EVP I: The Destructive Vikings

Well... seeing that I am seeming to post almost every game, to improve my skill (ideally to Prince or above by Jan 2009), I might as well make a name for it. So... welcome to the first "Every Victory Possible" game. (There will soon be the first "Game-tester" games in the series, where I have a look at some promising mods.

Now... The idea behind the EVP games is that, over the course of the series, every single victory condition will be tried out. Each victory condition will be added to a new rule, and there will be four possible outcomes to each game.

#1: TOTAL victory. I win with the appropriate total victory conditions met.

#2: Partial victory. I win with the partial victory conditions met.

#3: Victory. I win, by the victory condition I set out with.

#4: Defeat. I either lose, or win by another victory condition.

So, here is the first game.

Continents, small map, temperate environment, medium sea level.

Playing as Ragnar of the Vikings.

Victory conditions:

Victory to win by: Domination.

Partial Victory conditions: Must not research ANY modern era technologies

Total Victory conditions: Must not research ANY industrial era technologies

Why did I choose these variant rules? Because my last game played for something like 24 hours -.- Thus, this should be won quickly. Amphibious maces SHOULD help with attacking the 'other people' on the 'other continent'.





4000 BC: Our brave, albeit destructive, leader. Aggressive/Financial should help for an early rush, followed by enough funds to pay off the war.


3875 BC: Meet the Ottomans. These guys are dangerous, having POWERFUL gun units, they need to be killed ASAP, and when I meet the other person on my continent...

3575 BC: My best buddies the Babylonians. In my last game they were VERY easy to please, and don't mind having so close borders that they lose 4 or 5 cities due to culture.



3400 BC: For those people who think scouts can't get EXP from huts, look at that. I was considering giving my scout Woodsman I last turn, but it was worth it, as this allows me to get Woodsman II, and defend against those two animals.



3150 BC: I grab Bronze working ... and this is the only sources of copper I can find... MILES away from anything. Later exploration shows that there is copper 1 tile away from Babylons BFC, and inside the Ottoman BFC -.- So, axe rush is out of the question. Obviously its going to be a horse archer/chariot rush, right?

Nope. As you can see, there are no horses nearby, either. No rush. And thats bad, as since I worked so hard on the axe rush (which failed), I now can't go grab my Oracle slingshot, meaning that I have wasted good beakers for nothing... Dang. And also, with the possibility of grabbing Berzerks after controlling this continent over, it is almost IMPOSSIBLE to grab the Total victory condition. I will have to live with the Partial one. Hopefully.



2750 BC: Ottoman shields get tower shields, meaning that they are even STRONGER in war...



Grab some more commerce from my oasis... thats the first time I have ever got THAT event... lucky me!!



2000 BC: Hammurabi founds Judaism. This is his SECOND holy city... that sounds VERY nice...



1325 BC: Oo, I just settled a city on iron... thats handy. Unfortunately, I don't think I will be able to kill a city just with swords... but at least I have 2 (another source next to my first coastal city) sources of metal.


350 BC: I have built the Great Lighthouse. This will make settling on coast so much more profitable. (Actual building date: 270 BC)



5 BC: I build the pyramids, which were actually built in 1520 BC. That said, I adopt representation to give a much needed boost to my happiness, and my science (rapid expansion to cut off the Babylonians and Ottomans, and control a good half of this continent peacefully, is REALLY costing my economy) Note: 20% science.



40 AD: The power graph. Its rather embarrassing, however I am SO MUCH WEAKER than the Ottomans... even the Babylonians who can't have more than 3 cities, are stronger than me... its an arms race, and I am losing.

In addition, I am supposed to be winning a DOMINATION win, not a freakin' space race. I NEED to be on top, so I whip and cut some archers like there is no tomorrow...



In order to bribe the Ottomans to look the other way when they need a target for their massive legions, I gift them gems, to get the +2 "We appreciate the years you have spent supplying us with resources" bonus. It doesn't work, for some obscure reason...



