On turn 1 I can already see where my next city is ready to go:
Well, what have we here? Crabs and deer, it seems. And look what techs the Vikings start with! Yeah, better get a settler here ASAP, right? I would indeed plant a city on the red dot, hypothesizing that it would grow like a weed. I would not be wrong!
By turn 4 I could already see where city #3 was going (1S from the gold), and then the blue dot had a tribal village that yielded a scout! The tile would even go on to have iron, as well. Cool stuff.
Wait, what's this:
Hannibal waved across me from the sea. I had been hoping to go and wreck the nearest civ (Viking style!), and thus hoped that it would be a peacenik AI like Elizabeth or Mansa Musa or somebody. Instead I got Hannibal. I wonder how thisll turn out?
Here I am researching sailing to gain access to trading posts (I also wanted the Great Lighthouse, then found out that you need masonry for it, and I was planning to skip masonry; more on this later) and Uppsala has been settled. Nidaros is building Stonehenge simply for the cash rebuff for missing the wonder; as a matter of fact, Stonehenge was BIDAL just 5 turns after this (I naturally swapped to a trading post right after I discovered sailing). I actually trained Uppsalas garrison archer BEFORE settling the city itself, and I would periodically find time to train 1-turn warriors in between other stuff. Remember kids, warriors upgrade into berserkers, and thats where I was heading! Also note that I was starting Stonehenge from scratch here, and it was only going to take 10 turns. Nidaros truly was a production powerhouse. Of course, when the ETA for Stonehenge was 6 turns I swapped to a trading post and then the turn afterwards Stonehenge BIDAL. Oh well, I was planning on the cash rebuff.
Um, were the two least advanced civs in the world? Good grief. Also note that Judaism was FIDAL; it turned out to be Hannibal! Nidaros would take 13 turns to complete The Oracle. Thats one turn more than my city in the last game I played, but there I had marble whereas here I dont. The plan was to take Code of Laws (on the path to Civil Service, what else?) and wait on a great prophet to lightbulb civil service. The wonder was indeed finished on turn 74, and I revolted to Confucianism (founded in Uppsala) on the same turn (unfortunately I forgot to get into hereditary rule until the Renaissance!). I wouldnt actually get any more wonders during this time, as I tried for The Temple of Artemis but then lost it to CARTHAGE. On the same turn as the Oracle completion:
Okay, we have some brown borders here. Mali? Well, that doesnt bode well, with a crap ton of financial opponents (though I myself am playing a financial leader too, so maybe everybody is following in my stead!).
And this shot is just for humor purposes. Both Hannibal and me revolted into slavery on the same turn! Of course, the AIs always revolt to slavery when they discover bronze working, whereas I had put it off for a good while.
Great Lighthouse BIDAL in 700 BC??? In my last game it was built in the early AD years! It turned out to be Pacal II, who became one of the AI tech leaders. Pacal also built Stonehenge, and would add a plethora of wonders in his capital by games end. Of course, I still dont know him yet, but
also of interest is my iron working research; I would also turn out to have iron at the capital. There were TWO iron sources on my island! Plus you can see my third city.
So Im doing pathetic in empire size? Neato! Pyramids were BIDAL just 4 turns later; it was indeed Mansa Musa, who also built the Great Wall in his capital, along with tons of other wonders later on
and Mali would conversely become one of the top civilizations for most of the game. One turn later, my scouts spot something rather weird:
City Ruins? I wonder whose? It would turn out that these were the ruins of Hannibals second city, which was razed by the barbarians who camped out nearby. Hannibal would thus be stuck playing a OCC even during the early AD years, and he seemed much more interested in this island than he did in his own. And notice what tech Im researching. I love it when a plan comes together! Here is the state of the faction in 175 BC:
I indeed get a great prophet from the Oracle, but look what tech hell lightbulb:
MASONRY? Come on! I had read and asked everywhere to see if great prophets could still lightbulb civil service without masonry, and everybody said yes. Apparently not! I would end up researching masonry and monotheism and using this guy to lightbulb theology instead, thus founding Christianity in Haithabu. Uh huh! I would instead research civil service by hand! (I shouldve probably hand-researched theology instead and then used the GP to bulb civil service, but that wasnt even something I was thinking of at the time) And notice the axeman in the capital. I had the event that gives axemen free shock promotions some time ago, and so was training them quickly to upgrade into berserkers.
And this picture well illustrates how my scouting efforts went. My scouts would land on new islands found by this ship to cover more ground. Here my galley just took a beating from a barbarian galley, and so my scouts are just chilling on the island, where they saw Mayan borders across the sea (but the Mayan island was unreachable by galley, argh).
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I'll try uploading them to my computer and then pasting them.
