Scientific Anarchy: A Random Tech Adventure

[Quintillus]

It's time for another Civ story! This is a somewhat normal one, with one key tweak - the next tech will be chosen at random. All those Civ games of the leader dictating what was researched, going for a Republic slingshot, beelining Free Artistry if it's a culture 20K game, or Military Tradition if it's a conquest one? Not happening this time! The ruler can fund science or not, but the wise men set their own priorities - isn't that part of what makes them wise? - and the ruler will have to live with the results.

Tech trading is also disabled; living with random technologies would be less interesting if I could just trade for the ones I really wanted.

Beyond that, the difficulty is somewhere between Monarch and Emperor. I can usually win fairly easily on Monarch, but Emperor is a significant challenge and most often results in a loss. So ideally, the combination of the difficulty level and the random techs will result in a game where a victory is possible, but is far from guaranteed.

Table of Contents

Part One - Intro (4000 BC - 2550 BC)
Part Two - Putting Our Shoulders to the Wheel (2550 BC - 1610 BC)
Part Three - Building the Warrior Wall (1610 BC - 1350 BC)
Part Four - Extending the Thin Orange Line (1350 - 1125 BC)
Part Five - Nature's Imprints on the Map (1125 BC - 750 BC)
Part Six - Ironing Out Some New Settlements (750 BC - 360 BC)
Part Seven - The Ottoman-Mayan War of the Wall (360 BC - 10 BC)
Part Eight - Filling in the Homeland (10 BC - 320 AD)
Part Nine - The Inca's Wars (320 AD - 490 AD)
Part Ten - The Late Ancient Times (490 - 700 AD)
Part Eleven - The Pen is Mightier than the Sword (700 AD - 920 AD)
Part Twelve - Scientific Anarchy (920 AD - 1160 AD)
Part Thirteen - War with the Maya (1160 AD - 1257 AD)
Part Fourteen - The Incan-Ottoman War (1257 AD - 1300 AD)
Part Fifteen - A General Advance (1300 AD - 1357 AD)
Part Sixteen - The Last of the Mayans (1357 AD - 1387 AD)
Part Seventeen - Retaking the Mayan Cities (1390 - 1425 AD)
Part Eighteen - Taking Inca Proper (1425 - 1450 AD)
Part Nineteen - The Incan Insurrection (1450 - 1460 AD)
Part Twenty - The Push to Cuzco (1460 - 1485 AD)
Part Twenty-One - The Defeat of the Inca (1485 - 1500 AD)
Part Twenty-Two: The Age of Exploration (1500 - 1550 AD)
Part Twenty-Three: Continental Peace and Continental War (1550 - 1635 AD)
Party Twenty-Four: The Persian-Zulu War (1635 - 1700 AD)
Part Twenty-Five: You Say You Want a Revolution? (1700 - 1763 AD)
Part Twenty-Six: The Zulu and Incan Wars (1764 - 1782 AD)
Part Twenty-Seven: The First Round of the Ottoman-Iroquois War (1782 - 1784 AD)
Part Twenty-Eight: The Second Round of the Ottoman-Iroquois War (1784 - 1786 AD)
Part Twenty-Nine: The Ottoman-Iroquois War, Round Three: New Participants (1786 - 1788 AD)
Part Thirty: The Ottoman-Iroquois War, Round 4: Regrouping (1789 - 1792 AD)


Rules Changes

The tech randomization and difficulty are the main ones; the others are my standard house customizations.

Difficulty is between Monarch and Emperor, which I'll call King-Elector, and its settings are listed in the following table:

Item             | Monarch | Current | Emperor
Citizens Content |     2   |     2   |    1
Attack Barbs     |   100   |    75   |   50
Percent Optimal  |    85   |    85   |   80
AI Start Offense |     1   |     2   |    2
AI Start Defence |     2   |     3   |    4
AI Start Settler |     0   |     0   |    0
AI Start Worker  |     0   |     1   |    1
Base Support     |     4   |     6   |    8
Per Settlement   |     1   |     1   |    2
Max Transition   |     4   |     4   |    3
Cost Factor      |     9   |     8   |    8
AI Trade         |   140   |   145   |  150

Map Size
Large-ish. This is set to 120x120, and we'll have 10 civs. This gives about the same number of tiles per civ (720, instead of 704) as a C3C Large map.

