Very short and incomplete report (stop in 1170AD), starting friday 10 days ago, I didn't expect to finish (+baby to play with/look after in most of my daylight freetime).

The position of the cities could be found on the the last pictures presenting the state of the empire.

Settle on the spot.
Research archery (3775), then mining (3550) towards Bronze (2850) with a detour to agriculture (3200) to give the worker more things to do.
Copper far away, so Animal (2525) then wheel (2350) to connect to horse (later Iron 1550 after Fishing and Pottery).

Build a worker first, then archer, barracks, and more archers/charriot then settlers/units/workers.

Settle Vienne in 2125BC on the river next the West Copper with Gold, Sheep and lots of hills for production (leaving room for a decent city between it and Bibracte able to get corn and gold). That will be the biggest troop provider (even before capital), with the first 2 Great Generals.
Settle Tolosa in 1425BC north of Vienne, closing the west front. With lots of rivers and food (unfortunatly on the wrong side for improvement), it was supposed to be farmed for GPP (but will be cottaged for finances...)

Send a strong pillaging party to the Zulu a bit after 1000BC and razed Teotihuancan (700BC) and Tlatelolco (575) before setting Tenochtitlan under siege. It was unfortunatly far too defended to be cracked at once, so we had a stand-still were my most experienced gallic warrior was killing the top unit every 4t then healing while Monte build/whip another one...

Settle Gergovia on the East to start securing the East front and another source of copper (never manage to build the 2nd "front city" there) and to build another strong producer.
Settle Camuludonum in 335BC north of Bibracte (another river+hill mixt production or cottage city)
Settle Verlamion in 230BC in my interior for massive cottaging.
Settle Durnovaria in 25AD between Bibracte and Vienne to get the extra gold and massive forrest chopping (Pyramids).

The economy started to collapse seriously around 500BC, but was OK as long as pillaging money was coming in. With Kmhers and Zulu pillage to death (nothing left to get) money was not coming anymore. Massive cottaging was ordered, production was set to mainly no-units, research was at 0%...
Around 230AD the situation was critic, I had to revolt out of Slavery to gain 1 turn, suicide lots of experienced troops that were outside the border against the wall of Nagara Jatyasri, capturing the city (keeping it, so (1) the survivors would be inside my borders and (2) it would release the pressure that the AI are putting on Tolosa, and (3) being on a hill, it is easier to defend).



I delete all the not critical unit (extra defenders, extra medics chariot), worked the most commerce even useless sea tiles but miscalculating (and WW for 1t) caused the disbanding of the medic unit in the Zulu task force, which was starting to reduce Tenochtitlan units significatively and now had to go back home...

I still settle Isca in 280AD to get access to stone, as I wanted to try to get Pyramids and Hanging Gardens (or at least lots of money for a refund). I will have both Wonders (Hanging G 535AD in Bibracte, Pyramids 745AD in Durnovia)

The situation was better getting better on the finance (not great, I still was at 0% research but earning a bit money), but on the military aspect, that is what Nagara had to face on a very regular basis (with Dun being sabotaged every now and again)



Thanks to being on a hill, with several guerrilla II units, and specially the AIs never attacking at the same time, Nagara was a highly promoting place. On the other hand, I had no hope to dislodge the stack as the top defender was always a fortified Pretorian or Longbow or even hatchwa...

I manage to restart sending pillagers in Khmers lands and a razing party to Zulu soon after, and get more money alowing to raise the research slider back to 10%/20% getting us back in the game. (Meditation 715AD, Priestwood 775AD, Code of Laws 950AD, Horse 1030, Aesthetics 1070, Alphabet 1140, Philosophy 1150 (Lightbulb - first getting us a needed religion) and Polytheism 1150)


The Zulu/english party did a good job : Texcoco is burnt in 700AD, Tenoch captured in 760ad (keep for Ivory) then after reinforcement Liverpool and most of the english army are destroyed (990AD), followed by relatively undefended Nottingham (1010AD), Oxford (1090AD) and Canterbury (1140AD). London is soon to be next when a Roman SOD is spotting coming our way... Retreat back Teno is ordered as we have no chance in the open (the last english cities costed a few axes and gallics)...



I had to stop there.
The situation is not that bright especially on the tech level.
Some bad news had been happened around 1060



Wang has Crossbow (and attacked our pillagers getting to close to his border), and Rome has bureaucracy...

Situation in 1070AD
1. The roman SOD will be dealed with lots of horses doing flanking attack to get ride of the catapult then we will burry ourself in Tenoch until he suicide his stack.
2. General : need to change research ASAP to Construction for elephant as a general solution to crossbow, horse, other elephant and praetorian and soon to be mace... (was going for Great Lib right now)


The lands :






The techs (no comment!) :



The ennemies
Kmher and english are not a danger as they have 2-3 cities and weakly defended capitols





To end a few stats





Some scoring element
Dun : no idea (but around 0BC when not building units to save money)
Great General 700BC (I had 5 up to 1170)
Gallic Warrior 83XP (level12: C5+CR3+Sh+Co+G1+Mo?) still alive but for how long fleeing from the roman SOD.

