This was undoubtedly the slowest start I have ever experienced. I seriously considered retiring two or three times. But, I have no regrets for playing the Contender save, since I dont believe that the Adventurer save helped any at all.
So it was just another Emperor defeat for me, losing to Mansas space race in 1893 AD.
[maybe the next Emperor level Adventurer save bonuses will be like a start with a half dozen mech inf, modern armor and stealth bombers
]
My economy crashed early and I spent the rest of the game trying to get my infrastructure in place with cottages to dig out.
My primary military unit in the last half of the game was the horse archer, until after 18oo when I got Cossacks.
I was terribly far behind on the tech tree. I was researching Alpha at 5ooAD, but didnt finish until 1154AD. I think this delay might have been because of my happiness limitations, and I side-tracked research through Monarchy to get Hereditary Rule to increase my happiness limits. After finally getting Alphabet, I was disappointed when I met Liz circa 1364AD, and later other civs, because I was too far behind to trade with any of them. I finally met an AI that I could trade with in 1744AD (I did not do a sail about) and Qin needed nationalism, so I picked up many filler techs for that one. Later, I met backward Bismarck, who I was able to trade with (and luckily, seemed to have good relations with everyone else and be no ones worst enemy). I decided to at least head down the cultural path, since I was so far behind in technologies. I was soooo far behind
How far behind were you? I was
so far behind that the AI began gifting techs to me.
Gandhi gifted me Banking in 1796AD, and Liz gave me Military Tradition in 1818 AD (for my Cossacks!).
QUESTION: Does receiving {accepting} an outright gift from another AI count as a trade, for purposes of you have traded with our worst enemies? I turned down Corporation from Gandhi very late in the game because I was afraid it would.
What about paying tribute (1. when asked, or 2. voluntarily)? Does that get you negative diplo with the enemies of the civ you are paying the tribute/giving the gift to? I know you do usually pick up diplo points for paying the tribute with that particular civ, so I am just wondering about the effect on his/her worst enemies with you?
Later on in the mid-1600s or 1700s I was glad I had not retired, as I enjoyed trying to make a cultural comeback.
Peter had acquired two religions and built the religious cultural buildings, and began producing GAs.
I finally got Liberalism in 1819AD, and switched off research to set the cultural slider at 100%. I enjoyed revisiting the cultural victory conditions and trying to streamline toward such a finish. I generated 15 great people ( I think 12 or 13 GAs). At the end of the game (a space race loss to Mansa in 1893AD), I was producing 1oo\54\51 GP ppt in my three legendary city candidates, and a number of my other cities had shots at producing one more GA. My culture per turn was 4oo\264\138 in my three best cities.
I experienced no wars. I gave in to demands when I could without upsetting friends and enemies alike. I tried to avoid obvious diplo errors. And to be blunt, I was just too far behind and too little a fish for the other civs to really worry about me.
Peter only built three wonders (all national wonders). Globe in my capital ca. 146oAD, and later I added the Hermitage there. Built the Natl Epic in Zhou, my GP farm city over on the north east coast. As it turned out though, because the Capital had the Globe it could run more artists early, and it out-produced my GP for much of the game. I did build the temples (6 of each religion) and cathedrals (2 each= four).
I wound up in Pacifism because late game, Mansa asked me to change religions {I had remained Agnostic and Free until that point} and I did. Thus I had a state religion to benefit from Pacifism. And along in here (say mid-18oos) I also had a new MILF. {Mistakes I Learn From}. After a couple of civs started adopting Emancipation, I made a sidetract toward Democracy. What I discovered though, is if I had just continued toward Liberalism, when I adopted FreeSpeech and put my cultural slider near to 100% that the happies from my theatres [and some coliseums] would have prevented me from ever needing to change from Caste into Emancipation. (I assume that is a good rule for almost all cultural games? Or, does the Emancipation unhappies eventually catch up with you? At least I could have delayed Emancipation, I guess?
).
