Epic Forty-four: Denial of the Nile - Reports and Discussion

[Griselda]

It's closing day for Epic Forty-four: Denial of the Nile! Please post your reports in reply to this thread.

I made the old Civ forum read-only, put up as big of a "forum closing" notice as I could, and I emailed everyone who was registered over there, so I'm hoping that players will be able to find there way here to report. The links are updated on the main /civ section, too, so that should help.

I think that reports will really help us get a sense of what this forum can and can't (yet) do, so go ahead and try it out! 2:

-Griselda

[Improviser]

Firstly I should apologise for not finishing this game, but I became very disheartened in 690 AD, when I lacked Physics and Metallurgy and the Iroquois (runaway AI) had replaceable parts.

I lost any chance I had of winning, through not knowing how to take care of raging barbarians, through not managing my fishing villages correctly (the RBC Sleeveless succesion game), and in general not grabbing enough land. Another big factor in the defeat was not being able to make contacts. Having 2 lots of 5 barbarian galleys right next to my cities, and then more barb galleys a bit further around the coast stopped me from making any contacts myself, thus all my contacts came from the AI's finding me. I didn't meet my first civ (Dutch) until about 730 BC, and it wasn't until 210 AD that I had complete contact.

I think the biggest factor at all, was that despite being an age behind the Iroquois, (with Sumeria and Hittites being nearly as advanced) is that most of the other AI's were backward and tiny. Apart from those 3 civs in the industrial age, everyone else was as backwards as me or worse (if I remember correctly).

I had almost zero military (1 spear per city), few workers, little growth (I forget to irrigate in republic) etc. I guess I ran out of time and enthusiasm to play a game riddled with mistakes .

The only points I score are 10 for Greece being wiped out by the Iroquois. I hope the rest of the reports are more positive than this, and hopefully I can give another epic a shot after my uni exams are over.

Thank you to Sirian for a very interesting map and scenario setup. I'll probably have another go, starting from the beginning in a month's time, and will see if I can do better with it.

Improviser

[Jabah]

'Honorable diplomatic victory' could be found at

[url="http://mapage.noos.fr/jb.gouesse/Epic44/Epic44_r.htm"]http://mapage.noos.fr/jb.gouesse/Epic44/Epic44_r.htm
[/url]
Nothing realy special, just the basic 'hidding in our corner, being backward, wait for trading opportunities, avoid trouble, get back in the race, get theory of Evolution + Hoover, get UN, win since we were nice' without forgetting the GA late because some AI decide to test our defences at some point, but far too late to be more than a nuissance .

Jabah

PS : Sorry for those with a slow connection, this report is in 1 page only, but is less then 2Mo with crappy little pictures.

[Grimjack]

Greetings people.

This is the executive report. I was going for a conquest, but ran out of time, and got a diplomatic victory in 1460.
My turnlog should it be of interest is found here: Turnlog
I am warning you the turnlog is very rough, because I was playing late and never got any chance of even proof reading it.

Tried some rapid expansion, the late contacts really hurt the trading chances, but I was not far behind once Theory came in.

Ran some interesting warfare with Chariots against knights and Muskets

Ran a lot of warfare with cavalry against Rifles and Infantries.

Scorewise, I got hurt by not having a focused game, and also because I stupidly razed a city when I forgot about the honorable points.
Warwise I suffered from not getting any leaders until too late in the game for them to matter. ( Not until long after artillery. )
Gamewise I suffered when none of the four scientific civs got Fission, losing me 20 turns while I researched it myself.

My 1000 AD size = 481 tiles ( 48100 square miles. ) and culture rating is 11375

I had only 5 opponents left at the end, so six nations eliminated
I managed to build no wonders during ancient/medieval ages.
I had one of my cities pillaged by barbarians when I got surprised by the uprisings.
Base score = 6*10 + 25

Fast diplomatic victory = ?? ( 1455/1460 )
Culture in 1000 AD = ?? ( 11375 )
Size in 1000 AD = ?? ( 481 tiles, 48100 square miles )

[Sirian]

Link is not working for me at this time, Jabah. Typo?

[Griselda]

Jabah's report is here. It looks like he kept the "http" that this forum puts in front of links, plus added his own "http" too.

[Jabah]

Jabah's report is here. It looks like he kept the "http" that this forum puts in front of links, plus added his own "http" too.

Thanks Griselda for guessing right and giving the good link.
Oopss, I did some copy-paste without double-checking (it was already 1.30am, so I guess I was a tired lazy Jabah)

I edited it my message and it should work now.

Jabah

[Kodi]

I wasn't able to complete the Epic either, but reading what others did is really helping me learn how to handle barbs and other things in higher levels of difficulty. I'm gonna try the Epic again, using some of the other's strategies to see how I make out. On my game, no contact was even made with anyone

[Ginger_Ale]

I unfortunately started this Epic but did not complete it - I think deity is a bit beyond my level. However, I did learn a lot about how to win on Deity without many wars. Any idea when the next (c3c) epic is coming?

[Urugharakh]

I currently can't upload Sreenshots anywhere, so no report from my side. I might post a detailed one when I can again, but I fear my report will face the same fate as Sirians Epic 36 report. So here a short summary.

I decided to do some roleplaying and settle ON the nile. I found the river south (only natural direction to look for a river) and settled in 3700 BC. As a reference for those, who played, Thebes was founded on the gold hill in the south. So I had a 6 turn delay and lacked the food bonus. But I traded in a productive powerhouse with an early accessible 10spt capital and a surprising first ring iron works city to the southwest.

I was always ~5 turns late for a military opportunity. So I developed peaceful and consequently honorable, as I was careful not destroying the honorable bonus in peace times. Unfortunately I lacked a golden age this way.

I got dyes and gems in my territory as well, and consequently had a reasonable happiness situation.

AIs did a lot of waring resulting in a couple of destroyed opponents:
10 BC America (Greece)
310 AD Indians (Zulu)
320 AD Ottomans (Dutch)
1385 AD Zulu (Hitties)
1405 AD Sumeria (Babylon)
1470 AD France (Iroquoise)

I researched ancient age myself with the help of a currency 2fer with babylon AND a Literature multifer, where India had an 8 turn monopol and I finally was able to pay a total of 8gpt and 47g for code of laws, literature, mysticism and warrior code. Everything else in ancient age was self researched as research in much cheaper than buying in conquest.

Zulus couldn't keep up in the tech race in early medival age. I was able to trade them theology and then a couple more self researched techs in the upper tech branch for their techs in the lower branch until they dropped out of the tech race completely. This way I was able to enter industrial age only 3 techs behind the tech leaders and get techs in return for my early industrial research projects using the power of fully developed research cities. This way I got a monopol in scientific method, which easily resulted in ToE, Atomic Theory and Electronics. I was leading the tech race from that time and sold my new techs at monopol prices. I ran 100% tech and made ~500 gpt. I entered modern age 2 techs before the AI with over 40k cash in the bank. Then gave the necessary techs to the remainig 2 scientific AIs. One of them got Fission and I simply payed the monopol price for the gain of a turn. My UN prebuild in my iron work city easily got the wonder. Vote was no problem either as everybody except my 2 opponents voted for me.

Scoring:
60 points for eliminated Rivals
30 points for never being sacked
15 points for honorable gameplay
25 points for victory

Won in 1475 AD by vote.

337 tiles in 1000 AD
10214 culture in 1000 AD.

Urugharakh