Longest Time Before Finding Another Civ

[Bill_in_PDX]

I've veen by myself on islands before, but this game, monarch, huge, 12 civ's, large continents, I have seen the worst of it.

I am on an island that accomodates 15 cities comfortably, has iron, horses, many whales, and good fresh water. It's perfect, other than no luxuries of any type.

At first I was happy to find so much great land and no competition. That happiness turned to worry after several thousand years of still not encountering anyone and knowing that I was falling behind in the tech race badly (based upon the messages indicating what wonders had been built).

It is 1420AD and I have fully developed my cities. All internal cities are set on wealth to maximize my science capability (everything is going into the astronomy chain), while the ocean cities are building galleys to sacrifice to the treacherous water gods.

Around 1000 AD I did have a galley live long enough to site land 14 squares south of me, it turned out to be a small desert island, without even sea squares to hint at where the other civ's are. Said galley did not survive it's next foray into the dark unknown.

So, 1420 and no contact....I've won games on this level by 1420 in the past. Around 1300 I learned that the Germans had been eliminated...too bad I never got to meet them.

I can't stop now, I just have to see where all this goes in the end.

What is the latest anyone else has encounted another civ?

 

[Parmenion]

Wow!
Sorry, I can't say I've been by myself for that long before. The longest I've experienced is up to year 200AD or thereabouts when I finally met my neighbours (the Romans) on a similar sized island just next to mine (but far enough away that my galleys couldn't reach it). I had to laugh when I saw that most of their island was desert and little else, and mine was lush grasslands and rolling hills fading into iron-rich mountains - Ha ha! Needless to say they were a little on the primitive side and fell easily to my troops when finally the first caravel was built.
The strange thing is I didn't always receive any information regarding the other Civs in the world that neither I or the Romans had met yet, not even to tell me whether they had built a Great Wonder or not. When I finally met them, they were all ahead of me with regard to Tech, Culture and Military..... go figure.

 

[SteveLS]

In one game, huge, regent, 10 civs, it was late industrial era before the last civ was finally discovered. India had maybe seven or eight cities on a small island all to itself, where it remained until discovered by other civs. Strange that they never tried to explore on their own, and were happy to sit totally isolated for so long.

Of course, being hopelessly backward after such isolation, they did'nt last long once discovered.......

 

[eyrei]

Originally posted by Bill_in_PDX
I've veen by myself on islands before, but this game, monarch, huge, 12 civ's, large continents, I have seen the worst of it.

I am on an island that accomodates 15 cities comfortably, has iron, horses, many whales, and good fresh water. It's perfect, other than no luxuries of any type.

At first I was happy to find so much great land and no competition. That happiness turned to worry after several thousand years of still not encountering anyone and knowing that I was falling behind in the tech race badly (based upon the messages indicating what wonders had been built).

It is 1420AD and I have fully developed my cities. All internal cities are set on wealth to maximize my science capability (everything is going into the astronomy chain), while the ocean cities are building galleys to sacrifice to the treacherous water gods.

Around 1000 AD I did have a galley live long enough to site land 14 squares south of me, it turned out to be a small desert island, without even sea squares to hint at where the other civ's are. Said galley did not survive it's next foray into the dark unknown.

So, 1420 and no contact....I've won games on this level by 1420 in the past. Around 1300 I learned that the Germans had been eliminated...too bad I never got to meet them.

I can't stop now, I just have to see where all this goes in the end.

What is the latest anyone else has encounted another civ?

I have had the exact same experience. At first I was happy I would be able to develop in peace, but then I realized I had no luxuries, and no iron (there were NO hills or mountains on my island). In fact, if I had been playing SMAC, a slight rise in the water level probably would have made my civ go the way of Atlantis.

My only suggestion is to save up a whole lot of money, so that when you do contact the other civs, you can buy a bunch of techs right off, and start to catch up.

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

I once had a game where for some reason the AI neglected it`s tech. I was on an island surrounded by land (!!!! Talk about crappy map generator!!!!!) So I could cross over to there finally, then had to build a city there, realize what was going on, then had to build a city on that island (looked like a bagel or something liek that, just round with a neat circular hole in the middel which had my island in it...). Then finally I could check out this "outer" sea.

I found the other civ on a neat small island with 2 big internal seas - happily beating the **** out of each other. date: roughly 1500 A.D......

In that game I even got Pyramids and GLib - never got anything from it thogh since I found Edu before I found the other civs


something that seems to delay contact is early destruction of the Great Lighthouse...

 

[chiefpaco]

I find the archipelago maps just fascinating just because of the fact that many civs grow up independantly. It's pretty interesting to see some civs with lots of luxuries, some with lots of resources, some behind in tech, some ahead... really shows that trading is king.

Anyway, it's gotta be an archipelago map that takes so long to meet someone else but I haven't broke the 0AD yet myself.

 

[eyrei]

A benefit of starting on an isolated island is that you can probably build one or two early wonders, because you do not have to spend your resources to expand really quickly. In this situation, I build one settler in my capital, 2 units to garrison it, and a temple. Then I start building a wonder, letting the number 2 city start the colonization process.

 

[-proletarian-]

I LOVE when I get those kind of starts.........once I was the French and I had a beautiful island all to myself. It was all lush grasslands, I had both furs and silks, iron, horses, saltpeter......like you, I too had 15 good cities, little to no over-lap, and was pursuing a pascifist building strategy. I discovered that I was surrounded by ocean, and didn't sight the first intrepid foreign caravel until around 1500AD. This was one of the best games I ever played, well, until the Germans won a space race victory, anyways........