Okay, I was a decent intermediate player at Civ 3, able to beat emperor level sometimes, but not dedicated enough to go higher. I loved reading other people's epic reports though, so I decided to give this a shot. So here we go.

BC 4000: My warrior moved NE to scout. I see we're near the ocean. I decide to settle 2 squares NE of the original square for silk. When I move I am delighted to see the wheat tile!

3960: Paris is founded. I start building a worker first and researching animal husbandry. I want for food before starting serious growth, so I need to get the wheat and cow hooked up as soon as possible.

Being creative, Stonehenge isn't worth that much to me because I get free culture in every city anyway. The key techs seem like they're going to be Drama for the cheap theatres, and Metal Casting for forges. My plan is to go for Stonehenge anyway for the great person bonus. Being industrious with stone adjacent is too good to pass up.

Hmm, tech is due in 18 turns. A worker is due in 18. If I didn't go for the worker, I wouldn't grow until 17 turns. It looks like my warrior scout is going to be my only entertainment for a long long time!

3800: Borders expand and I meet up with a scout from Genghis. He seems like an honourable enough guy.

3560: Very few resources to the NE. I see Rice and Bananas to the E.

3480: Buddhism is founded in a distant land. I know religion will eventually come to me. I don't plan on being a religious leader.

There is dye. That will be very nice for my cheap theatres if I can get it.

3440: I see a panther but move next to it. If it wants to attack me in the jungle I like my chances.

3400: Sure enough I defend against the panther in the jungle.

3240: Worker is out, and I learned Husbandry. I go for Mysticism next, toward Masonry for the stone and a quick Stonehenge build. I build a warrior and pasture the cow.

3160: I see rice and another cow to the SW.

3040: Wow SW is looking great. Rice, banana, 3 dye, cows. I really hope I get that site.

3000: Finely we're eating beef. I move to build a road and then I'm going to work the wheat for roast beef sandwiches. And bacon isn't too far away.

2960: Warrior -> Another warrior.

2800: Mysticism -> Masonry

I see horses on the coast to the W.

2760: Warrior -> Barracks

2680: One scout warrior taken down by a panther. Got maps of the NE from a hut.

2520: Meet Monezuma. The site to the east with Gold and rivers looks good but fairly far away.

2320: Meet Alexander to the E.

2240: Masonry due next turn. I move to hook up Stone.

2200: Start on Mining to work toward Bronze.

2160: Barracks done. Paris is 4 turns away from size 4.

2080: I see that Genghis has his capital just to the east of me. I must have just missed a glimpse at the border when scouting there before. That's a mistake that I doubt good players make.

2040: Send new warrior toward my hopeful second city site, by the dye clump. Get in one turn on Stonehenge before Paris grows to size 4, then I'll build a settler.

2000: Settler due in 12 turns.

1975: I'm second on greatest civs list behind an unknown.

1925: Gave a warrior jungle defense when I saw a wolf. It beat the wolf off and now I can get Woodsman 2, doubling movement in forest and jungle and giving him +30% more defense! Man, I'm now a panther ownage machine. This warrior is the closest thing to a Tarzan unit in any game I've ever played.

1875: Got mining -> Bronze Working. I want to see where the copper is.

1850: A panther attacked my Woodsman 2 warrior in the jungle. That's not a smart cat.

1725: My first settler is out. Now I have a decision. I'm very tempted to try and settle SE to cut off the other civs. I think there is nobody to the south or west of me on the continent to compete with me for that land. However, if I were to lose that 3 dye + rice + banana + horse site I'd freak out so I'm going to get that first.

[After reading a few reports, I notice that most players cut off the peninsula first. This is where better scouting information would have been good. Still... in retrospect I think I like my decision to settle the best city site to the W first anyway.]

Stonehenge due in 6. I'm going for it which slows down my next settler.

1575 Stonehenge done. Work on second settler

Here's my second city, Orleans:




1450: I meet Ghandi. Orleans borders expand.

1325: Bronze Working done -> Fishing. Second settler built. I'm going to add a couple more warriors. Pyramids is a very real possibility eventually with my stone hooked up now. It would take 25 turns now. Representation would be awfully nice. I'll probably put down a city or two more and grow Paris a bit more before attempting this if I do.

I don't see slavery mentioned in the rules. I'm not going to switch because it doesn't seem very honourable to me.

1300: I spot a Barbarian archer in the vicinity of Orleans. I'm a little scared but I have two warriors down there.

1200: I build Lyons. With the copper it could be a decent production center so I start with barracks.



1125: Fishing -> Pottery. I probably could have waited on fishing. The idea was to be able to work the lake tiles by the capital.

1075: Horses now hooked up.

880: Pottery -> Iron Working. I really want some of the resources under jungles. I really want writing too though. Judaism was founded a couple turns ago so I'm way behind on the spiritual tree.

840: Copper hooked up. I want to upgrade a couple warriors but first I want Iron Working.

800: Settler -> Pyramids due in 19. I'm going to mine a hill to try and speed this up.

720: Rheims founded to the east on the hill by the gold, with access to cows and floodplains. Wow, city maintenance is 9 now? I feel like I may have overextended myself a bit since my tech is advancing at a very slow pace. I have no power commerce cities yet. Well, pyramids should make things interesting.

500: Gold hooked up. I'm still an atheist civ so happiness really helps.

440: Pyramids in. Revolt to representation for the happiness. Hmm, now I need specialists worth having, for the extra science rate. Right now I'm going to make a few axemen just so the AIs don't get any ideas.

240: Iron Working -> Writing brings in the Classical era. Time to work on some of those jungle pigs and rice. There's plenty of iron around but none in a city radius.

220: Montezuma demands cows. I refuse. I have my principles, but if he wants to eat axe I'm willing to feed it to him.

200: Moses is born in my atheist capital. Sorry man, given available information, I can't reasonably conclude, based on your story alone, that a burning bush produced speech. And I can't understand what your tablets say because writing isn't due for another 10 turns. Why don't you become a super-specialist instead? Wait, writing is due in 7 turns now after upping science to 90%, sweet. It's a bit like a mini-golden age.

60: Writing -> Sailing, to work sea tiles in Paris to up commerce eventually. Hinduism spreads to Lyons, causing my first theistic citizens. Hey guys, you can still find meaning in a secular existence, didn't you know?

AD 1: Genghis wants open borders. I refuse because I don't want him settling past me.

80: It took him 79 years to act on his threat, but Genghis declares on me! Also, Alex declares on Gandhi. Genghis poaches a worker.

Drop science to 0 to upgrade warriors asap.

Beat a warrior with axe. Beat archer with axe.

120: Beat archer with axe.

140: Sailing -> Math. Beat archer with axe.

210: I'm in last place in the Most Advanced charts! And first place in score. I'm preparing a subtle combat strategy: Mass a bunch of axemen on a hill and attack. Genghis has a pathetic size 2 city with no culture defense bonus. I'm going to chop away until it's mine.

240:



Five axes versus 2 archers in a city with no culture. Axe with cover dies taking archer down to 0.4/3. Axe with cover kills archer. Promote virgin axe to city raider 1 and take the city. 72 gold oh yeah. I take a peek at his capital, it has three archers and 60% culture bonus. I don't think that's an economical nut to crack without catapults so I make peace. I turn science back on. I have 4 warriors and 11 axes now. I'm paying 3 in unit upkeep. I delete 3 warriors to save income. I promote the remaing one. Ning-hsia is not a great city, but it's mine for better or worse.

260: Create 2 scientists in Paris. These are pretty nice with representation. I'm enjoying the variety of options this game is giving me in situations like this. Work on settler to start filling in my area of the world. There's a barbarian city in the NW that I've been ignoring. I plan on taking it now.

280: Montezuma declares on me! The AIs are getting feisty. My axes en route (French term, see??) to the barb city reverse tracks.

310: Library goes up in Orleans and I create two more scientists.

350: Math -> Construction. Take out a jaguar warrior. Lose an axe to a jaguar. Odds were with me attacking on grassland.

360: Greece wants open borders. I let them have it. They also have open borders with Monte so some of Alex's units get a spectator view of some fighting. I destroy a jaguar.

400:



5 axemen vs axeman and archer in Teotihuacan with +20% city bonus. City raider 2 axe dies against archer, despite favourable odds. Axe loses to axe. Axe beats axe. Axe beats axe, takes city with 3/5 axes left. I make peace for some breathing room and to get catapults ready eventually. I also need to reconnect some resources.

Oops, I just noticed that Rheims was in the red for food, which isn't allowed. This was because a jaguar pillaged my cow pasture, and I must have manually overrode the tiles before the and AI didn't adjust. I hope this doesn't tragically disqualify me because I didn't notice and it was an effect of war!

440: Settler built. I'm going to try for hanging gardens, so I start anb aqueduct in Paris.

470: Found Tours in the NW of Paris, on the coast rice, pig, fish. This should be a much needed commerce city.

480: A great prophet is born. I've been ignoring religion so there's nothing for him to build. And I could really use those extra super-specialist bonuses so I send him to my new city.

490: Construction -> Alphabet. I don't have either Meditation or Polytheism yet, and I bet I can get them cheap in trades.

510: Start Hanging Gardens, due in 9 turns.

590: Alphabet -> Drama. I'm not getting happiness through religion, so how will cheap theatres work? I'm up Iron, Construction, Alphabet on the field, and there's no way I'm giving any of those up.

600: Done Hanging Gardens.

660: Ghengis demands rice. I cave because I don't want a pointless war right now.

680: Drama -> Calendar. I need those luxury resources badly. Alex declares on Ghandi which is sweet.

710: Finally I take the barbarian city with 2 catapults and 2 axemen. I lost a couple swords and a couple of axes in some unlucky battles there many turns ago.

Here's a shot of my empire right now:



750: Calendar -> Currency. Finally time to build plantations.

770: Monty demands pigs and I let him have it, recognizing the symbolism.

840: Currency -> Code of Laws. Monty declares on me! This time I have catapults.

940: I've been massing troops and fighting for the last few turns. Laws->Metal Casting.

1000: Capture Monty's capital with a stack of about 7 catapult, 7 axe/sword.

1020: Take second city from Monty. Metal Casting -> Civil Service

1055: Take another city.

1070: Take Montezuma's third last city. Found Marseilles by iron, fish, cow to keep filling in the continent. I made peace with Montezuma for Hunting, Polytheism, Meditation, 90 gold. He has two very divided cities left. I think he has learned the error of his ways. Now I want to focus on getting my economy running and filling out the final spots for cities and coastal villages. I have Hinduism in 5 cities, and I finally set a state religion long after I should have.

