...our motherland. Sure, I've read this message on the city screen before. But now to that message in a quite hilarious way... Can anyone tell me what's going on here ?



Actually I did not capture this city but I'm playing as Egypt. The city has been in my possession since its founding. The chinese culture doesn't get a hold on the cities fat cross [Edit: I just saw that the tile in the upmost right corner is actually chinese. Is that then the reason for this ?]. Why the hell I have 15% chinese popoulation in there then, causing that yearning ? All that this city and its citizens ever has been is Egypt...

Any suggestions ?

Imhotep

This was my first game after a long stint of Oblivion, so I was eager to see if I can still play (and play well enough to survive this variant!). I definitely had lots of fun trying to find the best way to accomplish my perpetual catch up. Thanks to Sirian for sponsoring this!

This scenario sure puts the Spanish Empire in a fine mess. Workers are obviously the highest priority, so making getting some cities to size 6 is the first step. The size 5 cities are rearranged to maximize food, and the others are swapped over to granaries (to have as many tiles used as possible once I can start improving them).

After some consideration about what to set research to, I decide on Alphabet. I'm obviously going to get into a tech hole, and trading looks to be the best bet to get out. If I get to Alphabet before some AIs, that is. In addition to maximizing food in the size 5 cities, I tried to work lots of river tiles, and raised science to 30%.

In 175 AD (one turn after Christianity was founded), I noticed this:



Saladin has a double holy city! That looks like a tempting target once I get a credible military built.

Wanting to give me more reason to attack him, Saladin captures Sarmatian (the barb city to the right of Spain) in 275 AD.



As various costs mount, I had to lower science to 20%. I don't have a record of exactly when I got my first workers out, but I think it was sometime around 300 AD. Cottages came online just as science went down to 10%, so I thankfully didn't get stuck there for more than a few turns.

I finally complete research on Alphabet in 940 AD. I pick up Bronze Working, Monotheism, Mathematics, and a bunch of gold in trades.

I set research to Code of Laws, and researched most of it. I was obviously running out of time towards the end of the research (~1040 AD), so I mooched the rest off of Caesar (thanks, buddy!) and traded it for a couple techs (including Currency, I think). I did get thrown for a minute when I couldn't trade it around immediately after acquiring it. Have things always been that way?

I noticed that nobody had yet researched Philosophy, and managed to get there in 1280 AD at 3rd. I managed to trade it around for Civil Service, Feudalism, Literature, Theology, Horseback Riding and Metal Casting (I think they were all at last). That sure did a lot to get me out of the tech hole. Unfortunately, it was also the last of my major trades. After a couple minor trades (I don't remember what), I hit the "We fear you are becoming too advanced" limit with some civs in 1480. I think that was the first time I had ever seen it.

With Theology in tow, I converted to Buddhism to ally myself with Hatty and Qin and Theocracy. I built up a force of maces and conquistadores, and invaded Arabia in 1515. I captured Sakae (the ex-barb town in the north), and razed Sarmatian in the west (it was getting crushed culturally, and would have flipped to either Hatty or Qin). After seeing minimal resistance (a couple units that only pillaged one or two tiles tops), I proceeded to capture Damascus before making peace in 1570. I built a bunch more troops, redeclared in 1620, and took Baghdad and Medina:



Damascus is just north of there. Peace returns in 1680, and that was the end of my military conquest. I might have continued, but Saladin had reached rifling in between wars. My pinch conquistadores were faring well against grenadiers, but not so well against city garrison rifles, so the war weariness would have made the fighting pretty hard (and damaging to my economy). Fighting a war with obsolete units was an interesting experience to be sure. It was definitely worth it, though, as the holy city revenue lets me raise science up to 80% (it was at 60% most of the game).

Things were pretty quiet for me from then on, trying to close Hatty's tech lead. They were not so quiet on the other side of the world, though. Julius remained at war with Saladin after I made peace, and his luck started to fail. Liz declared on Julius in 1695 and took a city from him. She made peace in 1985. Saladin managed to capture (and razed) another of Julius's cities, and finally made peace in 1810. Julius saw nearly a century of peace, but it all fell apart for him when Liz redeclared in 1906, and was joined by Qin in 1916. Qin started taking cities, and the Romans were eliminated in 1941. Why did I see fit to mention all this? This warring effectively removed Liz and Qin from the space race (Qin completed Apollo in 1947, and Liz never completed it).

In the peaceful third of the world, things start to get interesting when Hatty completes the Apollo program in 1888. Mine completed in 1908. Mansa Musa built his in 1922, and that was it for civs that managed to get beyond the SS Casings (Mansa only got as far as one thruster, though).

I built Broadway and Rock & Roll mainly to deny them to Egypt, then the space elevator. I didn't need it, but it was nice to have anyways.

I got a bit of a scare in 1944 when Hatty put herself up for diplomatic victory. That didn't work out so well for her, however:


I triggered a golden age and swapped to Universal Suffrage (from Representation) in 1958 and my production went through the roof:



I won a space race victory in 1965 by a nice margin: Hatty was missing her engine and life support, and didn't even have the tech for the stasis chamber (Genetics).

On the heels of two PvP weekends comes somthing for the PvE players out there: a weekend where everyone able to access Cantha will have access to the Canthan elite missions via Kaineng Center.

From the Guild Wars site:

Quote:This coming weekend offers special bonuses for players who enjoy missions, roleplaying, and unique items. Factions players will be granted access to all Canthan elite missions the entire weekend via an NPC in Kaineng Center. In addition, there will be double rare loot drops within Canthan Elite Missions during the weekend! This exciting weekend will begin on Friday, August 4, at 12:01 a.m. PDT (07:01 GMT) and will end Sunday, August 6, at 11:59 p.m. (that's Monday, August 7 at 06:59 GMT). We hope to see you there!

Better late than never. Enjoy.

http://civ4info.com/Sullla/civ4_adventure9_1.html

I don't have a full report for this one, but here's a summary. And, for variety, it's a loss.

I started out by maximizing food production in all cities and researching mining at 100%. I dropped the slider once the cash ran out and kept going, running 30% science at breakeven, getting bronze working next. Qin wants open borders in 150, I turn him away. Hatty wants me to cancel my Arabian deals in 200, and I say no, seeing as he's bigger. My first worker completes in 250 (Salamanca), as BW completes. Start IW, and in my first retrospective error, start food improvements at Salamanca (yes, I've read some of the other reports before doing mine, so I already have a sense of where I goofed )

Other workers complete over the next several turns, and once again, I improve food resources first. At Cordoba, at least, I started getting cottages up and running, but only around 560 AD and after hooking up corn and pigs (basically, the first worker chopped the second and farmed corn, the 2nd worker chopped worker #3 and pasturized the pigs, then all three went cottage crazy). Another goof? Probably.

That's the start...this continues for some time, and I neglect to cottage spam, instead trying to turn Barcelona into a production center and Madrid into a mixed city. Why? I got too focused on where I was power-wise -- didn't want to build commerce if I was going to get my butt kicked because I was weak! Eh. ("Game Over" probably occurred as a result of these decisions right here) During this time, I switch to Judaism and align myself with Arabia -- they're big, they're bad, and, well, Egypt was a pain in the rear.

I got alphabet in 1120, and now have several cities building research. A GS from Cordoba lightbulubs Mathematics in 1200. Did I trade techs? Nope -- too far behind at this point. Arabia and Egypt go to war in 1170 AD, and after taking a look around Egyptian territory and begging HBR off Saladin, I started building swords and horse archers as best I could, along with some catapults when I finally research construction....in 1270 AD.

Heliopolis falls to Spain in 1270, Elephantine in 1350, then start pillaging the countryside. In 1565, I grab Memphis, and Hatty finally agrees to straight-up peace. Of course, by this point, I've got few options as I'm now at least an era behind in tech. Civil Service arrives in 1600, and at this point in time, a win is looking improbable -- I'll get steamrollered militarily, and have no other options available. I'm too far behind in space race, and too small for diplomatic win (and don't have many allies). Cultural? I have never attempted a cultural win, and it's a bit late to try. I decide to carry on, half-hoping for some miracle....

Memphis revolts in 1610, comes out in 1640. I start piling in longbows (!), and in 1665, despite my tech-poor situation and facing musketmen against my horse archers, axes, and swords, I dial up Hatty, demand and get Philosophy, then declare war. I focus on Byblos and Phoenician - I take Phoenician in 1675 and drop a GA culture bomb to gain full control of the gems in 1685. Byblos is taken and razed in 1705 to relieve cultural pressure on Phoenician. Peace is declared again, and I have fallen further behind, as at this point conquistadors are my strongest unit.

