Built 4 cities. One in-place, one to the west along the coast, another farther west along the coast, and one to the east along the coast. Everything else was with the sword or the pen. Early on, I took cities to the north and northwest from the mongols. Nobody else bothered me early on. But, the final spoiler will be more interesting.
After the failed Quecha rush last month, It was delightful to play as Monty.
Settled on the start location and went on to establish Buddhism and built a worker while the scout began a counter clock wise exploration. We met Napoleon, Kahn and Huayna very quickly and Alex a bit later.
The science path included agriculture, mining, BW and IW. In the meanwhile, tha capital built a warrior, Rax, Stonehenge and a settler who just sat in the City forever. Once we knew IW, the capital only built Jaguars for a while. Once we had 5 gathered at the French border, we declared. Took the French capital and a second city built near grapes to the east. Since we knew Alpha by this time, we chose to sue for peace and get all the techs the French knew. We did the same later to Kahn. Leaving each with a single city.
By this time science was focused on getting CS from the Oracle. The Pyramids were lost to Alex but the Jaguars have added Kahns Capital to ours and finally we have iron connected to the Capital. Some where along the way it appeared the game would end too quickly at the current pace so the plans were changed to go after domination. This was a little too late since we did not have a good economy going. By this time, around 300AD, we had most of the cities east of former Greek capital and only Inca and Greeks alive. My plans for Pre 500AD Domination slipped through as the economy started to dive when I finally planted the only settler I build to claim gold north of Athens.
Once we started to build the maces, the game was over but that is fort he next spoiler. I completely for got to setup a GL factory to speed up Tech learning. The game was interesting since this was my first ever military victory in civ4.
After submitting the game I replayed the game settling in the same location and this time established the second city to claim the stone to the west. Everything else was done same as the original game with the exception of building cottages. This time I used the Oracle to learn Machinery. Left both France and Mongols with 1 city and left them room to grow again. I am close to 0AD and already have the score I had when I completed the game first time. Again Alex built the Pyramids and I am about to claim it.
I settled in place and sent my scout west along the coast so I met Huayna first followed by Alex, Genghis and Napoleon.
Research
3720 Agriculture
3480 Mining
3000 Bronze Working
2840 Fishing
2240 Iron Working
2040 Wheel
1840 Animal Husbandry
1440 Writing
1280 Pottery
1120 Meditation
1000 Priesthood
925 Masonry
I turn off research and run 100% cash for the rest of the game.
I found Teotihuacan in 2480BC to grab the gems and build Stonehenge (completed 1000BC).
DOW Napoleon in 1560BC. There are 4 archers in Paris so I stack up my jaguars when suddenly 2 leave with a settler.
Paris 1440BC - Lyon razed 1220BC when I track down the settlers. Orleans is captured in 1120BC and the French are gone.
DOW Genghis 825BC - Just before he completes the road to hook up iron so still jaguars against archers. 775BC Karakorum and 700BC Turfan. Genghis founds Judaism in 650BC and our jaguars are terrified by the Mongols technological progress. We declare peace in 550BC and leave Beshbalik.
550BC DOW Alex: Axes and jaguars against phallanx, axe and archer. I capture the copper mine on the first turn of the war and destroy Alex's two axes outside of Athens.
500BC Athens, 375BC Thermopylae, 275 Corinth (razed), 175 Minoan, 150BC Sparta. Greece is destroyed.
The Oracle is built in Paris in 325BC and I found Confucianism.
Its now a peaceful world with my friend Huayna. I DOW Genghis again in 100BC and capture Beshbalik in 1AD. Genghis had immediately switched in Judaism and had Huayna and Alex immediately close borders so the Jewish missionary was still sitting in Beshbalik.
I have been positioning a few settlers and switch to Caste System when I see an Incan boat with a settler aboard. Again, the Aztec civilization is terrified by this new technology. The last Aztec scientists were fired a century ago so we consult with our priests. They find the Incas and their galleys to be heretics and we declare war in 125AD. Machu Picchu is captured and Huamanga is razed in 150AD to purge the world on people riding on boats. 7 new cities are founded to prevent further expansion into Aztec lands by the Incans. Artists are assigned in the new cities to glorify the Aztec empire. Another city is founded in 175AD to cover the remains of Huamanga.
