I seen a few people run foil of the RB 'approved mod' and shadow game issue. I ran into this myself (playing part of my game with a non approved mod). I developed a method to stop myself from doing this (small vb program that swaps mods in and out plus associated color themes with mods).

I've finally created a utility worthy (not much worthy because it is very small) of uploading and distribution. See this thread at CFC for further info.

Epic 13 : 4000BC-260BC

Hammurabi-Bablyon (Aggressive/Organized traits)




Start is high on food with the pigs and the fish-this should allow me to have a good opening city running two scientists for some early GP points while still allowing
for some production from a couple of mines at size six. I settle in place to get both the pigs and the fish without using up a valuabile production hill tile.



I decide against a start of fishing researched followed up by a work boat and instead choose animal husbandry and a worker as my first science and city builds. The pigs provide so much early food and growth that the fish can not come into the picture until size five or so and not hurt you too much. This city will be happy-capped well before it will be food capped anyway. I decide instead to pursue a pretty straightfoward early teching that gets Bronze Working sooner rather than later-this is so that I can start rolling out axes as soon as possible. Note that under the rules I cannot attack until 1000BC, but right when I hit that point I want a army of some sorts ready to start making trouble. I am Bablylonian, and aggression and conquest suits the Civilization/Leader traits like a glove.

I send my warriors out and get 200 or so gold from huts. This is good, as it will allow me to run research at full bore for 50 or so extra turns once I get three cities up and running. On turn 15 I meet two neighbors, the Khmer and the Portugese:





The Khmer are close enough by that an early strike and conquest would be well worth the effort. They have a tendency to also religion spam early, so I might be able to snag a couple of holy cities in the process. The Portugese actually make interesting trading partners-Joao beelines optics for his unique unit, so you can actually get some interesting techs from him if you get close enough to him. So that's the way I'm going to play this game early-Khmer conquest for cities four and five (three cities instead of two early ones since I can't attack until 1000BC), and then try to get one more to have the great six city at 1AD start that usually results in a runaway win.



I get Pottery for free from a hut. Nice, early commerce is always helpful.



I get a quest to build eight chariots before the Classical age. Not going to happen-if this was not Monarch where the AIs start out with archery, then I might since chariot rushes are brutally effective on low levels, but on Monarch city raider axes are just way, way better. I will still build a couple of chariots for worker-stealing purposes and barb killing, but not as a main attack force.

I meet Justinian around 3000BC. Note at this point the Khmer are Hindu and the Byzantines are Buddist. I find Justinian a great takeover target in the late classical/early medieval period before he gets his unique knight unit out, so he'll be the next to go after the Khmer are gone, with an army of catapults, swords, and elephants.



I finish my first settler in 2475BC. City choices aren't stellar-I need that copper if I want to get the drop on the Khmer. I settle Akkad with a good chunk of overlap with Babylon, which isn't too big of a deal since Babylon will be running specialists for a while anyway. I do get the cow, copper, and spices in the fat cross, so I should have a decent balanced second city, which I will slant for production.



I bump into the Dutch at 2100BC. That means they are further off than the other Civs and it will likely be well into the medieval or period before I really bump into them at a point where I can consider conquest. They are a great Civ to conquer, though-they usually do not build a ton of units and are very science focused, and have wonderfully big pop citys and tons of developed cottages.



Pacal comes in at 2125. He'll be wonder whoring for sure, but I don't see his borders anywhere nearby so I'm not going to worry too much about him.



I build my third city near the horses and sugar/dyes. It'll make a good commerce city. I am avoiding that nice plot near the ivory and floodplains in the hope that the Khmer will build a nice city there for me to conquer.



Of course, somehow they never settle it-the Khmer are probably spamming missionaries judging from the adopted state religions of my neighbors-and the farking BARBS settle it. Right in the perfect spot too. The race is now sort of on to get that city before the AI does.



I get my first scienist out and build an academy in my captial for the extra research per turn. I have decided to go hybrid economy there more or less.



On the same turn, I take the barb city. I use a cover promotion instead of a CR promotion for one of the axemen, and I wind up killing all three archers without at loss-sorta luck for 70% odds in my favor over three discrete combats.



I send a chariot over to scope out the Khmer. Oh my god they only have one archer in each city. The problem will be cultural defense-both of their cities are holy cities. I crank out more axemen to compensate. I also note that the Khmer is sending Hindu missionaries to help me spread my future state religion for free. Awesome.



In 750BC I DOW the Khmer. I have a small army that will be reinforced, but it should be enough to get two cities-I'll tech rape him for peace when I bring him down to the last man, then finish him off ten turns later. Standard operating procedure for an early war.

I take down the junk city and got this lovely event:



I got lucky-this would have been nastier if he was in the Classical Age, where he would have gotten axemen.



I snag the north khmer city first-the south one spammed up tons of archers w/ 60% cultural defense. I was hoping that my move from teh south city to the north would allow me to both take the north city and draw out some of his archers he whipped, and sure enough I was able to reduce it down to enough where the peace treaty got me three techs.



He dies in ten turns though! In the meantime, I start working towards construction with my access to ivory and then calendar to open up my spices, dyes, and sugar. Code of Laws will come in after these techs, and I hope to trade for Monarchy and Currency along the way.



I declare war on the Khmer again ten turns later. Note that both construction and Iron will be coming in the next few turns. This will allow for us to build a real classical army-elephants, catapults, and swordsmen. Justinian is lagging hard in tech and I hope to snag or raze three of his cities before he can recover. This should deal a pretty huge blow that he will have a hard time crawling out of.



The Khmer Civilization comes to a bloody end on 260BC. I guess that would make it my civilization's Carthage. Ugly Asian man delendo est or something.

260BC-900AD



So here is what Justinian has at 125BC. Tons of shit cities, which is what he always seems to do. I think if I can raze the one nearest me, then capture two to the north, I'll be in good shape. That's my goal for the first war. The second war will cap Thessolonica to the north and then his capital. I'll either capitulate him or let the Dutch culture expand to finish him off.



I get calendar in and immediately start builing planatations on my happy resources-I should be able to get +4 happy cap when I'm done, which will be huge in getting my cities large. Once they start hitting the health cap I will just build my unique building-the Garden (Which is a fancy Colliseum with +2 health added on) to allow me to get up to the 12-13 city size super fast. A good set of core cities that big that fast should make for a powerful midgame push. Meanwhile, I am researching Horseback Riding for Elephants and massing catapults to hit Justinan with.

I DOW Justinian. I'm tired of his lame city spamming ass as I see yet another Settler running around.



Three turns later, Joao DOWs me from Pleased. Ughhhh.



He's so dead down the road. I start whipping defenders like mad in my south area to slap him back osme.

I am able to hold of Joao in the south thanks to some whipping of defenders and the fact that I was able to muster out Bowmen against his assault on a city on a hill. I even toss a Great General attached to a Bowman just to get
some fast experienced units to defned Akkad. In the end Joao dorks around, then slinks back to pillage my copper. Whatever, you fruity Portugal freak.

