Epic One Drasca's report

[Drasca]

Ack! If I only had highspeed broadband. So many pictures, so little time...

So, for now, I am sorry, but no pictures for you guys. All right, maybe one or two--dozen... out of the 227 I took.

Foreword: I did not know it was a pangaea map. Silly me never looked at the map details, or number of civs, or any other important information other than ruleset. Going in blind? You bet!. My plans were three-fold

1) Absolute minimum on forest chops. Jungle chops OK, except for outward colonies, used for defense (which I abused much later on vs Monty). Heck, no starting forest chops. This slows down my initial growth curve a bit.

2) Military victory! I want one to spearhead the challenge. Only honorable wars? Can do! I found khan, and made fast friends with him. Monty on the other hand... I should've made pals with too, but I didn't like him

3 ) I'll create unit commander personalities, and I'll listen to them. Athos, Porthos, Aramis, here will your tale begin.

Start of a great new frontier:

4000 Athos, warrior, sent north. Settlers too. Wheel. fishing! I think I started researching sailing. Is that a glug glug glug move? Probably. Not grabbing any religion techs early on was probably a mistake too, but mine to make. This game isn't that hard... right? RIGHT?!?!

3960 Paris, take picture. Athos, you shall have a friend. Porthos is coming, then aramis. Go southeast my friend.

3840 Drinking with villagers, waking up, you've slept on their map? That's exactly what we needed Porthos!

3800 To the southwest frontier!

3760. Mongols... ooooh Athos, find those mongols! further south!

3720 Mongols probably west.

3680 Maybe east, Porthos that will be your mission

3600 Sailing, sailing, over the shores. We shall be first

3560 Panther? that's new.

3480 Porthos back to borders, rest here. That's two goodie huts genghis has beaten me to.

3240 BC Aramis's warrior unit is trained, told to head southeast, defeats a lion. Porthos laughs at Aramis, because he slew one this round too, and Ararmis is behind.

3080 Ararmis sees a wolf, and is determined to slay it! Take that Porthos

2960 Athos is no slacker either, he discovers a panther to slay! Bwahaha. A hunting we will go, a hunting we will go, hi ho a merri-o a hunting we will go! My warriors have a collection of animal furs now that greatly impress the ladies. They continue to scout the jungles for more animals and more glory! Further along, they'll find barbarian warriors, then archers to defeat. Woodsmen II is their promotion of choice in this jungle.

2840 Sailing finished, Animal Husbandry next. Then I'll beeline towards libaries.

2800 Porthos slays another lion! I'll have to give him the lionhearted epithet.

Head westward aramis, comb the jungles for cats, you too Athos.


2600 Stanley, our first worker is trained. He declares he'll make our first wheat-farm too.


2520 Athos discovers a new animal, and skins it! He calls this monster a grizzly bear. Athos deserves a new name... From now on, he will be Athos the Bear!

Aramis sees fish in the distance.

Porthos gets a goodie hut... Experience? Don't tell me what you were doing with those villagers... and their daughters. Just. Oh. Uh. I won't ask what kind of experience you got from them.

2400 Athos shows the rest they're not he only ones who can discover fish

2200 Porthos discovers Montezuma, he is not impressed by the stuffed chicken head. Off to another lion to slay!

2160 He is disappointed the lion did not choose him, but he meets another fellow warrior by the name of washington. Kind of ugly. Montezuma was prettier.




2080 Bearslayer! Aramis defeats his first bear.

2000 Porthos defeats another lion. Stanley begins herding cows into a wooden fence. He calls them pastures.

Lighthouse completed, time to fish on a lake

1825 D'artagnan trains his first warrior unit. May he escort a settler soon. Porthos heals, and is ready to explore again.

1750 Porthos Discovers Ghandi. He is not impressed by the nappy. Athos continues to patrol the western jungle, while Aramis scouts south of our city. Stanley sees pigs and decides to connect roads to it.

1675 Porthos finally reports the position of ghandi, having discovered it last turn, and being too busy boozing to tell me until now. He doesn't like Ghandi's nappy. He reports he prefers the look of the mongol best so far. Writing completes, I'll need axemen soon when Monty comes. Begin mining, bee line to quarry, then axemen.

1650 Porthos discover's alexander's position. He likes the greek wine. Party whore. I accept open borders with alex next turn.

1400 Ghandi opens borders, I accept. Porthos wants to try Ghandi's booze. Stanley heads towars orleans for a ricefarm.

1325 I notice Paris has hit its pop happiness limit, so I change workers around a bit


1300 Aramis sees archers for the first time. Jungles getting dangerous. Time to call back porthos.



1175 Porthos defeats his first archer on the way back.

1150 Continued warrior patrols.

1125 Porthos sese a barb warrior, and he's too injured to fight. He must run.

1075 I start work on great lighthouse in paris. Aramis spots a warrior he wishes to face in battle.

1025 Mongol wants me to cancel deals with indians. Hmm. Fine. I like your leather better than Ghandi's nappy anyways. I negotiate open borders with him afterwards..

980 Work begins on what Stanley calls a 'quarry'

840 Bronze done. I decide cottages are needed next. Orleans will be a prime cottage center. !! Copper discovered near Orleans. Lucky us.

820 Borders opened with Monty. I offer free rice to Khan. I'll have more soon.

760 New borders with Monty.

740 Aramis defeats more barb warriors. He laughs at their pitiful attempts to fight him.

680 Open borders with washington. All right, for now. Pyramids in action.

620 Porthos reaches Orleans, people celebrate. Unhappy citizens love him.

560 Stanley begins work on road connecting copper.

540 Ghandi bugs me for open borders so his warrior can escape. No way!

500 BC Library done next turn. Since copper's discovered, Orleans might be able to crank out a barracks and axemen after all. Cottage building on plains to enhance that effect, since rice farms will provide plenty of food.

420 Barbarian City of Thracian discovered. not a bad spot. I might keep it if I have enough units later.

260 Pyramids complete! Time to check civics. Representation, I choose you!

220 New warrior. Name him Pari Gari! He'll stay in paris.

200 Chat with monty. He's built jaguars. Damn. I'll need axemen soon, and lots of them.

160 Stonehenge built in far away land.

100 BC Archer bar spotted south of paris. Axemen begun in orleans. Settler in Paris.

60 Washington demanded I stop trading with Mongols. I tell him to stuff it.

20 BC Axemen built. I'll put him under Aramis's command. Ararmis 2nd order.

1 AD Porthos supervised Axemen training in Orleans. This will be Porthos 2nd order. I'll send them toward the barbarian city. Aqueducts begun in both cities.

20 AD two rounds of battle, both won under Aramis's command.

40 AD Darn it! Khan beat me to the spot I wanted to build a city... best laid plans of mice and men. Change of plans now.

60 Iron discovered. Definitely know where to go next.

210 Hanging gardens begun in Paris. One city raider attack.. and I win!

240 Great merchant born... I'll send him to Athens.

260 Aqueduct finished in Orleans. Settler begun.

350 Hanging gardens completed in paris, workers begun.

370 Trade mission conducted to Athens. Lots of gold to play with. I can build colossus in 12 turns if I do it next eh? Do it!

410 Washington demands again to cancel deals with mongols. No way. You're my highest scored competition. Settler built. He'll head south towards predesignated position. Worker built, he'll head toward bananas. I rush an axeman in orleans because pop was maxed there.

430 Too crowded in paris eh? I'll slave rush the forge there then.

440 Work begins on colossus

450 Lyons founded. Workboat then Lighthouse. Worker set on route

470 I notice a Monty attack squad towards the barb city. i better capture it first!



480 What luck! Monty was silly enough to eliminate the first of two archers for me. I upgrade porthos immediately and capture.

490 Stanley reaches the cows by Lyons, his apprentice will be there next turn to help. I need more workers. Looking good in paris, Colossus in 6 turns with some worker management

520 Barb City of Thracian comes out of anarachy and I order up workers.

550 Colossus finished in paris, currency next turn. Things looking up. I'll bee-line to literature next.

580 Monty declares war on me. Nuts. Rush axemen in Paris, cost 2 pop.

600 Iron for Ivory... i accept.What luck! Barb city popped up where I considered to settle next. I move my axemen north, since I have an iron mine to the south already. Lyons completes a workboat, and will have fish next turn, working on a lighthouse next.



640 Manuevers. Stanley heads towards bananas. Calendar next turn. Porthos leads the new axemen in the front line defense, taking the axeman from paris this turn.


660 Another Great merchant born. I'll send him through Mongol territory and get my money from india. It was the same as athens last time.

670 Monty chose unwisely. His jaguars threw themselves at my axemen on two seperate occasions and died like they should.

680 Judaism spreads to lyons. I convert so I may be further friends with Khan and the rest

710 Thracie workers complete. Construction in 8 turns, can't convince Khan to hate monty, but he certainly hates ghandi. I'll keep that in mind. Portho's Axemen pillage monty's village last turn... Sees horse archer this one. Time to bail southeast to the jungle mountains.

720 Horse archers went south. Don't want him to get to my copper mine. Going to be costly but... hey I lucked out! I thought I needed both my axemen to beat him. Porthos covers the newer axeman. Meanwhile, Portho's second unit takes out a Monty scout.

740 Horse archer didn't take bait. I'll manuever axemen around to try to bait him.

750 He takes the bait. Khan wants a tribute of 170g. I cannot afford a war with him right now. I'll give him it, besides I'll have over 1000 more gold from the Great merchant in a few turns.

760 Pillage Monty.

780 Construction Discovered. I want engineering next. Road movement and pikemen? Yes please. Damn. I notice a archerx2 settler trio heading west. I'll need my own setters before that.

810 Rheims founded.

820 Monty raids my copper mine and offers me money for peace. Ok, fine.



850 Swordsman and Axe city raiders reach the barbarian city. Shall I? Dare I? Yes I shall.

890 Ghandi offers me a lot of money plus mysticism for construction... I'll take it.. and hunting too



970 Founded marseilles and tours, which later become some of my best cities.

1000 AD I see khan's galley. I need a navy of my own, and settlers to settle new lands.

1020 Rejected a cow threat from monty. Christianity founded in Ning-Hisa, wherever that is.

1045 I accept sheep for rice from Monty. Archimedes, the Great engineer born in Paris. Save him for later. Finish Galley then queue hagia sophia.

1065 Washington wine for my rice

1070 Monty declares war on me. Again.





1095 Lots of battles. lots of screenies. Two units at my doorstep, one pikeman defending... definitely going to rush an axeman.

1100 Failed Jag attack on paris. Alphabet and Poly and 130 gold for my Compass

1105 Tech bartering, mongol gave me a free tech too . Offer free iron to Mongol

1115 AD Lost portho's 2nd order axemen. Porthos is still fine. He'll make the stack he's in his third order.

1120 Alex demanded gold tribute, and I caved.

1125 Alex declares war on ghandi! Great! haha. Queued Chichen itza in Lyons

1145 Mongol Samarqand flips to me. It was only a matter of time. Free archer too.



1170 Tech Report

1180 Alex asks me to declare war on ghandi, and I accept.

1195 Sheep for dye to monty. Fanangle marble from washington with bananas and dye. Sistine chapel will be built in orleans

1200 Washington demands I cancel with alex, i refuse. He declares war on alex! Wonderful.

1210 Washington Demands i go to war with alex. no way.

1225 Alex demands I stop trading with washington. Can't. I need marble, and you don't have it. Hagia sophia finishes. Revolution to serfdom. Build cottages on grasslands.

1255 I complete chichen itza. god my economy needs work.

1265 Guilds complete, Banking en route, grocers and markets queued all throughout.

1275 Khan declares war on washington. Good for me.

1295 Monty wants drama, a relatively low cost tech. I'll give it to him, and rice.

1310 Great merchant! Cha-ching!

1315 Banking finished.

1350 Dang, beat to notre dame. Lyons begin ankor wyat

1360 Sistine Chapel complete.

1365 paper complete. lots more money now.

1385 Alex demands guilds. That's too much. No way.

1395 I ask washington to spare his map, and he accepts..

1420 Monty declares war on me again.... after trading for some goods just the previous turn. I ask Khan to spare war on monty for a good friend... and he does it!

1430: Do some resource trading. Got horseback riding from khan for paper. Lopsided deal, but I need knights. Queue them up in Lyons. Queue catapults up elsewhere.

1445 Barracks then Heroic epic on Lyons.

1450 Already given paper to khan... hmm. All right, i'll bite since ghandi usually likes peace. He accepts a peace offer too. Let's see how long it lasts

1455 I decide I need some workshops.

1460 Lost a pikeman defending copper mine. Lost another taking out units. Win loss ratio? 3 to 2. I need more units.

1465 got Civil service for guilds from Khan. Roughly equal techs.

Combined my great engineer to lyons so I may have knights in two turns. The military need is dire enough.

1470 Porthos the lionhearted survived a crossbowman. I could not be more proud. He says that cover upgrade really did the trick.

1490 Lost an xbowman this round, but monty lost 3 horse archers in return. Catapult slowly taking down defenses.



1495 Sheer luck. Copper near thracian.

1500 I got liberalism first... and choose... printing press for my free tech. Why? I have a lot of towns, that's a lot of cash. Observatory might've been a better deal overall, but I want money now and observatories won't help me until they're built. Switch to bureacracy and free religion. Pikeman just got 10 experience, has two combat upgrades. He's near porthos, and I could use a second medic. I officially declare him Portho's surgeon.

1505 Ghandi wants my printing press for gunpowder. Hmm. PP is too valuable for him to have free. No one else has it either, I'll hold onto it.

1510 This is where flanking may pay off. I might be able to damage the archer without losing my knight. But first, I need to get them out of the forest.

Then again.. my knights died. Oh well. Took the city anyways.

1520 Monty sends a chariot and horse archer through the jungle. Pikeman fodder. I love jungle defense! Mounted units slowed down by jungles, and get no defense, while I can just slaughter them and gain a defensive bonus for my pikemen.

1525 Take away his cows, advance scout, defend key positions since I can't kill the horse archers immediately.

1530 He plunders some workers.. but I have no clue how they got there. Offers me peace. Uh uh. I have the advantage, and I'll take it. Lost a maceman to a horse archer. I don't understand. I have a strength of 8 vs his 6. He doesn't even have first strike. Must be difficulty bonus for him.



1540 I am at a crossroads for techs. I am not sure which I want first. So many good ones. see pic. I'll take replaceable parts, so I may build lumbermills. Beeline towards rifling after that.



1550 Porthos is shocked at how that knight failed. He had a combat 2 promotion, 12 to 9 odds! Cowards. Must've had Sir Robin lead the charge. In honor of that charge, I'll name the city after Sir Robin... Robin's folly.

1560 More pikeman fodder.

1585 Portho's surgeon died defending Gascony. His apprentice will now take his place.

1590 I raise culture by 10% to counter unhappiness. Great engineer born. Horse archer in way. So annoying my macemen can't take them out. Pikemen can

1600 I move some workers around to forests in preperation for replaceable parts next turn.

Porthos's third order macemen destroyed by their macemen this turn.



1610 The siege begins!

1615 Lost one knight, a combat II knight too! Doc surgeon is mean with his knives. I'll be a geek with this city name... Forever Knight? No, Gotham city! Hail batman.

1640 Knights healed and moving out alongside cats, musketeers defending Gotham City, and medics on the way. I'm feeling good.

1645 Pikemen at Orleans take care of a marauding horse archer.

1650 Ghandi and I swap maps.

1654 I am at Monty's capital, and he threw a lot of archers at me.. but I still stand. I lost a unit or two, and I'll need to retreat a bit to heal.. but the siege continues!

1660 Rifles tech finished. Chemistry then steel next. Time to send some units home to be upgraded.

1662 Monty makes another peace treaty offer. No way.

1664 Monty has the gunpowder. I see his first musketmen. No matter. My units are upgraded, led by porthos, and will be at his capital in a few turns.

1670 I reach them. My level 5 combat riflemen, he will be my new aramis. I take out their three best defenders, and will leave half my army healthy to defend against counterattacks.

1674 My city raider rifleman leads the way... only cats left eh? Fortune favors the bold! Upgrade my cats to city raiders if I have to. Bwahaha. Aramis, though wounded, finishes the cats off and takes the city... which I'll name fortune.

1682 Versailles is completed in Marseilles



1684 Things don't look good for monty. I'll name this one Aramis's charge.

1692 Washington demands I stop trading with mongols again. Refuse. I name the last northern city catamen, after the catapults. Surprise surprise, their last two cities are fairly well defended. Too bad it won't be enough.

1702 Catapuls finish enemy defenses. Aramis leads the way again. Knights finish off catapult.



1712 Numidian is taken, and I knight thee knight Athos. Numidian is now Numidian Athos.

Now that I've completed a number of things, I must make a decision which victory to go for. Revolution to free speech and market. I'll also need more workers. Gift a bunch of techs to alex and khan just to speed them up. Gotham will lead great ironworks. Paris drydock and two workboats, and a caravel.

1730 Nationalism researched. Use engineer to rush it in orleans--everyone else has had this tech for a while.

1736 Ghandi declares war on khan. Great engineer born.

1742 I'm making riflemen in my capital cities to aid khan.This stack will will be gifted next turn. I hope its enough for now. Ghandi has infantry... and tanks.

1750 Ghandi asks me to declare war on Khan. No way. I wish I was at fighting capacity... Maybe I should've. I might've won a domination victory if I gotten my hands on flight soon enough. I'm rather disappointed at this decision. My workers rebuild khan's roads, having nothing else to do.

1752 The situation is dire, I gift Aramis to Khan.

1758 Emancipation is here. I add universal sufferage to my anarchy list too.

1760 Khan makes peace with ghandi. I'm going to bee line to the UN. I don't think I can outtech Washington, but I can make friends with them and out pop.

1766 Statue of liberty is queued in Paris.

1768 Workers bored. Traded democracy for corp with alex.

1776 I start playing the missionary multire religion super culture game with my largest cities.

1798 Open borders with washington and ghandi.

1808 Alex game me steam power for physics. I give Khan physics for free.

1812 Queue courthouse and forbidden palace in Fortune.

1816 another GE is born. That's two in reserve.

1822 Electricity finished. Broadway queued in Orleans. I notice I have enough money to hurry finish statue, and i'll do it. Oxford university, observatory and wall street queued in paris.

1826 I get railraod from alex for electricity. Railroading my nation begins.

1834 Ghandi completes Eiffle tower. Damn I wanted that. Going to rush broadway, then rock and roll at orleans using my GE.

1838 Washington offers me assembly line for radio and 540g. I'll take it. Sell same radio for 740g from alex.

1840 Give assembly line to alex and khan for free. They're allies and underdogs. I don't want them run over.

1844 Ning Hsia revolts to me.

1850 Combustion for mass media from alex. Gift khan mass media.

1852 Swap world maps with wash.

1855 Forbidden palace complete in fortune frees up a lot of cash.

1856 Got biology off wash for mass media.

1859 Computers finished. Communism next. Got industrialism off wash for computers.

1862 Communism finished. Anarchy 1 turn to state property.

1866 Pentagon work begun. Apollo program finshed by ghandi.

1868 more tech trading. most notably fission for flight.

1869 Ghandi beat me to pentagon. I'll hurry hollywood just in case. plastics next turn. if I did a cultural victory, I'd win in around 70 turns.

1872 Gotham city begins three gorges dam. expected in 26 turns. I'll up that with watermills.

1875 wow world war. ghandi on alex, khan on ghandi... at least I gifted alex and khan some military techs. let's hope they know how to use flight.

1876 I close my borders to ghandi. I don't want him to use my railroads to sneak attack khan. Alex asks me to fight with ghandi, but I'm too committed right now.

1877 I ask for washington's world map, he gives it freely. I gift said map to khan and alex. Thermopylae captured... let's hope the rest fare better.

