This is a standard continent 70% water map, difficulty Sid , barbarian raging, 7 AIs most aggressive, all others random. I found myself is China, and have river, 1 cow and 3 wines nearby, goody hut pops a warrior, -- looks not bad in the beginning. Max research pottery, and explore ... Gee, we are in an isolated island!
Beijing becomes a 5-turn settler factory, but some nice barbs hamper me to settle new cities quickly. After pottery, max research alphabet. We need to build curragh and meet people, don't we? But just when I have the 1st curragh, Japanese settler and spear pair jumped into our island! That's 1500 BC, turn 60. I have 4 cities, and they have 14. Hey, jap, since we are so close, why not show up earlier to save me some cost in alphabet? I happen to have an archer right there after fighting barbs, so ... We have 2 jap workers.
After 8 turns we see some Dromons sailing around, wow, welcome Theodora! But they come here not for party but for claiming the same desert area where the jap settler wanted to get. So ... 2 Byzantine workers. Why they love that place? There must be oil or sth ...
Suddenly a barb uprising happens near Chengdu, in 1175 BC, turn 73. Which 2 civs enter middle age? All the 3 of us are backwards people at this point. To save our 145 gold, I sign peace with jap and buy writing (just 2 turns before I can know it via self research), and build an embassy in Kyoto. They have both horse and iron. The rest cash is used to buy burial, with 9 gpt. Then I go for literature. The great lib is built by Babylon in 710 BC, damn so early? I bet they use a SGL ... Anyway I don't count on building GL, but want to trade it with jap and Byzantine.
Shortly after that, our embassy reports that jap declares war to Byzantine! Aha, they think their galley stands a chance vs. dromon? At the same time, Mongol is destroyed, before I get to know them and their foes. Good, at least we are not the 1st to be wiped out.
It's amazing to see dromons's "Greek fire" around. They sink jap ships, and try to bombard my cities and roads. It's funny that most of their bobardments fail, and the only true loss they make is 1 citizen in Shanghai. Maybe I should garrison some unit there, so they can only redline it?
Meanwhile, a elite warrior (I think he was the conscript warrior from goody hut) kills a Byzantine spear, destroyes a city, and pops up a leader (Kuang-Yin, the founder of Song Dynasty)! Militaristic trait is not too bad ...
I think we need to meet more people, but to do this, we need to make peace with Theodora. Our 1/1/2 curragh simply has nowhere to go, with so many 2/1/5 dromons (yeah, Byzantine built the great lighthouse, their ships are crazily fast) going everywhere. And we need RoP with jap, because that's the only safe (coastal) water area to enter. Currently Tokugawa is polite to me, because we share a common enemy, so we sign a straight up RoP. Then I make peace with Byzantine, and jap becomes unhappy. They wouldn't accept RoP if signing peace with Byzantine first
My 3 curraghs go out slowly, and see jap and byz fighting everywhere. Edo is captured by byz once, and jap recaptures it. Jap built a city in my island (before I had enough settlers!), and byz continously send swords trying to capture it. But I don't meet any other civ.
At this period, I claim all the other areas in my island. And when I get 10 cities, rush forbidden palace in Shanghai with Kuang-Yin. Emm ... why not build an army? The reason is that we don't have right units to put in the army! For defending this island, we don't need army. For invading jap's continent (it's just funny that China and jap's relation is reversed in this game), a defensive army can be very helpful, -- but we will first need map making, bronze working, and preferably iron working (you don't like a spear army, do you?), and math (without artillery, no way to capture cities). That's a lot of techs and units to prepare, do we really have that much time? And you can see now jap has mace ... Sending spear and sword to fight mace looks not so promising. I build temples and granaries in my cities ... Not much point to build more archers and warrios besides for MP, and I let Beijing to build 1-turn MP warriors.
After getting literature, it's time to trade. What, map making is just "close to an deal"? OK, fine. Let's get code of laws and philosophy. If instead (with reloading ...) I get iron working and wheel from literature, I see there is an iron in my island, but no horse. And jap has at least 3 irons.
Then a single scientist to ... bronze working?! Don't laugh, I don't mean to do it in 50 turns. I want to steal republic from jap, and need to gather cash. That steal will be after buying all their cash for gpt, and we get either republic or a war
Just when I have enough cash (adding Tokugawa's, of course) for an immediate steal, in 150 BC, William of Netherlands jumps to suggest sell us a tech?! Wow, they know both printing press and Theodora ... OK, here is my save file. I could buy communication with any one of the other 3: Greece, Babylon, Persia. Greece and Babylon share a landmass and are advanced, Persia is still in AA for being in an island. But maybe it's better to wait for them to sell our communication to others.
Then buy jap's cash, wheel, and math, and a failed steal leads to war. Destroy Toyama, lose 2 archers, no leader.
How could I possibly WIN this game?
First, war or peace? War looks beneficial for our mil trait, but how to? And I would steal tech from those strong guys some time, and it could fail and bring a war. Isn't it harder to defend cities not in our island?
If peace, just defend our tiny island ... It's continent map, so maybe no one can reach domination victory, not to say conquest. And UN win is usually impossible for AI, unless we are doing AW. Culture ... There are 4 scientific rivals, and 1 agricultual, everybody is strong. Probably no one can gain more than double cultures than the 2nd guy.
So is space victory the only reasonable way to go? To do that, we need to defend our 11-city island, and continously try tech steal and 2-fer. Although we are terribly behind now, hopefully AIs will be slow in buliding spaceship. We could ignite some world war to make tech pace slow, just a possibility. The negative side is that 4 civs are scientific ... And we are mil. In this sense I really wish we were commercial or scientific (Greece or Korea?).
