COTM 02: Spoiler 2: End of Middle ages

COTM 02 Spoiler 2: End of middle ages

Because of the layout of the map, we had to be a bit more restrictive on the first spoiler. However, by the end of the middle ages, you should basically have the world map and all contacts (especially as a seafaring civ!)

So tell us how you got on with establishing your empire.

To qualify for this spoiler, you must be:

1. Researching an industrial-age tech;
2. Have a 'full' world map => at least the coastline of all major landmasses.
3. All contacts.

Please don't post screenshots that show the locations of industrial or modern-age resources.

Well the Middle Ages for me was very tense and unnerving. I was at war with the Spanish through most of it. Ill post my full story later.

I played the first COTM, but didn't submit it, given that I had just had my butt handed to me by Mursilis and quit in frustration.

So I decided to have a go again, but never having won a Monarch before, I wimped and went Conquest class.

Unfortunately, I didn't take proper notes, but perhaps next time. I did manage to win, so I'm happy to have won on at least some form of Monarch. Maybe next time I'll try the open class.

However, I can't submit my game. I read on the COTM page this statement:

This is a C3C Game Of The Month. It MUST be played in Conquests Patch version 1.22f.

Yet when I try to submit, I see this statement:

* Sorry! Your C3C COTM save file was created using C3C 1.22f and cannnot be accepted

Help?

I'll go back a bit to the end of the Ancient Age, to talk about my only two aggresive conflicts. Like many, I had a bit of a problem with settlers from other nations settling in what I knew in my heart to be Dutch territory. The French were the first offenders, and thus the first (and it turned out only) to feel the sword. They had iron and horses, but only had a couple swordsmen, so my landing in France, who was also the smallest country, met little resistance. I fairly quickly took down France, gaining a source of horses, iron, and three sources of dye. Lyons had two of those sources of dye, and was right next to a culturally superior Spain. About two turns after France was gone, Lyons flipped to Spain, and I lost two Dyes, meaning I could no longer trade them. Around this time, I entered the middle ages, and researched Engineering, which I then traded for Fuedalism. It was time to reclaim Lyons.

Spain was equal in tech, just about, and also had the SoZ. I had a southern colony on the big continent, as well as the narrow strip of French land (four cities basically along the middle of the continent, separating Inca and Spain). Since SoZ was just north of my southern city, I put four trebuchets, or catapults, I can't remember if I had trebs, and about eight recently upgraded swiss mercenaries, ready to trigger a golden age. To clean up the ancient cavalry that would be retreating, I had four Horsemen. Up north, I had two SM per town, and two more in between towns, ready to move in case Spain made a grab at any one city. Also left up there were two SM, a few elite swordsmen, an elite archer, a few catapults, and about eight medieval infantry. This would be more than an enough to retake Lyons, and maybe another city if the opportunity presented itself.

For some reason, however, Spain decided to use two turns bringing all the Ancient cavalry to the north, even before I had taken Lyons. My horseman weren't quite enough to beat the pikeman in SoZ city, but I should have brought out some SM, catapults, and horseman anyway to distract the Spanish. Dumb mistake, and might have cost me a lot of points on the game. I only managed to recapture Lyons on the big continent, and took one of the three cities Spain settled in the tundra (I sent one settler, who was killed by barbarians, and after that I ignored it). In the peace, I got gold, a small island town north of our continent, and another of the tundra towns. Of course, despite rushing a temple and starving Lyons, it flipped again, and my work was for nothing. At this point, it wasn't worth it to take on Spain, since there were signs the Inca wanted my land, and I was falling behind on the power chart.

My failure in Spain, plus what I thought was a decent tech pace, especially with no scientific civs and only two expansionist civs, cemented my decision to go for a peaceful victory. Culture of any sort was out of the question, so I went for diplomatic. In fact, Spain even voted for me, but that is getting ahead.

