Okay, as some of you may have known from my succession games, my hard drive got nuked after I'd played the whole game. All my saves, notes, and everything was completely destroyed. So, I have nothing to verify my game with except my word; maybe I can cash in my "returning hero" award and get my results accepted anyway?

Victory, Space Race, 1932. Barely pulled it out a couple turns ahead of Washington, but pull it out I did.

In my game, I was a wonder hog. I captured practically every last wonder. I got both pyramids and stonehenge. I can't remember which ones I missed, but it wasn't more than a handful of them.

I also played fast and loose with my military capacity, leading to a few *very* close calls, both at Monty's hands and the Khan's. But I survived every time, although one of my border cities (I think it was Orleans) got burned down not once, but three times. Scary, but I made it through.

However, my game is marred by what is probably dishonourable activity, although I did not think to consider it as such at the time.

Late in the game, I was at war with Monty, and holding my own just fine, waiting for him to tire and sign peace. Suddenly, the Khan dials me up, and despite being vastly behind me in points, threatens me for 350 gold. I tell him to stuff it, expecting at least a few turns to prepare on that front. Instead, he declares immediately.

Now, I have no navy, and an army in the north, and only skeleton garrisons in the south. The Khan hits me there. Plus, he kills all my nets within a few turns. I was also trading health resources with him, which I lost, along with the ones I lost from Monty declaring on me. So, in the late game, with size 15+ cities, I suddenly lose a huge chunk of health. Cities are now losing upwards of eight food each turn.

At this stage, I was still thinking in terms of the Civ 3 rule: no intentional starvation, so I thought I was okay. I certainly didn't *want* my cities to be starving, nor did I choose the circumstances that caused it, except by rejecting an unreasonable tribute demand, or not building a navy.

I certainly lost a few population points in this period. How many, I'm not sure. Not more than half a dozen, but pretty much every city in my empire was starving, and I just stopped looking at the red after awhile.

I probably could have stopped the starvation, though, by plowing over my towns and windmilling my mines. I didn't really think of those as options while I was playing, though. I needed tech to catch Washington, who had the whole tree before I'd even built the Apollo program, and I needed production to stop the Khan from pillaging my cities.

But that's strategy, so I definitely made a strategic choice, not thinking it was in contravention of the rules, to not farm over my tiles to feed the cities. I'll ask for judgment, but I'm pretty sure that's against the variant rules.

So... that's my report, or at least what I remember of the game. Shadow or not, I had fun, and I look forward to the next!

-Jester

Wherein interesting mistakes are made, but fun is had by assorted players and small forest animals.

http://dwip.alsherok.net/civ4/epic11.htm

Executive summary: Spaceship LOSS 1927 AD

Extremely brief rundown: After fighting some wars with Mongolia and Mexico in the classic and medieval eras, rampant peace breaks out and I can only sit by and watch helplessly as Gandhi (with a slightly larger empire than mine) runs ahead of me in tech in the late Industrial and launches his ship ten turns before I could. In all likelihood this would have been a victory if I weren't bound by the honorable variant, but as it was, I couldn't control when I went to war, so when Gandhi (with whom I had extremely good relations the entire game) starts a Golden Age at the same time he begins building ship parts, my hands were tied.

Highlights of the game include me starving Tenochtitlan from size 11 to size 1 due to being unable to work ANY of the city's 20 tiles the entire time I controlled the city, Paris reaching legendary culture with fewer than ten turns of culture slider adjustments and no culture bombs, and me giving Mongolia two ages' worth of tech for free AND railroading his entire civ for him, but Genghis still would neither declare war on India NOR vote for me in the UN elections.

While I was part of the RBCiv crew nearly from the start, I never really took on many of the Epics. Or rather, I took a spin on roughly half of the early Epics, but never finished them and never wrote reports for the incomplete games. My hard drive has since been wiped and reformatted since those olden days, so I can't say for certain which ones I tried and which ones I didn't, but I know didn't stick out an Epic till the bitter end until the Always War Epic 14 (where I got the fastest Domination victory because all the good players went for Conquest, and ended up finishing middle-of-the-road on points standings). Maybe things will change with Civ 4. Maybe not. We'll see.



First things first - I Begin with some bookkeeping moves - Grid on (CTRL - T), Resource markers on (CTRL - R, discover a silk resource I had overlooked in the northeast corner of the visible map, which is why I always turn the resource markers on), since I opened this game from the file instead of opening it from inside the game, the leader name defaults to my CIV online handle "CarbonCopy". Since having five hundred different saves that all begin with "CarbonCopy" doesn't make for a very clear filing system, I change leader name to "Epic 1 Louis XIV" (I don't know what the name Sirian gave the French Leader originally, that opening from a file thing really bugs me). If anybody can tell me how to always start the game with the grid and resource markers on, I'd truly appreciate it.

I begin by building Warrior-Warrior-Warrior-Worker-Settler in Paris, and founding Orleans to the northeast in 1700 BC to claim the silk, wheat, and pigs.

My third city, Lyons, was built in 580 BC, to the northwest, taking another pig, rice, and a whole lotta coastal tiles.

My fourth city, Rhiems, was built in a horrible location due to the existence of not one, but TWO TABCs, Harrapan, and Kassite. It claimed the banana tile for later, but was surrounded by SO MUCH JUNGLE that it was unhealthy at size ONE and coudn't grow until I built a road to it.



After the first settler, Paris goes straight into the Pyramids. Complete them in 740 BC



And then after the Pyramids, I figure what the heck, let's do Stonehenge in there, too. Complete those in 580 BC



My early science builds were kind of unfocused. I start Animal Husbandry (to farm my animals), Fishing (to work the lake tiles by Paris), Mining (on the way to Masonry, I believe), Masonry, Mysticism (trying to found Judaism), Meditation ( move, since I didn't realize until I finished researching it that it didn't lead to Monotheism, and then gave up on Judaism), Bronze Working (Copper/Slavery/Forest Chop), Iron Working. And then I enter the Classical Era...only to start working on Pottery.

I run as little military as I think I can get away with, and try to stay on the good sides of Montezuma and Khan by not building close to any of their current cities, but they go ahead and build close to mine, then get upset when my creative trait, Stonehenge, and libraries start to overpower the culture of their heathen burgs. The third ring of culture from Orleans cuts into the territories of both Texcoco and Ning-Hsia in Mexico and Mongolia, respectively.

On the early religious front, Gandhi founds Buddhism in 3480 BC.

Hinduism wasn't founded until 2120 BC, by Genghis Khan, of all people. I figured that if Gandhi wasn't going to try for the sweep, Montezuma, the other Spiritual civ in this game, would have taken a stab at it. But I was wrong, and the Mongolians are the second civ on the religious scene.

Judaism was founded in 840 BC in America.

Diplomatically, it was clear early on that the AIs were lining up into two distinct blocs: The Sane Folks, comprising of India and America, and the Nutjob Alliance, consisting of Mexico, Mongolia, and Greece. In a somewhat disastrous move, when Alexander asks me to cancel deals with India in 120 AD, I decide to side with the Nutjobs and agree. I do this largely out of fear of the Aztecs and the Mongols being right on my doorstep, while America and India are both quite distant, and unlikely to fight me if they don't like how I act. My die cast, I sign the Three Stooges each to Open Borders.

KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!



Who was the one who chose unwisely here?

The date that this happens: 160 AD. My alliance with the Nutjobs lasts for all of TWO TURNS before I got sneak attacked. Anyhow, I had nothing but cardboard cutouts for defense (most of my better units off raiding Barbarian cities at the time), so I just sit my units in Orleans, kill his units at a 2:1 ratio, and in 260 AD, force Khan into adopting Paganism as the only peace concession I can wring out of his hide. At least I'll make him waste some turns to anarchy if he wants to change back.

