It's been a while since I've had time to sit down and play a game of Civilization. Being the first game I've played in said new-found time, and being the first deity game I've seriously tried to play, this has been a sharp re-learning curve. It's been enjoyable though. Great gotm!
PTW Open
I didn't keep a written timeline since I didn't think I had a chance of actually getting to the middle ages in competitive shape (I couldn't have been much more wrong, if I do say so myself). So all information here is from my mental timeline.
I started by taking a moment to revel in the greatness of our starting position. I reveled some more, then a little more, and then I came to terms with the fact that I was just procrastinating in the face of the whipping that was surely ahead of me. Not wanting the Iroquois people to go down without a fight, I settled in place and began work on a second scout. I figured I'd need two or three scouts to split up in order to get the contacts I needed to trade my techs before they began trading amongst themselves and leaving me out as they tend to do.
My scout set out due west (I didn't realize till quite a bit later that there was a land bridge that led to the east) and soon happened upon the Carthaginians. They turned out to be the misers of the world and refused to trade me any techs, despite my generous offers. Their horde of warriors was headed north so I sent my scout north to beat them there.
Soon enough I ran into the Arabs. They were more happy to trade techs with only half the deal I offered the Carthaginians. I think I traded Ceremonial Building for Warrior code. Armed with several more techs then Carthage, I was able to convince them to give me the Alphabet for some exorbitant amount that I can't recall. As I had ventured quite far to the north of the map, my scouts set off to the south.
Carthage beat me to the south, but not by much. About a turn or two after they made contact with India I did also. I couldn't convince them to trade techs with me, but I did buy a worker from them for about 100 gold. I think this set them back quite a bit as they only had 4 cities at the height of their power. That's unfortunate, because Carthage is massive by the middle ages. But I digress. My scout headed further west and, running into a coast, made his way east.
Soon enough I bumped into the fourth rival on our half of the continent, France. I remember having three workers running around at this time, so I think that's what I bought from them. It wasn't as expensive as the one from India since I has less then 100 gold after I bought the first worker. It was probably about 60 gold. I don't think buying that worker stunted France's growth as much, but I think they could have pumped out one or two more if I hadn't taken it. After swiping thier worker, my scout headed back north to explore beyond the new-found bridge to the east.
What bridge to the east? Well, that second scout had been built while the first was circling the continent. Most of the time was spent thoroughly exploring the land north, northwest, and southwest of our capital. No sooner did he head east then he ran into the bridge. "Aha!" I said to myself. "A strategically placed narrow land bridge. This can only mean that there are other civilizations beyond. I must try to monopolize this trade route of ideas. None shall pass untill I'm good and ready for them to." I fortified a scout on the bridge and no one passed untill the French sent a settler to the other side in a galley. I sent the other scout due east. A few turns later he bumped into a Persian warrior. Techs were probably traded with them and others (I think this is the time I achieved a short-lived tech parity).
I nosed around the Persian empire for a few turns before I ran into a Roman warrior. I believe they had three workers for sale. I bought one from them then and traded a tech for the other two later. This didn't seem to stunt their growth. It was probably too late for that. The Roman warrior seemed to decide that the polite thing to do would be to escort my scout through the jungle to safety, because he headed north and my scout followed closely behind (I'd learned that the jungle was infested with barbarians).
My scout explored about half of the Roman territory before bumping into a German warrior, completing my list of contacts. The scout again headed north and scoped out the land until I got a world map and his services were no longer needed. During that time I got Philosophy from a goody hut.
***
On the home front, my first move was to irrigate and road the cattle. Soon that was done and I sent my worker to road the furs. When that was done I had built a scout and two warriors and I was building a granary, so I began to chop the forest. About this time I traded for my second worker and sent it to chop also. The chop done, the workers headed to the game and began to chop it. I'd finished my granary by now and I was working on my first settler. The game chop was timed well, as it put the settler out in time to claim the horses to the west of the capital. The game was then irrigated and my settler farm was good to go.
Several more cities were built to the west and then to the south in RCP manner with a spacing of 3 - 3.5 spaces. Three of the cities to the west began work on settlers as soon as they'd built two warriors. I was worried about what I'd read in regards to not having a large enough offensive military and I debated building an archer or two instead. In the long run I'm glad I built the settlers. No one ever attacked me and by the time I began my own warfare archers would have been a bit archaic. I narrowly beat some settlers to land in my second ring of cities, and my empire would have been suffering greatly in the middle ages had it not been for grabbing this land. As I said earlier, Carthage is quite large and they have no need to be any larger. After building one settler, cities that were not the capital were building Mounted Warriors.
Toward the end of the ancient age I had all of the cities I have now in the middle ages minus, of course, the French cities. At that point I directed almost all of my prodution toward Mounted Warriors. I did build a Temple in one key city and a Marketplace in my capital for happiness and money.
