Deity Roman, Tiny Earth 10 Civs

Hello,

A few years ago I was deeply attracted to Civilization 4, and got myself a copy of Civ5 this past Christmas. I just had my first Deity win last week.

After reading so many great stories I am thinking of making one as well. Since I am not as good as so many of you experts here, my story is not going to be about how professional my game play is, but rather to share the interesting and fun moments of the game with screenshots. I will also provide some of my underlying reasonings. Hope you enjoy my stories!

Patch: .141

Civilization: Rome. This is my first time to play as Caesar. Its unique unit (UU) Legion replaces Swordsman. From my Civ4 Deity experience, taking a few AIs ASAP was the key to victory. Legion will give me the edge needed.

Map Size: Tiny Earth. Sadly, my old computer can’t handle anything bigger than Tiny maps. I like Earth maps because I will pretty soon have an idea of where I am. It is also adds to a little role playing fun.

Difficulty: Deity.

Civs: 10 Civs + 8 City States. I love diplomacy in strategy games. Although Civ5 is not famous for a deep diplomatic system (instead the AIs will always find ways to hate you), I still want to see how much meaningful diplomacy I can extract (and potentially exploit) from the Deity AI players. Making the map extremely crowded will make the Civs engage in warfare a lot earlier. This is exactly what I intended.

Time: Marathon. I want to enjoy warfare to its most. It should give my Legions more turns to work on the early expansion.

Other settings: (1) New random seed upon reload. I settle on a battle outcome if it is not far away from the predicted result. Yet sometimes I would like to test things out to see what is possible in the game’s mechanism. I acknowledge that the game will be therefore less difficult than a true Deity game. I will specify places where I did reload. Otherwise you can assume that I just let things happen naturally. (2) No ancient ruins. I want to keep the luck factor to minimum.

OK. Here we go!

Chapter 01. Caesar's New Base



000. Lots of jungle. Shore to the northeast. A branched river. There is only one possibility of this landscape on the earth - present-day Brazil! Never had a South-America start before! I was actually hoping for a fitting Italian peninsula start, but soon realized the peninsula is too small to be shown on the Tiny Earth map. In fact the entire Mediterranean Sea has been reduced to a medium-sized lake!

Starting site analysis:

Good side:
(1) Isolated continent – probably won’t be declared war by multiple Civs.
(2) River + luxurious resources – good income. Deity AIs don’t really need the luxurious resources for happiness – they have unlimited happiness. But they are still paying a lot for them. That’s good for me. Because Deity AIs have so much cash.
(3) Gem is a very good extra resource because it sits on the tech path of Mining – Bronze Working – Iron Working (for my Legion rush)!

Bad side:
(1) Isolated continent – I probably have no buyer for my spice.
(2) Small number of fogged tiles – less barbarians, less early-game income.
(3) Jungles. I won’t be able to work on the tiles for quite a while.

I guess the Goods overweigh the Bads!



001. From past experience I know central America is blocked off by mountains. So my lone Roman warrior to explores south. Look! A Maritime City State called Cape Town, shipped fresh from South Africa.

Maritime City States are generally loved by players, since they provide Food bonus (although it has been heavily nerfed through the patches).



002. Caesar was immediately approached by the Japanese. Oh-oh. That’s not a good sign. Oda Nobunaga is a notorious powerful warmonger. Well, so is Caesar. There is no question that Japan and I will be competing for South America.



003. The exploration ended soon. There is not much land for Romans to expand. The City State Cape Town blocks our way to the south (and on the bright side, it also blocks Japan’s expansion to the north). There is only one more luxurious resource for us to grab (Whale). Might settle a town there later...

Build a worker first, so we could immediately start chopping down some jungles when Bronze Working research was completed.

I was also delighted to see a barbarian camp - I thought the fogged area might be too small for any barbarian camps. Barbarian = warriors get trained + we get paid! On Marathon, each camp is worth 75 gold! The camps regenerate every 30 turns or so when in the dark. Eventually I was able to defeat 3 camps and raised my warriors by two levels. Not bad.

But the barbarians killed my first warrior the first three times, all from worse-from expected results. Reload.

All levels went to Rough Terrain combat bonuses to pave way for the March promotion (heal every turn). There are just too many jungles.



004. Thanks to the low-hanging fruits in the Amazon jungle, Rome grew to population 2 on turn 23. The unimproved spices are pretty profitable already, plus these tiles all benefited from the Amazon river. 2/0/3, not bad at all! (After chopping down the jungle and improvement, these tiles will become 1/1/4. Still pretty good.)



005. Our first worker finally got his working permit after 52 turns! He was sent to Mt. Gem immediately. But even that mountain is covered by jungle. And since the research of bronze working won’t be complete until 5 turns later, he will just have to watch the gems shine for 5 turns…

The capital builds a second Warrior to be upgraded to Legion later.



006. Five turns up! And now we could start researching Iron Working, which will take… WTH 90 turns?! Early game in Marathon seems to drag forever, especially when the AIs are constantly building Wonders. I was certainly lagging behind at an epic rate. At least the tropical fruits will keep Romans reproductive (more population = more beakers = less research time).



007. The first worldwide censor of literacy! The Romans gloriously won the last prize. The Deity AIs are entering Classical and even Medieval era. My guys can’t even make bowls and milk cows!



008. At turn 75, Roman got enough cultural points for her first policy (exclusively from the +1 per turn from the capital).

I heard that Honor has been nerfed, but still I don’t see why I should consider Tradition or Liberty. Romans don’t have the turns, marble, or hammers to rush Wonders (we will instead rush AI’s Wonders!) or increase my capital population (we will instead take AI’s capitals’ population). We don’t have the space to spawn a few new cities of our own. Plus from a previous game I know Liberty’s Happiness from road connection to the capital is both nerfed and bugged. The most I could get was +3 smiley face. A very weak bonus!

I guess the weakened Honor is at least somewhat useful. Bonus fighting barbarians eliminates my occasional reloading. Saves time. I also get notified when barbarian camp respawns. That's pretty convenient.

Trained second and third warrior in the meantime. On Marathon, each warrior costs 460 gold to purchase directly. At that time I decided to save up 1000 gold to buy the alliance with Cape Town, so I was unwilling to purchase the warriors directly. The alliance with the City State would grant me open border access to Japan. Plus their own units might assist me in the coming war against Japan.

An alternative expansion plan was to annex the City State first. It does have an extra luxurious resource – wine. But since I was so many turns away from Calendar, and I only had 3 warriors, taking down the city state wouldn’t do me any good in the short run, and might harm the growth of my newer cities in the long run. I could receive the Wine bonus when I stay in good terms with them anyway.



009. The Honor policy served me well. Very soon I got a notice of the new barbarian camp. The barbarians have apparently researched archery. That’s exactly what I will research after Iron Working, so I can train or buy an archer or two to help the Roman Legions taking down cities.



010. Turn 87 – saved our first 1000 gold! And shipped all of them directly to Cape Town! I was hoping that Cape Town would hand out an easy mission (such as defeat that barbarian camp!), but nothing came up. I didn’t want to keep waiting because the Food bonus in the capital would be useful at an early stage.



011. My new friend Cape Town gave me their little map. Shamefully, my capital was growing slower than the City State! The Japanese warrior and its border was immediately visible. Their city can’t be too far away.



012. Turn 95. My very first luxurious resource! I don't really need it since my Happiness was still positive. So I am going to sell it to the only possible buyer for cash. And use that cash to buy units to attack my only possible buyer.

The barbarian galleys have appeared. My guys can’t even swim yet…



013. Mr. Oda is willing to pay all of his gold, 812 gold for my gem! In standard-length games each resource sells 300 gold. So I guess I could potentially sell for 900 gold.

812 Gold! That’s just great. What’s greater is that Oda can’t even see the Gems because the next minute I declared war on him. I already have my City States ally, so why not let them fight first? My City State friend might be able to kill a few warriors for me. Plus my own guys could use some level ups before their legion promotion…



014. First war declared on Japan! Deity Mr. Oda didn't even see the gems. Wahahaha

(Note: A similar, and probably cheaper exploit is to take a loan from AI (Gold vs. Gold per turn just before declaring war. At least I did have the Gem. ).

