Not my best game, Iâm afraid. Although my computer handles large maps well enough, Iâm afraid I donât. The management of too many cities becomes daunting, and I get lazy.
The end was a thriller, though, especially for my, so hopefully you will enjoy the report, nevertheless.
Iâve only included a rough score. Enough to prove Iâm not a pretender. But I missed the 0AD and 1500AD cutoffs, and I was never up to milking a score. Super Short Game summary in my second post, together with rough score.
Opening game:
Scout moved E-NE, revealing no compelling reasons to move my starting settler. Founding my initial city revealed pigs, and a fish resource south west of Moscow I might never be able to work with a city. I start a Worker and Animal Husbandry, because the pig provides more food than the fish until sailing AND a lighthouse. I considered fishing, but a worker is a long term investment while a fishing boat is not. My scout pops archery which is brilliant; on a frenzied barb map it'll be essential, but not something I would have wanted to research. Further north, I pop another scout. Handy.
Reasearch goes Animal Husbandry->Wheel->Mysticism->Bronze Working. My first plan is to build Stonehenge for the border expansion and the GP points. Eventually, I plan to use a GP to pop a religion (Theology or CoL), since I don't expect to get one of the early three. My scoutsâ exploration reveals almost NO happiness resources, so Pyramids, for representation, would be a valuable build.
Meanwhile Moscow goes Worker->Warrior->Warrior->Settler->Stonehenge, optimised for growth until the happiness limit is reached. One warrior heads to the wooded hills NW of Moscow (he's later joined by an archer, and while they see many barbarians, they are NEVER EVER attacked), the other to secure the St Petersburg Site. St Petersburg goes up just north of the rice, and goes warrior->barracks.
By now, bronze has been revealed next door to Moscow, and I've decided to put Moscow onto the pyramids with the help of a few early worker chops. I don't like to waste chops on wonders unless I have stone or am industrious, but it looks like the happy faces will be important. Besides, St Petersburg will handle the military.
By 1960 BC I'm not even in the top 8 most advanced civilization. By then I'd met the Spanish, the Chinese and the Arabs.
By 1400BC, I'd researched fishing and put a work boat on the fishies. This was for the extra commerce versus the pigs. (At a critical moment later in history, I had to put Moscow through a turn of starvation and put a wonder on hold for a turn to build a galley to cover those fish from a barbarian galley. I've played a few games, and NEVER seen a barb galley!!! Whoever said "plan for the unexpected" was smoking something weedy.)
Still only two cities, but I was the top civ (of four known). Oh, I'd reasearched writing and was going for priesthood so that my prophet could research code of laws (which I figured would be more useful than theology).
Sometime around here I generated a great prophet and realised to my disgust he'd generate a cheaper tech than CoL,, so I needed to research monothiesm as well. Oh, well. Great Prophet takes a holiday in Sunny Moscow.
950BC Saw the pyramids built in Russia. I started Oracle, because it was cheap, and because, as a philosophical civ, I saw Moscow as a GP factory. ST P. still needed to produce a few archers before I was willing to risk another settler anyway. Researching: Mathematics (heading for construction. Proposed City site number four has elephants. Elephants + Construction = War Elephants, War Elephants upgrade to cossacks. Savvy?)
Oh, yeah, I switched to Representation, not Police State. I want to win more than I want those points.
In 825BC I get beaten to the Oracle. By now, I've identified sites 3 and four for cities. Site three is on a chokepoint hill for clams and cattle. Site four is beside the elephants, on the river bend where it can get the cattle, too.
In 500BC I discover that the GP prefers Theology to CoL, despite it being the more expensive tech. Well, I need to found a religion and switch to it, so Christianity it is...By that time, Novrogod has been founded on said hill, and begins a library for the upcoming culture war with a Chinese City. I'm glad they didn't found one square north!(P.S. I switched to Christianity as a state religion immediately, and Organised Religion as soon as that was available. But I intend to use Vasselage for the extra promotion off the bat, so I'll forfeit the points for the Bureaucracy Civic. Ah, well.)
A second GP in 225BC, and the church of the Nativity is built in St P. Still researching Mathematics at this stage (I had to pop back to researching some religious stuff earlier, if you recall).
Oh, yeah, Moscow got beaten to the Parthenon, but had built a library and was focussed on commerce and GP production using scientists and a library. In hindsight, I shouldn't have bothered with the Oracle or Parthenon and focussed Moscow on research and GP.
