lost a unit or two, and I'll need to retreat a bit to heal.. but the siege continues!

1660 Rifles tech finished. Chemistry then steel next. Time to send some units home to be upgraded.

1662 Monty makes another peace treaty offer. No way.

1664 Monty has the gunpowder. I see his first musketmen. No matter. My units are upgraded, led by porthos, and will be at his capital in a few turns.

1670 I reach them. My level 5 combat riflemen, he will be my new aramis. I take out their three best defenders, and will leave half my army healthy to defend against counterattacks.

1674 My city raider rifleman leads the way... only cats left eh? Fortune favors the bold! Upgrade my cats to city raiders if I have to. Bwahaha. Aramis, though wounded, finishes the cats off and takes the city... which I'll name fortune.

1682 Versailles is completed in Marseilles



1684 Things don't look good for monty. I'll name this one Aramis's charge.

1692 Washington demands I stop trading with mongols again. Refuse. I name the last northern city catamen, after the catapults. Surprise surprise, their last two cities are fairly well defended. Too bad it won't be enough.

1702 Catapuls finish enemy defenses. Aramis leads the way again. Knights finish off catapult.



1712 Numidian is taken, and I knight thee knight Athos. Numidian is now Numidian Athos.

Now that I've completed a number of things, I must make a decision which victory to go for. Revolution to free speech and market. I'll also need more workers. Gift a bunch of techs to alex and khan just to speed them up. Gotham will lead great ironworks. Paris drydock and two workboats, and a caravel.

1730 Nationalism researched. Use engineer to rush it in orleans--everyone else has had this tech for a while.

1736 Ghandi declares war on khan. Great engineer born.

1742 I'm making riflemen in my capital cities to aid khan.This stack will will be gifted next turn. I hope its enough for now. Ghandi has infantry... and tanks.

1750 Ghandi asks me to declare war on Khan. No way. I wish I was at fighting capacity... Maybe I should've. I might've won a domination victory if I gotten my hands on flight soon enough. I'm rather disappointed at this decision. My workers rebuild khan's roads, having nothing else to do.

1752 The situation is dire, I gift Aramis to Khan.

1758 Emancipation is here. I add universal sufferage to my anarchy list too.

1760 Khan makes peace with ghandi. I'm going to bee line to the UN. I don't think I can outtech Washington, but I can make friends with them and out pop.

1766 Statue of liberty is queued in Paris.

1768 Workers bored. Traded democracy for corp with alex.

1776 I start playing the missionary multire religion super culture game with my largest cities.

1798 Open borders with washington and ghandi.

1808 Alex game me steam power for physics. I give Khan physics for free.

1812 Queue courthouse and forbidden palace in Fortune.

1816 another GE is born. That's two in reserve.

1822 Electricity finished. Broadway queued in Orleans. I notice I have enough money to hurry finish statue, and i'll do it. Oxford university, observatory and wall street queued in paris.

1826 I get railraod from alex for electricity. Railroading my nation begins.

1834 Ghandi completes Eiffle tower. Damn I wanted that. Going to rush broadway, then rock and roll at orleans using my GE.

1838 Washington offers me assembly line for radio and 540g. I'll take it. Sell same radio for 740g from alex.

1840 Give assembly line to alex and khan for free. They're allies and underdogs. I don't want them run over.

1844 Ning Hsia revolts to me.

1850 Combustion for mass media from alex. Gift khan mass media.

1852 Swap world maps with wash.

1855 Forbidden palace complete in fortune frees up a lot of cash.

1856 Got biology off wash for mass media.

1859 Computers finished. Communism next. Got industrialism off wash for computers.

1862 Communism finished. Anarchy 1 turn to state property.

1866 Pentagon work begun. Apollo program finshed by ghandi.

1868 more tech trading. most notably fission for flight.

1869 Ghandi beat me to pentagon. I'll hurry hollywood just in case. plastics next turn. if I did a cultural victory, I'd win in around 70 turns.

1872 Gotham city begins three gorges dam. expected in 26 turns. I'll up that with watermills.

1875 wow world war. ghandi on alex, khan on ghandi... at least I gifted alex and khan some military techs. let's hope they know how to use flight.

1876 I close my borders to ghandi. I don't want him to use my railroads to sneak attack khan. Alex asks me to fight with ghandi, but I'm too committed right now.

1877 I ask for washington's world map, he gives it freely. I gift said map to khan and alex. Thermopylae captured... let's hope the rest fare better.

1878 Great artist born.

1879 United nations built in paris.

Bee lining paid off. Except, I should've gifted this tech to one of my smaller allies and waited. Gamble didn't pay off.

1882 Sparta captured. Not looking good for alex. gift my allies robotics.

1883 I am secretary general. I initiate diplomatic votes for victory. No go. No one votes for me.

1885 GM born. I use him and the artist to start a golden age.

1887 I'll have orleans focus on christian missionaries since i have church of nativity under my control

1888 Fiber obtics learned. Orleans begins internet. Rheims begins scotland yard.

1892 Three gorges dam complete.

1909.. Internet finishes... Washington and Ghandi will regret their tech sharing now. I have all the techs. ALL of them. I gift as many techs as i can to khan and Alex.