(To be continued&#8230

Great read so far. (lurking)

Chapter 02. Wars with Japan



015. First turn of war. The entire Roman army was 2 warriors (plus a 3rd in training). Ally City State Cape Town had 1 warrior. Japan had two weak scouts spying in our territories. These agents didn’t survive turn one!



016. The first wave of Japanese warriors arrived. They were bombarded by Cape Town and picked off one by one by Roman and City State warriors. I thought the AI would be dumb enough to keep sending units to die this way, but AI was smarter than that!

Almost at the same time, Japan sent two units of warrior to sail along the shore (X, guess they had Optics already. My guys still couldn’t swim) in an attempt to ambush my capital (or probably to grab my jungle-chopping worker).

My warrior No. 3 wouldn’t be ready for quite a few turns, so I purchased my 3rd warrior instead and pulled back Warrior No. 2 to defend. With the help of both cities' bombardment and the rough terrain bonus, the sneaky pair of Japanese warriors met their end. My own units were badly damaged, too.

Oda was apparently out of warriors – because his two Spearman units arrived immediately after. My units were all low in health, so I pulled them back to heal in Cape Town’s friendly back territory. The spearmen shouldn't be able to take Cape Town very quickly.



017. Several turns later, the spearmen were dealt with, too. It wasn’t too difficult even if the Japanese spearman did not actively attack. I camped in the forest until the Cape Town city defence severely weakened them.

I used the demographic chart to estimate the size of the remaining Japanese army. It had dropped to the very bottom of the ladder! Even slightly smaller than mine!
At the time I had 4 warriors and 1 worker (Does worker count?). So Japan probably had 2-3 units plus 2-3 workers. (Now the AI does not throw away everything it has once the war breaks out.) So I still need to be careful and not to throw away my units like Mr. Oda did.

People used to bash Civ 5 combat AI. I think it has been improved. It does not throw everything at you, and it actively finds more route to attack. It defends the ground even as the attacker. Sure, AI is still weak on estimating its success rate on operations. No human players would only send 2 units to the back of enemy's territories.



018. Seeing that no more Japanese units are coming, it is time to push back a bit! Not that I expect to take a city or two – my warriors can’t do that even with miracles. Just scouting.

So the Japanese capital Kyoto was immediately south. And since we are on Deity, there must be another city further south. From experience I know the AIs like to settle their second city 3 tiles away from the capital if possible.

There are two tiles for Roman archers to attack Kyoto (A), and three tiles for my future Legions. Two of them are safe tiles (L), while a third (X) might be bombarded by the second Japanese city and picked off by the remaining defenders even if it is a hill.

So it is not a good idea to station a unit there unless I become desperate.



019. My Iron working research still needed time, so I thought it might be a good time to ask Japan for a cease fire and... sell my Gems again.

While Oda was willing to offer all of his cash, I squeezed out 80% of his gold income with my diamonds! Just to make sure that he recovers slowly but I recover rapidly.

Here is the shiny diamond that you have been drooling to see, Mr. Oda. I will let you play with it, but definitely not for 90 turns. From hindsight, I might be able to sell Open Border for a bit more of gold…



020. After my Warrior No.4 was trained, I waited a few turns to let Rome grow to 5 population and started training my first settler. My plan was to grab the first iron resource as early as possible. But if I don’t have iron I will be in deep trouble! Probably will resort to warrior rush to grab Japan's iron.



021. Turn 126. Iron working completed! Finally entered the Classical Era! Where is my iron…



022. Lucky day for Romans! 6 irons immediately to the west! And 2 more inaccessible to the north. It will take the worker 20 turns to build a mine, so I will simply SIT my settler on it to save time. And later I would be able to hunt whales with that shoreline city location. In addition, in the long run I will be able to access the Pacific ocean from it.

So that city location isn't bad at all.



023. Next research: Archery. With double income, I should be able to purchase about two archerers to help my Legions.



024. While I was waiting for my settler to be trained, Japan strangely declared that it was protecting Cape Town. And Mr. Oda dropped this interesting statement – he wants me to leave the job of protecting Cape Town to him. Well, Mr. Oda, my feeling is that Cape Town will declare war on you again soon.

I was quite speechless and chose the polite response.



025. Finally Cape Town gave me a mission – build a road to its capital. From a previous game, I know this mission was bugged and couldn’t be completed, not sure whether the new patch fixed it? But my guys haven’t heard of those circular rolling things anyway. They all carry stuff on their back!



026. Peace treaty expired while my settlers were still packing up in Rome. I truly was enjoying the extra income from Japan, but I noticed an undefended Japanese worker within my warrior’s reach! Each worker = 700+ gold on Marathon. Each turn I got 12 gold from Japan.

So…



027. Second war on Japan declared! Stole the Japanese worker!



028. Archery research completed. What to do next? I had so much Spices and it would be a waste not to sell them to someone. So Pottery - Calendar is the next goal.



029. The second Roman-Japan war ended with no casualty from either side. I pillaged a farm and a mine before signing the peace treaty. Mr. Oda again was willing to pay for my Gems... (He REALLY liked my gems!) And I remembered to sell him Open Border at the same time. Thanks for the cash! I will make sure that it is used against yourself.



030. Bought two archers! And the Roman settlers are on their way to Iron. I should have enough gold to upgrade two units of warriors to Legion when the war resumes.



031. Finally here comes the infamous AI denouncement. "The other leaders had heard the grim truth about me." But I doubt Mr. Oda had met anybody else but me… So I am calling the bluff!



032. Settlers arrived at the Iron. Ready to settle!



033. Turn 145. Second Roman city – Antium established on the iron mine! Instant Iron! Ready to upgrade to Legion!

And Instant unhappiness! But that should go away when Mr. Oda returns my Gems…
(to be continued)

Chapter 03. Roman Legion Rush Kicks Off



034. Turn 145. The first two warrior units were upgraded to Legion! A huge combat power upgrade from 6 to 13! The Romans are changing its tactics from tight aggressive to loose aggressive.



035. Turn 150. Pottery completed. Started researching Calendar. Roman legions and archers are in position for the third and final war with Japan!



036. Just before the war breaks out, I shamelessly took the final loan from Mr. Oda.



037. The first victim of the Roman legion would be these Japanese warrior, who was trying to protect its workers fixing the pillaged mine. The power ratio was way off – 18:8! Warriors dispatched easily; workers caught! That was the second worker from Japan. Worths 700+ gold!



038. Archers in position to fire! Expected damage was 1... sometimes 2. Not a lot, but better than nothing.

In-game news tells me someone from far away built the Stonehenge while I was still researching Calendar. Good for you.



039. With the final little free loan from Japan, I was just able to afford the cheapest extension of my alliance with Cape Town for the important Open Border access.



040. Legions in position to attack Kyoto! Expected damage 6:2. Not bad at all.



041. I just had enough cash to upgrade two units of Legions. Kyoto kept bombarding the one on the mountain (say Legion B), so after a few turns I swapped the two legions to let Legion A take the better attack position (not crossing the river, 20% penalty). The AI tends to focus its fire on a particular unit, so I just keep Legion B in healing mode, waiting for my Legion A and two archers to water down the city’s defense.

And a Great General (GG) was born! I had some experience with Wu Zetian's China (faster Great General), so I didn’t expect the Roman GG to come out this soon - probably as soon as China's first GG. GGs had been nerfed in the patch (combat bonus from 25% down to 20%, and the Chinese GG from 45% down to 35%), but it is still a good bonus. Kyoto is now doomed to fall.



042. The third promotion for this Legion unit! I was thinking about getting the instant heal, but since the Great General is on his way, I decided to take the risk and went ahead with the third rough terrain bonus. This way I get the Marching promotion faster.



043. The battle went so well that the GG wasn't be able to make it to the front line in time. Final attack on Kyoto castle! The dumb AI stuffed a spearmen into Kyoto castle but didn’t use it…



044. Turn 155. Japanese capital Kyoto fell to the legions! I was so far away from Mathematics and courthouse, so puppeting the city was the only option.



