Hello to everyone. This is my first report, so bear with me. I've been lurking for a bit, reading others reports on the various epics and succession games, and finally decided to try my hand at one. Yeah, the report is late, but as you'll soon see, I don't really think it'll matter.
Now, before I get into the game, I already have low expectations. Very low--I don't expect to win the game, or even come close. I'll consider myself lucky if I survive to the 1500s. Why? Well, I'm a Warlord player, with random delves into Noble. Thus far, I've not managed a victory on Noble. So, suddenly jumping into an Emperor difficulty game? I don't expect things to go well.
That said, I attempt to make a plan. Obviously, trying for a diplomatic victory is the way to go, so I decide to head in that direction. But I'm derailed on that early--one of the major differences between Warlord and Emperor are the starting techs known. I was aware of the combat differences and cost differences...but for some reason that part had slipped my mind. Nevertheless, I take it in stride and move on.
I build in the starting location, scout out the starting island, and make a quick dotmap. That's one thing I've never been terribly good at, but I try. A couple of work boats get made, the first to grab some clams, the second to explore while I research towards galleys. He returns a few turns later to be replaced by a galley. The galley quickly finds and makes friends with Isabella and Suleiman. Both are Buddhist, but since I don't have religion yet, that's not a big deal. A few turns later, Buddhism does indeed spread to one of my cities, and since my plan is to try to make friends with as many as possible, I convert to get those bonuses. It takes some time to convert the rest of my cities, but I work on it.
About this time, I went on vacation, and forgot about the game--which will lead into the end game for sure. I did eventually come back to it--the day before it was due. Not that I was planning on being competitive in it, but I may as well make an effort, right?
Well, at this point, I've managed to settle my initial island, one city on a nearby island, and claim a barbarian city on that same second island. I do eventually settle another in the northern ice, but that'll be it for me. The one in the north begs to join up with Saladin at one point, and since I was having major financial troubles at the time, I agreed.
Yeah, financial troubles. I knew money would be tighter here, but the difference was a bit more than I expected. For quite a while, I was running 10%-20% science and losing money. Not as bad as it could be, but pretty bad. I ended up recovering eventually, but it took a while to get to be able to build research (only units were getting built for a while, which didn't help the money situation). Once I got there, I as able to get to Currency and Code of Laws fairly quickly, and recover from there. But...the damage was done. By the time I was able to see other people's techs, I was down 4-6 techs from everyone. And it only got worse from there. I was able to get a couple relative monopolies, and in efforts to close the gap, traded them to everyone. I got a 7 for 1 with Paper, and another tech gave me 5. Not bad, but I was still far behind the leaders.
The AIs warred a bit around me, but nothing major. Izzy had settled a city on my 'colony' -- I still hadn't spun it off yet, trying to milk the extra research out of it. Julius declared war on her, and took that city during the interturn. But Izzy had the AP, and a vote of 'stop the war' went through successfully. Second time around, she got her city back, so in the end, it was a no-gain for Rome.
Speaking of Colonization, JC was the man on this one. He spawned no less than three colonies, with Justinian and Brennus ending up beside me. Those two actually remained below me on the score chart the entire game--but it's not like I could go after them. The best unit I ever got were Musketmen, and Rome was far stronger than I was. In fact, he was the first to declare on me, but Izzy helped me out there with the AP.
The second to declare on me was Willem. Fortunately, I had a defensive pact with Izzy at the time, and she came into the war. He was far and away the leader of this game, and spent years working down my coastal defenses with Frigates (I tried to defend with my numerous Galleys, but to no avail). He never landed, but continued to work around my island working down my defenses. JC declared on me again, but it didn't last long before Izzy put a stop to that once more. Suleiman came in on the Buddhist side. For a while there, Saladin was the only one not actually at war with anyone, as everyone else came into this tense world war.
By this point, I was more than 8 techs behind Willem, and even a beeline to Mass Media wouldn't have got it for me--not to mention nearly no chance to rush the building of the UN. Willem was somewhere around 1,000 gold in the bank...and it just wasn't worth it to continue the game. I was done now, it was just a matter of waiting for him to build enough military to take me out; I wouldn't have been able to put up much of a defense. And since I had nothing he wanted enough to make peace; and he didn't have any buddhist cities, the war wasn't ending. So it was at this point that I retired (the year was 1728 AD)...I was pleased enough with my relative success in the game, having lasted well beyond the 1500 mark, and doing ok at that. Certainly not great, and I was dead last in score among the starting civilizations, but at least I was still alive at that point.