I do manage to capture one of the TABCs during this war. Harrapan falls to me in 180 AD.

And then, the turn I come to peace with Mongolia, GREECE sneak-attacks me in 260 AD. What gives? Alex is all the way across the world. I agreed to his demand to stop dealing with the Indians. I signed him and his crazy friends up to Open Borders. What does he have against me, and how'd he move a stack of five chariots and some warriors all the way over here from Greece? Like Khan, I just kill his invading stack, then six or seven turns of phony war occur where Alex refuses to talk to me but doesn't send a second stack of units to follow up the first. Eventually he gets over it and agrees to peace.

Incidentally, after cutting off trade deals with him, Gandhi refuses to talk to me for nearly 400 years.

Well, since he had so much fun the last time we did this, in 530 AD, I spot a couple axes and a chariot walking suspiciously close to the Franco-Mongolian border, and figure Genghis has come back for seconds.



The next turn, my fears are confirmed, and since I was hoping for one last round of infrastructure to get completed before we tried this again, once again I'm left with my pants down to this somewhat underwhelming invading force.




I have to switch to and whip military in a lot of my core cities to get troops in place to fight his.

The funny thing is that, while Ning-Hsia is the cause of most of these border disputes (being culturally dominated by Orleans), the Khan never bothered to defend it with anything better than an archer and a spearman. After six or seven turns or so of fighting back and forth, I am able to muster a force capable of striking back and bloodying Genghis's nose.

And in 710 AD, I get to the heart of the problem and capture the offending border city, Ning-Hsia.



Now, when I've fought against the AI before, they'll often refuse to grant peace for anything less than the return of their newly captured cities. But in Khan's case, he was fine with me keeping Ning-Hsia, and once and for all, I sign peace with Genghis Khan for a civic swap (again, the only concessions I could wring from him). I suppose his aggressive placement of Ning-Hsia was the only thing driving him to war, since once I took it from him, Khan and I became the best of buddies.

Now, I've mentioned forcing Genghis to switch into horrendous civics like Paganism. That's because, after my attempt to grab Judaism was foiled by my inability to read the tech tree, no religion has come my way yet. Not even Ning-Hsia, which I stole from Khan, had a religion in it. This would continue to be the case for another 360 years.

The turn after making peace with Mongolia, I finally arrive at the tech trading party by discovering Alphabet. In three turns or so, I catch up with the rest of the world in technology by trading and finally get access to Calendar to hook up my bananas, silk, sugar, and dyes.

And shortly after that, I conquer the second TABC, Kassite, giving me control over the entire sub-continent.

I never wrote down when I founded it, but I did found one more mainland city, Tours, on the coast to the west of Rhiems. It didn't have a bonus food in its area, so it never really amounted to much in the way of shield production and never got very large, but it did okay in the commerce department.

In the late religion department, I didn't write down who got Christianity or when (It was founded "in a faraway land", and I suspect the Indians got it, but it was never anybody's state religion). The Aztecs got Confuscianism in 320 AD. I didn't write down when it was discovered, but Taoism was founded by the Mongolians in New Sarai, an isolated city stuck in those islands to the north.



And as for Islam, I managed to found it in Lyons in 1125 AD, a handful of turns after Hinduism spread on its own to Ning-Hsia and prompted me to make it my state religion. I wasn't about to revolt a second time, so I just stuck with Hinduism the rest of the game.

Anyhow, speaking of Hinduism, like I mentioned before, it spread to my empire in 1070 AD via Ning-Hsia (the former Mongol city), and since I finally got a religion somewhere in my empire, I made it my state religion and changed civics to Organized Religion. A few turns later, it managed to spread on its own to Paris, just ahead of the incoming Islamic missionaries. When I made the revolt to Hinduism, it drastically changed the relations with my neighbors. Montezuma and Alexander immediately canceled their deals with me and became Annoyed, while Genghis Khan, not too far removed from his second war with me, went from Annoyed to Cautious, and a few turns later suggested Open Borders. My relations with Washington and Gandhi didn't really change, though the attitude breakdown both had them as disapproving of my heathen religion.

I used a Great Engineer that I popped out of Paris eons previously to rush the Hanging Gardens in Orleans as soon as I built an Aqueduct, which marks the first wonder I built since Stonehenge. As for the other wonders in between, India got the Colossus, and both the Parthenon and the Oracle were built "in a distant land" and I never bothered to check back on who got them. Once I had some building construction bonuses with forges and Organized Religion, I began to pick up speed on the late Classical and Medieval wonder race, completing the Great Library (Paris, 1130 AD), the Spiral Minaret (Paris, 1240 AD), Chichen Itza (Orleans, 1355), Sistine Chapel (Paris, 1360), Ankgor Wat (Paris, didn't write down when), Versailles (Rhiems, 1365, with help from a Great Engineer), and the Taj Mahal (Paris 1510, with help from an Engineer).

That isn't to say it was all peaceful building during that time. Hardly. The Aztecs, upset by our religious differences (now that I actually had a religion), declared war on me for the first time in 1180 AD. The war started out kind of slow for Monty: a horse archer here, a horse archer there, and I was able to take advantage of spearmen to pick them off before they did too much damage.



Then, in 1220 AD, his stack of Doom showed up, nine Horse Archers, a jag, and a spearmanr, headed straight for Orleans.



At this point, I decide that perhaps I need some friendly assistance. None of the AIs were willing to consider declaring on Montezuma, though I was able to get my new best buddy Genghis Khan to embargo the Aztecs and keep them from attacking me via Mongolian territory (that was quite irksome the first few times Monty did that). Interestingly enough, by the end of the game, convincing the Khan to cancel his deals with Montezuma ranked as one of the single largest strikes against me in our relations (on par with "You declared war on me!". Luckily for me, the AI has trouble executing a plan and I'm able to talk Monty into peace the turn his stack is in position to assault Orleans. I took 10g in peace negotiations (due to a very favorable unit kill ratio), and Orleans is spared from seeing whether a Combat II swordsman, a City Garrison I longbow, and a Combat I spearman could stand up to 8-10 attacking horse archers and a random Jag and archer.

Unfortunately, Monty took his toll by pillaging everything north and east of Orleans and Ning-hsia, causing a few cities to riot or grow unhealthy as I got a pig, copper, and wheat disconnected. I don't have the date I signed peace, but it was prior to 1240 AD.

Later, on the tail end of my Taj Mahal Golden age, war breaks out between India and Mexico. Eager to take Texcoco (and possibly more) and itching for an honorable route to more war with the Aztecs, I agree to Gandhi's request for assistance in 1535 and enter the war on India's side.



After 10 turns of fighting, I manage to catapult down the defenses and capture Texcoco in 1585, only to have it captured back the next turn by a horde of Aztec Knights that jumped into the city from the fog. And then Gandhi makes peace with Montezuma, so I'm obligated to stop fighting as soon as Monty wants to stop without extorting me. But I don't even wait that long. With all my units out of place, my Golden Age finished, war weariness ratcheting up, and all my work on Texcoco undone, I gave Montezuma Drama for peace in 1595.

But I didn't need to call the Psychic Friends Network to know that Montezuma wasn't going to leave things at that. It may be interesting to note that when India made peace with Mexico, one Indian knight got teleported into my territory. With the path east blocked off by Mongolia and Mexico (India's two worst enemies), the Knight had nowhere to go and wandered around my territory for the rest of the game.



