Shaka in Space:
Difficulty: Deity
Map Size: Standard
Selected Tribe: The Zulu
Wet, Warm, 5 billion, Sedentary Barbs.
Opponents: China, Egypt, Aztecs, Japan
Following a joke made by someone who I won't name and following on the heels of Sanabas's "Mongols in space" game: http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ3/game_info.php?entryID=1682 First I set map-finder to find me a map with more than one cow and a river... 5 food probably really have worked well enough. I went with sedentary barbs since Zululand plays as expansionist. I fiddle around with two other starts, both of which I got a settler in. In one I lost the settler after moving it a bit from some barb that appeared out of nowhere (of course an AI popped a hut nearby), and quit in quite an upset mood. In another I tried not reseraching Alphabet first thinking I could pop it faster... it didn't seem to work, so I canned that one too. The one I played had the (relatively) weakest start of all three. I picked my opponents as the above, because they seemed like the poorest researchers who didn't have the expansionist trait. I much more wanted to just launch than launch fast in this one, so I played a bit more conservatively than usual (like researching Industrialization).
I didn't pop a settler in this one, nor get all that much from huts. I saw a flood plain wheat out near Zimbabwe, so I went with a settler first, and then the granary. In the other games I had gone with a scout or two first before anything else, but I played this one last, and I had learned that I wouldn't get as many huts as I would like, so I just went settler-granary and then settlers in this one. The second city went settler and then workers every 2 turns. I got another three-turn worker pump up near Zimbabwe also. The ancient ages seemed to go along swimmingly. I started on the Forbidden Palace later than I should have and that didn't help anything, but I went Alphabet-Writing-Philosophy-CoL as freebie, The Republic which I paritally bought from China I believe, then Currency and managed to get into the middle ages either slightly ahead or with the lead AI. Not sure if I traded for all of Literature, researched part of it, or all of it. I forgot to revolt to The Republic until 5-8 turns after I had learned it, but I managed things o.k. So, it all looked good.
Until the middle ages that is. I had quite a bit of jungle to clear. So, I trained a ton of workers. I didn't really have much time for military early on. My 10 AD save says I have 51 workers and 8 warriors, for 59 total units with 31 units allowed. I hand counted 41 jungle squares still left to get cleared (anyone want a picture?) and 2 marsh squares still to get cleared, and I know I had cleared some out before that. I didn't have all too many coastal cities either. Add that all up, and you'll know that infrastructure came in quite slowly. How slowly?
Well, things in the middle ages overall got so rough really that I had to buy almost all of the techs with gpt *and* with my only source of iron/saltpeter. Or use a luxury source and hope to pick it up elsewhere. Then, I'd have to keep the science slider at 0 and do good ole lone scientist research. I went Monotheism-Theology-Education... I think I bought Chemistry, although maybe I researched part of it.
After Education I reserached Banking (I didn't have Astronomy yet), which I believe I started in 90 BC and finished in 290 AD. I believe the Aztecs learned it the same turn I did, but no one else did. I knew Mao had started on Newton's. Sounds bad, right? Well, I managed to pick up Metallurgy, Astronomy, Physics, Theory of Gravity, and Magnetism on that turn via buying tech with gpt and selling Banking, catapulting myself and Mao into the industrial age (check the save if you like for what it looked like after the deals). I used some tax collectors to make the final deal with Mao. I somehow still had 580 gold left in the treasury, but after I swapped my citizens back to working tiles, I still had negative gpt for a bit. So, in 290 AD I started on Steam Power. 24 turns later in 530 AD I learned Steam Power ahead of the sluggish AI, started a little railing (I had jungle, so I had two sources of coal, until one depleted after I didn't need it anymore), and sold Steam Power for gpt so that I had +154 gpt at 100% science with Industrialization due in 9 turns. I figured I might get into a war sometime for one reason or another, so I decided I wanted Universal Suffrage, thus I reserached Industralization instead of going to Sanitation and to Scientific Method sooner.
I had wanted both Cope's or Newton's, or at least one, and tried to have Zimbabwe build them both. Both failed, even though the AIs started on this quite late for them really. However, the AIs had not researched Economics, Music Theory, or the Democracy path when I entered the middle ages. So, I managed both Bach's and Smith's, as well as Universal Suffrage and the rest of the non-Genetics great wonders. The industrial ages went quite well really... I think I picked up Replacable Parts and The Corporation from the AIs.
I popped an SGL on either Motorized Transportation or Flight (which I reserached last in the industrial age). Since I already had a pre-build going on the Internet, I decided to use my SGL for the U.N. So, in the modern age I went Computers-Miniaturization-Fission-Ecology, traded for Rocketry from Japan along here, Nuclear Power-The Laser-Space Flight (I had a palace pre-build going on the Apollo Program, so I didn't have time to wander to Robotics first), traded for Synthetic Fibers from Japan along here, Robotics, The Superconductor, traded for Satellites with like 2 turns left on the Superconductor, and launched 2 turns after I finished The Superconductor, as I had irrigated literally everything I could, and didn't use civil engineers right or something, to have more shields towards the spaceship parts via MFG pre-builds or something like that.
I thought I would need a war for rubber at one point where The Aztecs had two sources, but none to trade in the middle industrial age... but I didn't end up needing to do so as I got it later via trading a bit later, so I never entered one. I seduously avoided even the though of impis in this one, and I didn't really have time for much military until the mid to late industrial ages where I got a bare few artillery and cavalry, and later on I got some nice tanks. The Aztecs got exterminated by Japan and Egypt in the late industrial ages/early modern era. I launched the spaceship in 1610 AD with a score of 6067 *s*. As long as I can do this, here's the entry http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ3/game_info.php?entryID=2430 and some other saves not in the entry:
Difficulty: Deity
Map Size: Standard
Selected Tribe: The Zulu
Wet, Warm, 5 billion, Sedentary Barbs.