I was right about the Inca, who sneak attacked me. I immediately got the English and Spanish on my side. Our peace treaty still had turns on it, but I gave them the tech they need for Conquistadors, and the Inca were surrounded. I did almost no fighting, except for trying to get a great leader when a longbowman wandered in unescorted. No luck there, though. Twenty five or so elite victories, and no leaders. Getting one might have changed my plans, since armies eliminate the need for numerical superiority or even equality, neither of which I had with the Inca, who were technologically even. It was about this point that I tried to become tech broker, with some success. I am not good at making long posts interesting though, so I will call it quits now.

Actually, one note. I liked the lack of saltpeter on our island, since we had no need for it if taking the defensive route. It made my decision to pursue peace a bit easier.

Let us backtrack a bit. I had a very nice RNG with my Curraghs at sea and the oceans. I managed to loose one on a pure miss when i hit the wrong move key, the other was a fair loss in the ocean. By 1250BC I had all the contacts, and traded as well as I could while i tried to stimulate the AI to research polytheism and the math three. I had to research all techs but MM and Polytheism... so no great success in gifting the few who had a reasonable techrate to speed me to MA.

The inca's where initially strong in my game - and provided me with MM 3 rounds before I could research it myself after getting Literacy, while Cleo gave me poly. My army was what you could call a pure militarypolice one. It only existed to get me through despotism without raising the lux bar too much. By my last round in AA in 750bc I only had 188 points, a bit penalized I guess for my long trek with my settler. I had settled both the horse and iron island S and E of my lands, and was on my way to the northern island with a settler as well. Before I finished TGL I lost one of my settler galleys, luckily it was empty at the time. TGL was finished in 470BC, but I fumbled with my initiative and took too long to get an army ready for any early conquest. In 310BC I finished FP in the Eindhoven. It improved my game very little, but gave me a few gold extra per round I guess.

The barbarian uprising was very impotent, all the horsemen just sat in their village far west on my frozen peninsula. I tried to milk it to get elite HM, but not one of them got promoted I decided to wait for cavalry before I started any offencive - perhaps after getting badly burned with my knights vs the unique sumerian warriors in COTM1. But to my great shock there was not a single saltpeter to be found anywhere on my map - except for far up in the mayan wilderness. I had to abort my rush for the bottom part of the MA tech tree, and went straight for chivalry. I told Isabella to ready her troops for war while I hoped that the hidden terrain in spain would give me saltpeter, but that war 'only' gave me a few much needed luxury resources - ivory, spice and incence. The AI gave me monotheism and banking in a fairly slow MA tech pace. I entered the IA in 640AD after having removed Isabella from the game in 460AD, that war took me 110 years to finish. I conquered both TOA and the oracle from Madrid, but both where quite obsolete of course by the time I got them. The Inca was very strong in the north of the western continent, and they had all going for them except the fundemental lack of both iron and horses. The tiny french who where wedged between old spain and the north had both theese resources - but where bogged down in infertile jungleterrain that they where unable to cut down. In retrospective I see that the map was very strategicly riddled with resources - the strong needed to trade for it, while the weak could have used it - but had no power to do so.

My biggest mistake in the MA was probably in not taking advantage sooner of the small threat the spanish was to me, and the huge gains the three luxuries would have had on my early game. The funny thing is that I got ivory before I even started the war by simply sending a settler over to some free tiles next to them, and rushing a temple the next round...

I had no plans at all for the continuing process of my game, and where focusing hard on maintaining a tight and fast pace at building my scientific infrastructure at my homelands.

The eastern continent had a small Zulu nation between the big and not so strong Mayans in the north, and the ever vigilant Egyptians in the south. The Mayans where slow to settle their continent, and one of my Curraghs spotted large concentrations of barbarians in the northern parts. There where also some volcanic activities in the mountainious terrain that probably hindered the potential powerhous of industrious/agricultural Mayans from it's growth potential.

A very nice map, but a little too action oriented for my taste.

Merum said:

I played the first COTM, but didn't submit it, given that I had just had my butt handed to me by Mursilis and quit in frustration.

So I decided to have a go again, but never having won a Monarch before, I wimped and went Conquest class.

Unfortunately, I didn't take proper notes, but perhaps next time. I did manage to win, so I'm happy to have won on at least some form of Monarch. Maybe next time I'll try the open class.

However, I can't submit my game. I read on the COTM page this statement:

This is a C3C Game Of The Month. It MUST be played in Conquests Patch version 1.22f.

Yet when I try to submit, I see this statement:

* Sorry! Your C3C COTM save file was created using C3C 1.22f and cannnot be accepted

Help?

Click to expand...

That sounds like a message from the GOTM 32 upload, rather than the COTM 02 one. Try again, and if it fails, e-mail me the save at gotm@civfanatics.net In addition, I'll alert AlanH to this problem.

@Merum: Small code change. Please could you retry?

AlanH said:

@Merum: Small code change. Please could you retry?

Click to expand...

Got it... thanks a lot AlanH!

This was very fun to play, and hopefully my game will improve. I've been struggling with Monarch for some time.

The ancient age was very cruel to me. I didn't discover the iron island until already in the MA. I mean come on ... south is ALWAYS tundra right.

I got the iron island right before spain. I two spanish cities and an Incan city in my continents tundra area. That was not acceptable. Inca and spain had recently killed off the French and Inca had just declared war on spain. I got inca to ally with me again spain. I figured hey ... I may have nothing but they have to have less as Inca was HUGE in my game.

I produced a quick group of Knights and shipped off to the city on the southern tip of spain. I really wanted the luxieries as I had to stop my city growth as I couldn't keep the citizens happy. I quickly took the first city and then battled back and forth for a couple of rounds with spain for the next couple of cities. While arguing there I sent a small group of knights over and took out the two cities.

On Spains mainland they only had a coupe of cities left and I HAD to get them before inca did. I decided to try a trick and attacked the one Incan city on my continent. I easily took it and now was at war with Spain and Inca. I figured I can use my militiary better then the computer so I can trade 2 - 1 units with Inca.

I then hurriedly took out the last spanish cities on the main land. Inca and I now faced off.

That lasted about 3 turns. Inca just kept pumping the troops. I was killing them off at a 2 - 1 clip but could not keep the troop levels up. I had even enlisted englland as an ally. I knew I would lose the spanish country I had taken and got peace out of Inca. Engliand was mad but at that point they only had 4 cities left so who cares.

At that point I relalized there was no chance of a military victory or cultural victory. I was behind in tech so even the space race looked dubious but that was the only chance I had. Using the newly acquired luxiries I obtained I traded for techs and for saltpeter. Dang did that suck not having that. The weird part with the saltpeter when I originally traded for it I still couldn't make musketman. That was quite frustrating.

I proceeded to do the techs I never waste any time on, free artistry, music theory etc. Using those techs and trading with the computer by the end of the MA I was even with the Inca's in techs and ahead of everyone else. The computer was doing a wonderful job of fighting each other. I was left alone to build libraries and universities, marketplaces and banks in all cities plus temples and cathedrals.

When a city had all improvements I then went to work on defensive miltiary units.......
100% on tech and build build build..... Theory of Evolution was my only hope ..... could I get there?????

Can't really say anything about middle ages....
I was basically a middle man and traded technologies like crazy, plus doing my own research..
I stuck with my strategy on not declaring a war anybody and going for space ship or diplomatic victory... I didn't expect to have a cultural victory, Inca was a cultural monster and he was just behind me in tech pace.

I actually had couple of wars with stupid Egyptians, but i never saw any single Egyptian ship approaching my shore...
There were only couple of things worthy to mention. Zulus were wiped out of map by Egyptians, and Spain, France and Incas together shreded Liz's empire to one island city... Funny thing about that it is a one tile island and the only way to destroy English now is only with marines... Long Live Elizabeth .

Welll... MA went so fast i don't even have a single save from that time....
As a matter of fact this game was the shortest complete game i played ever.. It took me less than 6 hours from beggining to end.

(predator)

Link to Ancient Age spoiler

Overview

My Middle Ages began in 590BC and ended in 470AD.

I usually decide on a game goal before starting a game or fairly early in playing it. In this game I was undecided. As I played through Ancient Times I though more and more that I'd like a milked game on this map. I finalized that decision early in the Middle Ages. So I'd want rapid domination of the other Civs but not at any cost - I'd also want to work on improving territory as I went.

In the early part of the Middle Ages I continued peaceful growth. I spent the rest of it taking over Spain, then France, and then the Inca, almost finishing them off before the Middle Ages came to an end.

Exploring The World

My second city, Rotterdam, began building curraghs in 2430BC. By the end of the Ancient Age in 590BC I'd met Spain, France, Inca, England, Egypt, Zulu, and Maya, in that order. I'd stopped exploring by this date - I was in Republic and had more units than were freely supported, so soon after meeting my last rival I disbanded curraghs to reduce maintenance costs. My world map looked like this:



I'd discovered seven small islands by this date. I'd already claimed two, the ones south of the homeland with horses and iron. I had four galleys en route to other ones at this date. The green circles in the image above show the five islands I ended up claiming; the red circles show the two that England and Zululand got.

Unfortunately those two are both one-tile islands so they'll be difficult to take if I want them. I made my five islands safe over time by blocking all tiles where other Civs might land.

Early Middle Ages Expansion

I had one barbarian camp in the tundra spew out an uprising but I had enough swordsmen in the area that it was easy to control them.

I researched Engineering in 8 turns, then Monotheism in 6. One turn after that (290BC) two of my rivals had Feudalism and I traded for it. I then began researching Chivalry slowly, building some Horsemen and saving gold to upgrade them later. With just one luxury I was running 30% on the luxury slider at this point to keep all citizens productive.

During this peaceful time England was researching rapidly. She'd built Colossus and must have entered a Golden Age, boosting her research speed. In 130BC England learned Invention and I traded for it.

In 70BC I completed my Forbidden Palace, boosting production a bit. (I sure miss the powerhouse pre-Conquests Forbidden Palace.)

In 50BC I learned Chivalry. I immediately upgraded the 10 Horsemen I'd built so far and made final preparations for war.

During this phase of the game I didn't settle the home tundra region. I made one attempt to claim part of it but it was feeble and turned out to be too late. So my rivals filled it in. At 50BC my tundra region looked like this:



I wasn't concerned about it. The land bridge was easy to defend, towns in the tundra would be unproductive, and I could easily take them from my rivals later on.

I had by this time filled in a few more towns and packed as many as I could onto my island holdings. As a result I was hovering around the limit of free units at this point. I had 36 units in 50BC and was allowed 37 free ones.

Invading Spain

Going for a histographic victory I'll want to eventually eliminate all rivals but one and leave that one with just one useless town. This approach simplifies the milking phase of the game (no competition to worry about), gains control of all the luxuries in the world, and allows one to settle the best 66% of the world.

Spain was an easy choice for my first war of acquisition. She had three luxuries and could be reached with a single galley hop. After Spain a simple path north could lead through France and Inca and end in England.

I'd maintained enough cultural growth, mainly via libraries (8 at this date) that I would try holding all cities instead of razing them. I'd probably get a few flips but not many - I was about even in culture with the leading AIs at this date.

In 50BC my military advisor informed me that my military was strong compared with Spain. So even though 10 Knights didn't seem like much I decided to invade. I organized my troops and ships, built a few Swiss Mercenaries, then declared war on Spain in 10AD. My first troops landed that turn - 6 Knights and 2 Swiss Mercenaries.

