SGOTM4 Carthage Spoiler 2 - Game Over

[mad-bax]

SGOTM4 Carthage Spoiler 2 - Game Over

To qualify for this spoiler players need to meet two criteria.
1. The team must have submitted their endgame to the server.
2. The nominated scribe must have posted a synopsis of the game from the middle ages to the bitter end.

 

[klarius]

Team Offa

Going for conquest.

Because everybody eligible to read this spoiler can just read our team thread, I will not write much how our awesome strategy came to life.

Just some notes about how things developed.

We entered the MA still in despotism and researched republic only then.
We decided to finish the game with knights. So we didn't do much research in MA.

Shortly after the change of ages our diplomacy screen showed this nice picture. The fundamentals didn't change in the next few centuries, just the friends and foes got interchanged every now and then.

We had just restarted war with Rome, because New Rome needed some more space.
Our map at that time (150BC) looked like that:

Going for conquest means we had to secure our ressources without relying on other civs. So if you look closely you can see that we cleared some space in Persia to settle a horse town (50AD):

Sabratha is settled in Persia, harbor rushed, horsemen production underway(250AD):

Massive forces are building up in Persia (mixed from archers up to knights 350 AD):

Besides that a few Persian and Indian cities are missing, we are now also in golden age. And our second (only 2nd) leader has rushed Leonardo's (450AD):

Knights and galleys get built, horses upgraded. Persia, India and Vikings leave the scene (550AD):

Only three cities less to go. But what you don't see are the massive stacks of knights building up in Babylon.
After the GA the knights get upgraded from horses. Every turn iron gets disconnected and reconnected (650AD):

Well, seems the troop build-up has payed. Two RoP rapes and a few false peace treaties later the map looks really friendly (750AD):

Now it gets really bloody. More than half of our knights die on hoplites in the final backstab. But well, no enemies, so we don't really need them anymore. (860AD):

 

[MOTH]

SGOTM4 Team Summary for spoiler 2 for team Bede

First Spoiler Ultra Breif Summary: Going for 20K but have gotten only leader through the AA.

There were a couple of tactics that we used near the end of the AA that we failed to mention last time around.

First tactic: Since we had the Light house, we were able setup a blockade to keep poachers away from our continent. One galley on either red spot keeps out the AI.

The second tactic came in just after the time of out last spoiler. It is one which many of the other teams have mentioned in the first spoiler. We were able to get cities from Rome for peace and we built the Forbidden Palace in the South. We didn't know if it would work, or we could have timed it better to have built it in our 20K city instead of Theveste. This could have shaved off a few turns, but I don't think it would have been big enough difference to catch Offa's (presumed) excellent conquest victory (can't wait to read that spoiler).

Back to the story:
When we last saw team Bede they were prepared for the march on Rome.

Rome was captured in 300AD netting us 3 more cities in the peace deal. We started the FP and abandoned the cities. The Hanging Gardens also completed in Utica in the IBT!

Interesting point on Rome: The AI was very late in hooking up iron, in part because we sent a NuMerc and Archer on the Iron hill in the first war. The iron was not hooked up yet! We sent the same pair to disconnect Rome's Iron in the second war. Rome had built a grand total of 1 Legion. This was bombarded and then killed outright in the assault on Rome. Rome never got to have a Golden Age.

380 AD: We settle Leptis Minor as our 5th city to the South of where Rome was to take advantage of the Wool and Cows. From this point on our territory and population part of our score should start to catch up our score to most other teams.

We were now on our attempt to build as many of the Middle Age wonders as possible. Due to well timed leader appearences we get every single MA and IA Wonder including the minor wonders. The last several wonders that we built had little effect on the final date of our victory. At the end we were gifting all of the AI's forward scientifically to try and get a Modern Age wonder as well. We were short 2 or 3 required techs in the IA. Bede presided over the final turns and we win the 20K in 1780, just 10 turns after the 20K best date in GOTM28.

Time line:
470 - get a leader
580 - finish hand building Sun Tzu's
590 - unit disband and cash rush Cathedral
660 - marketplace built while waiting for another wonder tech.
670 - Rush Sistine Chapel with the leader.
710 - get a leader
720 - build a courthouse with built up shields
730 - Leonardo's Workshop rushed with leader
740 - get a leader
860 - hand build a university
900 - JS Bach's Cathedral rushed with leader
1090 - Copernicus' Observatory built
1100 - bank built
1260 - Shakespeare's Theater built
1340 - Newton's University built
1385 - get a leader
Somewhere in here we enter the Industrial Age.
1415 - Magellan's hand built,
rush USuff with leader and
get another leader!!
1420 - Universal Suffrage built
rush Smith's with leader
1425 - Smith's built
1430 - factory rushed/built
get a leader
1435 - coal plant rushed/built
1460 - palace built
1490 - military academy built,
rush ToE with leader
1495 - Theory of Evolution built
1555 - Hoover Dam built
1560 - hospital built and we pump Utica up to size 20.
1565 - stock exchange built
1590 - Wall Street built
1625 - Intelligence Agency built
1660 - Battlefield Medicine
1780 - win

 

[tao]

First spoiler: 400BC - 90BC

20k Cultural Victory in 1745AD, 6 turns before gotm28 "target date" and 40 turns before gotm28 20k award winner.

Jason score: 5042, Firaxis score: 2048

To give a complete picture, I compiled all builds of our culture city in one table, together with other meaningful data.

The key in a 20k game is to push production in the city as fast as possible (i.e. joining workers) instead of the usual rapid expansion in the early game phase. And soon you start trying to get as much Great Leaders as possible to hurry Wonders (and other builds, if you have Leaders to spare).

As you see in the above table, team tao did - despite permanent wars - not get an abundance of Leaders. Hamilcar was used 390BC to build an army and enable Heroic Epic, hoping to increase Leader appearence. Alas: it did not happen.

We missed Pyramids, Oracle, and Great Wall in the Ancient Ages, but the 4 cpt from Heroic Epic were good and doubled in 890AD to 8cpt.

For lack of Leaders in the Middle Ages, we manually build Sun Tzu's in Carthage to break the AI builds.

We managed to have enough cash ready allowing to hurry (after disbanding a unit) all hurryable improvements in one turn.

A key aspect was Zwingli pushing us to going for Shakespeare's asap, collecting Sistine and Copernicus' on the way.

A sad aspect was missing Smith's, but we just did not get a Leader. We sent an overseas raiding party razing the Greek city working on it, but Babylon succeeded 1275AD (and we did not want to attack their rifles with our few knights ruining our reputation while trying).

In the early industrial times, we acquired some AI cities to enable the Forbidden Palace; afterwards we also moved the palace to the 20k city.

After we collected the other cultural buildings, we tried to speed our finishing date one more turn by getting SETI and research lab, but the AI did not help us enough with research.

As you see in the final map, we moved Leptis Magna southwest to the coast (1080AD) to allow for a much greater population than in the initial position, which was chosen for defence (on a hill) and early production (2 sheep tiles).

1370AD we finally destroyed Rome to get rid of war weariness after using them for Leader farming for a long time (with limited success). Between 1485AD and 1570AD we used our idling troops to kill the Vikings, again hoping for a Leader which did not appear.

Towards the end, we joined the workers from the "expired" civs to our cities and converted all mines to irrigation, since production was not an issue in the endgame. To increase score (slightly), we also gave lux instead of research in the end.

It was a great game, a great team, and a great facilitator. Thanks a lot to everybody.

 

[AlanH]

The Princess - Part II

When we left our heroine at the end of Part I she had laid the foundations for her small but beautifully formed empire of five cities, with Leptis Major at its heart, honed and burnished as a cultural masterpiece.

It was 150 BC. Neocarthage had surfed into the Middle Ages on a tide of information pouring from the Great Library in Leptis, fed by the contacts her plucky galley fleets had made. By this time she knew where most of the other civilizations were and who were their leaders. The galley captains had sent back fascinating maps, some of which she believed ...

Hannibaline had set out to tame the ambitious Caesar who occupied the south of her lands. He had a monopoly of iron on their continent, which made his legions powerful, and she knew there would come a time when he would cast greedy eyes on the rich lands she had spent so much time developing. So her troops were marching on Rome to deprive Caesar of the precious metal ore.

By 250 AD Rome and its iron had joined NeoCarthage, and Theveste has been consigned to history. Caesar was fuming in a small seaside resort on the south coast and had started to rebuild his nation.

But all was not well. Word had reached the Princess that her twin sisters, also charged with creating the legendary Five-City Empire of NeoCarthage, were both doing a lot better than her, and Leptis was in danger of becoming a rather tarnished, second-rate city, famed more for its popular music and avant gard street comedians than for its mystical and magical works of fine art. The cutural advisers in her sisters' palaces, The Venerable Bede and Tao, were clearly a lot sharper than the set of philistines she had helping her.

Hannibaline spent many dark days in conference with her advisers, determined to find a way to outwit her cunning sisters. Should she abandon the five-city condition? No, milady! You'd be the laughing stock of the known universe. Well is there a way to salvage our cultural showpiece? How about a whip-round for additional funds? I know! A lottery! The people love a flutter and we can cream off a tidy profit to feed into generous grants for starving artists! What are you smoking Hannibaline? And can I have some?

For a while they considered the idea of founding a world government, based on the new Republican principles Hannibaline had taught them, and where all the nations of the world would choose a Leader. And the Leader would be Hannibaline. But this seemed a pipe dream that could take until the end of time, or 2050 AD as it was called. Her heart wasn't in it, and she knew deep down that what she really wanted to do was to take up arms against a sea of enemies and, by conquering, end them. At least she thought that was how the speech went - it seemed she was becoming less cultured by the minute.

And so a new plan was forged. She knew that in this venture she was up against the master military minds of the team called Offa, assisting her twin brother. However, her Xteam seemed a lot more at home poring over military maps and plans than they had reading learned works of non-fiction, so it was decided. The destiny of NeoCathage was to rid the world of all other rulers, and to do it as fast as possible.

So Hannibaline's envoy first strode into Caesar's small palace and offered him peace in exchange for his other three cities. History repeated itself and three Roman cities were put to the torch. Her armies then marched into his capital and Caesar was history. There followed almost 1000 years of treachery and intrigue as Hannibaline made and broke promises and alliances like an alley cat. Her advisers could scarcely keep up with who was friend and who was foe from day to day.

Her swordsmen continued their rampage by wiping out Persia, already ravaged by a war with India. Two prizes were returned to Carthage - a supply of horses and the magical Lighthouse in Persepolis. The horses would allow them to ride long distances and retreat fast. The Lighthouse would allow them to sail the seas to the distant lands that had so far only been reashed by acts of suicidal nautical bravery. To keep Persepolis, Hannibaline abandoned Utica to keep to her promise of a 5-city Republic.

Persia was eliminated in 530 AD, and India fell to their horsemanship in 750 AD.

Meanwhile, in 650 AD Hannibaline learned Chivalry, enabling her horsemen to carry heavy weapons and armour into battle to become a fast and feasome fighting force. These new troops were quickly dispatched east to Keltoi, along with a few of Hannibaline's Royal Guard of loyal Spartan Hoplites. In 700 AD a Hoplite sucessfully defended his troop of knights against a Keltic archer and his victory prompted an amazing Golden Age that would last for 200 years, during which production of new Knights almost doubled and the streets of Carthage seemed paved with gold.

In 800 AD a galley sighted a Viking long boat. The troops had wondered what had become of them, as they had no visible cities. Could this be the sole surviving Viking royal descendant? Treacherously, Hannibaline made an alliance with the Vikings against all her current enemies - Greece, Babylon, Ottomans - in exchange for technologies he had only dreamt of owning. He dutifully declared war on them all, and Hannibaline's cunning plan came to fruition 30 years later when the Greeks destroyed the Vikings for her.

900 AD saw the last Keltic city razed, and Babylon fell in 1010 AD.

Some very neat footwork with city captures during this period by Colonel DJM Gator the 13th made it possible for two knight armies to be formed on the main continent where they would become an important factor in destroying the rest of the aliens. Germany was destroyed in 1210 AD and Greece and the final Ottoman city fell in 1240 AD.

Hannibaline was declared Conqueror of the World in 1250 AD, which was a rather strange ending to a story that began with a dream of a beautiful cultural city .....

 

[Mistfit]

Great Write up Alan - We all knew you weren't nealy as cultured as you try to make us believe.

Good job to all of the teams. Lurking has been very fun this time.

 

[I. Larkin]

We entered the MA in 330BC without warring with anyone. As we had the Lighthouse we could trade with Persian and India, and approximately knew the locations of all the other civs on the world map. Unfortunately we could not trade with them. As Rome had iron (legions) we decided to postpone a war with Rome until LB (invention).

We chose engineering, invention for our research. We researched feudalism and invention at 250 AD and declared war with Rome in 270 AD. In 340 AD we captured Rome and abandoned our ivory city. Rome had the Pyramids and the Great Library. In 490 AD the Romans were destroyed.

As the other AI’s were hopeless researchwise, the only bonus we got from TGL was monarchy.

Meanwhile there was a war with Persia continuing from 400 AD. We formed an alliance against them with India. We lost our local reputation in 640 AD when Persia cut of a trade route with India.

At the same time we were conducting a telephone war with Greece which began in 590 AD. The real participants of this war were Germany, Babylonians and Kelts on our side, and Ottomans and Vikings against them. We remained in this conflict until the end of Greece in about 1255 AD.

In 650 AD we signed a peace treaty with Persia. Despite our scientific domination and a good chances of fast conquest, we decided to push our research and culture (universities and cathedrals in all cities) and we built the Sistine Chapel (GL) and the Copernicus’ Observatory. As these projects were shield consuming our war was relatively slow. We decided to research navigation ASAP to receive luxuries from all the world. As a result 100% of our citizens were happy all the time. This happened in 700 AD and allowed us to learn more about the world map.

Leo’s was completed by the Persians in 800 AD and we decided to keep Persepolis when we captured it. We got Military Tradition in 940 AD. Persepolis was captured in 1000 AD. Persia was completely destroyed in 1100 AD. We used the saltpeter disconnection trick to upgrade horses to cavs. Somehow India disappeared quietly.

We landed on Greek territory in 1170 AD and joined into the conflict which began as a telephone war. In 1255 Athens were taken and destroyed and at the same time we started a war with Germany. In 1310 AD we destroyed the only city the Ottomans had. We then signed peace with Greece while the Babylonians continued their war with Greece to the bitter end.

The Germans were destroyed in 1330 AD. At the same moment a peace treaty was signed with the Vikings and war declared on Kelts, who were our most reliable allies throughought the game. Treacherously, I signed an alliance with Babylonians vs. Kelts to prevent them trading with each other, only to attack Babylon next turn.

In 1315 AD we entered the Industrial Ages. With aid of GLs we built and Army, Maggelan’s and Newton’s.

We destroyed the Babylonians in 1365 AD, the Vikings in 1400 AD, and the Kelts in 1405 AD.

Conquest Victory with 3283 firaxis points.

