I am away for 3 months and only have limited internet access, so just a quick summary:

Malinese domination victory in 1935.
The capital spot was sub-optimal, so I rushed a settler to that sweet
spot at the eastern inland sea, where the river ends and eventually
moved my palace there.
I capture two Egypt cities in the north for my core of 5 cities IIRC.
There was lots of inter-AI warring taking place and I got my own share
of conflict with all of the AIs eventually, mostly being declared upon
not provoking it.
Interestignly I managed to stay on good terms with Caesar and payed him
the odd tech he was behind to join me in some conflicts. He almost wiped
out America and China after they declared on me and I payed Caesar to
help out.
In the end only Caesar and me were left and I needed to backstab him for
the last 2 percent land mass to get domination.

A very nice game and lots of conflicts throughout the history.

mh

Hi,

Epic 8 was my first ever completed CIV game at all – it ended with a domination win in 1756 after 17 hours of gaming. I declared on England before 1000 BC - in 1510 BC, so sorry for breaking the one and only rule of this game.

Under my typical playstyle I tend to loose the interest in the game when I have too many cities to manage and I regularily abandon the games in the early AD years. This time the motivation to finish was so strong that I kept on playing, especially that I didn't realize that I broke the "no early declaration" rule.

Key dates from my campaign:

1510 BC – declaring on England
Captures of York (1480 BC), London (1390 BC), Nottingham (1150 BC) – and English are no more.
They founded Hinduism and this way I got myself a religion for the whole game. I converted to the faith Saladin, Mao, Julius and Roosevelt (or the religion spread out on it’s own), so I was planning my next campaign against Mansa. But in
230 AD Mao declares on me and in 290 Julius joins his cause.
I captured Antium in 545 AD and made peace with both of them (all the time sharing the faith with them) to concentrate on Mansa (in Judaism).

In 830 AD I declared, captured Kumbi Saleh (875 AD), Djenne (950 AD) and Gao (1040 AD) and Tadmekka (1070 AD).
As I was closing on Mansa and getting towards ending his misery Julius smelled I was defending my borders lightly in the west and declared on me again in 1040 AD (also this time Mao joined him in 1124 AD).

I made peace with Mansa and rolled my troops towards west. I lost temporalirly Antium in 1118 AD and recaptured it in 1130 AD from the Romans.

I managed to capture also Rome (1184 AD), Pisae (1250 AD) and Circassian (1286 AD), at the same time Tokugawa declared on Julius and captured Cumae from him. after a lot of success in the west I made peace with both Rome and China and returned to the east to conquoer the rest of Mali.

This time I finally completed the destruction:
declaration in 1316 AD - 5 captures and 1 razing and Mansa is destroyed in 1490 AD.

Then it's Julius time:
declaration in 1529 AD - 2 captures and 1 razing and Julius ends his life in 1586 AD.

The next was Mao whom I also never forgot his wars against the mighty Egypt. I started the war in 1604 - 6 captures and again 1 razing and the Chineese are dead in 1727 AD.

All those lands left me slightly short of the land limit for domination so I was forced to declare one more time. This time it was Tokugawa. I captured 2 cities from him and that was enough to cross the domination limit and win the game.

I never had any "major" problems in this game. The cities were usually way under their health and hapiness limits, the war weariness was never an issue too. Obviously there's still plenty for me to learn it this game but at least Sirian and the community gave me enough motivation to finish the game. My biggest problems were: how to grow the cities bigger and how to get more from the use of specialists.

Thanks for the game. I enjoyed the begining a lot, but in the end I had over 30 cities and that was definetely too much for me. Still I felt obliged not to abandon the play and finish.


wojc

Here's the text whilst I sort out a host for my reports...

Epic 8 – Potluck

I wonder who I’ll get? I hope it’s Toku or Jules then I can be done by lunchtime. Anyone but Hatty would be fine though. Aha! An email from Gris with the save for Hatshepsut. Oh well…

Wikipedia tells us this about the first female Pharoah: ‘Hatshepsut was a builder pharaoh. As pharaoh she initiated building projects that were grander and more numerous than those of any of her Middle Kingdom predecessors’. Not this incarnation: at Epic speed on a Pangea map, Domination is the way. This approach is reinforced when I examine the start. It’s a low-food, high production site. I decide to move 1 tile west to bring the Goldmine into the fat cross. Wonders are to be conquered, not built: I am Hatshepsut the Headbuster and you shall know me by the trail of the dead!



As we’ve been given two warriors, one heads south (for the hut) and the other moves north. I name them Dastardly and Muttley. They pop some huts: a map, 25 gold, a scout, who, in 3790 pops Hunting. In the meantime, a border pop at Thebes hutted another map. Our first tech was Animal Husbandry (for the cows). And it’s a worker-first start.

In 3760, we meet our first victim, erm fellow civ, Saladin, who’s located to the southeast of Thebes, beyond the jungle and desert. Maybe he won’t be Egypt’s first victim. In 3640, our scout huts 48g and, emboldened with his success, decides to take on a bear. It was the last decision he would ever make.





In 3460, we learn the secrets of Animal Husbandry and we’re delighted to discover some Horses within our fat cross. That’s the barbs sorted out – war chariots will deal with their threat. Given that they’re in a riverside plains tile, we’re really sitting on a production powerhouse here. Pop growth will not be very rapid, so I’ll need to be more sparing than usual with the whip. Mining is the next technology on the menu as we’re aiming for Bronzeworking. We need metals.

Tragedy strikes in 3430 when Muttley pops 2 hostiles. He’s takes one with him to the afterlife. Dastardly meets Lizzy, whose lands lie across the eastern lake. In 3370, Saladin discovers Bhuddism and by 3280 our worker is trained and heads off to pasture those cows. Dastardly bumps into Mansa Musa northeast of the homeland. Hmmm…who to kill first?

Having delivered milk, our worker goes to corral the horses. In 3040 we spot a Barb warrior north of Thebes; it’s surely Muttley’s killer. We’re 6 turns away from getting horses connected so we’ll have to bide our time here. In 2950, we start our first settler.

As you can see, I’m not entirely sure where we’ll put Memphis. Not much to report until Toku shows up from the west in 2650. In 2560 we learn Bronzeworking and switch to Slavery and begin work on Pottery. There’s copper to the south of Thebes, but I want the jumbos and Sal would have to cross desert to grab the copper spot, so it’ll still be there when I’m ready for my third city. The settler is ready in 2440 and I start my first war chariot. Chairman Mao approaches from the west in 2380 and by this time I’ve decided to found Memphis on the plains hill. It’s going to be another strong production city, so let’s grab that extra hammer and access to more cows.

My chariot completes in 2290 and I decide on another settler. Growth in Thebes is slow, so let’s grow horizontally.



Hardly a distant land, is it? Well that’s decided then: Mansa will be the first to die. I can’t DoW him for a millennium or so, by which time he’ll have culture-stolen those cows and have Skirmishers. A glance to the scoreboard will show that we’ve now encountered Roosy and Jules, so we’re all set.

In 1790 our settler heads south to claim that copper.



Zapotec isn’t a bad location but, typically, it did miss the fish by 1 tile:


I took it in 1090 and, having opened borders, had a look at Djenne in 1000BC and it was guarded by 2 Skirmishers. We’ll be needed catpults for this job. Note the wine farms in Memphis: the 2-1-2 yield is pretty decent considering the alternatives and they’re also useful pillage magnets (in other circumstances). On completion of Alphabet in 850, I check the AI and decide on Maths next. Trade Writing to Jules for Mysticism and Archery. Get Masonry from Roosevelt for Writing. Saladin gets Agri and Masonry in return for Sailing.

In 670, our brains trust comes up with a new plan: binary research. Their reasoning was that, as a warmonger, we’ll want plenty of cash at hand for upgrades. Secondly, we’re not interested in an overall tech lead: each tech we choose is a milestone that enables a new unit (and maybe allows upgrades of old units), so pausing after learning a new tech isn’t that harmful to our strategy. Finally, our maintenance cost vs commerce is less than impressive, so running a ‘normal’ science percentage won’t yield good results. In 610, Saladin demands I switch to Bhuddism which has just spread into my lands. I decline as I want to be a friendly as possible with Mansa (until I stab in the back). Sal’s not happy with me, but do I look bovvered?

In 475 another bit of OB spying reveals that Djenne is garrison by a lone axeman! Time for WAR!



This picture shows a weedy move – I should have put a road on that desert tile so my foot soldiers could save a turn in getting to attack position. By the time I reached Djenne, a Skirmisher had been added to its garrison. The city fell to me in 430 after some heavy fighting. Speaking of weedy moves, I didn’t expect Mali’s eastern outpost to have a spearman and my chariot gets killed in the inter-turn.


Construction is learned in 310 and we move for Code of Laws next (for couthouses but mostly because Confucianism is still up for grabs). The war is going to be loooong: Timbuktu is on a hill and guarded by 4 Skirmishers. I also note that Lizzy has built the Pyramids, so she’s moved ahead of Saladin on my hit-list.



Oh dear, Mansa, that’s really not very good, is it?



There’s fish just to the northwest of Sakae – this will make a very reasonable GPP farm.

In the meantime, my army had marched on Gao (as Timbuktu was far too tough for my troops) and took the city in 160 BC.



In 115 BC, Confucianism is discovered 1 turn before I was due to complete CoL. Bugger. Set research back to 0%. Meanwhile, the dogs of war are at Timbuktu’s gate:


By 40 BC, its cultural defences are gone and it’s time for the assault to begin. Those Skirmishers are very well set, so it’s suicide cats time. The first withdraws, the second loses but inflicts 2.4 hp of damage, the third fails and can only do 0.6 hp of damage. A chariot does 1.3 hp of damage before dying. It looks a bit dodgy for my city raider I Axeman (45%) win chance, but he wins. The two remaining Skirmishers are easily dispatched. In the interturn, a Skirmisher tries to take back Timbuktu, but is defeated by my Axe. It’s time to make peace, so I demand Meditation and Monotheism from Mansa, as he won’t part with Metal Casting (which the Oracle got him). Mansa now has some pretty poor cities, no metals and, handily for me, only two friends: Lizzy and Roosy.



