Galileo44's Epic 8 Report (America)

[Galileo44]

Part I - The Opening

Here is the start for the Americans:

There are two warriors ! Thanks Sirian.
I scout with both warriors and start another warrior at Washington for a reason I still don't know.
After scouting around for a while, I find this:

Tundra! I guess I am an American northerner.

Some turns later I find this man, he says he is Caesar of the Romans, ok whatever. He doesn't look that bad. During the next thousand years I meet all of the other civs.
After a few more years I have scouted out what appears to by my terretory in the Northwest. I come up with this preliminary dotmapTM:

The second city will grab 2 silks, gold, and be fed by some tasty clams. City number 3 will be great down the road for commerce with all of the flatland to be fed by sheep and corn with wine for more commerce as well as stone, never a bad thing for an industrious civ. My fourth city will grab some good resources and be a decent production city with hills, plains, horses, and wheat to feed them. Plus more stone . City 5 will be a great fishing village with access to some land tiles for some production and ivory for happiness.
Soon, my scouts find this abomination:

What a horribly large Barb City, and so early too. Has Sirian been having too much fun with the Worldbuilder?
New York is founded in 2500BC:

I find out the same turn when BW comes in that NY has bronze too, yay! I revolt to slavery a few turns later.
Then I see this!

A barb city has appeared in my rightful territory! :mad: They will pay for this great insult to the American people! This puts greater urgency on hooking up the metal!
I get IW and the great resource gods have smiled upon me ! Iron at Washington YAY!


Now this is a serious problem:

:mad: Tokugawa has placed a city taking New York's clams before it could reach them, time for culture!


The Barbs die to the blade of my swords. Somehow they have accumulated 133 gold which I take before burning the city to the ground.


Now, before I move on to the next big event I will give my opening plays to whoever is looking for them.
Build Order: Warrior --> Settler --> Warrior --> Worker --> Settler
Tech Path: AH --> Wheel --> Mining --> BW --> IW --> Hunting --> Archery

Now, after this slow start, I began to build up some military, swords and axes. Why, Caesar is on my border and I would like to kill him before his Praets really get going. The war Begins:


My axes and swords walk right up to Rome and find it surprisingly unprotected. Caesar is protecting his capital with 2 Archers and a Spear . The result is not surprising:

I take Rome, and with it the Pyramids! I would guess that given the start, I am the only FDR player who failed to get the Pyramids but then captured them ! After putting up a decent fight a Cumae, a norther city on a hill, Caesar loses the city and it is razed for 74 gold. He then comes to me and gives me Polytheism for Peace. I accept as my economy is sandbagging.

Using the last of my gold from Caesar's cities, I deficit research alphabet. Then I pull some crazy tech trades to pull me up from dead last. First, this from Hatty:

Then, I get Sailing and 200 gold from Lizzy, 220 gold and Math from Mao, then Saladin trades me Calendar for Alphabet and 280 gold, then Mansa gives me Monarchy for Alphabet and 80 gold. In total, one 672 beaker tech for 2593 beakers in techs and a net 60 gold! Some catchup there !

Not much happens at all other than the map filling up until this in 710AD:


This is the end of Part I of Galileo44's Epic 8 Report

[Galileo44]

Part II - The Middle Game


A few turns after the Hanging Gardens comes in, Hatty comes asking me to convert to Buddhism. I accept, given the large bloc of allies that this would give me.


Nothing happening, economic buildup, infrastructure being built, and then in 1000AD Caesar declares war! So much for religous alliance. He soon begins to regret his decision as I capture Arretium with my new Macemen, a city founded 1E of where Cumae once stood to reclaim the Iron. I keep the city as my economy is finally stable at 80% science.


A few turn later, another one of my religous "allies" declares war on me: Toku.


Caesar continues to pay for choosing unwisely!


I let up on Julius to get Toku:


Japan begins to pay for their great offences against the Americans:

This was a very important city to raze, as it let up the pressure on New York's Clams finally letting the city grow beyond size 4! A few turns after this, Toku comes and gives me some gold for peace. But on the IBT after I make peace, Caesar declares on me again! I take one of his cities and he gives me a couple hundred gold and his map for peace.

During the next quiet hundred years I add more infrasructure including the FP in Rome. Rome with all of its food from farmed floodplains and grassland has become my GP farm, pumping over 60 GPP per turn without Pacifism or Philo civ. Then, the excitement begins again in 1760 with Tokugawa declaring war again. This nicely coencides with a great merchant a few years later who lets me upgrade some CR3 Macement to Rilfes.