On the next turn one of my Swiss Mercenaries won a fight and I entered a Golden Age. Most of my production was Knights at this time.

I continued research while fighting Spain, learning Theology in 5 turns, Education in 4, and Astronomy in 4. This allowed me to establish a trade connection with my new holdings in Spain at 210AD to gain a second luxury, ivory. England had continued her high research pace and I was able to trade for Gunpowder.

By this time, 210AD, I'd reduced Spain to 3 towns and despite some losses my military was up to 18 Knights.

It looked like saltpeter might be a problem. The nearest source I could see was in England. I decided to continue maximum research nonetheless, but perhaps not to Military Tradition first.

In 250AD Spain was down to two size one towns. I razed both and Spain was out of the game:



Invading France

In 270AD I declared war on France and moved into her territory. At this date I also connected incense in the ex-Spanish territory, bringing me up to three luxuries.

In 280AD I took a source of dyes from France and in 290AD connected spices in ex-Spain, bringing the total to a nice five luxuries.

At 320AD I'd taken over all of France except one town northeast of the Inca:



During the invasion on France I continued research, learning Metallurgy and Chemistry in 4 turns each.

Invading Inca

I declared war on the Inca in 330AD and began invading them. My forces were up to 28 Knights at this point.

My leader luck hadn't been great but in 340AD I finally did get my first one. He immediately formed an army of course. A second leader appeared soon after, in 390AD.

The Inca had built many wonders. I took The Great Lighthouse, Leonardo's, Sun Tzu's, the Hanging Gardens, and Knights Templar from them.

I continued research throughout my invasion of Inca. Military Tradition wasn't a priority because I didn't have saltpeter. So I learned Physics and Magnetism first because I hoped to trade with the distant Civs. No luck, perhaps they didn't have harbors yet. After that I learned Military Tradition (to build a Military Academy) and then Theory of Gravity. I learned each of those techs in four turns and traded for Banking along the way, finishing the Middle Ages in 470AD.

At 470AD the Inca were nearly out of the game and my world map looked like this:



It had taken some slugging to defeat the Inca and my forces were still at 28 Knights, production having exactly offset losses during this war.

Woah Sir Pleb, how did you manage to kill Spain with 6 knights and 2 swiss mercs ? Good Job for fast MA finish i left it in about 1600 AD . Looking foward to your endgame.

Also how did you reaserch tech so fast I didnt have too many cities since it was small land and I was averging reaserch at about 10 turns ...

open

The plan: domination victory, research bottom path to MT

190 bc learn currency and enter MA

170ad contact egypt

350ad meet maya

390 the inca have destroyed France

610 meet the zulu - know everyone

840 - No saltpeter - turn off research except for scientist will go with knights and mid infantry (my big mistake)

860 I am one turn from leonardo's!!!

870 Got leonardo's

960 ad dow on spain

970 I don't believe it - a leader with my second elite win

1080 learn chemistry (1st) trade with england: chemistry for education, printing press, 1g; trade with egypt: chemistry plus silks, plus 104g for astronomy, wines, and music theory

1090 capture santiago with ivory and statue of zeus

1210 learn metallurgy trade for physics, navigation, WM, banking, and saltpeter - also had captured a spain city with iron under it so now I can't do horseman upgrades - will get a settler over there and abandon the city and settle next to iron

1280 Spain is gone

Sometime between these dates, I dow on England for saltpeter to continue with The Plan, but England drug the Inca into the war (powerhouse) (second mistake)

1435 made peace with inca and england after an abortive, illfated war. (broke MA's against Inca with maya, zulu, and egypt but I was about to lose my city with the saltpeter) will build military while inca (powerhouse) hopefully kills off a lot of her army

1530 dow on england (again) At this time she's too weak to get an alliance.

1580 England banished to a one tile island - but did extract ToG in peace treaty and entered IA

Minimap from 1422 (closest save)

I haven't reached the Industrial Age yet... I'm breaking the rules!

My middle ages began with the decision to beeline for Cavalry while starting my GA with a wonder build. I almost always choose Knights and top path in the MA...

I already had the Collosus, and my GA began with my finishing of the Hanging Gardens(? on vacation, no access to saves, and not sure which wonder it was to tell the truth). I had 2 cities capable of pumping out 2 turn Med Inf, and my Wonder city hit 30 shields per turn and started on 1 turn Horsemen for upgrading.

I shipped my Med Inf and Horses across as they were produced, keeping my navy quite small. Spain fell quickly, just about as fast as my Med Inf could move through their territory. The Horsemen weren't a big help, but I used them as 'bombardment' to help take some of the size 7+ cities. I was going to have more of them than I had cash to upgrade most likely anyways. I was really hoping for a quick leader, as C3C games basically are over with the first Army. No such luck.

I had researched Gunpowder midway through the Spanish conquest. I couldn't see any sources of Saltpeter! Determined to keep to the plan, figuring Cavalry would still be able to catch up to what Knights could do, I continued on to Military Tradition figuring that I would soon claim some Saltpeter in conquest. Spain fell, no saltpeter in their territory. France fell, no Saltpeter. Inca fell, no Saltpeter, but a source has been spotted in English territory. By now I had researched Navigation. All I had were Horsemen waiting to be upgraded and sent across to the Zulu/Egypt landmass, and they wouldn't do so well against Impi and Pikes that were waiting. The Cavalry beeline (and no known available Saltpeter) cost me at least 30 turns in my Domination attempt. Med Inf are just too slow!

The AI researched Chivalry just a couple turns before I captured the English Saltpeter. Received an MGL with one of the first battles with the English. Monarch AI (even with Emp support and an extra Settler) don't have tremendous numbers of units, but it was ~40 Elite victories up to that point. Upgraded several Cavalry, stuck two in the Army, shipped them across, and hit the Domination limit quickly thereafter by finishing off the Zulu and taking half of Egypt. I got 3 MGL's in rapid succession right at the end, but my regular Cavalry were rolling easily with the first Cav army as a nutcracker at that point anyways. The last 3 Armies were mainly just for show.

Given the circumstances, I should have 'milked' it to a Diplomatic or even Spaceship victory to help overcome the slower Domination date and let all the newly aquired territory help contribute to base score. I haven't been able to 'finish out' a C3C game yet though. I just wanted to play it fast (in game and out), finishing in a little less than 12 hours... ~14 hours after the game was released (gotta stretch those legs every hour or so... check the forums... and eat ).

So... I'd trade settling by the Cow for an early MGL, some Saltpeter, patience, and/or a Chivalry/Astronomy beeline any day! Jason score of slightly over 10500, 760AD Domination.

C3C 1.22 Open

I entered the MA in 570BC and decided to go for space. With no Scientific AIs in the game to help and a smallish core, I thought this would be a fun challenge as well as a good way to learn the changes in C3C techs.

Research. I started off with Monotheism in 8. Triggered a Golden Age about this time by building the Hanging Gardens. Went along the top path first skipping optionals Chivalry and Nav. Banking was the last tech researched in MA and took 4 turns. Average 5 1/2 turns per tech. The AI contributed Feudalism only. Mainly I used the AI for gpt for old techs, helping to keep the research rate up somewhat.

Wonders. I tried for Colossus too late, but managed to cascade to the Lighthouse which was a little helpful in exploring and allowed overwater luxes to come to Holland. Got the Hanging Gardens as mentioned and did the two Science Wonders, Copernicus and Newton's in the capital. The FP came online as the MA was coming to an end.