In the north against Justinian, I have far better success. His annoying city near me is easily dispatched, and both Nicaea and Antioch fall next. I have what I want out of this war, so I sue for peace.



Now I have a ton of elephants coming out in the next ten turns. If I can make peace with Joao by then, they will go up Justinian's ass. If I can't, Joao will get reamed for two cities.

At this point whipping out Courthouses-something that can be done easily thanks to the Organized trait of Hammurabi-is a must. I have eight cities and upkeep is killing my science. After I finish whipping them out, I should go from a income deficit of about -20 gold per turn to breakeven. That's awesome, and cheap courthouses are one of the best traits of an Organized leader.



I get a break around 400AD when I am able to make peace with Joao. It's only for 10 turns, and he still hates me, but maybe he can find something better to do, like sail somewhere. In the meantime, I send my stack of catapults, swordsmen, and elephants up north to hit Justinian a second time at Thessolonica and then hopefully Constantinople. I need to hurry-if I want to wipe Justinian out, I need to do so before he gets Vassalage and then capitulates to another Civ.



As I move my stack to position, I get another Great Scientist from Babylon. I use him to lightbulb Philosophy-generally a good tech to lightbulb. I don't get Taoism, but that's OK. Now what I am wondering is how the hell the Dutch are teching at their rate given that they have three cities. WTF, they must be rolling in commerce resources. They are next on the death list when Justinian is dealt with.



In 445AD my stack is in position and I DOW Justinian again. My objective is Thessolonica and Constantinople.



I grab Thessolonica fast-the War Elephants just demolish the city's defenses since there are no spearmen. I lose one catapult in taking a big, developed city. Can't beat that. We'll see how Constantinople goes, but I may just be able to "run the table" with Justinian.

Meanwhile, most of my cities now have Gardens and Courthosues and are nearing size 10 or so and are maturing nicely.

At this point, I get an alarming notice-Justian has adopted Vassalge. That is BAD, because now he could capitulate to the Dutch at any time. I'll pretty much have to take Constantinople in one turn.

I meet Zara Jaqob and Sitting Bull while I besiege Constantinople. I get Feudalism from Zara, and am still first in total score, which is good news.



I take down Constantinople but it shatters my army. Still, I do get a nice consolation prize of a well-developed holy shrine for Buddism for +14 gold per turn. That cash income will come in handy.

At this point, my classical army and tech has run out of gas. Longbowmen are hitting the field and elephants just aren't enough to roll over them without big losses. It's time to move on to knights, maces, and trebuchets-then to finish off the Byzantines and smash the Dutch. If I do it fast enough, I might be able to get the Portugese too before I have to move to Riflemen-Joao is a slow techer.



Here's my city screen at 880 AD.

Ten cities at 880 AD is a good number. I am teching for guilds then banking for trade bait and the added commerce. I have abandoned the Liberalism race somehwat since the Dutch have managed to beat me again and again to tech despite having only three cities. I think there's some seriously incestual trading going on between Zarob, Pacal, and Willem. Given that every Civ is playing kum-ba-ya with each other, I doubt that I'll be able to start too many wars to slow their teching down.

In 900AD, I get a map from the Dutch as part of a tech trade, and now I see this:



That's why the tech rate and religion spread have been so fast. With this knowledge, my victory plan is set, fitting
perfectly with my play so far and my leader traits.

A) Demolish the Byzantines
B) Demolish the Dutch
C) Demolish the Portugese
D) Demolish the Mayans
E) Win via domination

900AD-1812AD

I continue to mass trebuchets, knights, and macemen-they will get me through the Dutch, the rest of the Byzantines, and then the Portugese before rifles start to show up.

At 1090AD, I have a small army ready in Antioch, and it's time to cream Justinian again. Note that I am using trebuchets heavily at this point now-really, for the medieval conquerer, there is nothing better than weakening up cultural/phyiscal defenses with trebuchet bombarding, then using city-raider promoted trebuchets to wear down the longbowmen until your macemen or elephants can get good odds against the defenders. It means that more often than not you'll be reinforcing your siege engine supply in your stack of doom as the war goes on, so make sure you have the road network set up and that you have a few units to guard the trebuchets once they get near the enemy territory, as enemy mounted units will pick them off if they lack escort.

Nicodemia falls very quickly and I force Justinian to capitulate after taking every city but the one furthest to the north. That wound up being a huge mistake later on due to some terrible luck, but oh well.

I look at the Dutch's nearest city. It has two longbows and a worker in it. LOL time to chow down, I knew they would be weak as hell.

By 1305AD the Dutch are gone. It was dirt easy and I got some Wonders (Colossus, Shwedagon Paya) out of it. Also, I was first to liberalism at 1270AD, without really even trying. I could have had it 40-50 turns before if I did the proper beeline, but it wasn't a huge priority since I am going for a domination win, where tech is only important if you fall behind in military techs.

Next up are the Portugese. The first city falls to my stack in 1365, but I get a very annoying surprise from up north when my vassalized Byzantines culture flip one of the captured Dutch cities.

Now that's horseshit-Justinian took a city via culture flip with three of my units as garrison. Vassals gained in a peace treay should have no way of exerting cultural pressure on your cities usable tiles. They have capitualted to me, and should service me as I see fit, not take my cities as they wish. I hate the vassal system in this game, it's just broken up and down, left and right. For a better game, just turn it off entirely.

Back to Portugal. Lisbon falls in 1510AD and gives me literally half the wonders built so far in the game. I eject Joao off the peninsula in 1525 and accept his capitulation. Three turns later, I get a key tech, rifling. Rifling is
the point at which you go from medieval to modern era.

This opens up both cavalry and riflemen for me. I should be able to press this advantage and take down Pacal with this technology. I drop my tech spending to next to nothing and start using the cash to mass upgrade my knights, cuirassers, and macemen to their new upgraded units. I want to upgrade the existing ones since some of them have things like City Raider 3 promotions or Combat 3 promotions. City raider 3 rifleman are just beastly.

In 1585, I'm ready and DOW pacal

I snag two cities before the Apostolic Palace-Joao is still leader, even though I am the "owner" of it geographically-puts an end to my fighting at 1630AD. Pacal gets ten turns, then back to war. In the meantime, I research Biology and Steel, two very key techs for both civilian and miitary purposes. Biology increased my food input to the point where I can draft without impunity (free rifleman), and steel gives me cannon, which ignore city walls and just tear stacks of defenders apart. By the start of the next war, Pacal is looking at a stack of 15 cannon, 25 cavalry, and 15 riflemen.

Yeah he's screwed. I DOW him in 1680.

It takes a while, but I clear his little bend of this pangea by 1732. I'm very close to my 62% required for domination, but I'll need to take down a few cities of the Ethiopeans. After some flubs and mistakes along the way there, I finally get the 62% required in 1812AD, mainly due to mass cavalry spam from Sitting Bull causing problems. I figure if I could do it over again I could shave a good 30 turns off that number.