In 175AD, we discover Archery from a century of Sid beakers and two turns of artists and receive the message we have been waiting for.
Your land area 322(67.65%) is close to the Domination limit 323(68.00%)
Doh, that wasn't supposed to happen. I can't count. I'm at war with Huayna and running -100gpt at 100% gold so this could become pretty embarrassing if Huayna retakes Machu Picchu.
Fortunately, he doesn't attack and I cross the domination threshold for a 225AD win. I liked the all Aggressive matchup. A race to cripple civs before they hook up metal and the first game of CIV I have played without building a library.
Initially was considering a cultural/space strategy, which is my normal course of action. Started scouting, met the neighbors, and realized two things:
1. This is a Civ4 version of a WWE Steel Cage Death Match.
2. (With apologies to The Matrix) "We'll need jaguars. Lots of jaguars."
Research order:
Polytheism (founded Hinduism, figured it would be useful for border expansion)
Fishing (for the clams)
Mining/BW/IW (Jags)
Agriculture
Beeline Alphabet (enable pointy stick research)
Head towards Civil Service/Machinery
Founded a couple of early cities, one west near the gems and one east by the rice. Later on founded another on the southeastern peninsula.
Each city got a barracks & granary initially and started pumping out jaguars ASAP. Tossed in a library later on to keep research up. Built the Great Library and Parthenon for science and to get a prophet for the Hindu shrine.
Built/whipped a stack of jaguars, took Napoleon down to one city and got some techs for peace. Repeat for Genghis. Go back and finish off Napoleon with jaguars, then Genghis with macemen. Alex is up next, HC on deck.
I settled in place.
Met Napolean just to the north.
I get Budhism, but decide not to convert just yet. I figure I can convert at any time, and the advantages of the religion (extra happiness, increased production of buildings once you have Organized Religion) doesnt come around for quite a while. So I can wait, lets see what my neighbors do.
In 3640 BC I meet Ghengis Kahn, just to the west of Napolean. This should be interesting
For my build order, started with a barracks to allow the city to grow to size 2, then immediately switched to a worker, then let the barracks finish. My mistake was to wait too long to research Fishing (I went Monotheism, agriculture, mining, then fishing), so I wasnt able to build a work boat for the clams until 2960 BC.
On the religious front, I built Stonehenge, which produced the expected Great Prophet, which I ordered to build the Budhist shrine, because by this time I had converted to the religion I founded.
By this time I knew Id need defense, so I researched archery.
Once I reached Aphabet, no one would trade with me! Hmm. Ohhhh. Its the Aggressive AI setting. Dang. Had I known that, I wouldnt have researched alphabet so soon.
In 275 BC, Alexander declares war on me. Why me? What did I do?
In the initial attack, Alex sent three Axemen and 2 phalanx, so I was forced to sacrifice 3 or 4 jaguars to rid my lands of the Greek horde. They pillaged my gems and a farm west of my empire, so I couldnt just sit back and use archers as defenders in my westernmost city. I had to take the initiative and take them out.
In the second wave, he sent 4 axes and 3 phalanxes. This time, luckily, he attacked my city, which was fortified with archers and jaguars, so I won each battle. He wouldnt even talk to me.
After surviving his second wave, he finally agreed to a summit. He was too far away, at least at this point, to make it profitable for me to head for his cities, so I was forced to give him Monotheism to get him off my back. This war was just too distracting for me.
I built the Great Lighthouse in 325 AD, which I was happy to get, since I was building it in the midst of my war with Greece.
Thanks, Ainwood. Fun game, since its not so overly challenging for me as most of the other GOTM's.
Settled on the hill SW, W and settled another 4 cities via wood chops. Then built barracks and Jaguars.
Had built one jaguar and was attacked by the French, destroyed their soldiers by having my archers in the forest and letting them attack - I lose nothing. Peace.
Ghengis declares war, I do the same trick and let his axeman attack my archers in the forest - I lose one archer. Peace.
Huayna declares war just as I was 2 turns away from declaring on the French. I don't defend with archers this time, I defend in the forest with Jaguars. His army gets destroyed (why did all the armys attack my defenders in the forest?). Peace.
