I played until 1000 BC, or to turn 151 (in Deity years, that would be 1000 AD) My initial strategy was to try and expand quickly to the mountains, while getting a few explorers for hut popping. I would try to get to Monarchy and Trade quickly, and to build Pyramids early (I know that sounds a bit unusual, but I will explain later) My overall strategy was to get to the AI grasslands ASAP using a few canal cities and start EC on a few civs when I get there. I would meanwhile expand as fast as possible (and when I mean ''as fast as possible'' I don't mean ''a new city every five turns'' No, WAY faster.) on the mountains in the maze and also make some canal cities for a future shipchain to the (AI) Colossus city for big (thanks to the distance between trading cities) trade bonuses. I would then rb some Harbours, watch my mountain cities PDS their way to 8 or so, build the odd aqueduct/sewer to keep growth going, and start conquest with some decent units backed by van/truck science.

Anyways, on with the spoiler.

Date notes

4000 BC: Move settlers.

3980 BC: Paris built. Road started with the other settler. Techrate 5 turns. T4L0S6

3960 BC: What the? Map Making not available for research? Checking the EL guide in sethos.gmxhome.de reveals that Map Making is in the tech group 0, thus removing it from the choices for the first research. Oh well... Ceremonial Burial chosen for research.

3900 BC: Warrior built in Paris, Settler started.

3880 BC: Ceremonial Burial discovered, Mapmaking chosen next. Techrate 9 turns.

3760 BC: Paris size 2. Biggest civs in the world: French 1st! Très bien!

3700 BC: Mapmaking discovered, Bronze Working started as Code of Laws is not available. Paris production switched to Trireme.

3660 BC: Paris builds Trireme, settler and warrior board.

3620 BC: Orleans founded. Pop hut: Archer.

3560 BC: Pop hut: 100g :)

3520 BC: Pop hut: 50g.

3500 BC: Bronze Working discovered, start Code of Laws.

3480 BC: Pop hut: NOMADS! Rush 6s in Orleans.

3380 BC: Lyons founded.

3360 BC: Pop hut: Code of Laws!

3340 BC: Research Monarchy. Techrate 9 turns. Pop hut: Pottery. Techrate 11 turns.

3300 BC: Reims founded. Techrate 9 turns.

3280 BC: Pop hut: Nomads again! My hut luck is great!

3260 BC: Monarchy discovered. Start Currency. Paris settlers. Pop hut: Horseback Riding. Techrate 15 turns.

3240 BC: REVOLUTION.

3220 BC: Monarchy established. T3L0S7

3200 BC: Pop hut: Chariot.



Status at 3200 BC:

Population: 0.08M Cities: 4 Trade routes: 0D0F Government: Monarchy
Gold: 219 Cost per turn: 0 Total advances: 8 Production: 10MT 0 polluted tiles
Wonders: None
Units: 2 Settlers, 2 Warriors, 1 Archer, 1 Chariot, 1 Trireme
No contact with anybody.


Nothing else to mention. However, having the 1st hut being an Archer really helped with hut hunting, and allowed me to focus on settler building.

I decided to wait a turn before settling on the 4-tiled island because I wanted more food and trade: I was planning to try and WLTPD that city to full size, and I wanted more food and trade. (It was also good because Paris eventually became an SSC, later in my game. Needless to say, mountains and glacier squares are not very trade happy.)

I was delayed at getting Map Making and Monarchy by the cycle, which could have hurted a LOT. However, delayed Map Making turned out to be actually a good thing (I was forced to do a warrior, which popped an explorer... left me with great hut popping speed that really, really helped) I was also delayed when Code of Laws was not available. I later got CoL from a hut: that helped a lot.

I've also played to 1000BC with a similar plan (independently conceived, not a copycat attempt). The copycat bit is that I'm only posting to 3000BC at this time too.

This is not a map for the French to conquer. Conan took the reins immediately.

The plan is to bridge the maze with cities whereever necessary. We will not lament our homeland, we will embrace it, and come into the fertile land not meekly, but with strength. The strength we choose is the one size fits all hammer of trade, with the goal of overwhelming economic and technical superiority enabling rapid conquest when the time for war arrives. Or we just buy them all.

4000 - Cimmeria founded (41,57)
3980 - Researching Code of Laws, first road begins.
3920 - Code of Laws > Map Making
3840 - All Cimmeria is covered in roads.
3780 - Cimmeria reaches size 2.
3740 - France is the most gloriously happy civilization. Cimmeria settlers, first irrigation complete. Map Making > Writing.
3640 - All Cimmeria is irrigated. Trireme 15/40 with no way to rush yet, nothing to do but wait.
3540 - Spent 25/25 gold to finish trireme. Time to break out the map editor and plan the next two cities.
3500 - Hut>Masonry.
3460 - Vanaheim founded (30,62). Writing>Literacy.
3420 - Aesgaard founded (24,66), will never grow without a harbor but bridges the mountain.
3300 - Cimmeria settlers.
3280 - Literacy>Republic.
3180 - Vanaheim trireme>settler.
3160 - Hyperborea founded (17,69).
3140 - Cimmeria rush 38g toward settler because trireme is ready to move it.
3120 - Cimmeria settler.
3080 - Republic>Pottery, oedo year in 3060. Revolution! Republic instantly, and there was much rejoicing. 5 turns per advance. Support on triremes and settlers tells me early republic may have been a mistake, we'll see where it goes.
3040 - Hut>Horsemen next to Hyperborea, moved into town and disbanded for shields. Aesgaard trireme>pyramids. Second largest civilization.
3000 - Pottery>Seafaring. 4 cities, 5 total population, 2 settlers, 3 triremes. Income 4, upkeep 0, 15 beakers, 5 turn discoveries, 8 techs.

I like the logs so far :goodjob:
(the intros to the logs, to be more precise - haven't read the logs yet)
I like discussion of game plans, thought processes, chest-beating and all that.

I'm at about -2000 now, which is a little early to be here, but I've gotten thru the maze and settled the near isle with 5 cities, and have decided on almost all of my plans already.

I settled on the original tile, for the whale, and used the size-1 trick. I irrigated the shielded grass and forested the other grass, and roaded them all before heading West in 3480 [tri+2S]. Monarchy + 1st canal city in 3220. I was probably too cautious with huts, fearing support issues, but eventually built 2 explorers (for E and W) and this has helped. No WoWs yet, but 1 granary in Paris, which is size 5. Not much else to brag about.

But the grassy isle is growing quickly now and I can start thinking about conquest soon. Mainly, I still need LH and polytheism. The huts gave me every early tech EXCEPT Poly and Writing, driving up my tech costs. My advisor says I need 56 turns per adv. So, I may need MPE or more-better huts or maybe I'll just attack with chariots. Not sure about that part yet. Will probably post a log soon.

Interesting.

I thought of going to early republic too, but decided that increased settler costs would not make up for the increased trade, decreased corruption and decreased happiness issues. A whale city in Republic would be unable to support a settler, and a fish city could only support one. (that would assume a size 1 city without a harbour) My early game strategy (which relied very, VERY heavily on both agressive and nonagressive expansion) and Early Republic were simply incompatible. Time will tell what strategy worked best.

The early years of republic were indeed difficult. I put a lot of effort into getting settlers to their build points quickly, and had to rehome at least one to prevent total starvation. Despite the difficulties, I found that in this situation settlers are not in play long enough for their support to matter terribly much, while the cost of maintaining triremes is a major drain.

3140 BC: Pop hut: Polytheism. (2) Pop another hut: 50g. Techrate 9 turns.

3080 BC: Pop hut: Masonry. (0) Techrate still 9 turns.

3060 BC: Orleans builds 1st settlers not from Paris or a hut. Pop hut: Currency. 13 huts popped and no barbs yet...

3040 BC: Research Writing (1) Paris builds its last Settlers. Build Tours as the last canal city needed to go to the Prairie lands. Trireme will dart to the AI lands with the NONE settler in board It will NOT pop huts on the way because I do not want to lose my settler. (I should have planned a warrior for hut popping... mistake). Techrate 21 turns... obviously a PR change.

3020 BC: Paris builds Temple (first improvement built) and starts the Pyramids.

2980 BC: Techrate back to 15 turns...

2960 BC: Discover Writing (2) begin Literacy.

2940 BC: Pop hut: Archers. Wow, am I lucky. 14 straight.

2920 BC: Marseille is founded as the 1st city whose purpose is to solely serve as a canal city. Techrate 11 turns. Pop hut: Math. (0) 15 straight.

2900 BC: Build Chartres for the same purpose as Marseille.

2880 BC: Pop. exceeds 100.000 people. Pop hut: 50 gold, 16 straight.

2860 BC: Reims builds Settlers.

2820 BC: Avignon founded.

2800 BC: Besançon founded as the 1st city founded on gold. Techrate 9 turns.

2780 BC: Pop hut: BARBS! (was going for 17 straight) At least it’s not an important explorer. I expect my warrior to hold on mountain versus a legion (remember we are playing warlord, barbs attack at 50% normal strength)

Status at 2780 BC:

Population: 0.16M Cities: 9 Trade routes: 0D0F Goverment: Monarchy
Gold: 195 Cost per turn: 1 Total advances: 13 Production: 18MT 0 polluted tiles
Wonders: None. Currently building Pyramids
Units: 1 settler (NONE) 3 warriors, 2 archers, 1 chariot, 2 Triremes.

My hut luck was still very great, and my speed at popping them helped a lot.
This period consisted mostly at expanding, popping huts and starting to build the Pyramids.

I've played past -1500 now, and got the techs I needed from huts; Poly, Wri, Repu and some not needed; BB, Inv. I certainly didn't have Jokemaster's luck with huts, and lost several explorers to barbs. I've conquered the Indians, Japs and Chinese, and razed capitols of Russ+Gr, so it's a pretty easy game now. I may go from Mon to Republic soon, along with some minor trade, probably with the Greeks. I moved my capitol awhile back, but didn't get the big boost in taxes I expected, and Paris is now fairly worthless ... I think this decision was OK, but unclear.

Well, after a while my hut luck was really shaky: I got Invention from a hut way too early, which caused me to miss out on several pre-Invention techs. (i.e. Banking, Astronomy, Feudalism) While the extra gold was welcomed, I was still at the point where I'd get mainly nomads from the ice continent. At some point I had 10 of them, IIRC.

At 750 BC I have conquered Russians and Japs, petted the Indians and will soon destroy the Chinese. I'm planning to switch from Mon to Demo soon... or maybe I'll wait a bit for me to get a foothold on the Spanish. Or maybe even build the SoL and switch to Fundy/Commy. (And I am also planning heavy trade with the Greeks, who have Colossus)

Thought about moving my capitol, but decided against it.

So, here's a log and some stats.

-4000: Paris(1), will do the size one, using whale/mt to get 19 food sheaves at birth. I sketched a few timelines, and expected a slight excess of laborers on the island until I can learn mapmaking and build a boat. Will irrigate x 2 and forest x1.
-3720: S is born, and Paris grows next turn.
-3660: Have cb, c laws --> mm. Some workers on ocean, to get mm before getting 40 shields.
-3500: mm-->moy, make 1st boat next turn. It goes West into the maze with 2S's.
-3220: Monarchy, ->bw. I realize that my S's can "charge" en route, but can't see much advantage. Am not agressively popping huts, fearing new units might overload support at Paris, but soon started to try it. Orleans (2) founded as a canal.
-3140, 3120, 3100, 3040: hut = pots, mys, horse [will disband it], barb legion which loses to my S on mts. Then got chariot, more barbs, horse, 50g [the first really good hut].
-2800: hut = 100g and bw-->seaf [for explorers]. Boat at 155,49 is "near Canton".
-2620: hut = Rheims(4) on grass. My luck is improving; next, I got a nomad, though it was in the maze and so not very useful.
-2500: hut = trade. Have [soon, but date unclear] 8 cities, 4 boats, 2S.
-2300: explo sent to Eastern ice [I have seaf]. I pop lots of huts, get lots of techs [mostly pretty useless] and coins, etc.
-2140: hut = Poly! good!
-2120: LH in Paris. Paris will mainly make v's for WoWs, w help from Orleans, while the "real civ" is built up near the AI. [I didn't try for trade, Paris-AI, because of the lengthy transportation time].
-2000: 15 cities (about half on grass IIRC) 2S, 4 ele, 7tri, 2v, 4misc, LH.
-1880 (approx?): Move capital to the new lands to reduce corruption/waste there. The immediate effect was much smaller than I expected, but this was probably still a good decision because the new lands kept growing while Paris was a dead end. I've won and lost a city to Spain, and soon meet the Japs. A period of rather poor luck in establishing outposts delays conquests.
-1700: India declares war and is no more. Jap cap down. Huts = lit + inv . 21 cities.
-1640: Japs down, and Chinese cap down. A hut gave Chiv a while back, so I am using mainly knights to conquer. I've essentially lost control over science - my tech costs are thru the roof, I won't get more from huts, and I'm not set up well for Big Trade. Like I said, I probably should've just ended this ASAP.
-1580: Find the Greeks and get their map [same boat picks up stray S's from the Great Ice]. I don't seem to need Marco here. I made a couple of embassies with dips, but they aren't very useful.
-1560: I switched science from zero to 10 or so, and suddenly got Repu..not sure what happened.
-1460: China down. 3 down, 3 to go, but for some reason, I wanted to play on, and have kept the last 3 as pets.
-1300: First trade van gets 92g, a small disappointment. With Inv from the hut, and rather small distances between islands, it doesn't get much better. Over the next few centuries, with growth from harbors and Republic, my bonuses probably averaged about 140g.
-1260: I sneaked vs Spain, then second van = 88g.
-1220: HG. Van3 = 84g to Russia.
-1140: [B]Republic. Lux at 50 to cele/grow. Taxes at 50 give income of 157g/t, rising soon.
-1080: vans = 148 and 174 = better...
-1040: Senate forces peace with Greeks. Gunp-->mono.
-1000: 59 cities, LH+HG+Pyr, Repu, 18S, 19kn, 19tri, 26v, 30adv [without mono, nav, explo...] Vans are averaging 140g now... a small profit even without the beakers and routes.
I could probably conquer easily now, except for my Senate.
-860: Mike's, which allows celebrations again, and probably growth of most cities to approx size 8.
-840: A van gets 294g , and I'm hoping the average will rise to approx 200g soon. I have approx 38 vans, with some reserved for WoWs such as Leo's/Mag's. I've played on just a few turns from here and don't have any clear plan.... I'm kind of curious about how far I can take my economy in this setting, but at some point I'll probably just switch govts and conquer.

Interesting.

I can see that you did not built many cities on the mts in the early game. Comparing to my game I have more cities, but have not conquered as fast as you did... maybe you focused on conquest while I focused on expansion?

I'm at 620 BC. I had the opportunity to switch to Demo for Big Trade (I have a round-trip shipchain going from Paris to Athens) but decided on Fundy instead, courtesy of the SoL. One civ left (besides the pet Indians) so I think I could finish that pretty quick if I want to go for green star (but probably won't)


Date Notes

2760 BC: Barb Legion attacks my warrior, it dies but my warrior has almost no HP left. Pop hut: Seafaring! (1) Techrate 11 turns.

2720 BC: Pop hut: Nomads. Pop another hut: Construction. (2) Techrate 13 turns.

2700 BC: Pop hut: Archer.

2680 BC: Pop hut: Literacy!

2660 BC: Start the research of Trade (0) Techrate 14 turns. Pop hut: 50g.

2640 BC: Discover Trade, start Myscitism (1) Build Rouen on Ivory. Techrate 12 turns.

2620 BC: Pop exceeds 200.000 citizens. Pop hut: Myscitism. Techrate 13 turns.

2600 BC: Start research of The Republic (2) TERRE! Unload Settler in prairie land mass 16.

2580 BC: The French are most powerful. Pop hut: Philosophy! (0)

2560 BC: Republic discovered, Mono is next (1) Orleans first food van. Build Grenoble. Build Dijon on AI grassland. Pop hut: Chariot.

2540 BC: First food van in Paris: 42s left. Pop hut: Nomads. Pop hut: Medicine. (2) I have 21 techs: Techrate 22 turns.

2520 BC: Pop hut: Mono!

2500 BC: Start researching Banking. (0) Amiens founded.

2480 BC: T7L0S3 because science rate sucks and need cash to rb food vans, triremes and settlers. Will depend on huts for science. Techrate 38 turns. Pop first hut on AI grasslands: 50 gold.

2460 BC: Pop hut: 7 barb horsemen! Don’t expect my Chariot to survive (still have Settler to explore the ice cap south) Pop hut: University. (1)

2440 BC: Only 2 horsemen attack my chariot. One dies, chariot is vet, but the other horsemen kills my unit. Grrr. Pop hut: 25g. Pop hut: Warrior Code (2) Oh oh.

2420 BC: The Chinese start Colossus. FINALLY! Pop hut: 50g. Pop hut: The Wheel (0)

2400 BC: Pop hut: Engineering (1). Crap. Pop hut: 50g. The first AI land does not appear to be colonized.

2380 BC: Pop hut: Archer.

2360 BC: PARIS BUILDS PYRAMIDS. Now the pace of expansion will really pick up. Marco started. Pop hut: Sanitation. (2)

2340 BC: 2 vans in Paris for Marco (95 left) Pop hut: Advanced tribe of Cherbourg, yay! Pop another hut, Invention. (0) NOT YAY. Could use the extra gold however... but this is too early. WAY too early.

2320 BC: Pop hut: 25g. Build Poitiers. Pop hut: 50g.

2300 BC: Another van in Paris: 35s left for Marco. Pop hut: Barbs! 3 legions, don’t think my warrior will survive.

2280 BC: 2 legions attack my warrior. It holds and gains Vet status! Pop exceeds 400.000 citizens. Pop hut: 50g.

2260 BC: Pop hut: 100g.

2240 BC: Pop hut: 100g. Pop hut: Nomads. Pop hut: 25g. Build Toulouse.

2200 BC: Trireme sights Russian archer unit.

2180 BC: Bayonne is founded. Pop hut: 50g. Pop hut: 100g.

2160 BC: Paris builds MPE, starts Mikes. 1 van in Paris, 350 shields left. My power is Supreme. I can see how much units my opponents have (forgot I had that option in Warlord!) Hail Russians: Give them Map Making and Construction. Swap maps. Peace. Hail Japanese: Give Map Making, Peace, Give Construction and The Wheel, swap maps.. Hail Spanish: Give Map Making, Peace. Give Math, Construction. Swap maps. They have Iron Working, which I don’t have: but not willing to give up Invention for it. Hail Chinese: Give Sanitation, peace. Give Literacy, swap maps. Hail Greeks: Give Map Making, peace. Give Philosophy, swap maps. Hail Indians: They ask for Invention. I take the risk to reject... they offer peace, accepted. Give Construction, Ceremonial Burial. Swap maps. Stratsbourg founded.

2140 BC: Brest founded. Bordeaux founded.

2120 BC: Pop hut: Nomads. Build Issos. 2 food vans in Paris: 240 shields left.

2100 BC: Pop hut: 50g. Cunaxa founded. Pop hut: Nomads. Pop hut: Crusader. Cremona built.

2080 BC: Pop hut: Legion. Pop hut: BARBS! If the Settler does not survive, it will hurt... Pop hut: 50g.

2060 BC: Settler kills 3 barb horsemen, but dies to the 4th. This is bad. Food van in Paris: 175 shields left.

2040 BC: Build Cannae.

2020 BC: Food van in Paris: 115 shields left for Mikes. Build Capua. Build Turin. Pop hut: Barb Legion. Pop hut: 50g.

Status at 2000 BC:

Population: 0.64M Cities: 27 Trade routes: 0D0F Government: Monarchy
Gold: 52 Cost per turn: 1 Total advances: 28 Total production: 55MT 0 polluted tiles
Wonders: Pyramids, Marco, Currently building Mikes
Units: 7 Settlers, 3 Warriors, 4 archers, 1 legion, 1 chariot, 1 crusader, 7 triremes, 2 caravans.
Russians: 4 cities, 10 techs, 15 units, peace
Japanese: 3 cities, 9 techs, 11 units, peace
Spanish: 4 cities, 9 techs (1 I don’t have) 13 units, peace
Chinese: 3 cities, 10 techs, 9 units, peace. Currently building Colossus
Greeks: 6 cities, 7 techs, 13 units, peace.
Indians: 4 cities, 8 techs, 10 units, peace.
Every single enemy civ is in Despotism.