Here's the state of France:



1095: Civil Service -> Priesthood. I'm getting this extremely late. It's time for some tech tree fill-in.

1100: Priesthood -> Monotheism

1110: Monotheism -> Monarchy. Begin on the path to banking. Revolt to Representation, Caste System, Bureaucracy, Organized religion. Oh yeah we're not very judgemental people you know?

1115: Settle Chartres at the SW tip by Sugar, Rice, Fish.

1135: Aristotle is born, and goes to build academy in Paris. Hey you're about a thousand years and some late aren't you buddy?

1185: Monarchy->Feudalism

1190: Finish the Colossus. If the AIs are going to let me have this, why not? I'm no coastal powerhouse but it helps my commerce.

1245: Use Great Merchant to discover paper.

1255: Feudalism -> Archery. Revolt to serfdom.

1260: Archery -> Machinery.

1285: Trade 3 luxury resources from Washington for three health resources. I have no idea why I didn't do this a whole lot sooner! Now I turn off "avoid growth" in a few cities.

1295: Forbidden Palace built in Rheims.

1300: Chicken Itch up in Paris. Gems pop out by Orleans! Woohoo.

1305: Machinery -> Guilds. I think macemen now take care of any possible threat the nearby AIs could throw at me right now.

1340: I finish the Globe Theatre in a flood plain paradise city that I took from Montezuma. This is my experiment city!! It has as much food as I'm going to ever see in one city radius, maybe! I intend this to be a specialist haven. I turn on emphasize growth and I am looking forward to seeing how big this gets after I irrigate everything and build health improvements.



[Unfortunately, the plan for this city didn't quite work out like ieverything n my hopes and dreams. I didn't understand just how sharp a barrier health was to growth. This city got to size 25 eventually, but I don't think it ever got bigger than that, and while it did support some specialists, it wasn't extremely valuable.]

1345: Found Avignon on the south coast as a fishing and commerce site. I am working on one more inland fill-in site with iron for my next city.

1350: Guilds -> Banking. Found Besancon inland.

1380: Genghis offers Compass for Metal Casting + 60 gold. I'll take it. Also I sell him Drama for his 560 gold. Sell Alex Drama for his 410 gold. With Ghandi, traded Civil Service and Machinery for Literature, Music, and Theology. All the other civs are backwards except Washington, and the only tech I am up on him is paper.

1390: Banking -> Education. Revolt to Mercantilism. Finally I should be getting some good cash flow, especially once banks are up.

1445: Education -> Economics. Finished Notre Dame. An aztec city flips to me!

1480: Econ -> Philosophy. Save Great Merchant for a Golden Age.

1495: Philo -> Printing Press.

1500: Trade Civil Service to Alex for Optics + 110 gold.

1525: Printing Press -> Liberalism

1540: Great prophet is born. I start a Golden Age!

1550: Liberalism -> Replaceable Parts free -> Gunpowder

1565: Gunpowder -> Nationalism

1575: Oxford built in Paris.

1590: Nationalism -> Engineering. My Golden age is over.

1600: Engineering -> Astronomy.

1630: Astronomy -> Chemistry.

1650: Chemistry -> Constitution

1652: Ghandi was destroyed, I think by Washington.

1654: Taj Mahal went up for a second Golden Age

1662: Constitution -> Coorporation

1668: Corporation -> Steam Power. Washington is finally friendly enough to trade me the world map. I've been a bad boy and haven't scouted much of anything in the big picture.



1676: Steam -> Assembly Line. I'm taking a little risk that I don't get hit hard with cavalry in the next short while, because I know Washington has Military Tradition and Rifling, and I lack both.

1690: Assembly -> Rifling.

1694: I founded Dijon but there's no mustard nearby?! If I were writing this game, founding the city Dijon as the French would automatically pop a mustard resource.

1700: Rifling -> Sci Method. With Infantry available there's no military to fear unless Washington somehow manages to get tanks.

1708: Sci Method -> Biology for farm improvement.

1710: Washington wants me to cancel all deals with the Mongols and I do it. I just want a peaceful space race, okay?

1720: Biology -> Democracy. Washington already has Democracy, but I'm going to try for the Statue of Liberty.

1730: Democracy -> Steel. Immediate revolt to Emancipation as per my honourable nature.

1740: Washington demands gold and I refuse. He's up a few techs on me and I'm up Steam Power on him. If he wants to attack me, let's get it on.

1742: Steel -> Railroad.

1750: Finished Pentagon. I don't want to go to war but if I'm forced to defend I want it on my side.

1752: Railroad -> Physics. It's time to wake up some workers who will fool me with all pig iron. The Statue of Liberty is due in two turns.

1754: Washington declares war! I guess the Americans are upset that France is going to beat them to the Statue of Liberty? I've never been in a war in Civ 4 beyond the Bronze/Construction techs, so it will be interesting to see what he can throw at me. I don't even know if he's going to come from the east or by boat from the west. I turn science to zero to start working on modernizing my whole army. I set all mature cities to produce infantry or cannons. Washington picked a good time to declare because it would have been much easier for me with a military rail net already up.

Genghis will ally with me against the Americans for Philosophy. I accept.

1766: Take an American city with about 7 infantry plus 3 cannon versus a couple riflemen and grenadiers. Washington doesn't seem to have infantry in the field so this should be a slaughterfest.



1772: Los Angeles, an American iceball city, is defeated and auto-razed at size 1. (Sorry, guys I couldn't save you.)

1778: Take New York, a main American city. By now, I've switched science back on and stopped producing military since I have as much as I need. I'm going to take Washington and then decide if I want to finish the Americans off for good. Physics came in a while ago, and I'm working on Combustion.

1782: Combustion -> Flight. Take Chicago.

1784: Take Washington from Washington.

1792: Take San Francisco, to hurt Washington's pride.

1794: Flight -> Electricity. While I've been fighting America with Infantry against Grenadiers and Rifleman, Greece, who has open borders with me, has razed Montezuma's main region contained mostly between my cities, with Knights, Catapults, and a couple Muskets. It's been entertaining to watch! Karma came to get you, buddy.

1798: Take Boston and Scythian. There are 3 American cities left.

1802: Electricity -> Radio

1806: Take Atlanta

1808: Delphi taken. One city remains.

1810: Radio -> Industrialism

1812: Take the last mainland American city. But Washington is still alive. Since I'm done with him I offer a peace deal for world map and 40 gold. It turns out he has one city left, an absolutely brutal iceball town. Take a look. Once Washington's empire was the dominant power in the East, and he still leads me in technology, but now he is reduced to this. He's still up Military Tradition, Communism, Artillery, Medicine, Divine Right. I'm up Electricity and Steam Power.



He also had a city on the south tip of the world, but I didn't notice at the time.

1820: Industrialism -> Computers. Founded a city at my southern border and used a Great Artist to try and culture bomb my way toward domination.

1830: Consume 3 great people for a third Golden Age.

1832: Computers -> Rocketry.

1838: Eiffel Tower up in Paris. What else is new? Also got Rock and Roll a turn ago.

1842: Rocketry -> Plastics

1850: Plastics -> Robotics

1855: Robotics -> Fission

1860: Fission -> Fiber Optics

1862: Apollo built.

1863: I now control 65.65% of the land, which is 0.35% from a domination victory! I started on the spaceship parts. Will I get a space victory or a domination victory first?

1865: Borders expand, and I win a domination victory! I'm actually disappointed because I was planning on the Space Race all along. Game score was 5794, final score 29828. Time spent was 27 hours, 14 minutes.



I had a whole lot of fun with this game, and I learned a lot! Thanks very much to Sirian and the team for setting this experience up.

So, I'm a new poster, although I've been a loyal lurker here and at CFC for a long while now. Even started a few Civ3 epics, but never got around to finishing them by the deadline. May have even posted on here, but forgot the screen name I would have used, and I think I signed up with an old email address.

Here's my summary report on this game: it was a blast!
It also featured a few events that hadn't yet happened in a game of Civ4 for me. And, a few that seem to happen all the time. (Monty declaring war multiple times. )

I'll reply to my own post to copy in my exact notes. I'm not sure if this is normally done, but perhaps it's helpful to show what I was thinking at the time it happened? It might also show if I made a rules mistake anywhere. Of course, much in the report is either an adaptation or a straight copy/paste from the notes.

When I first surveyed the lands, I was impressed by the start. Fresh water and stone to take advantage of the Industrious trait, cow and silk. With only five opponents, I thought that an early religion was in play, and thought that Stonehenge would be nice. The Creative trait makes it less powerful, but the GPPs would be nice, especially with an early religion and the ability to found the Shrine early.

In 3520 BC, I learned Mysticism, and with a worry that a religious civ might be moving towards meditation, I went with Polytheism/Hinduism. The guess was correct, as Buddhism was founded in 3480 BC. I founded Hinduism in 2760 BC.

Over these first few thousand years, I made contact with Monty and Ghengis. Naturally, I expected conflict to come with one or both of them. Neither of them had founded Buddhism, so I wanted to try and push Hinduism on them to make at least one a friend, or at least keep them off my back for awhile.

In 2360 BC, I met Washington. Interesting, and concerning. Except for the fact that everyone seems to agree Monty is crazy, the threads I've lurked on seem to have different ideas of who are strong AIs. I feel that Washington is *very* strong; he'll start slow, but once his economy gets rolling he suddenly becomes strong in the early Industrial ages and can become a major competitor for space.

The remainder of BC times went by relatively slowly. I built Stonehenge in 820 BC, had to deal with some barbarian incursions, and then built the Pyramids in 280 BC. I revolted to Representation and Slavery. I stayed in Representation for most of the game, except for an ill-fated experiment with Universal Suffrage in the Industrial Era. I didn't get the specialists rolling until later; but Representation was a nice happy booster.

In 1000BC, I only had two cities:



But, as was reported a little while later, I actually was the largest Civ. Odd:



The focus on wonders really slowed down my growth. I only built my third city in 1AD!

As the clock turned, Montezuma was in bad relations with me, including a -4 for heathen religion. I wanted to focus on having at least one friend out of the Aztecs and Mongols, and so I wanted to make it a priority to expand Hinduism into Mongolia and build a friendship.

In 200AD, Moses was born and built the Kashi Vishawath, and in 220AD Ghengis converted to Hinduism! That was nice.



Over the next several hundred years, I was just focusing on building, expanding and while still dealing with an ongoing war against Barbarian cities in the south. After defending the French fields from the pillagers, I was able to take the war to them, and conquer the first (Cimmerian) in 610AD and the second (Ligurian) in 680AD. This warring (along with my slow growth) had negative impacts on my economy, so in 710AD it was reported that the French were least advanced in the world. When Alphabet came in 720AD, I needed to close the gap: trading my good-friend-to-be Ghengis Meditation+Alphabet for Math+Sailing. I also traded Medtiation+Priesthood to Washington for Monotheism. That was it, as the remaining techs on the board were Monarchy, Code of Laws, and Horseback Riding (which I couldn't get from anyone).

Here's a few pics of the war against the Barbarians. First, building the troops, which also shows an overview of the Classical Era French Republic:



And some shots of the conquest of Cimmerian and Ligurian:






Time marched on, until 810AD, when Monty declared war on Ghandi. Ghandi asked for help, which I declined - I wasn't prepared for war.

In 850AD, Imhotep, the first French Great Engineer, was born in Paris. With the Colossus and Hanging Gardens soon to be available, I needed to decide which to rush and which to build. In 940AD, After finishing the Acqueduct in Paris, the Hanging Gardens would be finished in 10 turns; so I decided to build HG and rush the Collossus, as I didn't have copper.

In 970 and 990AD, I rejected successive demands from Alexander and Monty. Although Alex is far away, I am more concerned (as would be expected) by Montezuma. I needed to upgrade my military.

In the meantime, I might as well add one finished wonder-pic:



During this era, I did some trading: Cows for Sheep with America, Metal Casting to Gandhi for Construction, and Construction to Genghis Khan for Monarchy. The last deal (made in 1055AD) was most important, as I was concerned about getting good relations with the Mongols...

...which was important, because in 1060AD Montezuma declared war on the French Republic! I gave Ghengis Khan Metal Casting to join the war, and also wanted to buy in Ghandi, who had recently made peace with the Aztecs. But, perhaps peace was actually made too recently, as Ghandi declaring war on the Aztecs was not an option in diplomacy.

I was, in fact, unprepared for war, as I lost Tours in 1065AD.



I ask my good friend Ghengis Khan for Horseback Riding (mobile defense being needed) and he gives it. Whew. I also whip some forges to completion, in order to prepare for increased military production.

The initial Aztec attack, except for the units occupying Lyons and a single pillaging horse archer, turned back towards Mongolia. At the very least, Ghengis would keep the pressure off me. It took a few decades to build up a force sufficient to take back Tours, and in the meantime I had to take care of some pillaging incursions. Finally, in 1115AD, I liberated Tours but lost some horse archers in the process. In 1130AD, Ghengis Khan made peace with Montezuma. That's ok: I just needed some breathing room. I assume that Monty will have a big price for peace, so I offer peace with 10GPT. He accepts; I guess I overbid.

Finishing the war allowed me to rush the Collossus in Orleans, which previously had been dedicated to building units, as it was the city closest to the Aztec border. I've decided to spread the wonders around; I'm not sure if cultural will be a viable victory (especially as only Hinduism exists throughout the French Republic), but I decide I might as well leave it as open as possible.

In 1200AD, the French entered the Medieval Era.

In 1245AD, Washington declared war on Alexander. Interesting, considering that Washington currently has the highest score on Alexander the lowest.

1275AD: Paris: National Epic; 1280AD: Cimmerian: Heroic Epic.

In 1290AD, Monty declared war on me again. Annoying. And this time, I don't have anything to give Khan to help me out...well, perhaps Philosophy (next turn) will help convince him...if I need the help, that is. I'm not sure what Monty has left to bring.

A massive switchover to military builds means I'm not getting much help from Organized Religion, but I'll be switching to Pacifism soon enough anyway. That, somehow, seems not optimal: switching to Pacifism just after Monty declares war!

Actually, surveying the battlefield: I think I might be able to take Phyrgian in the South, if I can fight a successful defensive campaign in the north.

1295AD: Gave Khan Philosphy to declare war on Montezuma, and gave it to Ghandi for CoL and Compass.

I destroyed a mini-stack that Monty had brought into French territory, and moved my troops outside Phyrgian, but it will be a few turns of bombardment before I am ready for the attack...but, it turned out I was too careful, as in 1310AD the Mongol units that joined up with me outside Phyrgian marched into the city and razed it to the ground.

The Ruins of Phyrgian:



In 1320, I rushed Angkor Wat in Lyons with Archimedes, born in 1315. I had some seriously awful luck taking care of Aztec pillagers, losing a few horse archers, which slowed my advance into Aztec proper.

In 1325, I began bombardment of Tlaxcala. In 1340, Monty offered 40 gold for peace; sorry, I consider Tlaxcala the price of peace.

The Siege of Tlaxcala:



In 1355, I lost one swordsman in the conquest of Tlaxcala, and then accepted 100 gold for peace; a nice refund for the 100g I had to give Monty after the First Aztec War. After the war, I revolted to Serfdom and Pacifism. Caste System was an option, but I had enough specialist-enabling buildings that it wasn't necessary.

In 1400AD, Washington made peace with Alexander. That's too bad, in a way; GW probably could have destroyed Alexander if he wanted to. Later that decade, Ghengis came asking for help against Monty (since I had made peace before Khan); I decline, as I think Khan can handle Monty without my help.

In 1430, I rushed Hagia Sophia in Orleans: third great engineer! During this era, I was also spreading Hinduism through India, as Ghandi and I didn't have much in the way of relations (positive or negative), and it would be nice for him to convert. In 1435, I revolted to Bureaucracy after learning Civil Service.

In 1495, a neat trick happened: as a finisher to a few trades made over the previous few turns, I acquired Gandhi's WM: which, it turned out, made me the first to circumnavigate the globe! And I had only built (and would only build, but later upgrade) one galley the whole game.

In 1510, Hanno (a Great Merchant) reached Washington, where he conducted a trade mission for 1950 gold.

I had planned to take a shot of 1500 AD, but instead I forgot and so got 1510:



1545 AD: Trading Nationalism to Ghandi was a mistake, as he beat me to Taj Mahal.

In 1565 AD, Washington declared on Alex again. I am curious as to whether this will ramp up GW's aggression...in 1590, America conquered Pharsalos.

In 1620AD, Monty declared war on Khan. I decide that this time, if Khan asks for help, I just might give it.

In 1668AD, Ghandi beat me to Versailles by three turns! Gah! What's France without Versailles? In the meantime, though, I picked up a Great Artist and decided not to switch to Mercantilism. More specialists would be good, but I had a nice economic thing going.

In 1676AD, Gandhi switched to Emanicipation, which meant he had at least Democracy. He was winning the tech race significantly (after he and GW had been neck and neck earlier.)

In 1684, Pyreaus, my second Great Merchant was born for another long-distance trade route. In 1688, Blaise Pascal - my fourth Great Engineer - was born. Wow, that's my best yield of engineers in a game yet.

The Mongols and Aztecs made peace in 1690. That war didn't get very far.

In 1694, the French learned Liberalism, and the people yearned for Freedom! Revolt to Free Speech, Free Market and Free Religion (some other religions had spread through France, which I encouraged, as I was considering the cultural option).

In 1702, Monty started the Third Franco-Aztec war by declaring on me. Well, I had a ton of cash in the bank (GMs are nice for this!) for upgrading my Horse Archers, left over from the Second Franco-Aztec War, into Knighs; and if necessary later on to Calvary.

My strategy was to start off with some pillaging, to cut off two northwestern Aztec cities from the center of the Aztec Kingdom. In 1722, I had sufficient forces to march toward Xochicalco.

In 1726, Democracy was learned and I revolted to Emancipation per the rules. (And I would've revolted anyway, unless I had wanted to delay anarchy at all.) I used Blaise Pasacal to rush half of the Statute of Liberty.

1740: The French Army conquers Xochicalco. Excellent. Lost only some suicide catapults.



1746: The French Army operates with perfection (even winning an underdog fight), and conquers Tlacopan. The Northwest Aztec Territories have become the Northeast French Provinces.

1748: Decide that I have achieved my goals, and especially after losing some battles where I had better odds (karma for the perfect conquest of Tlacopan) and accept 450G+WM for peace with Monty.

In 1764, America conquered Delphi, which immediately ended the Second Greco-American War.

In 1774 AD, I finished the Statute of Liberty. And micromanaged my specialists (which I've been doing occasionally, but without comment, throughout the game).



One minor disadvantage of swapping to Free Religion is that the Mongols were no longer so kind to me: at this point, they were only Cautious, after we had stood side by side and shed blood together at Phyrgian. Oh well. Just in case, I decided to reinforce the Mongol border.

In 1786, my fears were realized, and Khan demanded Education. I really didn't want Khan mad at me, so I gave it to him; I also wasn't quite ready for war, even as I realized a short while ago that reinforcements would be helpful.

I also realized that I could revolt to Universal Suffrage, as most of the suburbs are town. So I did that; but, quickly realized that it was a mistake. My income went from +49 to +30 due to the higher civic cost, and went from 669 beakers to 533 beakers. Ugh. At the earliest chance I got (1796) I revolted back to Representation.

In 1788, Monty declared war on Khan; and I noted that I wondered if Ghengis would ask for help this time.

In 1800, Khan came asking for help. I decided to renew the Old Alliance, and join him in battle against Montezuma. The Fourth Aztec War began.

I upgraded some Knights to Cavs and prepared for the offensive.

In 1802, Steam Power came in, and I had no Coal. But, interestingly, there was some just over the border in the Aztec Kingdom, which conveniently provided me a primary target.



In 1806, I started raiding Ttaleco to weaken its defenses, but I have an insufficient force available to take it. Unfortunately, in 1808, Khan made peace with Montezuma; of course, per the Rules, I didn't have to make peace with Monty until he asked for it. And I really wanted Ttaleco and the Coal before he did.

In 1816, Ghandi had Hit Musicals to trade. He was way up the tech tree: three visible techs on the F4 screen, plus whatever else was beyond those techs.

I lost my Medic II Calvary pushing the attack, but I conquered Ttaleco in 1818. I have earned my compensation for assisting the Mongols, and coal is safely in French hands.

That same year, GW declared war on the Mongols! I consider what I will do if Khan asks for help, but decided to sit that one out. In 1822, America conquered the Mongol city of Hittite.

I have some scouting units on the outskirts of Tenochtitlan. It contains a lot of catapults, but not many strong defenders. However, in 1826 Monty came offering peace and 30 gold. A pittance, but I honorably accept their surrender. (I probably would've accepted peace anyway, but my foolish management of pillaging parties in the North had been destroyed, which permitted the Aztecs to advance on the cities that were still lightly defended since I captured them in the Third Aztec War.)

Also in 1826, I finished West Point in Cimmerian and sold Economics to Khan for 440 gold. I could've possibly traded Assembly Line to Ghandi for Railroad, but he's teching fast enough on his own.

In 1830, I finished Forbidden Palace in Orleans. It's not Versailles, but its' something....

In 1832, Washington asked us to attack the Mongols. While technically within the Rules, and I could probably take some serious advantage (as I think GW is beating Khan in the East), such a move would really be dishonorable after the help Mongolia has given me. Still, in 1838, the two sides made peace. Following the war, both Mongolia and America - who had been decent friends to me - were Cautious: both of them don't like the fact that I'm a friend to the other.

In 1857, it's turned into a two-civ tech race: Ghandi is up Fasicm, Industrialism and Radio on me; everyone else is backward.

The latter half of the 19th century was one of extreme building. I was confident that I'd be able to defeat the Aztecs easily if there was another war, and was friendly enough with everyone else that a war was unlikely. The only other civ that I had poor relations with, the Greeks, were on the far side of the continent and weak. It took awhile to catch up to the Indians techwise, and they were beating me to all the wonders; including all three modern-luxury wonders, and finishing Eiffel Tower in 1874. I did build The Pentagon, although it ended up being unnecessary.

By this time (1876, according to my notes) I decide that cultural victory isn't going to happen. I thought there was still an outside possibility, but doing so would require a total commitment, and would risk losing to India by space. Because of my production strength (and I was narrowing the gap on Indian technology), I thought space far more likely than culture.

In 1884 Paris finished Wall Street and started on Apollo Program. Which resulted in an interesting issue: I had $2K in the bank, and was making money at 100% science. But I couldn't use any of it unless I revolted to Universal Suffrage, which I don't want to because of the hit it would do to research. I decide to leave it in the bank, in case I am sneak attacked at need to rapidly upgrade troops.

In 1885, I am up a lot of techs on GW, except that he has Plastics. I am behind Plastics and Computers to Ghandi. I would've liked to trade for Plastics from GW, because I didn't want to give anything to India. But Plastics stayed in the red from GW until I finally gave up and researched it myself. At one point, I even cancelled my deals with Mongolia to try to de-red Plastics, but GW wouldn't budge.

I started building some "just in case" military out of Cimmerian, my military city. I finished Tank #1 in 1887.

In 1906, Amir Khuso - a Great Artist - was born, and, with me fully focused on a space victory, I used him for a Golden Age along with a Great Prophet I had sitting around.

In 1907, I finished the Apollo Program and United Nations. The latter was a mistake; after a few years with inconclusive votes, GW eventually was elected secretary-general and controlled the vote for the remainder of time - despite the fact that I had a higher population. He proposed various resolutions; some I voted for, some I didn't, some were enacted, some weren't. He never proposed a UN victory, though.

During the end-game, something interesting: my mini-map looked like it was eating the Aztecs. (This particular shot is from 1891.)



In 1910, something neat happened: cultural border expansion allowed me to wrest control of the isthmus from the Aztecs, linking up the conquered Aztec provinces without needing a sea voyage to get between them.



1918: Ghandi finished his Apollo Program.

In 1924, Washington renewed hostilities with Khan. I decided that I won't be getting involved this time either, as I'm now fully on the way to Alpha Centauri. In 1928, Khan became Annoyed when I declined helping him against Washington.

1929: America captures Samarqand.

1930: Ghandi Golden Ages, and he finished all 5 of his casings this turn. I finished all 5 of my casings in 1933.

In 1938, I finished my Life Support. And...Ghandi *declared war on Ghengis Khan*! WOW! That was...interesting. Up to this point, Ghandi and I were in a fierce battle for the spaceship, but with him declaring on Khan, I had a feeling things were going to turn my way, with him dedicating his production to military instead of space. Better for me, and a more interesting finish, but definitely easing up the tension.

For a moment, I considering helping Khan out if he asked. He was going to get crushed, otherwise (assuming that Ghandi and GW went on the offensive). But, I decided that Honorable didn't meen Blindly Loyal; it was going to be a bitter end to the Mongol-French friendship, but his assistance against the Aztecs would always be remembered.

1940: India captures Tufan, and finished all 3 thrusters.

1942: GW asks for help. Just because I won't help out the Mongols, doesn't mean I'll speed up their passing.

1946 AD: India captured Ning-Hsia.

1947 AD: America razes Beshbalik. I build Rouen on its Ruins. (I've also been preparing settlers to settle in other cultural areas ceded by the Mongols with their passing.) I also 3150 gold for a merchant mission in Delhi. After getting that, plus having all the spaceship techs, I revolt to Universal Suffrage.

A pic from the latter days of the Mongol Empire:



1948 AD: Pay 1614 of my ~5000 gold to finish off the last 6 turns of the Space Elevator.

1949 AD: Finish SE, and America captures Karakorum.

1950 AD: America razes New Sarai. Mongolia only has its territories in the northwestern islands. Wow. India and America ripped Mongolia to shreds in 12 turns. Nice for them, but I'm getting the benefit (thanks to settling in the abandoned territory and slowing down Ghandi's spaceship).

1951: Finish Life Support.

1957: Finish SS Docking Bay.

A pic from me occupying what used to be Mongolia, while doing little else but waiting for parts to finish. I guess I like to think I was "protecting" Mongol refugees...although I guess they would've wished that I had helped them in their actual war.



1961: Finish the Engine, and win a Spaceship Victory!







In-Game Score: 4,578
Final Score: 10,494 --> Emperor Constantine

Kudos to the RB crew for an excellent game. It would have been closer if Ghandi hadn't declared war on Mongolia and abandoned his spaceship, or if I had been bold and risen to defend my allies of earlier ages. Still, a very nice game, with some tense moments - if I hadn't gotten the Mongols on board early, I would've suffered badly at the hands of the Aztecs in the First War. Interestingly, I fought four wars against the Aztecs, and each time my soliders improved: from horse archers, to Knights, to Musketmen and Calvary. Each time, however, Monty was fighting with Horse Archers...also, while watching the replay, I noticed that Monty actually did well against Ghandi in their ancient age war, taking a city or two. It seems to me that the AI issue with war isn't so much fighting it, but knowing when to stop and shift back into a peacetime economy, consolidate, and prepare for the next offensive.

Or maybe Montezuma is just insane...!

OK, I've been waiting for this new start for some 2 years, and this is it : I'm late. At the moment I'm writing this, I haven't completed my game, and no way will I have time and energy to complete it tonight, before leaving for a 1-week holiday tomorrow morning, all the more with such a slow PC... Yeah I know, we're supposed to be done with the game already, but in fact I'm close to the end anyway (in terms of number of turns and of what's happening ingame). I haven't read any single report so far, and won't have time for this before I come back, so technically no spoiler anyway. I intend to quickly finish my game next week anyway (should be quick) before reading you all.

After saying this, let's report a few basic stuff. I'm currently in the 500+ turns and still well alive, but I fear I'm very close to losing the game to a spaceship victory for Gandhi in fact. Technically I want to believe everything still can happen, but I have no illusion. So, I won't be angry if you put me in the uncompleted games' section, because well, rules are rules and I'm late. I'd just like to be able to complete my game without reading any spoiler within the end of the year, and be acknowledged as an uncompleted game with a win or a loss (more likely) afterwards, because technically, as I said, no spoiler. I'll be out of the competition ranking, but I just want to be recorded with the very result of my game, I hope it can be done. Dozens and dozens of hours of gaming resulting in... no result would be a bit frustrating. As a matter of fact, I promise a very detailed report when I come back, I should have enough time for that too. And though I haven't read any report yet, I can tell you it'll be worth a read.

As a conclusion to this post, I may want to say that 3 weeks is very short for a long game such as an epic one. On top of that, my PC is barely at the minimum requirements, and in the modern era the game is almost unplayable (let's say : not enjoyable at all), and takes ages to move on (otherwise I think I would be done by now). Yeah I know, I started this game after 2 weeks, but that was because I was trying to complete my first game before. If we could have more time for epic games, that'd be very fine. So, after such a boring post, I wish you all a merry Christmas, and see ya very soon for a full report !

WARNING: As of this posting, only Part One has been uploaded!

http://www.sirian.org/civ4/

Enjoy.


- Sirian

Ack! If I only had highspeed broadband. So many pictures, so little time...

So, for now, I am sorry, but no pictures for you guys. All right, maybe one or two--dozen... out of the 227 I took.

Foreword: I did not know it was a pangaea map. Silly me never looked at the map details, or number of civs, or any other important information other than ruleset. Going in blind? You bet!. My plans were three-fold

1) Absolute minimum on forest chops. Jungle chops OK, except for outward colonies, used for defense (which I abused much later on vs Monty). Heck, no starting forest chops. This slows down my initial growth curve a bit.

2) Military victory! I want one to spearhead the challenge. Only honorable wars? Can do! I found khan, and made fast friends with him. Monty on the other hand... I should've made pals with too, but I didn't like him

3 ) I'll create unit commander personalities, and I'll listen to them. Athos, Porthos, Aramis, here will your tale begin.

Start of a great new frontier:

4000 Athos, warrior, sent north. Settlers too. Wheel. fishing! I think I started researching sailing. Is that a glug glug glug move? Probably. Not grabbing any religion techs early on was probably a mistake too, but mine to make. This game isn't that hard... right? RIGHT?!?!

3960 Paris, take picture. Athos, you shall have a friend. Porthos is coming, then aramis. Go southeast my friend.

3840 Drinking with villagers, waking up, you've slept on their map? That's exactly what we needed Porthos!

3800 To the southwest frontier!

3760. Mongols... ooooh Athos, find those mongols! further south!

3720 Mongols probably west.

3680 Maybe east, Porthos that will be your mission

3600 Sailing, sailing, over the shores. We shall be first

3560 Panther? that's new.

3480 Porthos back to borders, rest here. That's two goodie huts genghis has beaten me to.

3240 BC Aramis's warrior unit is trained, told to head southeast, defeats a lion. Porthos laughs at Aramis, because he slew one this round too, and Ararmis is behind.

3080 Ararmis sees a wolf, and is determined to slay it! Take that Porthos

2960 Athos is no slacker either, he discovers a panther to slay! Bwahaha. A hunting we will go, a hunting we will go, hi ho a merri-o a hunting we will go! My warriors have a collection of animal furs now that greatly impress the ladies. They continue to scout the jungles for more animals and more glory! Further along, they'll find barbarian warriors, then archers to defeat. Woodsmen II is their promotion of choice in this jungle.