In 10BC we (belatedly) complete Code of Laws and switch to Compass. Why Compass? Well, it’s great trade fodder and I can see that Jules and Lizzy have got techs I want. I’m on 0% research in any event. In 5AD, I get Calender from Liz for CoL and Meditation. In 50AD I check why Monarchy is redded by Jules and it’s WFYABTA, so I switch research to Monarchy. Whilst we’ve been at war, Heliopolis has been working on a Great Scientist who pops out and heads to Thebes for an Academy. Zapotec has been building the Great Lighthouse for some cash and it’s duly completed elsewhere in 125AD.

Monarchy is completed in 140 and Feudalism is next. There’s not much happening at the moment: I’m building a mixture of infrastructure and troops in preparation for wiping Mansa from the map. Sal closes borders in 185 and in 260 Liz shows up to ask me to convert to Judaism. I agree. In 290, I sell CoL to Mao for 200g and trade him some booze for 2gpt.

In 335, I decide it’s time for the second (and final) Malian campaign.



The attack on Niani goes well, with a (suicide) cat the only casualty. It a terrible site, so it gets razed. Walata falls in similar fashion, but I keep it as it has deer. My troops begin the march on Kumbi Saleh and we learn Feudalism in 425 and follow it with Metal Casting. Naturally enough, we switch to Vassalage. A busy year’s tech trading see me get Currency from Roosy in exchange for Alphabet and Monarchy, and I sell Jules Alphabet for 340g.



In 440, we revert to no State Religion. The motivation here is that I don’t want to have jihad declared against me: I want to decide with whom I go to war and also dictate the timing of the war. At the same time, we start training Hindu missionaries in Timbuktu with the aim of (eventually) taking it as our state religion. Our troops reach Kumbi Saleh in 500 and we take it without problems. It’s a poor site, so we decide to raze the city.



With Mansa consigned to the dustbin of history, I need to focus on my next victim, Elizabeth. The Pyramids are a wonderful Wonder to steal and her terrain seems pretty reasonable. Saladin just doesn’t look tasty enough; he’s not built the Mahabohdi (for me) yet anyway. 605AD is a momentous year; not only do we learn Machinery, but Saladin gives us an inadvertent helping hand:



So we join in immediately. My troops are not perfectly positioned but we don’t want Sal to pillage every bloody tile in sight before we can sack Lizzy’s cities. York falls at the cost of a cat and an axe.


Note my nice war chariot and my scout, who fills me in on London’s garrison. Hastings is captured on the next turn, thanks to some lucky catapults:



My esteemed war-ally (or should that be partner in crime?), Saladin, offers open borders in 665 which I accept with insincere thanks. Remember my nice war chariot? I left him to garrison York, thinking that Liz had turtled, but no, in 725 she came up with a lucky chariot that took back the city, winning at 20% odds. She had a couple of archers in tow that moved in to re-secure her second oldest city. That’ll teach me to run needless risks – I could have blocked the road from London but feared a cat attack would hurt my stack too much.

Speaking of London, she fell to me in 770AD:



As well as the Pyramids, I was now the proud owner of the Great Lighthouse. I flip to Rep as I do have the odd specialist assigned here and there. The GP I’d been working on in Timbuktu pops out in 830 and in 845 he builds the shrine in Djenne. This is one of two Great Wonders I’ll ‘build’ in the entire game. In that same year the double holy city of Nottingham was conquered and York recaptured, for the loss of just one cat. Najran is Lizzy’s last city and must have been flipped from Sal. I wonder what will happen when I raze it…



The Arab is not impressed and gives us a -2 diplo penalty for our troubles. Like we care because you’re next! [cue evil cackle]

Whilst the last turns of the English war were playing out, Jules attacked Mao. This is definitely a Good Thing: geography dictates that Mao will immediately follow Sal into oblivion and it looks like Jules will gladly join in the fun.

Our research over the past three centuries has consisted of Guilds (Knights/Grocers) and now CS (Macemen). We’re sticking with Vassalage in this game of course. As an aside, I note that I sell Alphabet to Toku for 140g…in 920AD! We’re in another infrastructure and military phase in preparation for the Arabian campaign. As such there’s not a great deal to write about. Given that I’ve got a huge amount of land, I’m trading resources quite heavily and in 1010 CS completes and we go for Engineering (Pikemen). Sal has jumbos and I’ve seen a couple head across my lands in the (vain) hope of taking a barb city up by Jules’s northern lands, so a Pike or two will come in handy.

By 1118, my trigger finger is getting itchy: Sal still hasn’t discovered Feudalism, so I’m very keen to attack before his defences become bothersome. I sell CS to Jules for HBR and 230g. Jules is now Pleased with me, but I’m delighted to move the science slider up to 100% and complete Eng in five turns. Let’s say it with pictures:





Stroking your lovely beard is not going to save you, sunshine. Time to die! Basra falls instantly and, although I lack Engineering, I’m sure I’ll have it by the time the jumbos emerge from Mao’s territory. My northern stack moves into position outside Medina and the southern group heads for Baghdad – and will cut off Sal’s access to ivory en route. In 1142, both cities are taken. Elsewhere, here come Sal’s Jumbos, but with one turn to go before Eng is done, I shouldn’t suffer too much:



The AI doesn’t have a monopoly on lucky wins, however:



Punishment for a weedy move: Sal split his units into two groups and the Gods made him suffer.



