Adventure 24 - timmy827 - 29/34

[timmy827]

Start-move warrior, decide to settle 1NE of original. Want to be able to build levees way down the line. Also think I see a FP I can pick up and I'm right.

3360-Early exploration with warrior reveals a lot of pretty cruddy land to the east. Eaten by a bear. I know a big decision point will come soon, if I want the GL I need to settle a coastal city and with this coast in the south there may be a good enough site. But I'm more worried about losing the oracle if I do that. Early research - myst + mining, worker done, starting henge.



2960-finish AH, see horses. After some consideration, pasture them before pigs (saves a worker turn of mvmt).

2680-henge nearly done, masonry researched. Question over oracle - to take MC, need to research one of med/poly, priest, BW, pottery, and not sure what best order is. There's also the appeal of founding Judaism and getting org rel. BW is not so high priority; with horses in capital copper has gotta be real unlikely. Hmmm...decide to research poly first.

2600-Henge is in! 1st wonder. Start GW.

Decide to go BW after poly. Thinking is that grabbing MC with oracle gives me an easy +25% production same as org rel. Instincts are proved right when judiasm is founded distantly only around 5 turns later, much earlier than I would have gotten it. Paris is unhappy at size 6, divert for police warrior for 2 turns.

2160-GW done, 2 down. 5 turn settler possible - wow. Build chariot to scout for settler locations; need to wait until priesthood is researched.

1720-Oracle a few turns from done, should finish same time as pottery allowing me to take MC. Settler and chariot wandering around, haven't really seen a good spot yet. There's one that could claim copper, cow and silver but has no other food source and not much else to recommend.

1560-Oracle done, #3. I'm conceding the great lighthouse most likely. I see a decent city spot getting the cow, copper, 3 grassland hills which will have just enough land to work those 3, and on the coast so it can build the colossus. But there's no rush to get that wonder going so I'm gonna explore the FP to my east. Still no contact, what is going on here? This was pangaea right?

1520-Finally a neighbor. Glad it's someone super-peaceful like MM. Hmmm, wonder if he's more a threat to take wonders than an industrious leader due to his good tech speed? Anyways, need to settle assertively to stake my claim and keep him off my end.



1480-move onto plains hill E of FP, see more malinese borders. Probably gonna settle here. Got GP in capital, think he'll be more useful than GSpy. Settling is good, or should I save him to bulb theology? Mansa's a heathen so that might be the quickest way to get religion. Would have to research meditation, writing (which I'm on) and monotheism I believe.

1120-oh crap, I tell my chariot escorting 2nd built settler to move two spaces, he attacks a warrior in a forest and loses. Have to retreat settler while wait for a new escort.

900BC-mono done, revolt to org rel+slavery, despite not having a religion yet. Will research med and bulb theo.

875-third city founded. I get one of these annoying and clearly wrong things, annoying about the new patch.



700-Just surprises me offereing Alpha for MC. I decline as I'm a ways from locking up the colossus.

675-meditation done, bulb theo. Christianity founded in Orleans - best place as it's gonna be fighting culture battle against Mali! Great luck!.

400-Temple of Artemis done. Very surprised GL not gone yet - maybe I should switch to sailing? 2nd GP born, settle in capital, allows raising of sci sldier back to 70%.

225-I lose the pyramids!?!. Never seen them go before GL before, damn.

900AD - wow, got into a "zone" and forgot anything to write down. have researched thru CS and going after music. No more wonders lost except for GL; this is annoying as I could have surely gotten it if I wasn't so sure it was gonna get taken by someone else.
Religion has given me fits; Mansa converted away to Hindu and Just to buddhism; tried send several missionaries to Just but couldn't switch him back. I went back to no religion which prevented me from building the AP for a long time. When I went back I chose Judaism instead of my own Christianity; there were two Jewish civs and no Christians. Then realize that AP can only be built in my one Jewish city, so building slower than capital there (this was all spurred by Just adopting Theocracy, telling me the clock was ticking). I'm furious that Just hasn't sent me a Buddhist missionary - I'm not worried about Mansa attacking but Just might, and the shared faith bonus should prevent that. Also, Just hates Mansa due to religion, so I've been reluctant to take advantage of the person who should be my #1 tech swapper. I'm running Theo for diplo bonus with Just. Plan is to use the GA from Music for a golden age, use that to get ahead and revolt into free religion anarchy-free after finishing AP (Hey, I'm actually going to take advantage of Shwedagon!). Probably research Philo next, Pacal has it so I'm worried about Angkor Wat. After trading for machinery, also should go engineering for Notre Dame, consider divine right as well.