By 75 AD I'd founded Rostov near the floodplains and elephants. Got some extra units (axemen and archers) there to fight off the barbs. It was a barb magnet for a few years, and I needed to protect the elephant camps from pillagers, so I needed the offensive axemen.
![[Image: thegrimm_rbadv31earlyempire.jpg]](http://www.realmsbeyond.net/userfiles/files/thegrimm_rbadv31earlyempire.jpg)
Once the ellies were connected, St Petersburg went onto production of war elephants for the great Chinese annex. Despite China being my closest ally, it's lands where the most useful. i.e. close enough, and with a lot of the happiness resources I lacked. Plus they had probably cleared out the nasty jungles. My other cities, once the markets and grocers went up, followed later with catapults. Except Moscow, which focussed on wonders or GP.
Frustratingly, I got too many great artists! They proved somewhat useful in the Chinese annex, but I would have preferred some more engineers and scientists. Maybe, in hindsight, they were more effective that I felt they were at the time.
At this point, I stopped playing for a week or two, convinced my PC wasn't up to scratch. I was having fatal crashes perhaps every five minutes, and pretty much gave up. Until, on a whim, I downloaded the latest NVidia graphics drivers. Sometimes, it's better to download the drivers...LET THE GAMESâ¦BEGâ¦sorryâ¦CONTINUEâ¦
In 820AD, I was 8th most powerful civ, with the Chinese in 5th. Mind you, Moscow and St P were still being defended by a single warrior each. Most of my elephant and catty troops moved to the Chinese front.980 AD: The Colossus in Moscow. Maybe not all that necessary, but it was quick to build, and worth a few cents.
1230 AD: Notre Damn in Moscow, courtesy of a Great Engineer. His appearance in Moscow prompted me to research music, which I otherwise would not have bothered with. But I hate using engineers for anything other than instant wonders. Happiness is always useful.
1410 AD: I'm not even in the top 8 largest civs (duh, with only four cities), but still second in score. My small size at this point lead to a rapid decrease in the standings, though, over the next few hundred years, which got me worried. Saladin, Hatshepsut, Louis, Asoka (not all of whom I'd met), were all top players.
See, after city four, Iâd decided to gain further land through conquest. The best spots were already occupied, and, the available spots were quite arid. I felt that extra second rate cities would have dragged down my economy. But the military expansion forced me to wait longer for growth, and slowed down my tech pace anyway. I look forward to the reports to see how the Farmers fared.
1410AD also begins the great Chinese annex. This is China's age of Cho-Ku-Nu, and I worry that it may be a tough war. however, Isabella's nearby land is far from prime, with lots of plains and desert and no necessary resources. As an aside, I still didn't have iron, and for quite a while didn't even have iron working. Didn't need it, I was going with elephants. I picked up iron working from Mansa musa at some stage, as part of trade to improve relations. Mansa was the only one ever to be my friend, as my choice of religion alienated most of the others. Well, the Chinese were my friend, but I wasnât THEIR friend.
![[Image: thegrimm_rbadv32russiagoestowar.jpg]](http://www.realmsbeyond.net/userfiles/files/thegrimm_rbadv32russiagoestowar.jpg)
Why on earth the Chinese adopted Pacifism during the annex, I do not know. To make me feel bad, perhaps. Interestingly, I never really encountered heavy forces from the Chinese. Max four units per city. On Prince difficuly. I suspect it had to do with the Chinese having less prime productive land, and lots of Jungle. Either way, it was fortunate for me. Elephants vs longbowmen fortified on a hill in a city do not good odds, make, and my losses were heavy. It could have been as much as 30%.
I used two artists during the war, for the biggest and most central Chinese cities. It made the war a little faster (units heal slowly in cities with resistance), and brought the delicious grasslands under my control faster. Economic goodness!!
At no time did the Chinese attack my stacks with Cho-Ku-Nu, which was something I feared. Catapults, yes. The Chinese also pulled a few weird moves. Attacking a stack of elephants with a pikeman, a turn before I reached the city. The pikeman won, and was left exposed outside the city with 0.9 health. A one for one trade, but inside the city and fortified, surely there was a chance of him taking two or three ellies to his grave with him? Or even waiting until my ellies where outside the city, so that after attacking heâd still be in his city?
I captured a Chinese city with a Spanish caravel inside. The Spanish must have enjoyed the show. âHi, weâre from Reuters. Donât mind us, weâre just watching.â
1735AD, and China falls.