045. Second Japanese city in sight! Indeed it was 3 tiles away from its capital. I was amused to see that Japan also had 6 units of iron - unnoticed.

And Kyoto had a wonder - a Colossus, +1 Gold from worked water tiles. So in total this statue will gave me +1 gold bonus immediately, and a remote chance at a lowly Great Merchant. Quite a useless wonder, but better than nothing.

Instant unhappiness again! Even after Calendar is researched, the workers will still need 10+ turns to actually improve the spice. Good that I have pre-chopped the jungle down.



046. Here Oda asks for peace again. 60 gold + 4 gold per turn for a final look at my gems? I sent him home. My legions will be fully healed in home territory in just a few turns. There is no point for us to wait for another 10 turns.



047. With victory in sight, I wanted to spend my cash somehow… then I noticed that there was a cheap (150 gold, the cheapest possible on Marathon), unclaimed river tile (1/1/1 unimproved, 3/1/1 with farm later) on the border with Cape Town. Since Kyoto’s border had fully blocked Cape Town’s expansion, I am sure that’s what the City State will claim next – so why don’t I buy it first?



048. Roman army in position to take Osaka! With the presence of the Great General, the siege should be over pretty soon. Interestingly there is a barbarian camp on an island to the south. Can’t do anything about it. I had already started sending out ships to harass our shores. Might be good experience sources for our own ships.



049. Mr. Oda bowed out of the game with an interesting compliment. He said I won because I almost behaved like Japanese. Hm... I think he lost because he loved my Gems too much. Half of my army was raised from his pocket!

From hindsight, I shouldn’t have built the 3rd warrior since it was never used! I could have started building the monument earlier and have the subsequent policies sooner…



050. I was very ready to raze Osaka but then I saw the pearls. There is no other pearl on South America, and Japan had already sent a work boat there, so the city would be a net gain of happiness to the Roman empire as long as it does not grow. And given its low tile count it is unlikely that it will grow to any significant size. The deers would be a nice source of food later, but I am so far away from trapping. My guys still can’t milk cows yet. And I don't have any plan for them to milk any cows until I saw furs and ivory.

So Osaka stays.



051. Here comes an orignial-sized picture for the conclusion of the first Roman conquest. Turn 161, four cities and the ruler of South America!

The monument in Rome was completed, and I started building a barrack there, expecting to purchase or train some more units from Rome in the not-too-distant future.

Interestingly, the puppet city of Kyoto had decided NOT to build ANYTHING. Its production queue remained empty for a long, long time.

So what to do next? I have to rush my legions somewhere else, and my unhappiness could really use a boost from the pearls. So Sailing – Optics, and sail to North America for all riches and lands!

(to be continued)

Very nice story! I'll be following this.

This sure looks interesting... You should see what wonders your gems could do in the middle America

lurker's comment: Great Job so far. In the one game I've started in S. America for, I got stuck with the Aztecs (Largest Jungle in the Stinking World+Aztecs' Insane Jungle Bonus=Upset Me). What a shame that the AI can't live up to its name though .

Very good read thus far. Your use of the treasury building tactics will be quite useful for some of my own conquests in the future. Good job on gaining the title, "Lord of South America!"

Chapter 04. Sailing North



052. Turn 163. The demographic ranking showed the Romans were mediocre in military and territory, but below average in other categories that matter most. There is still a long way to go.



053. As soon as Caldendar was researched, we started the "Sailing – Optics" line so the Roman Legions could sail to North America, the only possible way to expand! Until then, there seems to be nothing for the temporarily invincible Roman legions to do. Hm… Caesar noticed that the Maritime City State Cape Town would soon lose its friendship status.

And Cape Town has a unique luxurious resource, Wine. So here Caesar had to make a decision – whether or not to ANNEX Cape town.

Reasons FOR annexing:

(1) Extra city = extra population, income, and research
(2) Permanent access to wine and +5 Happiness, doesn’t need to pay 1000G. (Each 1000 G nets 100 relationship points, which drops 0.67 per turn. So essentially the Romans needs to pay the City State 1000 gold to stay allied for 150 turns, or 6.7 gold per turn.
(3) Maritime alliance gives free food. Free food = faster population growth = faster unhappiness if the luxurious resources cannot catch up.

Reasons AGAINST annexing

(1) Extra population = extra unhappiness. Each extra city = -2 Happiness. Each extra population.
(2) Maritime city gives food bonus for all cities. Extra food = more population moved to harvest hammer and gold.
Let’s take a closer look at the happiness balance. An eventual Courthouse (eliminates extra occupation unhappiness) and Colosseum (Happiness + 4) would cancel the unhappiness of population up to 4. So the only negative happiness would be the -2 brought by the extra city count. And that could be more than offset by the Wine resource (+5).

The decision could be simplified as follows:

If annex: Extra gold from city’s own harvest minus the buildings’ maintenance (always positive.) Net happiness +3 if population is controlled at 4. Extra research generated by the extra population. Extra investment of a Courthouse and a Colosseum (could wait for them to finish slowly).

If not annex: Gold -6.7 per turn. Happiness +5. About +1-2 Gold for each extra city (assuming the citizens did not have to harvest so much food and instead could harvest more gold). So there should be a net gold gain.

The choice was still not obvious. Argh… what the heck. We are the Roman Empire! What did Caesar say? Veni, vidi, vici. (I come, I see, I conquer.) We have come. We have seen. So what's left? Conquer!

Annex! Annex Cape Town!



054. Before that brutal annexation happens (we want to wait till the alliance is officially over to not waste any extra growth), the Roman Empire actually received a clue of what’s happening in North America.

There is a 2-iron tile just north of our territory. And apparently the AI had setup a town nearby to work on it. Judging from the color, we already know who it is… Let’s move a unit a little closer to confirm our idea...



055. Bismark! And it is a pleasure to see a Deity AI “friendly” to us upon greeting! Bismark desires friendly relationship with us! Certainly the German will buy our Spice... once it is ready to ship in 10 turns or so. But let’s sell whatever we have first. How about Open Border for 50 gold! Every bit of cash counts!



056. Spice harvested! Sold spice to Germany for 900 gold! I wonder whether there will be other AI buyers for our Spice in North America. But that can’t happen anytime soon… Chopping down a forest + building the plantation takes a whooping 38 turns on Marathon! Now maybe I should have picked Liberty for 25% worker's speed... Thought it was quite useless on Deity since the AI would have built everything for us when we arrive anyway.



057. The second social policy became available, too. It was between an instant Great General (GG) or Discipline for 15% combat bonus when our soldier’s flank is supported. Hm… we already have a GG, so Discipline seemed more useful when the wars in North America will begin soon.



058. Used German’s Spice cash and bought the Whale tile in iron town Antium and a purchased Working Boat. Instant +5 Happiness! The Roman Empire’s citizens literally had smiles returned to their faces.



059. Soon, Bismark the Friendly proposed a sincere Declaration of Friendship. How kind of you, Bismark. Indeed it is hard to find worthy friends! The Romans would love to make friends with Germans… if they were 1000 miles farther away!

(Roman: Extremely HOSTILE. Reason: we covet your land.)

I read that Bismark’s AI is one of the most trustworthy is Civ5. And we better not declare friendship with Bismark then betray him, because all the unmet Civs will mysterious know that we once betrayed a friend. (I know because I suffered from that label in the last game!)



060. Seeing that we still had some leftover cash, Bismark the Friendly came back to propose a Research Agreement (RA)! I really liked the idea, but an RA only completes after 90 turns on Marathon. And any war between the partners cancel the RA. Are we going to maintain peace with Bismark for 90 more turns? Oh... less than unlikely.

By the way, RA is an important tool for the players to out-tech the Deity AI, considering the player can manipulate research to get whatever free tech desired. The player only needs to research all of the OTHER available techs for just 1 turn except for the desired tech. Not sure whether the patches have fixed it? Must test it out later.



061. Turn 193. Friendly City State Cape Town was hopelessly annexed by superior Roman Legions. Once ally, from now on puppet! Bismark had not met Cape Town – would he suddenly call us a warmonger?... great, he showed no reaction. Germany was still Friendly. Nice!