Jabah

For some very strange reason I can't open Epic15 starting file (I had the same problem with Adv24, but NOT with Epic14).


I did patch to 3.13. In fact I did it several time, the patch is asking if I am sure I want to reinstall since it notices that I am with 3.13.
On the other hand BtS seems to be believing it is still at v3.00 (that is what is written when I ask for version under advance sub-menu), if I check for updates through the ingame check, it does write there is an update and it downloads again the 112Mo, but after downloading it, when upgrading it does notice v3.13 is install (but still want to redownload after checking for update, go figure).

Jabah

PS - For BtS, I had no MOD or anything fancy install, and everything should be in the 'default' directory ('user/mygames/... or something like that)

PS2 - Don't know if related, but I always had and error when double-clicking on a BtS save from explorer (saying a dll file is missing afair) while never had any pb with CIV.

Prelude - After a long and exhausting time, I finally rolled to a victory. In my two earlier reports (Epic 13-Portugal, Adv 24) I kept a running log as I played and added in some editorial at the end. I tried the same thing here and wound up with a disasterously long thing, 22 pages in MSWord! Feel free to just look at the pictures and scroll to the conclusion. I tried to cut out as much as I can but just didn't have much time to edit. And while it's long, it's only twice as long as my DeGaulle report; major length but I guess not that absurd.

"Wow, for someone who plays mostly OCC you sure do know how to wage war." - darrelljs, after looking at my epic 13 report.

Well, that statement will be put to the test, won't it? Never played always war before. Interestingly the game was kind of a mirror image of epic 13. In that game (as Portugal) I did some good early rushing, but then teched to rifling well ahead of the AI's and used that to steamroll to domination; it felt a bit like playing Civ2 or SMAC on medium difficulty when a decent player can tech, tech, tech, and then crush with way more advanced units. In the process I made a big tactical blunder; I got cocky and divided my forces allowing Justinian to wipe out one of my main stacks with collateral damage and a lot of obsolete units. This game, my tactics were generally much better but I frequently felt the need to go back to Civ Economy 101 as I was in a big tech hole basically the entire time.

Epic 14 - Boudicca the Great

This game featured the Always War setting. It took place on a small doughnut with 5 AIs.

My apologies but this report will hopefully be rather brief. I spent so much time on this damned epic that I can't justify giving any more of my life to talking about it. I really enjoyed the first half of the game but the last half I really just played out of stubbornness. Each time I wanted to retire I would come to the RB forums, see blake's quote of the month and think "Oh go on then, I'll play a few more turns ..."

I settled on the spot and probably started with some worker techs. I built a worker first.

OK, time for some stratergery. You might remember me for leading the "Guerillas in the Mist" succesion game, possibly the most overambitious game ever attempted. We tried to play always war on a highlands map at emperor difficulty (yes, I know, I know). Despite getting crushed, I learnt a small thing - the benefit of pillaging parties. A pillaging party or two can really hinder a civilization, and is (almost) as good as razing their cities. A civ that had a pillaging party visit them would still send some (mostly resourceless) troops, but would not advance beyond the swords and cats era so as soon as you get macemen and pikemen the civ would no longer be a worry. What's more, that game was also played as the celts which showed me how useful guerilla 2 troops can be for pillaging. Thus I decided that this game I would have many more pillaging parties.

So I expanded fairly conservatively. The nearby territory was very nice, and my first two settlers went to cities with gold resources.



Then I built stonehenge. I think religion is a good thing to have in AW, but I didn't want to waste time at the start researching for the early ones. Stonehenge might seem silly, but it would save more hammers than every city would have to spend building a monument. Furthermore, being charismatic our monuments were also happy-giving and I get a source of prophet points for founding a later religion.

After the 1000BC threshold, a scouting chariot found a Khmer city defended by a singe axeman - buhbye!



My capital also built the Oracle to found Confucianism. This is the religion I would spread so the civics benefits. With 2 great prophet sources, I was able to build a shrine and settle multiple prophets in my capital.

Anwyay, I expanded a bit more. But more importantly I sent out some pillaging parties (PPs). Typically a pillaging party would consist of 2 gallic warriors, 1 axe, 1 spear and 2 chariots. The axe would get shock and then combat promotions. The spear got formation and combat. The gallics both got up to guerilla 2, then one would get guerilla 3 promotions and the other would get more rounded ones, including cover (anti-siege). One chariot got combat and a medic promotions to deal with stray axes and the other would get flanking and sentry. This configuration allowed me to move onto any tile, be it hill or flatland, and pillage its improvement and its road. The road is almost as important as the improvement, as it slows down the flow of troops. With specialised promotions, few troops would have odds good enough to attack me. Especially when I was on a hill. The sentry promotion let me know when it was safe to move onto flatland and pillage. If I saw a stack coming down from the north I would head into a forest hill and the troops would either bypass me or suicide themselves (I preferred the latter). My first 2 PPs went through Aztec and Khmer lands, pillaging most things. The Khmer one went straight through into Korean lands. The Aztec one had a bit more work to do and went into England later. They were backed up with 2 more PPs, who went back into Aztec and Khmer lands to deal with any improvements made since the last raid.