Opponents: China, Egypt, Aztecs, Japan
Following a joke made by someone who I won't name and following on the heels of Sanabas's "Mongols in space" game: http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ3/game_info.php?entryID=1682 First I set map-finder to find me a map with more than one cow and a river... 5 food probably really have worked well enough. I went with sedentary barbs since Zululand plays as expansionist. I fiddle around with two other starts, both of which I got a settler in. In one I lost the settler after moving it a bit from some barb that appeared out of nowhere (of course an AI popped a hut nearby), and quit in quite an upset mood. In another I tried not reseraching Alphabet first thinking I could pop it faster... it didn't seem to work, so I canned that one too. The one I played had the (relatively) weakest start of all three. I picked my opponents as the above, because they seemed like the poorest researchers who didn't have the expansionist trait. I much more wanted to just launch than launch fast in this one, so I played a bit more conservatively than usual (like researching Industrialization).
I didn't pop a settler in this one, nor get all that much from huts. I saw a flood plain wheat out near Zimbabwe, so I went with a settler first, and then the granary. In the other games I had gone with a scout or two first before anything else, but I played this one last, and I had learned that I wouldn't get as many huts as I would like, so I just went settler-granary and then settlers in this one. The second city went settler and then workers every 2 turns. I got another three-turn worker pump up near Zimbabwe also. The ancient ages seemed to go along swimmingly. I started on the Forbidden Palace later than I should have and that didn't help anything, but I went Alphabet-Writing-Philosophy-CoL as freebie, The Republic which I paritally bought from China I believe, then Currency and managed to get into the middle ages either slightly ahead or with the lead AI. Not sure if I traded for all of Literature, researched part of it, or all of it. I forgot to revolt to The Republic until 5-8 turns after I had learned it, but I managed things o.k. So, it all looked good.
Until the middle ages that is. I had quite a bit of jungle to clear. So, I trained a ton of workers. I didn't really have much time for military early on. My 10 AD save says I have 51 workers and 8 warriors, for 59 total units with 31 units allowed. I hand counted 41 jungle squares still left to get cleared (anyone want a picture?) and 2 marsh squares still to get cleared, and I know I had cleared some out before that. I didn't have all too many coastal cities either. Add that all up, and you'll know that infrastructure came in quite slowly. How slowly?
Well, things in the middle ages overall got so rough really that I had to buy almost all of the techs with gpt *and* with my only source of iron/saltpeter. Or use a luxury source and hope to pick it up elsewhere. Then, I'd have to keep the science slider at 0 and do good ole lone scientist research. I went Monotheism-Theology-Education... I think I bought Chemistry, although maybe I researched part of it.
After Education I reserached Banking (I didn't have Astronomy yet), which I believe I started in 90 BC and finished in 290 AD. I believe the Aztecs learned it the same turn I did, but no one else did. I knew Mao had started on Newton's. Sounds bad, right? Well, I managed to pick up Metallurgy, Astronomy, Physics, Theory of Gravity, and Magnetism on that turn via buying tech with gpt and selling Banking, catapulting myself and Mao into the industrial age (check the save if you like for what it looked like after the deals). I used some tax collectors to make the final deal with Mao. I somehow still had 580 gold left in the treasury, but after I swapped my citizens back to working tiles, I still had negative gpt for a bit. So, in 290 AD I started on Steam Power. 24 turns later in 530 AD I learned Steam Power ahead of the sluggish AI, started a little railing (I had jungle, so I had two sources of coal, until one depleted after I didn't need it anymore), and sold Steam Power for gpt so that I had +154 gpt at 100% science with Industrialization due in 9 turns. I figured I might get into a war sometime for one reason or another, so I decided I wanted Universal Suffrage, thus I reserached Industralization instead of going to Sanitation and to Scientific Method sooner.
I had wanted both Cope's or Newton's, or at least one, and tried to have Zimbabwe build them both. Both failed, even though the AIs started on this quite late for them really. However, the AIs had not researched Economics, Music Theory, or the Democracy path when I entered the middle ages. So, I managed both Bach's and Smith's, as well as Universal Suffrage and the rest of the non-Genetics great wonders. The industrial ages went quite well really... I think I picked up Replacable Parts and The Corporation from the AIs.
I popped an SGL on either Motorized Transportation or Flight (which I reserached last in the industrial age). Since I already had a pre-build going on the Internet, I decided to use my SGL for the U.N. So, in the modern age I went Computers-Miniaturization-Fission-Ecology, traded for Rocketry from Japan along here, Nuclear Power-The Laser-Space Flight (I had a palace pre-build going on the Apollo Program, so I didn't have time to wander to Robotics first), traded for Synthetic Fibers from Japan along here, Robotics, The Superconductor, traded for Satellites with like 2 turns left on the Superconductor, and launched 2 turns after I finished The Superconductor, as I had irrigated literally everything I could, and didn't use civil engineers right or something, to have more shields towards the spaceship parts via MFG pre-builds or something like that.
I thought I would need a war for rubber at one point where The Aztecs had two sources, but none to trade in the middle industrial age... but I didn't end up needing to do so as I got it later via trading a bit later, so I never entered one. I seduously avoided even the though of impis in this one, and I didn't really have time for much military until the mid to late industrial ages where I got a bare few artillery and cavalry, and later on I got some nice tanks. The Aztecs got exterminated by Japan and Egypt in the late industrial ages/early modern era. I launched the spaceship in 1610 AD with a score of 6067 *s*. As long as I can do this, here's the entry http://hof.civfanatics.net/civ3/game_info.php?entryID=2430 and some other saves not in the entry:
