WARNING: Lengthy thread ahead!
I've been playing the RoCX mod for a few weeks now, and I have to say that in my decade of playing Civ and all its variants, this is the best, most compelling modpack I've ever tried. I've been playing on Monarch, trying to get a feel for the nuances, and I've had a few Histographic victories with England and Japan (and some close-calls with Rome and Arabia), before finally picking up a Cultural Win with France. If you'll bear with me, here's a bare-bones mini-AAR:
[the approximate location of game cities is indicated by reference to nearby real-world city locations, except for initial capital cities]
Paris founded 4000BC
Orleans[Bucharest] founded 3000 BC (got really lucky with a goody hut)
Lyons [Luxembourg] founded 2000 BC
Marseilles [Belgrade] founded 1225 BC
Rheims [Nantes] founded 1050 BC
Tours [Strasbourg] founded 950 BC
Chartres [Bordeaux] founded 270 BC
Berlin captured 230 AD (refused to give into German demands -> war)
Asa Temple completed in Lyon in 310 AD
Hamburg [Warsaw] captured from Germany 330 AD
Stonehenge completed in Lyon in 570 AD
Vienna captured 590 AD (a pre-meditated assault on Austria)
Lagos [Dijon] captued 610 AD (culture-flip from Portugal)
Salzburg [L'vov] captured from Austria 670 AD
Constantinople captured 810 AD (another ambush, this time on Byzantines)
Louis Pasteur appears as SGL in 870 AD
Athens captured 950 AD (yet another planned assault, this time on Greece)
Sparta [Sparta!] captured from Greece 970 AD
St. Peter's Basilica completed in Paris in 1020 AD (Louis Pasteur used to rush-build)
Amsterdam captured 1040 AD (the Greeks brought the Dutch into the battle)
Rotterdam [Aarhus] captured from Dutch 1060 AD
Sogut captured 1150 AD (my last pre-emptive attack, this time on Ottomans)
Bilecik [Trebizond] captured from Ottomans 1180 AD
Hagia Sophia completed in Paris in 1220 AD
Crusades completed in Lyon in 1310 AD
Avignon [Belem] founded 1456 AD (France's first overseas colony)
Besancon [Recife] founded 1464 AD
Rouen [Buenos Aires] founded 1592 AD
Leonardo's Workshop completed in Vienna in 1640 AD (I built the FP there circa 1000 AD)
Magellan's Voyage completed in Rheims in 1648 AD
Shakespeare's Theater completed in Paris in 1720 AD
Grenoble [Asuncion] founded 1728 AD
Newton's University built in Vienna in 1764 AD
France's Golden Age begins in 1784 AD, as a Musketeer successfully defends Salzburg from a German sneak attack!
Leipzig [Riga] captured from Germany 1800 AD
Frankfurt [St. Petersburg] captured from Germany 1808 AD
India Trading Company completed in Sogut in 1816 AD
Munich [Kiev] captured from Germany 1824 AD
Konigsberg [Voronezh] captured from Germany 1832 AD
Moscow captured from Germany 1840 AD (Napoleon, this time we stay!)
Encyclopedia built in Vienna in 1888 AD
France wins a 35k Cultural Victory in 1926 AD
This game was fantastically fun! I used goody huts and tech trading to build up a tech lead which I never lost. After getting Philosophy first, I took Mounted Combat as my free tech, then researched to Monarchy, using the time to finish peaceful settling, then quick temple builds, then hordes of Horse Archers. After finishing my first warring period around 1200 AD, I switched to Republic, mostly so I could rush-build infrastructure in my valuable South American colonies. When war came again in the early modern period, I found out just how useful the French UU's are. I didn't lose a single Musketeer, allowing me to maintain a fast pace, together with the superb Grand Battery, which worked beautifully in the depths of Russia in conjunction with Cavalry. Then, I pretty much ran out the clock.
Thank You, Rhye!!!
Final Notes (for now):
- Although Enkidu Warrior's write-up of Arabia puts them as a mediocre war-monger, I had no trouble building hordes of Ansar Warriors with only a handful of cities, as I simply built Horsemen and mass-upgraded (much easier given the lower upgrade costs of RoCX). Feudal Moarchy was also a perfect fit for the relatively small Arabian cities.
- Maybe it's just me, but it seems like no matter who I play now, if they're anywhere near Austria, I make like a crack-whore for Vienna, arguably the best city-site in the game. In similar fashion, unless I'm playing an Asian or Middle Eastern power, I always go for the same 4 spots in South America: Belem [rubber and spice], Recife [tobacco and gems], Asuncion [mustangs, great site to build Statue of Liberty], and Buenos Aires [port for Asuncion]. It feels a little deterministic, but I guess that's just because I'm smarter than the AI
- If you're playing below Emperor (like me), you'll never even see an airplane, let alone a spaceship. That's with maximum tech-trading and research strategies. I know, I know, I should step up to Emperor, but I don't really mind, as the game is exciting throughout.
- Can anyone advise the best candidates for a Spaceship Victory? England seems an obvious choice, but I've already tried them several times.
Thanks again to Rhye (and anyone else who read this far)!