Epic Eight - The Judge's report

[The Judge]

Considering that I've never played on Monarch before AND never played as Hatty before, my immediate question was: how was I when I thought this would be a good idea?

I have zero idea of what to expect in this game, but I know that Egypt can be a cultural powerhouse if played correctly. So, basic gameplan: get religion, make friends, avoid war, and attempt to nab the various Culture wonders before the other civs. There is a small voice in my head reminding me that, speaking of first attempts, I've also never tried a Cultural win before. That plus Monarch plus a new civ . . . well, let's see how we go.

The opening for Egypt has two warriors and a settler. I give up the first turn and move the settler one notch to the west to make sure I can nail down the gold tile. Thebes founded in 3970BC. Warrior 1 heads north to get the first village for 52 gold, Warrior 2 heads south and pops 39 gold. Worker into the queue first and reseach goes into Mysticism since I'd like to snag a religion off the bat. We've been given pre-game info on the people we're going to meet and the Arabians are the only civ to start with with that tech. The AI usually tends toward Meditation first, so we'll see if I can hook Polytheism.

Warrior 2 keeps trudging southward and I score a tech-pop (Hunting) from my third Village. The Malinese stroll in from the North to say hello in 3730BC. 50 gold from Village 4 to the west. 42 more from Village 5 to the Southwest. I am rolling, ROLLING I say, in cash. Here's where we are right about now


Contact made with Rome to the west. Buddhism in a distant land in 3370 (I would wager large amounts of my Scrooge-McDuck-like gold reserves that it's Saladin). And, sure enough, I land Hinduism in 3070 as planned. Mining up next. After my worker, I swing for another Warrior, one more Worker, and then a Settler.

I meet both Saladin (Buddhist! Pay me! ) and Elizabeth in the next turn. Hmmm . . . I had hoped that the Arabians would be much farther away, but it looks like they're going to be hanging out right next door to the southeast. That could get messy considering that Saladin already hates my filthy heathen guts. The Chinese arrive on the next turn. I get Mining and then AH. During that last bit of research, my worker gets the gold secured and -- very nice, AH shows me Horses just to the west of Thebes and they're workable! BW is next and I get that at 2080BC, running next on the Tech trail through Meditation, Pottery, Archery, Masonry and Priesthood. My plans to slowly expand are working as I found Memphis to the south (1720BC - I built a road there first) and then immediately get the Copper working.



I quickly build a few War Chariots and Axemen, pause for a few turns to let the barbarian city to the west of Memphis grow a bit . . . then I smash it and take it for myself (Zapotec in 1330BC). Caesar gets Judaism and converts immediately, giving me another Civ that doesn't like me.

I chop for another Settler and run him west of Thebes to obtain the marble plot (Heliopolis, 1000BC). I get Writing next (Libraries + the Culture bonus) and then snag Fishing for the hell of it since it was only 2 turns of Research and my Zapotec's going to need it down south on the coast. At least, I think it's the coast. After getting head-faked on the two huge lakes to the east, a guy starts to wonder. Hinduism spreads in Hastings and Elizabeth becomes my new best friend by converting. Good - more target practice for Saladin if we get to that stage.

I push for the Oracle with my Marble from Heliopolis and build that sucker pretty easily. I have absolutely no hesitation when I get there: Theology. Christianity is born in Memphis. Perfect, just where I wanted it. Many reasons to take Theology here. Partly because I'm not good enough to time the CS slingshot and partly because founding another Religion is huge for my current goals. I also really want the Culture bonuses that the buildings can provide for me. I have Thebes push for one more settler and send them north to the Malinese border. I'm getting pretty walled in here. There's one more barb city to the west of Heliopolis that I have my eye on, so I might be able to get 6 or 7 totally before I'm fully surrounded.