So there is the tale of my first try at Emperor. I look forward to more failed attempts--who knows, I might pull out a surprise win at some point. Thanks for reading.
Now, before I get into the game, I already have low expectations. Very low--I don't expect to win the game, or even come close. I'll consider myself lucky if I survive to the 1500s. Why? Well, I'm a Warlord player, with random delves into Noble. Thus far, I've not managed a victory on Noble. So, suddenly jumping into an Emperor difficulty game? I don't expect things to go well.
That said, I attempt to make a plan. Obviously, trying for a diplomatic victory is the way to go, so I decide to head in that direction. But I'm derailed on that early--one of the major differences between Warlord and Emperor are the starting techs known. I was aware of the combat differences and cost differences...but for some reason that part had slipped my mind. Nevertheless, I take it in stride and move on.
I build in the starting location, scout out the starting island, and make a quick dotmap. That's one thing I've never been terribly good at, but I try. A couple of work boats get made, the first to grab some clams, the second to explore while I research towards galleys. He returns a few turns later to be replaced by a galley. The galley quickly finds and makes friends with Isabella and Suleiman. Both are Buddhist, but since I don't have religion yet, that's not a big deal. A few turns later, Buddhism does indeed spread to one of my cities, and since my plan is to try to make friends with as many as possible, I convert to get those bonuses. It takes some time to convert the rest of my cities, but I work on it.
About this time, I went on vacation, and forgot about the game--which will lead into the end game for sure. I did eventually come back to it--the day before it was due. Not that I was planning on being competitive in it, but I may as well make an effort, right?
Well, at this point, I've managed to settle my initial island, one city on a nearby island, and claim a barbarian city on that same second island. I do eventually settle another in the northern ice, but that'll be it for me. The one in the north begs to join up with Saladin at one point, and since I was having major financial troubles at the time, I agreed.
Yeah, financial troubles. I knew money would be tighter here, but the difference was a bit more than I expected. For quite a while, I was running 10%-20% science and losing money. Not as bad as it could be, but pretty bad. I ended up recovering eventually, but it took a while to get to be able to build research (only units were getting built for a while, which didn't help the money situation). Once I got there, I as able to get to Currency and Code of Laws fairly quickly, and recover from there. But...the damage was done. By the time I was able to see other people's techs, I was down 4-6 techs from everyone. And it only got worse from there. I was able to get a couple relative monopolies, and in efforts to close the gap, traded them to everyone. I got a 7 for 1 with Paper, and another tech gave me 5. Not bad, but I was still far behind the leaders.
The AIs warred a bit around me, but nothing major. Izzy had settled a city on my 'colony' -- I still hadn't spun it off yet, trying to milk the extra research out of it. Julius declared war on her, and took that city during the interturn. But Izzy had the AP, and a vote of 'stop the war' went through successfully. Second time around, she got her city back, so in the end, it was a no-gain for Rome.
Speaking of Colonization, JC was the man on this one. He spawned no less than three colonies, with Justinian and Brennus ending up beside me. Those two actually remained below me on the score chart the entire game--but it's not like I could go after them. The best unit I ever got were Musketmen, and Rome was far stronger than I was. In fact, he was the first to declare on me, but Izzy helped me out there with the AP.
The second to declare on me was Willem. Fortunately, I had a defensive pact with Izzy at the time, and she came into the war. He was far and away the leader of this game, and spent years working down my coastal defenses with Frigates (I tried to defend with my numerous Galleys, but to no avail). He never landed, but continued to work around my island working down my defenses. JC declared on me again, but it didn't last long before Izzy put a stop to that once more. Suleiman came in on the Buddhist side. For a while there, Saladin was the only one not actually at war with anyone, as everyone else came into this tense world war.
By this point, I was more than 8 techs behind Willem, and even a beeline to Mass Media wouldn't have got it for me--not to mention nearly no chance to rush the building of the UN. Willem was somewhere around 1,000 gold in the bank...and it just wasn't worth it to continue the game. I was done now, it was just a matter of waiting for him to build enough military to take me out; I wouldn't have been able to put up much of a defense. And since I had nothing he wanted enough to make peace; and he didn't have any buddhist cities, the war wasn't ending. So it was at this point that I retired (the year was 1728 AD)...I was pleased enough with my relative success in the game, having lasted well beyond the 1500 mark, and doing ok at that. Certainly not great, and I was dead last in score among the starting civilizations, but at least I was still alive at that point.
So there is the tale of my first try at Emperor. I look forward to more failed attempts--who knows, I might pull out a surprise win at some point. Thanks for reading.
. Hope you learned some things from other reports and hope to see you back soon.