Scandinavian Island Conquest (Deity)

[Sandman2003]

Ok, time for my first deity challenge on the epic game. I have chosen: archipelago 80% water
wet, warm, 5 billion years old
standard size map
random opponents
all victory conditions enabled
and deity of course (eeek!)

My start position is attached. Too hard to let that one slip by.

Just a wee caution, I will participate in the COTM02, so that will slow this one down a bit.

I move the settler due south onto the jungle. exposing more jungle and a forest within the city borders. Worker starts irrigating the cow on the start.

3950BC: Trondheim founded, and starts building a warrior. We need to explore our island. Set research to writing at 50 turns. (It takes 50 turns even at max!) Growth in 7.

3800BC: First cow irrigated, start on road.

3700BC: Warrior built, another started. We head for the hills to the NE, avoiding the goody hut.

3650BC: Worker goes to the bonus grass to mine.

3550BC: Second warrior built, now working on a curragh. We look like we are on a very small island. OTOH, I have just sighted some yellow borders too close for my comfort!

3500BC: Since our expansion will pop the goody hut, we return the souther explorer to Trondheim, and wait on the mountain with our northern explorer.

3450BC: And of course the GH isn't good at all. as all we get are angry barns x 3. I have to disturb my worker, and play run away. We execute a barb on the hill, and the worker joins our warrior there. The other guy fortifies in Trondheim, and we cross our fingers. Also the expansion reveals dyes to the SE.

3400BC: The barbs destroy my improvements.

3350BC: End of barbs.

 

[BigNHuge]

Good luck. Loved your first two. Hopefully you can do this one too. But with the jungle south you never know what will happen huh? Have fun with it.

 

[El Loco]

i am a big fan of your passed stories wish you the best of luck. Thanks to your stories i moved up from emperor to demigod. godspeed

 

[Biral]

I read your first stories, will be reading this one good luck.

 

[Sandman2003]

Thanks BigNHuge, El Loco and Biral. Just one thing, I am not sure that may start here has been all that great. I think I read somewhere that if you have no military, then goody huts will not pop barbs. That being the case, I would have been far better off to use my worker on turn 1 to pop the hut, thereby wasting two worker turns, instead of letting the barbs come out, pillage improvements - wasting about 12 worker turns, and forcing my scouting warriors to come home for defence. The proximity of the yellow borders is not good either. With the numbers of starting units that the AI gets, I was really hoping for an island to myself. Oh well, this may be the fastest game on these pages...

 

[microbe]

I would have settled 1-tile NW to the start position. It then got coastal, fresh water and pop the hut immeidately guaranteeing no barbs.

Now you've got something that cannot exceed pop 6 for a long time.

 

[Sandman2003]

Yes that makes sense to. Thanks for the advice Microbe. It will be interesting to see if I can recover from the folly of my start.

 

[El Loco]

the fact that the yellow civ is very close kinda sucks but all you have to do is build a city in the wheat at block them from expanding into your land.

 

[El Loco]

lol never posted at same time

 

[microbe]

It's probably will work too. You can try to go a size 4-6 settler factory instead.

 

[WeaponX]

Yes! The sandman is back! I'm a big fan of your pass stories with Portugal and Netherlands.

And Microbe I see your point. Anywho, Sandman Good Luck! I try to stay updated on your story and chime in with my 2 cents when I get an idea.

 

[Sandman2003]

It's probably will work too. You can try to go a size 4-6 settler factory instead.

I am pretty sure that it will work, but I can see why your way would have been better. I was thinking that I would not need size 7+ any time soon, but popping the GH without risk of barbs, and without wasting worker turns would have been very worthwhile. And of course, eventually, I will want to let Trondheim grow.

 

[Sandman2003]

I just lost my update again to a crash, so you will have to run on the summarised version.

By 3000BC, our scouting curragh has found Germany, also on our island mass. I chose these parameters so that I would hopefully get an island to myself, instead I have to contend with two close deity foes, oh well, maybe next time. We also locate another island further to the west. The situation is as follows:


We build a settler and found Bergen on the hill to the north of Trondheim. We build another and found Copenhagen just south of the dyes. Our Curragh finds Rome.