Bwahahah this gamble, however, did pay off. I think I might've used a GE to help internet, but I am not sure.

1911 I give khan and alex 3000g each.

Maybe I should've used this for research earlier on... but I had planned on military upgrades. Bah.

1916 Alex votes for me for the election. Getting closer. Gift those guys some more.

1918 silver discovered near gascony. nice!

1924 Wash asks me to declare war on khan... sorry khan, you're finished. Not even I could save you.

1927 GE born in paris.



1945 Well on my way for a space victory. Great Prophet born. I'll have him join orleans, which is building one of the last parts. I really don't remember when I took this screenshot. What also isn't shown here is the vast number of cities doing spaceship part buildings. I had plenty to spare, and the space elevator. Spaceship victory second prize is in the bag.

In the meantime, forests are chopped and replaced with workshops using my vast Stanley-led workforce. Under state property econ civic, they have the same 2 food, 3 hammer production. These give me around 100 production each at this time period. Interesting to note they're more productive at later dates than earlier.



1950 Space Victory

Overall, I'm kicking myself for not going for domination victory. That is what I wanted in the beginning. Eventually, I had the money, I had the tech, but I wasn't sure I could survive, or fight both washington or ghandi by then. ARGH. Even worse than that, I could've given the smaller civs (Greeks, Mongols) techs a lot earlier and made them fight effectively against Ghandi and Wash. I AM happy about stomping Monty, and getting some glorious battles with my elite commanders, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. Also had some fun names for Monty's cities. Gotham City (with both Greatworks Iron national and Three Gorges Dam), Knight's lead, Sir Robin's folly, Numidian Athos. All good names. Got more than my fair share of wonders, but research rate was abysmal through my wars. Just... wasn't enough.

Domination victory is what I wanted, and I didn't pursue that to its fullest... and I was so close too. 8%!! Just a little bit more, and I could've had it... but I did not follow the domination requirements closely.

A pretty poorly played game...

I thoroughly enjoyed this game, thanks Sirian, and learned a lot too !
I have almost no time to play Civ and I had pretty much concentrated on playing
opening moves or until a game is considered "won" : I rarely finish any of my solo
games and that hurt me quite badly in this one
I had no idea how to either win by Diplo or build a Spaceship so my end date is pathetic
even though end game suspense is enjoyable and we used to look for it when playing Civ3

First I need to apologize :
My computer can not really play Civ IV (can not alt tab) and I was also victim of the
screenshot bug but necver realized it until I started this report so I lost quite a lot
of data and am not able to present a full report.

1- Opening moves :

On opening the save, I noticed wheat up north and jungle down south, I decided to move the settler to the
hill on the coast and not settle on the lake, to get a food rich start. I dont think it was a bad move.
It gave me one very strong early city instead of 2 slow ones.
Inspired by the Hydra, and again misconstruing the difficulty level, I went for Mysticism/Polytheism first
and Paris founded Hinduism in 2480BC !!
Bonuses are good because you can afford to get late workers, I then went towards AH and BW.
I sent many warriors exploring while I was working on religions so...
I quickly realized that the territory south was a massive jungle and decide to extend my
territory to the North and East. Soon Barb animals killed all my scouts/warriors, but not before I
had met my 2 "friendly" neighbours, Monte and Genghis.



Being full of confidence on Prince level, I chose to settle agressive cities near their borders
hopefully triggering war later on so that I could grow and finance def research.
I spotted cows and gold to the North and decide to settle it, I did not realize how close it
was to Monte until after my settler got there but hey its' only Prince level right ?



I only used one chop to get a quick settler out.



Here is my Southern city, I chose that site to block off Genghis (not agreeing to OB)
and get Dyes but only realized later I missed on the fish I named cities according to
geographical situation and not in order of the game so marseilles is south...



..and Reims is East, thats my "nagging Genghis"city. In the start period, barbarians were
a real pain and I had to build a huge amount of units.
The SouthWest of my lands was blocked off to the AIs and I left unsettled for very long,
the barbs had a feast down there. As you can see, on that shot after the settling phase
I went on a Wonder rampage

I just want to say that I learned a lot playing the Epic and also reading these reports. I have already adapted some better strategy in my own games.

On a personal note, I am inspired to make even better reports the next time around as I personally found my report lacking after reading such great reports from all of you. Thank you.

Warnings: This is loooong and picture free. Read at your own risk. I tried to make it interesting, though. This is an incomplete game. I got to 1866 AD as of Monday night and am still playing.

Epic 1, Part the Zeroth: Pregame Strategery
I’ve only ever played on Noble level, and not much of that. So I didn’t go into this game expecting to win easily, if at all. I can’t say I had much of a strategy, either, beyond “take advantage of the industrious trait by building a lot of awesome Wonders”, and even that didn’t really happen. I suppose “don’t get wiped out for lack of military” was a strategy. Heck, it's worked so far.