House customizations
All mounted except Keshik, War Elephant, Conquistador are Wheeled, restricted through mountains/jungle
Desert no longer allows cities, and has no defensive bonus (vs. 10% normally)
Harbor only does +1 food; Trading Port gives Veterans and Water Trade. Trading Port requires river and Harbor.
Airport no longer gives Air Trade; still gives veteran air. Maintenance cost reduced by 1. International Airport is a Small Wonder that gives Air Trade.
Road requires The Wheel; Mine requires Masonry; Irrigation requires Pottery (all to slow down the early game).
Mountain/volcano movement cost increased to 4 (which should affect Mine costs). Cannot build Roads in mountains; they have no resources except Gold. Hills may have Uranium and Gems. Mountains get +1 shield to compensate.

Summary: Terrain tweaked to add desolate deserts and to make mountains real barriers. Less water/air trading to speed up AI turn times.

Random Technology Implementation

I'll use the randInt function on my trusty TI-83+ calculator to choose what to research next. As an example, randInt(1,6) will give a random integer between 1 and 6 (inclusive).

Settings

Random civ.
9 random opponents
King-Elector Difficulty (as explained above).
Continents
Monarch difficulty. More aggressive AI. Warm, wet, 60% ocean, 4 billion, Restless.
Victory conditions: Defaults.

Comparison to Previous Games

Some of you may have read previous stories I've written. I expect this one to be most similar to The Space Race. Hopefully with a variant that winds up being more interesting and leaving the outcome more in doubt, but we'll find out.

I do have a story-in-progress along the lines of my larger-scale ones (Conquest of the World and Wrath of the AI), but am waiting until that one is farther along before posting, as it shares the same weakness - namely, it takes a long time to play, for both myself and the AI.

Update Frequency

Finally, I'm doing updates a bit differently. Previously, I tended to post updates as they were written. This was somewhat good, as it allowed suggestions in the thread to be incorporated into the game. But it also lead to an unpredictable update schedule, particularly when I didn't have much time for Civ.

This time, I've already played a decent way into the game, with nine updates ready to go. But rather than post them all at once, I'm going to post updates weekly, on Saturday. Hopefully, this evens out the cadence. If I don't play for a few weeks, there will be a backlog; if I do play a lot, that will provide a buffer for when I don't.

In the event that I finish the game, I may speed this up, or start posting double-length updates, but to start with, that's the pace that can be expected.

 

[Quintillus]

Part One - Intro

So, here's our setup screen!

And we roll a random civ, which is...

The Ottomans! A fairly fortunate civ to play as, provided we survive long enough to benefit from the Sipahi. Hopefully these Silks help us do that.

Our Tech tree looks like this starting out; I'll also explain the random choice aspect:

So, for the first time, there are six possible choices. I'll run randInt(1, 6) on my TI-83+ to choose which tech to research. In the future, the choices will be numbered based on their order in the drop-down list when a previous tech is completed, but for this first time I'll do top-to-bottom.

And the number is...

Four!

So we start on The Wheel. Not a bad choice by any means. It will allow us to build roads, and show us where horses are. I'm also happy that the Ottomans start with Bronze Working. It could have been very unfortunate indeed if I'd started with only Warriors, had an aggressive neighboring civ, and couldn't build any other units for thousands of years!

I send my worker northeast, revealing tobacco in the cross, as well as some forest, and a village with ocean nearby. Deciding this is good enough, I settle in place.

Not bad at all. I'll start mining the bonus grassland, send out a warrior to explore, and probably build a Spearman after that. I also bump science to 100% to take The Wheel from 50 turns down to 40. Not much better, but it allows roads in this scenario, and getting that boost is worth not doing minimum research.

A couple turns in, I remember that goody huts are usually better before you have a military, so I switch my first unit to a Spearman. The worker, having built a mine, goes out to explore. This could be bad!

But it works out! Maps aren't my favorite goody hut bonus, but this is the exact right time of game for them. It looks like I'll be expanding to the northeast.

The first Spearman is sent out exploring, while my worker improves the tobacco tile. I quickly determine that tobacco is what the map generator was smoking this time around, and also find a second goody hut.