340 AD: I grab Confucianism, to fix my struggling economy. Basically, I need courthouses. Libraries are being built in every city (I know, it seems bad, but hear me out), so I can run a SE, and keep advancing despite a low tech rate. That said, I will now no longer build unnecessary libraries, and instead switch to building military. I should be gaining on the Ottomans, right??



430 AD: Our big happy hindu family. Getting an AI to war on another AI is gonna be an impossibility.



475 AD: I have looked at the power graph again, and I can finally see what converting all the libraries to barracks and archers and axes has done...

Sweet stuff all. At least I am stronger than the Babylonians...

HOWEVER, BUG tells me that the Ottomans have some techs to trade, so I trade, and trade I do.

I go to the Ottoman, and trade Alphabet + Monarchy for CoL and Monotheism
I go to the Babylonian, and trade Construction for CoL
I go to the Ottoman, and trade Monarchy for Aesthetics.
I go to the Babylonian, and then smack my head against a wall. I SHOULD have given Aesthetics to the Babylonian, as they are both weaker, AND had Monarchy (I thought they had another tech they could trade, but they don't). Its not gonna hurt me much, is it?? That said, Monarchy allows me to grab 2 sources of wines, and REALLY helps my happiness problems...



595 AD: Trade calender and some gold, for Alphabet. Seriously, whats the Babylonian going to do with THIS!? And calender gives +2 happy in all my cities, as well as telling me that I will eventually control the largest continent (and thus the 68% land area doesn't seem so bad...)



640 AD: Wow. The Ottomans got the Statue of Zeus... that could (literally) kill me. Seriously. Anyway, that out of the way, I NEED to find that city, and then either raze it, or capture it myself (I would prefer to raze it, but it is a nice wonder for domination victory )



750 AD: I do one of the 'dumbest' trades ever. The Babylonians are very weak, and Currency won't do all that much. However, Horse-back riding will give me WAR ELEPHANTS, arguably the strongest unit of its era (8 strength alone is bad enough. Add on the fact its stronger than a pikeman in every aspect (except defending), and can get an extra promotion (with the Stable), its a VERY powerful unit. Also catapults are needed for this war.





910 AD: The last turn. First, I research Civil Service. And I haven't even gone to war yet. Total victory is now impossible, sadly.

Then I ask the Babylonians to give me the tech for Forges (+2 extra happiness / extra production, and finally navigation II triremes), as a 'good friend' and he accepts!!

Finally, I look at the power graph, and demographics (which I don't understand properly...)

Right. This is the situation ATM...

Summary of the first 4910 years​

I am in no position for a war. My power level is so insanely weak, I don't have a hope. In addition, unless I can find the SoZ, then I cannot war against the ottomans (regardless of their power rating). However, Police State MAY help a bit...

By the looks of it, I AM the largest civ, with the most people, and I am close to the top teching civ too... The Great Library with Representation will help tons, I have 4 scientists in my capital city!!

I need a war ASAP. A string of catapults will help the war effort, and some war elephants will help to. After my build queues are finished from my two war cities (I have 4 commerce, and 3 war cities ATM), I should have 4 Elephants, 5 Catapults, 6 swords, 2 archers, and maybe a crossbow. Macemen are a while away, but I will need an amphibious attack ASAP to take out the SoZ. However, medieval amphibious attacks are arguably weak ANYWAY, as there is no way to bombard city defenses from the coast until frigates. To launch an amphibious attack, I will need 8 Berzerks, and 4 galleys (and MAYBE 2 triremes to escort, if it is a while away.) Having ice separate both coasts is going to make naval war very hard anyway...

Who to war with??

Babylon: Weak, with holy cities, and a shrine. Low power rating means that a war is quite easy... if it wasn't for the Ottomans preparing for war anyway...

Ottomans: VERY strong, insane production, insane power. Why would I pick a fight with the strongest person?? Simple: Babylon is unlikely to join in, due to them being VERY weak, they have the SoZ (which will mean that if I fight the Babylonians, and they defend them, I am going to have the WW problem from hell), And if I let them get muskets, then my defenses are as good as gone (as I will be beelining Astronomy, meaning the Gunpowder line will be rather empty...)

