Epic One - MeteorPunch's Report

[MeteorPunch]

Pregame
This is my first attempt at a RBCiv game. Other Civ games I play are SG (usually hard difficulty or a variant) and GOTM (high scoring). I like this one because it's a variant, it forces you to think differently. This is kind of odd for a game this new though - I'm sure I would do a lot better once I'm better at the game because I found myself several times smacking my forehead.

For victory condition I decided that I couldn't rely on the other civs for a military victory. Although these were some very aggressive neighbors I soon found out. Space is so overdone it's not funny. I don't think I want to ever try for that unless I would lose otherwise. It was a toss up between cultural and UN - I went for culture because Louis seems like that kinda guy.

I started the game before I had a solid grasp of how to achieve a culture win. That was a factor to pick it, as kind of a test game to figure the thing out. I realized the importance of religions and cathedrals, but GP and wonders I didn't consider. I was a total wonder hog for the first half of the game, nabbing nearly every wonder available. This lead to me producing several GP that were not artists, at least 5, but as many as 7 or 8. This was a huge mistake.

Some events have dates, others don't (recalled from memory), other things are not mentioned (several invasion), and whatever else I forgot.


Game Report
I got lucky and popped Mysticism from a hut. This lead me to go for Hinduism, which if missed, still puts me halfway to Judaism.

BC Years
3000 Somewhat shocking, I'm the first to Polytheism.


1050 First wonder, Stonehenge.

120 I build the Pyramids: I switch to Hereditary Rule for the unlimited unhappiness with military units.

AD Years
180AD I get the first leader, an engineer. He rushes the Parthenon (+10cpt).


310 revolt for organized religion.

420 I finally get my fourth city.

700 I get a Great Prophet who builds the Hindu special building.

790 Marseilles is founded on the islands.


970 Hanging Gardens.

1025 Now here is something bizarre: Christianity was founded in a former barbarian - now Mongolian - city far from their empire, but just below mine. a few turns later now it has spread to 2 of my cities on the same turn. This is great news. I am in Organized religion, so I can build some missionaries and spread the Gospel to my culture cities.


1035 Montezuma is at war with Washington - now Alexander just declared on Ghandi...excellent Smithers...

1070 Christianity spreads to Paris. Paris will now build 2 more missionaries before building culture buildings.

1095 Great Library.

1135 What the...!? Ghandi beat me to Notre Dame. I haven't even started on it yet.

1240 Ghandi asks me to join him against the Mongols (our border civ). My defenses are sufficiently built up, so I will. Montezum is also at war with Mongols at the moment.

1270 The Aztecs raze a Mongol city which will allow me to expand.

1285 Chichen Itza.

1300 Bombardment begins. (with the infamous "Bolrog")


1310 Ghandi makes peace with Ghengis. My first thought was - oh crap, I haven't even taken a city from him. However I try to make peace and he is a stingy one...won't give me peace unless I give up a city. I guess I have to check and see if he'll offer peace every turn.

1330 Dangit...peace. I was 2 turns away from taking the city.

1450 Ghandi was kind enough to spread Buddhism to me, via this caravel. 3rd Religion.


1535 2 stacks ready to capture Tlaxcala.


1545 Montezuma will give peace. Rather than continuing to stomp him, I'm gonna get peace so I can focus on building culture buildings that I need.

1625 Tragedy befalls as I am invaded by the Mongols at 5 different points. Tragic I say, because I have enough units to deal with them, but they are all spread out to various locations. By smart upgrading defenders (Archer ->LB)and unit movement I will try to defend.


1630 Amazing, the defenses hold.

1635 Valiant defensive stand at Bescanon. Macemen defenders killed 3 knights and a LB.

1690 Finally get peace from the Mongols. I'll have to make a note to watch my back. Mongols and Aztecs both dislike me and could strike whenever.

1814 After several years of peace, the Aztecs invade again (3rd or 4th time now?). I will definitely lose Tlaxcala no matter what - even if I upgrade everything and bring reinforcements. My only option would be to forfeit the city, retreat, and regroup.


Postgame
In the pregame thread I mentioned being a wonder hog for the first half of the game. Then sometime around here:

1135 What the...!? Ghandi beat me to Notre Dame. I haven't even started on it yet.

I noticed Ghandi was further ahead of me in tech than normal. Throughout the rest of the game I watched his Skyrocketing gains from afar, seeing him always having new great tech. When your rival is completing Industrial Age wonders while you're in the Middle Ages, you know your screwed.

I abandoned this game in 1814, in the face of the Aztec invasion and the inevitable loss to Ghandi's spaceward ambitions.

Curious as to how that little evil man got his tech so fast I had a postgame peek at the world builder. Check out the shocking discrepancy of farms vs. towns where one civ is 2 ages beyond the other. In fairness though, the Aztecs declared several wars (more than anyone), so it's not surprising they are behind.

Aztec Land


Evil Ghandi Land


After the game was over I wanted to have fun with it and played it out 2 different ways.

First was RBCiv01 Postgame, Revenge!

Next I played the game out to it's forgone loss to Ghandi's spaceship and fighting off the Aztecs the best I could (which I did, but for not). I lost in 1922AD to Ghandi's rocket.

Thanks for the game, RBCivsters, looking forward to the next one.

[Smegged]

Welcome to the party, glad you had fun with this game. My most memorable game of Civ 3 was a loss (ran out of time of all things...). Glad you posted.

[Sullla]

Ooh, going for Cultural victory! I knew someone would try it. Your report will be unique regardless of the outcome.

Popping Mysticism from a hut, very nice. I would have switched plans and gone for Hinduism too if that had happened. Nice work!

Somewhat strange call to go with Hereditary Rule over Representation with the Pyramids. Representation is cheaper, provides more happiness in most cases when you have just a few cities, and gives you the specialist bonus too (as well as not needing to build the military units!) That may not have been the best move. And I feel compelling to point out, that in my game the Pyramids had already been built by Gandhi at that date. (What was UP with my AI civs? They were so much stronger than in most of these other games...)

Temujin captured a barb city in your back lines! Did you two have Open Borders at the time? More info as to how that happened would be interesting to know. And the former barb city becomes the Christian holy city. Amazing.

Too bad that you had to make peace with Temujin before being able to capture his holy city. Wait - when did Monty declare war on you? I didn't see that note. How did that happen?

Looking at your map from the 1600s, there was room for improvement in city placement (a number of jungle tiles going to waste). Not trying to nit you to death here, but offering suggestions for the future.

So Gandhi became the tech monster in your game, not Washington as in mine. Interesting. Abandoning the game is not the sort of thing that we usually do in these tournaments, in the future please consider sticking it out to the end and playing on till whatever happens, happens. I always learned a lot more from playing out of a desperate situation than I did when cruising to easy wins! Ah wait, I see you did go back and finish it out, very well done. Gandhi's cottage craziness is most impressive. Regardless, I hope you had fun playing this game and are learning some interesting stuff from the other reports.

[MeteorPunch]

Somewhat strange call to go with Hereditary Rule over Representation with the Pyramids. Representation is cheaper, provides more happiness in most cases when you have just a few cities, and gives you the specialist bonus too (as well as not needing to build the military units!) That may not have been the best move.

For some reason I thought it was important to get my populations up as high as possible. I generally don't have very many specialists (especially early on), so I felt the +3 science was a waste.

Temujin captured a barb city in your back lines! Did you two have Open Borders at the time? More info as to how that happened would be interesting to know. And the former barb city becomes the Christian holy city. Amazing.

I think there was a path through my territory that allowed him access. This made me pretty mad too...the city is in an excellent location, it has 2 (!!) luxuries that I lacked, and I could never recapture it throughout the game.

Too bad that you had to make peace with Temujin before being able to capture his holy city. Wait - when did Monty declare war on you? I didn't see that note. How did that happen?

I think I was in a classic (one more turn) civ trance where I was just enjoying playing and forgot to record many events. Temujin I was at war with because of Ghandi, and had to sign peace when Ghandi did. Monte "chose poorly."

Looking at your map from the 1600s, there was room for improvement in city placement (a number of jungle tiles going to waste). Not trying to nit you to death here, but offering suggestions for the future.

I eventually built there...I don't know how I ignored it so long.

I hope you had fun playing this game and are learning some interesting stuff from the other reports.

I enjoyed the game. Looking forward to the next.