For what it's worth here is my report for the game I lost...

Honorable loss

Hi,

you can find my Epic one report here. Enjoy!

Comments, criticism, or questions are more than welcome, of course.

Now that that is finished, I can finally read all the other reports...

-Kylearan

EDIT: Ah, while reading Jester's report I realize I should mention I have lost my save for this Epic. (In fact, I lost all my saves. Don't ask. :mad: ) So if this might lead to my game being a shadow game, then so be it; I've only my notes and my report left of that game. Sorry.

First I would like to apologize for the lack of screen shots, but I rushed into to the first epic without taking the proper care to make sure that I knew how to work the screenshot stuff properly- well without further adeau

My preliminary thoughts on this game were that with a tropical setting and Pangea (meaning that I would not be isolated) I should get to iron working as quick as possible. Pangea meant I needed defense, and tropical meant that I would need to clear lots of Jungle. Louis is probably my favorite to play with, I love building, am less of a warrior, and Civ4 seems to make this an even more viable strategy than in Civ3, so in general I liked the idea. I almost always play with the honorable ruleset anyway (except sometimes I will start a war, but never with freindly civs-they are just too valuable in Civ4!!)

4000BC-I see the starting position and deciede that it will be sufficient, so I found Paris. I like the stone (builder, builder builder) and love cows, so I deciede that animal husbandry is a must, I deceide to prioritize worker techs and defense, not religion, expecting that on a pangea it will spread fast to me. Send warrior to start scouting. Start work on a warrior.

3700BC-Meet Genghis- I make a decision now that I am going to make Genghis my best friend, I want to build in this game did not want to expend energy, time, and resources fighting endless wars with him, he is to be my best friend.

3600BC-Meet Montezuma!!!! At this point I go back and look at the Epic introduction page, I am trying to find the part about this being an ALWAYS WAR variant, I mean Montezuma and Genghis are my closest neighbors!!! This can only be bad news. I am by now though feeling very vindicated in my choice of worker and military tech over religion. I already forsee fighting wars with Monty and Genghis or both and them fighting with each other too, all this under the honorable rule set, my game may have gone differently had I violated the rules but did not and... Well we will see.

3520- Buddhism is founded in a distant land -It would turn out to be Delhi, big surprise.

3240-Animal Husbandry comes in. I normally play quick speed games, where there is never enough time to build all the possible buildings, but things are a bit different at epic speed....

2880BC- I want scouts and archers, so next went to hunting and it arrives now. build two scouts.

By this time I realize that I am at the fat end of an almost penisula, with no one behind my. I deciede that i am going to block this penisula, (Creative helps) So I begin planning the placement of my first settler, I have two ideas the spot northeast with wheat and pigs or east and little south with dyes and bannans- I rumminate on it.

2280BC Hinduism founded by Genghis, cant wait for it to spread to my lands. I already realize that I can not be friends with both Monty and Genghis, I fear Genghis' Keshiks (the lack of movement cost in a tropical setting is fearsome) so I continue with my plan to be nice to Genghis and try to avoid conflict in general, but especially with Monty the Maniac.

2120BC-1275BC - I get archery, mysticism, mining, and masonry- I wanted oblisks, a shot at Stonehenge, archers, and walls

1700BC-The first Settle comes and I decieded to go to the northeast-Two reasons, I was still not very close to iron working so there was not chance of making something useful out of that bananas-dyes spot and I did not want to crowd Genghis, I still don't have hinduism in my lands so I did not want close border tension, Orleans founded on the coast with Pigs and wheat in range missed the silks.

At this point I deciede to make a go at Stonehenge, But first i want a few more archers, I connect Wheat and pigs, then go back to Paris-I have the quarry ability, so build it, and start Stonehenge

1225BC Monty converts to Hinduism, at this point I have a glimmer of hope that Monty, Genghis, and I will all eventually be Hindu, very friendly and come to dominate the the world.......

840BC- Stonehenge completes in Paris, start on settler. Now where to put it, I still would like to block of the penisula, but there is just no good place to put it in the southeast that would block it off quickly,

700BC-Bronze working

650BC Lyons founded to the northwest with the rice, fish, and pigs in the radius, a great location, just not helping the blockade plan


460BC-Writing go to Iron working, now since I normally play on quick speed, I am seriously concerned about my research times since getting into classical techs and founding that third city. I decide that no matter how bad I want to block this penisula, building a settler soon would be tough on the budget.

100BC found Rhiems to the extreme south east next to the iron, cows, and fish- thus the blockage the penisula plan is finally begun, a little border expansion and viola!! Not openborders with anyone I deciede, but a bit later Genghis founds New Sarai just to the west of Rheims and gets those clams

20BC-Iron working comes

1AD-Hinduism spreads and I revolt!!!!! already having major happiness issues

1AD-430AD Pyramids, Great Lighthouse and Parthenon are built elsewhere, I had some hope of the pyramids, but all for naught. (notice not tech discovered since iron working!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

430-Moses is Born in Paris-I use him to discover meditation, my research is sooo slow that I have almost despaired and probably made a weedy move my using him for meditation, but I was desperate for monastries to spread my hinduism

430-Monty founds Confucianism, this is bad, the AI likes to use thier own relgions, even if it means expending resources to spread it, when they could just leave the foreign religion in place for the same effect. This means that the my hopes for the French, Mongol, Aztec holy hindu alliance is a likely canindate for the dustbin of history. A great big "SIGH"!!!

450-I finish the long research on mathmatics, I want that calender dyes, silk, and bannanas would be great!!!!!

520-But instead I get priesthood I desperatly needed temples so I could let my cities grow and calendar would have taken forever.

540- I take an annoying Barb town of Mycenia, it is southwest of Paris to the right of those dyes and south of the bannans, a good spot, with three dyes, bannans, and rice all in the radius, with just enought space to have a coastal city to the west with that sugar, rice and fish. Unfortunately taking this fourth city would cause some more money trouble.

540-720 spread hinduism around the French empire


760-Washington gets Chrisianity

860-Monty declares war, he is still hindu, but well Monty is just a maniac, relations with Genghis are "pleased" but he will not join the war. I also complete the Hanging Gardens, jumping my score.

Monty has that northern isthmus, I decide to attack there just to the east of that Iron, in 920 I take Xochicalco

950-Monty converts to Confucianism, this is the reason for the war of course

1000 I found Tours, just to the west of Mycenia, this is the farthest city location in the southwest corner-sugar,rice, and fish

1025-Monty Pillaging everything is sight, but unable to take my cities, or take his one back. We make peace and he turns on Washington immediately

1100-Calendar, finally!! fixing the pillaging damage, never been pillaged so badly before, also realize that starvation can be even more devastating that I previously thought.

1100-Monty is taking Washington's cities, to this point Washington and Gandhi were the strongest civs by good margin they had cornered Alex, Alex only had four cities, with two of them under such pressure from Gandhi that they had no "greek" controled tiles to the west, Alexander is the weakest civ, Monty, Genghis and the Honorable French are jockeying in the middle of the pack.

1130 Philly falls to Monty and I begin to wonder how much gas old GW has..... To bad I can not get in on what seems to be the great partition of America....

1165 I get Alphabet am able to trade for compass, harbors would help those health problems

1200 Code of Laws, I really need courthouses so I can boost this economy and get into science mode, I am on par with Genghis, Monty, and Alex, and behind Gandhi and Washington

1290 Civil Service and revolt, I like Bueracracy, and take that hereditary rule to help with happiness, don't remember when I got monarchy, trade probably right after alphabet.

1305 Chichen Itza is built, Genghis is my boy we have +12, but I know that Monty is not done causing trouble, In any event I have built walls in that town of his that I took and all the culture I could, unfortunately I left some forests there, MAJOR WEED!!!!!!

1320 That pesky New Sarai revolts and joins the French, now I have clams!!! Start on Angkor Wat.

I am hoping to trade and research my way into a tech led to on par with tech and then out manuvour the AI and get a space race victory.....

1370 Machinery

1420 Philosophy- revolt to Pacifism

1430 found Marseilles- mostly to be a fishing village, but it does use that horse resource.

1470 Theology

Now Monty the Maniac is fighting Gandhi, man I wish someone would eliminate Monty or at least cripple him, but in 1560 he takes Karachi

This whole time Genghis has been so well behaved, he fought one little war with Monty (hey, who can blame him, that Monty is a Menace), but no cities changed hands, Genghis did ask for a little help, but I refuse, I want to build toward a space victory, and need infrastructure to do so, I dont' need Monty pillaging me into the stone age again.

1570 Alexander declares war on me, it turns out to be a fake war (he is already fighting Gandhi in a stalemate), thank god, but I do do a few rounds of no research for upgrades and few rounds of building modern units.

This war with Monty and Alex puts the brakes on Gandhi, he only loses the one city, but it drops him into the middle of the pack with Genghis, Monty and I, Alex is last and will remain there, but will still drastically affect the games outcome.

For the last thousand years I have been waging war aginist the "jungle" Man i hate that stuff, it is better than desert, but still, soooooo time consuming and it grows back if you only cut it and don't put an improvement on that tile. So I go for the Hagia Sophia and in 1615 it comes in.