Note Sal’s units in Tianjin, as well as Mao’s HA, which is escorting a settler, and is the reason Hastings is training one. In the end, Mao couldn’t find a worthwhile site so my settler was (eventually) sent to Memphis and set to sleep. At this point, I switched off research and changed over to Banking: Jules will trade techs (e.g. Literature), but Mao-the-soon-to-die is WFYABTA. In 1160, Sal tries a counterattack, sending two galleys (one of which is empty?!?) up to Basra. This is dealt with but I am left with a slightly damaged Longbow in Basra to (potentially) defend against a sword; Nottingham only has a spearman. Given my bad experience at York, I might need a wee trick. In 1172, Baghdad comes out of revolt but will starve and I can only rush walls. Oh well, pass me my whip!

I decide to leave a worker unprotected near Basra and Sal’s sword leaves the safety of the jungle to destroy him. In turn, my crossbow kills the swordsman. Our people shall remember their worker’s sacrifice in their poetry. Around this time, I stopped taking screenshots as it was all a bit too easy: 1184 saw the fall of Mecca and we’re now into mopping up time and I duly take Damascus. Sal’s units in the Thebes/Heliopolis jungles are steered towards open ground and slaughtered. In 1202 Rome completes the Great Library(!) and I decide to adopt Hinduism; I’m far to scary for anyone to consider a crusade.

1208 turns out to be an interesting year. On completion of Banking we switch Civics to Mercantilism and Org Rel. I lose a trade with Toku. WTF? Then the message comes in that Mao has declared war on Japan. This is a Bad Thing: Toku is backward and Mao could roll over him, so I trade Toku copper for 4gpt. I capture Kufah and that’s the end of Saladin. I already regret keeping Damascus; personal war-weariness blamed for this weedy move.

In 1214, I trade in Literature and start Heroic Epic in Memphis and National Epic in Sakae. What’s the plan now? Well, a grab for Liberalism is obvious, but what to claim from it? Nationalism, then research Military Tradition and Cav stomp Jules after killing Mao pre-gunpowder; or what about Chemistry for Grenadier-fueled mayhem? Let’s go for the latter option as it will be quicker. In the shorter term, I want to send out some caravels as the circumnavigation bonus is still on offer.

‘Sold’ Feudalism to Toku for 20g in 1220 and rushed the National Epic for 5 pop in Sakae. I am truly despotic. I start to nosy around Mao’s territory with a Knight as I want to know what I’m up against, especially after he takes Tokyo in 1238. My foot soldiers begin to mass on the Chinese border. In 1274, Jules declares war on Mao, so I decide to join the dogpile.



The two HAs (and settler) get teleported into Tianjin. This, along with an erroneous keypress, nearly leads to my attack failing.



In other news, I circumnavigate (thanks as much to map trading as to my caravels) in 1280.



Hypatia (GS) lightbulbed Education, in case you’re interested. No? You want to hear tales of war instead, eh. Ok, then. Guangzhou was captured for the loss of a (useless) suicide cat, and a crossbow that got killed in an attack out of the city in the preceeding inter-turn. Knights are pretty decent at attacking LBs; that immunity to first strikes is very handy indeed. I’m saving my CRIII Maces for promotion to grenadiers.

In 1328 I assault Beijing and lose 1 Mace, 1 cat and 1 Mediphant™. I’ve got a few units up at Nanjing, expecting Jules to take it, but he fails dismally, which allows me to cruise in for the loss of one maceman. In 1346, the Taoist holy city of Shanghai is claimed for Egypt for the loss of a knight. It lacks a shrine, annoyingly. The armies then march south to finish off the Chinese.



Chengdu’s a bit of a tough nut to crack and I lose a WE, a mace and a cat to capture it in 1388. In my haste to get to Xian before the Romans, I leave a badly wounded Mace outside Chengdu, but I move two CRIII maces to the grassland cottage tile. With my other units on the desert tile (including a Pikeman) there’s surely no way Mao’s attacking out of there with his 3 HAs. WRONG! Mao has trained 2 Champion-the-WonderHorse-Archers: each kills a Mace at 20%, before the third takes out the damaged maceman. *puts on Jack Sparrow voice* Bugger, bugger, bugger: my beautiful would-be grenadiers destroyed! Sob!

Before all this madness, my Knight had claimed Tokyo and I gifted back to Japan. A weedy move indeed as it immediately border popped right up to Beijing. War-weediness was really taking hold of my brain by this point. Jules razed Xian around 1400, which meant I had to race to claim Kagoshima before he destroyed it. I had three knights against two longbows, but I only needed two. With that, Mao was gone and I poprushed Angkor Watt in London to celebrate.



It was time to take a break for a few days (and play adventure 13) and finish Caesar off for victory at the weekend. The plan was as follows: flip to Free Religion for research and to Caste System for border expansion via Artists. Fill in the gap in my lands (where I’d razed Kumbi Saleh). Liberalism had been discovered in 1412 and Chemistry taken as planned. The next target is Steel (as you can see) and it can be learned in about a dozen turns. With my circumnavigation bonus, I can attack Neapolis, the Confucian holy city, with galleys laden with grenadiers and catapults. In order to avoid a counterattack into my newly claimed Chinatowns via Japanese territory, I will bribe Toku into ceasing trade with Rome.

By 1490, we’re all set (and back running Slavery) and Japan has closed borders with Rome, which was nice.



War is declared in 1496, with my stack in Shanghai ready to open a second front (or defend against a Roman counterstrike):



Nanjing has a reasonable garrison in case of local difficulties.