The only civ I wasn't able to hinder in this way were the Romans, who didn't really commit many troops to attacking my cities in the early game, but always had many siege weapons at home and killed off my PP that I sent up there.

So I decided I would just take on the Romans fairly and gimp the others. Later on Churchill managed to kill the PP in his lands. But I had 3 PPs between Korea and Khmer lands and managed to keep them in the classical era. Their troops they sent to my core cities were mainly cats and other resourceless troops. Monty was also hindered by 2 PPs wandering his lands. He wasn't an issue.

That's not to say that there weren't some hairy moments around - because there were. I was trying not to whip my cities as much as possible, instead trying to grow cottages. Sometimes I left it a bit too thin and had to emergency whip, but I didn't lose a city. Augustus was rather annoying sending down praet/HA/cat stacks but that's OK. Churchill also sent down some scary stacks of massed cats and longbows.

Heroic Epic went in the capital. I built the Statue of Zeus. Mainly because I didn't want to face it, but possibly it also hindered the AIs. I'm not sure what effect it had.



So my tech rate was pretty good. I didn't capture any AI cities until after I got knights, trebs and macemen. The first ones to go were Aztec and Khmer ones, who were defended by obsolete troops. The khmer at least had longbows, but not crossbows. As soon as I got nationalism (which I got before paper even) the game was won, since I could draft a lot of macemen. And I do mean a lot. I still had to fight the romans at tech parity, and the english and almost parity, but taking on 1 or 2 civs like that is OK.

Anyway, sorry for not giving the details of the attack stage of my game but I think the early part and planning is the more interesting. The latter half of the game consisted of assembling 2 massive stacks of doom and sending them each way around the doughnut. Oh, and drafting macemen. Once the cities started to fall I abandoned economy and just went all out military. I went from being the GNP leader to not being able to even finish gunpowder. But that's OK - drafted maces are about as good as drafted musketmen anyway. I got domination in 1665 AD.



First GG: 750 BC
Cities in 1500AD: 13
Highest promoted naval unit: None
Highest promoted gallic warrior: 30 (I kinda forgot about this one)
First Dun: Unknown.

Introduction
Going into this game, I was worried that I would get beat pretty bad. This was my first ever epic game, my first ever “Always War” game, and my first ever playing on a donut shaped map. As the saying goes, there’s a first time for everything!

I decided to do a little research ahead of time, and since the start of this Epic was delayed due to the launch of patch 3.13, I had a little time. I generated a random “donut” style Pangea with Peaks since I really wasn’t sure what it was. Looking at it with the WorldBuilder, it did in fact look like a tasty donut with a crunchy center. The first thing that was obvious when looking at this map is that I would always be waging wars on two fronts. On the bright side, I would probably not have to worry too much about naval invasions, at least for a while.


Test Game and Initial Thoughts
I played a quick test game over the weekend to get myself prepared for this Epic. All the settings were the same except I played it on Normal, rather than Epic speed. Obviously it was a random map with random civs so the actual Epic 14 would likely have a much different flavor.

For this test game, I did reload a lot since I wanted to get a feel for what the AI would do. After a couple reloads, I decided it would be just easier to play without fog of war. It’s a learning exercise after all.

I was able to expand out to a total of 3 cities relatively quickly. All 3 spots were quite nice so those cities developed quickly. Once my economy was back on track, I expanded to a 4th city which also had a nice location. I was lucky enough to have access to Horses, so I was able to keep units on each of the front lines and have a roving set of Chariots to help out the side that needed it the most. That was very effective early on.

With my first Great General, I decided to make an offensive Warlord Chariot. In games with Charismatic Leaders (-25% XP required for promotions), I do like this approach. My second Great General went towards a Medic III super healing Chariot which I am also a very big fan of. Both of those decisions worked out pretty well, especially since I did not have a dedicated military production center early in the game. In fact, there were many times when I had to whip out units from all cities just to stay in the game. Future Great Generals did all settle in what became my main military city.

As the game went on, I fell further and further behind tech-wise. Since the AIs were allowed to trade, and they all loved each other (because of their mutual military struggle against me), they were able to keep a tech advantage.

After Construction, I had decided to tech to Guilds (Knights). I would get several useful techs along the way: Monarchy (for increased happiness with Hereditary Rule) and Feudalism (for Longbows). The plan was to try to be current with military techs, and hope to squeeze out an advantage with Knights then gunpowder units.

I conceded the game a couple turns before Guilds would have been researched after an enormous stack devastated my southern front. I had just recovered from a smaller attack from another civ, and did not have the time to properly rebuild. There was a decent size stack also approaching the northern front so it was time to call it.

One of the things that really hurt me this game was the unit upkeep costs. Because I was constantly being attacked on both fronts, I had to keep a good number of military units available and that meant 8-10g less per turn that could have been spent on research. Perhaps I should have teched to Feudalism more quickly to get Vassalage as soon as possible. Vassalage is high upkeep so not sure how significant a change it would have made. It did Cottage a fair bit, but it was not enough.

War Weariness was never an issue for me this game since I could barely keep up just playing defense (within my cultural borders). However, I was surprised that the enemy civs suffered no long term War Weariness despite losing a large number of troops in my territory.

Building the Great Wall would have been amazing. I make a note of that in case we have early access to Stone for Epic 14.

Catapults were amazing for me this game. I had underestimated exactly how good they would be at repelling enemy attacks. By the time I had gotten a 3rd Great General in my military city, they were coming out with 3 promotions available (due to Charismatic Leader). Starting with Barrage III sure is nice.

Enemy Spies were an annoyance, but not as bad as they could have been. Every once in a while I would lose an improvement. Fortunately, most Spies stayed away from my developed Cottages. I think that is because the Spies will sabotage the first improvement they see rather than going deeper into your territory to ransack something of higher value. Or it could be that Villages and Towns just cost more EPs than improvements like Mines and Pastures.

The research path is crucial in a game like this since every technology that you need must be researched. It’s possible that you might be able to steal a tech or two over the course of the game, but the only tech I had enough points to steal at the end of the game (after focusing all my EPs against a single AI) was a cheap early tech. So I’m guessing the EP cost of stealing techs is proportional to the research cost of the tech (which makes sense).


Game Plan
Build border cities on hills if at all possible. It is hard to overstate the importance of this, especially playing the Celts with their Gallic Warrior unique unit and Dun unique building, which start with Guerilla I.

If early Stone is available, I am going to try to build the Great Wall. I doubt I will be able to risk it without Stone since 250 hammers without the doubler will take a very long time, and I will need to get defenders ready quickly.

Research wise, I’m opting for early Archery. Maybe not as the very first tech, but early if there are no Horses. I don’t know exactly how much cheaper techs get when they are no longer monopoly techs. I searched for it on the forums, but could not find it.

Setting aside Archery, I plan to start Agriculture → Animal Husbandry (to get the tech discount from knowing Hunting). If there are Horses around, The Wheel will be important for early Chariots. After that, I need access to metals so it’s Mining → Bronze Working → Iron Working. Given that our unique unit, the Gallic Warrior, requires Iron, I doubt Sullla would be so cruel as to not give us Iron close by.

Since I will likely need Fishing eventually (given the amount of coastline on this map type), it probably makes sense to research it before Pottery to get the discount. I will most likely skip Fishing if there aren’t sea resources in my first couple cities. After that it’s Writing → Mathematics → Construction. I will need Masonry at some point for Dun (Walls); the timing of this will depend on whether there’s any Stone or Marble around.

If we have access to Horses, getting Horseback Riding before or right after Construction probably might make sense. Horse Archers are very nice early units, and the mobility is important as we will be defending on two fronts.

Getting Sailing → Calendar somewhere in that mix will probably be necessary to push the happiness cap. That depends on whether we can get an early Gems/Gold/Silver, and how many Calendar resources we have access to.

The next important tech push will be Meditation → Priesthood → Monarchy (Hereditary Rule) → Feudalism (Longbows, Vassalage). Then it’s Metal Casing (Forge) → Machinery (Crossbows) → Guilds (Knights) → Gunpowder.

Looking at the technologies that a Great Scientist can bulb, there’s no way to leverage an early Library to get something we want. We would get stuck bulbing Alphabet or Aesthetics unless we take the time to research both. We’d also have to stay away from Fishing to bulb Machinery which is the first useful tech that we could speed up.

Another option is to get Metal Casing a little earlier and then hire and Engineer until we can get a Great Engineer to pop. The first tech that a Great Engineer can bulb is Machinery. It can also bulb Feudalism after that, assuming that we haven’t research Construction (otherwise Engineering comes first). The downside of bulbing Machinery or Feudalism is that I also want those downstream techs, and they are more expensive. Maybe the plan should be to work on a Great Engineer and worry about what to do with it once we have more information.

And now, on to the real game. Needless to say, it didn’t go according to plan.


Ancient Era
The starting spot looked quite good: on the river, 2 food resources, 4 hills, forests for chopping. The Warrior first moved northeast onto the hill which revealed more of the terrain to the east, but without any special resources there. The coast had no sea resources so it made no sense not to settle in place. And thus, Bibracte was founded in 4000 BC.