1664 I get Gunpowder every body else has it, except Alex, this means I can up my defenses, but negates my walls. Make peace with Alex, I think I gave him some outdated tech. The AI does not like to make peace for peace, sometimes even when you clearly have the upper hand

1668 Mani born in Paris, discover divine right. Discovering Divive Right as soon as possible should have been a variant rule, I mean we are playing as Louis XIV- "I am the State"

1670 Divine Right, forseeing another war with Monty, and one in which I am successfull and victorious and take many of his cities, I start Versailles in Xochicalco, that city I took from him in that war.

1696, Versailles, is built in a far away land, damn, well the gold does not hurt and shortly there after....

1706 Monty the Maniac declares War!!!! Man I hate him!!

1712 Xochicalco is captured and razed by Monty the Maniac (He is not playing by the "honorable" rule set apparently)

Around 1730 I make peace with Monty, but I have lost a city and my Versailles money (I paid to get peace) in the process, somehow these wars slow down the process of building and advancing for me, but Monty only gains steam.

1742 Genghis starts a war with Gandhi and asks for help, I agree, he is my only friend, but do not intend to really make an effort at battling Gandhi and fake war period ensues

1730-1788 I get Music, Education, Paper, Economics, Astronomy, Printing Press and Optics

1794-Monty Declares War Again, by this time the game has a clear leader, Washington, he recovered from that early loss to Monty of two cities is leading everyone by like six visible techs, He is the run away Civ. Unfortunately I don't think I can deliver a crippling blow to Monty, or advance in Tech far enough ahead of him so that he is fighting with outdated units. With Monty on my border I am going to be a war with him like every fifty turns for the rest of the game, this will stifle my progess. At this point I search the world for allies, only Genghis will join my rightoues crusade againist Monty. I wanted GW, hoping the war would slow his progess, but since he will not be dragged in, it looks like he will win. I resolve to obtain a second place finish. Gandhi, Monty,Genghis and I are all with in 150 points of each other I am 50 points from second place, behind Gandhi.

1834 I capture Texcoco It is next to that copper that is northwest of Karakoum (Mongol capital). Monty makes peace with Genghis and me, I give him some tech, I am now second in score and tech, but Gandhi and Monty are within 100 points of me, the second place finish will be close!! I am actually hoping that Washington will win soon before something catastrophic happens to my second place standing.

1882-True to form Monty Declares war agian, no one will help me too, but and he impales himself on my defense at Texcoco

1897- Washington builds SS Casing, I am not in modern tech just yet, 1893 I got railroads. Please let him finish that spaceship soon, before I fall out of 2nd place!!!!

1913 Still at war with Monty, Washinton has four SS Cassings built and in 1913 gets thrusters

1919 Discover democracy, revolt to emancipation

1923 GW gets SS cockpit

1923 As a huge stack of reinforcements is almost to Texcoco, Monty shows up and takes it finally. I decide to make a go of taking on of his core cities and redeploy my reinforcement stack to Teotihuacan.

1927 I take Teotihuacan, but only have two wounded units in it Monty takes it back, It would have been really nice to have been able to raze that city, but the rules.....

Monty and I make peace...

1940 GW finishs SS life support-43' ss docking bay

1953 Monty declares war again, GW is pleased with, but still won't fight, and neither will anyone else. Gandhi Monty and I are within 100 points of each other....

1959 I finish the pentagon....

1965-Alexander, the guy in last place by 700 points and more than 900 behind me declares war on me, well I am already fighting Montezuma and figure if Alex can get open borders he will still be fighting againist my superior forces on the Aztec front... WRONG

Alex does not come by land, but by sea againist my paper cut out back line defenses!!!! Dropping like 15 Musketment back there!!! I lose Tours and worse Alex razes it-(another AI not playing by the honorable rule set!!!)

This drops me into fifth place, even behind Genghis, I mop up those Greek units, but the damage has been done, my chance at a second place finish is blown, I am only 150 points behind Gandhi (who is now in second place), but there is just not enough time to make up the distance. Oh well, those are the breaks.

1982-GW finishs stasis chamber.

1983 Washington Wins

I finish fifth in front of only Alexander.

A great game, I learned alot about the mechanics of playing on Epic speed and also about diplomacy. I wonder how things would have been if I had had only one ultra aggressive neighbor instead of two.... I really don't think the honorable rule set was very confining, I think the tropical climate (which plagued the growth of my southern cities) and the Mongol/Aztec neighbor combo were the most influential factors. I wonder if others were able to be freindly with both Genghis and Monty, the honorable rule set with no city razing combined with the increased maintaince costs makes a take over of either of the aggressive neighbors a tricky proposition. Had Washington and Gandhi been my neighbors and Genghis/Alex/Monty all been at one end of the pangea, I would have won, but in the end the most important thing I learned was not to over expand, I was so obssesed with not letting Monty or Genghis get cities bordering me to both the east and the west that I think I expanded to quickly and this put me at a disadvantage research wise in the ancient and classical eras, i could have overcome this advantage and won, but kept getting dragged into war by Monty, Monty and my early over expansion stifled my research just enought to let Washington get in front. Live and Learn

FINAL SCORE: 2925

I was more upset at my ranking of "DAN QUAYLE" than my loss or my score.

Heh, at least one other person has posted a losing report, so I needn't be too embarassed about this
If there's any problems with the formatting / display of these screnies, please let me know, though I won't be able to fix them before January as I'm not at my own computer. Anyway, without further ado, here we go:

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4000 BC / 4th December 05, 13:53:

I start my first Epic experience by organising myself with Irfanview for screenshots, adjusting my config to run windowed mode and increase the autosave frequency, opening the variant rules in another notepad window and (slightly counterintuitively - that Reminder mod would have been handy) renaming my CustomAssets folder - having been using Blue Marble, the first thing that strikes me on loading the save is that the plains look really yellow
As for the actual game, I decide to look up Louis in the 'paedia (and add that 'a') since I've not played as France yet, discovering that he's Industrious and Creative. I also notice that the Honourable Frenchies have started right next to some stone - methinks Stonehenge is going to be high on my priority list.
My Warrior begins to scout to the north-east, noticing some coastline and a lot of jungle to go with the lakes around Paris (which is founded on top of the hill for maximum defence bonus and tile use). We begin construction of a second Warrior and research of Mysticism with Stonehenge in mind.

In 3840BC, Paris' borders expand and my exploring warrior notes that there's a good location for a city to the northeast, with some corn and furs and not too much jungle. There's also a tribal village to the west which could be useful.

3760BC: A jungle grows near Paris, intruding on its nice clear area. It's almost like that was ... deliberately made. Despite the fact that we're still a couple of hundred years short of being mystical, the people of France start to believe that some sort of higher being, or beings, had a hand in the design of the world.

3600BC: Disaster! Our brave exploring Warriors are improbably cut down by a pack of marauding panthers - clearly we've yet to learn how to make full use of jungles when defending ourselves. Before their slightly feeble deaths, the warriors were able to learn that the terrain beyond the peaks to the northeast is pretty ugly, but that there might be some viable land due east of Paris. The following turn, however, their replacements are trained in Paris and set out to avenge their predecessors' deaths - it's the only honourable course of action! Paris begins work on a Barracks - it looks like we're going to need some well-trained troops to defend ourselves against vicious animals; budgies, rabbits, even the occasional earwig.

3520 BC: The people of France decide that there might be some merit in the idea that a number of higher beings are watching over them (and laughing at their warriors' performance).

3440 BC: We (somehow) become aware that a new faith, known as Buddhism, has been founded somewhere in the world. Our warriors receive a gift of trinkets worth 41 gold from a friendly tribe.

3320 BC: Perhaps France's warriors are not as pathetic as we had thought - our replacement explorers achieve the amazing feat of defeating some wolves without sustaining a scratch.



3160 BC: We make contact with Genghis Khan of the Mongols, residing to the south-east of Paris. For some reason our diplomat feels compelled to yell the word "Khaaaaaaan!" - who knows what impact this will have on relations?



2800 BC: While exploring the borders of Mongolia, we discover our first river, a tremendous torrent of water crashing through the jungle and then winding majestically across the plains. The land around it seems very fertile, and we become a little jealous of Khan and his people.

2760 BC: Our sages have come to the conclusion that there are many higher beings or 'gods' watching over us, and the people of Paris call their new faith Hinduism. We quickly adopt it as our official religion, and the people spend the next turn celebrating our wise decision.

2720 BC: We make contact with Washington of the Americans in the far east beyond Karakorum. I also discover that alt-tabbing out of the game window pauses the sound mid-play in a pleasing manner.

2600 BC: The culture of Paris is a thing to behold, our newfound faith having stimulated much creativity in the people. The small tribe to the west of Paris decide that we are so wonderful they must tell us of their Animal Husbandry techniques, which will be useful when we want to make use of the cattle near Paris. The people take this as a sign that cattle are holy, and become reluctant to eat beef - luckily there is still plenty of fish to go around.

2480 BC: We meet a scout who owes his allegiance to Montezuma of the Aztecs. Our warriors take up a position on the same hill and bravely prepare to defend it against the lions who have been tracking the scout.
They are highly successful in this endeavour, and become highly skilled at defending in jungles - the earlier loss of their predecessors still weighs heavily on the minds of the French people.