My score is still a good one:



Anytime I get over 100k I'm happy. I could have played better, but it was a one-day playthrough and a real rolling domination win from a faction very much suited for it with the traits. After whipping my first round of courthouses did I never suffered because of expansion, and my science was able to stay strong even in the face of all the upkeep. With a strong and balanced economy and constant production of units by six or seven cities, it was impossible for the AI to stop me after I took out the Dutch and the Byzantines-my war machine was just too strong.

Fun game. Sorry about the lack of screens near the end-I ran out of webspace.

So I guess the exciting thing about getting the save for a potluck game is that I get to find out
which civ I get to play. There are a lot of good civs in this game. I was hoping to get the Dutch
or Mayans, but the Khmer, Portugal, or Ethiopia would be good too. My least favorite of all the
civs would have to be the native americans, due to Sitting Bull’s traits. First, he is protective,
which I believe to be the worst trait in the game. He is also Philosophical, which is a good trait.
However, I like building a lot of cottages and don’t assign many specialists, so I don’t find it very
useful.

Anyway, I get the e-mail and of course I ended up with the Native Americans. Ugh! Well,
maybe I can put the philosophical trait to good use by going for a cultural victory. If I can find
Marble, then I can build a lot of wonders that generate great artist points and 10 culture per turn,
with the Sistine Chapel and the Parthenon being the most important of them for a cultural
victory. If not, I guess I can go for a space race win. By the way, this is my first Monarch game,
so don’t judge me too harshly.



I open up the save and find that I have TWO warriors. What’s with that? Oh well, I play the
hand I’m dealt. Maybe they are compensation for my poor traits. I move both of them to nearby
hills so I can see more terrain near my settler. I’m not happy with the starting position of my
settler. Founding one square off a river in BTS is a no-no in my opinion. I move the settler NE
and found on the flood plain. With all the hills and river squares, this city could be a good
Ironworks city. I select a worker for the first build and animal husbandry as the first tech, as I
have a cow near my capital.




In 3775 BC one of my warriors discoverers marble, so I decide for sure to go for a cultural
victory. Philosophical for many great artists and marble for fast wonders should make for a
relatively quick cultural win. I also get lucky with the free techs from goody huts:





Also, Copper is located in the cross of Cahokia! I’m not going to rush, and even without the
variant rules I wouldn’t rush. However, it’s good to know that I have some, and it will increase
the production of Cahokia. Also, after completing Animal Husbandry, I notice that horses are
two squares north of Cahokia’s fat cross.

I meet Ethiopia in 3475 BC, and they are very close, SE of me.



After completing my worker, I start on a settler so I can get a city in the flood plains between
myself and Zara before he does.

In 3100 BC I get a powerful bonus to my melee units:



Poverty Point founded in 2900 BC. Note where my border with Ethiopia is now, because it's
going to change.



Stonehenge completed in 2200 BC.



I go for Monotheism to try to found Judaism, and miss by 1 turn:



However, this is not a major setback. I complete the Oracle in Cahokia in 1350 BC and take
CoL, which gives me Confucianism in Mound City, my third cultural city.



Then, in 1225 BC, I use my first Great Prophet to lightbulb Theology and found Christianity in
Poverty Point.



In 925 BC I meet the Maya. You can also see where I put my fourth city, Chaco Canyon, which
will be my military city.



After researching Alphabet, I make this deal with Pacal, which is the first of many tech trades
between myself and the Maya:



In 600 BC I convert to Christianity, partly because I need the extra culture it gives me to secure
Poverty Points borders, but mostly because it has rapidly spread to other civs, so both Zara and
Pacal have adopted it as their state religion. I use my next Prophet to build Church of the
Nativity in PP, which further helps my cultural struggle in PP, which is built next to the capital of
a creative leader. I meet the rest of the civilizations and by the Ad turnover I have 6 cities and
have run out of room to expand in every direction except for a piece of land to the NW.

In 25 AD my lone dog soldier gets shock to add to its cover:



During the next 1000 years or so I start building up my culture. Cahokia has a lot of culture
already in it due to the ancient wonders of Stonehenge and the Oracle, but I do build the
Apostolic Palace there. I build the Parthenon, the Sistine Chapel, and the MoM in Poverty Point.
I run a few artists and build the national epic and Confucian Shrine in Mound City, which has a
lot of extra food. (Clams, cows, and rice) I also settle all of my great artists in Mound City. I get
my economy running by cottaging my all of my cities except for Chaco Canyon. I adopt HR,
Bureaucracy, Slavery, and Pacifism as soon as I discover the techs for them.

In 970 AD I make my first major blunder:



I planned to build a city that would have FOUR food resources where I have the marker, but a
barb city appears there and Zara takes it before I can. I really should have settled here sooner, but
I was busy building up my culture and my economy. I found Islam in PP and build its building
soon after. In 1000 AD I get banking in a trade with Pacal and switch to Mercantilism and to
Caste System. Here is mound city in 1020 AD:



I get a useful random event in 1130 AD:



In 1240 AD I am the first to Liberalism and I take Printing Press for the additional commerce:



Here is my cultural progress so far:



Cahokia is still the highest culture, but its culture rate is way below the other cities, so I build the
Hermitage there. Here is the city in 1375:



In 1420 I get a major disturbance:





Sury decides to come after me, even though I’m on the other side of the world. This is one thing
I don’t like about the civ 4 AI. That is, how they will often come after the player even if the
player is very far from them. Sury doesn’t like me very much, mostly because he’s made a lot of
demands, and I haven’t given in to any of them. He has 15 units outside of Snaketown, and I
only have 3 inside. However, they are all longbowmen and crossbowmen with drill 1 and CG 3.
It’s time to put the protective trait and the Totem Pole to the test. I do move 2 more longbowmen
into snaketown from other cities. I Also start building Musketmen to help in the defense.

In a completely unrelated note, I get my first culture flip:



Anyway, back to the war. After three turns, Sury attacks and I get him down to five units, but he
kills three of my defenders.



Note the macemen that are running away. Weird. Anyway, Sury
manages to take Snaketown despite the army mismanagement the next turn.



Part two to follow later....

I won! EB leaked the beta date and attempted to cover up with an apology, but I called it and bet a Gwen's Broken Flute that it's a coverup

Quote:Dear Valued Customer.

Thank you for writing to us regarding your recent purchase of Hellgate:
London. Please be advised your Beta access code and instructions will be
emailed to you prior to the Beta start date. This date has yet to be
announced. The September 17th date was in error. We are still waiting on
these codes from the manufacturer, however we have been assured the
codes will be sent or will be available in-store in plenty of time for
the Beta. Online orders will be emailed the Beta Key only.

Best regards,

GameStop/EBgames.com Customer Support

Quote:

Congratulations, and thanks for pre-ordering Hellgate: London!