 

[Taliesin]

Victory for Los Alamos!
Those of you that avidly follow the adventures of Team alamo will recall that our heroes entered the Middle Ages in the midst of a war with evil Rome. However, it gets better than that: we also fought with the Persians, Indians, and Vikings not long after! What fun!
Anyway, back to the history of Carthage.
340: We complete the Hanging Gardens in our capital.
570: We finally capture Rome with a massive SOD. The peace deal snags us 5 of Caesar's six cities, which we leverage into a FP in Rome before abandoning them all.
690: DoW on Persia. We are lazy at heart, so we recruit India to do the fighting for us.
790: Complete Sun Tzu's Art of War.
By 800, the coasts around our vulnerable southern province of Rome are quite nicely blockaded:

900: We sign a lucrative peace with Persia. That's right, WE'RE calling the shots!
910: Lest our armour rest unburnished, not to shine in use (or so our court poet informs us), we immediately make a DoW on Rome.
990: In the fierce and glorious battle of Caesaraugusta, out of the clangour and din of combat rises one man so great as to lead the Carthaginian armies to great victory... Hamilcar emerges from a unit commanded by Taliesin the Bold and Unscrupulous, that sly and puissant general of our armed forces.
1110: The Great Library avails us no more, for we have learned of Education. Further, it is revealed that King alamo has decided not to employ Hamilcar just yet, though we are constructing a Wonder!
1255: We declare war on Persia.
1260: Many nervous years later, Carthage's might is reaffirmed when the Sistine Chapel is constructed purely through the honest toil of our citizens.
1265: alamo's gamble pays off when, in a fit of patriotic fervour, Carthage's labourers rush to complete a great Cathedral for a man named J.S. Bach. We notice that the scientists of Carthage are beginning to fall behind the foreign barbarians. We're not sure how this might have come to be, but we have suspicions that the other nations are devil-worshippers.
1285: Once again, the Vikings declare war on us. This seems to be a favoured pastime of Mr Lodbrok, as you will eventually see. Much good may it do him!
1350: Our citizens enjoy a general peace with all neighbours.
1385: We declare war on Rome, since they don't really count anyway, and we'd rather they go away.
1410: This state of affairs manifests itself in an end to isolationism. Carthage throws open its market doors to the world, and we have much to gain by trading in knowledge and fine luxuries. Certain powers take advantage of our generosity and begin to test our hospitableness by daring to settle "cities" on our great land:

1475: Our morale suffers a great hit when we are beaten to the construction of Shakespeare's Theatre by a single turn. That good-for-nothing wastrel of a "playwright" was two-timing us! The savage irony of the gods is brought home to us when this very year, another great leader appears out of combat. Our priests inform us that the gods are trying to tell us something. We're not sure what, just that they must have a very sick sense of humour. To be certain of a return to their favour, we dedicated the nearly complete theatre as a temple to Baal, and at the inauguration sacrificed Shakespeare's relatives and his pet cat. For good measure, we decreed that his plays are to be forbidden in our great land henceforth!
1480: We form our first army.
1485: We abandon the city of Theveste for more temperate and pleasant environs, and found the city of Oea to the southeast. This picture is from a later date, but shows Oea's location:

1500: Our brief period of peace is over. Let the wars begin!! Greece declares war on us after we refuse his brazen demands for gold.
1510: We make peace with Caesar.
1545: Carthage completes a great Heroic Epic, a fascinating tale about a chap named Bob who accidentally signed up for the military (he thought at the time that he was requesting a free-goat's-cheese-of-the-month service) and found himself in the thick of combat against the hated Greeks. A lovely story, full of smashing plot turns and moving description. (For those of you who are interested, Bob ends up triumphing in battle by pelting Greek soldiers with rotten fruit, thus leading his compatriots to thrilling victory. In his greatest moment of elation, however, Bob slipped on a decomposing coconut and impaled himself on his triumphantly waving sword. A tragic, but uplifting tale.)
1560: Greece eliminates Germany. I can just see it now:

The Germans are disputing it. Hegel is arguing that the reality is merely an a priori adjunct of non-naturalistic ethics, Kant via the categorical imperative is holding that ontologically it exists only in the imagination, and Marx is claiming it was offside.

