Firstly, I'm playing Darius, as financial and organised are my favourite traits. I'll be heading for the stars as that is the best use of those two traits I think. I'll be looking at as large an empire as I can manage. Immortals can be used to acquire a neighbour if anyone is close enough.

Well let's look at the starting position.



I've got two food sources where I am but there does look to be floodplains further north. I send the scout NE and then SE.



Settling in place gives me 1 floodplain, corn, sheep, oasis, 1 plains hill and 7 grass hills. If I move 1N I keep corn, sheep and plains hill but lose oasis and 2 grass hills, as a bonus I pick up 3 floodplains. It's actually a tough choice but in the end I move north as I wouldn't be able to cottage everything staying in place (giving up my advantage of financial).

So Persepolis founded on turn 2. (As a completely irrelevant aside, my avatar at CFC is actually a picture I took when I visited Persepolis in 2000).



Warrior first, then worker. Research is for The Wheel, then Pottery.

Wow, already found city #2 site.



A potentially annoying neighbour. Meet Kublai. Creative and mentally unstable aren't a good combination in our closest neighbour.

I have terrible luck with huts, pop 8 for 167 gold from 4, 2 maps of the ocean and 2 lots of xp for my scout.

Monty, JC and Alex turn up.

9th times the charm. That's a pretty good score.



I find horsies here. Think I'm going to try and Immortal rush Kublai.



Mansu and Hannibal complete the show. It is an interesting AI set-up. The psychos and back stabbers are close by and the tech whores far away. Causes problems for all victory conditions.

I found my second city by the horsies to try the immortal rush.



Time to rumble.



Beshbalik is defended by 1 archer. That's easy pickings. My immortals already have over 50% chance of victory. I still lose 1 though :mad: .

Spearman is difficult but we'll see. Kublai was kind enough to build Great Wall here as well.



Withdraw Immortals are a charm here.



Kublai is destroyed. I thought about keeping him around instead of autorazing his last city but I can always settle the area later.



This leaves me with plenty of growing area, which I can try and fill as quickly as possible. The tech rate will drop but that'll pick up as the cities become useful.

We found Confucianism.

A CS slingshot is achieved in 485BC, just built Oracle on the off chance really as I noticed it hadn't been built. It ended up being less than a 10 turn build.



A large RL time gap appears and I forget where we are. So a quick 160AD recap is required. I'm the proud owner of 10 cities, some kindly donated by the barbarians.



I'm killing the AI tech wise (currently researching Paper).



My research rate is just 50% and I need to expand some more so I need to get a handle on the economy but lets keep going. Essentially, if I don't drop the ball with the military I should win. I'm not going to build a great number of troops but will have 2-3 a city (with an extra 1 in the border cities) but will make sure they are upgraded where possible (this looks much better on a power graph to Monty).

A GS is born. I have to decide between bulbing Education and building an Academy. The Academy wins.

I build Mausoleum of Maussollos and use the free GA from Music for a Golden Age.

Found Taosim.

In hoping for a Prophet, I pop an Engineer. Decide to build Angkor Wat with him and then employ more priests.



At 1000AD, I'm 1 turn from Chemistry and now have 14 cities. Positive at 60% as well. Still own the AI in terms of research.

I finally pick up my shrine as well.



The free GM from Economics goes for a trade mission as well.

Pick up Steam Power from Liberalism.



Its then a run to Democracy, building Taj Mahal to revolt to Free Speech, Religion and Emanciaption.

I decided with all the forests around the capital to make it my National Park city, with all the wonders I built, National Epic goes as well.

At 1500AD, things are going very well indeed. 20 cities now, that will be all thanks. Researching Electricity and +66gpt at 80%.



I'm headed straight for Laboratories and then Industrialism and then Rocketry.

The Ai isn't doing as well.



Labs are going up and we have Aluminium. Was saving a GS in case I needed it. As I now don't I go for another GA.



Still not sure about uses of corps in BTS. Think I'll try for Mining Inc.

I realise that I'm going to have to tech everything myself, so divert research to Railroad to improve production with railroads and Mining Inc.

Which is founded in my Wall Street city.



I'm also still not sure about the best order in which to build all the parts. As health is an issue (and I'm racking in the big dollars out of Free Trade so don't want to go Environmentalism) I head straight for Genetics.

Rome is destroyed by Hannibal. I might get a couple flips out of this.



In any case I launch in 1782AD and press enter 15 times to win in 1812AD.





