Epic 18 - Swiss Pauli's Game

[Sullla]

Swiss Pauli asked me to post his report while he was away this week on holiday. Enjoy!

Epic 18 – Honest Abe



The return of the Honourable ruleset, which I last employed (after a fashion) in Warlords 1. This newly updated version denies us slavery entirely. As the game was trailed quite a while before release, I ran a quick test game: I made it all the way until the discovery of Bronzeworking without adopting Slavery But that sort of failure in a test is ideal as I’m unlikely to make the same mistake twice. The banning of the Thief Economy was another major headache, as this can be a real gamesaver on Emperor. Enough with the blah bah, let’s see how I got on…





I don’t like the look of the start:









Non-river rice, an FP under our Settler. A move onto the plains hill looks tempting. Move the warrior onto the hill, revealing the coast, but no seafood. Jump onto the hill with the settler and reveal river-plains spices 2E. Not bad. Settle the next turn:









Grass cows as well. Very good. I’ll be interested to read how everyone else approaches the starting position.



Explore with the warrior and pop a couple of huts for 143g. Nice! Meet Justinian SE of DC: a pesky, rapid expander with added Buddhist zealotry. Could be worse. After AH it was on to Mining. Warrior got eaten by a lion on T24, after popping an all but useless map :sad: Two turns later I get a message announcing a faux pas by the Byzantine ambassador to Celtia, whom I’d only meet the following turn: Hindu Boudica. Oh dear! It just got a lot worse: one religious nut, the crazy lady, and two religions. This will end in tears. Not mine I hope.



BW was the obvious choice after mining, and it was duly completed on T50. Don’t adopt Slavery. Mysticism next as I’ve a settler on the way and need the border pop to get NYC going properly:









I’ve trained quite a few fogbusters as I don’t plan on GW, but the jungle to the north is a pretty certain breeding ground for those pesky barbs. Henge BIFAL in 2450: early, but not crazily so. Wheel completed on T67, then Masonry on 76. The only copper in the vicinity was a fair way off, but it had to be claimed for Homeland Defense:







Quite a drain on the economy, but we need that copper. The lack of Slavery is quite a hindrance, as I’m backward in tech (pathetic according to Gibbon in 1475BC). And lack the production to deal with emergencies efficiently:









Dealt with sure enough, but my dreams of an Oracle slingshot go up in smoke in 1025 (GLight also built that turn). I was 9 turns from Priesthood. Ho hum. Another city:









It’s not all bad, as I pop a copper at DC in 675BC. Yay! Further expansion:









I’m going for the ‘expand until it hurts then cottage like crazy’ approach. Though the eagle eyed may spot that I was also putting some turns into Wonders for the cashback. I founded Chicago down in the SW desert the following turn. BC395 sees Buddhism finally spread (in Boston) and I duly adopt it as my state religion: Celtia is the other side of J, so she’ll go after him first. The following turn, in fact



It’s Livy’s turn to my tech pathetic in 335BC. Charming. Snooping around the war-zone, I can see that crazy lady has razed J’s Eleville. I trade him copper for wines. In for a penny…









An honourable war. I’m training quite a few units: not really with any intention to join in the action, but more to take the barb cities of Tartar (and Cimmerian):









But, as the pic shows, crazy lady has taken one of J’s cities which means it looks like I’m in the firing line myself. And with her crazy units, that is worrisome in the extreme. Still, the prize money keeps my tech moving along at 40%. What’s that, gentle reader? Are you calling me pathetic!?! Hmmmph.



I’d been neglecting by Philo trait for far too land in an attempt to grab the land without whipping, but my first GS builds an Academy in DC on T182. By this stage, crazy lady is trying to assault Nicaea, and sending the odd unit down to Boston. I group my forces, and actually stop her from taking Nicaea! With this threat seen off, I make a move towards Antioch.







Run away! Run away!



Thankfully the stack suicides on Nicaea rather than attacking Tartar, so I’m able to turn the tables:









This allows me to make a straight peace with crazy lady in AD325. Gift the city back to Justinian, only for him to contrive to lose it again in a couple of turns, the twerp.



Now that I’m back at peace, things are starting to look up: I’ve got a good amount of high-food cities and a huge swarm of workers (trained because of happy cap problems as much as anything), so if I can avoid being killed by crazy lady, I should prosper. How are things on the west coast?









