Hi all, first time I post on the Stories section.
I start off with a replay of the game. Map is not included, as one can't save a map in a multiplayer game for some reason. Oh, and don't mind the multiple same names of the cities; we had a habit of renaming our cities for comic relief. For instance all Egyptian cities were named Kakkelis, Kikkelis, Kokkelis, Kekkelis, Kykkelis, Kökkelis, and Käkkelis.
Since I wasn't initially planning on writing a story about this game I had not taken any screenshots. A real shame now that I think about it.
For starters, all 6 players were human players. We are not all that competitive nor aggressive with our playstyles. By some league standards we're sub-par, but we are relatively equal against each other. We also use TeamSpeak to chat casually at the same time.
We chose to have a quick pace and start from classical era to jump over the tedious ancient era some of us don't like. In addition we had the following: Random Civilizations, Disable Start Bias, No Ancient Ruins. I prefer random civs because it doesn't give a pre-emptive advantage to any player. Disable Start Bias to not make Russia always be up north in the arctic, and No Ancient Ruins to remove the unnecessary luck variable. No Turn Timer was used as we could just yell to each other to finish our turns.
Anyway, at the loading screen I get to see I got England. I'm not particularly a fan of England; naval warfare isn't my thing. I also hear in TeamSpeak what others got: Aztec, Egypt, Siam, Arabia, and Russia. Initially I was afraid of the Aztec, as I know the power of Floating Gardens way too well.
So, the game starts. The players were divided onto two major continents. One was a very snaky continent expanding from Venice to Singapore, Thebes, Mecca, Cape Town, Tenochtitlan, Warsaw, and Sukhothai. The other was a more solid mass encompassing Stockholm, Florence, London, and Moscow. Monaco was it on its own island, as were Bucharest, Kuala Lumpur, and Geneva. Brussels and Seoul shared a mid-sized island and stayed in relative silence during the whole game.
Aztec and England neither placed their capital at the beginning turn; I can speak only for England though, and I moved my settler to the coast instead of inland. England having an inland capital would defeat the whole purpose of its UA, I think.
All was jolly in the world. Civilizations were expanding in harmony, some faster than others. By the turn 55 (the game started at 33 because of classical era), the first second city, Medina, was born. Shortly after that, St. Petersburg appeared, appearing relatively close to the English capital. One could anticipate this to be a step towards war. This created some tension, as a few military units on both sides appeared to the border. Neither made a move one side or the other, and things kept on going. Aztec made a similar towards Sukhothai, but nothing happened... yet.
England finishes building the first wonder; Great Library. Slingshotting directly to medieval age via Civil Service, England was now well in the lead in terms of score. Unfortunately, others knew this quite well too to my dismay.
In a few turns, Egypt and Russia expanded to three cities. England and Siam were still holding to their capitals. More world wonders started to pop up, Stonehenge and Great Lighthouse, for instance.
It didn't take long after that for a war to start. Siam declared war on the Aztec! An early war wasn't really a new thing even in our games, but this still provoked a few surprised gasps in TeamSpeak. Over the course of a few turns we gathered the war wasn't faring well for either of the combatants. For a few turns, Siam was winning Aztec. And vice versa. And vice versa. Finally though Siam managed to capture Aztec's second city. Being wounded Siam decided to offer peace to Aztec, who accepted it.
By the time the world was proven round (about 20 turns after the Siam-Aztec war) Arabia had 4 cities, Aztec 3, Egypt 5, England 3, Russia 4, and Siam 2. Egypt, Siam and Russia continued to expand. Arabia had ran out of room, and England wasn't too keen on expanding quickly. Aztec was still covering from the war.
But it didn't take long for before Aztec made a desperate push towards Arabia. With no iron in Aztec's disposal it had to depend on Knights. However, due to their city attack penalty the effort was in vain. Arabia had saved up a lot of money, and immediately bought and army to defend itself. Shortly afterwards Siam joined the war against Aztec, and Aztec's fate was sealed. In the following turns 2 out of 3 cities fell for Arabia, and the Aztec capital to the Siam.
A period of growth in silence began again. Siam settled on other islands, first sharing one with Bucharest, next with Brussels and Seoul.
Unbeknownst to England, things were developing in the background. Egypt signed a defensive pact with Russia and Arabia, Russia with Arabia. England was not blind however. Seeing Arabian units inside Russian territory made things uneasy; an attack was inevitably occurring. Military unit production became the #1 priority in England.
Then it happened, in a far greater magnitude than I (England) had anticipated. First Russia declared war. That I was expecting. On the same turn, but a moment later, Egypt declared war. Siam declared war. Next turn Arabia declared war. Every nation in the world was in war with England. With only 5 cities (out of which 1 was still developing), repelling such an attack could prove to nigh impossible.
The bay between England and russia soon became swarmed with frigates and caravels. Some 3 to 4 Ship-of-the-lines were defending the English front, but the never-ending swarm of over a dozen frigates and caravels were way too much. Soon Arabia managed to conquer the second London with a successful battalion of 4 Riflemen.
It was thanks to English technological superiority that the attack almost completely stalled. Riflemen became infantries, the production of the English capital was amazing, pushing out top-grade military units every other turn. In the rough terrain between St. Petersburg and the English capital it was relatively easy to hold off the Russian Riflemen hordes. With new technological developments, destoyers started to come out. Having the slight naval superiority in quality, not quantity, didn't prove to be enough, and some frigates got close enough to the capital to bombard it. No enemy land units were in sight though.
Everything changed in a few turns, when an Arabian frigate suddenly sank. No ship was its vicinity. England had built a submarine, and most others were still dabbling with frigates. England's problem on sea ended, and with mechanized infantry Russia's push had been successfully repelled and New London was recaptured. A war against a navy encompassing frigates from four factions was stopped. Hooray!
One might wonder why Siam nor Egypt didn't send their land units to attack as well. There were some English naval warships stationed on the other side of the continent for this possibility, ready to squash advancing embarked units.
A counter-attack was in order, and in 16 turns England conquered whole of Russia. To make it clear, all the others had left the stage when Arabia lost its captured city, leaving Russia alone. England was mightier than ever before! Peace was never declared, though, and tensions remained.
England now was aiming for a science victory. Egypt and Arabia were dropped out of the league, hoping only to aid Siam to reach victory by any means. The evidence of Siam's true power was unveiled when a global notifications popped up; Manhattan Project had been completed. English recon confirmed a sizeable fleet of destroyers and a carrier carrying a few fighters right next to Sukhothai. After a few attempts one submarine was able to sink the carrier, postponing a possible 'nuking'.
Apollo Program was underway, and others had to think fast. Seeing England's capitals superb production output it wouldn't take very long to build the part even with only one city. From this point forward, no hostile actions were made one way or another.
England grew worried with the fact Siam had bought nearly every city state under its wing. It was possible Egypt and Arabia were financially supporting Siam's cause to acquire the city states. However England wasn't too afraid; if Siam had advanced to nuclear science, it couldn't have concentrated in Globalization, thus constructing United Nations.
Turn 237 England pooped its pants. It wasn't Siam who built United Nations, it was Egypt. With the war still on-going, England couldn't have bought city states away from Siam. England didn't have enough military units to engage in a city capturing so quickly. Only two more space ship parts were necessary, and those were about to be ready in just 10 turns; the same it would take for a diplomatic victory.
Sweat and adrenaline were the most abundant components during the last turns. England had spread out its destroyers to watch for incoming carriers, possibly carrying nukes in order to bring the English capital back to stone age, thwarting production. After finishing one space ship part, one was left, and it was 6 turns away from Siam's diplomatic victory. And it'd take 6 turns to build the last space ship part. There was hope for England though; the capital did not possess a spaceship factory. Alas, with only around 400 gold it was 210 gold short of buying the building.
Desperate measures were needed, and England sold nearly all land units it had to reach 610 gold. Comfortably, the extra 50% production lowered the building time by 1, making it 5 turns. One turn ahead of the diplomatic victory. The following turns were filled with anxiety, but there was nothing anyone could do to stop England's victory.
So in 1952, England launched a space ship heading to Alpha Centauri. One measly turn away from defeat.