In 1676, Montezuma doesn't disappoint, and declares war on me, marking the third time we fought. His initial attack was three Knights, two Horse Archers, a crossbow, and a catapult, which get summarily piked and shot upon their arrival at Orleans. I then braced myself for the bigger, meaner, better-organized second wave of attackers, only to realize a few turns later that they weren't going to come. He had the better part of a century to build up an offensive force, and six attackers and one siege engine was the best he could do. By now, I had a break in the wonder building and had cranked out quite a few catapults and Musketeers for this inevitability, and after bombing the defenses of the Texcoco down to 4%, I lose only my first two attackers in taking (retaking?) the city in 1700.



Now, at this point, I had a choice to make, and I think I chose unwisely (and it perhaps cost me the game in the process). With Texcoco under my control, Military Tradition newly discovered, Montezuma gassed, and plenty of units in place, it was a no-brainer to continue the campaign against the Aztecs. I had two options: either continue up the western coast and capture those cities way up in the ice, or send an expeditionary force directly into the (as yet still unknown) Aztec heartland. I probably should have decided to grab those coastal cities, but instead I struck out with the greater part of my healthy army into the center of Mexico. Not too far in, I uncover the location of Tenochtitlan (while my world map was ridiculously outdated for the better part of the game, none of the other AIs had the lands immediately surrounding Tenochtitlan on their maps, either), and discover it to be not heavily defended. While it would have been better to avoid the capital and grab some other cities (like the Confuscian holy city, Tlateloco, Teotihuacan along the Mongolian border, or swing back and grab those ice cities), I decide to try to decapitate Montezuma's empire by striking immediately at the capital. And I succeed in taking Tenochtitlan in 1708, but at the cost of a significant number of units. With war weariness getting to the point that I had to run up to 40% culture to keep my core cities from revolting (the only time I ever adjusted the culture slider above 0%), and a complete lack of healthy units to press my advantage, I decided to stop fighting and get 460g in a lump sum, 6gpt, and the Mexican world map in the negotiations.

Now, while I controlled Tenochtitlan, I only controlled the city square, the other 20 tiles belonged to Montezuma. Tenochtitlan started off at size 12, all twelve citizens being Artists or Resistors. For a while there, it was producing some pretty impressive culture for a city that had no culture-producing buildings (59 per turn!). But from the time it came out of resistance, it lost a population point every turn until it shrank to size 1, and I never did control any of the adjacent tiles to let it grow back.



For a while after signing peace with Montezuma, I built up quite a reserve of cavalry, thinking that Montezuma would surely want to settle the score at least one more time. But Montezuma was already starting to lag in tech the last time we went to war, and he was never really able to cope with losing Texcoco and his capital. While he was somewhere between Furious and Annoyed with me for the rest of the game, he never had the nerve to attack again.

Thinking that it was only a matter of time before I got dragged into another war, I start cranking out the cavalry. However, I never got to use them, because after that war, global peace broke out, and Gandhi started pulling away from me technologically in the late Industrial and Modern ages. In order to get some tech trades going, I had used an extremely weird route through the Industrial age which didn't give me factories or coal plants until very late in the era. And while I was able to complete Broadway the Eiffel Tower, and the U.N., Gandhi took the Statue of Liberty, Rock and Roll, the Kremlin, and Hollywood. I might have been able to keep up if it hadn't been for Washington refusing to trade me any technology whatsoever that wasn't already a dozen turns out of date.

Anyhow, while I controlled the UN, I wasn't able to come anywhere close to a Diplo victory, and with no way to control when I went to war, all I could do was sit and watch while Gandhi kicks off a golden age right as he starts completing SS parts. I made a good show of it, catching up in tech by building the Internet and then cash-rushing the Space Elevator and laboratories in my part-building cities, but he was still able to blast off in 1927, ten turns before my last round of ship parts would have completed. My buddy Khan was no help, either, choosing to spark a late war against the Aztecs (who were a full age behind everybody else) instead of tripping up the Indians. Nevertheless, I decided to help the Khan out by gifting him up to modern tech, donating all those cavalry I had built up against the possibility of a fourth Franco-Mexican war, and then sold him my only oil so he could build Modern Armor.



Then, he got ticked off enough by my "refusal to help him in war" that the next time I called for a diplo victory vote, he abstained! How ungrateful can you be?

Anyhow, here's a shot of the city placement in the western region of the pangea. This one dates to 540 AD and doesn't include any of the island cities, but it does show the location of all the mainland cities I came to control.

Hello all. Well, like so many before me, I have decided to de-cloak and stop being a lurker, and post my first post at any of the Civ sites. I have been following not just the epics, but also the discussions for years now, even remembering the Civ 3 want list discussions, and I’ve been playing since Civ 1 – although I am still awed by so many other regular players (I still find the moderate levels difficult!) Lurking here is almost as addictive as Civ itself!

Civ 4 is definitely my favourite of all the previous Civ titles which is actually the only computer game I’ve bought and/or play. It’s the reason I never got a playstation etc … why waste game time when you could Civ instead ? ;-) Each time I’ve bought a new computer ‘just happened’ to coincide with the release of each new Civ title – it’s not even used for anything else now I’ve finished studying! *grins*

Why de-lurk ? Simple – the Realms Beyond attitude to how a game should be played – without the use of exploits, with set variant guidelines that give the game a different approach (although this can be frustrating), and the better attitude to learning and teaching … yeah – even if it is only a computer game – it’s still a huge amount of fun. Thanks all.

OK – enough self indulgence – to the game …

This was my first attempt of Civ 4 at Prince difficulty … and after playing a few easier levels I know 3 things:
1) I’ve way too peaceful a player / builder style (still have that Civ 3 mindset).
2) Barbarians are horribly annoying in Civ 4.
3 ) The AI is much better at war now.

So I knew I would have to build an army from the beginning, and being Prince I went into this game fearing what the AI would do (fear in this case a positive as I used it to ensure I could, at the least, defend myself).

Being France – Louis XIV – meant creative: expanding borders (a wonderful way to claim territory and block opponent movements) and industrious: (cheaper wonders & even if the movies flicker badly :-( I’ll still own them ;-)) so they were both traits I’m comfortable with, so thanks for the nice start.

Honorable rules – no problems – it’s how I normally play (keeping out of everyone’s way) – well – until I can steamroll over them later in the game (and in this game I’ll just have to wait until asked or they start the war – no issues there). ;-)

In some ways I think I’m too passive – I mean in this game I created no aircraft of any kind, and only 3 offensive naval units – and only built a total of 13 tanks/modern armour and the same number of mech infantry (although most of them were paid upgrades). I do not dare play multiplayer!! *laughs*

But of course, maybe I could say I wisely built only what I needed to do what I had to do. Showing all the hallmarks of *coughs* pure *coughs* genius. ;-) *rolls eyes*

The start: And this is probably where I took the most time wondering what to do – 1st epic and all. The game was definitely approached differently to a single player ‘at home’ game. Or am I just playing as I now should, because it was taken more seriously ?

Stone, cattle, silk to the north-east & jungle visible in the distance west, south AND east … settler currently on a grassland hill. Instant first move is the warrior NW (more central to the settler than due N) onto the hill for a better view as more information is needed for the decision on the place to settle the capital. The ocean appears, as does corn, spotted off to the NE. *scratches head & thinks*

Pik 1 – The first big decision – where to found the capital ?