I liked the look of the start. I can’t remember where I sent my warrior on turn 0 (due north?) but he didn’t see the wheat. So I settled in place, reasonably happy with the site, but wishing I had a river.

I’ve also rarely played on epic speed. The last time I did, I decided to go worker-first, and nearly made an early exit when Gandhi popped a nearby hut for barbs. Given that, 23 turns seemed just too long to me, so I decided to go with a warrior first and build a worker at size 2. I also decided that I didn’t need Stonehenge, being cultural. And I decided I would try for one of the later religions (note from the perspective of 1866 AD: Hah!). So I started with hunting for the ability to build scouts.

Epic 1, Part the First: The OCC Era
In 3640 BC, a few turns after popping a hut for 31g, I was overjoyed to meet both Genghis and Montezuma. Overjoyed, I say! No, really. Hunting also came in, and I had to decide what was next. Animal husbandry or archery, archery or animal husbandry? With such neighbors, I decided on archery.

In 3160 BC, I finished a scout and at long last started on a worker, thus delaying much longer than is normal for me. I’m still not sure whether it hurt me. The scout quickly popped another from the hut to the west, and the two of them mapped out most of the peninsula between them. The hut to the south of Paris gave XP to one, and I promoted it to Woodsman II.

In 2760 BC, I had a nice bit of luck. A panther had attacked my woodsman II scout, leaving him injured. There was a lion in sight, so I retreated north onto a jungle-covered hill for defense, only to find that
a) there was another hut one tile north
b) Monty would get it next turn
c) Woodsman II also gives two moves on hills!, if they happen to be covered by jungle.
So I popped the hut and got a warrior. The warrior headed back to Paris to double up the garrison, saving me the building of one later.

After AH, I went for mining, as Paris was clearly set to be a production powerhouse. Cash, on the other hand, not so much. Anyway, 2400 BC was the start of a nasty little trend, as every single unit I sent to explore out beyond the Aztecs and Mongols died to animal attacks. The death toll amounted to both my scouts and a warrior. So the rest of my contacts were from AIs finding me: Washington in 2440 BC and Alex in 2120 BC. Gandhi I apparently didn’t write down, but he was the last contact by a fair margin.

At about this point, the tech plan (such as it was) went totally to pot. I need a guidebook to the tech tree, seriously. Failing that, enough free time to play about 20 games of CIV between now and Christmas would work. Anyway, the next several techs were fishing, pottery and bronze-working. Meanwhile, Paris built a barracks and an archer, then finally started a settler at size 4.

In 1300 BC, Paris completed its first settler. Orleans was founded a couple of turns later south of the wheat. I had wanted to build it a couple of tiles east, grabbing the rice and copper as well, but Genghis beat me to the spot by a handful of turns with Beshbalik. Therefore, no metals for Renata.

Epic 1, Part the Second: Not-So-Rapid Expansion. Also: Metal, What Metal?
I did not revolt to slavery immediately upon learning bronze-working, and made relatively little use of it once I did. Even more than the unhappiness, the loss of population seems a rather harsh penalty in a game where cities and population points are so very hard to come by. Has anyone put it to extensive use in core cities?

About 840 BC, I agreed to Open Borders with both Genghis and Monty. I was still two turns from writing myself – first sign of my research woes. At 800 BC, I finally started work on Masonry (after that, sailing) – far too late to help any early wonders along. I never went for the Oracle, believing that without marble, it would take too long to build.

By this time, I had realized that I wouldn’t have an ocean resources in my borders for a very long time. I went ahead and built a work boat out of Orleans as its first or second build, anyway, and sent it out to explore. My land exploration had failed miserably, and I was really wanting some trade routes. By the time sailing came in, the work boat was well on its way to opening up trade routes with Gandhi, Alex, and George. So that much worked all right.

In 380 BC, I finally settled my third city, Lyons, in the eastern jungle, pulling in (eventually) the dyes and bananas. I was alarmed to see it was so unhealthy it was negative food. Whoops. Well, iron-working next, certainly. In retrospect, there may have been better places to put the city. Lyons did close up my borders, but I had already opened them to everybody and his cousin so that was hardly important. It did give me a more defensible border than if I had conceded the spot to Genghis, though. Also, this was the point at which I realized I was without metals. And I couldn’t count on iron popping up anywhere useful, either. I built barracks and more archers, and set my eyes on the horses to the west of Paris.

Actually getting them was a bit of an adventure, though. My work boat traversing the south coast, besides locating a couple of barb cities, also alerted me that Genghis was sending a settler pair along in a galley. My horses! I wound up having to whip Paris for a population point to ensure I got there on time. And with my three cities capped at a total population of 13 for the foreseeable future, that hurt, let me tell you. But I got the site (Rheims), and Genghis’s settler wound up in the islands.