1705, and I'm way behind in tech. The upside -- techs are dirt cheap to research. 8) The downside? Too many to list. I pop another Artist in Cordoba in 1720 (that makes 2) -- despite running 2 scientists in Cordoba, the National Epic was popping artists.

I get Engineering in 1765, Astronomy in 1790, and despite the presence of riflemen in Egyptian cities, I take another crack at Egypt in 1800. I attempt to use my stack against the 4 rifles in Thebes -- I've got 11 conquistadors and three cats, the city is at 8% defense and defended by four rifles and a grenadier. 10 dead conquistadors later and one dead rifle to show for it, well, there goes the neighborhood. In 1820, my forming second wave stack gets wiped out by an attack out of Thebes, and I'm in really big trouble now. I retire in 1824, knowing full well if I continue I'll get wiped out.

Just for comparison, my last researched tech was Liberalism in 1808 -- I saw my first chinese destroyer in 1816!

My main mistake(s) here was getting too concerned with my relative power and not concerned enough with commerce teching up (yes, I didn't learn my lesson of Tech Uber Alles from Adventure 8...). The fear of getting attacked overrode any sense of hoping diplomacy would save the day until I got up and running. I'm also still a relative beginner at Civ IV (only got about 30 games or so under my belt, half at Warlord and half at Noble) [that's also my excuse and I'm stickin' to it! ), so there are several "basic" game mechanics that I'm still wrapping my head around (like, oh, say, tech trading, the use of GP's, the finer points of diplomacy, and a couple of other ones).

At some point, I'll probably take another crack at this game, just to see if I can do any better. I'll also, at some point, get a full report up for this one, just to be "complete" in my reporting.

notopt

I have my report up on a temporary site:

http://www.freewebs.com/idoki/adventure9.htm

I apologize about the screenshots. I didn't want to bother to resize them all, therefore, they are all cut off. You should be able to see whatever is most important though

Kodii - Space Race Victory - 1961 AD

This is a short summary.

I started with throwing all excess military at Sarmatian, I did not take it but, I didn't have to pay to the troops anymore.
Everything else pretty much the same as in other reports as though my recovery rate was weak and I don't have a significant tech leat in the XX cent.
...yes I still have some turns to go. I am aiming at time victory, but still not sure if I will get it.

I converted to Judaism early and ca. 1900 Hatty attacked me. She has Rifles, Cav and Artillery (worst...!). I was defending with Gren/Rifles and researching Infantry. I manged to do so and I am the only one to have Infantry so at the moment I am pushing Hatty back. Hope to beat Her soon. Before the war she was most advanced and she + Sally had more points then I.

I can make a time victory if I manage to prevent AIs from building SS (Qin, Mansa...) and outrun them with points (Sally). I will not to declare wars as this would be to easy.
Hold Your thumbs.

Hi, first timer, my report is pretty sucky but here it is:

1 AD

Started the game. Doesn’t look too challenging (or stagnant, even.) Sweet city spots and the worker prohibition is almost meaningless (Seville grows in 3 turns to size 6, Barcelona in 6 turns, Cordoba in 7 turns, Madrid in 8 turns.) I plan to build workers in Seville, Barcelona, and Cordoba and to grow Madrid, so I hammer the granary out a little earlier in Madrid at the cost of a few slices of bread.

I note that I’m running some unit cost and delete the warrior in Salamanca, the warrior in Madrid and the warrior in Toledo. I send archers out exploring.

I also max out hammers in Salamanca to get that obelisk out and get at those cows. Moo!

I switch research to Alphabet (not that I’ll be discovering it anytime soon with my 0% research rate, which I probably won’t switch until I build some libraries) and switch most city production to granaries. I even have hereditary rule, so unhappiness is not an issue.

25 AD

I see forces massing on Saladin’s border. This does not rock. Hope it’s a false alarm.

50 AD

The Axeman/Chariot pair enters my cultural borders, but thankfully no declaration of war.

75 AD

My first worker build begins in Seville.

125 AD

Oops, guess I should have noticed I haven’t researched mining yet. That’s one technology I can afford and so I switch from Alphabet (5 bulbs down the wrong pipe, oh well.)

