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Now you can take it everywhere!

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/04...6B48984890

Apparently friend was telling me site specializes is abnormal DIY. Anyone finding anything else of interest feel free to share.

Edit - It's a rectangle isn't it? I blame excitability!

RB Plot List Unit Information Mod

I'm submitting this mod seeking approval for its use with RB events. The aim of this mod is to improve the ability to locate units in the plot list (see below). The mod adds the following items to the unit icons in the plot list.

• Small description of the units current action - the available actions are: Patrol, Heal, Sentry, Skip, Explore, Auto Build, Auto City, Auto Network, Go To, Fortify
  
• Light blue border around the unit icon if the unit has a promotion available
  
• Small gold star near dot top left if the unit is a Leader (ie combined with a Great General)
  

• various DDS (art) files containing the required art work in the \customassets\Art\PlotListEnhancements directory
  
• modified 'CvMainInterface.py' file in the \CustomAssets\Python\Screens directory
  
• expanded 'CIV4ArtDefines_Interface.xml' file in the \CustomAssets\XML\Art that contains links to the art files
  

Introduction
Our starting location reveals Rice two tiles to the west. We have at least 10 water tiles to work. However, the tile 1 south if a Hills Plains that will yield +1 hammer if we settle on it. The downside is that the hill is forested so we would lose that extra production. Wow, I just started this game and already there is a though decision to be made.

We are playing as Lincoln who is Philosophical (+100% GP Birth Rate, double speed for University) and Charismatic (+1 happiness in all cities, -25% XP needed for promotions, +1 happiness from Monument and Broadcast Towers.)

Whenever I play a Charismatic leader (which is not Creative), especially on higher difficulty levels, I really like building Stonehenge. It gives two great benefits: extra happiness in all cities, and free culture in all cities such that you do not need to build any special buildings to pop the culture border. When you are playing a Creative leader, the culture is a non-issue, but since Lincoln is not, I think getting Stonehenge will be nice.

The Americans start with Fishing and Agriculture as their two starting techs. We want agriculture early anyways for that Rice. But I plan on cottaging the Flood Plains, although one will probably be farmed given that we start with Ag.


Ancient Age
I research Mysticism first. Buddhism and Hinduism both fall very early which will make it less likely that we will get Stonehenge. Without Stone and not being Industrious, things may not work out. So needless to say, Stonehenge was built crazy early while my capital was working on it. Fortunately, I had not yet invested too much into its production.

I did pop Animal Husbandry from a hut, the only tech I got. Unfortunately, there were no Horses anywhere close.

Early research after Mysticism was The Wheel, Pottery, the Mining. Then Masonry, Polytheism, and finally Monotheism since no one had it yet so it allowed me to found Judaism and thus have a better way to get Culture.


Classical… err Medieval Age
Monarchy is discovered the same date as The Oracle is complete giving me my first ever Feudalism slingshot. Not something I planned from the start, but it was clear that a CS slingshot was not going to be possible, so this seemed like a decent alternative. First time I ever went from the Ancient Age to the Medieval Age skipping Classical altogether.

In 1125 BC, I finally revolted to change civics. I probably should have done it early, but had forgotten about it.


Justinian declared war on me in 35 BC. I knew it was only a matter of time before he got uppity since we were of different religions, had close borders, and the man is a religious nut-job.

When the war first started, I was not in great shape. I did have a good number of Longbows, but not too many on the eastern front with the Byzantine. Fortunately, I had already decided to make Boston my military production city. It had a good number of hammers, and was on the border with the Byzantine who I knew would be my first foe… err, I mean aggressive un-provoked attacker!

During the early stages of what would be a very long war, I mostly played defense with the Longbows, and occasionally had to re-pasture a Cow tile. Boudica and Justinian both had Construction so I was waiting for Boudica to have a decent trade for it. Once I picked that up, I started building Cats and could finally go on offense.

Late in the war, Macemen came online and helped conquer… err, I mean peacefully acquire… the Byzantine lands. Justinian had never begged for mercy, so the war kept going on and on. Towards the very tail end of it, I did have to research Drama to bump the Culture slider since war weariness was becoming a serious problem, and I could use the Culture to pop the borders of captured cities as they came out of revolt; this would have the additional benefit of reducing starvation.