With a Corn resource on a river right next to the city, I decided to start with Agriculture and build a Worker immediately. I didn’t feel that it was too much of a gambit since we started with a Warrior rather than the usual Scout. In the meantime, the Warrior was set to explore the surroundings and would hopefully be back in time to protect Bibracte and its worker.

Animal Husbandry is discovered in 3400 BC and reveals Horses within Bibracte’s fat cross. Woohoo! I would have researched Archery next, but with Horses available, I opt for The Wheel instead.


After producing a Chariot, I start in a Settler, the same turn that Bibracte reaches size 6, the current happiness cap.

Bronze Working is researched in 2600 BC. There is no Copper anywhere that I can see. Our scientists are strongly encouraged to find Iron real soon, otherwise heads are going to roll.

Here is the territory to the east. The red circle seems like a real nice spot. It’s on a hill, by a river, has a food resource, and a Calendar happiness resource as well.


And here is the territory to the west. Neither of those spots seemed as good as the spot in the east.


Vienne is founded northeast of Bibracte in 2350 BC. I hesitated a lot over the placement of this city. My other considerations were cities to the west to pick up either Gold or the Wine. I figured the Wine could wait since I was still a ways from Monarchy. I plan to pick up one of those two resources with my third city.



Classical Era
Iron Working is discovered in 2050 BC. Fortunately, there is Iron next to Bibracte so disaster is averted.

That same year, Wang Kon’s Warrior makes an appearance. Probably safe to assume that he is on the other side of the donut, all the way to the north. As a special welcome gift, I decide to kill his Warrior. All five adversaries are now known. Here is the order in which they were met: Suryarvarman II, Augustus Caesar, Churchill, Montezuma, and much later Wang Kon. I’m really, really not looking forward to Praetorians.

Scouting reveals that Montezuma is my closest foe even though he was the third opponent that I met. On the bright side, I’d rather face Jaguars than Praetorians.

Here is the satellite view in 1850 BC. You can see Monte’s territories to the northeast. It’s not clear how far west/northwest the next civilization is located. Looks like we have some breathing room though.


I was planning to settle my next city to the west. There were several options. In the end, I would choose the purple dot since it was on a hill, next to a river, had a food resource, and would give me an additional happiness resource with Monarchy. I was tempted to settle at the green dot to grab the Stone, but I was really worried about being able to defend a city so far from my capital, and also worried about the maintenance costs.


Tolosa is founded on a hill to the west in 1725 BC.


In 1350 BC, espionage reveals what the Khmer are researching. I had put all my espionage against this civ since it was the first one I met. I figured it would be better to know what at least one of them was up to.


With another Settler ready, it was time to decide the location of the next city. Note that the yellow dot was moved on square to the west when a Sheep resource turned out to be hidden in the fog of war which I had forgotten to scout earlier.


Being king seemed like a good idea, and so Monarchy is researched in 525 BC. A revolution to Hereditary Rule follows.

In 470 BC, Montezuma finally shows up with some troops. Surya had sent a small dispatch quite a while back, but I hadn’t heard from Monte, and that was beginning to worry me. He brings forth: 1 Jaguar, 2 Chariots, 2 Spears, and 1 Archer. After approaching the city and realizing that I now have quite a few more troops than before, Monte decides to wait for a couple reinforcements. I had queued 1 Gallic Warrior and 1 Axe with only 1 production turn to go for an occasion such as this. That way I was able to save a little on upkeep costs since I had reached the cap. Upkeep costs really hurt me in the test game I had played so I decided to try to use this approach to minimize some of those costs here. When the AIs start sending really large stacks, this approach won’t be quite as good, but every little bit helps.


Here is the defense in Vienne. It has little difficulty in defending the city.



Medieval Era
In 320 BC, a small miracle occurs. Code of Laws is discovered and The Oracle is completed. Needless to say, Civil Service is online. Confucianism is founded in Vienne to boot!

The first Khmer forces arrive near Tolosa in 155 BC. You can also see the young city of Gergovia to the southeast, where the yellow dot had been.


Those forces sat around for the most part. And some years later, the Koreans are approaching Tolosa as well.


On the eastern front. The Aztecs and Romans are lurking near Vienne, reluctant to attack a well defended city on a hill.


The English show up shortly thereafter. And they face the same uphill battle.


Unfavorable dice produce this fine result.


At this point in the game there is a steady steam of enemy forces arriving on both fronts. Here is the situation outside of Vienne in 55 AD when three enemy stacks find themselves together.


Five hundred years later, it’s the same old sh*t, different century.


I had researched Feudalism in 490 AD, but still did not have Archery. While Longbows are great at defending, I was finding almost never attacking the well fortified city. Enemy troops would literally park out in front of the city for centuries on end. Often times, they would not even bother pillaging the pasture. To get them to attack, I would usually have to move into the wooded tiles north of the city.