Do you have suggestion to such a miserable (but interesting) situation?
Beijing becomes a 5-turn settler factory, but some nice barbs hamper me to settle new cities quickly. After pottery, max research alphabet. We need to build curragh and meet people, don't we? But just when I have the 1st curragh, Japanese settler and spear pair jumped into our island! That's 1500 BC, turn 60. I have 4 cities, and they have 14. Hey, jap, since we are so close, why not show up earlier to save me some cost in alphabet? I happen to have an archer right there after fighting barbs, so ... We have 2 jap workers.
After 8 turns we see some Dromons sailing around, wow, welcome Theodora! But they come here not for party but for claiming the same desert area where the jap settler wanted to get. So ... 2 Byzantine workers. Why they love that place? There must be oil or sth ...
Suddenly a barb uprising happens near Chengdu, in 1175 BC, turn 73. Which 2 civs enter middle age? All the 3 of us are backwards people at this point. To save our 145 gold, I sign peace with jap and buy writing (just 2 turns before I can know it via self research), and build an embassy in Kyoto. They have both horse and iron. The rest cash is used to buy burial, with 9 gpt. Then I go for literature. The great lib is built by Babylon in 710 BC, damn so early? I bet they use a SGL ... Anyway I don't count on building GL, but want to trade it with jap and Byzantine.
Shortly after that, our embassy reports that jap declares war to Byzantine! Aha, they think their galley stands a chance vs. dromon? At the same time, Mongol is destroyed, before I get to know them and their foes. Good, at least we are not the 1st to be wiped out.
It's amazing to see dromons's "Greek fire" around. They sink jap ships, and try to bombard my cities and roads. It's funny that most of their bobardments fail, and the only true loss they make is 1 citizen in Shanghai. Maybe I should garrison some unit there, so they can only redline it?
Meanwhile, a elite warrior (I think he was the conscript warrior from goody hut) kills a Byzantine spear, destroyes a city, and pops up a leader (Kuang-Yin, the founder of Song Dynasty)! Militaristic trait is not too bad ...
I think we need to meet more people, but to do this, we need to make peace with Theodora. Our 1/1/2 curragh simply has nowhere to go, with so many 2/1/5 dromons (yeah, Byzantine built the great lighthouse, their ships are crazily fast) going everywhere. And we need RoP with jap, because that's the only safe (coastal) water area to enter. Currently Tokugawa is polite to me, because we share a common enemy, so we sign a straight up RoP. Then I make peace with Byzantine, and jap becomes unhappy. They wouldn't accept RoP if signing peace with Byzantine first
My 3 curraghs go out slowly, and see jap and byz fighting everywhere. Edo is captured by byz once, and jap recaptures it. Jap built a city in my island (before I had enough settlers!), and byz continously send swords trying to capture it. But I don't meet any other civ.
At this period, I claim all the other areas in my island. And when I get 10 cities, rush forbidden palace in Shanghai with Kuang-Yin. Emm ... why not build an army? The reason is that we don't have right units to put in the army! For defending this island, we don't need army. For invading jap's continent (it's just funny that China and jap's relation is reversed in this game), a defensive army can be very helpful, -- but we will first need map making, bronze working, and preferably iron working (you don't like a spear army, do you?), and math (without artillery, no way to capture cities). That's a lot of techs and units to prepare, do we really have that much time? And you can see now jap has mace ... Sending spear and sword to fight mace looks not so promising. I build temples and granaries in my cities ... Not much point to build more archers and warrios besides for MP, and I let Beijing to build 1-turn MP warriors.
After getting literature, it's time to trade. What, map making is just "close to an deal"? OK, fine. Let's get code of laws and philosophy. If instead (with reloading ...) I get iron working and wheel from literature, I see there is an iron in my island, but no horse. And jap has at least 3 irons.
Then a single scientist to ... bronze working?! Don't laugh, I don't mean to do it in 50 turns. I want to steal republic from jap, and need to gather cash. That steal will be after buying all their cash for gpt, and we get either republic or a war
Just when I have enough cash (adding Tokugawa's, of course) for an immediate steal, in 150 BC, William of Netherlands jumps to suggest sell us a tech?! Wow, they know both printing press and Theodora ... OK, here is my save file. I could buy communication with any one of the other 3: Greece, Babylon, Persia. Greece and Babylon share a landmass and are advanced, Persia is still in AA for being in an island. But maybe it's better to wait for them to sell our communication to others.
Then buy jap's cash, wheel, and math, and a failed steal leads to war. Destroy Toyama, lose 2 archers, no leader.
How could I possibly WIN this game?
First, war or peace? War looks beneficial for our mil trait, but how to? And I would steal tech from those strong guys some time, and it could fail and bring a war. Isn't it harder to defend cities not in our island?
If peace, just defend our tiny island ... It's continent map, so maybe no one can reach domination victory, not to say conquest. And UN win is usually impossible for AI, unless we are doing AW. Culture ... There are 4 scientific rivals, and 1 agricultual, everybody is strong. Probably no one can gain more than double cultures than the 2nd guy.
So is space victory the only reasonable way to go? To do that, we need to defend our 11-city island, and continously try tech steal and 2-fer. Although we are terribly behind now, hopefully AIs will be slow in buliding spaceship. We could ignite some world war to make tech pace slow, just a possibility. The negative side is that 4 civs are scientific ... And we are mil. In this sense I really wish we were commercial or scientific (Greece or Korea?).
Do you have suggestion to such a miserable (but interesting) situation?