Looking at the different empires and nations in the game, I can't help noticing that the size of the strongest empires are all very similar in size (assuming that number of cities actually is closely related to size, which probably isn't the case right now) now that the Dutch had a chunk of their empire secede. The Spanish, the Dutch, the Indians, The Chinese, The Iroquios, and the Javquazans all have about a dozen cities, although the first three are more powerful and have vassals. Not mentioned are the Incans, the Aztecs, and the Holy Romans, who have less cities but are still powerful. Although we currently have 12 cities, many of them are not yet core cities and will need time to grow. Now that the Dutch have fallen from their previous glory, this is one of the most balanced games I've played so far in terms of who's ahead.
Also, I find it interesting that in ancient times, Russia was apparently small two-city empire, but they now control their ancient homeland, several cities the Dutch founded nearby, and half of ancient Portugal (which was also apparently a two-city civ). It kind of reminds me of what happened with the Roman Empire when it split so that they could take on the invaders facing them and not have to worry about rebel generals taking parts of the empire while the emperor was away at war. The Byzantines formed an empire that had some cultural aspects of ancient Greece, yet it controlled more lands. However, in this case, the Russians are significantly weaker than their powerful neighbors.
By the way, I just changed the reason for Russian independence in my last post. I'll now regard it more like the Roman Empire's split and less like a Russian rebellion. The latter doesn't really make sense anyway because northern Holland had several nations that were all forced into the Dutch empire and they probably wouldn't try and split into one nation, but several. (Plus the Dutch let them leave peacefully, leading me to imagine that they would prefer a split more like the real life Roman split).
I also added a note about Native America to my list at the end of my last post.
1087AD:
The Holy Romans have recaptured Munich. Even though it means that they are no longer landlocked, it will still make a very poor port since it is so small.
Azteca has declared war on Holy Rome, which seems to be a popular thing to do lately. Our spies report that the Aztecs will be done with Gunpowder in a few turns, which will make them a little more formidable (and if it weren't for that, there might be a chance I would consider attacking them). Holy Rome really should not have ever agreed to be the master of Maya, that was what started their downfall and it looks like all their neighbors would gladly take advantage of it. Even though most of the continent (and China) is united by Zoroastrianism (except for Native America and Germany), the bonds are weak since ancient hatreds cause constant war.
1099AD:
Greece has agreed to become a Spanish protectorate.
We have finished Engineering (which will allow castles, helping our economy somewhat), done a tech trade, and now have started on Optics. No one has gotten circumnavigation of the globe yet so I'm going to assume that we still stand a chance. The triremes we're building should be done before Optics, finishing our quest, and later we can upgrade them to Caravels, which means that we're going to need the money to do that and some explorers.
We founded Tarsos between Kyoto and Mutal. Our economy will really take a hit, but I think that we need to get it founded so that we can move on to other things. We can build wealth in the meantime.
1123AD:
Spain stops the deal that brought us copper. We offer a new deal of stone for copper (we only currently have one stone, but we'll have two soon once we get access to the one near Tarsos).
Kurzontin, Javquazan diplomat to Spain, 1123AD
The Spanish Empire is suffering some rebellion due to Carthaginian nationalists in their southwestern cities. Due to the friction this has caused with Carthage and the likelihood that the rebels are being prompted and funded by Carthage, Spain has gone to war with Carthage. This will mean that the Dutch will go to war to protect their Carthaginian vassals, and Kanah will be locked in a war like the one my father taught me about. Unlike that one, Spain instead of Holland is the aggressor and is more powerful. I know not what will happen or who will be victorious, but I have a feeling that my position here in the embassy is about to become much more important....
1129AD:
The Apostolic Palace proposes war on India by the known world, which we vote to not do. On the other hand, we won't refuse it if everyone decides to do it (and since the Spanish and their vassals dominate the Apostolic Palace and the Dutch are still at war with India, it is possible that the vote will be passed if no one refuses it).
We finish building our "largest fleet of warships". "Advisors across the known world whisper of their fears that this fleet will dominate the seas for centuries to come." We get +2
in all our ports.
Although we may have a large fleet, it is not yet modern, but once we soon have Optics, it will be. Having strong naval forces is going to be especially important to our military because it will be significantly easier for our enemies to conquer us by sea than by breaching the passes in the Vondak Mountains (and we control all of Naguamdin that is west of the Vondaks now that Numidia is ours. Since the Holy Romans have only one weak port, I don't think they will be a threat, and the Aztec military isn't quite as strong (it's about equal with ours), so I think that China will remain our most significant opponent for a while.