The pace of expansion really picked up after building the Pyramids and raising taxes. High taxes meant that a mtn city did not stay size 2 for long before a Settler was built. Pyramids meant 15 food in the box when the city grew, and when a Sett was built, 15 food left in the food box and 5 food needed for size 2. 5 turns later, size 2, rush another settler. 5 turns later... rinse and repeat.

I am unsure if getting Invention early (which turned every single scroll hut in a gold hut) helped for settler and caravan rushing, or if it was not worth the missed tech that I did not got from huts (especially Navigation... the speed of getting triremes to settler buildpoints was hindered because often, the 3 movement points ended in a canal city, so I had to stop if I did not wanted the chance of 120 shields down the drain)

I've played to 660BC, I got distracted by Big Trade and absolute tech dominance and have neglected to destroy or pet any civilizations. I took a different route through the maze and didn't reach fertile land until 1640BC, whereas Peaster landed before 2620 and it seems most others also hit green before 2000. It amused me to build a thriving civilization in a harsh environment, hopefully the incredibly detailed account entertains.

2960 - Brythunia founded (14,70). Vanaheim settlers, race against time as we have 1 hunger vs. 6 stored food. Yay republic! Cimmeria accidentally spends 48 toward settler.
2900 - Cimmeria could rush a settler or wait 2 turns, trireme is in place but I'm going to save the money. Seafaring>Bronze Working. Production of Explorers commences.
2880 - Vanaheim is dangerously low on food! Nemedia founded (9,63) and problem solved, for now. Cimmeria settlers.
2840 - 8g toward explorer.
2820 - Brythunia buys explorer.
2780 - Hut>Legion. Bronze working>Currency. Civil disorder in Aesgaard, stupid free legion.
2760 - Legion disbands in Aesgaard, Pyramids in 47 turns.
2740 - Order restored in Aesgaard. Hut>25g. Rush 29 on explorers.
2700 - Aquilonia founded (1,65). 25g toward Brythunia explorer. Hut 100g. 100k citizens.
2680 - Brythunia 25g to finish explorer, done making those for now. Hut barbarians. Hut barbarians again. Maybe I'll make another explorer after all. Looks like I can outrun one of the hordes, it was a single horseman and I had 2 moves left. Southern explorer dies bravely. Currency>Trade.
2640 - Cimmeria 33g toward settler.
2620 - Hut>Trade.
2600 - Working on Banking, choices were Mathematics or Warrior Code. Hut>Nomads. They're near enough to home I can put them on a ship soon, otherwise it would be a never-growing oil city. Hut>Banking. Working on Ceremonial Burial. Hyperborea settlers, brief scare as I realized I have 4 turns to deliver it, but rehomed in Brythunia to ease that burden.
2580 - Cimmeria settlers.
2560 - Hut>Barbarians. Only one but I have no movement left, that was smrt, but the explorer wins. Another explorer finds a wounded barbarian horse, defends and becomes veteran.
2520 - Hut>Construction. Hut>50g.
2500 - Ceremonial Burial>Mysticism. Southern Explorers begin polar expedition.
2480 - Zingara founded (193,63). Hut>Elephants, homed to Cimmeria and near the north pole, disbanded. 56+56g complete harbors in Nemedia, Aquilonia. Shields are an issue, debating using the nomad to mine iron near 3 cities.
2460 - Aquilonia,Nemedia harbor>caravan. Hut>50g. North polar expedition begins. 4 more bridge cities required.
2440 - 92g buys a harbor in Hyperborea.
2420 - Southern explorers reach Greenland.
2400 - Northern explorer reaches Greenland. Hut>Legion near Aquilonia, the shields will help with something. 28g toward Brythunia harbor.
2380 - Hut>25g. Hut>Nomads.. in Greenland. Hut>Horseback Riding.
2360 - Harbor rushed in Brythunia. Chinese begin HG.
2340 - Legion reaches Zingara, disbands to help build harbor. Argos founded (188,70). Hut>Monarchy, next Oedo year is 2260. Switching would give me 6 shields but cost 13 trade. Hut>Mathematics.
2320 - Hut>Mysticism. Hut>Warrior Code. 18 turn discoveries and 7g at 80% science, cranking tax to 80 instead gives 28g and 69 turns. Taxes stay at an all time high for now. Working on Philosophy. Vanaheim settler.
2300 - Hut>Elephant(Cimmeria), disbanded rather than riot. Hut>25g. Hut>Legion, disband. 200k citizens.
2280 - Hut>100g. Zingara harbor.
2260 - Hut>Barbarians, northern expedition comes to a brutal end but takes one down with him. Hut>Feudalism.
2240 - Cimmeria caravan wine. Hut>barbarians, explorer takes two down but there are 6 left over.
2220 - Ophir founded (61,85). 69g toward Cimmeria settler, 116 Vanaheim harbor. Hut>Elephant, disbanded.
2200 - Cimmeria 16g settler. Hut>Barbarians, southern expedition ends. Taxes 2.0.8 because I want Philosophy first after all.
2140 - Ophir spends most of the treasury on a new explorer. Cimmeria is size 3 with surplus, many others are size 2 and growing.
2100 - Zingara diplomat>Sun Tzu. Aquilonia van copper. Hut>50g. 48g harbor in Argos. 7/10 cities have harbors and can support growth/settlers.
2080 - Nomad finishes iron mine at Aquilonia, production tops out at 8 with no food surplus or deficit. As it only adds 1 to total production, I'm not sure it's a brilliant idea. That nomad could have been another city along the escape route.
2060 - Nemedia salt caravan. Corinthia founded (177,65). Hut>25g. 49g rush.
2040 - Philosophy>Medicine>Astronomy. Hyperborea copper van. 300k citizens.
2000 - Largest civilization. Tax 8.0.2. 11 cities, 2 settlers, 4 triremes, 1 diplomat, 4 caravans, 1 explorer. Income 41, upkeep 7, 11 beakers, 51 turn discoveries.

Interesting.

I can see that you did not built many cities on the mts in the early game. Comparing to my game I have more cities, but have not conquered as fast as you did... maybe you focused on conquest while I focused on expansion?


I was mainly interested in expansion until at least 2000BC. I felt that cities on grass would be worth much more than ones on mts [ICS-thinking], so I only built a few canal cities, and a few others from stranded nomads. My grassland cities did blossom pretty fast after 2000BC, and it wasn't hard to smother the nearby AI's with that growth.

But the grasslands weren't great for production / shields, so with your 27 cities + 7 settlers, I think you stood better at 2000BC, even if your cities were mostly on mts.

@Mackerel - I'm enjoying the Conan theme. I'm a big fan, and even made a not-quite-functional Civ2 Conan scenario. "Peaster" is Howard's home town in Texas. Keep it going !:goodjob:

Since you liked it so much, I'll post up to 1000BC tonight also.

In which real progress is made, fertile lands found and weaker tribes..traded with? Conan took a wrong turn and spent his fortunes on learning and earning more fortunes, rather than crushing enemies, seeing them driven before him, and hearing the lamentations of their women.

1980 - Hut>100g. 100g finishes Pyramids. Brythunia beads van. Aesgaard Pyramids.
1960 - Cimmeria silver van.
1940 - Hut>Barbarians, Greenland is a dangerous place to visit. Hut>Horsemen near Corinthia.
1920 - 98g for harbor in Ophir.
1900 - Zamorra founded (173,65). Argos settler.
1860 - Rush harbor in Aesgaard.
1820 - Rush explorer in Ophir. 500k citizens. 8 cities are size 3, nearly celebration time.
1780 - 80g harbor in Corinthia. Aquilonia gold van. Vanaheim salt van. Cimmeria settlers.
1760 - Khauran founded (161,61) and we're out of the maze. Rush 78g harbor in Zamorra. Tax 2.8.0, all size 3 cities except Aquilonia will celebrate, corruption is huuuuge in the farther cities.
1740 - Brythunia settler. 800k citizens.
1720 - Khorasa founded (34,56). Greeks begin HG. Nemedia gems van. 1M citizens.
1700 - Indians begin Colossus.
1680 - Zingara celebration ends at size 6 with a red hat. Trade 8, corruption 12. Hut>100g. Cimmeria, Hyperborea entertainers allow continued celebration. Koth 84g harbor. Aquilonia grows to size 4 and begins celebration.
1640 - Argos begins celebration. Hut>Iron Working.
1620 - Shem founded(15,63). Tax 6.3.1, riding the happiness line, 12 upkeep, 73 income, 10 science, 58 turn discoveries. Argos copper van.
1600 - Celebrations end, but there will be more later. 108g harbor Khorasa. Truly green land discovered, and.. nobody's home?
1580 - Hut>NONE legion, and the east coast of Greenland discovered. Chinese nearly complete HG.
1560 - Hut>NONE legion. Shanghai builds HG. Chinese change from HG to GL. Greeks change grom HG to Colossus.
1540 - Hyperborea gold van. Hut>Advanced Tribe! Stygia(147,53). Civil disorder in Zingara, Elvis to the rescue. Aquilonia silver van. Cimmeria dye van.
1520 - Nemedea copper van. Aesgaard salt van. Vanaheim copper van. 2M citizens.
1500 - Hut>University.
1480 - Hut>Chemistry. Japanese located but not encountered, they don't want the caravans on board the first ship.
1460 - Hut>NONE legion. Cimmeria silver to Osaka 416g. Hyperborea copper Osaka 220g. Rush various triremes, caravans, harbors, down to 114g. Japanese begin Colossus. Astronomy>Polytheism. Khauran harbor. Brythunia copper van. Ophir makes another explorer and produces 0shields per turn, oops. Barbarians will fix that soon enough.
1440 - Hut>Navigation - not what I was hoping for but it'll do. Zingara changes to Magellan. Disorder in Shem, an unfortunate assembly line accident resulted in an extra trireme. Cimmeria settler.
1420 - Argos van to Zingara, 177 shields on Magellan. Hut>NONE legion. Hut>Tribe Darfar, in just the wrong place on Green Island. It will make settlers for proper colonization. Khorasa celebrates with just one Elvis helping. Vanaheim settler. Russian and Japanese warfare observed.
1400 - Argos settlers. Cimmeria salt van.
1380 - Hut>100g. Nemedia settler. Hyperborea settler.
1360 - Kush founded (190,64). Hut>Theory of Gravity. Hut>Physics. Hut>50g. Aquilonia settler.
1320 - Greek trireme spotted on the east coast of Greenland. Hut>Nomad, also east coast Greenland. Hut>The Wheel. Keshan founded (28,50). Stygia settler. Khorasa tops out at size 5, Elvis put back to work. Koth silk van, Corinthia silk van - headed to Cimmeria as I try to set up a profitable ship chain.
1300 - Cimmeria wine(d) Osaka 558. Hut>Barbs on an explorer, he takes down 2/8. Keshan harbor 118g. Kush harbor 102g. Greeks nearly completed Colossus. Shem copper van. Disorder in Vanaheim, didn't see that coming.
1280 - Hut>Nomads, Greenland again. Hut>100g. Punt founded (22,48). Zembabwei founded (10,84). Turan founded (199,55). Sparta builds Colossus. Japanese change to Great Wall. Indians change to Lighthouse. Zamora silk van.
1260 - Hyrkania founded (143,53). Aquilonia copper Kagoshima 108g. Hut>Barbs. Turan, Zembabwei, Punt harbors. Khorasa wine van. Vanaheim gems van. Cimmeria beads van.
1240 - Vendhya founded (4,82). Indians change to Great Library. Russians begin Lighthouse. Disorder in Hyperborea.
1220 - Hut>Elephant(Ophir), happiness and shields permit it to live.. for now. Shem buys harbor, gold stockpile is low but coming in fast. Russians change to Copernicus. Zingara completes Magellan. Triremes move 5, Caravels move 5. Time to put the ship chain in order.
1200 - Finally officially meet the enthusiastic Japanese, refuse to trade Navigation for Polytheism but welcome peace. They have 611 gold, despotism, researching Currency, and have no other tech to offer me. Makkalet founded (149,43). Polytheism discovered (probably should have traded after all)>Magnetism.
1180 - Vanaheim salt Satsuma 312g. Stygia hides van. Khauran silk van. Argos silk van. Aesgaard copper van. Vanaheim silver van.
1160 - Hyperborea gold Satsuma(d) 294g. Nemedia salt Kyoto(d) 160g. Nemedia gems Osaka(d) 204g. Nemedia silver Osaka(n) 68g, bleh. Hut>25g. Vendhya harbor. Khorasa gold van. Magnetism>Engineering. Aquilonia food van. Hyperborea dye van.
1140 - Greenland settlers pop hut>nomad.
1120 - Japanese learn Currency.
1100 - Koth silk Cimmeria(d) 276. Kush silk van. Shem beads van. Koth dye van. Zamora beads van. Disorder in Zingara, caused by growth, 2 Elvis required to correct. Nemedia beads van. Hyperborea silver van. Aesgaard beads van. Vanaheim beads van.
1080 - Corinthia silk Khorasa 114g. Vanaheim gems Osaka 486g. Khorasa wine Satsuma 300g. Cimmeria dye Kagoshima 444g. 700g in rushes, 1100 left over. Punt copper van. Keshan beads van. Engineering>Invention, Sanitation was tempting but I want democracy asap. Stygia dye van. Ophir gold van. Argos copper van. Settlers in Brythunia, Darfar, Hyrkania.
1060 - Rush various vans, 509g left. Ship chain is nearly functional. Turan silk van. Kush copper van. Shem gold van. Koth copper van. Zingara silk van. Vanaheim gold van.
1040 - Hut>Nomad, west coast of Greenland. Ship chain reaches from Cimmeria to Japan, with about 1 space of slack and 1 space of error at the moment. No deliveries this turn. Rush from 626g to 139g, all caravans and settlers. Supply is blocked in Cimmeria, Vanaheim, Aesgaard, Hyperborea, Aquilonia, Koth. Demand blocked in Satsuma. Chinese nearly completed GL. Japan Mathematics. Zembabwei beads van. Keshan copper van. Stygia settler. Ophir dye van. Aquilonia food van. Nemedia spice van.
1020 - Cimmeria beads Kagoshima 444g, salt Kagoshima 222g. Stygia hides Hyperborea 98g. Zamora silk Cimmeria 243g. Vanaheim gold Cimmeria 114g, unblocked beads from Cimmeria and beads in Kagoshima. Ship chain is finally working as planned, and could eventually be doubled if happiness and production allow. For now, shipping to Japan and Cimmeria is paying off all right. Xapur founded (2,72). Rush 1366g to 935g. Spanish begin Oracle. Beijing builds GL. Indians change from GL to Oracle. Hyrkania dye van. Invention>Democracy. Zamora copper van. Zingara copper van. Brythunia beads van. Cimmeria beads van.
1000 - 4 caravans and 796g>Leo's. Hyperborea dye Osaka 220g. Hut>50g. Rush down to 205g. Xapur harbor. Ophir salt van. Aquilonia completes Leo's, goodbye triremes!
Tax remains 7.1.2, discoveries 45 turns (22 beakers), 154 income, 21 cost (all harbors). 27 cities, met only the Japanese. 4 Elvis clones supplement the peace. 35 techs.

Short term plan: continue blitzing trade, next turn all caravels become galleons and 4 deliveries per turn becomes simple. Slack in the chain should allow a galleon to start transporting diplomats to our first targets, who we will attempt to purchase a foothold if not an entire civilization. Democracy should be achieved in 1-2 turns, next Oedo year is 980>900BC. I can't get Democracy in 980, so 900 is the target. I don't care about city science at all, and barely care about science at all, just need to keep troops some steps ahead of the victims. After Democracy, Theology>Bach's seems like a good idea. Railroads will do nothing for me, I will avoid the trade reduction as long as possible. If Democracy fixes my happiness issues, I'll see about growing cities to size 12. Mike's may be a requirement, or at least a payout improvement.

Conan took a wrong turn and spent his fortunes on learning and earning more fortunes, rather than crushing enemies, seeing them driven before him, and hearing the lamentations of their women.

Of course, his imperfections only made him more human...

1000 - 4 caravans and 796g>Leo's. Hyperborea dye Osaka 220g. Hut>50g. Rush down to 205g. Xapur harbor. Ophir salt van. Aquilonia completes Leo's, goodbye triremes! Tax remains 7.1.2, discoveries 45 turns (22 beakers), 154 income, 21 cost (all harbors). 27 cities, met only the Japanese. 4 Elvis clones supplement the peace. 35 techs.

Short term plan: continue blitzing trade, next turn all caravels become galleons and 4 deliveries per turn becomes simple. Slack in the chain should allow a galleon to start transporting diplomats to our first targets, who we will attempt to purchase a foothold if not an entire civilization. Democracy should be achieved in 1-2 turns, next Oedo year is 980>900BC. I can't get Democracy in 980, so 900 is the target. I don't care about city science at all, and barely care about science at all, just need to keep troops some steps ahead of the victims. After Democracy, Theology>Bach's seems like a good idea. Railroads will do nothing for me, I will avoid the trade reduction as long as possible. If Democracy fixes my happiness issues, I'll see about growing cities to size 12. Mike's may be a requirement, or at least a payout improvement.

Sounds like you've got a great game going, and are reaching several mileposts ahead of me (and maybe jokemaster) - such as Leo's, Nav, Magnetism, Demo. I'm surprised you don't seem to need Mike's yet. Could you post more -1000 stats; for example how many boats and vans you have ?

Also, I'm curious about your ship-chain. Does it reach from your original capital to the AI ? From the size of some bonuses, I'm guessing it is pretty long. But from the number of vans involved, I'm guessing there are many Cimmerian cities involved (in the maze??)

I'll have to look for the full details when I get home, closest saves I have on this computer are 1460 and 740 BC. At 740 BC I have 12 canal cities along the whale trail through the center of the maze, 8 off-path cities that exist to supplement caravans, 8 on the first green island, and 3/5 spanish cities. My trade is entirely with the Japanese; I noticed right away that the first set of islands outside the maze were 90-100 spaces from home horizontally, and 25-50 vertically. I refuse to give science to the weaker races even to improve trade payouts, so they're still in despotism. Their life of ease will be their undoing.

I had great luck with tech from huts, so much that I was able to neglect city science from very near the beginning. I didn't get Invention until I had almost every other possible advance, which was pure luck, but the biggest help was a high tax rate allowing the instant purchase of harbors in canal cities. Luxuries from trade routes and having 7/8 workers on the water take care of happiness, delivering 4 caravans each turn offered one-turn advances with only 10% science (and I could almost certainly get away with just one scientist).

The ship chain does indeed reach from the capital to Japan. I'm sending 4 vans every other turn from the east side of the maze to Japan, and 4 back from the first green island for a bit less but still respectable amounts.

All right, I'm home with the 1000BC save. I have 4 cities on the green island, Cimmeria at the home point across the maze, one on the ice continent from a nomad, and 27 total (so 21 in the maze). 13 trireme+5 caravel+2 galleon, 35 caravans + 24 in production, 7 settlers. Leo's is 400/400 in the save.

At 660BC that changes to 28 galleons, 6 diplomats, 44+26 vans, 5 engineers.