920 - While taking a break, it crosses my mind that I can't pick up Buddhism while in Theocracy. Fortunately that will change soon. Unfortunately, Just just finished the AP! I'm thinking that I've horribly screwed this up; losing a wonder I had a tech for dozens of turns before any AI is just awful, even though this was largely due to my religion problems. Also BTW, I've settled two prophets and one engineer in Paris.

Finally, another byproduct of this religious disorganization is that I'm reluctant to tech trade at all. Every single AI is hated by one or two others, so any deals get me a relations demerit.

940-Great Library done in Paris, building Nat'l Epic. Ironworks is probably gonna be the 2nd national wonder.

960-Trade CS, Lit, and Mus to Just for Feud+Machinery. Gift lit to Willem so I can trade him Mus for construction next turn. These trades are all pissing off only Sury, who's far away and score is plunging, so I'm not too worried. Traded CS as I saw MM was researching it.

980-Pacal adopts Bureacracy, nice timing to trade away CS the last turn. Trade Music to Willem for Construction, see two AIs already have Engineering - not good. Pop gems from a mine - very good, that's another +2 happy for all! Free religion adopted during the GA GA.

1010-Another great prophet, consider bulbing DR but settle instead.

1040-Asoka offers dyes for my extra sheep, sweet. Bad news is Just declared on Mansa; sigh, more relations demerits with both of them after they ask me for help. Maybe I'll get lucky and the AP people will stop the fighting. Having to research engineering myself as not enough AIs have it to trade.

1050-Sistine in, start A.Wat. Start researching DR before Engin is done on the slim chance that 1) an AI will finish Engin and I can trade for it or 2) ND is built somewhere else. Will switch back in time for capital to start ND as soon as AW done.

1070-Sweet, MM and Just sign peace before either asks me to join in!
1080-See a buddhist missionary in my territory! I hope it does somethign before my GA ends. I'm thinking of gambling and switching to OR now.

1100-GA ends, AW done-nice. Engin in (wasn't able to trade) and ND underway, back to researching DR. I did gamble and won, was able to switch to OR and then to Buddhism in the last turns of the GA, excellent. Settle yet another GP in capital, those hammers are gonna be a big part of my production by the end...I've trained a nice army of maces, not big but enough to keep any random DOW's, and Just should be pleased due to same faith fairly soon (though I do have a close borders that of course is because he put a city near me in a stupid location full of tundra and nothing).

1140-DR done, great! hopefully the AI's will avoid it giving me plenty of time to finish its wonders (Versailles can't be built in the capital so it will take a while...)

1150-I lose ND! Shit! Really sad to lose a historically French wonder...start spiral minaret in capital. Hey, I have a religion again so it might be useful! Willem has paper which I'm researching so I'll switch to USankore before finishing SM.

[timmy827]

1220-Goddamn AI and their refusal to reconsider war decisions. Justinian declares, a turn or two after becoming Pleased. He has about 20 units incoming, maces, xbows, cats, trebs, horse archers. I have 8 maces, 5 axes with the gold to upgrade. I can trade an AI for guilds but will have to give up DR to do so, might lose Versailles...Stop playing for a while and think about it.



Am currently researching Nationalism, so is MM but I will get there 1st by a few turns. If it weren't for this mess, Usankore would be probable, Spiral and Taj and Versailles definite. Versaille is around 1/2 done but it's in the city closest to attack; if not I might be willing to risk a city in hopes of an AP vote restoring it to me after the war. Just has Engineering but no visible pikemen, so a few whipped knights could really help. But just realized they may not come in time-I only recently got around to researching IW (been available to trade forever but seemed to cheap to count against WFYBATA) and it's not hooked up yet, I'm lucky to have a road already in the tile but no mine. Will probably take 2 turns to hook it up; also I'll need to burn a WFYBATA trade on HBR also, or maybe research it myself. Orleans has 85% (wha? Oh yeah, I actually built the Itza!) cultural defense + hill bonus, and with walls that I could build could hold out for a while, even though w/o knights I don't have a counter for the xbows.

Key question is who is the AP big guy? I don't know because I had no Buddhist cities for a while; the only election I've voted in was to stop trading with Sury. If Asoka is in charge, I think I have good chance of that stopping the war - he likes me, and I've been spreading Buddhism around so I should get a decent # votes. Or maybe the AI will be silly and Just will propose to stop a war he started (seen it reported somewhere, this may have been fixed in the last patch.)

Ok, not completely sure what to do. On this turn I whip walls in Orleans, switch a city or two to military, change research to archery (won't cost much and unlocks longbows,xbows), trade paper to Asoka (one of only two who doesn't have it; USankore two turns from done so it should be safe) for HBR, map, 120 gold. Upgrade one axe to mace, save $ for now on off chance an early war-ending vote is heard.


1230-Sury capitulates to Asoka. MM offers Guilds for DR; I may take that the next turn (though probably not from him for diplo reasons).
Whip castle in Orleans. Relieved that he has no cataphracts; I can't build pikes until next turn when the iron mine is hooked up. Whip castle in city.



1240-1st stack (8 units including 3 cats) moves to hill right outside Orleans. with his xbows, odds to attack are 8% for 1st maceman, so the idea of beating up his stack in pieces is out. But an opportunity presents itself (see picture) - that stack 2E of the city is weak; after a 50-50 fight my macemen should win the rest easily. But they will be dead meat the next turn for his xbows. I'm gonna go for it as killing his trebs should make it very hard for him to take a city.

Argh, that goes badly. 1st maceman loses at 50%, ok, can live with that. Next two lose to the horse archers at 73%, that sucks. Fortunately both are hurt enough that the trebs are stack defenders now and two more maces take them out. Maybe I should have used an axe instead. So I lose 3 maces and two more condemned to kill two trebs and take one mace + 2 HA's out of the battle for a while...not sure if that was worth it.

Trade DR to Willem for guilds and map; still haven't seen any pikes from Just so they should be useful. Upgrade two more axes to maces; one warrior to a pike as well. Paris will produce a knight in one turn with the overflow from completing USankore, a longbow is due in orleans next turn.

1250-Instead of killing my two macemen in the open with xbows, he sends one horse archer to attack the city; a mace kills him without a scratch (that 120% city defense is something!). Two cats attack and reduce defense by a measly 2% each, so I can hold out a long time. But he has a hill so his stack will be hard to dislodge. 1st cataphracts visible. Yet another GProphet born in paris, not that I'm complaining; for a city that's gonna keep building wonders it's about as good as you can get. Only problem is that wall street won't go there if I build NE, although haven't gotten around to that yet. Suspend military builds for a turn in hopes war will stop. Oh shit, Asoka gets a great engineer, and Willem has whored DR to him...

1260-A stop war vote comes up! Yes! Although I'm slightly offended that it's "stop the war against Justinian" - you morons, he started it!

1270- Yes, I'm saved for now. Odd that MM, that peaceloving guy, is the only one to vote for more bloodshed...of course, he is annoyed with both of us so it makes some sense. I'm both delighted and dismayed that Justinian voted to stop the war when he wasn't willing to talk to me. Nationalism is in. And...Asoka does rush the spiral minaret. Goddamn it, shouldn't have traded for guilds. Even if the war had gone on, I should have paid more attention - he had multiple war elephants meet up with his main stack by the time I got knights to the front so they weren't going to be the wonders I thought they would. 17 turns until Versailles; I'm really worried about this one too.

1340-Taj done, another 12 turns of gold! Whee! Versailles is close to done; chopping remote forests to help.
1350-NE done; forgot that was in the queue! Was going to reconsider, but what's done is done. GS born in Paris. I intend Orleans to become the super-science city but right now Paris has much higher base beakers due to bureaucracy and GL, so academy there. Increases total research rate by 17%, nice.

1360-Edu done; Asoka had it a turn or two ago. Should I go for liberalism? Could take PP or constitution with free tech. I think Constitution is in order; closest wonder tech may be democracy and representation would be nice, along with pacifism and caste system switched to anarchy-free. Ok; revolt to caste plus pacifism. Lib due in 5 turns; think I can beak Asoka with the GA help.

And I pick up PP from Pacal for Guilds+DR! This is weird; no one else has PP yet, and almost everyone else has the two techs I trade him. Asoka won't like this, but he loves same faith ppl so I'm not worried. This is quite possibly the most lopsided trade I have ever done. A turn shaved off Liberalism from my souped-up villages and towns, awesome.

1370-abstain from AP vote on leader. Maybe should have voted for Just - does this give diplo bonus? I turned down revolting to theocracy a while ago. God, I'm really skirting close to getting him to declare again. Peace treaty has expired. Good news is I get Versailles

1400-Woot, liberalism in, take const. 6 turns left on GA, democracy will take 9; there go my wild dreams of getting another free civics change. Asoka offers banking and gold for PP; i agree and he's Friendly, and I have a shot at free GM from Economics now.

1410-Just declares again. He means business:



But only 5 siege units; they will take off only 16% defense per turn. Asoka is resident and I'm pretty sure a stop the war vote will be held soon.

1430-Unfortunately, the Dutch beat me to economics. Just's stack does nothing...weird, they're on the hill outside Orleans, no siege bombardment, no pillaging.

1440-Ok, weirder. Just remembers to bombard, but with cultural defenses at 113% still, he very literally suicides 6-7 units into the city. Only one of my units is even damaged! He saves his cataphracts though, and I'm not strong enough to counterattack yet. Revolt to FM + rep (still in GA), set course for democracy. I have a GS saved in the capital, might go for another GA.



I decide to try to get some use out of my knights as Just has left a city lightly defended...I have above even odds for the first battle but can only lose 1. I probably won't keep the city but it might make Just willing to talk for peace, and if I do keep it, I get my own source of furs (but not much else).

And then the game crashes as I go back after taking the screenshot. Hmm, an omen against attacking?



Well, after reload from that turn's autosave it works perfectly, I capture with no losses.

1460-3 newly-promoted shock knights defend the newly captured city of Angora successfully from two maces, a longbow and crossbow, without losses. They're now 7-0; good to see I got some use of them. No stop-war vote yet; defenses down to 91% at Orleans. I'm not building many more units except at Lyons which has all the needed buildings except a bank (not useful as I'm going 90% science now). Paris, with no wonders, has gotten many key infrastructure buildings up. I got a GW-assisted GG, use him to make a medic III/+1 move pike and send him to Angora to heal the knights as everyone in Orleans is full health. Switch research to compass(1 turn) so I can trade liberalism for optics before everyone else gets it (looks like Asoka was researching it and some other AI's have it now). Just is only one with gunpowder, another tech I hope to pick up thru trade.

1480-4 knights and Montgomery(pikeman) hold off 2trebs, mace, elephant at Angora. the trebs both withdraw, and another elephant moves next to the city-damn, if it hadn't I probably could have used the knights to wipe out the rest. Just still won't talk; he's forgotten my refusal to help and refusal to adopt civic; close borders is gone as I've taken the offending city; if this damned war would just end we'd have only positive diplo modifiers which should put an end to the silliness! I have another GP, so I could golden age, but I want to wait at least until the war is over.

1490-Angora comes out of revolt; his trebs bombard its defense (from Itza, as of course I have no culture there yet) down to 0, and the elephant moves away! One shock knight takes out the maceman, and the second knight kills both trebs at once with flanking attack. Nice to see that in action; not needed as I had another knight to finish the last one, but cool. Orleans down to 57% defense; now I'm starting to get worried and move more units into city.