At 2310BC, the Germans bring two archers and a spear into our territory, in an obviously hostile move,

They turn and attack Copenhagen, razing it to the ground. I start whipping troops in both Bergen and Tronheim. We fend off the german attack at Trondheim. Then the Mongols start sending numerous settler/warrior or spear pairs into our territory. They grab our dyes. We ask them to leave - they declare. We grab two slaves. We spend the next several centuries shuffling troops back and forth between Trondheim (to face off the Germans, and Bergen to stop the Mongols), and eventually are able to buy them both off for peace. This has massively slowed our growth curve, however, and we are very hemmed in. We are going to start building a bit of culture and a tight city build. Obviously the MOngols must go soon!

1475BC - We are falling behind in tech. Ceremonial burial and 30 gold gets us horseback riding from Rome. CB, HR and 44 gold gets us Map making from Germany. Map making gets us mathematics and 95 gold from the Ottomans. CB and HR gets 223 gold from Mongols (leaving him with 3). If I didn't sell these he would just trade with Germany for them, so it makes sense. We are up 406 gold, but it won't buy Mysticism from the Ottomans, otherwise we are ahead in tech with everyone else we know by at least mathematcs, and more in front of Rome.

1375BC - Found Oslo on the NW hill from Trondheim. We build an embassy in Berlin - they are building the pyramids. We will have to go down there and grab them when Bis is done! We build an embassy in Istanbul - they are building the Oracle. Too far away from us for now! Rome is also building the Pyramids. The mongols are also building the Pyramids.

Mongols demand mathematics. We cave - they have too many troops around us just at the moment. Their time will be soon! Mongols declare war on Germany - Hooray! Our first break.

1250BC - Found Stockholm.

1200BC - Russia beats everyone else to it and builds the Pyramids.

1175BC - Mongols have built the statue of Zeus.

1125BC - The Iroquois finish the Oracle.

1050BC - Found Birka, again with cultural pressure on the MOngols.

1025BC - Trade Rome Mathematics for Mysticism and 87 gold (all he has).

1000BC - Our empire -

We have six cities, and our opponents have -
Mongols: 10 cities, up philosophy, Code of Laws and Construction
Germany: 9 cities, even in tech, at war with mongols
Rome: 9 cities, even in tech
Ottomans: 10cities, up Philosophy and Construction.
And our military is weak to everyone as well! On the bright side we survived the attacks of both Mongol and Germans between 2500BC and 1500BC. I really thought that it was going to be all over at this time. Hopefully the current war will weaken the mongols a bit. That plus maybe some cultural flips of a couple of their cities and a military builup, and we may be able to pay back some damage to the mongols!

 

[Yom]

Ouch! Looks like you're really cramped there.

Glad to see you're writing another story. Everyone's a fan of them .

 

[WeaponX]

I would wait till Mongols send all there troops out of your territory into Germany leaving there cities weakened. Then up the defense in southern cities (Since Mongols would attack from there). You shoul be able to take there cities north of you quite easily and you need some breathing room here.

 

[Sandman2003]

Thanks for the kind words, Yom.

WeaponX, I definetly can not see myself launching a camapign against the Mongols soon. I am hoping to be able to flip those two cities, then build up military, then hit them. So hopefully, as you say a lot of their troops will be in German lands, and hopefully dieing there!

 

[El Loco]

great story. just a quik question where are you getting iron from?

 

[Sandman2003]

El Loco, I founded Bergen on iron, although it wasn't actually visible at the time..

 

[Sandman2003]

1000BC - The Ottomans complete the Great Wall. We whip a galley in Oslo.

925BC - Osman demands 37 gold from us. We tell him where to take that suggestion - he doesn't knoiw where we are, I think. He declares! Hopefully this will be a phony war. Rome completes the great lighthouse.

875BC - We whip the temple in Reykjavik.

825BC - Rome lands two warrior in our territory for no good reason. Is this a surprise attack? Two warriors? My exploring galley has spotted the outline of another civ. Also the borders of Reykjavik now include one of the dyes.

IT - Yep - it was a surprise attack, the Romans declared war. The two warriors impale themselves on my fortified spearman in a town on a hill, but they land another spear and a warrior.

800BC - Two swords come out of Trondheim and dispense with the 'threat' - one promotes to elite. So far it is 4 - 0 against the Romans and no sign of the Ottomans. We found Arhus, south of Dalandzagad. Start building a temple. We met the Russians, we trade mathematics and 137gold for code of laws.

750AD - We lose our elite sword to a reg Roman spear, but get another against a vet archer. Up north we kill a spear and an archer. Germans and Mongols sign peace. That is not part of the plan.

710AD - We found Stavanger up north and start a temple. Our scouting galley finds the Iroquoi. Writing and 109 gold gets us Polytheism. We are still missing one contact.

670AD - Two morw Roman warriors are dropped off and dispensed with.

630BC - We take peace and 20 gold from the Romans.

 

[Sandman2003]

550BC - The Mongols demand 30 gold, we cave.

510BC - We buy peace off the Ottomans for 80 gold. This is solely because we want to be able to trade with them.

490BC - The Germans demand 26 gold, we cave.

270BC - We trade iron to the Iroquoi for Literature (more culture).

250BC - We finally get a road to the dyes - our first luxury.

50BC - Otto demands again, and is again told where to go. He declares war again.

10BC - Rome declared war on the MOngols.

10AD - Rome demands 36 golf - we cave.

130AD - Found Odense. This gets us silk.

190AD - We trade 536 gold and 15 per turn to the Iroquoi for Monarchy.

250AD - It doesn't look like our culture push is going to be successfull. We are now building up military to attack the Germans. They have no iron, so are relatively weaker. Maybe we can grab a couple of cities and do some pointy stick research to catch up. Otherwise I am at a loss as to what we can do. This is the area I have in mind:

Nuremberg and Geidelberg are seperated from the rest of Germany by those marshlands. So with a strong enough combined arms force, hopefully I can take these two cities and then sue for peace for tech. That is the plan, anyway. It seems a bit weak given everyone else is now in the middle ages and I am still in despotism. We can not afford the switch just yet.

IT - The germans demand gold. Not this time. I would have preferred the first strike, but I need to save my gold, so no. Having just watched that, I really think I should have listened to myself and ensured I had the first hit, never mind. They managed to kill a spear and a sword.

260AD - We kill a spear, an archer and five horsemen without loss, but our units are exposed.

IT - The germans kill our two elite swords in Odense and destroy the city. In doing so they also capture our three catapults.

270AD - We kill two spears and a horseman to recapture two of the three catapults. We bring everything back into the cover of Aarhus.

IT - The Germans attack, but 4 horses die at the door. Still they kill our remaining swords there.

290AD - We kill 3 more exposed horses and bring up a replacement sword.

IT - The fighting gets intense. The Germans finally kill off the last sword, but not before losing a couple of horses. Then they send in archers against archers. Eventually they even use spears on the offense! But we hold on, just. There are two archers left.

Two archers can not hold off the inevitable assault, and Aarhus is captured by the Germans. Nirka manges to hold out for a turn, but the outcome of this game is starting to look inevitable, and unlike my previous two! By the way the Mongols are up to gunpowder, and I am still a despot!

Birka falls in 340AD. I am not the first to die. The Ottoman have destroyed the Indians! Reykavik falls in 360AD. The Germans must have an ROP with the Mongols. Stockholm is captured in 370AD. Trondheim falls in 390AD - yes our captial. We finish researching currency. That seems so out of place, I had to put it in. Bergen falls in 430AD. The brave defenders in Oslo have now held out for two decades. But finally in 440AD it is the end for Oslo. And in 470AD Stavanger finally falls as well.

Next time I will play it through further and make sure I am not so hemmed in!