100BC - The turn after Huayna declares peace I attack the French and lose 2 Jaguars per city, but I'm getting a new jag every turn as all 5 cities are churning out Jag's.
France has one more city to go and my computer crashed Oh well, hopefully I do well next month
My first GOTM submission. (thanks for the prince level)
I settled 1 east in hope of being able to use the flood plains for another city which worked out, 2nd city used the flood plains for my great person farm. 3rd city went up in the NE to take advantage of the rice and clams. (should have researched fishing a lot earlier) I decided against an early religion and researched archery for defense. Met all the other civs early and noticed they were all aggressive. Used jags against France to capture their capitol for their iron source and at about the same time, randomly popped an iron at my capitol. To bad for the French as I destroyed all their cities except one. Mongols whent about the same way as the French. I tried to stay "friends" with Alex so as not to be ganged up. Was planning to work with Incans for tech trading but that ran into a problem for them. No one ever declared war on me but the barbs were annoying throughout the game.
Lessons learned:
Have an initial idea for a victory condition
Don't play so sloppy
Research fishing earlier to help with growth and early research
Overall a fun game. Not so quick for me due to a couple of factors but fun non the less.
I moved southwest a bit and settled near the coast and built the great lighthouse there a little later. This turned out as pretty nice boost as both our neighbor's capitals as well as a lot of "inland" cities qualified as coastal.
My second city I settled just a little northeast of the start and that ended up a rather nice production and commerce city, as strangely I had gold and then silver appear on hills, not to mention the eventual uncovering of iron.
I didn't really do a "rush" but I had a couple cities exclusively building units starting with the jags but the jags just didn't have a very long lifespan. I did take a few cities from both the mongols and french with jags and then still later maces.
This was a slog fest without a doubt, and I am not clear on the dates so have to tread carefully, but I rushed to maces and then cavalry in a quest of conquest. Lots of minor stalls, one particular memorable one had three of my units dying without landing a single blow on a longbow.
I played this one through twice. First time round I was going for conquest. I built the first city in place, second one to the west on a hill within reach of stone and crops, and third to the east on the coast.
My tech tree was Agricultrue, BW, IW, wheel...
Builds in my capital were: Worker, Warrior, Settler, Settler, Barracks...
Builds in my second city were: Barracks, Warrior, Jaguar
Just as I had finished discovering IW and was halfway through producing my first Jaguar when France DOW'd me. I wasn't prepared and he walked through, taking my third city and me capital, and leaving me with one city.
I fought back (after producing a few more jaguars) and recaptured my two cities. Then the Mongols DOW'd me, so I sued for peace with France and went after Mongolia, capturing or destroying all but one city. Then I went after France again and captured or destroyed all but 2 cities in the far north.
Then Alex DOW'd me. He had already soundly beat Capac in an earlier war and he just walked right through me with horse archers. I didn't stand a chance and it was all over quickly.
So I tried again. I thought my base strategy was fine, but needed to make minor modifications. So I only founded two total cities in this game (same location as my first two in the previous game) and instead built more troops. In this game nobody declared war on me - I declared war on them taking out the mongols first, then the french, then alex. One of my fastest victories and best games ever.
And the only difference in play was the one decision to not build a third city and instead build troops.
If I recall correctly, I founded two cities in the whole game. Unfortunately (again IIRC), Napoleon settled Paris on a hill, so I needed (and lost) rather more Jags than I would have liked in removing his cities from him, and this slowed me down severely. Napoleon was wiped out but I couldn't barrel straight into the next target, as I didn't have enough units and by the time I did my rivals had enough tech I wasn't convinced jags would do the job on their own.
(The upshot of which is my domination plan went rather slowly compared to those described earlier in the thread. I consumed each empire and reestablished my economy as I went, rather than blitzing through.)
First of all: Thanks to the gotm staff for a great map
I really liked the way you got a chance to kick some of the game's worst war mongers round a bit
I went for Poly straight away and founded Hindu. That was followed by Fishing and then on to Mine --> BW --> IW. I built Warrior --> WB --> Worker --> Worker --> Settler.
Founded one city in the early game: Teotihuacan by the gems and stone in 2120 BC. After that, both cities got a Rax and went on to pump Jags for a while. I declared on Napoleon in 1520 BC and took Paris in 1120 BC. He was left with Orleans after that, but I was researching Alpha for some pointy stick research and wasn't going to give peace for nothing, might have been a mistake :bah:
Declared on Genghis in 925 BC and while I was busy taking him down, a lucky French archer recaptured Paris defended by a fully fortified Jag.