Wars. Was mainly focused upon researching, but the proximity of Spain to the core and its three luxes were tempting. I didn't have much of an army, but managed to take the Ivory town (with its SoZ) and the town at the southern tip. This didn't happen quickly and WW became a problem. Gave Spain peace for its island town and waited 20 turns (into IA) to build up some strength. Military strength wasn't much considering the game time. At 500AD (4 turns from IA) I had only 15 Medieval Infantry, 1 Horse, 1 Ancient Cav and 1 Swiss Mercenary. Libraries, Universities, Harbors and Marketplaces seemed to take a long time building in this game.

The world at 500AD:



Looks like I need to go back and replay from about 1000BC and see where I fell behind SirPleb so badly. I researched Banking in 540AD and entered IA preparing to expand a bit...

PREDITOR

I decided to invade spain. My invasion without salt peter and knights was going to be hard. I relied on defence for the first time in a long time and had the swiss mercenry defend my newly gotten spainish city, the one to the bottom left. Trebuches damaged units and made them turn around and with re-enforcements, i finally had a foothold on another continent. I now have knights technology.

Without salt peter close by, i was able to swap my extra iron for salt peter with the incans + a lot of cash. I built and upgraded lots of cavalry. I am now planning a massive assault on the spanish and hope to destroy them.

The incans are my greatest threat now!

@SirPleb, I still don't understand why you didn't build the Great Lighthouse in Rotterdam and built instead improvements, which weren't urgently needed at that time.

From my game just some comments which weren't allowed in the first spoiler. I may post some more later, leading up to the domination in 1170 AD.

With my slow expansion due to the not wandering and the high corruption in the productive region, I made some diplomacy to slow down the Inca's, when I noticed that they are the top dog. I DoWed them and dogpiled England and France on them (Spain didn't even have contact with them at that time). I was in Republic by that time but didn't expect any problems from that. I didn't intend to invade and invasions from AI's are no threat. My only war action was to sink one Incan galley.
The development of my core was further slowed down because I did try to get some luxes secured on the continent early. I put cities near the incense and even two cities near the ivory (to help each other against culture flips, by gaining more territory).
The early exploration showed that the Great Lighthouse is all you need on this map. You can trade with the first continent and invade the second safely with galleys. So it was my top priority and I devoted my capitol to this goal, greatly slowing down its development. I had the GLight in 270BC and rushed harbors and a rushed library in one of the Ivory towns gave me three luxes already. Some time later I could even trade spices from spain for some old techs and silks (good thing to keep Isa from getting cocky) . I had to slow down science in the end of the AA to get all the money I needed for rushing.
The phony war with Inca ended 470 BC. They even did give a small city in the treaty. I lost this city later in a sneak attack, but that is because I didn't defend it at all.
Incans destroyed France some time after that. Not good that they grew even more, but great that they opened some space where I could sneak in a city to claim some dyes. But I could do this only in 70AD when I had the forces to defend it (I came with a settler a swiss and two MI, which were my first strong units at all). Some horses where under way for reinforcement, because I didn't expect the Incans to tolerate me there for long. My intention was only to hold my colonies and beeline to military tradition to quickly roll over everything with cavs. I also tried to build the Statue of Zeus in the meantime to get a few strong fast attackers w/o the need to research chivalry (and to deny it to spain, I just hate it if I face lots of AC).
Now that didn't work out all that well. Spain beat me to SoZ by one turn and there was no Saltpeter to acquire easily.

To be continued when I find the time

I decided early on I wanted to play this one as peaceful as possible. Just wasn't in the mood for a domination/conquest game....

My middle ages:

750BC – We discover currency. The Zulu and the Inca have recently mastered construction, so we trade currency straight-up for construction with the Zulu to enter the MA. We sell currency, construction and Republic to all AI’s to get everybody in a decent government and into the MA, so they can help my research. We get a total of 300 gold for this. Middelburg founded
670BC – Delft founded
650BC – Breda founded
530BC – Maya build the Great Lighthouse. Leiden and Den Helder founded
510BC – Harlingen founded
450BC – Discover monotheism, start research on theology. Trade for feudalism and monarchy and sell all three techs for around 300 gold and 25 gpt
430BC – Lauwersoog founded
370BC – Enschede founded
290BC – Tilburg founded
250BC – We discover theology, start education. Trade for engeneering and chivalry. Sell all three techs for 400 gold and 11 gpt. All civs are again level on techs
70BC – Discover education, start astronomy. We trade it to the Inca for invention and sell both techs to the other AI’s netting us around 250 gold an 3 gpt
50BC – The Inca demand 76 gold. We don’t have much military (5 warriors) so I don’t want to call his bluff. We give in….
30BC – The French build the Great Library, which is already obsolete anyway. Spain builds the Great Wall
110AD – We discover astronomy and trade it to the Inca for gunpowder, 136 gold and 2 gpt. Then we sell both techs to all the other AIs for a total of around 250 gold and 29 gpt
130AD – Zulu build temple of Artemis
150AD – Spain builds Hanging Gardens
230AD – Banking discovered and sold around. Start research of chemistry
310AD – We discover chemistry and sell it around for music theory, navigation, world maps, over 500 gold, 26 gpt, wines, furs and iron. Start researching physics
320AD – Inca build Sistine Chapel
330AD – Holwerd builds FP
340AD – Inca build Sun Tzu’s & Knights Templar
350AD – Inca build Copernicus
360AD – Inca build Leo’s Workshop. The Inca are fast becoming a huge Wonder collector
370AD – Physics discovered. Sold around for PP, economics, 22 gpt and some 300 gold. Start research of ToG
390AD – We sell all communications around for 31 gpt and some 150 gold
400AD – England builds Bachs’ Cathedral
420AD – ToG discovered. Start magnetism
430AD – Egypt builds Smith’s & Magellan’s
440AD – The Hague builds Newton’s University
470AD – Magnetism discovered. We sell ToG to all AI’s for metallurgy, 250 gold and 102 gpt. We enter the Industrial age

Open

Ok. So after entering the Middle Ages I ended up hanging around building lots of galleys and settlers and spears until my great lighthouse had finished. Then it was a dash to colonise all the spare islands and meet the other civs to the East. Settled a few cities on some of their unclaimed land so that I would have a few bases later on if I needed them.

Since the Incas were more powerful than I at this point, I thought it would be foolish to sit back and milk the rest of this game, so war would be my chosen path. Racing to MilTrad, whilst taking advantage of my Great Library to fill out the top half of the tree for me, I noticed that I had no salt. Eek!

What could I do? I would quickly need to band together some knights to crush the English saltpeter horders before they learnt gunpowder, or potentially more successful, race to navigation allowing trade with my eastern friends and then I can upgrade to cavs.

I choose latter. Whilst researching, I built up my army of swiss guys and knights whilst building up infrastructure.

Success! By the time I had MilTrad and Navigation, the Zulus were willing to trade me some salt. However, the English already have gunpowder. I decide that the best course of action should be to sign MA with Inca and France against Spain. At least then I will have a stronghold on the continent.

This is where I learnt a very valuable lesson. NEVER forget who has the Statue of Zeus. Even if it was a long time ago… I forgot the AI tend to store their Ancient cavs in the SoZ city, and guess where my beach landing was… Yep right next to Zeus’ favourite city. Doh!

I wouldn’t say it was a massacre. But it severely hampered my chances of quickly dealing with the Spanish. I spent a lot more time building Cavalry and pike’s than I should have. Oh well, everyday’s a schoolday!

Got into Industrial Ages in 1280AD. Not brilliant considering the great start I had. I might have to settle for a space victory this time I think. I’ll conquer this continent then sit back and then let my scientists do the hard work. We’ll see.

That thing about the SoZ is exactly what I thought. I don't know what the Spanish were thinking, but I had SM right out in the open (though there was a fair number, with catapults backing them up), as well as SM in the city I had at the southern tip. And they completely ignored those guys, heading north instead.