I start off with a replay of the game. Map is not included, as one can't save a map in a multiplayer game for some reason. Oh, and don't mind the multiple same names of the cities; we had a habit of renaming our cities for comic relief. For instance all Egyptian cities were named Kakkelis, Kikkelis, Kokkelis, Kekkelis, Kykkelis, Kökkelis, and Käkkelis.
Since I wasn't initially planning on writing a story about this game I had not taken any screenshots. A real shame now that I think about it.
For starters, all 6 players were human players. We are not all that competitive nor aggressive with our playstyles. By some league standards we're sub-par, but we are relatively equal against each other. We also use TeamSpeak to chat casually at the same time.
We chose to have a quick pace and start from classical era to jump over the tedious ancient era some of us don't like. In addition we had the following: Random Civilizations, Disable Start Bias, No Ancient Ruins. I prefer random civs because it doesn't give a pre-emptive advantage to any player. Disable Start Bias to not make Russia always be up north in the arctic, and No Ancient Ruins to remove the unnecessary luck variable. No Turn Timer was used as we could just yell to each other to finish our turns.
Anyway, at the loading screen I get to see I got England. I'm not particularly a fan of England; naval warfare isn't my thing. I also hear in TeamSpeak what others got: Aztec, Egypt, Siam, Arabia, and Russia. Initially I was afraid of the Aztec, as I know the power of Floating Gardens way too well.
So, the game starts. The players were divided onto two major continents. One was a very snaky continent expanding from Venice to Singapore, Thebes, Mecca, Cape Town, Tenochtitlan, Warsaw, and Sukhothai. The other was a more solid mass encompassing Stockholm, Florence, London, and Moscow. Monaco was it on its own island, as were Bucharest, Kuala Lumpur, and Geneva. Brussels and Seoul shared a mid-sized island and stayed in relative silence during the whole game.
Aztec and England neither placed their capital at the beginning turn; I can speak only for England though, and I moved my settler to the coast instead of inland. England having an inland capital would defeat the whole purpose of its UA, I think.
All was jolly in the world. Civilizations were expanding in harmony, some faster than others. By the turn 55 (the game started at 33 because of classical era), the first second city, Medina, was born. Shortly after that, St. Petersburg appeared, appearing relatively close to the English capital. One could anticipate this to be a step towards war. This created some tension, as a few military units on both sides appeared to the border. Neither made a move one side or the other, and things kept on going. Aztec made a similar towards Sukhothai, but nothing happened... yet.
England finishes building the first wonder; Great Library. Slingshotting directly to medieval age via Civil Service, England was now well in the lead in terms of score. Unfortunately, others knew this quite well too to my dismay.
In a few turns, Egypt and Russia expanded to three cities. England and Siam were still holding to their capitals. More world wonders started to pop up, Stonehenge and Great Lighthouse, for instance.
It didn't take long after that for a war to start. Siam declared war on the Aztec! An early war wasn't really a new thing even in our games, but this still provoked a few surprised gasps in TeamSpeak. Over the course of a few turns we gathered the war wasn't faring well for either of the combatants. For a few turns, Siam was winning Aztec. And vice versa. And vice versa. Finally though Siam managed to capture Aztec's second city. Being wounded Siam decided to offer peace to Aztec, who accepted it.
By the time the world was proven round (about 20 turns after the Siam-Aztec war) Arabia had 4 cities, Aztec 3, Egypt 5, England 3, Russia 4, and Siam 2. Egypt, Siam and Russia continued to expand. Arabia had ran out of room, and England wasn't too keen on expanding quickly. Aztec was still covering from the war.
But it didn't take long for before Aztec made a desperate push towards Arabia. With no iron in Aztec's disposal it had to depend on Knights. However, due to their city attack penalty the effort was in vain. Arabia had saved up a lot of money, and immediately bought and army to defend itself. Shortly afterwards Siam joined the war against Aztec, and Aztec's fate was sealed. In the following turns 2 out of 3 cities fell for Arabia, and the Aztec capital to the Siam.
A period of growth in silence began again. Siam settled on other islands, first sharing one with Bucharest, next with Brussels and Seoul.