To me – the choices for the capital are (as indicated by the 2 yellow arrows):
1) where is (no lost time), or,
2) move 2 spots NE to the plains-hill for better (+1) shield (hammer) production from the 2nd turn (worth a lot over a whole game) and also to get that corn in the city radius.
None of the other spots were considered – either being too close to jungle, losing valuable forest AND a turn if built there, or on the resource themselves (better value if worked instead).
Note: Yes, I do often ignore the blue circles. ;-)

After long and careful thought I chose to build the capital were I started for the following reasons: no lost turn, but more importantly, leaving the capital there, other cities would be positioned further away and so not near that surrounding jungle (ha – little did I know). It will be interesting to see what everyone else chose … and how important that decision became. *nods*

4000BC – Paris founded – Research began on Animal Husbandry, for the cows, then heading to Masonry (for the optimistic chance of an early wonder – Stonehenge and/or the Pyramids – who can resist the lure of the stone ?) and then Archery (the fear had to be kept at bay. ;-)

Warriors were the first builds – to explore – and pop huts – no knowledge, obtaining a scout, another warrior and some gold. Workers will start when Paris is a bit larger. So I scout around, learn I’m at the western end of a land mass with lots of jungle (yeah – I’d forgotten we were playing Tropical Pangaea). Meet my two closest neighbours – Aztec Montezuma and Mongolian Genghis Khan – both Aggressive – and yes the fear grows (they’ll both get free promotions and cheap barracks – ouch). Honorable is the only way to play with these neighbours!! *grins*

As I explore the local territory, Paris’ border expands, and a idea forms … I only need one other city – to the SE, and closed borders, and I can settle at my own pace (and avoid the Civ 3 ‘expand or die’ mindset which just causes bankruptcy in Civ 4). I now have a plan. :-)

1550BC – I found city 2 – Orleans – just where I wanted (unfortunately no hill) … but it is just on the southern coast, within reach of a few nice resources (Dye & Cattle), and when my border expands I’ll have the western lands to myself (hopefully) … and I honesty didn’t mean to trap those foreign scouts / warriors. *winks*

My other fear – the barbarians – were ALL kept at bay by having enough warriors (3 ) on lookout duty in the western badlands (jungles) – keeping it almost all visible so none could appear. I’d rather have no ‘free’ *coughs* barb city than the problems they could cause – especially with those aggressive neighbours on the other (Eastern) side.

I ignored religion in the tech tree – the 2 early ones had already been discovered, so I just concentrated on infrastructure – noting happiness was going to be an issue. Hmmmm … maybe a religion would cross the border one day soon!?

1225BC – With only 2 cities, but the stone now linked & quarried, I complete Stonehenge – yay – although I now realise this creates Great Prophets – and without founding a religion I cannot use them except to add a super citizen. In this game that will definitely be a powerful use. :-)
Note: India and Mongolia are both now Hindu – I’d like some of that too. *nods*

Time for city 3 – Lyons – let’s be greedy! ;-) So I head NE – out of the lands I’ve already *coughs* ‘claimed’ as mine (the west badlands) – to make a grab for even more! – for that corn and the pigs – only to find a new Mongolian city (Beshbalik) nearby. I swear at Genghis (but under my breath as I’m honorable). The next best site is the defensive hill on the coast – and still in reach of both, and if my creative border expands to capture those pigs before Mongolia – is that my fault ?? *coughs* it’s honorable – honest – and a archer to defend ‘my’ land claim later on is also honorable, I’m sure. :-)

880BC – City 3 – Lyons founded on a hill on the northern coast.

This city is going to be a front line city – with BOTH Aggressive civ’s adjacent – I know it and so start protecting it accordingly with archers (their city defense bonus is so good, and the unit balance is so well designed I now build units in Civ 4 I.used to ignore in Civ 3 – it also helps they can be upgraded for ages).

360BC – I’ve 3 cities with well expanded borders, no barbarian problems, and I’ve worked out where to place my next 7 cities (‘Dot Map’ ™ method – although those signs you can add in-game need to be saveable *nods*).

220BC – Aztec Monty builds a city (Texcoco) adjacent to my NE city 3 (Lyons) – warning bells sound in the distance. Iron is visible up there. I’ve still just archers – and they’re solely on city garrison – I don’t even order swords and axes even though I’ve iron connected next to Paris (nice) – I’ve other priorities – wonders, then settlers and workers. Orleans has jungles adjacent & these need to be cut – and roads built to make a nice killing zone (just in case mind you – I’m sure that’s honorable too). ;-)

160BC – The Pyramids are mine!! OK – am I prioritizing wonders a bit too much ?? *laughs* When you mention ‘passive builder strategy’ I’m right there. 3 cities, 2 wonders and a nice closed borders position. I change civics to Representation (for happiness – really nice) and Slavery (just in case it’s needed – although I don’t really know how honorable slavery really is ;-)) I actually didn’t use it in this game as it’s not really honorable, nor does it agree with the ‘not starving/reducing pop variant clause’ – but really just because there was no emergency situation where the people demanded it! :-P Civ 4 does have the same ‘just one more turn’ ™ addition the other Civ games had – the mark of a great design – and the other reason I don’t sacrifice my people, I’m always too distracted by the next turn, then the one after that, then … and before you know it, the damn thing is built – by itself! *laughs*

Pik 2 – the French Empire in 120BC after the anarchy finishes.



Lyon (NE) has 3 archers and walls, barracks are next.
Paris (Capital) has 1 archer, and barracks, and it’s time to expand (settler).
Orleans (SE) has 2 archers, 1 warrior, walls and barracks (worker next).

I have 3 other warriors in the western badlands preventing barbarian uprisings, and my two workers are currently working on Lyon’s pigs. ;-)
Note: The Demographics show I’m first in land, soldiers (this surprises me) and manufacturing, last in population and gold, and 4th in food. And I’ve the highest score – not too bad I think to myself – I should protect these wonders though. *nods*

40BC – Aztec Monty’s city of Texcoco becomes the Confucianism founding city. Tempting. Very tempting! That will be remembered as a profitable future city, should he misbehave. *truly honorable thoughts of spreading the benefits of religion to the French people* Honest! ;-)

20AD – Genghis Khan converts to Buddhism, Gandhi has the founding city but is Hindu – I sense interesting times of conflict over there. *phew*

80AD – 1st Great Person – Great Prophet. With nothing better to do, I add Moses to Paris as a Super Citizen. [Just remembered I could have used them for research too – damn]

Three cities are built in quick succession:

120AD – City 4 – Rhiems – due South on a coastal hill (great production potential, and horses).
290AD – City 5 – Tours – NW coast (good productive site – pigs, fish and rice).
310AD – City 6 – Marseilles – SW on another coastal hill (this is surrounded by a large number of resources – and would eventually be my ‘smart’ city).

These new cities covered a fair amount of the west, and the spare badlands warriors were used as initial defense (they actually remained as my final defense too – never to be upgraded – as surprisingly they were never threatened). Now I started having money issues (Civ 4 makes for a much more strategic game :-) so Rhiems started on the Great Lighthouse (finished in 570AD). My other apparent problem was unhappiness (I’ve still no religion & by now almost the rest of the world has converted to Hinduism!).
Note: In order to increase money I opened borders but had a spare settler in case anyone tried to build a city behind my ‘front lines’ – it being way too expensive to actually use it and build a city now. *laughs*

600AD – Genghis builds Samarqand on the coast – as close to Orleans as is possible – border tensions naturally occur. *growls*

640AD – As I build city 7 – Chartres – to claim the northern islands (hopefully cultural border expansion will do all the work for me) Genghis declares war. Being my first Prince war I don’t do anything aggressive at all. I turtle down and wait … attacking only when he’s in my kill zone (grassland) next to Orleans, or just let him try and take Lyon, my archers stay in the city, the fortified-in-city-on-a-hill cultural-bonus combination is awesome. ;-)
(Alex and Gandhi also have their 1st of many wars – I eventually lose track of who’s fighting whom on the rest of the continent).
I take out Mongolian units, he pillages French lands. I feel I come out of it better.