Open borders with Genghis probably bought me some time, but in 60 BC it ran out. He declared war, killed a warrior I had on barb lookout, and marched on Orleans. All I had for defense were a couple of guys with clubs and several more with bone-tipped arrows. Horses were still ten turns away; iron probably even further. So all I could really do was turtle up and get pillaged until I had enough archers to be able to sacrifice a couple on offense. Peace was finally made in 140 AD, with much less damage than I had feared but much more than I wanted. I had horses and iron shortly after, though, and committed myself to building a real military.

Epic 1, Part the Third: The View from Last Place. Also: The Fine Art of Poaching
Gandhi had built the pyramids at some point, and was charging out ahead in score with Washington following. The nasty boys clogged up the middle. And who was last? Why, that would be me. The Oracle was built somewhere, and yet another religion fell as someone got Philosophy. I started research on alphabet to try to catch up. In 460 AD, I founded another city, Tours, NW of Paris on the coast.

Meanwhile, I had had an archer sitting on a hill between the two barb cities for hundreds of years. The workboat had alerted me to a worker on the southern horses, and the last thing I wanted to deal with was barbarians on four legs. So I sent an archer down to keep the worker pinned – he stayed there even throughout the kerfuffle with Genghis. Now, I noticed Monty marching a stack of jaguars and axemen in that direction. I decided I would try to poach the towns out from under his nose and dispatched a chariot to join the archer.

The strategy paid off in 470 AD. Monty’s attack left resource-rich Gepid (horses, sugar, rice and three!!! dyes) with just one wounded archer. I attacked with my chariot and collected 70g and a worker. Wheee! Gepid would eventually turn out to be my best town for commerce, by far. I was unsuccessful at a repeat with Hsung-Nu, and Monty captured that one.

In 490 AD, I got alphabet, and it was still a monopoly. (Is it just me, or is this a *very* easy tech to get to first?) I started a slooooow crawl up out of last place in both score and tech. Tech-trading ain’t what it used to be, that’s for sure, but it did help. I picked up mysticism and math, then started on Calendar before deciding I might be better off getting some cheap religious techs first so I could get better trade value out of alphabet with one of the more expensive ones. Except for the religious tree, few civs had any techs available that alphabet could pay for. I didn’t get calendar until 900 AD.

In 570 AD, the first religion spread to my lands (Confucianism). I didn’t convert, wanting to preserve my decent relations with the two non-aggressive civs, who were Buddhist and Hindu. (Taoism and Judaism followed later, but never either of the two I really wanted.) But I did make use of the religions to finally start growing my cities.

Around 600 AD, both of my neighbors cancelled open borders. There were no immediate war declarations, though. I made use of the respite to autoraze yet another barb city on the southeast coast, then parked units down there until I could send a settler. The town I eventually founded would be called Chartes.

In 840 AD, I actually completed a wonder in Paris: Hanging Gardens. So much for strategery, but yay for great engineer points! The population boost was very welcome, too, and thanks to some silver that had popped up in my territory, an ivory deal with Gandhi, and my new religions, I had enough happy to make full use of it.

Almost 1000 years of relative peace on earth finally cracked in 950 AD: Alex declared on Gandhi. Genghis joined in a while later, and the two of them relieved the old guy of three of his cities before they stopped for a breather. Gandhi lost his lead for good and was the designated AI punching bag until he finally exited the game.

1035 AD: Currency researched, and I could finally start relieving the relatively backwards civs of some of their cash from time to time. I say “relatively backwards” because as Toynbee constantly saw fit to remind me, I was still dead last in that area. I had crawled out of last place in the standings, though: I got to look down my nose at Alex.

Epic 1, Part the Fourth: Genghis, Alexander and Montezuma are Whackjobs
My own reprieve from war ended shortly after 1160 AD, when Genghis asked me to join in the beatdown on Gandhi, and I refused. (Heck, at that point, Gandhi was the only halfway sane leader who liked me. Alex did, too, but he’s crazy.) He demanded something else a few turns later and I told him to bring it on, figuring with all his war elephants wandering around India, I’d be safe enough.



Anyway, so I was correct enough about Genghis. He did come with a few war elephants, but my spears made short work of them. I captured Beshbalik in 1195 AD, revenged some pillaging by Lyons, and sent a handful of units east to try to clear some tiles by the Mongol capital. The next turn I got my first great engineer in Paris. I had nothing useful to do with it (still hadn’t researched Metal Casting, and that was just too cheap; no wonders available), but still, I was feeling good.

Then Alex decided to join the party. In 1230 AD, he marched a stack up to Beshbalik, slaughtered its 3-unit garrison, and razed it. My city! Granted, I’d only owned it for a few turns, but I’d coveted it for long enough that it felt like one of my own. The stack moved on towards Orleans. Time to make peace with Genghis, eh?

The first Greek stack was dispatched with little difficulty. The second -- two more units at Orleans and a three-unit landing by Chartes -- was nastier. The RNG was not kind, and I took three losses including one of those frustrating “stab-counterattack-stab-die” jobbers where the attacking unit is left at nearly full strength. More pillaging, but I finally got the Greeks evicted.