@mackerel: Under Republic, what strategy did you used to support your boats for the ship chain? Mountain cities are not very full on shields, and you needed one seed shield to rush stuff... did you built any cities on iron/ivory to support boats? (at 620 BC, I have 7 ivory cities, 2s per turn, and 9 iron cities, 4s per turn, with 51 Galleons, with 34 35 of them part of the round-trip shipchain)

Also, you started delivering in 1160 BC. Did you tried for a round-trip ship chain? And if yes, when it was completed?

Each city made one ship, for happiness reasons during trireme/caravel season as well as support. The ship chain is one-way, as 4 caravans per turn is generally enough to give an advance every 1-2 turns. A few cities have access to iron, though most rely on whales. I have a few spare galleons to ferry caravans from outlying maze cities to the ship chain. Since I can only carry 4 vans per turn, it makes more sense to build a new city and rush 3 vans than to hope for wonder bread to work.

My only city on Ivory is on the ice continent (Greenland), because I got a nomad and there were no other survivable options for it.

Done to 500BC, the log gets long and tedious and mostly about trade.

980 - Hut>100g,50g. Ophir salt van. Cimmeria beads Kagoshima 444g. Argos silk Cimmeria 225g, backfired and blocked demand, 2 more silk vans will wait to be delivered. Japanese nearly complete GW. Vendhya copper van. Turan dye van. Zembabwei gems van. Darfar gold van. Disorder in Zingara again, grew into a stupid worker assignment. Nemedia copper van. Hyperborea silver van. Aesgaard gold van. Cimmeria beads van. 3M citizens.

960 - Not sure why I still have some caravels. No deliveries, the final ship was one space off because I expected caravels to become galleons. Largest civ, Japan is third with 6 cities. Kyoto builds GW. Russian elephant dies to Japanese horseman. Finally at the end of the turn, galleons everywhere. Democracy>Monotheism.

940 - Cimmeria beads Kagoshima 444g. Aesgaard copper Kagoshima 128g. Zingara silk Cimmeria 231g. Koth copper Khorasa 118g, Khorasa demand changes to (Silk) Hides Wool, thumbing its nose at the other two demanded caravans offshore. Zamora copper Cimmeria(n) 81g but unblocks silk. Turan silk Cimmeria 171g, blocks. Koth dye Cimmeria 92g, unblocks. Kush silk Cimmeria 192g. Cimmeria is left with beads supply open, and wine demand (but no city anywhere produces it). Hut>Legion, disbanded toward caravan in Vendhya. Indians nearly complete Oracle. Xapur beads van. Vendhya gold van. Monotheism>Chivalry. Hyrkania gems van. Turan copper van. Zembabwei silver van. Kush dye van. Darfar silk van. Cimmeria beads van.

920 - Vanaheim copper Kagoshima 340g. Shem copper Kagoshima 116g. Beads stay blocked, that wasn't part of the plan, vans from Cimmeria, Keshan, and Nemedia stranded for a turn or two. 2 vans + 1200g makes Mike's. Hut>100g. Revolution! Madras builds Oracle, Spanish abandon. Vendhya builds Mike's Hard Lemonade Cathedral, and there was much rejoicing. Hello Democracy!

900 - Between Mike's and the elimination of corruption, happiness issues are a relic of the past. All but 3 cities will celebrate next turn, and those because they're too small. Nemedia beads Edo 224g. Sukhmet founded (151,51). Exploratory galleon meets Spain, subjects in Toledo are found to be prone to revolt, 220g investment nets 53g return and 3 warriors, one of which is disbanded immediately for happiness and diplomat production, another accidentally establishes contact with the enraged Isabella, but a cease fire neutralized her bad attitude. Senate signs a permanent peace treaty I don't intend to keep. Zingara copper Cimmeria(n) 106g, demand changes to Silk Wine Coal. Darfar gold Cimmeria(n) 111g. Zamora beads Cimmeria(n) 91g. Tax 5.1.4, 233 income, 22 out, 25 turn discoveries. Japanese demand navigation but do not attack when denied. Celebration in 24 cities. Keshan wine van. Khauran coal van. Warriors become pikemen. Chivalry>Theology. Vanaheim, Cimmeria aqueduct.

880 - Ophir dye Satsuma 304. Keshan copper Satsuma 220. Cimmeria beads Edo 456. Keshan beads Edo 216. Hut>50g,50g. Diplomacy with Spain - refuse to give Navigation, demand withdrawal, war is Isabella's idea. 320g buys Cordoba, 56g instant refund and a phalanx thrown in. Rush 1000g or so worth of caravans and diplomats. 3.4M citizens before the first major growth spurt. Spanish move in the troops and demand Navigation again, denied again, cease fire accepted. Senate signs another permanent peace treaty. Japanese learn map making. Sukhmet silk van. Makkalet spice van. Phalanx become pikemen. Theology>Gunpowder. Vendhya copper van. Zembabwei gems van. Punt gold van. Zamora silver van. Aquilonia coal van. 4.6M citizens.

860 - Zamora silver Brythunia 56g, nobody wants silver and this makes routes in unpopular cities. Khauran coal Vanaheim 225g. Darfar silk Vanaheim 342g. Aquilonia coal Cimmeria 187g. Khauran silk Cimmeria 291g. Xuchotl founded (147,41). Rush 1885g to 124g, caravans, harbors, and 1192 on Sun Tzu. Stygia grows stupidly and ends celebration. Shem spice van. Khorasa builds Sun Tzu's War Academy. Koth, Hyperborea, Cimmeria aqueduct. Pikemen and legions become musketeers, Gunpowder>Leadership. Zingara silver van. Nemedia spice van. Brythunia copper van. 6M citizens.

840 - Incited war with Spain again, bought Valencia for 230-57, disbanded 3/5 of the units into a new diplomat. Brythunia copper Satsuma 304. Kush copper Osaka 184. Aesgaard salt Satsuma 248. Shem beads Kyoto(n) 132. Vanaheim beads Kyoto(n) 262. Brythunia beads Osaka(n) 152. Aesgaard beads Osaka(n) 124. 20 shield unit is gone. Hovering around 1500g income per turn. Leadership>Explosives. Makkalet harbor **Gamble paid off, it couldn't meet the happiness requirement without working water and couldn't meet the food requirement if it did, so I bought a harbor and assigned workers to the water, and it grew**. Stygia harbor and re-celebrates. Aquilonia aqueduct. Vanaheim copper van. 7.4M citizens.

820 - Stygia dye Cimmeria(n) 178. Hyrkania dye Cimmeria(n) 164. Somewhere in here I got tired of recording rush buys, they're still happening on caravans, aqueducts, and diplomats. I'll note when that changes. Xuchotl silk van. Hyrkania silk van and celebrates, just hit size 3. Punt salt van. Darfar settler, auto-assignment cancels celebration. Zamora silk van. Corinthia gold van. Argos silver van. Zingara aqueduct. Hyperborea marketplace (now +34g). Aesgaard coal van. Cimmeria dye van. 8.9M citizens.

800 - Embassy with Spain, they have 2 cities, despotism, 8 units, 11 techs. War with Chinese is the least of their worries. Hyrkania gems Cimmeria(n) 171. Ophir salt Satsuma 428. Cimmeria dye Osaka 620. Keshan wine Osaka 460. Hut>NONE dragoon. Settlers become Engineers. Explosives>Sanitation. Engineers in Makkalet, Vendhya, Zembabwei, Stygia. Turan, Keshan, Kush, Shem aqueduct. Koth marketplace, 31g now. Valencia wool van. Cordoba wool van. Toledo silk van. Cimmeria gets a red hat at size 12 with one working the mountain, adjustment fixes that, sewer system will come soon. 9.8M citizens.

780 - Located China, diplomats investigating. Aquilonia silver Makkalet 270. Khemi founded (152,46) to allow easier transport to and from Green Island. Corinthia gold Cimmeria(n) 150. Xuchotl dye van. Hyrkania harbor. Punt, Aesgaard aqueduct. Darfar dye van. Hyperborea bank, 46g now. Cimmeria dye van. 11.1M citizens, most cities are near or at final capacity.

760 - Vanaheim copper Kagoshima 560. Vendhya copper Kagoshima 364. Kush dye Kagoshima(n) 142. Cimmeria dye Kagoshima(n) 304. Aquilonia gold Stygia(n) 119, all three of those (n) demanded last turn and changed on me. Messantia founded (144,42), 8th city on the green island. 1536g buys Bach's in Ophir. Japanese develop seafaring. Sanitation>Metallurgy. Valencia silk van. Ophir builds Bach. Zingara marketplace. Toledo wool van. Aquilonia copper van. 12M citizens.

740 - Turan copper Kagoshima 160. Nemedia copper Kagoshima 256. ***screwed up ship movement again, time for sleep*** Xuchotl silk Vanaheim 423. Hut>25g. Makkalet spice Aesgaard 504. Zamora silk Aesgaard 330. Rush to 327g. Messantia dye van. Khemi silk van. Sukhmet dye van. Hyrkania salt van. Shem salt van. Makkalet, Darfar, Stygia aqueduct. Punt, Keshan, Kush, Cimmeria marketplace. Metallurgy>Economics (over Atomic Theory, Bridge Building, Steam Engine). Toledo stops celebrating because a musketeer stepped outside, Bach's only makes the 2 angry people content. I'll take that under advisement.

720 - (partially from other log) Kuitai founded (97,5) for the sole purpose of getting 2/3 NONE engineers out of Greenland. Toledo silk Brythunia 246. Tarantia founded (198,92). Xuchotl beads van. Valencia silver van, celebrates along with Toledo and Cordoba. Corinthia dye van. Brythunia copper van. 14M citizens.

700 - Ship chain is in disarray near Cimmeria, straightening it out is pulling my hair out. Sukhmet silk Cimmeria 483. Greek island located. Darfar dye Cimmeria(n) 175. Valencia wool Keshan 312, demand changes to silk coal hides. Khemi silk Keshan 357. Leftover wool van that's not wanted anywhere.. maybe it will unblock supply somewhere. With 2000g in the coffer and Economics on the horizon, delivery can wait. I think the ship chain is repaired except the last one at Cimmeria, and that's one turn out. Sold 700g worth of aqueducts from cities that can not support more growth. Celebration has notable effects on 12 cities, planning to lower luxuries once they're full grown, if the game lasts that long. Overwhelming force is near. Russian explorer contacts Kuitai, refused to part with Gunpowder twice, or go to war with Japan, senate signs another unwanted peace treaty. Messantia spice van. Khemi beads van. Sukhmet beads van. Xapur silver van. Hyrkania aqueduct. Economics>Conscription. Zembabwei gold van. Punt silver van. Keshan copper van. Kush, Zingara bank. Makkalet, Stygia engineers. Khauran finally celebrates, what a horrible place for a necessary city. Zamora silver van. Aquilonia marketplace. Cimmeria sewer, just in time for dye supply to unlock.

680 - Zingara silver Ophir 385. Xapur beads Ophir 73g (demand changed and return to sender was too inconvenient, bleh). Hyrkania silk Cimmeria over 700g, expected 678. Located Mycenae, 264g buys it with 51g refunded, nothing but a single warrior thrown in to sweeten the deal. Poitan founded (195,95), should grow to size 17 or so. Turan copper Kagoshima 332, Zembabwei beads Kagoshima 432, Aquilonia copper Kagoshima 376, Shem spice Kagoshima 206. Rush down to 2000g, nothing left to spend it on. Enraged Greeks initiate contact at Mycenae, I refuse to give gunpowder, accept cease fire, senate signs peace treaty. Turan gold van. Darfar gems van. Shem silver van. Koth bank, fully grown so aqueduct sold. Cordoba dye van. Corinthia copper van. Ophir dye van. Toledo dye van. Nemedia food van. 15.5M citizens.

660 - Hut>Barbarians. More exploration around Greece and China. Ship chain restored to function, 2 extra ships on Cimmeria side could ferry to outlying cities or could deliver 3 rounds west in a row. Tarantia founded (139,49), Tauran founded (143,47), 10 cities on the first little green island, and easily room for more. Largest trade route is Vanaheim to Kyoto @6. Blocked supply is becoming quite the issue. Russians nearly complete Copernicus. Poitan harbor. Khemi dye van. Makkalet gold van. Vendhya, Zembabwei aqueduct. 2 engineers. Stygia sewer. Aquilonia bank. Cimmeria beads van. Leo's upgrades musketeers to riflemen; Conscription>Tactics. 16.4M citizens.

640 - Brythunia copper Satsuma 328. Punt copper Osaka 516. Corinthia copper Kagoshima 272. Argos copper Kagoshima 324. Khitai founded (141,45). Punt gold Kush 351. Darfar gems Brythunia(n) 130, unblocks copper supply. Time for aggressive plans to begin - war provoked with Greece and Russia, Japanese down to enthusiastic. 4 vans and 800g complete SoL in Aquilonia, the final wonder in the strategic plan. Russian island discovered. StPete builds Copernicus. Japanese develop Construction. Tauran copper van. Tarantia harbor. Messantia salt van. Shem gems van. Cordoba copper van. Brythunia copper van. Aesgaard gold van. Leo's upgrades remaining musketeers to riflemen, dragoons to cavalry. Tactics>Amphibious Warfare. 17M citizens.

620 - Kambuja founded (145,55), Lemuria (150,50), 13 cities on Green Island with room for 3 more, but it's time for the next phase. Sparta bought for 688-111+colossus, free trireme and warrior. Ephesos bought for 88-23, free warrior elephant explorer. Greeks demand 50g, offer cease fire. Hyrkania salt Cimmeria(n) 269. Valencia silk Hyperborea 396. Valencia siver Vanaheim(n) 176. Punt salt Satsuma 504. Cimmeria beads Kagoshima 756. Keshan copper Kagoshima 588. Hut>50g. West side of the empire retooled for war, east side continues to focus on trade (since there's no one to attack and I could only ship out 4 troops a turn, and that would preclude trade). Gold sits at 4541, few rushes this turn, it is the calm before the storm. Vendhya beads van. Amphibious Warfare>Fundamentalism.

600 - Paikang founded (132,64) as the landing platform in China. Invasion force purchased, down from 5300 to 2600g. Cordoba wool Vanaheim(n) 203, silk demand unblocked, supply all blocked. Toledo wool Vanaheim(n) 174, supply still blocked.. Moving on, Sukhmet dye Cimmeria(n) 243, salt supply unblocked. Zamora silver Cimmeria(n) 199, salt supply re-blocked, gold demanded. Makkalet gold Cimmeria 870g, supply blocked, silk demand unlocked. I'm very confused but I'll take it. Back to 4314g. Rush to 2198. Poitan copper van. Tarantia silk van. Kuitai harbor. Xapur gold van. Keshan gold van. Khorasa gold van. Khauran copper van. Koth stock exchange (70/turn tax). Zamora gold van. Aquilonia copper van. Cimmeria bank (78/turn). 17 vet marines recruited, because Conan would approve. 18.5M citizens.

580 - Secunderam founded (145,81). 3 marines and an engineer disembark in China. 4 marines discover the presumably Indian continent. Ophir gold Satsuma 642. Zembabwei gold Satsuma 828. Zembabwei gems Osaka 894. Aquilonia copper Kagoshima 376. Paid 202 for a Greek catapult that was in an inconvenient place, still 5590 gold to dispose of. Rush to 3295. Revolution! A few cities need worker adjustments to avoid unhappiness in Anarchy, easy enough. I thought SoL would prevent anarchy though. Chinese demand withdrawal from Canton, they're not going to get it. Darfar gold van. Several dips and engineers.

560 - New government: Fundamentalism. Bought Delphi for 591+82+phalanx+trireme. Argos bought for 318+70+3warrior+settler+elephant+phalanx. Thermoplyae bought for 400+40+phalanx. Cease fire offered and accepted, Greeks have 3 cities out of 9 left. 2 marines capture Canton+32g, cancel Chinese treaty. Marine and rifle attack Madrid but need reinforcements, Spanish treaty cancelled. Meru, Onagrul founded in Spain. Back to Democracy. Sukhmet beats Aesgaard(n) 148 hoping to unblock spice demand, failed. Messantia spice Cimmeria(n) 211. Corinthia dye Cimmeria(n) 187. Zamora gold Cimmeria(n) 199, salt supply unblocked. Feeling poor with only 2585g, unexpected anarchy hurt. Rush to 654, really feeling the burn now. Caravan stockpile is also getting seriously low, with resupply problems all over the eastern empire. Spanish capture Meru, take Gunpowder, senate signs permanent peace treaty. Lemuria silk van. Kambuja silk van. Khitai salt van. Tauran dye van. Tarantia gold van. Messantia beads van. Xuchotl harbor. Zingara gold van. Several engineers, dips. Cimmeria salt van. Fundamentalism>SteamEngine.

540 - Nemedia spice Satsuma(n) 154. Shem salt Satsuma(n) 194, unblocks gold demand. Rhamdam founded (126,58) in China. Revolution! Anarchy again, SoL is a lie! Madrid reduced to size 1, reputation reduced to Atrocious. Nanking captured+54g. Pharsalos bought for 308+60+elephant+phalanx. Cease fire offered and accepted with China and Greece, Spanish hostility remains despite our pleasant history. Rush to 495g. Spanish capture Onagrul and take Navigation, I shouldn't be leaving these baby cities undefended. Poitan silk van. Tarantia gems van. Vendhya silver van. Zembabwei copper van. Koth gold van. Zamora silver van. Corinthia silver van. Ophir hides van. Nemedia copper van.

520 - Fundamentalism returns. Madrid destroyed. Seville bought for 213+218+phalanx. Spanish civilization destroyed. Athens captured. Corinth bought for 264+105+phalanx. Greek civilization destroyed. Beijing captured+Great Library+75g. Asgalun, Gazal, Kordava founded in Spain. Marines land at Minsk. Back to Democracy. Keshan gold Satsuma 846. Shem gems Satsuma(n) 194. Cimmeria salt Satsuma(n) 388. Darfar gold Vanaheim(n) 172, unblocks no supply but blocks silk demand... Corinthia silver Cimmeria 467. Lemuria silk Cimmeria 558. Zamora silver Cimmeria 497. Rush from 3500 to 1167. Japanese develop Writing. Lemuria dye van. Kambuja dye van. Khitai spice van. Tauran gold van. Tarantia dye van. Poitan silver van. Kuitai coal van. Hyrkania gold van. Darfar gems van. Stygia gold van. Ophir hides van.

500 - Shanghai captured+HG+63g. Xinjian bought for 174+24+musket+settler. Tsingtao found but out of reach, for now; Beijing rushes diplomat. Shu Chen, Shaulun founded in China. Indians discovered, Calcutta bought for 388+52+phalanx. Embassy planted, they have 5 cities, 500g, republic. Minsk captured+83g+BridgeBuilding. Leo's upgrades several units, did I accidentally end the turn? Apparently not. Senate signs another worthless peace treaty. Sythia founded on the Russian coast. Khorasa gold Satsuma 498. Aesgaard gold Satsuma 690. Nemedia copper Kagoshima 348. Ophir dye Kagoshima 468. Rush from 3609 to 2857. Aesgaard coal Zamora 290. Rush 3147 to 2928 as both cities unblock supply. Sold various barracks, granaries, bought dips and marines and an engineer or two, 1268 left but Invasion Japan is readyish. Revolution! SoL still lies, anarchy again.

