To infinity and beyond! Islandia's Mayan Immortal Infinite City Sprawl Adventure

I

Islandia

King
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Nov 1, 2005
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Alpaca had commented on how reliant most strategies at the higher difficulty levels were on selling luxuries to the AI and wanted to try a game that did not involve selling anything to the AI (luxury trades are ok). This sounded like fun plus it seemed more akin to how multiplayer games of Civ play out with the inability to sell luxuries for lump sum gold, so I thought I would give this a try.

Original thread is here (includes the start save):
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=471247

The game is played with the following settings: standard speed, standard size, pangaea, immortal difficulty game aiming for science victory.

Having never actually played a single player game of G&K before, I wanted to see how multiplayer strategies would work against the AI, and also when I first saw the save file and made an error settling, I decided to try an infinite city sprawl strategy to see if it was viable. The result is my first Let's Play story!

Spoiler :

 
Here is the story of the beginning,
when there was not one bird,
not one fish,
not one mountain.
Here is the sky, all alone.
Here is the sea, all alone.

- The Popol Vuh


Hunab Ku placed the Mayan people upon a river overlooking vast wheat fields and a salty plain. Pacal settled his first city in place for if they had been placed here, then this must be the place to be.

Pacal's warriors moved onto the hill top besides the newly founded city of Palenque and derisively decided that God must have a sense of humor as they saw the copper deposits that were too far downriver for the cityfolk to work and return in the same evening.



Quickly, the warriors crossed the river to see what other resources could be exploited farther downriver, only to run into a vast expanse of salt water as far as the eye could see, interrupted only by the occasional jumping of fish. Indeed, it was not the most ideal place to settle.

 
The first thousand years of Mayan development passed by uneventfully, as they were mostly left to themselves and allowed a period of significant intellectual and artistic development. Palenque built a monument to mark the beginning of the Mayan long count calendar and then a scout to explore the lands around Central America. Many relics of ancient civilizations were found including leftover gold and a prophet sitting in a hut who told the our scouts to avoid worshipping false gods.

Clearly the Mayans were blessed to spread the words of the gods to the other people of this continent so our belief system reflected this.




The city of Tikal was also founded immediately upriver from Palenque mostly out of convenience rather than any real sense of city planning. Knowing that minor city states such as Venice and Manila were not far away, Pacal wanted to be able to settle another city farther north without encroaching on sovereign territory. Upon founding Tikal, Pacal also met with the arrogant and unfriendly envoy from the Egyptians and sent a warrior to follow them home.

 
The next 500 years also passed uneventfully as the Mayans fulfilled the promise of Pacal to expand across all the land. Palenque was kept busy building settlers while Tikal produced Atlatlists to stave off the poisonous whispers of the Egyptian diplomats. The cities of Chichen Itza and Uxmal were both founded immediately next to the Capitol in order to take advantage of every available inch of land.



Our scouts knew from traveling far to the north that many minor city states inhabited the northlands so there would be no ability to expand much further as the Mayans were bound on the west and south by ocean, on the north by City states and on the east by the loathsome Egyptians.

 
The city of Tulum was founded next to the Grand Mesa to provide funding for the continued Mayan expansion. The Egyptians did not look favorably upon this turn of events, but our settlers had already decided to lay down the foundations of the city so who was Pacal to tell them otherwise? The Mayan Atlatists were also busy clearing out barbarian camps and helping out the minor city states to kill roaming barbarians. In gratitude 1 of the liberated workers chose not to return home but instead was put to work building roads for the Mayan empire.



Clearly with the Mayans following the liberty social policy tree, Venice was amazed by Consul Pacal's wise leadership and decided to share their furs with the Mayans. This resulted in the ability to build another city. Copan was founded in 2080 BC to take advantage of the desert fishing opportunities and to impress Warsaw with our incredible culture, bringing the Mayan city count to 6. The Egyptians finally got wise and settled Memphis to keep up with the Mayan expansion.

 
This looks like a good one, with Egyptians staying tall and wonderspamming.:mischief:

Interesting to see how this Mayan ICS pans out.
 
The local leaders noticed the Mayan's passionate attitude towards eliminating the barbarian threat to all. As a result, Venice, Belgrade and Hong Kong all pledge their allegiance to Consul Pacal.



The Mayan people had continued to prosper under wise leadership, but they were not a populous people. Already though they had much land and plenty of cities, crops and industrious people, they were far behind in babies, research and military.



But fortunately, they were easily soothed by the religious teachings of Lao Tzu who founded Taoism in Palenque and taught the Mayan people to be extremely content with their lot in life and to admire the pyramids they built in every city.

 
War determines not who is right but who is left.

-Boutros_Boutros-Ghali


The Mayans having researched Theology now understood the beginnings of their own calendar system. Being extremely surprised that no one had built Stonehenge, they decided to celebrate their understanding of the Long Count by marking time on a big stone block in Pacal.


Brave Mayan scouts near the Egyptian borders noticed a build up of troops as if anticipating a war. However, the Mayans were undeterred by this and decided to continue to build settlements and monuments to their new Taoist gods.


The Egyptian Pharoah though had something to say to Pacal. They were not happy with the Mayans because they coveted our lands, our friends, our wealth, and our city sites.


This came to a head when the Egyptians prepared a surprise attack on the newest Mayan city.
 