With some killer units in hand, I begin marching through Toku's territory. It looks as if he has only Longbows, sorry, time for some!

Needless to say, Toku was not doing well.

Now if I was winning easily before, it is nothing to what happened when I got Assembly Line and had City Raider 3 Combat 1 Infantry


The Japanese War in Pictures:


This concludes the second Japanese War, as weariness is hitting and transports are still quite a few turns off. Plus, nobody likes Toku, so if I declare on him nobody will care at all .


I become first in score for the first time all game!


My failure to get the Pentagon combined with another GM gave me almost 3000 gold for some serious deficit research.

And a few turns later in 1852 I declare War on Julius once and for all!

On the IBT Caesar throws 15cats/HAs/grenadiers/rifles at my 3 infantry in a forest outside his capital. None survive against the Infantry of Death!

The next turn, a city that Saladin had placed on an island near my homeland joins me. (it had revolted before) The city was under intense cultural pressure from the city circled in green and Washington in red.


The first of Caesar's three cities falls with very little resistance. His capital falls soon after:


During this time, I get my first Navy SEAL, hooray for UUs!!!


Popped another oneTM!


And with the capture and burning of Caesar's last city, he falls. Sorry, you started next to me, so you had to die.


In case I need to have it, Apollo comes in:


Mao declares war in 1874!

I was unprepared for this war and had few defensive units. Therefore I lost the three former Japanese cities outlined in green on the minimap. Then, I signed Hatty and Mansa on to the war and thing started to look up as I switched to UniSuff and bought some SEALs and Tanks.

Then I saw an invaision force headed for Washington by sea! Washington was defended by an archer and an infantry. Some quick buying, use of railroads, and AI in not attacking with all units allowed me to hold the attack in time for the front line tanks to get back.


I retake all of my possesion and start going on the offensive. Hatty has taken 3 and raised 1 of Mao's cities! I take the last 3 continental ones and then destroy his island sanctuary to rid the world of his filth!


Using the veteren troops that I have, I decide to destroy Toku. He dies quietly with almost no defense in his last 3 cities.



Thus ends Part II - The Middle Game

[Galileo44]

Part III - The Space Race

By now I realized that the only way I could safely win was the Space Race. In letting Hatty get some of Mao's cities I had made her too powerful to conquer, and that got rid of Conquest and Domination. I was too late to start Cultural, and the AI would surely lauch before I could win on time. Hatty had too much popularity and population for me to win Diplo. So, space it is.

I knew that Hatty would be the stiffest competition, as nobody else had the science and production to beat me. So, at the same time as starting to build parts, I sent some spies over to her lands. Here is one of them sabotaging Hatty's aluminum.


The next turn, Hatty comes to me with this deal:

What kind of does she think I'm smoking?

I take a peek in her capital and ! WOW! OK, it is a golden age but still, that is one really good city. Although typical of the AI, there is always some in there in the form of 3 specialists worth of food in unhealthiness.


In 1947 this very large "elevator" speeds up my production:


Hatty built the UN, and I was elected SecGen, but I didn't have nearly enough votes for a Diplo win. Popped another one!TM


Here is the city of Edo, building my last part. The forest that I chopped this turn are outlined in green, at 160 hammers a pop, they speeded this up a lot!


And Victory Is MINE!!! YAY!


I claim victory in 1980. This was a very badly played game from my perspective. I had several opportunities that I was unable to use to my advantage. The FDR start looks pretty good, and somehow I failed to get the Pyramids. However, I will bet I am the only FDR player not to get the Pyramids but to capture them in Rome. Also, my second city, New York was a bad choice. Once the Japanese settled a city that took the clams, New York was next to useless for millennia. This was a major bad play.
Here are some endgame screenshots:






I really think that the GNP graph represents this game very well. I started very badly but was able to make up for it my warring against China, Rome, and Japan.


And here is the Demographics page showing my clear lead in all major categories except for population.



I got a Nelson Mandela score on this game, respectable but not good.
In game Final Score: 4609
Normalized Score: 10780
Victory Condition: Space Race 1980
For my first Epic and first game at RB I hope this was not too bad a report.
This was a fun game and I will have a blast seeing how others played. Hopefully better than me!
I hope you all had a good time reading.