Round Objective
As generally agreed in the roster's pre-Round discussions;
Expand landmass in order to pose a ‘volumetric’ threat to the runaway Americans; wipe out Rome and Persia. Furthermore aim initially for Steel.
I also wanted to build the Oxford University and Wall Street national wonders, and acquire Biology.
Opening
Julius Caesar was developing a considerable SoD of Horse Archers on the border of Neapolis, and it was quite clear that the existing garrison would be overrun should war be declared. Although Rome would be the first target, losing cities to the Romans with the risk of razing was not part of the plan!
Leveraging our Spiritual trait, the following deal was made;
<Image removed - Gandhi offers Nat + Mus + 260
for Gun + Edu>
Swapped civics;
Hereditary Rule / Nationhood / Slavery / Decentralisation / Organised Religion, and drafted Musketmen in Neapolis, Cumae, and the newly renamed Goldstone. I also began moving our Stack of Doom towards the east, envisaging an east to west sweep of the northern continent.
I cycled through the cities with a view to specialisation and renamed them with ‘commerce’ or ‘unit’ suffixes. CornyGems would become a second science centre (proposed site for Oxford), while Tenochtitlan would become our cash centre (proposed site for Wall Street). Credit to Cabert for identifying that the city with the Shrine income would benefit from Wall Street.
Play
Unknowingly, my move out of desperation to access Nationhood would pay handsomely, as the religious difference between Mali and America was clearly annoying Mansa to the point where this deal (noted above) could be made on the next turn;
<Image Removed - Mansa offers War with America + 260
for Nat + Lib + PP>
The diplomatic penalty with Roosevelt was negligible, and because we shared Judaism, he remained ‘Pleased’ throughout the Round. Mansa lost a single city, but they remain at war at 1650AD. I think that this may have considerably slowed the technology pace, as these two were heading the tech’ race, although Gandhi, as expected, would emerge as another technology leader. I suspect that the war was largely phoney – due to the lack of cities being taken and lack of action on the Power chart – but a handy distraction for both leaders nonetheless.
The following turn I was to draft Muskets in Tenochtitlan, IronWheat, and CornyGems, and these units too were sent to Neapolis where there was some whipping up of Pikes also taking place. Following the six drafts, I was soon to switch out of Nationhood and back to Bureaucracy.
I possibly could have declared a few turns earlier on Caesar, but in 1490AD JC chose unwisely by declaring on us.
Really the remaining bulk of the Round from a commentary standpoint was the fall of Rome and the assault on Persia. As noted above, I opted to shift the Macemen and Catapult SoD over to the east and made a deliberate sweep so that captured cities would not require large immediate garrisons as ‘the wave’ at the frontlines would not expose a weak ‘underbelly’. Obviously as Chemistry was acquired the City Raider Maces were upgraded, and likewise with the well-promoted Cannons later on with Steel.
The technology path was pretty well targeted towards Biology, which allows for the comfortable running of extra Specialists wherever wanted or needed, and Slavery gets a new lease of life. Good trades were made with Gandhi especially, but also Mansa, and even Hatshepsut was able to trade me Rifling towards the end. Everyone’s ‘Pleased’ disposition (other than Cyrus) allowed me to ask for cash gifts, including a 520 gold donation from America.
I did shuffle around civics quite a bit, but stuck with Organised Religion throughout, as I whipped out the sixth University for Oxford (CornyGems), and the six Banks required for Wall Street (Tenochtitlan). Pleasingly one legacy from Julius Caesar was the number of Roman cities that were captured with an Academy in tact. I popped two Great Scientists - CornyGems got an Academy with the first, but the second posed a dilemma with the choice of about 2000
to Physics as a very big attraction, but I opted for another Academy, this time in Goldstone; the city to the east of the Capital that was yielding pretty respectable commerce.
Conclusion
By comparison with other games in this Round, I acknowledge that I was a few turns slower than most in the war effort, as Persia still has its capital in addition to its city on the American west coast. Some whipping took place in the last few turns, and as a result there’s still some room for population growth from within. Some games are clearly more advanced along the technology tree with presumably a more peaceful and developmentally-focussed AI and an increased willingness to trade.
I have since had an opportunity to look at the other games, and although Mice was quick to point out the ‘trashy’ status of his game, clearly everyone else did pretty well.
units until Tanks? Rome has Horses, so it is a possibility.
.
. On the other hand falling behind on tech; spent quite a few rounds getting cash for unit upgrades.
- you can't vote for your own game!