2320 BC: Having completed its Barracks, Paris begins training a worker - those cattle aren't going to build a pasture around themselves!

2240 BC: Alexander of the Greeks pays us a visit. He seems like an honurable man - perhaps a great friendship will blossom between us.

2200 BC: Far to the east we encounter the lands of Gandhi and his Indian civilisation. Their Buddhist faith leads to some frostiness at our initial meeting, and everyone eats a large quantity of Ferrero Rocher in order to avoid having to talk to one another.

2080 BC: We have discovered Masonry, and will soon be able to construct glorious monuments to French engineering prowess. Then we'll probably end up giving them to Washington.
A number of our people feel that perhaps our polytheists are mistaken, and that they are merely seeing reflections and distortions of the one true divine entity. They are allowed to pursue this train of thought to see where it leads.

1975 BC: The great Livy informs us that we are the least wealthy of all the world's peoples. We care not, for there is little honour in the accumulation of wealth.



1925 BC: We notice that Gandhi has access to some Horses near his capital, as well as some fertile-looking land to the south.

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1825 BC: Our worker is ready in Paris, and immediately rushes to build a quarry - that stone will help us greatly in our efforts to construct Stonehenge. We have also discovered what appears to be a great ocean beyond India.

1475 BC: Our scholars' efforts have paid off, and the Jewish faith is founded in Paris. A number of our citizens now choose to believe that there is only one true God, and He therefore deserves capitalisation. The citizens of Paris are ordered to maximise their production efforts in order to complete Stonehenge - we need to expand our territory!

1375 BC: A great stone monument has been completed near Paris, leading to much celebration. We are now putting our efforts toward the outfitting of a settler - there's some territory to the east which we'd like to get our hands on ahead of the primitive Genghis Khan. Our benevolent leader goes to make a sandwich.

1320 BC: Our people are worried by the appearance of barbarians armed with bows near our borders - our defences have been neglected too long! We immediately begin efforts to replicate the archers' weapons for ourselves.

1175 BC: Thanks to their mastery of jungle terrain, our warriors are able to stave off an assault by oafish barbarians to the east of Karakorum, the trees providing cover against their arrows.

1075 BC: Having take the risky decision to head for home before healing, our warriors are regrettably slaughtered by barbarous thugs. The people of France are greatly saddened.

1050 BC: A flurry of activity in France, as Paris finally completes its Settler, our borders once again expand, and we master the use of bows. We will now be able to build some defenders for our nation.



1025 BC: The city of Orleans is founded on the coast three tiles due northeast of Paris, granting access to some corn, pigs and spices, many of which we are currently unable to make use of. The Mongols have built a city near some rice to the east - our cultures may soon clash, causing tension. The French people, wary of being attacked by less honourable peoples, begin to train many Archers.

860 BC: Having created the priesthood, French sages decide that our military abilities are still too limited, and that we will soon need tools capable of clearing the trees around our lands. To this end, we begin research on Mining. Paris has also started The Pyramids, but may soon switch to a second Settler.

780 BC: France is apparently the largest nation in the world, much to our surprise. Our workers have little to do without a wider selection of technology at their disposal, so are ordered to build roads throughout the nation.



700 BC: The Jewish belief system has become prevalent in France (an unlikely sentence if ever I wrote one) so a quick volte-face is performed and we make it our state religion. We are developing bronze working in the hope of improving our military standing and assisting in deforestation efforts. We have also begun work on a great Oracle.



320 BC: The French people have had some mixed blessings from their God; The Pyramids were successfully built in Paris, but The Oracle was completed elsewhere - its cultural effect would have been extremely important in our efforts to put pressure on the city of Beshbalik, which is blocking our access to the nearest source of copper.

220 BC: The newly-constructed walls in Paris are put to the test, her brave defenders easily seeing off assaults by barbarians armed with bows and axes while her people begin outfitting another Settler unit - there's an attractive location to the northwest of Paris.



160 BC: The mighty French culture of Orleans is rapidly outstripping the nearby Mongol town's - Genghis' spearmen are daunted by our intellectual might. We are also aware of an Aztec city to the north, and yet another Mongol town to the southeast of Paris.



140 BC: One of the defenders in Paris is forced to make a sortie in order to prevent her infrastructure's destruction at the hands of invading barbarians, and succeeds. The Lord smiles on us this day.

100 BC: Inspired by the presence of Stonehenge, the great Moses is born in Paris. He offers to teach us the technique of Meditation, but instead we order him to build the Temple of Solomon. This allows us to return our science rate to 100% in order to keep our wise men well-supplied with abacuses and pebbles (with any luck we'll develop calculus quicker that way).



20 BC: The city of Lyons is founded in a rather snazzy location to the northwest of Paris, giving us access to pigs, rice and fish. Its production capacity is very low at this stage, but it will grow quickly. We also become aware of some horses farther along the coast, which will almost certainly come in handy in the near future. Our bronze tools are still not sufficiently strong to clear the thick jungles of France, so we're working on an iron replacement.



230 AD: An uneventful few turns have passed in France, but the Jewish faith has spread to the faraway city of Sparta. This should improve our standing with Alexander.

250 AD: As predicted, Alex converts to Judaism. With any luck, the faith will spread around his lands in shrot order - he has the potential to be a great ally for France. We are also tremendously excited to discover a source of iron right next to Paris - the Lord works in generous ways!

260 AD: Both Alexander (who is unfortunately in last place according to the score system) and the much better-placed Washingtin sign Open Borders agreements with us - cultivating good foreign relations is a highly honourable thing to do. In 290 AD we sign similar agreements with everyone except Genghis. His boastful nature also causes him to reveal that he has two sources of copper as well as some iron.



300 AD: You have chosen unwisely! Genghis declares war on the great nation of France, presumably hoping to get the jump on us before our iron supply is connected. His invasion force seems to consist of a lone Archer, though, so we're not yet too worried.

350 AD: A few years ago we learned that confucianism had been founded, but we are mildly surprised to learn that it was the Aztecs who discovered it. This is in fact quite irritating since the Jewish faith has spread to the city of Teotihuacan, cleverly located on an isthmus to the northeast of Orleans.
Meanwhile, Genghis' invading archers managed to pillage a single road near Orleans before throwing themselves fruitlessly against the city's defences. We are training several swordsmen and axemen in order to take the city of Beshbalik for ourselves.

420 AD: A well-timed Axeman trained in Paris allows us to see off a Mongol horde attempting to cut our iron supplies, but I fear there may be a long war of attrition ahead. I also realise that I failed to make use of the Pyramids earlier, which was extremely stupid, so France adopts Representation.



470 AD: A galley lands two units near Lyons, and it is quickly razed, angering the French people. In our heartlands we fare better, although a lone swordsman does take out two of our attackers in an irritating fashion. Genghis' near-endless supply of units means that things are not looking up for France.

560 AD: After several turns of fighting the tide appears to be turning - there are no Mongol units in our territory, but many of our improvements have been razed. Our workers are rushing to replace them, but our cities can't afford to produce anything other than military units.

650 AD: In a slightly odd development, Alexander has declared war on Gandhi - not a particularly honourable development, but hindering Gandhi plays into our hands. Our forces are present outside Beshbalik, but its Walls make an assault at this stage somewhat suicidal.

660 AD: The birth of Zoroaster in Paris (the Great Person birth rate in this game seems to be rather slow - Gandhi has constructed the Mahabodhi but I've not noticed any other Great People actions) allows us to construct the Kashi Vishwanath - we're now pulling in 6 gold every turn at 100% science, but our lack of cities and damaged infrastructure are hurting us.



670 AD: I decide to attack Beshbalik after the garrison drops to two units, an archer and a spearman. The former eliminates one of our swordsmen and an axeman, but the two remaining axemen take the city. I opt for peace with Genghis - hopefully he's learned his lesson, and until we get the ability to build catapults, war will be remarkably inefficient. I'd also like to hold on to the 24-experience axeman now stationed in Beshbalik until we get some Epics built. Our scouts report the presence of a barbarian city to the south of Paris on the edge of our territory - the only honoruable course of action will be to take it and allow its inhabitants to bask in and be improved by the culture of France.

690 AD: We finally begin research of meditation - the French people need to relax after the horrors of war, which have set us back a long way.

730 AD: Having adopted Organised Religion, I begin training a Jewish Missionary in Orleans - spreading Judaism (and Hinduism) around the globe will be very productive for us. Christianity is founded far away. Both Greece and India ask for our help in their war, but I refuse both - they are far away and I have more pressing concerns. Besides, the Greek attack on India was not an honourable one.



750 AD: The spread of Judaism lets me see the Mongol army massed in Karakorum. We're very concerned.

790 AD: The city of Rheims is founded on the ruins of Lyons, and a day of rememberance declared across the nation. Meanwhile, a barbarian archer has irritatingly cut off our iron supply - our existing forces are diverted from their attack on Vandal (which I intend to rename - adjectives are not good names for cities, as all civilised people know) to deal with him. The following turn, he decides to throw himself at the city walls, solving that problem for me.

810 AD: Judaism spreads to Rheims, and on the far side of the world Montezuma declares war on Gandhi. The Indians are certainly proving unpopular.