1878 Great artist born.

1879 United nations built in paris.

Bee lining paid off. Except, I should've gifted this tech to one of my smaller allies and waited. Gamble didn't pay off.

1882 Sparta captured. Not looking good for alex. gift my allies robotics.

1883 I am secretary general. I initiate diplomatic votes for victory. No go. No one votes for me.

1885 GM born. I use him and the artist to start a golden age.

1887 I'll have orleans focus on christian missionaries since i have church of nativity under my control

1888 Fiber obtics learned. Orleans begins internet. Rheims begins scotland yard.

1892 Three gorges dam complete.

1909.. Internet finishes... Washington and Ghandi will regret their tech sharing now. I have all the techs. ALL of them. I gift as many techs as i can to khan and Alex.

Bwahahah this gamble, however, did pay off. I think I might've used a GE to help internet, but I am not sure.

1911 I give khan and alex 3000g each.

Maybe I should've used this for research earlier on... but I had planned on military upgrades. Bah.

1916 Alex votes for me for the election. Getting closer. Gift those guys some more.

1918 silver discovered near gascony. nice!

1924 Wash asks me to declare war on khan... sorry khan, you're finished. Not even I could save you.

1927 GE born in paris.



1945 Well on my way for a space victory. Great Prophet born. I'll have him join orleans, which is building one of the last parts. I really don't remember when I took this screenshot. What also isn't shown here is the vast number of cities doing spaceship part buildings. I had plenty to spare, and the space elevator. Spaceship victory second prize is in the bag.

In the meantime, forests are chopped and replaced with workshops using my vast Stanley-led workforce. Under state property econ civic, they have the same 2 food, 3 hammer production. These give me around 100 production each at this time period. Interesting to note they're more productive at later dates than earlier.



1950 Space Victory

Overall, I'm kicking myself for not going for domination victory. That is what I wanted in the beginning. Eventually, I had the money, I had the tech, but I wasn't sure I could survive, or fight both washington or ghandi by then. ARGH. Even worse than that, I could've given the smaller civs (Greeks, Mongols) techs a lot earlier and made them fight effectively against Ghandi and Wash. I AM happy about stomping Monty, and getting some glorious battles with my elite commanders, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. Also had some fun names for Monty's cities. Gotham City (with both Greatworks Iron national and Three Gorges Dam), Knight's lead, Sir Robin's folly, Numidian Athos. All good names. Got more than my fair share of wonders, but research rate was abysmal through my wars. Just... wasn't enough.

Domination victory is what I wanted, and I didn't pursue that to its fullest... and I was so close too. 8%!! Just a little bit more, and I could've had it... but I did not follow the domination requirements closely.

[Maniac Marshall]

Tough luck on not making the domination threshold, but a good win nonetheless. Maybe the launch date wasnt super fast, but you launched as an afterthought so not a big deal.

I really liked how you named your units. It added some special character to your game

Maybe you should have tried to piggyback one of the warmongers rather than eliminate them?

Still, this is one of the closest domination attempts (that I've seen yet anyway), so you did well and probably learned a lot about how to get "honorable domination" in a future game.

[Sullla]

227 pictures? Man, you need to cut down a bit! Even I only took 110 for my game, and I surely went way overboard myself!

Did you grab Fishing from a hut? (That was't clear to me.) And if so, was Sailing the first tech researched? Umm... interesting. Animal Husbandry may have been more useful... Although with a lighthouse those lake tiles would produce 3 food, so it wasn't entirely silly. But definitely unorthodox.

I have no idea what you're talking about when you name the individual units. It's very entertaining though. Not trying to tell you how to write your reports here, but showing the placement of your second city is usually a lot more important than pics of warriors whacking barb animals.

What was the reasoning for the very early Great Lighthouse? Instead of, say, Pyramids or Stonehenge or Oracle? Those all seem to be stronger wonders than the Lighthouse, although of course the trade routes are useful too. You got Pyramids done pretty quickly too, even faster than Gandhi built it in my game.