1580: Brennus the Celt, hearing from the Vikings how much fun declare-war-on-Carthage is, joins in for the first of many occasions.
1585: The first really dangerous war for us, as Greece begins bombing our coastline with ironclads.
1605: Luckily, we obtain peace with Alexander.
1620: Celts also sign peace.
1635: Carthage enters the Industrial Age with much fanfare and pomp! Having envied other powers their smokestacks for a while now, and eager to begin polluting our own continent, we set about researching how to harness the Power of Steam, TM.
1665: Vikings declare war again. Our viceroy commits suicide because he had a lot riding on a bet that this wouldn't happen again until 1675.
1705: Vikings agree to peace.
1745: Our scientists discover how to use steam to power things, and to our astonishment we discover not one, but two sources of coal. Finally, we are blessed with something! Our capital completes a Military Academy, where our young nobles are educated in the ways of war and the use of water metaphors in the Grand Tragedy of Bob.
Around 1760, the long period of MPP wars begin.
1808: Osman of the Ottomen declares war on us. Our cartographers are unaware of where the Ottomen even live, and we kind of thought they must have died out a few centuries back, so this comes as some surprise. We're not exactly frightened out of what little wits we have, however. What is more worrying is the Greek deployment of boats to our idyllic land. What gives, Alex? We JUST paid you off! The cheque's in the mail, I swear!
1810: Alexander lands a cavalry army near Carthage. After some impassioned debate, we decide to interpret this as a hostile move, and we reluctantly declare war on Greece. We finish off his army without too much trouble.
1820: Osman agrees to peace.
1830: After many years of spirited defence has repelled invasion after invasion of Greek troops, Alexander comes to his senses and agrees to stop squatting on our farmlands.
1846: With the advent of Medicine, we immediately build hospitals all over to demonstrate how much we care for our citizens. It is around this time that the MPP wars begin in earnest, though we are unscathed for a while due to prudent diplomacy.
1862: The Vikings declare war. Bookies all across our fair land rejoice.
1864: Xerxes finally puts an end to Caesar, the world's biggest nuisance.
1876: Our capital completes Battlefield Medicine, meaning our troops can heal while invading foreign lands. Not that we'd ever want to go to foreign lands, of course, since ours lands are clearly superior. But, you know, just in case.
1878: One of our cavalry divisions makes short work of the SINGLE Berserk warrior that Ragnar lands on our continent. This is the only Viking force to ever set foot in Carthage. Mr Lodbrok immediately agrees to peace. We finish our grand railroad network.
1890: The Celts declare war.
1892: Persia eliminates the Ottomen. I guess Xerxes is the only one of us who has the stomach to take out the trash...
1900: A great leader, Hanno, arises out of battle. It is generally agreed in our newspapers that he isn't good for much, and he gets a nice pension from the government, lives in a pleasant flat with two cats, and uses his "rush" abilities to finish the daily crossword in record time.
1904: Another surprise! The presence of rubber in our land permits the modernisation of our armed forces. We are dismayed to hear that Greece, Babylon, and Persia are all building the United Nations. Since we are not in favour of the implication that Carthage is somehow equal to these barbarians, we do not like what we see.
1914: In a moment of weakness, one of our diplomats signs to an RoP and MPP with Hammurabi. Immediately, we declare war on India and Persia, and all hell breaks loose at home as our generally peaceful continent suddenly transforms into a bloodbath.
1932: Our MPP with Babylon causes us to once again war with Greece. On the plus side, our continent is finally foreigner-free! Carthage's glorious people and armies have manifested some kickass destiny!
Here's a picture of our great forces poised to kick Xerxes, the last holdout, out of our lands:

1940: The Vikings declare war, afraid they're missing something good.
1950: Brennus follows suit. We make peace with Gandhi.
1952: We make our peace with Xerxes.
1957: The cultural supremacy of Carthage is acknowledged! Comers from all corners of the globe are drawn to this pillar of enlightenment, beauty, and all-around general awesomeness. Baal be praised!