Redeeming your Pre-order Code gives you three benefits:

A Hellgate: London Beta Account
The special code on your pre-order card will let you become an official member of the Hellgate: London Beta program. The Beta will start on September 17, 2007 and run through October 7, 2007. To create a new Beta Account, redeem your Beta Code here.

If you have an Alpha account already and want to apply the Pre-Order Code to it, you must log into your Account Management page to redeem the code.

Your Beta account will carry over into the retail game, so choose your name wisely. To be clear, this is your game account name, and not your in-game characters' name.


The Dye Kit and Founders Offer are applied only to the one account for which the Pre-order Code is redeemed -- either a new Beta account or an existing Alpha account as described above.


After the Beta ends, pre-order codes can be redeemed only through a Live Account Management page.


A Limited Edition Dye Kit
A Dye Kit is an in-game item that lets you color your online character's armor set to a particular theme, determined by the retailer you purchased your pre-order from. Your specific Dye Kit information can be found on your pre-order card that contains the code. This item is linked to your account when you enter your pre-order code. However, it is not available for use in the Beta, but only in the Live (retail) version of the game.

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This limited-time offer allows you to make a one-time purchase of $149.99 USD to upgrade your Live online account to a lifetime subscription*. Please note that this offer expires after November 30, 2007. The Founders Offer will be available to you on your Account Management page once the retail game ships and you log into your Live account.



* "Lifetime Subscription" refers to the lifetime of the online subscription component for Hellgate: London, not the user's lifetime. Lifetime Subscription memberships are only available until November 30, 2007 for pre-order purchasers of Hellgate: London from participating retailers. Prior to purchasing a Lifetime Subscription, the purchasers of the Hellgate: London must complete their purchase of the Hellgate: London software and create a Hellgate: London online subscription account. The user acknowledges and agrees that: (a) the Hellgate: London online component, including, but not limited to the online subscription component may be cancelled at any time, without any refunds or other compensation to the user; (b) the Lifetime Subscription does not automatically grant access to expansions of Hellgate: London which are sold as individual products, as such products must be purchased separately; © the user must accept and abide by the End User License Agreement for Hellgate: London and the Terms of Service, Code of Conduct and Privacy Policy for the Hellgate: London online component, as each are modified from time to time, at all times prior to the purchase of a Lifetime Subscription; and (d) in addition to the foregoing, Ping0, LLC retains the right to cancel a Lifetime Subscription as set forth in the Terms of Service to the Hellgate: London online component.

I'm playing under a simple restriction to make the game more challenging, give the Monarch AI a fighting chance and see how the late game plays out: Must win by domination but can't capture any cities before I have Knights.

The first thing I notice is that the Mayan start is handicapped by the lack of any forests, giving us a slow early growth curve as we have to work horrible tiles. I went fishing first since it would at least let me work a 2/0/3 instead of 2/0/0 tile, then founded Hinduism. I wanted to start by monopolizing most of the early wonders but it's apparently not so easy under Monarch anymore as the AI built the Great Wall in 1900BC while I was still getting my 2nd settler out.



I didn't really like the start much even with the resources and I think it actually pushes the Mayan starting position up to the equivalent of Emperor difficulty. Not only did both my 2nd and 3rd cities have to build obelisks, there was no fresh water anywhere in the south. I decided to take the classic Oracle -> Metal Casting -> Colossus route to boost my commerce. I got the slingshot in 925 BC and built the Colossus but irritatingly, the AI got both the Great Lighthouse and Temple of Artemis before I could. The whole "monopolize wonders" plan had clearly gone down the tubes.

In the meantime I suffered a bunch of annoying negative random events such as improvements blowing up and slave revolts. I'm sure my forests would have burnt down too, if I had any.

I switched over to Great Library and Mausoleum. I built Great Library without trouble, but tried to build Mausoleum outside my capital to avoid great artist points and ended up losing it by 1 turn.

The first 5000 years passed quietly with me capturing a barbarian city on the sugar/dyes and founding a 5th city south of Lakamha at the wheat and horses. No irrigation possible there either. In the meantime I worked my way up to knights, and once I got there I sent in a small stack to start the war against the AI leader, Ethiopia. I mean this is monarch right, I can get away with this?



Apparently not. Even at monarch it turns out BtS has made the 11 unit invasion stack a thing of the past when you have 5 cities vs 10. I immediately had to pull back to deal with this threat:



Fortunately Zara was a few turns off pikemen, and the flanking combat system means that knights really chew up this type of stack. My losses were, however, severe enough to set back my invasion plans.



I was able to successfully take my initial target city but only after it had been whipped down to 3 pop. Ouch. I was moving to the next city when another 12 unit enemy stack put itself on the forest hill near Yeha. My production was not very good and extended attrition warfare with roughly even tech was exactly what I didn't need right now, so I gave Zara Optics for a peace treaty in order to catch up on infrastructure again. Being one city up at this point was less than I'd hoped for but a gain was a gain.

I built Moai Statues in Sarmatian to help its production out with nine 2/1/4 coast tiles, and Heroic Epic in Mutal. In the meantime I worked my way up to rifles and cavalry. I used the cash from the Economics great merchant to upgrade my experienced knights and macemen, then started a new war. I switched targets to Sitting Bull because he had fallen behind everyone else in tech, and had high production cities which I sorely needed. As in real history, the best way to defeat the Native Americans is to bring a tech lead and crush their elite str 6 defenders with str 14-15 rifles and cavalry.



My first completed quest in BtS! I always get these things when playing OCC where they are impossible to complete. This was a nice one as it enhanced the Mayan UB to +3 happy +4 culture. The other options were 1 health or 1-2 gold per ball court, but I decided to take the 4 culture as it would be useful when whipping the first building in captured cities, and help with border fights against the Dutch and Ethiopians. The only problem was that if I captured an AI Colosseum intact. it would get converted into a Ball Court with no culture.

Sitting Bull never got above Cuirassiers and was dispatched fairly efficiently, although I did have to wait for my siege to reduce city defences as there were often 10 defenders in a city with the longbows having protective bonuses and Cannons only joined the party late. Trebuchets even with Accuracy promotion take a few turns to reduce the defences of cities with Castles.




The Arms Race

Following the defeat of Native America I went for Assembly Line to start developing my new lands quickly. I traded for biology, physics and communism, switching to the new improved state property to get more production from the workshops Sitting Bull had built. In the meantime a couple of alliances were formed; Ethiopia, Khmer and Babylon signed a defensive pact to deter me, and I signed one with the Netherlands in response to secure my eastern border in case Zara decided to invade.



While I was developing my infrastructure, researching and building the modern wonders (Pentagon, Three Gorges, Broadway, R&R, Eiffel) my troop buildup was not fast enough to fight a war against the Ethiopians and their 3 way pact. In any case, Justinian threw a spanner in the works by attacking my own alliance. Most of my units were positioned on the Ethiopian border, and the Byzantines captured 3 Dutch cities before I arrived and liberated them. I returned all three cities to my allies:



Then I rejected mediation and forced Justinian to pay all his cash for peace. I didn't pursue the war to capture any Byzantine cities at this point as they would be nothing but a liability.

