frist
I enter the Middle Ages in 330 BC, with China down to 2 cities and the Egyptian OCC next in my list. In 230 BC, Beijing falls, the Pyramids are captured and China is no more. Moreover, the 2nd leader is generated and it is kept spare for now. Two turns later, Egypt is gone as well and i become the exclusive owner of the whole homeland - because the Greek OCC is on an island SW of the continent.
The next task is to assemble an adequate fleet and ship units oversea to invade India. Meanwhile, i'm researching at full speed up to Astronomy and Navigation. Thanks to the Great Lighthouse, i won't need Astronomy to safely ship troops oversea, but i'll need Navigation to enjoy the full set of luxuries both home and abroad, a goal that i want to reach as soon as possible.
Production is a careful balance between military and improvements. I'm giving equal priorities to libraries and markets, because my #1 goal is to maximize the number of happy people through the empire. Of course research and production potentials are also important, both for obvious reasons. In this regard, i'm moving a fair amount of cities to either fit into the RCP 4 (Shangai, Sparta) or into the second ring at RCP 8 (Canton, Nanking, Corinth, Alexandria, Elephantine).
By 30 BC, my fleet is ready to land forces on the Indian coast. At this point, all the planned relocations have been carried out, all the core cities except for one have a library and half of them have a marketplace while the others are, at various stages, building them. I'm also building universities in Zimbabwe, Athens and Ulundi, the three most popolous core cities. On the research front, i'm 5 turns away from Astronomy.
The Indians aren't a big deal, but there's a complication with them: eons ago, India had sneak-attacked Russia and captured Smolensk, just 3 tiles away from their capital. It would be a waste of time to go there by myself, so i decide to ally with Russia and hope they take care of it by themselves. Meanwhile, in 10 AD France finally researches Feudalism, so i trade for the tech and decide to ship the spare leader oversea to rush Sun Tzu in a former Indian town, in order to be able to upgrade swords directly on the front line.
By 130 AD India is reduced to 2 cities, Smolensk (come on, Catherine!) and another small settlement detached from their former homeland. With an alliance still in place and Russia yet to carry on their task i decide to move against France. They are quite a different beast, with pukemen defending into size 7+ cities and a large cultural potential (read: flips) but my numbers are enough to subdue their cities one by one.
In 190 AD i complete my research on Navigation and, with a harbor already built oversea, i can finally collect 6 luxuries and trade for the remaining 2. Research continues at a slower pace toward Banking. Next turn Carthage completes Invention and i happily trade for that tech. One turn after the Russians finally manage to take over that crappy settlement near Moscow but i have to wait for the alliance to expire (or for them to sign peace) to take over what's left of India.
The near totality of attacks against France is carried over with elite units, and during the battle of Paris my quest for the 3rd leader is finally over. Orleans is moved one tile NE, to fit into the center of the new RCP 4+8, and the Forbidden Palace is rushed there. Too bad for Sistine Chapel, which is lost forever (read: who cares?).
In 280 AD i take over the Indian OCC and in 320 AD France is gone as well. Besides the capture of the Greek OCC, which has to be performed in the early Industrials, my military campaigns are over. At this point i've just researched Banking and, while my original core is pretty well developed, my second core is obviously lacking on almost everything, so i decide to keep research at a minimum rate (to Gunpowder) in order to spend the necessary cash into developing properly that area. I'm still 160 tiles below the Domination limit, but, with a mix of cultural expansions and settling, that gap will progressively shrink to just 2 tiles in the early Industrials, and with 99% happiness.
In 420 AD Russia completes Gunpowder. I buy that tech immediately and resume research at full speed up to the Industrials, which are reached in 620 AD. Meanwhile, Zimbabwe has built Copernicus (by bare hands) and is building Newton's (also by bare hands) while Athens is prebuilding for Theory of Evolution. Russia and Greece are gifted to parity and they pick Medicine and Steam. Alas, the price required for Steam is outrageous, to the point that it would hamper my rush to Electricity, so i decide to research Nationalism, in an (ultimately futile) attempt to have the AS research one more tech besides Replaceable Parts.
