GOTM 44 First Spoiler - entering the middle ages

GOTM 44 - First Spoiler

To qualify for this spoiler, you must have:

1. Reached the middle ages.
2. Have contacts with all civilizations (or their remains) on any land-mass reachable by galleys (without suiciding).
3. Have a map of all inhabited landmasses that are reachable by galley (without suiciding).

As a warlord game, this provided a sharp contract with the recent deity games in both the GOTM and COTM. Did you approach the game any differently? What things did you change in your approach, and did you manage to adapt? What is your long-term strategy for this game, and what factors do you consider to be critical to achieving a fast win / good score?

ainwood said:

GOTM 44 - First Spoiler

Click to expand...

First GOTM attempt I normally play chieftain and warlord

Rough start on this small island. Going straight for the Galley. Explore with it and find non-colonize location.

My strategies is to build cities all over the empty spot and culture absorb the neigbourgh like most of my game. This is my normal strategy, doesn't always work. Also will have to move my palace to the main land at some time.

So let's go for culture or space ship win using culture and science of the Babylonian

I have never played a GOTM to completion, and didn't keep copious notes like some people, but here is a general rundown. I beat my first Emporer game recently; I have others that I haven't finished but controlled, so Emporer level in general (only thing holding me back is I don't like to have to exploit the AI to win .

I decided to not go for a 20k culture, just because people had said that was probably a common target, and would go for conquest which isn't something I am that great at.

I founded in place, and built a warrior and quickly discovered that we were stuck on an island. I started research on Pottery, with max research towards Map Making. With so few workable tiles I stuck with a single worker. I built two other cities (one south and one west, on tundra) and the Colossus, then put all cities on wealth so I could run at max science (I built a couple of temples while moving along).

I spotted a Greek hoplite before I could get to the other landmass, and there were ahead of me in research (I was just finishing writing as it got passed around). I wanted to found a city next to the ivory to get a foothold on the continent, but the greeks founded there first. Thankfully, they left it undefended(!) and I landed two warriors and destroyed it. I believe I brought India in to the battle, but at quite a cost (10g/t) -- I needed them to keep things occupied and let me get a foothold.

I moved inland and fortified on the southern hill, and built my fourth city just north of the ivory. I had a stack of archers at this point, maybe 6-8 which isn't that much against greece, and stuck to a mostly defensive posture. I built a city on the souther hill (the group of two), grouped up there and sent a spearman to cut off the iron, which I did successfully.

I then moved another settler into place and actually settled directly on the iron. Sparta two squares to the west, and Athens just to the east. I was able to hold this fortified position, and settled for peace with several techs.

I realized I would need/want horses also, and headed north to settle the horses on the peninsula. Greece had settled there, but not directly on the horses. I saw a settler pair come by that freaked me out, but they continued on, and I was able to land and establish a city on the hill next to the horses.

Although I had to do most of my research by myself initially (behind in tech), I was able to get several monopoly techs, and was on-par with the rest of the AI when I entered the MA, but still pretty small with only 6 cities, and no room to expand w/o going against Greece.

I am pretty much just playing for enjoyment (it's a fun map) and am not going for any speed records; I probably was a bit slower off the mark.

I pointed the map out to a few friends; I think it plays at about Monarch level especially with that start (no resources, vs Greece). I got quite lucky that Greece really didn't throw much against me in terms of firepower, and I was able to steal that iron and horse spot without repercussion.

I went for Monarchy rather than Republic, but in retrospect on Warlord happiness isn't an issue, so I should have switched to republic.

My plan is to get to calvary and run rampant; I'll fight some small wars to gain ground (I need cities!) but calvary will be the breakout time. Keep other civs involved in all wars to slow progress since I really lack an infrastructure base. I spent all my efforts building troops from 6 cities, so I have barracks and temples and that is it, no libraries or other buildings, and I'm still pretty far behind in troop count.

Aaaaargh!

I don't think I have ever actually played a game with a start as bad a this, but ok its Warlord right?

