Anyone got a good save game to post??

All of the settings are random, and this map could conceivably be continents or archipelago. It is standard size, though, and the generator seems to have crammed five of the eight civs onto this small continent. The positions are really tight here. Beijing is just to the north of Lugdunum in this shot! Entremont (though I didn't know this at the time), is three tiles NW of Novgodorod. Lisbon is just across the bay from Petrograd. Wow. Even worse, we among all these sardines had the luck to draw the cold start! Ouch.

However, there are some bright sides to this start, enough, I'd say, to make it viable. Our land quality is bad, so bad that the AI ignored it until ALL of the rest of the land on this rock was claimed. Smart use of blockades then allowed us to take more than our fair share of land, at least in terms of number of cities – I think our 7 is actually tied for tops in the world, at least so far as we can see. Heh, not for long.

We've also got three luxuries, albeit only one of each. You can't see the Wines in this shot, but they are 2 NE of Novgorod, and far enough from the Chinese that they'll get pulled in by cultural expansion (the reason Novgorod exists). That's a reach, for sure, and the city will be a flip risk to Beijing and Entremont (both with ancient wonders) for a long time to come. If it works, though, that's enough luxuries to have a pretty secure happiness situation. We've also got horses at Moscow. No Iron (although had we bought the tech earlier, we COULD have beat China there), but the Chinese source is close enough to take over if we need to. All in all, the situation's not too bad.

I do worry about the other continent out in the black, though – those civs must have a LOT of land to expand into, and whoever wins over there will be a superpower down the road. Persia's got the Pyramids, so maybe it'll be them.



The Celts are, um, not in good shape. Portugal's start was SO cramped south of Entremont that they had to stop expanding after FOUR cities. Then the Celts went and built the Colossus in Entremont, as Portugal pumped military, and with ALL of the Celts' other cities buried in jungle... The result is that Portugal dropped the hammer on Celts, taking much of their core and putting existential pressure on the Celts. At this time, I fear a Portuguese superpower emerging, but also know that, even with my help, the Celts would be hard-pressed to hold off Henry. Even with the Celtic territory, though, the Portuguese would only have an equal number of cities to India and myself, so perhaps their emergence is not a certainty. The Celtic lands are tough to work, too, and won't provide much immediate boost – the human player would have had absolutely NO chance if shafted with THAT awful location.

At this point, therefore, I start training military. REGULAR archers, even – that's what I need to seize some of Brennus's territory before Portugal grabs it all. Getting Lugdunum off my border, maybe even securing Entremont to clear out pressure on Novgorod. Thus, this early war bent my game plan towards early militarism, as the only way to seize the opportunities that the Celts' collapse presents by pulling in some extra cities on the cheap.



Here's China's location. They're actually at war with India as well, or became so in my game shortly after this shot was taken. I was VERY fortunate that none of these AIs called me on my relatively low-military landgrab, instead pairing off in wars. Something about this cramped situation really seems to encourage militarism – there has been nonstop warfare in this game, from all sides, beginning at the end of the landgrab.



Here's what India looks like. Doesn't look like much? Ah, but they've got a solid core, a centrally located palace, easy lands to manage, and more lands than China. They could well be a strong enough size to make a large impact down the road, if left alone.

Here's my core in 390 BC. We threw nine regular archers at Lugdunum, which FAILED to take the city, giving me a heart attack. We had a few more archers in range on the second turn, which ALSO died – but, thankfully, I'd taken along some garrison WARRIORS as well, which were able to finish off the last few defenders and take the city! Wow, way too close for comfort there, as it had a Barracks and kept whipping vet spears and archers on me...



The Celts were eliminated quickly. I don't think they even made it to AD years. I wasn't able to take Entremont – maybe I should have tried to take it before Lugdunum. It would have taken Portugal a while to grab it, it being so deep within my borders. But I was absolutely terrified of failing to get the latter site, it being first-ring to my capital.

After the Celts died, of course a new round of wars broke out. I think India and China made peace (you can see Shanghai's been captured, as well as China's colony), but at some point near when I took this shot, India declared on Portugal. And, um despite completely swallowing the Celts' territory, Portugal doesn't seem to be in a good position to survive it.

By 270 AD, I've made my move with Ludgunum, stealing China's (excess) Iron! This city will be a major flip risk, but will pay off handsomely if we can hold it. In fact...



...it already has. Portugal was dying – lost two core cities to the Indians. They didn't seem likely to get peace anytime soon, so...I reasoned that the only way to deny their cities, and a further stranglehold on this game, to India was to take them myself. So, using my stolen Iron, I built tons of Swords and smashed Portugal (who turned out not to have Iron themselves, and were thus unable to offer India even token resistance).

Those Indian stacks, by the way, are clearly targeting Lisbon, moving directly south as possible. They'll nuke it if they get there in one turn, and the city has the Hanging Gardens. With my army holed up in Guimaraes, I figured that the correct move was to hit Oporto first, which would give us just enough time to smash Lisbon a few turns later with reinforcements from my core. That'll let me poach the rest of Portugal from right out from under their noses! From that point on, it shouldn't be too tough to take China's four mainland cities, by which point I should be strong enough to take on India.

Of course, they seemed to figure that out, too. Thus, a few turns after I took this shot, India SNEAK ATTACKS, despite our Gracious relations and MA vs. the still-living Portugal, with my army right next to Oporto! What masterful timing. India then proceeds to ignore the remnants of Portugal, and MIs por across the border. They smash Entremont easily, and advance on Novgorod. Not enough troops to hold that, either, so I retreat all of its units back to the new front line of Petrograd. India walks in, destroying my 80% completed Forbidden Palace! Ouch.

Okay, time to regroup. First, we make peace + ROP with Portugal, and get our army back to Guimaraes. Uh, eventually – MIs pour across the border there, as well! Most of them stop on the forest, where I'm forced to attack them with Swords. Eventually, though, the flood dries up, and my four surviving swords, two archers, and a handful of cats hole up in the city.

Meanwhile, reinforcements from the core turn the flatlands (thank goodness for those) next to Petrograd/Lugdunum into a killing field of Mis. I attack and kill any that I can reach without exposing swords to counterattack (and a few stacks that were large enough that I had to sacrifice a sword to get rid of them). India lands Pikemen on my shores to pillage my resources, but I shuffle my spears and warriors around and manage to stave them off, for the most part. My swords have BAD luck attacking them, and I lose a bunch to awful streaks without inflicting damage. Ouch.

I bring China into the war for a hefty GPT payment, and they take some of the heat off me by Shanghai, attacking with longbows and their own MIs. Eventually, I assemble 10 swords and a few cats, and attack Novgorod! We get some bad luck vs. their pikes, but take the city! Then, the victorious army hits Entremont with the survivors from Guimaraes, retaking that as well!

We then advance on Alesia, me hoping to secure a source of Gems. That goes HORRIBLY awry, though, as in the two turns it takes us to advance on the city, India pulls ALL its MI from the east and slaughters my swords. Only two manage to survive. I even lost a stack of five cats in that disaster. Wow.

Okay, we clearly can't attack there – the march is so long, we can't take the city before they can reinforce it. What about Shanghai, though? I move up my surviving swords + cats. As expected, India shifts all its troops over – but they're not quite close enough to make it in the city in time! My cats score 4/4 hits on the pike defenders (wow!), and we take Shanghai without a scratch. Then, we hole up inside – on a hill, and with India having to attack across a river, we manage to win about half the combats the next round, enough to hang on.

But then, India brings War Elephants to the fight! These swarm around Shanghai, and all win their combats thanks to +1 HP. India's in GA mode now, cranking troops rapidly, and I fear they'll overwhelm me and China. With 5 turns left on our MA, we need to get peace ASAP. This is when I took the most recent save, in 640 AD.

After that, we'll need to hit Portugal before India steals the last couple of cities. We can't expect China to resist them, or to be smart enough to sue for peace, so I expect me and India will be alone on this continent before long. Hopefully, by this point, I'll be well enough established to handle them. Taking the Chinese cities from them should provide a major boost, if I can swing it.

What about the other civs in the fog? Maya in particular has taken ALL of the wonders for a while now, and they're probably racing along to the Industrial age. That's scary. We need to build up our economic base ASAP, and hopefully start to kick our buying tech into reasonable gear. We've got NO infrastructure even in our core, having been cranking troops nonstop just to stay alive since the Indian attack. Here's what that looks like:



You can see I've restarted my FP, in Stalingrad this time. That's what I should have done from the beginning, to be honest, and planned on a later Palace jump to Petrograd. It'll take WAY too long to rebuild it in Novgorod, and I'm not sure that location is completely secure – a flood of Elephants could threaten to retake.



Here's my poachy Iron city. No, I didn't come up with the name “Orenburg” – that's actually what the game suggested! Wow.

You can see that I've actually built an Outpost. Never before have I seen this building be even comparatively useful to how strong this one is – it can see ALL of mainland China! With this, I expect we'll see a sneak attack from them coming a mile away, and can easily keep an eye on the China-India war if Chinese core cities start to fall.



Here's the Indian front. Once Shanghai comes out of disorder/resistance, I'll whip walls – that should be enough to help us at least kill SOME of the Elephants, with cat support. But we definitely need to get peace in 5 turns, for whatever we can, lest India's Golden Age production simply overwhelm us.



Here's the core of the Great Satan, looking VERY scary. Delhi's got the Great Library, though, which could be our saving grace from those civs out there in the fog. If we capture the city AFTER they contact us (Astronomy's already been discovered), we can pull a slingshot. IF we can capture the city.



Here are the current demographics. Note that we're fourth in everything, including LAND AREA. So the other civs out in the fog really ARE monsters, probably with two of them (Maya and Persia, presumably) having ganged up on and devoured the third. Ouch. Hopefully Maya doesn't blow past Persia by itself, or we'll have a Runaway AI on our hands as well!



Tech situation. It'd look much worse if we hadn't grabbed two techs from Portugal in the peace deal. Our peace with India should get us a discount on Construction/HBR, and we'll hopefully manage to get Feudalism as our free tech. That'd provide a major boost to our war effort. We need marketplaces yesterday, though, to have any hope of quickly recovering from this deficit.

And that's where we stand! Good luck – if anyone tries to play this out, let me know how it goes!