Trying to get more practice in the links, here are my previous reports:
Here is my first Spoiler Report
The Era of Great Leaders (2nd Report)
My Radio Report
Since I still had the last post in the Radio thread, I guess I am toward the end of the pack time-wise, but at least I got the game done. Unfortunately, I am leaving for New York in the morning, so it was tonight or never. That also influenced my victory decision, it was very tempting to go over to the other continent and destroy those backstabbing Greeks and Russians, but Space Race is quicker in RL time. Not much changed from my plan after discovering Radio, I had intended to race through the Modern techs and launch. I had already identified my good science producers, top 25 cities, and had them prebuilding factories or coal plants to switch to research labs as soon as I got computers. From then on it was 4 turns per tech, and still able to give at least 10% luxuries to keep happiness up.
Meanwhile, I was prebuilding two things at once, I was building for the UN in my Iron Works city using the Pentagon, and for SETI in my 2nd best science city using palace. Ferrum and Rome were each over 100 shields per turn by now. In 1500AD I was one turn away from Fission, and decided to try the "Loser's Lotto" with our scientific friends. I sold/gifted them all the techs they needed to get to the modern age (actually took a couple of contacts for some, because they were behind, I would give them Electronics, then click back to give them Radio, etc). Anyway, after some discussions about alternate free techs, I thought I would give it a shot, but no dice. All four (Germany, Russia, Babylon, and Greece) came up with Rocketry. Oh, well, it was worth a shot. Germany was the lucky/unlucky winner, since I didn't want too much tech going around, so I traded him Computers for Rocketry, then declared war to overrun his last 4 cities. I got stuck taking 2 turns, since there were some hills in the way, but killed him off before he traded Computers to anyone else.
Also I got another leader, Titus, who was #8 or 9. I had my own mini-cascade, not wanting to waste all those shields built up toward the UN (SETI was already done), so I rushed the UN in Kyoto, switched Rome to Pentagon and switched Ferrum to Mahattan Project. I wanted to be prepared to annihilate anyone who would attempt to block my launch, but no one was even close. Russia, who had declared war after I attacked Germany, gave in to peace after one bombardment from a Battleship, and I stayed at peace the rest of the game. Never got to use my nuclear arsenal, although it was tempting, I even had a tac nuc on Barb Reef that could range Athens, just in case. Ended with 9 ICBMs and 16 tacs. I actually got somewhat careless in the last set of turns, since I was trying to get done and submit, and ended up with huge stacks of Modern Armor, Bombers, and stuff parked all over my cities, I finally got around to switching some back to Opulentia, but by then it was late. Never built any more cities on Barb Reef, other than the first 3 to get the 3 luxuries, but I also never saw another AI land there.
Overall, a quick trip through the Modern Age, it took me exactly 38 turns from Radio to launch. I used a lot of prebuilds, so my parts were usually completed the same turn they were available, and launched in 1645AD.
As for the map features question, obviously 1 was the Barb Reef to seperate us from the other continent, the chain of small seas in the south (I noticed after I built one city one tile off, but I had good harbors in the Japanese cities anyway), the chokepoint between Japan and America, with tons of jungle making it harder to settle, and the luxury distribution, since we could only secure 4 on our continent, we needed to explore or trade for the rest.
Awesome game, great job to Cracker and the rest of his staff. I also loved the puzzle idea, although I was afraid I would kill them off without noticing one piece I would need, it helped to have the printout list of names to fill in. Can't wait for GOTM XVII.
Here is my final Histograph:
And the World Map from 1640AD:
And welcome to the dairy club.
However, they also call me a warmonger while they call you a peacemaker. Life isn't fair!
