Rhye's Of AMERICA!

We are playing America on the Earth Map of ROCX (click the above link to get it). This mod is a lot of fun. It is based on slower growth with small, rich civs, and is balanced for historical accuracy. For example the Europeans usually discover America around 1400-1500.

The Story So Far
Chapter 1: The First Colonists
Chapter 2: First Contact
Chapter 3: First In War
Chapter 4: First In Peace
Chapter 5: First In The Hearts Of His Countrymen
Chapter 6: First In Space (coming soon!)

Chapter 1: The First Colonists


Rhye's Of Civ is really intended for us to play as a European civ. As America we face some big disadvantages:

• We will know only a few civs until the Europeans come and discover us. We'll be HUGELY behind in tech when that happens.
• The territory of the United States starts out very poor in food and shields.
• Our neighors the Iroquois and Aztecs have very good Ancient Age UUs.
• The Americas are full of jungles, marshes, plateaus and mountains, making them difficult to explore and settle.

There are some rays of hope:

• There is a lot of territory for us to peacefully expand into.
• We will have every resource we need until Rubber.
• America has many rivers and the land grows more fertile with the discoveries of Invention and Mercantilism.
• The Statue of Liberty is a Great Library, available ONLY to New World civilizations, that will catch us up on tech as soon as we discover Democracy.

So we'll play to our strengths: peaceful expansion, industrious workers improving the land to make us rich, followed by a beeline to Democracy after we meet the Europeans.

That's all in the future though! For now, Washington D.C. builds a Warrior then starts on a Settler. I set our research goals as Bronze Working, then Republic, then Sailing.

We meet the Iroquois and pop two goody huts - both give us maps of the region.


Don't be fooled by appearances, this land is poor - most of the grasslands are "prairie" terrain that only provide 1 food. The Great Lakes (2 food) and forests (1 food 2 shields) are the key to growth.

In 1725 B.C., we found Detroit in order to grab the Great Lakes area and block Iroquois expansion.


Growth is slow in Rhye's mod. Settlers cost 120 shields and 3 population! The average European civ will grow to 4-5 cities; we are aiming for 10, which is the Optimal City Number. Achieving this before the Europeans arrive will require a LOT of shields invested in Settlers.

We set Detroit to pump out industrious Workers to help improve the land. Around 600 B.C. the Iroquois come to our borders with their second Settler; we quickly seal our borders shut with 2 Warriors and a Worker. Detroit's Warrior is damaged from fighting off a barbarian attack.


We found Chicago on the shores of Lake Michigan. Our workers are still connecting our cities and our first luxury, Tobacco. With no other civs met so far, we decide to do a 1:1 tech swap with the Iroquois.

In 110 A.D. we found our fourth city, Nashville. Detroit has pumped out four workers, and now starts working on a Temple to get those Michigan forests in our territory. One worker-pair focuses on irrigating Nashville while the other mines the Pennsylvania hills.


Our Spearman contacts the Aztecs! They are advanced, so we do another fair tech swap.

The next years are slow, until we discover Republic. Our new highly productive government founds three new cities in quick succession: Omaha, Dallas, and Orlando.


With 7 cities, we are ahead of the Native Americans (5 cities each), but the Aztecs are crushing us in the culture war 1500 to 500. We use our position as a middleman between Hiawatha and Montezuma to get lots of gold, then rush Temples and Libaries in our south-western cities. A culture flip is always disastrous in Rhye's Of Civ where every city counts.

In 1000 A.D. we discover Sailing. Every once in a while Wonder pop-ups remind us that we are far behind Europe; the Colossus and Great Lighthouse have been around for centuries.

Our exploration strategy is threefold:

• One Galley will go around South America to make contact with the Incan civilization. It will carry a Warrior (to pick off goody huts) and will drop it in Argentina to explore by land. (In ROCX, jungle, swamp and mountainous terrain are impassable without roads, so the Amazon is impenetrable).
• Another Galley will hang around the Caribbean to make contact with arriving Europeans.
• A third Galley will explore north to Hudson's Bay.

We meet the Mayans; they are backwards and poor. As we turn the corner into the Medieval era, we plant our last two cities for a while, New Orleans and Miami. Our empire is prosperous and strong!