The war finally ended in 990 AD, more than a thousand years later. I left Justinian with a single city that was being culturally pressured by Boudica. If I had taken that city over, it would have been assimilated by Celts very quickly. Besides, Justinian had many, many techs that I wanted, and he offered them all as part of this peace deal: Meditation, Horseback Riding, Code of Laws, Theology and Paper! He also offered Capitulation, but I rejected that in the hopes that he might beg Boudica for protection and I could then finish him off when she declared war on me which I was sure would happen eventually since our relations were not great due to different religions.

What I didn’t know is that it would happen the very next turn after I made peace with Justinian. Boudica declares was in 1000 AD to celebrate the millennium… or something like that. I would rather she had waited 10 turns or so to do that. Most of my forces were in the newly annexed Byzantine territories, and many were still wounded.

Fortunately, Boudica came up me with a pathetic stack consisting of: 2 Gallic Warriors, 2 Chariots, 1 Spear, and 1 Catapult. Not exactly a stack of doom. They were headed for Atlanta which had 2 Longbows and a Spear for defense. But by the turn the enemy forces arrived, I would have a second Spear and another Longbow there for defense. The southern forces also started heading north and would prepare for a counter-attack.

The old Byzantine cities had many important city improvements to work on, most notably Courthouses, so they would not be able to participate in the war effort for some time, but the established American cities began once again churning out troops.

The war with the Celts did not last very long. I only took over a few cities since my economy was already in the tank. I wanted to make sure to expand my territory a little since Boudica did control about half of our large continent. I wanted to try and contain her a little more, while at the same time making sure she hated me enough to declare war on me at a later date. For that to happen, I would probably have to keep my military down a little, and then massively upgrade once she declared war. I think the AI avoids declaring war against a foe with an overwhelming military.

Boudica was researching Guilds at this point which meant that she would have Knights for the next conflict. I was not too worried since I could upgrade my many experienced Spears into Pikemen. Besides, Boston had 4 Great Generals, when combined with Vassalage, would produce 13 XP troops. With our Charismatic trait (-25% XP needed for promotions), that meant our troops started with 4 promotions.

At some point, I popped a Great Scientist to help research Education. My Research slider had been hovering between 10% and 30% for a long time, and I was worried that someone might beat me to the Liberalism slingshot. It wouldn’t be crushing if it happened, but it would still suck.

I had decided to research Optics before Education since I really wanted to find out where the other civs were at. I knew that there had been some war-mongering amongst them since I had seen at least a couple of Great Generals appear in distant lands.

My two Caravels, each exploring in different directions quickly met up with the remaining three civs. Louis (France) had become a vassal of Joao (Portugese). Ragnar of the Vikings was the other civ. It appears that all three other civs were on the same continent which appeared similar in size to our own.

Since Joao was second “score-wise” I decided to try and befriend Ragnar. Not sure how well that will work, but if I can get Boudica to declare war on me once more, I will have an entire continent to myself. Also, while Ragnar did know Guilds and Gunpowder, he did not yet have Paper, neither did any of the other off-world civs. That meant I had plenty of time for Liberalism which was now less than half a dozen turns away.

As an aside, I really like the Liberalism → Astronomy slingshot except when I have the Colossus. Now you might be wondering whether I built it with my zero early coastal cities and the answer would be “no”. But Constantinople, the capitol of the Byzantine empire during its glory years, built the Colossus as well as the Great Lighthouse. It had also built the Buddhist Shrine. I will probably spread Buddhism a little more for the extra gold once I have the spare production cycles. The Great Wall had been built in Thessalonica although that Wonder was long past useful at this point in the game.

I had taken a break when I wrote the paragraphs above. When I resumed playing, I did my normal routine: check every city, looks at the big picture, look at city happiness and health, look at border city defenses, etc. As soon as I hit [Enter] to advance to the next turn, Boudica declares war on me and launches her forces into my (well, it’s mine now) city of Calleva. There’s nothing I love more than the AI attacking my cities when they are defended by many Longbows!


The Rest of the Game
Sorry for the rest of this report, but it is Sunday night and I had to rush through the end of the game to even complete it.

I took a few more of Boudica’s cities before I was forced to make peace due to the growing War Weariness. As part of the peace deal I would pick up two extra cities, although one of them eventually was lost to Justinian due to culture.

Since I wanted to encourage Boudica to declare war again (so that I could finish her off), I didn’t build any more troops although did reposition many of them. I would also keep a decent amount of cash on hand to upgrade in the even of another war.