Then in 1280, Monty decided he needed to pile on, too. There was killing going on, and he wasn’t part of it. Felt left out, I suppose, poor thing. There were a bunch more skirmishes and a few scary moments before Alex would finally accept peace without my having to give up Orleans. I was tempted to go after Hsung-Nu (the Aztec town marooned in my territory) after that, but I didn’t really have the resources. So I took peace with Monty for a 30g payment shortly thereafter. I sent in the workers to repair the extensive pillaging around Lyons and Chartes. (That poor banana plantation got nailed every time. I suppose I could have tried to defend it, but meh. Not worth the effort.)

In 1350 AD I founded Avignon as a buffer three tiles east of Orleans. It took quite a while to get control over the tiles around it.

Epic 1, Part the Fifth: The Power of Religion. Also, an Account of Some Wonders
I had delayed converting to any religion for a very long time. Only two civs were pleased with me (Washington and Gandhi), and neither’s official religion was present in my territory. I had spread Confucianism around, though, as it was the most widespread religion in the world, and by the 1300s I was thinking I really should convert sometime soon. I had a ton of infrastructure to build, and I really wanted Organized Religion. I bit the bullet in 1395 AD, and revolted to serfdom and organized religion in 1415.

The results were better than I could have guessed. The hit with Washington and Gandhi was not critical to trade … and all of a sudden Genghis liked me! What the heck? Oh, he’s a Confucian headcase. Nice luck, that (he was still pagan when I started spreading Confucianism) -– I now had three trading partners. He hit me up for 70g in 1420, but I think that was just a little ribbing among friends, if you know what I mean.

So I had another lengthy respite from war, this time with a decidedly less dangerous eastern border. I used the time to get some infrastructure finished, and my research ability slowly crept upward, though I was still hideously behind. I also got some assorted Wonders and such built, mostly of the National variety. Orleans got the National Epic (this was actually somewhat earlier). Paris used a great engineer to rush the Hagia Sofia, and built whichever national wonder it is that gives a discount on military units. (Very nice to have indeed in production-powerhouse Paris.) High-commerce Gepid got an Academy from an Orleans-produced great artist. The Hermitage went to Rheims and the Forbidden Palace to Lyons.

Meanwhile, wars continued elsewhere. Monty got into it with Washington, and everyone continued to take potshots at Gandhi. I stayed out of everything, although by the 1600s I sort of wished someone would declare (or ask me for help) so I could actually use some of the military I had sitting around bleeding money. In 1610 AD, iron popped on a hill by Chartes – which already had iron. That turned one of my smallest cities into one of my most productive. I also took the opportunity to plop down two filler cities south of Paris. Aztec Hsung-Nu was getting squeezed.

In 1692 AD, Monty decided he couldn’t take the pressure anymore.

Epic 1, Part the Fifth: In Which I Take it to Monty a Bit. Also: The Beginnings of a Plan
I didn’t actually write down much of this war, because it was late Sunday night and I was having enough trouble just keeping track of which units were whose. But I had some fun. Hsung-Nu was a sitting duck, and I had already had a stack of elephants and cats sitting right next to it. (And when I say right next to it, I mean right next to it, thanks to culture from Gepid and Marseilles.)

Another stack of units went after Tlaxcala and captured that, too. I’d have liked to stay at war longer, but war weariness was creeping in, and I just couldn’t afford any loss of commerce. So I made peace and went to bed.

By late Sunday night, I was very doubtful of my ability to actually win the game. I had recovered nicely from the bottom of the rankings, and was hanging out about 400 points behind Washington, in second place. I’d been more than holding my own militarily against three of the biggest crazies in the game. But tech? Tech continued to be bad, bad, bad. I could still only run 70% research. Even with two fairly reliable tech-trading partners now (Gandhi and Genghis), I never got more than one additional tech for each one I researched myself, and sometimes got none at all. Washington was miles ahead. I never even got to start researching something he didn’t already have. And I wanted to win by space race? Urk. I had no idea if that was going to be possible. My vague backup plan after confucianism had been to try to ride Genghis’s coattails to a domination victory, but that was so chancy. And darn near impossible to pursue both goals at once unless the opponent Genghis decided to harass was Washington. And those two hadn’t been at war for eons.

So on Monday, I started thinking about how to best proceed. I figured that if I was going to have any chance at the space race, I desperately needed more beakers. With relatively few turns left, that translated to farming over each and every cottage on the map (not enough turns left to turn into money-bags, anyway) and forcing the cities to grow. Once they got large enough, it’d be scientists all-around. I’d also want to get to the high-commerce civics as a priority.

But that raised another thought. With free religion, Washington should go “friendly” on me. And with his tech lead, I could expect him to be making mincemeat of the aggressive civs sooner or later, so he’d only be getting more and more votes. Could UN be an option? I checked out the tech tree and found that it was only a handful of techs away. I had a 2/3 chance of another engineer in Paris by then, to boot. So I had my goal: civics techs and mass media, pronto.

