I enjoyed the Europe setup, as it made for a nice change and was random enough to provide a few surprises too.
This was my second attempt. First time round I went full Honour and teched for Education, which meant that all of my money went on desert hills and Byzantium became too strong to make it a quick war. The choke point was nasty. I quit on about turn 110 and hadn't scouted the map.
Second time round I took Tradition before opening Honour and had to buy very few tiles. Also worth noting is that they were cheaper to buy when the city was acquiring them more readily. I think that the tradition opener is very important for hilly starts, especially desert/tundra ones.
It must be said that I got dream ruins at the start; culture, pop, upgrade, tech, faith. It really snowballed my early game, which was by far the hardest thing about this map. Looking at you raging barbarians.
One worker I stole of Byzantium very early on. I hard built a second and found 2 others in barb camps before my 3 city NC was out on turn 84 [Picture 1]. Except the one to Constantinople my trade routes were all food until about turn 120-130. Wonder-wise I built Petra on turn 93 and Maccu Picchu directly afterwards. Memphis was a pretty weak city at the start so I bought a Workshop asap to enable the Ironworks earlier in my cap.
I farmed 2 barb camps solidly for about 130 turns, pumping out culture and gold until the real wars started. It's a tedious strategy but it works. I considered a Composite rush on Byzantium, but decided against it because:
- Early barbs were still a real problem.
- Cataphracts annihilate Composites.
- Constantinople wasn't a good enough city to annex and use. Taking it later was fine.
Army:
By the time I rushed Byzantium most of my units (6 Xbow, 2 Warrior, 2 gifted Catapults) had 30xp. I opted for an Xbow rush when I hit Machinery on turn 107 [Picture 2]. I then farmed xp off Nicaea for the next 30 turns; this also kept me at war with Byzantium and avoided a denouncement. After taking Constantinople I also swam a worker out to the Shoshone's borders and pre built a road back west to Carthage's mainland cities.
The xp farming ended when Dido declared war on me around turn 140. I was about to do it to her anyway so it was perfect timing. She came with lots of units but they were no match for crossbows since some had logistics by that point. I was able to take my time with her 3 cities here [Picture 3], deciding that I needed at least Cavalry to attack Pocatello. Peace with Dido was worth 40GPT.
I almost did the game without a reload but... I mistimed Oxford for Dynamite. I forgot the GS was coming and got Dynamite 8 turns later than I could have. I needed to begin the war on that turn and cannons would have been destroyed by Comanche Riders.
I hit Artis on turn 175 and took out 3 of Pocatello's cities (Lampang, Ragusa, Hekandeka) before he could react; the road really helped [Picture 4]. Although his army was big at almost 300k he was warring Siam, Poland and Venice and I didn't see many units until Agaidika. Comanche Riders are nasty and I lost a few Cav when blocking for my Artis, especially around Moson Kahni. It eventually fell on turn 191 [Picture 5] and exchanged hands a couple of times, which lessened the happiness hit. I then peaced about for a lump sum of 3500 gold. Most of my army went north to Poland, with a couple staying behind to defend in case of another DOW from the Shoshone.
Poland's lands were full of rough terrain, but luckily Warsaw was not that far from Palenque (which I got off the Shoshone just before I took their cap; the Maya were dead by that point) and a lot of his units were battling 2 of my CSs down south. I expected Winged Hussars to cause more of a problem, but in rough terrain they're not much better than normal Lancers. Even though lots of his WHs had Blitz they weren't too damaging. Warsaw fell before all of his army reached me [Picture 6].
For Venice I ran 4 Artis and 5 Cav through the eastern desert, sending them out on about turn 180. After his war with Pocatello (which I instigated for a measly 2 Iron) he only had a 50k army score. That's the problem with Venice as an AI; it's like I had 6.5 enemies as Venice is so weak [Picture 7]. Venice is really easy to befriend and leech gold off too. Had there been a different AI in it's place, most of the desert to the south would have been colonised, and my strategy would have had to have been completely different.
Navy:
Heliopolis had built 6 Galleasses for when I teched to Navigation after Dynamite. Dido had an impressive navy, so after taking her cities in the way of my Shoshone assault, I made peace and bribed her to attack Siam. She eventually took his cap, losing a lot of her naval power in the process. This also made it simple to retake it [Picture 8].
A flotilla of 6 Frigates and 2 Privateers was easily enough to deal with the rest of her navy, and by the time she got Ironclads at the end of the game it was too late. There was a lot of space for my land army to the east of Carthage and it went down quickly [Picture 9].
I took Carthage, Venice and Warsaw on turn 206 to complete the map. From about turn 170 my cities were on full production + slow starvation mode. Heliopolis accidentally starved a little at the end, oops [Picture 10].
Other:
I stole Education on about turn 125, having gone for Machinery first. After that I got Printing Press, then focused on CSs with my spies. The 4 CSs near to me and Byzantium were a priority and I had to spend money on the northern 2 before DOWing the Shoshone.
One +2 sight scout revealed the entire map except Carthage by the end, what a hero.
At around turn 125 I signed research agreements with Siam, the Maya and Poland. The Maya died before it went off...
Key techs: Philosophy ---> Currency ---> Guilds ---> Machinery ---> Education (stolen) ---> Astronomy ---> Chemistry --(2 GS bulbs)-> Dynamite (Oxford) ---> Navigation ---> Industrialisation ---> Rifling.
Social Policies: Tradition 1, Honour 6, Commerce 6, Exploration 2.
No Autocracy. With Honour/Commerce, city conquests and pillaging, I was able to buy a unit per turn in the cap (had Heroic Epic) anyway. I hate the happiness hit from Ideology pressure and have recently been avoiding them.
Religion: Desert Faith, Tithe, Pagodas, Production%, Stronger Prophets.
you join The List 