My plan at this point had been to win a UN Victory with Ragnar as my ally. I had befriended him early and we had excellent relations. I picked him since he was not doing too well, but not all that badly either. Unfortunately, Ragnar had waged a very successful war against the French and would stay in second place the rest of the game. So I went for plan B: Space.

Somewhere along the way, Joao declared war on me. We had conducted a cold war per Ragnar’s request many years earlier, but had never seen combat. This time, some pesky boats showed up and wasted some of my time.

Boudica and Justinian eventually teamed up and started what would be the final war on this continent. I upgrade many CR3 Macemen to Infantry and that was pretty much the end of them.

The race to space was uneventful. After making sure no one was going for a Culture win by periodically checking the “Culture Graph”, I just peacefully researched on.

Five turns before my Spaceship arrives, Joao declares war and assaults me from both sides of the continent. I can’t be bothered at this point, so I upgrade some units and let him take a couple of cities.


Space Victory in 1885 AD
Not a great time, but not terrible. Not having Slavery is a real killer, especially when taking over cities with lots of unhappiness. Instead of being able to whip away a lot of the angry mob, the city sits there producing almost nothing. Not being able to whip out Courthouses also really crippled my economy during the wars with Boudica and Justinian. During the tail end of those wars, research was mostly stuck between 0% and 20%.

All in all, not a bad game. I’m sorry I did not have more time to write a better report.

Hey there, RB. Here's my report - not only my first AAR, but my first game of Emperor. As you can imagine, it was a bit of a bloodbath.

Let me know how you liked it.

Erikg88's Epic 18

Amn_Ralthul lvl 39 guardian doing Monument Station and Templar Base quests (elite nm).
I can sure feel the difficulty got a big bump once he got to Monument Station but things can be handle with a little more care, where as it was semi easy going before this.

I have just spent 3 hours doing the Old Bailey quest line. It seemed almost impossible at times and Amn has racked up many death counts. I had to re-roll a new dungeon for the first time in HGL history and wasted an hour of progress because there were no less than 30 mostly Blade Slayers (with unique and legendary in the mix . That was an impossible situation) in aggro range at the entrance. Amn does okay against one or 2 Slayers at a time but anymore of these lvl 47 tin cans at a time is big trouble, constant stun-lock, and unlike shock he can't even run away

However, I did enjoy the challenge of fighting monsters 8 lvls higher, and I would have no complains if I wasn't forced to re-roll a new dungeon 2 hops away.

It would have been just the right level of difficulty I would enjoy.
Just have to slot more time before I quest

KoP

Swiss Pauli asked me to post his report while he was away this week on holiday. Enjoy!

Epic 18 – Honest Abe



The return of the Honourable ruleset, which I last employed (after a fashion) in Warlords 1. This newly updated version denies us slavery entirely. As the game was trailed quite a while before release, I ran a quick test game: I made it all the way until the discovery of Bronzeworking without adopting Slavery But that sort of failure in a test is ideal as I’m unlikely to make the same mistake twice. The banning of the Thief Economy was another major headache, as this can be a real gamesaver on Emperor. Enough with the blah bah, let’s see how I got on…





I don’t like the look of the start:









Non-river rice, an FP under our Settler. A move onto the plains hill looks tempting. Move the warrior onto the hill, revealing the coast, but no seafood. Jump onto the hill with the settler and reveal river-plains spices 2E. Not bad. Settle the next turn:









Grass cows as well. Very good. I’ll be interested to read how everyone else approaches the starting position.



Explore with the warrior and pop a couple of huts for 143g. Nice! Meet Justinian SE of DC: a pesky, rapid expander with added Buddhist zealotry. Could be worse. After AH it was on to Mining. Warrior got eaten by a lion on T24, after popping an all but useless map :sad: Two turns later I get a message announcing a faux pas by the Byzantine ambassador to Celtia, whom I’d only meet the following turn: Hindu Boudica. Oh dear! It just got a lot worse: one religious nut, the crazy lady, and two religions. This will end in tears. Not mine I hope.