150 AD

Parthenon built somewhere. Saladin gets Theology. I meet Mansa. Worker#2 production begins in Barcelona.

175 AD

Great Lighthouse built somewhere. Saladin adopts Theocracy. Uh oh. Worker#3 production begins in Cordoba.

200 AD

Guess Saladin was going after that Barbarian city on my east. I’m going to follow him in and see if I can take it with a couple of archers after he weakens the defenders. Unfortunately, Hatty got it from the other side, just barely too, sigh.

325 AD

Saladin sent some workers over to help me with road construction. Thanks Buddy!

400 AD

Sistine is built somewhere.


520 AD

I’m up to 7 workers. That’s more like it.

640 AD

Caesar declares on Elizabeth. The two civs that history has forgotten duke it out.

660 AD

Empire is finally connected by roads

1040 AD

Catching up is hard. Great Library is built somewhere else.

1200 ADish

Declare on Qin. Capture city (only had 1 defender.) He immediately recaptures it with an unexpected horde of defenders. War goes poorly, stalemate.

1360 ADish

Finally first to discover a technology, Paper. Will hold it until one other gets close so I can start on Education.

1450 AD

Hatty is close to discovering Paper but I think I can squeeze one more turn out of it.

1460 AD

Doh! Hatty discovers Paper. I get what I can for it. 5 turns until I discover Education. Hope that’s soon enough.

1505 AD

I’m first to discover Education, but Hatty is offering me a pittance for it. I just know she’s going to beat me to Liberalism by 1 turn, sigh.

1510 AD

I catch a big break. Hatty hasn’t discovered Education yet so I can still get max trade value for it and have a decent shot at first to Liberalism (4 turns.)

1520 AD

2 turns until I get Liberalism. If I get it first, I really like my chances. Please, please, please … A flurry of trades this turn so I can pick up economics first as well.

1525 AD

Woo hoo! Stagnant no more! First to liberalism and economics

1610 AD

I discover rifling. Nobody else has replaceable parts. On to Steam Power and Assembly Line.


1645 AD

I got sidetracked by Democracy. With only 7 cities, the Statue ain’t all she’s cracked up to be, but laying some Emancipation hurt down is always nice and better the lady in my hands than in someone else’s.

1800 AD

Finally have a nice-sized Infantry stack to go after Qin with. I retake Xian (Qin’s Forbidden Palace is in there and even if I can’t hold it this should cripple Qin since his empire is pretty mediocre anyway.)

1834 AD
I build the Pentagon and prepare to take out 3 of Saladin’s cities.

1844 AD

I capture Sakae (Versailles is a nice bonus.)

1860 AD

After a reasonably quick and painless war against Saladin, it’s time for a ‘civil war’ in order to knock my last serious rival, Hatty, out of contention. She’s got 2 cities (Heliopolis and Sarmatian, the barbarian city I just missed out on eons ago) I could surprise attack with tanks and neither one is well defended but since they both also have forest cover, I decide to chance it and send the marines in with cannons to soften her up first. I hope I’m not being too complacent, but I begin building Rock N Roll and the Eiffel tower on the same turn that I declare on Hatty. She’s got a few infantry, but hasn’t discovered combustion yet, so I don’t have to worry about the choppers of death or tanks.

1862 AD

Both cities fall without friendly casualties. Hatty is a pretty inept general, she didn’t reinforce either city. I expected peace to rapidly ensue, but Hatty just never got her act together and I ended up conquering virtually her entire empire, knocking her from first place to last place in 13 turns.

1886 AD

After capturing all but 3 of Hatty’s cities, I’m ready to go into spaceship mode. I give her a peace treaty.

1902 AD

I build the dam.

1910

I build Hollywood, completing all 3 of the modern happy wonders.

Time passes ... UN built (I'm Sec Gen, but no hope for diplomatic.) Internet Built. I get bored. Let’s finish off Qin!

Qin puts up a whale of a fight. He’s outgunned and outteched, but the Chinese hordes manage a few tactical victories on the way to strategic defeat. I take Xian (I gave it back to Qin when it threatened to flip to Hatty,) Shanghai and Hangzhou and make peace with Qin again in 1941 (a turn after I built the elevator.)

1953 rolls around, my spaceship is a handful of turns from completion, I decide one last war will work. I declare on Saladin and by using English territory as a launch pad, capture Neapolis in 1953. With one turn to go before the spaceship I capture Medina and Basra in 1958.

I launch in 1959.

Was a fun adventure. I thought it was too easy at first, then I thought I'd never catch up (I was probably 20 techs behind the tech leader at one point) and once the modern era arrived (Paper was the turning point) I dominated, although I wasn't able to bring proceedings to the appropriate conclusion as quickly as I would have liked.

How can I upload pictures on this site? Please, any help welcome

RB Adventure 9 - Stagnation

The economy is struggling and we are allowed to train workers only in cities with size 6 or larger. Research is at 0. We have not much money, so what to do?

Here is the initial plan:
Switch all cities to libraries. With libraries, I can use 2 scientists per city to get some research going.
Research alphabeth. It is usually low on the priority list of the AI and enables tech trading. If I can get it quickly enough, I should be able to trade for all the early techs I'm missing.
After libraries build workers if the city is size 6 if not start granary untill city is size 6, then worker.



There is also a nice little barbarian village, only defended by two warriors. This will provide some nice cash, let's go and get it.





Seville, Cordoba, Madrid and Barcelona have libraries and are set to 1 or 2 scientists while building workers. The scientists will slow down the worker production somewhat, but I thought it is more important to speed up research.
Alphabeth is now due in 11 turns, down from 200 without scientists



Alphabeth was researched in 640 AD and after 2 trading rounds we got: Mining, Bronze Working, Mathematics, Currency and Horseback Riding and additional money - not bad.
Next researhc goal is Code of Laws. This is important in two ways. First and most important to build courthouses to minimize maintenance costs, secondly to switch to caste system for unlimited specialists.

CoL gave me another nice trading round (Iron working, Calender and Construction) next is Civil Service (for Bureaucracy)

This is my empire at 1010 (had no save at 1000): The first courthouse is being built and research is already at 50%



I am still behind in techs:



During the next few hundred years, I just built infrastructure and thought how to win this game.
Egypt, Arabia and Mali are still somewhat better in research, my territory is just not big enough. So I have to prepare for war. China seems the right target. Nice lands next to me, rather isolated and therefore easily defendable.
I switched to free religion as soon as possible and improved my relations with Egypt, Mali, and England.



The next 3 centuries were spent for war preparation.

At 1750 I was ready for war.



The diplomatic relations were complicated. I had defensive pacts with Mali and England. China had one with Arabia.
I demanded techs from China untill they were really mad (-20 relation) and hoped, that they would declare war, but they did not.



So in 1785, I finally decided to start the action: I declared war on China, Arabia declared war on me. I bribed Egypt to declare war on Arabia and stop trading with China. I also brought in England and Mali against Arabia. I did not want anybody against China, because I wanted all their land for myself.

This war was rather risky when you look at the power graphs:



Arabia was the most powerful county at that time, But I hoped that Egypt and England will take some of the heat.

I had a big offensive war against China, taking the first city on turn 1 and a defensive war against Arabia planned. The only Arabian city I wanted was Sakae in my back yards.

War weariness was a problem from the beginning. I had to run 40% culture after 5 turns of war and increase that over time to 70% and still many cities were shrinking because of unhappiness.
The wars went well. China was just a matter of time to fall. I destroyed the first waves of Arabian cavalery with minimal losses (infantry is king at that time).

Arabia refused to talk peace, so I started to take a more offensive approach on this front as well and took one Arabian city after the other.

In 1872 China was defeated and Arabia was down to 3 cities which would fall over the next few turns. The problem was, that I am now hopelessly behind in techs. Egypt is an economic powerhouse and Mali is doing fine as well.





I still have excellent relations with Egypt, Mali and England, only Rome is not friendly.



So I decided to go for a diplomatic victory.

In 1884, after 99 years of war, the final battle is fought. Arabia is destroyed and a peaceful time begins.



Now it was maximum research to mass media, building the UN in a hurry since Egypt already started to build their first spaceship parts.

I built the UN in 1922




The elections were easily won with the votes of England and Mali







That was a wonderful scenario. Now I know much better how to get the economy going.

I made following changes immediately:

Set the Cities to get more Commerce while still growing and changed the build order to Granaries.

Research set towards Mining and Bronze.

Increased Science-rate to 40% which did result in a still sustainable deficit of –7gpt

Switch to Jewism as I fear that Saladin might become a danger otherwise.



At 200AD I have 3 cities at size 6 and working on Workers. Saladin on the meantime helps as he send his workers to build a road to his northern outpost.



My first Worker completes in 300 AD. The diplo-situation is looking quite good as Saladin, Quin and Lizzy are Jewish only Egypt, which is Buddhist, and Rome, which has no religion, are not. I’m also forced to reduce Science to 10% as I have no money left in my treasury.

Saladin captures the Barb city of Sarmatier.



400 AD Saldin founds Taoism in Samartier. (and shortly afterwards it spreads to Cordoba)



425 AD Disaster looms as Hatshepsut declares war on me while I’m still 2 turns away from Bronze-working. JC is now Jewish too but none of my Jewish brother-nation come to my aid against the vile Buddhists.



475 AD finally Bronzeworking comes in and I revolt immediately to Slavery and whip Walls /Archers where ever possible.



Thanks to Saladin who now builds a road from his northern City towards Samartier I have a nice roadnet .



My bowmen do their job quite well and those that happen to loose are replaced by the power of the whip.

In 680 AD I have finally my copper connected and celebrate this with whipping a Spear in Madrid and an Axe in Sevilla.



740 AD finally enough damage done to Hatshepsut so that she agrees to a plain peace treaty. I can return to building up my empire and economy.



960AD I met Mansa who is founder of Hinduism. I decline OB with the 2 non-jewish Civs (Mali and Egypt)



980 AD Hurray I can support 20%Science and still make 1 gpt

1150AD with 2 trades (copper to Saladin and Horses to Quin ) and the deletion of 3 Warriors I can sustain 30% Science.



1090 Ad I have now 4 Religions inside my borders (jewism from the Start, Christianity in Salamance, Taoism in Cordoba, Konfuzianism in Toledo) I decide to spread them to have a chance for cultural victory.



1220 AD Sevilla gets the 4th religion



1380AD 50% Science possible.



1390AD Copernicus (GS ) born in Sevilla he lightbulbs Philo which I sell to Lizzy (for Alpha, HBR and money) and Julius (Mono + Calendar)



1400 AD 60% Science sustainable thanks to the discovery of Currency



1480AD Although Wonders are build everywhere in the world no one has bothered to build the Hanging Gardens which I complete in this year



1565AD Saladin discovers Liberalism and I’m happy to learn the Art of Civil Service.



1585 AD the Jewish-block starts to crumble as JC switches to Hinduism and Quin converts to Buddhism.

Shortly afterwards Lizzy choose FreeReligion.



Although I’m still 5th in BNP my economy is now good enough that I can research techs some AI’s still lack and do some techtrading.



1700 I discover Liberalism (only 130 years after Saladin) and switch to Free Religion+Free Speach which is of course the best civic for me as I have 3 Religons in every city and 4 in Madrid, Sevilla and Cordoba. The later starts to build some nice pressure on Samartier.



Saladin declares War on Lizzy and asks later(1775 AD) if I want to join him. I agree to his request as all his lands are between me and Lizzy so I ‘m quite save.

I never sent a Unit towards her lands, I never saw an English unit and we sign peace after the mandatory 10 turns of war.



1802 I learn democracy and switch to Univ Suffrage and Emancipation. I’m now Nr. 4 in BNP and rising



In the 1850-s Saladin offers a Defense pact which I happily agree with and which holds for a very long time.



1908 ADQuin completes Apollo-programm followed by Saladin. Quin has also already completed 3-Gorges-Dam (most likely with a GI)



1922 AD I have now all Mil-techs I would need in case of an attack (Infantry and Artillery)

and I believe that my only chance to win via culture. I set my 3 big culture cities (Cordoba, Sevilla and Madrid ) which already have 17000 culture accumulated to produce culture, Switch the cultureslider to 100% . set Barcelona (my Ironworks city)to produce a modern military for my defense and the other cities to produce wealth and prepare to hit end turn until the end..



1929 Samartier the Taoist holy city joins the Spanish empire.



1979 Sevilla legendary

1989 Madrid legendary

1991 Cordoba legendary and

RBCiv-Adventure-9 wins a cultural victory

Saladin only lacked the Stasis-chamber for a space- win



At the end the Spanish empire was Nr 3 in BNP and Nr 1 in Production