Introduction
Our starting location reveals Rice two tiles to the west. We have at least 10 water tiles to work. However, the tile 1 south if a Hills Plains that will yield +1 hammer if we settle on it. The downside is that the hill is forested so we would lose that extra production. Wow, I just started this game and already there is a though decision to be made.
We are playing as Lincoln who is Philosophical (+100% GP Birth Rate, double speed for University) and Charismatic (+1 happiness in all cities, -25% XP needed for promotions, +1 happiness from Monument and Broadcast Towers.)
Whenever I play a Charismatic leader (which is not Creative), especially on higher difficulty levels, I really like building Stonehenge. It gives two great benefits: extra happiness in all cities, and free culture in all cities such that you do not need to build any special buildings to pop the culture border. When you are playing a Creative leader, the culture is a non-issue, but since Lincoln is not, I think getting Stonehenge will be nice.
The Americans start with Fishing and Agriculture as their two starting techs. We want agriculture early anyways for that Rice. But I plan on cottaging the Flood Plains, although one will probably be farmed given that we start with Ag.
Ancient Age
I research Mysticism first. Buddhism and Hinduism both fall very early which will make it less likely that we will get Stonehenge. Without Stone and not being Industrious, things may not work out. So needless to say, Stonehenge was built crazy early while my capital was working on it. Fortunately, I had not yet invested too much into its production.
I did pop Animal Husbandry from a hut, the only tech I got. Unfortunately, there were no Horses anywhere close.
Early research after Mysticism was The Wheel, Pottery, the Mining. Then Masonry, Polytheism, and finally Monotheism since no one had it yet so it allowed me to found Judaism and thus have a better way to get Culture.
Classical⦠err Medieval Age
Monarchy is discovered the same date as The Oracle is complete giving me my first ever Feudalism slingshot. Not something I planned from the start, but it was clear that a CS slingshot was not going to be possible, so this seemed like a decent alternative. First time I ever went from the Ancient Age to the Medieval Age skipping Classical altogether.
In 1125 BC, I finally revolted to change civics. I probably should have done it early, but had forgotten about it.
Justinian declared war on me in 35 BC. I knew it was only a matter of time before he got uppity since we were of different religions, had close borders, and the man is a religious nut-job.
When the war first started, I was not in great shape. I did have a good number of Longbows, but not too many on the eastern front with the Byzantine. Fortunately, I had already decided to make Boston my military production city. It had a good number of hammers, and was on the border with the Byzantine who I knew would be my first foe⦠err, I mean aggressive un-provoked attacker!
During the early stages of what would be a very long war, I mostly played defense with the Longbows, and occasionally had to re-pasture a Cow tile. Boudica and Justinian both had Construction so I was waiting for Boudica to have a decent trade for it. Once I picked that up, I started building Cats and could finally go on offense.
Late in the war, Macemen came online and helped conquer⦠err, I mean peacefully acquire⦠the Byzantine lands. Justinian had never begged for mercy, so the war kept going on and on. Towards the very tail end of it, I did have to research Drama to bump the Culture slider since war weariness was becoming a serious problem, and I could use the Culture to pop the borders of captured cities as they came out of revolt; this would have the additional benefit of reducing starvation.
The war finally ended in 990 AD, more than a thousand years later. I left Justinian with a single city that was being culturally pressured by Boudica. If I had taken that city over, it would have been assimilated by Celts very quickly. Besides, Justinian had many, many techs that I wanted, and he offered them all as part of this peace deal: Meditation, Horseback Riding, Code of Laws, Theology and Paper! He also offered Capitulation, but I rejected that in the hopes that he might beg Boudica for protection and I could then finish him off when she declared war on me which I was sure would happen eventually since our relations were not great due to different religions.
What I didnât know is that it would happen the very next turn after I made peace with Justinian. Boudica declares was in 1000 AD to celebrate the millennium⦠or something like that. I would rather she had waited 10 turns or so to do that. Most of my forces were in the newly annexed Byzantine territories, and many were still wounded.
Fortunately, Boudica came up me with a pathetic stack consisting of: 2 Gallic Warriors, 2 Chariots, 1 Spear, and 1 Catapult. Not exactly a stack of doom. They were headed for Atlanta which had 2 Longbows and a Spear for defense. But by the turn the enemy forces arrived, I would have a second Spear and another Longbow there for defense. The southern forces also started heading north and would prepare for a counter-attack.
The old Byzantine cities had many important city improvements to work on, most notably Courthouses, so they would not be able to participate in the war effort for some time, but the established American cities began once again churning out troops.
