Open class, yet another 20k attempt!
The Ancient Age (in which PaperBeetle is hoist by his own petard)
... begins on a small peninsula with good red meat all around. I'd like to settle in place actually, if it weren't a mountain. Moving the worker north reveals lots more map, and with the help of some fog-gazing, the most powerful spot throughout all ages is determined to be N,NE. This is where I found Seoul (3900 bc), which will be my Eternal City of Culture. A couple of warriors and a curragh later, the feeder city P'yongyang is built on the south coast, and Seoul starts the culture hunt.
Techwise, I head straight for Philosophy, determined to be first to get there, and aware that there are lots of other civs who started with Alphabet. I should have gambled on delaying a while, or barked up a different branch of the tree. By the time I get Writing (2190 bc), I have met Ragnar, Hanni and Will with my numerous explorers, but still haven't produced my third settler. Contact with Temujin follows shortly. I am trading up the tech ladder quickly, but still don't have much of an empire.
Culture in Seoul is going okay, with Colossus followed by temple, but being stuck at size is beginning to grate. Still I don't realise that I'm on the wrong branch of the tech tree, and I follow Philosophy with Laws (free) and Republic. The trouble is, Republic is so expensive that my research is essentially stalled. My lack of base commerce doesn't help; I decided to try and block the Carthaginians and my third city is founded as late as 1525 bc, on the isthmus leading to our continent, claiming the ivory.
About this time, all the AI start setting up wonder builds, so I figure it is time to distract them a little. I dow on the most distant civs and give my neighbours techs for alliances against them. In 1250 bc, I meet the last civ, India and, after finishing P'yongyang's granary, start my fourth settler. My fourth city is founded on the coast northwest of Seoul, expanding my empire in the direction of that ivory outpost. Meanwhile, Seoul completes the Oracle and starts a library.
At this point, a mysterious wise man arrives from the east and informs Wang Kon that his Quick Start Challenge is over and he has scored 3197 points.
QSC Stats:
4 towns with 12 citizens and 61 tiles territory
All ancient techs except Construction, Currency, Republic (~500 beakers to go) and Monarchy
1 worker, 6 warriors, 2 curraghs
1 granary, 1 walls, 1 temple, Colossus, Oracle
233 gold in the bank
All civs contacted; embassies with Scandinavia, Carthage and Holland
307 culture at 14cpt (why doesn't QSC scoring take account of culture? It's kind of important these days, what with everyone doing 20k games
)
And so on with the ancient age. Seoul finishes its library and starts on a bigger and more Wonderful one. Then the Mongols call me up and demand Literature. Of course I tell them where to get off; this is precisely the kind of phoney war I've been trying to set up to slow everybody down. Gleefully, I ally the Indians against the Mongols, and feel smug. And then a Mongol galley arrives. It drops an archer onto the same mountain I started the game on. Oh dear. This one archer chews its way through four warriors at the cost of a single hit point. If he takes down the fifth, he will capture P'yongyang, so I give Temujin Construction for peace. I have broken my alliance with Gandhi, and my rep is shot. Well, I guess I asked for that.
Finally I discover Republic in 570 bc and spend 4 turns revolting. The Dutch have beaten me to the Glibrary, so I settle for the Lighthouse and start on Seoul's aqueduct. Just before this is complete, I trade Republic for Currency (although most civs got Republic before me) and enter the medieval era, getting Engineering for free. The date is 290 bc and I have six cities; two are just resource-squatting and the other four are actually productive parts of my empire.
Seoul's culture at 290 bc (dates in F5 style):
Palace 3900 bc
Colossus 1870 bc
Temple 1700 bc
Oracle 1100 bc
Library 1000 bc
Lighthouse 370 bc
... makes 822 culture at 21cpt.
Roll on the medieval, when things go slightly better. I think.
...then I've said it!
Trade for HBR, Poly, Maths, and Mapmaking with our stupider neighbours.
I'm going to start a few world wars I think. My military is weak so i'm just going to sit back and build up a nice little AC and sword stack. We learn Currency in 590BC, trade it to the Celts in 570BC for Construction to get access to the Middle Ages. Damn, we get Mono as a freebie... oh well, 100% science on Feudalism....