2840 Sailing finished, Animal Husbandry next. Then I'll beeline towards libaries.

2800 Porthos slays another lion! I'll have to give him the lionhearted epithet.

Head westward aramis, comb the jungles for cats, you too Athos.


2600 Stanley, our first worker is trained. He declares he'll make our first wheat-farm too.


2520 Athos discovers a new animal, and skins it! He calls this monster a grizzly bear. Athos deserves a new name... From now on, he will be Athos the Bear!

Aramis sees fish in the distance.

Porthos gets a goodie hut... Experience? Don't tell me what you were doing with those villagers... and their daughters. Just. Oh. Uh. I won't ask what kind of experience you got from them.

2400 Athos shows the rest they're not he only ones who can discover fish

2200 Porthos discovers Montezuma, he is not impressed by the stuffed chicken head. Off to another lion to slay!

2160 He is disappointed the lion did not choose him, but he meets another fellow warrior by the name of washington. Kind of ugly. Montezuma was prettier.




2080 Bearslayer! Aramis defeats his first bear.

2000 Porthos defeats another lion. Stanley begins herding cows into a wooden fence. He calls them pastures.

Lighthouse completed, time to fish on a lake

1825 D'artagnan trains his first warrior unit. May he escort a settler soon. Porthos heals, and is ready to explore again.

1750 Porthos Discovers Ghandi. He is not impressed by the nappy. Athos continues to patrol the western jungle, while Aramis scouts south of our city. Stanley sees pigs and decides to connect roads to it.

1675 Porthos finally reports the position of ghandi, having discovered it last turn, and being too busy boozing to tell me until now. He doesn't like Ghandi's nappy. He reports he prefers the look of the mongol best so far. Writing completes, I'll need axemen soon when Monty comes. Begin mining, bee line to quarry, then axemen.

1650 Porthos discover's alexander's position. He likes the greek wine. Party whore. I accept open borders with alex next turn.

1400 Ghandi opens borders, I accept. Porthos wants to try Ghandi's booze. Stanley heads towars orleans for a ricefarm.

1325 I notice Paris has hit its pop happiness limit, so I change workers around a bit


1300 Aramis sees archers for the first time. Jungles getting dangerous. Time to call back porthos.



1175 Porthos defeats his first archer on the way back.

1150 Continued warrior patrols.

1125 Porthos sese a barb warrior, and he's too injured to fight. He must run.

1075 I start work on great lighthouse in paris. Aramis spots a warrior he wishes to face in battle.

1025 Mongol wants me to cancel deals with indians. Hmm. Fine. I like your leather better than Ghandi's nappy anyways. I negotiate open borders with him afterwards..

980 Work begins on what Stanley calls a 'quarry'

840 Bronze done. I decide cottages are needed next. Orleans will be a prime cottage center. !! Copper discovered near Orleans. Lucky us.

820 Borders opened with Monty. I offer free rice to Khan. I'll have more soon.

760 New borders with Monty.

740 Aramis defeats more barb warriors. He laughs at their pitiful attempts to fight him.

680 Open borders with washington. All right, for now. Pyramids in action.

620 Porthos reaches Orleans, people celebrate. Unhappy citizens love him.

560 Stanley begins work on road connecting copper.

540 Ghandi bugs me for open borders so his warrior can escape. No way!

500 BC Library done next turn. Since copper's discovered, Orleans might be able to crank out a barracks and axemen after all. Cottage building on plains to enhance that effect, since rice farms will provide plenty of food.

420 Barbarian City of Thracian discovered. not a bad spot. I might keep it if I have enough units later.

260 Pyramids complete! Time to check civics. Representation, I choose you!

220 New warrior. Name him Pari Gari! He'll stay in paris.

200 Chat with monty. He's built jaguars. Damn. I'll need axemen soon, and lots of them.

160 Stonehenge built in far away land.

100 BC Archer bar spotted south of paris. Axemen begun in orleans. Settler in Paris.

60 Washington demanded I stop trading with Mongols. I tell him to stuff it.

20 BC Axemen built. I'll put him under Aramis's command. Ararmis 2nd order.

1 AD Porthos supervised Axemen training in Orleans. This will be Porthos 2nd order. I'll send them toward the barbarian city. Aqueducts begun in both cities.

20 AD two rounds of battle, both won under Aramis's command.

40 AD Darn it! Khan beat me to the spot I wanted to build a city... best laid plans of mice and men. Change of plans now.

60 Iron discovered. Definitely know where to go next.

210 Hanging gardens begun in Paris. One city raider attack.. and I win!

240 Great merchant born... I'll send him to Athens.

260 Aqueduct finished in Orleans. Settler begun.

350 Hanging gardens completed in paris, workers begun.

370 Trade mission conducted to Athens. Lots of gold to play with. I can build colossus in 12 turns if I do it next eh? Do it!

410 Washington demands again to cancel deals with mongols. No way. You're my highest scored competition. Settler built. He'll head south towards predesignated position. Worker built, he'll head toward bananas. I rush an axeman in orleans because pop was maxed there.

430 Too crowded in paris eh? I'll slave rush the forge there then.

440 Work begins on colossus

450 Lyons founded. Workboat then Lighthouse. Worker set on route

470 I notice a Monty attack squad towards the barb city. i better capture it first!



480 What luck! Monty was silly enough to eliminate the first of two archers for me. I upgrade porthos immediately and capture.

490 Stanley reaches the cows by Lyons, his apprentice will be there next turn to help. I need more workers. Looking good in paris, Colossus in 6 turns with some worker management

520 Barb City of Thracian comes out of anarachy and I order up workers.

550 Colossus finished in paris, currency next turn. Things looking up. I'll bee-line to literature next.

580 Monty declares war on me. Nuts. Rush axemen in Paris, cost 2 pop.

600 Iron for Ivory... i accept.What luck! Barb city popped up where I considered to settle next. I move my axemen north, since I have an iron mine to the south already. Lyons completes a workboat, and will have fish next turn, working on a lighthouse next.



640 Manuevers. Stanley heads towards bananas. Calendar next turn. Porthos leads the new axemen in the front line defense, taking the axeman from paris this turn.


660 Another Great merchant born. I'll send him through Mongol territory and get my money from india. It was the same as athens last time.

670 Monty chose unwisely. His jaguars threw themselves at my axemen on two seperate occasions and died like they should.

680 Judaism spreads to lyons. I convert so I may be further friends with Khan and the rest

710 Thracie workers complete. Construction in 8 turns, can't convince Khan to hate monty, but he certainly hates ghandi. I'll keep that in mind. Portho's Axemen pillage monty's village last turn... Sees horse archer this one. Time to bail southeast to the jungle mountains.

720 Horse archers went south. Don't want him to get to my copper mine. Going to be costly but... hey I lucked out! I thought I needed both my axemen to beat him. Porthos covers the newer axeman. Meanwhile, Portho's second unit takes out a Monty scout.

740 Horse archer didn't take bait. I'll manuever axemen around to try to bait him.

750 He takes the bait. Khan wants a tribute of 170g. I cannot afford a war with him right now. I'll give him it, besides I'll have over 1000 more gold from the Great merchant in a few turns.

760 Pillage Monty.

780 Construction Discovered. I want engineering next. Road movement and pikemen? Yes please. Damn. I notice a archerx2 settler trio heading west. I'll need my own setters before that.

810 Rheims founded.

820 Monty raids my copper mine and offers me money for peace. Ok, fine.



850 Swordsman and Axe city raiders reach the barbarian city. Shall I? Dare I? Yes I shall.

890 Ghandi offers me a lot of money plus mysticism for construction... I'll take it.. and hunting too



970 Founded marseilles and tours, which later become some of my best cities.

1000 AD I see khan's galley. I need a navy of my own, and settlers to settle new lands.

1020 Rejected a cow threat from monty. Christianity founded in Ning-Hisa, wherever that is.

1045 I accept sheep for rice from Monty. Archimedes, the Great engineer born in Paris. Save him for later. Finish Galley then queue hagia sophia.

1065 Washington wine for my rice

1070 Monty declares war on me. Again.





1095 Lots of battles. lots of screenies. Two units at my doorstep, one pikeman defending... definitely going to rush an axeman.

1100 Failed Jag attack on paris. Alphabet and Poly and 130 gold for my Compass

1105 Tech bartering, mongol gave me a free tech too . Offer free iron to Mongol

1115 AD Lost portho's 2nd order axemen. Porthos is still fine. He'll make the stack he's in his third order.

1120 Alex demanded gold tribute, and I caved.

1125 Alex declares war on ghandi! Great! haha. Queued Chichen itza in Lyons

1145 Mongol Samarqand flips to me. It was only a matter of time. Free archer too.



1170 Tech Report

1180 Alex asks me to declare war on ghandi, and I accept.

1195 Sheep for dye to monty. Fanangle marble from washington with bananas and dye. Sistine chapel will be built in orleans

1200 Washington demands I cancel with alex, i refuse. He declares war on alex! Wonderful.

1210 Washington Demands i go to war with alex. no way.

1225 Alex demands I stop trading with washington. Can't. I need marble, and you don't have it. Hagia sophia finishes. Revolution to serfdom. Build cottages on grasslands.

1255 I complete chichen itza. god my economy needs work.

1265 Guilds complete, Banking en route, grocers and markets queued all throughout.

1275 Khan declares war on washington. Good for me.

1295 Monty wants drama, a relatively low cost tech. I'll give it to him, and rice.

1310 Great merchant! Cha-ching!

1315 Banking finished.

1350 Dang, beat to notre dame. Lyons begin ankor wyat

1360 Sistine Chapel complete.

1365 paper complete. lots more money now.

1385 Alex demands guilds. That's too much. No way.

1395 I ask washington to spare his map, and he accepts..

1420 Monty declares war on me again.... after trading for some goods just the previous turn. I ask Khan to spare war on monty for a good friend... and he does it!

1430: Do some resource trading. Got horseback riding from khan for paper. Lopsided deal, but I need knights. Queue them up in Lyons. Queue catapults up elsewhere.

1445 Barracks then Heroic epic on Lyons.

1450 Already given paper to khan... hmm. All right, i'll bite since ghandi usually likes peace. He accepts a peace offer too. Let's see how long it lasts

1455 I decide I need some workshops.

1460 Lost a pikeman defending copper mine. Lost another taking out units. Win loss ratio? 3 to 2. I need more units.

1465 got Civil service for guilds from Khan. Roughly equal techs.