Isn't it nice that these don't require Map Making up front? I decide to expand towards the additional tobacco, and sent my next Spearman and the eventual Settler that way. But before that, I keep finding more tobacco. It's almost like my people are addicted to it!

I'm quite happy with this start. Bonus grassland and tobacco everywhere, some hills, a river to irrigate with. And as if to prove that there can be too much of a good thing...

Angry Warriors! I move my Spearman to cover my unprotected worker, and we have our first combat.

Victory! The other two are finished off shortly thereafter, and we wind up with our first Veteran unit.

And in 2510 BC, with Edirne having been founded a few turns before, we finish our first tech.

No new techs are unlocked, so there are just 5 choices this time. I ask the Calculator of Wisdom, and it tells me to research tech 2. So The Alphabet will be our next tech.

 

[Toxicman007]

Quintillus, I love this idea! Random research is something I sort of do myself, although I usually just flip a coin to pick between two techs. You have also randomed one of my favourite civs, with a pretty darn good starting area. This game should be a good one! Looking very much forward to reading the next update!
A couple questions for you; have you changed map trading back to Map Making? (I Always thought the Conquests change to Navigation was stupid, as the tech is literally called MAP MAKING)
Second question; Can you upload a file with your changes, the King-Elect difficulty and so on? I would love to try it out for myself.

 

[Quintillus]

I have not changed map trading to Map Making. It certainly does make sense, but I somewhat like that it takes longer to discover the world with it at Navigation. Exploration (and rights of passage to accomplish that) are more important when you can't just trade for maps of your whole continent in 1000 BC.

I can upload the .biq! It is now attached to this post. FYI, the Huge size is also tweaked, for my other upcoming story.

Thanks for the comment! I was pleased with the start location and civ as well. Haven't played the Ottomans for awhile, but it's always fun breaking through some enemy lines with Sipahi.

 

[Toxicman007]

Thank you very much! I really like your difficulty level, as I suffer from the same problem. Monarch is easy enough, but I struggle with Emperor. I'll be playing this, but I have not yet decided if I will use your random tech research idea.

 

[need my speed]

What is the point of the International Airport, I wonder? You need two airports to make use of air trade, not? And similarly, the Trading Port - what if you cannot found a coastal riverside city?
I understand that you want to reduce the inbetween turn time, by reducing the trading possibilities, but the International Airport seems useless, and the Trading Port seems... Odd. Some lands may get trade, but most will not? I ask, because personally I disable all trade, but I would like to find a convenient solution for this.

Aside from that - your stories are always nice to read!

 

[Quintillus]

The International Airport indeed doesn't help within an empire, but will allow trade between different nations, such as when they're on different continents. For the Trading Port, there is indeed a chance of not having a coastal riverside city, but on average I expect most civilizations to have them.

It does mean there will likely be some isolated islands that are more dependent on cathedrals, colosseums, and the like. Ideally I'd have "at least one trading building per island", but I'm hoping this works out decently as a compromise between speed and still having some trade (particularly since on Continents, it's somewhat likely some luxuries will not be on all continents).

 

[need my speed]

That's a smart thought, maybe I should try giving the Palace an air trade function precisely for such a purpose. Although of course, that would allow me to trade with everyone from the get-go. I like your reasoning, at any rate.

 

[tjs282]

House customizations
All mounted except Keshik, War Elephant, Conquistador are Wheeled, restricted through mountains/jungle
Desert no longer allows cities, and has no defensive bonus (vs. 10% normally)
Harbor only does +1 food; Trading Port gives Veterans and Water Trade. Trading Port requires river and Harbor.
Airport no longer gives Air Trade; still gives veteran air. Maintenance cost reduced by 1. International Airport is a Small Wonder that gives Air Trade.
Road requires The Wheel; Mine requires Masonry; Irrigation requires Pottery (all to slow down the early game).
Mountain/volcano movement cost increased to 4 (which should affect Mine costs). Cannot build Roads in mountains; they have no resources except Gold. Hills may have Uranium and Gems. Mountains get +1 shield to compensate.