Crazy lady has just captured a barb city to our north. I coveted it, but simply could afford the maintenance (as you can see, I’m still working on CoL at a less than stellar pace). Crazy lady is beginning to get too close for comfort! I can now actually compete for wonders, and snag Hanging Gardens and MoM:







This would turn out to be a key component in turning survival into success, but more on that later…



First(!) tech trade:









Backfill Meditation so that I can found Taoism with a GS in 715AD. The same turn, I’m denied International Games owing to a lack of cash :blush: The same turn, Great Library is BIFAL *slaps forehead* Why the hell had I forgotten about it when I’m Philo and have marble? Too many culture games lately :sad: Ah well, onwards and upwards. Find out that I can peddle tech to crazy lady without upsetting J: a handy source of income in the following decades. Trade J Philo for MC, Mono and Archery. Not something I’d do ordinarily, but he’s always going to be Friendly in this game, so WFYABTA doesn’t matter a jot.



CS in 980AD and revolt to BUR (as does J). Crazy lady feels left out so she declares on Justinian in 990AD. Here we go again…



Justinian completes the AP in AD1020, so I vote him in. Vote to give one of J’s cities back (passed). I think we voted to stop the war, too. Ha! Get this event:









Meanwhile I’m crawling to Nationalism and finally get there in 1220AD. Start the Taj in DC and lose the city’s Forge next turn through a lack of cash :rolleyes: Line up Currency next: I was hoping to trade it in, but J has completely ignored it (I had to settle for Marchinery and Feudalism for Nationalism). Have a Caste System Merchant at hand, and burn him on a MoM-boosted GA. Taj due in 8 for double fun, and I claim it sure enough in 1320AD. This 30-turn GA has turned me from also ran to contender: the boost to production and commerce let’s me go to 50% research and still make money, so I can fly through Optics and Paper and get cracking on Edu (10T at a small deficit at 60%) and still have 19T of GA left!



Crazy Lady declares on J in 1325. She captures Dory, but loses Antioch. I meet a fat man in a big wig: Louis the Confucian. He’ll offer me just 5g for Nationalism, so I turn the deal around and give him 175g for his map (in 1395 I prove the world is round):









Hmmm. Portugal and Vikings. Both Confucian. Hmmm. Meet Joao a couple of turns later and gift him Compass. Then ship him Feud and Paper for the rest of Engineering (an event gave me 350 beakers). In 1370, J remembers that he can stop the fighting so long as crazy lady has one of his buddhist cities I complete Edu and get cracking on my half-price Unis, with 10T left in the GA tank. We’re going to Space if my luck holds. Which it might not: crazy lady’s spy has just been discovered at Tartar. Spy activity is often a prelude to war. And so it proves:









Unlike many of my games, I hadn’t been neglecting military: NY had Heroic Epic and was spamming units for the inevitable clash with crazy lady. The action centres on Tartar, but I’m able to get my units down from Seattle in good time to take out her units with little more than pillaging and a couple of defeats. The GG is merged to NY.



St Augustine pops up in 1405 to advise that I’ve reached the lofty heights of mediocrity in the tech race. Thank you, kind sir. Joao had asked me to join his war against Ragnar: I guess that’s why he more backward than I am. Crazy lady is bottom of the pile, choked by her own insane unit spam. But I’m about to go beyond mediocrity: I have just completed Liberalism, claiming Astronomy.



By 1420, the war has started to turn my way and I want to clip crazy lady’s wings, so I bring in Justinian for Liberalism, having checked that recruiting an ally isn’t verboten. I was planning to raze this city but remembered the rule when the pop-up came (phew!):









I couldn’t defend it though (Uzbek was my main target). By this stage, I had enough pop to vote myself AP resident :groucho: J wasn’t standing idly by either: a stack over a dozen strong was heading into eastern Celtia (observed by my Spy). Away from the front lines, Boston completed Sistene in 1455 to deny it to the AIs. In 1500AD, I finally managed to claim Uzbek, and wrest back Nemocenna the following turn. I press on and take Circassian in 1520 and Crazy Lady makes generous terms:







J would happily continue his war: having taken Vandal, he also took Camolodunum in 1570. During the war, I had dispatched a GM to Paris, home of ToA which nets me a princely 3350g. I get a spammy Spy (must may more attention to the gov) in 1600 and save him for later use on a GA. In 1615 I trade Sci Meth (which I’d whored around already) to Louis for Gunpowder, map and 260. The significance?







Oh! for pity’s sake, crazy lady! She’s now being an anti-civ: no chance of ever succeeding in her aims, but is disrupting my efforts considerably (an instantaneous 8 WW in DC). In 1640, I captured Calleva, way up on the northern coast. Having learning Leccy, I trade Physics to J for Rifling. I also claim Durnovaria. Unfortunately, my units are rather thinly spread and (without whipping) I can’t re-enforce very rapidly, so peace follows after crazy lady deals me some death by collateral at Circassian.