BW was the obvious choice after mining, and it was duly completed on T50. Don’t adopt Slavery. Mysticism next as I’ve a settler on the way and need the border pop to get NYC going properly:









I’ve trained quite a few fogbusters as I don’t plan on GW, but the jungle to the north is a pretty certain breeding ground for those pesky barbs. Henge BIFAL in 2450: early, but not crazily so. Wheel completed on T67, then Masonry on 76. The only copper in the vicinity was a fair way off, but it had to be claimed for Homeland Defense:







Quite a drain on the economy, but we need that copper. The lack of Slavery is quite a hindrance, as I’m backward in tech (pathetic according to Gibbon in 1475BC). And lack the production to deal with emergencies efficiently:









Dealt with sure enough, but my dreams of an Oracle slingshot go up in smoke in 1025 (GLight also built that turn). I was 9 turns from Priesthood. Ho hum. Another city:









It’s not all bad, as I pop a copper at DC in 675BC. Yay! Further expansion:









I’m going for the ‘expand until it hurts then cottage like crazy’ approach. Though the eagle eyed may spot that I was also putting some turns into Wonders for the cashback. I founded Chicago down in the SW desert the following turn. BC395 sees Buddhism finally spread (in Boston) and I duly adopt it as my state religion: Celtia is the other side of J, so she’ll go after him first. The following turn, in fact



It’s Livy’s turn to my tech pathetic in 335BC. Charming. Snooping around the war-zone, I can see that crazy lady has razed J’s Eleville. I trade him copper for wines. In for a penny…









An honourable war. I’m training quite a few units: not really with any intention to join in the action, but more to take the barb cities of Tartar (and Cimmerian):









But, as the pic shows, crazy lady has taken one of J’s cities which means it looks like I’m in the firing line myself. And with her crazy units, that is worrisome in the extreme. Still, the prize money keeps my tech moving along at 40%. What’s that, gentle reader? Are you calling me pathetic!?! Hmmmph.



I’d been neglecting by Philo trait for far too land in an attempt to grab the land without whipping, but my first GS builds an Academy in DC on T182. By this stage, crazy lady is trying to assault Nicaea, and sending the odd unit down to Boston. I group my forces, and actually stop her from taking Nicaea! With this threat seen off, I make a move towards Antioch.







Run away! Run away!



Thankfully the stack suicides on Nicaea rather than attacking Tartar, so I’m able to turn the tables:









This allows me to make a straight peace with crazy lady in AD325. Gift the city back to Justinian, only for him to contrive to lose it again in a couple of turns, the twerp.



Now that I’m back at peace, things are starting to look up: I’ve got a good amount of high-food cities and a huge swarm of workers (trained because of happy cap problems as much as anything), so if I can avoid being killed by crazy lady, I should prosper. How are things on the west coast?









Crazy lady has just captured a barb city to our north. I coveted it, but simply could afford the maintenance (as you can see, I’m still working on CoL at a less than stellar pace). Crazy lady is beginning to get too close for comfort! I can now actually compete for wonders, and snag Hanging Gardens and MoM:







This would turn out to be a key component in turning survival into success, but more on that later…



First(!) tech trade:









Backfill Meditation so that I can found Taoism with a GS in 715AD. The same turn, I’m denied International Games owing to a lack of cash :blush: The same turn, Great Library is BIFAL *slaps forehead* Why the hell had I forgotten about it when I’m Philo and have marble? Too many culture games lately :sad: Ah well, onwards and upwards. Find out that I can peddle tech to crazy lady without upsetting J: a handy source of income in the following decades. Trade J Philo for MC, Mono and Archery. Not something I’d do ordinarily, but he’s always going to be Friendly in this game, so WFYABTA doesn’t matter a jot.



CS in 980AD and revolt to BUR (as does J). Crazy lady feels left out so she declares on Justinian in 990AD. Here we go again…



Justinian completes the AP in AD1020, so I vote him in. Vote to give one of J’s cities back (passed). I think we voted to stop the war, too. Ha! Get this event:









Meanwhile I’m crawling to Nationalism and finally get there in 1220AD. Start the Taj in DC and lose the city’s Forge next turn through a lack of cash :rolleyes: Line up Currency next: I was hoping to trade it in, but J has completely ignored it (I had to settle for Marchinery and Feudalism for Nationalism). Have a Caste System Merchant at hand, and burn him on a MoM-boosted GA. Taj due in 8 for double fun, and I claim it sure enough in 1320AD. This 30-turn GA has turned me from also ran to contender: the boost to production and commerce let’s me go to 50% research and still make money, so I can fly through Optics and Paper and get cracking on Edu (10T at a small deficit at 60%) and still have 19T of GA left!



Crazy Lady declares on J in 1325. She captures Dory, but loses Antioch. I meet a fat man in a big wig: Louis the Confucian. He’ll offer me just 5g for Nationalism, so I turn the deal around and give him 175g for his map (in 1395 I prove the world is round):









Hmmm. Portugal and Vikings. Both Confucian. Hmmm. Meet Joao a couple of turns later and gift him Compass. Then ship him Feud and Paper for the rest of Engineering (an event gave me 350 beakers). In 1370, J remembers that he can stop the fighting so long as crazy lady has one of his buddhist cities I complete Edu and get cracking on my half-price Unis, with 10T left in the GA tank. We’re going to Space if my luck holds. Which it might not: crazy lady’s spy has just been discovered at Tartar. Spy activity is often a prelude to war. And so it proves:









Unlike many of my games, I hadn’t been neglecting military: NY had Heroic Epic and was spamming units for the inevitable clash with crazy lady. The action centres on Tartar, but I’m able to get my units down from Seattle in good time to take out her units with little more than pillaging and a couple of defeats. The GG is merged to NY.



St Augustine pops up in 1405 to advise that I’ve reached the lofty heights of mediocrity in the tech race. Thank you, kind sir. Joao had asked me to join his war against Ragnar: I guess that’s why he more backward than I am. Crazy lady is bottom of the pile, choked by her own insane unit spam. But I’m about to go beyond mediocrity: I have just completed Liberalism, claiming Astronomy.



By 1420, the war has started to turn my way and I want to clip crazy lady’s wings, so I bring in Justinian for Liberalism, having checked that recruiting an ally isn’t verboten. I was planning to raze this city but remembered the rule when the pop-up came (phew!):









I couldn’t defend it though (Uzbek was my main target). By this stage, I had enough pop to vote myself AP resident :groucho: J wasn’t standing idly by either: a stack over a dozen strong was heading into eastern Celtia (observed by my Spy). Away from the front lines, Boston completed Sistene in 1455 to deny it to the AIs. In 1500AD, I finally managed to claim Uzbek, and wrest back Nemocenna the following turn. I press on and take Circassian in 1520 and Crazy Lady makes generous terms:







J would happily continue his war: having taken Vandal, he also took Camolodunum in 1570. During the war, I had dispatched a GM to Paris, home of ToA which nets me a princely 3350g. I get a spammy Spy (must may more attention to the gov) in 1600 and save him for later use on a GA. In 1615 I trade Sci Meth (which I’d whored around already) to Louis for Gunpowder, map and 260. The significance?







Oh! for pity’s sake, crazy lady! She’s now being an anti-civ: no chance of ever succeeding in her aims, but is disrupting my efforts considerably (an instantaneous 8 WW in DC). In 1640, I captured Calleva, way up on the northern coast. Having learning Leccy, I trade Physics to J for Rifling. I also claim Durnovaria. Unfortunately, my units are rather thinly spread and (without whipping) I can’t re-enforce very rapidly, so peace follows after crazy lady deals me some death by collateral at Circassian.







Radio completes in 1704, so I’m working on a good few wonders, but I decide it’s worth the risk of trading Louis Leccy for Demo and Chemistry, and it pays off as I complete Broadway. Burn the Spy and switch to FM and Emancipation for free during the GA. Tech on to Fridge to unlock Malls (and head on to Superconductors). A Celtic spy is discovered at Boston in 1736, and then there’s this:







Are you CRAZY? I’ve got Rifles in there!









Certifiable. Time to make this her final Unwise Choice™



Get a Great Artist from the Stupa event in 1744, more grist to my GA mill. Complete Cristo and cash in a GM for 4050g the following turn. On the front lines, I lose some unlikely battles, but by 1764 I’ve captured Vienne, Gergovia, Durocortorum, and Tolosa. As I conquer, I discover that J captured Bibracte during his previous war!



Away from the fighting, RockNRoll is completed though SoL is lost by 1 turn, but 1925g is not a bad booby prize! I was working on Eiffel in Chicago as a real side project, but it completes in 1772 and it turns out to be a real blessing with its free Broadcast Towers fixing my war weary cities. Verlamion, Isca and Isurium all fall by 1776.









A straight peace is made with crazy lady as she’s down to two cities (1 of which is junk), on the NW tip of our island. J would eventually declare war and destroy crazy lady.