The war with the Celts did not last very long. I only took over a few cities since my economy was already in the tank. I wanted to make sure to expand my territory a little since Boudica did control about half of our large continent. I wanted to try and contain her a little more, while at the same time making sure she hated me enough to declare war on me at a later date. For that to happen, I would probably have to keep my military down a little, and then massively upgrade once she declared war. I think the AI avoids declaring war against a foe with an overwhelming military.
Boudica was researching Guilds at this point which meant that she would have Knights for the next conflict. I was not too worried since I could upgrade my many experienced Spears into Pikemen. Besides, Boston had 4 Great Generals, when combined with Vassalage, would produce 13 XP troops. With our Charismatic trait (-25% XP needed for promotions), that meant our troops started with 4 promotions.
At some point, I popped a Great Scientist to help research Education. My Research slider had been hovering between 10% and 30% for a long time, and I was worried that someone might beat me to the Liberalism slingshot. It wouldnât be crushing if it happened, but it would still suck.
I had decided to research Optics before Education since I really wanted to find out where the other civs were at. I knew that there had been some war-mongering amongst them since I had seen at least a couple of Great Generals appear in distant lands.
My two Caravels, each exploring in different directions quickly met up with the remaining three civs. Louis (France) had become a vassal of Joao (Portugese). Ragnar of the Vikings was the other civ. It appears that all three other civs were on the same continent which appeared similar in size to our own.
Since Joao was second âscore-wiseâ I decided to try and befriend Ragnar. Not sure how well that will work, but if I can get Boudica to declare war on me once more, I will have an entire continent to myself. Also, while Ragnar did know Guilds and Gunpowder, he did not yet have Paper, neither did any of the other off-world civs. That meant I had plenty of time for Liberalism which was now less than half a dozen turns away.
As an aside, I really like the Liberalism → Astronomy slingshot except when I have the Colossus. Now you might be wondering whether I built it with my zero early coastal cities and the answer would be ânoâ. But Constantinople, the capitol of the Byzantine empire during its glory years, built the Colossus as well as the Great Lighthouse. It had also built the Buddhist Shrine. I will probably spread Buddhism a little more for the extra gold once I have the spare production cycles. The Great Wall had been built in Thessalonica although that Wonder was long past useful at this point in the game.
I had taken a break when I wrote the paragraphs above. When I resumed playing, I did my normal routine: check every city, looks at the big picture, look at city happiness and health, look at border city defenses, etc. As soon as I hit [Enter] to advance to the next turn, Boudica declares war on me and launches her forces into my (well, itâs mine now) city of Calleva. Thereâs nothing I love more than the AI attacking my cities when they are defended by many Longbows!
The Rest of the Game
Sorry for the rest of this report, but it is Sunday night and I had to rush through the end of the game to even complete it.
I took a few more of Boudicaâs cities before I was forced to make peace due to the growing War Weariness. As part of the peace deal I would pick up two extra cities, although one of them eventually was lost to Justinian due to culture.
Since I wanted to encourage Boudica to declare war again (so that I could finish her off), I didnât build any more troops although did reposition many of them. I would also keep a decent amount of cash on hand to upgrade in the even of another war.
My plan at this point had been to win a UN Victory with Ragnar as my ally. I had befriended him early and we had excellent relations. I picked him since he was not doing too well, but not all that badly either. Unfortunately, Ragnar had waged a very successful war against the French and would stay in second place the rest of the game. So I went for plan B: Space.
Somewhere along the way, Joao declared war on me. We had conducted a cold war per Ragnarâs request many years earlier, but had never seen combat. This time, some pesky boats showed up and wasted some of my time.
Boudica and Justinian eventually teamed up and started what would be the final war on this continent. I upgrade many CR3 Macemen to Infantry and that was pretty much the end of them.
The race to space was uneventful. After making sure no one was going for a Culture win by periodically checking the âCulture Graphâ, I just peacefully researched on.
Five turns before my Spaceship arrives, Joao declares war and assaults me from both sides of the continent. I canât be bothered at this point, so I upgrade some units and let him take a couple of cities.
Space Victory in 1885 AD
Not a great time, but not terrible. Not having Slavery is a real killer, especially when taking over cities with lots of unhappiness. Instead of being able to whip away a lot of the angry mob, the city sits there producing almost nothing. Not being able to whip out Courthouses also really crippled my economy during the wars with Boudica and Justinian. During the tail end of those wars, research was mostly stuck between 0% and 20%.
All in all, not a bad game. Iâm sorry I did not have more time to write a better report.