The Ethiopians kept pumping out troops to keep up in the arms race. They also had a ton of spy points, and I was further delayed by having to build espionage facilities all over the place to maintain a decent amount of spy defence. With all espionage buildings in a city you get +44 EP/turn which is sufficient in a large empire.

I wasn't able to attack Zara at the infantry or tank level because by the time I had accumulated enough troops to attack a force one tech level down, Zara would catch up in tech and upgrade. However I started pulling ahead in tech, and finally started the big world war upon reaching Composites, turned off research for a couple of turns to upgrade my already built tanks to modern armour and declared war against Zara's alliance.



I bought the Dutch in to help, they owed me a favour anyway.



Ethiopia started the war by sending 40 units worth of infantry, tanks and artillery to my closest city and bombarding its defences, but didn't dare to attack my 30 higher tech defenders in the first turn. I smashed the invading forces to pieces with bombers and Barrage Modern Armour while my 1 fighter had fun shooting down airships.

The Ethiopian navy was more successful, overwhelming and sinking my 4 battleship western fleet and then amphibiously invading a lightly defended back line city. Oops.



My railroads let me retake this city quickly, they should just have razed it. However it did cripple the city for the rest of the war replacing important buildings.

In the meantime my relatively small eastern front army didn't have anything to do because:



The Byzantines wouldn't let the Khmers pass through to attack me, and the Dutch were more than holding off the Babylonians. In fact they captured a city.

However, yet another pathetic civilization had to throw in their 2 cents and declare war on me. The Portuguese joined in the dogpile and dragged their American colonies in, taking the count of civs I was at war with to 5. They did have open borders with everyone and sent the following ridiculous stack in:



Obviously these troops got instantly destroyed without accomplishing anything. On the western front, after losing their 60 units' worth of attacking forces, the Ethiopians were quickly overrun by massed Modern Armour preceded by bombers clearing city defences. Modern Armour vs Infantry and Tanks turns out to be just as one-sided as Tanks vs Riflemen and Cavalry.



I rerouted my units to the east, to find that the Khmers had gotten open borders by now and were sending their troops through Dutch and Byzantine lands to attack me at the same time I was going the other way. They assembled 40 more infantry and artillery outside Lakamha and got horribly crushed with zero friendly casualties. Mayan forces proceeded to rampage down the continent with little resistance, and once all enemies on the continent were neutralized I decided to kill off Justinian too in payment for the earlier attack, destroying him in only 4 turns. This sums it up...



Fun game, thanks to Sulla/Gris for hosting this.

Well, this is a number of firsts for me. My first RBCiv game, my first time posting a game summary of any strategy game I've played, first time finishing a non-OCC game of Civ 4. I guess I have a short attention span and need something like a report to motivate me. As I look back on my notes, I realize that I'm not very verbose, apologies to those who would like more detail.



Start: Settle in place. Decide to do WB first, research BW.

3700: Warrior west of Babylon pops hut for map, can see corner of Khmer empire. As I thought, all the civs are new. I wonder if they randomized the starting locations of the non-player civs?
Anyways, I'm gonna get hemmed in by Hammurabi; hope there is some good land from that island tip east of Babylon.

3300: Another hut...I'm wondering if the other civs had starting warriors/scouts removed? I'm surprised to find these huts much closer to the AI's than my start.

2875: Meet the Dutch, historically my archnemesies. This is a real long continent.
2825: Lisbon size 4, starts 1st settler. I curse as I switch research to wheel, realizing that I need to connect resources.

2050: 1st 3 cities are settled. Boy, I hope horses don't show up outside a fat cross when I finish AH. Also, I'm peeved to see Stonehenge finished on the turn I get my quarry done; usually my experience is that wonders come later than usual. Decide to try for GW, I want to check out the Great Spy abuse (currently I'm not worried about barbs at all; with such a small peninsula it'd be easy to just fogbust it all.)

1975: Ah, horses to the south, so that's why the blue circle was there. It's not a big loss, would've had to settle on top of the horses to get the silver and fish; and w/o early war on I don't think I need horses right away.



1225: 1000 is coming earlier than I expected; I get ready for war against Babylon. 4th settler built (started a while ago, didn't want hammers to decay) but going to hold him until after war (no good city sites to my west, unless iron turns out to be there.

1225 again: With a groan as I wait for the game to load, I remember Babylon's UU is a bowman. I look it up and it has +50% vs. melee, sounds like a great way to impede an axe rush. Oh well.

1000: War declared; I have 7 axes + 1 spear in stack with a few more coming. Luckily, there's only 2 bowmen in Babylon, and Hammurabi decides to switch religions instead of whipping another defender...Oh well. Capture it only losing 2 axes, nice.

800: Babs gone. Raze and rebuild one city.

275: Currency done, researching COL. Have traded for all the religious-side techs, including cheap ones like Med and Priesthood. My thinking is that I'm gonna get far ahead of the AI's and WFYABTA won't be an issue. On second thought, gonna do Construction 1st, get cats, then research COL from my Khmer plunder. This is so much different from how I usually play, but being on the end of this peninsula I didn't have much choice for peaceful expansion.

100 AD: Finished Calendar, working on COL. My spy to Pacal to steal techs was caught, damn. Stack ready to invad Khmer. Should start on Hindu missionarires since it won't make sense to stay Jewish after. Or maybe no religion?
Poor Khmer still doesn't have IW (iron inside his territory) Traded him some copper before I realized that I shouldn't (pre-alpha, didn't realize he didn't have it). At last glance ~4 turns ago had two units in capital.



War goes smoothly starting with capital capture (also Jewish holy city).

430 AD: Khmer has been finished pretty easily. I'm again going severly into debt; currently I can't quite sustain 40% (and I want two more cities). I decide to raze and refound the other Khmer cities, but I don't build the settlers soon enough and Justinian puts that stupid city to the west. The plus is that I should be able to take it (and the other small city near me) with spearmen alone; he's a little too chariot happy.



Plan is to raze the three southernmost cities + Antioch (or maybe take Antioch and gift it back) Refound 1s of angora, 1W2S of the farthest SW city, and somewhere NE of that same city to work iron, gold, and can't remember what else (or the exact location) since I turned the resources off). That will give me 9 cities; rather a lot, but if I don't resettle Justinian will soon anyways. My core cities are running low on improvements to build; I will have a good supply of luxuries and health bonuses so the plan is to stop whipping except in the new cities. I have quite a crowd of workers (10 total) that will help chop everything to aid the new cities.
Techwise I'm doing ok, almost done with CS. Plan is research compass (harbors are cheap and I got the great lighthouse from Khmer capital), hopefully trade CS for both MC and machinery (don't know if any AI's will get it though) and beeline to optics for the UU. I hope there is some other land somewhere but from the size of this continent I think not. Shame, I really fancied a historical colonial epic war against the dutch.