Although more experienced people would know who to war with, I will probably go with Babylon, via an amphibious, or otherwise attack onto the Hindu holy city (hopefully I get the crusade event!!). If the Ottomans declare war, I will bow out, and focus on defence. I won't be able to take out the Ottoman stacks, unless my catapults are safely in my territory. Also, I need to find out what sort of units the Ottomans have.

I have learned two things from this game, and they are this: Never give the strongest power civ in the game Aesthetics, unless you control the SoZ. Also going down the axe-rush path is a very worthwhile investment, if you have copper. If you don't, then going for Priesthood for the Oracle will be much better. But you don't know until you tried. I thought that failing to go to the Oracle would mean that I would be crushed, but obviously not.

OK, so you are playing the Vikings. The notion of mer-maces on really fast boats is thematic, and there are all sorts of twisty ideas because of the game mechanics (Mer-maces can only be counter attacked by ships, amphibious attacks don't negatively impact collateral damage, ships can be promoted as medics, other ships can batter city defences, and so on).

What I would recommend is working your way through the decisions you made (especially the early ones), and give some thought to "did the decision I made accelerate or postpone my army of mer-maces?"

Thanks Digit Cruncher for Your games, thanks to You I've took Next War Revolutions mod and so far I had a blast (bit too much warmongering for my taste, but fun nonetheless)

If I could only ask You for one thing - can You by any chance paste screenshots in the same way as in ALC? It would be helluva more convenient to read. If not that's fine of course, but perhaps?

Nice game, keep it going

Well... you will have to describe to me what format is easiest to read. I probably will try full-size, but PERSONALLY, I hate scrolling through 30000000 pages of screenies that don't interest me, just to see one that does. I also symphasize with people on 56K (me using NZ Broadband, which is about twice as fast -.-), so I normally use thumbnails, as they are A) Faster to load, and B) Just as useful (if you want to look at the screeny, then click on it. But otherwise, I'm not forcing you to look at it)

However, if a few more people disagree with my feelings towards larger (I say horribly over sized ) images, then I will convert. However, just one question:

Would you prefer images before text, or text before images?

Oh, and RE: The game at hand. I like the idea of mer-maces... I have done everything in my power to get mer-maces out the gate ASAP (I still need machinery. Civil Service was mainly for the chained irrigation, as I prefer to use my hills to be mined, rather than windmilled, as mines sometimes pop useful resources!) The only problem was that, in my mind, I would have the Babylonians totally destroyed, and the Ottomans too weak to do anything because they lost their capital, and only sat around to do tech trades with me, because of a MASSIVE Axe/Chariot+Horse Archer rush. That never happened. And as a result, I will have to waste my mer-maces on grabbing the Hindu holy city and/or the SoZ. I may also have a copious supply of amphibious rifles, as well!!

I think that, if I were to start again, I would do a Alphabet slingshot using the Oracle, back trade some minor techs, focus entirely on economic techs, and cope better with the expansion I did. In this game (and another one I recently tried) I seem to have got into the habit of REXing too hard in the early game, and failing to see that I have an economic situation on my hands.

Basically, I will not play tomorrow (I have assignments to do + balls to go to) nor Sunday, and PROBABLY not Monday. However, on Tuesday, I will do a BIT of Civving, and I will continue this saga...

Things I am not 100% sure on:

Target for the next war:
A) Ottomans
B) Babylonians

Aim for the AP? (If I go for the AP, I am guarenteed entry, however I probably wont be voted in, which means any wars I start will invariably get stopped by the AP. If I don't, the other continent might get it (which will help me TONS, as I can war as much as I like), but if Babylon builds it... then I am in for TONS of trouble (as now I lose the ability to even get voted into power...)

1) Aim for AP
2) Leave it, and hope for the best

War now, or fix the economy? If I wait, I may miss out on the Partial Victory condition (or even any victory condition...) due to me stalling my domination progress even further than before. However, if I wait, I will get stronger (I am a hyper-builder. Even now its REALLY tough to focus on military...) and be in a better position to fight. However, the age of mer-maces will almost definitely be over, and the age of hyper-insane muskets would just be beginning...