Whatâs this? An Arab mini SoD hangs out near one of my anti barb outposts. I wonder if the may be considering war against me or Spain. But I have noticed the AI likes to explore neighbouring land with a mini stack occasionally. Show of Power, perhaps?
[img] http://www.realmsbeyond.net/userfiles/fi...bstack.jpg[/img]
At this point, I was a measly fifth in the score standings.
But with the nifty Chinese lands, I pulled a new trick.
Representation â> Universal Suffrage, Research -> 0%.
With the 500-700 Gold per turn, I started buying infrastructure. Banks, Universities, Grocers, Markets, Obervatories. Also, one of my luckier diplomatic spells.
See, I got a monopoly on military tradition, which I chased to upgrade to Cossacks. Which was dumb, because I FORGOT I NEEDED HORSES! But was smart, because:
-Traded Military Tradition to Mansa Musa for Astronomy (wanted to buy some Observatories) and something else.
And since my monopoly was broken, I traded Military Tradition away for Replaceable parts and the tech that provides Taj Mahal (well, not for the Taj Mahal, but because it was the most expensive tech I could still get for MT).
Woaâ¦nobody has built the Taj. How much does it cost? I start saving. Five turns and 1800gold laterâ¦thank you very much. One Taj Mahal, please, put it in the corner next to the Palace. Wonder which AI was disappointed. Thatâs 8 turns of major commerce, and lots of libraries, observatoriesâ¦blah blah blah. Now might be a good time to share that, during my first Golden Age, I went into Anarchy on my first turn. Major Weed.
I also fill in a few holes in the land, founding three of my own cities.
[img] http://www.realmsbeyond.net/userfiles/fi...e,1830.jpg[/img]
During the infrastructure build / purchase, Iâd been moving my cats and elephants into position on the Spanish Front, looking to capture three cities within a few turns.
By 1840 AD, I had captured two of the three Spanish cities, and by 1844 I had captured Murcia. I also secured Horses from Munsa (bless his soul), to allow Cossak upgrades. Saladin was next on the menu, once Iâd finished off more of Spain. He had some very tasty lands and resources.
In 1862, Saladin was in first place for score, having just entered a Golden Age, and I was even more determine to cut him down to size. I was also only in fourth place tech wise, and the crunch to Space Race was beginning.
1886: War on Saladin. The war wasnât any fun. Despite a few hard fought city captures, and having the military edge in the form of Cossacks, my city capture progress was ended when I saw infantry defending cities. I SHOULD have razed those cities (and the surrounding land) instead of capturing them, as cultural pressure prevented me from turning them into anything useful. At least I secured my own source of horses, although beyond the age of Cossacks that wasnât worth much either.
I eventually sued for peace, remaining add odds (but not war) with Saladin since then.
Another interesting aside in 1912: A city FOUNDED BY ME, Yaroslavlâ, experienced unhappy citizens, citing âwe yearn to return to out motherlandâ. The city make up was apparently 77% Russian, 22% BARBARIAN???? What the hell? The only factors I can think of that contributed was that the city was build beside a razed barb city, and had suffered coastal bombardment for some time. But, ermâ¦still.
![[Image: thegrimm_rbadv37barbsjustwannagohome.jpg]](http://www.realmsbeyond.net/userfiles/files/thegrimm_rbadv37barbsjustwannagohome.jpg)
I had begun research toward robotics, for the space elevator, and research labs. I was a good three to four techs behind at this point, with my âbuddyâ Asoka well in the lead.
1967 â The space elevator is completed by me, and the race is on. Iâm down in tech, but way up on production vs Asoka. Could be a tight one. Having completed Robotics, I head for Fusion. (starting with Rocketry and flight which I still do not have!). Oh, uh, I still donât have Apollo.
1976 â War is declared on me by Louis!! He lands tanks, cavalry and a marine near a ex Chinese city, which I am fortunately able to reinforce with three mech infantry (one rushed, one already there, and a third railed from another nearby city). Around this time I realize that I cannot rush buy spaceship parts or Apollo. And Asoka and Sally both have all their casings (I still lack Apollo, though itâs going up fast).
[img] http://www.realmsbeyond.net/userfiles/fi...ssucks.jpg[/img]
A turn later, 5 tanks dissolve against my mechs, and cav are mopped up by nearby mechs. No more French Units land, although I experience some nasty coastal pillaging for a while, and I couldnât be bother to rush a navy. Yes, I was too lazy to build a navy. Sue me.