655AD: Peace w/Justinian. Managed to raze two more cities (too far away too keep for now) and exhaust most of my units; good for me since they cost $. I plan to finish Justinian with an all-medieval army; I don't see myself having much $ to upgrade (although I will the CR3's for sure). He may have his UU then, but should be so set back it doesn't matter. Of course, he could easily vassalize to someone, then I'd have decisions to make.

Have part-researched machinery; plan is to try to and trade to Dutch when Pacal finished it, and see if I can get anything else for compass. Once I get enough courthouses, I can build FP. Thinking about maybe moving the capital; hard to tell where the eventual center of my empire will be. making a profit at 40%; better than I expected after going to 10 cities. Running two priests in captial in hopes of getting Jewish shrine.



1070AD: Carracks have discovered the islands at the NE and NW corners of the map. I shouldn't have any trouble getting my choice of spots on both. This has taken over priority for now instead of conquering Justinian. He's pretty backwards; even if I wait I should be able to take him out with a medieval force. Or, if my costs go up I may wait until grens/rifles. Plan is to settle both islands, conquer Just, and settle down for an easy space win. Just landed an explorer on the NE one; I've seen one barb warrior (camped out on a hut annoyingly so I can't pop it) but no cities yet.

Dutch have build Apo palace as leaders of hinduism (me and Pacal are the others, a nice situation as we are the 3 most advanced). They won the election but nothing else has happened yet.

Pacal is up to friendly which is great, no more WFYBTA and he has a lot of techs to trade (unlike the dutch I can give him something in return.) Debating how much to trade now as I head for liberalism. Plan is to take astromony as free tech (will need it for the trade routes to my islands. I'm looking forward to the intercontinental trade.), then research economics for the UB, then head to democracy for cottage civics.

Screenshot shows how much health/happiness I have to spare - I really gotta stop whipping. Also got the colosseums quest, just about done.




~1260: Phew, won liberalism race, took astro. 1st city settled on the island; barb city in really annoying place (+ 3 longbows on a hill - not trivial to take out). Think I finally have enough troops to attack. Trading lib to Pacal for banking + gold and to dutch for 550 gold. Now heading to econ. Pacal is researching nationalism;

1370: Got my 5 cities set up on the NE island, 1st settle is headed for the NW. colonial costs are around 5 per city, maybe should've only done 4. Research at 50% with some deficit. Definitely gonna wait on Justinian. Think I'll wait for US + Kremlin beeline to take him out - want to be able to rush buy buildings in the new cities. Won't have any new military techs but he'll be backwards enough to not matter. He did get some event strengthening all his Xbows, will be interesting to see if AI will exploit that by building a lot. Went on a hindu-building binge lately; forgot that U of Sankore wasn't doing much good. Have Spiral Minaret and hindu is the Apostolic palace, so each hindu building gives 2 base hammers, gold, and beakers in addition to their other benefits. It's like the recycling tanks from Alpha Centauri on steroids. If only I were Spiritual.



1455: Man, I'm lucky I've been best buds with Pacal (+6 for both hindu/+6 for running HR civic). I traded both nationalism and const from him, then just finished self-researching democracy. Interesting, I narrowly missed a diplo victory twice thru apo palace (without ever thinking it was a possibility). Pacal + my votes were nearly enough. If I had been finishing Justinian off I just may have gotten it (or farmed over everything and stopped whipping.)
May give SoL a pass. Got 1st city in on the NW island, but was lazy with fogbusting and now there are two barb cities.
Justinian has a stack of about 15 units in his nearest city, so he may be wanting to declare war. However, almost all of them are at most strength 6, and I'll have rifling soon. This is another interesting decision point - I planned to switch to US, FS, Emanci soon (wanted to use Taj GA, but got beaten to it). However, Just declaring war while I'm in anarchy could be a little problematic. Started building trebs as a safeguard.
Plan is to go for rifling, then conqer Just (and maybe a good chunk of holland, who volunatirly vassalized to him) then go for kremlin (although SM would obsolete all my lovely monasteries, so I may wait a bit on that.) I'll look at the land percentage after filling up the islands and the end of that war; domination may be obtainable fairly easily. But it would probably involve taking out Pacal which I'd feel guilty about. If pacal stays hindu, diplo would probably be assured if I convert back to HR at that point. Of course, it may happen well before UN.

15??: Started war with Justinian and Willem. I foolishly show my noobishness by splitting my main stack in the east. One branch is able to take a city defended by 4 or 5 units easily, but the right side gets crushed by a TON of collateral damage, something like 8-9 cats and trebs, and I lose many rifles and my GG unit. only one of my trebs survives. Fortunately I get another GG right now so I have another medic 3 at the frontlines soon. I reinforce the other half and take the city on the coast which I keep. my 5 rifle/2 cat western force is able to raze another central city; I plan to keep most Byz cities except for 2 in the middle which I will merge into one. My frig shows the next coastal city is only guarded by 2 units and my troops will be there soon; however it has 100 cultural defense so it may take a while to get that down. WW is pretty bad compounded with draft unhappy, another thing I have no experience with. I have almost no theatres so the culture slider won't help much.

1620: Finished war with Just. only one city left, but WW was really bad and my forces not well positioned so I'll leave it. Didn't take capitulation though. Currently up to 34% of land (62% needed) but most Byz cities still in revolt. War was really easy after that one large stack, all other cities had only a few units and no cataphracts, the only unit that really poses any threat at all. Finishing theatres in my 3 big cities (all capitals) helped a lot. Naval transports going up east coast made rest of campaign very fast. Just had many caravels but two frigates were enough to keep the seas mostly clear; I lost one carrack only (and no troops onboard). I about had a heart attack when I didn't notice a lone crossbow headed for my westernmost city, which was only defended by a sword (and that's a border city; capital still has a lone warrior I think). Thankfully it failed miserably despite the +50% vs. melee.

Another great general spawned, held him for a while intending to build a mil academy when I got mil science but then decided to make 2nd medic III for some two-stack action against the dutch. (Watch me lose another stack to obsolete units because of this...) Researched Steel and Steam Power, currently going for RR for troop movement, then corp->assembly line. Will almost certainly stop research there, or possibly even earlier if I don't think war against Pacal is needed.



SS above shows new border with Dutch. Gotta move ASAP to take pressure off these cities. Switched espionage to Dutch; fortunately he has almost no points on me so I should see his research in a couple of turns. Unfortunately, I was slow with the replacement settler and Willem is probably going to found a city in the big gap next turn. Will probably need another settler to fill in more space near all the desert (didn't realize it until now, but that large desert patch is probably a big reason Justinian was so ineffective). Unfortunately I peaced with Dutch separately a while back and took 145 gold; if it delays my DOW more than a few turns it will be real annoying. Of course, the good news is I blitzed the Byzantines in something like 7 turns this round.



