The Nickzilla AAR!

You are doing a good job thinking big picture about future wars and diplo but your land is so underdeveloped. In 640AD you still haven't improved a sheep tile IN YOUR CAPITAL! Not only that, but you are working the unimproved sheep instead of the obviously superior clam tile! And for the love of God whip a lighthouse in Bibracte! This is not to mention all the riverside forests just hanging out doing nothing. Its time to go back to basics and hire a new Secretary of the Interior. 1.5 workers per city PLEASE!!

ROUND 3.5 900 AD- 1180 AD

The last half of round 3 sees growth with very little in the form of setbacks, and a touching act of faith on my behalf.

900 AD

I finish construction and decide to start on civil service.



Civil Service is an awesome tech. When I get Machinery, it will allow me to build macemen. As soon as it's finished it will allow me to take on the Bureaucracy civic which will make my capital stronger.

I'm not sure about this bit, but it also allows farms to spread irrigation. Unless I'm mistaken, irrigated farms give an extra point of food. If my workers find themselves really bored, I'll start making farm paths to certain food resources to increase the food they yield. I doubt I'll get that chance since my workers have so much to do though.

With a Saladin invasion off the cards, I decide to lay the foundations for the second Sino/Celtic war against Mao. Those macemen I'll be getting soon will be very helpful...

920 AD

Almost sensing I've ruled out an invasion of his territory, Saladin comes to me offering open borders. I accept his offer and hope that he wants to move settlers past my borders into the cringeworthy tundra spots and not scout me out for invasion.

940 AD

Catching wind of Saladin's success, Roosevelt comes looking for open borders. I decline his offer since he's unpopular, far away and quite weak. I have no real incentive to risk angering the major players for the small bonuses open borders with the USA would provide.

960 AD

Even though he's done nothing but pile Confucius missionaries into my territory, I still fear invasion from Saladin. I attempt to safeguard myself from him by converting to Confucianism. This puts me in hot water with the other world powers (especially Suryavarman) but they aren't the current game tech leader, and they also aren't right next to me.

I hope this gamble doesn't backfire.

1000 AD



The great scientist Mikhail Lomonosov is born in Bibracte. In real life, he apparently discovered the atmosphere of Venus. In this game, I'm going to use him to discover Philosophy. I'd love to use him to build an academy, but I really do need to keep up to date with tech, and Philosophy should get me some technological plunder.

1010 AD

The usually cool Roosevelt does something totally SQUARE and begs for Calendar. I tell him to go away since he has perfectly good techs to trade for it.



Cry me a river Franklin.

Meanwhile, my new friend offers me a much better deal:


Looks like that cat is stuck in the tree again.

and no, I don't think I'm in contention for the Liberalism race. Despite vast improvements to my infrastructure, my GNP is still tiny.

Civil Service is done next turn.

1030 AD

It takes a turn longer than expected but I get Civil Service. I start on Engineering and kickstart my research with a turn of anarchy as I adopt Bureaucracy and Hereditary Rule.

1040 AD

I upgrade two of my best Gallic warriors on Mao's border to macemen. I hear his archers and chariots saying their prayers.

1050 AD



I declare war on Mao once again and knock my science down for a turn so I can afford to upgrade Tolosa's garrison to a maceman.

1060 AD

I did in one turn what I couldn't do in about 13 turns last time and take Nanjing:


I lost two Gallic warriors in the fighting, but my maces are okay. One of them was even promoted! He's now CR3 and has cover.


1070 AD

Staring at the trapped kitty with nothing but contempt, the heartless Suryavarman comes to me demanding Machinery.



I give it to him and it gives me a healthy +3 to relations with him, taking him to cautious. Hopefully, it'll keep the ugly Khmer emperor from my door for a while.

Meanwhile, Mao tries to counterattack Nanjing with an archer. The archer kills the axeman who took the city, but my mediscout held it for another turn which allowed reinforcements to pile in.

1110 AD

A great general named Chandragupta Maurya is born in Bibracte during a brawl between some of Mao's archers and my Gallic warriors. In real life, he was the founder of the Maurya Empire and united most of the Indian subcontinent. In my game, he's going to get my mediscout the Medic III promotion.



In case anybody is wondering why I'm using a scout as a medic, it's because he's weak, so won't be attacked as often as my troops. He can also move two spaces, so he can keep up with all of my military units.

If you want to expand on this idea, you can use an explorer since they start with Woodman I and Guerrilla I promotions. Woodsman III grants even more healing, so it's worth getting if you can.