I was interested to see this list of changes, as I've implemented some similar changes in my own mod, which is intended to be played on larger, randomly-generated maps:

Spoiler Not really relevant to the Story :

• In addition to Firaxis' Jungles/ Mountains/ Marshes, I changed Volcanoes also from "Impassable" to "Impassable to Wheeled", but also now able to be roaded/colonised (Gems can now also appear on Volcanoes); my Mountains and Volcanoes also have move-cost = 4
• In addition to Firaxis' Chariots and bombardment-units, Settlers (and their later 'upgrade', the Colonist) plus all M>1 units are Wheeled — exceptions being Horseman, MWs and Keshiks (Galleys can also "Transport only Foot units")
• Keshiks ignore move-cost of Hills, Ansars ignore move-cost of Desert (changed to 2, as was Tundra), WarEllies ignore move-cost of Jungle (in enemy territory, provided there's a road)
• As well as being non-Settle-able, my Deserts are also now non-irrigable (because it seemed ludicrous to allow AGRI-Civs to eventually be able to harvest 3 FPT from railed+irrigated Deserts!); my Tundra is also non-Settle-able, as are Forests and Jungles (through these can be cleared/Colonised and then Settled)
  
• I made Harbours cheaper and buildable with Masonry, but only giving extra food; my 'Naval Base' is the Coastal Fortress renamed (available with 'Ship-building', which is Mapmaking renamed), does what your Trading Port does, and has the same requirements (I initially set it to require freshwater and a Harbour, to theoretically provide a larger number of possible suitable towns, but then realised that it couldn't be built at all if the AI has Settled 1 tile away from the river or lake...)
• I also gave the water-trade flag to the Palace, so SEA-Civs (and other Civs which get their starting Settler randomly placed on the coast) can immediately trade along the coast of their starting Continent (which should also help SEA-Civs on Pan-maps)
• My Airport requires Factory (i.e. Iron) + Oil (and Advanced Flight; Flight now only allows Airfields), but I reduced its pollution slightly; the SW "International Terminal" requires an Airport, allows Air-Trade, adds +1 pollution, and autoproduces a Fighter every 5 T (which can then be upgraded to a Jet Fighter/ F-15 once Rocketry has been learned)

I understand that you want to reduce the inbetween turn time, by reducing the trading possibilities, but the International Airport seems useless, and the Trading Port seems... Odd. Some lands may get trade, but most will not? I ask, because personally I disable all trade, but I would like to find a convenient solution for this.

If you want to play on Large+ maps, allowing Harbours to give water-trade (as in the epic game) can/will result in literally thousands of possible trade-routes. So it makes a lot of sense to limit the "water-trade building" to a more specific set of circumstances than "Must be coastal" (Firaxis' only limitation for a Harbour). Conversely, you don't want the Harbour-locations themselves to be limited, because the seafood is too important, so the water-trade building should be something else (see the Spoiler above).

But if you like playing on Small-er maps (with possibly fewer potential Trading-Port locations), and/or don't even want to risk not being able to access a vital resource on a small island, you could also go the WorldWide/ CCM-route, and use the Editor to add a set of cheap (10-20 shields?) SWs, each of which have one or both of the water- and air-trade flags, and require one specific resource to build, e.g. a 'Furs Trading-post' or a 'Uranium mine', to connect that resource back to a friendly Trading-Port(s) and/or (later) your own International Airport.

You'd probably have to require the SW to be coastal, and/or need a late-game tech, and/or the resource to be within the BFC; otherwise, it will be difficult to discourage the AI-Civs from building them too early/in random towns on their home-Continent (and also defeats the object of reducing the number of trade-hubs).

 

[Quintillus]

Those sound like a good set of changes, tjs282. I considered making Tundra non-settleable, but didn't in part because if at least forest isn't also non-settleable, a lot of tundra gets settled anyway. I'd be interested in seeing how a non-forest-settleable map looks; intuitively I expect not being able to settle Forest or Jungle would leave a fair amount of land open, but perhaps that's the point. And indeed, even today there are large swathes of lightly settled rainforest.

The Fur Trading Post idea also is a good one, and would help make a compromise between performance and resource connections.

I'd comment on the other ones too, but to avoid too long of a post I'll just leave it at that they all sound like reasonable changes, and like they'd make for a good game.

 

[need my speed]

How about a *Resource* Trading Post that has air trade, combined with a generic air trade small wonder, so that you can at least get all resources in the capital (and trade from there)?

 

[Quintillus]

Part Two - Putting Our Shoulders to the Wheel

With The Wheel researched, we immediately start to connect Edirne and Istanbul by road. A new Spearman also begins scouting to the south.

In 2390, we see the first foreigners - the Inca.

This is neither good nor bad at this point. But what is bad is learning that they already have 4 cities! I am not surprised they have more than us, but I am surprised it's double the number.

A few turns later, my Spearman is finding some rather rough lands to our south - when another guest shows up!

Green, who could that be? You probably guessed it - Montezuma!

Well, at least they don't have four cities! And they're polite. You should never trust Montezuma when he's polite... but it is still much better than when he's annoyed.

I never thought I'd say it, but I'm almost glad that Montezuma is a neighbor. I'll need someone like him to help stop the Incan juggernaut!

I get maps yet again from the hut down south, and it reveals another hut.

And some more rough terrain. That surrounded-by-mountains area in particular is not going to be fun, with no roads on mountains. At least happiness shouldn't be much of a problem in such a small city!

I've also finished scouting the north. We have no neighbors in that direction.

So here's the plan. The north has better terrain. But the south has competition. The next city will be west of Edirne, with the two bonus grasslands nearby. And maybe I'll send one more northeast soon, since it's oh-so-rich. But beyond that, I'll zerg rush towards the mountains to the south with Warriors to buy myself as much territory as possible, even if it's sub-optimal land.

The additional hut winds up being more angry warriors, Sarbadars. One is immediately defeated.

In 2030, I receive notice that the Inca are building the Pyramids. I'm not surprised, but they're actually late to the party, historically speaking!

We connect Silks in 1990 BC. This takes us to first in the world in happiness, at 83%. Seeing F11, I also see some of my rival civs.

As much as it's cool to be #1 in happiness, being last in population and land area, and near-last in GNP and manufacturing, is concerning. As if to reinforce the point, I find that the Aztecs are also up to 4 cities when I check with them, and the Inca are up to 5. If there's any consolation, it's that I'm less than 10% behind the Aztecs in score - but the Inca are a full 50% ahead of me.

Ending my turn, I get my first Elite unit fighting barbarians, and also get a history of the world.

You know who's really forgotten? Me! I am apparently 9th or 10th in power. This is probably related to offensive units counting more, and my army mix being 100% Spearmen... but is again disconcerting. And we now have a pretty complete list of rivals:

America
Aztecs
Hittites
Inca
Iroquois
Mongolia
Persia
Zululand
???

Bursa is founded in 1910 BC; not a bad pace, especially with no cows or wheat, but it feels slow compared to the AI. Istanbul also pumps out our first Warrior that turn, starting our zerg rush.

Iznik is founded what seems like a short time later, in 1700 BC, inland because the site is not only on Hills, but is surrounded by 4 Bonus Grassland and a Tobacco.

And, by the time the Alphabet is about to finish, we have a pretty good idea of where our line of Warriors will be.

Ten Warriors will defend a path across the continent, roughly from the volcanoes across to the Ivory. And we already have five produced! With 9 of our 10 shields per turn going towards Warriors, it won't be long before we have the ten we need to secure this territory. Even the Demographics are looking better.

Not last in anything! And that military service? Yeah, okay, so you're in the military your whole life, starting from your second birthday. No one ever said life was easy in 1650 BC, did they?

The Alphabet finishes up the next turn, and it's time for another random number.

Three is chosen by our Calculator of Fate! I'm relieved, I was afraid we'd get Mathematics. Ceremonial Burial wouldn't be my first choice here - that'd be Iron Working - but it is one that should be done before too long. We can work with this.

 

[need my speed]

I laughed out loud at your comment on military service.

 

[Toxicman007]

It is Sunday I was looking forward to the update but I guess I have to wait another week

 

[Quintillus]

Whoops, I wound up staying at my parents' place last night and didn't think about the story. Pretty sure I've got it all prepared though, should be ready in a couple minutes...

 

[Quintillus]

Part 3 - Building the Warrior Wall

As I explore some more, I receive some very good news - 8 Warriors will be sufficient to control the entryway to our land.

And as I now have 8, I start switching to Settlers, to make a more permanent claim.