We have caught up a bit vs Aztec culture, now they are beating us 1800 to 900. Our military is puny, but we are keeping the Iroquois happy with tech trades and small gifts. A war of conquest is out of the question for now. The Iroquois have a cheap unique unit, the 1.3.1 Tomahawk Warrior, which is easily a match for our expensive 3.1.1 Swordsmen. We will wait until Cavalry to fight the Iroquois; for now, it is just a victory to have all of the USA's territory east of the Rockies to ourselves!

Subbed. Liking this very much

Chinese proverb said:

Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.

Click to expand...

You couldn't wait for a story about the US, so you started one yourself?
And on what difficulty level are you playing, it seems the Iroquois expand terribly slow (altough thats usually the case because the Iroquois starting posistion sucks compareted to Washington)?

I played with the Iroquois in Rhye's once. I thought the location sucked so much that I spend the first 10 turns walking south to build the capitol in the missisipi-riversystem. Despite of that the US were really annoying and only after three wars they were powned to smithereens.

Good luck with the opposite.

Subbed. I would do my story as a Rhye's, but my stupid computer won't install it.

Looks great, I'll sub and eagerly await the updates!

Interesting story so far. I'm not familiar with this particular mod, so I'll have to dowload this when I have the time. I'm curious to see more of the story!

I am playing on Emperor with all standard settings.

Thanks for the subscriptions, I will do my best to win, but no promises, this is going to be a very challenging game.

The next update should be coming in a while

Chapter 2: First Contact

Our civ is growing peacefully. We have Barracks and Temples in every city. 220 of the scenario's 400 turns are behind us. Our South American expedition has rounded Cape Horn and contacted the Inca.

In 1416 A.D., an English Galleass appears off the Florida coast!


We just entered the Medieval Age so we are nearly one full era behind Elizabeth. Luckily, with our exploration emphasis (we know the coastlines from Iceland to Chile) we can trade world maps at a cost of only a few hundred gold. We also trade Tobacco for England's Fur, and trade the Aztecs Feudalism for Incense. All of our cities start working on Marketplaces and Libraries.

We discover Invention, which radically changes the American landscape:

See all those Cattle and Wheat resources? They show up only when America discovers Invention. Even more will appear when we get to Mercantilism. Our workers are set to road and mine each of these new resources.

In a big stroke of luck for us, the Chinese and Japanese found cities in California just as our Galley is coming up the west coast from Mexico. If Astronomy has spread all the way to Japan, it seems that England already has most of the Old World contacts. The Greeks and the French plant colonies in Brazil and we rush the nearest galley over to say hello.

With these five contacts, we are able to get a pretty good picture of the World.

In Europe the two big powers are England (population 34) and Russia (39), while Portugal has taken over Iberia, and Austria and Germany are also doing well. In Africa, Egypt (35) has a huge empire, rivalled by Carthage and Ethiopia. However from their cities it looks like they are still in the Ancient Age. The Ottomans (26) have created a sprawling empire of disconnected colonies. And the Persians also have a far-spanning empire, reaching from Armenia to Indonesia. In the Far East, China (41) and Japan (46!!) have massive empires and have learned the secrets of Astronomy.



And here's the situation at home:


Due to one of our victory conditions (control the USA from sea to shining sea) war with China, Japan, and the Iroquois is a certainty. For now, we dominate the continent with 62 citizens, the world's most populous empire.

As we gradually contact more and more civs, we're building infrastructure at home. The Forbidden Palace goes up in Dallas, while other cities concentrate on Banks and Universities.

In 1720 A.D., we get word that Jerusalem has been conquered by the Ottomans. Soon after, Persia takes over Babylon, then joins the Ottomans in an alliance that tears through India. Meanwhile, Portugal destroys Spain (I've never seen that happen before!).

In 1752 A.D., our first Caravels cross the Atlantic and make contact with the rest of Europe. By this time England and a few other civs have reached the Industrial era, while we have just reached Mercantilism. We are, however, ahead of some of the Mediterranean civs.

This is a good place to stop for now: here is the culture histograph and scoreboard at 1780 A.D.



Strategy thoughts at 1780 A.D.

There are only 130 turns left in the game. We need to get to the Statue of Liberty as soon as possible, then figure out a way to get to the front of the pack.

Here is an overview of the victory conditions. (Diplomacy and Conquest are turned off).

