Frederick's tale.

[playshogi]

I've decided to build a city where the worker has been sent to chop the forest. No reason to waste the hammers there. My other worker moves to develop the wheat and the axes, Killer and Wallbored, move out to explore. City site 3 has a lot of overlap, but it will be able to grow quickly with the corn, and can incorporate the ivory after a monument is built there, while minimizing maintenance costs. I'm going to build a library in Berlin and a monument in Hamburg as soon as I discover Mysticism.

I run into my first barb city which seems to be built on a hill. After discovering Mysticism, I elect to head for Code of Laws by researching Polytheism. Alphabet takes 47 turns, Metal Casting 70 turns!

Ragnar offers an open borders agreement. Since he is friends with Brennus, I agree, and then open borders with Brennus, too. Ragnar has 5 cities and Brennus 3.

Both my cities grow, but the new citizens are unhappy. Hamburg, because it is not garrisoned and Berlin because of recent whipping that has not worn off. I whip away the unhappiness and complete Hamburg's monument and Berlin's library.

A city of Brennus is discovered south of the barb city. This city has corn, gold, copper, and deer and must become mine. Brennus is a tough opponent--he has already defended it with 4 archers. I'm building barracks in Hamburg followed by axeman.

Wallbored gets his first victim and Killer walks into a trap. Both emerged victorious and uninjured.

685BC I've researched Poly and now start Priesthood. Interestingly, the Oracle has not been built yet. Maybe, raging barbs is delaying the AI from building wonders. Sadly, I see that Brennus has the Jewish religion, also. I was hoping for an all-Hindu continent. Meanwhile, I fogot to mention I had assigned 1 scientist in Berlin, so that now I have a Great Person due in 13 turns, either a scientist (academy) or engineer (pyramids). This game could hinge on the luck of the draw.

Wallbored is unexpectedly ambushed by a barb axeman, and earns a promotion, CR1.

610BC A momentous year. A settler is built. Hinduism spreads to Berlin and I am happy to share religions with Brennus. A few turns later, Priesthood is discovered and I decide to learn alphabet. If they won't trade, maybe I can extort after a war. [Note: as you can see from the screenshot, Brennus has already abandoned Hinduism! I didn't see it! Not the first time I made this mistake!]

Unfortunately, Brennus adopts the Jewish faith, and boots my butt because of religious hatred.

Killer walks into another trap, but survives.

Another disadvantage of two religions lurking in the continent is that the wrong one spreads to Munich. With Hinduism as the state religion, I get no cultural or happiness benefit from this.

475BC Next turn, the Great Person is due. 68% chance for GE. I press next turn and roll the dice.

Ta da -- James Watt, Great Engineer, is born. I have a choice of wonders. The Oracle offers a free Code of Laws, or Mathematics. Pyramids offers extra happiness and specialist beakers, with representation. Temple of Artemis and Parthenon are also available. I think Pyramids is the obvious choice.

 

[playshogi]

A view of the empire in 460BC:
The north

The south (nothings changed since my last tour of the area). Some nice fishing villages and silver down there.

The unfriendly Celtic lands.

 

[Killroyan]

Pyramids, woohoo, bring on the happiness. And of course even more GE points, so another GE is very likely. We are going to get wonder happy. 62 turns on the barracks btw? You are not working the copper mine then? Keep it coming but you are going to need some production cities soon if you want to keep up with the AI's. So I guess next plan is getting the barb city.

 

[Darkology]

Pyramids, woohoo, bring on the happiness. And of course even more GE points, so another GE is very likely. We are going to get wonder happy. 62 turns on the barracks btw? You are not working the copper mine then? Keep it coming but you are going to need some production cities soon if you want to keep up with the AI's. So I guess next plan is getting the barb city.

yeah 62 turns for barracks is very low (specially when it is your capital)

focus on production playshogi

 

[playshogi]

Right, the plan is to take the barb city. Since it's on a hill and currently I can see it's defended by 2 archers (and a worker) I'll bring 6 axes to the party. Barracks is due in 62 because I'm planning to pop rush it along with left over hammers towards building another axe. I also want to take the Celtic city of Tolosa, then maybe switch to whatever religion is popular on the continent. Right now, I have to hope Ragnar goes Hindu. I also elect to abandon research in Alphabet since trading tech seems impossible now. Re-directing research to mathematics followed by construction for elephants and cats. Brennus already knows Monarchy and I want to capture Tolosa before it's defended by longbows.

As expected, the Pyramids magically appear, and, of course, I revolt to representation immediately. Confucianism is FIDL in 400BC. After completing 6 axeman, I switch production in my cities to granaries.

The assault on the barb city begins in 310BC. A green axe leads the attack and dies, but Longodds moves next and kills his man. Wallbored with 42% chance of success, fails to even damage the last archer. I still have 2 shots left, Killer steps to the plate and wins easily. Cuman is mine along with a free worker and 99 gold.

I march a scout to Spy Hill, northwest of Tolosa, who can see into the city. It's still defended by 3 archers and appears under attack from barbs, as some of the defenders are wounded (and highly promoted). I want at least 8 attackers plus I'll need to keep some defenders in Cuman.

State of the Empire 100BC

Tolosa is defended by 4 archers now, but for some reason, Brennus opted not to promote the archers as city defenders. Research is down to 60% and after discovering mathematics, I opted to resume the alphabet - literature path. I'll get another GE in 26 more turns to rush the Great Library as I avoid using scientists to insure a GE. To accelerate research I've abandoned axe building and am building libraries in Hamburg and Munich so I can run scientists there to boost my research rate. Cuman will get monument, granary, then library.

