SGOTM 01 First Spoiler - All your rivals are known or dead

This is your Spoiler thread for mid-game discussions between teams on your progress so far.

To qualify to READ in this thread your team must know all the rivals in the game, or know of their demise.

You can determine that you have met or eliminated all your rivals by

(a) checking the Victory Conditions screen to see how many rivals you would need to eliminate for a Conquest victory, or

(b) watching for the messages that tell you how you are doing relative to the other civs. When the screen lists no Unknown civilizations you have found them all.

To qualify to POST in this thread a nominated scribe from your team must post a summary of your game up to the point defined above.

Your summary should include your early decisions on city placement, research, units and improvements, and the milestones in the development of your economy, civics, contacts and diplomatic relationships.

When posting, please do not discuss future events beyond the date you met the spoiler condition. And remember that your viewing public will be looking out for literary flair, historical accuracy, humour, and strategic insight. Comments on the SGOTM experience so far will also be welcome.

So, how was it for you? Still alive and kicking?

Team one account

History of the Egyptian People

In the beginning the God Ra created many islands out of the infinite ocean. On each of these islands he breathed life onto the land and the plants, animals and people came to be. Ra spent many years traveling his creation and fell in love with it.
Eventual Ra decided to build a palace above a lake on the island of Dawn. Every day he would visit the people of the lake and began to notice a change in them, which though they were of his creation they had gone beyond what he had molded, had become even greater than the parts he put together. In particular he found a young maiden Hatshepsut in which this new spark shone brightest of all. He fell in love with her, took her to his palace and made her his wife and queen. On the night of there wedding as they kissed he breathed into her his wedding gift. To never age a day in her lifetime.
The people rejoiced in this union and in the protection of there god. Life was easy and good. But the people were mortal, caught in the cycle of Birth-life-death. Some noticed that while they turned weak and old, Hatshepsut at Ra’s side never aged. A group of men became jealous and decided to sneak into the palace to find the secret of youth and take it for themselves. They waited until Ra was gone visiting another land, then their leader Huayna Capac was jumped the palace walls and sneaked into Hatshepsut’s bedchamber putting a knife to her throat demanding her to give him the gift. She said that the gift was a part of her and not something that could be taken. Angry, Huayna caste her down and with thrust his knife through her chest, and with her sudden dying gasp the gift escaped on her breath and Huayna breathed in deeply her death and stole the gift of eternal life. Afraid of Ra’s anger and the atrocity that he had committed he dropped his knife by the husk of her body and his followers slipped away from the village in the night sailing across the sea to a distant land, safe from Ra’s wraith.
When Ra returned to his palace and found her bloody corpse he became very quiet. He summoned the two wisest men of the village. To the first he gave the body of Hatshepsut, to take across the ocean to a land untainted by blood, to guard and honor her always. To the second he gave the knife of the attacker and made him swear on his own blood to revenge the dead that had been done. Stricken with grief Ra called a curse upon those who had killed his love, that there tears would always be red for the inococent blood that they had shed. Then in grief Ra decided to Die.

And with him the land of Dawn that had grown to be supported by his presence Died as well.
As the island of Dawn sunk beneath the sea, two fleets of boats sailed away; one to the south carrying a shrouded corpse and another to the east following the scent of blood on the sea.


4000 BC
The elders of the Egyptian tribe look down on the floodplains of the two great rivers discussing where in this bountiful land to put the new village. Word is sent to the women and older men of the tribe to set up camp on the hill just west of the floodplains and the city of Thebes is born.

The younger men move out to domesticate the Aurochs to the south and to explore. Horses, silver and fish are found to the north and a strange people who call themselves the Russians are found to the south. The Russians were a strange people barely touched by the presence of Ra and we choose to approach them with caution but not outward hostility.
Mutineer smells the scent of Capac blood.
Russian lands to south

The elders of the Egyptian tribe discuss how to expand and deal with these strange people. All agree that they must be removed from the land but how quickly and with what forces remains in question. The arts of Mining, pottery, writing and bronze working are learned to fully utilize the floodplains of the mighty rivers, both through expanding outlying villages. The city of Memphis is founded near the forests of the north to train the horses for war chariots the horses.

As the land is explored the Russians found the city of St Petersburg unnervingly close and move closer as they colonize north on their peninsula


2230 BC-
The Egyptian high council is arguing again. There are calls for improving are writing systems, calls to make new bronze weapons for loping off Russian heads. Calls for learning how to sail the waters again. The Blastoid is standing on a chair screaming at the Mutineer about the benefits of bronze working when a runner comes bursting into the hall.

The war has begun; The Harok has raided a Russian work party between Moscow and St Petersburg. He has taken the workers hostage and has retreated deep into the jungle. Carherine sent a black raven to Thebes an hour ago demanding the workers back and the head of the Harok. We are at war.
And we only have 3 warriors to defend out lands and one stranded between two enemies cities.



The years 2230-1600 BC The Turtle War
600 years of a war of stalemate. Despite our complete lack of troops, Russian troops refuse to leave there cities, and instead build up a massive amount of archers as they do not have resources for any other units. 5 Archers stand guard on the hill of St. Petersburg and unknown number in Moscow. The Egyptian leaders bid there time producing war chariots and try to find away to bring the warrior and stranded workers back home. The arts of sailing are learned and during the war to come the art of masonry and mathematics is learned as well.



1270 BC
They had moved quietly through the night past the archers of St. Petersburg. They did not go too quietly at first as they wanted to incite an attack from the thousands of archers on the hill, but only one came out and that city stayed impregnable. So instead the Doc disappeared into the jungle with his chariots and moved towards Moscow. The Doc can still feel the rush of the ambush of the escorted settlers a few years earlier. Now that enough chariots had joined him it was time to rush the capital, to overwhelm the 3000 archers in the walls.
As dawn comes the glint of bronze chariots can be discerned moving among the trees
And then they rush through the cleared plain around the city as the arrows fall down them like rain. But they can not stop the wheel blades of the chariots as they slice the Russian empire in two.

880 BC
All that remains of this dammed place is a few charred timbers dotting the top of the hill. AMH stands upon the hill crushing the ciders beneath the boots. The razing of St Petersburg was not easy, 6000 archers had hole themselves up in the city. As the chariots moved in both from the south from Moscow and from the north from the Egyptian homeland the Russians had panicked and attacked our gathering forces. They died of course; crushed like under the wheels and scythe blades of the war chariots as easy as the cinders now crush underneath AMH’s feet. Once half the forces had emptied from the city, the war chariots circled and pushed up the hill. Many chariots died but in the end the archers were routed the city burned. Not a single soul escaped these embers. The Russian empire is in ruins, its last city is small and weakly defended it will fall soon, and though this island is not as plentiful as the island of dawn it will do and from it we will find the Incan and revenge our lost god.

Here ends the first part of our history. I will try to get a couple of screenshots in and will try to bring part two to you in the next couple of days.