In 750BC, Karakorum fell and I made peace with Genghis in 675 BC.
Paris was retaken in 650 BC and I made peace that same turn. The two peace deals brought me all remaining first and second tier techs.
I finished off Genghis and Napoleon as soon as I could and they were both out before 300 BC.
Meanhile, I noticed the AI hadn't teched very far so I seized the oportunity when I got Marble outside Paris to set research to CoL and build the Oracle in 350 BC for the CS sling.
By the ADs I was preparing to take out Alex and was hoping for a pre-1800 AD diplomatic win.
I decided to take the bait and try for a fast Conquest win. I liked the starting location but thought maybe the area by the flood plain to the SW would be better. So I moved my Settler onto the hill north of the FP. Well, not as good as I’d hoped, but at least there were still two food specials. I settled there and sent my Scout a’wandering.
My plan for the game was about as simple as they come: I would research Iron Working, build some Jaguar Warriors, and attack. Then I would research towards Construction to get Catapults, and hopefully bring those into play in time to keep my offensive going once the defenses became tougher. I was not going to fall into my usual traps of keeping too many cities, or wasting lots of production on city improvements and wonders that I didn’t really need.
Early Development
Spoiler:
Early research: Agriculture, Mining, Bronze Working (finished in 2960 BC). I saw no Copper anywhere in the vicinity. A pity, since I’d much rather have Axemen than rely on Jaguars, but not unexpected. I pressed on towards Iron Working. By this point I knew the locations of the Mongolian and French capitals.
Tenochtitlan’s early builds: Worker, Warrior, Warrior, Settler (finished in 2600 BC). I put my second city on the coast east of Tenochtitlan, with access to two clams and a lot of hills. It built an Obelisk while Tenochtitlan built a Worker, a Barracks, and a couple more Warriors.
In 2200 BC I discovered Iron Working and began research on Fishing, followed soon thereafter by the Wheel, then Pottery. Meanwhile I built Jaguars in Tenochtitlan and infrastructure in Teotihuacan.
Destruction of France
Spoiler:
In 1400 BC I had four Jaguars and a Warrior ready to go, and I declared war on France. I had poor luck with my first wave, losing three of my four Jaguars in battles where the odds were my favor. As a result Napoleon was barely able to hold on to Paris… until my next wave of Jaguars—being pumped out non-stop by both cities now—arrived in 900 BC and captured the city. It took a little while longer to build up my forces again but it wasn’t long before I razed Orleans, on the northeast coast. In 475 BC I razed the last French city, north of Tenochtitlan, and the war was over.
Paris meshed well with my plan to research Construction, since it enabled me to build War Elephants. The Iron there also let me switch from Jaguars to Axemen. I discovered Construction in 275 BC, popped out a few Catapults real quick, and launched my second war: on the Mongols
War with Mongolia and Greece
Spoiler:
This war went very smoothly. I razed a minor Mongol city, then captured Karakorum in 75 AD, bringing with it the Pyramids. I switched to Police State at this point. By now my research rate was really low as I continued to build up my military to attack Alexander, but I didn’t much care. I went on to raze a third Mongol city in 275 AD then made peace, leaving the Mongols with a single city in the northern wastes that I figured would help distract the barbarians, which it did. But I still had to leave a substantial garrison along my northern border to pick off wandering Axemen.
In 375 AD I declared on Alexander. He was the strongest opponent I’d faced, thanks to his beating up on Huyana pretty bad (he was at war when I attacked him). By this time I had two armies in the field. The northern army moved from former Mongol territory toward Athens, while the southern army followed the coast. In 500 AD the former captured Athens, while the later razed Thermopylae.
While all this fighting was going on I established a new city near the wine in the northeast and researched towards Monarchy. I only unlocked it in 450 AD. My military was big and getting bigger, and it slowed my research to a crawl. But I didn’t much care. When I noticed that the Oracle was available and would only take Teotihuacan 7 turns to build, I used it to get Currency in 225 AD, and built some Markets and ran Merchants to help keep my economy from totally crashing.