A regular diplomatic check-up in 1600 BC also shows promise; while I now have 4 cities, the Aztecs are only at 5, and the Inca at 6. They will probably found more cities next turn, but the odds feel momentarily less overwhelming.

A hundred years later, and my Warriors have more or less established where the line will stand - beyond this point, more forces would be required.

The thin red line (and y'know, let's call it a thin orange line, since that's our civ color) is where we aim to stop the Aztecs and Inca. It may be slightly extended to ensure we get the Ivory, but the mountains will also make it easier to defend.

Ceremonial Burial finishes the next turn, after only 6 turns of research.

Once again we turn to the Technology Indicator 83 Plus for guidance, and it says...

Two!

I once again thank the RNG. Warrior Code or Iron Working would be nice, but Pottery is at least useful.

I also meet the last unknown civ this turn, the Maya.

They, like the Aztecs, have five cities, and do not yet have luxuries. According to my advisor, they fear our Spearman.

Unlike the Aztecs, they won't get to explore my lands. In 1375, the Warrior Wall is ready for completion.

I will give the Aztecs and Inca a chance to leave if the Maya don't move in, but no Settlers will take my lands! And another Settler of mine is already moving to settle another sweet location.

And thus, the next turn, Pottery finishes. Five tech options are available.

And the Technology Indicator tells us... four! Mysticism! Not very useful, but hey, that was bound to happen occasionally, wasn't it? Wouldn't be as fun otherwise!

 

[Quintillus]

Part 4 - Extending the Thin Orange Line

As I start research on Mysticism, I notice that I'm losing money... but I haven't build any improvements. It doesn't take long to figure out why.

My military advisor is right! It's not the only time I've hit the support limit in Despotism, but that is rare. And he informs me that compared to the Aztecs, my military is still weak .

By 1325, coincidentally - or perhaps not so coincidentally - I'm noticing a concerning number of Aztecs.

They could just be trying to defeat the barbarians near me. Or they could be targeting us. Our levels of paranoia are increasing each turn. So, to help make sure we take no chances, I close the Warrior Wall.

And we can breathe a sigh of relief.

They fell back! It was the barbarians... for now!

Meanwhile, my one advance scout has found the Incan homeland, to the south of some marshy lands.

At least the swamp should slow them down for awhile. As should the two Wonders they are building.

Two cities are founded around 1300 BC; Uskudar and Izmit.

I'm building closer than usual, expecting the unit support will help, and that city sizes may be small for awhile. Not ICS levels of closeness - each city will have at least 9 tiles - but I tend to prefer more spread out, in part to allow cities to reach their full potential in the late game (I'm a builder), but also to claim land more quickly. My Warriors have claimed the land, though, so I can move forward without worrying about that.

I discover some more interesting geography as another Warrior reaches the Warrior Wall, allowing some more exploration.

This new orange line, though less defensible, would allow us to claim more land, and fairly good land at that, with no additional troops required. I begin advancing my troops towards it.

Soon, the orange line advances still more.

It's not hard to see it going still farther to the northwest. To the south, however, I'd soon hit the Great Dismal Bogs, and thus I likely won't push it more in that direction.

But only a turn or so later the Aztecs establish what the limits will be to the northweast, as well, settling a city not far past the latest line.

So that Warrior near Tlacopan will not be exploring to the north, and the line will form as most-recently planned.

But haven't we been focusing a lot on these far-away lines lately, and ignoring the home front? The Barbarians certainly think so!

Yeah... we're going to have to keep a few Spearmen nearby!

Oh, and what about the foreign relations front?

Despite our success at building the wall, the reality is that at this point it may well not stop a single Chasqui Scout, let alone the entire army of a nation whose score was, the last we checked, 50% higher than ours. So we give Pachacuti the tribute he wants, improving our relations to Cautious, and buying us time to settle land and reinforce our lines with Spearmen.

The next turn, Mysticism is researched.

Once again we bring out the TI-83+, and this time it says 3. So our fate has been written, and we will be on our way to establishing Embassies before long!

 

[Quintillus]

Part Five - Nature's Imprints on the Map

So what have I done with all these cool new techs since the Wheel? Absolutely nothing! We have no granaries, no temples, no practical use of the Alphabet, and are not building the Oracle. We are finally starting to build a Curragh, though.

