Mid Ages Report
Entered the IndAge in 430 BC. 2 Scientific civs got Nationalism; me and the other one got Medicine. No free Steam Power!
Well, I still have only 8 cities, and only 4 in the first rank of cities near my capital (thanks to Babylon's aggressive settling.) My army is smaller than puny (8 Archers and 1 Enkidu), so warfare is totally out. I'm going to have to trade and perform serious diplomacy to get through this one. But is 8 cities enough to pull it off?
On top of that, the only resources I've found so far are Dyes and Saltpeter (and I haven't even connected up the Saltpeter!) I'm going to need Iron to build Rails (and coal ... and Steam Power ... and ...) China has been killing Egypt (they eventually track down the last Egyptian city and do Cleo in - Cleo's the only civ eliminated in this game.) China has Iron to trade; we use our Free Medicine to get our first sample of this strong metal. It turns out that several sources of Iron become available in the future through trade; I'm never without it for the rest of the game.
Luxuries - after Astronomy and enough scouting to find harbors, I can trade with the 2nd continent. I'm getting Silks and Incense from Babylon and Byzantines respectively. Japan provides me with Furs and Wines for Technology; they're usually lagging. I get a 3rd Luxury from Japan, and I pretty much have these 6 Luxuries for the rest of the game. As a deal comes up for renewal, I made sure I renewed it; many times I was paying 300 to 400 Gold to keep the Silks or Incense, but I didn't want to lose any of my luxuries, so I paid it.
It was kind of funny (ha - ha) that the 3 dyes I had were useless for trade with my nearby neighbors, since they both had a source of Dyes themselves. Not until Astronomy could I use my Dyes to my advantage. I typically traded one to China to keep Mao happy, and the other to Persia for the same reason. I also kept ROP agreements open with Persia, Japan and the Mongols, and that seemed to keep them happy, especially when I paid them some Gold or an old Tech as well.
Anyway, back to the beginning of the IndAge. Steam Power or Sanitation? I desperately wanted Steam Power, but I knew I needed to bulk my cities up quickly to try to keep within sight of the AI and their powerful research capability (3 other Scientific civs, Wow!) So I researched Sani first, learned uniquely in 530 AD. Steam Power was already known, but I had to wait a turn to get some research into it and for it to be traded before I could trade Sanitation for it in 540 AD. Praise the Gods! We have TWO sources of Coal! Let the railroading commence!
On to Industrialism. It will take 12 turns, but I learn it uniquely in 660 AD. The AI already has Electricity, so I make that trade. Iron came up for renewal, and the Byzantines now have a 2nd source, and they have no Coal. Even with that trade, I have to throw some Gold into the deal, still the railroading must go on!
Here comes the part I'm really, REALLY happy about. I start on Corporation, and it'll take 10 turns. I've got a pre-build going in Lagash and Ur; I switch Lagash to UnivSuff - 8 turns. I slow it down so it will take 10 (to match Corporation.) I do this so the AI will not be able to Cascade from UnivSuff to something else (like ToE for instance
) Ur is switched to Smith's Trading Company - 17 turns. I railroad Ur and build up the population until it matches the number of turns left to learn Corporation. I'm waiting to see if all those Scientific AI will oblige me and learn Scientific Method before I learn Corporation. With one turn to go to learn Corporation I get this notice:
This is during the interturn phase between 730 and 740 AD; I learn Corporation at the End of 740 AD, immediately trade for Scientific Method (and Communism, Fascism and a few other items), switch Ur to Theory of Evolution, complete TofE (getting Atomic Theory and Refining) and UnivSuff, and I finally kick off my Golden Age! I trade Atomic Theory for Replaceable Parts (which the AI also knows - they are definitely good researchers this game, especially Babylon which is HUGE!!). I also snag a lot of gpt; even with 0% Taxes (and 100% research) I'm gaining about +350 gpt.
My GA comes at a good time. Babylon and I are the leading Researchers; Persia and Byzantines slightly lag, and China, Japan and the Mongols are definiely behind. I can hope to keep up with Babylon and finish off the IndAge, trying to position myself for the UN.
My puny army - I added a couple of Longbows during the IndAge. Now that I have ReplParts, my GA, and some Factories in place, I start building 1 turn Infantry. My non productive cities build Artillery, and I put an army in place that should hold against anything the Ind AI can throw at me.
Not that they are likely to. The only wars were the early one between China and Egypt, and then occassionally Babylon vs China, with the Mongols and Japan sometimes joining in. I've been left alone, trading like a madman, and everyone is Gracious with me! At one point I got up to all 8 Luxuries. Somehow I lost China's Spice and Gems, even though I had renegotiate trade deals active; 6 was sufficient to keep my cities in order.
Anyway, I left Electronics open for Babylon to learn. I learned Steel in 830 AD, and Combustion in 910 AD. I had traded Steel around; Babylon had learned Electronics for me, but had already started on Combustion so they wanted Combustion and 3000 Gold for Electronics. I had about 5000 Gold; it wasn't going to get any cheaper, so I made the deal. I learned Mass Production in 990 AD, and the Babs learned Flight (bless their hearts!) However, there was no trade available.
I got Motorized Transport in 1070 AD; of course Babylon already knew MassProd, and had started on MotorTransp, so it took MotTrans, 1600 Gold and 150 gpt to get Flight from him. We both entered the ModEra AND both got Fission! I wouldn't need to do any more research.My Timing was poor; Babylon already had finished Hoover's Dam so I didn't have that pre-build going. My GA was long over, and my best production center had just finished something. So no pre-build; we were starting dead even. However, he used Ninevah, which needed 17 turns to build UN, and Ur could do it in 10!
Finished in 1160 AD; and the vote was held: 
5-2, I'll take it! (Hmm, what does Theodora see in Hammurabi anyway?) Very fun, very fast (just over 10 hours) and quite a challenge. I kind of handicapped myself by not expanding more, but it made for an interesting game. Thanks, Ainwood! I'm off to try Gotm39!
Exactly the same happened to me. Was especially nailbiting since only Mao (the 800 pound canary), Hammu and Theo were left at all. Phew, 3:1 for Gilgamesh.
to Ainwood!
).