The annexation of Cape Town boosted our Research from 14 to 17/turn. That would accelerate our research a bit…



062. After a Barrack is completed in Rome, production shifted to Scouts (immediately level up on vision +1). We want to explore the rest of the world as soon as possible, and sell as much of our overflow resources to as many leaders as possible – before they suddenly decide that they don’t like us for one of the 20 logical or illogical reasons. It is too hard to make a friend in Civ5. Must extract all their money before they decide our resources only worths 1/3 as much!



063. Turn 198 – Optics completed! Let the units jump off the cliff and start swimmming! Next research goal: Animal Husbandry and Trapping. Canada (where I come from!) is famous for furs. I am sure we will be able to get some happiness and trade cash from it.



064. The exploration team landed! And they were immediately greeted by the scout of Lord Harun al-Rashid of Arabia. Unlike Bismark the Friendly, Harun was only Neutral to us.



065. Friendly or not, Harun had cash! Since our second Spice was not ready yet, let’s sell something else first… our extra Iron sold for 540 gold!

Letting the AI have extra strategic resources could be risky, but since the iron comes from us, when the war breaks out they will LOSE the iron and any iron-dependent unit will become iron-deficient and suffer from a 50% dizziness combat penalty.

Our plan of the North American expansion is to first grab an ally, and then with the help of the ally, defeat the others. So should we help Bismark to take out Harun, or help Harun to beat Bismark? (And then finish off whoever is left?) It only depended on who was closer to our Legions…

Since Bismark’s town was already visible to us in South America, it is reasonable to assume that Bismark is closer and should be eliminated first...



066. Oh, we also met a City State! Good – another Maritime City State, Copenhagen. A City State would be a perfect friend against Bismark. But… NO! Copenhagen was already allied with Germany!

That means Copenhagen must not assist Bismark.

Something I have not attempted - rob a Civ off its allied City State. Let’s save the game, and pay 1000 gold and see whether the City State would change its mind…



067. Too bad, the answer is NO. Copenhagen loves us, but it loves Bismark more. Maybe Bismark paid more. Maybe Deity AI had some kind of bonus so it could pay less for more. Anyway, since we still have a little cash left (>250 gold), why not bribe more?

YES! It worked! Copenhagen ditched Bismark and became our ally! Open Border! Map! Caesar’s legions now have a good base of operation in North America. Bismark's investment was thrown in the ocean! (Once we declare war on Bismark, the City State will be HATING Bismark, forfeiting any previous positive relationship. Now how good is this... ) We must extra Bismark's remaining cash ASAP so he cannot bribe it back!



068. With Copenhagen’s map, we took a good look of the North America east coast. Arabia was nowhere in sight, while Germany was in the west of Mississippi River. We could assume that Arabia was in the north (central Canada) or northwest (western Canada and Alaska), or both. From score, we could see that Bismark was way ahead and Harun was even worse than us! So Harun probably don't have both.

Interestingly, Arabia just added a negative relationship modifier to us because “we were competing with the same City State”. Hey, shouldn't that negative modifier should belong to Bismark… but it actually didn’t!

So Harun wanted to ally with the City State but he did not do anything. So now he became a sour grape and hated anyone would became the City State’s ally. Oh yeah, Harun only had 570 gold so he could not raise the relationship with Capenhagen to alliance. Plus now, Harun’s 570 gold had transferred to the Romans, who used that to bribe Copenhagen into an alliance.

(to be continued)

Chapter 05. Crossing Mississippi



069. The diplomatic overview (Turn 202) showed that Germany was bloody rich, while Arabia had three luxurious resources (fur, ivory, silver) that we don’t have. What does that mean? That means the Romans could be bloody rich and could have three extra luxurious resources when they eventually take over North America!



070. Very soon, Bismark approached us and… wow! Bismark asked us to declare war on Harun with him! This is an awesome deal for us. The least Caesar wanted to see was local Germany and Arabia allied against the Roman invasion. Now they want to fight each other first! How awesome is this deal… I wanted to declare war immediately, but most of my units were still sailing. We might not be able to steal Harun's city. So we told Bismark to give us 10 turns to prepare.

It would be ideal to ally with Arabia against Germany, our closer target. But this setup is still the second best. At least we can take Arabia’s cities first and attack Bismark with Copenhagen from front and back.



071. In order to access Arabia, we need Bismark’s open border. 50 gold paid! Bismark was so rich (almost doubling our income). We must not let Bismark grow out of control…



072. Just when the Roman legions were busy landing on the east coast, we got another message from Bismark. What is it this time, my friend? Hm… WTH, a FRIENDLY Denouncement?! What’s our sin for promising to HELP YOU in war in 8 turns?!
Hm… maybe Bismark was unhappy that we robbed him a City State ally, even though that did not show up as a negative relationship factor.

And the out-of-nowhere denouncement was followed next turn by a HOSTILE insult – Oh we pick on the weak?! You asked us to join you to pick on the weak! YOU! YOU picked on the weak!

I hope there is an option “YOU picked on the weak!” as a response and Bismark would actually blush. That would be awesome.

Oh yeah, we did pick on the weak. We annexed Cape Town. I thought Bismark did not even meet Cape Town. Maybe he “mysteriously” knew thanks to the game’s mechanism. Or the fact that we grabbed his ally showed that we were picking on him - the weak. We were weaker than Bismark, but maybe he just lacked self-confidence...

Anyway, it is just not wise to publicly condemn and privately insult your future ally, when their army is making a mass landing next to your territory.



073. Animal husbandry researched. I was going to research Trapping, but thought the Courthouse may be useful a little sooner - so proceeded with the Wheel – Mathematics line. (Math enables Courthouse. Guess the judges needed arithmetic to add up the fines and years of sentences.)



074. And just when my guys were making a landing on the east shore, Harun the Neutral sensed the Legions' presence. Or maybe it is the Roman scouts trying to figure out exactly where Arabia is...

Harun asked us whether we are here to invade him… Yeah actually we WERE! That's the plan! But after Bismark’s unwise diplomatic decisions, the Romans might change their mind.

No. They had changed their mind.

Yeah Harun, we mean no harm. We are here to take down Bismark with you!
I wish there is a diplomatic option of tipping Harun off. ”Hey Harun, let me tell you a secret: “Bismark had asked me to declare war on you in 6 turns. But I know you are a nice guy. So I held him off for 10 turns for you! In fact, I would help you attack him once he declares war on you… but you know, our Legions might lose their lives and could use some compensation. So how about some resources or cash?”

Too bad, Harun does not agree to declare war on Bismark with me.



075. Just when I was thinking how to elicit Harun’s support on our war against the already openly Hostile Bismark, a GOOD news broke out – Germany declared war on Arabia! Germany did NOT wait for 10 turns! Now we can wait for Bismark to pull away his forces to fight Harun – wherever he is but the farther away the better – and steal Bismark’s defenseless home!

Which city is the most defenseless…

The most obvious choice would be the German capital Berlin. It had FOUR plain tiles open for attacking positions. Plain tiles are not ideal defensively, though. Also, the Legions might face incoming reinforcements from two more German cities from the southwest (Hamburg) and north (unknown, but the territory undoubtedly gave away its existence, probably just NW of the German scout). Since these would be Germany’s three largest cities, we could expect defenders from them quite quickly (even on Marathon).

The second choice would be Hamburg. It requires units to cross the Mississippi River first, but immediately after that they would be able to gain defensive bonus in the forest especially for the two veteran legions who were promoted through the rough terrain path. (Why would the AIs build Farms AWAY from fresh water and Trading Posts BESIDE fresh water? Should it be the other way around?!) Anyway, that two forest tiles (F) look very sweet. Attacking Hamburg also means that the defenders in Berlin might be distracted by Arabia and Copenhagen, leaving less resistance.

The third choice would be the unseen city to the north. It could be surrounded by forest, which could be nice for our advance. And due to Arabia and Copenhagen’s advance, this should be the easiest city to take. However, after taking this city, Arabian and Roman would get in direct border contact. That usually doesn’t goes well with Civ5 AI. So we will have to worry about Arabian’s backstab before Germany is finished for good… And the city is a little far away from our current positions. In order to avoid defensive fires from Berlin, the Roman Legions will have to circle around the Great Lakes (just one great lake for this Tiny Earth).