Quite happy with this time actually. Not sure its good enough to be the fastest Space win but it will be up there.

The key was having 20 cities, all over size 10. You can plough through those late game techs really quickly and can assign space parts to all corners of the empire to leave the powerhouse cities to build the big parts as well as late wonders.



In replay...









All in all a fun game. Let's have a look and see how everyone else did...

For this game I chose Darius of Persia, and (as one might guess) I am aimed for a fast space victory. I had hoped to beat a victory I had on Immortal/epic with him launching 1845/winning 1860, and would have been quite happy with a pre-1800 launch. Well, almost everything fell my way and I pretty much shattered any expectations I had of what was possible. I launched in 1615 and the ship arrived in 1690.

Here is where you can find out more information about it.

I don't know why I was thinking today was Presidents' Day, BTW. Maybe I just needed another holiday already!

It is at the typical location - www.kendter.com/epic17-1.htm


After the way I decided to start I wish I picked a industrial leader.

I know I could have shaved at least 10 turns off with cleaner play. Time to see where I sit.

Compromise is away from his computer for Epic 17's reporting day, but he has prepared Compromise's report for Epic 17. Enjoy!

This is the exact message I was asked to post. Looks like a great game, you should read the report!

My shadow report is in the usual location:

http://www.garath.net/Sullla/civ4_epic17_1.html

As it turned out, no one else picked the same leader as I did. (I made my selection before the game opened, by the way, so it was not influenced by anyone else.) I guess we'll find out if that was a brilliant decision or a bone-headed move!

Epic Seventeen is now open for reporting. Please post your reports in the Tournament Discussion subforum. It would also help if you posted your civ choice in your title, to make reading through the easier (see my example).

As I am sitting here, babysitting a balky printer that needs to spit out 45 clear and faultless copies of some documents for hubby, I have been perusing those Official HG:L forums.

One thread seems to indicate that not only is the mailing function working, but it also can be used to send items to characters other than your own.

Muahahaha Now, when I find those items that I think might suit one of your characters, I can deluge you with them. You know who you are!

More seriously, this could be incredibly useful to guilds.

Or, more like random screenshots I have sitting around.

First, two amusing warriors in Alliance Battles, who speak for themselves:






Next up, two amazing victories.



You stop getting faction after 16 consectuive victories, but I wanted to see how high the Zaishen Elite went. Enemies seemed to stop multiplying after 10 of them showed up though.






Stupidly close game with a stupid IWAY build. We scored that point from a single kill at the very last second, and as the last point-scorer, the game gave us the tie.



Finally, two sightings of famous people.



What's possibly more amazing than me playing Hero Battles, is proof that Isiah (Anet employee and primary skill update guy) is there playing them too.






Our motley crew from Amazon Basin and ourselves playing IWAY against some of the game's best players. The highlighted Tommy has been in and out monking for various top 10 GvG guilds such as Team Quitter and now Dark Alley, and on his team were people from The Black Parades and a few other solid players. Despite such skill and having a decent balanced build setup, they lost to some of us that had never PvP'd with a warrior before. No further proof needed as to how cheesy this build was. But the victory was still sweet!


What's missing from this thread: pics of GvG victories over ZoS.

Some of you folks may be curious about my new warrior, Sophitia Foxifer. She was recently born in Ascalon, and is playing under a set of restrictions for now.

First, she solos, meaning no heros, henchies, or other party members. I partied with someone to grab a res signet, and there was another ascalon quest where I needed to flag Alesia at the enterance, but that was it.

Second, she's a purist, meaning no use of external resources. The stash is a box she can't remove anything from, nor will she recieve gifts or trades from others. This includes the various NPC traders, who operate on player-sold goods and economy, with the exception of dyes to take care of some hideous armor colors. (bright grey leather ascalon armor?) Additionally, she does not take advantage of my extensive account unlocks to buy skills before they would normally be avaliable; I follow Wiki as to what skills can be bought at which outpost.

My goal is to gradually work through Prophecies like this, taking on all challenges. All Missions+Bonus as well as whatever quests are deemed useful or uniquely challenging. Generally I fight my way anywhere rather than running, and I at least make sure that I've fought my way through a path once or prove myself capable of taking down a group type.

A few people (Mucco ) expressed interest in my travels, so I'll be updating this thread irregulary with highlights of my journey. I don't promise entertaining tales like Charis or Sirlin could spin, but then these shouldn't be as long and ponderous either.

Also I'll try to keep screenshots to one per post, so this thread doesn't become too onerous.