Thebes just goes into Wonder Building mode over the next few years. While researching IW and Currency, I manage to get the Parthenon (175BC) and the Sistene Chapel (260AD) built. The Kashi Vishwanath is also constructed during this period and that relieved some cash flow problems I was having at the time. At some point, Mao tried to invade, but that was a weeeeeeeeak skirmish with a single Axe unit that amouted to nothing. I think he was just annoyed that I walled off the south from him. I finally snag that barb city, Hun, to the west in 410AD. And that's it for me - no borders left to expand to. The Arabians occasionally declare war while all this is going on, but I've got just enough troops to fend off the first wave and then eventually ask for peace. It's working well.

I pick up Calendar and Code of Laws. My second GP was also a prophet (hopefully the last one), so the Church of the Nativity followed a bit later and by spreading my two religions around a little, I was able to keep myself in the 80-90 percent range on research. This was *huge* for me. If I would have been down to 40-50 percent, I think I'd be in serious trouble. And then I got Alphabet in 635. Time to start narrowing the tech gap. I shop Theology around like a cheap hooker (I got the Sistene, so I don't really care) and get a slew of stuff for it: Drama, Literature, Construction, Horseback Riding. Wheeeeeeee. The next two dozen turns are really boring on my end. Just building the occasional wonder (like the Great Library in Memphis) and strengthening my base. The world around this time in my neck of the woods:


Sorry about the lack of cultural borders, but you can see that Najran will, at some point, flip to my side of the ledger. Those two cities are going to eat it up. I feel pretty good about my state of affairs at this point and I just get to a state of peace with Mao and Saladin . . . when the (initially) heart-stopping news arrives. 1190. I remember it well. It was when the Malinese figured that it's time to expand and, hey, the south is nice this time of year. Mansa strolls onto my property with Macemen and I have yet to get Civil Service. The only other two guys who have it are (just my freakin' luck) Mao and Saladin and, as noted, they both have spent the last thousand years randomly declaring war on me. Both have no desire to trade it, so I try to put up a decent defense with what I have (and it ain't much). But my meager longbows and occasional squad of Elephants actually do a decent job of stopping the tide. The Malinese don't appear to be sending anything serious, which is surprising considering this military tech gap he's got on me. So Mansa and I trade off my northern border city, Elphantine, a couple of times.


I get to a point in 1262 where he's willing to talk and I have the city in my control and buy him off with Paper. All in all, no harm done, just some razed tiles that I can eventually build back, but I fear for the future since he looks to be stacked from a military standpoint.

I continue on with the setting up of my three cities that I'm aiming for Cultural. I start to get buried on the tech-tree again, clearly falling behind the other groups. But I've been moving toward Liberalism since no one's gotten there yet and I'm making great time on it. It looks good. I'm already looking up the various techs on the tree that I could choose with my upcoming free pass. I have the hammer down at 100 percent research at a -17/Turn rate. It's three turns away. And, naturally, Mansa hooks it in 1538.


:mad: After swearing a blue streak, I calm down a bit. All that work, though . . . oh, well. It's not all bad from the Malinese, however: Confucianism filters in from their side of the fence and I spend the next few hundred years continually pumping religious buildings into my three targets. My Cultural borders are flexing and they finally flip the Arabian city of Najran to the south of Memphis in 1580. More reasons for them to hate me, but I'm just happy for more research production. I'm also waiting for Hastings to give it up already and flip. Maybe next century.


Time passes with absolutely nothing going on. Wars are occasionally fought around me, but never with me. The random Great Artist pops in and goes immediately into the freezer. I'm getting by in diplomacy with other Civs by basically rolling over on damn near every demand, save for religion. But that particular request was from Saladin. No fear with him - he's been crammed into the Southeast corner of the map and is too small with his three cities to give me any kind of problem. I complete the Taj in 1691 and a Golden Age kicks off. Democracy is four turns away and I feel like I'm getting close enough to shut down the research and begin the culture boom that will take me to victory.

But that all gets put on hold when Tokugawa declares war in 1738 (right after I gave him some demanded cash, too). I gotta admit, this does not look good. He has Rifling (I don't) and the small Japanese outpost just above my northern border has four of them (and they look hungry). I can't think of a single thing I can do to defend myself from losing a city or two. Worse still, one of those likely two is Heliopolis (one of my three cities for the culture win) and it's only got one Longbowman hanging out. Only one thing to do: get myself some hired goons.

I turn to Mansa and beg for help. Fortunately, he doesn't like Japan all that much, has been pretty cool with me over the last few hundred years, and is more than willing to declare if I toss him Military Tradition (which I had just picked up one turn beforehand). This could totally come back and bite me on the ass down the road, but if I don't get the help, I'm just waiting to get rolled. Done deal.

Awesomely, it works out rather well. Mansa's HUGE stack of Rifles comes pouring out of the north and smokes Japan for a few turns. Hell, I never even get attacked. Those two pound on each other and I sit back and wait for peace. Mao declares a few years later, but that doesn't worry me at all. He has one city and is coming after me with Horse Archers. I'm not exactly quaking in my boots. The Malinese and Japanese eventually establish peace and I do the same a few turns later on. During all of this, I've had Thebes working on a special project and it rolls out onto the showroom floor in 1792:


Awwwww, yeah. With the Statue built, I'm starting to breathe a little easier and see light at the end of the tunnel. Plus Hastings finally starts to switch sides and then I find out that the Chinese have practically nothing holding up their capital, so I send a Rifle and Cavalry down to take care of it:


Takes a bit of doing since I'm a little slow when it comes to war-mongering, but the Chinese Civ finally falls (first to do so) in 1819. And then Hastings flips two or three turns later. About freakin' time they joined the winning team.

The world continues. Rome has two cities that dwarf my captured Chinese outpost and that flips back to them in 1866. I don't pay it much mind, however. I'm too busy terminating research and jacking the culture scale to 100 percent. I have four GP Artists standing by to create great works in my cities. 1887 rolls around and Mansa builds his first SS Casing. He gets another in 1888. Minor bit of worry here since I've never played this route (Cultural) before - can I get to mine before he gets to his? My 3 Cities are pumping out 442, 441, and 363 points of culture per turn. Captial is at 63,000 and change, the other two are just under 35k. I plan on sending two GP Artists to each and bombing them for 12K, bringing them up to 47. Math calculations in this game are not my strong suit, but just thinking through it - I should have it made. At least, I hope I do.


A few turns later, I finally wake the hell up and notice that Hastings has had Taoism sitting right there. I can't believe I missed that. Had I notcied it sooner, I could have cut years off my plans. Ugh. Anyway, Hastings swiftly adopts a new nickname ("The Tao Propoganda Factory") and I start flooding my cities with Missionaries. Temples are built and I cram Pagodas into my two non-capital culture locations. While I'm doing this Thebes cracks 75000 and rolls into Legendary status in 1912. I go ahead and move my Artists out, creating great works in my other two locations as planned.

Everyone and their mother is completing the Apollo Program, but other than Casings, I haven't seen anything else that alarms me. It looks like smooth sailing from here. Mansa starts putting out Thrusters in the 1930s - doesn't matter, especially since Judaism just popped in and I start adding the sixth religion to my three cities. I get one more Great Artist and that just shortens the time by a few rounds. Memphis hits Legendary in 1942. Just waiting on Heliopolis. The Romans build the UN in '47, but I just drop a small fortune and pick up a Jewish Synagogue, getting that puppy up to 588/per turn. Culture Win obtained in in 1950.


A snapshot of the border standpoint at the end of the game:


Seems like everyone just had their own pocket and, with the exception of Rome taking out 90 percent of the Chinese, they stayed there. Kind of crazy. Not at all what I was expecting.

And one of my little spot on the globe:


Just eight cities, but they worked well for me.

I'm extremely pleased with this turn of events. First time for Egypt, first time for Monarch, first time for Cultural. I had a really, really good Epic 8.