#) War now
%) War later.

I am PROBABLY going B2#, simply because I don't have the production for the AP, the Babylonians are temporarily weak, and if I don't war now, I will just slip into the old habits of teching and building...

[Edit]Too much warmongering? Revolutions? If you look at my game, you will notice I did no more warmongering than normal. In fact, warmongering is actually a BAD thing, as the captured cities are more likely to revolt, and rise up (remember the Khmer? And the French?), and kill your civilization. You could, in theory, play a game without being involved in a war, as your 'core' cities are never likely to revolt, ever (due to them having only the distant location instability reason, no nationality problems, and normally having the same, or simaler, religion)[/Edit]

Do you mind/encourage/care about shadow games? I've actually never done this with the vikings and have been meaning to.

Question though, what techs trigger industrial era? That's kind of important so one doesn't trigger it by accident off something stupid .

You can always wrap some spoiler tags every several screens to keep it neat. And screen first, description/text below please


/offtopic, about Revolutions
True, I scored above 100k recently there with Monarch De Gaulle by somewhat peaceful development. Had some luck when rebellion hit my northern neighbor, Sumerians took over 4 of his cities, and then I squashed three of them with a bit of technologically advanced army being produced at a side for a bad day. Cities were close, and I happened to do another good ol' trick with dealing with foreign culture in conquered cities. They were recently under Sumerian rebellion, and had like 50%+ of their culture. I've managed to wipe out Sumerians after a while with Khan (so I gained 4 of his former cities and yet no demerits, and even a bonus for a mutual struggle ). Turn afterwards, lo and behold - mass genocide, no Sumerians anymore, conquered cities have 80%+ of my culture so no rebellious spirit.*

That worked great, however quite a few times I had a problem when suddenly two city-states automatically in war with everyone emerge from barb cities close to my borders They come looking for trouble
Sometimes it's a bit too troublesome, and also without solid religion/culture it's hard to maintain large empire (which makes perfect and logical sense of course, there has to be some unifying element to the empire), unless with strong (and I mean STRONG) garrisons in case of a rebellion or two - and that's the warmongering I was talking about.

*)thank goodness it's only a game

I don't mind about shadow games... just keep all the parts that haven't been revealed yet in spoiler tags...

I may (if I have the time) grab a WB save of the initial start, so you don't have to play at noble difficulty.

And my spec chart for vanilla civ IV says that these techs are the 'gateway' to industrial era:

Steel, Sci Meth, Steam Power. (Someone will have to double check Military Science for me, as that requires two late Reinessance Era techs, so it COULD be industrial...)

And, for the Modern Era:

Refrigeration, Radio, Rocketry, Flight, Plastics, Ecology

Great series!

I was sufficiently intrigued, in fact, to play a shadow game to see if I could press that great start even further!

As this might not be what you want, I have of course put my post within spoiler tags. But perhaps you'll find some use out of it...

Regardless I wish you good luck with your game



Hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed reading your walkthrough.

Cheers,
kazapp

I stopped playing my shadow game some time after Astronomy.

I admit I was getting lax, and so I should perhaps have started the invasion wars a bit earlier to be 100% secure I would win according to your victory options.

But my score was more than double the AI in second place (HC), so I guess I could just shut off research once I had finished off all the pre-Industrial techs. There would probably be enough time to wipe the AIs off the face of the planet before any of them (such as Hammurabi) got a chance at entering the Industrial age. Just raze/grab their capitals as the first action in any war.

(I would have included the save at 1508 AD, but really, I didn't play very actively during the ADs, so I'm not too sure there's anything to see. I believe I covered all the interesting parts in my first post.)

Hope to see you keep up your EVP series!

Cheers
Z

I haven't forgotten this (rather, I did, but I have remembered it again), and I started again. Kazapp has discussed some very useful ways to survive a metal-less horse-less start, and still make an easy victory in domination, early. And pillaging is MUCH more profitable, than I thought It makes a standing army PROFITABLE

Anyway, I will open up the game, and post a summary of everything that happened. There isn't much... MUCH less diplomacy than that previous game... in fact I only made 2 tech trades for the entire game But that is how you make a quick win, especially when you only know a maximum of two civs at any one time

Oh, BTW, I have failed the Total victory conditions, quite a while ago too. And if Flight and Industrialism are modern era... I am also going to fail that. But I have almost definitely won the game. I just need fission, rocketry, marines, and then I win .



4000 BC: The start. Like most places, it is very light on food (later scouting shows the presence of 8 food resources on the entire continent, and 4 seafood resources. Floodplains give most the food in this world. That, and farmed plains.



3950BC, 3750BC: Meet my two neighbours. A wonder-whoring mid-game powerhouse, and a protective defender. Just my luck. I wonder who is on the other side? Later wars, and the founding of 5 religions imply two religious nuts. I am wrong. DEAD wrong.


3550BC: I decide to do a chariot / horse archer rush... and it pays off!! I have horses JUST out of the BFC... by the time I get the Wheel, my borders should have popped, and I should be away laughing



3175BC: Remember when I said 8 food resources? I wasn't joking. Here is 6 of them. 2 more are further north (a sheep and a pig). No grains. I am so glad that I plan to take over the continent, as there isn't enough food resources to go between 3 civs...

1800BC: Babylon builds Stonehedge


1150BC: Mmm... greed. I love this quest... I knew it had a good reward... I just didn't know HOW good.

875: Babylon builds the Oracle, gets CoL, and found Confusism, in one turn. The next turn they adopt confusism.


775 BC: I declare war on Hammurabi, take the copper, the holy city, and my first sweet taste of conquest. The only defenders where two bowmen, entirely weak vs. my mounted units.


700 BC: Win the greed quest. Get 3 Axes. This is an AWESOME event... I effectively increased the size of my army by 40% by taking 1 city!


470 BC: Capture the Babylonian capital. Its a nice production powerhouse, with 2 wonders already there (Stonehedge, and the Oracle)


35 BC: Why would the Babylonian borders go from 0% to 40%!? It was a small thing, and so I didn't bother to save... but it stole my cattle No artists, and all it has is a palace... so 2 culture per turn.

325 AD: Raze the last Babylonian city. Babylonians, RIP.


505 AD: Declare war on Giglamesh, and take 2 workers

685 AD: Capture, and Raze, Ur. The source of the Sumerian jumbos...


870 AD: What a wonderful event... in such a food shy environment too! The happiness penalty doesn't hurt me, but not being able to whip for 15 turns (or else getting double length unhappyness penalties) does annoy me a bit

990 AD: Build SoZ

1170 AD: DoW on Giglamesh after the 10 turn compulsory peace (I made peace because I needed to regroup my armies for a final rush, and also I needed some more cats to take out his stack with low losses.

1275 AD: Capture Uruk (A VERY nice city for production)

1525 AD: Raze the last Sumerian city. Found a major production city a few tiles to the SE, where I get 2 iron, and a marble, and its sea-side!!


1575 AD: Meet Asoka, of India. My initial theory that the two other civs were two religous nutjobs was wrong. If they were, then they would be both very weak, and easy for my zerks to come and take over thier empire. INSTEAD, we have a peaceful techer capitulated to the strongest, and arguably best warrior in Civ IV (IE. NOT suicidal. Much) Shaka owns this continent, except for 3 cities. He owns a bunch of nice wonders, including the pyrimids (which, as he is running a police state, is counteracting my SoZ... DANG!!) Oh, and while you are at it, look what Shaka does when he hasn't had any competition in the last millenia, while I have been hammering away at protective civs...


Yeah... not good.


1670 AD: I get a +1 movement, in addition to free navigation I promotion (from Trading post). My galleons start off the bat with *6* movement points! They have turbines! (Reminds me of C-evo, where you can have sail ships with turbines, or my favorite, wind-powered subs -.-)

1746 AD: Build the AP. I don't want the Zulu getting it, and then asking for victory after I take one hindu city. And I couldn't do anything about it...