Im posting Peters stats below (notice they are his, not mine
) in case anyone has any suggestions or really needs a good laugh. I was actually pleased that I did not take any of the plethora of sad opportunities given to me to just retire this game early, because I learned a lot by refreshing my memory about cultural games. And, in the end, I was glad to be around at 1893 AD when Mansas space ship launched. And while I am sure it doesnt seem like much to most here, I was less than 100 turns from pulling this out with a cultural vic. Well, considering the start that I had
Okay, so I am not impressed either
Nevertheless, to the staff, I enjoyed {the first part of?} this game and map, and especially the last part. [Note: The long mid-game sucked really badly
just in case I didnt mention that before.]
I've enjoyed the spoiler threads too.
Adama
Code:
Game GoTM 42
Civ Peter
Traits Philo
Expansive
Rivals Six Ais
Difficulty level Emperor
Map Cust Cont
Climate Tropical
Sea Level High
Starting Era Ancient
Speed Epic
Options Raging Barbs, Aggressive AI
Vic Conditions All
Start 1000 BC -- 5 -- AD 5oo AD 1000 AD Ending
Cities 3 4 6 7 8
Population 8 18 24 39 114
Workers 3 4 5 5 6
x/x Units (best, all others) 7/14 10/15 3/20 7/20 6/47
Best Unit Type Chariot Chariot HorseArch HorseArch Cossack
First Barb Warrior 286oBC
Horses Y Y Y Y Y
Copper NO NO NO NO NO
Iron No I/W No I/W No I/W No I/W No
Stone (forgot no Grt Wall) 124oBC Y Y Y Y Y
Marble N N N N N
Luxury Resources Ivory Ivory Ivory Ivory Some trade
Health Resources Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
# Great Persons None None GS Acady same 15
# World Wonder None None None None
# National Wonders None None None None Globe
Pyr=$$$ ca. 1460AD
Food 31 40 59 231
Production 17 17 24 26
Commerce 1 14 6 181
# Sustainable Beakers per turn 1 :( 13 :( 9 :( 3
# Culture per Turn 2 8 24 4oo/264/138
# Great Person Points per turn None None None None 1oo\54\51
Gold 29g 3g 4g 5g 51
# Religions None None None None AI= 5 diff
1794 AD
#/# Cottages Used None 6/9 8/16 14/25
# Civs Killed None None None None Met Liz
1 Barb city ca. 1364
Time Played 6:1o 8:22 14:04 15:07 47:28
(leave game running all time)
Academy Date ca 5ooAD
Alphabet Date 1154AD
Civil Service Date 1637AD
Liberalism Date 1819AD
Oxford Date None
Astronomy Date 1821AD
Biology Date None
Build Order/Buildings Worker 3 Lib's Libraries Culture
Warrior 4 Granaries Graneries buildings
2 Barracks Barracks
2 Walls
Techs Hunting* Stalled
. Stopped
Mining* Wheel Writing Writing Writing at Liberal
>AH->-> AH AH HBR HBR + Mil Trad
>Wheel->-> Hunting Hunting Archery Archery Gifted to me
>BW->-> BW BW BW BW
Researching HBRide Alpha Alpha Rifling
Units killed/lost 59Barb/5 86Barb/14 1o5Barb/16 135Barb/24
Victory Type & Date ??? ??? Go 4 Cult Space
Loss
1893 AD
Needless to say, I never got my hands on that resource. A few turns later France and China sign peace. Later on, in 1840AD France declares on me! Backstabbed by the AI! 
Not a lot of metal around as I was to find out later. Tech wise I was doing ok but with Liz/Mansa and Ghandi I decided going for the internet would be a good thing. I managed to build the Eiffel Tower and RocknRoll along the way as well.
On the plus side Mansa had some quite close so I built up a few tanks and attacked. I forgot to check about dp's so was forced into a war with Ghandi as well. The main problem here was all the resources I lost from Ghandi as I had been selling him my spare oil. Managed to get Louis to attack Ghandi as well so after a while peace all around and I've got my source of aluminium.
) However, I did not pay enough attention on having a good plan and the game just wriggled away from me in the middle ages. (This always happens in to me in Immortal.) Played extremely fast from Optics-15xx AD, pressing end turn every few seconds. Forgot about Liberalism race, tech trade, switching civics etc.
I really enjoyed this one and found it very challenging - luckily the one practice game I played also isolated me so I was (somewhat) ready for an isolated start. The loss only makes the wait for next month unbearable. (Unfortunately, BTS doesn't ship to my country, so I only play Vanilla).