Epic 1, Part the Sixth: The Road to the UN, the End of Gandhi, and the End of This Report
In 1736 AD, I traded with Gandhi for most of the cost of education, and started in on a round of university building. Shortly after, Paris popped its next great person, and it was indeed an engineer. I built a nice little hut for him on the shores of Lake Paris. In 1760, an odd little ethical dilemma presented itself – Genghis wanted my help against Gandhi. Gandhi had been pleased with me longer than anyone else, but checking the stats right now, my reputation was actually higher with Genghis! All due to religion, of course. At any rate, I joined in the war, but never actually sent any units, and Genghis signed peace a few turns later. (It took me much longer to get out of it, as I’d done no damage.)

It was the beginning of the end of Gandhi, though. Alexander was at war even before Genghis joined in, and each had taken a town. Washington took a third before getting distracted by a war with Monty. (Monty actually asked for my help with that one – hah! No ethics debates necessary there.) Alexander kept plugging away at the last couple Indian holdouts, and Gandhi finally exited the scene in 1802 AD.

Meanwhile, I had started Oxford University in Gepid, which was already up to 94 beakers per turn. OU made it over 200 by the time it was completed. I got a great scientist from somewhere or other, and used it on Physics. I was researching generally one tech from the mass media beeline, then one useful tech from elsewhere, then back again, all throughout the 1800s. Genghis continued to be a useful trading partner (though the trades were all in his favor), and I got some cash infusions from Alex from time to time for older techs. I had been shocked to find shortly before Gandhi’s demise that I was still only second from the bottom in the tech race, but that finally changed during this period, and rapidly -- everyone but Monty at the bottom and Washington at the top was pretty tightly bunched.

In 1824 AD, Washington decided he wanted my help in his war against Monty. As it was navy seals versus musketeers, I wasn't quite sure why, but still ... Happy to help, sir! Again, though, my progress was limited. I took Teotihuacan (allowing me to build another city on the peninsula to the west), but couldn’t mobilize enough units to get much further. We both made peace around 1850.

The early 1800s were also the time of the great civics switch. Two anarchies, a total of four civics changed. Universal Suffrage, Free Religion, Emancipation, Free Speech. IIRC, one of these changes coincided with the completion of OU in Gepid, and whoo! Two turns off my current research. That was nice. My relationship with Washington went to friendly, and even Alex went up to cautious, but Genghis’s opinion of me went back in the toilet. C’est la vie, no?

Mass media was researched about 1860, and lo and behold, that was the very first tech I had up on Washington since Alphabet, way back when. My great engineer got kicked out of his lakeside retreat and was made to design the UN. It would take 6 additional turns to complete. Meanwhile, Washington was running around with tanks. I headed off to catch up on military techs, starting with Steel.

Then Genghis attacked. Aaarrghh, not now! There was a huge stack at Avignon, another one almost as bad at Chartes, and one random cavalry at Lyons that took out the banana plantation (again). It took all my gold to buy in Washington as a distraction, and I had nothing left for upgrades or rushes. Happily, Avignon was well-defended. Chartes, however, was not. It had a decent number of units, but those included some obsolete ones. Eep. I arranged my forces as best I could, but it was going to be down to the RNG.

Chartes survived with a half-strength knight. Everything else died. Avignon took only one loss. I thought Chartes was doomed then, until I noticed how wounded all the Mongol units were. Reinforcements from inland managed to take out that invasion (and a second stack at Avignon) by 1865 AD, though the war continued.

In 1866, the UN was built in Paris. (Yes, I’d kept building it all through the war – no guts no glory!) And that’s when I called it a night, and that’s the end of this report. If you actually made it to the end, thank you for reading.

I’m definitely going to finish this game – it’s far too much fun to abandon – and I’ll update with news of victory or defeat once I do.

http://www.regoarrarr.com/civ/replay.php?story=3

Short story - I conceded defeat in 220 BC after dropping down to 1 city. Learned a thing or two though

Not sure where I'm supposed to submit my save though (if I still have it)

Well, it isn't really much of a report, but I would rather be put in the "Incomplete Games" then nothing at all. I have been very busy since the Epic first came out, so I never had time to finish.... I've only barely started . I will continue to play my game and report it in the near future, as well as refrain from reading other reports for the time being. I'll be sure to get the next Epic done on time ^__^~

Since I'm new to this place, I'd first of all like to say hi, and thanks for taking the effort to make people like me feel welcome, even though I haven't posted before now. Something about the attitude and the atmosphere...

It's almost a cliché to mention it at this point (I've read the announcement thread) but I came here through the Cuban Isolationists... like so many others. Great marketing there, S&S. I'm still hitting refresh on that thread every day to check out the new posts.

Anyway, on to my report. I've been a casual player since Civ1, so don't expect much. I'm just hoping to entertain in some fashion.

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Epic One: The Honorable French

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From the primordial ooze rise the glorious people of France. Feeling defiant, they refuse to accept the trite “standard” names for their cities, and enact a naming convention filled with the pride of a state standing at the dawn of time. Grand Justice (that’s with a French pronunciation!) is founded.