America is now numero uno in all the important demographic categories and well ahead in tech, so I won’t bore you with the details of the victory cruise. Some highlights:

• Invent the burger joint (natch) in 1784.
  
• Found Mining Inc (1800ish) and complete the expansion quest (in 1844).
  
• Sec Gen of the UN (1860).
  
• Spark a three man GA, but denied a 4-man GA at the very end by a 14% Artist :mad:.
  
• Flip Christian Holy City of Nicaea (inc. shrine) in 1893.
  

Shame about missing the 4-Man GA at the end, as that would have summed up perfectly my transition from runt of the little to leader of the pack. Crazy Lady got on my nerves after a while with her mindless aggression, and the unit spam caused my PC to run very slowly and even crash once, but overall it was an enjoyable game. Thanks, Sullla

Healing Prayers: 12+1+1=14
Divine Favor: 9+1=10
Tactics: 9

Healer's Covenant *
Patient Spirit
Dwayna's Kiss
Spotless Mind
Spotless Soul
Vigorous Spirit
Contemplation of Purity
Disciplined Stance



In Loving Memory

Just a heads up if you go in and see yourself as a stick figure or see a low level critter in normal mode listed as lvl 30. Its not a glitch...ANet's way of saying April Fools!

This game was very similar to my first RB event, CIV Epic 1. I have more experience with CIV now, but AI is also much tougher, and the difficulty level here is slightly higher, with a more restrictive rule set. I also had been playing more poorly recently, with a string of losses that I hoped to end with this game.

The game itself started without any specific plan. My settler wasted 3 turns wondering around before settling on the coast. The first turn was wasted because I didn't realize that goody hut was in the forest. After that, I hiked to the coast, because I wasn't sure how important navy would be on this map and decided to get a coastal capital. More importantly, I wanted to optimally utilize the floodplains, which I wouldn't be able to do without more scouting. The floodplain utilization plan worked out well, with my second and third cities becoming instant commercial powerhouses, and later production powerhouses with help of levees, mines, and a couple lumber mills. However, my capital ended up being rather lackluster. It provided adequate production capacity in the short term, but was not my top production city and ended up even weaker later.

My expansion ended up going in a nearly straight line, with second and third cities taking floodplains and fourth city founded next to iron, because I was getting worried about having only warriors for defense. (I tend to ignore archery if there is no immediate military threat.)

My research went into Wheel(roads) -> AH(pasture and reveal horses, which we don't have) -> Mining -> BW (reveals copper and chop forests, mainly on hills) -> Pottery (cottages on floodplains) -> IW (metal for defense)

I didn't do much chopping, and allowed Washington to grow significantly before producing settler, so New York was founded only in 2000BC.

The discovery of IW in 1200BC determined the location of Philadelphia, which was founded next turn after 800BC. (800BC is the date when Justinian spread Buddhism to our lands, although I chose not to convert, to aviod annoying Hindu Celts.)

Meanwhile, I researched Writing (libraries) and went on to my favorite economic path of Alphabet -> Currency -> CoL -> CS. Over the following centuries I was able to sell the techs gained from this beeline for basic religious techs, Monarchy, and Metal Casting. So I converted to HR and Org Rel as my civics even before I chose a religion.

On the diplomatic front, Celts attacked Justinian in 305BC and made peace in 40AD. Here is my empire at 10AD:
[img=http://img369.imageshack.us/img369/554/epic1810adom4.th.jpg]

Note the troops heading towards barbarian city that Justinian is planning to attack. That city is on the hill, and since Justinian was occupied by Celt war, I decided to start by taking Aryan to north-east first. I got that city a few turns before this picture, from under the nose of Celts. That capture ended up deciding the course of entire game as the Celts, with nothing better to do for their stack, decided to attack me in 100AD:
[img=http://img377.imageshack.us/img377/4634/epic18firstceltattackxi7.th.jpg]

As you can see, Aryan is protected by a single Axe, with 1-Warrior garrison in Philadelphia as the only backup. I obviously had to abandon that city and pull the forces intended to attack barb city back to defend Philadelphia.

This attack meat that I converted to Buddhism and became Justinian's best friend for the rest of the game. (Which meant that Justinian became the leading AI, thanks in large part to constant trading with me.) Back to the Celt war, I was able to protect Philadelphia, but I had to go into full-defense mode, with Washington and Philadelphia training troops while the two commerce cities had to produce all workers and settlers for further colonization. This means that I lost most of barbarian cities to Justinian, and was able to settle only 3 cities in the northern jungle. My economy was also shot, going down to 20% research. I did manage to divert enough troops to capture a barbarian city on the south coast.