Stats at 500BC:
68 cities, largest is Cimmeria at 17 (made 2 engineers recently)
11+11 engineers, 20 marines as the main attack forces, 4+12 dips, 48+35 caravans, 35 galleons. 7 explorers are my only casualties to date.
Atrocious reputation, everyone hates me but keeps offering cease fire. Spanish, Greeks down. Chinese have 1 city, Japanese 8, Indians 5, Russians unknown but one less than at 520BC. Japanese have 1500g so taking Kyoto is only the first marine goal.
82g upkeep, 167 incoming in anarchy at 6.0.4, closer to 1050 in democracy at 6.0.4. 1650 turns per advance, or 2 if I remember to keep a scientist in a city when I'm not being revolting.
50 techs. Steam engine beaker box is full, anarchy keeps me from finalizing it.
It's getting very hard to make caravans on the east side of the maze, supply is blocked and deliveries to those cities aren't unblocking them.
It was immediately apparent and predictable that marines are sub-optimal for rapid conquest, and frustrating that the AI builds few coastal cities to amuse myself with, but I'm sticking with them for this game. SoL not preventing anarchy seemed like a blow to the plan, but in practice it's costing me 5 minutes of disorder prevention and about 950 gold every other turn, and gives me the full advantage of democracy's trade bonuses and anarchy/fundy's attack capabilities every single turn. Oh, and my cities don't stay in WLTPD long enough to grow while I'm oscillating governments.

So you have, at 500 BC, 9 more techs than I have, but I have almost twice as many cities, and every civ is dead in my game save for the Greeks (5cities) and Indians (1 city)

I don't understand why you seem to switch it up between Fundy/Demo. The UN and spies would make your conquest life SO easier with the Emissary's Ploy. Oh, and SoL reduces Anarchy to 1 turn, not 0.


Anyways, on with my game. Up to 1500 BC.


Date Notes

1980 BC: Barb legion attacks my warrior and is defeated. Food van in Paris: 55 shields left for Mikes. Pop hut: 50g. Pop hut: Barbs! This is bad, I am probably left with only one exploring unit left in the great ice continent... and that settler just stepped next to a Russian warrior. Not like if I’m frightened by that, but I probably lost on that hut...

1960 BC: My archer kills 6 barb horsemen, gets vet, one flees, but the last kills my unit. Am I pissed. Russian government overthrown. Oh oh. THE CHINESE SWITCH FROM COLOSSUS TO GL. Now I’m mad.

1940 BC: Russian monarchy is established. Pop exceeds 800.000 citizens. Pop hut: Nomads.

1920 BC: Pop hut: Nomads. Crete founded. Pop hut: Crusader.

1920 BC: Genoa founded.

1900 BC: Pop exceeds 900.000 citizens. Verona founded as the last city on landmass 16. Salamis founded. Pop huts: 2x100g. Elvis in Paris as it would otherwise be in disorder, thanks to the riot factor.

1880 BC: Bordeaux builds 1st Harbour. Stratsbourg builds its last Settler and begins war production as a Crusader is started for eventual conquest of the Japs and Russians. Lisbon founded.

1860 BC: Pop. exceeds 1.000.000 citizens. Hamburg founded. Pop hut: NOMADS! Back to 2 exploring units on the great ice continent. 2 unsupported settlers.

1840 BC: Pop hut: NONE crusader. Pop hut: 50g. Pop hut: 1 barb horsemen and 1 barb legion. The archer should survive. Build Prague. Build Salzburg.

1820 BC: Archer easily survives Barb attack. Pop hut: 50g.

1800 BC: Greeks start Colossus. Good. Pop hut: Nomads. Bergen founded. Pop hut: Crusaders.

1780 BC: Pop hut: 3 barb horsemen! No idea of my Settler will survive... if he does not I’m in trouble again.

1760 BC: 2 barb horsemen attack: My Settler survives (barely) and gains Vet status. Discover Banking and start Astronomy Paris builds Michelangelo’s Chapel, starts the Hanging Gardens. 3 food vans in Paris: 50 shields left. Build Venice. Build Milan. Pop hut: Legion.

1740 BC: Indians start Colossus. Good. They also develop Pottery. Russians develop Masonry, declare war with Japanese. Good. Pop hut: Nomads.

1720 BC: Indian Trireme (empty) sighted near Verona. The city of Ghent is founded. The city of Pisae is founded. The city of Dublin is founded. First war crusader produced in Stratsbourg.

1700 BC: Pop hut: Nomads. Pop hut on ice continent: Nomads.

1680 BC: Toronto founded. Pop hut: 25g.

1660 BC: Pop huts: 2x50g. Hail Indians: They demand Invention, refused. Give Sanitation, Republic, Polytheism, Philosophy, Writing, Warrior Code, University, Trade, Seafaring, Myscitism, Monarchy, Banking, Math. Update maps. Tech rate was 33 turns, now 27 turns.

1640 BC: Pop hut: 50g. Pop hut: 25g.

1620 BC: Melborne founded. Why the heck is it using a square already in use by Dublin? (whale) Pop hut on ice continent: Nomads...

1580 BC: Indian government overthrown. Russians develop Iron Working. Montreal founded. Indians have apparently switched to Monarchy AND ARE RESEARCHING FEUDALISM. Crap. Elvis in Paris: HG will be built next turn and the city will celebrate. Build Quebec. Hail Chinese: Give Trade, Republic, Philosophy, Construction, University, Seafaring, Monarchy, Banking, The Wheel. Update maps. I’m hoping that with new tech they will reswitch to Colossus (having diminished the need for GL to ‘’keep abreast of the water’’ I should have done that WAY earlier. Lyons II founded.

1560 BC: Paris builds the Hanging Gardens, celebrates and starts Leo’s. Celebration makes tech rate go down to 21 turns. 3 food vans in Paris: 250 shields left.

1540 BC: Chinese government overthrown. Pop hut on ice continent: Nomads again... Now THIS is getting pretty funny. 5 nomads and no offensive units. Loaded Spanish boat near Dijon: Move in 3 crusaders and fortify.

1520 BC: Chinese government is now a monarchy. Pop hut: 50g. Build Dorémy. Pop hut: Crusader. Build Versailles. 2 food vans in Paris: 140 shields left for Leo’s. Pop hut on ice continent: Nomads. Guess I’ll have to get used to that... more than 12 squares away from the nearest city and on another landmass. 44% odds are 44% odds.

1500 BC: Hail Japanese: They demand I declare war on Russians, rejected. They demand Invention, refused. They profess threats. I now demand tribute, they ‘’ignore my weak threats’’ The city of Marseilles (notice the last S) is founded. 2 vans in Paris: 35 shields left for Leo’s. The city of Baton Rouge is built. The city of Avignon II is built.

Status in 1500 BC

Population: 1.79 mil Cities: 52 Trade routes: 0D0F Government: Monarchy
Gold: 102 Cost per turn: 3 Total advances: 29 Production: 215MT 0 polluted tiles
Wonders: Pyramids, Marco, Mikes, HG, Currently building Leo’s
Units: 24 Settlers, 2 Warriors, 2 Archers, 1 Chariot, 1 legion, 11 crusaders, 9 triremes, 4 caravans.

Russians: 5 cities, 14 techs (Iron Working I don’t have) Mon, 12 units, peace.
Japanese: 4 cities, 14 units. 10 techs, Despo, peace.
Spanish: 5 cities, 10 techs (IW I don’t have) Despo, 18 units, peace.
Chinese: 5 cities, 21 techs, 12 units, peace. Currently building GL twice, Mon
Greeks: 8 cities, 9 techs. 18 units. Peace. Despo, currently building Colossus.
Indians: 5 cities, 23 techs. 14 units. Peace. Currently building Colossus, Monarchy.


It was mostly expanding during this period that kept my attention. I wanted the maze to be full of cities.

I'm not using the UN because I put off researching Railroad and can't build it, or spies, yet. I probably should have conquered with crusaders a few years earlier, as I had monotheism in 940 but waited until 600 to build marines.
Thanks for the explanation on SoL. It was an experiment and it does work half as well as I had hoped, considering I still need 4 techs and a wonder to use the emissary's ploy.
I'll finish close to you; at 480 the Chinese are dead and Indians are down to 3, 2 of which I'll take next turn.
Clearly there is value in both populating the maze (trade) and getting to the green quickly (expansion). I definitely neglected expansion.

I did not start PDS with my cities yet at 420 BC (though I switched to Demo and started Big Trade) I actually have my tax rate to a flat 100% right now :lol: I'm not going to finish anytime soon, as managing the ship chain takes up a lot of time. I'm not going for green star.

My reasoning was that with Railroad, you get a trade penalty and lose the effects of HG. Corporation would give that 33% back and the Cure would replace HG, so I was thinking ''hey, why not beeline to Genetic Engineering?''

Either way, it will be close. VERY close. I'm simply hoping I'll have enough cash to rb everything I'll need.

I didn't bother with HG, did PDS up to size 8 before the first big trade rush, so the only reason to put off railroad was to keep trade bonuses high. If I thought I could afford Darwin (ind+comm) and a one-turn trade rush for corp, I'd be able to pull that off.
In any case, I'm planning to end India and take Kyoto in 460. Good luck!

I'm done with my game, will submit today. I will include a spoiler below regarding how well I did.


I beat my all-time GOTM record with this one. and yeah, I know that this was my first completed GOTM so that was pretty pointless :D

EDIT: Submitted.

Date Notes

1480 BC: Spanish start Colossus. Greeks develop Currency. Meet Angry Russians: They ask for war on Japanese, rejected, they ask for Invention, rejected. They profess threats, are down to Enraged. The Russians are militaristic and it shows. My Warrior is next to a Russian horsemen. Since both units are on ice, this could mean trouble. Vimy built. Hail Japanese: They ask for war on Russians, rejected. They ask for Invention, rejected. Down to Icy. Demand tribute, they declare WAR! 2 crusader units kill 2 Jap Phalanx units in Kyoto, both become vets. Kyoto stormed, 136g plundered. Taking Kyoto reduced the Jap military to 7 units (was 13 before attack) The city of Rouen II is founded. The RF is starting to take a sizeable toll: Paris has Emperor-level unhappiness. Pop hut: 50g. Pop hut: Nomads.

1460 BC: Russians do not attack. Hail Japanese: They offer cease-fire, rejected. They offer 200g for a cease-fire, rejected. They vow to continue their war. Crusader kills fortified warrior in a fortress near Kyoto. Crusader kills Archer unit in Osaka: Osaka sacked and razed for 44g. Japanese down to 4 units. Pop huts: 3x50g. The city of Grenoble II is founded. Pop hut: Nomads.


1440 BC: Hail Japs: They offer a cease-fire, refused. They offer 350g for a cease-fire (they had 353 total, accepted as I will not be able to attack for a few more turns anyway (crusaders are low in health) They offer peace treaty, rejected. I ask for more tribute, they ignore my threats. All of a sudden I have 759g! The city of Dijon II is built.

1420 BC: Indian government overthrown. Hail Japanese: They offer peace, rejected. I demand tribute, rejected. Attitude stays the same. Amiens II founded. Cherbourg II founded. Pop hut: 25g.

1400 BC: Poitiers II is founded. Pop hut: 100g. Build Toulouse II. Hail Japanese: They offer peace, rejected. I demand tribute, they ignore threats, attitude down to Icy.

1380 BC: Greeks almost completed with Colossus. FINALLY!! But that means extra long shipchain... Build Bayonne II. Hail Japs: They offer peace, rebuffed. I ask for tribute, no tribute given. They had 12g... (I have already seen 12g being offered during a cease-fire) Can’t wait anymore. Sneak attack the Japs: Crusader kills a Phalanx in a Fort. Crusader kills an Archer in Satsuma: Satsuma sacked and razed for 1g. Reputation is now Honorable: Jap only have 4 units left. Pop huts: 2x50g.

1360 BC: Chinese and Spanish declare war, Spanish take Tsingato, take Seafaring. China is now a republic. ATHENS BUILDS COLOSSUS. It was slow but now things are starting to get moving. Spain switches to Lighthouse: so do the Indians. Paris builds Leo’s, starts Shakes. 50 shields in Paris: 250 shields left. Hail Greeks: They ask for Invention, rejected. They profess threats. I give Construction, Math, Republic, Polytheism. Update Greek maps. Crusader kills Jap archer in Edo: Edo stormed for 3 gold. The Japs only have 1 unit left. Build Stratsbourg II. Pop hut: 50g. Pop hut: 100g. Build Brest II. T3L0S7 for discovery next turn.

1340 BC: Russians acquire Feudalism. CRAP. Discover Astronomy: Navigation NOT AVAILABLE. (2) Start Economy. Can’t find last Jap city... should have swapped maps before stabbing them in the back. Paris switches from Shakes to Cope. T7L0S3. Hail Indians: They ask for Invention, refused. Give Astronomy (gutsy) Literacy. Update maps.

1320 BC: Bordeaux II founded. Find the last Jap city of Kagoshima SE of Kyoto. Build Naples II. Pop hut: Nomads. Can you guess where? ;)

1300 BC: Unknown unit attacks my Crusader outside of Kagoshima. Probably a warrior, because my Crusader survives. Kagoshima is defenceless. Celebration in Paris ends? Riot factor... Fire Elvis. Build Issos II. Kagoshima sacked and razed: 5 gold plundered. JAPANESE DESTROYED BY FRENCH. Pop hut: 50g. T3L0S7: Techrate 6 turns!

1280 BC: Build Verdun. Pop hut: 50g.

1260 BC: 50 shields in Paris: 175s left for Cope. Build The Somme.

1240 BC: Greece has a revolution. Good. Rainville founded 50 shields in Paris: Cope has 120 shields left. Pop huts: 3x50 gold.

1220 BC: OHCRAP. Loaded Spanish trireme near undefended Stratsbourg. It unloads a settler and a warrior... not in Stratsbourg? Very barb-like. Greece becomes a republic. I move in Stratsbourg a Settler. Hail Spanish: They want to Trade Iron Working for Invention. I offer Republic instead, they say no. I ask for withdrawal of troops: they declare WAR! (they will have to wait to die... Russians are first in hit list) Bénouville founded. Russians are researching Chivalry... crap! I wish you had the option to NOT take techs from enemies when you conquer their cities... Build Verrières.

1200 BC: Discover Economy (0) and start Navigation. Food van in Paris: 60 shields left for Cope’s. Hail Russians: They offer Iron Working for Invention. I offer Philosophy instead. They say no, but profess friendship. Give them Philosophy, Republic. Update maps. Pop hut: Nomads. Build Ardennes. Build Crete II.

1180 BC: Spanish warrior attacks Stratsbourg: Fortified Settler easily fends off the attack. Van in Paris: Cope’s will be built next turn. Crusader kills Spanish settler outside of Stratsbourg. Pop hut: Crusaders... in the ice continent! It’s a supported crusader, will disband when I change to Demo. Louvres is founded. Trireme in Paris (that’s where the shipchain will start) Elvis starts the celebration again as Trireme provides martial law.

1160 BC: Indians almost completed Lighthouse. Russian government overthrown. Considering how many units they have it will probably hurt them militarily, while I am about to invade them. Paris builds Cope’s and celebrates: Paris produces 30b per turn (little less than 25% of total science output) Build Salamis II. Build Lisboa II.

1140 BC: Delhi builds Lighthouse. Indians switch from LH to GL. Spain abandons effort. Russia becomes a republic. Pop exceeds 3mil citizens. Pop hut: Barbs. Will lose that settler. At least I still have /9/ other exploring units on the great ice cap. Rush a library in Paris. Build Hamburg II. Russian military shrunk from 20 units to 17. Good. Hail Russians: They demand Invention, refused. They profess threats. I ask for tribute, they declare WAR! My armies will be on the Russian homeland next turn anyway. 2 crusaders kill a Russian archer and a Russian horsemen in the former Jap homeland. Elvis in Dijon because it would otherwise riot. Same for Cunaxa.

1120 BC: Settler dies to the 1st barb horsemen? I don’t remember playing Deity with this map... (but WOULD BE INTERESTING!!!) Paris builds Library (44b per turn) starts Adam Smith’s. Techrate 5 turns. Pop hut: Barbs again? At least I have a lot of settlers to spare. 5 food vans in Paris: 150 shields left. Russian military is now 15 units due to Republic unit support costs: Kill a Russian pikemen (barely) crusader vet. Sack and raze Smolensk: 11g plundered. Take Iron Working (1) Build Prague II.

1100 BC: CIVIL DISORDER IN VERONA. Rush a temple. My settler died to Barbs: killed at least 2 of them (don’t know of exact results because civ2.exe was not responding: running the Classic game and the MGE mapeditor alongside seems to create 100% CPU usage) Pop hut: Nomads. Pop hut: 50g. Build Salzburg II. Kill Russian chariot. Unload my army in Russia.

1080 BC: Leonardo’s upgrades Triremes to Caravels as Navigation is discovered. Physics started (2) Kill a Russian Catapult. 11 units left. 6 crusaders seize a fortress at striking distance from Moscow and St. Petersburg. Build Bergen II.

1060 BC: Spanish boat near, does not attack? But unloads a Catapult nowhere near any cities. Switch projects in Paris from Adam Smith’s to Mag’s. Kill the Spanish boat with a Caravel. Attack Moscow: Kill 2 Archers. Storm Moscow: 38 gold plundered. Take Feudalism (0) Leonardo’s upgrades all Warriors to Pikemen. Russians have 8 units left. Kill a Legion in St Petersburg: Russians start Sun Tzu, crusader vet. Storm St. Petersburg: 44g plundered. Russian military down to 5 units. Pop hut: NONE legion.

1040 BC: Another Spanish boat near: it unloads 2 settlers and a catapult (but this time within 3 turns of one of my cities) Russians abandon Sun Tzu. WLTPD cancelled in Paris: RF. Back to 30 beakers per turn. Move my injured crusaders in St. Petersburg (city has captured barracks) Caravel easily kills Spanish trireme: vet. Build Pisae II. Food van in Paris: 80 shields left for Mag’s. NONE legion encounters barb horsemen from a barb hut popping and kills him. Pop hut: 50g.

1020 BC: Greeks develop Engineering and start KRC. Civil disorder in Stratsbourg and Cherbourg. Rush a crusader in Lisboa II. Build Dublin II. Build Toronto II. Meet Russian settler in the great ice continent: They offer a cease-fire, I say no. They offer 150g for a cease-fire (they have 187) I say no. They vow to continue their war.

1000 BC: Russia develops Chivalry. C.R.A.P! At least I can gun thru the military techs and possibly end this earlier than I planned. Russian government is also the victim of a revolution. Pop exceeds 4mil citizens. Kill a Russian chariot outside of Kiev. Food van in Paris: 20 shields left for Mag’s.

Status in 1000 BC

Population: 4.07 mil Cities: 91 Trade routes: 0D0F Government: Monarchy
Gold: 158 Cost per turn: 16 Total advances: 34 Production: 215MT 0 polluted tiles
Wonders: Pyramids, Marco, Mikes, HG, Leo’s, Cope. Currently building Mag’s
Units: 18 Settlers (nearly half of them nomads from the great ice cap) 1 legion, 3 pikemen, 19 crusaders, 38 caravels, 11 caravans.
Russians: 3 cities, 19 techs (including Chivalry, which I don’t have) 5 units. War
Japanese: Destroyed by me
Spanish: 6 cities, 14 techs (including Bridge Building, which I don’t have) 19 units. War
Chinese: 4 cities, 26 techs (including Bridge Building, which I don’t have) 10 units, peace. Currently building GL twice
Greeks: 8 cities, 16 techs. 20 units. Peace. They have Colossus. Currently building KRC
Indians: 5 cities, 26 techs. 11 units. Peace. They have Lighthouse. Currently building GL

This period saw some more expansion in the mountains, though the pace would slow quite a bit because of lack of space and specials for cities. It also saw the start of war, with the Japs down and Russia almost down.

I think I delayed Democracy (and the SoL/Fundy) too much.

Both of your games sound quite good. I'm at approx 600BC, still wondering whether to just end it, or to keep trying for a big shiny civ. I think I've more-or-less recovered from the too-early Invention, and techs are flowing again, but my civ still lags behind "par". JSB arrives next turn, and if that doesn't turn things around, I'll take out my frustrations on the remaining AI!