Combined my great engineer to lyons so I may have knights in two turns. The military need is dire enough.

1470 Porthos the lionhearted survived a crossbowman. I could not be more proud. He says that cover upgrade really did the trick.

1490 Lost an xbowman this round, but monty lost 3 horse archers in return. Catapult slowly taking down defenses.



1495 Sheer luck. Copper near thracian.

1500 I got liberalism first... and choose... printing press for my free tech. Why? I have a lot of towns, that's a lot of cash. Observatory might've been a better deal overall, but I want money now and observatories won't help me until they're built. Switch to bureacracy and free religion. Pikeman just got 10 experience, has two combat upgrades. He's near porthos, and I could use a second medic. I officially declare him Portho's surgeon.

1505 Ghandi wants my printing press for gunpowder. Hmm. PP is too valuable for him to have free. No one else has it either, I'll hold onto it.

1510 This is where flanking may pay off. I might be able to damage the archer without losing my knight. But first, I need to get them out of the forest.

Then again.. my knights died. Oh well. Took the city anyways.

1520 Monty sends a chariot and horse archer through the jungle. Pikeman fodder. I love jungle defense! Mounted units slowed down by jungles, and get no defense, while I can just slaughter them and gain a defensive bonus for my pikemen.

1525 Take away his cows, advance scout, defend key positions since I can't kill the horse archers immediately.

1530 He plunders some workers.. but I have no clue how they got there. Offers me peace. Uh uh. I have the advantage, and I'll take it. Lost a maceman to a horse archer. I don't understand. I have a strength of 8 vs his 6. He doesn't even have first strike. Must be difficulty bonus for him.



1540 I am at a crossroads for techs. I am not sure which I want first. So many good ones. see pic. I'll take replaceable parts, so I may build lumbermills. Beeline towards rifling after that.



1550 Porthos is shocked at how that knight failed. He had a combat 2 promotion, 12 to 9 odds! Cowards. Must've had Sir Robin lead the charge. In honor of that charge, I'll name the city after Sir Robin... Robin's folly.

1560 More pikeman fodder.

1585 Portho's surgeon died defending Gascony. His apprentice will now take his place.

1590 I raise culture by 10% to counter unhappiness. Great engineer born. Horse archer in way. So annoying my macemen can't take them out. Pikemen can

1600 I move some workers around to forests in preperation for replaceable parts next turn.

Porthos's third order macemen destroyed by their macemen this turn.



1610 The siege begins!

1615 Lost one knight, a combat II knight too! Doc surgeon is mean with his knives. I'll be a geek with this city name... Forever Knight? No, Gotham city! Hail batman.

1640 Knights healed and moving out alongside cats, musketeers defending Gotham City, and medics on the way. I'm feeling good.

1645 Pikemen at Orleans take care of a marauding horse archer.

1650 Ghandi and I swap maps.

1654 I am at Monty's capital, and he threw a lot of archers at me.. but I still stand. I lost a unit or two, and I'll need to retreat a bit to heal.. but the siege continues!

1660 Rifles tech finished. Chemistry then steel next. Time to send some units home to be upgraded.

1662 Monty makes another peace treaty offer. No way.

1664 Monty has the gunpowder. I see his first musketmen. No matter. My units are upgraded, led by porthos, and will be at his capital in a few turns.

1670 I reach them. My level 5 combat riflemen, he will be my new aramis. I take out their three best defenders, and will leave half my army healthy to defend against counterattacks.

1674 My city raider rifleman leads the way... only cats left eh? Fortune favors the bold! Upgrade my cats to city raiders if I have to. Bwahaha. Aramis, though wounded, finishes the cats off and takes the city... which I'll name fortune.

1682 Versailles is completed in Marseilles



1684 Things don't look good for monty. I'll name this one Aramis's charge.

1692 Washington demands I stop trading with mongols again. Refuse. I name the last northern city catamen, after the catapults. Surprise surprise, their last two cities are fairly well defended. Too bad it won't be enough.

1702 Catapuls finish enemy defenses. Aramis leads the way again. Knights finish off catapult.



1712 Numidian is taken, and I knight thee knight Athos. Numidian is now Numidian Athos.

Now that I've completed a number of things, I must make a decision which victory to go for. Revolution to free speech and market. I'll also need more workers. Gift a bunch of techs to alex and khan just to speed them up. Gotham will lead great ironworks. Paris drydock and two workboats, and a caravel.

1730 Nationalism researched. Use engineer to rush it in orleans--everyone else has had this tech for a while.

1736 Ghandi declares war on khan. Great engineer born.

1742 I'm making riflemen in my capital cities to aid khan.This stack will will be gifted next turn. I hope its enough for now. Ghandi has infantry... and tanks.

1750 Ghandi asks me to declare war on Khan. No way. I wish I was at fighting capacity... Maybe I should've. I might've won a domination victory if I gotten my hands on flight soon enough. I'm rather disappointed at this decision. My workers rebuild khan's roads, having nothing else to do.

1752 The situation is dire, I gift Aramis to Khan.

1758 Emancipation is here. I add universal sufferage to my anarchy list too.

1760 Khan makes peace with ghandi. I'm going to bee line to the UN. I don't think I can outtech Washington, but I can make friends with them and out pop.

1766 Statue of liberty is queued in Paris.

1768 Workers bored. Traded democracy for corp with alex.

1776 I start playing the missionary multire religion super culture game with my largest cities.

1798 Open borders with washington and ghandi.

1808 Alex game me steam power for physics. I give Khan physics for free.

1812 Queue courthouse and forbidden palace in Fortune.

1816 another GE is born. That's two in reserve.

1822 Electricity finished. Broadway queued in Orleans. I notice I have enough money to hurry finish statue, and i'll do it. Oxford university, observatory and wall street queued in paris.

1826 I get railraod from alex for electricity. Railroading my nation begins.

1834 Ghandi completes Eiffle tower. Damn I wanted that. Going to rush broadway, then rock and roll at orleans using my GE.

1838 Washington offers me assembly line for radio and 540g. I'll take it. Sell same radio for 740g from alex.

1840 Give assembly line to alex and khan for free. They're allies and underdogs. I don't want them run over.

1844 Ning Hsia revolts to me.

1850 Combustion for mass media from alex. Gift khan mass media.

1852 Swap world maps with wash.

1855 Forbidden palace complete in fortune frees up a lot of cash.

1856 Got biology off wash for mass media.

1859 Computers finished. Communism next. Got industrialism off wash for computers.

1862 Communism finished. Anarchy 1 turn to state property.

1866 Pentagon work begun. Apollo program finshed by ghandi.

1868 more tech trading. most notably fission for flight.

1869 Ghandi beat me to pentagon. I'll hurry hollywood just in case. plastics next turn. if I did a cultural victory, I'd win in around 70 turns.

1872 Gotham city begins three gorges dam. expected in 26 turns. I'll up that with watermills.

1875 wow world war. ghandi on alex, khan on ghandi... at least I gifted alex and khan some military techs. let's hope they know how to use flight.

1876 I close my borders to ghandi. I don't want him to use my railroads to sneak attack khan. Alex asks me to fight with ghandi, but I'm too committed right now.

1877 I ask for washington's world map, he gives it freely. I gift said map to khan and alex. Thermopylae captured... let's hope the rest fare better.

1878 Great artist born.

1879 United nations built in paris.

Bee lining paid off. Except, I should've gifted this tech to one of my smaller allies and waited. Gamble didn't pay off.

1882 Sparta captured. Not looking good for alex. gift my allies robotics.

1883 I am secretary general. I initiate diplomatic votes for victory. No go. No one votes for me.

1885 GM born. I use him and the artist to start a golden age.

1887 I'll have orleans focus on christian missionaries since i have church of nativity under my control

1888 Fiber obtics learned. Orleans begins internet. Rheims begins scotland yard.

1892 Three gorges dam complete.

1909.. Internet finishes... Washington and Ghandi will regret their tech sharing now. I have all the techs. ALL of them. I gift as many techs as i can to khan and Alex.

Bwahahah this gamble, however, did pay off. I think I might've used a GE to help internet, but I am not sure.

1911 I give khan and alex 3000g each.

Maybe I should've used this for research earlier on... but I had planned on military upgrades. Bah.

1916 Alex votes for me for the election. Getting closer. Gift those guys some more.

1918 silver discovered near gascony. nice!

1924 Wash asks me to declare war on khan... sorry khan, you're finished. Not even I could save you.

1927 GE born in paris.



1945 Well on my way for a space victory. Great Prophet born. I'll have him join orleans, which is building one of the last parts. I really don't remember when I took this screenshot. What also isn't shown here is the vast number of cities doing spaceship part buildings. I had plenty to spare, and the space elevator. Spaceship victory second prize is in the bag.

In the meantime, forests are chopped and replaced with workshops using my vast Stanley-led workforce. Under state property econ civic, they have the same 2 food, 3 hammer production. These give me around 100 production each at this time period. Interesting to note they're more productive at later dates than earlier.



1950 Space Victory

Overall, I'm kicking myself for not going for domination victory. That is what I wanted in the beginning. Eventually, I had the money, I had the tech, but I wasn't sure I could survive, or fight both washington or ghandi by then. ARGH. Even worse than that, I could've given the smaller civs (Greeks, Mongols) techs a lot earlier and made them fight effectively against Ghandi and Wash. I AM happy about stomping Monty, and getting some glorious battles with my elite commanders, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. Also had some fun names for Monty's cities. Gotham City (with both Greatworks Iron national and Three Gorges Dam), Knight's lead, Sir Robin's folly, Numidian Athos. All good names. Got more than my fair share of wonders, but research rate was abysmal through my wars. Just... wasn't enough.

Domination victory is what I wanted, and I didn't pursue that to its fullest... and I was so close too. 8%!! Just a little bit more, and I could've had it... but I did not follow the domination requirements closely.

A pretty poorly played game...

I thoroughly enjoyed this game, thanks Sirian, and learned a lot too !
I have almost no time to play Civ and I had pretty much concentrated on playing
opening moves or until a game is considered "won" : I rarely finish any of my solo
games and that hurt me quite badly in this one
I had no idea how to either win by Diplo or build a Spaceship so my end date is pathetic
even though end game suspense is enjoyable and we used to look for it when playing Civ3

First I need to apologize :
My computer can not really play Civ IV (can not alt tab) and I was also victim of the
screenshot bug but necver realized it until I started this report so I lost quite a lot
of data and am not able to present a full report.

