RADICAL EARTH - Sumeria!

This game will be on Raz+Craterus's Earth map.

Settings: 31 civs, Emperor, we play as Sumeria.

Instead of being an "accurate" world map this scenario is intended to have roughly equal areas for each civ and distort the map as needed. It's a pretty interesting take on world maps.

Chapter 1: Sumeria, Surrounded By Foes



Sumeria doesn't have a great start. We have lots of desert and few resources. More perilously we are surrounded by three very tough enemies:

Babylon: this cultural superpower starts right on our doorstep; conflict is inevitable.
Arabia: to grow they must fight either us or Egypt, and we're weaker.
Persia: their Immortals are scary and we're the closest target.

In addition to these three civs we also have to keep an eye on Egypt, the Ottomans and the Hittites.

However Sumeria does have two things going our way:

Agricultural: it's the strongest trait for fast growth. We have plenty of opportunities to settle by rivers and lakes.

Enkidu Warriors: hugely economical defense. In the long run, they may even be able to fight off Immortals.

With these thoughts, an initial strategy crystallizes: we should settle as much as we can quickly, then hunker down for prolonged war.

4000 B.C.: We settle Ur, start a min run on Iron Working, and start an Enkidu Warrior.

3900 B.C. We learn Ceremonial Burial from a tribe. Contact with Persia, we trade them Pottery for a Worker. The Worker heads north to pop the other hut and contacts Babylon (no trades possible).

3850 B.C. The hut gives us a large map, showing the location of another tribe. We use dot-mapping to plan the location of our first two cities.



3750 B.C. The third tribe teaches us Masonry.
We decide to switch Ur to building a Settler instead of doing an Enkidu Warrior first.

3700 B.C. Contact with Arabia, no deals possible.

3400 B.C. Contact with Egypt, they are up by Alphabet, Warrior Code, and Mysticism. We have finished the road to the Sea of Galilee.

3300 B.C. Ur pops a Settler.

3250 B.C. We found Byblos on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. It's a good location that puts pressure on Babylon. Of course while we do this, Arabia is unchecked to our south. Ur starts an Enkidu Warrior for much-needed defense while Byblos works on a Settler.

3100 B.C. Ur completes our first Enkidu and begins a Settler.

3000 B.C. Byblos and Ur will pop their Settlers around the same time. We are faced with a difficult choice for Ur's Settler: should we push our borders against Arabia or Babylon?



2710 B.C. Ur pops a Settler. We decide to keep up the offensive against Babylon. As we move east India contacts us. We make a very fruitful trade. First we get Iron Working from Egypt for 100g+1gpt, then trade it and Masonry to India for The Wheel, Alphabet and Warrior Code. Nice! Of course, we refrain from selling Iron Working to the Persians, we don't want to deal with Immortals any time soon.

2630 B.C. We found Jericho on the banks of the Jordan. It connects a road that now brings Incense to our empire, decreasing our happiness expenses.

2590 B.C. With the founding of Lagash our core empire seems to be complete:



Lagash is bound to be a nexus of conflict as it is in the no-man's-land between Babylon, Persia, and Sumeria.


2470 B.C. Each of our cities now has an Enkidu Warrior. We set Ur to work on a Curragh for more contacts. Lagash starts a Worker, Jericho makes one more Settler, and Byblos will have our first Barracks.

2350 B.C. Contact with Ottomans, we give them Iron Working for Mysticism.

2270 B.C. There doesn't seem to be any city spots left so we switch Jericho to building a Temple. Writing has been discovered, we get it from Egypt for 116g+3gpt, then trade Writing+2gpt to India for Mathematics. We trade Math to Babylon for Horseback Riding, then Math and Horseback Riding plus a further 3gpt to Egypt for Polytheism. We begin a min run on Monarchy.

2070 B.C. Contact with a Chinese Warrior.
They're behind us in tech!

1990 B.C. Contact with Zulu and Mongols. We now have 5 Enkidu Warriors at home (and one exploring).

1950 B.C. We get a message - The Russians have been destroyed! Wow, that means some unknown civ is wreaking havoc in Europe.

1870 B.C. Our Curragh is rounding the Cape of Good Hope in Africa.

1790 B.C. Contact with Hittites, we trade away Polytheism for Map Making.

1650 B.C. Egypt threatens us, we give gold. Egypt has seven cities to our four. Contact with Germany, they have Moscow and St. Petersburg so they were the ones who eliminated Russia. They are ahead of us by Philosophy. We also contact Netherlands and Carthage. Arabia is moving a lot of Warrior-Settler pairs through our territory. We let them rather than spark conflict.

1550 B.C. Roads have hooked us up to Arabia and Babylon. We trade an extra Incense to Babylon along with a hefty gold-per-turn purse to get Currency (for Marketplaces). We desperately needed this as we had no buildings left in our queues.

1500 B.C. Egypt and Arabia are at war, Egypt is on the offensive. We contact Spain, Portugal and Byzantium. With tech-for-tech trades among all three, we enter the Medieval era! We get Engineering as our free tech, trade it to Babylon for Monarchy, and promptly go into revolution.

1400 B.C. Contact with French and Greeks, we are still in Anarchy.

1375 B.C. We switch to Monarchy. That's enough for one session

Great start!

With peaceful expansion done, who will you decide to purge first, the Babylonians or Arabs?

Babylon has those wonderful sources of Gems and gold; it's got to be rich!

That's the question isn't it?

Arabs are at war with Egypt so I could pile on. On the other hand, they have Iron. And making Egypt stronger is probably a bad idea at this point.

Babylon doesn't have Iron, but it does have Gems and a great city site. Can't think of any downsides, except Babylon is not very threatening right now.

Pre-emptive war! Get rid of them for the sake of getting rid of them; you have to match Egypt and Arabia's power somehow.

Good start, I'm subbing.

Here goes!

Chapter 2: Sumeria vs. Babylon

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STATE OF THE WORLD, 1375 B.C.

Sumeria: 4 cities. We have Engineering + all Ancient techs except Literature and Republic.

The follow civs are on par or ahead of us in tech. Notice they are all Scientific.
Germany: 6 cities, they have Feudalism but lack Monarchy and Engineering.
Babylon: 3 cities but they are ahead by Monotheism and Feudalism!
Persia: 4 cities, they are ahead by Feudalism.

These civs are behind us but not by much:
Egypt: 7 cities, we are ahead by Construction and Engineering.
China: 6 cities, we are ahead by Code of Laws, Monarchy and Engineering.
Arabia: 5 cities, we are ahead by Code of Laws and Engineering.
India: 5 cities, we're up by Code of Laws and Monarchy.
Mongols: 4 cities, we're up by Monarchy and Engineering.
France: 4 cities, we're up by Monarchy and Engineering.
Hittites: 3 cities, we're up by Monarchy and Engineering.
Portugal: 2 cities, we're up by Monarchy and Engineering.

The following civs are lagging (we can sell 4 or more techs):
Carthage: 6 cities
Spain: 4 cities
Byzantium: 4 cities
Zulu: 3 cities
Netherlands: 3 cities
Ottomans: 3 cities
Greece: 3 cities


We still don't know these civs:

New World: America, Maya, Inca, Aztec
Old World: Japan, Korea, Rome, England, Celts, Scandinavia, [Russia = destroyed]

********************


STRATEGY THOUGHTS
In the near term our most important enemies are still Babylon, Arabia and Persia. In the long term, Egypt and Germany are both threats. Unfortunately without strategic resources we can only dream of winning a war against any of these foes.

We have expanded our borders to take in 1 Iron, but it's on a mountain. Probably a quicker way to get Iron would be to trade for Arabia's surplus. The deal would also keep Arabia off our back for 20 turns while we invade Babylon.

Our force will be Swordsmen guarded by Enkidu Warriors. The goal is to take Babylon, possibly Ashur, and leave Nineveh alive in return for tech tribute.



1375 B.C. We begin a road to Persia. We trade Arabia 9g+6gpt and Code of Laws for Iron. Hopefully the money helps them fend off Egypt for now. All production is switched to Swordsmen (except Lagash, which works on Barracks).

1250 B.C. We have five Swordsmen now. We trade Engineering to Egypt for Literature.

1225 B.C. Arabia seems to be at war with both Egypt and Persia. That's excellent news. We trade them a further 5gpt and Engineering in return for Monotheism.

We declare War on Babylon and seize two workers!



In the meantime the war between Arabia and Egypt has heated up considerably. There are casualties on both sides but the open deserts of the Arabian Peninsula are ideal terrain for Cleopatra's War Chariots:



1200 B.C. Contact with England, who is so far behind we give them Writing for 30 gold. Our Swordsmen draw close to the walls of Babylon.

1175 B.C. The assault on Babylon begins! We kill 2 regular Spearmen and waltz into the city with no casualties. Nice! Our military advisor says we are very strong in comparison to the Bab armed forces. Of course, culture flips are what we should really fear. For now, our entire military sets up camp in the city trying to crush the resistance quickly. We will then move on to Ashur, the new capital.

1150 B.C. With 7 units in Babylon, we crush the resistance in one turn. To our south we can see Egyptian chariots drawing nearer and nearer to Baghdad. If that city falls, we lose our trade route for Arabian Iron. Nothing we can do about it for now.

Ashur is defended by Pikemen:



It's also across a river. We plan to first circle around the city to the northeastern hills, then attack. It will take 3 turns.

1125 B.C. Contact with Rome and Celts, they are lagging.


1075 B.C. Finally in a position to attack Ashur. We lose 1 Swordsman but kill the two defenders (Pike+Spear) and take the city.

1050 B.C. We make peace with Babylon for Feudalism, 29g+7gpt. That gold will help us rush Temples in Babylon and Ashur.

To aid in the "assimilation" of former Babylonian nationals, we decide to rename our conquests to Babilim and Assur, their Sumerian forms.

1000 B.C. I think the war between Egypt and Arabia is over. But Persia is still fighting.

925 B.C. We rush Temples in Babilim and Assur. The continuing Persian-Arab war is pretty good for us as I shudder to think what Arabia would otherwise be doing with all these Swordsmen. Contact with Scandinavia, surprisingly they are behind by only Feudalism, and they have seven cities.

875 B.C. Contact with a Korean Warrior. They are behind a little.

825 B.C. Arabia conquers Persepolis!!!

610 B.C. It has been a peaceful two centuries, basically putting Libraries and Cathedrals everywhere and watching Persia and Arabia fight. It seems like Persia might reconquer Persepolis soon, but Arabia is far more advanced. They are now sending Medieval Infantry through our territory, while Persia is still fighting with Archers.

The world tech pace seems to have slowed. Germany and Egypt are ahead of us by Theology and Chivalry.

England has caught up pretty quickly, I think they may have contacted the Americas (due to being Seafaring).

Here are some maps:




What should we do next?

1. A couple of "fill" cities.

2. A war agaist Persia, -> Babylon -> Arabia.

I agree with jiikoo.

Chapter 3: Sumeria's Golden Age

State Of The World, 610 B.C.

Sumeria: 6 cities

These civs are our tech peers (ranked in order of size, bold = larger than us):
Egypt, China, India, Scandinavia, Germany, Arabia, Byzantium, Korea, Netherlands, Persia, Mongols, France, Hittites, Ottomans, Greece, Babylon

These civs are behind us but have reached Medieval Age:
Spain, Portugal, England

These civs are behind us and still in the Ancient Age:
Carthage, Zulu, Rome, Celts

Still unknown:
Old World: Japan, [Russia - Destroyed]
New World: Aztec, Inca, Maya, America, Iroquois




Egypt, China and India have massive empires. Incidentally, we border all three of them now that we have conquered Babylon (Central Asia is very compressed in this map).

We are going to go after the last bit of vacant grassland, to our north. And that means war with the Ottoman Turks. After that we're going to wipe out Babylon for good to eliminate the threat of culture flips. Finally, if we have time, we will turn towards Persia.





590 B.C. We upgrade our 7 Swordsmen to Medieval Infantry and begin work on a Settler. Babylon comes to us to extend the peace treaty. What should we do? I know most of the citizens of Babilim still love their mother country. One war at a time - for now I'll extend the peace treaty.

530 B.C. Settler complete. The Medieval Infantry army is bearing down on Ottoman territory. We buy Theology from Germany for 400 gold.

510 B.c The Ottomans establish an embassy in our capital. Diplomacy won't work, Osman! We declare war.

490 B.C. An Enkidu Warrior protecting our stack manages to fight off a Medieval Infantry. We enter a Golden Age. Perfect timing!!

450 B.C. Our Medieval Infantry draw up outside Istanbul. Meanwhile, we plant Aleppo, our first city on the Mediterranean.

430 B.C. The siege of Istanbul is not pretty. We lose two Medieval Infantry and redline three more, but we destroy the garrison of two Pikemen and three Spearmen and take the city. The Great Library is now ours!

We decide to take this all the way - let's destroy the Ottomans!

Interturn We learn Republic, Chivalry, and Invention from the Great Library.

390 B.C. The Resistance ends in Istanbul. We rename it Stambili. Temples are hurried in Stambili and Aleppo.

370 B.C. The road to Stambili is finally complete. With the Ottoman Horses hooked up, we can begin building Knights.

350 B.C. Our troops draw up outside the new Turkish capital, which is called Edrine.



330 B.C. We learn Education, which obsoletes the Great Library. Our first Knight is built, a nice milestone. We capture Edrine with the loss of another Medieval Infantry.

Wait... the Ottomans are not destroyed?

Ok it seems that Osman has a third city somewhere in Siberia.



Nothing we can do. We negotiate peace immediately for Gunpowder, a Worker, 85g+10gpt. The reveal of Saltpeter shows there are three in Turkish territory, but Osman never connected any of them. We hurry Libraries in Stambili and Aleppo.

310 B.C. There are still 6 turns left on the peace treaty with Babylon. Our cities begin Universities.

290 B.C. We give Portugal 480 gold and contact with Celts in exchange for Printing Press and Contact with Japan and the Aztecs. We give the Japanese Feudalism and Carthaginian contact in exchange for the Iroquois. The Iroquois give us all remaining contacts in exchange for contact with the French.

The Mayans and the Japanese are ahead of us in score. America is not far behind. But they are all just at the beginning of the Medieval Age.

Our borders are expanding nicely but I'm worried about Edrine. It is sandwiched between two enemy capitals (Athens and Byzantium). We have rushed Temple and Library there, and I decide we also need to build a Cathedral before starting work on a Courthouse.

210 B.C. The Arab-Persian war is STILL GOING ON. There are Ansar Warriors pouring through our territory, it's not a pretty sight.

170 B.C. Egypt threatens us for gold, we cave. We move our troops into Babylonian territory as the treaty expires.

150 B.C. Babylon sends us an ultimatum. We declare war. Babilim falls into rioting. The Hittites declare war on us! (seemingly unrelated). Our brave soldiers in Stambili fight off a Knight attack. Well this is perfect. I hadn't planned to go so far north, but we will take out Babylon and the Hittites in one fell swoop.

130 B.C. A second round of combat and our Knights ride victoriously into Nineveh!



We also capture 9 Babylonian workers which is REALLY great. This is truly turning out to be a Golden Age for us.

I plan to set up our Forbidden Palace in Stambili. The territory of Asia Minor is ideal, with plenty of Grasslands, Hills, and Coast tiles.

90 B.C. Our Golden Age ends. We purchase Astronomy from Germany for 700 Gold. This is the second time we've given Germany a massive cash infusion but it's better than paying Egypt or China. We begin our first serious tech run of the game: Navigation in 5 turns for a budget of -250 gold.

We destroy the Hittites! At a cost of two Knights.

50 B.C. Egypt and Arabia are at war again.

10 A.D. Germany declares war on us! This is not great. Luckily our only border is Hattusa. We destroy a few Longbowmen with Knights. I don't think we're going to make any conquests here - not really worth it.

30 A.D. We discover Navigation. Time for world maps! We give China our map, Navigation and 250 gold for their map and Banking. Then we go shopping to complete the picture. No gold really changes hands, but we manage to get Furs from England.

The big picture shows that we are one of the top 8 advanced empires. We are right in the center of Eurasia, surrounded by 4 big empires, with a lot of smaller neighbors as well.



Here's the detailed world map (warning: huge)



And here is a closer look at the 4 cities we conquered/settled this session.



Overall I think I made the right choice to go to war with the Ottomans for three reasons:

1. It left Egypt, Persia, and Arabia to war it out fruitlessly.
2. We got the Great Library, Saltpeter, and a bunch of new luxuries.
3. We have a really nice secondary zone to set up our Forbidden Palace.

However we are now at war with Germany, which depending on how serious Germany is about pursuing this conflict, could spell trouble.