Started the game with a jaguar rush in mind, and found the map GREAT for it, with Napoleon and Genghis so close to the starting point.
Went for agriculture, then mining-BW-IW. After IW, the capital didn't stop building jaguars (and axemens later on) until the game was over. Build a second city to the west, to get the gems (to help me have some research and be able to stay on wars all the game). Got 5 jaguars, declared war on napoleon, took Paris, and razed all the other cities. The other 2 cities kept building jaguars, after napoleon came Genghis, captured the capital, and razed the rest.
Then came alex, and I thought it was going to be just as easy as the others... when I tried to get Athens, I found he had a lot of axeman, he ended up "eating" a few of my jaguars, and then he went for Karakorum, and captured it... since I couldn't get Athens yet, I had my army raze the rest of his cities. I had Iron next to Paris, but never thought about building axemen. Since it wasn't going to be possible to invade him without axeman, I got the iron, made a few of them, got my army together and... the rest is for the final spoiler.
Settle in place on the hill, buiding first a worker.
Way of research I don't remenber but something like : agriculture, Mining, Wheel, hunting, archery, BW , IW, Writing and alphabet
Found quickly French, Mongolian, Incas and Greeks.
2080BC Teotihuacan founded on a hill along the sea west of the capitol close to the gems and the Corn
1000BC War with the French empire - Lyon razed
775 BC Paris captured
600 BC Orleans captured - French out.
600 Ollantaytambo founded
First mistake intense raging barbs rush on Orleans and capture it destroying an archer and a city-raider II Jaguar in 325 BC obliging me to delay the attack of the mongolian empire (Orleans NW from Paris near the wines) ... take it back in 300BC
50 BC War with Genghis - Ning Hsia captured
125 AD Old Sarai razed
200 AD offensive on Beshbalik delayed because not strong enough or too risky ...
400 AD Turfan captured and peace signed
...
500 AD Economy is turning slowly only 20 % research ... I certainly should not have kept so many cities ... but my people are satisfied of their great Leader and his new hereditary rules and that the most important !!!
...
Now to the game. My goal was fastest conquest. I finished in 2 hours and 11 minutes. Was anybody faster?
I did a minor change to my initial plan. i thought there was forest in the north, but after opening the save I saw the open space. So sent my scout there instead of sending him E. He founded Mongols very close and the strategy was decided. A fast rush. The scout went W, founded HC, Alex and then back discovering France just in time. My first jaguars were just ready and attacked France first.
Worker: Farm corn, mine hills, farm 2nd corn, roads to france and mongolia, then W.
War with France 1960BC- 1160BC
Spoiler:
My initial army of 2 jaguars and 3 wariors gathered near french borders. Approached Paris in 1840 BC where 2 archers were garissoned. Attacked and managed to kill 1 archer and 1 warior survived. Wow that's success
So whiped some more jaguars and in 1440BC they were again near Paris. Now the 5 jaguars had no problem with killing 2 french archers and Paris is an Aztec city in 1440BC.
Paris: obelisk (whipped), barracks, jaguar...
In 1160 my jaguars managed to kill the 2 archers in Orleans and France is no more.
Got also some workers which helped with roading.
War with Mongols 1040BC- 575BC
Spoiler:
After 4 turns, the promoted jaguars were moved from Paris to mongolian borders, were they were joined with fresh troops. So let the war begin again. Stationed my troops near Karakorum into forest, kills an ocasional mongolian archer comming to help and waited for more troops. With about 7 jaguars I attacked karakorum, defeates 3 archers losing 2 jaguras in 825BC.
And moved on. In 750 BC 2nd mongolian city was razed and my units moved towards his last one. used worker to lure some archers out of the city and captured it in 575BC. mongols are dead.
Whipped obelisk in Karakorum, mined that iron and started producing axes in 525BC.
War with Inca 500BC- 75BC
Spoiler:
Again after 3 turns my forces were healed and moved towards Inca. In 475BC I razed his 2 fresh cities and marched on Cuzco.
But what. We cannot go on, because there's an evil strip of Greek land in the way. So lets declare on the Greeks as well in 375BC. Captured Sparta and moved on Cuzco.
