Hello Everyone,
I stumbled upon this website while looking at maps to download from
www.civ3.com and thought this game of the month thing was a really neat idea. Since there was still a week or so left in November, I decided to give it a go. I was a bit worried about the game since it was a bit more of a challenge than I usually play but it went ok.
Synopsis:
BC 4000 -- Start out with free pottery and begin the glorious aztec empire. I figure I'll try to use the jaguars in an early assault on someone and try and grab up some territory. It turns out that Russia is closest and they have some iron within their borders so off we go. Unfortunately, the first platoon of jaguars forgot their wheaties and failed miserably in attacking Russian warriors and archers. I did get one successful attack, though, and started the very early GA (3 cities) and I'm determined to take out Russia with these guys or die in glorious battle. Slowly the continual sacrifice of jaguar warriors to the gods pays dividends until...
BC 1125 -- Russia has been destroyed. I occupy Moscow and resettle the rest of her territory, screening off the Persians who had interest in my Russian iron. Since Persia is also close and can be a major pain early, I intend to take them out next, as soon as I build up some more defensive troops and teach the jaguars how to use a sword.
BC 650 -- At the start of the assault on Persia, Cleopatra decides to attack my Southernmost city with a sad little warrior. I ally zululand against her to keep her busy while I hack up Xerxes
BC 100 -- I finish up the main Persian territory and decide to extort what I can from Xerxes as he has only 2 far-flung jungle cities left. At the same time, I grab an Egyptian city to let Cleo know I still care and force her into peace as well after cancelling the alliance. I manage 3 technologies and some cash from the two of them and picked up the colossus which Persia had built in Persepolis. About this time, Roman galleys are spotted off the coast and so I get to meet them and China, selling contact with them to the rest of my neighbors.
AD 300 -- Shaka is still at war with Egypt and has started to make some progress; he even convinced the pathetic Persians to join him. By this point both have probably burned through their golden ages and Egypt should be ripe for the picking. Our 20 turns of peace have expired so it's now time to exact full revenge upon Miss Cleo for her early attack.
AD 350 -- Thebes builds the Hanging Gardens. What a nice gift that will make for me. I import some Roman wine for some cash and spices and Chinese silks for iron and horses. Hopefully that'll keep Rome from running over the Chinese and dominating that continent.
AD 380 -- Tenochtitlan finishes the Great Library. I like to build the Great Library, but it's gonna bring me almost nothing in this game =[
AD 410 -- Bubye Cleopatra. The Aztec civilization is in good shape at this point as we have 21 or so cities including basicly the entire northern half of the continent. I set about building the Forbidden Palace in Moscow; it's a little close to my capitol but it's the only reasonable place since I have to build it the old fashioned way; the inept Aztec armies have failed to produce any leaders yet. I guess I'll build up some troops and continue "unifying" the continent. The zulu have a whole bunch of crappy cities, Persia has their two and each of Rome and China managed to sneak single jungle cities onto the Eastern peninsula.
AD 750 -- How come whenever I build up a nice attack force and get ready to open up some whoop-ass on someone, somebody else has to stick their nose in my business? =] This time, China has dropped an archer by one of the old Persian cities and managed to kill my defending pikeman just as I start after Shaka. A knight is quickly diverted to kill him off and a new pikeman is ordered to help defend Susa as the lone spearman left is crying for mommy. China now is without iron and horses and I don't expect them to do much, so I continue after the Zulu, building some galleys along the NE coast to attack the chinese boats as they pass.
AD 850 -- Yay! The first Great Leader, Itzcoatl emerges from a swordsman and promptly builds the Sistine Chapel.
AD 890 -- Now the knights are really starting to get into the groove. Acamapichtli returns from battle and sits back in anticipation of Navigation and Magellan's Voyage (950)
AD 960 -- Zulu are finished. Now I pick off the Chinese city and send the knights back north to visit the Chinese mainland, with a brief visit to the Persian remains on the way. A galley is sent West in search of other cultures.
AD 980 -- Meet the East. Iroquois and England are dominating, with Greece a close third. India is nearly dead and Japan isn't much better off. Currently, though, the only wars are Japan vs India and Japan vs Greece so Tokugawa is the one in real danger.