Discovering the futuristic “stone” resource outside of their capital, the people of France decide to learn how to harness it, envisioning great pyramids being built in their new home. Indeed, the people of France have visions of grandeur.

After spending 40 years going the wrong way due to their fickle god (imagine if Moses spent those years in the desert due to mouse-related mistake made by God!), the French warriors wander west and discover barbarians living in harmony with the land. Wanting none of that, the intrepid French burn the village to the ground and liberate 40 gold. (Other stories say they were simply given the gold by the barbarians, who then decided to go see what the fuss was about in Grand Justice… but I digress.)



Our warriors choose a northern path, curious to see what the horizon holds.

On their journey, the warriors encounter black-furred beasts who strike in the darkness of the jungle. After a harrowing battle, the men arrive at a place where pigs frolic in fields of rice. The French people rejoice, and resolve to one day master the secrets of Animal Husbandry and Agriculture in order to enrich their lives and bestow glory upon their god.



To the south, the French warriors are instructed in the ways of war by cunning barbarians. In this land, the proud fighters see a future for their people: A glorious homecoming that would one day lead to a bittersweet end… Admittedly, it is a place of many riches! The people of France decide to send settlers to this spot before long.



Having discovered the secret of Masonry, the warriors of France travel east and find a hill overlooking a river delta. Climbing the hill, they come into contact with the mysterious Indians, led by the equally enigmatic Gandhi! Though suspicious of each other, the warriors of these two people share a night of celebration, and party like it’s 2920 BC.



Having spotted something strange that glimmers to the north, the French warriors pursue the mirage of glory and stumble upon a settlement of a strangely green people—the Aztecs! The people of France extend their noble hand in friendship to Montezuma, leader of the people from across the rivers.



Hearing tales of wondrous lands filled with treasure from the people of Tenochtitlan, the French warriors travel north towards the icy cold. Crossing an isthmus, they step into unknown lands with fear and wonderment in their hearts.



Back in the known lands, the discovery of bananas is taken as a sign, and lo, the people of Mongolia did descend from the hills to meet with the gracious envoys of France. Though friendly, the Mongolians are inhospitable, and insist that the French warriors do not cross through their lands. What secrets do these people hide…?



The amazing discovery of Masonry inspires the people of France and revives the ancient dreams once dreamt by its people. Workers are trained in order to bring stone to the city, and great plans for the Pyramids are drafted. God-King RBCiv-Epic1 commands his people to raise a monument suitable to his deific majesty.



After a harrowing journey across uncharted lands, exploring the legends of the Aztecs, the expedition of French warriors and treasure hunters aims to carry their bags of riches back to the mainland, and their beloved home in Grand Justice. On the other side of the isthmus, they find a barbarian village. The warriors, eager to find rest, and relate their stories to other humans, enter with great friendship. Weep; grieve; for the barbarians did betray the weary wanderers. With clubs of wood and spears of bone, they broke both the flesh and hearts of these noble souls, stamping on the dreams of the French people.

It was a dark time. The legend, however, shall never die in the hearts of all who live in France.



St. Augustine, wise to numbers and the collection of glimmering artifacts, accounts for the wealth of the peoples in the world. Though supposedly a saint, he fails to account for the love within the bosom of the French people, and thus finds us sorely lacking.



The people of Grand Justice wave goodbye to a convoy of settlers in 1100 BC. They travel east, in order to settle where they have found rice and a strange metal known as “copper.” However, they soon find their path blocked by the borders of Mongolia—the Mongolian people have supplanted the fields of their dreams! Dejected, but filled with hope, the people turn back and journey towards the destined location south of Grand Justice, where their martial forefathers saw the future of their people.



Having rebuilt their hopes and dreams, the settlers keep moving… only to find that the spot they so craved has been taken by barbarians. It seems that the friendly people that taught their warrior tradition to the French people have turned to thoughts of conquest under the harsh rule of an ambitious new king. The settlers, and their escorts, find that they are not welcome, and barely escape with their lives. Enmity brews, as the barbarian king of Khazak declares war on the people of France.

Due to starting a week late, work keeping me from getting on 4 days last week, and my son having to type his senior paper (he passed business school! YES! ), I couldn't finish my game. I will post the details tomorrow or the next day, for now the abbreviated report is that I ran out of time in the mid-1700's; after trailing in 4th or 5th place for most of the game, I'd pulled ahead into a (distant) second behind Washington in the last 100 years or so . Not too shabby for not having played since the Civ2 days , I had a roaring good time fighting off Monte and Genghis, and learned a heck of a lot...

/gnarlo

Hi.

I am a new Civ player and this event was very fun for me. (Although it was a bit too time-consuming.)

I've just finished the game and the report is still in progress. (As the game progressed, I dropped the RP style and later even dropped the details, so while I have all my notes, I have a lot of editing to do.)

Part 1 of the report is here: http://www.geocities.com/zeviz2/RBEpic1/part1.html

I will update this thread when the rest of the report is done.