It would be embarrassing to finish with a subpar empire, and have to pretty it up in the theoretical post-game. Imagine how shiny it'll be in 1AD!

I've finished now, withholding the remainder of the log until it's too late to do anything about it.

Joker, when did your shipchain come online? I'd say the ideal time to switch to Demo is no less than 5 turns before you want to deliver - getting from size 3 to 8 on a map like this isn't vital until then. SoL/Fundy is fun but I think next time I'll just switch on an Oedo year and stay in Fundy for 4 turns.

My shipchain was online at 820 BC, but I only started delivering at 440 BC (Democracy established a turn earlier... screwed up the ship chain movement at 460 BC) I think, looking back at it, that it was a huge mistake, as Big Trade took too much time to get up and running when I switched to Demo. However, I rushed many of my vans during the Fundy period (The ship chain was established when I was still in Monarchy... but again I think I delayed the SoL too much) so you can't really deliver vans to the Greeks when you don't have vans. But again, that could have been prevented. I can look back at my game and say it was a great, but imperfect, game. (From a shameless perfectionist's point of view of course)

I stayed in Fundy as long as needed for me to do 2 things.
1. Get enough tithes to rush enough vans to feed my research/income during Demo/PDS period. (I think I overkilled it during that period, had 25 vans and 24k gold at endgame... after rushing a huge load of last-minute wonders, cities, courthouses, supermarkets and colosseums the turn prior) Oh, and also rush some harbours for future PDS.
2. Achieve my conquest goals. I planned to stay in Demo while I was conducting the final war against the Greeks and Indians. And I did stay in Democarcy and won the war. Without the UN. Without any Senate action.

And BTW, it went as planned for my PDS plans. A canal city, with only 3 arrows of base trade, delivering to size 7/8 Athènes (Demo+Colossus) would net an average bonus of 400-450g. No need for PDS for that, because I wanted to deliver my weakest vans first (so as to not move around the demand of Athènes) Later on, I think my largest bonus (size 13 city) was around 1300g. (non-capped)

My PDS started at XXX BC and ended when the game ended, at XXX AD.

My shipchain was ready and delivering in 1040 BC, Democracy in 900 BC, serious aggression started for the first time in 560 BC (I had bought 3 Spanish cities but no troops were involved on either side). I stayed with Demo until I had the science and money I needed for a rapid world takeover. Looking back, I should have started producing troops much sooner and made footholds on each continent. Transport and troop deployment took much longer than expected.
I ignored the colossus completely, traded no more than 4 vans per turn with nothing better than a size 4 despotism city, and lost a total of one marine in the conquest of the world. Your trade program certainly worked better than mine. I ended up with a healthy cash reserve but not enough to purchase two wonders. My second round of PDS lasted much longer than the first, but the between-time when the trading cities were size 8 and the new cities were not size 3, I had more use for high taxes. I wonder if you had gone for Demo first rather than Fundy, and put off immediate conquest, how different this contest might have been.

I wonder if you had gone for Demo first rather than Fundy, and put off immediate conquest, how different this contest might have been.


It would have probably meant slow warfare with the Spanish. I could maybe have built the Great Wall: I THINK (not positive) that the Emissary's Ploy can be used for that too. In comparison, I bought the last Indian city and I bled white the Greek military using railroads before taking all of their cities in a fell swoop. (I had conquered 3 other Greek cities before switching to Demo)

Oh, and also some serious unhappiness issues. JSB only came online during the Fundy period (zoom to city trick)

Perhaps I was helped by my isolationism. I never gave tech to anyone, and I saw a total of 2 foreign ships during the entire game, one japanese trireme far too late to matter, one greek trireme exploring the ice shelf. Had that been different, I would have been forced to defend rather than shove caravans down the japanese throats. Spanish, Greek, and Indian contact was initiated from a position of strength; the senate doesn't complain if you buy a city from a civilization you've never met, which requires shipborne diplomacy.

Slow war is not the only option. In my clumsy example, my empire grew in peace precisely because democracy and trade made scientific progress trivial and money a non-issue. When the time was right, it took one turn to transform my trading empire into a world-dominating force, one turn to adapt to a more accomodating form of government. Then a long clumsy invasion that would have been handled better with more diplomats, settlers, and horses instead of marines (but it was fun, and that counts for something too). When I had accomplished my trading goals, the previously unmolested Japan was conquered within 2 turns.

I never defended.

The only time when I was forced to defend when the Spanish landed near Stratsbourg with a settler and a warrior. A settler fended the warrior attack and a crusader destroyed the settler afterwards.

Apart from that, I was always on the offensive.

Most of the damage to the other civs was done while on Mon/Fundy, so no problem here.

Altough I agree that horses are infinitely superior to Marines. I almost never attack cities with one-move units. You never want to defend anyway. Especially in Warlord.

I am also shocked that you lost a (vet) Marine. Do you know which enemy unit killed it?

(Oh, and btw, the only city I bought/subverted was the last Indian one. All the others were taken by crusaders/cavalry.)

I just finished my game....conquest before 1000 BC.....
If I have more time I can post some extra info of certain years (3000 bc, 2000 bc, etc.).

Did not keep a log this time because I want to start GOTM 119 soon.

Sounds like a green star to you Magic ! I'm at around 460BC, and not sure why I'm still playing. I could've conquered around the time you did, but didn't want to ... can't even remember exactly why not. It's been fun, though.

Done in 400BC. If you could post some sort of log, Magic, it might help improve my game at least.

The marine I lost was an accident, I didn't really mean to attack at 1/3 strength. Probably was a phalanx in a russian city, none of them had walls.

I will try to make a log of the saves I've got....

If I read it correctly I started the same as Peaster (size 1 trick and irrigating/roads on whole island). First trireme send out 2 settlers. One of them used to build city on first whale in labyrinth....trireme follows path through it and in the meanwhile more settlers (2 in Paris) and trireme in 2nd city.... More cities build in labyrinth to get a shortcut to exit (with shipchain (which only got half way the labyrinth).

I accidently moved trireme wrong at last part of labyrinth and decided to build canalcity near exit. Trireme followed path to exit with horsemen and legion (both huts) and land on empty grass island. No nomads or advanced cities with the three huts so I decided to attack Japanese with these units. I managed to conquer first Japanese city and at that moment I got five caravans through labyrinth (guess there was about 20 turns between first and last one) to get extra gold to rushbuy army (elephants).

Quickly destroyed japanese and headed to Spain. At that moment I build army on Japanese island to conquer Russians (first) and Indians (2nd) and Spanish island and conquered Chinese (first) and Greek (2nd).

As said I will try to make a more detailled log of my saves when I have more time...

During this period, war was the focus, with preparing trade being second. I was rather gun-ho during this period, as you may be able to tell by looking at my rep... :lol:

980 BC: Spain develops Astronomy. Russian government changed to Monarchy. Discover Physics (1) start Magnetism. Crusader kills Russian Phalanx in Kiev: Kiev stormed for 58 gold. Take Chivalry. Kill Russian Phalanx in Minsk: Minsk stormed for 41g. Rep is now Excellent. After stabbing the Japs in the back, I don’t think it can recover that fast: I think that killing the backstabbed civ helps soften up the damage. Kill Russian settler outside of Odessa: Russian military is wiped out, save for that Settler in the ice cap... and a Russian Chariot near Genoa? Russia will be dead before the Chariot can conquer the city anyways. It seems that the military indicator in the F3 screen does not count enemy NONE units. Sell captured Barracks in St. Petersburg for 40g. Start plans for the petting of the Indian civilization.

960 BC: China develops Currency. Russian chariot near Genoa. Take Odessa. Plunder 43 gold. RUSSIAN CIV DESTROYED BY THE FRENCH. For some random reason I also get the ‘’russian civ destroyed by barbs’’ message. The Russian chariot near Genoa is no more. Sell captured Barracks in Minsk for 40g. Hail Indians: They demand Navigation, refused. I ask for tribute, refused. Attitude drops to Cordial. Build Marne.

940 BC: Hail Indians: Exact same results as last time. Build Guadeloupe.

920 BC: PARIS BUILDS MAGELLAN’s. Adam Smith’s started. Nice founded as the very last canal city for the currently forming shipchain to Greece. 3 vans in Paris: 250 shields left for Adam Smith’s. Pop hut: Nomads. Obviously. 10 nomads on the ice cap and counting. *note to self, get them out of there ASAP* Unload my army in India. Hail Indians: Exact same result as before? The RMS of my crusaders was WAY HIGHER than India’s puny 9 units... My army has to bail.

900 BC: Hail Indians: Same as before, attitude down to Receptive.

880 BC: Leonardo’s upgrades all Caravels to Galleons: Discover Magnetism. Research Democracy (2) Hail Indians: Same as before. If things don’t go my way by next turn, it will be time to pull swords. Vichy founded. Build Patay. Pop hut: Nomads. 4 food vans in Paris: 40 shields left to Adam Smith’s. Pop hut: 50g.

860 BC: Accidentaly ask for withdrawal of troops instead of tribute to Indians. Will not affect the remaining of actions anyway: The decision is made to sneak attack the Indians. Reputation down to Questionable. Kill an Indian Warrior in Bangalore: Bangalore sacked and razed for 21g. Kill Indian archer in Calcutta: Calcutta stormed for 62g.

840 BC: The Chinese abandon the GL. They started early and now what? Lol. So do the Indians, but they have a reason to do so... Kill Indian Settler near Calcutta. Kill Indian warrior in a fort near Bombay: Crusader vet. Kill Indian Phalanx in Bombay. Kill Indian Archer in a fort near Madras: Kill Phalanx in Madras. Kill Pikemen in Madras. Kill Horsemen near Delhi. Kill Warrior in Delhi. They are at my mercy. 3 wars won and no casualties yet. Pop hut: Barbs. Decide to leave Madras to the Indians: The city is at the center of the Indian continent but with 1 pop point and settlers coming from the ice cap, they will never have time to spawn another city before their island is filled by French peasants. Storm Bombay: 101g plundered. Storm Delhi: 72g plundered, Lighthouse captured. Pop hut: Nomads. No, not on the ice cap! Hail Chinese: They want to trade Bridge Building for Invention, refused. They demand Invention, refused. I ask for tribute, refused.

820 BC: The Chinese start the GL again. My settler kills 2 barb horsemen, can’t see the end result because civ2.exe was not responding. Again. CPU usage hovering around 55 to 75% without the mapeditor this time... but anyways. Hail Indians: They ask for cease-fire, rejected. They vow to continue their war? I was expecting tribute! (remember they have 0 units left) Okay, I backstabbed them, but they are /supposed/ to be peaceful. And I can’t destroy them yet because of the KeyCiv penalty. We are not playing with respawns. Oh well. SHIP CHAIN TO GREECE IS NOW COMPLETE. Accidentaly hail Greeks: Agree to trade Bridge Building (0) for Navigation. They demand Invention, refused. Update maps. Hail Chinese: Same thing than last time, attitude down to Receptive. Tours III built.

800 BC: Spain starts the Oracle. Pop hut: 25g. Legion kills Barb horsemen. A lone crusader lands outside the Spanish city of Valence: Kill a Phalanx in Valence after talk offer is rejected. Hail Chinese: Same thing as before. Kill an Indian Pikemen in Madras. Alger built.

780 BC: Barb horsemen attacks my legion and is defeated. Discover Democracy: Research Theology. (1) Population exceeds 6 million people. Crusader sacks and razes Valence: 30 gold plundered. . Sign a cease-fire with the Indians: For some random reason they will simply not pay tribute. Hail Chinese: Same as before. Can’t wait. Sneak attack the Chinese: Crusader kills Phalanx unit in Canton. The Chinese abandon and restart the GL. Crusader vet. Storm Canton: 66g plundered. Kill a Phalanx in Shanghai: crusader vet. Shanghai stormed for 19g. Kill an explorer near Canton. Chinese have 5 units left: Reputation is Poor. Build Martinique. Switch Paris from Adam Smith’s to SoL: Rushbuy the SoL for 60g.

760 BC: Paris builds the Statue of Liberty. Crusader lands outside of Cordoue: Crusader kills Spanish archer and becomes vet. Pikemen storms Cordoue for 61g. 3 crusaders kill 1 chinese Phalanx and 2 chinese Warriors. Storm Beijing: 52g plundered. Sell captured Colosseum for 100g. Crusader kills Phalanx in Nankin: Nankin stormed for 38g. CHINESE CIV DESTROYED BY THE ALMIGHTY FRENCH. To celebrate, a wise guy kills the King: growing influence of religion creates a REVOLUTION! T0L6S4. The city of Bastille is founded.

740 BC: Spanish Phalanx attacks my injured Crusader and gets killed. Yay for Vet status. Civil disorder in Avignon II, Prague, Bayonne. Official Fundamentalist government established: T2L0S8, discoveries 6 turns, 630g revenue per turn. Yay for tithes. Elvis in Paris to fire up celebration again, and rush Harbour. Kill Spanish chariot near Beijing?!? Galleon discovers Spanish city of Salamanque on the Chinese continent. Hail Greeks: Give Invention, update maps. Pop hut: 50g. Build FormerSmolensk.

720 BC: Techrate 5 turns. Unload part of my army in Spain: I have not lost a single unit to enemy action (except Barbarian action) yet! Enemy casualties so far (not counting units lost due to supported units having their supporting cities conquered) :
JAPANESE: 3 Phalanx, 3 Archer, 1 Warrior, 1 unknown unit.
RUSSIANS: 3 Archers, 1 Horsemen, 1 Pikemen, 2 Chariot, 1 Catapult, 1 Legion, 2 Phalanx, 1 Settler.
SPANISH: 1 Settler, 1 Warrior, 2 Phalanx, 1 Archer, 2 Triremes, 1 Chariot.
Indians: 2 Warrior, 2 Archer, 1 Settler, 2 Phalanx, 2 Pikemen, 1 Horsemen,
Chinese: 4 Phalanx, 1 Explorer, 2 Warriors.
French casualties: NONE :)


Pop hut: Crusader. Hail Indians: I ask for tribute: they declare WAR! (does not make sense... is there a feature that forces your KeyCiv to pretty much suicide or what?)
700 BC: Kill Spanish chariot near Cordoue. Kill Phalanx in Madrid. Kill Archer in Séville. Spanish abandon Oracle. Storm Séville: 65g plundered. Kill Spanish warrior near Beijing.

680 BC: SPANISH CHARIOT KILLS MY CRUSADER NEAR MADRID. Dang, first casualty. Hail Indians: They offer cease-fire, accept. I offer peace treaty, they refuse?!? Seems they deem me as untrustworthy. Guess it’s Eiffel Tower time. Ste-Mère-Église is founded as the first ‘’filler’’ city on the Indian continent. Crusader kills Spanish legion. Crusader kills fortified Legion in a fortress near Cordoue. Crusader kills Spanish catapult near Séville. Kill Spanish warrior and Chariot in Madrid. Storm Madrid: 68 gold plundered. Spanish military down to 5 units. Pop hut: 50g. Paris starts Adam Smith’s: 7 food vans and 50 shields left.

660 BC: Discover Theology (2) Start Theory of Gravity. Cordoue builds Temple. Zoom to city trick, change Paris from Adam Smith’s to JSB (Pikemen from Paris in Cordoue) Rush JSB for 200g. PARIS BUILDS JSB, starts Adam Smith’s. Now making 1010g profit per turn! (default tithes are +6 without any improvements) Kill Phalanx in Salamanque: Salamanque sacked and razed for 44g. Kill legion in Tolède: Tolède stormed for 114g. SPANISH CIVILIZATION DESTROYED BY FRENCH. What now... Hail Greeks: They demand Physics, given. Give Pottery, Myscitism, Chivalry, Banking, Writing, Seafaring, Code of Laws, Astronomy, University, Trade, Sanitation, Magnetism, Monarchy, and (finally) Democracy. Update maps. Build Alpes. Build Sardaignes.

640 BC: Hail Indians: Give them Navigation before they say goodbye. Alsace founded. Lorraine founded. Celebration in Paris ends... red hats do matter for Luxuries, the Fundy happiness is applied after luxuries. Throw in another Elvis for celebration next turn.

620 BC: WLTPD in Paris. Hail Indians: Give Iron Working, offer peace but they say no. Van in Paris: 340 shields left for AS. Hail Greeks: They ask for Feudalism, I say no. I ask for tribute, they say no. Attitude down to Receptive. I will try to take northern Greece only because their cities there are not well connected with the Greek road network. The 3 targeted cities are Argos, Thermopyles and Pharsale. Remember the shipchain can also access landmass 16, Spain and China. Start rushing only harbours in to prepare my mountain cities for PDS.

600 BC: Greek government overthrown. Now is it a democracy, like I want it, or a monarchy, to prepare for a war against France? Happiest civs in the world: French1st, Greeks2nd, Indians3rd. Greece is a democracy! Good! Now will it stay that way? Hail Greeks: Same result as before, attitude Neutral. 2 vans in Paris: 235 shields left.

580 BC: Hail Greeks: Same as before, they stay at neutral.

560 BC: Discover Theory of Gravity, start Chemistry (0) Population exceeds 8mil citizens. Hail Greeks: Same as before. I can’t sneak attack because after war, I will need peace to unload vans and stuff. Honfleur built. Nantes built. Van in Paris: 175 shields left.

540 BC: Hail Greeks: Same thing as before, go down to Uncooperative. Pop hut: 25g. Food van in Paris: 120 shields left. Montpellier founded.

520 BC: Hail Greeks: They demand Theory of Gravity. I say no, they profess threats. I ask for tribute, they declare WAR! Finally! Crusader kills a Greek Legion in Argos:
Argos stormed for 49g. Crusader kills a warrior in Pharsale: Pharsale stormed for 22g. Crusader kills a Phalanx in Thermopyles: Thermopyles stormed for 31g. Kill a settler outside of Knossos. Hail Greeks: They demand for Theory of Gravity, say no. They offer cease-fire, I say yes. I offer peace treaty... rejected. Bad rep is a pain right now. Objective is achieved however: I plan to switch to Democracy as soon as Chemistry is discovered (get some cash meanwhile) For some random reason the Defence minister says I am producing 255 pikemen right now... classic tends to be buggy. Food van in Paris: 65s for Adam Smith’s.

500 BC: Greeks almost done with KRC. Fiou, I was afraid they were going to abandon after losing 3/8 cities in a turn. Pop. exceeds 9mil. Food van in Paris: Adam Smith’s... oh sorry, just changed that to Isaac Newton’s! Will be complete in 2 turns. Lille built. Rennes built.

Status at 500 BC:

Population: 9.09 mil Cities: 127 Trade routes: 0D0F Government: Fundy
Gold: 3910 Cost per turn: 65 Total advances: 41 Production: 360MT 0 polluted tiles
Wonders: Pyramids, Marco, Mikes, HG, Leo’s, Cope, Mag’s, LH, JSB, SoL. 2 turns away from Isaac Newton’s.
Units: 29 Settlers, 1 legion, 10 pikemen, 20 crusaders, 51 galleons, 84 caravans.
Russians: Destroyed by me
Japanese: Destroyed by me
Spanish: Destroyed by me
Chinese: Destroyed by me
Greeks: 5 cities, 34 techs. 14 units. Cease-fire. Democracy. They have Colossus, almost done with KRC.
Indians: 1 city, 30 techs. 2 units, Republic. Cease-fire.
My power is Supreme and my rep is Poor.


Needless to say, there was some serious action going in the Prairie lands. Action there was also back home, as I used my Fundy riches to rush tons and tons of commodity caravans. With tithes at +3 per city (and later +6) and the elimination of corruption, my huge pack of small cities was able to churn cash rather easily. I went from 11 vans, mainly food, to 84 vans, almost all commodities in only 25 turns: most of my cash went there. My ship chain was established rather early, but I started shipping (not delivering) vans really late. This period consisted of mainly careful planning going thru for a rapid blitzkrieg of trade and growth under Democracy.