Both the Incas and greeks have iron and are producing axes and swords. But we don't care. We have just more man. But Cuzco looks evil. On a hill with 60% cultural defenses and a CD3 archer. Sounds like we should bring more man. But our trops are too nervous and they attack. And they all get killed.
I knew I should wait, but I just couldn't resist. So i signed peace.
War with Greece 375BC- 250AD
Spoiler:
The war started as I cannot cross the land to Incan capital. As I fought on 2 fronts I didn't concentrate on Alex, but managed to pilage his copper. After I signe peace with Incas a nice stack of units piled and I moved them on Athens.
With some huge loses, I captured Athens in 25AD and later recaptured Sparta in 100 AD. With some reinforcements finally destroyed greece in 250AD.
Road to everlasting peace
Spoiler:
My remaining army was forming near Incan borders, while my old one finished greece. In 275AD I declared on Incas again, in 300AD razed his fresh city (which was so nice to bring with it the CD3 archer from Cuzco) and in 375AD another city. Only Cuzco remained.
Lesson learned from the first time, my army was gathering near Cuzco. And more of them every turn. I moved also one of the workers near Cuzco to lure the units out. But they remained inside the city. Until a sword takes the worker and is killed with my axe. Now enough units are gathered outside Cuzco. So in 450 AD we attack. 9 units lost and that were the first 9 attackers in a row. But then we killed the spear and 3 archers and Cuzco is liberated. The peace may begin. We had 5 spare axes to finish Cuzco.
Remarks:
Barbs were not a problem. Merely annoying. But jaguar on a forested hill will defeat barb axe. And I positioned them outside my empire, so it was OK. Only Paris had some problems, lost almost all the improvements the French had built, but thats all.
Didn't have problem with cash. I was forced to shut down research before construction, but it was enough to succesfully conquer the world. In the end I was running at -46 gpt at 0 science, but finished with 351 gold in the treasury.
No world wonder have been build in the world
Total build: 6 barracks, 6 obelisks (some unnecessary since there were religions in the cities)
Army: Build 1 settler, 1 worker, 4 wariors, 1 WB, 36 jaguars, 40 axes.
Killed:4 settlers, 10 workers, 18 wariors, 12 axes, 4 spears, 5 phalanx, 1 quachua, 5 swords and 50 achers + hindu missionaire and 1 lion
Lost: 4 workers (sacrificed), 3 wariors, 27 jaguars, 17 axes.
Mistakes:
A lot of them in the first place.
1) Totally unable to change my initial plan. Why the hell did I research horse archers when there were no horse available?
I could research catapults instead and the siege of Cuzco and Athens would go much smoother.
2) Wasted attack on Cuzco. I just knew it will be a disaster, but couldn't stop from attacking, even with wounded units and odds like 7%.
3) Fighting HC and Alex at once. I thought I have enough units to fight them both, but should have concentrated on one by one.
Finally I think that after this I won't be the fastest. I think that a BC conquest is doable and we will see some. I might try another one if time permits.
I forgot to turn on the autolog so I could recap my game.
I posted in the pre-game discussion that this would be my first attempt at a conquest win. Things went fairly well for me up to 0AD. I had wiped out Napolean and captured his cities and I was on the way of doing the same to the Mongols.
Around this time I discovered my biggest problem: paying attention to my economy. My goal was to rush through a conquest as quick as possible. So I basically started cranking out Jaguars as soon as they were available. But a lot quicker than I thought, I ran into money problems and my research was forced to stop fairly early.
I'll post the end results in the 2nd spoiler.
Oh yeah. Two words: Barbarians
Boy those guys just don't quit. I started posting a lot of archers to clear out some of the fog and thus the barbs. I'm curious if others did the same.
Well...I went semi-rush to Jaguars hoping for a fast Domination, since most seemed to want a fast conquest.
I first founded Hinduism, then went to IW, finally I beelined to Construction, then Drama for the culture slider.
Unfortunately, my plans didn't come to fruition. I declared on Kahn first, and wasted over a thousand years and dozens of Jaguars attempting to take him out. I declared on Louis while I was gathering 8 Jaguars outside of Karakorum, and actually killed him off first. Napoleon died in 1AD, and Khan eventually died in 350AD. Unfortunately, By that point I felt that Alex was out of reach...he probably wasn't since he only had 5 cities and I had a large army compared to him...but I stopped and decided to change from Domination to a late victory such as Diplo or Space Race since I had almost half the landmass under my control or reach.