AD 1000 -- Persia is vanquished, leaving only a single city on the continent not owned by the Aztecs. Time to teach Mao some manners.
AD 1050 -- Land the knights on China taking out the closest port city and nearby Shanghai to get some wine. Rome gets all cranky at this and attacks our new cities with horsemen so we extort some money out of Mao in exchange for his life and set to playing with Caesar. Mao's maps have provided us with the location of all the Roman islands (Caesar had built the lighthouse, so they were all over the place) so I set about capturing them and the city on my continent while counter-attacking the Romans with elite knights hoping for more leaders. Unfortunately, the knights, while effective, are not great, and none have shown up by the time Rome is reduced to the 5 cities on their home continent. Since we can now utilize cavalry, we might as well just take Rome out.
AD 1290 -- Get a leader from the first elite cavalry while finishing off Rome and turn it into an army since there's nothing I need to build fast.
AD 1350 -- Now that Rome is dead, whatever shall I do with all this cavalry I have along the border with China? Hmmm...
AD 1355 -- China sure didn't last long. The Western hemisphere is now a uniform shade of dark green. Huitzilhuitl emerges from battle and is held in reserve until I figure out how to pronounce his name. Travelers report Hiawatha has attacked England.
AD 1385 -- Greece finishes off Japan, leaving just 5 of us in the world. The Aztec nation goes full-scale into the longest period of peace we will have, clearing jungles, laying down railroad tracks, and building whatever we can.
AD 1550 -- The Iroquois finish off England, making them *the* power in the East. They have 18 cities on the main continent there and are the only one really expanding to the northern islands now that everyone has learned astronomy. Since they have all 3 luxuries, Greece only one, and India none, it's time to start a nice slow military buildup and send some tanks East to say hi. I figure we'll be ready to take them on in about 1750.
AD 1590 -- Corruption is pretty bad and tech advance is slow, so Huitzilhuitl builds a new palace in Heliopolis.
AD 1740 -- Motorized transportation is discovered and we start building tanks. We already have a dozen or so transports up with some destroyer escort and all the infantry and artillery I want, so the attack is more-or-less on schedule. Hiawatha completes wasting his time in Salamanca with the opening of Shakespeare's Theatre.
AD 1765 -- With the bulk of forces stationed in Indian territory and only a few more transports full of tanks en route, war with Hiawatha begins. He's in the late renaissance with mostly musket defending; he's got some cavalry and a lot of knights running around. The attack force consists of 40 tanks, 48 infantry, 10 artillery, 2 15-hp all-cavalry armies, and 20 slave workers to lay rail. Additionally we have 6 destroyers for naval support to sink his caravels and the frigates he'll soon deploy. The first strike is to take Madras, conveniently located right next to the current Indian capitol of Calcutta in the NW corner of the continent. In doing so, we pick up the obsolete Great Wall and access to ivory. 20-or-so infantry are dropped into Madras with some others guarding the ivory and rails to the coast. We sit back and pick off his attack forces while waiting for the rest of the tanks to come (only the first 16 or so are currently on the continent.) Once the full force has arrived and his offense capability has been decimated, the real assault begins.
AD 1794 -- After finishing off the last of Hiawatha's 18 cities on the Eastern continent, we make peace with him and extort 21 gold per turn for the next 20 years. Nottingham is relocated and two other cities are added to fill in the territory and temples are built everywhere. Madras puts down the Manhattan Project with the only leader created from the war.
AD 1812 -- Cultural expansion of the Iroquois lands, and domination occurs with a final score of 4884.
All in all, a fun game. The initial terrain was a pain and I had my doubts with the performance of the first batch of jaguars, but it turned out okay. Workers were pretty slow as a non-industrious nation, particularly slaves, but the militarism was nice as the long campaigns resulted in all manner of elite units and a half-dozen or so leaders.
I'm satisfied with the result; especially considering the terrain and difficulty level made this one tougher than my normal play. I also didn't have the advantages of my normal rule customizations (Pyramids/Sun Tzu apply everywhere, swords upgrade to rifle, slightly less corruption)
I'm glad I found this site and will probably try the December game as well. Thanks for the fun.
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To check I unloaded both and lo and behold I have two armies.
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Their city tried to deffect to us.