The fourth choice would be the city that was working on the 2-iron tile, Cologne. Central America would be a narrow strip on this Tiny Earth, so there might not be enough attacking tiles for this fourth city. Better leave it till later.

The fifth choice is Munich, between Hamburg and Cologne. It will require some sailing and could take a little extra time. Should be an easy target once the landing is successful, though.

So what is the decision, Caesar? The capital Berlin would be too risky. Hamburg seems to be a good balance on ease of operation and timely impact.

Cross the Mississippi River!



A better look of Hamburg. Three tiles surrounding Hamburg (X) will be subjected to extra city defender’s fires from Berlin and Munich. But that still leaves us three safer tiles. While Arabia’s units were approaching, German’s new units (Swordsman and Germany’s unit unit!) are pumped out from home at an alarming rate. Let’s squeeze out Bismark’s cash first…

And now Bismark becomes Hostile because…

(1) They have denounced us. They hate us because they denounced us. They denounced us because they hate us.
(2) You are competing for the same City State. Finally we got this one. Indeed Bismark has every reason to be angry.
(3) They believe we are a warmonger. Now what have we done to deserve this title? The only possible reason was that Bismark mysteriously knew that we declared war on Cape Town the City State. That’s a really LOW threshold of considering someone as a warmonger.

But we Romans actually are. We come here to see you and conquer you!



Before the war breaks out, let’s take whatever cash Bismark has, so he can’t buy any new units but we can. That’s a really bad deal against a Hostile Civ – 4 resources would worth 3600 gold normally and we don’t have to pay 23 gold per turn! That supports our plan that we should sell our resources as fast as we can to as many Civs as we can before they hate us for some weird reason eventually!

Well it is in fact a very good deal for us because we are not going to pay any of that! But Bismark’s cash is non-refundable!



078. Turn 207. War declared on Bismark! Arabia must be delighted to see an unsolicited ally. We will take Germany’s pressure from you! (And replace with our pressure later on. ) Our scout was delighted to see TWO German workers free for grab right beside them. 1400 gold worth of workers! But the scouts got killed the next turn. A small sacrifice of 320 gold for 1400 gold!

(Actually one worker got pushed to some weird tile and got captured back immediately. Well, 320 gold for 700 gold is still a good deal.)



079. Under the coverage of Copenhagen’s brave warriors and archers, the Roman Legions crossed the Mississippi River on Turn 211!



080. The German swordsmen and unique unit came forward! Fierce fighting continued and both sides suffer heavy casualty. We had to send one unit back to Copenhagen for healing. And we LOST one unit under heavy fire! Gotta give the AIs a little credit for concentrating their attack on one unit.

Only three Legions left! That’s not good. Fortunately the heavily promoted two units were still alive. Let’s quickly purchase a replacement from Rome and ship it to the battlefield. We should have bought the legion in the first place and started sailing long time ago…

The German have wave after wave of reinforcement... Oh right! They have 2 irons to the south! And we have a replacement scout on its way… New mission for spies!



081. The Roman scouts made a unexpected landing under fire, but successfully sabotaged the German mines! Great job, spies! Now the German swordsman became powerless! They could only watch us taking Hamburg.



082. With the resistance completely quenched, just two units of Legions and a little archery fire were all that’s needed to bring down Hamburg!

Hm. Hamburg has Marble and Incense. Maybe we don’t have to burn it down afterwards.

(to be continued)

Great read I'll definately be following.

Chapter 06. The Tide has Turned



083. The Roman army took Hamburg with reasonable losses (1 unit of Legion). Very soon, Bismark knocked on the door with a peace treaty, but we are not interested at all. Our legions would fully recover in just a few turns and kept the invasion going.

Interestingly, Bismark would agree to again buy our Spice if we agree with the peace treaty… we refused anyway. Yet right next turn Bismark signed a peace treaty with Arabia…



084. Without iron, this is how “soft” the German swordsman had become. A combat power of 4.4, even worse than warriors (combat power 6)! Can’t they just pick up their old clubs to fight? And our Legions had a power of 22 after the Great General and terrain bonuses! That's like beating little kids!



085. With Hamburg holding off counterattacks from Berlin, the Roman Legions march south. (The replacement 4th Legion unit has arrived.) They surrounded the city of Munich. With the help of two archers firing on the shore, they took the city with extreme ease. Also, one veteran Legion unit got its March promotion! Now it has become very hard to kill. The March promotion is available after level 3 of either the rough or open terrain bonus. So it is good to specialize the units to be either one of them.

At the time I didn't notice that Harun had become "Friendly" to us, even if he has signed a peace treaty with Bismark (so we are no longer military allies). I remember seeing nothing but negative relationship factors with Arabia. So I guess it is the infamous "fake Friendly" of the AI.

Also note that Hamburg has a potential for whale hunting. The AI did not settle on the shore, so we will have to ship a working boat from Rome. A work boat costs 460 gold, but the extra whale (we already have one in Antium) will sell for 900 gold (and maybe multiple times)! It is a good investment.



086. The city of Munich has Incense and two schools of Fish. But Hamburg also has Incense. So if we want to keep Hamburg (for it also has Marble), Munich does not have too much value, except that we could eventually sell its extra Incense for 900 gold. But that will be cancelled by the Courthouse, which costs 1350 gold to purchase directly.

However, during the rapid expansion phase, Happiness is usually an issue. Happiness dropped below -10 hurts the entire empire’s combat power and production. So let’s burn Munich down first to be safe. Later, when we have extra happiness to spend, we can pop back a settler to fill the empty space.



087. For Hamburg's Marble, we started researching Masonry next. Every point of happiness counts.



088. When all the fighting was happening in North America, the second Great General (GG) was born in Kyoto. I like to have two GGs covering two ends of the battlefield, as one is usually not enough. The second GG will join the battlefield!



089. Another world survey! Apparently the Romans were the laziest people on earth… I don’t know how this was calculated. We are working as hard as we can! But since Deity AI all got some kind of bonus in everything, and their huge bonus in happiness pretty much keep them in constant Golden Age, it is OK to rank last I guess…



090. The Roman Legion are non-stoppable once the resistance is gone. Turn 226, Cologne is captured and burned down!

After losing its iron, Bismark resort to training its unique unit and horseman. Since they came one by one, it wasn’t difficult for Roman legions and archers stationed in Hamburg to take them down one by one with no loss. From time to time, Bismark marched out his archers to be slaughtered by melee. Not very smart.



091. German capital Berlin fell! There were 3 Wine resources in Berlin. Now taking down Cape Town for its wine seemed to be redundant. Oh well, at least we can sell that extra wine for 900 gold.

At this stage, we have almost run out of things to build, so we started researching Writing to enable Libraries. We have been signing Open Border agreements in German and Arabia. Its time to invent Latin! But wasn't German based on Latin?



092. The City State Copenhagen wants us to eliminate another City State Seoul. But... we do not know where it is! Since it is not on North America, it must be on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean or the Pacific Ocean. We will keep an eye for it.



093. Bismark came again asking for Peace, but he was not willing to throw in some extra incentive. On Deity, AIs seem to be very reluctant to sign any unfair peace treaty even if it is on the verge of extinction. Why would we wait for 10 turns if we can take you down in 4?



094. The Legions advanced to the last German city Frankfurt. There is not much left. One unit of Horseman in the city is not going to make a difference.



095. One final attack left for the once prosperous German empire! Started research Trapping for the Furs.



096. Unlike Oda, Bismark did not take his defeat well. We were really going to help you to attack Arabia! But you foolishly denounced us and insulted us. That made us angry. It is your fault.



097. Turn 236, second Civ conquered! Under an Open Border agreement with Arabia, our scout had drawn out the map of the rest of North America. Arabia only had two cities, with its capital way over in Alaska. Not sure how much its war with Germany had crippled its military, but it looks pretty soft.

Besides Munich, Frankfurt was also scheduled for demolition. It does produce one Fur, but so does Arabia. Since we will get the Fur anyway, let’s cut down one more source of unhappiness. We can always re-pop a city here later.