In 1100 BC, we learn that the Inca are building the Temple of Artemis. They are fast!

We also discover their source of happiness shortly thereafter.

Gems! Cuzco is the city to the east in the picture; they have expanded nicely and have about twice as much settled land as we do.

It's not long before the barbarian horsies that had been approaching us in the previous section finally attack us.

They fall easily; a 75% bonus plus Forest is still significant. But two more appear shortly thereafter.

The first Wonder is completed in 1025 BC.

We haven't a clue where they are, but congrats?

Expansion continues slowly; Aydin is founded near the Ivory in 1025, and in 975 I learn that what I had thought was a bay is actually an inland lake.

This is good news; it means the Maya (in blue), the Aztecs, and the Inca are all connected. I'd previously thought the Aztecs and Maya could not reach the Inca, but being able to align everyone against each other could be quite helpful.

In 900, my roads reach Uskudar, and I also have an offensive Spearman battle.

The Horseman is stopped, if barely. It's also at this point that I realized an unintended consequence of making horse units unable to traverse mountains - barbarian Horsemen cannot do so either. This is something that can be taken advantage of, and I soon move a Spearman into position to do so.

A few turns later, one of my exploring Warriors is ambushed in the Great Dismal Jungle, which lies beyond the Great Dismal Bogs.

You can see here the one thing that tempts me to expand that far - the Gems. But it's not worth going beyond such a great natural barrier.

Ohhhh... but then I see what is worth it.

A source of horse, of course! I am admittedly sorely tempted to deviate from the plan for that... even though the Maya will likely claim it first.

And just like a prophecy, that very turn they do.

But the future of the horse trade is not yet written in stone, for we had not yet discovered Writing.

Eight choices! Which one shall it be, oh mighty TI-83?

Two! it decrees. And we celebrate, for Iron is in our future! Let us at least, oh fateful RNG, have that resource, even if we shall not have one of the ones required for our unique unit.

 

[Quintillus]

Part 6 - Ironing Out Some New Settlements

In 750, Cuzco finishes The Pyramids.

This is bad in the short term, but potentially good in the long haul.

I also find myself bumping up against my Despotism unit support limit again...

I very much wonder if I would benefit from Monarchy at this point. I also realize that I need more workers!

I lose one of my Warriors exploring Aztec lands to the Apache in 690, but my Curragh is making progress along the Aztec coast. We're also making progress at settling the cold northern frontier.

Konya and Antalya are new; another city will be built soon. After that, there may be a break, while we work on the unsettled south and southeast.

We need to get there before the Inca settle it by boat!

Ivory is connected in 630 BC, and I also settle a city outside of the Wall.

Sinop is a culture-guard city. Between it and Aydin, the Wall should be firmly in our cultural sphere. Otherwise, there would be a risk of the Aztecs settling NE of Sinop, and forcing us to choose to fight for the wall, or retreat, due to culture. Thus Sinop solidifies our claim to the Wall.

Chichen Itza finishes the Oracle that same turn, adding another neighbor to the list of wonderful civs.

Iron Working finishes up in 590. This leaves us 7 tech choices, and our RNG helpfully chooses...

Seven! Polytheism! Back to near-term-useless choices! But maybe if we get lucky we'll get out of Despotism as a result?

By a bit past 500 BC, we check the demographics again, and see not-great if not-alarming information.

Seventh in population, sixth in economy, ninth in land area... we do hope to climb a bit in that last one. But 92% approval! That corresponds to everyone except one citizen in Izmit, as it's our only size 3+ city. We also are down to only two-thirds of a citizen's life being spent in the military.

I also remember that I should check for Iron now. And I find one source that could reasonably be described as nearby.

Yup. In Incan territory. This one could get very interesting from a strategic resource standpoint.

Realizing that we could have a significant uphill battle ahead of us, I check the Civilopedia and find that Saltpeter can appear in Hills - thankfully, since we have no desert. We need at least one strategic resource this game!

Now you may ask, could I just rush Vilcabamba? And I could... if I sent the whole wall at them, I might take it. But that would let the Maya run roughshod into my territory, and I'd be in poor shape for keeping Vilcabamba, with no Archers, and almost surely no barracks there. So it's a very high risk option, and for now I'd prefer to bide my time.

Thus we progress peacefully. Bursa finishes my first Temple - my first city improvement - in 430 BC. My culture had been progressing rather poorly before:

So before city flipping became a major problem, I decided to start doing something about it.

But speaking of major problems, I see one in 410 BC.

The Maya plan to build a city next to the wall! I'd overlooked that one tile being settleable. Scrambling to fall back, I manage to make the situation worse by letting them advance. Things aren't looking good.

And unsurprisingly...

Well, that leaves us the option of surrendering the wall, or war. First, though, I establish an embassy in Cuzco.

And then...

We may have blundered, but we will not let them get away with this without a fight!

 

[Quintillus]

Part 7 - The Ottoman-Maya War of the Wall

We're in a bit of a tough place. We are 4th in manufacturing, by some miracle, but have literally no offensive units for our offensive war. This is not exactly a winning formula.

But why should that stop us?

Oh, because their Spearman is now elite? Well, maybe.

Well... shoot. We did destroy it. But we also destroyed our army . Half a dozen units to take out one is very bad.

So what now? First we order every Spearman but one towards the lines. I even slightly fall back from the Aztec wall.

Next, we try to buy our way out of the problem.

It's very expensive - our income per turn at 0% science is 29 gold - but should keep them busy with each other... hopefully.

Meanwhile, the Aztecs decide to try the same trick that the Mayans did...

It will NOT happen this time! And in case you were wondering, that tile 1 NE of the Jaguar is Marsh, not grassland... the graphics are a bit ambiguous, but I tripled-checked.

I also discover the Iroquois, somewhere to the west. They have a lot of cities, but no strategic resources.

We manage to close the gap in our lines, this time being extra-sure, and by 250 BC the line is restored, stronger than before, and with a city behind it.

The alliance with the Inca seems to be working; the Inca and Maya are fighting each other, but not us. They likely have both started their Golden Ages by now, too. We certainly aren't out of the woods, but the quiet has let us catch our breath again.

The Inca are even still producing their Wonders.

In 190, we have enough cash saved up to build an embassy in Tenochtitlan.

Not so impressive! No resources whatesoever. We cannot, unfortunately, get them to ally against the Maya - perhaps they have more sense than we do.

We lose our Iroquois-exploration Curragh to the Illinois a couple turns later.

Another Curragh is starting on a mission to circumnavigate the continent from the eastern coast, but the western one is unlikely to be replaced for awhile.

The Maya finally send a unit towards us in 150 BC, halfway into the 20-turn deal.

And it's a Settler-Spearman combo. That points out to us how to get Iron, however - the tile I just moved my Warrior to will allow me to claim it, should I build a city there.

On the next turn, they appear on the other front, too.

I'd wanted a Temple in Sinop, but it'll have to be a Wall now. We will at least make an attempt to defend it; the next cities back will also receive walls.

As this is occurring, I arrange a meeting with my Incan allies, who manage to slip in a mild insult.

Yes, we know our troops aren't very numerous. We're trying to do something about it!

The Mayans continue their slow advance...

Even as I notice their former city of Lazapa has been razed.

Advancing another step, they send a Javelin Thrower against Sinop.

He is defeated; the other advances towards The Wall, which is immediately fortified with two Spearmen and a Warrior per tile.

And the immediate threat is dealt with. Even the Elite Warrior does not pose much of a danger. Sure enough, both the Elite and Regular Warriors soon lose on the offensive.

In a bit of different news, the Iroquois complete the Great Wall (as opposed to the Warrior Wall) in 90 BC. That along with the Inca working on the Hanging Gardens only underscores how slow my tech pace has been, and my GNP remains mired in 8th place.

The remainder of the BC years pass uneventfully. We have added a few more cities; notably the southern area is looking a bit more filled-in.

The north, too, is looking better.

But we have 9 techs total, including the two starters, across our 127 turns. And the victory and demographics screens are far from promising.

It's slightly better than it was... land area is 7th, population is 6th. Approval is still somehow first, probably due to our small cities. But in all the victory metrics, we're getting trounced. We're just thankful that isn't the case in the Ottoman-Mayan War of the Wall as well.