1505-He seems to have given up on Angora. I'm curious as to why no vote has come up - none at all. In more heartening news, Paris starts SoL and only 10 turns to completion! Defenses at 35%. Rearch optics, only MM will give a fairsh trade, everyone else would have to take constitution.

1510-See that no one has astronomy. I have colossus so I'm not eager to research it, but I must be first to electricity as it starts a big wonder chain. going to go for chemistry, steam power. And most importantly, Justinian is finally willing to talk. To my surprise, he is willing to sign with no tribute; I didn't even attempt to ask him for something. He's at pleased which makes me hopeful that this was the last war.



1525 - get a GE in paris, I now have a scientist, prophet, and engineer stored. Tempted to settle the prophet and engineer, hold onto scientist. Next GP will take 10 turns and around then is when I will want another golden age as I go after sci method, communism, physics, electricity, radio, mass media, possibly assembly line for pentagon. just about done with replaceable parts. Just has astro, need to decide soon which way to go for sci method.

After a playing break, decide that researching Replaceable Parts was a dumb idea; it provides no immediate benefit. I only have a tiny amount left to finish so might as well get it; plan is to go powder->chem->steel; start ironworks while going sci method->comm->(astro, should be tradeable by then)->physics->elect->radio. A levee from steam power would be very nice but I'm hoping to trade for it. This may get revised depending on AI tech paths. Hope to trade for corp soon; so far only MM is willing but Asoka has it so one more AI getting should make it obtainable without irritating Just. Also, Just is now annoyed at Asoka with the shared faith bonus gone. Settle GP and GE.

[timmy827]

1550-SoL done, Chem due in a couple of turns.

1575-Refuse to give MM Chem; worried that he might go after sci method before I'm ready to give chase. One turn from steel; get a great proptet which I can use for a golden age. I might hold off a turn or two; it's probably time to switch to free speech and emancipation (should have already been in emancipation; don't really have any cities set up to run hordes of scientists). After some indecision, decide to kick off GA immediately. This is the big push, after the electricity-to-mass media line wonders I'm almost done-only the pentagon, three gorges, and space elevator (which I'm highly unlikely to get; Paris definitiely isn't far south enough to build it and its possible that none of my cities will be).

Switch to free speech + emancipation. To my dismay my beakers/turn actually drops slightly; I thought I had enough towns to counteract the loss of the commerce bonus.

1580-Even with the loss of Bureacracy, with the GA paris can finish the ironworks in only 6 turns! I hope I have coal; no way I'm gonna find out before that's done. I want to beeline communism so I can get another anarchy-free civics change in to state property. And then I have a decision to make - I was assuming I would watermill the hell out of the capital; but with a levee, maybe US, and switching back to bureacracy - maybe it wouldn't be worth ripping up all those towns?

1610-IW done, paris goes unhealthy and starts to slowly starve. 6th University done and Orleans starts on oxford.

1620-free GSpy from communism. See that mansa will finish astro in a couple of turns so research steam power in the meantime. A GE is born normally in Paris as well. Think for while; decide to save him for possible 3rd GA, or to hurry a wonder - there's quite a bunch enabled by radio and if someone else follows me up that tech path i may have to rush one.

1630-trade steel to Willem for rifling, and steel+lib to Mansa for astro+corp. The extra trade route nearly makes up for colossus obsoletion. Switch research to physics; with that GS I can start another GA. Expensive at three great people; but worth it as it will carry me through the majority of the remaining wonders. With one turn left in GA I switch to state property; the maintenance savings vs. trade route loss mostly cancel out. I stay in bureacracy; I'm not going to watermill the capital extensively until electricity (partly for the commerce bonus, partly since that will be the start of my big wonder-binge.)

1650-Kremlin done; realize I forgot to start building salons in other cities.

1665-Yes, physics first! Don't think I've ever won the communism and physics races both before.

1670-finish SP. No coal in capital, but two sources already hooked up elsewhere. Decide to hold off golden age until electricity is done. Start the watermilling.

1690-GA born in paris, I now have 4 GP of different types (spy, sci, eng). I'm not sure if there's a way to specify which get sacrificed for a golden age; I would like to hang on to the engineer. But I don't know, so I settle the engineer and kick it off.