1776: A dumb move... but I get 1 city Confusist on the other continent... for 39 gold -.-

1780: India builds Anckor Wat

1782: I build the University of Sankore


1800: This is the decisive war... in 1 turn (I say 3 weeks, because it was so quick ), the entire Indian empire experiances simultainious revolts. A Viking spy is discovered, and the Vikings declare war. Without any city defences, the entire Indian civilisation is destroyed without any Viking troops dying. But the aftermath is less successful. At least I killed a vassal.

1804: There are three Indian captured cities. The northern one is the Christian Holy City (no shrine). The central one has Anckor Wat. The southern one is a waste city that I forgot to raze, but saves my butt (sorta...) In 1804, the central one is captured by the Zulu, and now THEY have Anckor Wat.

1808: Lose the southern city. At least the northern city is free from attacks for a few turns...

1812: Re-capture, and raze, the central Indian city. If I can't keep Ankcor Wat, no-one can.

1812-1830: I don't know the exact time frame, but in this period alot happens
The Zulu march in with a huge army to the northern most city. However, this city is guarded by a barrier of a peak, which forces the armies to stop on plains. I bombard them with catapults, and the first wave of Zulu troops (around 10 Cuirassers, 5 Cats, 2 XBows (which always seem to kill MY XBows -.-), and 5 Macemen dies against my garrison of 7 Zerks, 3 Pikes, and 3 XBows (and the only Jumbo ever to be built... what a waste )
The second wave comes in 2 turns later, and I have no cats to bombard again, and my troops are still too weak to defend properly. As a result, they get trounced.
The reinforcements move south, to the only coastal forested hill, and set up base.

1830-1860: With only 9 units, surely they would be defeated, right? Wrong. The pikes, the XBows, and Longbows all fight perfectly, defending the first wave (just). I then reinforce with a HUGE battalion of 6 Knights, 3 Longbows, 1 XBow, 4 Pikes, 1 Zerk, and promote them accordingly. Then, the Zulu send thier biggest attack (20% of thier entire milatery force), and try to move me. I don't budge, and lose only 3 units, to thier 30~40!! Guerrila II Longbows, and Forest Defence 3 Pikes are amazing

1866: Raze the capital of the Zulu. They lose 200 points. And a HUGE gold production facility.

Recently, the Zulu have developed Grenadiers, and are only Astronomy away from Ships of the Line. However, next turn, I should get a Golden Age, which will allow me to adopt Slavery (my favorite civic), whip 4 or 5 frigates, and launch multiple amphibious razing assaults everywhere!! I am also aiming for Infantry, followed by Nukes, and then Marines... after that, I should be able to nuke my way to victory.

Low food = low science. Thats why I am so technologically deficient.

Saves attached.

Just a minor non-game related question: how do you get your text to be that font? When I play, my text is noticeably different from yours (yours seems to be a bit "loose" in comparison to mine).

It is the font I have always had... it looks like times new roman...

When you look at the picture, try clicking it again... it starts out a little zoomed out so that you can see the entire picture at once. Its the problem with 1200X800 resolution... (And why I post thumbnails, and not full images. I like people with low bandwidth, like me )

Wow... that was unexpected. I just razed a couple of Shakas southern cities, and his economy folded!


1868: Use a GE to build the Taj Mahal... golden age No. 1!!

1874: Raze a coastal city of Shakas (the most gold producing city out there)


1879: The forested hill nearly falls to the Zulu. The Knights, Pikes, and Longbows (and a few Muskets) were no match to the waves of cuirassers, and grenadiers. It just took time, and a bit of luck. But at least each unit killed at least 2~3 times their production!! (Most of my axes killed some grenadiers!!) I disband the last two units, as I don't want Shaka to get another GG...

1882: Raze two more coastal cities. A commerce city, and a naval production yard (complete with 8 ships!)


1905: Declare war, and capture the city founded in the ruins of the central Indian city! I am attempting to break my way through to Delhi

1905-1935: This 30 years describes a stalemate. Everytime I moved towards Delhi, huge armies attacked me back. I retreat, and then they die at my city walls. Also, 1.37 has the rather annoying thing of having cuirassers, and calvary flank attacking my cats and trebs... which is sad...