680AD – I convert to Hinduism (finally it seeps across the border at Orleans).

740AD – I eventually secure peace with my Mongolian brothers of the faith (I’ve 7 axemen and 2 swordsmen now on hand, but this is nothing compared to Genghis’ visible units! He has a wave of filled galleys ready in Sarmarqand – and I fear them badly with my poorly defended coastal cities).

Pik 3 – The world as I know it in 740AD as peace is declared after the Turtle War, in which only Paris was really concentrating on troops.
Note: From the small world map you can see I only sent a single warrior out exploring foreign lands (with a double woodlands promotion that can be enough).



The best thing about the world is that now EVERYONE is Hindu. Very suitable for an Honorable game – and it has to be one of the most helpful things that happened in my game – yes, sometimes it is better to be lucky than good ™. *laughs*

The worst thing is that I can only support research at 40%!! *ouch* :-(
This is where strategy comes into play with Civ 4 – but I’ve no real idea how to prevent this whilst I am still so greedy for land.
Note: America’s Washington has done well whilst everyone else was at war (a lesson I know well) and is now in 2nd place.

840AD – Monty builds The Kong Miao in Texcoco and converts to Confucianism. That’s an even more tempting city now and I could use a nice income source. Knowing relations will start changing between Monty and everyone else ... eventually there ‘might’ be an opportunity, so I start moving all my offensive units NE (except a small force left in Orleans – I still don’t trust Genghis – and the AI might see those weaker cities at my rear).
Honorably I hold my stack on a hill in my own territory near Lyons and wait. :-)

930AD – Use a Great Engineer (thank you Pyramids – a nice wonder if ever there was one) to complete the Colossus in Lyons (gold ? – yes please).

1015AD – City 8 – Avignon built on the West coast. I had to use my spare ‘defensive’ settler to stop a wandering open borders foreign settler.

The Wars start (but strangely not initially with Monty):
1005AD – Genghis attacks Gandhi (ends 1085AD).
1035AD – Monty attacks Genghis (and this would last until 1330AD!).
1065AD – Washington attacks Monty (ends 1170AD).

Pik 4 – The ‘honorable’ French ‘stack of doom’ ™ – waiting for an invitation to war.



Pik 5 – 1070AD – The peaceful French Empire, while everyone else wars.



Research is up to 60% – not great but just ok.
Note: I’m not really spreading Confucianism in my cities in the anticipation of picking up some money from any religious building in Texcoco – no way – that’d not be honorable would it ?? *winks*

Washington invites me along to the war against Monty and I move into foreign territory for the first time ever in 1095AD (I don’t do this again until 1670AD!) And even now, I only move 1 square *grins* before I’m next to a fully healthy Texcoco – I’m without a single catapult but, being next to a Mongolian stack that’ll take the city if I don’t, I promote my axes and swords before they attack (very useful leaving them unpromoted) and as I capture the city I realise sometimes it is better to be good than lucky ™. *happy smile* And I really like the creative trait’s border expansion of captured cities. Good to be back in my own territory again. ;-)

1095AD – A very good year – I also build the Hanging Gardens in Paris.

1150AD – Somewhat ironicly, after all that effort, I found my first religion, Taoism – in city 8 – Avignon.

Monty won’t negotiate peace, he really wants his Confucian holy city back *laughs* and sends a few organised waves at me, but I have a city on a hill, and he’s got to expose himself on the plains beneath. His units pillage then die, but most simply just die.

As there’s no negotiating with the slightly upset Monty, the honorable thing to do is to end the war as quickly as possible … I’d like the bit of silver he has to the north (I did want to settle there myself but even I accepted it was optimistic in the extreme). It’s a slow advance but I’ve now built horse archers to take out his catapults, and a mixed army to deal with other units.

1165AD – Calixtlahuaca falls and I go to Monty seeking peace – which is gladly given. Time to hunker down and grow a bit. Let the creative border give me silver for happiness and a bit of research to make me stronger. Life in France is looking good.

1180AD – Becancon founded near Paris (slightly SW) – mainly because there was an American settler convoy moving too close to that single vacant square in the middle of MY territory. How dare he even consider that!! It takes advantage of a Banana, Rice, and 2 Dyes, no wonder he wanted it. *smiles*

I now have 12 workers and many are working on clearing jungle – I’d rather have the grasslands beneath thank you very much.
Note: I don’t cut a single forest in my own territory – personally, I almost never chop them but save them for Lumbermills (and their health benefit). [Qn: I’ve found that lumbermills are the ONLY improvement that benefits from railroad, receiving +1 shield (hammer) – is this right ?]

Pik 6 – After the 1st Aztec War – 1225AD.



Yeah – lots of courthouses – finally – I need some money, spare a dollar sir ? ;-)
War does seem to subsidise research – all that plunder!
And lots of influence from Monty’s capital – and somehow I think he’ll still want his lost holy city. Well – time to consolidate helps me more than him. :-)
[Looking at this pik again I realise the Aztec influence is actually residual citizen influence – I wonder how long that lasts ?]

1275AD – Islam is my 2nd discovered religion (and creates my 3rd Holy City: Becancon) and while others wage war I seek peace and the associated prosperity and happiness associated with it. Notre Dame (1280AD) helps (+1 happiness), converting to Bureaucracy (my favourite Legal civic) turns Paris into a production powerhouse, and using my next Great Prophet – St Peter – to create the Masjid al-Haram for Islam is a little amusing (now I just have to spread Islam for gold – a never realized goal).

1345AD – Paris builds the Spiral Minaret (religious gold) and life in France is Good. The people cheer and celebrate. Louis XIV is well loved.

1370AD – Washington circumnavigates the globe and I, isolated as I am, don’t really mind, seeing as we’re all on the same lump of rock. ;-)

1380AD – WAR!!
Monty really wants his holy city back!

I am now strong, fully healed, and ready for him. This time it’s personal, and I’ve a technological advantage (I like that in Civ 4, although I never experienced the tank beats spearman situation, the argument never bothered me – probability always throws a few curve balls – it’s all part of the game that reflects life – nothing’s ever guaranteed *grins & winks*).

The 2nd Aztec War spreads …
1405AD – Gandhi declares war on Monty.

So what am I doing ?
Invading ? nope.
Pillaging ? nope.
Scouting his lands / cities for weaknesses ? nope.
Picking off Monty’s troops as they appear ? yeah – I do admit to doing that.
But I am actually turtling again and concentrating on building wonders *mad laughter* and, even more crazily …
1415AD – Build Rouen in that single desert coastal square S of Orleans with fish and iron in its radius, I now think I can afford another city.

1435AD – Genghis declares war on Gandhi.
AND I get Monty to sign for peace – with just some exchanged losses it’s a very static war – it was just an inconvenient time for me – as I want to concentrate on those wonders (oh, and a Golden Age in peace time is so much nicer).

1440AD – Versailles in Rheims.
1445AD – The Taj Mahal in Paris (a Golden Age during war can be fun, but do I use it for war ? no way – much more useful for buildings that’ll be around longer – yep – passive builder all the way :-)), followed by Ankor Wat (1485AD, also in Paris).

1450AD – Genghis converts to Confucianism – hmmmm, maybe my spread religion for $’s there was a little too effective ?

1505AD – Still chugging along on infrastructure even after the Golden Age ends.