In 1502, Steel is discovered and we switch to cannon from grenadiers. Neapolis falls without any trouble. We’ll press onto Rome from the north because Shanghai is witnessing Rome’s main counter-thrust. During the 1502-1508 inter-turn, Jules loses 9 units assaulting my city. His only victory is a Horse Archer defeating a crossbow. I decide to poprush some walls and upgrade an undamaged pikeman to a City Defence III grenadier because there’s still a whole bunch of units at Shanghai’s gates. I also suicide a couple of cats for stack damage. The 1508-1514 inter-turn sees Jules bombarding Shanghai and only losing 4 units. Jules’s stack below is now severely depleted and it gets destroyed in 1514. We now march on Jute as well as Rome.






I start to research Theology in 1523. I preferred Org Rel to speed infrastructure and was quite happy for religions to spread around my empire. Despite some unlikely defeats, both Jute and Rome fall in 1532. They’ll both be quite a few turns in revolt, so might as well press on further.




We march on to Pisae (tucked right up to the American border above) and, having blockaded Polynesian with a caravel, send over some landing parties to claim it for our glorious empire. Both cities fall in 1544, with Pisae being razed to the ground. Now we march on Antium at the same time switching civics back to Org Rel and Caste System: we’ll bump our borders with Artist and 90% culture. Antium succumbs and in 1556 it’s all over.

I said in some thread that I abandonned this game very quickly, as I made so many mistakes and couldn't see the way out. So here is a brief summary.

I drew England. After London (between the rice and the horse), I founded York in the north (just south of the pig). Basically, my game was about attacking Egypt, since they had a city next to some copper or iron (a few tiles in the west), and I had no place to settle anymore. Egypt were so huge, and I attacked them with horse archers, I believe. Tried to capture (raze) that city twice, but both attempts failed, despite bringing a few more troops than usual (still not enough, so).

After the 2nd attempt failed, I decided to stop, as I was left with no offensive unit, 2 miserable cities, and so few techs. No point in posting my latest screenshot, which was taken well before I attacked anything. I probably need to learn some basis here.

Epic 8: Potluck – The Spoils of War

No fancy variants here, except that every civ on the map will be played by someone else. Same map, same civs…but the civs will be shared by the players. With no specific variant rules, no specific goals, we can just play and have fun with whatever rules we want.

And here we have the Roman start:


I founded on the starting spot, by the way, since my two (!) warrior scouts offered no compelling reasons to move. So, let’s have a look. We have loads of grassland. A smattering of flood plain. Gems on a hill. Wine. Cows. River. In fact, it looks like the One Right Opening move would be Oracle -> Civil Service for a capital city that simply SPEWS commerce. Well, whipping and chopping praetorians early WON’T work because of that little variant restriction, no war before BC.

I’m playing as Rome, too, so I have Praetorians. Now, I’ve never played with praetorians before, and with a game such as this I would rather like to take an historic approach. Rome will dominate the world with its Legions of Praetorians. Haha. Despite having never built a praet before this game, I know one thing. They’re strong. So, to balance the power of my praets somewhat, I will introduce a variant rule (to the already existing rule, which is that I may not declare war before 1000BC).

Variant Rules:
Julius Caesar is a military genius. Battle formations, logistics, training…he can do it all. But in the aspects of creativity, Julius is somewhat lacking. The world will see great visionary works, constructed to the glory of mankind. But Rome will not build such visionary structures. Oh no.
Variant Rule #1: Rome may build NO great wonders, anywhere, anytime, ever.

But Julius can still admire the beauty of a marvelous piece of architecture. And as the ruler of the world’s greatest nation, he must own ALL such pieces of architecture.
Variant Rule #2: Rome must capture and own every Great Wonder. No wonder cities may be razed. All wonder cities MUST be captured before TRUE victory can be claimed.

Right, let’s begin…

***
A fairly uninteresting opening play sees Wheel -> Pottery and a worker first to connect the gems and construct cottages on the flood plains. There isn’t a TON of extra food, but enough to grow at a decent rate, especially with cheap granaries. Iron Working follows Pottery for obvious reasons; I want to try and grab iron with my second city. And Rome will not produce a settler particularly fast until it grows, so a granary follows the worker, and then a barracks.

Here, my capital development, together with a nice little spot north of Rome that is being “reserved” by my warrior:


And in 2050BC, I get this (guess it doesn’t matter so much where city 2 goes, eh?):

How ironic. 8)

After Roosevelt wrote his own entry in Julius’ little black book with an annoying city placement, I was compelled to found Antium in a location other than anticipated. This placement was primarily production focused, but grabbed a couple of nifty resources:


While Antium grew, Rome build praetorians, and my research path beelined towards civil service the old fashioned way. I helped myself to Confucianism along the way, which was rather inconveniently founded in Antium (inconveient because Antium would be a military powerhouse, with no time for building wussy banks and markets and such...)

Around 600 years BC, my praetorians saw first blood against a barbarian city. It was razed (inconveniently placed, and I hate that “we wish to return to our motherland” nonsense when we’re talking barbarians):


A short while later, Cumae was founded in a more convenient location to grab the third “metal” happiness resource, silver, which would make forges oh-so-tasty. Cumae would later become the home of Roman enlightenment. In other words, a specialist city:


So anyway, with the nearby barbarians dead, my praets started to grow bored. Where CAN I send them next? Oh, look…shinies!