Radio completes in 1704, so I’m working on a good few wonders, but I decide it’s worth the risk of trading Louis Leccy for Demo and Chemistry, and it pays off as I complete Broadway. Burn the Spy and switch to FM and Emancipation for free during the GA. Tech on to Fridge to unlock Malls (and head on to Superconductors). A Celtic spy is discovered at Boston in 1736, and then there’s this:







Are you CRAZY? I’ve got Rifles in there!









Certifiable. Time to make this her final Unwise Choice™



Get a Great Artist from the Stupa event in 1744, more grist to my GA mill. Complete Cristo and cash in a GM for 4050g the following turn. On the front lines, I lose some unlikely battles, but by 1764 I’ve captured Vienne, Gergovia, Durocortorum, and Tolosa. As I conquer, I discover that J captured Bibracte during his previous war!



Away from the fighting, RockNRoll is completed though SoL is lost by 1 turn, but 1925g is not a bad booby prize! I was working on Eiffel in Chicago as a real side project, but it completes in 1772 and it turns out to be a real blessing with its free Broadcast Towers fixing my war weary cities. Verlamion, Isca and Isurium all fall by 1776.









A straight peace is made with crazy lady as she’s down to two cities (1 of which is junk), on the NW tip of our island. J would eventually declare war and destroy crazy lady.



America is now numero uno in all the important demographic categories and well ahead in tech, so I won’t bore you with the details of the victory cruise. Some highlights:

• Invent the burger joint (natch) in 1784.
  
• Found Mining Inc (1800ish) and complete the expansion quest (in 1844).
  
• Sec Gen of the UN (1860).
  
• Spark a three man GA, but denied a 4-man GA at the very end by a 14% Artist :mad:.
  
• Flip Christian Holy City of Nicaea (inc. shrine) in 1893.
  

Shame about missing the 4-Man GA at the end, as that would have summed up perfectly my transition from runt of the little to leader of the pack. Crazy Lady got on my nerves after a while with her mindless aggression, and the unit spam caused my PC to run very slowly and even crash once, but overall it was an enjoyable game. Thanks, Sullla

[Olodune]

"Jump onto the hill with the settler and reveal river-plains spices 2E."

Interesting move, it seems we all had different ideas about the start. I agree un-irrigated rice isn't very strong, but I don't like leaving so many choppable forests behind. Do you think it was a good move in the end?


"Oh! for pity’s sake, crazy lady!"

She likes things spicy, it's just too bad Boudica techs so slowly. You seemed to be her preferred target too


"Spark a three man GA, but denied a 4-man GA at the very end by a 14% Artist ."

I also missed the 4-person GA at the end. I had 3 GSci + 1GE + 1GSpy while my last spaceship part was building, I'm pretty sure that's not optimal. I ended up settling them all to shave one turn off the build time Looking back I really could have used another pure production city. Combined with a final golden age I think I could have shaved 10-20 turns off the launch time. Oh well.

[Compromise]

Nice report, Swiss. I enjoy all the short comments, such as:

This will end in tears. Not mine I hope.

I guess I'd never noticed how just how insane Boudica is. Maybe because with Slavery enabled, she falls victim to the "chose unwisely" response a bit earlier in most games.

[Dr. Nomadic]

Hey Sullla, when do we get to see your report?

[Swiss Pauli]

Better late than never...

"Jump onto the hill with the settler and reveal river-plains spices 2E."

Interesting move, it seems we all had different ideas about the start. I agree un-irrigated rice isn't very strong, but I don't like leaving so many choppable forests behind. Do you think it was a good move in the end?

Yeah, it was a good move, but certainly not a massive gain

"Oh! for pity’s sake, crazy lady!"

She likes things spicy, it's just too bad Boudica techs so slowly. You seemed to be her preferred target too

Well, her tech pace is the price for the constant wars (check her tech rate in Michaelangelo's game where she discovered Prozac).

"Spark a three man GA, but denied a 4-man GA at the very end by a 14% Artist ."

I also missed the 4-person GA at the end. I had 3 GSci + 1GE + 1GSpy while my last spaceship part was building, I'm pretty sure that's not optimal. I ended up settling them all to shave one turn off the build time Looking back I really could have used another pure production city. Combined with a final golden age I think I could have shaved 10-20 turns off the launch time. Oh well.

I think I got my Wall St and Ironworks the wrong way around, which serves me right for putting up the Wall St sign way too early, and then not engaging by brain and changing it!