ALC Game 32: Holy Roman Empire / Charlemagne

I started the round unsure what I was planning on doing so I just meandered forward with building the internet as my goal. But I wasn't set on that plan and should some other opportunity have presented itself I was ready to take it. That being said, I was pretty sure that space and the internet was the way to go. After all, I love the internet.

I was checking the f4 screen every turn and noticed that Roosevelt had researched Assembly Line. That was my cue to do something with it.



Unfortunately Qin hadn't been willing to part with Railroad the turn before and I didn't want any of the other stuff he was offering. So I pulled an old trick. I put one turn of research into Railroad myself and then Qin was willing to make the trade above. After that turn of Railroad I finished self-teching Electricity. And after that I chose Industrialism.



I chose it for two reasons. The first is that Industrialism is on the way to Plastics so I needed it if I wanted to build the Internet. The second reason is that it reveals Aluminum. The earlier I know I don't have it the more time to change plans or decide that space is still best I have.

Below is a shot of a micro tip.



When Railroad goes in you should take control of a few workers and have them build railroads on all your mines as a railroad gives a mine-improved tile one more hammer. In this particular game I'm going almost exclusively with windmills, but I still have mines on the mineable resources.

After Industrialism I decided that I had enough time to get sidetracked.



I was suffering from major unhealth issues, as usual. Medicine gives me access to hospitals and also lets me switch civics to Environmentalism. Environmentalism is especially nice given the windmills I've got all over my empire. Industrialism is in. Do I have aluminum?



Excellent, not one, but two sources. Aluminum is a great resource to have for space victories as it makes everything go faster.

In the meanwhile Pacal had been annoying. And Industrialism was a monopoly tech. Hmmmmm.



That should knock Pacal down a few notches. Notice that Qin is a monster and giving monsters bait is usually not a good idea, but in this case I'm way more worried about Pacal's culture attempt than anything else. And I think that Qin can actually knock out Pacal since



One of Pacal's big three is withing easy reach of Qin's army. Back in the Holy Roman Empire a new political party was elected.



Universal Suffrage for the extra hammers in Prague. Free Speech for the extra coins in Prague. Environmentalism for the extra coins everywhere and Emancipation to deal with unhappiness. Note that I did choose to stay in Pacifism. It would have cost another turn to revolt to Free Religion and all my buddies were still running Buddhism and I saw no reason to annoy them. Only four techs left.



Qin will give me one of them.



What a good guy. I'm noticing that the no WFYABTA from Friendly AIs is really, really good. In the meantime, we popped a great engineer.



I'm not sure what to do with him. I thought about settling him in the Ironworks city of Aachen but hesitated. I thought I'd keep him maybe for a Golden Age depending on who the next great person was.

I also really like it when completely out of date AIs make demands.



It's especially nice when they're super crazy nut jobs and I get free peace with them. In other foreign affairs the Mayans made peace with the Chinese and company. Check out what Qin managed to do before he capitulated Pacal.



Looks like the Mayan Man is completely out for the count in this game. Thanks a million QSH! But then something awkward happened.



Apparently Qin has not yet researched Mass Media! I think I should be fine since I don't think all the AIs have Buddhism, but it does make me a little worried. I'm also noticing that Qin is quite big and already has two vassals. Here's hoping he doesn't win a UN election before I can launch my ship.

And here's that tech we wanted.



It looks like I have some time to get the Internet built.





I think ten turns should be enough. While Aachen was working on that it produced another great person.



A second great engineer! I know the Space Elevator gets no love, and deservedly so, but with two great engineers I should be able to build it for free. Is this right? I think two engineers should be enough, or at least close to enough. What do you guys think? Is it worth the diversion to Robotics to get a free Space Elevator?

A few turns were ended and soon after we got some very good news.





. Getting the internet always makes me laugh. I love it. Especially with Qin and vassals sharing all their technologies I get lots of stuff! And the round ends on that positive note. Some key screenshots follow.











So that's about the size of it. I think I'll go for the Space Elevator while building some laboratories. And then with the Space Elevator, laboratories, and Aluminum in hand I'll be able to crank out all the parts pretty quickly.

Let the end game begin. Seeing that the AIs were going to get superconductors pretty quickly, I decided to switch research to Robotics for the Space Elevator.



China and company declared war on the helpless Greek.



I'm starting to get worried that China's going to just take over the world and win a diplomation victory.



But I was doing my best to beat whatever victory he had to offer with my space victory, so I double bulbed the Space Elevator.



Qin does already have robotics, but unless he also has some spare Great Engineers sitting around I think I'm safe.



The two of us are miles ahead of everybody else. I get my Apollo Program finished and start on parts.



And I get some help on those parts with my new toy.



And then something funny happens.



I win the AP! Unfortunately a more thorough investigation shows that neither the Greeks nor the Russians have any Buddhist cities so no AP cheese for me.

I'm close behind in the space race.





Qin has more parts finished than I do, but he's still two techs away from Fusion.

China vassaled the remnants of Pericles and than turned the other cities on that island into a colony.



I keep making parts.





I should have started workshopping over the cottages in Prague earlier.



Better late than never I suppose. The other major mistake I made is putting my extra commerce into gold. I should have turned up the espionage slider so that I could at least attempt to sabotage production of Qin's engines.

A chop into Prague means that I finish this thruster at the same time as the other two I was planning on using.





Which allows for this launch.



It would have taken longer to build the other parts than was worth it. I crossed my fingers and hoped it would be enough.



I wasn't particularly hopeful. In the meantime Qin had declared war on and not vassaled, but actually completely conquered Isabella. A turn after I launched my ship Qin launched his fully complete ship and I knew I stood no chance. But just to add insult to injury.



There wasn't anything I could do about that.

......

A quick look at the map shows that it was going to be tougher than most.





It looks like I'm developing a habit of losing these ALC's, but I still enjoy doing them. They're pretty much the only games I finish anymore and in close games my inexperience hurts -- like not putting my extra commerce into espionage points. .

Anyways, much thanks to everybody who commented and gave advice! I appreciate it. Onwards to Wang Kon!