1700-Electricity done. Broadway in 3 turns, jesus. Radio in 7. I hold off on more watermills as research is the bottleneck.

1715-Broadway done, paris switching to research shaves a turn off of radio. MM asks to open borders for the billionth time and I say get lost since Justinian still hates him. Although I've gotten the HE going with the moai statues in Lyons and have been pouring out units so I'm not really worried about war anymore.

1725-Enter the modern age w/radio; this enables 3 wonders. I start eiffel in my moai statues city; it will take 11 turns (but really a fair bit more once the GA wears off). But my capital can build all 3 wonders in 8 turns! (probably not since there's a big overflow for the first one). No one has electricity so these and the mass media wonders should be in the bag. Set course for mass media; time to start thinking diplomatically in prep for UN. I'm AP boss by the way but I don't think I can do anything cool with it.

Asoka will be my rival; as things stand he will have MM's vote and Sury (his vassal). I should have Justinian (pleased with me, cautious with Asoka). Pacal is cautious with me and annoyed with Asoka; don't know whether he would vote for me or abstain. Willem is pleased with both of us, I'm at +5 and Asoka +6. Most of Asokas + are from free religion; if I switch to FR I should be able to get Willem eventually but would probably lose Justinian right away, and then he might declare on me again. So I think I will gift Pacal and Willem my "hit" resources for now, and hope that Pacal goes free religion which should bump him up to pleased. Once I have CR I may revolt into HR for diplo with Pacal as well.

1740-as another rifleman completes, I notice a funny animation where my one airship flies over the city (not sure what's going on here, it's fortified) and bumps it on the head.

1745-CR done, MM in one turn. Another GP born, send to build Christian shrine as I don't think paris needs any more production.

1750-GA ends, research assembly line. No ai has it, only willem and mansa can research it, and mansa's researching combustion, so the pentagon should be locked up.

1775-Effiel done, last of radio wonders. Paris starts hollywood,will switch to pentagon next turn.

1800-Just asks me to accept Theocracy, I do with full intention of switching back after a turn. Yay for CR!

1802-Elect + Communism to Willem for RR. Could trade electricity to Asoka for Bio but would get a relations hit from Pacal. Switch to pacifism and HR (for relations w/Pacal.)

1806-Gift Comm to Pacal, he's up to pleased. Get a GA in paris, not sure what to do with him. Switch to free religion; getting rid of the heathens penalty is not enough to make Pacal friendly (goal is to trade for artillery). Paris has been building research for afew turns now; a factory would produce big health problems and I don't want un up until I'm sure I will win (Willem at friendly. I can probably stay in FR as Justinian is still Pleased)

1808-My diplo plans go to hell as MM passes Asoka in population, although that may be because Pacal has peacefully vassalized to him! So if MM is my rival, I should have Willem and Just while he has Pacal, Asoka. Sury is cautious to both of us when I'm in fr. I may be able to eventually wrest Asoka away via FR bonus, I also don't have many trade bonuses with him. Industrialism in; I can only trade MM for combustion but two other AI's have it. MM is also the only one willing to trade artilery. I can trade elect to Asoka for bio, which will open up some good health techs (refrig, medicine); Asoka already has medicine since he's in environmentalism. I decide to go ahead and put a turn of reserach into refrigeration.

1810-Willem is willing to trade combustion for assembly line, take it and switch reasearch to plastics.

1818-UN 1 turn from done, I'm going to leave it that way in hopes of the diplo situation improving. I've switched back to representation; HR was pointless since Pacal is now a vassal of MM. Trade radio to Asoka for medicine.

1820-Hospital solves Paris's health problems for the moment, but there's still no factory there. Trade medicine+assembly line to Willem for artillery. Assign engineers in Paris as I will most definitely need them to get the space elevator.

1826-I let the UN complete so I can start on TGD as plastics finishes. Set research rocketry->satellites->computers->robotics for the last wonder that I probably can't get.