The notes for this game are very fun to read, but I just don't get a good impression as to what was going on. For example, a lot of the notes refer to things that you clearly understood at the time, but a reader just going through it won't know what you mean. (For example: 600AD Iron for Ivory... i accept.) Maybe more info about what you were thinking at the time would help (?) It would also be nice to know when and where you were founding your new cities. I don't want to be critical here, I'm just trying to suggest some things for your future reports.

From the 970AD picture, it looks like you needed more workers. Your cities were very small in size for lack of food tiles to work, and the tiles they were using were unimproved. I know I always felt like I needed more workers than I had too!

It looks like those constant war declarations from Monty slowed you down quite a bit. That's the tough part of being next to those civs, but at least you did manage to get on Temujin's good side. As far as the odds go, you will lose sometimes even when the odds are in your favor. Just not that often, fortunately. Nice to see you giving him the business there after all those declarations.

It might have helped to build the Forbidden Palace sooner than 1855!

I would have enjoyed seeing an attempt at Domination too, you were one of the few players who had a chance to go after it due to your alliance with Temujin. Shocking to see Gandhi and Washington take out both Alex and Temujin on their own, however - still not sure how THAT happened. I guess the peaceniks just outteched the aggressive civs. Nonetheless, a very entertaining game to read (although sometimes hard to follow with all the renaming!)

[Drasca]

Yes, I had to go sloppy for this first report due to time constraints unfortunately. I will have a version two forthcoming, but ... Tuesday is nudist variant night!... and I gave a timely posting for Sirian to follow.

I think I researched fishing first... I am not entirely sure. Important things like tech paths, thoughts at the time and city placement, you know... stuff that requires work? That was not included for time's sake. Including the minimap, and a shot of most of my city placements was the best I could do for now. Besides, the initial position of my second city is in one of the shots...

As for researching fishing/sailing, I think I did get great lighthouse. I think I wanted to go galley gallavanting, but ended up having other priorities. Note however, I did get colossus early on, and most of my cities were coastal. Collosus (+1 commerce to + coastal cities + lighthouse) ... I think you get the picture. Not as much demand for a huge workforce when farming the sea and only specific resources to connect.

As for oracle, I didn't pursue early religion at all. Stonehenge was a lost cause to me, I never wanted to pursue that. Didn't consider the power of stonehenge + creative civ and city flip like speaker.

You got Pyramids done pretty quickly too, even faster than Gandhi built it in my game.

Still not over that, eh? Stone + Industrious + Early-ish Quarry = Well, no pyramids for you Sulla!

In 970, I had just founded two cities and captured another barb city within the past 5-20 turns or so. Slow to expand? Yes, but got caught up in a vicious war with monty. 450, Lyons founded (southeastern most city, has iron), 480, barb city Thracian captured (dyes and horses, southwest), 550, colossus finished and all my cities were coastal at that point,

Yes, the peaceniks became runaways because I had control over all the early war resources from the aggressives, and mopped the floor with Monty. Greece stood no chance against both washington and ghandi, who became runaway builders as I slugged it with Monty. By the time I had riflemen and took the last of Montezuma's holdings, Washington had assembly line infantry. That did not look good, and maintained his tech lead alongside ghandi whom he traded techs with much of the time despite their religious differences.

In honesty, I think I should've gambled with losing and pursued the domination win I wanted. I could've been a lot more resource and tech friendly to Greeks and Khan earlier on though. That was a costly mistake. I mainly regret not pursuing a domination win, even though I was outteched by the enemy, I believe I could've outmanuevered and absorb any pillaging the AI might do. Flight is still the tech completely to the player's advantage, as even though the AI will bomb any improvement within range, they have not (to my knowledge) done things like rebasing in allied city territory to bomb, nor can they coordinate air power with land units. If the AI does learn how to coordinate combined arms in totallity. I'll be first to admit I'm scared, very scared.

The point of naming units is to provide a story for them. Instead of nameless combat V knight... I have Athos, who earned his horses after pummeling lions and bears all across the continent, defended our cities against barbarian archers, captured the Aztec cities, and led the charge against the last of our enemy cities. See? Isn't that more exciting? Porthos meanwhile drank and boozed among all the early city open borders, and wined and dined a few village huts too. Doesn't hurt that he took out a dozen horse archers, and picked up the sword when his axemen failed him. Aramis the hunter meanwhile, made a singlehanded stand against Monty's stack of jaguar doom, and crippled their attack force. Came back with riflemen, and roughed up Monty's hide.