Research wise, I can see that I have a lead right now on the Foreign Advisor screen. No one has Civil Service, Code of Laws, or Metal Casing; only Caesar has Feudalism; and only two enemies have Monarchy. I am lacking Fishing, Archery, Polytheism, Alphabet, Aesthetics, and Currency. That’s not too bad.

In 655 AD there is finally a Praetorian sighting. I’ve had Macemen for a long time now, so they are not nearly as dangerous as they could have been. In hindsight, they were a complete non-factor during this game. I wonder if the Romans did not have any Iron near their starting spot. I took a look at this after the game. There was only a single Iron resource to be had in the northern part of the map. Unfortunately for the Romans, it was grabbed by the English when they expanded west towards Rome.


The Romans bring a large stack in 730 AD.


And the Romans are massacred after a couple of Catapults soften them up.


As you can see in Event Log, Guilds is discovered in 730 AD. I had spread Confucianism to all my cities by this time, so I decided to research Polytheism then Monotheism for Organized Religion. I probably should have done that before researching Guilds. I still don’t have Calendar yet either, but only have access to one Calendar happiness resource otherwise I probably would have prioritized it higher.

Here is the satellite view during this time.


Somewhere during this timeframe, a Great Engineer appeared. I opt to research Engineering (not immediately, but after I get some smaller techs out the way) rather than bulb it. Instead, I decide to save the Great Engineer for Notre Dame. Since I still don’t have any Stone, that seemed like the better option.

Monotheism is discovered in 790 AD followed by double revolt into Organized Religion and Confucianism. I probably should have switched religions a while ago, but forgot about it. I think happiness was not much of an issue though.

Currency and Horseback Riding would be the next two technologies, followed by Engineering, and then Banking for the power Mercantilism civic. I kept a close eye on the Foreign Advisor screen to make sure I was not in any danger of being beat to Liberalism.

Engineering came in 1050 AD followed by Notre Dame in 1060 AD. A Great Prophet is born that same year and settles in Bibracte.

By 1100 AD, my two border cities, Vienne and Tolosa, had a Dun, a Castle, and benefited from the defense bonus of Chichen Itza (built in 980 AD). Oh yeah, and they were on hills. Until Gunpowder comes along, there is nothing that can take those cities. I wouldn’t be surprised if one properly promoted Longbow could not hold off 10 enemy invaders. Not that I want to find out immediately.

My plan was to further build up the economy with Banking, then gear up the war effort.

In 1010 AD, there are several stacks lurking in familiar places.




Not going anywhere for a while?


Having insane city defense allowed me a lot of time to reinforce as needed. It also allowed me to stay near the unit cap without paying a lot of extra gpt for no reason. I would always keep at least one unit in the queue with 1 turn to complete, and sometimes a second unit with just a couple of hammers. That allowed me to whip out a unit and be sure I could get a second one on the next turn. I was thinking of it as “just-in-time” defense.

In 1170 AD, I check up on enemy techs. Guilds is the only tech I have on Wang. Caesar is still missing Civil Service and Code of Laws, while the other three also lack Engineering as well. This is the first game I have ever seen Wang no dig himself in a huge technology hole. I guess that if you get on his good side, he starts to act like Mansa Musa.

1200 AD sees more of the usual.




In 1345 AD, George Patton arrives, the eight Great General of the game. With early access to Stone for the Great Wall, things would have been even more insane. The previous generals had all joined Bibracte to impart their war wisdom on the troops being trained there. Military Science is still a ways away, so waiting for a Military Academy is not an option. With 7 Great Generals and a Barracks, units start off with 17 XP; that’s good enough for 4 promotions, and 3 XP shy of the 20 needed for the fifth.

1345 AD is also the first time in thousands of years that the Celtic borders are free from foreign invaders. This is short lived as Khmer forces approach the following year. Oh well, it was nice while it lasted.

In 1355 I decide to upgrade this 49 XP Gallic Warrior into a Maceman. In general, I tend to wait until the next XP threshold before upgrading since you revert back to 10 XP anytime you upgrade (except for Warlord units).


One turn from discovering Liberalism, I ponder whether it would be better to research Gunpowder first in order to allow Chemistry as the free tech. It’s a 3564 beaker tech, same as Nationalism. I was originally planning on going Gunpowder and Military Tradition next in order to get Cuirassiers and eventually Cavalry, but then I realized I would need Music for Military Tradition. Ouch. To get Music, I would need Aesthetics, then either Lit or Drama.

Another option would be to research Printing Press first, and then use Liberalism for Replaceable Parts. I have a lot of Villages and Towns, so the Printing Press will be nice. And given the headache that would be getting to Military Tradition, I might be better off avoiding that for now. I will still need Nationalism eventually for Constitution and Democracy, but that doesn’t seem too pressing.

[Continued next post]

My initial plans were to pump out a second city, build the great wall to turn my traits into aggressive/charismatic/imperialistic while defending my cities. I would defend on one side and sweep my forces round the other.