1000 AD: It seems Genghis failed to learn his lesson earlier, as he declares war on France once again, moving a number of chariots into our territory.

1030 AD: Despite a valiant effort by its defenders, Beshbalik falls to the Mongols, who opt to raze it rather than recapturing it, which strikes me as both very odd and very dishonourable behaviour.

1055 AD: I discover the location of a Mongol town farther west than I though they'd got. Even more shocking, the town of Rheims is again razed by invaders from the sea. Perhaps this time we truly are looking at the last days of France.

1070 AD: Having just razed Rheims, the Mongols replace it with Tabriz. Genghis' priorities seem a little bizarre to me.



1090 AD: The city of Old Sarai falls to our swordsmen, but Khan refuses to make peace with us. No matter, I shall simply take Tabriz from the dishonourable dog first.

1105 AD: The defenders of Orleans see off attacks from an axeman, a chariot, a spearman and a swordsman, and are promoted to City Garrison II and III respectively - that should put off the two Mongol axemen left outside!

1115 AD: I was mistaken - one of the archers is improbably killed by an attacking axeman. Taoism is also founded in Texcoco.

1180 AD: The Mongols retake Old Sarai, but it shall be mine again. I've constructed my first catapult which will help, and the Great Library has been built elsewhere - I'm technologically behind the rest of the world; Alphabet might help to reduce the gap.

1185 AD: Disaster! Second-placed Montezuma has pitched into the war against me, and has Horse Archers. This could be very painful.
My forces at Old Sarai are extremely flukily destroyed by the defenders.

1200 AD: At great expense I capture Tabriz, but Aztec and Mongol forces are rampaging across my Eastern territory, and Khan refuses to sign a peace treaty with me.



1210 AD: A combined Aztec and Mongol force is able to raze Orleans, and my Iron supplies have once again been cut. On the bright side, the birth of Imhotep in Paris allows us to gain knowledge of Metal Casting. This is small recompense, however.



1215 AD: A close-run battle prevents the fall of Paris to Montezuma's Horse Archers, but the Mongols are close by; it's just a matter of how long we manage to cling on, now.



1225 AD: The valiant defenders of Paris hold off several attackers but are ultimately overrun, leaving France with two slightly naff cities, an archer and an axeman to her name. Erk.

1240 AD: The axeman in Tabriz defeats two Aztec Horse Archers, but the third is too much for him and the city falls.



1255 AD: Islam is founded. A lone Horse Archer fails to take Tours, a city I founded during the early stages of the second Franco-Mongolian war. France is now almost devoid of life - only Paris, now in Mongol hands, remains as a testament to her former glory.



1270 AD: Six Horse Archers and a Catapult are spotted approaching Tours through the jungle. The French sages complete their work on Alphabet in the hope that they will be remembered by those who come after them.

1280 AD: Montezuma, bizarrely, offers a Peace Treaty in exchange for a large quantity of gold. We acquiesce, but two Mongol units begin their march toward Tours.

1295 AD: The chariot is seen off, but a galley appears on the horizon, filled with Mongol infantry.

1300 AD: Genghis offers us peace in exchange for Monarchy, but the French people refuse to bow to these barbarous aggressors, and the city of Tours is destroyed, its defenders fighting right down to the line. Six and a half hours of play later (which wasn't intended to be one session either - damn addictive game!), the only remaining qustion is whether the honourable Washington's technological advantage will be enough to see him triumph over the militant Aztecs and Mongols, who now control the bulk of the available land. The Americans were perfectly placed to take advantage of the early wars between Alexander and Gandhi and the Aztecs' anti-Indian agression, but the more aggressive nations may well be able to defeat them. Regrettably, the Honourable French will not be around to find out, their early cultural and technological efforts having led to a stunting of their growth and a lack of military funding.

The pictures in the report I am hosting but im not sure if my bandwidth will hold up. Please let me know if you become unable to view the report and/or pictures.

Have fun!

The Honorable French

I started out by building a settler in Paris, pausing to let the city grow and to build a scout when Hunting came in. By the time the settler came in, I already had a fairly good idea of my surroundings. The area to the west of Paris ought to be mine to take whenever I wanted, with a clear run all the way to the coast. To the east, there was space for maybe one row of cities before I ran into Genghis Khan. After some nasty experiences with Napoleon I’m wary of settling too close to Aggressive leaders, so I decided to grab the two eastward sites I had my eye on fairly quickly, pausing only to grab the horses to the southwest.

After building Orleans at the wheat & pigs site to the north and setting it to cranking workers, I paused only to build another warrior before settling Marseilles near the horses (and the cows, the dyes, the rice, the other dyes, the bananas, and the other other dyes; it was a NICE site). Rennes [a note about the city names: I accidentally named Orleans Orleans/ and didn’t spot it for ages, with the result that the game kept recommending Orleans as a city name and my names got off the normal track] followed to the south-east of Paris, completing my border with Genghis. It was at this point that things went slightly wrong.

With Orleans cranking workers/settlers and Paris making a run at the Pyramids (Stonehenge had gone by without any serious effort on my part, as obelisks are unimportant to a Creative leader and I didn’t have any particular use for a Great Prophet), I’d been running thin on military. I had some archers at my eastern cities, but Marseilles was guarded only by one warrior. I was relying on my ability to get troops in from Paris in two turns by road. Then a barbarian axeman came within two spaces of Marseilles. I called in the Parisian Guard, they started towards the city, then the axeman moved onto the road. Oops. I didn’t have any bronze, and hadn’t completed Iron Working yet, so none of my troops could match him outside of a city. I had to retreat, leaving him Marseilles. The axeman was easily stopped at Paris by an archer, and after finishing the Pyramids Paris cranked a few swordsmen (iron working having been discovered in the meantime) who promptly retook the city with little difficulty. Lesson learnt. I started building better defenses.

While all this was going on, not much had been happening abroad. There were a couple of wars, but I stayed out of them; my only neighbor was Genghis, and I was staying firmly on his good side. I switched to the religion he founded, Hinduism, the minute I could, traded techs with him, and gave him the trade goods he asked for. I just wanted to be left alone, to expand across my section of the continent and then to get my economy into decent shape. Here you see my civ at 1000 AD, with the former accomplished and the latter about to be achieved by means of Representation-powered research (not fully set up at the point I took the shot).

The year is 2002, the game is Civ 3, RBCiv Epic One, the Honourable
French. My result: bad. The last line of my report read "820 AD - Lyons
falls, the French are no more". Now I've improved a LOT as a player since
that epic. In fact many of the decisions I made in that game would make
me cringe if I saw them now. Nevertheless, here is a teaser of what is to
come:


French history begins in the year 4000BC. Our glorious leadership decide
the information is power, and that moving the warrior onto the hill before
settling is the best move. Our intelligence reports that the starting spot is
certainly the best spot for founding the first city of the Civ 4 Epics! And
with that, the French settle and name the city Paris.

Looking at the variant rules I had a think about my gameplan. With the
inability to declare war, and restrictions which make prolonged warfare a lot
more difficult, I decide that a cultural victory is probably a good way to
go. Being industrious can help this goal as well (cheap wonders - yes
please!). With the stone in my city radius either stonehenge or the
pyramids are likely to be a good early wonder to get. I decide to pursue at
least one of the early religions. Hinduism is nice and cheap and won't take
too long to get, but Judaism will be a good option if I am going for an early
Pyramids. I start researching Mysticism.

A few years go by and our warriors pop a village or two, starting with the
one to the west of Paris,


Our warriors are victorious over the lions of the north.


Exploring my continent I discover some jungle. Then I discover some more
jungle, and then finally, I surprisingly find even more jungle. To the South
is Jungle, to the West is jungle. I'm living in the bloody amazon over here.
Meanwhile, I find out that Buddhism has been founded, and I'm still 18
turns from Hinduism.


I fight some wars with lions in the east, coming out victorious in most
battles. While this is going on I made contact with Ghandi in 2960BC,
Georgy boy in 2920BC, Genghis Khan in 2720BC, Montezuma in 2040BC and
finally Alexander the not-so-great in 1750BC. In between all this, I get this
screen:


After getting my religion I decide that it is very prudent to get archers
ASAP, especially with Genghis I-can-never-be-trusted Khan around. But
before I got archers I make a stopover for animal husbandry so that I can
work my cows. Moooooo. Then in 1950BC I get this message:


Eep! This means Khan has Bronze working, which is Not Very Good News
(NVGN). Soon after I found my second and then third cities. I placed
them so that they will cut off AI access to my lands to the west.
Somewhere in the hundreds BC Genghis converts to Bhuddism. This seals
our fate. We will go to war, the only question is when. I go heavier on the
military to compensate. The next piece of NVGN is this:


I had six turns to go on Stonehenge . I decide to go for the pyramids
instead. Montezuma has a moment of brilliance. That's the kind of move I
would make - using the Oracle to found Christianity:


Soon after I finish the Pyramids:


I have to say that the Pyramids are by far the strongest early game
wonder. Why are they so strong? How does +15 population in the early
game (thanks to Representation) sound, or perhaps +25% military
production (though not in this game) sound? It is vastly underrated, and in
some ways is more powerful than the Civ 3 pyramids . At least it
certainly is far better on archapelago maps or maps where you don't have
much land.