I eventually managed to recapture Aryan, the city that started this war. I also captured Boudica's nearby city, and quickly lost it to counter-attack. However, by 940AD Boudica wanted "only" Aryan for peace. I recaptured her city with intention of giving it back, but she demanded CS as well, I negotiated down to Aestetics and Currency, and accepted the deal in 950AD.

Shortly after this, Justinian donated to me a nearly useless city choked by my culture. I was considering giving that city right back, because it was just a drain on my resources, but decided to keep it. That decision paid off in the long run, with my city's culture taking nearby rice farm, and the city becoming decent production center thanks to post-biology farms and lumbermills/windmills.

Here is what our empire looked like in 1060AD:
[img=http://img510.imageshack.us/img510/1762/1060adnorthch2.th.jpg]
[img=http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/8369/1000adsouthmx9.th.jpg]
Note the underdeveloped lands and economy barely in the green at 30% research.

However, my economy improved slowly but steadily from here, with tech rate greatly increased by trading with Justinian. University of Sankore, the first wonder I've attempted (and completed) during this game, proved very important for two reasons. First, it gave me lots of research, because monasteries were cheap, and temples are also high on priority list. Second, building temples and monasteries in every city, along with Charismatic Obelisks, my usual Libraries, and cheap Univercities, meant that my border cities were generating lots of culture. So I was slowly pushing back against Justinian's borders, eventually giving all workable tiles to my border cities, and even flipping a city near endgame.

Diplomatically, Celts focused their attacks mainly on Justinian, probably because Byzantine culture isolated two of my cities from the rest of my territory, meaning that there wasn't much point for Celts to attack me. (Only 3 of my cities weren't redded out when talking to them.) I had joined one of Justinian's wars, but succeded only in getting my attack stack wiped out while marching to a Celt city, while Justinain quit after 10 turns, as usual. However, most times I refused Justinian's requests for help, because our shared religion modifier was huge and other positives from close friendship more than compensated for negatives for close borders and refusal to help. (I also made sure to never learn or buy Theology, so Justinian never got a chance to demand that I switch to Theocracy, which was one of forbidden civics.)

In terms of research, I completed Liberalism beeline in 1310AD, taking Nationalism, because it was the most expensive tech available. I also wanted to make sure I'd get Taj Mahal, which I successfully completed in 1420. After Liberalism, I immediately researched Printing Press for economic boost, and then traded with Friendly Justinian for all prerequisites for Economics and beat him to the tech.

The Golden Age from Taj Mahal allowed me 10 turns for anarchy-free civic swaps. First I switch to Free Speech and Mercantilism (Justinian was running it himself, so there was no foreign trade anyway). Then I used deficit research, burning through cash from trades, to get Constitution 2 turns before Golden Age ended, getting a free swap to Representation.

After that we researched Democracy for an early start on Statue of Liberty, which would give extra 6 raw beakers per city under Mercantelism. This research was completed in 1510 and we immediately Emancipated the slaves we never had. SoL was started immediately in Philadelphia (which would remain my top production city until being bypassed by New York in the end of the game), and was completed in 1590, with the help of Great Engineer.

I did a lot of tech trades and researched Corporation. I also started researching Astronomy, when I saw (using espionage I got from courthouses in all cities) that Louis is researching Physics. However, Astronomy became available for sale shortly afterwards, and Louis was willing to sell Scientific Method next turn, probably realising that it was a poisoned pill, so I beat him to Physics, getting the GS, and settling the tech to Louis for some cash when he was almost done with it. (The practice of selling techs AI almost finished researching yielded me lots of cash in this game, and was much safer than my usual way of just selling them random old techs, because it didn't speed up the world tech pace by as much.)

After handing on to the Economics Great Merchant for a long time, I decided to try a cash refund option. It turned out that the amount offered in Constantinopole (2500$) was nearly identical to the amount offered in the cities of same size on the other side of the world. Only Ragnar's capital, offered 2850$, which I took in 1675AD.

In 1605 I got this amusing event:
[img=http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/9351/goldrushop2.th.jpg]
I wonder if Gold Rush was hard-coded to happen in San Francisco, or if it was just a fun coinsidence.