Pik 7 – 1505 AD – My peaceful empire – no military production anywhere.
Note: 4 of my core cities are producing wonders – and as I write this I wonder (no pun intended) just how mad I was playing at the time *shakes head* but boy was it enjoyable. :-)



Pik 8 – The Northern Front & the Texcoco garrison – they did quite well too. :-)



Pik 9 – A look at Paris, happily producing wonders. ;-)



At this time the Demographics show I’m first in everything except soldiers – in which I’m 5th – do I worry ? (I’ll get to it, ‘just one more wonder’ ™).

While wars between the other civs start / end / and re-start I turtle down yet again and build away. A Great Engineer is saved for a future use, and I complete the Hagia Sophia (+50% worker speed) the long way, as although the jungle has all now been cleared – railways will still have to be built one day.

1620AD – Adopt Free Market (nice to have another trade route).

1656AD – Adopt Emancipation (as per variant rules – causing unhappiness to other civs – very honorable *winks*).

1658AD – WAR!!
Monty again!! He really wants his holy city back!

Variant rules said I could defend myself … up to the ‘you have chosen unwisely’ ™ rule. So I enlist my friends Gandhi and Washington to help in exchange for some technology (1660AD). Poor old Monty.

While Washington is immediately effective – scarily so – and takes a city next go, Gandhi just has no luck at all (Alex declares war on him (1662AD) and invades, and then Genghis does the same in 1672AD).

1662AD – Great Artist Valmiki born – will come in handy for a city capture – I’ll culture bomb it out of resistance and expand the borders for my troops to use roads (well, that’s the theory anyway. :-)

Pik 10 – Strategic plans for the 3rd Aztec War.



Monty is a clever AI and uses the yellow arrow approach (keeping to the hill tops), and when he reaches the plains splits his troops into two stacks – but without any defensive bonuses they are in my kill zone and those that survive don’t do much damage. The blue lines indicate pillaged squares, and I limit Monty’s options by fortifying on his other approach – that forested hill north of Texcoco (wow – are they powerful! +75% defense – lovely when they’re used by me ;-)).
My plan for the Texcoco army shown is to follow the red arrows, joining with the garrison in northern Calixtlahuaca, for three reasons:
1) It is a more defensive attack on Teotihuacan (from the hills) and catapults are easy to move right next to the city – my first use against a city with them ever in Civ 4 – nice affect – and I think the bombard and suicide attack is a much more balanced option than the Civ 3 red lining siege weapons. Overall Civ 4 is a much more balanced game. :-)
2) I’ll have no troops behind me with Teotihuacan mine, 2 fronts aren’t fun – especially with the hard to move cultural borders.
3 ) Those caravels Monty has (there’s 4 within that white ellipse) scare me (due to possible surprise troop movement) – let’s take the city and neutralize those. [Qn: Are Caravels unable to pillage ? The Civpedia needs major improvement, it’s the only area where Civ 3 leaves Civ 4 for dead!]
Note: I’ve finally traded maps and can see what the whole world looks like now, I do think I turtle too much, but as can be shown, in Civ 4 that’s a very viable option, although the warmongers must be shaking their heads at my game play. *smiles*

1692 – The plan works and Teotihuacan is captured & culture bombed (not as effective as I’d have hoped – especially next to Monty’s capital – not a single border movement eastwards *oh well*).

Gandhi must be having issues with Alex, he signs for peace with Monty and Genghis. Washington has spent most of this game at peace, yet I’m still doing better – must be the wonders – shields well spent. :-)

Unfortunately I’ve no screenshots from this war as I got the ‘just one more city’ ™ bug, and kept moving my army forward (at the limited speed of catapults) via any available hill or forest. This was my gunpowder era – Cavalry, and Musketeers which were soon replaced by / upgraded to Grenadiers (I am so glad the Golden age is no longer linked to UU battles). This war was decisive in this game and showed me just how important a mixed army is in Civ 4.

My wars are usually long and slow – and Civ 4 really needs to have fully healed units before they can re-enter combat, which slows things even more – generally because I think I build so few military units. My entire army is at the front-line, and I have the bulk of my cities guarded by only a single original warrior or archer. (However, with a watched bank account, and upgrades without barracks (not sure if this is balanced) this is only slightly foolish ;-) Also, in this game, the fact there’s no sea route along the north coast helped).

1708AD – Tenochtitlan captured – and I play ‘chase the Aztec capital’. Now the culture bomb at Teotihuacan covers the countryside. In future I’ll probably play the culture bomb closer to where the final border position will be, such as at …

1720AD – Tlatelolco falls, followed by Tlaxcala (1732AD), and northern Kolhapur (1736AD). The wars with Monty finally end, as Monty is no more.
Note: I almost never pillage either, why bother when you’ll need those improvements when the city becomes yours ?

And you’d never believe that to celebrate peace – I build a wonder! Appropriately, the Statue of Liberty (1744AD) – Great Engineers never go astray. ;-)

Pik 11 – My newly conquered Aztec lands (the scores show how badly war has hurt everyone, except me – as I don’t focus much of my empire in that direction and the gains in lands offset the war losses – and Washington – who’s been very peaceful – and has consolidated his position as my main rival).



Pik 12 – My complete French empire (1746AD) – I did plan on building a city on my far eastern border, near Tlatelolco – to check Washington, but his borders had expanded too much by the time I got a settler there (let that be a lesson in poor culture bombing learnt).



Pik 13 – Another look at Paris, again happily & healthily producing wonders. ;-)



Most of the remainder of the game chugs along peacefully. Well – for me at least *grins* I watch the AI’s fight on and on as I leave them behind on the tech tree. Some peaceful highlights are:

1772AD – Eiffel Tower (love this, especially with the use of a Great Engineer and the other +1 smiley wonders (Broadway – 1792AD) (Rock&Roll – 1820AD) (Hollywood – 1862AD)).

1802AD – Grenoble founded in the northern islands – there’s a few small foreign cities up there now and I don’t want more.

1822AD – I build the United Nations, and go for a diplomatic victory on & off for the rest of the game – I eventually get within 10 points, but never actually achieve it – Genghis and Alex both abstain every vote. It’s harder to change minds than Civ 3 which is good, not that I really try too hard, but for a non-warmonger like me – the space ship seems to be the easiest option. I have read some of the other games people have posted and I am impressed at the different play styles and wins out there!

1855AD – The Pentagon (why not? – better me than someone else).

I use the UN to ban nukes – spread emancipation (very honorable) – and then religious freedom.

Knowing I don’t have the numbers for a diplomatic victory – I build the Space Elevator (1882AD) and labs in most cities, and peacefully work my way to a win. The Three Gorges Dam needs a river [I only found this out by looking at which cities could build it – Is this true ?] and so I begin to build it in Tlatelolco, thanks for the loaner Monty. ;-)

Pik 14 – 1885AD – The Peaceful French Empire – completely railroaded – with all my cities significantly larger than anyone else’s!
Note: Gandhi is now only a single frozen city to the north & Alex still hasn’t finished.



Pik 15 – Paris – My industrial powerhouse: Factory, Coal Plant, Ironworks, 5 (yes 5!) Super Citizens & railroaded lumbermills result in wonders galore: +287 shields (hammers) per turn (nice).



Pik 16 – Marseilles – My intellectual heart with the Globe Theatre (to ignore unhappiness – so the city could grow and grow) and Oxford Uni: +335 beakers per turn (and I was only on 90% research). [I now wonder if I could have set just that city to 100% research – Hmmmmm – I still need lessons in how to manage a city properly]



1894AD – Out of the blue, Genghis declares war and invades. Now I’m not sure if this is a last gasp to try to prevent me from winning – as I’m well on the way. If so, I think it’s a good change to the AI – even if it is a bit late. I’m the only one with tanks (3 ), mech infantry (1 +1 being built) and big offensive naval units (2 +1 being built), and a very nice treasury for upgrades. *huge grin* Which is what I do – on the first turn of war I learn composites *laugh* and I just sit there and spend ¾ of my treasury to upgrade troops (which apart from my 3 tanks – now modern armor ;-), are still at catapults (4) and grenadiers (9). My main offensive units are still cavalry (9) which I’ll use in a critical but minor role in this war as they don’t upgrade – I didn’t research flight).