In the early AD years (185 I believe), I was ready for a three prong attack on Roosevelt (roughly 4 praetorians per battle group):

Philadelphia and Boston I kept, Atlanta I razed. Washington fell in 410, which I also kept for its shinies. With Stonehenge, I quit research on calendar to give time for my new American cities to pop their borders. The fall of New York (also a keeper) saw the end of Roosevelt. You have been assimilated!

Here’s my Roman Empire in 605AD:


Following the fall of Rome, the next few hundred years is spent building infrastructure, most notably, the Forbidden Palace in Washington and the Heroic Epic in Antium. And lots of forges and courthouses. Cumae also produced a few Great People.

In 1172AD, Rome was ready to get more shinies. Hatty, top of the pecking order, and nearby, would be my next target:


Alexandria has no shinies, and is razed:


A short while later, China (brought into the war by Egypt, maybe) declares war, and makes a nuisance of himself in the north, where I have four cities producing knights at regular intervals:

Silly China. I don’t particularly want to fight China. China has no shinies. I think I will raze that annoying little city and then let China have peace.

Here’s a shiny update in 1214AD. It will form the blueprint for my military campaigns over the course of the rest of the game:


War with Egypt continued. With Mansa keeping Hatty occupied in the North, my forces swept south. The shiny Notre Dame in Elephantine was saved, while Minoan and Najran (south of Elephantine) were razed.


I finally made peace with Hatty, leaving her some shinies for the time being. I think I will let the following picture speak for itself, though:

Annoying culture.

The war with Sally was short, with the only goal being to raze Damascus and get rid of that damned culture, but the Hagia Sophia had gone up in Mecca, so Sally had better be building rifles if he knows what’s good for him…Big Daddy Julius has cavalry now! The availability of Cavalry also sees research shut down in favour of upgrading knights.

My cavalry head East for Memphis and the Great Library, while my praets and catapults head slowly north:


And the Egyptian Civ is destroyed in 1490. So long and thanks for the...shinies.

Next on the agenda is England, who has lots of shinies. They also have musketeers. Oh dear, my cavalry are petrified.

York has the Sistine Chapel; London has the Great Lighthouse, the Hanging Gardens and Angkor Wat. Nottingham has nothing, but the streets are clean so we keep it. Goa has nothing, and is razed. It was all over in 15 turns, not even worth showing pics of.

Sally was next:


Then Mansa:


And with the help of a great artist culture bomb and a few border pops, we have victory! Here are a few of my shinier shiny cities, together with the world map:

All existing World Wonders belong to Rome, but none have been built by Rome. Except the confucian shrine, somehow. Mmmm...I wonder how I that...

I also played as Arabia - only not so well. I didn't finish due to (mainly) lack of time. I noticed that I am lacking a lot in this game, compared to all AI and all human Arabia's. Here is the final screenshot ...

Short summary:

Settled on spot;

Never founded or adopted a religion

First War in 1196 AD

Space Victory in 1984 AD

Lots of fun and some interesting actions from FDR

OK, I'm Mao. Philosophical and Organised. I like Philosophical as a trait, can use GPs as an effective tech catch up tool when needed, Organised I'm not so sure of how to use. Half price courthouses are good. Finally the UU. I like the Chokonu! One of the more versatile UUs.

Starting strategy might be to head towards Metal Casing and get an engineer employed to burn a GE for Machinery (unlocking UU). We'll see.

OK lets load this baby up! I've got a thing about settling on floodplains but can't easily see a better spot even after moving the two warriors, so settle in place it is.

Start off with building a warrior and researching bronze working (to assess feasability of early axe rush).

I see the stone, if only I was Qin (floodplains and stone - yum).



We meet our first contestant in 3640BC. Hatty come on down. We also meet our second in the same year. Nutter alert.



Warrior completes and I'll put 6 turns into a barracks to grow to 3 before switching to a worker.

Bronze Working comes in and no copper to be seen anywhere. Hunting is now up (and then archery). Was hoping for copper nearby to avoid this path.

Fun Time Sally appears and in the same turn (weird huh) another nutcase.



Now archery is in I can go back to plan B, which is Animal Husbandry, The Wheel, Pottery, Writing and Alphabet.

Worker is in and as I start farming a floodplain (I'll cottage once I know pottery).

Roosevelt shows up but no accompanying nutcase, I'm dissapointed. Mansu and Elizabeth show up as well. 5 friendlies and 2 shall we say unpredictable opponents.

Shanghai is founded 1780BC, east of Beijing. My next city is going to grab that Bronze.



Once Writing is in, its straight for Alphabet to see what I can pick up. open Borders with all, of course (well except for Toko of course).

After Hatty takes my prefered city location as decided before I decide on here as my 3rd city, Guangzhou, west of Beijing.



The big moment is here Alphabet. Depending on what I can get for this depends on how my game will be going. Here goes...

Lizzy, Writing for Mysticism and Fishing.
Mansu, Writing for Masonry.
Hatty, Fishing/Pottery for Meditation

And that's it for now. Was hoping for more (JC and Lizzy won't give up Iron Working).