1986: Asoka enters a golden age and shortly after completes the SS Engine. Iâm researching Fusion still (6 turns) and wetting myself. Space Ship parts are being built left right and centre at 3-12 turns a piece.
Iâm trading away everything for whatever I can get for it, so that I can that can net me 100 or more gold, to finance my deficit research. Asoka is the only competitor, and he doesnât need any of my tech. Biology to Louis for 223 gold? Sure. Horses to whomever for 2 gpt? Why not?
1995: Iâm researching Refrigeration. Iâm sure I must be ahead of Asoka in some areas, but despite checking frequently, I never have a tech to trade him. Iâm nervous. But at least he doesnât have (important) techs to trade me, either. Itâs weird, though. Since I started researching Computers, I never once saw a viable tech trade in either direction with Asoka (besides a few techs I didnât need). I didnât always check EVERY turn, but he must have been right on my heels, and researching a few other techs here and there, too. Wow.
Munsa builds Manhattan Projects. My cities that arenât on SS parts or research start ICBMâs. Why? Youâll see.
2002: My final SS part, Stasis Chamber, begins in Moscow at 8 turns to completion. Can I beat Asoka to Stasis chamber? Again, I canât seem to trade him the tech, so he must have it already. How long has he had it? Where is he building it? Science turned off, 100% cash. What could I possibly research in the next 8 turns that will be of any help?
Somewhere around here the UN is built, but there arenât enough votes to swing a victory for Munsa. However, when No Nuclear Proliferation is voted for, I buy about 8 nukes. A turn later, nukes are canned (I was the only Nay). But I have 8. Why? Youâll see.
2009. A turn from Victory. And Louis declares war again. On Asoka? His friend??? Ha, the irony.
2010. A space race victory for me! Yay!
[img] http://www.realmsbeyond.net/userfiles/fi...in2010.jpg[/img]
2011: Oneâ¦moreâ¦turnâ¦French lands are turned into a Nuclear Wasteland. Did you see? Our French friend is the only civ without SDI. Seems despite having the most land and pop (next to me), heâs fallen way behind in tech. And he attacked me, that bad, bad man.
[img] http://www.realmsbeyond.net/userfiles/fi...stword.jpg[/img]
And Asoka is MAD at me. âYou nuked our friend!â Hello, did you notice French troops capture two cities? Huh?
[img] http://www.realmsbeyond.net/userfiles/fi...friend.jpg[/img]
Phew! What a game.
The end was a thriller, though, especially for my, so hopefully you will enjoy the report, nevertheless.
Iâve only included a rough score. Enough to prove Iâm not a pretender. But I missed the 0AD and 1500AD cutoffs, and I was never up to milking a score. Super Short Game summary in my second post, together with rough score.
Opening game:
Scout moved E-NE, revealing no compelling reasons to move my starting settler. Founding my initial city revealed pigs, and a fish resource south west of Moscow I might never be able to work with a city. I start a Worker and Animal Husbandry, because the pig provides more food than the fish until sailing AND a lighthouse. I considered fishing, but a worker is a long term investment while a fishing boat is not. My scout pops archery which is brilliant; on a frenzied barb map it'll be essential, but not something I would have wanted to research. Further north, I pop another scout. Handy.
Reasearch goes Animal Husbandry->Wheel->Mysticism->Bronze Working. My first plan is to build Stonehenge for the border expansion and the GP points. Eventually, I plan to use a GP to pop a religion (Theology or CoL), since I don't expect to get one of the early three. My scoutsâ exploration reveals almost NO happiness resources, so Pyramids, for representation, would be a valuable build.
Meanwhile Moscow goes Worker->Warrior->Warrior->Settler->Stonehenge, optimised for growth until the happiness limit is reached. One warrior heads to the wooded hills NW of Moscow (he's later joined by an archer, and while they see many barbarians, they are NEVER EVER attacked), the other to secure the St Petersburg Site. St Petersburg goes up just north of the rice, and goes warrior->barracks.
By now, bronze has been revealed next door to Moscow, and I've decided to put Moscow onto the pyramids with the help of a few early worker chops. I don't like to waste chops on wonders unless I have stone or am industrious, but it looks like the happy faces will be important. Besides, St Petersburg will handle the military.