1917: Start a second golden age, but Shaka builds the Spiral Minaret... making Delhi a REALLY good place to stay!


1925: Whats this event do? It sounds nice!! And what triggers it? (obviously police state )


1936: FINALLY capture Delhi. Its all downhill from here. With a sizable hand-hold on this new continent, split in two regions, Shaka doesn't even attempt a counter-attack... Also, this attack takes me over the population limit (which, weirdly, is BELOW the land area limit... it should be MUCH higher, its not much of a limit...)
Delhi has 4 wonders: The Pyrimids, the Great Wall, the Spiral Minaret, and Versailles. Of all of these, only the Spiral Minaret is useful...

July 1941: Bombay falls. It has the Jewish shrine... complete with 15 GPT... WOW [/sarcasm]

Jan 1941: 3rd great artist. I plan to use them on my newly captured cities, to culture bomb


July 1951: For those who can't (or don't want to read) then this is what BUG is telling me:

"Your land area 410 (65.99%) is close to the Domination Limit 410 (66.00%)"

WRAGGGHH!!! Lucky I have a great artist in range. Jump it in, culture bomb it, and BOOM!!


And a few gloating things:






And to leave, this is all that the Zulu empire has been left with. The next turn, if I wished to continue, I would Capitulate the Zulu, grab their 2nd best city, 300 gold, and 10 gold per turn, grab all the resources I would ever need, and live in peace for the rest of eternity. A job well done... and only 10 million soldiers or so lost thier lives in gaining TRUE world peace.



NOTE:

There were several things that worked in my favour in the late game...

#1: And this is the biggy: The Zulu NEVER researched Astronomy. For most of the game, if they researched astronomy, they would have been able to fend of my galleons, and frigates with Ships of the Line... and that would have killed me, as reinforcements would be few and far between. As it was, the caravels did enough damage (They killed 4 infantry, in a un-escorted galleon. After that shocking display of rebellion, all galleons had to be escorted with a Frigate. However, after I got transports, I won easily)

#2: Shakas tech rate dropped rapidly after losing just 5 coastal cities. This allowed me to run in with Infantry, while he was still researching steel.

#3: He was poor at defending. After his capital was razed, he turtled up... poorly. He pulled most of his military in from the coast, into his central cities, with many wonders. This allowed me to pillage the coastal cities, and then grab two more coastal cities to make a beach-head.

#4: Bezerks, Zerks, Mermaces... whatever you call them, in an amphibious war, they just rule the coast. Amphibous rifles (and later, amphibious CR III Infantry ^.^) just ripped through the coast. It also allowed me to protect myself from counter attack, by attacking across the river

#5: Poor food supplies. This actually helps me, as it gives me much needed production, as well as telling me to keep my population down, without spending tons on buildings. Finally, the lack of health limited my population, meaning less infrastructure was needed, and I remembered (just in time too) NOT to build factories in every city They aren't like Forges, in that they give huge amounts of happyness...

Note: Domination win is timely, and boring. For most of the game, you KNOW you will win, its just grabbing that ever increasing (it went from 48% of land area, to 66% -.-) land requirements... Compare that to space race, where you have a fellow friend building spaceship components faster than you, and the only way to win, is to get Fusion first... THAT is excitement. But war is a nice break. Its fun sending in wave after wave of infantry, and smashing and looting and breaking everything.

Oh, and I got a partial victory... not bad for someone with twice my strength (at the end, I had 4 times as much power as him ^.^)

So... comments? And the domination win movie screen is quite nice!! I thoughirly recommend all my builder friends out there to get

Oh, and I don't know whether to do EVP II: The creative Chinese, or Mod Test III: Double the Trouble... I will probably do the Mod Test, just for fun I want an easy game, not facing off against Shaka And having TWO buildings per city tickles my builder bone... and I will leave it up to you to decide what bone that is

Digit out!! (for now)

Congratulations on the win!