Finally research Iron Working myself and guess what, yep no iron. This game is really going downhill. I needed to grab that bronze earlier.

Found Nanjing in a really bad spot just to get some metals! You don't want to be in a culture war with a creative civ fighting for your only metal. Methinks this city is building only cultural builds.



At 1AD, I am down Monotheism to two AI and Code Of Law to Mansu but still have a monopoly on Alphabet and am about to build Great Library. I lose this to Mansu by 2 turns as the Chinese cities are somewhat poor in production.

In 155AD the bells of war ring out for Tokogawa . I take Kagoshima same turn but raze it as he built it in the wrong spot.



Tokyo falls soon after and I keep this one.



As well as Osaka. I raze Satsuma near JC's lands as I would lose this in a cultural war. When I take the capital Kyoto, I decide enough is enough and give him peace and his island city.

No sooner do I settle my city near the ruins of Kagoshima than Hatty settles a city in the south east of Beijing :mad: . I was going there next!!!

It then becomes a tech war. I hold onto a monopoly on Machinery, Civil Service and Paper. The AI research Theology and Music. I stop the trades until I hit Liberalism in 1262AD (I take Nationalism). Next round of trades mean that Divine Right is the only tech I don't have and I still have a monopoly on Liberalism and Nationalism.

Tokogawa drops a culture bomb in his island home of Edo, stealing Kyoto's food resource. Not happy Jan!



Time to take out the trash. We rid the world of the Japanese!

Time for some emancipation unhapiness for the poor AI. I manage to time researching Economics (for free GM) with a 66% chance of a GM in Kyoto, which works and gives me Constitution (by burning both). Normally I wouldn't burn two 2 GMs on a tech but hopefully it gives me a tactical advantage down the line. Research Democracy and switch to emancipation straight away in 1532AD. No AI has constitution yet. Hopefully I can create some major unhappiness in their cities.

1550AD is a big year in Chinese history as we build our first Wonder of the Game - Taj Mahal.

Our tech lead is still immense, so Space Race seems the easiest victory from here. One problem, got no copper!! Hatty has some. Therefore, lets get some from her. I could try for a trade but I prefer a more violent and permanent method so I declare on her. Plan is to take Heliopolis and raze Alexandria and Elephantine.



This should cripple her research as well as she is closest to me in the space race. Saladin is already at war with her and JC joins soon after.

Part A works well.



As does Part B and C and we declare peace for 700 gold and world map. Thebes (Hatty's city above Heliopolis) is the Buddhist Holy City and is applying some cultural pressure to Heliopolis. In retrospect I should have taken Alexandria and razed Heliopolis . In any respect I have my copper to build those space parts

I'm getting a bit worried about my production capacity for the spaceship. A capital with 26 production running bureaucracy being your best production centre ain't good.



So midships we change tack, domination it is, next target Saladin (he doesn't have rifles or cannons and I have many). I trade JC democracy to get peace with Hatty as he will take all her cities (and I want them eventually).

I take Baghdad and Mecca (Hindu Holy City).



We then raze Narjan (too close to Medina) and then take Medina (Jewish Holy City) and Saladin is dead. Thanks for the two holy cities though Sally, my economy is in much better shape.



Back to taking out Hatty. She has CG rifles and I'm a few turns of infantry but have cannons! We take Thebes (Buddhist Holy City) and that's that for Hatty.



1746AD brings Statue of Liberty, my second wonder.

Bring on Lizzy. She has redcoats, so I will have to wait for infantry here (due in 4).

I think about turning off research at this point (for upgrades and rush buys) but decide to research railroads (to get units to the front quicker) and artillery for more smashy smashy.

Lizzy only has 3 mainland cities. I take them and she is left with an ocean square but no cities!





Next item on the menu is Mansu. He is probably not far from infantry, so I'm upgrading all cannons to artillery (CR3 artillery is very nice). Actually he still has riflemen, so my artillery eats him alive. Another holy city, excellent.



He is beaten down fairly easily and then comes the crunch. I don't have enough land for domination without taking on JC. He has infantry but I have Tanks .



Ok its not quite a spear vs tank but I found this axe lying around, a relic from the Japan wars, noticed it had 9 xp, found a battle it could win, so I could give it a CR promotion before upgrading to an infantry .



JC donates enough land for this.



And a summary in pictures:









FINAL THOUGHTS:

Wasn't a great starting location, no metals and not much production, in terms of commerce and research was a great location. Will be intersted in how the other Chinese participants went.

Only built two wonders and no CS slingshot, worker steal or Pyramids/GL/Representation. Sadly, this wasn't by choice .

I never used a chokonu in anger all game, only built 2!

Best laid plans of mice and men, my initial plan (forge, GE for machinery) went out the window, my second plan (Space) went a similar direction. Third times a charm.

