Round 10: to 1600 AD
Confesson time: I am, at heart, a builder.
Don't get me wrong, I like warring, it's fun, but it's not an end unto itself. Why do I always set out to conquer territory?
So I can do
this:
WHEEEEEE!!! Wonders, wonders, wonders! It wasn't easy going cold turkey during the wars. Cripes, I was so hard up I even built Chichen Itza, and I
never build Chichen Itza. Just for the GP points! And because I
can! Who's gonna stop me? Barbs? Hah!
Oh yeah, some other stuff happened too.
Yes, yes, once the wonders were finished, I started building Settlers. Well, that and Universities, once I had Education.
I got my next Great Scientist, and used him to build an Academy in Vandal:
That shaved a turn off of Education right away. Very gratifying.
I built the first city of the Great Expansion:
Hmmm, okay, we're starting to get into the more obscure Egyptian names now. Honestly, when the pop-up appeared a few turns later telling me "The borders of Pi-Ramesses have expanded!" I was going, "Huh? Where?" So I'm forgoing the civ names for my own; I renamed this city Nova Roma. The new cities near London and Madrid will probably get names from those civs; others are being named after locations and/or resources (Silver City, Dyetown, East Riceburg). It makes remembering where they are a lot easier. I'm going to have over two dozen of the things, I have to know where they are!
Oh, and I renamed the capital. Something about having a capital named "Vandal" just bothered me. Since I am rushing headlong towards modernization, I renamed the capital Cairo.
And guess who came calling:
I know I didn't say anything earlier, but when I saw that another civ had been eliminated, I had a very short list of suspects, and this guy was right at the top. Napoleon is one of the very few AI civs I've seen eliminate another AI civ.
This particular screenshot tells many tales, doesn't it? First of all, yes, I got beaten to Divine Right very early into this round, so that became a low priority, though I would still very much like to try for its wonders. Second, Nappy is Jewish, but notice how he did not found Judaism. He may not have even founded Islam or Christianity, since he hasn't converted, but it's too early to tell. This leads me to believe that there is another Spiritual civ on the other continent, one that also prioritizes research. Now who could that be? A certain Malinese gentleman, perhaps? We'll see.
Anyway, relations with the Little Corporal are rocky at best. We completed the above tech trade, then he showed up a few turns later demanding my world map. I sent him packing. Why make it any easier for him to get the circumnavigation bonus? I wouldn't mind taking a crack at it myself.
I fully expect him to attempt an invasion at some point. I'll have to watch for when he gets Astronomy. In the meantime, I plan on sealing off my east coast with cities, since that's where his Caravel first appealed. I don't have Open Borders with him--should I do that for now in the hopes of getting Judaism, Christianity, and/or Islam to spread to one of my cities? I think a trade route is needed, so that means it won't happen until Astronomy.
It turns out that Nappy was the one building most of those earlier wonders, which makes sense, given that Industrious trait:
I followed pigswill's suggestion and researched Machinery after Education. Even with that detour, I was still able to get to Liberalism first:
Printing Press was definitely the best choice. It gave my economy a big shot in the arm right away.
In fact, even though I've added five more cities in this round, I'm running research at 60% and slightly in the black. This is not only thanks to Printing Press, but also a change in civics:
Free Speech provides a +2 gold boost per town, and both it and Free Religion offer much lower upkeep costs. I'm also running a few Merchant specialists, I'm micromanaging tile assignments in each city almost every turn, my workers are being run off their feet, and I'm doing my best to keep my units within my borders as well as deleting most of the unpromoted ones. All of this means I'm finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel economy-wise. Phew.
Not that it matters much just yet, but I'm not too far behind Napoleon in terms of power:
The slight rise I'm experiencing is probably due to a couple of situational upgrades to Macemen to deal with barbs (they're coming at me with Horse Archers and Swordsmen now). I'm also having Memphis--with Heroic Epic, now my designated military city--pump out Longbowmen for each city, thanks to getting Feudalism from Napoleon.
And here's a look at the map:
I'll have Optics on the next turn. As I said, I would like to take a crack at the circumnavigation bonus. If nothing else, I'll meet the third remaining civ, explore the world, and maybe do some more strategic tech trades. I also want to have a look at Napoleon's forces before deciding whether I want to take him on in pursuit of a conquest or domination victory. I may switch civics to Slavery for a few turns and whip a couple of Caravels in Barcelona and Alexandria, which are overpopulated. Harbours will help--once I get them built.
After I have Optics, I want to research Divine Right to take a crack at those two wonders. I might get beat to them, since Napoleon and probably the other civ both have a lead on me, but again, at worst, that's an infusion of gold into my coffers.
I am also reassured by the fact that Printing Press is a pre-req for Replacable Parts and Rifling. My isolation should allow my to bypass building or upgrading to most of the medieval units and go straight to the rennaissance/industrial ones. I'm keeping my veteran WCs (Level 4/5) in anticipation of upgrading them to Cavalry when needed.
But what do YOU think?
Here's the saved game file:
