Like tao, I was tempted by the strong shield position at the beginning and decided to go for a 20K. Like him, I decided to settle to the south-east. In view of the victory type chosen, I decided to play Open for fear of getting hemmed in too badly. Good thing. It was bad enough as it was.
The worker moved south-west and built a road, followed by a mine. Road first is standard with an industrious civ. The worker next worked his way along the BGs towards the cow in the north where a worker factory would be prepared. Built order in the capital: warrior-temple-settler-culture
In the only other 20K I have ever attempted, GOTM40, this worked out well. To arrange this, I started by researching Ceremonial Burial for my Temple, followed by Mysticism for the Oracle.
I fairly quickly met the local civs. The last I found was actually the closest, the Greeks. This came in 2800BC. Early trades went quite well. I got Masonry from the Zulus, Alpha from the Portuguese, and The Wheel from the Koreans. That went to Henry for Mysticism (although I had almost completed myself) and Warrior Code.
Pasgardae was founded in 2710 BC and finished its granary in 1990 BC. Thereafter it settled into a cycle of building two workers and a warrior every six turns. In 1450BC, the capital reached size 12 and was pretty much fully developed. So the turn before that, Pasgardae finally started building some new cities.
In the meantime, research continued with Writing and Philosophy. I chose Literature as my free tech. I got that in 1625 BC, one turn after the Oracle was completed. So my Library went up two turns later, thanks to a small pre-build. This was followed by the Great Library, which duly finished in 1125 BC.
Despite getting the GL, I had no intention of leaning on it for science. My next objective would be the Republic.
QSC stats
5 towns, pop 19, 475g, 542c + 19cpt
3 warriors; 3 workers, 1 galley;
1 temple, 1 library, 1 granary, 1 great library, 1 oracle
All AA techs except Currency, Construction and the govts
Expected completion date: 2210AD
Six turns from completing the MoM
Twelve turns from the Republic.
Interesting event. In 900 BC, a barb horseman appeared from the direction of the Zulu core and pillaged Antioch, yet another demonstration how the AI cowers in its cities when threatened. Shaka had had workers for sale for several turns. I had thought that he must have been at war. But no. It must have been due to this barb. Sure enough, the next turn no more workers were available.
I lost the race for the MoM by one turn to Wang Kon.
He will pay
Perhaps I had made a mistake in trading away Philosophy. I had thought that keeping Literature, the more expensive tech, for later trades would be a better choice. In any case, I switched to the Pyramids instead.
In 825 BC, I got a suprising flip. Emerita joined us from the Portuguese. Admittedly, I had far more culture than them but even so... it was unexpected.
In 730BC, I learnt Republic. I traded it around, gifting it to everyone to speed up the tech rate and to prevent someone from building the Pyramids while I was in anarchy. Everyone was gracious towards me except Shaka who was merely polite. I revolted drawing five turns. I then started research as best I could on Monarchy aiming to get the Hanging Gardens.
In 630BC, I had a spanking new Republic like everyone else. Two turns later, I learnt Currency from the GL and entered the MA. My free tech was Feudalism and the Koreans had also previously drawn Mono. I traded even up with Wang Kon and then gifted the Greeks into the next age. They drew Engineering! So I traded for it and gifted it to Wang in the objective of encouraging them to go up the bottom side of the tech tree.
The Pyramids came up in 550 BC, firing off my GA. I had been saving a bit of money to cash-rush my Cathedral and Colisseum. I didn't quite make it; it took three turns to get them both up. In any case, I next turned up research on Monarchy with the aim of getting the Hanging Gardens. They duly arrived in 350 BC, my last wonder of the BC years. I made an attempt at the ToA but I didn't really expect to get it - and didn't, missing to Lincoln by eight turns. Sistine's awaits though
In the meantime, I had been squeezing cities in between Greece and Korea to the north-east with the objective of snatching the iron up there. Bactra was built on the flood plains. Sidon planted north-east of the sugar. Finally Tyre landed on the iron in 370BC. This little maneuver would have some ramifications on future events
but that is a story for another day.
Culture builds:
3950 Palace
3050 Temple
1675 Oracle
1600 Library
1125 Great Library
570 Pyramids
550 Cathedral
510 Coliseum
350 Hanging Gardens
1240 Culture + 39CPT
Estimated completion date: 1959 AD
Attached are a shot of Persepolis at this date and a map of my rather oddly-shaped empire. You'll note that in the shot of the city, I have zero gold. I had forgot to adjust the slider the round before and lost a treb.
I don't remember when that last happened. Could have been worse, I suppose. I might have lost a building.
)
irons and I sent a settler/worker pair over ASAP. However it was clear that immortals would come too late and knights would already be on-line when they could reach their full potential. Also, my two neighbors Korea had gotten the Pyramids and Greeks ToA, making domination much much easier than conquest. So a war-scientists-fueled beeline to MT and a mounted domination was the plan.
(time for the fp...)