I have played and finished the game. Here is the first part of my log.

4000 BC: Paris Built, Move second settler. Techrate 5 turns T4L0S6. Start Settler (to be changed to Trireme).

3980 BC: Start Code of Laws. Road started with the other settler.

3940 BC: RB 1sh in Paris

3900 BC: Code of Laws discovered, Mapmaking chosen next. Techrate 9 turns.

3780 BC: Paris size 2. Still need 6 beakers for Map Making. Only need 5 shields for Settler/Trireme. Both workers moved to non-Whale ocean for 3 beakers per turn.

3740 BC: Mapmaking discovered, Start Writing. Paris production switched to Trireme.

3720 BC: Paris builds Trireme, settler boards. The settler was able to road all three squares of the home island and irrigate 1. Workers are on Whale and Irrigated Shielded grass. Paris starts settler.

3700 BC: Rush Build 6 sh. Grass Worker to ocean for extra science.

3680 BC: Worker still in ocean, T5L0S5, Settler disembarks at 29,61.

3660 BC: Worker back to Grass, T4L0S6. Settler beings mining operations.

3540 BC: Paris build Settler, boards trireme, starts warrior.

3520 BC: Writing discovered, start Ceremonial Burial (tech cost is 27), Settler disembarks at 29,61.

3500 BC: Orleans founded at 29,61, starts warrior. Change Paris production to settler, RB 2sh. Paris Worker to Ocean (4 beakers per turn).

3480 BC: Mining complete in Orleans.

3460BC: Settler boards Trireme and disembarks at 25,65, Paris worker back to grass

3440BC: Settler moves to 24,66 (iron)

3420BC: Settler begins iron mining. Orleans builds warrior, boards trireme and disembarks on hut -> Ancient Scrolls - Literacy (Tech Cost 35)

3400BC: Warrior back on Trireme

3380BC: Warrior disembarks at 39,53 (next to hut)

3360BC: Hut - Barb Horse. Orleans changes production to Diplomat

3340BC: Barb Horse kills warrior, Paris Settler, Boards Trireme

3300BC: Ceremonial Burial discovered, start Republic (Monarchy not available) (Tech cost 42).

3280BC: Settler disembarks at 24,66

3260BC: Lyons founded at 24,66, starts building trireme

3240BC: Iron mine under Lyons is complete

3220BC: Orleans builds diplomat, Boards Trireme, Settler moves out of Lyons, Orleans starts Settler. RB Lyons 5sh.

3200BC: Settler begins mining (charging). Dip pops hut at 32,66, Chariot. Chariot boards trireme.

Status at 3200 BC:

Population: 0.05M Cities: 3 Trade routes: 0D0F Government: Despotism
Gold: 53 Cost per turn: 0 Total advances: 6 Production: 10MT 0 polluted tiles
Wonders: None
Units: 1 Settlers, 1 Chariot, 1 Trireme, 1 Diplomat
No contact with anybody.

3180BC: Diplomat explores in Tundra, Trireme head towards Pairs, Settler charges

3160BC: RB Orleans 1sh

3140BC: Diplomat sees hut

3120BC: Diplomat pops hut -> Ancient Scrolls - Horseback Riding (Tech Cost 56)

3100BC: Paris Settler, boards trireme (chariot is still aboard). Trireme heads into the labyrinth. RB Orleans 1sh.

3040BC: Trireme reaches Lyons (with Paris settler). NON settler moves back into Lyons for transport. Trireme heads back to Orleans.

3020BC: Republic is discovered, Start Bronze Working (tech cost 64). Lyons builds trireme, Orleans builds settler. 2 settlers in Lyons board trireme and head into the labyrinth. Orleans settler boards other trireme. Chariot moves south out of Lyons.

3000BC: Settlers disembark at 17,69. Hut -> Ancient Scrolls - Bronze Working (tech cost 72), Revolution

2980BC: Louis XIV proclaimed Consul of new French Republic T2L0S8 (total science 13, tech rate 7 turns), NON settlers starts mining, Paris settler founds Rheims at 17,69. Chariot pops hut next to Rheims -> Archer. Archer moves into Rheims and disbands (toward trireme). Orleans settler arrives in Rheims

2960BC: Orleans settler boards trireme, disembarks at 14,68 (iron). Non settler finishes mine at Rheims. RB Lyons 1sh, Rheims 4sh

2940BC: Orleans settler starts iron mine. NON settler boards trireme and disembarks at iron.

2920BC: Orleans settler helps charge NON settler, Hut -> Ancient Scrolls - Masonry (tech cost 90).

2900BC: Orleans settler founds Tours at 14,68. Chariot disembarks at 10,68.

2880BC: Chariot moves on Mountains

2860BC RB Paris 6sh

2840BC Currency discovered, start Trade (tech cost 99), Paris builds settler (boards trireme), Hut -> Ancient Scrolls - Trade!!! (tech cost 132), RB Tours 8sh. Lyons, Tours, Orleans and Paris change production to caravan.

2820BC Start Pottery, RB Tours 6sh, Orleans 5sh.

2800BC: Paris settler moving on ship chain.

2780BC: Iron mine finished at Tours. RB Tours 2sh.

2760BC: Lyons builds van (Salt), Hut Polytheism (tech cost 156), Settlers land at 10,68.

2740BC: Tours builds van (Silver), Both settlers start mine. Hut Archer

2720BC: RB Lyons 2sh

2700BC: Vans arrive at Orleans

2680BC: Lyons builds van (food), Paris settler stops mining.

2660BC: Marseilles founded at 10,68.

2640BC: Pottery is discovered, start Seafaring (tech cost 168), Mining should have been done at Marseilles, apparently I messed up the charges.

2620BC: RB Orleans 1sh, Marseilles 1sh

2600BC: RB Tours 2sh, Marseilles 7sh, Chariot disbands in Marseilles, T0L5S5 (Paris will grow to size 3 after this turn).

2580BC: WLTCD in Paris (size 3). Population at 100,000. Hut -> 50g

Date notes

480 BC: Athens (Greek) builds KRC. Discover Chemistry: GODDARNIT Steam Engine not available. Start Atomic Theory (only other choice was gunpowder, which removes the pikemen rushing slot) Le Havre founded. Saint-Étienne founded. Hail Greeks: Give Chemistry before they say goodbye. REVOLUTION!!! T0L6S4. While cycling cities to add riot-preventing Elvises, turn accidentally ended... pissed.

460 BC: 22 cities (out of 129... not that bad) revolt. Amidst that chaos, Paris builds Isaac Newton’s. Democracy established. T10L0S0, with a grand total of... 0 Elvises. Nice! It shows we’re in Warlord... making 755 profit per turn (minus the 22 revolting cities) Tech cost 966. Disband a few units. Pop hut: NONE legion. Hire Einstein in Versailles. Put ship chain in action... and mess up. Fail. Hail Greeks: Give ToG. Offer peace, they reject.

440 BC: Civil disorder in Dijon: Forgot to check happiness after moving crusader out of a city. I’m lucky my government held. 4 copper vans shipped to Athens using the ship chain! Park them outside. Elvis in Argos to trigger WLTPD. Accidentaly end turn while rushing caravans: seems doubleclicking elsewhere than the main screen does the trick.

420 BC: WLTPD in Argos. Dijon grows in unhappiness but not unrest, rush a courthouse. Paris builds first Sewer, pop exceeds 10mil citizens. Besançon copper (d) to Athens: 404g establishes the first trade route. Athens no longer demands coal. Toulon built.

400 BC: Build Angers as the last filler city in the Indian continent. Salzburg silk (d) to Athens: 644g! Tech box very obviously full. Hail Greeks: Give Feudalism. Offer peace treaty, guess what? Rejected. What the heck happened? Boat missing for ship chain! Darnit, that will prevent deliveries for a while. Decide to temporarily halt the growth of cities in the maze because I want them to grow via PDS: reassign some workers to gold and iron squares in some cities. Saint-Denis built. Pop hut: Nomads. Elvis in Pharsale to start celebration.

380 BC: Discover Atomic Theory: start Steam Engine. WLTPD in Pharsale. Start Adam Smith’s in Paris. 5 vans in Paris: 150 shields left. Marseille copper (d) to Sparte: 156g. Not that surprising considering my city is very small. Tech cost 1032. Bordeaux salt (nd) to Athènes: 322g. Pop hut: NONE crusader. WLTPD in Argos will end next turn. Salamis silver (d) to Canton: 212g. Build Le Mans. T7L0S3 for advance next turn. Need Steam Engine and Eiffel Tower: I have a feeling the Greeks will soon attack and I need a peace treaty.

360 BC: WLTPD cancelled in Argos. Discover Steam Engine: start Railroad. Chartres copper (d) to Corinthe: 88g. T10L0S0. Switch Paris to the Eiffel Tower: RB Eiffel
for 184g. I could use the rep increase right now. Villeurbanne built. Limoges built.

340 BC: WLTPD cancelled in Pharsale, courtesy of the RF. Paris builds the Eiffel Tower: starts Adam Smith’s. 2 vans in Paris: 300 shields left for AS. Reputation is now Honorable. Hail Indians: Peace, update maps. Same for the Greeks. Prague copper (d) to Knossos: 376g. Montreal beads (d) to Athènes: 472g. T9L0S1.

320 BC: Hanging Gardens’ effect is cancelled as Railroad is discovered. Industrialization is next. Score sank from XXX to XXX in a turn... Montreal silk (d) to Sparte: 364g. Pisae copper (d) to Dijon: 124g. Avignon salt (nd) to Athènes: 146g. Toulouse beads (d) to Athènes: 160g. Looks like I’ll have to sacrifice a few vans to get a 3tech turn and to get Corporation next turn. Poitiers copper (nd) to Athènes: 130g. Hail Indians: Give Railroad, Invention, Physics, Steam Engine, Bridge Building, Magnetism, Engineering, Chemistry, Economy, Chivalry and Theory of Gravity. Tech bombing made my tech box full. Now that I have Railroad, iron cities produce 2 more shields and ivory cities 1 more! :lol: Rush Darwin’s in Grenoble II for 1592g. T10L0S0. Van in Paris: 246s for AS.

300 BC: Leo’s upgrades all Galleons to Transports as Industrialization is discovered. More cargo space will help! Gunpowder is next (only other choice was Commy, which will hurt Cathedrals while PDS is only a few turns away) Grenoble II finishes Darwin’s. Leo’s upgrades Pikemen to Musketeers as Gunpowder is discovered: same with Legions. Choose Corporation next: Leo’s upgrades all Caravans to Freight as The Corporation is discovered. Explosives is next (again, Communism only other option) Brest silver (d) to Athènes: 455g. Not bad considering my city had only 3 base trade arrows! T6L0S4: want to build up on van stock, so will raise science for advance next turn (tech cost in the 1000ish beakers)

280 BC: Leonardo’s upgrades all Settlers to Engineers as Explosives is discovered. Genetic Engineering is next. Population exceeds 12mil citizens. Tech cost 1029ish. Cannae silver (d) to Athènes: 450g.
Lyons II silver (d) to Athènes: 480g. Bayonne II Gems (d) to Dijon: 260g. Van in Paris: 182s left. Metz built.

260 BC: Discover Genetic Engineering, start Metallurgy. Louvre builds Temple, zoom to city trick, rush the Cure in Cunaxa for 2388g. CUNAXA BUILDS THE CURE FOR CANCER. Salamis II silver (d) to Athènes: 360g. Toulouse silver (d) to Athènes: 650g. Brest copper (d) to Beijing: 80g. T5L5S0 to start nation-wide PDS. Cancel order to favour gold/iron squares on size 3+ cities in the maze. Perpignan built. 2 vans in Paris: 84s left for AS. Rush AS for 336g.

240 BC: Discover Metallurgy, start Electricity. Versailles also builds Courthouse. City-on-ivory Ghent celebrates. Paris builds Adam Smith’s and celebrates, like almost every single size 3+ city in the French nation. Cherbourg II copper (d) to Athènes: 300g. Tech cost 1173. Venice II copper (d) to Athènes: 312g. Crete II copper (d) to Capua: 92g. Turin copper (d) to Canton: 182g. Avignon copper (d) to Athènes: 420g. Caen built. Nancy built. Argenteuil built.
-

Status at 240 BC:

Population: 12.98 mil Cities: 141 Trade routes: 5D18F Government: Democracy
Gold: 8823 Cost per turn: 32 Total advances: 51 Production: 430MT 0 polluted tiles
Wonders: Pyramids, Marco, Mikes, HG, Leo’s, Cope, Mag’s, LH, JSB, SoL, Isaac Newton’s, Eiffel, Darwin’s, Cure for Cancer, Adam Smith’s.
Units: 48 Engineers, 15 musketeers, 16 crusaders, 59 Transports, 135 freight.
Russians: Destroyed by me
Japanese: Destroyed by me
Spanish: Destroyed by me
Chinese: Destroyed by me
Greeks: 5 cities, 37 techs. 15 units. Peace. Democracy. They have Colossus and KRC.
Indians: 1 city, 39 techs. 2 units, Republic, peace.

Things started to go pretty fast after 500 BC. Democracy was established and Big Trade started. As my planned nationwide PDS has just started, my cash reserves from taxes in the Fundy/pre-PDS Demo era and from van deliveries would be crucial in the next 15 turns.

I started to play and have played to -2000. I will post a log soon.

I started with very careful planning. I spent over an hour on the map choosing my mountain city sites. Most were placed as a canal, a few for resources.

Next I concentrated on the starting position. Like most, I quickly decided to move one tile to the east to get the mountain and glaciers out of my city radius. I know Peaster, and perhaps others, did not and used the mountain for a size 1 trick; the idea of which did not even occur to me.

My first inclination was to get out as fast as possible. Careful calculation and simulation showed that I can get out with a warrior and the original settler about ten turns faster than with two settlers. But I decided to go with two settlers for 3 reasons:
1. First two huts were on mountains. I could tip them with a settler and even if I get barbs my settler would likely survive. There were good chances of getting a unit from this two which could then go on more hut hunting. Since any unit I would get would be supported I rather not pay an extra shield for the warrior.
2. The third tech we research could not be any of CB, CL, or Monarchy. If I wanted to get out fast I would have to do CB/CL,Map,?,CL/CB,Monarchy. If meanwhile I would get a tech from huts (quite likely event) Monarchy would be delayed even further because it cannot be the sixth tech either. This problem would go away if I got 2 or 3 techs instead of 1, but then my tech cost would go very high. By building a settler first, I could delay Mapmaking till the third tech and do CB,CL,Map,Monarchy. This way Monarchy would be started before I am off the island and hence could not be delayed for too long even if I did get a few other techs from huts.
3. Even though the second city would be delayed by about ten turns, the third city would be established faster if I built a settler before heading out.

I did think about size 1 settler but having already decided to move east I would have had to rely on the nonshielded grass to become a forest. My calculation/simulation showed that it is not going to happen fast enough and I decided against it. (I could have delayed building Paris but I did not want to.) I did turn that tile into forest, but did not use it a whole lot.

I planned to build Pyramids and Marco early on, Colossus a bit later in Paris, Magellan and Sun Tzu later on. I deemed no other wonder essential.

My plan is to stay in Monarchy. I may add HG in Paris for celebration later on. If I cannot conquer fast enough I will build Leo and Statue for changing to fundy.

hut: Archer.
hut: 100g :)
hut: 50g.
hut: NOMADS!
hut: Code of Laws!
hut: Pottery.
hut: Nomads again! My hut luck is great!
That is an understatement; phenomenal and unbelievable come to mind.

-3220: I realize that my S's can "charge" en route, but can't see much advantage.
What do you mean by that? Do you mean that they can pop huts? Or do you mean that they can accumulate charges towards future tasks. As far as I know the latter is not possible while riding in a boat.
-2800: Boat at 155,49 is "near Canton".
Wow! You got to the ocean surrounding grasslands that early! Amazing!
-2120: LH in Paris.
I wonder how you justified LH as your first wonder. Would Pyramids not be a better choice?

Date Notes

-3980 Paris founded with access to whale. Settler started.
-3960 -> Ceremonial Burial.
-3880 Ceremonial Burial -> Code of Laws.
-3720 Code of Laws -> Mapmaking
-3480 Mapmaking -> Monarchy
-3460 First Trireme sets sail with 2 settler s on board.
-3440 First hut yields Archer.
-3380 Orleans founded. Horseman from hut.
-3340 Lyons founded by the second original settler.
-3300 Monarchy -> Bronze Working. Monarchy established. T3L0S7. Barbarian horseman from hut runs into darkness the next turn.
-3280 Nomad from hut.
-3200 Horseman from hut.
-3180 Bronze Working -> Masonry
-3160 Archer from hut.
-3140 Currency from hut.
-3100 Horseback riding from hut. Rheims founded.
-3080 Polytheism from hut.
-3020 Elephant from hut.

Status at -3000
Population: 0.06M; Cities: 4; Trade routes: 0D0F; Government: Monarchy
Gold: 8; Cost per turn: 0; Total advances: 9; Production: 15; 0 polluted tiles
Wonders:
Units: 2 settlers (1 None), 2 Archers, 2 Horsemen, 1 Elephant, 4 Trireme
Russian: No contact
Japanese: No contact
Spanish: No contact
Chinese: No contact
Greek: No contact
?: No contact

-2940 Tours founded. 25g from hut.
-2920 Masonry -> Trade.
-2880 Barbarian Legion from hut killed in attack on my archer.
-2820 Barbarian Legion from hut killed in attack on my elephant.
-2780 Horseman from hut.
-2780 Marseilles founded.
-2720 Charters founded.
-2700 Trade -> Writing. 50g from hut.
-2660 25g from hut.
-2640 8 barbarian horsemen from hut kill my archer the next turn.
-2580 Archer from hut.
-2560 Avignon founded.
-2540 Nomad from hut.
-2520 Besancon founded.
-2480 Writing -> Pottery. T7L0S3. Horseman from hut.
-2460 None Archer from hut.
-2400 Marco built. Mapmaking -> Indian (3) -> Pottery, peace, maps
-2380 -> Seafaring.
-2320 4 Barbarian legions from hut die in attack on my archer. 8 barbarian horsemen from hut kill my horseman.
-2300 Rouen founded. None horseman from hut.
-2260 Chariot from hut. Seafaring from hut. Mapmaking -> Russian (4) -> Mysticism, peace, maps.
-2240 -> Literacy.
-2220 50g from hut.
-2200 Pyramids built. 8 barbarian horsemen from hut kill my None horseman.
-2140 Warrior Code from hut.
-2120 First Harbor built. Grenoble founded. Construction from hut.
-2100 25g from hut. None elephant from hut.
-2060 Feudalism from hut. Legion from hut.
Trade, Monarchy, Mapmaking -> Chinese (2) -> peace, maps
Warrior Code, Mapmaking -> Greek (1) -> peace, maps
Mapmaking, Horseback riding -> Japanese (0) -> peace, maps
Mapmaking, Construction -> Spanish (3) -> peace, maps
-2020 100g from hut.
-2000 Literacy -> Philosophy. First settler lands on grass.

Status at -2000
Population: 0.24M; Cities: 11; Trade routes: 0D0F; Government: Monarchy
Gold: 12; Cost per turn: 3; Total advances: 19; Production: 30; 0 polluted tiles
Wonders: Pyramids, Marco
Units: 7 settlers (2 None), 3 Archers, 1 Legion, 1 Horsemen, 1 Chariot, 2 Elephant, 7 Trireme, 5 Caravan
Russian: 4 cities, 7 techs
Japanese: 3 cities, 6 techs
Spanish: 4 cities, 9 techs
Chinese: 4 cities, 13 techs
Greek: 6 cities, 5 techs
Indian: 6 cities, 16 techs

What do you mean by that? Do you mean that they can pop huts? Or do you mean that they can accumulate charges towards future tasks. As far as I know the latter is not possible while riding in a boat.

