Epic 8 - Playshogi's China

[playshogi]

This is the story of China in Epic 8. Everyone played the same map, but was assigned a different civ on that map and over 100 people signed up for the event. I was randomly assigned Mao, who is organized and philosophical so I have cheap courthouses, lighthouses and universities. The only variant restriction is to not declare war before 1000BC. The first pic shows the starting location after settling in place. The +2 health from the river is offset by -2 health from floodplains. There is only 1 hill so this capital is shield poor. My initial build is worker because the scenario provides 2 warriors and animal husbandry is researched first.



After the worker completed, I built another warrior then a settler. I researched Bronze Working next, but copper was nowhere to be found. My second city, Shanghai, is in a decent spot near ivory.



I finally discover copper further east of Shanghai and in 1540BC I claim it with my 3rd city Guangzhou. This city would come under terrible cultural pressure from Buddhist Egypt which is also creative. But I needed the copper to do an axe rush because I didn't know any other way to proceed.


In 415Bc I sent my axemen north and declared war on Rome. My initial assault on Antium went badly and it was down to my last attacker vs. the last defender at better than 90% odds in my favor. Add another tale of RNG woe: the city did not fall. IBT, JC managed to re-inforce, so there was nothing to do but build a bigger, better stack and my troops were victorious in 130BC. I marched on Rome next and in 40BC you can see I wasn't taking any chances. Also, during that year Mansa asked me to convert to Buddhism and I agreed.



After I captured Rome I turned toward the southwest and moved on Tokugawa. The RNG was very favorable for me this time as I won my first 11 combats, even low-odds combats. I captured 3 cities and razed 2 more. I drove Tokugawa off the mainland and agreed to peace in 590.



Meanwhile, in 230, I used a Great Scientist to lightbulb Philosophy and thereby discovered Taoism. Here you can see the holy city of Guangzhou. A few turns later, I dropped the state religion so the holy city culture could be used to fight back against Egypt's culture, which is a serious problem.



In 635, I discovered feudalism and revolt to vassalage which I've never used before. It seems to make sense to try out high cost civics choices with an organized civ and my capital is so shield poor the extra free units might make it a toss up with bureaucracy. At any rate, I never used bureaucracy in this game!

In 785, I build my first wonder, Angkor Wat in Guangzhou. I need a prophet to build the Taoist shrine and this wonder allows me to assign 3 priest specialists to generate one quickly. Since I've got the wonder for culture, I revolt to Buddhism and Organized Religion. Here you can see I fed the city while maintaining 3 specialists.



Now there followed a longish set of turns of trading, building, and teching my way into the lead. In 1226, I decide to finish off Julius and I get FDR to join me for the price of Drama. I don't need the help, but I'm thinking about a diplomatic win, and the "mutual military struggle" adds a diplomatic plus. I even let FDR capture Neapolis and then move on to raze Rome's last city. In the screenshot, you can see that Egypt, FDR, Mansa and myself are Buddhist.



I also eliminated Japan in 1352, even though, by now, Tokugawa is Buddhist and this incurs a diplomatic penalty, but I think it's easier to win diplomatically when you are pleased/friendly with EVERY civ remaining in the game. I also squeeze in 2 new cities south of my capital for the extra UN votes. Here is a picture of Xian and noteworthy is that Liz is in free religion.



Only Saladin remains to be eliminated and this is accomplished in 1595. I had the honor of razing Saladin's last city. I didn't keep it because I wasn't sure I could hold it against Egypt's culture and didn't want a size 8 city to flip to Egypt which looked to be my opponent in the UN vote. In the end, Liz poached this site.



Now all that remained was to tech toward Mass Media. Conviently, a Great Engineer was born in Rome where I had ironworks and this saved me 13 turns on the construction of the UN. Since Hatty would be my opponent, I adopted the favorite civics of FDR (universal suffrage), Mansa (free market) and Liz (free religion). This last one was a dubious move as it costs me +7 with Mansa for sharing Buddhism. I'm only 5 votes short of voting myself secretary-general, so I need at least 1 AI.



The result is I'm secretary-general, but only FDR votes for me.



I quickly adopt Buddhism as the state religion for the 3rd time in the game. The vote for diplomatic victory comes in 1790. I'm +19 with FDR and +22 with Mansa and +9 with Liz. This is enough, as FDR and Mansa vote for me.



I had a lot of fun in this game and this was easily my favorite epic so far. Just the right mix of warring and building and, of course, winning always improves my attitude about the game. I look forward to more potlucks.

[blid]

EDIT : posted in the wrong thread