Historical/Unhistorical aspects of your game

[brucedecatz]

I got to love my China game I just won via UHV. Not only is the taste of winning always sweet, but the feeling that you are recreating history with small divergence here and there is quite fun.

Historical aspects:

-Founded Confucianism and Taoism (the...)
-Not having alphabets for sometime (The Chinese do not use alphabets) but traded for it
-Discovered Compass (from a hut!) Paper and Gunpowder ahead of most other nations (noticeably the Europeans). The Japanese has Paper earlier than me and of course the Turks arrive with Gunpowder before anyone else.
-Built the Great Wall.
-Having gunpowder but did not do much with it. Instead have a large army comprising of mostly obsolete units(translate:spearman) in 1600.
-Getting in touch with most of the new European nations was late and completely not on my initiative

Unhistorical:

-Annihilated the Mongols and the Persians and took their cities.
-Christian missionaries came my way in 700 AD, while in reality they reached China only in the 1400s (Maybe they were heading for Persian cities, but by that time they were mine)
-Portugal wanted to vassalise to me and I declined.

Would like to hear more people sharing their interesting experiences.

 

[lumpthing]

Actually the first Christian missionaries really did arrive around that time: http://www.cjvlang.com/Dow/mission.html

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Also, the Chinese had extensive use of gunpowder, which the Mongols learned only after they conquered China. See wikipedia, from which the following quote was taken:

In the year 1259, the official Li Zengbo wrote in his Ko Zhai Za Gao, Xu Gao Hou that the city of Qingzhou was manufacturing one to two thousand strong iron-cased bomb shells a month, dispatching to Xiangyang and Yingzhou about ten to twenty thousand such bombs at a time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_gunpowder

 

[Verily]

Actually the first Christian missionaries really did arrive around that time: http://www.cjvlang.com/Dow/mission.html

Xi'an was actually famous for, at one time, having as many Nestorian churches as Buddhist or Taoist temples. The Tang were pretty obsessed with foreign religions and really encouraged a flowering of Buddhism and Christianity within China. Of course, the Song (and late Tang as well, after the rebellion of An Lushan) generally though that foreign influence was what caused the Tang to fail, and were very reactionary Confucians who cracked down hard on Buddhism and even harder on Nestorian Christianity, eventually all but wiping it out. Some very small pockets of Nestorianism did survive in western China right into the modern period, though.

 

[brucedecatz]

I did build one cannon. My main army was not gunpowder-based. I think my gunpowder/non-gunpowder army ratio still makes my game historical. And I have a lot of Chokunus! Apparently the Chinese still used them in the 19th century.

The Nestorian story was enlightening.

Curious to hear what experience other players have.

 

[lumpthing]

Here's my experience as Rome, and then America, up to 1870

Historical
- Christianity founded within the Roman Empire
- India founded multiple religions but was predominantly Hindu
- The Roman Empire was overwhelmed by younger civilizations and a large chunk became France

Unhistorical
- In addition to the French, the Turks and the Babylonians helped destroy the Roman Empire
- A much-reduced Roman Empire remained intact into the modern era in the form of Rome and the Christian holy city
- Babylon and Turkey also helped destroy the Roman Empire
- The Vikings live in a cold part of the Far East
- Eurasia is almost entirely under the thrall of a mighty Holy Roman Empire
- Spain is an island, became the world's first democracy and built the statue of liberty
- France was the only nation to colonize the Americas, but this colony broke free and became America
- England, Portugal, the Netherlands, Japan, China, the Khmer, the Incas and the Mayas never existed


Overall, it does have a really rewriting history feel to it, but it would be even better if I could have all the civs in (playing on standard map)

 

[Corm]

My Greece on Monarch which I recently won had no Med. I founded Christianity, Collapsed India and Khmer as Greece Circumnavigated the globe by 1200 and had built just about ever wonder from Ancient Times to Medieval except the Great Wall, Statue of Zeus and Hanging Gardens (Built by China). Ethiopia conquered Rome and Carthage ruined the Arabian spawn thanks to having Pikes in something like 1000AD.

My blast through India after about a billion restarts (I may exaggerate a little there) had me found 6 religions! I still don't know how I got Taoisim before China/Japan but suspect they collapsed. I wish i had saved a screenie to show you all because I had India perfectly walled in along the West, North and East sides with Ocean to my south. An abundance of bananas got me the Pop win but it was a close run with Arabia being my main rival. Actually apart from hitting 6 religions My India game wasnt too much different from standard RFC.

I've seen far weirder things but too many to post and remember clearly. An Islamic England sticks in my mind as does Rome conquering Germany and Russia.

 

[brucedecatz]

Ethiopia conquered Rome

I think this beats all the other "weird" things you mentioned in your last paragraph.