A peek at my lands 330AD:


Unfortunately all this expansion has cost my economy heavily. Civ 4 makes
it nearly impossible for massive amounts of expansion. It gets so bad I get
this (city maintenance was at 18gpt (out of my 22gpt income)):


In 680AD Genghis comes calling for tribute - pigs in this case. I cave.
Then, next turn, I get this message:


Genghis chose UNWISELY. And I made a mistake. I only had two archers
in Orleans. Khan sent 3 axemen. The first axeman was killed, leaving a
wounded archer. The second axeman won his battle, and the third finished
off the wounded archers, capturing Orleans, my second strongest city.
Stupidly, I had a third archer about two squares away from Orleans sitting
guarding nothing. Had I moved him in, I'd not have lost the city.
Meanwhile, I had started the Parthenon and managed to be pipped at the
post by one turn. My notes have the words "could anything more go
wrong" next to them. Then I investigated Orleans several turns later and
discovered this:


Razed.


This loss would certainly cost me any hope of getting fastest finish for the
space race or diplo. My only chance for fastest finish in any category
would be domination, but that was unlikely with the honourable ruleset.
Nevertheless, I pressed on, forcing Khan into a stalemate. The battles
were long and bloody, but eventually the mighty French forces routed his
troups and took the city of Beshbalik. This city would prove to be a thorn
in Montezuma's side down the track, but I'm getting ahead of myself. This
is how my lands looked after the first Mongol war. Note the Captured
Barbarian city of Angle. Eventually this would become my wealthiest city,
housing both Wall Street and Oxford University.


What that map did not show was one of Alexanders and one of Genghis's
galleys, both housing settler/archer pairs. Both beat me to the site of
Marseilles by several turns, but neither settled there. I have no idea why,
but I'm not going to complain about it . Also note how poor my economy
has been over the war years. I'm STILL researching currency and it's past
1000AD! I'm so ridiculously far behind the AI that it's a joke. However, I'm
still breathing, and wars are being had in other areas of the world. The
game leader from the early game, Ghandi has finally lost some of his power,
and is now third in rankings - thanks mainly to oscillating warfare with
America, Greece and the Aztecs. Things even started to look slightly
positive after this:


Still, this was what the Technology screen looked like:


I finally managed to invent currency in 1300AD. I completed another
wonder in 1555AD - The colossus:


Sometime in there I went to war with Genghis again. This is going to be a
common theme in my game, so you will excuse me if I forget exactly when
each war started and ended . What is important is that I captured one
of his cities. What is really stupid is that I lost it to a culture flip bug. If
you have no flip after capture enabled, but you capture a border city that
is culturally close to a different empire, it will almost certainly revolt to
them. In this case I lost my city to the Aztecs, even though they only had
about a 5% cultural share in the city. I didn't really mind however, as the
city was just costing me money. Sometime later I got my first religious
great leader and snared this:


The third Mongol war broke out in the late 1600s. It would cost Khan yet
another city. Unfortunately I was never in enough of a position to really
take him on and wipe him out in these wars, as I tended to be several
techs behind. Another thing that I find really odd in Civ 4 is that
musketmen are essentially useless units. One tech later and Grenadiers
come onto the scene with 33% more strength and the same upgrades
available to them. How odd. Anyway:


Khan must have been sick of the slaughter that he was receiving at my
hands, because I received this message in 1752AD:


Interestingly, I grabbed this screenshot to show what I consider to be a
bug in the game. If you will notice that the governor is on, there is
definitely enough food available, and yet:


While it's not quite a spearman and a tank... (the grenadier was wounded)


Wars were fought, Mongels were killed, and somewhere in there I built this:


Then this:


1836AD Heralded the arrival of Democracy and Emancipation, from now until
the end of the game. The late 1800s saw a dogpile on America, who
fought bravely for the most part and didn't lose too much of their holdings.
It also saw the building of this:


Not too much interesting happened (except a war - this time a defensive
one against Monte, mainly as an aid to America (after they asked). Oh,
and I built this:


The Pentagon helped my war efforts immensely. When America made
peace with the Aztecs, I tried to do the same, but Monte was being
moronic. He kept demanding Beshbalik. So I decided to go on the
offensive. After all, I had plenty of spare infantry to send his way. Sure I
wasn't planning on taking a city, but some pillaging should show him.
Needless to say I checked every turn to see if he wanted peace for free.
But alas, his response was always the same. "No Way". He chose
unwisely.


Now I'm sure it must be a bug in the calculations that the AI does about
economic damage. Taking a city from an AI seems to teach it to cave into
at least moderately fair peace demands, but I pillaged 4 cities back into the
stone age and Monte still requested a city for peace. It was absolutely
ridiculous. OMGWHTTI . I started my leader-induced golden age in 1947.
In 1948 I got this message:


That's right, I was researching Electricity and the Americans had already
started their Space Program!!! Georgy boy completed the Eifel Tower one
turn later. Meanwhile a rather interesting little graphics bug popped up.
Have a look at my infantry and the firing cavalry. They're locked in battle,
from over two squares away .


1963 Saw the end of the Aztec war when my forces marched
Calixtlahuaca:


By this time I had caught up on tech with everyone except the US. Oh
yeah, and culture bombs are overpowered:


Genghis was smoking some pungent weed. Didn't he know that to stay
alive all he had to do was not attack me or the US? This was also the first
time I was in the lead in the game.


While I methodically took every last Mongol city (really, there wasn't that
many), and managed to FINALLY get my hands on a source of coal (I went
around a hundred years without rails!), I got off a good trade mission:


Oh yeah, and did I mention that earlier in the game I mined all of the hills in
my territory that were not within any cities radius? I do that once I have
run out of meaningful jobs for my workers to do. It's a good idea because
of random resources that pop up occasionally. I had Gems and Iron pop up
this game. The Mongols last stand:


Have a look at my favourite vacation spot, complete with Rice, silks, fish
and now Iron:


Then, just like that, it's all over.




One of the more telling graphs about the game for me:


My HoF so far (I'm missing a game or two from before I reinstalled):

Epic I: The Honorable French Report

I'm honestly amazed at the number of diplomatic wins posted so far. I've never been one for diplomacy. And spaceship victories are the default. But cultural victories? Well, Sullla said at least one person would try a Cultural Victory, and it looks like I'm that person... Well, I was until Dwip posted his report while I was busy writing mine.

So did I succeed against the Worst Neighbors Ever and Washington Bank? Read on and find out...

---The First Turn---
The longest journey begins with a single step. -Unknown

Both Louis's traits and the variant rules are perfectly suited to a Cultural Win. I also like the idea of winning without crushing everyone under my boot. Time to start.

The initial position:



I move my warrior NW to get a better view of the area and discover corn to my NE. A city on the hill with access to four resources? Yes, please.



---Session 1: Get Stoned---
4000-280 BC

I spend the first 2000 years researching cultural techs and building up Paris. I discover all of the civilizations except the Greeks, including two neighbors: Montezuma to my NE and Genghis Khan to my E. Could a ruler ask for better neighbors? No, really.

"It is from their foes, not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of building high walls." -Aristophanes

Forget diamonds; stone is a ruler's best friend. Blessed with an abundance of raw materials, can I really resist going on a wonder building spree, even when I should invest in my army to deter Khan & Monty from attacking me?

No.


1925 BC: Stonehenge built.

By 1500 BC, I've scouted out most of my area and noticed I'm on an uninhabited peninsula. If I can cut Khan off early with my rapid expanding borders, I'll have a large slice of land to myself. I found Orleans to the SE in 1450 BC and send two warriors to guard it.

Khan founds Beshbalik within spitting distance of my capital in 1425 BC. He is so irritated I didn't surrender in sheer awe he declares war in 960 BC. Did I mention I hate Aggressive civs?



His archers smash against my warriors. Luckily they aren't that good at attacking, so I manage to keep my lands intact through sheer numbers. I haven't built archers yet myself; instead I made a rush to Iron Working for cutting. (Look at the amount of jungle on that peninsula; it's like the Amazon in Florida!) Luckily I discover an iron node right next to Paris's border; soon it will be engulfed and my swordsmen will mow down Khan's puny units.

Even during war, I need to feed my obsession:

740 BC: Pyramids built.

That's when I notice I still haven't built a quarry for the stone yet. Whoops. I'll have to rectify that. Thank God for the industrious trait! Now what am I going to do with it?

Hmmm...

...

Well, my cities are lacking happiness, and I plan on running a lot of specialists anyway, so I revolt to Representation soon afterwards. It's my Civic of choice for most of the game.

I end my first session with all quiet on the Eastern Front.



---Session 2: Martyr for the Cause---
280 BC-1130 AD
People die, cities burn and our subjects sacrifice everything for France.

In 280 AD, I finally pop my first Great Person: Mozes. I doubt I'll gain any religions with my current tech, which means no shrines, so I decide to meld Mozes into Paris for his +2 hammers & +5 gold (which lets me move Research back up to 100%).

Meanwhile, Paris's borders finally expand enough to engulf an iron resource to the SW. Remember what I said about stone? Scratch that; iron is a ruler's best friend, especially if he has swordsmen ready to unleash revenge on those damn archers. Let loose the dogs of war!