The above screenshot shows that unlike Justinian, Willem doesn't seem to have any significant forces. Too bad this is ending so easily - I'm probably not gonna use espionage for much and corps not at all. RR allows mining inc, which would be useful for me as I have many hammer-poor cities, but the odds of me getting a GE to found it before it's over are real low (and the odds that it will make a significant difference practically 0). Maybe I should try to steal Corp from Pacal.

1660: End is clearly in sight. Finished RR, started building the great transcontinental railway. Didn't have to wait too long on dutch. Also, my Buddhist shrine from Istanbul came online, showing me Dutch cities weakly defended. Now 2 of 5 core cities have fallen and I have a stack ready to take Amsterdam in a turn or two. Historically fitting. Willem is researching Steel instead of rifling but has no chance of getting it before he's down to one city. Sadly, the only place he's caught up is Chem so he has some frigates that could disrupt me (although I have a copule ironclads, they are SLOOOOW and will take a while to chase them down) but all he's doing is bombarding a city he'll never get troops to attack to. Turned research off; cities building units but mostly settlers or culture to fill in map. I will probably DOW pacal after dutch, just to avoid him sneaking settlers thru and on the off chance I need some of his land too. He's the most advanced AI but has been going Phys->Elect so he won't be in any better position to defend than Willem.

Turns out I'm not quite to the 1/2 point in turns. Right now it's all about score milking; it will take at least 15 turns to capture and unrevolt the rest of the dutch cities but domination should trigger around then. My next GP from Khmer capital has a 1/3 chance of GE but probably won't come in time.

1724AD: Man, this is turning into a drag. Surprisingly, all the Dutch + Byz land only pulled me to about 56%; fortunately I realize that I was gonna be short in advance and war against Maya without delay. Pacal finally researches Rifling but it is too late, I have way too many units. For the heck of it, I turn research back on to get Cav. On this turn I'm at 61.7% of 62% land needed and well above the pop threshold. Sadly, I almost have enough votes a few turns ago to AP myself to victory but I'm at something like 530/590. I may have been able to do it if I switch back to HR to get relations with Pacal up again, but don't know if it would be enough as I have a lot of "You declared on our friend" minuses with him. Oh well. Picture is my huge stack against a couple rifles and other outdated units.



Some final thoughts as I actually finish my first non-OCC game of Civ4 ever: those revolt periods are really, really annoying. it may be faster to raze cities left and right and rebuild so you don't have to wait. I'm rather disappointed with my performance in the final wars. Clearly it would have sped things up to 1)research cav after rifling 2) stop research earlier; the big RR was built too late to make much difference. Should've gone mil trad and stell after rifling then straight $ for rushbuying. 3) rushbuy more units, especially 4) use more navy. It was real effective against Justinian. I was waiting on ironclads a bit which was silly cause they're so slow, should've rushed them in cities closer to the front. 5) WW is a bitch; I immediately got a ton of unhappy against Just when I DOWd him the final time. Thankfuly he only had one city that took a couple of turns to capture. 6) Should've done more production cities or converted some later on. However, I never got to state property so that might have been hard.



Finally, my impressions of Portugal: 1) Don't really like the trait combo too much. In particular, having fast workers and settlers meant I had my 2nd and 3rd cities founded before knowing where horses were, which was a strange feeling. Thankfully that wasn't crucial. The extra great generals weren't too helpful; the mil instructors weren't really necessary when I was mostly sending rifles and cannon against medieval untis. 2) The UU is, well, ok. It was neat to have such a big head start on securing those two islands; although I'm pretty sure I took astro from liberalism soon after beginning settlement. The reason is that with the GL, astro would allow 4 trade routes in each of those cities and with the new bonus to intercontinental trade, that would recoup the maintenance cost real quick.

Here's the victory screen. The game actually freezes here; I'm happy to get the SS to prove I finished. Thankfully I saved the turn before and it doesn't take long to go back and replay to get the score screen (shown at the end).

And one more thing - now that I've finished a whole game (again, first time it's happened besides OCCs. My very first game was played as Russia back in vanilla; right when I was ready to cossack-rampage I discovered that my video card is completely unable to handle huge maps. The experience of sinking many hrs into that game becore realizing that I could not finish it was real embittering) I'm ready to join the chorus of ppl saying the expansion is way too easy. The AI simply doesn't build enough units; the Bowman should be an ideal axe-rush-stopper but Hammurabi only had a few of them and I plowed right through. Justinian was the only AI to amass a good pile of units and aside from that first thrashing he gave me, I basically took cities as quickly as my units could move and bombard. I know it's only Monarch but I'm pretty inexperienced.

Another note - I didn't save the screenshot, but the unit summary screen showed I got a lot of mileage out of Imperialistic by building ~22 settlers, more than any other unit type (I had more riflemen, but a lot of those were drafted and don't count as built apparently).

Finally, a score screen. Yikes. I feel like I've seen Sisiutil get a domination victory around this year but his score wasn't in the 6 figures.

Potluck Fun with Willem van Oranje

This was my first try at an RB potluck, and I got off to a good start, reaching the AD years in a couple quick sessions the first week. Unfortunately, other commitments ate a tremendous amount of time over the next month and I have to report this game as unfinished. I intend to finish it, but for official scoring count me as retired, 1770 AD.

I started extremely strong, and was solidly in the lead -- tech, land, population, and score -- at the AD crossover. I played a peaceful game, though, and despite the incredible starting land -- that many floodplains for a financial civ?!? -- I was surrounded by AI civs and had limited land. I had 7 strong cities, claiming all of the flood plains system east of the starting location, and also the iron site to the northeast and the horses site to the northwest.

But the AIs were expanding and developing their territories, and started narrowing the gap by 1000 AD. And out west, Sitting Bull was going crazy with all the available territory. By 1600 AD I was trading the score lead back and forth with the Native Americans, and had been passed in population and land. I still held tech superiority, but not by much.

My big advantage as of 1770 AD is production: the AI civs are just starting to research Assembly Line, while I have fully industrialized all my cities with factories, coal plants, and the powerful Dutch UB the dike. All those cities getting 2f1h3c from every coastal tile (2f2h3c for my Moai Statues city) suddenly have more than enough hammers to complete all the infrastructure one could wish for, and the river hammers plus town hammers from US make those flood plains commerce cities powerful as well.

So I am getting crazy hammers from multiple cities, and have decent tech, but do not see a clear route to victory. I don't have the religious spread or infrastructure for a cultural victory. One possibility would be to translate those hammers into military and smash a rival or two, consolidating the territory and playing for the space race. I don't know if I could manage a pure military victory, particularly against Sitting Bull -- he's grown into an absolute monster out west and has a TON of military, although he's a couple key techs behind. Grabbing some nearby territory while beating up a couple weaker AIs seems a better bet. So a major military buildup (aided by the Pentagon) is under way. Justinian and Pacal are going to face the wrath of the Dutch military very soon....

Thanks to Sulla for sponsoring this game -- it's been tremendous fun. I just haven't had enough time. Can't wait to read the Native American reports, to see what human players did with all that land.