As usual, a great game, long may they continue.

my report is here
Epic 8 potluck

Difficulty: Monarch
Civilization: Saladin (I drew him)
World Size: Standard
Opponents: Seven
Terrain: Pangaea, Natural Shoreline
Climate: Temperate
Rules: Standard
Victory: Any

My first epic and my first game on monarch! with an unusual start of two warriors? well that's odd but hey I get double scouting and that means more huts!!! I build oracle and that kept me in pace with AI's for a while any ways lose a site to egypt and settle elsewhere in land grab ended up wit only 3 cities I needed for but where to get them from Egypt #1 in the world and running away with the game or England small army and good land? I wonder who anyways conquer all of england without any real counter attack and pull from last to about 5-4 place that's a jump I really needed butr nothing else to signifigent happens until I declare war on china and take 2 cities and the americans raze two japanese cities and I poach them and with state property turn beijing into my best city that makes london and beijing my best cities I build a huge army and attack rome taking 3 cities and amreica took 1 anyway space loss in 2019 AD lost by three turns oh well on to the next game sorry about lack of detail thanks to sirian and Griselda for the game and save By the way I used 2 Golden ages to try and get A victory and cash bought the ironworks game ended I was #1 in score with Hatty and FDR right behind me everyone else was eliminated or out of it anyways

With so many reports coming in today, I decided to keep the length of mine down.

The start site is rather interesting, with no production and a long river flowing away from the sea. After some thought, I decide it is acceptable to found right on the starting spot and specialise the capital for commerce, while setting up a second city for production. With cows in range I'll open by researching AH and looking for horses.

Since I'm playing pre-expansion Mao (Org Phi) for probably the last time, I'm going to use a strategy unique to this leader and civ, and that is a quick Machinery slingshot to the UU and attacking from a position of tech superiority.

I decide to build settler first to run this strategy, as I intend to build oracle in my production city. I founded Shanghai at the wheat/horses site, and it needed an obelisk to use its resources properly so that worked out quite well. I then proceeded to make a timing error by building my second worker in Shanghai after the obelisk instead of doing it in Beijing. This delayed the Oracle to 820 BC, but I was able to successfully complete it in Shanghai and take Metal Casting anyway. Here is the situation.



The two workers at Beijing are chopping the forge, when the chops finish I whip the forge to finish it and then run an engineer. The great engineer will then be used to research Machinery in 310 BC. When I got alphabet I traded for iron working, and was able to stretch north with a 4th city above Guangzhou to get the iron there to start pumping out Chu-ko-nu.

Caesar was the first AI to make an offensive tribute demand, so he would be the first target. Anyway, the idea of taking his Praetorians on in their normal age of glory appealed. I got Hatshepsut to stop trading with him so that I would be able to freely move through her borders to attack Rome but not vice versa.

In 95 AD I have the first wave in position to declare war. Antium, unusually, is defended by axes - against a standard sword/axe attack this would be a good choice, but against CKNs they are free kills.



I move up to Rome, kill the praetorian guarding the iron, pillage it and wait for a couple of catapults to show up to take out the city defences, then take the city and generally proceed up the river into Roman lands resulting in a pretty culture map. I use mainly Drill promotions with a few Cover CKNs and CR1 catapults that promote to accuracy if they survive.

I get my second GP, a prophet from the oracle, and add him to the hammer poor capital of Beijing as a specialist to improve production.



Beijing is working (slowly) on the Great Library, my iron city of Nanjing normally pumps troops but has to put up a theatre to help against Egyptian culture. I check the trade screens for AIs with loose cash every time someone builds a wonder so that I can sell tech to people to get their refunded gold, which is why I have so much cash on hand.

The particularly observant might notice that Antium is in revolt, and that's because I left it undefended for a couple of turns and Toku pinched it. I sign peace with Caesar for all his cash since his remaining cities seem to be mostly in the tundra, and send all my forces down to deal with Japan. I also get Egypt to declare war too, which I end up regretting since all she does is send 2 chariots to pillage. Roosevelt spontaneously decides to pile in too, and he at least has a few troops that weaken city defenders.

Meanwhile I whip the Great Library in 650 AD, and get civil service to enable macemen. Maces will help out with the city attacking when the AI gets longbows.

I have elephants in my force too now and against this 3 way alliance Toku doesn't stand a chance. I clear him off the mainland in about 800 AD and make peace since I have no boats whatsoever. I then go after Roosevelt since he's the only AI player who doesn't have feudalism yet, although he gets it after I capture two cities. The role of my newly trained maces promptly becomes dying to longbows.



My army is advancing on Philadelphia, you'll notice that there aren't even any maces in the stack anymore because they all died. Two English warriors have been following me around observing all my military campaigns for some reason.

Washington also had Pyramids, Stonehenge, Colossus and Chicken most of which are visible in the screenshot.

Due to organised I had no problem whatsoever keeping my economy running at a good pace despite the constant war. I was getting annoyed at losing so many attack troops to all the AI cities which were mostly on hills, and the solution arrived as I finished off the remnants of America and Rome:



I had an engineer running in Beijing the whole game, and had a second GE available at this time to build the Taj Mahal for cavalry production. My old CKNs remained useful throughout the end game to hold captured cities.

As the golden age ended and the first wave of cavalry went in against Egypt, I revolted to representation, free speech, mercantilism, and free religion in the middle of the war. For some reason the English warriors decided to spectate this too. After Egypt was conquered, I hadn't reached domination yet so decided to turn my cavalry loose on Saladin too.



I had enough of them by this point that I didn't need to bother bombarding cities anymore.



The English observers reported back home and the remaining civs decided to concede a domination victory rather than get overrun too.



Anyway, I had fun with this game even if it was not too difficult, thanks for the event. Probably stopping research and going all in with maces would have won faster, but I do not like playing civ that way so I didn't see a reason to do it in an unscored event.