1- Opening moves :

On opening the save, I noticed wheat up north and jungle down south, I decided to move the settler to the
hill on the coast and not settle on the lake, to get a food rich start. I dont think it was a bad move.
It gave me one very strong early city instead of 2 slow ones.
Inspired by the Hydra, and again misconstruing the difficulty level, I went for Mysticism/Polytheism first
and Paris founded Hinduism in 2480BC !!
Bonuses are good because you can afford to get late workers, I then went towards AH and BW.
I sent many warriors exploring while I was working on religions so...
I quickly realized that the territory south was a massive jungle and decide to extend my
territory to the North and East. Soon Barb animals killed all my scouts/warriors, but not before I
had met my 2 "friendly" neighbours, Monte and Genghis.



Being full of confidence on Prince level, I chose to settle agressive cities near their borders
hopefully triggering war later on so that I could grow and finance def research.
I spotted cows and gold to the North and decide to settle it, I did not realize how close it
was to Monte until after my settler got there but hey its' only Prince level right ?



I only used one chop to get a quick settler out.



Here is my Southern city, I chose that site to block off Genghis (not agreeing to OB)
and get Dyes but only realized later I missed on the fish I named cities according to
geographical situation and not in order of the game so marseilles is south...



..and Reims is East, thats my "nagging Genghis"city. In the start period, barbarians were
a real pain and I had to build a huge amount of units.
The SouthWest of my lands was blocked off to the AIs and I left unsettled for very long,
the barbs had a feast down there. As you can see, on that shot after the settling phase
I went on a Wonder rampage

I just want to say that I learned a lot playing the Epic and also reading these reports. I have already adapted some better strategy in my own games.

On a personal note, I am inspired to make even better reports the next time around as I personally found my report lacking after reading such great reports from all of you. Thank you.

Warnings: This is loooong and picture free. Read at your own risk. I tried to make it interesting, though. This is an incomplete game. I got to 1866 AD as of Monday night and am still playing.

Epic 1, Part the Zeroth: Pregame Strategery
I’ve only ever played on Noble level, and not much of that. So I didn’t go into this game expecting to win easily, if at all. I can’t say I had much of a strategy, either, beyond “take advantage of the industrious trait by building a lot of awesome Wonders”, and even that didn’t really happen. I suppose “don’t get wiped out for lack of military” was a strategy. Heck, it's worked so far.

I liked the look of the start. I can’t remember where I sent my warrior on turn 0 (due north?) but he didn’t see the wheat. So I settled in place, reasonably happy with the site, but wishing I had a river.

I’ve also rarely played on epic speed. The last time I did, I decided to go worker-first, and nearly made an early exit when Gandhi popped a nearby hut for barbs. Given that, 23 turns seemed just too long to me, so I decided to go with a warrior first and build a worker at size 2. I also decided that I didn’t need Stonehenge, being cultural. And I decided I would try for one of the later religions (note from the perspective of 1866 AD: Hah!). So I started with hunting for the ability to build scouts.

Epic 1, Part the First: The OCC Era
In 3640 BC, a few turns after popping a hut for 31g, I was overjoyed to meet both Genghis and Montezuma. Overjoyed, I say! No, really. Hunting also came in, and I had to decide what was next. Animal husbandry or archery, archery or animal husbandry? With such neighbors, I decided on archery.

In 3160 BC, I finished a scout and at long last started on a worker, thus delaying much longer than is normal for me. I’m still not sure whether it hurt me. The scout quickly popped another from the hut to the west, and the two of them mapped out most of the peninsula between them. The hut to the south of Paris gave XP to one, and I promoted it to Woodsman II.

In 2760 BC, I had a nice bit of luck. A panther had attacked my woodsman II scout, leaving him injured. There was a lion in sight, so I retreated north onto a jungle-covered hill for defense, only to find that
a) there was another hut one tile north
b) Monty would get it next turn
c) Woodsman II also gives two moves on hills!, if they happen to be covered by jungle.
So I popped the hut and got a warrior. The warrior headed back to Paris to double up the garrison, saving me the building of one later.

After AH, I went for mining, as Paris was clearly set to be a production powerhouse. Cash, on the other hand, not so much. Anyway, 2400 BC was the start of a nasty little trend, as every single unit I sent to explore out beyond the Aztecs and Mongols died to animal attacks. The death toll amounted to both my scouts and a warrior. So the rest of my contacts were from AIs finding me: Washington in 2440 BC and Alex in 2120 BC. Gandhi I apparently didn’t write down, but he was the last contact by a fair margin.

At about this point, the tech plan (such as it was) went totally to pot. I need a guidebook to the tech tree, seriously. Failing that, enough free time to play about 20 games of CIV between now and Christmas would work. Anyway, the next several techs were fishing, pottery and bronze-working. Meanwhile, Paris built a barracks and an archer, then finally started a settler at size 4.

In 1300 BC, Paris completed its first settler. Orleans was founded a couple of turns later south of the wheat. I had wanted to build it a couple of tiles east, grabbing the rice and copper as well, but Genghis beat me to the spot by a handful of turns with Beshbalik. Therefore, no metals for Renata.

Epic 1, Part the Second: Not-So-Rapid Expansion. Also: Metal, What Metal?
I did not revolt to slavery immediately upon learning bronze-working, and made relatively little use of it once I did. Even more than the unhappiness, the loss of population seems a rather harsh penalty in a game where cities and population points are so very hard to come by. Has anyone put it to extensive use in core cities?

About 840 BC, I agreed to Open Borders with both Genghis and Monty. I was still two turns from writing myself – first sign of my research woes. At 800 BC, I finally started work on Masonry (after that, sailing) – far too late to help any early wonders along. I never went for the Oracle, believing that without marble, it would take too long to build.

By this time, I had realized that I wouldn’t have an ocean resources in my borders for a very long time. I went ahead and built a work boat out of Orleans as its first or second build, anyway, and sent it out to explore. My land exploration had failed miserably, and I was really wanting some trade routes. By the time sailing came in, the work boat was well on its way to opening up trade routes with Gandhi, Alex, and George. So that much worked all right.

In 380 BC, I finally settled my third city, Lyons, in the eastern jungle, pulling in (eventually) the dyes and bananas. I was alarmed to see it was so unhealthy it was negative food. Whoops. Well, iron-working next, certainly. In retrospect, there may have been better places to put the city. Lyons did close up my borders, but I had already opened them to everybody and his cousin so that was hardly important. It did give me a more defensible border than if I had conceded the spot to Genghis, though. Also, this was the point at which I realized I was without metals. And I couldn’t count on iron popping up anywhere useful, either. I built barracks and more archers, and set my eyes on the horses to the west of Paris.

Actually getting them was a bit of an adventure, though. My work boat traversing the south coast, besides locating a couple of barb cities, also alerted me that Genghis was sending a settler pair along in a galley. My horses! I wound up having to whip Paris for a population point to ensure I got there on time. And with my three cities capped at a total population of 13 for the foreseeable future, that hurt, let me tell you. But I got the site (Rheims), and Genghis’s settler wound up in the islands.

Open borders with Genghis probably bought me some time, but in 60 BC it ran out. He declared war, killed a warrior I had on barb lookout, and marched on Orleans. All I had for defense were a couple of guys with clubs and several more with bone-tipped arrows. Horses were still ten turns away; iron probably even further. So all I could really do was turtle up and get pillaged until I had enough archers to be able to sacrifice a couple on offense. Peace was finally made in 140 AD, with much less damage than I had feared but much more than I wanted. I had horses and iron shortly after, though, and committed myself to building a real military.

Epic 1, Part the Third: The View from Last Place. Also: The Fine Art of Poaching
Gandhi had built the pyramids at some point, and was charging out ahead in score with Washington following. The nasty boys clogged up the middle. And who was last? Why, that would be me. The Oracle was built somewhere, and yet another religion fell as someone got Philosophy. I started research on alphabet to try to catch up. In 460 AD, I founded another city, Tours, NW of Paris on the coast.

Meanwhile, I had had an archer sitting on a hill between the two barb cities for hundreds of years. The workboat had alerted me to a worker on the southern horses, and the last thing I wanted to deal with was barbarians on four legs. So I sent an archer down to keep the worker pinned – he stayed there even throughout the kerfuffle with Genghis. Now, I noticed Monty marching a stack of jaguars and axemen in that direction. I decided I would try to poach the towns out from under his nose and dispatched a chariot to join the archer.

The strategy paid off in 470 AD. Monty’s attack left resource-rich Gepid (horses, sugar, rice and three!!! dyes) with just one wounded archer. I attacked with my chariot and collected 70g and a worker. Wheee! Gepid would eventually turn out to be my best town for commerce, by far. I was unsuccessful at a repeat with Hsung-Nu, and Monty captured that one.

In 490 AD, I got alphabet, and it was still a monopoly. (Is it just me, or is this a *very* easy tech to get to first?) I started a slooooow crawl up out of last place in both score and tech. Tech-trading ain’t what it used to be, that’s for sure, but it did help. I picked up mysticism and math, then started on Calendar before deciding I might be better off getting some cheap religious techs first so I could get better trade value out of alphabet with one of the more expensive ones. Except for the religious tree, few civs had any techs available that alphabet could pay for. I didn’t get calendar until 900 AD.

In 570 AD, the first religion spread to my lands (Confucianism). I didn’t convert, wanting to preserve my decent relations with the two non-aggressive civs, who were Buddhist and Hindu. (Taoism and Judaism followed later, but never either of the two I really wanted.) But I did make use of the religions to finally start growing my cities.

Around 600 AD, both of my neighbors cancelled open borders. There were no immediate war declarations, though. I made use of the respite to autoraze yet another barb city on the southeast coast, then parked units down there until I could send a settler. The town I eventually founded would be called Chartes.

In 840 AD, I actually completed a wonder in Paris: Hanging Gardens. So much for strategery, but yay for great engineer points! The population boost was very welcome, too, and thanks to some silver that had popped up in my territory, an ivory deal with Gandhi, and my new religions, I had enough happy to make full use of it.

Almost 1000 years of relative peace on earth finally cracked in 950 AD: Alex declared on Gandhi. Genghis joined in a while later, and the two of them relieved the old guy of three of his cities before they stopped for a breather. Gandhi lost his lead for good and was the designated AI punching bag until he finally exited the game.

1035 AD: Currency researched, and I could finally start relieving the relatively backwards civs of some of their cash from time to time. I say “relatively backwards” because as Toynbee constantly saw fit to remind me, I was still dead last in that area. I had crawled out of last place in the standings, though: I got to look down my nose at Alex.

Epic 1, Part the Fourth: Genghis, Alexander and Montezuma are Whackjobs
My own reprieve from war ended shortly after 1160 AD, when Genghis asked me to join in the beatdown on Gandhi, and I refused. (Heck, at that point, Gandhi was the only halfway sane leader who liked me. Alex did, too, but he’s crazy.) He demanded something else a few turns later and I told him to bring it on, figuring with all his war elephants wandering around India, I’d be safe enough.



Anyway, so I was correct enough about Genghis. He did come with a few war elephants, but my spears made short work of them. I captured Beshbalik in 1195 AD, revenged some pillaging by Lyons, and sent a handful of units east to try to clear some tiles by the Mongol capital. The next turn I got my first great engineer in Paris. I had nothing useful to do with it (still hadn’t researched Metal Casting, and that was just too cheap; no wonders available), but still, I was feeling good.

Then Alex decided to join the party. In 1230 AD, he marched a stack up to Beshbalik, slaughtered its 3-unit garrison, and razed it. My city! Granted, I’d only owned it for a few turns, but I’d coveted it for long enough that it felt like one of my own. The stack moved on towards Orleans. Time to make peace with Genghis, eh?

The first Greek stack was dispatched with little difficulty. The second -- two more units at Orleans and a three-unit landing by Chartes -- was nastier. The RNG was not kind, and I took three losses including one of those frustrating “stab-counterattack-stab-die” jobbers where the attacking unit is left at nearly full strength. More pillaging, but I finally got the Greeks evicted.

Then in 1280, Monty decided he needed to pile on, too. There was killing going on, and he wasn’t part of it. Felt left out, I suppose, poor thing. There were a bunch more skirmishes and a few scary moments before Alex would finally accept peace without my having to give up Orleans. I was tempted to go after Hsung-Nu (the Aztec town marooned in my territory) after that, but I didn’t really have the resources. So I took peace with Monty for a 30g payment shortly thereafter. I sent in the workers to repair the extensive pillaging around Lyons and Chartes. (That poor banana plantation got nailed every time. I suppose I could have tried to defend it, but meh. Not worth the effort.)

In 1350 AD I founded Avignon as a buffer three tiles east of Orleans. It took quite a while to get control over the tiles around it.

Epic 1, Part the Fifth: The Power of Religion. Also, an Account of Some Wonders
I had delayed converting to any religion for a very long time. Only two civs were pleased with me (Washington and Gandhi), and neither’s official religion was present in my territory. I had spread Confucianism around, though, as it was the most widespread religion in the world, and by the 1300s I was thinking I really should convert sometime soon. I had a ton of infrastructure to build, and I really wanted Organized Religion. I bit the bullet in 1395 AD, and revolted to serfdom and organized religion in 1415.

The results were better than I could have guessed. The hit with Washington and Gandhi was not critical to trade … and all of a sudden Genghis liked me! What the heck? Oh, he’s a Confucian headcase. Nice luck, that (he was still pagan when I started spreading Confucianism) -– I now had three trading partners. He hit me up for 70g in 1420, but I think that was just a little ribbing among friends, if you know what I mean.

So I had another lengthy respite from war, this time with a decidedly less dangerous eastern border. I used the time to get some infrastructure finished, and my research ability slowly crept upward, though I was still hideously behind. I also got some assorted Wonders and such built, mostly of the National variety. Orleans got the National Epic (this was actually somewhat earlier). Paris used a great engineer to rush the Hagia Sofia, and built whichever national wonder it is that gives a discount on military units. (Very nice to have indeed in production-powerhouse Paris.) High-commerce Gepid got an Academy from an Orleans-produced great artist. The Hermitage went to Rheims and the Forbidden Palace to Lyons.

Meanwhile, wars continued elsewhere. Monty got into it with Washington, and everyone continued to take potshots at Gandhi. I stayed out of everything, although by the 1600s I sort of wished someone would declare (or ask me for help) so I could actually use some of the military I had sitting around bleeding money. In 1610 AD, iron popped on a hill by Chartes – which already had iron. That turned one of my smallest cities into one of my most productive. I also took the opportunity to plop down two filler cities south of Paris. Aztec Hsung-Nu was getting squeezed.

In 1692 AD, Monty decided he couldn’t take the pressure anymore.

Epic 1, Part the Fifth: In Which I Take it to Monty a Bit. Also: The Beginnings of a Plan
I didn’t actually write down much of this war, because it was late Sunday night and I was having enough trouble just keeping track of which units were whose. But I had some fun. Hsung-Nu was a sitting duck, and I had already had a stack of elephants and cats sitting right next to it. (And when I say right next to it, I mean right next to it, thanks to culture from Gepid and Marseilles.)

Another stack of units went after Tlaxcala and captured that, too. I’d have liked to stay at war longer, but war weariness was creeping in, and I just couldn’t afford any loss of commerce. So I made peace and went to bed.

By late Sunday night, I was very doubtful of my ability to actually win the game. I had recovered nicely from the bottom of the rankings, and was hanging out about 400 points behind Washington, in second place. I’d been more than holding my own militarily against three of the biggest crazies in the game. But tech? Tech continued to be bad, bad, bad. I could still only run 70% research. Even with two fairly reliable tech-trading partners now (Gandhi and Genghis), I never got more than one additional tech for each one I researched myself, and sometimes got none at all. Washington was miles ahead. I never even got to start researching something he didn’t already have. And I wanted to win by space race? Urk. I had no idea if that was going to be possible. My vague backup plan after confucianism had been to try to ride Genghis’s coattails to a domination victory, but that was so chancy. And darn near impossible to pursue both goals at once unless the opponent Genghis decided to harass was Washington. And those two hadn’t been at war for eons.

So on Monday, I started thinking about how to best proceed. I figured that if I was going to have any chance at the space race, I desperately needed more beakers. With relatively few turns left, that translated to farming over each and every cottage on the map (not enough turns left to turn into money-bags, anyway) and forcing the cities to grow. Once they got large enough, it’d be scientists all-around. I’d also want to get to the high-commerce civics as a priority.

But that raised another thought. With free religion, Washington should go “friendly” on me. And with his tech lead, I could expect him to be making mincemeat of the aggressive civs sooner or later, so he’d only be getting more and more votes. Could UN be an option? I checked out the tech tree and found that it was only a handful of techs away. I had a 2/3 chance of another engineer in Paris by then, to boot. So I had my goal: civics techs and mass media, pronto.

Epic 1, Part the Sixth: The Road to the UN, the End of Gandhi, and the End of This Report
In 1736 AD, I traded with Gandhi for most of the cost of education, and started in on a round of university building. Shortly after, Paris popped its next great person, and it was indeed an engineer. I built a nice little hut for him on the shores of Lake Paris. In 1760, an odd little ethical dilemma presented itself – Genghis wanted my help against Gandhi. Gandhi had been pleased with me longer than anyone else, but checking the stats right now, my reputation was actually higher with Genghis! All due to religion, of course. At any rate, I joined in the war, but never actually sent any units, and Genghis signed peace a few turns later. (It took me much longer to get out of it, as I’d done no damage.)

It was the beginning of the end of Gandhi, though. Alexander was at war even before Genghis joined in, and each had taken a town. Washington took a third before getting distracted by a war with Monty. (Monty actually asked for my help with that one – hah! No ethics debates necessary there.) Alexander kept plugging away at the last couple Indian holdouts, and Gandhi finally exited the scene in 1802 AD.

Meanwhile, I had started Oxford University in Gepid, which was already up to 94 beakers per turn. OU made it over 200 by the time it was completed. I got a great scientist from somewhere or other, and used it on Physics. I was researching generally one tech from the mass media beeline, then one useful tech from elsewhere, then back again, all throughout the 1800s. Genghis continued to be a useful trading partner (though the trades were all in his favor), and I got some cash infusions from Alex from time to time for older techs. I had been shocked to find shortly before Gandhi’s demise that I was still only second from the bottom in the tech race, but that finally changed during this period, and rapidly -- everyone but Monty at the bottom and Washington at the top was pretty tightly bunched.

In 1824 AD, Washington decided he wanted my help in his war against Monty. As it was navy seals versus musketeers, I wasn't quite sure why, but still ... Happy to help, sir! Again, though, my progress was limited. I took Teotihuacan (allowing me to build another city on the peninsula to the west), but couldn’t mobilize enough units to get much further. We both made peace around 1850.

The early 1800s were also the time of the great civics switch. Two anarchies, a total of four civics changed. Universal Suffrage, Free Religion, Emancipation, Free Speech. IIRC, one of these changes coincided with the completion of OU in Gepid, and whoo! Two turns off my current research. That was nice. My relationship with Washington went to friendly, and even Alex went up to cautious, but Genghis’s opinion of me went back in the toilet. C’est la vie, no?

Mass media was researched about 1860, and lo and behold, that was the very first tech I had up on Washington since Alphabet, way back when. My great engineer got kicked out of his lakeside retreat and was made to design the UN. It would take 6 additional turns to complete. Meanwhile, Washington was running around with tanks. I headed off to catch up on military techs, starting with Steel.

Then Genghis attacked. Aaarrghh, not now! There was a huge stack at Avignon, another one almost as bad at Chartes, and one random cavalry at Lyons that took out the banana plantation (again). It took all my gold to buy in Washington as a distraction, and I had nothing left for upgrades or rushes. Happily, Avignon was well-defended. Chartes, however, was not. It had a decent number of units, but those included some obsolete ones. Eep. I arranged my forces as best I could, but it was going to be down to the RNG.

Chartes survived with a half-strength knight. Everything else died. Avignon took only one loss. I thought Chartes was doomed then, until I noticed how wounded all the Mongol units were. Reinforcements from inland managed to take out that invasion (and a second stack at Avignon) by 1865 AD, though the war continued.

In 1866, the UN was built in Paris. (Yes, I’d kept building it all through the war – no guts no glory!) And that’s when I called it a night, and that’s the end of this report. If you actually made it to the end, thank you for reading.

I’m definitely going to finish this game – it’s far too much fun to abandon – and I’ll update with news of victory or defeat once I do.

http://www.regoarrarr.com/civ/replay.php?story=3

Short story - I conceded defeat in 220 BC after dropping down to 1 city. Learned a thing or two though

Not sure where I'm supposed to submit my save though (if I still have it)

Well, it isn't really much of a report, but I would rather be put in the "Incomplete Games" then nothing at all. I have been very busy since the Epic first came out, so I never had time to finish.... I've only barely started . I will continue to play my game and report it in the near future, as well as refrain from reading other reports for the time being. I'll be sure to get the next Epic done on time ^__^~