1828-Sigh, MM wins, not surprising given that I can't get Asoka to Friendly. I hope he can't win a diplo victory; although I'll finish the three gorges dam before he has a chance which basically completes the objectives.



1830-MM switches to Theocracy. He's cautious with me and annoyed with Just so I think I'm not the target, but start building marines, tanks, artillery just in case.

1838-Rocketry in and apollo started with TGD done, send great spy to dutch as they might research something useful and are eager to trade.

1840-MM narrowly loses diplo victory vote.

1850-US vote comes up, I choose to defy as I have a lot of spare happiness at the moment.

1866-Computers in, 10 turns to robotics. Start internet in paris cause, hey, why not. Good news-Asoka is now Friendly to me and Pleased to MM; I can now trade him for refrigeration (which he had a monopoly on) and I should be able to break MM's hold on the UN.

1882-robotics in, I can build the space elevator in Lyons, will take 27 turns. Send workers over to workshop it up.

1888-I get elected sec-gen of UN.

1890-Argh, another great artist in Paris! that's 3 in a row, when a GE could be used on teh space elevator or a GS to found the aluminum corporation.

1900-Pass the +1 trade route resolution. I don't have quite enough votes for diplo victory; OK since I don't have SE done yet. Asoka asked for satellites and I gave it; MM is clearly going to be the rival in the space race but I should be able to win easily. Done with superconductors and researching composites. Several people have apollo but no one has built any parts yet aside from my docking bay.

1901-Here's something odd. Willem builds apollo, but from his tech research you can see from espionage it seems like he must be going for a culture win. Also, on this turn it finally stikes me that free speech might be a good idea and research goes up somewhat.



1907-Mansa completes docking bay.

1911-Space elevator done; the game is basically over but I might as well play it out to win. Mansa asks for refrigeration and I give in; he already has computers so it won't help his teching much. I've picked up fission and laser from the internet. Try a go at diplo victory and fall a good deal short; Just abstains although pleased with me still.

1918-Yet another great artist! Aluminin Co. might still be useful at this point; I gnash my teeth and send three stored great artists to Orleans, in hopes of flipping the nearest Mali city. Won't help me at all, and it may slow down MM (but I think a space race is in the bag) so I'm doing it mostly out of anger.

1919-Hadn't considered this possibiltiy- Justinian offers aluminum for oil! Unfortunatley I've already finsihed 3 casings and 3 thrusters but it will still help a bit. No one else has anything more than the docking bay, so a win is more or less guaranteed.

1920-I'm a little confused as the triple culture bomb only reduces the malinese share of culture from 41 to 40%.

1923-Fusion in, Ecology is the only necessary tech left. Paris can bulid the 1st engine in 4 turns, I'm guessing 5 for the 2nd as there is a lot of overflow. Asoka builds all 5 thrusters in the last few turns; he's now my sr rival and closest rival for diplomacy too.

1926-Ecology in, last casing in. Getting close. Switch to nationalism and draft from the cities not building SS parts. Narrowly win re-election over asoka.

1927-1st engine in, 2nd one due in 5 turns from Paris, life support in 6 from another city, and last thruster and stasis in 3 and 2. I'm surprised I did a reasonably good job of coordinating the finish; I'm not good at it normally and in this case, my captial has as much production as the rest of my cities combined (those numbers include factor/power/forge and the SP bonus, but not the spaceship-part bonuses from lab, SE, or copper/aluminum.

1929-I am INCREBIBLY angered when my nearly-done stasis chamber in Orleans is sabotaged! Paris will be able to build it quickly so it should only delay launch a couple turns; I'm still almost willing to break the rules and start declaring war.

1932-last engine in; paris will take 3 turns to rebuild stasis chamber.

1935-Launch, 10 turns to win. Asoka has 2 of the unique parts and all 5 thrusters; so it's not close at all.

1939-an existing factory and in-progress tank are destroyed by spies! I'm going to stay within the variant rules, but will try some modern warfare after my spaceship reaches AC and the game is over.

1941-More AI weirdness, making me think that not all is well - Mansa has quite a nice stack of units here, including 30(!?!) mining inc executives! Also, there's been an annoying pattern where Pacal de-and-re-vassalizes to Asoka on the same turn every now and then.