I settled in place and started building a warrior for defence against the roving AI warriors while my original warrior looked in the close vicinity, Initial research path was Aggriculture -> Mining -> Animal Husbandry

In 3650BC Hinduism founded first, then Buddism in 3575BC



Found a nice site for my second city with hills for production and defence, pigs for food and wine for happyness



Found Suryavarman II in 3700 BC and killed his scout in 3675BC.
Montezuma appeared in 3475BC and the scout was soon killed by my warrior, so far it has been fun picking off those pesky AI scouts
Huts so far had given me 54 and 62 gold



in 2750BC bronze working came in and no Bronze nearby, revolted to slavery straight away State of the world showing future cities. Idea was to get some good production cities, on the frontiers, to produce the military units and then produce some commerce cities in the safe areas



In 2600 BC disaster, I had farmed the corn and pastured the sheep pastured and an english warrior popped up next to the pasture, I resigned myself to it being pillaged, however the warrior just walks away to my relief.




In 2524 Wang Kon drops by and in 2475 my settler runs the gauntlet to found Vienne and starts on a barracks that was switched to a monument when mysticism researched

Researched continued as Masonry (for great wall) -> Wheel (Chariots) -> Archery -> Iron working

In 2325 I whip a chariot which travels round preying on scouts and warriors in the open, Iron working revealed iron next to the capital



In 1625 the first piece of the puzzle falls into place with the great wall built in bibracte



In 1400 my victory against the random number generator, one of my chariots scouting round bumps into a roman praetorian, which attacks the chariot, the praetorian attacks and loses at 90.9%, however the archer in the city finishes it off.



The first stack of Khmer aproaches Bibrace and attack in 1075BC the axe, spear and 2 archers all die with no losses, and the Great General is born in Bibracte



The Great General was settled in the capital as a military instructor to produce +5exp units



600BC Gergovia is founded to be the science city with gold to improve the economy

In 395BC the 2nd Sury stack of 2 Axes and 2 Spears, all die with no losses.


The Roman stack of 3 Preatorians and 2 Chariots approach Tolosa, they attack in 260BC with no losses. A great spy is born and settled in the city, mainly for the +3 beakers



In 260BC a Sumerian stack marches through my lands, ignoring the lightly defended Gergovia to assult my capital, all attackers die.



200BC Koreans assualt Vienne my Hills promoted Gallic Warrior driving off the attackers. Cleaning up Koreans gains me my 2nd Great General



125BC an English stack moves through my lands not sure if going to assault Tolosa or march to my capital, try to block way with Woodsman Axemen. The english hang round near Tolosa and retreat in 95BC without attacking, the Aztecs are still hanging round in the forests.

In 20BC a combined stack of Korean and Khmer advance, looks like they are marching on my capital.



In 5BC the English finally attack, while the Romans and Aztec watch from a distance. The english are defeated with no losses.




The Aztec attack Toleto in 70AD and while they don't take the city Toteto is fatally weakened by my overconfidence of holding and sending the defenders elsewhere. The Koreans also attack Bibracte and are defeated.



In 100AD monty brings up the pride of his army, catapults which join the remanents of his attack of Toleto, that I didn't have sufficient forces to drive off. and reattacks. Toleto holds, just and a great general is born to celebrate my victory.



Monty reattacks
and I'm left with only 1 warrior and a weakend archer in toleto, thankfully axes and spearmen are already on the way and the city survives all Aztec attacks, the Roman Preatorians are just sitting around, not realising that they could destroy my nation if they attack now



Up to 235AD things are going well, small stacks are attacking and are being defeated with small or no losses, underlined are all the enemy stacks approaching.
I even begin construction of a settler to build a seafood city to the west.


In 280AD a roman stack approaches Tolosa and bombard down my defenses, the city holds the Roman attack **PICS 038&39 comined. The English and Aztecs are just sitting round watching the attack

The Aztecs decide on having a go at Bibracte attacking in 475AD, with the Khmer also having a go, Bibracte holds however the lands were pillaged in the attacks another Great General is born to celebrate the Celtic victories and merged into Bibracte



Its starting to get serious with a stack of Khmer and Koreans marching towards Bibrace



PIC045
In building a few more axes for the defence of Bibracte I have caused my economy to collapse, I disband some warriors and non medic chariots to ensure that axes don't disband. I start producing buildings in my cities to try and recover the economy.

In 580 the Koreans attack
and are driven off and the Khmer attack in 625.



Here is the state of the world in 684BC, armies are marching through my lands with no ability of mine to strike back, also Aztec elephants are arriving, showing I'm starting to slip technological on the battlefield. I'm builing the heroic epic in Vienne, in the attempt it will become a military powerhouse, the great library in Bibrace in Bibracte to help give me the ability to research and the Statue of Zeus in Tolosa in the hope that someone else will build it first and I'll get some gold from it, on reflection I should have just build wealth in Tolosa and Dergovia.