Pacal is expansive and financial, nice combo for a floodplains heavy start. But we get a coastal one, with not a single river to be seen. Lot of food though, and three nice hills.
We already have 2 warriors, so I start with stonehenge, while I'm researching fishing. Warriors are sent opposite ways.

The first hut gave a complete useless map of the ocean. Those villagers must know optics, they could have given that instead




After fishing is done, I switch to a workboat and use the crab to quickly research polytheism. I'm not sure yet what victory to chase but an easy early religion is a rarely a bad thing on monarch. Another hut found a hostile barbarian who killed my warrior. The third gave 47 gold

Buddhism is found in 3500 BC and I met Zara and Willem west and east resp shortly after. We get polytheism in 3400 BC




The two warriors are doing a good job exploring the surroundings. Justinian appears in the east.

Bronzeworking is picked after poly. Since there's not a single forest in the capital, it's more for whipping and revealing the precious copper... which in the capital. Oh, I was starting to believe copper starts were banned in RB
Early rush ? we'll see. I chose agriculture after BW for the wheat, then the wheel to connect the copper and have some defense against barbs. Finally a hut gives a tech, AH. So hunting should come next for our UU

The capital builds were workboat-> worker (whipped) -> workboat-> warrior-> partial stonhenge to size 4 -> settler


SuryaVarman appears and founds judaism a few turns later. I don't have a clue about new BTS personalities, so we'll play this by ear

I built my second city to claim horses and gold. The cows would help with growth.




I only realized later that I made a big missing those fish. Maybe I need to switch the resources on all the time. That really pissed me off, because that city had a really slow growth in my game

The capital built our first axe after the settler. I was planning to resume stonhenge next but it was built by some AI in 1900 BC. No biggie, we're better expanding anyway.

Research wise, the next wave was pottery ->writing ->priesthood

For the third city, I chose a heavy coastal one. You got to like those spots when financial




You can see in the shot that I was nearly done with COL. I founded confucianism and after quick detour to meditation, we get this




The shot above shows the religion situation at the time : two AIs are buddhist, two are jewish and the western part is deprived of religion for the moment. I was the happy owner of three holy cities, but I don't think I'm picking a religion for now.

The next city blocks the eastern part of the Mayan civilization.




This city would need some serious culture to fight off the creative Willem. It has some nice grass though.

After a rather slow expansion at the start, I'm now claiming land quickly. The AI is in all settlers out mode




For once, I agree with the blue circle. This city can be a nice production base.

The pyramids fell in 290 BC if it interests anyone. I didn't try to get them since I was concentrating on expansion.

I was planning for another wonder though. The fisherman needs his statue. Metal casting took me an eternity. I picked currency next. Here's the tech situation before entering the AD years




You could say I had a bit of a head start. But Willem is clearly showing out of the crowd. I checked the map and it appears he was the financial guy with flood plains all around. The spirit is play with the hand you are dealt right ? So let's resume the game. I dialled Hamurabi for monarchy and switched into hereditary rule.

I finish Colossus in 130 AD. 4 coins coastal tiles really rock.

This is my 6th city




It was close, Zara was sending a settler over there. This was the end of peaceful expansion, and as it happens of any expansion at all. With all the religions I managed to grab (mine and not mine), I had decided to play a 6cc cultural game. By that time, I had paper researched and a long journey towards education started. No scientists at hand to accelerate it. After education, I went for aesthetics. Some civs knew it for a while but they still refuse to trade it. Probably going after the wonders. I sold many techs, getting cash to boost my research. Aesthetics was actually researched in 3 turns, at 100% research. It was followed by drama for theatres spamming and en route to music. But let's look at the legendary candidates :

First, the capital. Clearly a strong one. It is nealry finished with the Hagia Sophia.




The second city, is the "how the hell did I miss that fish" one. Far away from its happiness cap.




I was torn between growth, commerce and production for getting those wonders done.

The last got the Moai statue to boost its production. Otherwise, it couldn't build anything.




Even with that, wonders take ages. Luckily, I was ahead in techs so there was no competition ...yet. Willem is doing a good job of cathing up and managed to get some techs ahead of me. All that with a 4cc !!




It's true I was concerntrating on building cultural stuff and spreading religions around. Still, that's an impressive performance with just 4 cities. He also picked music free artist before I had a chance. So I just resume the liberalism race

I had the national sports league quest which required to build 7 colosseums. Well, me and Willem are out of competition, thank you.

A quick report for an unfinished game:

I founded Buddhism, Willem founded Judaism and spread it aggressively. After all my neighbors converted, I could see which way the wind was blowing, and converted to Judaism.

After discovering I had started without copper, I expanded out to the iron, beating Willem by a couple turns. By 650 BC, I had established my five cities:


Willem declared war in 110 BC, despite our shared religion and trade (but that's OK, I was planning to attack him anyway and this saved me penalties with his friends). After a slow buildup and some inconclusive fighting, I took his two closest cities and took a peace break in AD 900. After a second buildup and DoW by me, I killed him off in 1365. Willem vassalized himself to Pacal when he was down to one city, but again, that was OK because Pacal was next on the list.

After rolling up a few of Pacal's cities, I saw this stack from Ethiopia in 1595:


I kept my Jewish friends happy, kept attacking the Hindu enemies, then just ran out of time in 1795. The game was progressing very slowly, and after 20 hours of playing the deadline arrived.

I think I was well on my way to domination, but it probably would have taken 20 more hours of play. I was killing off a lot of units, and getting a lot of war weariness. The Hippodrome helped a lot, but I was getting a lot of unhappiness from Apostolic Palace, yearning for homeland (I always picture John Cleese saying "Pining for the fjords? What kind of talk is that?"), Emancipation (I hate to let captured cities starve when I can whip them instead), and attacks against fellow Hindus.

The meat grinder:


Score and minimap:


Victory conditions:


Demographics:


Conclusions: The AI built a lot of units, and conquering was slow work. The cataphract and hippodrome were a great combo for warmongering.

okay i've never really did this whole report thing b4 so i'm gonna give it a freakin try

okay heres my first screen



yeah thats right the rule states that no war begin PRIOR to 1000 B.C.
so now that its the milestone i see it fitting to destroy the evil dutch empire and take their fertile lands

several turns later....

okay so the conquest is goin pretty successful taking most of the dutch land...



with all of this recent war goin on my demographics are terrible as you can imagine



yeah not good

another thing i really didn't get hit with events that hard during this game
i'm pretty excited to see what other players got with the events.
Sitting Bull really got the smack down with slave revolts through out the entire game

okay anyways i continue my bloodlust and start a campaign against the justin



here are the couple end shots of this war





after all that i just became greedy taking out the kynmer



to make a long story short i ended up kililng the kymer and joan I
joan also went on to colonize a island to the east and it became america
i thought that was pretty humorous but i never did fight washington
i ended up winning a domination win in 1850

this was a pretty exciting game and as my first epic and first RB event.. i think i did fairly decent