One thing to notice about this map is how, despite being about 80-90% land, the whole world has filled up by the beginning of the medieval era. Every piece of land is important. I really appreciate that about this map, especially compared to "realistic" world maps where units have to slog through miles of empty wastelands.

This map does give rise to some stupid-AI colonies, especially in the tundra, but far less than a 180x180 realistic map.

What's next for Sumeria? Where should we put the Forbidden Palace? Should we possibly move the PALACE itself? Should we push our borders further north or turn to southern conquests? Or stay at peace?

Get the Saltpeter hooked up and blockade the mountains north of Hattusas with Muskets, which makes for a perfect chokepoint, You could hurt Germany and they couldn't hurt you.

Get that Saltpeter so that you can get cavalry. And give Germany a hurtin', or you could conquer the Byzantines.

Both northern and southern!

I'd say knock off the Greeks, or at least take a city or two, while you bide your time waiting to get Military Tradition. Then take your cavalry and finish off the Byzantines and the Arabians. Y'could also try and kill Arabia first, then take the Greeks and the Byzantines on later. My gut feeling is that Germany's a bit of a risk at this point. Take your cavalry, take some territory in Europe, and then try and take on Germany in the industrial age.

It all depends where the Forbidden Palace goes. Hmm, I'm going to dot-map plan this.

Here is a dot map.



The black dots are Sumeria (the black circle shows the area within 9 tiles of our capital). Our major foes are Germany to the northwest (orange), China to the east (purple), and Egypt to the southwest (yellow).

No matter what, eliminating Arabia is clearly on the agenda, as well as seizing Hierakonpolis to control the Suez Canal.

We have basically three choices of where to put the Forbidden Palace. These are illustrated above as follows

Stambili (pink): A conservative choice, we could build the FP quickly here in the former Ottoman capital, then take a few cities from Byzantium and Greece to round out our area of influence. We can use the Caucasus Mountains as a natural choke point. Conflict with Germany is not inevitable.

Edrine (red): A medium-risk choice. We would completely conquer Byzantium and Greece. FP has minimal overlap with Capital. Creates a wide European border with Germany.

Constantinople (maroon): Most aggressive choice. Conquest of Greece, Byzantium, and inevitably war with Germany as well.

Subscribing.

It looks like the Ottomans respawned?

Great story, i'll be watching it!

I’d go for Constantinople. Might as well aim for complete military hegemony, and what better way than purging Europe of its resident superpower?

Once Germany is gone, all of Europe will be yours; you just have to keep an eye on Egypt and India and make sure neither gets too strong.

Great job on the conquests!

Alright here goes

Chapter 4: Sumeria Becomes A World Power (Part One: We Don't Become A World Power Yet)

No "State Of The World" this time, as I had a pretty detailed look at the world when we discovered World Maps.

Our goals in this play session are:

1. Hold off Germany, and negotiate a peace without losing too many units or pissing them off.
2. Take the fight to either Byzantium or Arabia or Greece.
3. Stay in the top tier for tech, culture, etc.

30 A.D. We send an Enkidu Warrior to look at Byzantium's defenses. Musketmen... ok, that's not good. We set a min run beeline towards Military Tradition. In the meantime, Knights on all the mountains in the Caucasus (Knights are sadly our highest-defense unit right now).

50 A.D. Arabia has only Pikemen. But that's still not much of an offense/defense difference. And they have Ansars for the counterpunch.

70 A.D. Edrine finishes Courthouse, now working on Aqueduct, then Forbidden Palace.

I really consider doing an amphibious invasion of Greece, that would be stylish! But the truth is, by the time I put the Caravels together for that, I will have Cavalry and can just go Byzantium -> Greece.

110 A.D. War with Germany is going nowhere. I'm killing lots of units but not getting many promotions. Without the mountains this would be a lot more serious war (which convinces about the benefits of keeping that border). China and Egypt are at war. Egypt is seriously fighting all my wars for me!

130 A.D. Peace with Germany for no special terms. Uhoh: Germany and Egypt have signed an alliance against China.

210 A.D. Bit of a canny move, we get Chemistry from China for 500 gold, which will help to fight Egypt and Germany. We can get Metallurgy in 8 turns with a serious budget (+20/turn).

250 A.D. Portugal is getting dogpiled! Civ crashes on me. o well that's enough for one session as it's very late tonight.