There is one thing that technically might have shadowed my game, although I've stayed to spirit of the rules: One time I forgot to hit save when closing the game and my latest save was from 2 turns before. I've exactly recreated all my actions in intervening turns (there was no fighting, just a couple builds starting), but technically it was an older save. I didn't even act on the information that I was beaten to Liberalism, recreating all research choices and builds as they were.

Aside from that one problem, I've never reloaded even when losing a highly experienced unit to a game UI oddity (go order into unexplored terrain was interpreted as an attack).

The outcome of the game was:
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The outcome of the game was Spaceship victory in 1855, which is earlier than I've launched the other time I've won a space race, so I've done pretty well, especially considering the bad start.

In 1908 the glorious cities of Paris, Orleans and Rheims achieve legendary culture, and the American and Greek civilzations concede victory to the Honorable French.

Here's the final world map and score graph from the replay:



Final Score: 24096
Game Score: 6706

Lessons learned: You can too neglect your military! Check out the power graph:




Power? Bah, who needs it? When you've got....

Culture!



How did I do it? Wonders of course! At the beginning of the game I took one solid look at Louis's Industrious trait and decided I would just go on a wonder-building rampage and then see where we ended up.

Well here's where Paris ended up:



Can you count 'em all?

Anyway, I apologize, I've never done this Epic-playing, report-writing thing before and I don't really know what people want to know... so... here's how it went down, roughly.

As soon as I ran into Genghis and Monty I knew that war was inevitable. Those two are haters. Still, I neglected my military, as usual, and concentrated on wonders, building the Pyramids in 960 BC and Stonehenge in 800 BC. In 300AD, I refused some unreasonable demand from Genghis, and he declared war, of course. Soon, Genghis swept through the south coast of the peninsula, burning down two cities of mine that I had captured from barbarians earlier. Jerk.


However, I was building up Chariots, Archers, and Spearmen, and managed to turn the war around, capturing Old Sarai, Beshbalik, and Ning-hsia before negotiating peace in 590. During this period, all of the civs were at war, Monty with Washington, and Ghandi with Alex, creating rivalries that would define the entire game.

All was well for a while. I was cheerfully building wonders and ignoring my military, when in 1020AD Monty declared war! Shocking, I know. Well, we fought border skirmishes with horsemen, swordsmen, and axemen, that I was cranking out using Just-in-Time manufacturing techniques, until in 1085 Genghis joined Monty against me! Well, for someone dedicated to ignoring their military this was just too much. I captured Teotihuacan, negotiated peace with Monty, and turned to focus my efforts on Genghis. In 1220 I had taken all of his cities on the continent, so I negotiated peace and left him with two on the northern islands. Here's the map:



For a while followed another period of wonder-building and military-ignoring. In 1550, Alex asked for my help in exterminating the quarrelsome GenghisI didn't have any military to speak of, but what the heck, I whipped some up quick and sailed them to the islands to mop up the last of the Mongols. As this was winding down, Washington asked for help in his war with Monty, so I said sure, two simultaneous wars ain't no problem for someone who ignores their military, and we carved up Monty's territory between us, vanquishing him in 1658.

At this point I began to weigh my victory options.



I was way ahead, and only needed to choose the method of my win. I dreamed of Conquest, with 2 out of 5 already defeated, or at least Domination, but to get either of those I would need wars with 2 out of the 3 of Ghandi, Washington, and Alex. Not likely, while remaining honorable. I had won space race before, but never cultural, so I decided to focus on that. This basically involved spreading as many religions as I could and building many temples so I could build all of the cathedral type buildings at +50% culture in my three target cities, as well as all the wonders I could eat.

Along the way I signed a defense pact with Ghandi, thinking that there might be strife between him and Washington, or at least Alex, so I could get my war on one last time, but of course, I was totally ignoring my military.

Then in 1840 Ghandi declared war on Alex, tearing up our defense pact in the process. Oh well. But then... in 1848, Alex pleads with me to intervene and save him from Ghandi's wrath. This was interesting. Ghandi's power was 3 times mine. He had mech infantry. I had mostly a bunch of archers. On the other hand, I was bored with sitting around waiting for culture to grow, and had a bunch of cities with nothing else to do. Besides, anyone who attacks poor helpless Greece deserves to be crushed!

So I joined in the war, building units as fast as I can, and aside from a lot of pillaging over my border, barely suffered for it. I eliminated Ghandi in 1889, and thought domination was mine... except, I couldn't quite get to 66%, at victory I had a measly 62.5%. Especially no thanks to these two cities, who just wouldn't flip.



Tenochtitlan is 23% American and Chicago 25% here. What does it take to flip a city, anyway? Sheesh. I felt bad because Chicago was once large and prosperous, but obviously chose American culture, Big Macs and starvation, rather than the plentiful baguettes, cheese and wine over in Frenchland.

Oh well, at least I still had the culture machines running.

Thanks for the awesome game.

Edit: fixed innacuracies relating to exactly when I vanquished Genghis