We agreed among ourselves that we probably should have made our second city our cultural centre instead of Carthage. Other than that, we admit no mistakes!
Many thanks again to mad-bax for such a great game, and we'll see you all in SGOTM5!

 

[jeffelammar]

Team jeffelammar - End Game Spoiler

Last Turn Log Post - includes some pictures.

Goal For what it is worth we were still going for 20K.

Short Summary of Ancient Ages
When last we left our intrepid Carthaginian Warriors, they had subdued
Rome and were settling in for a serious Middle Ages wonder push in
Utica, a city already envied thoughout the world. As we entered the
Middle Ages we were wrapping up work on some upside down gardens that
were sure to spread the fame of Utica even farther.

The Middle Ages
The Carthagininan people loved their city of Utica, but continued to
scream for more more. Their brave leading council could not provide
enough to satisify them. Cathedrals and Universities for all were not
enough to slow the cries from the people. Apparently they wanted to
make sure that there was lots of land outside the cities so they could
hunt, fish and frollic through the wilderness.

To support these wishes a large force of Roman and Persian slaves
began building a road network through all of the land that was
culturally bound to the Carthaginian people.

Meanwhile the mad artisans of Utica continued to come up with truely
outragous ideas. Their ideas were often a ways ahead of their
time. There was a constant stream of requests to the Council of Three
to request that the science council discover how to do all sorts of
things. The council was loathe to devote funding to all of this due to
their possession of a Great Library, but they reluctantly acceded when
it became obvious that the rest of the world was too slow to figure
out anything. After building their nifty upside down gardens the
craftsmen of Utica began work on some sort of academy of war. They
assured us that as it neared completion they would re-fit it into a
great religious icon.

We were hoping that someone out in the world would figure out how to make
these large religious artifices, but they were too busy working on
ways to design new things and on trying to figure out how to collect
books. So in 630 AD the Ruling Counsil traded for Monotheism and
switched the researchers into overdrive trying to figure out how to
better organize our religion. While the other nations of the world
struggled to learn warrior skills, the Carthaginians raced through a
much more enlightened path, learning about religion, how to band a
bunch of their young folk together to teach them stuff. Then it was on
to some mumbo jumbo about stars and getting places. Then the
econmists took over and it was time to invent a big place for storing
our gold. After that we took some time to formalize the process of
putting notes on paper so our priests could reproduce the hymns of
Carthaginian joy.

In 590 AD workers in Leptis Minor (near the ruins of Rome) completed a
new palace, giving a large boost to the overall Carthiginian
economy. A Utican visitor inspired these folks to create a workshop
for designing efficient upgrades, but he soon returned to Utica to
continue the mad invention of nifty new buildings. Later another
Utican madman would visit and inspire them to create a trade center
named after some guy named Smith.

Meanwhile the artisans in Utica kept building amazing things. They
built a big Chapel with a nifty painting on the ceiling in 700AD,
followed immediately by a Cathedral and shortly thereafter by a place
for young learners to congregate and consume fermented beverages. Then
they devised a place to put a big metal tube that makes far away
things look closer. Next it was on to a large building that could
house a big organ that we were assured could be used to play fugues
and other pieces of music. Then it was on to a big place for people to
sit and watch something called a play. And to cap off the Middle
Ages some guy had an apple drop on his head and it inspired the crazed
madmen in Utica to build an extra booze distribution (oh yeah and
learning) center and the drunken students on a lark built a special
ship that would circle the world.

The scientists discovered that some metals attracted others in 1395
and dragged the Carthaginians into an era of machines and
pollution. The soothsayers reported that in other parallel universes,
the people had done these things hundreds of years earlier, but this
did not deter the celebrations in the one true world.


