After hanging out at Civfanatics for a week reading about Civ3, I finally convinced my wife that it was, in fact, an expense absolutely necessary for survival. Because I so enjoyed reading about everyone’s first game in the thankfully short period of time I was without it, I thought I was write up my first game to share as well. So, without further ado….

Settings: Large world, continents, 3 billion years old, with regular moisture but a cold climate. 8 opponents including myself, with me as the Romans and everyone else as random. Raging hordes of barbarians. Started at regent level, where supposedly everyone is equal. After all, it’s just an AI, right?

4000 BC – Caesar is appointed emperor of the Roman tribe. The tribe settles immediately and forms the city of Rome. We set to work training warriors while our worker builds roads outward, scouting for new city sites.

3000 BC – Rome has been busy, producing warriors and a new settler. The city of Veii has been founded south of Rome along a river, and various minor tribes have been contacted. One tribe gave us gold, another joined warriors to our cause, but most have been unfriendly and have attacked, giving our warriors experience.

2800 BC – The Japanese have been encountered, far to the west of our empire. We traded Alphabet and Warrior Code for Ceremonial Burial and the Wheel. Rome continues to pump out settlers just as fast as it can, and new cities are being laid out in a vague circle around Rome. Our scouts have found a large jungle ringed by mountains to the north, and an ocean to the east. The jungle has rare spices that our people crave, and I hope to build a city there one day.

2500 BC – More minor tribes are contacted, but these are more helpful, yielding Masonry and Bronze Working. We have discovered the Greeks to the south, and traded with them for knowledge. Armed with Bronze Working, a few cities begin to train Spearmen to defend my empire.

2350 BC – Learn Mysticism from the Estruscans. The Roman Empire has been expanding as fast as the will of the emperor can drive it, but Roman wise men are horribly slow. No matter how much support he offers or what he chooses to research, the sages say it will take ages and ages. He has elected to reduce science spending and research iron working, in the hopes of improving our army. Currently, our forces lack offensive power. Archers are effective against barbarians, but the generals feel Japanese spearmen or Greek hoplites would repel them easily. An exhaustive search has revealed no horses in Roman territory. We must simply hope we have iron.

2000 BC – Some overpaid academician writes “The Largest Civilizations in the World…” The Roman assembly cowers in terror at the rage of the Emperor upon reading it. The Pathetic Romans?!? The rage passes, but privately the Emperor is concerned that in spite of his best efforts, he remains one of the smallest civilizations in the world. Our only comfort is that the Greeks are even worse off.

1525 BC – A Russian scout wanders into our territory. We trade for Pottery and Horseback Riding. It is unfortunate that we can’t trade maps. The southern and eastern boundaries of our land have been largely explored, but the north and the west are mostly unknown.

1500 BC – The sages report that Iron Working is only a few hundred years away. Roman warriors have scouted the Greek lands and tell us that the Greeks have no horses either, only some rare gems. They are located on a large peninsula but have been largely cut off from expanding onto the main continent by our empire. While they still have plenty of land mass, our scouts tell us that it is almost all barren tundra. There is much speculation among the imperial advisors that the Greeks may be easy pickings once Rome acquires Legions. The Japanese are somewhere to the west and don’t seem to be much a threat, but the military advisor seems impressed by their army. In celebration of our great accomplishments, the emperor has announced a mighty project to be undertaken in Rome; the Pyramids. The city will toil for generations before the work is complete, however. Expansion of the empire will slow considerably.

1300 BC – At long last, Roman alchemists discover Iron Working! Glory to the empire! But this triumph brings an unpleasant discovery; there is no iron within our current borders. The scouts have located a source, but it is many hundreds of miles to the southwest, near the expanding border of the Japanese. The emperor has made his will clear; the Japanese must not be allowed to capture it! A general assembly is called to the Roman palace (recently renovated) and nearly every resource in the empire is redirected to secure the ore. Workers begin carving a road across the desert, and two settlers originally designated for the eastern coast are reassigned to expand the empire westward. Several warriors who were scouting the Greek peninsula have been ordered to form a makeshift garrison. One badly wounded warrior running around the top half of the continent finds the Sarmatian, a peaceful, isolated group who give us the secret of Philosophy. Unfortunately, the wise men predict it will be hundreds of years until we learn Polytheism.

1125 BC – We have located the Russians…they are thousands of miles away, in the northwest corner of the continent. It seems we will not be neighbors for some time. This suits the emperor well. His advisors believe the Russians would be troublesome neighbors. Happily, the city of Pompei has been founded and is harvesting rare spices in the jungle for consumption by the empire. This could not come at a more welcome time. The populace of Rome is furious at the fact that they have no temple, and the rioting in the streets has gotten out of hand recently. The emperor refuses to abandon his dream of the Pyramids, so we must all try to endure.

1025BC – Treacherous dog! A messenger arrived today and informed us that unless the Roman Empire surrenders the secrets of Philosophy immediately, the Japanese will march against us! A furious debate broke out in the assembly in response. Many called to reject the threat, claiming that we could match the Japanese on the battlefield and arguing that the Holy Roman Empire must not be subjected to such humiliation. But privately, most agree that we must submit. That the Empire is divine none can deny, but it is also without iron. The Japanese have been building closer and closer to it, though we do not believe they know of its existence. In the end, the emperor decides that caution will rule the day. Let Tokugawa taste his victory today. Once the iron is ours, we will turn it to ashes in his mouth.

1000 BC - Livy writes “The Wealthiest Nations of the World.” The Roman Empire is first! However, the consensus is that this is meaningless, since we have little use for gold other than as a bargaining chip with other nations.

800 BC – At long last, our settlers have establish Ravenna, the City of Iron. But the road to Rome is not yet complete, so the Empire still lacks this resource. In addition, the Japanese have expanded dangerously. Edo and Nagasaki are dangerously close to our latest settlement. The scars of his insult still burn, and we long to crush him, but his army is far more powerful than ours.

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To be continued...

That was damn good. As a fellow Roman, let me say that once you have the resources to build our glorious Legions, the Japanese barbarians will suffer violent death at the hands of the Empire! (or are you going for a republic?)

To survive as a Roman, you must, must MUST have legions. They are the ultimate fighting unit in the ancient era. Just watch out for those accursed hoplites - they're not worth the effort to destroy, and it's pretty hard to crush them without a crapload of catapults.

man, i don't know about u caesars, but as for me, my immediate neighbour was the Greek and the Egyptians....somehow, I had more culture than Egypt + i had better military (LEGIONS ROCK!)
...Greeks were another story...I had to separate my attack force of about 1 army of 3 elite legions, 2 elite legions, 4 catapaults, 3 horseman, and 10 vet/reg legions into 2 force cuz after i killed off and kept all egyptians, the greeks started to piss me off...and I couldn't get at them, even with my elite legions sometimes+ those bastards had like 3 hopilites per city......after attacking again and again for about 900+ years of war now, they have but 1 city left! they shall pay the ultimate price!! Whahaha!! Oh btw, the reason i had to split the attack force was to keep the japanese at bay...those freaks tried like 4 times to occupy MY land...:mad:

My fear is that I won't be able to reach too many civs to take advantage of my great library...and another prob is that the war has slowed my research (along with corruption) that it's like 1200AD and I'm only researching invention :eek: I fear that either Americans or some bloody expansionists are gonna whoop my :love: legions......this game is awesome...:goodjob: FIRAXIS!!

p.s. plz start the patch....preferably finish b4 december plz? ;)

Yeah... we Japanese are a tenacious bunch. After beating the most powerful civ on my continent (at the time), the Indians, I couldn't help but notice how nice it would look if the continent was all the same color... Dark Red (my color). With the help of my Samurai i completely smashed the northern germans and English, then went on to destroy the Russians in the south. By the time i finishedt his war of conquest, France had developed musketeers (with MY saltpeter, i might add :mad: ) i found samurai to be much less effective than they were before. They were still great for defending but had a much tougher time taking over enemy cities.

The french resistance was very tough culture-wise. The first few cities i took kept throwing me out, which was very annoying. It took about fifty years to remove them completely from the continent.

After I completely erased their civ from the continent and their little island retreat, i set my sights on the romans. This time, however, i took my time to build up my forces, and contact other civilizations across the sea, so i could trade with them and make money to finance my war. By this time, it was the late middle ages, early industrial age and i discovered military tradition. With a squadron of cavalry i had little trouble over running the Roman's claim on my continent.

Woops! sorry got carried away... in short, JAPANESE OWN0R$ J00!!! Dont take too long in putting off the war with Japan... The value of multiple movement points couldnt be understated enough.