Our starting location reveals Rice two tiles to the west. We have at least 10 water tiles to work. However, the tile 1 south if a Hills Plains that will yield +1 hammer if we settle on it. The downside is that the hill is forested so we would lose that extra production. Wow, I just started this game and already there is a though decision to be made.
We are playing as Lincoln who is Philosophical (+100% GP Birth Rate, double speed for University) and Charismatic (+1 happiness in all cities, -25% XP needed for promotions, +1 happiness from Monument and Broadcast Towers.)
Whenever I play a Charismatic leader (which is not Creative), especially on higher difficulty levels, I really like building Stonehenge. It gives two great benefits: extra happiness in all cities, and free culture in all cities such that you do not need to build any special buildings to pop the culture border. When you are playing a Creative leader, the culture is a non-issue, but since Lincoln is not, I think getting Stonehenge will be nice.
The Americans start with Fishing and Agriculture as their two starting techs. We want agriculture early anyways for that Rice. But I plan on cottaging the Flood Plains, although one will probably be farmed given that we start with Ag.
Ancient Age
I research Mysticism first. Buddhism and Hinduism both fall very early which will make it less likely that we will get Stonehenge. Without Stone and not being Industrious, things may not work out. So needless to say, Stonehenge was built crazy early while my capital was working on it. Fortunately, I had not yet invested too much into its production.
I did pop Animal Husbandry from a hut, the only tech I got. Unfortunately, there were no Horses anywhere close.
Early research after Mysticism was The Wheel, Pottery, the Mining. Then Masonry, Polytheism, and finally Monotheism since no one had it yet so it allowed me to found Judaism and thus have a better way to get Culture.
Classical⦠err Medieval Age
Monarchy is discovered the same date as The Oracle is complete giving me my first ever Feudalism slingshot. Not something I planned from the start, but it was clear that a CS slingshot was not going to be possible, so this seemed like a decent alternative. First time I ever went from the Ancient Age to the Medieval Age skipping Classical altogether.
In 1125 BC, I finally revolted to change civics. I probably should have done it early, but had forgotten about it.
Justinian declared war on me in 35 BC. I knew it was only a matter of time before he got uppity since we were of different religions, had close borders, and the man is a religious nut-job.
When the war first started, I was not in great shape. I did have a good number of Longbows, but not too many on the eastern front with the Byzantine. Fortunately, I had already decided to make Boston my military production city. It had a good number of hammers, and was on the border with the Byzantine who I knew would be my first foe⦠err, I mean aggressive un-provoked attacker!
During the early stages of what would be a very long war, I mostly played defense with the Longbows, and occasionally had to re-pasture a Cow tile. Boudica and Justinian both had Construction so I was waiting for Boudica to have a decent trade for it. Once I picked that up, I started building Cats and could finally go on offense.
Late in the war, Macemen came online and helped conquer⦠err, I mean peacefully acquire⦠the Byzantine lands. Justinian had never begged for mercy, so the war kept going on and on. Towards the very tail end of it, I did have to research Drama to bump the Culture slider since war weariness was becoming a serious problem, and I could use the Culture to pop the borders of captured cities as they came out of revolt; this would have the additional benefit of reducing starvation.
The war finally ended in 990 AD, more than a thousand years later. I left Justinian with a single city that was being culturally pressured by Boudica. If I had taken that city over, it would have been assimilated by Celts very quickly. Besides, Justinian had many, many techs that I wanted, and he offered them all as part of this peace deal: Meditation, Horseback Riding, Code of Laws, Theology and Paper! He also offered Capitulation, but I rejected that in the hopes that he might beg Boudica for protection and I could then finish him off when she declared war on me which I was sure would happen eventually since our relations were not great due to different religions.
What I didnât know is that it would happen the very next turn after I made peace with Justinian. Boudica declares was in 1000 AD to celebrate the millennium⦠or something like that. I would rather she had waited 10 turns or so to do that. Most of my forces were in the newly annexed Byzantine territories, and many were still wounded.
Fortunately, Boudica came up me with a pathetic stack consisting of: 2 Gallic Warriors, 2 Chariots, 1 Spear, and 1 Catapult. Not exactly a stack of doom. They were headed for Atlanta which had 2 Longbows and a Spear for defense. But by the turn the enemy forces arrived, I would have a second Spear and another Longbow there for defense. The southern forces also started heading north and would prepare for a counter-attack.
The old Byzantine cities had many important city improvements to work on, most notably Courthouses, so they would not be able to participate in the war effort for some time, but the established American cities began once again churning out troops.
The war with the Celts did not last very long. I only took over a few cities since my economy was already in the tank. I wanted to make sure to expand my territory a little since Boudica did control about half of our large continent. I wanted to try and contain her a little more, while at the same time making sure she hated me enough to declare war on me at a later date. For that to happen, I would probably have to keep my military down a little, and then massively upgrade once she declared war. I think the AI avoids declaring war against a foe with an overwhelming military.
Boudica was researching Guilds at this point which meant that she would have Knights for the next conflict. I was not too worried since I could upgrade my many experienced Spears into Pikemen. Besides, Boston had 4 Great Generals, when combined with Vassalage, would produce 13 XP troops. With our Charismatic trait (-25% XP needed for promotions), that meant our troops started with 4 promotions.
At some point, I popped a Great Scientist to help research Education. My Research slider had been hovering between 10% and 30% for a long time, and I was worried that someone might beat me to the Liberalism slingshot. It wouldnât be crushing if it happened, but it would still suck.
I had decided to research Optics before Education since I really wanted to find out where the other civs were at. I knew that there had been some war-mongering amongst them since I had seen at least a couple of Great Generals appear in distant lands.
My two Caravels, each exploring in different directions quickly met up with the remaining three civs. Louis (France) had become a vassal of Joao (Portugese). Ragnar of the Vikings was the other civ. It appears that all three other civs were on the same continent which appeared similar in size to our own.
Since Joao was second âscore-wiseâ I decided to try and befriend Ragnar. Not sure how well that will work, but if I can get Boudica to declare war on me once more, I will have an entire continent to myself. Also, while Ragnar did know Guilds and Gunpowder, he did not yet have Paper, neither did any of the other off-world civs. That meant I had plenty of time for Liberalism which was now less than half a dozen turns away.
As an aside, I really like the Liberalism → Astronomy slingshot except when I have the Colossus. Now you might be wondering whether I built it with my zero early coastal cities and the answer would be ânoâ. But Constantinople, the capitol of the Byzantine empire during its glory years, built the Colossus as well as the Great Lighthouse. It had also built the Buddhist Shrine. I will probably spread Buddhism a little more for the extra gold once I have the spare production cycles. The Great Wall had been built in Thessalonica although that Wonder was long past useful at this point in the game.
I had taken a break when I wrote the paragraphs above. When I resumed playing, I did my normal routine: check every city, looks at the big picture, look at city happiness and health, look at border city defenses, etc. As soon as I hit [Enter] to advance to the next turn, Boudica declares war on me and launches her forces into my (well, itâs mine now) city of Calleva. Thereâs nothing I love more than the AI attacking my cities when they are defended by many Longbows!
The Rest of the Game
Sorry for the rest of this report, but it is Sunday night and I had to rush through the end of the game to even complete it.
I took a few more of Boudicaâs cities before I was forced to make peace due to the growing War Weariness. As part of the peace deal I would pick up two extra cities, although one of them eventually was lost to Justinian due to culture.
Since I wanted to encourage Boudica to declare war again (so that I could finish her off), I didnât build any more troops although did reposition many of them. I would also keep a decent amount of cash on hand to upgrade in the even of another war.
My plan at this point had been to win a UN Victory with Ragnar as my ally. I had befriended him early and we had excellent relations. I picked him since he was not doing too well, but not all that badly either. Unfortunately, Ragnar had waged a very successful war against the French and would stay in second place the rest of the game. So I went for plan B: Space.
Somewhere along the way, Joao declared war on me. We had conducted a cold war per Ragnarâs request many years earlier, but had never seen combat. This time, some pesky boats showed up and wasted some of my time.
Boudica and Justinian eventually teamed up and started what would be the final war on this continent. I upgrade many CR3 Macemen to Infantry and that was pretty much the end of them.
The race to space was uneventful. After making sure no one was going for a Culture win by periodically checking the âCulture Graphâ, I just peacefully researched on.
Five turns before my Spaceship arrives, Joao declares war and assaults me from both sides of the continent. I canât be bothered at this point, so I upgrade some units and let him take a couple of cities.
Space Victory in 1885 AD
Not a great time, but not terrible. Not having Slavery is a real killer, especially when taking over cities with lots of unhappiness. Instead of being able to whip away a lot of the angry mob, the city sits there producing almost nothing. Not being able to whip out Courthouses also really crippled my economy during the wars with Boudica and Justinian. During the tail end of those wars, research was mostly stuck between 0% and 20%.
All in all, not a bad game. Iâm sorry I did not have more time to write a better report.