SCORE: China, Japan, England, Germany and Persia are our main rivals.
CULTURE: Japan will make it to 35k culture, but England will stay close enough behind to keep Japan from winning.
DOMINATION: Nobody is close, and I don't expect the AI to win this way.
SPACE: Not only are we behind, but the world in general is lagging, probably due to so many wars. We will have to speed up the tech pace.

Soon we will have Cavalry. At that point I think some wars are in order vs the Iroquois and even the Aztecs, to boost our score

Lookin' good! This will be epic.

lurker's comment: This could get interesting. I will definitely subscribe!

Chapter 3: First In War

By 1776 A.D. we have met most of the world's civs - we have one Caravel exploring the Mediterranean, and Galleases headed for Northern Europe and the Far East (by way of Africa and Arabia).

We keep meticulous notes on each new civ we meet, which is crucial as we are FAR behind. For reference, here is how the tech tree looks in Rhye's Of Civ Expanded:

We are at Mercantilism; most of Europe as well as Japan are in the Industrial Age. We know they don't have Electricity yet because communications trading isn't enabled.

Of the civs we have met, the following are on par with us: Carthage, Austria, Rome, and Byzantium. The rest are either far ahead or far behind.


We have extra Saltpeter, so we take note of the civs that lack this resource: Greece, France, Egypt, and Byzantium.

In 1776 A.D. we discover Mercantilism and take this opportunity to pull off one of the best trades of all time:

1. Magnetism, Banking, and World Map to ROME for Firearms, Christianity and Printing Press.
2. Firearms, Magnetism, and World Map to CARTHAGE for Humanism and Metallurgy.
3. Saltpeter, World Map, and Mercantilism to BYZANTIUM for Physics, Military Tradition, and World Map.
4. 105 GPT, World Map, and 297 gold to EGYPT for Naval Tactics and Flintlock.

The gold trade to Egypt is based on the fact that in Rhye's Of Civ there is a 5-turn minimum for each tech. We were hitting the cap at 60% science so it made more sense to go into debt. We enter the Industrial Age and since we are Scientific, we get a free tech - Enlightenment!

ZOOM! That's the sound of America learning ten techs in one turn. Now we're just 5 turns away from Democracy.

It turns out that Portugal and Egypt don't have Enlightenment, so we trade it for 600g, 4gpt and Wines. This is enough liquid cash to deficit-spend our way to Democracy... In the meantime, we start constructing lots of Cavalry.

In 1796, Democratic revolutionaries overthrow our Republic! We switch Washington from Slave Trade to Statue of Liberty which will be done in 8 turns.

We have a choice here between putting science at 0 and getting lots of gold to rush Cavalry, or researching Chemistry which England doesn't have yet. We choose the second option since we want to get to Sanitation and Hospitals ASAP.

In 1820 we discover Chemistry. We have an army of 8 Cavalry and NO defensive units (military upkeep is exorbitant in Democracy). There are two Iroquois Settlers making their way through our territory. Free workers - a perfect pretext for war!


Our 6.3.3 Cavalry make quick work of the 1.3.1 Tomahawk Warriors.

And soon after....


We learn Steam Power, Economics, Electricity and Nationalism immediately.

Until the space race (discovery of Satellites) America will automatically learn any tech known by at least 2 other civilizations. Hence we begin the Great American Giveaway: we gift every technology to every civ. With every civ researching modern technology, we should be able to power through the Industrial Era and get to the space race in time to win.

Meanwhile, in the Iroquois War, we take Salamanca and rename it Buffalo; Grand River falls and is renamed Minneapolis (which ironically means the exact same thing!). After we capture Duluth in 1848, Hiawatha trades us Oil Springs (now Salt Lake City) for peace. His civilization has been reduced to a puny 2 cities in Canada.

The English complete Encyclopedia, a Wonder giving them two free techs. We trade Medicine for Industrialization; they are ahead by Sanitation, Replaceable Parts, and Steel. They finally trade Replaceable Parts so we learn it (our workers double in productivity).

And that's where we'll end for now.

Strategy Notes, 1868
The next task is to kick China and Japan off the West Coast. I'm not looking forward to these wars just because every single AI seems to have 10-15 naval units roaming the world. It's difficult to predict how hard Japan and China will strike back...

England, Japan, China, and Russia are the only civs ahead of us in score at this point. With Temples rushed in each former Iroquois city, we should soon be getting a lot of Territory points.

Ever since we built the Statue of Liberty, England has been the ONLY civ to discover new techs. I dunno, is the AI smart enough to hold back on researching and trading techs because it "knows" I'll get them for free?