By 1960 BC I'm not even in the top 8 most advanced civilization. By then I'd met the Spanish, the Chinese and the Arabs.
By 1400BC, I'd researched fishing and put a work boat on the fishies. This was for the extra commerce versus the pigs. (At a critical moment later in history, I had to put Moscow through a turn of starvation and put a wonder on hold for a turn to build a galley to cover those fish from a barbarian galley. I've played a few games, and NEVER seen a barb galley!!! Whoever said "plan for the unexpected" was smoking something weedy.)
Still only two cities, but I was the top civ (of four known). Oh, I'd reasearched writing and was going for priesthood so that my prophet could research code of laws (which I figured would be more useful than theology).
Sometime around here I generated a great prophet and realised to my disgust he'd generate a cheaper tech than CoL,, so I needed to research monothiesm as well. Oh, well. Great Prophet takes a holiday in Sunny Moscow.
950BC Saw the pyramids built in Russia. I started Oracle, because it was cheap, and because, as a philosophical civ, I saw Moscow as a GP factory. ST P. still needed to produce a few archers before I was willing to risk another settler anyway. Researching: Mathematics (heading for construction. Proposed City site number four has elephants. Elephants + Construction = War Elephants, War Elephants upgrade to cossacks. Savvy?)
Oh, yeah, I switched to Representation, not Police State. I want to win more than I want those points.
In 825BC I get beaten to the Oracle. By now, I've identified sites 3 and four for cities. Site three is on a chokepoint hill for clams and cattle. Site four is beside the elephants, on the river bend where it can get the cattle, too.
In 500BC I discover that the GP prefers Theology to CoL, despite it being the more expensive tech. Well, I need to found a religion and switch to it, so Christianity it is...By that time, Novrogod has been founded on said hill, and begins a library for the upcoming culture war with a Chinese City. I'm glad they didn't found one square north!(P.S. I switched to Christianity as a state religion immediately, and Organised Religion as soon as that was available. But I intend to use Vasselage for the extra promotion off the bat, so I'll forfeit the points for the Bureaucracy Civic. Ah, well.)
A second GP in 225BC, and the church of the Nativity is built in St P. Still researching Mathematics at this stage (I had to pop back to researching some religious stuff earlier, if you recall).
Oh, yeah, Moscow got beaten to the Parthenon, but had built a library and was focussed on commerce and GP production using scientists and a library. In hindsight, I shouldn't have bothered with the Oracle or Parthenon and focussed Moscow on research and GP.
By 75 AD I'd founded Rostov near the floodplains and elephants. Got some extra units (axemen and archers) there to fight off the barbs. It was a barb magnet for a few years, and I needed to protect the elephant camps from pillagers, so I needed the offensive axemen.
Once the ellies were connected, St Petersburg went onto production of war elephants for the great Chinese annex. Despite China being my closest ally, it's lands where the most useful. i.e. close enough, and with a lot of the happiness resources I lacked. Plus they had probably cleared out the nasty jungles. My other cities, once the markets and grocers went up, followed later with catapults. Except Moscow, which focussed on wonders or GP.
Frustratingly, I got too many great artists! They proved somewhat useful in the Chinese annex, but I would have preferred some more engineers and scientists. Maybe, in hindsight, they were more effective that I felt they were at the time.
At this point, I stopped playing for a week or two, convinced my PC wasn't up to scratch. I was having fatal crashes perhaps every five minutes, and pretty much gave up. Until, on a whim, I downloaded the latest NVidia graphics drivers. Sometimes, it's better to download the drivers...LET THE GAMESâ¦BEGâ¦sorryâ¦CONTINUEâ¦
In 820AD, I was 8th most powerful civ, with the Chinese in 5th. Mind you, Moscow and St P were still being defended by a single warrior each. Most of my elephant and catty troops moved to the Chinese front.980 AD: The Colossus in Moscow. Maybe not all that necessary, but it was quick to build, and worth a few cents.
1230 AD: Notre Damn in Moscow, courtesy of a Great Engineer. His appearance in Moscow prompted me to research music, which I otherwise would not have bothered with. But I hate using engineers for anything other than instant wonders. Happiness is always useful.
1410 AD: I'm not even in the top 8 largest civs (duh, with only four cities), but still second in score. My small size at this point lead to a rapid decrease in the standings, though, over the next few hundred years, which got me worried. Saladin, Hatshepsut, Louis, Asoka (not all of whom I'd met), were all top players.