Long long ago, in a galaxy far far away, there was this boy named Anakin VQer who lives in a city called Thebes by the desert floodplains ....

Cut! WTH script are you reading?

Opps wrong script, sorry!

Roll again ... ready ... and action!

Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Team VQ ... its continuing mission, to explore new worlds, to seek out new friends (PA) and new enemy civilizations (PW), to boldy win at an SG where no team has won before!

Cut! Cut! Cut! Wrong script again ... damn! Get the right one, will you!???

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Ok, on with the actual spoiler .... (why do you think we have 6 pages full of posts before the SGOTM had even started? )

Now, how do one write for a SGOTM spoiler? Having no prior experience with GOTM, and after contemplating with painstakingly cut-n-pasting the 1,782 lines of extracted log so graciously provided by the CFC SGOTM sbmission page and later deciding that "No, that won't be appropriate", below is what I came up with. Enjoy!

--- --- ---

The sun rose over the horizon, and smiled brightly at the group of 6 tribesmen. Calling themselves the Tribe of VQ, they discussed vehemently on how to proceed with their first settlement. Some were argueing to move north to see what's up there. Some were arguing moving east to get more floodplains. Some were saying going westward to hug trees and tame the hills is the best. Some say south and some say southwest. Virtually all directions has at least one support ... (nevermind that there are 8 directions and only 6 tribesmen, but that was the case) ... hell, some even say move NW and build us the Alanta ...

"Food, food, food" so say the proponents of east-goers.
"Disease, disease, disease" so retorted the opponents of east-goers.
"Hammers, hammers, hammers" so declared the supporters of west and south.

They were about to argue to a deathmatch, and would most probably ended up disbanding the settler, since any direction the first Pharoah took would ensure some gripe from someone.

Until someone provided a sand model of the surrounding ....



and tested which site would be the best, that the matter was finally settled. 1 SW it shall be. And then it was a long wait for the sun to rise to the zenith (read: 12th May) -- its finally time to stop fiddling in the sandbox and get on with actual busniess.



Research wise, we went for Hunting (to produce scout), Animal Husbandry (to work on cow and reveal horse for our early UU), Mining and Bronze Working. Build order wise, we went for barracks, switching to Scout once Hunting was researched, and switching again to worker once Thebes grew to size 3.

Sad thing was, our scout died a premature death at the mouth of a lion.

Eventually, we met Catherine's scout, which we deemed came from the south-west. It was true, the Russian had now enroached northwardly towards Egypt. This must be stopped!

Strategy on how to proceed ensued, and it was said that "No SG is complete without a Dot-Map". So a Dot-Map (TM) there was:



There were some arguments between blocking off Cathy or getting our horses on-line. But who care about arguments? The players will play as they damned well please!

Hence, Memphis was founded by one player to get our horses in reins, and yet another player started a great project in the capital of Thebes.



What great project was it, you aksed? Why, we are Egyptians! It was ofcourse the Great Pyramids!

Soon after, a Russian settling party was spotted ... this news was, if you would forgive the pun, most unsettling! Their infestation must be halted. And thus, in the Year 925 BC, war was declared on the orange people. We have to rid our land of the foul presence of the pest that called themselves Russia!

One must really admire the Russian for their persistence. First, we razed three of her cities, and grant her a 10 turn peace in exchange for Fishing and Mediation. Main reason for peace is that Russian pointy sticks started appearing, and as much as we don't give a damn about pointy sticks, unfortunately our once-brave chariots seems to care.

Then, the Russian pest promptly proceeded to settle where we had razed her city again! They asked for it, a second Egypt-Russian war was brewing ...

In the mean time, the Egyptian rushed the Hanging Gardens and met our Always Peace partner -- who else more fitting other than the peace-loving baldy?

Armed with Catapults, its time to engage the Russian again. In the year 350 AD, the Egyptian's hand slapped the Russian Flirt once again. This time round, one more city was razed (that stupid girl insisted on putting a city at the worst imaginable location), and a city was captured ... the capital of Russia, Moscow. Meanwhile, we met two more Civs: the Persians (Cyrus) and the Americans (FDR). In the year 1025AD, seeing as how the war had led us into a definite tech deficit against the Indians, the Persians, the Americans and the most-hated Incans, we offered the girl peace once more after capturing the city of Novgorod, while taking from her Priesthood, Monothesim, and Calendar, and leaving her with one miserable city of Yakutsk.



That, however, was a short peace. 105 years later (1130AD), war was re-declared. This time we were going in for the kill. And if the peace was short, the war was even shorter. 12 years later, the world as we know of no longer had a Russian civilization. All that was left of the once proud empire were the 4 cities that remained, fully integrated into the Egyptian Kingdom, under the rule of the Pharoah, the Mighty VQ.



With that, we gained the religion of Hinduism, and immediately switched over to win the heart of Gandhi. Admist the spread of Hinduism throughout the Eygpt empire, it was learnt that our archenemy had circumnavigated the globe.

That cannot be allowed to continue. We had left them alone (yeah, as if we had a choice) for the past 5 milleniums, and they used this to advance their technology so far ahead? We would tolerate their vile presence no more!!! As we prepared for the war against the Incans, we met our last "neighbor", the obnoxious Arabian who called himself Saladin, in the year 1325AD.

And you know what this means, right? Right? RIGHT?

Yes, that's right: you have reached the end of the first spoiler. Now, you may go curse Saladin for appearing right at nick of time, just before the most glorious battles were about to be fought in the Great Egyptian-Incan war, which has thus far been largely a phony war for the past 5000 years.

But, I am feeling generous today. I shall leave you with the following screenshots:

Proof of us meeting all the Civilizations:

-- Look, Ma, no Unknowns!

Our Power Graph:

-- Everybody Loves the Underdog

Our Friends and Enemies:

-- Beauty and the Beastsssss

The Known World:

-- Yellow Tide Rising

And if you would excuse me, I have a Golden Laurel to grab Very Quickly ...

A Team is Born

Our team consists of veterans from the KK series of SG's, Mike p, Ralph_Jackson, sooooo, blid and Kikinit with the addition of 2 strays , Rihiter and ZerrorR. After a quick discussion on team names, Team Fistful of Dynamite was born and was primed to explode . The team has come together very well and are all enjoying the experience of discussing the options available to us and each member trying their utmost to carry out the plan to the best of their ability.

A Civilisation is Born

We started with discussion of where to settle our first city. In a team building unanimous decision, 1SW of the settler's starting position was chosen due to the merits of the additional hammer in the city from the start and using the floodplains to provide food for all the mines. It also had access to the cows for health. In the year 3970BC, Thebes was settled. Moving to the hill had also revealed some stone and more food and health in the form of rice. The choice of capital looked to be extremely promising. First build for those who like to know this sort of thing was a worker as he would be essential to us getting a fast start with mines and cottages.


