Kemal
Tough Bureaucrat
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2001
- Messages
- 555
Glad we didn't play as the Zulus this time, their starting location really stinks! 
Considering we were playing a 80% water map with 11 civs I expected no less than having a few AI opponents very close by.
I began with building Tenochtitlan on the starting spot and thus grab the village on turn one, forfeitting the chance of a settler but I was afraid I might get early barbarians from the village, which would have ruined the game. Got pottery, which was nice because that's usually my number 1 research goal.
First jag warrior headed north to the mountain, because I wanted to see as much land as possible early on to grab villages. Result was I contacted the Russians very early on (nice land!), and later the Persians and Egypt. I made the decision not to gamble on an early attack, mainly because I always try to minimize having bad dice rolls to heavily influence the game, and because I hate an early GA.
After getting pottery from the first hut I decided to go straight for polytheism, aiming to trade other techs with the AI for it, as AI civs usually shun polytheism untill later in the game. That turned out to be a very bad decision as for some mysterious reason the Russians got polytheism 3 turns before I did
. I'm also nearly 100% sure they got a settler from a hut, as they founded Kiev just a few turns after I had built my 2nd city near the dyes to the west, and were leading in the early ages with about 40 points more than I had. Still managed to do some trading with polytheism even though its value had greatly decreased.
While researching polytheism, I had been building and stacking jag warriors near the Egytpian border, expecting an iron resource to pop up nearby since we were playing with little landmass and lots of rivals. Wrong! The only iron resource I could possibly get was some distance away, so I had to settle for horsemen early on in the war against Egypt. I later managed to establish an iron colony, so swordsmen finally entered the war. Egypt was nearly finished by then and I turned my attention to Persia, who were very weak because they had been building the colossus early on (thank you
). Unfortunately I entered an accidental GA against the Persians as they attacked my jag warrior protecting my iron colony, so that was a bit of a waste, even though it meant early monarchy and Hanging Gardens in Tenochtitlan.
When Persia was finally finished I turned to the fertile Russians lands, but I was a bit worried since they were powerful and were hooked to iron. Got enough swordsmen by then to launch an assault on 3 cities during the first turn of the war, and they never really recoverd from that. Had some problems with Moscow (with Pyramids
) as it flipped back twice, taking out some valuable armies.
I had contacted the Romans and Chinese by then and noticed all their cities were walled, and it appeared they had been in battle for centuries already as embassies revealed both capitals were size 1 enterainer cities. Traded for both their luxuries, but due to a very unfortunate accident the trade route was cut and I lost my spotless reputation
. It appeared a barbarian galley had positioned itself on the sea route between our harbors, had to trade for both luxuries again, and the Chinese are no longer willing to trade for gpt.
Went to Republic in the early AD's and as F8 revealed the civs on the other continent had already entered the medieval age I beelined for Navigation after losing some galleys on suicide runs and contacted the AI around 500 AD. Very disappointing. I was hoping to trade for feudalism/engineering and lots of gpt, but they had only discoverd monotheism, and were earning no money at all. Did trade for all luxuries though but it seems I have to do all the research alone this time. Compared to my research schedule for last month's game, I am now researching feudalism when I had entered the Industrial age in the previous GotM.
I was now ready to start some serious tech development when suddenly I saw a stack of Impies cross the border (yes, Zululand was still there) and had them declare war on me. I expected to take their Impies out with some leftover swordsmen from the Russian War, but I manged to lose 3 swordsmen (2 vet and 1 *marked Elite, as I had gotten 1 leader so far to rush the FP) and 1 vet horseman to the first Impi on a plains!
Had to rush some extra defenders to hold the GA'ed Zulus at bay when I got a lucky break and one of their heavily fortified border cities flipped to me. I'm now still pushing them back, no longer riding free happiness though.
I'm again going for a spaceship launch but it seems many people are doing that this month, so it might be for nothing. however it is nice to see some fierce competition going on.
Kemal
Considering we were playing a 80% water map with 11 civs I expected no less than having a few AI opponents very close by.
I began with building Tenochtitlan on the starting spot and thus grab the village on turn one, forfeitting the chance of a settler but I was afraid I might get early barbarians from the village, which would have ruined the game. Got pottery, which was nice because that's usually my number 1 research goal.
First jag warrior headed north to the mountain, because I wanted to see as much land as possible early on to grab villages. Result was I contacted the Russians very early on (nice land!), and later the Persians and Egypt. I made the decision not to gamble on an early attack, mainly because I always try to minimize having bad dice rolls to heavily influence the game, and because I hate an early GA.
After getting pottery from the first hut I decided to go straight for polytheism, aiming to trade other techs with the AI for it, as AI civs usually shun polytheism untill later in the game. That turned out to be a very bad decision as for some mysterious reason the Russians got polytheism 3 turns before I did
. I'm also nearly 100% sure they got a settler from a hut, as they founded Kiev just a few turns after I had built my 2nd city near the dyes to the west, and were leading in the early ages with about 40 points more than I had. Still managed to do some trading with polytheism even though its value had greatly decreased.While researching polytheism, I had been building and stacking jag warriors near the Egytpian border, expecting an iron resource to pop up nearby since we were playing with little landmass and lots of rivals. Wrong! The only iron resource I could possibly get was some distance away, so I had to settle for horsemen early on in the war against Egypt. I later managed to establish an iron colony, so swordsmen finally entered the war. Egypt was nearly finished by then and I turned my attention to Persia, who were very weak because they had been building the colossus early on (thank you
). Unfortunately I entered an accidental GA against the Persians as they attacked my jag warrior protecting my iron colony, so that was a bit of a waste, even though it meant early monarchy and Hanging Gardens in Tenochtitlan.When Persia was finally finished I turned to the fertile Russians lands, but I was a bit worried since they were powerful and were hooked to iron. Got enough swordsmen by then to launch an assault on 3 cities during the first turn of the war, and they never really recoverd from that. Had some problems with Moscow (with Pyramids
) as it flipped back twice, taking out some valuable armies.I had contacted the Romans and Chinese by then and noticed all their cities were walled, and it appeared they had been in battle for centuries already as embassies revealed both capitals were size 1 enterainer cities. Traded for both their luxuries, but due to a very unfortunate accident the trade route was cut and I lost my spotless reputation
. It appeared a barbarian galley had positioned itself on the sea route between our harbors, had to trade for both luxuries again, and the Chinese are no longer willing to trade for gpt.Went to Republic in the early AD's and as F8 revealed the civs on the other continent had already entered the medieval age I beelined for Navigation after losing some galleys on suicide runs and contacted the AI around 500 AD. Very disappointing. I was hoping to trade for feudalism/engineering and lots of gpt, but they had only discoverd monotheism, and were earning no money at all. Did trade for all luxuries though but it seems I have to do all the research alone this time. Compared to my research schedule for last month's game, I am now researching feudalism when I had entered the Industrial age in the previous GotM.
I was now ready to start some serious tech development when suddenly I saw a stack of Impies cross the border (yes, Zululand was still there) and had them declare war on me. I expected to take their Impies out with some leftover swordsmen from the Russian War, but I manged to lose 3 swordsmen (2 vet and 1 *marked Elite, as I had gotten 1 leader so far to rush the FP) and 1 vet horseman to the first Impi on a plains!
Had to rush some extra defenders to hold the GA'ed Zulus at bay when I got a lucky break and one of their heavily fortified border cities flipped to me. I'm now still pushing them back, no longer riding free happiness though.
I'm again going for a spaceship launch but it seems many people are doing that this month, so it might be for nothing. however it is nice to see some fierce competition going on.
Kemal