Because of this new war in Kanah, I think that it's about time for an analysis of its history. Although we weren't familiar with Kanah, like we were with Naguamdin, until later in the game, looking at the cities and regions, and the demographics graphs will give us some information. Before I go further, I think what I should have done long ago is to point out the current civs that sprouted from barbarian cities (which I can deduce by finding the civs on the graph that suddenly appeared). They are Holy Rome and Inca (which we knew about), Assyria, Korea, Carthage, Norway, India, Germany, Khmer, Greece, Ethiopia, and Zululand. Some of the dead civs could have been barbarian (well, obviously Japan), but there's no way to tell unless they come back to life later. There are at least 7 dead civs (according to the graph, although I know of more) and other than Japan and England, who we subjugated, I suspect that they were all in Kanah.
Here's a map of what southern Kanah looks like right now:
Obviously, the Dutch and Spanish are extremely influential there, especially in southern Kanah. Interestingly, neither of them are barbarian civs (although I've seen plenty of barbarian civs do as well as them). It appears that they both did well and were successful in ancient times, and they were probably each uncontested (except by each other) until the barbarian civs in the area arose. (Their diplomatic relations towards each other indicates that they have only been to war these two times ,unless the diplomatic penalty decayed at some point.) Assyria and Carthage appeared between Spain and Holland. Assyria eventually capitulated to Holland and Carthage asked for Dutch protection, so Holland must have been very powerful for a while. Also, the Ottomans were present north of the Dutch and must have been completely conquered. I wonder whether or not they were a barbarian civ? The Dutch expanded into northwestern Kanah, conquering the Portuguese and Russians and then settling the region some too, but as we all know, that area is now under Russian rule. The Dutch really controlled western Kanah pretty thoroughly. Even now, they are fortunate to have Carthage and Assyria as buffer states between them and Spain. Spain also seems to have spread north, probably limited in expansion by the Dutch until now, and their sphere of influence encroaches on the Vikings and Koreans, which is probably why the Korean have asked to be a Spanish vassal. The Spanish now pretty much control all of the lands around the lands controlled by Holland.
Something that I just noticed that is notable geographically is that the Candian Peninsula is mostly free of ice, except for the southern part of it (which is kind of surprising considering how close it seems to be to the south pole). This means that ships won't be able to pass through unless the Carthaginians are smart enough to put a canal of forts in place (and I don't think they will be). It'll be ok though, since ships can travel through the Khanbrian Seas and the Grey Sea if needed, and we aren't anywhere near that location anyway.
1135AD:
The "war on the infidels" vote fails, fortunately.
Some good news is that our economy is now almost exactly average, which means that we are about in 10th place. Go figure.
1141AD:
Holland has completed The Brihadeeswarar Temple, a Hindu wonder.
Also, the stone in our quarry near Hattusas has been exhausted. Man, Hattusas would be a decent production city if so many of its tiles weren't exhausted, which is annoying since two great generals have been settled there. Also, now that we need two stone (I claimed the one near Tarsos), apparently we can only have one, and we're currently trading it away. We really could use it since it speeds up walls and castles and is necessary for paved roads (like roads, but 1/3 movement is used up instead of 1/2). Go figure, again.
Kurzontin, Javquazan diplomat to Spain, 1153AD
The Spanish have been excitedly talking about how the Carthaginians have severed their bonds to the Dutch. It is believed that the Dutch and Carthaginians fell out with each other over issues relating to the war, but the Dutch and Assyrians won't tell our ambassador what's going on and Carthage still refuses to allow us to establish an embassy with them.
1153AD:
The Fishmongers Guild has been incorporated in Jelling, Norway.
1159AD:
Holland has completed The Sistine Chapel.
Straeqemjadvik, 1165AD
Mercenaries from the hills on the other side of the Vondaks have approached us with a threat: they demand gold or they will attack us. Knowing that they would have to cross the Vondaks to do so and that our military controls the passes, I refuse. They will have a hard time attacking. At best, they may even carry out their raids on our neighbors instead, which will be useful.
Straeqemjadvik, 1171AD
Carthage is once again under the protection of the Dutch. My spies and diplomats have not been able to ascertain the political events causing the split and later reunification, but whatever happened, their problems are now apparently solved.
1177AD:
Part of a tech trade deal included a map trade, which revealed the location of the Iroquios:
I was hoping that there would be a landmass to our northwest, but this is annoying. The Iroquois are a stronger nation than we are. As you can see, their continent is frozen in the north. There will be other lands though (perhaps further away) that will be open.
1183AD:
Augsburg has been captured from Azteca by the Holy Roman Republic. It was a city that was also founded by the Holy Romans. The Aztecs appear to have suffered a drop in power probably caused by some losing battles.
We have finished Optics and started on Astronomy (we were able to trade for the prerequisites for it). Four of our triremes (as well as some others) were upgraded to Caravels and loaded with explorers. They will be off to explore the world soon. No one has circumnavigated the earth for some reason, so maybe we can do it. I'll have caravels going both east and west. Once we have Astronomy (which only India and Germany seem to have), we can begin colonizing key lands. Perhaps we can get iron and stone this way. Since our lands are pretty secure except by sea, we can probably devote more of our military to colonial possessions. I kept some of our triremes since caravels cannot blockade.
Native America has made peace with Holy Rome.
1189AD:
Native America has declared war on India, which I find surprising since India has three times the power of Native America. Meanwhile, India captures Persepolis from the Carthaginians. This city was part of ancient Persia (which was in Kanah Minor, southeast of Norway) before Persia was conquered. Somehow the Carthaginians had conquered this city earlier in the game. This means that India had landed an army in the area at some point, which isn't quite as strange as you might think when you consider that they have open borders with the Vikings (man, I wish the AI didn't open borders with everybody else- it would be better if they did it only when it was necessary or they had good relations).
A turn or two ago we had traded to gain contact with Arabia. They are a small city state south of the Iroquois, like the Ethiopians.
1207AD:
Spain continues to have Carthaginian rebels. I wonder if Carthage will actually regain any of its ancient cities.
Straeqemjadvik, 1213AD
I have received word that the Native Americans have captured Varanasi from India. I was not expecting them to do well in their new war but I am glad to see such a powerful rival brought down a notch. Probably in response to this event, Khmer and her vassal Zululand have declared war on Native America. I imagine that India convinced them to join the war on their side. Since I would like to see India weakened further, I will send some mercenaries over. Perhaps they will pay for some of our siege engineers to work for them?
In Kanah, Spain has been suffering the revolts of Assyrian nationalists. It seems that their conflict with Spain and her vassals goes further than I expected. Assyria has captured Akhad from Spain, and I imagine that is part of where the revolt is taking place.
1219AD:
Greece has decided to be free from Spain. I didn't really understand why they needed the protection anyway, especially since they have a decent military and they are far from central Kanah. The Vikings are perhaps their biggest threat, but their militaries are about the same.
Azteca is suffering a rebellion in Spiro. This causes a war between them and Native America as Spiro tries to rejoin it.
1225AD:
The Artists Guild has been incorporated in Barcelona, Spain.
1231AD:
A great work reveals that we are the 7th most powerful civ.
"The infamous Pirate Blackbeard is attacking Greek shipping!"
That sucks for Greece. Our spies can see 6 privateers and 1 frigate off of their eastern coast, and I don't think any civ has those units yet. I think that random event was a little too soon.
Arabia and Ethiopia have made peace.
Inca has captured Prague from the Holy Roman Republic.
1237AD:
Norway has declared war on Azteca. One of my caravels has noticed a fleet of theirs of two triremes and two galleys on the east coast of Inca. Could be related....
1243AD:
The Apostolic Palace elections come around again and we are faced with the choice of electing either a Spaniard or a Korean. I vote for Spain- our relations with them have been decent so far.
Spain and Holland make peace, although India (and her German vassal) and Greece are still at war with Holland.
1249AD:
And Spain is indeed elected.
1261AD:
India has completed the Magellan's Voyage wonder.
1273AD:
Native America has made peace with Khmer and her vassal, and Azteca has made peace with Norway.
One of our exploring caravels was sunk by one of the pirates. There is a landmass off the east coast of India that it was exploring (and it appears to have a ton of jungle), and now its explorer is stranded there. Not too big of a problem I guess, since there is another caravel exploring to the north of it.
1279AD:
Holland has declared war on Spain once again, probably prompted by the Carthaginian revolt that just happened in Spain.
Augsburg is captured from Holy Rome and razed by Inca.
We suffer a small revolt on the island of Arpad.
We lost the explorer exploring on that rainforested landmass to a barbarian swordsman.
1285AD:
I make a couple map trades. One of them is with Arabia, who appears to have a centered map. This reveals that we are closer to circumnavigating the globe than I expected- two of our caravels are a couple turns away from meeting (they were sent in opposite directions). I also notice something interesting:
It appears likely that the continent off the coast of India is the same as the continent we found west of China, and it looks like it could be big.
Straeqemjadvik, 1297AD
One of our scientists has proved that the earth is round by using several recent maps and some measurements. Although the people don't necessarily agree with this, I've known it for a while and many well-educated men would agree with it. It is now established. I will honor him at my palace.
Our diplomats report that a great mediator has successfully attempted to broker peace between the Arabian and Iroquois peoples. Sondeingia is now at peace.
1297AD:
The Mercers Guild has been incorporated in Amsterdam, Holland
It was too easy to circumnavigate the earth. Normally if I'm as far behind as I am economically, someone else beats me to it. I'm pretending that Earth was just proved round instead of circumnavigated since the late Middle Ages is way too early historically for a circumnavigation.
We renegotiate the deal with Spain for copper and are able to trade wheat for copper and 12
/turn for some reason. Alright! We have our stone back!
1303AD:
The Dutch are undergoing a MASSIVE rise in military power. It's probably the fastest I've ever seen and it alarms me:
I bet that they have been upgrading a bunch of units and are producing a bunch too in order to get an effect like that. Then again, maybe they aren't upgrading since generally the AI receives a sudden increase when it upgrades, and this is not a sharp rise but a smooth one.
1309AD:
We lost the explorer that the sunk caravel dropped off before it was destroyed. There really are too many barbarians on those larger continents (they have plenty of time to build up).
Azteca suffers another Native American rebellion in Spiro.
As our cities grow, happiness is growing smaller. Of course, we can always get more luxury resources (and we will via colonization), but there is a civics solution for now....
Straeqemjadvik 1309AD
I have now taken the throne after my father passed away. The throne has become more and hereditary as time has passed. In ancient times we learn that Straeqemjadvik would often choose his successor, whether he was related or just someone he thought worthy of the position. Now the nobles expect it to be hereditary in order to provide a clear line of succession.
I begin my reign by establishing an embassy with China. Perhaps we are over our ancient wars and can begin better relations? Regardless, I won't make the mistake of assuming that they won't act with aggression.
One of our caravels patrolling the waters near China has gotten stuck on a reef and sunk. I am sending my personal regrets to the families of the crew.
Changing to Monarchy will change the +3
in all cities to +1, but it'll take away the freedom of garrisoning units to lessen unhappiness. On the other hand though, it'll enable the royal monument building, giving +1
and some culture to each city building them, and it will also lessen city maintenance, which will help our economy.
1327AD:
Greece is once again a Spanish protectorate.
We have finished Astronomy. We have now entered the Renaissance Era and will now be able to move units across oceans, enabling settlement of the New World, however, we won't have any trade routes with colonies yet. I'll make a few tech trades using this new tech; although I'm loathe to trade away something as important as Astronomy, we need the extra boost from tech trades and I'll try to only trade with smaller civs.
Having Astronomy, we can found some colonies, but we're going to have to be careful where we settle for a while. Any new colonies will strain our economy for a while, at least until they are more self-sufficient, so they need to grab vital resources, have good locations, etc. In the meantime, we can build settlers and garrisons to make it faster once we do decide.
This is as good as breaking point as I can find. Let's build an empire on which the sun never sets!
We need to attack them before they get Feudalism anyway. They also now have 2 cities. I think we'll build a couple forts in Death Valley to secure it for Javquazm, and then prepare for another war.
instead of 4, +25% against melee units, and immunity to first strikes. It's basically a slightly weak axe, which is the unit that we used against Japan and England without them fielding a decent counter.
towards widely-known techs that I should have, and I know how it works in the Revolutions mod, its original mod. It's as if Tech Diffusion was turned off entirely here though.) Also, no one wants to trade many techs, which makes things even worse.
). I would have gotten the one from 1327AD but it would have been before I made the trades I talked about in the post, so it's from the next turn, 1333AD.
)
.
I thought they changed N.Am to the Sioux, or if they hadn't, they could've....