1945-space victory; no one has launched yet.

[timmy827]

Wonder completions (* = not in Paris):
2640BC - Stonehenge
2200 - Great Wall
1600 - Oracle
425 - Temple of Artemis
1AD - Hagia Sophia
225 - Colossus *
275 - Hanging Gardens
300 - Statue of Zeus
475 - Mausoleum
580 - Parthenon *
640 - Chichen Itza
840 - Shewdagon Paya
920 - Great Library
1040 - Sistine
1090 - Angkor Wat
1230 - University of Sankore
1330 - Taj Mahal
1360 - Versailles *
1545 - Statue of Liberty
1645 - Kremlin
1710 - Broadway
1740 - Cristo Redentor
1750 - Rock n' Roll
1770 - Eiffel Tower
1800 - Pentagon
1804 - Hollywood
1824 - UN
1834 - Three Gorges Dam
1910 - Space Elevator

Wonders lost:
Pyramids, Khmer, 250 BC
Great Lighthouse, Khmer, 225AD
Apo Palace, Byzantines, 900
Notre Dame, Dutch, 1140
Spiral Minaret, India, 1260

All right, time to asses my performance. I'm kind of disappointed. The idea of this game excited me, so I tried a few test runs (obviously with my own map), one to the late Renaisance and one or two others to the end of the classical. These should have been harder - I had some industrious opponents, and couldn't remove marble/stone without giving myself precious knowledge, so I regenerated starts with those (and thus AIs could have them). In these games

1) I didn't miss Pyramids (losing these took me completely by surprise; in my first Emperor win in BTS, a culture victory as Ramses, an AI built them in 800AD as I chased most other wonders).
2) GLighthouse was generally built very early; after a couple tries, I concluded that it was basically impossible to get with a non-coastal captial.

Then, of course in the real deal, with no industrious and no stone for anyone, the pyramids get built before AD, while I fake myself out of the great lighthouse thinking its impossible to get.

So for the wonders I missed:
Pyramids; was surprised, I had a good number of hammers in it.
GLighthouse - faked myself out
Apo Palace - was ruined by a poor religous/diplo situation and not doing my homework being conscious of the state religion-in-city requirement. If I had I would have taken care of this one first when I bulbed Theology instead of Hagia Sophia 1st. Also assumed I would have longer before anyone else researched Theology.
Notre Dame - was somewhat careless pursuing the machinery side of the tree. I remember being able to trade CS for machinery for a long time but didn't do so, wanting to safeguard liberalism race. Of course I did have the time to research nationalism before lib, so that did pay off.
Spiral Minaret - this was the worst one; I got to DR first and since its a religion tech I figured no one would research it for a long time. As you may recall, I traded it for guilds during a war with Justinian, thinking that knights would allow me to annihilate his stack, which was silly becase while Justinian had no pikes he did have some elephants. Just about everything went wrong after the trade; AI's traded around some more and Asoka got it with a great engineer.

Still, was a fun game. Nice and quick compared to my stuggle in the Boudica game.

[Sullla]

Wow, great report, especially fending off those attacks from Justinian! Very entertaining to read. I hope you'll continue sharing more games with us in the future.

[Compromise]

When reading other people's reports, I had the notion that Mansa served as a good buffer between the player and Justinian. Here, that seems to be confirmed. You expanded further east than most and therefore didn't have Mansa between you and Justinian. So he attacked you instead of Mansa. Interesting.

Thanks for the good writeup.

[timmy827]

Yeah, I felt I was a bit unlucky in that I had open borders with Justinian for a long time and it took nearly forever for Buddhism to spread to my mostly religionless cities; if I got it earlier I think I could have converted in time to make him perennially friendly and fend off a war.

I'm surprised that more people didn't settle as far east as I did; it seemed like a very obvious move since player started on a peninsula and violent expansion was mostly ruled out by the variant rules. Especially since the prime real estate with that FP-heavy spot was at the peninsula neck. This game was the first time I've put my 2nd city so far away.