At this point, we were debating what techs to research and in what order. It was decided that Hunting should be first to get scouts and allow exploring to see if we could get some lucky huts and then onto Animal Husbandry for the cows and to reveal the horses for our UU. Initial exploration showed that all huts had been removed and initial impressions were that we may have been isolated on an island.

The general area was looking promising and would provide a solid foundation for our future empire.

The Early Years

A bit more discussion took place about the tech path and finally Pottery was selected to allow us to get some early cottages on the floodplains between the capital and a future city to the East. The location of the Eastern city is shown in the first pic. The cottages were to be put on the FP's common between the capital and this future city to allow them to be worked even when the capital switched to production mode. This would allow the cottages to mature that little bit earlier and give us a boost in our tech research pace.

There was a bit of talk back and forth about where to put the second city. Those who deemed research to be the most important aspect advocated the city to the East whilst those who wanted early war and to see our War Chariots rolling over our enemies quickly advocated the North.

Next research was Mining to allow us to build some mines. An Oracle slingshot was also put on the drawing board here for discussion. The plan called for the Oracle to be followed by a shot at the pyramids and onto the Great Library eventually.

In 3280BC, we finally met Catherine and so found that we weren't on an island by ourselves.


A dot map was made and put up for discussion and the game held up until all the team could discuss the merits and choose a path of action. A number of these cities had there positions varied later with more thought and also due to the fact that Cathy didn't seem to get the email showing her where to build. She will be made to pay for ignoring that.


Eventually in what was to become common for the rest of the game (so far), Rihiter succesfully argued his strategy and the city to the East was to be founded and we would stick for two cities while we pulled off our Oracle-Pyramids strategy. Memphis was eventually founded in 2530BC.

Catherine in the meantime was not sleeping and was expanding towards us. Nice of her to go and develop cities for us isn't it? While we concentrated on getting up the tech tree quickly, she went and founded all our cities and started developing the countryside. We however only built enough warriors to unfog the land to prevent barbarians and left it at that.

In Search of a God

Our chosen tech path was to go Mysticism, Meditation with a diversion half-way through to finish Masonry. Once masonry was finished the Pyramids were started and Priesthood was selected next. Immediately upon finishing Priesthood, the pyramids were put on hold and the Oracle was started together with research of Writing. The aim of course is a mini-Oracle slingshot of Code of Laws. The Civil Service slingshot being deemed too risky for a monarch level game.

Writing was finished quite fast and then Bronze Working was selected. The Oracle race was won in 1210BC and Code of Laws selected as the free tech. Confucianism was founded in Memphis which suited us fine as this would be a cottage rich city and we converted immediately. The missionary was sent to Moscow to convert it and give us recon on the Russian Capital.


In 1000BC, our plan had a hitch as we missed the Pyramids by a few turns. But the best laid plans have contingencies so we had anticipated it and swiftly swung onto our main path of destruction of Cathy. Missing the Pyramids would have the consolation of allowing us to run 100% research for a long time to come and keep us well in the tech race. Techs went from Bronze Working to Fishing and then onto Iron Working.

Oh Drat was founded circa 975BC and was so called due to the frustration Ralph felt at the time for missing the Pyramids. Historical records are bit murky as there was nearly a revolution in the empire. Luckily Ralph restrained from calling it by another four letter word. It was located on the site to the North which has 2 cows, fish and horses. It had been found that we had no copper and iron in our grasp as they had all been taken up by Cathy. We thus had to rely on our War Chariots to take Cathy on initially and a suitable large rolling army was quickly drummed up. It had taken us 3000 years to get our third city up and running but that was all part of the plan to keep costs to a minimum in the early research rush.


Research was swung onto Alphabet after Iron Working to allow us to trade some techs around and fill in the holes we had in the tech tree. When we meet some more civs to trade with that is. Polytheism and Literature would come after that as our plan for The Great Libary was still on course.

In 610BC, we finally met another Civ, Gandhi. He was quite advanced and would be a suitable trading partner. Especially as he is the AI that we are to be always at peace with. We eventually traded Code of Laws for Sailing and Mathematics with Gandhi.

Gimme That Metal!

Amidst all the research being done in our initial cities, talks were going on about gaining control of the copper and iron which was just out of our grasp in Cathy's lands. In 505BC, we were finally ready to start war with Cathy and did so by stealing a worker who had just finished reconnecting the bronze that was about to be ours. A total of 6 war chariots were dispatched to carry out the initial attacks.

Rostov was taken in 475BC with our exceptional chariots all surviving and gaining experience. It was then onto Yakutsk and St. Petersburg with our newly built swordsmen and axes. Yakutsk was taken in 280BC again with no losses. Research was set to Construction to get us some catapults to take Cathy's more entrenched southern cities. St. Petersburg was taken amidst heavy losses for both sides, particularly Catherine, in the year 115BC. Things were looking good for the Egyptian empire. Cathy was approached and a peace treaty was signed with Cathy giving us Monotheism. A few turns later and she's willing to trade with us again and we swap Code of Laws for Monarchy.


Science is the Byword

In 55BC, we meet the 4th player, Cyrus. In 95AD, The Great Library is completed. Our plan only took 4000 years to come together but come together it did. It has of course grown and adapted since then but that's not for this spoiler. Civil Service is in process of being researched.


The Cats of Egypt

War is soon redeclared and in 215AD, Moscow is taken with minimal losses and lots of promotions earned. Yaroslav'l follows quickly in 320AD. Things are sure looking grim for Cathy. She's only got two cities left and one of those is not worth the settler it took to found it. We sign a quick cease fire to let our troops rest a few turns.


War plans were then redrafted based on latest inteligence and when our troops were suitable rested, war was redeclared and Novgorod is captured in 410AD and Cathy's last city Yekaterinburg is razed in 485AD. Both of these cities were taken by the Lucky Cats of Egypt and some experienced Melee units led by the aptly named Connor McLeod. Thus ending the Egypt-Russian war which had spanned a few years short of a millenia.

Building was not slowed during the war. Courthouses, National Epic, Herioc Epic, Forbidden City and an Academy were just a few things that were built in our now flourishing empire. Techs went from Civil Service to Compass and then Currency, Metal Casting and Optics. Existing plans are being re-written and new ones put up daily. The world will be ours. And before everyone else if we have anything to say about it.

The Explorers Depart

Caravels were then built and dispatched with missionaries on exploration missions. Our Caravel's circumnavigated the world before all others in the year 1136AD after meeting Roosevelt in 1118AD and Saladin in 1124AD on their voyages. Macemen are being ordered up across the empire for future encounters.


I'll leave it at that for this first spoiler as it seems a good place to stop. Our island continent is completely in our control and we have met all 6 of the AI's.

Memphis Blues, History of the World Part 1​

In the Beginning

For uncounted generations our people have been living on these lands. We are called the Egyptians. We live a nomadic lifestyle, sustained by the rich land along the great Twin River basin. That is about to change, however. Our wise men have read the signs, and the time has come for the Egyptian people to fulfill the prophecies of old. For it has been foretold that our people are the rightful caretakers of the world. It has fallen to our chief, the great Memphis to lead us to our destiny. I and my line have the honor of documenting our rise to our rightful place (although it's going to be tough at first without alphabet or writing ).

