First Civ4 GOTM for me in... a decade? Forever? A long time anyway. Decided to play the Adventurer save since I usually play Noble in Civ4. Glad there was that option as Immortal would not have been feasible, especially given that I'm already playing one difficult (Civ3) GOTM.
I decided to confirm via scouting that Native America would really require a large army to take a city, after all, I only needed one. So I sailed south and east, landing outside of Poverty Point. Whelp, three longbows. Don't need to declare war to know those aren't good odds. We go back to sea, and sail in a generally southwesterly direction, hoping perhaps there's a nice Australian-like continent we can take over.
Eventually we find some arctic islands, which would make for great whaling outposts, but have no cities to capture. Figuring that even if there is someone down here, the land is almost worthless, we change course and head northwest. In 3000 BC, we prove that the world is round, and are rewarded with a speed boost for our Galleon. That's several millenia sooner than I'd even proven the world was wound previously.
We wind up due south of Paris, still not having found any non-frozen land, so we decide to scout it out and see how mighty these mighty Zulu really are. They must have thought we weren't coming back, because they only left one Archer in Paris. With 60% defense and a Hill, we only have about 30% odds of winning on the first try, but figure we have a good shot of winning overall, and besides, we want revenge on the Zulu for taking Paris in the first place. So we try out luck, and Lady Luck smiles on us - we win on the first Musketeer. Paris is liberated! It only took 1240 years!
With that objective accomplished, D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers start scouting out their Parisian continent, which they've forgotten over the previous twelve centuries. They meet a few scouts, and are just figuring out where the Germans are when they spot Zulu borders. Time for revenge! The just-founded city of Nobamba, northwest of Ulundi, is captured easily. uMgungundlovu, east of Ulundi, is a bit tougher. Ulundi is difficult, and Aramis is bested in the attempt to take it. But Porthos reaches Combat VI (thanks to a Great General), and both he and Athos have Cover, and eventually, Ulundi falls too. Zululand thought they had defeated France, but thanks to the Three Musketeers, that victory was fully reversed! This takes until 925 BC.
We start scouting out the German-Babylonian area, and find that Munich is defended by a lone Archer. So, we declare war and take it. Wealthy Berlin falls soon after, as does Hamburg. The Two Musketeers do all the hard work; a Warrior does defend against an attacking Archer, but that's the only effective assist they receive. Still, Germany is defeated in 425 BC.
With 10 cities and poor development, our economy was by this point in shambles. So while we considered attacking Babylon, who appeared to only have Archers, instead we decided to avoid bankruptcy. Berlin helped a lot with this, but what helped even more was moving our Palace to uMgungundlovu, which saved 20+ GPT in Distance from Palace costs, with Versailles meaning we had a Palace equivalent at both the eastern and western ends of the Empire.
Korea declared war on us some time in the 300s, but being half a world away, posed little threat. Porthos defeated the Chariot and Axeman they sent, and we've stayed at war with them so Athos can scout them a bit, though we will likely peace soon as they now have Swordsmen. Arabia seems to be the top rival on the continent; they recently declared war on Babylon and easily took a city, and may take more.
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We're hopelessly backwards compared to most civs. Tried to beeline Theology to get our own religion, but failed. Now going for Currency, then Courthouses. We occasionally are able to trade techs with China or even Babylon, but Korea, India, and Arabia put us to shame, as did Germany (we never bothered to check if we could trade techs with the Zulu). We might be ahead of Native America, too; neither one of us has the Alphabet so we can't trade techs, and they appear to have settled the most cities and thus likely also bankrupted themselves. But Ulundi is quickly becoming a commercial center, and we're up to 40% science, with a slight profit. Our economy should be fixed in a few centuries.
10 cities, 71 pop, 61 beakers at 40% (+6 GPT profit).
Still don't know Sailing, Horseback Riding, Meditation, or Iron Working, among many others. Technology is overrated when you have Musketeers!
2nd place in score (behind Native America) - I'm leaning Histographic or perhaps most likely Cultural victory. We're finally starting to build cities again to claim the remaining luxuries in our area (which is fairly resource-rich), but can't afford to expand militarily at this point.
great stuff!
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