COTM 26 Second Spoiler

Reading Requirements:
Requires that you have reached the start of the industrial age (or have finished your game prior to this).
Requires that you have a full world map, including contact with all remaining civilizations.


Posting Restrictions:
No pictures showing industrial-age (or later) resources.

Open -- going for the cow ...

Entered MA in 690BC. Currently in war with Egypt (real) and Germany (phony).
The German war ends in 270BC with Germany giving 2 villages.
Not bad considering I only killed one archer and one galley :D.
I autoraze a few Egypt cities and capture 3, including Thebes. Egypt is gone in 90BC.
We are building our knight force currently (chivalry researched in 110BC).
In other news we started our golden age with our sole Numidian on the last Egypt city.

My goal now is the pyramids in Salamanca. But Iroquois are the strongest civ currently.
So I start a war on Hittites in 70AD, ally Iroquois and backstab them the next turn with a RoP rape.

Salamanca had also built Artemis in the meantime, so we have now 2 very useful wonders.
Hittites are destroyed by 350AD. Iroquois 2 turns later.
Then a quick campaign against the Arabs until their destruction in 480AD and we are over 60% territory and have to think which land we really want.
I conquer Germany and India over the next turns and start to gift tundra and some desert cities away.
Around 700AD I have a stable nice area near the domination limit.

I had several phases with zero research to be able to rush settlers to fill the land quickly. So industrial age is entered in 940AD only.

http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads12/klarius_c26_m.gif

And then there were three...

Carthage would not stand for agression and as the Arabs, Iroquois and Hittites discovered. One by one they attacked Carthage and using a lead in technology, Hannibal quickly created a dog-pile on the aggressor. None would withstand the combined arms of the rest of the world. Then Germany attacked and now Bismark is living on a small island to the west. India in a three city challenge got caught between Germany & Persia and sided with the wrong one and is also now only a memory. Soon it will be time to claim those Arab cities that Persia took (though 4 other Persian captured cities have flipped to Carthage).

I'm on track for a very late game 20K win in Utica. Probably another lowest scoring victory award to add to as I continue on my quest to collect a full set.

The Ancient Age
After settling SW,W, I found the moos in the north, and abandoned the capital to refound it up there. In this location, I set up a four-turn factory, and filled up the island with as many towns as would fit. I met the other civs with a slightly late curragh, and traded techs aggressively. From Philosophy I took Construction, as I was planning on using Feudalism rather than Republic. I also started a lot of wars on the mainland, with the result that India was dead by the QSC, and everyone else got furious with me.

Reaching The Mainland
The turn I reach the medieval, 850bc, I also found my first town on the mainland. It is on the coastline west of Egypt, with whom I am at war. I have a small force of chariots which I upgrade to horses, and then send eastwards to attack Cleo. Six horses go inland to Pi Rameses. Autorazing it costs me three of them, and the others are redlined. I have a slightly better result against west coast town Giza, but still my military is suddenly looking like it isn't going anywhere. Further, the Carthaginian island is so crummy that I can't replace such losses with any speed. This is going to be a gruelling game.

Stubborn As An Ass
I would withdraw from this war but for two factors: Cleo won't give me anything of interest for peace, as she is militarily strong to me, and in 450bc she builds Artemis. Well, however much I want that wonder, my pitiful army is hardly up to taking it. I capture Byblos in 230bc, more than 20 turns since the last town fell, and then I finally reach Thebes in 10bc. I may not have an army, but at least I am now getting free culture. Also the town has loads of food, so should be a good place to use the whip.

The Despot Is Dead, Long Live The King
Germany has Feudalism, their free tech, but won't trade it, and when I bring Xerxes forward he gets Monotheism, so I research Feudalism myself, which seems odd - I should have gone for Engineering and traded it with Otto :confused:. Anyway, it comes through in 170ad, and I revolt for 5 turns of anarchy. By now the Egyptian war is finally coming to end, with the last town captured in 320ad. I use the opportunity to prise a couple of techs from the AI for short-lived war deals, and immediately turn on Xerxes, who isn't looking particularly powerful. I really ought to turn my attention to the Quois who are the AI top dogs, but I estimate they are just too strong for me. I don't think the horse conquest strategy is working for me.

Strong And Stronger
In 360ad, the Quois add Sun Tzu to their Pyramids in Salamanca. I really do need that city, but they are so scary. They have braves and knights and all sorts. My army has at least moved over to using maces, which give me sufficient muscle to roll through Persia without too much trouble. By 390ad, they are reduced to a couple of junk towns on the south coast. I leave them to my ally Otto to clear up, and turn my attention to the Arabs, with whom I have been having a phony war. Otto kills the Persians in 490ad - the second AI he has finished off for me :).

War In The North
Mecca is the first Arabian town to fall in 480ad, bringing me The Wall and Gardens. The next wonder I build will start my golden age. I have made a point of muscling in on the ivory fields between Quoia and Hittitia, so that next wonder is Zeus, finished in 530ad in Carthage. Back in Arabia, however, my feeble military is not enough to beat the Quois to the remaining Arabian towns, so by the time I give Abu peace in 570ad, I have just two of their town, with the huge Quois army camped along the eastern coast. The one-tile island is Abu's new home, and the reason I have to switch to domination. Peace with Abu means it is time to turn on my ally; I give Watha a boot order, and he dows.

A Stab In The Back
By now, there are only three major powers left; Carthage, Quoia and Germany (the Hittites are still cosy in their homeland, but have made no territorial gains). So war between the big powers in the north is Otto's signal to attack my weakly defended Persian province. He sneak attacks in 600ad, taking Bactra. Watha now has guns, and his knights returning from Arabia easily take Mecca from me. I can't hope to fight on both fronts, so I give Watha peace as soon as I can (620ad, getting an Arabian junk town) and turn my men southwards. But things suddenly look less dicey when Mecca flips back to me in 640ad, and then Malaca flips back from the Germans in 660ad. That should cut their army down to size.

Teaching Otto A Lesson
With my still-average :eek: military turned on Germany, I easily retake Persia, and move south through German India, reaching the isthmus in 750ad. I am also landing troops in northern Germany, and Berlin falls in 780ad, bringing me Leonardo. The Germans are gone by 810ad (the southern 1-tile island belongs to the Hittites, and is one reason why I haven't bothered them too much). It is way past time to wrap this game up.

Crawling Over The Line
It takes a while for my army to make it back north, so I don't resume war with the Quois until 900ad. My first leader emerges in 950ad (army), and another in 990ad rushes the palace in Salamaca. This, and the discovery of Military Tradition in 1020ad, is too late to make much difference, but it helps me flop exhausted over the dom limit in 1060ad. At almost no point during this game was I ever strong to the contemporary world powers. That starting island was just so weak, and I guess I only made it weaker by putting too many towns on it. This was a really unpleasant game, and I was glad to get it over with.