See, after city four, Iâd decided to gain further land through conquest. The best spots were already occupied, and, the available spots were quite arid. I felt that extra second rate cities would have dragged down my economy. But the military expansion forced me to wait longer for growth, and slowed down my tech pace anyway. I look forward to the reports to see how the Farmers fared.
1410AD also begins the great Chinese annex. This is China's age of Cho-Ku-Nu, and I worry that it may be a tough war. however, Isabella's nearby land is far from prime, with lots of plains and desert and no necessary resources. As an aside, I still didn't have iron, and for quite a while didn't even have iron working. Didn't need it, I was going with elephants. I picked up iron working from Mansa musa at some stage, as part of trade to improve relations. Mansa was the only one ever to be my friend, as my choice of religion alienated most of the others. Well, the Chinese were my friend, but I wasnât THEIR friend.
Why on earth the Chinese adopted Pacifism during the annex, I do not know. To make me feel bad, perhaps. Interestingly, I never really encountered heavy forces from the Chinese. Max four units per city. On Prince difficuly. I suspect it had to do with the Chinese having less prime productive land, and lots of Jungle. Either way, it was fortunate for me. Elephants vs longbowmen fortified on a hill in a city do not good odds, make, and my losses were heavy. It could have been as much as 30%.
I used two artists during the war, for the biggest and most central Chinese cities. It made the war a little faster (units heal slowly in cities with resistance), and brought the delicious grasslands under my control faster. Economic goodness!!
At no time did the Chinese attack my stacks with Cho-Ku-Nu, which was something I feared. Catapults, yes. The Chinese also pulled a few weird moves. Attacking a stack of elephants with a pikeman, a turn before I reached the city. The pikeman won, and was left exposed outside the city with 0.9 health. A one for one trade, but inside the city and fortified, surely there was a chance of him taking two or three ellies to his grave with him? Or even waiting until my ellies where outside the city, so that after attacking heâd still be in his city?
I captured a Chinese city with a Spanish caravel inside. The Spanish must have enjoyed the show. âHi, weâre from Reuters. Donât mind us, weâre just watching.â
1735AD, and China falls.
Whatâs this? An Arab mini SoD hangs out near one of my anti barb outposts. I wonder if the may be considering war against me or Spain. But I have noticed the AI likes to explore neighbouring land with a mini stack occasionally. Show of Power, perhaps?
[img] http://www.realmsbeyond.net/userfiles/fi...bstack.jpg[/img]
At this point, I was a measly fifth in the score standings.
But with the nifty Chinese lands, I pulled a new trick.
Representation â> Universal Suffrage, Research -> 0%.
With the 500-700 Gold per turn, I started buying infrastructure. Banks, Universities, Grocers, Markets, Obervatories. Also, one of my luckier diplomatic spells.
See, I got a monopoly on military tradition, which I chased to upgrade to Cossacks. Which was dumb, because I FORGOT I NEEDED HORSES! But was smart, because:
-Traded Military Tradition to Mansa Musa for Astronomy (wanted to buy some Observatories) and something else.
And since my monopoly was broken, I traded Military Tradition away for Replaceable parts and the tech that provides Taj Mahal (well, not for the Taj Mahal, but because it was the most expensive tech I could still get for MT).
Woaâ¦nobody has built the Taj. How much does it cost? I start saving. Five turns and 1800gold laterâ¦thank you very much. One Taj Mahal, please, put it in the corner next to the Palace. Wonder which AI was disappointed. Thatâs 8 turns of major commerce, and lots of libraries, observatoriesâ¦blah blah blah. Now might be a good time to share that, during my first Golden Age, I went into Anarchy on my first turn. Major Weed.
I also fill in a few holes in the land, founding three of my own cities.
[img] http://www.realmsbeyond.net/userfiles/fi...e,1830.jpg[/img]
During the infrastructure build / purchase, Iâd been moving my cats and elephants into position on the Spanish Front, looking to capture three cities within a few turns.
By 1840 AD, I had captured two of the three Spanish cities, and by 1844 I had captured Murcia. I also secured Horses from Munsa (bless his soul), to allow Cossak upgrades. Saladin was next on the menu, once Iâd finished off more of Spain. He had some very tasty lands and resources.
In 1862, Saladin was in first place for score, having just entered a Golden Age, and I was even more determine to cut him down to size. I was also only in fourth place tech wise, and the crunch to Space Race was beginning.