To get rid of my lategame spoiler since it is boring and annoying...Eventually Alex capitalized on my mistake of leaving him be and killed me.
I’ll try not to bore everyone with repeating things that happened to all of us (“And you’ll never guess who was right there… Napoleon!!” Oh Really?). I’ll try to stick to the differences rather than the similarities.
I had decided to go conquest, despite nearly everyone else probably going for the same victory. Basically, I though I could do with the practice. It’s not my familiar sort of game.
The plan was going to be – probably no religions and probably no wonders – make a construction base of 4 cities, build a wad of Jaguars (kung-fu men with painted cricket bats!) and smack them in turn until there are no more. Research was going to be purely what we needed, and nothing more. No frills! Cave man!
I’d met everyone by about 20 turns in – my scouts went in a kind of anti-clockwise swirl.
I kind of researched what I needed for cities (Agri & Fish) before heading straight up the line to IW. However, when I got to BW and realised who had the only copper, I quickly slipped in Archery before continuing to IW. Basically this was through worry. Barb-time was just approaching, and my neighbours were none too friendly. Did I want to face them with warriors, while waiting 18 turns for IW, or archers?
Looking around my opponents, I had weighed up the opposition. The French, I would ensure, wouldn’t get as far as building any musketeers. Capac’s quechuas weren’t going to worry my jags. Khan was a bit of a mystery for a while, until I got Animal Husb and saw that he had no horses, as I was kinda wary of the keshiks he might have. But Alex, and his phalanxes, we would definitely face! The order of attack gave me some concern, mainly because I was fully expecting to fall victim to a sudden stab in the rear if I headed off to one of the extremes and attacked Napoleon or Capac first. I felt that mad, bad Alex was probably too distant for the first attack, so I settled on Khan.
Spent some time spying on him, using units stationed on hills overlooking Karakorum to see if he was hooking up his iron yet. He hadn’t, but then an annoying French city (Lyons) expanded borders and expelled my spies out of visual range.
Spots for good cities were in short supply, but eventually I had 4 in a row along the south coast – spreading from the stone & iron in the west, to the clams & rice in the east. I was a bit slow in hooking up the iron (of course not needing it for jags) which meant I had no axemen to assist in the first push, which came in 700BC when I felt that 13 jags and a few archers would be enough to cope with Khan.
Of course, as soon as I moved I saw that his iron was now hooked up (I quickly un-hooked it) but amazingly he seemed to have no swords or axes! However, my happiness soon faded as I found that his multiple-promoted archers held out very well indeed against jaguars! My assault finally succeeded on the third wave – each time waiting for reinforcements – before Karakorum was ours. I had noticed that I was being inadvertently aided by barbarians – who had been attacking from the other side using axemen!
Karakorum had fallen in 300BC. I mopped up Khan’s other 2 cities by 50BC. The Mongolian empire was gone.
The rest of this spoiler period was spent preparing for the next victim, which was going to be Napoleon. He was just so annoying. Lyons was right in my face, and the expanded borders had taken Karakorum’s iron and some gems which had been mine also. I healed all my units from the Mongolian war, built a few more, hooked up the iron south of the stones, and was getting into position ready for the French war . . . when 500AD came round.
Tune in next time for news of Montezuma. Same cave time! Same cave channel!
@Thrallia
I know we shouldn't talk about events in the (spoiler) future, but - this is appalling news! I feel like we all went off on a generally successful mission, and I just heard one of our boys got shot down!
It made me think about how close to defeat we come even in our victories. Looking back at this latest game (which I can't talk about of course) I was struck by how close I was to disaster. It's like I was running somewhere in the dark at top speed, and looked out later in the daylight to realise I had been running along the edge of a cliff!
I was badly bitten during a practice game on a similar map - I attacked someone to my east and was devastated by a sudden strike from my opponent to the west! You might notice from my write-up this made me over wary about my real game.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
Doh, that wasn't supposed to happen. I can't count. I'm at war with Huayna and running -100gpt at 100% gold so this could become pretty embarrassing if Huayna retakes Machu Picchu.
Oh well, hopefully I do well next month 