The great Memphis decrees that we must build a city and stop our nomadic ways if we are to fulfill the prophecies. The spot he selects is the northern end of a line of hills with a lovely view of the greatest of the Twin Rivers. The city is named after his father, Thebes. The placement of Thebes was no easy decision. Chief among the factors Memphis considered was the ancient lore of our people, passed down for centuries through our storytellers. Many of the stories told of an ancient enemy called the Incans. Not much was known about these Incans except that they were evil, akin to demons and would take any opportunity of weakness to destroy us. It was also thought that the placement of the city would protect us from the frequent floods from the Twin Rivers.



Shortly after founding Thebes, our citizens became aware of many interesting things around us. To the south of the city lived herds of a strange creature, called cows, which seemed very good to eat when bashed over the head with a rock. Not far away was also a patch of wild rice. Most interesting was the cliffs of perfect stone to our west. Memphis immediately starting dreaming of the magnificent things that could be built with that stone. Despite his desire to put that stone to a good use, Memphis instructed our wise men to instead devise a way to control the cows to make them easier to bash over the head. Many years later (540 to be exact) Memphis XXXII (we'll stop counting now) was rewarded for his ancestors wise move when Animal Husbandry was formalized. Meanwhile a company of warriors had been commissioned to explore our surroundings and work was progressing on organizing a band of workers to improve our lands (planning on starting by taming the cows once we learned how).

Our scouting warriors have discovered a line of mountains we are calling the Wall Mountains. It is generally accepted that the Incans are just on the other side of those mountains ready to pounce on us at any moment. As such the great Memphis decides that we had best figure out how to arm our troops. Our wise men therefore start trying to figure out how to mine the hills, hoping they can then learn how to work the metals they mine.

Suddenly our plans change though when one of our companies of warriors discovers a creature called a horse to the north. We might not need to arm our warriors if we can get these horses to trample our enemies instead. Our wise men assure us the same techniques used to control the cows will work on the horses, so we decide to prepare to trample some Incans. Memphis now directs our wise men (who have learned to mine, but not work the metals) to figure out how to correctly use the stone to our west.

Around the same time as finding the horses, we discover that we have a neighbor to the south. A people who call themselves Russians. For now we have a tentative truce with them, but Memphis keeps mumbling "the horses will need trampling practice".

Our wise men quickly discover how to utilize the stone and our workers begin building the quarry we will need for the great Memphis' amazing building he has planned. Also in the works is the organization of a group of adventurous settlers to found the second city of our empire to the north to herd the horses.

Our current known realm with planned city sites looks like:
Obligatory DotMap

In the year 2560 BC our empire becomes a true empire when our second city is founded. This city is named after our illustrious leader Memphis. Its citizens will be tasked with taming the horses and building us some troops to go trampling. The Russians have started building more cities as well, and they are encroaching on the land we consider ours. Of course, by right the entire world is ours but that's their problem not ours.

See that little orange square within sight of Thebes? That can not be allowed!



As you can also see, work has begun on Memphis' great project. Something we have begun calling the Pyramids. The real final straw for Russia came when our wise men discovered how to work the metal we started mining a few hundred years ago. The sad news is it seems we have no metal of good enough quality to make weapons, but Russia does. They don't have mines built there yet though. We start preparing our horses for battle.

The first War, the liberation of Russia

Uh oh! One of our warrior companies that has been scouting Russian territory discovers that they have a second source of weapon quality copper and it is already mined. Luckily it is barely inside their borders.

Russian Copper

The Pyramids have been completed in Thebes, so we switch to full time war production making War Chariots in both cities. In a sneak attack we capture the group of workers that were building the mine for Russia's northern copper source and pillage the mine on their southern source. This is a bold move since she is a lot more powerful than us (she is 3rd, we are 7th) currently. But, if we had let Russia utilize their metals we might have never caught up. Our horses versus their bows give us an advantage.

The gamble worked and we achieved some decisive victories in the early parts of the war. We did lose control of the southern copper source for a bit though, long enough for Russia to build one company each of axes and spears. The spears particularly caused issues with our War Chariots.

In the years 325BC and 265BC respectively, we meet Cyrus of Persia and Gandhi of India. We discovered these civilizations when some of our fishing boats went wandering off. Both civilizations share an island to the west of our lands. We have enough to worry about right now with Russia, so we make friends with these new neighbors. In 175BC we capture Moscow and bring about the official demise of the Russian empire.

One big happy world

For the next few hundred years, the great Memphis went about the task of solidifying our empire. Our economy was in a shambles from our war with Russia. Most of the money in the treasuries was going to the day to day running of the cities with not a lot left over for research or other uses (running at a max of 40% science and losing money). To fix that we worked diligently on building scientific and financial buildings in the cities, growing our population and building cottages everywhere we could. We have adopted the same religion as Cyrus and Gandhi (Hinduism) so we are all fast friends. The world is one big happy place except that we keep hearing whispers about the Incans, but still don't really know much about them.

During our peace time we make a run for Metal Castings. It takes our wise men a very long time to master, but it will allow us to build forges which will increase the productivity of our cities and allow us to utilize our precious metals and gems to make our citizens happy. The great Memphis is also thinking of using this new technology for a new great work. Some kind of monstrous bronze statue he is calling the Colossus. He says it will help our economy.

We no sooner finish his statue than the great Memphis comes up with another grand scheme. This one is rather ingenious. We have recently learned the technology called Mathematics. This enables us to build aqueducts and Memphis has a plan to build a monstrous one (see a pattern here?) he is calling the Hanging Gardens. He says this will increase the health in all of our cities somehow and he also expects the parties celebrating it's completion to cause a massive baby boom and increase the population of the empire. His master plan is to found some new cities JUST as the Gardens are being completed so that they really benefit from this baby boom. Amazingly this plan works perfectly, helped along by a genius of an engineer that was able to complete the Gardens well ahead of schedule.

We are still having financial difficulties. City upkeep is still killing us, so we are being a bit slow in fully populating our island. This evidently bothered Gandhi since he saw fit to found a city on our island just west of Moscow. The people of the city weren't happy though, and they asked to be allowed to join our empire while the city was still just a handful of years old.

The world is currently peaceful and has been for hundreds of years. But, we know war is coming. The hated Incans are still out there somewhere. Even if they weren't, we still have our destiny to fulfill. To that end we have been working toward two complimentary goals. First is to learn how to sail far enough away from our island to find the Incans and any other peoples that might be out there. Second is to learn sufficient military technologies to kill the people we find. So, everything we do has the ultimate goal of caravels first, then macemen and galleons. The overall plan is to build up until we find the Incans and then destroy them. After that we will decide who to conquer next. We have recently seen some Incan movement in the ocean to the east of our lands, so at least we know where they are now.

War is brewing

Around 700 AD something quite interesting happened. An ancient, previously forgotten part of the prophecy was discovered. It seems that not only are we destined to control the world, but we must do it by 1600 AD or the gods will destroy us. This changes things a bit. Now we can't wait to find people before we start killing them. Poor Cyrus is going to suffer due to this new knowledge. He's the only other empire we can currently reach with the ships we can build other than Gandhi, and for some odd reason Memphis refuses to go to war with Gandhi. So, Persia must be destroyed.

Before we can go to war with Persia, Inca attacks. Well, not really a full scale attack. Somehow they have figured out how to sail galleys across the ocean that our ship captains can't navigate. This leads to them destroying some of our fishing areas we thought were safe, and a couple of naval battles but nothing major. It does cause us to think a bit more about military, which we have completely ignored while trying to build our economy.

The Persian wars

We spend a few hundred years building an army and in 1118 AD declare war on Cyrus. He seemed quite surprised! We had quietly been staging troops in Indian lands for years so the sneak attack on two cities at once came as quite a shock to the poor Persians. We build arms like mad and make very nice progress across his lands. Meanwhile we know Cyrus is just a warm-up. We have caravels out scouting and have finally found Incan lands. Evidently we aren't the only ones out scouting either since in 1154 AD Roosevelt has a caravel sail up to our shores. He seems friendly and we instantly hit it off, he'll make a good friend until we have to destroy him. We are still working toward Astronomy to be able to take troops to the Incan lands.

In 1250 AD while our caravels are diligently exploring useless empty ocean, the final civilization sails up to our coast to say "Hi". They find us with Persia broken but not gone yet and a few turns from Astronomy and the ability to war on distant continents. That's probably bad news for them.

A little history:

The Queen's Men began as a team when Pholkhero gave us Rise of the Queen Mother, an all-war, pangea against JC, Alex, Napoleon, Kahn the elder, Bismark, Montezuma, Tokugawa, and Mao, set with aggressive AI and raging barbarians. That was some serious killing and, through the process, bonded our team quite nicely.

We were the Queen's Men ever-after and brothers Qwack, Omni Paul, Talamane, Timon of Athens, and rex_tyranus will now follow Queen Pholkheroine into death or, at least, SGOTM1. We all signed up through rigorous peer-pressure and non-stop royal whining.

So here we are as egypt and Queen Pholkheroine has taken on a darker complexion.

Before:



After:



She also got younger and less horse-faced God save the Queen

So here we are, stuck on some barren strip of land in the ass-end of the Earth, locked in war with a yet seen Huayna Capac and locked into peace with someone we'd not yet met.



Our group assembled at the starting line.



But brother Timon of Athens, we found, had changed his name to ·Imhotep· (stupid dots included). Ever the one to add insult to injury, that idiot rex_tyranus learned to spell and expected the rest of the crew to use Rex Tyrannus from that point onward. On a sad note, brother Omni Paul suffered a death in the family that must have re-shuffled his priorities in life. Brother Omni Paul has not been heard from since.

At this point strategy was discussed and forthwith ignored. In what would someday be known as the best dot-map ever, brother Rex attempted to lead us to the path of glory:



But our actual cities stray greatly from this intelligent design. Also from the beginning, we made a decision that, looking back on it, seems the greatest folly. We decided to try for the Oracle => Civil Service slingshot. Our tech path was set as:

Animal Husbandry
Mining
Pottery
Writing
Mysticism
Polytheism or Meditation
Preisthood
Code Of laws

In what would turn out to be a cruel foreshadowing, an unknown lands built the Pyramids in 1450 BC. An industrious, wonder-happy civ was on the loose. We should have abandoned our slingshot then and there. But some teams are just more stubborn than others...

I guess this was inevitable:

Turn 94, 1180 BC: The Oracle has been built in a far away land!
Turn 98, 1060 BC: Confucianism has been founded in a distant land!

Sonofa...

I also need to point out that we lost every single warrior we ever built to RNG madness. I think it was 5 barb battles we lost at 70%+ odds each. WTH? That really hampered our early expansion.

It was around the time that we lost the Oracle that we decided that if we can't have the wonders, no one can. Might makes right. Only problem was, Sid decided that iron and copper made might and AlanH decided we should have none. (Come to think of it, Alan also decided to give us next to no happiness resources. Thanks a lot, Alan.)

But we did have horses. And since none of us had ever rushed with War Chariots, we figured that practically made us experts at it. War Chariots ho!

A little scouting showed that Cathy had the copper (she had settled very near the number 3 on my map above), a boat-load of archers, and not much else. So in 685 we back-door the Russian menace.



On the front-door, we captured Rostov in 585 (the city with the copper)



But the real target is St. Petersburg, the city with Gems.



We captured it sometime in the 400s BCE and make peace immediately after. Unfortunately, though. The gems were still under heavy cultural pressure from Moscow and we would neve be able to hook them up without first taking the Russian capital.

So redeclare in 50 AD, but Cathy had somehow managed to put about seven archers in Moscow, a city on a hill with 60% defense. Argh!!! We did a little pillaging and razed Yaroslavl, a Russian city somewhere in Russia. Seriously guys, zoom your screenies back a little so we can get some context.

Peace again. We can't take Moscow yet.

We met Cyrus around this time and we all realized we'd done no exploring. Maybe a few cities can build a boat or two?

Builder turns follow. Hanging Gardens completes in 590, but all that does is expand our cities into unhappiness. (Thanks, Alan.) In 620, construction comes in and we move to calendar so we can finally hook up the sugar. But with construction comes catapults, and with catapults exits Cathy.

Edited to put into two parts...

800AD and another war declaration on Cathy. In 890AD Her Majesty took Moscow (twice because his computer crashed) and made peace immediatel when a few longbows freightened him away. Take a look at these negotiating skills:



(note how many turns we had left before learning currency on our own)

Build more cats. Lather, rinse, repeat.

We met Gandhi near the beginning of the last war and, some time around 1,000 AD, we finally met our arch-nemisis by means of an Incan pillage-party galley/caravel combo.



At this point Rex "Bennedict Arnold" Tyrannus abandoned Her Majesty, feigning a fried laptop. After the war, HM promises to hold tribunal and summarily execute the craven. The Queen's men were down to four so we decided to toss the roster and transition into "whoever can play gets it".

In 1124AD, we grab Civil Service, only about four thousand years later than intended.



and in 1136, we met the next-to-last of our rivals:



For some strange reason, Cathy, who'd been left with only two cities and five longbows declared on us, just as our first Macemen were coming off the factory floors. Great, says the Queen's Men. Finally, in 1292, Russia only exists in the minds of the newest Egyptian slaves citizens.

Maybe about 50 years later, we meet Saladin by way of a map trade with Roosey and thus ends our first time of spoilers.

Semipharaonschina (The Rule of Seven Pharaohs)

The long-awaited CivIV SGOTM was set up and I was taken into the team of awesome players as the first one to yelp about the contest at Russian site

So the Congregation of Seven Pharaohs cranked some thick skulls together and started strategizing. Beaker-counting charts flew in the air and rebounded from objects as worker-starters battled warrior-starters, but all was finally agreed. Due to our starting techs, resources and abundance of cottageable land it was decided to move via Pottery, AH and Priesthood to CS-slingshot (although not perfect as CoL was studied by the smaller minds of the empire instead of a godly old man) and then Pyramids. Fast scientific development was the goal as it would have helped in both non-galley Domination and Diplomacy (which although was abandoned early).

The most beloved son of Ra akots announced how much Ra loves each of his children, and the roster was complete. The first to ascend the Throne of Egypt to puppet that Hatshepsut chick was the great and renowned Pharaoh Dynamic.

The rule of Dynamic I was marked by a foundation of our capital Thebes at the plains hill near luxurious flood plains and mighty forests, with cows and stone and even rice around. His messengers discovered plenty of resources – and a neighbour. Cathy the Russian lives on the same island! “Kill the wench!” the cries arose among pharaohs-to-be. “The island is too small for two hot babes”. So the fate of Russians was sealed – now, they had to be Russians, hadn’t they, Gyathaar?

Dynamic I has really shown who’s the Papa of gaming by synchronising research, production, worker hours and growth to us all. Yes, and by finding a place with a horse and 2 cows!





After the longest ruler in Black Land’s history stumbled from his throne, the rule was immediately seized by The True Hero of Egyptian Might and Egyptian Magic Ptitsa Consul I, Avatar of Ptakh. The development continued towards Civil Service. The Russian girl may breathe – for now. And in the meanwhile our brave warriors scout their lands. These will be good for bringing Russians to the light of Ra. Also, we are alone on the island except Russians, although there’s some land southwest from them.

Between the rules the Conclave gathered again. ArchPharaoh akots and truly yours tried to propose early war – guts on the wheels, etc - but Dynamic and Obormot unsheathed the heavy ceremonial clubs of logic and reasoned us into submission to great early Oracle project. Still, we were more successful in 2nd city location choice – Egyptian unitcracker ranch Memphis. It was also decided to surround Thebes with circle of cities to work its tiles and envy it.

Then Witan I the Wise, Creator of Charts ascended to rule the people. He optimally used the resources left by Ptitsa I to expand our empire and gather the new knowledge. Meanwhile our southern victims-to-be founded Judaism and built a third city.

It was decided to build a boat as soon as we get a coastal city and investigate the unknown SW land.

During the rule of akots I the ArchPharaoh, Leader of the Nation, a first disturbing call came – someone built Stonehenge. Akots the Provisor supposed someone else had stone. How right he was…
Barbarians were expelled from our lands and vigilant warriors guarded the great empire’s borders. The library was finished and scientists employed to give us the weapon of knowledge in form of Code of Laws with Confucianism – and we got it! It ran immediately through the empire like a diarrhea through a buffalo. In the meanwhile Russians almost touched our borders!

There was much kicking in the shins and examining the sacred snakes’ entrails about the location of 3rd city and timing of Pyramids. At least three sides had their plans backed up with numbers and charts

but great consensus was not reached. The one thing the company agreed on was building Pyramids right after the settler. It all boiled down to counting worker and research turns.

It took a strong and skillful ruler as Obormot I the Renowned Champion to bear the grim news of Pyramid loss just 6-7 turns before we would have chopped them ourselves. Also, we discovered that we had no Bronze – but Russians had 2! It was the time to curtail the research and majorly prod some royal buttocks. Thus, he launched the war machine, but for not to worry our neighbour beforetime, put on the round black cap, started eating matzoth and not working on shabbath (while his slaves cranked WCs), gaining + in relations from Cathy and securing Holy Nile from her hordes.

The quarrel over the location of third city arose again, and it was for me, Lexad I the Straightcourser, to decide on its location. I drew my arguments, listened to counterarguments, said “screw you guys” or smth like that and put it where intended. Naïve boy, I expected that we would work all the tiles of both cities in fast Domination… Although, I could’ve placed worse
The military side went better. With the traditions of chariotry and production base of my foreteammates I was able to crank a massive army of 9 WCs and launch an attack on Rostov which had both copper and the only iron mine on the island. It was conqured and the reins of the royal War Chariot passed to Cat Behemoth.



Cat Behemoth I the Ancient and Sacrosanct Animal was the first cat to ascend the throne, especially with a primus in his paws. However, he seemed to be not exactly the cat…
Under His Majesty’s rule our glorious WCs wiped out puny Russian city west of Thebes and captured StPete where The Lord first spoke out of the burning bush. But then bad random and increasing WW at home made us turn our diminished victorious wheels from the walls of Moscow. Next time, Muskovites! Your masters will be coming from Piter one day! In the meanwhile, our fishing boat met Cyrus, living on the other continent.
Also Cat Behemoth brought our people the Alphabet so that we tore Polytheism and Hunting for the peace from Cathy’s hands.

But the finishing move was done by Dynamic II, who many Egyptians believed to be the reincarnation of the Nation’s founder. Of course, the superstition was wrong – it was the forefather himself.
“Enough war”, he bellowed. “Finish them later!” The continued seafaring acquainted us with Gandhi. The technological trade acquired us Sailing and Archery for Iron working and some health resource trades. Literature, Calendar, Currency symbolize this era of scientific progress towards ultimate weapons of the era – maces and catas. Forges and Courthouses spawned everywhere. In the meanwhile Gandhi completed the Colossus.

I proposed a quick suicide cata rush, but the majority was for maces, so off we went to peaceful business. Ptitsa II the Developer brought us sugar and Great Library, founded another coastal city Elephantine – primarily for commerce, but also some help on ships production. Tired of slaves’ cries and mumbling of priests, he introduced Castes and Organized the Church. He discovered there’s no way from Indopersia to other lands – so Persians are on the list…

Witan II the Culturist proved himself to be a far-seeing strategist and builder, securing GA from Music, selling temporarily unneeded Iron to Gandhi for Pig + 3 gold, he made good points on NEpic, but these were later abandoned in favour of military development.

Akots II the Warbuilder developed military and in the meanwhile rushed technology, discovering Construction and Drama and trading Monarchy for CoL, start researching Compass.

Obormot II the Unavertable starts Optics and war. Moscow is taken swiftly and the machine is on the run, boats are getting ready for invasion into Persia.



Lexad II the Finisher of Others’ Doings taketh the banner and joins Russian civilization to Egyptian by 590 AD.



In the meanwhile a Caravel discovered our old pal Saddam Hussein - that is, Huyana Capac. He’s to the East and neither can we reach him by galleys nor can he reach us. We have Persian on our hands right now. Capac is pretty much advanced.


Cat Behemoth II starts the war with Cyrus and finds Saladin and Roosevelt. They are strong, developed, and allied by common religion.

Prologue
The egyptian tribe had spent many years wandering in the floodplains of the Nile. Now however the elders of the tribe sat in council and debated whether it would be preferable to establish a city. The matter had been discussed in the past but now the tribe had entered into a more fertile region than previously known. Just as important was the mood of the tribe.

Legend had it that the tribe had been founded by one Hatsheput. Equally strong legend had it that the tribe's implacable foes were the incans. They were described as wearing ornaments around their necks and yellow helmets on their heads. Nobody knew just when or how this tale of the incans had begun although there was fragmentary evidence that it dated from the time of Hatsheput. What was important was that in recent times a large proportion of the tribe had begun to believe that the tale was true. As a result there was a growing clamor for the tribe to deal with these incans. Unlike most councils the decision to establish a city was swift.

However the decisions as to where the city should be founded, what the initial builds should be and starting techs were more protracted. In the end it was decided to settle to the SW on the hill across the Nile to take advantage of the people’s ability to produce more in the fertile hills. The tribe had hunted the wild, dangerous cow and wanted a way to pacify them and make them easier to hunt. This was placed as the priority of the future of the tribe.

The Team

juballs2001, markh, Mauer, Ronald, Sam_Yeager, The-Hawk, trippstowe

AlanH's RNG chose Mauer as team captain and the rest of us were only too happy to concur. juballs2001 ,markh and Ronald (Team Klarius) had Civ 3 SGOTM experience. The rest of the team had no previous SG or SGOTM experience.

Early Game

juballs2001 was volunteered to start the game.

Thebes was founded in 3970 BC on the hill to the SW. Early builds were someone to work the land followed by a someone to protect the land. After taming the mad cow, in 3430 BC the despot juballs2001 discovered a thing called the gods and the heavens and would later erect large, tall stones to these gods. juballs2001 carried out some fairly extensive exploration of the surrounding world whilst disposing of the odd foolish lion. Key points were the discovery of stone, rice and cows near Thebes, a nice choke point in the south west and meeting the russians (Catherine) in 3550 BC.

The choice of Mysticism for the second tech, which had not been mentioned in earlier discussions, prompted a "full and frank" discussion amongst the team. As a result the team learnt the virtues of fully discussing and agreeing plans before the next turn was played.

Following further discussion it was decided to build a city at the choke point and to attack Cathy. There was some debate about what units to use to attack Cathy. trippstowe decided that issue by reminding us about our uber alles Egyptian war chariot.

The years 3190 BC - 1000 BC were spent improving the core of the country and preparing for war with Cathy. Key highlights were:
a) Memphis founded (2530 BC) by horses in north
b) Heliopolis founded (1960 BC) in the southwest to block Cathy. Regrettably Cathy grabbed the preferred choke point city location for St. Petersburg.
c) 10 war chariots built to smite Cathy.
d) Techs discovered: Mysticism, Masonry, Pottery, Mining and Bronze Working.



War

1000 BC - 850 BC: Ronald started the ball rolling by taking St. Petersburg, Moscow and Novogorod for the loss of 6 war chariots. Four of the chariots were lost taking Moscow. In the process he discovered that Cathy had a copper mine hooked up. Thankfully Cathy had no chance to make use of it. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good (with apologies to Realms Beyond SGs). To complete an eventful turn Ronald also discovered Iron Working.

850 BC - 820 BC: juballs2001 carried on the good work by taking Cathy's last city (Rostov) for the loss of one war chariot and the russian civilization was no more. Regrettably no pictorial record was made for the edification of future historians. By the end of his turn we had discovered writing.



Rebuilding the economy

Whilst the war against the russians was successful it's after effects caused severe financial problems. For one reason or another all of the russian cities were kept after capture. The result was high city maintenance which meant the research rate was limited to between 30% and 40% for quite a while. After considerable debate, during which Fishing and Meditation were discovered, it was decided to research Code of Laws to address the situation.

And so the long research to CoL began.....

Ghandi was spotted exploring the land to the south us in 565 BC. We then encountered Cyrus in 535 BC when he settled the land that Ghandi had been exploring. A casual mouse over the opposition gave the hint that Ghandi was permanently at peace with us.

Libraries and granaries were built to increase research and population. A fair amount of MM'ing took place to maintain research. Both Ronald and The-Hawk posted helpful MM'ing suggestions. Towards the end of this period a number of obelisks were built due to lack of any other building to work on. A work boat was sent to explore the land to the south. Open borders were agreed with Cyrus and Ghandi to enable our exploration.

This period saw the beginning of both trippstowe and your humble chronicler doing their best to liven up the turn write ups.

Code of Laws was finally learnt in 235 BC.

Whilst a positive flurry of courthouses were being built we researched Mathematics and Currency to improve the research rate. In the meantime we were also trading with Ghandi and Cyrus both to fill in missing techs and to keep them sweet. In addition further MM'ing took place.

Alphabet and Monarchy were researched and we switched to hereditary rule. Metal Casting was researched to improve our productive capacity.

Expansion and Exploration

With the economy in a decent state we turned our attention to building up our glorious realm and to probing those tantalising dark areas to each side of us. Elephantine and Alexandria were founded to the east of Thebes on the coast. Compass and Machinery were researched on the route to Optics.

Both Ghandi and Cyrus followed the hindu persuasion. Eventually hinduism spread to one of our cities. After some debate as to the wisdom of adopting it trippstowe took the plunge. For good measure he also adopted the Organised Religion civic. Despite doubts from your chronicler he also started the build of Hanging Gardens. Pi-Rameses was founded by the silver mine in the north.

Optics was learnt in 695 AD and shortly thereafter a caravel was dispatched to explore the west. City maintenance costs reared their ugly head again. To keep them under control the Forbidden Palace was built in Moscow. A caravel was dispatched to explore the east.

An incan caravel appeared near Alexandria in the east polluting our sacred waters with it's presence. Saladin was discovered to the south east of us but regarded us as heathens and refused open borders. A few turns later Roosevelt was discovered and was happy to sign open borders.

Establishment of Fifth Element:

Story starts in 4001 BC with death of the leader of Egyptian tribe Hapshepsut. She devoted her entire life to Egyptian people. As a result of this there was no heir left to take her place.

Her last words before passing were heard by tribe elders standing and crying for their beloved leader. “Form Fifth Element”. Following day the elders summoned 8 tribesman. 8 choosen men by Hapshepsut to form the council of Fifth Element. “From now on you will be decide the fate of us” said leader of elders after explaining the last wish of Hapshepsut.

These 8 tribesman were BrianS, Dolphan, Doom Train, Goodenuf, Groin_Apologist, gskur, Merum, Perugia.

From the diary of Doom Train

A year after death of Hapshepsut we decided to abandon nomadic life and settle the area. Discussions about location of first city started in council everyone seems worked well together and enjoying the challenge of ruling a civilization.

Hill 1 SW of tribe selected as first city location by getting all votes from the council. In year 4000BC Thebes was established.