In 745AD Monty attacks and fails against Bibracte, however the Khmer finally decide that it might be wise to attack the lightly defended Gergovia, inly one archer and axe in it and take it.




The tide turns with a large stack of english attacking and taking Tolosa, the majority of my military was in that city




The romans begin to march on my capital and two large stacks of Koreans and Khmer free to march around its all over and I conceed defeat in 835AD.

Conclusion

Tolosa was placed in the wrong location, it should have been placed one north east on the hill gaining the archer bonus for being on a hill as well as the hillman promotion from the Dun. I got a bit overconfident in the early stages and stopped building military and started building infrastructure, when I should have built a stack of Gallic Warriors and raze a Khmer city or two.

The failure to build cottages except at Gergovia was a mistake, as I was focused about being able to out produce multiple opponents when Vienne should have been a science city with Bibrace producing the military.


I killed 131 enemy units with a loss of only 40, with the majority in the last few turns.

I was surprised at the lack of pillage by the computer, a huge change in the vanilla/warlords days when they pillaged everything they saw, including roads. At one stage a preatorian sat on my gold mine and walked off without pillaging!


The power chart shows a period after 1150BC when I was leading, however I think this is when my overconfidence set in. I should have also chopped more forests to help get some settlers/crucial buildings and also ensure that all forests next to cities are cut so the enemy can't hide in.

I enjoyed the game and had a lot of fun in an always war game even if I lost, I learnt a lot and will also ma
ke sure that I have a warmup game next time as I hadn't played for a month until the patch came out.

I did not manage to finish this game, which is becoming an unfortunate habit of mine for RBCiv events. I don't think the holiday season will help this trend, but we'll see. The Colonization game looks interesting....

Summary - retired in 160 AD with four cities, all AI civs still alive. My position was decent overall (solid defenses, tech parity) but my economy was terrible. I had a strong military and probably could have lasted a while before the AIs crushed me with more advanced troops. But the time required for an always war game was just not available.

The biggest issue was probably that I was not aggressive enough. I have always been more of a builder, and although I tried to emphasize military more in this game I just did not do so enough. I should have eyed the 1000 BC restriction as the starting line and been ready to start conquering then. Instead I was still developing my core (having expanded to 4 cities early on) and playing defense. I had founded Buddhism in a risky opening gambit which paid off (Wang Kon founded Hinduism the same turn), and my cities were developing well. But I should have been busy taking AI cities, not building my own.

I did move to raid enemy lands after 1000 BC, and my pillaging parties did quite a number on Monty and the Khmer. I was raiding with stacks of three and four units, with two stacks working over each of my two closest neighbors. I burned several newly founded cities, and pillaged Aztec and Khmer lands clear. The money helped greatly in keeping my research going, and the Oracle enabled me to grab Monarchy early for more happiness and larger cities.

But the other three AIs were growing in strength, and I think they would have hit me with stacks I could not defeat in the near future. I had my first catapults heading towards the Khmer capital, and my raiders had caught Angkor Wat with only two archers and burned it to the ground in 145 AD. The next turn saw the first incoming stack of Praetorians, and I ran out of time for the reporting deadline. So I retired in 160 AD, probably able to stay alive for a while longer, maybe even finish off the Khmer and crippled Monty. But my eventual fate was unlikely to be a pleasant one.....

Thanks to Sulla for sponsoring this game -- it was fun. But the always war format makes for time-consuming turns, and I just could not complete the game. I'll try to learn from the other reports, and maybe I'll try Always War again sometime.

After retiring, I replayed this game a couple times, trying to find the winning strategy. This makes it hard to reconstruct a report. Here's the best I can do:

I started this game completely paranoid about the Apostolic Palace. Since I was so afraid of the AI winning an AP victory, I decided to build it myself. In 315BC, I scored Code of Laws for the triple play of Confucianism, and courthouses for cash and espionage points. Here's my empire at that time:



For a number of years, I felt like Bruce Lee. The AIs would move in one stack at a time, which I would kill, then they'd give me time to recover before moving in the next stack. I was still taking casualties, and war weariness didn't seem to be slowing down the AIs at all.

In AD 940, I finally finished the AP, but things were already unraveling. I was having a lot of trouble fighting off invading elephant stacks.



In AD 1140, the first stack with Hwachas appeared. My stacks of Gallics, axes, spears, and medic chariots were completely unable to deal with them, and I decided it was time to retire .

Just to the left of the blue ball representing available willpower which is at the bottom right of the game screen, there are usually some small odd symbols. Up until now I have occasionally wondered what the heck they were there for but have basically ignored them.

Now, just in case I was not the only one in that boat , I give you a link to an explanation of the mini-game. Some posts giving ideas on how to go about completing those mini-games are here.

Most of a report can be found here. I did not have time to finish it, but I did finish the game (conquest victory 1520 A.D.).

Darrell