Predator Class, going for Conquest.
I combined my Ancient Age into this spoiler since much of the Ancient Age was fought fighting overseas. There also wasn’t much of a Middle Age – a few tribes reached it (including me), but I still used exclusively war chariots/horsemen and didn’t run into a single pikeman.
The first 2 predator challenges are not a big deal, but the third almost means we are playing without a UU. War chariots are now worse than horsemen, so the only reasons to build them are that they are available with The Wheel, and that we can use them to start a Golden Age.
Thanks to the fog-gazers
, I moved the settler NW to be by the promised wheat. Research was set to Pottery at maximum. The worker had time to road the starting BG before irrigating and roading the wheat (I
PTW industrious workers!). I opted to go for a fast settler factory by building 1 worker, then a granary, 1 warrior, then settlers every 4 turns until about 2 rings were completed, then I switched everything to military.
From what little I knew about my surroundings when my first settler came out in 2550 BC, I chose RCP 4 so one town would go on the desert tile N-N-NW; therefore my first settler went SE-SE-SE-E to settle by the game forest. My second ring ended up at RCP 7.
My second city built a granary (aided by a double chop), a couple warriors to get up to size, then 2 turn workers for a while until it was also co-opted for military purposes.
Heliopolis went on the BG between the horse and the cow, built 1 more warrior, a worker, then barracks and chariots. All other towns were essentially military factories and built barracks then chariots or horsemen (or eventually galleys in some cases).
Research was The Wheel, Alphabet (bought the final 10 turns from Greece), Writing, Philosophy, Code of Laws, and Republic. After that research was turned off for the rest of the game – all other techs came via trade or pointy stick. Republic was completed in 950 BC, and I revolted immediately. As it turned out, Monarchy would have been a better choice since I didn’t really develop my towns or expand very much, and my unit costs were enormous.
QSC:
14 cities
39 citizens
19 workers
4 war chariots
4 warriors
1 galley
In 730 BC, I started my first war against the ironless Romans and started my Golden Age in 710 BC with the capture of Rome.
Rome was falling so quickly (once I reached their cities) that I attacked Greece in 570 BC before the Roman war was finished. Rome was eliminated in 490 BC which was the same year I made contact with the Celts and bought/traded for all remaining contacts and world maps. I started a bunch of wars on the other continent tied with peace treaties.
I only sent out 1 suicide galley that sunk before I decided to build the Great Lighthouse (completed in 430 BC). Obviously, it turned out to be unnecessary, but I guess the extra movement and ability to ship-chain over sea tiles helped some. Plus it meant I could ship luxuries home from my overseas conquests to keep my people happy.
From that point, the game was mostly a matter of transporting units to where they were needed and building roads to speed the attack. My only builds other than barracks, horses/chariots, and galleys were 2 harbors (one on each continent). I started overseas on France in 410 BC before I finished the home continent. The dates of extinction were:
-490 – Rome
-390 – Greece
90 – Carthage and France
290 – Germany
310 – Arabs
320 – Celts
340 – Aztecs
360 - India
370 – Conquest victory
I got 2 Great Leaders in the game. The first came in 210 BC – I considered rushing a palace on the other continent, but since several tribes were building the Great Wall, I decided to use the leader to rush the Great Wall purely for denial purposes. The second Great Leader rushed a palace in Lyons in 210 AD but was hardly relevant.