As soon as Nationalism is known i trade for techs, attack the Greek OCC, get a disastrous SOUR (you need at least one to have a spoiler worth its name
) and then finally destroy them next turn with the help of further reinforcements. Research goes to Electricity, followed by Scientific Method, followed by the upper branch up to Combustion, followed by the lower branch up to Radio.
Alas, after completing their optional tech (Economics, and i was expecting it), Carthage decided to go for Sanitation, and Russia was simply too slow to research Replaceable Parts, so for the time that tech was known it was clearly too late to hope for the AS to complete either Mass Production or Flight in a useful time, and i had to research everything else by myself. Even so, i was able to keep 4-turns research during the whole Industrials, with the sole exception of Atomic Theory completed in 5, and also to not lose any turn by timing Evolution with the completition of a research. Moreover, the added benefit of hospitals allowed me to build a few selected metroes and squeeze in a few more happy people.
Progressively, slaves were joined into the new core cities and, later on, the majority of the national workers followed suit. One by one, all my non-metro cities, including the few hopelessly corrupt ones, were brought to size 12 with full happiness. At the end of the game, the base score provided by people was slightly
higher than the one provided by territory, and with a tile count that was kept less than 10 tiles below the Domination limit for a whole era.
With only one scientific AS left, i set up two prebuilds for the UN, one to be completed at the projected date for reaching the Modern Ages and one to be completed 5 turns later. I choosed two cities with mountain tiles in their radius, to be able to tune up the production per turn without losing population and/or the WLTKD status.
In 1100-1110 AD interturn i'm into the Modern Ages. Russia is gifted to parity but fishes Computers, so i switch the Palace prebuild to Smith's and the Hoover Dam prebuild to Palace. Five turns later, Fission is researched, the Palace prebuild turns to the UN, just in time to complete it, and i score a Diplomatic victory in 1160 AD. The end date isn't great, but the score... well, let's just say that to win this competition you have to set a new all-time high for Diplo victories, and not by a small margin
Very enjoyable map, from the beginning to the end. Thank you very much mad-bax for having set it up.
Here's the research log from the Middle Ages onward:
_330bc: Engineering (trade, Russia); Monotheism (trade, Greece);
_190bc: Theology (research);
__90bc: Education (research);
__70bc: Monarchy (trade, somebody);
__10ad: Feudalism (trade, France);
__70ad: Astronomy (research);
_190ad: Navigation (research);
_210ad: Invention (trade, Carthage);
_320ad: Banking (research);
_420ad: Gunpowder (trade, Russia)
_460ad: Chemistry (research);
_500ad: Physics (research);
_540ad: Theory of Gravity (research); Chivalry (trade, Carthage);
_580ad: Magnetism (research);
_620ad: Metallurgy (research);
_660ad: Nationalism (research); Steam Power, Medicine (trade, Russia);
_700ad: Electricity (research);
_740ad: Scientific Method (research); Economics (trade, Russia);
_780ad: Industrialization (research);
_820ad: Corporation (research); Steel, Refining (ToE);
_860ad: Combustion (research);
_910ad: Atomic Theory (research);
_920ad: Sanitation (trade, Russia);
_950ad: Electronics (research);
_970ad: Replaceable Parts (trade, Russia);
_990ad: Radio (research);
1030ad: Mass Production (research);
1070ad: Motorized Transportation (research); Communism (trade, Carthage);
1110ad: Flight (research);
1160ad: Fission (research); Computers (trade, Russia); Military Tradition (trade, Carthage);
And here's the final kill log:
1100bc: Greece is OCC
_710bc: Egypt is OCC
_230bc: China
_190bc: Egypt
_280ad: India
_320ad: France
_680ad: Greece
That may account for the 10 turns difference between our games: I finished in 1260 AD.