As soon as I get a breather from all these archers. Khan launches another massive attack soon after I resume. I can barely crank out warriors fast enough to fend off Khan's archers, let alone build anoter worker to hook up the iron I desperately need.

80 BC: Orleans and its brave, brave warriors fall under the Mongol hordes.

Orleans is razed to the ground, and I'm afraid this might set me too far back to catch up.

Now if this was a regular game, I'd probably get disheartened and leave it incomplete. This is the RB Epic, though! I've got a reputation to make, and I'll be damned if I let a little setback like this stop me!

"When skill & luck fail, try persistance."

Luckily I made a spare Settler. I send him SW with a lone warrior to found a new city, far away from the savage Mongols. It's risky, but holing up and doing nothing is riskier.

Their journey is remarkably safe, which only makes me more nervous. Sure enough...

Notice the lovely barbarian city that's sprung up not four squares away from my chosen location. For the love of- Well, this is the best spot to settle, and I'll be damned if I let a bunch of barbarians tell me where to settle. I found Lyons and pray my lone warrior can hold them off until I can spare some forces from the Mongol front. Since he's got the Forst upgrade and there's plenty of jungle hills between us and them, I actually move him out of the city and onto the hill as a barbarian magnet, leaving the city completely undefended.

This is where I cross my fingers.

In 1 AD, I connect the Iron Mine and start cranking out Swordsmen. In 120 AD, I learn Archery. In how many games can you say you had Swordsmen before Archers?

270 AD: I make Genghis pay for his razing of Orleans by conquering Beshbalik, his little border city that started this entire mess. I am forgiving, however, and spare the citizens' lives. I've also stolen Khan's only source of copper, which won't cripple his army much, but it does narrow down their unit selection. I crank out mass spears for the mass Keshiks he'll be making for revenge.

330 AD: The Parthenon is built in a faraway land. By Gandhi, of course. With my lack of spare cities & knew, I didn't even bother trying to build it. I had more pressing concerns at the time.

620 AD: Taoism founded in a distant land. So has Confucianism. At this point, I doubt I will found a religion, unless...
The Great Prophet Mahariva was born in Paris a few turns earlier, and I put him to sleep until I decided how to use him. He will let me instantly discover a Religion tech. Right now, he's just offering to learn Meditation, but If I can get Meditation & Monotheism, I might be able to bump him into discovering Theology & netting me Christianity. I trade Gandhi the Alphabet for those 2 technologies (a lopsided trade) & check Mahariva again. "Learn Theology"!

I waste no time in nailing Mahariva to the cross & founding Christianity.

Christianity founded in Beshbalik. (Obviously the conquered heathens needed something to soothe their troubled souls.) I immediately convert. And then kick myself for using up that prophet earlier when I could've saved him for a shrine!

The religion quickly spreads itself to Aztec lands. Within a century, Monty has converted to it! I even offer him Monotheism as a churchwarming gift. (Okay, he demanded it from me, but I can afford to give away a measly tech like that.) Does this mean the beginning of a beautiful friendship?

810 AD: Monty declares war.
No.

Luckily, I accepted Genghis's offer of peace 50 years ago. Fighting two wars at once would be ugly at best, and my idle military units have been itching for another fight. And if I could conquer Tlaxcala to the north, it would relieve pressure on Beshbalik...

I also managed to spare enough manpower from the eastern front to conquer Minoan, the barbarian neighbor to Lyons. I notice it has 3 Dyes & 1 Sugar within its radius, not to mention miles of fertile jungle land. Money money money!

The war with Monty is rough at first, as his fresh yet inexperienced army swarms into my borders. The 3-tile path between Beshbalik & Tlaxcala is drowned in blood, while he keeps trying to sneak units through the mountain pass NE of Paris. He even manages to siege Paris for a couple turns thanks to the forests surrounding it! Once I've beaten them off, I send a worker up there to clear all the trees around Paris. I won't let anyone siege my cities just because they're entrenched in the woods too well!

Gandhi asks me to help him fight Khan in 1020 AD. Thanks but no thanks, Gandhi; I like you and all, but I'm sick of Mongols at the moment.

Even during war, I find time to feed my obsession:

Built in 1105 AD, mere turns after I learned Metal Casting.

Out of the blue, Alexander declares war on me. Where the hell is the little scumbag? I'm being attacked by people I don't even know! I guess he doesn't know where I am, either, because I don't see any of his units for the entire "war".

After a long & grueling uphill fight (literally; Tlaxcala's built on a hill), I capture the Aztec city and sue Monty for peace. Oh sure, now he accepts.




---Session 3: Ping Pong---
1130-1355 AD

Now that my initial wars with my neighbors are over, maybe I can start concentrating on the infrastructure I desperately need. My 6-city empire is split into two halves, I've barely begun work on monasteries, let alone the temples I'll need to build cathedrals, and I still need to keep astride with Monty & Khan on military or they'll overrun me.

I take care of combining the two halves first by founding the city of Tours between them:

This time, I build it next to a barbarian city on purpose; I hope to flip it soon, and it's a good garrison for a couple units to make sure their archers don't cause much trouble. Also notice the score: I've managed to gain a lead on everyone except my archnemesis Washington. With the Mongol & Aztec empires buffering him, though, there's not much I can do about his lead except try to catch up while sending trouble his way.

I start by analyzing my newly-captured cities. Beshbalik & Tlaxcala are stuck in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by plains and thus won't be able to grow much further until Civil Services is learned. Tlaxcala in particular will be nearly useless until I can build a farm chain to it. Rheims (built over the remains of Orleans), Paris, and Lyons all can produce decent hammers and will be my main cities until I have a comfortable military lead on my neighbors, while the previously barbaric city of Minoan will become a commerce powerhouse. I'm also setting up Tours to be a Great People city. I still need to generate enough gold to support both my expenses and my research, though.

First I research Code of Laws, a stepping stone to Civil Services. (Besides, I need the courthouses.) Next is Monarchy -> Feudalism for Serfdom & Longbowmen (I really needed to upgrade my town defenses.) Then it's a short hop to Civil Services and farms for everyone!

At least, it would be if Monty hadn't interrupted my building by declaring war on me (again) in 1200 AD. "Didn't you learn your lesson the first time?!?" Our matched forces beat each other to a standstill around Tlaxcala around 1250 AD.

That's when Gandhi asks me for help in the war against Khan. Smelling an opportunity, I agree. Monty's satisfied with our little skirmish and agrees to peace, and my phony war with Alex ended centuries ago, so I'm free to concentrate on Khan. This time, he will pay dearly.

I sign a peace treaty with Monty in 1265 AD to concentrate on Khan. I finish researching Feudalism then switch to Machinery & Engineering for Pikemen & Crossbowmen. I need to teach these upstarts not to keep messing with me. I not only switch to Serfdom, but back to Paganism as well. (By now, I have nearly all my cities cranking out units instead of buildings, and I need the extra coinage.)

To make a long story short, I conquer every Mongol city near my borders & get plenty of use out of my overwhelming numbers of Spearmen before laying siege to Karakorum itself:


In 1355, I conquer it, immediately dropping Khan to last place and obliterating his military aside from two boatloads of Keshiks he turned away when he saw my Galleys guarding the coast. He's more than happy to take up my offer of peace now!

You chose unwisely!

Once again, I end a session in relative peace. Will it last? Can I finally turn to my original goal?

---Session 4: Uneasy Peace---
1355-1704 AD

For the first time in half a millenium, I'm not at war with anyone. Montezuma & Genghis are mere pests next to my true rival: Washington. His growth has proceeded unchecked, his land nearly matches mine, and the combination of his Financial trait and the AI's obsession with cottages have propelled him to the top of the tech race. I am a half-dozen techs behind him and, barring a miraculous land grab, have no chance of catching up. It's time to pull out the Hat Trick: the Cultural Victory I decided to try has become My Best Chance.

Winning a Cultural Victory literally sweeps the rug out from your opponents' feet. Your tech starts stagnating, your armies slowly grind to a halt, everything's looking rosy and bam! After everyone's brushed you off, you get 3 Legendary Cities and render your opponent's carefully constructed spaceship worthless.

Of course, having enough time to prepare that requires peace & quiet, two things I have been lacking lately with the enraged neighbors and all. Now that I've taken Genghis's capital away from him, the little runt should quit yapping, but the giant Aztec shadows looming over my land disturb me. It's time to hide my pride and suck up to Monty.

As I haggle over tribute with him, a little inquistive questioning reveals Monty's almost as pissed off at Washington as he is with me. Their armies are evenly matched as well. I could turn this to my advantage, especially since we're both the same religion. When Monty snaps (and he'll snap), he'll either attack me or Washington. All I've got to do is get on his good side and he'll distract Washington for me! Passive aggression at its finest!

Once that's taken care of, I turn to my Gods. "Now, I know you all hate each other, but we must work together to overcome our barbaric rivals." I always liked sacred number 3, so I choose 3 religions to spread throughout my nation: Christianity, Buddhism, and Confucianism. Confucianism, Washington's founding religion, probably was a bad choice. I could've chosen Judaism just as easily... I need each religion in 9 cities so I can build the 9 temples for each required for 3 cathedrals, one for each of my Legendary cities. Once I pull that off, my 3 Legendary cities will have +150% culture, which they'll need to reach 50k- no, let me check... 75 THOUSAND CULTURE?!?