The war is very one sided, even if I did lose a couple of modern units – wave after wave of nothing more powerful than Riflemen just doesn’t stand a chance. I learn the power of controlling the oceans (even if I did have only 3 offensive naval units – the original Mongolian fleet of galleys (still around from their very first invasion in the 640AD Turtle War) sink fully laden when attacked by a battleship *laughs*). Naval units are also brilliant for bombarding coastal city defenses – and move much faster than artillery (so able to keep up with the faster ground troops).

1896AD – Alex finally razes Gandhi’s last city (Bengal) and India is no more.

After two turns wiping out two waves of Mongol troops on French soil, the Mongolian cities fall one by one – crushed under an honorable French fist ;-)
1897AD – Beshbalik
1898AD – Samarqand
1900AD – Karakorum
1901AD – Tiflis [& the Three Gorges Dam is finally built in Tlatelolco]
1904AD – Old Sarai & Otrar
1905AD – New Sarai
1907AD – Turfan
1908AD – Sanchu & Calcutta (but no India to return it to)
1910AD – Tabriz, a single square island isolated near my northern islands (& from this I learn ANY unit can attack from a ship – not just marines – I’m not sure this is so good, but it was helpful in this case) and Genghis and his Mongolian empire is no more.

Even with the extra population and lands I am 10 points short of a diplomatic victory – Alex still abstains (although how honorable such a victory is as a result of war I’m not sure ;-)). As I’m good friends with Washington and Alex I doubt there will be another war soon, hence I complete the last pieces of my spaceship …

1928AD – Space Race Victory!!!!

13 hrs, 21 mins – a most enjoyable time, and writing this took about the same length, if not longer! *laughs* but it was just as enjoyable (I hope you readers find it so also :-)).

Score: 19,140, Game Score: 6,358 (I have no idea what the difference is, but I’ll take the higher number ;-)).

I’m pleased with this result, my first Prince game, and yes I’m sure others may have finished centuries before me – but … *shrugs* – I’m happy with this game, and now look forward to reading all the other posts.

Pik 17 shows the final game save (1930AD) and the sprawling French Empire.

Bede’s Report

Epic1


Victory: Diplomatic

Date:2039AD

Score: 8148

Honorable Rules of Engagement were violated very late in the game. I accepted an invitation from the Mongol to join in his final war with the Aztecs, despite the fact that up to that point my relations with the Khan were never even close to being “Friendly, had never been better than “Cautious”, and I had fought two wars with him.



The Grumpy Old Monk (TGOM) of France is an honorable man and a leader of a fine people. He taught them how to farm the land and build roads for their wealth and welfare. He ordered his people move to the hill above the lake for the fresh breezes and the defensive bonus and there built his capitol. So they could take advantage of the fine lands surrounding them this wise ruler instructed his academicians to study all the arts of land and waters management so they could earn many coins and fish to go with their bread and otherwise gainfully employ themselves. (Fishing, Animal Husbandry, Mining, Sailing, Masonry, Bronze Working, and Pottery were the first group of arts and sciences studied)

For over 4200 years the French people enjoyed peace and plenty and reasonable relations with the rather aggressive neighbors. TGOM was occasionally troubled by the sight of demonstrating Mongolian warriors on the eastern borders and the presence of barbarian encampments and a fortified town in the southwest, so began to create a military presence in place of the emaciated mannequins he had been using. His foresight was rewarded in 270AD when Genghis Khan declared war by invading the eastern marches. The Mongolian was more interested in plunder than conquest and the eastern towns well defended so in less than 100 years the Mongol horde were appeased and the war ended with few French casualties and no towns lost.

The battle against the barbarians in the west was not so successful as they captured Tours but were repaid by the capture of their two towns and the burning of one, and the retaking of Tours.


It was some 600 years after those victories that the other neighbor to the east, Montezuma, asked for our assistance against the aggressive Mongol who had been waging war with the Aztec and Indian empires for some time. As relations with Montezuma had been peaceful and neighborly, naturally we agreed and very quickly moved to capture the cities of Beshbalik and Karakorum that fit very nicely into the French empire.

As soon as Montezuma made a peace treaty with the Greedy Khan the wise TGOM did the same and then took up the mantle of peacemaker for the remainder of his long reign, almost to the end of time. There came a long period of peace and during this time France became the largest (land and population) and most productive nation on the planet.

The Aztecs began to resent the French presence on their borders and our interference in their attempts to conquer the hapless Gandhi, and despite all diplomatic efforts to mollify them they declared on TGOM the Peaceful and Benevolent in 1560AD. The peace had lasted for nearly 1200 years. During this period the French had founded Islam and spread its influence far and wide. Nary a Great Prophet appeared amongst the faithful, however, so no Shrine was ever built.

The war was short and rather uneventful. No cities changed hands and peace broke out again in 1610.

The next event of note took place in 1610 when our good friend Washington asked for our assistance against the war mongering Greeks who were attempting to dominate the eastern part of the map and had been punching Gandhi and George around for years. Again, and only in the interests of helping our good friend, TGOM agreed to chastise Alexander. The war lasted until 1736 as Alexander was unwilling to talk with us after Washington concluded a peace treaty with him in 1718 at the urging of TGOM.

In 1766 Montezuma makes another unwise choice and declares war on the French Empire, again. TGOM is really unprepared for war and after capturing Tlazcala but losing Karakorum to Aztec torches, TGOM makes peace with Montezuma.



In 1856 the United Nations is built in Paris and TGOM begins his quest for a lasting peace, in a world fabric rent by war. Gandhi has become the punching bag of the Greeks and the Mongols, while Washington and Montezuma and Alex mix it up on a regular basis.



Montezuma celebrates the founding of the United Nations by declaring war, again, and TGOM fights him off, taking no losses and making no gains, and making peace in 1869.



Meanwhile the French lead the way down the road to a liberalized world by gathering enough votes for universal Universal Suffrage, even though Alexander had become the first UN Secretary-General. (Our relations with the Mongols and the Aztecs were not good enough to get their votes and my good friend Washington abstains)



Peace with Montezuma in 1869 is marred by Alexander who made another fateful declaration that same year. He declares, and immediately razes the city of Besancon on our eastern border. The war is over in 1880 after the UN mandates the adoption of Free Speech everywhere.



In 1882 Genghis declares another in the long series of wars against the Aztecs and in 1885 requests French help. In a bid to gain Mongol support for a diplomatic victory TGOM agrees. The only event of note is the French capture of Teotihaucan and in 1901 peace is restored.



The adoption of social democratic policies continues as the French deliver the votes necessary to impose Environmentalism and Emancipation on the world in 1887 and 1903.



The fifty years from 1918 to 1968 are peaceful in the world, then the Greek finally ends the existence of India. Genghis and Montezuma resume their catfight in 1975, and Alexander makes his last unwise choice in 1981 by declaring war on Washington. George calls for Lafayette and TGOM responds by sailing his fleet to the borders of Greece, basing bombers in Mongol cities and wrecking the eastern portion of the Greek lands, converting the former Indian towns to French possessions and capturing the Greek capitol of Athens. Resettling the lands left open by Washington’s depredations against the Greeks give TGOM a huge footprint in the east and claiming former Aztec lands further extends his hegemony over the land mass.