Unbeknownst to England, things were developing in the background. Egypt signed a defensive pact with Russia and Arabia, Russia with Arabia. England was not blind however. Seeing Arabian units inside Russian territory made things uneasy; an attack was inevitably occurring. Military unit production became the #1 priority in England.
Then it happened, in a far greater magnitude than I (England) had anticipated. First Russia declared war. That I was expecting. On the same turn, but a moment later, Egypt declared war. Siam declared war. Next turn Arabia declared war. Every nation in the world was in war with England. With only 5 cities (out of which 1 was still developing), repelling such an attack could prove to nigh impossible.
The bay between England and russia soon became swarmed with frigates and caravels. Some 3 to 4 Ship-of-the-lines were defending the English front, but the never-ending swarm of over a dozen frigates and caravels were way too much. Soon Arabia managed to conquer the second London with a successful battalion of 4 Riflemen.
It was thanks to English technological superiority that the attack almost completely stalled. Riflemen became infantries, the production of the English capital was amazing, pushing out top-grade military units every other turn. In the rough terrain between St. Petersburg and the English capital it was relatively easy to hold off the Russian Riflemen hordes. With new technological developments, destoyers started to come out. Having the slight naval superiority in quality, not quantity, didn't prove to be enough, and some frigates got close enough to the capital to bombard it. No enemy land units were in sight though.
Everything changed in a few turns, when an Arabian frigate suddenly sank. No ship was its vicinity. England had built a submarine, and most others were still dabbling with frigates. England's problem on sea ended, and with mechanized infantry Russia's push had been successfully repelled and New London was recaptured. A war against a navy encompassing frigates from four factions was stopped. Hooray!
One might wonder why Siam nor Egypt didn't send their land units to attack as well. There were some English naval warships stationed on the other side of the continent for this possibility, ready to squash advancing embarked units.
A counter-attack was in order, and in 16 turns England conquered whole of Russia. To make it clear, all the others had left the stage when Arabia lost its captured city, leaving Russia alone. England was mightier than ever before! Peace was never declared, though, and tensions remained.
England now was aiming for a science victory. Egypt and Arabia were dropped out of the league, hoping only to aid Siam to reach victory by any means. The evidence of Siam's true power was unveiled when a global notifications popped up; Manhattan Project had been completed. English recon confirmed a sizeable fleet of destroyers and a carrier carrying a few fighters right next to Sukhothai. After a few attempts one submarine was able to sink the carrier, postponing a possible 'nuking'.
Apollo Program was underway, and others had to think fast. Seeing England's capitals superb production output it wouldn't take very long to build the part even with only one city. From this point forward, no hostile actions were made one way or another.
England grew worried with the fact Siam had bought nearly every city state under its wing. It was possible Egypt and Arabia were financially supporting Siam's cause to acquire the city states. However England wasn't too afraid; if Siam had advanced to nuclear science, it couldn't have concentrated in Globalization, thus constructing United Nations.
Turn 237 England pooped its pants. It wasn't Siam who built United Nations, it was Egypt. With the war still on-going, England couldn't have bought city states away from Siam. England didn't have enough military units to engage in a city capturing so quickly. Only two more space ship parts were necessary, and those were about to be ready in just 10 turns; the same it would take for a diplomatic victory.
Sweat and adrenaline were the most abundant components during the last turns. England had spread out its destroyers to watch for incoming carriers, possibly carrying nukes in order to bring the English capital back to stone age, thwarting production. After finishing one space ship part, one was left, and it was 6 turns away from Siam's diplomatic victory. And it'd take 6 turns to build the last space ship part. There was hope for England though; the capital did not possess a spaceship factory. Alas, with only around 400 gold it was 210 gold short of buying the building.
Desperate measures were needed, and England sold nearly all land units it had to reach 610 gold. Comfortably, the extra 50% production lowered the building time by 1, making it 5 turns. One turn ahead of the diplomatic victory. The following turns were filled with anxiety, but there was nothing anyone could do to stop England's victory.
So in 1952, England launched a space ship heading to Alpha Centauri. One measly turn away from defeat.
.