Next target – Arabia!

(to be continued)

Chapter 07. The American Roman Empire



098. The German capital Berlin. We got a free Oracle, but missed the free social policy that came with it. What's left is a miserable +1 culture/turn and a Great Scientist after 300 turns. Now that's useful. We will be either close to victory or hopelessly behind after 300 turns.

Berlin also has a new luxurious resource – Silk, in addition to three tiles of Wines. That's 2700 gold waiting if we harvest them and sell them fast!



099. In the meantime, Rome has built our first ship. From experience, I know that sailing up from the east coast of North America won’t get us anywhere close to Europe. The only way to reach the other civilizations is to circle around the southern tip of South America, and up along the west coast of North America in order to reach Asia.

The present-day Peru is enclosed by mountains, hiding a barbarian camp and an +6 iron tile. Not a good place to spawn a city. Our trireme freely bombarded the barbarian for experiences. (All ship level up go to vs. land unit bonus.)



100. Turn 238 world survey shows that the Roman Empire has the largest territory in the world, the second most crop and gold yield, and fifth in hammer production. We are becoming one of the better Civs!

We should be able to catch up with the Deity AIs (who have all entered the Medieval period dozens of turns ago). That's good, because our Legions will soon run out of their steam when the AIs start producing long swordsman.

But there is still a large barrier to mid-game. We need to annex the cities in order to manage the cities better. So we need to use the population wisely, build only the important buildings, and not build anything that eats up maintenance for nothing. Annexing cities means massive unhappiness. We will go through a long period of unhappiness “Dark Age”.

There are two solutions to the unhappiness Dark Age. We can time that Dark Age with a surge of income from the exploration of the Euro-Asian-African continent. With the surge of cash from resource trading, we will be able to instant purchase Court Houses (eliminates occupation penalty on happiness) in the larger cities. (Being able to rush Court Houses is a welcomed change in the patch.) Then we will build Colosseums (up to +4 Happiness in each city) to further secure a positive happiness. The second solution is to burn our Great Generals to initiate Golden Ages to accelerate the construction of Courthouses and Colosseums.



101. The next research goal is Construction to enable Colosseum.



102. Started building the first library in Rome. The Romans have a bonus 25% production bonus in non-capital cities if the same building already exists in the capital. The important buildings of early-mid game are Library (heavily nerfed through the patches, but still good for research) and Colosseum (+4 Happiness). So Rome should build a Library a Colosseum before the other cities do.



103. Squeeze the last remaining cash off Harun of Arabia. Could have “sold” him a resource I guess…



104. War declared on Arabia. Heavily upgraded Legion vs. heavily handicapped Swordsman, 28 vs. 8! I will not bother with the details of the one-sided massacre.



105. The infamous warmonger Montezuma of the Aztecs has sent its scouts to North America! Monty is well known for his willingness to wage war on his friends! Let’s see if we can make him do that later. For now, it is just nice to see another Deity AI friendly to us upon greeting. I hope he doesn't call us a warmonger, seeing that we are at war with Arabia.



106. Sold our Amazon Spice to Monty for 900 gold!



107. While Arabia hates us for allying with the City State Copenhagen, it is also allied with a City State Oslo. We also have no idea where Oslo is.

The Aztec’s score is already lagging behind us. Not surprising, since Monty puts everything in war. I am sure he has declared war with multiple Civs.



108. Got enough points for the next policy. Since we will soon need a Golden Age for the nation-wide construction of Court House and Colosseum, picked the Instant Great General to pave way for the next policy – the 50% EXP bonus for units. We will wait for the conquest of Arabia cities to formally start the first Roman Golden Age.



109. The first Roman Ballista was shipped from Brazil and finally arrived in Alaska! Expecting 5 damage per shot on the city. Quite a let-down - it is slightly worse than a Legion unit’s melee attack. Might not order another one… (we won't be taking cities for a while).



110. Construction researched. Next goal – Philosophy and Civil Service for the extremely useful +1 food bonus of fresh-water farms. This will make a huge leap of our cities’ production and gold harvest. A good number of spice tiles are 1/1/4. That will go perfectly with a farm that outputs 3/0/1.



111. Harun lost the war without any good fight. He had a poor starting position and almost no place to expand. Before Harun went down, we captured two units of settlers stuck in Alaska. The AI could at least send them to the east - there were lots of empty space there.



112. The Arabia cities had three new resources for us: Silver, Ivory, and Fur. The extra Whale and Fur is good for sell. So the other Arabian city (Medina) will not be razed.



113. Turn 250, the Roman Empire has become the undisputed only power of the America. The initial expansion phase is completed! We are now ready to enter our Happiness Dark Age, and emerge as the true super power of the world! Our merchants, spies, and soldiers will influence and damage the rest of the world just like the present-day American Empire!

(to be continued)

LOL. Love the presentation. Read through the whole thing and will surely be following it.

Chapter 08. The Golden Dark Age



114. Turn 250. Our 3rd (from Honor social policy) Great General was sacrificed to start 16 turns of Golden Age. And our scouts and ships have set sail to the Old World to sell our luxurious resources!

Yet there is one loose end from the previous war. There was a City State Oslo allied with Arabia. Although Arabia has been defeated, we have to manually make peace with Oslo. We can, even if we have not met them!

City Management during the Dark Age

It is time to enter each city to micromanage a bit. One of the priorities is to PURCHASE a Colosseum in Rome (1580 gold, not cheap!). This way all of our other cities will be enjoy 25% production bonus when building a Colosseum.

There are a few principles in city management during the unhappy Dark Age:

(1) Minimize extra food. The population grows at 1/4 of the normal rate when happiness drops to negative. So there is no point to run food surplus.

(2) Maximize production. The Court Houses and Colosseums must be finished as soon as possible to raise happiness. Gold income does not matter very much, since we will receive a surge of cash from trading.

(3) For occupied cities < 4 population, queue the Court House, then when it is finished, queue the Colosseum. The Court House reduces Happiness more than the Colosseum.

(4) For occupied cities > or = 4 population, queue the Colloseum and directly purchase the Court House at the earliest opportunity. The unhappiness penalty from the population is simply too big to wait for the Courthouse to finish.

(5) For Roman spawned cities, queue the Colosseum.

(6) Capital Rome should start training settlers to fill in some worthy gaps on the map as long as we are running on a healthy positive happiness.



115. A Colosseum is purchased in Rome. Expensive, but instant +4 Happiness!



116. Optimization of Rome's citizen assignment nets 3 more gold. Not much. But when every city is optimized, we will have significantly more production and gold.



117. The iron town Antium has grown to population 4. Too bad, we largely ignored its infrastructure, so its citizens were still picking apples from the jungle. After assigning workers to improve some river tiles, it should be quite a profitable city.



118. Cape Town after optimization. Our workers were really lagging behind. There are still many good river tiles to be worked on. A few turns later, a Court House was purchased here.



119. Optimized Kyoto. Likewise, a Court House was purchased after.



120. One more city screen &#8211; the tiles of central North America will receive a large-scale reassignment. The river tiles will be converted to farms (F, 4/0/1 or 3/1/1 with Civil Service) to create a food surplus. The non-river tiles will be converted to trading posts (T, 1/1/2 or 2/0/2) to consume the food surplus.



121. Money was tight. Sold more resources to Monty even if it had to be paid slowly. Our peace period should quite long &#8211; if the AI does not suddenly hates us.



122. Within the same turn, before and after Golden Age and some city management. Reduced 12 units of Food for a good boost of hammer and gold production.



123. The angry City State Oslo wants another unmet City State Rio de Janeiro eliminated. There should be a total of 7 City States left. Still many to be met.



124. The enemy of Copenhagen, Seoul, has been conquered by an unmet civilization! Interesting&#8230; who is this City State killer? Does it receive the proper &#8220;warmonger&#8221; label and enjoyed a timely round of denouncement from all other Civs in the old world?



125. Our scout landed and met a new Civ - Hiwatha of the Iroquois (present day Siberia). Hiwatha was friendly to us. Traded Whale for all his gold and a tiny tribute for 90 turns.



126. Went back to Hiwatha and sold Spice and Open Border for more tribute. I should have combined the deal so the overflow does not get rounded off&#8230; anyway, not a huge difference.



127. During the peace time, the Legions were reassigned to fight barbarians and pave roads. Boring jobs, but still important.



128. Finally it is the time to research Civil Services. The food bonus for freshwater farms is extremely important for rapid growth, once the happiness issue is resolved.



129. Our happiness was dropped to -11 at one point, but we had enough cash to quickly purchase a Court House to bring it back up. If the happiness drops below -10, cities will only produce 50% of its hammer.



130. Our scouts soon met Askia of Songhai (present day central Asia). Askia was only Neutral to us. But still, we were able to sell the Spice for all his miserable cash and some tribute over 90 turns.



131. And here comes the largest cash cow so far! Suleiman of the Ottoman (present day Turkey, a perfect location for Ottoman) had more than 2000 gold. Traded two resources for 1800 gold. Suleiman was also Friendly to us upon greeting. Nice.



132. With the Suleiman's gold, we built another Court House and pulled back Happiness to +2! Our Roman Dark Age was officially over in 9 turns - shorter than the Golden Age!

But we still need to accumulate more happiness to enable a good population boom and rapid research. Our techs are still lagging behind the Deity AIs!

Although our scouts still see tons of warriors during their journey.

(to be continued)

Chapter 09. The Second Golden Age



133. Suleiman of the Ottoman came with a proposal to war Askia with him. We also don’t want to make any rushed diplomatic decision here. Refused.



134. And immediately Monty (present day South Asia) is here to ask for a Declaration of Friendship! Making friend with a warmonger is an interesting idea. Back in Civ4 I remember allying with Monty always resulted in pleasant games - we could cheaply bribe Monty to war with anybody we want! Since Monty always have a good sized army, he would be our perfect hitman. And Monty won’t be upset if we declare war to another Civ. Yes to Monty! Our first real friend in the new continent!



135. Oh, so here is the former City State Seoul! It was conquered by the Ottoman. Good job to Suleiman. I have never liberated a City State before! Maybe I should try it this time.



136. Another Civ greeted – Catherine of Russia (present day Middle East). Catherine was Friendly, too. Resources traded.



137. Overkilled the barbarian camp with Ballista! Maybe soon the barbarians will be upgraded to pikeman…



138. Got a notice from the Ottoman. They are at bad terms with Aztec, and was not happy with our declaration of friendship with Aztec. We will make sure that we liberate Seoul from you some day.



139. The last Civ to be met – Elizabeth of England! (present day West Africa). Friendly as well! Traded with Elizabeth, too.



140. It is time to plan our diplomacy and determine a general strategy from now on. First, let’s see the scores… England is the clear leader. That means we have to bring down England as fast as possible before it grows out of control.



141. From demographic rankings, England has the most population and crop yield. But it was Ottoman who has the largest force. The most obvious way to bring down England would be to bribe Ottoman into attacking England. But we need to take a detailed look at the AI’s relationship to determine what’s the best move.



142. After consulting the Diplomacy Overview, here is a summary of what’s happening. England and three other Civs had declared friendship – let’s call it “the Axis of Evil” since we represent America.

The Axis of Evil is consisted of England (the center of evil!), Aztec, Songhai and Iroquois. England is currently not in war, but had denounced and been denounced by its two neighbors, Ottoman and Russia.

Our most obvious strategy would be to bribe Ottoman and Russia into attacking England. But Ottoman and Russia are currently at war with each other. We need to wait till their war is over.

Ottoman had denounced and been denounced by Aztec. That’s why Suleiman was unhappy when we announced friendship with Montezuma.

Russia and Aztec are quite neutral, while Russia and Songhai are friends. Russia is also warring Iroquois, which is far away.

So our grand strategy is determined:

(1) Primary target: England.
(2) Diplomatic priority: bribe Aztec to attack England to breakup the “axis of evil”. And bribe Ottoman and Russia to attack England to further weaken England’s army.
(3) Secondary diplomatic mission: Make sure the weak civilizations survive so nobody grows too fast. Try to further dissolve the axis of evil while restricting the power of the others.
(4) Research and production priority: Compass and Astrology - develop a powerful navy (must have Frigate) as soon as possible. Then upgrade Legions to Long Swordsman (Metal casting - Steel).
(5) Military operation: Take out all English navy and control the Atlantic ocean. Ground units (possibly Long Swordsman and Trebuchet) lands in West Africa and take out England’s primary cities.



143. Let’s see if our new warmonger friend Monty is willing to war England for cash… 511 gold and Open Border? That’s not as cheap as we hoped, but still a reasonable price.

Aztec declared war to England! There seems to be some fun in Civ5’s diplomacy after all. (Strangely, on the Diplomacy Overview, Aztec was shown to be both warring with England and being a friend of England.)

Right after the First Golden Age, a second Roman Great General was sacrificed to start the Second Golden Age. So together we had 16+14 = 30 turns of production boost. As the Court Houses and Colosseums were completed one by one, our happiness raised higher and higher.

Settlers were trained and purchased to fill in the blanks of America and new continents!

(to be continued)

Chapter 10. Cutting the Axis of Evil



144. Now Monty has some extra cash from our war bribery&#8230; let&#8217;s sign a Research Agreement. Free tech 90 turns later!



145. A Great General in a City State? That&#8217;s rare. It must have seen a lot of wars.



146. The Deity AIs were all bloody rich. So I frequently check back to the leaders to sell more resources, giving me a constant stream of income to purchase settlers, workboats, etc. From now on I will skip the trading screenshots.



147. England is allied with two City States, both Maritime. No wonder it has the largest population (plus it completed the Hanging Garden wonder). We must buy over England&#8217;s two allies to slow down its growth, and to outgrow England&#8217;s population. Let&#8217;s start with the one with the Great General, Genoa. Only took 1000 gold this time!



148. Catherine immediately told us that she wants to protect Genoa, so better leave the job to her. But Elizabeth was not angry that we robbed her allied City State.



149. Elizabeth instead asked us to fight Catherine with her. England is powerful but Russia is weak. So it should be the other way. Refused!



150. The Ottoman completed the Great Wall and got a boost in ranking. It also has the largest army&#8230; when would it stop fighting with Russia (so we can bribe it to war England)?



151. Our exploration of the rest of the world quietly goes on in the background. Oceania is a nice location for at least a couple more cities. City #1 on Australia will grow rapidly due to its three extra food sources. City #2, although will grow slowly, will eventually gain access of 5 luxurious resources that we can sell for money. Our settler and worker are already on its way (purchased from Alaska to save some traveling time)!



152. We now have a clear view of the front runner, the English Empire. Most of its cities are coastal, along western Europe and western Africa. They also settled one city in current-day South Africa (not shown).

London, the English capital, is not a costal town. Tiles west of London are ideal for a quick landing of multiple ground units. We better ally with Ottoman, Russia, and Rio de Janeiro to distract as many English units as possible.

England's Newcastle is actually built on a one-tile island. So unless we upgrade our melee units with the Amphibian perk, it will be almost impossible to take it down! It will be an annoyance. Now unless England is willing to trade it to us somehow. Hm...

Ottoman, which has the second largest territory and the largest army, will certainly be a good threat to us after we cripple the English. Suleiman even conquered two City States already. Luckily Ottoman is not doing well in diplomacy - everyone hates Suleiman. So we should be able to organize an alliance easily.



153. Settled the 3rd Roman city, Cumae, close to the former German city Munich. I sat the settlers directly on the Incense, so we can sell it immediately. The two fish sources will boost its growth. And then we will harvest the nearby trade posts.



154. Settled the 4th Roman city, Neapolis, on the northern end of South America. There are two banans and the pillaged iron mine close by, and a few river tiles that can be improved, mostly a space filler so some genius AI settler does not pop a city right beside our capital!

By the way, the Roman Legions has a unique ability to pave roads. So the workers can be freed up to improve tiles.



155. With Cumae and Neapolis, we filled in the gaps of North and South America. Potentially we can pop one more city in North America northeast (Fish and Deer for growth, forest tiles for production). That city should have a few more water tiles, to be used as a Naval base for damaged ship's repair.