1120 AD

I trade Civil Service to Asoka for Feudalism. Longbows will come in handy when I'm locking down my stolen Chinese cities.

1140 AD

I discover Engineering:


This for me is one of my favourite warmongering techs. I'll usually begin my first invasion of a neighbour when I get it. Additional movement on roads and the ability to build castles and trebuchets make warmongering 100x easier for me.

I start on Guilds so I can build knights (as soon as I get horseback riding from somewhere) and grocers.



I trade my silk and wine to a distracted Suryavarman for his gems and spices. My cities are actually getting big enough for happiness to be a slight issue now. I'm also selling rice to Saladin and Asoka for 3 and 4 gold per turn respectively. I'll have to cancel and renegotiate those deals when they have a bit more money.

1160 AD

My eyes water as Saladin comes to me begging for Engineering:



Even though I just got the powerful tech of engineering, Saladin is the tech leader in this game. He's more powerful than me, he has a better economy than me, he's more cultured than me and worst of all, I've cut off his expansion so he has every incentive to invade me.

With all this in mind, I turn him away by mistake. ugh.

1170 AD

I very nearly lose the city of Verlamion to a couple of stray Chinese chariots. Thankfully, I whip a pikeman out just in time to see them both off. I'd blow my top if I lost that city twice in one game.

1180 AD



It appears that our friend Mr Asoka has built the Apostolic Palace. The only thing I care about that heap of crap doing is forcing peace between me and Mao. I vote for Asoka to improve relations, so hopefully he'll keep my interests in mind when proposing resolutions.

Meanwhile, my army finally find themselves at Beijing's doorstep. The defences have been bombed down, but still need work. It's annoying how it took me over 100 years to march about two spaces, but my men had a lot of healing to do. I can't wait for that medic III unit.



After Beijing falls, Mao will become a chore rather than a threat.

I decide to end the round at this point.

*EDIT*

Fixed the mistakes with screenshots.

ROUND 3 - POSTGAME

Since my posts have too many images, this collection of screens and summary will have to become a separate post.

Firstly, the world as we know it:



When I mentioned invading Saladin earlier, I meant fighting through Baghdad AND THEN Medina to cut off supplies to Basra and Najran. Given my situation then, I'm glad I didn't go ahead with it.

I'm assembling a small army at the city of Hangzhou at the moment. They will hopefully take the city and move to Shanghai, but I'll probably have to bring my main stack up to take the city once Beijing and Guangzhou fall since it's so heavily defended.

Note to self: destroy Visigoth.

Now, my cities. As always, we start with Bibracte:


This is going to be quite a good specialist city, I think. I love that great person pool. I hope it doesn't automatically assign a spy or something when I'm not looking. Is there a way to stop only certain cities from assigning your population to things?

Next is Vienne:



I like this city, but it's annoying how Baghdad's culture swallowed my second goldmine. The lost Oasis is also annoying. Hopefully I'll get a great engineer and I can create a wonder in here for bonus culture to push him back.

Or maybe I'll invade and knock the stupid city down.

Now for Tolosa:



I guess I'll put lumbermills in those forests and let it grow to whatever it can using those boring coast/ocean tiles. It was never a very good spot anyway, so I don't care too much about it.

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me present to you, Gergovia!!!:


This is a good city. There's room for two more cottages down there. I'll have to remember to get my workers on it.

SAXON!!!:



Another cottage city with a lot of recently cleared forests. I should have made it a production city since it's so close to Pacal.

Celtic occupied Xian:


ha, poor old Mao. I bet he lost all hope when I took this from him. I was heavily fearing a Chinese counterattack on this city, but it never came even though I took the time to build a longbowman there.

With only one hill and a copper mine, I don't regret making this a cottage city. But I can't shake the nagging feeling that I need a production city on the border with Pacal. Hopefully turning Beijing into hammer central will be enough.

It needs some work but I can't really get workers through safely at the moment thanks to the war on Mao. I'll have to see if I can weedle some through somehow using an escort or something.

The once demolished Verlamion:



God, I'm such a cottage freak. haha.

The empire's best kept secret, Durnovaria!:



It's our best kept secret because it's so crappy we don't want anybody to know about it. At it's peak, it will probably house two Windmills, two cottages and a lumbermill. At least the fish may allow me to put a specialist on. I can't remember at the moment.

No shot of Nanjing. It's revolted twice already and is currently in anarchy. Once it reaches Xians level, I'll let you people see it.