Once they get samurai, you can consider yourself crippled as far as warding off any attacks is concerned. The samurai escape from slower opponents just before they die, and then are given time to heal once they get back outside your borders. Its very difficult to retaliate toward foes like this, unless you have knights. Even then the knights will have to match their 4 attack power against hte samurai's 4 defense power. Dont forget that you have to factor in the environmental modifiers :D

I'm definately looking to capitolize on the Legion while I can. I don't think I'll be able to do anything about the Russians and Iroquis, they're just too far away. And the Greeks have that annoyingly tough Hoplite, so overrunning them in the ancient era may be difficult. Fortunately, I've already checked the Greek expansion. But I think I'm going to try and hit the Japanese just as soon as I get iron for Legions. I probably won't be able to wipe them out, but hopefully I can maul them nicely. If not..well..I'll just have to make sure they never get any iron... :groucho:

What I really need is time to play! Babies are great but they really cut into computer gaming time. Oh well. I should get some time tonight. Long live the empire!

Sorry for the delay folks, here's the next chapter...


800 BC – A messenger arrived from Alexander, claiming he could put us in contact with an envoy from a new civilization, the Iroquois, for Horseback Riding. The general assembly could hardly contain the collective snicker his offer evoked. What good are riders to a civilization with no horses? Needless to say, his offer was accepted, and negotiations were held with Hiawatha. These proved fruitful, yielding Code of Laws. The cartographers also got hold of his world map, and confirmed a suspicion that our generals have held for some time: the Japanese have no iron, though they do have horses.

700 BC – The emperor has miscalculated. While Ravenna is strategically located, it does not have sufficient culture to work the iron. The assembly has ordered that a temple be constructed to compensate for this, Ravenna is far from Rome, and local officials are notorious for hijacking production for their own projects. Temple construction is going nowhere. On a better note, though, horses have been discovered near Ravenna, and the empire now teems with stables. Some nobles are even raising divisions of mounted soldiers!

470 BC – We have just received word that a fantastic wonder has been raised in Salamanca. Rumors team of a beautiful Oracle that can communicate with the Gods themselves. Roman clerics were outraged, for they had hoped to acquire an Oracle of their own, but the emperor is not overly concerned. For him it is enough to watch the Pyramids creep towards the sky. We have also received word that the master smith Chares has taken up residence in Neapolis, and is busy construction an enormous statue.

There is another reason for his apathy at the Iroquois accomplishment. A colony has been established near Ravenna, bypassing the need for culture in the border settlement. Iron now flows to Roman blacksmiths, and nearly every governor has been ordered to produce Legionaries. Tokugawa will soon regret his mistake.

300 BC – The hour of reckoning is at hand. It has been discovered that Tokugawa is hoarding the secret of Construction. General Orestes, at the head of 5000 Legionaries, approached the city of Edo and demanded that Tokugawa reveal this information. In response, Tokugawa ordered the governor of Edo to seal the gates and defend the city. The Japanese fought valiantly, but bronze spears proved no match for the iron weapons of the legions. The defenders of Edo were smashed aside and the Empire entered a golden age!

280 BC – Tokugawa has paid Catherine to declare war on us. The Russians are far, far away, but the emperor does not like the idea of a Russian army showing up at an inopportune moment. For a small price, Hiawatha was convinced to attack Catherine, and as his forces are far closer, it is hoped that those two mighty empires will keep each other occupied. Even the most ambitious of generals have no intention of the Roman army attacking Russia. The logistics are impossible.

260 BC – The Japanese army has been sighted, streaming over the hills towards Ravenna. It appears they will try to cut the supply of iron to the empire! Their numbers are impressive, but our generals scoff at the quality of their troops, which consist largely of archers and warriors. Horsemen and more legions move to intercept them.

200 BC – Battle rages in the hills around Ravenna. Our troops held fast, but they could not stop the sheer numbers of the enemy from pillaging the road to Rome. In a moment of poor judgment, the commander of the spearmen assigned to protect the iron colony moved to block a strategic pass to the enemy, but the move was a diversion, and the colony was sacked. 15000 men have been mobilized to retake the hills so that the road may be repaired at the colony rebuild.

150 BC – News of victory comes cheap these days. Both Simonoseki and Izumo now pay tribute to Caesar, and Edo has been quelled. 30000 legionaries march towards Nagasaki and Tokyo, and the Japanese army has been smashed at Ravenna. Tokugawa scrambles to reorganize his defenses, but it is hopeless. The Legions are divine!

130 BC – Tokugawa is more cunning than we had suspected. Thinking the Japanese were locked in full retreat, the bulk of the army moved to capture new territory. But yesterday our scouts reported a second army, moving on the lightly defended city of Cumae, looking to pierce the sadly underdefended heart of the Holy Empire. Every available man has been drafted to fight this new battle, but it is feared few defenders can reach the city in time.

110 BC – Glory to the men of the 7th Legion! May their souls sing the praises of the Caesar for all eternity, as they carry their banner through the heavens! Alone they faced the horde at Cumae, and though they fell to a man, they held the attackers at bay long enough for reinforcements to arrive! The empire is saved!

It truly is a golden age. In Neapolis, a mighty statue now stands guard over the harbor, a symbol to the world of Roman dominance. A new source of iron has been found to the north, and as the campaign in west comes to a close, a city will be built to harvest it. Nagasaki has been captured, and the legions close on Tokyo, the city of dyes. The few remnants of the Japanese army flee towards the mountains, but will surely be destroyed soon.

And Hiawatha, friend of the empire, has proved once again his usfulness. Not only have his armies prevented the vile Russians from interfering in our campaign against Japan, but he has sold us a treasure trove of technology, including currency, construction, and literature. Roman fashion has changed, and turbans are now in vogue. There is a dangerous current to all this...in certain secret meetings, learned men have begun to debate the idea of a Republic. The emperor has strictly forbidden such talk, and this has muffled public discussion, but the subject continues to surface in the parlors of the wealthy...

Great Story! Keep up the good work, I'm hanging to your every word (five more days, five more days. I'm gonna make it, I'm gonna make it).

Is there anything you don't like about the game? I've heard the loading times can get...well... a little slow. And what about corruption, I've heard that's bad too. (so what about it huh huh huh? I'm a demanding guy aren't I?)

The corruption is pretty bad, also strategic resources are unrealisticly scare, and there are no fascist or fundamentalist govs but all that can be fixed with modpacks or you can fix it yourself. Word of warning though. From what I've heard the fascist patch is somewhat unbalanced so you might want to either make your own Fasacist gov or use Kino's modified version near the end of the first page in the Fascist Patch thread. Well it's getting kinda late so I'm gonna go to bed, Good night!

Great story telling Little Raven, keep it up :goodjob: :goodjob: :goodjob:

Thanks for all the encouragement, I'm about to go continue Roman conquest...

Before I do, though, I thought I'd answer Pretzel's question. I haven't found too much to complain about yet. I don't think I've ever had the game crash on me, and load times haven't been bad at all. (course, I have a 1.3 gig computer with 256 megs of RAM) The AI does still seem to randomly move his troops around a lot, so watching the enemy moce can be a little annoying, but it's no worse than Civ II. So far, the new borders have worked like a charm for me; I love the way I've cut the greeks off from expanding any further into the good land. :p

As for corruption, well, there's a whole lot more of it than there was in Civ II. Personally, though, I think that's a good thing. History shows us that until relatively recent times, huge empires have suffered from massive amounts of corruption. To my mind, the new corruption rules bring a new element to the game. Bigger is not always better. I haven't played enough to feel comfortable giving a final verdict, but so far, you'll get no complaints from me about corruption.

One thing I am ready to rave about is the new AI and the "feeling" of war. The combat system that everyone is complaining about on the general board hasn't felt broken yet, but of course I'm not driving tanks around yet either. You can tilt the odds of a battle your way, but you can never be entirely sure you're going to win. (another nice touch) I had a Japanese archer in the hills kill an attacking Legionary, for instance. But the vast majority of the time, Legionaries killed archers quite dead. Combat seems ok. And the AI....WOW! So much better!! I crushed Civ II at King and Emperor all the time, and now, I think I'm going to have a tough game just at Prince. Lovely! Even though I had vastly better troops than Tokugawa, he still made the war painful by targetting my underside. War is now a dirty, messy business, even if you are much more powerful than your opponent. I'm definately going to have to get used to the new rules about ZOC, though. That bit me in the tail a couple of times. Ah well, live and learn. Ok, I'm off to write more of the history of the empire! Look for a new chapter soon!

Thanks! :D From what I've heard, corruption has more of an affect on cities far away from the capital. Now, I agree with what you said about not being able to manage a huge empire effectively, but isn't this going to make militarily dominating the world a little difficult ( I haven't played civ before, and as such I don't know whether you have to control the whole world or two thirds or what) ?

Death to the Japanese! (Four more days)

Just like to say its a great story, nice one Little Raven.

Ahhhh!!! Post the rest of your story b4 i go crazy!!!

Agreed.

My sympathy to the people of New York.


To win a hundred victories in a hundred battles is not the highest of excellence.
To subjugate the enemy's army without doing battle is the highest of excellence.

70 BC – A runner arrived two weeks ago bearing wonderful news. Tokyo, the stronghold of the infidel Tokugawa, has been captured by 9th and 12th Legions. Caravans laden with the wealth of the Japanese empire now journey to Rome, and it is said that the lacquered wood of Tokugawa’s palace smoldered for a full month after Imperial troops put it to flame. The governor of Tokyo was smeared with wax and pitch, then hung from a chain above the city gates and set alight for the entertainment of the Legions. Glory to the empire!

There is other news as well. The horde that dared threaten Cumae was surrounded by Roman armies in the foothills to the northwest of the city. Though they dug themselves in like badgers, they were no match for the Legions and horsemen they faced. One by one they were forced from their hiding places and ruthlessly destroyed. Now, though he escaped the rape of Tokyo, Tokugawa has no armies with which to threaten us.

The palace is once again buzzing with activity as another grand meeting of the assembly has been called. Many are calling for a stop to the war with the Japanese, even though several cities of theirs remain independent. They worry that the empire is becoming too large and decentralized, lacking the infrastructure it needs to hold itself together. There are no roads to Tokyo, which prevents the valuable dyes it holds from finding their way to Roman markets. The scholars complain that we have no libraries, and the merchants that we have no marketplaces. Our Legions are strong but weary from war. They must be given a chance to recover.

30 BC – The doves have won, this time at least. The emperor has dispatched a message to Tokugawa, offering to end hostilities on the condition that the Japanese pay five gold of tribute each season and give up all claims on territory lost during the war. Tokugawa is evil and stubborn, but not stupid. The Roman empire shall once again know peace.

But that is not why the historians will remember this day. After thousands of years of backbreaking labor, the dream of the Emperor has finally been realized. The Pyramids stand tall over Rome, a shimmering monument of white limestone and gold leaf. Some scholars lament the fact that the Emperor did not choose to build the Great Library instead, but even the staunchest of critics is silenced by the awesome majesty of the great tombs. Now Rome is truly the jewel of the world!

10 AD – The empire drinks deep from the goblet of success. Roman wise men has perfected the idea of a Republic, a new type of government. This knowledge has brought vast wealth to the empire, as Alexander, Hiawatha, and Catherine have all paid many hundreds of gold pieces for the secret. Hiawatha also disclosed Monotheism, which is of great interest to us because it could help us develop Chivalry. Slaves toil across the empire, building roads, mines, and farms. The nobles amuse themselves with lavish and decadent parties.

There is a rumor that some of the outlying governors have taken the idea of a republic to heart and are threatening to rebel against the emperor. Obviously, the idea is madness, but a few extra troops have been dispatched just in case.

50 AD – Woe to the empire of Rome! To imagine that one could fall from such lofty heights into the chaos which now engulfs us all! The Golden Age is over, and darkness looms on the horizon!

The rumors were true! The only falsehood was their scope! Across the lands, nobles gather private armies and openly rebel against imperial rule! Angry mobs roam the streets, looting and desecrating imperial property. Loyal governors across the empire flee for their lives. At Pompeii, a loyalist general was grilled alive for leading the Palace Guard against the mob. And at Cumae, a city which venerates the 7th Imperial Legion, the governor was sewn into a wild bear skin and tossed into a pit of rabid dogs for refusing to tear down the Imperial Seal! Across the lands there is only anguish and anarchy, with no end in sight.


150 AD – For a hundred years, the lands of Rome have known only death and chaos. But finally, a new order has emerged. The general assembly was called, and the nobles, worn out by centuries of constant warfare, agreed to lay down their petty squabbles and attend. Out of that meeting a new power structure was formed. No longer an empire, the nation of Rome is now a Republic! Merchants across the empire are overjoyed, and trade flourishes as never before. Wise men study the art of Chivalry, hoping to add new potency to the Roman armies. To celebrate this new beginning, the Speaker has ordered that the wealth of the former empire be returned to the people. Temples have been rushed across the empire, especially in cities captured from the Japanese. Infrastructure continues to grow, and at long last a road is completed to bring Japanese dyes to the Roman elite.

:cry: Please. Don't stop. Pleeeeeeeeeeeease. :sad:

To win a hundred victories in a hundred battles is not the highest of excellence.
To subjugate the enemy's army without doing battle is the highest of excellence.