156. Songhai, the weakest Civ, is here to ask me to declare friendship! Protecting the weak is usually the correct strategic choice - so it is not fed to the strong. Songhai befriends England and Russia, so befriending Songhai that will improve our relationship with both. Askia is not an enemy of Montezuma, so making friend with Songhai will not damage our relationship with Aztec. There is no disadvantage. Agreed!

Interestingly, Askia used to be the only Guarded Civ in the old world to us - Askia suspected our intention. I guess now he has seen that we are harmless tourists drawing the map of the new world, that negative modifier is gone.



157. Started researching Compass to pave way for Astronomy. In an old game, my Harbor never provided me the correct trade route bonus to my capital. Not sure whether it works here?



158. Indeed, Elizabeth is happy that we now have a common friend - actually two common friends if we count Aztec both at war and friendly with England.

By the way, every time I interact with Elizabeth, she admired my "large army". But I don't have a large army, although my soldier count is ranked 3rd in the world. I think the workers (we have 8!) are also counted as units!



159. Hiawatha of Iroquois came with a request to war Russia together. No way. Russia is a potential ally against England. I am not joining your axis of evil!



160. So now Catherine wants to befriend us! I heard a lot of bad things about her (being an ungrateful b*), but that fits our strategy perfectly, since our primary and secondary enemies England and Ottoman are both Russia's bitter neighbors. Plus Catherine only has two cities, the second poorest. So she needs us and is less likely to betray us. Catherine is an ally that we must have.



161. Catherine now consider us a good friend! So far we have pulled away Monty from the Axis of Evil, and made friend with three of the non-Axis Civs (Roman-Russia-Aztec-Songhai). Hm... maybe we are the Axis of Greater Evil...

No. We are the Roman American Empire! We should call ourselves "Romans and its allies" and accuse others of being a threat of world peace.

Our score caught up with England! That's a really good sign!



162. Elizabeth seems to be a very honest AI - she told us she is happy that we are allied with the same Civs (Songhai), and she told us she is unhappy that we allied with her enemy (Russia).



163. Wow! Suleiman wants us to help him fight England! It is a little bit early, but that fits our strategy perfectly. Give me 10 turns and I will be ready... to cheer for you, Suleiman! (Actually I want to bribe over the other England Maritime City State before declaring war.)

Things are getting interesting. Through some diplomatic maneuver we might be able to topple the front runner England!

good job and I like the commentary
keep it up

Chapter 11. The Population Boom

The Romans peacefully developed and fill up on America and established two colonies in Australia. We tried to make friends and only aim to bring down the front runner England.



164. The six AIs in the old world constantly each other. Suddenly, Elizabeth declared war on Catherine. Suleiman declared war on Askia. Montezuma denounced Elizabeth - denouncement by a friend!



165. We were surprised to learn that Suleiman had declared war on England before our 10 turn promise was up. So are we still going to war? (Indeed, when 10 turns are past, we will still be prompted to war.)

If an AI asks us to go to war together against another Civ, that usually means that the AI treats that Civ as their primary enemy and war is inevitable. We might be able to delay the war by a few turns by answering "please give us 10 turns" or "sorry we are not interested". The latter is obviously better if we are really uninterested. It seems that the AIs won't be offended when we turn down these warmongering requests.



166. An update on what's happening between the 6 Civs in the old world - almost every Civ hates the other Civs! Deity AIs are pretty terrible at maintaining friendship. As long as they become neighbors, they start hating each other. Denouncements. Wars.

The only neighbors that do not hate each other is Songhai and Iroquois. However, from the explored map we saw Iroquois puppeting one of Songhai's cities. So they must had some fighting history in the past. (And several dozen turns later they resumed fighting each other. )

The "Axis of Evil" (E) are not a threat if they are all engaged in warfare with their neighbors. For Romans, we want to see Russia and Ottoman fight England. Later on, we easily got Russian to fight England (by then they already denounced each other).



167. We are still quite a few steps away from the actual military campaign. We have finished the research of Compass, and will need to complete Theology and Education in order to obtain Astronomy (so the units can cross the ocean). The plan is to time the Research Agreement (matures on turn 356) to receive the most expensive and useful free tech possible.

That would be Navigation, which upgrades Trireme to Frigate. With a fleet of Frigate, we will be able to easily bombard down any coastal city's defense and decimate land units less than two tiles from the sea. The Roman army has a total of five Triremes now.

The second important research focus is the Metal Coating - Steel line to upgrade Legions to Long Swordsman. (Strength 13 to 18) Since at this point our technology still trails behind the AI, we can expect to see AI's Long Swordsman and Knights everywhere when we make the landing.

The old trick of guiding the Research Agreement free tech is to put just 1 turn into any unwanted free tech. I did this, and later indeed got the free tech on Navigation. However, when I reload my game for testing, I got Currency, which I already spent one turn on. So I got lucky in the first place.

The patch has fixed this trick! However, one can still use "change random seed" and reload until a desirable tech is given.



168. The last turn before declaring war to England - sucked out all the cash of Elizabeth.



169. We were still short on cash for England's last City State ally, but we were out of extra resources to sell. However, since we sold Wine to England, when the war breaks out next turn, we will get the Wine back. So we can sell another Wine this turn without affecting Happiness.



170. Rio de Janeiro joined our side! Now we have three Maritime city state allies. The Roman empire has a booming population for her 14 cities!



171. Capital Rome received 12 units of free food. So much food in one tile that the food symbol has changed to a star!



172. During AI's move, we got denounced by England! Maybe Elizabeth hated us for robbing her TWO City State allies. Maybe she found that we were plotting against her with Montezuma and Suleiman. Maybe she sensed that we are her greatest threat to win the game.

Since we did not declare friendship with Elizabeth, her denouncement to us carries little weight. It does not seem to affect what other AIs think about us. Probably more about what others think about her.

Personally I do not like the denouncement feature introduced by the patch. It lets AI hates other Civs too easily. And players who tried to please an AI will be ultimately frustrated since the AI will denounce you for one of the 99 possible small reasons.



173. Suleiman came back on time. Let's get the war started! We... will be unable to send any units over.

It was disappointing to see that we have NO positive relationship modifier with Suleiman when we went to war with him. Military alliance is a very close alliance!



174. Another world survey arrived. Our Civ again won the last price - this time with the least number of social policies. I have no hope for even seeing the 6th policy before the game ends.

And Catherine already had 7 policies! If she had not pissed off all of her neighbors (like now), she might be able to win a cultural victory. Or it is just that Civ5 AIs easily hate each other.



175. Our alliance with City State Genoa (East Africa) was robbed by Catherine! Donated 500 gold to win it back.



176. A very interesting note from Hiawatha of Iroquois. It almost sounds that Hiawatha is issuing an apology to us.

When Genoa briefly switched its alliance to Catherine, it declared war on Iroquois since Russia was warring them (not really fighting, since they are too far apart). Since we immediately bought back the City State, Iroquois was suddenly fighting "our ally".

Don't worry, Hiawatha, we won't denounce you for this. You are a good Civ leader for being so careful at not pissing off another Civ even though they are not your friend! (We declared friendship with Aztec, Songhai, and Russia.) I only wish the player has so many interesting diplomatic options to improve relationships with AI Civs.



177. We really wanted to help Ottoman to beat down the England a bit, so we sold some iron to Suleiman. Selling strategic resources are harmless. As soon as the war breaks out later, the resource is returned and the enemy units that depend on the resources actually suffer from combat penalty! Haven't they already make their swords and armors?



178. Our first war with England ended peacefully. See how much Elizabeth hates us for...

She covets our lands even though we are one ocean away from them!
She thought we were trying to win the game using the same method! Maybe through domination?

Thanks to the rapid expansion and 3 City State's food bonuses, and possibly the war to distract England's development, our now lead in score! But we are still lagging in tech. Must breed more citizens and build more libraries!

(to be continued)

You will learn from Monty the hard way. I had that too. First he's all friendly, and then "don't worry my friend, my soldiers are just training and they need you as target."