***
The tech pace wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. It certainly wasn't as bad as the last GOTM that had Greece in it. That was emperor level and I simply couldn't keep up. I think I've gotten better since then, but I'd be suprised if I was that much better. Maybe I should play that one again... Anyway, I didn't find the tech pace overwhelming and there was an abundance of resources and luxuries for us to exploit.
I think I researched Mysticism, Polytheism, and The Republic myself. The rest I traded for, bought, for got in a peace treaty. I would have bought or fought for The Republic, but I'd have either had to pay an unthinkable amount in gold and gpt or I'd have to wrench it from the cold, lifeless fingers of even the smallest civilization. I knew I'd need that money and income for future upgrades, so that was out of the question. Mysticism took the full 40 turns to research as I had my science tax set to 20%. I didn't get very much for it (maybe a couple workers, which isn't so bad). Polytheism was researched at 50% science tax and I was the first to get it. With this I got Mathematics, Code of Law, Currency, Map Making, and Literature. At that point all I had left was Construction, The Republic, and Monarchy. As I said, I researched the Republic myself in about 30 turns. I got Construction and Monarchy in one peace deal with the French. That catapulted me into the middle ages. Going on up to the point where I get my statistics so far (about 12 turns into the middle ages), I researched Feudalism for about 8 turns untill I captured the Great Library from the French. The Great Library netted me Feudalism, Monotheism, Engineering, and Invention. I'm researching Chivalry as of the last turn I played. I have tech parity for the first time in several thousand years.
***
For the first half of the ancient age my military consistented only of Warriors that were built only as MP. The second half of the ancient age the the tiny bit of the middle ages I have recorded sees me building only Mounted Warriors in an attempt to overwhelm the French. So far it's working nicely.
I was able to raise my army fairly quickly. I had about 30 Warriors and about 16 Mounted Warriors by my first turn in the middle ages. I amassed troops at the French border untill I decided I could overrun a few of their cities.
My first act of war was to declair war on the French. My troops waited just out of harm's reach as the unexpectedly small offensive army of horsemen poured (dripped?) over my border. They were eliminated without a hitch and my Mounted Warriors were off for the nearest French city. The two cities closest to my border were taken handily before French Archers and Spearmen met my advance. I took out the Archers and decided that the Spearmen weren't enough harm to risk my Mounted Warriors, but at the same time I didn't want them pillaging my land. I decided to make peace both so I could regroup and heal my troops and so that the French Spearmen would go back to the other side of their empire. This peace deal sent me into the middle ages.
My troops healed and many more from the motherland joined them. I then directed them toward the next closest French city, their largest, and began my attack. Three Spearmen and a Longbowman put up a good fight. A couple Mounted Warriors suffered one point of damage, nine were red-lined, and one was killed in the assault. But with 21 Mounted Warriors in the stack the city fell with ease. And with that the Great Library was mine. At this time the French had Medieval Infantry, but not enough for them to be anything other then a waste of production. (Speaking of a waste of production, as soon as I captured the third city the French began work on Sun Tzu's. I though that was funny.) I also amassed about 6 more Mounted Warriors and am about to open a second front and attack the northwestern side of the French empire. I figure those cities only have the rudimentry two Spearmen.
My future plans for the military are to conquer France and India. This shouldn't be hard, but I think that since France is a cultural behemoth I'm going to have to destroy the Great Library city lest it flip back to France. But that's ok, it has served its purpose. I'll probably have to destroy a few other cities too. I should be able to keep Paris and a couple smaller cities though. When those conquests are done I'll focus on upgrading my Mounted Warriors to Knights, producing more Knights, and then upgrading Warriors to Medieval Infantry. This will be expensive I fear. If the RNG is really nice to me I'll get a great leader. Then I'll rush Leonardo's and be in a very good position for a quick dominiation of Carthage.
***
I'm still a despotism, and I plan to stay that way for a while. I haven't compaired the amount of troops I have to the support my cities give, but if it's sufficent I might switch to Monarchy when I take India and France. Republic is out of the question. I'd never be able to support all the troops I need without many Marketplaces and maybe Banks. I can't wait that long to take Carthage. I don't want to give them time to get their hands on too many Musketmen, or even worse, Cavalry. When I have Carthage, I'll be unparalleled and the rest of the world will soon be mine. Then I can go for whatever victory I like. Maybe I can milk it...
Statistics as of a couple turns after 450 BC (about 12 turns into middle ages):
18 cities
7 native workers
12 foreign workers
29 warriors
3 spearmen
30 mounted warriors
1 granary
1 marketplace
1 temple
610 gold
23 gpt
6th place with 562 points
Persia is in first with 954
currently researching chivalry
got feudalism, monotheism, invention, and engineering from great library
![[ptw]](/images/smilies/ptw.gif "PTW Icon [ptw]")
Open class
We move instead the settler against river to the north.
Nice map, Ainwood! 