I looked outside in our new building in Thebes, everyone were celebrating the birth of Egypt and hailing to Fifth Element.

We summoned the best warrior in city “Anhur”(warrior) told him to scout north of our capital. His daughter “Tefnut” was also left for scouting south. Luckily we won all of barbarian encounters in scouting job.

For research we went for hunting and then AH. Build order was Warrior->Barracks switched to worker after city grows size to 2.

Around 3610BC we met Catherine of Russians. She was young and pretty. She didn’t told much about herself. That’s why we ordered Tefnut to find her lands. She spotted Russian capital SW of us.



After AH researched long discussions started about the location of 2nd city. Some said we should head north and grab those horses quickly. Some said it is better to settle south near Catherine and steal her horses. Eventually we decided southern path is too long for us and established second city Memphis north of our capital. New research path = Mining->Masonry->BW->Pottery->Iron working



2080 BC: After BW completed, gskur gave us bad news. We don’t have copper Catherine does!. Looks like its time for us to unleash our secret weapon on Russians mighty War Chariots.We know that if don’t kill her she will kill us. There is no room for two civilizations in these lands.



Preparations for war began. Workers started to create road for army that will be marching towards Russian lands. Given the orders for building barracks and War chariots after that in both cities. Special mission give to Tefnut: She will capture the Russian worker when he completed his mine on copper. This will start war…


1480 BC: Tefnut captured Russian worker as planned and war between Egypt and Russia officially started. Again series of long discussions made for our 1st attack. Eventually we decided to raze St.Pete first and take Moscow. While we concentrated our efforts on St. Pete Catherine founded a city named Rostov S of Thebes

1030 BC: St.Pete and Rostov destroyed and huge army of War Chariots started their march towards Moscow. We commanded our chariots to cover all hammer tiles around Moscow to make sure she doesn’t build any reinforcements. Also razed Novgorod with no problems. Also Helipolis was founded by us to hook up iron S of Thebes.



550BC: Russia has been fallen. We have full control in our island. Here is the dot map. Research path after Iron working: Writing->Fishing->Alphabet



After Russian war, we settled in island with guidance of our dot-map and basic scouting job started.

End of first spoiler…


We met Cyrus just after conquering Russia. Met Gandhi around 130 BC and Roosevelt around 950 AD. In year 1202 AD we traded maps with Roosevelt and met Saladin…

We haven't posted a spoiler yet, so I thought that I would introduce to you the beauty of chaos. Our first Chaos SG was played with everyone in character and at odds with each other. Some of us whipped, some warred while I generally just gave everything to the lovely Catherine.

Well, we decided that we would actually play as a team but report chaotically. If you have seen our reports, you will know what we mean. In that light, here is our pictorial spoiler report.

4000BC


3400BC - them be lions out there


2800BC - we have found the copper


2200BC - and we have found horses


1570BC - hmmn Catherine - isn't she lovely
I hope she makes something nice with that copper


1300BC - Wow, what luck. Cathy has a second source of copper - luck girl

Ed - you will notice here that the artist is entering his cartoon phase, notice the dark outlines and the wavey approach that is representative of this part of his life.

985BC - The Known Lands

Ed - Again, the artist is experimenting with different themes. Here is a very good example of his work in his cubist phase.

685BC - The Battle for Russia Rages


520BC - Moscow is captured


325BC - Russia is no-more

Ed - There has always been lots of discussion about what caused the angst and pain in the artists work from this era. I feel comfortable now with the release of this work to say that the pain that is shown in his work from this period is caused by the loss of Catherine from the world.

175BC - We meet Cyrus - what an ugly coot.


25BC - Gems, riches beyond measure


140AD - And the friend of the Egyptions finally comes forward.

Ed - And this is a very good example of the oil portraits that this artist produced during his life time.

290AD - A time of growth and Prosperity


440AD - The hinterlands looking back to the bright, vibrant lands of Egypt


575AD - This seemingly micro-management picture contains information that wasn't realized at the time. Historians looking through the art history can now say that this picture reveals the location of THE ENEMY.


650AD - The Known Lands


1112AD - WAR, as if we need this with more important issues at hand.


1220AD - After 300 years of the knowledge of Compass, Caravels are finally sent out.

Ed - The story attached to this picture is very interesting. The artist had been campaigning for years to get the Government of that time out and exploring the rest of the world. This picture represents his wish fulfilled. He has produced it in a dream state because he can not really believe that it is finally happening.

1280AD - The known lands

Ed - The artists colour newsprint era - not one of his best periods.

1340AD - The Peoples of the World Know Egypt

Ed - A typical example of the artists 'fish eye' period.

Captain Insano and his Lunatic Fringe
It's taken us a while but with most of the team missing in action, we've finally met all our rivals.

Capt’n Insano, the Idiots and Igor looked at the land and saw it was plentiful. Some cows were spotted over the river in the distance (Whomp was happy), so our settler crossed the river to a nearby hill to found Fringe City.

After much discussion we start on Animal Wifery but in only 3550 BC we meet our neighbour Cathy. Bronze Working reveals both Horses and Copper are over close to Cathy and a city there will control the choke point between the 2 halves of the continent.

It’s 2560 BC, a Settler is on the way, but the Russians move their own Settler and Archer to the hill we want to settle on. We can’t allow that, so declare war (it seemed like a good idea at the time), but the Russians build St Petersburg anyway. We have located more Copper and Horses in the North so settle in to a long battle, harassing and pillaging behind the lines as we can’t directly attack a city on a hill with fortified Archers, at least not successfully anyway.

We bide our time, connect our northern Horses, build War Chariots, and in 955 BC capture St Pete. We are a little short on troops (or maybe our troops were a little short) so in 805 BC following some more pillaging, we sign a Mutually-agreed-upon-pause-while-we-sharpen-our-swords.

Around 475 BC our swords are sharp, our axes shiny and our chariot wheels greased, so we redeclare. We capture Rostov in 265 BC and move on Moscow. But we’re in trouble. Our economy is down the drain and some over zealous pop-rushing of Granaries has caused many citizens to stop working. We stop yet again, this time to try and find some gold to polish.

We head for courthouses and finally start getting the floodplains cottaged to bring in gold. It’s a long slow journey though, building courthouses, libraries and 2 more cities to use floodplain cottages.

Cathy must go before she gets Cossaks, so in 845 AD we redeclare yet again and head for Moscow. This time the end is swift. Moscow and the rest of the Russian cities quickly fall to our Swords, Axes, Horse Archers and Catapults and by 1010 AD Catherine’s Empire is no more.

By now Cyrus and Ghandhi are good trading partners although ahead of us in tech and the world has been at peace apart from our little squabble with Cathy. Neither of them have attempted to land on our continent and we have no cities on theirs. Huayna Capa came on the scene in 935 AD and his Caravels started sinking our fishing boats, but it was not until 1406 AD that we had met the Americans and Arabs and had a map of the world.