Well, 2 hours to go until the submission deadline and I probably need an afternoon to finish the game, so it's an 1834 AD retirement for me.
At the point of retirement, I had artillery, industrialization and combustion. I owned the entire starting continent (bye bye, Alex) and all of Monty's rather lush grassland (bye bye, Monty) and was at war with Spain (which I would win easily: Her cannon and AI stupidity against my infantry and artillery? No chance). I'd just bribed Bismarck into joining the war, mostly to get his troops out of Berlin so I could attack him too since his land looked rather nicer than Spain's. Plus he had gold and my people were craving more happiness. There was no doubt I would win the game eventually, but it would be
very late. I was estimating early 20th century for reaching Alpha Centauri.
I'm not sure if it was just me but I struggled with the starting continent. So little food and not many happy resources until astronomy. I started by moving the warrior SW, and saw the wheat. That gave me an instant dilemma
Settle East to get the corn and gems, and possibly iron, or settle West to get adequate food for the capital but no gems. I went for the food option. But then of course discovered there was almost no food for additional cities. I destroyed Greece fairly easily with catapults and praetorians, and then set about expanding over the entire island including several cities that had no food other than grassland farms something I'd normally be very reluctant to do, but on this map, it was the only way to get some resources
Tech was so slow that I didn't get to liberalism until the 1300ADs (I used it for much needed astronomy so I could trade some happy resources for my red-faced cities). However I wasn't worried because I could see that even with that late date I was way ahead of all the AIs. That made me suspect the map was slow in general, and that all the other competitors playing the game would have the same problem, which made me feel a lot better!
I decided I needed Bismarck's land, and quickly teched up to cannon and machine guns. I then bribed him to declare on Spain, to get his units out of the capital (not the same bribe I mentioned earlier).
But talk about plans going awry. On the very turn that my four cannon/machine-gun-loaded galleons were just outside Berlin's borders (and therefore decidedly NOT able to defend my own lands), Montezuma suddenly declared he'd had enough of my insults (What insults????) and there was a stack of Aztec grenadiers outside my heroic epic city. Hmmm. Aztecs? Declaring war? Could never have anticipated that one. Luckily, thanks to railroads everywhere, enough money in the bank to upgrade the lone defending warrior there, and running slavery, I managed to see that one off. Just glad Montezuma did it the turn BEFORE I was about to declare on Bismarck. Obviously my galleons immediately diverted North, Berlin was saved for Germany, and I imagine Aztec cities quickly learned the folly of declaring war on someone who has a stack of battle-ready cannon two turns away from your homeland!
I suspect there was some bribery at work because a short time later, China suddenly declared that the world wasn't big enough (or something equivalent) and guess what there was this stack of grenadiers standing outside a warrior-defended city north of my capital. Luckily, thanks to railroads everywhere I well you get the picture. After seeing off that invasion, I couldn't do much more to China because all my troops were kinda busy in Aztecia. But my homeland was safe.
Oh. Until a few turns later when Isabella decided that the same warrior-defended spot in my homeland was a suitable place to land
her grenadiers. Hmmm. Could it be she was upset at me for bribing Bismarck? Anway, thanks to railroads everywhere, enough money in the bank to upgrade that warrior, I well, you get the picture.
Three wars in one? I could scarcely get any cities above size 8 or 9 thanks to the war weariness. But eventually I wiped out Montezuma, got peace from China, and my troops were now at China's borders. So thats when I bribed Bismarck again and retired and hey, we're now back at the start of this write-up. So I suggest you go back to the start and read it all again. The sense of everything repeating itself will give you a good sense of just how this game felt to me every time another AI landed grenadiers on my eastern coast!
But it was great to play the very first GOTM map for real (albeit at a harder difficulty than the original people would have played it). I feel suitably a part of history.
Though I did manage to introduce Alex to Praetorians. Don't think he thought much of them though. Well with only Alex on the island and no tech trades available so decided he had to go. So Alex was first to go. Followed by Monte and the English.
So perhaps he was the target all along but would have thought she had enough on her hands with me. never known an AI to do that. Still made my job a bit easier.