Pretty sure the AI ain't that smart. The RNG however...

Is it wise to have no defenders? The inland cities are off course safe, but your coastal cities are in a great risk of getting attacked by oppurtunistic, RNG driven, Bersekers or Colonials. I suppose its all a matter of "luck".

By the way, are Hawaii and the other US isles also becoming part of the Sates?

I am at Polite or Gracious relations with nearly all the civs because of the Great American Giveaway so I don't really fear attack. Also what you don't see in that picture is I used to have my 3 naval vessels stationed offshore to warn of any approaching AI units. But I sent them around South America to try and help with the coming West Coast War. So yes, I'll have to station a cavalry or two in each of the coast cities

Hawai'i will not become a state just because I have no way of taking and holding it. The seas are literally teeming with AI ships, I dunno what Rhye changed to make it happen, but in this mod the AI builds LOTS of naval units. The Hawai'ian city on the minimap is Chinese.

EDIT: a close look at the minimaps in the last chapter also reveals that the Ottoman Empire kicked Egypt's butt!

Chapter 4: First In Peace

Our ships bumped into a Chinese and Japanese fleet rounding the coast of South America:
You can see that the Japanese and Chinese navies are easily going to establish dominance of the Pacific in any war. Not wanting to risk our fleet, we order them to return to Miami.

Using 12 Cavalry, including 2 Elites, we plan to sweep up the West Coast:
This will complete our "sea to shining sea" victory condition.

We build the Constitution:

...and the Statue of Liberty brings immigrants with knowledge of Steel to our shores.

The passage through the Utah deserts is hard for cavalry, but we make it to Chinese territory and launch our attack. We don't sign any military alliances, because I want to end this war before 20 turns. Hope we don't dogpiled!

Shandong is garrisoned by a single Crossbowman, no match for our Elite Cavalry.

The rampaging Persians destroy the Greeks - yet another civ wiped from the map.

Our cavalry reach Nagoya. One brigade falls before the Colonial Infantry and archers defending the city, before we capture it and rename it Seattle.

We complete the Eiffel Tower in Washington D.C. (pays for all trade building upkeep).

Byzantium allies with Japan against us Our conquest of the West Coast is not making us popular. Enemy Ships-Of-The-Line are dropping by every turn to take pot shots at our cavalry, which we easily heal away. In addition I think about half the world has a trade embargo against us at the moment, but that's ok because England is still the only civ keeping pace with our research.


In 1900 A.D. the resistance in Seattle ends, and the USA is united. Here is what that looks like:

The territory of the west is really inhospitable. Those funny looking hills are Plateaus, a landmark terrain that is both unproductive and impassable.

There are 99 turns left in the game. I've been keeping track of the scoreboard. If each civ stays the course, here is how the final score will look:

We'll be #1, but it'll be close: China's massive population and the Ottoman Empire's far-spanning territory will be strong contenders.

So, we need more territory to seal the deal. I think we'll do this by finishing off the Iroquois. After studying the situation, we decide the Aztecs are more trouble than they're worth. They have advanced far enough to have Pikemen, their culture is very strong, and their hilly and poorly roaded territory gives them a defensive advantage.

Hopefully, conquering the Iroquois, plus increasing our population through Hospitals, will be enough to reach #1 in score by the space race.

The conquest of the Iroquois goes uneventfully. In 1910 A.D. we add Calgary and Edmonton to our empire. Goodbye Iroquois! Also, we sign peace with Japan and China at the cost of tech (which is fine, because we want England to have more trade partners).

As far as I can tell, Japan and the Ottomans are the only civs keeping pace with us. England is always a tech ahead, and they seem very reluctant to trade. We end up trading them Trench Warfare for Mass Production; they have Flight so we start working on Motorized Transport. None of these technologies do anything special for us. Obviously, our nation will be a lot less secure once everyone gets Advanced Flight and fighter jets.

So, the next phase of the game will be peaceful building, a race to railroad the entire USA, and a struggle to get to Space before time runs out.

Looks like you got a lot of roads to build, let alone railroads.

It also looks some Ai will see the SAn Diego location and will send a settler to it. I don't suppose the improving will pose much of a problem with 95 turns left.

You'll probably win, unless the Ottomans go crazy off course.

Go America!

Very good. Next are the Aztecs?