The Egyptian onslaught was halted in its tracks because they underestimated the sheer ability of Mayans to throw rocks at them and pelt their chariots repeatedly. Even little kids were gathered in the streets of Coba pelting the invading Egyptian armies. As a result, the Egyptians ran back to their home in disgrace trailed closely by the Mayan army.



In the meantime, Palenque continued it's quest to mark time through the use of a large pile of rocks littered across the river.



Pacal in his deviousness also wanted a mighty general to lead his armies. He ordered his scout Atlatlists who had survived for a millenium behind enemy lines to attack the spearmen who were fortified south of Thebes and so for many turnings of the seasons the spearmen would get attacked and heal and then the process would repeat.

 
As great people started being born in the Mayan Empire, the first one to appear was yet another Great Prophet named Kong Qiu who taught the Mayan people how to build Pagodas. Much of the further growth of the Mayan Empire was influenced by the East Asia philosophies.



In gratitude the people of Palenque created a Pagoda in his honor. There was much rejoicing in the streets and the cultural, artistic, and spiritual needs of the people were fulfilled.

 
Meanwhile, the Mayans had not neglected the instructions of Pacal and redoubled their efforts on the military front. Not one, but two Great Generals were quickly promoted to take the war to the heart of Thebes.


Ramessess knew that he was staring defeat in the face when he saw the siege machinery and composite bowmen lined up outside the walls of his capitol.

 
While the war raged on the Egyptian front, Pacal wondered what to do with all the mighty warriors that were returning from the front lines. He decided that he would explore the vast world with a Great Admiral and see what other mighty civilizations existed in the world.



Venice had turned out to be no friend of to the Mayans, secretly giving aid and succor to the Egyptians and providing them with vital intelligence information. As a result, the Mayans decided they were no friends to the Venicians either. The third great general for the Mayans was tasked with setting up a citadel near the border of Venice to secure vital access to the fur supply.

 
Even gods can die... the Pharoah was not willing to go to the underworld, so Pacal's generals helped him on his way. The city of Thebes was bravely taken by a lone warrior who survived the assault over the walls out of a band of 100 brave souls. In gratitude the warrior was promoted to a General and sent home for feasting and celebration with the new wife he acquired in the Egyptian homelands.



Ramesses who not take his defeat with dignity and vowed swift retribution. However, Pacal was no longer interested in the ravings of a madman and sent him into exile to forever wander the wilds in his madness.



The city of Memphis was also sacked as it guarded a new area of expansion for the infinite cities of the Mayan empire!

 
With the fall of Egypt, the last enemy to the Mayan expansion plans fell by the wayside. The Mayans were friends to all the other people of the world and provided them any luxuries they asked for in friendship so that the salts, whales, and crabs of the Mayan empire flowed to all the other people of the world. As a result, 2-3 research agreements were made and this kept the Mayan scientists happy for they predicted that the end of the world would occur "real soon".



The Mayan empire spanned 13 cities across the entire southern half of the continent. Plans to expand further were cramped by the lack of land, though Pacal planned on working around that problem as well!

 
Twenty more turnings of the Mayan calendar unfolded and more friendships were pledged around the world. The Mayans continued to prioritize expansion and growth and as a result of the luxuries flowing across the empire, they began to grow.



15 cities now were claimed as part of the Mayan republic and soon the economies of these newly founded cities were enhanced by Pagodas and Pyramids to aid in cultural, religious, and spiritual growth.

 
The Mayans continue to grow peacefully researching the technologies needed to reach the modern era. By 1100 ad (turn 170), they had settled 16 cities and


By this time the rest of the world was in awe of the Mayans as they had eclipsed everyone in every category except soldiers and happiness.


 
The Mayans built up to 18 cities and started creating factories in all of them. By turn 182, they had built up the production necessary to enter the industrial age in style.



Pacal's people longed for space and asked their leaders to build rockets. Consul Pacal obliged and thus the space program for the Mayans started.



*Editor's note* - this is the part I really messed up if I were shooting for fastest possible time to spaceship. I realized on turn 211 I already had far too many scientists to already be able to tech to Satellites and the rest of the techs needed to finish up the other trees and use the 2 free techs from the end of the Rationalism tree on nanotechnology and particle physics. I should have bought my scientists with faith almost ten turns earlier so I didn't waste a bunch of time at the end waiting for spaceship parts to build with nothing needed to research. Things you learn as you play your first SP game!
 
The Hawaiians sent a Great Prophet to proselytize to the people of Coba. While they listened to the words of this wise religious leader, they quickly realized that Taoism was their true faith.

 
By turn 237 (1635AD), the Mayans had researched all space technologies and were well on their way to building spaceship parts in all cities. They would end up buying spaceship factories in every city producing these parts.



The demographics reflect well upon the Mayan people as they lead the world in everything.



*Yet another editor's note&* Three research agreements were signed that were set to go off on turns 237-245. Plan carefully for end game research agreements that reach beyond the extent of the techs needed to finish the game! :eek:
 
The dreams of the Mayans were achieved. They built all the parts of the spaceship to launch into the great unknown in turn 243 1665 AD 12 b'ak'tun, 2 k'atun, 6 tun 17 winal, 7 k'in Mayan Long Count. Well before the end of the world was predicted at the current end of the cycle!



 
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