1886: War on Saladin. The war wasnât any fun. Despite a few hard fought city captures, and having the military edge in the form of Cossacks, my city capture progress was ended when I saw infantry defending cities. I SHOULD have razed those cities (and the surrounding land) instead of capturing them, as cultural pressure prevented me from turning them into anything useful. At least I secured my own source of horses, although beyond the age of Cossacks that wasnât worth much either.
I eventually sued for peace, remaining add odds (but not war) with Saladin since then.
Another interesting aside in 1912: A city FOUNDED BY ME, Yaroslavlâ, experienced unhappy citizens, citing âwe yearn to return to out motherlandâ. The city make up was apparently 77% Russian, 22% BARBARIAN???? What the hell? The only factors I can think of that contributed was that the city was build beside a razed barb city, and had suffered coastal bombardment for some time. But, ermâ¦still.
I had begun research toward robotics, for the space elevator, and research labs. I was a good three to four techs behind at this point, with my âbuddyâ Asoka well in the lead.
1967 â The space elevator is completed by me, and the race is on. Iâm down in tech, but way up on production vs Asoka. Could be a tight one. Having completed Robotics, I head for Fusion. (starting with Rocketry and flight which I still do not have!). Oh, uh, I still donât have Apollo.
1976 â War is declared on me by Louis!! He lands tanks, cavalry and a marine near a ex Chinese city, which I am fortunately able to reinforce with three mech infantry (one rushed, one already there, and a third railed from another nearby city). Around this time I realize that I cannot rush buy spaceship parts or Apollo. And Asoka and Sally both have all their casings (I still lack Apollo, though itâs going up fast).
[img] http://www.realmsbeyond.net/userfiles/fi...ssucks.jpg[/img]
A turn later, 5 tanks dissolve against my mechs, and cav are mopped up by nearby mechs. No more French Units land, although I experience some nasty coastal pillaging for a while, and I couldnât be bother to rush a navy. Yes, I was too lazy to build a navy. Sue me.
1986: Asoka enters a golden age and shortly after completes the SS Engine. Iâm researching Fusion still (6 turns) and wetting myself. Space Ship parts are being built left right and centre at 3-12 turns a piece.
Iâm trading away everything for whatever I can get for it, so that I can that can net me 100 or more gold, to finance my deficit research. Asoka is the only competitor, and he doesnât need any of my tech. Biology to Louis for 223 gold? Sure. Horses to whomever for 2 gpt? Why not?
1995: Iâm researching Refrigeration. Iâm sure I must be ahead of Asoka in some areas, but despite checking frequently, I never have a tech to trade him. Iâm nervous. But at least he doesnât have (important) techs to trade me, either. Itâs weird, though. Since I started researching Computers, I never once saw a viable tech trade in either direction with Asoka (besides a few techs I didnât need). I didnât always check EVERY turn, but he must have been right on my heels, and researching a few other techs here and there, too. Wow.
Munsa builds Manhattan Projects. My cities that arenât on SS parts or research start ICBMâs. Why? Youâll see.
2002: My final SS part, Stasis Chamber, begins in Moscow at 8 turns to completion. Can I beat Asoka to Stasis chamber? Again, I canât seem to trade him the tech, so he must have it already. How long has he had it? Where is he building it? Science turned off, 100% cash. What could I possibly research in the next 8 turns that will be of any help?
Somewhere around here the UN is built, but there arenât enough votes to swing a victory for Munsa. However, when No Nuclear Proliferation is voted for, I buy about 8 nukes. A turn later, nukes are canned (I was the only Nay). But I have 8. Why? Youâll see.
2009. A turn from Victory. And Louis declares war again. On Asoka? His friend??? Ha, the irony.
2010. A space race victory for me! Yay!
[img] http://www.realmsbeyond.net/userfiles/fi...in2010.jpg[/img]
2011: Oneâ¦moreâ¦turnâ¦French lands are turned into a Nuclear Wasteland. Did you see? Our French friend is the only civ without SDI. Seems despite having the most land and pop (next to me), heâs fallen way behind in tech. And he attacked me, that bad, bad man.
[img] http://www.realmsbeyond.net/userfiles/fi...stword.jpg[/img]
And Asoka is MAD at me. âYou nuked our friend!â Hello, did you notice French troops capture two cities? Huh?
[img] http://www.realmsbeyond.net/userfiles/fi...friend.jpg[/img]
Phew! What a game.
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