By 2014 Alexander has been forced into a tundra redoubt in the far north so the French make a peace treaty and watch his inevitable end at the hands of the Americans.

In 2035 the Mongols eliminate the Aztecs from the planet.

I lost count of the number of final UN votes held. Alex was forced to surrender the Sec-Gen gavel once his territory and population fell below the amount needed to overcome the French advantage, but TGOM could never quite muster the size or the votes for a final victory. Once Alex was eliminated the next candidate for the UN victory was Washington, and the Mongols would not give up the votes needed to defeat him despite all attempts at wheedling or bribery on the part of TGOM.

The UN victory was completely unexpected. I was resigned to watching the Americans finish the Space Ship and launch, yet when Washington was within two turns of completing the final part he threw his 142 votes to TGOM and the Diplomatic Victory in 2039.

I never really had a clue how to win this one. The Diplomatic option seemed the most promising but I only began to get a glimmer of the workings of diplomacy in the very late stages of the game. Up to that point my actions had tended to alienate, rather than conciliate, my closest and strongest neighbors, while I did not do enough to cultivate the slightly weaker but still viable nations in the east (Gandhi and Alexander) until it was too late.

The victory came as a complete surprise. I had failed in a bid to acquire enough territory to overcome the Mongol’s repeated abstentions in the late voting, and of course George kept voting for himself, once Alex had removed himself from contention by picking on the big dog (GW). When the game reported that Washington had thrown his 142 votes to RBCiv1 my hoot of surprise awakened in their dens the even more irritable old bears with whom I share a house.



I confess I have no blinding flashes of insight to share, not even the successful application of strategy. My tactical thinking was sound, if pedestrian, as demonstrated by the successful prosecution of wars with aggressive neighbors, and the cross continental invasion of Greece. and, fnally, by my standing at the top of the demographic and statistical heap through most of the game. The late, and inexplicable, victory merely demonstrates that the TGOM has no strategy layer in his game yet.

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Initial Observation:

A pangea map with 1 less civ than normal and low sea level should mean plenty of room for expansion. The honorable rule set dictates a peaceful, builder type win, but culture seems out because of the requirement to switch from caste system to emancipation as soon as democracy is learned. So, let’s build the spaceship!

The Opening:

My plan is to have 3 cities built by 1000 BC and to have my immediate area fully scouted. Since I have access to stone, I want to build the pyramids. It’s like getting 2 wonders in 1 because the engineer that will pop out in 75 turns can build another wonder. I also want to build the oracle in my 2nd city and with the free tech choose code of laws so that I can found Confucianism.

Opening until 300 BC

The first move. After moving the warrior 1 NW, I decided to move the settler 2 NE and found Paris in 3960 BC on the plains, hill tile netting 1 extra shield for the city square. Also, useful was the forest, silk tile, which gives an extra commerce. I also saw I would be getting wheat in Paris’ fat cross so that made the choice easy. I gave up +2 health for not settling next to fresh water, however.

Research Path

Mining, Masonry, Animal Husbandry, -- To exploit my resources.

Mysticism, Fishing, Bronze Working, Meditation, Priesthood, and Writing. Sets me up to get Code of Laws.

Wonder building. Pyramids completes in Paris 1250BC. Stonehenge is built in Lyons Oracle is building in Lyons (11 turns remain as of 300BC)

Paris builds. I went warrior, worker, warrior, settler, pyramids

I used my first settler, in 1800BC to settle Orleans in the SE, to seal off my part of the continent. Game replay shows I’m the first one to build city 2.

Lyons was built 940BC. It has pigs (+6 food) and fish (+5 food) so it grows like a weed. 2 hill tiles in the east make Stonehenge easy to build.

I popped only 1 hut and got maps.

1150BC – A revolution to Representation and Slavery occurs. Now the AI wants to make a citizen instead of placing the worker on an undeveloped tile that has 2 food.

Hinduism was not founded until 1375 BC so a direct run on that would’ve gotten that religion.

The first build for Lyons was Stonehenge. It started out at 90 turns to build, but the worker built the pasture on pigs, then built 2 mines. A workboat arrived from Paris to work the fish, so that wonder was finished in 460BC!

I'm going to have to apologize in advance for this report. It didn't turn out the way I originally Intended it would. I lost a very large chunk of my stream of conciousness notes in a crash to restart... something I'd not experienced before playing epic one. I've located the cause of the crashes... for some reason Alt + Tab to return to the game from picture taking is not something my machine likes. It seems to be ok if I click the button on the bar however. Why in the world this makes any diffrence I can not begin to imagine.

I have not yet completed my post mortum with a "points total" (read on and it will all be explained), and screenies from the replay, but I do have my turnlog and screenshots right up until final victory ready to go, so I thought I'd go ahead and post those now. The post mortum section will be completed by me on monday or tuesday night. I'll make a post to reserve the spot.

BTW, with so large a chunk of my report missing the stream of conciousness stuff, I opted to just remove it all togeather. Again, not the report I intended to post originally, but I hope it will be enjoyable nonetheless. On with the show

No screen shots for mine, maybe next time
I finished the game by space race victory in 2004a.d.
my score was 8443.
A few interesting things about this map...
The first unit i built was a worker. Until now, I had NEVER built a worker as my first unit. but since the first tech i researched (animal husbandry) was about the same turns to research as a worker, I decided to try it. It worked marvelously. After growing to size 3, building a settler and then mining the stone soon afterwards I built the pyramids. Gotta have the pyramids and immediately go to Republic. Another major wonder is the colossus to get that extra income. My first 3 cities were north and north east expansions in the direction of the Aztecs to get bronze, iron, crabs, fish, pigs, gold and silver.
I noticed that Aztecs or Mongols were always itching to start a fight. Playing honorably is an interesting challenge and I enjoyed it. So my strategy was to pick one of them and adopt their religion to give me extra faction to prevent war. I never adopted my own religion or built the special religion wonder. I chose the Aztecs to be my friends and therefore only had to fight the Mongols, not both of them. I used the barbarian cities in the south to stop the Mongol advance there and slowly took out the barbarians, making their cities my own. Every time the mongols declared war on me, I would take a couple of cities and make peace with them valuable. Then I let someone else wipe them out around 1900.
Until the whole continent had cities on it, my science continually went down. I think at one point for a few turns, it was at 20%. Finally by the time the continent was covered with different sized cities, my science rate began to climb. At that time I had researched markets and grocers and banks and harbors. Since the aztecs were my friends (at one time, it was +14 ) nobody else started a war with me and I could trade with everyone. I only had to build a few tanks, I didnt do any fighting at all after my Cav became obsolete. I used artillery in my last battle against the mongols, and then those just sat there and rusted as well. I was able to develop all technology until future tech 8.
Most of my Great people were builders.
I hope this report is what you are looking for, this is my first time reporting a Civ win like this. I cant wait for the next challenge!
Oh and, heh, was that comment about "no sheep for you" intended as a kind of a hint? I never found any sheep that I could harvest.
Malacheye

This is my first report, so I'm very open to suggestions about how it could be better. I broke it into two parts (a short summary, and the full log I created), and tried to add enough pictures to give somewhat of an idea of how things went. I also linked all the pictures in thumbnail form for anyone who might have a less than speedy connection. If anyone finds any of this helpful and/or distracting (e.g. moving back and forth between the reports and pictures), please let me know. I think that's everything I wanted to say, so on with the report!

Edit: I've looked over a few other reports, and it looks like my reporting leaves a lot to be desired. With that in mind, I'd just like to re-emphasize my openness to suggestions.

http://www.whitevine.net/civ4/epic1/epic1.html