Settled in place, set research to 40 turns Alphabet, just in case. As soon as I get a full view of the start I realise this was a good move.

Build order: 2 warriors (bearing in mind the barbs are set to raging,) then I decide to maximise research on my island by building a settler...

Some time later I have 4 cities and a second worker, defended by warriors. I founded the other cities on tundra so as not to waste good squares. This is about maxing population/commerce/research so I have 3 granaries in anticipation of later growth, a couple of temples and some more warriors (there was nothing else to build!) and am prebuilding for harbours. I can see ivory to the East. Babylon has constructed the Colossus.

Map Making. Have to wait a while for harbours...Hmm should have prebuilt a Galley, but never mind. Harbours will make my island cities grow=more commerce. I build a couple of Galleys and a settler and send 1 settler, 1 warrior to the ivory (by this stage I am anticipating another island!) Babylon is building Great Lighthouse to power-up my Galleys.

I land just to the East of the ivory, quickly spot light green borders, contacts, hurrah! I end my turn... the Greeks and French want to speak to me, I refuse to deal until my turn.

Hmm my opponents are way ahead in tech, through trading presumably, hopefully I have found a Pangaea. By this point I have researched Philosophy and it appears to be my only bargaining chip, but a good one. By the end of the turn I have contacts with India, America, Korea and Spain. I have a map of the whole Continent. I have gained Mysticism, Polytheism, The Wheel, Horseback Riding, Masonry, Iron Working, Code of Laws and Literature. A couple of the others have Mathematics, I put research onto Republic hoping to get it first and do a swap. I found my first continental city east of the ivory.

I shortly have another Settler and escort and try to grab a second city next to iron just to the East, but the Greeks (why oh why did it have to be the Greeks? Hoplites ) nab the spot 2 turns before I get there and it looks like the land grab is over, I settle (pun not intended) for a city just out of range of the iron.

Some time later I am in a republic, my 2 continental cities have temples to resist Culture, the most exposed is building a barracks. Babylon is coming up to 12 with market, library, harbour and aqueduct. I rearrange all citizens from my island towns/cities and find that I can get 10 shields per turn in Babylon. I go for a bowman every 2 turns... continental cities are going for catapults (town without barracks) and Spears (town with barracks). The other island cities are going to have to build markets/libraries and aqueducts verrrry slloowwllyy (unless I rush them, which seems a good idea since they are producing a lot of commerce...)

So I enter MA first by a couple of techs. Hurrah for me! But I need to build up military for some time yet before I go after those damn Hoplites (no-one else is close enough to be worth it), and with only 3 cities producing a decent amount of shields! I have no Iron, no Horses and only 1 luxury. Who designed this map!?!

Ah, but I have to gloat: <snip> I'm probably not supposed to give it away though... Moderator Action: Nope

GOTM 44 - PTW Predator

Seeing that we were in fact on an island this time around, the first priority was colonizing the island and researching map making. The city placement I settled on is pictured below:



I could have fit five cities on the island, but decided that it wouldn’t really have any benefit since the place was so crowded and shield-poor already.

No contacts were made until 2270 BC when a light-blue scout walked into view on the elephant peninsula during the interturn. It then walked away during the same interturn and never came back, preventing actual contact from being established and proving that the AI doesn’t seek contact at all, and may actually deliberately avoid contact. In 1075 BC I finally saw a Greek unit walk into view on the same peninsula, establishing contact the same turn that I invented map making. Note the slow tech pace. Even on warlord, self-researching with no neighbor bonuses and four cities in despotism is very slow.

Once I had map making, I began trying to place cities on the mainland. Greece hadn’t made much of an effort at expansion, so I got three cities down before they blocked me out. Most importantly, these cities included ivory and iron.

Having iron secure, the next logical step would be to fight someone. However, the truly abysmal shield production of my cities added to the fact that the nearest neighbor was Greece kept me from invading immediately. I considered invading France instead, but decided that France was too far away to be worth conquering at this point, especially since it would involve sending all the troops over there in galleys over a long distance. Instead, I kept building swordsmen and exploring, trying to claw my way even with the rest of the world.

Tech trading was initially very difficult because Greece, America, France and India were much too advanced to want anything I had. A break finally came in 530 BC, when one of my galleys met Korea and Spain and traded map making and code of laws for most of the early ancient techs. Finally, in 50 AD I reached the middle ages, with an army of 3 swordsmen, a few bowmen, a lot of warriors ready to be upgraded to MDI once I got the money, and a desperate need to use them.

My “empire” as of 50 AD:

My first GOTM attempt too, I'm still getting the hang of regent.

PTW 1.27, for the record.

I've played the game through to completion and submitted my save already.
Not a very satisfying score; in retrospect I figure I could have done things better. I'll recount my ancient
era exploits here.

I founded Babylon 1 tile SW of the start position, popped a warrior, and...ouch. It's a nightmare starting
position. Wasn't unexpected though; my game plan was to get off the island ASAP, carve out some breathing
space on the mainland, and try for a diplomatic victory while being prepared to go for a domination victory rush
if that didn't pan out.

I could at least see a tip of the mainland so I knew I wasn't stranded until navigation. Around 1500 BC I saw
a blue scout walking around over there during an interturn but it didn't make contact and never came back.

I found Uruk on the north tip of the island, then I made a beeline to map making, either at 90% science
when it took less than 40 turns, or 10% science when it didn't. I figured I'd have to buy a tech or two to
get back in the tech race. I built the Colossus in Babylon (completed in 1650 BC), then massed about 12-15
bowmen and a couple of settlers for the eventual invasion while I worked my way up to mapmaking. In
retrospect I should've crowded more cities onto my starting island.

In 875 BC I finally set out for the mainland, and find...the Greeks have control over most of the southwest end
of the continent. It just HAD to be the Greeks. Amazingly, I had beat all the AIs to Map Making and was
able to trade it around for contacts and maps.

All the AIs have iron and horses, all of them have luxuries, and there's no silks or gems anywhere on the continent
from what I can see at this point.

Settled Nineveh near the ivory, two tiles from Thermopylae; founded Ashur in 630 BC on the peninsula to
secure the horses and spices for Babylon.

In 430 BC I found Ellipi on the 1-tile island south of my main island before an AI grabs it; if they settle there
it'll take marines to get them off.

I put temples in my mainland cities to resist culture since they're overlapping Greek cities, while I ferried
several boatloads of bowmen from my island over into the beachhead cities. In 90 BC I declare war and
the Greek conquest begins. My first bowman victory starts my Golden Age—unfortunately, losing a unit
to a hoplite in the initial assault means I probably started Greece's Golden Age too.

50 BC, early days of the war:


Bowmen against hoplites... I was losing units 2-for-1 against the Greek defenses most of the time
but the RNG gave me a few lucky breaks. Thermopylae falls in 70 BC, Sparta in 10 BC. Athens falls in 300 AD
after a prolonged siege, right after the city finished the Great Library in 210. Why thank you, Alex.
Up north I try to capture Delphi but my catapults can't hit the broad side of a barn. :shakehead Athens will
become my FP city, although I had to build the FP from scratch because I never got a leader in all that
fighting—I never got a leader this whole game, for that matter.

With the GL, and getting Construction and Literature first I had enough bargaining chips to trade my
way back to tech parity after being 4-6 techs down on the AIs upon first contact.

I auto-razed Argos in 300 AD and re-found Akkad on the spot. Corinth falls in 350 AD cutting off Greek iron.
Knossos flips to me in 380 AD. Auto-razed Delphi in 430 AD, but the French beat me in re-settling the spot,
landing a settler/spearman by boat next turn and founding Avignon 1 tile east of the ruins of Delphi.

I didn't reach the middle ages until about 450-460 AD. Although down to two cities I didn't finish off the Greeks
for another 120 years. I was neck-in-neck with the big AIs in techs, hemmed in by the French in the north and
Indians in the east. The Americans are pressed in on the coast in the far east, the Spanish control the far
north, and the Koreans are stuck in jungle in the middle of everyone else with only 4 cities and a tech deficit
they never recovered from. No sign of the last civilization yet, they must be on an unreachable continent
somewhere out in the darkness.

The Conquest of Greece at the end of the ancient age:


At this point everyone would have pikemen soon, and I had lost most of my units taking out Greek hoplites
already. I needed to rebuild my forces with knights and medieval infantry. I also needed to reshape the
conquered Greek lands into a worthy addition to Babylon, as they'll become my major production center
for the rest of the game. My plans at this point were to finish off Greece, beeline to Military Tradition,
try and take out France with a cavalry rush since they seemed the biggest threat, and then turn on India.

Continued in the medieval era spoilers thread...

i couldnt believe how cruel the starting location was. on a tiny island blocked off by hoplites. pure evil!
went straight for mapmaking, but i only found 2 places for cities on the main continent. lost both cities fairly quick, as the AIs had a violent grudge against me. built the collosus and the lighthouse in babylon, but missed out on Great Library. All ais had a 4-5 tech lead on me when i met greece, they just traded traded and traded some more. stole 2 greek cities with bowmen, but i am going to find this game s*** hard.

ptw, open

Oh well, an isolated island-start? I was sure about that, but this island is crappy! Thank god (ainwood) for that wheet.

Babylon is founded on spot an its builds are warrior(3800bc), Temple(3150bc), Settler(2800bc), Colossus(1700bc).
Research goes on max: Alpha (2710), WC for bowman (2350), Writing (1600), Pottery (1500) and MapMaking (1075).

Contact is made with a greek unit overseas in 1075bc, but I don´t trade yet although they don´t have MapMaking and wait for my first galley. 1025bc I meet America, who have Mapmaking and start trading.
All I have is Contact with Greece and America, MapMaking on Greece, 4 gold and my maps. The two civs are 4 techs in advance.
I end up having Contact with every civ on the continent, a pretty map showing everything but spain, beeing at tech parity with Greece and America (the tech leaders), 51 gold, owing Greece 1 gpt.

MA is entered 110 AD:


I just took some cities from Greece, but like others, I had to realize that bowmen are not very useful against hoplites. So I´ll hook up iron+horses and make me some knights. That´s what I always do anyway.

Bad thing: I damned wasted my GA in Despotism!! I stupidly triggered it in 210BC, just before the discovery of The Republic! I could have eaten my hat when I realized what I had done!

Never played a game at this level. Goal is domination ASAP.

First step was to go to Map Making ASAP (Max science).

Build only 3 cities (one on spot, one north, and one south). Should I try to build 4??? Really don't know if it is worth. Any comment on this item will be interesting. As all interesting landmass tiles were used with 3 cities, I did not create a fourth.
Build Granary in 2 cities and started to produce Settlers / Workers for landing on continent.
In the third, I built Colossus to increase Science, then barracks, then prebuild on harbor.

With Map making, I reached continent and settled on free land. I have been able to connect 2 irons (West and South) and one horse (North) and built 6/7 cities.

I kept science at MAX all AA. After Map Making, I searched for Philisophy,Code of Laws and Republic. I managed to trade other techs and lake some many. I still don't have optional techs but I don't think I will need them.

Just after 0, I reached Republic, entered Middle Age and make a Palace jump on continent near Athens.

Next steps : Build barracks everywhere on continent, produce knights, trigger my GA and conquer the world.

Key questions :
-> When to stop building cities and start war? I decided to settle everywhere with available place. Those cities will be usefull at the end for domination. AIs don't produce a lot of cities, neither a lot of units. Should not be difficult to capture latter on (except the greek). Should I have built military units instead of settlers and start capturing cities?
-> Shall I start with Greek and Hoplite (as they are near me) or start with other AIs with weaker defensive units.
-> All AIs are backward in technology. Shall I give all my knowledge to the scientific Civ to benefit from their free tech of Middle Age or leave them all backward?

Open!

The good news for me about this game is that it took "only" 11 hours to play, so definite signs of improvement there.

Not much else to report that was really good. I misjudged just how horrible the start island was, and didn't quite get to mapmaking fast enough, finally contacting the Greeks in 1000bc. No trade then as I thought I would try to meet the others first, and the following turn my mapmaking monopoly was gone.

I hooked up iron near the greek north coast. It was in Greek lands but on their border so was easy to steal. My only war in AA was v the french, as hoplites are not tempting opponents early on.

I was pretty surprised by the strength of the AI in my game, it seemed more Monarch+ to me.

I had hoped for a leader to build a FP in Paris, but none came until much, much too late In fact, I really think I had dreadful PRNG luck in this game, although most of that happened after the limits of this thread.

At least poor luck didn't ruin my chance of a top score: poor play had scuppered that long before. A particular brilliance in the QSC period was losing a temple I built in the second town (why did I build it?) due to negative gpt.

GOTM44 - pred class

Well this was fun

As expected we were on a island with enough space for 4 (small) cities. As I had no knowledge at all I went for Bronze Working first for the Colossus and then straight for Map Making. This may have been a mistake.

I founded Babylon on the spot and built 3 more cities on the tundra to maximise workable tiles. A neat bit of pre building allowed me to have 3 galleys the turn after Map Making was discovered, but as this was in 1100 BC there was not much time for exploration.

I would expect the QSC people are having a good laugh as I lost a worker/settler pair to barbarians during my initial landing and I ended the QSC period 1 square from meeting the Greeks. When I did meet them I had a monopoly on MM so I got good value for it . There was still enough room for 3 cities on the mainland which I grabbed, including the ivory.

I waiting until I had Republic before launching a Bowman rush on the Greeks to trigger my golden age. I think Republic was a mistake as the unit costs were horrible. I also could only take a few cities from the Greeks as Bowmen against Hoplites didn't work and my catapults were hitting 1 in 7 if I was lucky.

In the end I cut my losses, settled a town agressively to grab the Greek Iron and turned my attention on the French

QSC? predator Class?!? with this start?!?!?

We all seem to have started about the same, grabbing 3-4 island cities and space for a few on the mainland. I messed up with my prebuilds and got to the Continent quite a while after MM; otherwise, with my population/commerce obsession I think I was doing rather well, especially with a terriffic round of tech trading on contact.

Looks to me like this start was specifically designed to put the brakes on the fast-military-start types. From the island start with no luxes/resources to the Placement of the Greeks next door. Mean.

A couple of people have suggested that the game felt Monarch level. It seemed like that on first-contact, with the continental civs having a big tech lead. But it pretty quickly dropped down to Warlord when I started attacking, due to the AIs' terrible unit production. Have had 1 major setback, but that'll have to wait till next spoiler...

Choffy said:

Build only 3 cities (one on spot, one north, and one south). Should I try to build 4??? Really don't know if it is worth. Any comment on this item will be interesting. As all interesting landmass tiles were used with 3 cities, I did not create a fourth.

Click to expand...

Ah but we are trying to get to Mapping ASAP, so our prime interest is in those 2-commerce sea tiles, not land tiles. Each extra town gets an extra two sea tiles, so the theory would suggest that more is better.
Having said that, I've done extensive pen-and-paper plans which suggest that you should have at least three, but the gain from adding more is minimal, and possibly outweighed by the temporary pop hit of producing the extra settler(s).
I'm sure one of the big dogs will come along and show us how we could have got Mapping in 1500bc or something
Note that you can fit six towns if you are willing to settle the wheat. I had surmised that might be the case before starting the game, but it's against my religion - I settled in the same spots as Twonky.

PtW, Predator

For a Warlord game, quite a challenge!

Research was Pottery->Alpha->Writing->Map Making. I didn't bother with the Lighthouse, building the Colossus instead, after I got BW. I also didn't stick a unit on the wheat tile where it might've made contact with a wandering unit (mistake #1?) - therefore I didn't make any contacts until Map Making allowed me to build boats.

I met the Greeks first, and bought contacts and maps for France, America, Korea, India. I had to sail up the coast to meet Spain myself - the Korean and Spanish hadn't met! That left one other Civ to meet, clearly not on this landmass - though they had built the Great Lighthouse!

Mistake #2 (minor) - I didn't have any settlers ready to go, not that it mattered. I had a dozen or so warriors (my max for unit support, with the workers). The turn I met Greece, I declared and landed two warriors by a new town defended by a lone Greek warrior. I took no more Greek cities during the war, but (like others) used an aggressive settler placement to take the iron near Sparta, and was also able to nab the horses on the northern peninsula. I also triggered my GA during this war.

I entered the middle ages in ~50BC. I got monotheism and feudalism out of the deal, so started researching chivalry right away.

Nearly the same. Tundra 2W from Babylon, tundra 2NW and tundra SW,2S. Wasn't sure if I should use up the Northern Grassland with a city, any thoughts?

I used the northern grassland and got 3 cities (+ Babylon) in RCP3. Actually RCP2 will bring in just as many tiles and means keeping the grassland, so I kinda boobed there.

A small correction to my spoiler... my first war with Greece was very brief (razing their town, then suing for peace a few turns later). My second war, still in the AA, I started my GA, captured Sparta, then gave up after pummelling Athens for ages and not getting anywhere.

If you built Babylon on spot, you get only 2 towns on RCP2 and on tundra. The third town (in the South) would have to be founded on grass as well.
You can either build a ring or spare all grass, if I´m not mistaken.

Hmm I waited for a stack of cats before taking the Greek Hoplites on, which won't apply till early next spoiler, the game was moving pretty fast: Medieval Age followed pretty hot on the heels of contact, following my trading spree I researched Republic first (10 turns), traded around for Construction and Currency, and hey presto - MA.

Open class, PTW for the record...

Open Class

I started with worker W to mine and road and settled on the spot. First built a warrior who explored our island, then a granary (with a chop), then 3 settlers. Research was pottery, alphabet, writing, and map making all at maximum.

I founded 3 new towns on the island, all at RCP 3. Each built regular warriors (for MP), regular spearmen (to disband for shields later), and, as map making approached, started granaries as pre-builds for harbors. The capital built regular spearmen and settlers.

In 1125BC, I discovered Map Making. Pre-builds were switched to harbors. 10 shields after the harbors in each town (some helped by disbanding spears) I pop-rushed some galleys.

At 1000 BC, the Babylonian empire had:

4 towns
11 citizens
4 settlers
5 workers
1 warrior
6 spearmen
1 galley

I was beaten to the ivory by Greece by one turn, but I did get the nearby horses on the continent despite losing the first settler I tried to send there to a barb galley. I did not get iron which didn't bother me because I expected to use horsemen for a faster conquest. I wouldn't need iron until I was ready to conquer Greece.

I traded for contact with the French in 975 BC, and the Americans bought my contact in 925 BC. In a massive trading round in 925, I picked up contact with the Indians, Spanish, and Koreans, plus Warrior Code, Iron Working, Masonry, Horseback Riding, Mysticism, Philosophy, a map of most of the known world, and a pile of gold. I mistakenly decided to let the AI research Code of Laws for me while I researched Polytheism, but they took forever. I finally traded for Code of Laws in 370 BC (after self-researching Polytheism and Currency) and started on Republic. Before its completion, I traded Currency for Construction from Greece in 50 BC pushing both of us into the Middle Ages while still in Despotism. I did not take part in a single war during the Ancient Age.

Class: Predator

Goal: Domination

Assuming that we would start on a very small island, the early game
would focus on very precise Worker actions and city build orders with
the purpose of researching Map Making and then reaching the main
continent as soon as possible. For this purpose, a fast and tight
settlement plan would also be important, since a city center is
productive faster than the same square worked by a Citizen and in some
cases produces more food. Also, at population five and six, more Coast
tiles can be worked. Because food seemed more important than
corruption (there would be only very few cities for a long and
important time), I opted for settling on Tundra rather than following
Ring City Placement.


Getting Settled

Babylon was founded on the spot in order to reveal more land before
the Worker's first move. It first built a Warrior, then a series of
Settlers.

Unfortunately, there weren't shields enough to produce the first
Settler directly after growth to three Citizens, but the Warrior was
still built first in order for us to explore the island and the
surrounding waters. This exploration was quick enough, and the Warrior
then Fortifed on the Wheat, always looking east for Contacts. After
the first Warrior, no more units were built except Settlers, but
surplus Shields in the Capital went towards Wealth production.

Worker actions started with Mining the Wheat, then only Roads were
built on all Grassland squares starting with those having a Bonus.
Then the Forests were chopped and the underlying Grasslands Roaded.
Only after this were further Mines built, and finally the Tundra and
Hill tiles Roaded and Mined. After all, we had nothing much to build
in our towns at this time.

Founding years:

A fifth Settler was built and Fortified in 1575 awaiting the departure
of the first Galley for new lands.

The satellite cities all started building a Granary, then a Barracks,
some of the former and all of the later would serve as pre-builds for
Harbors and Galleys once Map Making was discovered.

Building the Colossus to hurry research was not an option since we as
a Predator people were too backwards to know how to.


Finding New Land

All initial research was done at 100% (except some finishing turns):


In 1250 BC, Ur produced a Galley, which was promptly loaded with our
Warrior and Settler and sailed three tiles east to the land with the
Ivory on it, where our troops and people duly disembarked. The Galley
then proceeded north-east around the coast of the land mass.

Ellipi was founded to the east of the Ivory in 1200 BC, and in the
same year we made Contacts with the Greeks. We had the opportunity to
trade but chose not to until we had made more Contacts -- we had after
all just began to chart the Pangea. Upon meeting the French in 1075 BC
we obtained Warrior Code through trade, and in 1025 a larger trading
round gave us Ceremonial Burial, Iron Working, Masonry, Mysticism,
Contacts with America, India and Korea as well as everybody's World
Maps. We had researched The Wheel ourselves before this.

Pretty soon we also met the Spanish. Research was directed as fast as
possible towards The Republic.


Quick Start Challenge Result



Getting a Foothold

The preparations for getting a foothold on the continent included
connecting the incense to the home island through the completion of a
Harbor in Ellipi in 370 BC. We also found a city close to Greek
territory in order to lay our hands on the Iron there.

The Republic was established in 150 BC, and two hundred years later we
could see that France and America have also discovered the Republic
and entered Anarchy, whereas India and Spain have discovered
Construction and Greece has a Worker in its capital. It's time to get
going. We trade to get Construction, the Worker, as much maps and gold
as possible and a Right of Passage agreement with Greece. We make sure
that Greece and Korea don't get The Republic from us. We then declare
war on France and enter her territory with four veteran Bowmen.

The prize in this war is of course the Pyramids in Paris and the
Horses outside it, but there are also two Luxuries in the land and we
need to have a productive base on the continent in order to produce
the troops we need to invade it. This means a suitable city in which
to rush the Forbidden Palace using a Great Military Leader. There sure
are a lot of cows and deer around.

After forty years of war the last of our four brave vanguard soldiers
with his very last Health Bar captured the first French city, defended
as it was with a single, very heroic indeed and before his demise of
course to Elite status promoted Spearman, starting our Golden Age.

We entered the Middle Ages in 110 AD through the discovery of
Currency, but took the Bummer Picture instead of the Big one and
already had Feudalism when we gifted Greece and Korea the missing
Technologies. Korea got Engineering but wouldn't sell. Greece got
Feudalism.