4,000 BC Asbury Park is founded in place. In this game we will name our cities after Bruce Springsteen songs or albums, so we begin at the beginning. I was torn between building a temple immediately to facilitate a 20k victory vs. building a warrior to prevent a 3,500 B.C. defeat. After much vacillation I choose to build warrior/warrior/settler. I thought at the time that this would probably scuttle my plan for a 20k victory right at the starting line. Only later did I realize that our ignorance of ceremonial burial precluded building a temple.
I research Alphabet at 100% with the intention of researching Mathematics next and building the Statue of Zeus. Am I still dreaming of a 20k victory? My worker is sent to irrigate the cow then build a road.
3,700 BC Rioting in Asbury Park! Every turn matters and my people are wasting time recklessly looting our capital. So this is life at the Emperor difficulty level. I turn the luxury slider up to 20% from zero; the town is not garrisoned, so the populace must be bought off. They settle down on the next turn. Asbury Park expands just as the second cow is irrigated and the worker builds a road that way. A second warrior is under construction.
3,300 B.C. Asbury Park riots again! I turn the luxury slider up to 30%, but I must get these restless citizens the luxury goods they crave. I should also be paying more attention to CivAssist, now that it is installed on my computer.
My warrior finds the first goody hut and pops out three irate Iberian barbarians. He kills two and the other wanders off. The barbarians are raging in this world so I expect all future goody huts to be just as dangerous and unrewarding.
3,100 B.C.: My settler is spawned. There are several nice locations to send him. I see a hill region on the ocean to the southwest with a river behind it that would be easy to defend and yield good shields. To the southeast there is flood plain and grassland that could be a population booster. I decide to send him northwest towards the Ivory so that I heed the advice of the sage Lanzelot. The luxury will be good, but I mostly want to grab that resource before another does in case I still want to build the Statue of Zeus.
Soon my wandering warrior encounters two more goody huts. I approach with trepidation, but these are much better. I get pottery, then ceremonial burial. Now I can build a temple! But I don’t. I think I should have.
2,900 B.C. Second city settled:
Nebraska. The region is forlorn. Soon I connect the Ivory to Nebraska and Asbury Park and begin developing the Statue of Zeus.
Treasury running dangerously low. I turn science down to 40% and keep luxury at 30%.
I meet my first foreigner, a French warrior. I don’t know where France is, but Monsieur is friendly and willing to trade:
My
Pottery & Ceremonial Burial (which I got from huts) for their
Alphabet & 10 gold. That seems like a good deal; I had 28 turns left on Alphabet!
2,750 B.C. Germany identified to my northwest. They haven’t sent anyone exploring yet that I have seen. They are willing to trade:
I give my native
Masonry for their
Bronze Working & 10 Gold. I am satisfied.
2,350 B.C. My first warrior, known as
Asbury Primus, is killed attacking a barbarian encampment. He was at nearly full strength and I thought he would make it, but he died. Also, mine is the happiest nation in the world! Time to turn down the luxury slider to 20% from 30%.
2,310 B.C. Every turn I check for available trades, and now I see Germany has discovered
Iron Working. I trade them
Alphabet and Pottery for this valuable knowledge, and they also give me 20 gold. I am up to speed technologically and happy about that.
With the new knowledge of iron working I see iron ore in the hills to the north. These are far away, and I would need to cross a barren desert to reach the iron deposit. I have a settler nearly ready and I consider sending him on the trek north with a warrior to settle the hills but I think better of it. It is too far away, they would probably be slaughtered, and I cannot connect them by road to my empire yet. The iron must wait, but I know now that I must expand to the north towards the iron and take it by settlement or war. Where is France? Probably near the iron.
Also, I begin to think the raging barbarians promised (threatened?) us by Piu Freddo will soon begin to appear at my borders. It is certainly time to beef up my military. All I have now is three warriors.
2,150 B.C. My third settler is spawned. I send him SSE towards the fertile flood plains with the intention of creating even more settlers. Now I must produce archers, warriors, and spearmen.
2,110 B.C. I trade France
Iron Working and 45 gold for
The Wheel.
2,030 B.C. The River is founded SE by the flood plains. There is good land here!
1,625 B.C. My fourth city,
Atlantic City, is founded to the SSE between the river and the ocean. Workers are dispersed to connect my towns by road, build mines, etc….
1,500 B.C. Kazakh barbarians swoop in out of nowhere and destroy two of my unprotected workers. My fault for not having a guard with them. I hate barbarians.
1,250 B.C. France demands 22 gold in tribute. I pay.
1,200 B.C. Two more workers destroyed by barb horsemen. My spearman was in escort, but he overran them and they were undefended because I was carless with my mouse. Also, I pay Bismark 20 gold in tribute. So now I’m paying off all my neighbors.
1,125 B.C. The
Statue of Zeus is mine in Asbury Park! Soon I will no longer be paying tribute. I thank Lanzelot for encouraging me to build the SoZ. I set my city to building the Great Library. A guy can dream!
975 B.C. I bite the bullet and send a settler into the north to found a town adjacent to the iron. I want it, I will need it, and I can defend it. Soon I will have it.
690 B.C. I am the first to Philosophy, surprisingly, but I did not set up the Republic slingshot because I didn’t expect to get there first. I take Construction as my free technology because it takes the most turns to research. The Republic would have been nice; I am still in despotism.
630 B.C. Earlier I built a curragh and now it discovers the Inca. They have much, but not construction. I give them
Construction and
40 gold for
Literature, Horseback Riding, Map Making and Mysticism. I think that is a good deal.
I sell Literature to Germany for 109 gold. I sell Writing to France for 44 gold. These will not help their military and they will get it eventually, and now I have the gold.
370 B.C. I sell Map Making to France for 75 gold. All she has.
270 B.C. Great Library completed in Asbury Park! Now I am thinking, again, that a 20k victory is a possibility.
250 B.C. Thunder Road is settled as my northernmost town.
190 B.C. My curragh is sunk by barbarians. It served me well and nearly circumnavigated my continent. Hmmm. Come to think of it there are still six other civilizations I haven’t met, probably on two other continents. If there is only one other continent they are sure to be more technologically advanced than us.
190 A.D. Inca demands, is denied, declares. Bring it on. My ancient cavalry is ready.
230 A.D Republic discovered. We enter the purgatory of anarchy.
Inca sends 8 archers and one spearman to my lands. They are destroyed by my Ancient Cavalry stack with no loss of life on my part. Smoke rises from all my cities.
300 A.D. The Austrian Republic is founded after
8 turns of anarchy, widespread looting, and destruction of the barracks in Atlantic City. And so I enter the Middle Ages.
Plans for the future:
1) I must surrender my dreams of a 20k victory. I would not reach that until 2198 A.D., and there is no likely prospect of me reducing that enough to make it a viable goal. It is now the Spaceship Victory that I must aim towards. I presume this means I need four or five potent cities to make the components, so my tactics will shift accordingly.
2) Should I attack Germany or France? I would like to have an army and I need to spawn a military leader. The only way to do that is to wage war. If I do get a leader I will save him until I can make an Army of Hussars. I would prefer to attack the Incas, but France is in between us and I can never seem to get right of passage, though the Ai always gets it. I think that is just the way Sid Meier made it. Of course I will choose to attack Germany. Bismark would attack me soon enough anyway. So…
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