Uh, could you build those churches a bit faster? Spread, my army of missionaries! Spread the good word(s) to all corners of the nation!

1445 AD: Civil Services learned! Construction begins on the great farm chain to Tlaxcala, turning this runty little fort town into a production powerhouse. (Remember, what good are mines if you can't feed their workers?) For the rest of the game, Tlaxcala would be my main base when I needed units cranked out yesterday. I couldn't ask for a better border town.

1595 AD: A mine pops Iron for me. Only noteworthy because this is the first time in 5 games I've ever had a mine pop a resource.

1658 AD: With the building of the Hagia Sophia (originally ordered to help my workers quickly improve my massive lands), I finally overtake Washington in score. I might actually win this!

What can I say? I love my Wonders.

1664 AD: Montezuma snaps after four centuries of quiet (he lasted longer than I thought) and declares war on Washington. Although they'll fight each other to a standstill and not accomplish anything, I'm just happy he's venting his frustrations against my arch-rival.

1676 AD: Gandhi learns Liberalism three turns ahead of me! There goes my hopes of catching up in the tech race with that free tech... Washington and Gandhi lead me by a half-dozen techs for the rest of the game. At least I can still get the Free Speech civic from it, which is obscenely vital for a Cultural win. +100% culture is nothing to sneeze at.

Meanwhile, Sinan the Great Engineer is born. I couldn't ask for better timing; the Taj Mahal is taking an eternity to build without marble. I rush production on it and bask in the glow of the resulting Golden Age.


Maybe now I can finally get those cathedrals built. Did I mention how much I hate wars?

Cathedral Count: 1

---Session 5: My Soul was Saved by Rock N Roll---
1704 AD-End

The 18th century, the moment of truth. I've checked all my cities and counted them twice. I finally announce which three will become my babies, the cities whose Legendary Culture will lead me to victory:
*Paris, my capital city
*Lyons, the spunky coastal city that could
*Beshbalik, in a surprise nomination mainly due to its production strength (those plains are more valuable than I thought!)

I take a moment to check my army's strength. It's the 5th largest in the world, which is not good when you're bordered by two very irritable civilizations. I sense thunder clouds brewing on the horizon and start churning out guards.

1716 AD: Gandhi asks me if I want to join another "war" with Alex. "Why, sure. I'll just cheer you from the sidelines."

1718 AD: I learn ??? and immediately adopt Free Markets, Universal Suffrage and Emancipation. It's the last Civics change I make in the game.

1720 AD: Sure enough, Monty declares war on me. We skirmish for a few decades, call it a good game and declare peace. Back to cathedral building.

1742 AD: The barbarian city NW of Tours finally flips. It will merely be a burden this late in the game, but I'm just glad it isn't sending out marauding Longbowmen anymore.

1764 AD: Montezuma declares war. Again.

MONNNNNNNNNTYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

I don't care if I have to capture half of your cities or sign a Defensive Pact, this is it. I'll be damned if you attack me again!

Cathedral Count: 4

1778 AD: Washing asks me to declare war on Alex. "I just made peace with him a decade ago, but I'll do it for you." Poor Alex, he's the nerdy kid whose face all the big guys smash into lockers to bond. I should send him a fruit basket or something to apologize.

Nahhhh...

1790 AD: Khan, despite having a backwards inbred army and only having a third of my score, declares war on me. "Beat you head in? Why sure!"

The Honorable French, the most peaceful nation on the planet, is now at war with half of the world. Figures, huh?

I have to admit, though, cavalry vs. elephants is fun.


1816 AD: After they capture his entire western coast Monty is more than happy to make peace with the French.

1824 AD: I get my first Great Artist. I know it's a bit late to start cranking them out for a Cultural victory, but I can still pull it off. I send him to Paris to rest until he's called upon.

1844 AD: I capture Ning-hsia from Khan, but he's got a lot of units and these wars are distracting me from my goal. It's time for my ultimate weapon: a Defensive Pact. I make peace with Khan and decide to ask Gandhi for a Pact next turn, "now that I've finally gotten a little peace & quiet".

Then Monty attacks me again. !#$*@$

1857 AD: My attempt to capture Tlatelolco & its coal supply grinds to a halt as Monty uses Nationalism to summon defenders from thin air. His main force approaches Tlaxcala and I decide to cut my losses fast.

As soon as Monty accepts my peace offer, I sign a Defensive Pact with Gandhi. That should be enough to discourage him from attacking me again.

1859 AD: Imagine my surprise when Washington asks me to sign a 3-way Defensive Pact! "Of course I like you Washington. What, me try to steal victory away from you? Never!"

The Triad of Powwwwwwwer!

"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." Okay, I never liked Monty & Khan anyway, but you get the gist. With the military might of 3 countries backing me up, I'm finally safe from war. It's time for the final stretch.

Cathedral Count: 7

1868 AD: I complete Rock N Roll in Lyons, adding another +50% bonus to its culture.

1871 AD: Washington completes the Eiffel Tower before me. Although it stings, I can recover from it by manually building broadcast towers. It'll stretch out my research for a couple turns, but I can recover from it.

1879 AD: I complete Broadway. Just look at those +50% culture bonuses stack up!

1905 AD: Gandhi completes Hollywood. Now that stings because I won't be able to replace that +50% bonus.

1906 AD: The UN completed in Paris. Although I've persued a cultural goal, I've had a backup plan for a Diplomatic Victory. Now let's see if it will work. Even if it doesn't, there's plenty of ways I can use the UN to screw with my enemies' well-laid plans.

Thanks to my obscene relations score with Gandhi, I'm elected the UN Secretary General every time. It's once the voting starts that the fun begins. First I pass every trade-generating resolution under the guise of "helping everyone". In reality, it edges my Cultural production just a biiiiit higher. Then I start defanging my neighbors. The anti-nuclear resolutions ensures I won't be nuked by a vengeful Monty. Then I start enforcing peaceful civics; since the three largest nations support them, all Monty & Co. can do is gnash their teeth as they lose their precious civics. My constant votes for Diplomatic Victory always fell short, though; if only I had kissed up to Monty more!

Oh well, he was a backstabbing psychopath anyway.

Now it's time for the final push. As I finish building broadcast towers, I set my 3 Legendary cities to Culture production, turn my spending ratio to 90% Culture / 10% Wealth (which would be extremely dangerous if I hadn't signed a Defensive Pact), and wait to see if it's enough.

1915 AD: I get another Great Artist for another +6000 Culture boost. The timing couldn't be better; Washington has begun building spaceship parts & my hair's beginning to stand on end. It's to the wire.

1938 AD: Washington builds the Pentagon before me! I was trying to get every military boost possible in Tlaxcala, but this is actually useful since the extra 800+ gold lets me run up a deficit that much longer.

It gives me an idea. I stop the piddly little productions I've been making in my other cities and set them all to Wealth to Wealth to reduce the drain, then put the slider up to 100% Culture. With that much raw production being converted into Wealth, I'm still making a surplus!

It's all or nothing now. Nothing to do but sit back, keep pressing End Turn, and pray my Defensive Pact holds long enough to keep the neighbors off me. If I have switch production now, I'm toast.

1940 AD: At my current Culture rate, I estimate a win in 15 turns. Washington only needs one more spaceship piece to win, though. Will he learn Fusion and build the Engines before Beshbalik (the lowest of the 3 ) hits Legendary Culture? Nothing to do but keep advancing the turns.

1949 AD: Lyons hits Legendary Culture. 1 of 3 down.

1953 AD: Paris hits Legendary Culture. 2 of 3 down.

1956 AD:
SCOOOOOOOOOOOORE!

Beshbalik hits Legendary Culture. The trinity is complete! Washington may colonize Alpha Centauri first, but the French will be remembered as the most wonder-ful (Bad pun) civilization of all time.

My crowning cities:


Paris


Lyons


Beshbalik (Yes, it's CPT is the Mark of the Beast. That's what I get for relying on a Mongol city.)

Nothing to do now but save, watch the replay, and realize I haven't eaten or pissed in 7 hours. Whoa.



The War Bounce:
It always seemed like I would make peace with one nation only to be attacked by another. So how many times did Monty & Khan swap places as my Enemy of the Month? Read on.

980 BC-760 AD: War with Genghis
800-1125 AD: War with Montezuma
1105-1240 AD: "War" with Alexander (WTF? I have no idea why he declares war on me. He's on the opposite side of the continent! He'd have to march through 4 nations just to reach me! I don't see a single Greek unit during this so-called "war".)
1200-1265 AD: War with Montezuma
1250-1355 AD: War with Genghis (I've taken your capital! Don't piss me off again, dammit!)


Three centuries of peace followed. Genghis Khan has been defanged, while a couple tributes to Montezuma gets him on my good side while he tosses his units at Washington. It was risky for me to play them off each other, but I figured I'd rather stay on my neighbor's good side than a distant acquaintance's. That was my best decision of the game; Washington might have built the final spaceship piece before I won if he wasn't "occupied" for a couple decades centuries ago.