Industrial Age
Utican craftsmen began to have less ideas on new things about this
time, but they did have a few more things planned. In 1520 they build
a big shiny factory, followed immediately by a big tall tower for
burning coal. They then started on a big campaign to convince the
Ruling Council to let everyone have a say in the running of the
Nation. Yes even the dust mites wanted their say. In 1580 the
suffering movement succeeded and contruction was started on a boat to
go to some place called the Galapagos Islands. The boat returned with
knowledge of something called evolution in 1625AD. The Craftsmen of
Utica then turned to developing a huge place to trade ownership in
various corporations. Then they built a place to coordinate the stock
exchanges in other cites. After that it was on to developing a mobile
medical team and a spy academy.

Meanwhile a Utican madman visited Leptis Minor again and told them to
build a big dam across the river there. Soon the Coal Plants were
replaced by nice clean hydroelectric power.

A distressing statistic began to be kept by the ruling council in the
middle ages. After many wars throughout the middle ages and early
industrial ages no single warrior had stepped forward as a brilliant
mind. The Council started keeping track of the number of units that
had trained leaders, and who won victories. After starting to keep
track, it was about 30 victories without a special guy showing
up. This was after almost 2000 years prior without one. Finally in
1730 AD Council Member ChunkyMonkey sent a cavalry against a Persian
Cavalry and Mago showed up. Immediately he formed an army and kicked
another Persian's butt.

The Utican madmen immediately started work on a statue to commemerate
Mago's prowess, finishing it in 1745 and then beginning work on a
place to train soldiers to work together.

After this, the Carthiginian economy was switched from production to
food. All resources were used to produce food so there would be more
people to frollic in the wilderness. Spending was switched to
concentrate more on throwing parties rather than trying to actually
learn stuff. Enough was spent on research however that in 1824 it was
reported that testing had discovered a device called an
airplane. Given the small size of the empire and the solid Railroad
network, it was deemed unnecessary to build any of these, but the
population decided to party hard anyway.

Modern Ages
Word had spread that very soon Utica would become so impressive that
the rest of the world would bow down and acknowledge the superior
genetic code that infused the Carthaginians, but the ruling council
decided that they would learn how to make giant calculators that would
allow the people to waste hours playing some thing called a "computer
game". Utica quickly built a lab to design newer and better versions
of something called Civilization and all useful activity in the city
ended.
Luckilly they were able to distribute copies of Civilization
throughout the world in 1866-1868 thus finally convincing the rest of
the world of their superiority. The rest of the world ground to a
halt, leaving Utica standing supreme.

While we were not super fast, I have to say that we controlled the
tech race and managed the AIs better than I could have hoped. It was
fun and all of us learned from the others.

Cultural Victory in the 1866-1868 IBT
Final Utica Culture: 20071

Culture - Year - Building
1318 - 1870 BC - Temple
2320 - 950 BC - Oracle
2814 - 110 BC - Great Library
920 - 50 BC - Forbidden Palace
840 - 70 AD - Library
824 - 270 AD - Collesium
1468 - 420 AD - Hanging Gardens
1698 - 700 AD - Sistine Chapel
840 - 710 AD - Cathedral
1048 - 760 AD - University
784 - 880 AD - Copernicus Observatory
1044 - 1100 AD - JS Bach's Cathedral
1248 - 1265 AD - Shakespeare's Theater
822 - 1360 AD - Newton's University
354 - 1455 AD - Magellan's Voyage
372 - 1580 AD - Universal Sufferage
252 - 1625 AD - Theory of Evolution
158 - 1650 AD - Wall Street
72 - 1685 AD - Battlefield Medicine
67 - 1710 AD - Intellegence Agency
244 - 1740 AD - Heroic Epic
56 - 1756 AD - Military Academy
22 - 1846 AD - Research Lab