I have a "Epic commander" challenge ruleset forthcoming. Still refining the details. The basic premise is that certain units are valuable, worth naming and telling stories over. The challenge is how powerful, and tracking what victories they claim. Style points for things like, leading the attack on an enemy city's City Garrison II defender--and winning, of course.

[Drasca]

Also, one more addendum. Sometimes civs tend to declare peace within 3 turns of declaring war after you've joined the war cause. While I am certain Khan would gladly accept rejoining the war effort if I asked him to, under this honorable ruleset, I am forced to oblige any non-tribute demanding offer of peace if the Civ asking me to go to war in the first place. I weighed the option of going to war with a civ that'd only offer peace (Ghandi's a notorious peacenik, even though he does have the tech advantage, I could've pressed the assult enough for him to offer peace--I am sure I could've gotten to his capital long enough to hold it for a few turns through Washington's territory, or vice versa when the Greeks asked me to go to war). That would've almost assuredly made Ghandi sue for peace, which I would've had to follow.. and by then Khan and Alex were too afraid to declare war on their own, and washington/ghandi were all too willing to declare war--but our agg civs were too afraid to ask me to help too often.

Btw: I think gifting units to Khan made him think I wanted to go to war too, because he asked me to go to war within a few turns after I had gifted him over a dozen of my best riflemen.

I'm still kicking myself had nearly twice the production power of either peacenik civ through monty's holdings, and the ability to go to war with only one of them. Still, the other would likely have gotten a spaceship victory soon. Just a matter of time... which I didn't have. Takes a good ten turns just for those large cities to stop revolting and start culture / land domination. I wasn't sure I could do that with a tech and numerical unit disadvantage. Gaaah. Should've gambled! That's the more interesting game. Who remembers the easy wins? No challenge, no fun.

[Kylearan]

Hi,

great attempt at going for domination under the honorable ruleset! Would have been awesome if you had played it all the way through.

Naming your units is a nice touch; it helps the reader to identify with their adventures. Only the log format of your report made it a bit hard to read, but I understand about the time constraints.

Looking forward to some more unusual games from you in the next Epics...

-Kylearan

[Drasca]

I find it interesting that early great lighthouse and pyramids with no early oracle/parthenon means early great merchant... which means an early 1350 gold! possibly twice! Three times in this game, and that's a lot of gold to play with early on.

Clarification for sulla: I researched toward sailing first. Fishing was first (wasn't clear to me either). I had two lakes, that meant 3 food and 3 commerce with a lighthouse. Retrospect, I should've gotten workers and cottages earlier, but with a booming 6+ commerce early on... was a big temporary lead.

Would I have gone sailing if I knew it was a pangaea map? Nope. Did I know it was a pangaea... uh. Nope! Har har har. Over 3k gold from 3 great merchants was a lot of cash to play with early on though. Didn't consider using them for research directly, but since it was one of my earlier games... that's a-ok.

[LKendter]

While I am mentioning it this thread, it is a suggestion for all players in their reports.

Please watch you screenshot sizes. This is one of several reports that require scrolling at 1024x768 screen resolution. I didn't read much of this report, and the others with wide pictures, as the constant scrolling is too much of a pain. This is so much truer if the first civ4 epic is a sign of things to come. I am still trying to catch up on the reports, and am pretty much skipping the hard to read ones (to wide of pictures).

[Sirian]

I am still trying to catch up on the reports, and am pretty much skipping the hard to read ones (to wide of pictures).

The cool thing about having your own webpage (instead of posting your text report as forum entries) is that the HTML will automatically adjust the text width so that it won't exceed the screen width. (At least if you organize your text the way I do.) Then I can have wide pictures, which low-res users have to scroll if they want to see the entire picture, but they don't have to scroll left and right to READ, which is the main thing.

It's the best of both worlds.


- Sirian