Meanwhile, Boudica declares war on Justinian in 1600. She brought 12 Knights, 11 Maces, and a few older units. I was glad that power wasn't directed against me. The target city had 85% cultural defense and was protected by 4 longbows, 4 catapachts, and a few trebuchets and older units, but it felt pretty quickly to overwhelming forces. However, Justinian captured a city of his own in the north, and was probably beating Celts pretty badly, because they agreed to peace, giving back the core city they've captured. That was good for me, because that city would have opened the passage for them into my core, making it more likely for Boudica to attack me.

I reasearched towards Assembly Line (to improve production), which we learned in 1710, and then started research into Electricity->Radio for an early shot at those wonders. Eifel Tower would be especially good for our Charismatic leader, giving lots of extra happiness, and more culture on Byzantine borders.

In 1714 Justinian stole Replaceable Parts from me. This would be just the first in a series of high-profile thiefts. He ended up stealing over half a dozen top techs, so his massive espionage spending did a good job of complementing his research efforts.

That stolen technology came in very handy for Byzantines, because Celts attacked them the same turn with massive stacks of mounted units. Justinian lost 3 cities in the north, so I got worried enough to sell him Rifling. However, that didn't matter because he made peace shortly afterwards, without losing any more cities.

Unfortunately, these newly captured cities made Celts more interested in my core (despite the fact that they still couldn't reach it), so when I refused a demand for some tech in 1734, Boudica attacked. I had an Infantry (a single unit of it) and a few Rifles, along with a bunch of obsolete units, against mainly Curassiers and Trebuchets, so I wasn't too worried. I spent my cash to upgrade some maces to infantry and sat back to enjoy the show.

However, I got overconfident and upgraded straight to CR infantry. I also left my obsolete units unpromoted, for more CR infantry in the future. So my stack was overwhelmed by sheer numbers. After the carnage of 1748 I was left with less than half a dozen units, while Celts had a dozen units that I could see. So it was time for emergency defence to avoid losing a city full of culture buildings.

First I used a GA I was saving to trigger a Golden Age. The anarchy-free civic swap was used to go to Nationalism (drafting), Universal Suffrage (cash rushing, that I didn't use), and Free Market (which I should have switched to long ago, becuase several AIs stopped running Mercantelism, and I was able to get 6 or more gpt from each of my 4 trade routes per city).

Nationalism was used to draft infantry from the two cities in the Eastern enclave, and the fishing village of San Francisco, that you saw earlier. I also sold whatever I could for all of AI's cash, so I could upgrade a few of the remaining units. This scared the Celts enough that only 3 of their units attacked, allowing my reinforcements to wipe out the stack of wounded units. I didn't have to do any more drafting, but that single drafted infantry (that attacked out of a city to kill very highly promoted maceman) was probably the unit that made the difference between losing and not losing the city.

By the way, Universal Suffrage and Golden Age turned out to be a great combo, greatly increasing my production.

The rest of the war was very uneventful, with my infantry slaughtering outdated troops, sometimes without need for support from Canons.

And a Byzantine city finally flipped to me in 1796:
[img=http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/3135/cityflippingme4.th.jpg]
That city was in a peculiar spot that was pressed by two of my cities from different sides, so the city center was dominated by my culture, even if the surrounding tiles weren't. You can also see my Celt conquests in the minimap. I captured all of their cottage lands, so newly conquered cities gave economic benefit almost right away.

I don't have time to finish the report, so I'll post my space race strategy later, if anybody is interested. The rest of the game was very uneventful.

Celts eventually got vassalized by Justinian just as I was about to capture a few more of their cities. (Justinian invited me to join the war.)

One notable thing was my use of corporations. I founded Mining Inc. and Standard Ethanol because they gave biggest bonuses for production and research, and spread them to each of my cities. I also bought every corporate resource on the market I could afford, using Musicals and Movies as top currency.

With New York (that built Wall Street) building Wealth and most cities building Research, I was able to make up for some of the time lost due to early stupidity. So most spaceship parts were completed in 1876, and the victory happened 15 turns later, with no problems.

Space Race Victory in 1891.
Time spent 23 hours, 22 minutes.
Final Score 41545, with ingame score 3947. I was researching Future Tech 4 when the game ended.

PS Looks like I posted just under the deadline, 11:59pm.
I apparently copied wrong links from ImageShack, but I'll fix it later, if I can find a more reliable picture host.