55BC I notice that Ragnar has converted to Hinduism, but so far, it has not damaged relations with Brennus as badly as it did with me. Tolosa borders expanded, so I lost Spy Hill. Soon thereafter, Brennus asks me to switch religions. No thanks, buddy.

25BC I don't think it's good when the AI beats me to Alphabet. I'm glad I didn't accept Brennus' state religion because Ragnar surprised me with a willingness to trade Iron Working for Mathematics. I do have iron in Cuman after its borders pop. So, it was a lucky break for me to go after Mathematics first, because I get Iron working from it, too. A goofy screenshot, yes, we did make the trade as shown.

200AD Suddenly, Ragnar is Buddhist. Hmm, I wonder how that happened.
260AD Ragnar asks me to adopt HR. Not worth the anarchy. Here is where the spiritual trait would have come in handy.

As expected, a Great Engineer is born to rush the Great Library. I also trade the useless stone to Ragnar for 5gpt + deer. (Well, I could build walls and castles with it, but usually don't). You can see I'm way behind in tech, and now that Ragnar is Buddhist, won't trade techs now. Militarily after learning Construction, I'll assemble a strike force of elephants, cats, axes, and swords and go after Brennus.

On the research front, I'm planning Construction and Code of Laws. I messed up a few turns ago after learning literature and started Code of Laws instead of construction. Anyway, both techs are scheduled in 9 turns and then in 4 more turns I should pop a Great Scientist, who can pop philosophy. If I'm lucky (and I've been lucky so far) I can found Taoism.

Ragnar, tech leader

(Note: Brennus doesn't have alphabet, yet)

And a look at the empire. The southern region is still unsettled. Hopefully, I can fill it in at a later date, before any other AI grabs it.

 

[playshogi]

Faced with this assembly of workers, I declare war on Brennus. I'm not ready yet, but...

I'm very lucky. Tolosa is defended by just 2 archers, and I have 7 axemen on hand!

The city falls with just 1 axeman lost. I gain 138g and a size 8 city, my second largest.

In my excitement, I ignored the fact that Brennus was barb hunting in the wild southern lands and nearly missed an archer capturing 1 of my workers. He's got 2 chariots down there too. Time to build spearman.

Furthermore, I realize too late that Brennus' target is either the ivory camp or iron mine, or both. The ivory camp is toast, for sure. I rush Newt out of Berlin toward the front causing 3 unhappy people in Berlin for lack of garrison.

Incredibly, Brennus sends both chariots to pillage the iron mine, leaving a wounded archer to pillage the ivory camp, which it cannot do, before I destroy it.

I send 1 axe out to kill a chariot which succeeds. This is very lucky because suddenly I realize that Cuman is defended only by 1 axe that has no fortification bonus and is facing 1 chariot. If the chariot attacks the city, I could lose it! I'll get it back, but probably my granary, lighthouse, library, and monument would be destroyed. I had a chance earlier to rush a military unit after I pop-rushed the library, but decided to use the excess hammers to build a lighthouse (100% bonus because of the organized trait). I leave a worker exposed, hoping the chariot will go for that. But, no, the city is attacked.

Cuman is sacked. Upon re-capture all the buildings were destroyed as I feared. In other news, Taoism was FIDL. In 500 my Great Scientist was born and was used to discover philosophy even though I won't get Taoism.

Brennus had a small stack of Gallic warrior, chariot, axe and settler! And he founded a nearby city, I'll have to raze, because it is claiming the gold mine.

I discover the barb city Sakae, built right where I was planning to build one.
Also, in this year, Brennus is willing to agree to peace, but let's keep going. I have at least 1 city to raze.

Arriving at the newly found city and razing it. Interestingly, autorazing size 1 cities doesn't count as a negative in diplomatic relations.

Leading to the birth of a great General. I never know what to do with these guys. This time, I opt for a military academy in Hamburg, my production city.

In695AD, I attacked the city of Camulodunum after bombarding defenses down to 11%. It was defended by a Gallic Warrior, Horse Archer, Longbowman(!), and a Spearman. I lost 3 cats, and War Elephant to start off, the latter had an 80% chance of success. Thereafter, I had just enough units to capture the city while losing just 1 more axe.

At this point Brennus is willing to part with Monotheism and 30g for peace. That's not even all of his gold. I wonder if I should have kept Camulodunum. It should have been razed as it will cost me a bundle to maintain after the 7 turns of anarchy. The holy city is probably the next one over, but my attacking force is spent and I'm facing longbows.

Right now, I'm thinking of just retreating and letting Brennus have Camulodunum back while I just settle the rest of my part of the continent. That will give me 10-11 cities which is probably enough to tech my way to a spaceship win. There's also room for 1 city between Cuman and Hamburg. It sure would be nice to capture more of Brennus' land, though, in particular, at least 1 holy city since Brennus has built the shrines in both of his holy cities.

 

[The Flame]

That took you long enough

Nice addition. I would suggest declaring peace for now, settling the land like you hoped, and starting heading down the path towards a space-race victory. After you get settled in though I would suggest taking more of Brennus' land. I'm not sure what to do about that city right now, but it might be good to surender it, since it'll starve in its location (with Brennus' culture).