The all important power graph:



I'm not too far behind Saladin, and hopefully my power will snowball with my conquests. That should make him think twice about invading me. Sadly, I have no info on any other opponents, but once courthouses and castles are up everywhere I'm sure it will pop up.

I think my espionage points are on the Hindus at the moment. I'll have to change that if I want intel on anybody else.

Demographics:



The GNP makes for really painful reading. The rest I am quite happy with.

Tech screen:


I'm just keeping my head above water with tech really. It looks like Suryavarman is the new tech leader, which will probably mean he leads in everything now.

This is going to make the Celtic eastern question very hard to answer.

In summary, this went from a horrible nightmare game to a highly enjoyable one in a few thousand years. I think I have a shot at winning now, but I need to think long and hard about where I'm going to push once Chairman Mao is no longer with us. East or West?

Pushing east through Pacal is going to be a pushover. He's weak and technologically backwards. The only problem is that invading him will anger the superpower Suryavarman and leave my cities with a skeleton crew which will fall easily to an potential Arabic invasion that I still fear.

Pushing west through Saladin seems like the better idea. He is more powerful than me, but with the Baghdad plan, that advantage will probably be negated. He has a holy city which may prove to be a solid money spinner, and if I drop Confucianism, I can hopefully patch things up with Roosevelt and Asoka who currently dislike me thanks to my questionable faith.

Saladin has been a good neighbour to me really. We've traded tech and resources and if I can get him on my side, we can push east together. But the richness of his land and his enormous capital are too tempting to resist.

Either way, I'm going to get castles and larger longbow garrisons on all my border cities. It's a happy time for me, but also a tense one. Hopefully I won't be bogged down in China for too long.

Next round might be played tonight and written up tomorrow. If I have any sense at all, I'll do them both tomorrow, but insomniacs aren't really sensible.

Thanks for reading everybody. Let me know what you think.

If Saladin is pleased, you are safe on the W front. He doesn't declare war at pleased and actually has one of the highest peace prob (70) at cautious. You are running his religion and he's a big zealot, so he's probably close to friendly.

This means you can focus on the eastern front and pick Saladin's fate later.
I think Sury's the main threat. Can't see his empire but he's the tech leader and a total jerk. Be careful, as his BuildUnitProb is right below guys like Shaka and Genghis. At tech parity, he can easily become a huge problem.

That's interesting. He's cautious with me atm. I think the modifiers are +2 for religon, +1 for lasting peace vs -1 for me turning his demand down and -1 for close borders.

With time he'll get the open borders bonus and a higher religion one I think.

I had almost certainly decided that I was going ahead with 'the Baghdad plan' since Mecca is ridiculously juicy and only two cities away from Vienne. I was going to beat Saladin then team up with Asoka, since I don't think we have any - diplomatic modifiers (aside from religion).

But you're right about Suryavarman. I've actually been killed by him before, so I know how he can invade you.

I probably won't be doing a round tonight so I have plenty of time to think about it at least.

Then it's a bit trickier. You aren't safe on either front.
If you want to invade Saladin, adopt Hinduism. It's pointless to run a religion shared by your next target and nobody else. Hinduism is the safest bet here. At this point you probably are Pacal's worst enemy for diff religion, border tension and war vs friend (Mao). I wouldn't feel comfortable attacking Saladin with Pacal (and likely Sury bribed later) ready to backstab on the opposite front.

I'd adopt hinduism AND organized religion to push sury to friendly (fav civic+shared religion, wich is usually big with him). Maybe even hereditary rule, wich is Pacal's fav civic.

Anyway, pick a side and stick to it:
- if war vs Salad, go hindu and possibly fav civics of Sury and Pacal
- if war vs Pacal, stay confu and push Salad to pleased

Asoka doesn't look so hot to team with. Backward, far away, probably small and enemy of the big dog.
Either way you pick, finish Mao asap.

Give Saladin everything, except if he demands Astronomy. Then turn him down - gaining a cheap diplo modifier is not worth sacrificing the extra continent. As of now, however, you're only slightly behind you in power, has plenty of other easy targets who he hates more, and has a nice high peace prob. Pacal does hate you, however, so keep troops massed in the border. I doubt he'll declare, though, unless he overtakes you in power. Even if he does, you can win it.

Nice job on the China front. I like how you took my "Stack of Laughter" to heart. The second stack was much better, although I have to ask: Where's the siege? I like to have at least a 1:1 ratio siege to melee units when seige is available. Even higher when cannons and artillery come into play. Stripping the cultural defense is worth the hammers alone, but the collateral damage is amazing.

You don't really have a production city, do you? Saxon and Tolosa should be filled to the brim with lumberhouses (Once those come into play), watermills and farms, and build nothing but units. Saxon looks like a good Moai site, too.

Finally, the tech race. Why give up on liberalism? The way I see it, Sury only has one relatively cheap tech on you, and he's probably not even researching education. You could get paper and education ASAP, and probably grab liberalism. Then, what you do next depends on what you get from the Biberacte. If you get the Engineer, put him to sleep, get Nationalism for free, have him rush it, and research Astronomy in the golden age. If you get a scientist, trade for compass, use him to bulb education, research optics, and get liberalism easily for Astronomy.

Awesome.

Do you have xfire or MSN messenger? Anything like that?

btw, I played round 4 today but it's late and I'll write it up tomorrow.

I'm enjoying this game now, and it should be good to read too.

I have AIM. And I also have a gamespy account.
Aim name-lamalord27
Gamespy-Hamlet_of_Denmark

Okay. I don't have either of those (unless gamespy is the one used in civ4, and even then I only log in to play), so if you don't like the idea of getting xfire, we'll just have to organize games via PM on here.

ROUND 4.0 - 1180 AD - 1330 AD

In this round, we see several power shifts, a near worst case scenario, more ineptitude from me and for once, no forests being burned down!

This one will be big! I'll probably split it into four.

1180 AD

Things get off to a rip roaring start this round, as I lose two workers to a Chinese chariot near Hangzhou. I'm not too bothered at the moment since I've almost finished working all of my cities anyway. Plus I'll probably take his workers later.

With an army big enough to kill Mao, I get to work creating castles and longbow garrisons to man my border cities. Until the enemy get cannons, the castles will buy me plenty of time to whip or organize defences in case of attack.

1210 AD

I wince as Saladin finishes the Chichen Itza.



I was really preferring him as an invasion target too. I could always still invade him, but my chances have just lessened significantly.

My great general and my scout finally get into place, and become...



SUPERMEDIC!!!

This will make an enormous difference to the attack. My units will heal in two to three turns instead of the ten or so it would take before.

1220 AD

I begin the attack on Beijing, and carrying on the great tradition of flukes against China, my first catapult wins at 18% odds.

Sadly the garrison in Beijing is so enormous my army can't take it in one turn. They only have one defender though, so it will almost certainly fall next turn. I also didn't lose any non-siege units.

1230 AD

My best soldier is ambushed and killed by two Chinese Chariots after killing a straggler who was trying to reinforce Hangzhou. He was a veteran of the last war and had about five promotions.

In tribute to him, I take the city of Beijing easily. (they only reinforced the one defender with two more soldiers)



I also notice this little prize in Beijing:





Now, the more stuff I kill and lose, the unhappier the enemy will get. Not a bad wonder for a conquest game!

My tiny second corps nearly take Hangzhou. It should fall next turn.

1240 AD

OMG, SOMETHING BIG HAPPENS!!!



NO, NOT THAT


OR THAT



OR THAT!!!


OMG. Just look, it's this:


Mao vassalizes to Suryavarman, which means the Celts and Khmer are at war!!!

Unfazed, I take & raze the crummy city of Hangzhou.





Sleepy Saladin is pleased with me now, so I'm free to go east and murder without fear of Arabic invasion once Mao is out the way.

Now he's pleased, he's also willing to do this:



(I get him to throw in horseback riding too)

Three reasons for getting Saladin's backing:

1) This will make him build more soldiers than he usually would, forcing him to neglect infrastructure for a while. I don't want Saladin getting a clear lead while I'm bogged down in China or fighting the Khmer.

2) It will stir up diplomatic dissent between Saladin and Suryavarman, perhaps putting war between them on the table later. The more wars there are at the moment (especially stalemates with no city changes) the better. At least for me.

3) Saladin will hopefully help me defend against the inevitable Khmer attack. Since he didn't expect war, it will take Suryavarman forever to get a good stack together, so we might be done in China by the time they arrive. The only problem is that I don't know whether he'll attack Xian or Saxon. Both are fortified and have garrisons, so with luck, everything will work out fine.

1260 AD

I get a crappy event:



The second and third choices raise happiness briefly, but I don't really need it atm, so I'll settle for a -1 with relations, thanks.

Another crappy event:


Yeah, I lose Beijing briefly. It was really annoying since I saw no troops around and the new garrison was one turn away from arriving. I retake it the very same turn and nothing is destroyed, but I really need to wrap my business in China up soon so this is seriously frustrating.

I notice Saladin's men begin crossing into China. I'll smack myself if they take any of the good cities from me. (thankfully, his stacks are even smaller than mine!)

1270 AD


I assume the stealth city of Chengdu was where all those men that retook Beijing were hiding before. Amusingly, with no garrison, it falls easily to Saladin.

1280 AD

Good news!

I lose quite a lot of siege, but Guangzhou falls:



I also steal five workers!

I renegotiate my rice deal with Asoka. I'm now getting 7 Gold per turn for my rice.

Bad news!

I notice something SERIOUSLY ANNOYING IN SHANGHAI!!!


I have virtually no siege. They will be near-impossible to shift, and I need to finish Mao soon.

I also lose another worker. This time to barbarians guarding Visigoth. Sigh.

1300 AD

Asoka offers this rubbish deal:



Nah.

1320 AD

"This is what I'd look like as a zombie. Also, would you like to sell Engineering for 770 gold?"



Yes Pacal. Thank you.

The extra money will help me run higher science. I finish Paper and start Nationalism for Taj Mahal. Henry Ford needs to do something or he'll die of boredom.

My stack make it outside Shanghai, but bombardment of the defences is horribly slow. I'll just have to attack and take the losses since I can't waste much more time here.

1330 AD

I notice that Suryavarman has education. I doubt I'll get Liberalism now.



I trade Paper for Aesthetics and 100 gold to Saladin.


Money always helps and Aesthetics will unlock the powers of the Statue of Zeus.

The second part of the round will be up later today. There's still a lot to come!

I find Gallic warrior rush (Or in your case properly name it china sightseeing ;-)) is quite hard to pull off. I screwed it up many times myself. You'd probably be better of with axes. Although the traits of boudicca lend themselves great to rushing, ironworking takes just sooooooooooo damn long. No mining, crappy worker techs, doesnt help either. Btw your enemy didn't even have bronze or iron hooked, which probably saved the a** of your stack of .... big time. A protective civ always makes a bad target in the first place.

So actually this whole expedtition was quite a big gamble with losses in almost every kind of way.

Pissed of Mao (not too bad, you'll kill him anyway)
Pissed of Pacal if I remember correctly and maybe someone else?
WARNED Mao, he probably built more p*** i* t** a** protective archers(big luck for you that he has no metals, although all remaining cities on hills )
Soldiers cost quite a bit of money in foreign lands, even if only on a sightseeing tour.
Too little soldiers to keep the homeland from barbs.

On the other side
you gained one city
some insight (given quite dearly paid) into chinese homeland ;-)

You might consider to use open borders for exploration, that even nets you some money with TR.


The worker thing is quite an issue as well. More workers -> more improved tiles -> more money, production, food and what not. More Chopping -> more workers (short growth stagnation) -> faster settlers(less stagnation as well) -> more workboats...

It seems quite odd to me that you leave all the tech trading solely to the AI. You better watch out, that they don't get big deals without any profit for you. I always find it useful, to go shoppinng/selling after new tech researched. And the turn afterwards since you're not allowed to immediately trade away newly acquired tech.

Anyway be focused, if rush -> go axes
All out war -> construction
Economy -> sailing, CoL, Currency

ROUND 4.2 1360 AD - 1520 AD

1360 AD

After a long and bloody battle where I lose half my army, Shanghai falls. Signaling the defeat of Chairman Mao.

The east is red? More like the east is dead. narf narf.

Where there is death, there is also birth. The great general Belisarius is born in Xian. In real life, this guy was one of the greatest generals of the Byzantine empire. In my game, he's going to become a washed up military instructor in Bibracte.

Even though Mao is gone, Suryvarman still won't speak of peace. It looks as though I'll have to fight him after all.

1370 AD

RED ALERT, RED ALERT!


Last round, a Khmer invasion would've been the worst thing that could've possibly happened to me. Now it just seems cute. I can't wipe this force up straight away, but with only two siege weapons, they aren't getting through my walls any time soon.

1390 AD

Suryavarman's stack arrives outside Saxon, and makes my Shanghai campaign look professional. From 100%, he's reducing my defences by 4% per turn.

and I thought my siege was bad!

1400 AD

Nationalism is done. I start on Education. Hopefully the golden age from the Taj will win me the Liberalism race.



Using Henry Ford, I rush build my first wonder, the Taj Mahal in Bibracte.

Arg!



Suryavarman got Liberalism. Well, he can have it. I'm taking Gunpowder instead.

What's left of my army arrive in Saxon. Any chance of Suryavarman taking the city has just vanished. I notice some of Saladin's men marching through Pacal's territory.

1410 AD

Yes! I'm not puny!!!


I am still further down than up though, which makes me

But that may all change with this:



Pretty. I enter my first golden age and adopt vassalage for some more powerful troops.

1420 AD

I make a trade with Mr Saladin:


These are mainly backfill techs, but the world map is genuinely useful. Plus Nationalism has all the use sucked out of it once you get the Taj Mahal really.


What the map says to me:

- Suryavarman has big cities. No wonder he's been first for so long.

- The USA is going to get bigger if Roosevelt manages to get on those islands south of him. They'll prove especially annoying if I have to conquer every last one of them.

- Saladin is actually getting quite big. But since his cities are more or less in a straight line, I doubt he'll be too tough to beat when his time comes.

- I wonder how Roosevelt got the city of Hsung-Nu. Him and Suryavarman haven't been at war as far as I know.

1430 AD

Saladin and Suryavarman make peace. Damn.



I wish I hadn't asked Saladin to join the war now. His Chengdu is culturally annoying my Beijing, believe it or not.

I start picking away at Suryavarman's stack with knights. I think most defensive garrisons should have mounted units, just for the flanking damage they do to siege weapons.

1440 AD

I finish Gunpowder:


Next up are Chemistry and then Steel.

I catch an American prisoner:


FDR is a puss, and 500 EPs is something like 20 turns of spending. I accept.

He finds out, but life goes on.

I capture and raze annoying Visigoth:


I'll be taking that worker back, thank you.

You might've noticed that I just passed Saladin in score. This signifies a bit of a power shift towards me. Bring it on I say.

1450 AD

After stomping his stack, Suryavarman is willing to speak my language.



That offer sucks, but there's no way I can fight him effectively at the moment with Pacal playing gooseberry.

Building resumes. My Chinese possessions need a lot of infrastructure building, and there are still improvements to be created.

I would say peaceful building, but Pacal is annoying and in my way.

1490 AD

We thought it'd never happen, but my golden age has ended. Boo.

I trade Gunpowder to Saladin for Music, Banking and 70 gold. I actually need these techs for a change. Music for cathedrals (stupid Saladin and his stupid culture) and banking for... banks.

1500 AD

Using freshly built siege weapons and my grizzled veterans from the Chinese wars, I assemble a force in Saxon in preparation of my invasion of Mayan territories. One more trebuchet to come.

1505 AD

Chemistry? Done. Steel soon.



1510 AD

Here's a shot of the eternally annoying Chendu. You may also notice a certain somebody has been born.


You guessed it! It's Gottfried Leibniz!

Now in real life, this guy invented the binary system. In my game however, he's going to 'invent' an academy in the city of Gergovia.

1520 AD

I declare war on Pacal:



and steal a precious, precious worker!

I declare an end to this mini-round here.

I think I'll probably just get xfire when I get back tonight. I'll post my name when I do. Just wondering, what exactly did you have in mind for playing the same game?

I was thinking of just going with the same settings really, only with Prince difficulty and permanent alliances on. (to give the AI a bit of equal footing against us)

We can think of a victory condition to chase once we see what random civs we've been handed.

As for the AAR part of it, it will probably be just like this. If you want to do reporting too then we should probably take it in turns, session by session.

What do you think?

That's fine with me. Terra map should be interesting, since I've never played one before. The only suggestion that I would make is to play on epic, since I find that speed to be the most balanced. Also, would we be playing off of the same 4000BC save? Or different ones? I am very excited to do this though. It sounds like it will be very informative and helpful.

ah wait, hold on.

I was thinking we play in the same game as two people on the same team working against the AI who can also team up if they want with one or both of us reporting on the game as it goes.

Are you thinking of us running two seperate games? (I don't really have a problem with that, as long as we're doing something new)

Ooh, I see what you're saying. My only concern with playing at the same time is since you live in the UK and me in the US, it will be hard for us to get long blocks of time together, since I have a hard enough time doing that with people here.

Yeah, same here actually. During the week it'd be really hard unless I feel like staying up until stupidly late times in the night, (I usually do, lol) but weekends would be easier.

A lot of AARs are split into smaller bits anyway, so doing small session might not be a problem.