The Ancient Age
I settled a little further down the river, and sent my first settlers to the various food bonuses - about one per town, to pump out workers and settlers at a steady pace. In the meantime, Rome concentrated on archers, and my research was a straight run to the Republic slingshot. The new government was established in 1475bc, which helped speed up my subsequent expansion; by the QSC I had only 6 towns, but by the end of the ancient age in
350bc I had 20, and had claimed both the iron and horses. I had been in a phony war with the Hittites, letting the Mongols and Quois do the fighting, but had not yet found the other civs.
The Other Civs
I have a galley exploring the uninhabitted land to the east of Alpha, which will eventually turn out to be a string of islands leading, in a roundabout way, to Beta. Eventually, this galley reaches the northern shores of Beta, and in 230bc I meet the Egyptians. Cleo is apallingly backwards - I choose not to give her Writing
. The galley heads anticlockwise, reaching Korea in 150bc. I give Wang Construction and trade for his free tech, Feudalism. Next are the Ottomans in 70bc and finally the Portugese are found in 190ad. To keep these new civs busy while I deal with the Alpha guys, and to slow the dissemination of Feudalism, I dow Korea and get the Ottomans involved. They bring the Portugese in too.
Research Goals Attained
I am a cavalry-lover at heart, but I have decided to give knights a try for a change. Normally, I wouldn't even bother trading for Chivalry, let alone researching it. This time I head straight there, getting it in 110ad. I have a Templar prebuild which finishes in 130ad, and I start a prebuild for Leonardo. I don't need tech for anything else, so I can afford to research Invention slowly, while stockpiling cash to upgrade horses to knights. As it turns out, Korea gets Invention quite quickly, so I take it from Wang in 290ad, in exchange for peace and Literature. It's min research from here on in.
The Mongol War
Now that I have finished the sciencey bit of the game, and have expanded to fill my part of the Alpha continent, it is time to get fighting. I dow on the Mongols in 150ad and bring the Hittites in with me. I have built a couple of legions, purely for the purpose of starting the golden age; they get their first win in 270ad. Soon enough, my troops are at the gates of Karakorum. Capturing it, and the Great Library, earns me a leader, who forms an army. I fill the army with knights, as I think there will be enough action on this continent to justify having an unshippable army. By 410ad, I am ready to kill the Mongols, so I use the opportunity to do a little tech tricking: I sell Monotheism, Engineering, Chivalry and silks to the Hittites for just over 200gpt.
The Iroquois War
Next up are the Quois. I give Watha his dow in 440ad, and again bring the Hittites along to the party. My military has been gathering strength for a wile now, so it only takes until 510ad to boot the Quois off Alpha. They still have holdings on the islands to the east, but there is no hurry to take these. When the Hittites leave our alliance, I can do the tech trick again. I have to wait until the full 20 turns are up, but in 640ad I am ready to renegotiate the war deal. This time I only have Theology and a couple of luxuries to give the Hittites, but I get 59gpt for them, before killing off the Quois.
The Portugese War
Of course the game didn't stand still while I waited to finish the Quois. I moved my focus westwards. Being a bit inexperienced with dom play, I had forgotten to build the Lighthouse, and it went to Portugal way back during the ancient age. In order to set up an efficient route to Beta, I have to take it quickly, so I dow Portugal in 580ad, and start running a suicide ship chain from my western coast to the small island east of Beta. From there I can sail safely to and even smaller island to the southwest, and then on to the mainland. All in all, this means a lot of galleys! My knights are slowed down by strong culture on the mainland, but Lisbon finally falls in 750ad, bringing me both Lighthouse and Sun Tzu. Very handy, but a big flip risk. Luckily, the Portugese only last another six turns.
War with Everybody Else
I decide to dow Egypt in 770ad, mainly becasue they are still pretty backwards, so their land can be mine for little effort. Five turns later, they are reduced to a single town in the far south, protected by the Ottomans. I say protected because the Ottomans decide to sneak attack me in 800ad. This is quite frustrating becasue they are the strongest of the AI, and I had planned on leaving them alone for the whole game. I stick mainly to that plan, and concentrate my military on the other guys; mopping up the Egyptians and Portugese, and preparing to ROP rape the Koreans, who have Artemis. Back on the Alpha continent, I still have plenty of knights who have been hanging around waiting to kill the Hittites. I was waiting until their 59gpt payment ended, but I bring the date forward a little; I rape the Hittite ROP in 820ad, and finish them off by 860ad.
The Big Push
In 850ad, I take Seoul, which contains Artemis. At the same time, I spend about 5000g back on Alpha, and on the islands, completing temple builds. The idea is to have a huge burst of cultural expansion which should get me to the dom limit. Well, something obviously wasn't right with the planning, becasue not only did I reach domination, I overshot it by 300 tiles. The final interturn brought me an extra 500 tiles, leaving me with 77% land area
. I guess I should have settled the islands earlier, rushed all my temples earlier, and then I would only have needed a little land on Beta. Still, the result wasn't bad, just inefficient.
Dom in 900ad, scoring 9572 Jason points.
:wallbash