1716-1764 AD: "War" with Alexander (He sends two Caravels to harass my Galleys. You call this a war? The British sent more forces to the Falkland Islands than this!)
1720-1746 AD: War with Montezuma
1764-1816 AD: War with Montezuma
1778-1812 AD: "War" with Alexander (Again, we never see an enemy Greek unit.)
1790-1844 AD: War with Genghis (Infantry vs. Keshiks! Superior firepower vs. overwhelming numbers!)
1844-1857 AD: War with Montezuma (Quit attacking me!)

1859 AD: The Big Three sign a triad Defensive Pact. All wars miraculously disappear and the world lives in peace for the next century.



Wonder Tracker:
In which I document my obsession with Wonders. I really need to lay off the Industrial civilizations...

1925 BC: Stonehenge
740 BC: Pyramids
560 AD: Great Lighthouse
1100 AD: The Colossus
1195 AD: Notre Dame
1540 AD: Spiral Minaret
1656 AD: Hagia Sophia
1782 AD: Church of the Nativity
1804 AD: Statue of Liberty
1826 AD: Versailles
1868 AD: Rock N Roll
1879 AD: Broadway
1906 AD: United Nations



Genius: What did I do right?

-Rushing Christianity. I gave Gandhi a sweet deal for two early Religion techs & used Maharive to rush Theology. It was even founded in the perfect city (Beshbalik). It paid off in spades.

-Courthouses: What other building can cut your maintainence costs by a third? Even when I had to adopt poor fishing villages, courthouses made sure I stayed in the green.

-Sucking up to Monty: As much as I hate to admit it, offering tribute to Monty during the Renaissance ensured he would attack Washington instead of me when he felt the 7-decade itch. Getting him to adopt my religion didn't hurt, either. The distraction to Washington also delayed his Space Race by a few turns, enough to let me squeeze in a Cultural Victory later first. In all honesty, if Monty had attacked me instead of Washington, I probably would have lost later.

-The 3-religion rule. Spreading not one, not two, but three religions throughout my empire let me build three ubertemples in each of my three cities, providing a whopping +150% to culture. Could I have gone for four or even five, perhaps? It'd be tricky.

-Peace Through Superior Firepower: Okay, so I didn't get much peace (see the War Bouncer above), but at least I made sure I gained more than I lost.

-Alexander the Scapegoat: Sorry Alex, I know I never stepped foot in your country and I really didn't have any reason to constantly fight you, but my pals kept asking me to and I couldn't let them down! It was just moral support for them, 'kay?

-Defensive Pacts: Every peaceful civilization should have one. I'd research Military Tradition just for this. Thanks to Washington & Gandhi, I could completely ignore military production in the 20th century.

-The UN: I needed most of the endgame Civics for a cultural victory anyway, and forcing everyone else to adopt them was a great way to hinder their progress. "Oh, Monty, you want Theocracy? Too bad!"



Idiotic: What did I do wrong?

-"I don't need Archery just yet." Wrong! When you're cornered by two Aggressive civilizations, there's no such thing as too much military tech.

-I used my first Great Prophet immediately. I didn't count on founding a religion, and even if I did I decided I would get at least 2-3 more before the Renaissance. As a result, the Church of the Nativity wasn't built until 1782 AD.

-"I don't need Astronomy; it's a Pangaea map!" Lacking those +25% research Observatories hurt a lot, and ensured I'd always be in 3rd place in techs next to Gandhi and Washington. Delaying Astronomy knocked me out of the Space Race.

-Once I learned Military Tradition, I put off ending my wars. If I had ended them immediately, I could've made that pact with Washington & Gandhi decades earlier. I'm sure that would have shortened my game 1-2 dozen turns.



Debatable:

-Should I have spread Hinduism or Judaism instead of Confucianism? I know Washington was cashing in on every city I spread Confucianism to, but it began in Paris, which made it easy to build a Monastery & crank out missionaries for. (Interestingly, it seems if you have Organized Religion, you can automatically make missionaries of any religion in that city, not just your official one. I'll have to look into that.)

-Should I have switched from Pacifism to Free Religion as early as I did? I thought the research bonus would be handier than the extra Great People points.

-Did conquering Aztec & Mongol cities really advance my Cultural goal or did it just distract me?

-Would the population hits from Slavery & Nationhood be as bad as I thought?



Endgame Summary
Win: Cultural
Win Date: 1955
Final Score: 8325
Total Wars: 11 (8, not counting the fake ones with Alexander)
Total Time Played: 14 hours, 1 minute
How Close was It? Washington only had the SS Engine left. Talk about a nail biter!

Pregame
This is my first attempt at a RBCiv game. Other Civ games I play are SG (usually hard difficulty or a variant) and GOTM (high scoring). I like this one because it's a variant, it forces you to think differently. This is kind of odd for a game this new though - I'm sure I would do a lot better once I'm better at the game because I found myself several times smacking my forehead.

For victory condition I decided that I couldn't rely on the other civs for a military victory. Although these were some very aggressive neighbors I soon found out. Space is so overdone it's not funny. I don't think I want to ever try for that unless I would lose otherwise. It was a toss up between cultural and UN - I went for culture because Louis seems like that kinda guy.

I started the game before I had a solid grasp of how to achieve a culture win. That was a factor to pick it, as kind of a test game to figure the thing out. I realized the importance of religions and cathedrals, but GP and wonders I didn't consider. I was a total wonder hog for the first half of the game, nabbing nearly every wonder available. This lead to me producing several GP that were not artists, at least 5, but as many as 7 or 8. This was a huge mistake.

Some events have dates, others don't (recalled from memory), other things are not mentioned (several invasion), and whatever else I forgot.


Game Report
I got lucky and popped Mysticism from a hut. This lead me to go for Hinduism, which if missed, still puts me halfway to Judaism.

BC Years
3000 Somewhat shocking, I'm the first to Polytheism.


1050 First wonder, Stonehenge.

120 I build the Pyramids: I switch to Hereditary Rule for the unlimited unhappiness with military units.

AD Years
180AD I get the first leader, an engineer. He rushes the Parthenon (+10cpt).


310 revolt for organized religion.

420 I finally get my fourth city.

700 I get a Great Prophet who builds the Hindu special building.

790 Marseilles is founded on the islands.


970 Hanging Gardens.

1025 Now here is something bizarre: Christianity was founded in a former barbarian - now Mongolian - city far from their empire, but just below mine. a few turns later now it has spread to 2 of my cities on the same turn. This is great news. I am in Organized religion, so I can build some missionaries and spread the Gospel to my culture cities.


1035 Montezuma is at war with Washington - now Alexander just declared on Ghandi...excellent Smithers...

1070 Christianity spreads to Paris. Paris will now build 2 more missionaries before building culture buildings.

1095 Great Library.

1135 What the...!? Ghandi beat me to Notre Dame. I haven't even started on it yet.

1240 Ghandi asks me to join him against the Mongols (our border civ). My defenses are sufficiently built up, so I will. Montezum is also at war with Mongols at the moment.

1270 The Aztecs raze a Mongol city which will allow me to expand.

1285 Chichen Itza.

1300 Bombardment begins. (with the infamous "Bolrog")


1310 Ghandi makes peace with Ghengis. My first thought was - oh crap, I haven't even taken a city from him. However I try to make peace and he is a stingy one...won't give me peace unless I give up a city. I guess I have to check and see if he'll offer peace every turn.

1330 Dangit...peace. I was 2 turns away from taking the city.

1450 Ghandi was kind enough to spread Buddhism to me, via this caravel. 3rd Religion.


1535 2 stacks ready to capture Tlaxcala.


1545 Montezuma will give peace. Rather than continuing to stomp him, I'm gonna get peace so I can focus on building culture buildings that I need.

1625 Tragedy befalls as I am invaded by the Mongols at 5 different points. Tragic I say, because I have enough units to deal with them, but they are all spread out to various locations. By smart upgrading defenders (Archer ->LB)and unit movement I will try to defend.


1630 Amazing, the defenses hold.

1635 Valiant defensive stand at Bescanon. Macemen defenders killed 3 knights and a LB.

1690 Finally get peace from the Mongols. I'll have to make a note to watch my back. Mongols and Aztecs both dislike me and could strike whenever.

1814 After several years of peace, the Aztecs invade again (3rd or 4th time now?). I will definitely lose Tlaxcala no matter what - even if I upgrade everything and bring reinforcements. My only option would be to forfeit the city, retreat, and regroup.


Postgame
In the pregame thread I mentioned being a wonder hog for the first half of the game. Then sometime around here:

MeteorPunch Wrote:1135 What the...!? Ghandi beat me to Notre Dame. I haven't even started on it yet.

I hope this is a 'placeholder' for a longer report but I can't promiss anything as Christmas draws near suddenly responsibilities are piling up and my to-do list has an invisble last line somewhere in the distance.

Anyway.

I lost!

How come? Errr, bottom line: too few military units, too rapid expansion, not enough experience with the new diplo mechanics.

I traded with India to keep up in tech, but they were destroyed at some point. Since I refused to stop trading with them I had alienated the other AI.

The Honourable French lived upto 1854AD when they finally succumbed to the hostilities by the combined efforts of Montezuma and the Mongolian Hordes.

game score: 1528, score: 0