Glad to see you are playing this one. I am still plugging away, but have almost forgotten the early phase by now!

At some points in the maze, a boat must pass by the same mt. square twice (eg once on the south and then once on the north). So a settler can exit the boat, charge a turn or two, and get back on the boat again later. Also, when passing thru a canal city, the settler can charge without slowing down the boat. But IIRC I didn't actually use this idea in this gotm. My settlers made cities asap upon finding grass.


Wow! You got to the ocean surrounding grasslands that early! Amazing!

I wonder how you justified LH as your first wonder. Would Pyramids not be a better choice?

Getting to the grasslands asap was my main early goal, in order to begin ICS growth. This has worked out well for me in similar gotms, but I'm not sure about the best plan here.

I don't remember my exact reasoning about WoWs, but roughly ... LH was necessary to get from one isle to another circa 2000BC [for EC and/or trade before Nav]. Also, I had some interest in the huts on the Eastern Ice.

The Pyr's pay off best in a large civ, which I didn't have at that time. Also, I probably wasn't as worried about an AI getting that (with LH I can hope to steal Pyr, but not v.v.). My notes are unclear about when I built Pyr's, but I'm guessing approx 1600BC, not too long after LH. At 400BC, I have 8 WoWs, but still haven't built Marco ! It's usually a fave, but dips seemed cheaper this time. Good luck!

At some points in the maze, a boat must pass by the same mt. square twice (eg once on the south and then once on the north). So a settler can exit the boat, charge a turn or two, and get back on the boat again later. Also, when passing thru a canal city, the settler can charge without slowing down the boat.
Thanks for the explanation. The first method is only useful if it takes the boat more than two turns to get around the corner which is sometimes not the case so it is not very useful. The second method does not work with cities built on mountains and hills because once the settler gets in there is absolutely nothing for it to do.
At 400BC, I have 8 WoWs, but still haven't built Marco ! It's usually a fave, but dips seemed cheaper this time. Good luck! I agree. I was doubtful about its value too and debated whether to delay it but I figured that one of the 7 grass tiles must be free of rivals and I wanted to know which before getting there.

Thanks for the explanation. The first method is only useful if it takes the boat more than two turns to get around the corner which is sometimes not the case so it is not very useful. The second method does not work with cities built on mountains and hills because once the settler gets in there is absolutely nothing for it to do.

You are correct about the 2nd method; I must have been confusing this gotm with an older one. I also agree about "not very useful", though I guess a determined player might get a few cheap irrigations from the idea. I might quibble with your "more than two turns" comment though. The trick works whenever the boat is adjacent to a mt square "X" at the end of 2 different turns. I guess that happens several times on the way from Paris to grass, approximately enough to charge up one irrigation. But I didn't actually do it, and haven't checked it - could be wrong.

Having landed on grass in -2000 I was hoping to finish before -1000 but did not. I played to -1000 last night. Spanish and Chinese are gone. I have just started battling Japanese and Greeks on their homeland. Japanese ended up being my foreign delivery target. The lucrative trade routes to Paris and Orleans as well as the techs I gave them to get them to update their maps allowed them to discover gunpowder on their own. So far I have had very few casualties; I expect a lot on the Japanese island.

Here is some more info regarding my game. I started a log a number of posts ago, but it takes me too long to go into that much detail so here are the highlights. I have finished the game. This recap will go to 980BC. I will save the final result until it is closer to the deadline.

In 2500BC I built MPE and contacted all the AIs. I was supreme. I had 14 advances, 127 gold and 6 cities (Paris was size 6, Rheims was size 2, the other four were size 1), total population 280k. I had 2 settlers, 1 archer, 3 triremes, 1 diplomat and 3 vans.

Russians had 9 advances, 4 cities, 226g and 10 units (2nd place)
Japanese had 2 advances, 2 cities, 162g and 7 units (7th place)
Spanish had 5 advances, 3 cities, 114g and 9 units (6th place)
Chinese had 7 advances, 3 cities, 19g and 9 units (3rd place)
Greeks had 4 advances, 4 cities, 132g and 10 units (4th place)
Indians had 4 advances, 3 cities, 140g and 8 units (5th place)
I trades 2 advances with the Russians (MM for Myst and Rep for Wheel). I gave 4 advances to the Japanese, 4 to the Spanish, 3 to the Chinese, 3 to the Greeks and 2 to the Mongols. Made peace with everyone and got all the maps.

My advances from that point went like this:
2420 Seafaring
2260 Philosophy with Monotheism as free advance.
2060 Construction
1900 Engineering from Hut
1860 Invention from Hut
1700 Math
1560 Astromony
1560 Traded with the Chinese Philo for WC
1400 Navigation
1340 Trade with Russians Inv for Feud, Nav for IW and Construction for Monarchy
1200 Physics
1060 Banking

These were the Wonders that were built
2500 MPE
2320 HG
1340 Magellan
1260 Colossus (Russians)
1260 Sun Tzu
1080 GL (Chinese)
1040 Leo's

When I built my 'Mountain/Canal' cities, I started mining on each before building the cities.
2360 Chartres (3,63)
2100 Avignon (199,63)
2000 Besancon (195,63)
1940 Rouen (191,63)
1840 Grenoble (184,62)
1740 Dijon (176,62)
1680 Amiens (170,60)
1480 Cherbourg (166,56)

I reached the empty continent (16) and built Poitiers in 1280. The only other city I built there was Toulouse in 920.

I did very little exploring in the game. I picked up a few in the middle of the labyrinth, but did not really go out of my way to find them. I sent 1 explorer north (on the tundra closest to Paris). He started north in about 2000. He popped 5 huts, 1940 - 50g. 1900 - Engineering. 1860 - Invention, 1840 - 50g, 1800 - 8 barb horse. He survived the first attack and died to the second. I did not send any other explorers out.

I reached the Spanish continent (24) in 1300.
I stayed in republic until 1160 when I had a revolution and changed to monarchy when I attacked the Spanish (4 crusaders, 2 dips and 2 NON horse). They only had 3 cities. Spanish were destroyed in 1120.

The Spanish force landed on the Chinese continent in 1060. They had 5 cities. Chinese were destroyed in 980.

I have played to -780. Greeks are gone. Japanese are down to one city which I shall bribe in a couple of turns. Even though they did have gunpowder they did not make too many musketeers and thus I did not have many casualties. Indians and Russians are still intact.

I finally decided to finish up [approx 300bc to 1ad period]. Noticed that switching to Demo near the end boosted my score quite a bit each turn, so I hit the spacebar a few times til my people got tired of it.

The last half of my log would be pretty boring, I think, as I was only playing for score, but I'll share stats if anyone wants to compare.

When everyone will have finished, please post that you're done with your game so I can post the last part of my log. (btw, no rush needed)

The last part of my log gives out information that's too sensitive. That info could be used efficiently to determine my probable GOTM score and would be too spoiler for those not done yet with their game. But like I said, no rush.

I finished Russians off earlier this morning. Indians have a single city left which I can bribe this turn but I am going to wait till next turn because I have enough delivery money to rush a wonder. I will be done before -500.

(Since Magic, and perhaps others, finished in fewer turns than I did I do not see any harm in revealing my end date.)

After discovery of Democracy in -900 I switched to it from Monarchy to improve my trade bonuses and grow. I did not let it slow my conquest though. I overthrew the government whenever needed. Of course building Statue of Liberty (in -780) was a great help allowing me to switch back to Democracy the next turn.

In retrospect I built a bigger army than needed for a warlord level game even though I was fighting on two fronts simultaneously. I should have instead built more modern ships for more quickly shipping my army to the next island.

I planned not to and did not build Leo. It was a decision I did not regret. My vet Crusaders and Knights were more than enough. Its only use would have been upgrading my triremes to caravels. That would have been useful but I had more pressing needs.

-1980 Dezful founded on grass. Legion, 50g, Republic, and Philosophy from hut.
-1960 -> Monotheism -> Chivalry.
-1940 Construction, Philosophy, Republic -> Russian (1) -> Wheel.
Construction -> Japanese (0) -> Iron Working.
Math and Bridge Building from hut.
-1920 Colossus built in Paris. Engineering from hut. Shush founded.
-1880 Shushtar founded. 50g from hut.
-1840 Medicine and Theology from hut.
-1800 50g, 25g, 4 barbarian legions from huts.
-1780 3 barbarian legions die in attack on my archer, one runs away. Sanitation from hut.
-1760 Crusader from hut.
-1740 Astronomy from hut. Advanced tribe founds Pasargad on grass land. Spain chosen as my first victim due to its location. Spanish map updated. If all goes well, I will go after Japanese and Russians next. All 3 of them I can reach with Triremes. For the other 3 I need caravels.
-1720 50g from hut. 7 barbarian horsemen from hut kill my chariot.
-1680 Ahvaz founded. Nomad from hut.
-1640 Navigation from hut.
-1620 Invention from hut.
-1600 5 barbarian horsemen from hut. Some die in attack on my legion, others run away.
-1580 50g from hut.
-1560 Paris builds first temple. Abadan founded.
-1540 8 barbarian horsemen from hut kill my explorer.
-1520 100g from hut.

Status at -1500
Population: 1.13M; Cities: 17; Trade routes: 0D0F; Government: Monarchy
Gold: 180; Cost per turn: 10; Total advances: 33; Production: 59; 0 polluted tiles
Wonders: Pyramids, Marco, Colossus
Units: 5 settlers (3 None), 3 Archers, 2 Legion, 1 Pikemen, 1 Horsemen, 2 Elephant, 1 Crusader, 10 Trireme, 2 Diplomats, 5 Caravan, 1 explorer
Russian: 5 cities, 11 techs
Japanese: 5 cities, 12 techs
Spanish: 5 cities, 10 techs; war with Greeks
Chinese: 4 cities, 14 techs
Greek: 8 cities, 8 techs; war with Spanish
Indian: 6 cities, 17 techs

-1480 Sun Tzu built.
-1460 Beads from Paris to Japan establishes the first route for 360.
-1440 50 from hut.
-1420 25g from hut.
-1400 Paris builds first Marketplace.
-1380 50g from hut.
-1360 Chivalry -> Banking. 50g from hut. Beads from Orleans to Japan establishes the second route for 160.
-1340 100g from hut.
-1300 100g from hut.
-1280 50g from hut. Legion from hut. Crusader kills Spanish legion defending Toledo and turns vet. Lost a horseman to Spanish. Toledo razed for 35g.
-1240 25g from hut. Accepted 200g from Spanish for cease fire then broke it and attacked Madrid with 3 vet crusaders razing it for 19g. Spanish Seville bribed for 122g.
-1220 Japanese develop Gunpowder! 50g from hut. Last 2 Spanish cities razed for 28g and 22g. Spanish civilization destroyed.
-1180 100g from hut. Canton captured for 17g.
-1160 Beijing captured for 19g. Copper from Paris to Japan for 504. Navigation -> Japanese -> Gunpowder, maps. 2x50g from hut. 2x8 barbarian horsemen from hut. None musketeer from hut.
-1140 One of my legions killed by barbarians, the other barely survives. Banking -> Democracy. Shanghai captured for 32g. First domestic route established for 142. 25g from hut.
-1120 Chinese Xinjan razed. Chinese Nanking bribed for 110g. 100g from hut.
-1100 25g from hut.
-1080 Chinese Tsingtao razed for 12g. Chinese civilization destroyed. Domestic delivery for 95. 50g from hut.
-1060 8 barbarian horsemen from hut kill my explorer. Domestic deliveries for 87, 63. None musketeer from hut.
-1040 50g from hut.
-1020 Michelangelo and Magellan built. 100g+50g from huts. Japanese Kagoshima bribed for 308g. Got 93g, 2 soldiers, and a settler.
-1000 Killed a Japanese unit and 3 defenders of Athens. 50g from hut.

Status at -1000
Population: 3.13M; Cities: 23; Trade routes: 8D3F; Government: Monarchy
Gold: 191; Cost per turn: 18; Total advances: 36; Production: 98; 0 polluted tiles
Wonders: Pyramids, Marco, Colossus, Sun Tzu, Michelangelo, Magellan
Units: 8 settlers (3 None), 1 Warrior, 1 Phalanx, 4 Archers, 2 Legion, 1 Pikemen, 2 Musketeers, 1 Horsemen, 2 Elephant, 7 Crusader, 4 Knights, 10 Trireme, 3 Caravel, 3 Diplomats, 22 Caravan, 1 explorer
Russian: 5 cities, 13 techs
Japanese: 4 cities, 15 techs; war with me
Spanish: Destroyed by me
Chinese: Destroyed by me
Greek: 8 cities, 14 techs; war with me
Indian: 8 cities, 21 techs

-0980 Khorramshahr founded. Athens razed. Thermopylae captured.
-0960 Indians build Great Library. Andimeshk founded. Delphi and Argos bribed for 158, 76. Nomad from hut on ice continent. Osaka captured after losing 2 units on its defending musketeer. Domestic delivery for 42.
-0940 Domestic delivery for 107. NewMadrid founded. Demands for tribute result in all out war. T6L4S0
-0920 Four cities celebrate. Greek Pharsalos razed, Sparta captured, and Corinth bribed for 201g. 2 barbarian horsemen from polar hut. 8 barbarian horsemen from hut.
-0900 Barbarians kill my explorer ; the polar ones run away. Democracy -> Leadership. Instant revolution. None musketeer from hut. Domestic deliveries for 94. Democracy established. T5L4S1
-0880 A mere 5 cities celebrate. Silk to Indians for 462. Greek Knossos captured for 127g. Greek civilization destroyed. T3L6S1 to keep a single city from toppling the government.
-0860 Hanging Gardens built in Paris. NewXinjian founded. Crusader from hut. Japanese Edo bribed for 552. T5L4S1
-0840 Silk to Chinese for 462. 8 barbarian horsemen from hut. Nomad from hut.
-0820 Musketeer survives barbarians. Leadership -> Physics. 50g from hut. NewToledo founded. Domestic deliveries for 360, 297, 86. T4L4S2
-0800 Physics -> Magnetism. Bach built. Government overthrown. Losing a Knight, the two defenders of Kyoto are killed and the city taken for 116g.
-0780 Statue of Liberty built. NewTsingtao, Taipei, and Tokyo founded. 50g, None Dragoon, Nomad from hut. Domestic delivery for 294. Democracy reestablished.
-0760 50g from hut.
-0740 Satsuma bribed for 195. Japanese civilization destroyed. Somehow this caused Indians to get Gunpowder from the Great Library. Wine from Paris to Shush for 598. T5L4S1
-0720 Magnetism -> Steam Engine. Indian Kolhapur captured for 18g. Domestic delivery for 392.
-0700 100g, 50g from hut. Revolution started. 3 defenders (1 phalanx and 2 warriors) of Delhi easily killed by two vet crusaders and the city captured for 28g. Indian Karachi captured, Bangalore bribed for 408. Got Great Library.
-0680 Indian elephant backs down when I offer them cease fire. Russians take defenseless Andimeshk and take Gunpowder. Andimeshk bought back for 93g. Tibet founded. Cacutta razed. Bombay and Madras captured. 2x50g from hut. Democracy reestablished. Salt from Paris to Kyoto for 546.
-0660 Steam Engine -> University. Domestic deliveries for 116, 423, 370.
-0640 University -> Chemistry. Nomad from hut. Smolensk subverted for 2x342. Bengal founded by None settler.
-0620 Hyderabad founded. Kiev captured with one casualty. St. Pete captured. This guys got Gunpowder 5 turns ago and their second city was defended with a single Phalanx. Nomad from hut.
-0600 Domestic deliveries for 672. Turkestaan and Ionia founded. Dijon founded on mountain with None settler. Indian settler bought for 196g. Nomad from hut.
-0580 Moscow builds King Richard's. Chemistry -> Metallurgy. Domestic deliveries for 180, 195. Lisbon and NewAthens founded.
-0560 Gold to Lahore for 745. Domestic deliveries for 420, 560, 150. Nagasaki and Macedonia founded. Nomad from hut. Moscow, defended by a single Phalanx, captured for King Richard's. Minsk captured. Russian civilization destroyed. Could end this turn but will wait one more turn for score. T3L7S0
-0540 Metallurgy -> Explosives. Lighthouse and Shakespeare built. 25g, Musketeer from hut. Domestic deliveries for 37, 144, 20, 81, 5, 9. EndGame1, 2 founded. T0L10S0. Lahore subverted for 2x300g. Indian civilization destroyed.

Here is the last part of my log. I think it can be described with one word: overkill.

Date Notes

220 BC: Indian Legion near Bombay. Discover Electricity, start Conscription. Population exceeds 17 million citizens. T4L6S0. Hail Indians: Demand they withdraw troops: They do. Update maps. Tech cost 1197ish. Rainville copper (d) to Athènes: 260g. Ghent II copper (d) to Verona: 122g. Verdun copper (d) to Nankin: 112g. Ardennes gems (d) to Cherbourg: 96g. Hamburg beads (d) to Knossos: 240g. Hamburg silver (d) to Knossos: 300g. T3L6S1 for advance next turn. Rush from 10k to 5620.

200 BC: Leonardo’s upgrades all Musketeers to Riflemen as Conscription is discovered. Leadership is next. Population exceeds 22 million citizens. Hail Indians: Same as before. Tech cost 1221ish. Grenoble II copper (d) to Athènes: 292g. Poitiers II gold (d) to Verona: 260g. Bénouville copper (d) to Athènes: 544g. Besançon Gold (nd) to Paris: 52g. T4L6S0. Rush to 2739.

180 BC: Leonardo’s upgrades all Crusaders to Dragoons as Leadership is discovered. Steel is next. Population exceeds 28 million citizens. Tech cost 1296ish. Crete II silk (d) to Athènes: 438g. Milan II silk (d) to Athènes: 540g. Hail Indians: same as before. Bergen gems (d) to Knossos: 582g. Montreuil built. Roubaix built. Tourcoing built. Nanterre built. Rush from 4843 to 558. Guess I’ll have to deliver a bit more than expected in the future. Paris starts Shakes.

160 BC: Discover Steel, start Tactics. Population exceeds 35 million citizens. Hail Indians: Same as before. Créteil built. Tech cost 1320ish. Brest silk (d) to Athènes: 528g. Guadeloupe silk (d) to Athènes: 486g. Prague II silk (d) to Athènes: 336g. Courbevoie built. Pau built. Rush from 2351 to 13. Won’t be able to escape extra deliveries next turn. Dijon starts Sun Tzu.

140 BC: Greeks develop Steam Engine. Leonardo’s upgrades all Dragoons to Cavalry as Tactics is discovered. Electronics is next. Population exceeds 42 million citizens. Colombes built. Avignon Gold (d) to Beijing: 450g. Tech cost 1344ish. Rainville silk (d) to Athènes: 438g. Issos II coal (d) to Athènes: 395g. Cannae Beads (d) to Delphes: 160g. Antibes built. Saint-Pierre built. La Rochelle built. Calais built. Aubervilliers built. Cannes built. Hail Indians: Same as before. Béziers built. Rush from 2270 to 42. Not enough... Guadeloupe spice (d) to Delphes: 264g.

120 BC: Discover Electronics: start Machine Tools. Population exceeds 50 million citizens. Tech cost 1482. Bordeaux II silk (d) to Athènes: 582g. Venice II silk (d) to Athènes: 582g. Toronto II coal (d) to Athènes: 745g. Bourges built. Dunkerque built. Saint-Nazaire built. Colmar built. Rush from 3072 to 80. Verdun silk (d) to Athènes: 988g. A bit overkill... also capped. Rush to 313.

100 BC: Discover Machine Tools: start Refining. Cunaxa starts Hoover Dam. Stratsbourg starts the Great Wall. Cherbourg starts the Great Library. Population exceeds 58 million citizens. Tech cost 1509. Dijon II gold (d) to Cordoue: 414g. Bergen II copper (d) to Séville: 128g. Avignon coal (d) to Athènes: 935g. Toulouse II copper (d) to Shanghai: 288g. Drancy built. Ajaccio built. Quimper built. Amiens beads (nd) to Athènes: 404g. Issos copper (nd) to Athènes: 212g.

80 BC: Discover Refining: Miniaturization is next. One turn advances is good :) Verona starts the Oracle. Population exceeds 64 million citizens. Amiens II copper (d) to Delhi: 306g. Montreal coal (d) to Athènes: 960g. Coal is blocked, block on silver is gone! YES! Tech cost 1536ish. Issos silver (d) to Athènes: 530g. Troyes built. Antony built. Les Abymes built. Sarcelles built. Clichy built. Lorient built. Niort built. Prague II silver (d) to Athènes: 380g. Milan II silver (d) to Athènes: 535g. Marseille silver (d) to Athènes: 475g. Brest II silver (d) to Athènes: 510g.

60 BC: Discover Miniaturization: start Refrigeration. Population exceeds 72 million citizens. I am not accumulating any peace points even if I am at peace with every civilization in the world... what? (not like that’s actually going to matter... we’re playing a conquest only game) Tech cost 1620ish. Toronto gold (d) to Calcutta: 620g. Hail Greeks: Ask them to withdraw troops: get a ‘’we don’t have any troops in your territory’’ response. Update maps. Bordeaux Gems (d) to Tolède: 576g. Salzburg spice (d) to Cunaxa: 584g. Cayenne built. Pessac built. Vénissieux built. Saint-Quentin built. Chambéry built. Cergy built. Montauban built. Hyères built. Beauvais built. Ghent II silver (d) to Athènes: 385g. Cholet built.

40 BC: Discover Refrigeration: Combustion is next. Population exceeds 79 million citizens. Hail Greeks: Ask for withdraw of troops: They do. Tech cost 1647ish. Salamis copper (d) to Cherbourg: 332g. Lisbon copper (d) to Thermopyles: 444g. Crete II silver (d) to Athènes: 455g. Bayonne II silver (d) to Athènes: 530g. Build Bondy as the first city on the ice continent. Saint-André built. Vannes built. Maisons-Alfort built. Chelles built. Venice silver (d) to Athènes: 695g. Naples silver (d) to Athènes: 1098g. Getting a bit of a challenge to find the trucks that won’t move the silver demand around as I have a lot of them waiting to be delivered (88 trucks left... I plan to deliver all of them the turn prior to conquest in order to rush some last-minute wonders, courthouses and the like. 41 of them are still in the maze)

20 BC: Discover Combustion: start Fundamentailsm (other choices were Amphibious Warfare, which I want to keep as the joker tech, Commy, which is not needed yet and hurts Cathedrals, and Flight, which will kill my trade strategy) Population exceeds 87 million citizens. Tech cost 1674ish. Hail Greeks: Ask for withdraw of troops twice (I’m trying to goad them... does not seem to work. If the UN will not allow any sneaks in Demo, I’ll have to hold a revolution to wipe out the remaining opposition) Hail Indians: Ask for withdraw of troops: They do. Marseilles silver (d) to Athènes: 650g. Vimy silver (d) to Athènes: 875g. Silver blocked, silk unblocked in Athènes. Venice silk (d) to Athènes: 924g. Now peace points are counting. How odd. Arles built. Pantin built. Fréjus built. Évry built. Grasse built. Sartrouville built. Clamart built. Clamart II built. Narbonne built. Laval founded. BLACK HAT IN NANKIN.

1 AD: Discover Fundamentalism: Amphibious Warfare is next (only other choice Automobile, which will cause a lot of pollution I am not prepared for) Population exceeds 94 million citizens. Tech cost 1764. Crete silk (d) to Athènes: 1116g. Cherbourg II silk (d) to Athènes: 558g. Amiens II gold (d) to Ste-Mère-Église: 576g. Évreux built. Sevran built. Saint-Louis built. Rush Shakes in Paris for 1058g. Belfort built. Annecy built. Cagnes-sur-Mer built. Meaux built. Albi built. Brest II silk (d) to Athènes: 612g. Grenoble copper (d) to Pharsale: 492g. Suddenly the Greeks are Icy! Maybe I won’t need a revolution after all. Hopefully it will stay that way.

Status at 1AD:

Population: 94.68 mil Cities: 201 Trade routes: 20D56F Government: Democracy
Gold: 418 Cost per turn: 353 Total advances: 63 Production: 756MT 0 polluted tiles
Wonders: Pyramids, Marco, Mikes, HG, Leo’s, Cope, Mag’s, LH, JSB, SoL, Isaac Newton’s, Eiffel, Darwin’s, Cure for Cancer, Adam Smith’s. Shakes next turn.
Units: 41 Engineers, 14 riflemen, 16 cavalry, 66 Transports, 80 freight, 1 Diplomat.
Russians: Destroyed by me
Japanese: Destroyed by me
Spanish: Destroyed by me
Chinese: Destroyed by me
Greeks: 5 cities, 38 techs. 15 units. Peace. Democracy. They have Colossus and KRC.
Indians: 1 city, 39 techs. 3 units, Republic, peace.

20 AD: FormerSmolensk starts the Oracle. Discover Amphibious Warfare: Communism is next (other choices Flight, which kills trade, and Automobile, which triggers pollution. I’ll simply fire my scientist in Versailles to prevent the cathedral downgrade until I can take it and rehire one somewhere else when I’ll need the UN) Paris builds Shakes. Population exceeds 102 million citizens. Tech cost 1792. Martinique silk (d) to Athènes: 726g. Dublin copper (d) to Nantes: 390g. Turin coal (d) to Beijing: 500g. Saint-Malo built. Vincennes built. Bobigny built. Carcassonne built. Delhi starts the Great Wall in lieu of Stratsbourg, that had to build a colosseum to keep WLTPD going. Melborne II silk (d) to Athènes: 630g. The decision is made to not wait for Communism and the UN. I don’t think the 20 points the UN gives are worth the cathedral downgrade (in terms of extra angry citizens) so science will stop there.

40 AD: Population exceeds 110 million citizens. Greeks still Icy. Hail Greeks: They demand gunpowder, refused, they profess threats. I ask for withdrawal of troops, they declare WAR!!! (time for Bleed’em White) Cavalry unit kills Greek settler near Knossos. Cavalry unit kills Greek Legion in a fortress near Sparte. Cavalry unit kills Greek settler near Delphes. Cavalry unit kills Greek catapult near Delphes. Subvert Madras for 236x2 gold. 108g plundered, get a size 3 city. Disband Archer and Pikemen for a Temple. INDIAN CIV DESTROYED BY FRENCH. Blois built. Sydney gold (nd) to Kiev: 235g. Versailles copper (d) to Kiev: 400g. Montrouge built. Martigues built. Aubagne built. Marseilles silk (d) to Athènes: 780g. Baton Rouge silk (d) to Athènes: 1014g.

60 AD: Greek Knight attacks my Cavalry in a fort and is defeated. Greek Frigate attacks Riflemen in Cholet and dies: riflemen is vet. Population exceeds 118 million. Cavalry kills Greek explorer near Cholet. Cavalry kills Greek Archer near Athènes. Châteauroux built. Saint-Brieuc built. Suresnes built. Saint-Ouen built. Alforeville built. Meudon built. Puteaux built. Tarbes built. Bastia built.

80 AD: Athènes had a solo cycle: no longer demands silver but demands copper. Also demands dye: silk demand is unchanged. Dang, wanted silver to stay. Decide, after comparing GOTM score charts of my past turns, to end this at 100 AD (next turn) Saint-Herblain built. Angoulême built. Bayonne copper (d) to Athènes: 848g. Patay copper (d) to Athènes: 444g. Alger silk (d) to Athènes: 690g. I will deliver every single van I have in Greece this turn to get enough cash to rush wonders, courthouses and other score-increasing stuff, as I plan to end this next turn and I need to deliver those vans right now if I want the gold to be put to good use. The Somme copper (d) to Athènes: 440g. Salamis II copper (d) to Athènes: 348g. Salzburg II Silk (d) to Athènes: 984g. I think I ran into the 32000b delivery limit... a little early to be there I think! Naples II silk (d) to Athènes: 1182g. Seems like the solo cycle change was reset, block on copper and coal (no longer demands dye) but silver is there and unblocked! Milan silver (d) to Athènes: 965g. Rush the Great Wall in Delhi for 1122g. Dublin silver (d) to Athènes: 915g. Baton Rouge silver (d) to Athènes: 845g. Rush Sun Tzu in Dijon for 1100g. Rush the GL in Cherbourg for 1088g. Ardennes silver (d) to Athènes: 375g. Salzburg II silver (d) to Athènes: 820g. Marne salt (nd) to Athènes: 174g. Ghent salt (nd) to Athènes: 588g. Rush the Hoover Dam in Cunaxa for 2364g. Saint-Étienne silver (d) in Athènes: 510g. Rainville Oil (nd) to Athènes: 162g. Montreal Gold (d) in Colombes: 344g. Cannae gold (nd) in Athènes: 216g. Bergen Gold (nd) in Athènes: 344g. Melborne II silver (d) in Athènes: 525g. Ghent gold (nd) in Athènes: 588g, unblocks silk! Poitiers II silk (d) in Athènes: 912g. Rouen II silver (d) in Athènes: 1015g. Block on silver is there, block on coal is gone... Avignon II coal (d) in Athènes: 1060g. Nevermind last block change it seems. Rush the Oracle in Verona for 1136g. Marne silk (d) in Athènes: 522g. Rush the Women’s Suffurage in Lyons II for 2076g. Stratsbourg II hides (d) to Delphes: 228g. Poitiers silver (d) in Athènes: 925g. Dorémy dye (d) to Knossos: 796g. Prague silk (d) to Athènes: 1230g. Hamburg II silk (d) to Athènes: 684g. Cremona II silk (d) to Athènes: 1200g. Silver and coal swap blocks. Bergen II coal (d) to Athènes: 540g. Montreal coal (d) to Athènes: 975g. Bergen II silk (d) to Athènes: 648g. Lisboa II silk (d) to Athènes: 402g. Salamis II silk (d) to Athènes: 522g. Versailles silk (d) to Athènes: 1146g. It feels weird delivering everything in 1 turn simply to fund last minute rushes, not used to do that. Sydney silk (d) to Athènes: 1350g. Biggest bonus so far. Grenoble II silk (d) to Athènes: 546g. Amiens II silk (d) to Athènes: 1056g. Bergen silk (d) to Athènes: 1032g. Rouen II silk (d) to Athènes: 1218g. Avignon II silk (d) to Athènes: 1272g. Bénouville silver (nd) to Athènes: 432g. Bénouville dye (nd) to Athènes: 432g. Dang, silver still blocked. Sydney copper (nd) to Athènes: 450g. Toronto copper (nd) to Athènes: 426g. Baton Rouge copper (nd) to Athènes: 338g. Naples II silver (d) to Knossos: 815g. Vimy gold (nd) to Athènes: 350g. Lisboa II copper (nd) to Athènes: 134g. Hamburg II copper (nd) to Athènes: 228g. Crete copper (nd) to Athènes: 372g. Marseilles copper (nd) to Athènes: 260g. Seems like I broke even again for Communism beaker-wise. Rush down to 20904: Looks like I could have delivered way less and still have had enough.

100 AD: A lot of cities build courthouses, colosseums and supermarkets in an attempt to rack a maximum of GOTM score before sending. Lyons II grants Women’s Suffrage. Verona builds the Oracle. Cunaxa builds the Hoover Dam. Cherbourg builds the Great Library. Dijon builds Sun Tzu. Delhi builds the Great Wall. Population exceeds 135 million citizens. Cavalry kills a Greek Archer in Sparte: mandatory vet (Sun Tzu) Cavalry kills a Greek Frigate in Knossos. Cavalry kills a Greek Archer in Corinthe. Cavalry kills a Greek Archer in Corinthe. Castres built. Cavalry kills a Greek Pikemen in Delphes. Cavalry kills a Greek Archer in Sparte. Cavalry kills a Greek Pikemen in Athènes. Cavalry kills a Greek Legion in Athènes. Cavalry kills a Greek Archer in Athènes. Athènes stormed for 137 gold: Colossus and now-useless KRC stormed. Sparte stormed for 93 gold. Corinthe stormed for 40 gold. Knossos stormed for 134 gold. Delphes stormed for 75g. GREEK CIVILIZATION DESTROYED BY FRENCH. Tours silver (d) to Thermopyles: 687g.

Final moves: Build Saint-Louis up to size 8. Build Beauvais to size 5 and Évreux to size 3. Build Béziers to size 6. Build Nanterre to size 7. Sète built. T0L10S0. Do some last-minute worker changes for the sake of final score.

Status at 1AD:

Population: 94.68 mil Cities: 201 Trade routes: 20D56F Government: Democracy
...
Russians: Destroyed by me
Japanese: Destroyed by me
Spanish: Destroyed by me
Chinese: Destroyed by me
Greeks: 5 cities, 38 techs. 15 units. Peace. Democracy. They have Colossus and KRC.
Indians: 1 city, 39 techs. 3 units, Republic, peace.
You had over 200 cities?! Unbelievable. Where did you put them? There simply was not enough room on grass for anywhere close to that. Did you terraform the ice with engineers?

When I was PDSing the mountain cities to full size, I had decided to resume expansion in the mountains, but ICS style this time. PDS would last more than the 9 or so rounds that a mtn city would take to grow to full size, so why not add the odd 2 points there and there of a size 1 city with CfC and 0 surplus while I can, as the dis-growth would be recovered anyway?? This was done solely for final score, a bit before I had started to build courthouses and the like.

I also built a few cities on glacier. Note 4 on the Eastern Ice and 5 in the Jap/Russian ice. To add to that, I also built a fairly decent number of cities on Ivory/Gold/Iron in and near the maze during this last expansion rush. I think I could have done way more however: I had huuuuuge cash reserves at the end and room for 25 more size 1's.

I never terraformed anything. I considered irrigation in the grassy isles more urgent (but was only able to do so for 3/7 isles, and no farmland)

It's late enough and irrelevant enough now that my final log will be amusing.

500 post-turn - Japan and Russia declare peace on each other. Various dips, marines, engineers. Tarantia copper van. Kush gold van. Zamora silver van. Nemedia spice van. Hyperborea food van. Aesgaard gold van. Fundy.

480 - Tsingtao bought for 171+67+musket+phalanx. Chinese civilization destroyed. Delhi destroyed+27g. Bombay bought for 312+103+archer. Marine dies in a foolish 1/3 attack on Smolensk. Haloga founded on ivory near Cimmeria, finally a city makes wine. Pohiola founded at the north pole. Rush 2 marines in Russia. Democracy. Kambuja silk Aesgaard 342. Darfar gems Aesgaard(n) 162. Khauran copper Aesgaard(n) 137. Russian warrior deserts for 89. Rush dip in Calcutta. Tax 8.0.2, 400g in tax is worth more than a one-turn celebration. Indians and Russians attack with little effect, Russian settler takes Sythia and gunpowder. I didn't think settlers could attack. Steam engine>Railroad.

460 - Khitai spice Hyperborea(n) 121. Vendhya gold Satsuma 672. Zembabwei copper Darfar 356. Aesgaard gold Makkalet(n) 189. Wan Tengri founded in striking range of Kyoto. Madras bought for 300+171+phalanx+Oracle. Bangalore bought for 198+77+archer. Lahore found, diplomat and marines encircle. Rush 4 marines in the maze, 2 dips near Japan. Revolution! (Oops, log got messed up and thought it was 480 still, didn't mean to go to anarchy again.) Rush to 2037g, saving some for purchases next turn. Ony a few dips built.

440 - Fundy. Russian settler relocated to hell, New Sythia founded and defended. Smolensk and StPete assaulted with insufficient force to capture. Lahore bought for 124+120+phalanx, Indian civilization destroyed. Kyoto captured+175+Great Wall. Bought Edo for 396+157+archer+barracks. Shem silver Osaka(n) 122. Satsuma bought for 372+140+barracks+legion. Osaka bought for 464+168+4 troops. Brythunia copper Kagoshima 204, Zemb silver Kago(n) 208, Kagoshima captured by amphibious assault+145g. Japan has under 1000g now, and the newly conquered cities are not in unrest so I'll rush dips there. Troops arrive in Russia next turn, so rushing dips there too. Democracy, Vanaheim silver Hyrkania 472, Xapur gold Hyrkania(n) 98, Turan gold Makkalet(n) 116, Zingara gold Makkalet(n) 124, Fundy. 1738g. Various dips, harbors, vans. Railroad cancels HG>Electricity.

420 - Nara revolts for 396+392+phalanx,barracks,market. Nagoya revolts for 156+109+legion. Izumo revolts for 144+84+legion+settler. Japanese civilization destroyed. Kiev revolts for 621+141+phalanx+musket+settler+granary. Smolensk revolts for 567+111+musket. Moscow located, it is size 3. Galparan, Yota Pong, Peshkhauri founded in India. Surplus caravans in Khemi+800g complete Darwin's Voyage. Tech cost 1872. One more revolution. Khemi completes Darwin, Electricity>Industrialization>Corporation. Leo's upgrades all galleons to transports, etc.

400 - Fundy. Moscow captured+103g. StPete bought for 198+Cope's+111+musket. Russian civilization destroyed. Democracy, tax rate 0.10.0. Military disbanded where necessary to increase happiness. Ayodhya, Yanyoga, Akhlat, Abombi founded. Argos silver Cimmeria 268. Various other piddling caravans.

Final score xxxx (xxxpop+xxxach-xxbarb, xxx wonders), xx%. 40 transports, 30 caravans, 21 riflemen upgraded from purchased units. Discoveries every 666 turns.

Please don't mention your score in the spoiler thread. It's the only thing you should keep secret.

Russian settler takes Sythia and gunpowder. I didn't think settlers could attack.
They cannot attack but they can walk into a city and take it. So can explorers.

Note for all the new GOTM players. It's ok to describe your game as we did in this thread. But please do not mention your score....so there is still some excitement to wait for the results.
Thanks.

Agreed. Also do not reveal your exact end date unless it is clear you are not a contender for the Green star.

I promised some extra info from my saves.

Status at -3000
Population: 0.02M; Cities: 2; Trade routes: 0D0F; Government: Depotism
Gold: 31; Cost per turn: 0; Total advances: 7; Production: 6; 0 polluted tiles
Wonders:
Units: 3 settlers (1 None), 1 Horsemen, 1 Elephant, 2 Trireme

Left the labyrinth around 2400bc

Status at -2000
Population: 0.43M; Cities: 10; Trade routes: 0D0F; Government: Monarchy
Gold: 76; Cost per turn: 0; Total advances: 20; Production: 30; 0 polluted tiles
Wonders: Marco
Units: 1 warrior, 1 Legion, 1 Horsemen, 2 Elephant, 14 Trireme, 3 Caravan

Japan and Spanish are destroyed.

Status at -1520
Population: 0.83M; Cities: 23; Trade routes: 0D0F; Government: Monarchy
Gold: 372; Cost per turn: 0; Total advances: 22; Production: 60; 0 polluted tiles
Wonders: Marco, Lighthouse
Units: 1 settler, 1 warrior, 1 Legion, 8 Elephant, 18 Trireme, 1 Caravan

If got around 11 cities in the labyrinth to move faster through it...

Attacked Japanese first and the Spanish.
Then two groups attacked. First group conquered southern civs and the other the northern civs.