The Evil That Men Do...

[Khan_Asparuh]

… because of a woman…

This is the first civ story I ever write and it is about a game I’ve finished after it lasted for a few weeks. So you can imagine I have forgotten some details but the big lines must be the same.

This is C3C, standard Pangaea minimum water, I’m the Iroquois.
Here’s my starting position.

Not bad, 2 settler factories. No combo factory unfortunately, but we can’t expect all.
Farmer’s gambit was what I’ve done first. Pulled out a settler before Salamanca was at 4 turn cycle, just after the granary, so I’ve founded my second settler factory in 2750. Of course it took a while to be set up, but was ready to go really soon. It was child game to outgrow the Emperor AI from this moment on, in 1000 BC I had already 14 cities compared to 9 for the best AI, Aztecs. Actually due to a of my part, I had lost the granary in Salamanca when I missed my costs once.
1000BC:

But Isabella went quite fast for Philosophy and got MM. So I set max research on republic that came in in 650BC.
I’ve done the trick of double revolt that saved me 1 turn of anarchy (5 turns all in all) and emerged with some pretty reasonable unit costs of 30 gpt.

 

[Khan_Asparuh]

By this time I had discovered that there wasn’t iron nearby and my warriors were to wait for upgrades for a while. I started building archers in my first ring cities, shaped for it with barracks and nice 5spt (in general). The lux situation wasn’t the best neither, I had none until I connected the ivory near Japan. I wanted to pull the Statue of Zeus so I had started a prebuild in one first ring city, Cattaraugus. It was waiting for maths to be switched.
War was declared to Russia in 900 BC, when I sent 5 or 6 archers next to size 3 Novgorod. I hate razing cities and was hoping that Russia can’t rush it to size 1. I’ve captured it immediately but hadn’t enough army to proceed on Moscow and that was the only Russian city above size 1.

Persia built Pyramids in 875BC. Red painted target I say.
Aztecs stole Zeus 2 turns before completion in 850BC, so I built my FP instead. Cattaraugus, the wonder builder was a steady 10spt.

In 750 BC I’ve signed peace with Russia for size 1 cities of Yakutsk and Yekaterinburg, Russia never sent anything more than spears in my lands.

I had built already some Mounties, but wanted to hold my GA for a while (at least a republic with a decently sized empire). In 570 BC Russia declared war when kindly asked to leave my lands, and I’ve entered my GA. I pushed on Moscow, and had some terrible RNG losing 5 mounties against spears , but finally I got their capital in 510 BC. Again, no other Russian city to capture without razing. Finally I razed Orenburg (430BC) that held incense and signed next to free peace. Meanwhile, I had almost a phony war with Greece, all they sent was elite hoplite that surprisingly suicided against a regular MW fortified in a city. But I had quite some WH from this war.

I used my GA to build some markets and then rebuild my MW forces.

Persian city of Gordium had some furs in range, and Persia had 4 luxuries I hadn’t. On top of it, remember who built the Pyramids? So I started war with them in 170BC, fuelled with the MW I had built during my GA. I was way too strong for them, they hadn’t even connected their Iron. I never saw an Immortal, stupid AI.

Anyways, the war ended around 190AD, when all they had was mine except the few 1 pop cities. At this moment, I had already 6 lux and pyramids. All a republic needs. I had decided to go until the end of a single scientist run on Feudalism, even if I had some stuff to trade for it to Zululand. I hate buying it, along with Nationalism. After I ended my Russian war, I’ve pulled them in the MA, then bought their Monotheism. I had to pay Republic and Monarchy for this cheap tech, but it doesn’t matter that much.

 

[Khan_Asparuh]

In 10AD, I had already this:

Catty was summoned too close to me. She declared on me again in 210AD. I really don’t want to see her ugly face near my borders and she was insisting to go on safari in my deserts. A turn later I went for Japan too, they were in the middle of my lands. Toku didn’t lasted for long time neither. I had to sign peace with Russia as she had a couple of cities away from the core that I didn’t wanted to go after. So she went OCC in 290AD. 2 turns later Tokugawa stepped on a mine and suddenly Japan was history. In 370AD the ladies’ fight (how rude) ended with a victory for Isabella (my favourite) so Russia was no more.

I was in war with the Aztecs for some ridiculous demand that was generating WH for quite some time, while I was never seeing any military action. Why? Because the world was against him. It’s so nice all those cheap MAs that you get when your reputation is clear. I’m not used. This was a real exploit, all I needed was the equivalent of 10-15 gpt in gold or lux to get them in the party.

I got bored in 410AD and decided to get rid of X-man too. I know I should have kept him around for the free tech but I hate seeing his nation in my diplomacy window. He joined Toku and Cathy in 440AD.

The last chunks of land were settled around 450AD, with a good part of the world ruled by the magnificent ME:

Bored again, I declared on Zululand. The problem was they had muskets already and even if I captured their saltpetre in first place, I hate fighting them with Knights and was too lazy to send artillery. After 3 or 4 city captured, the ones I could reach without leaving surrounding Greece, the 2nd civ in the game, I’ve signed peace. I controlled already 6 out of 8 iron sources in the world, along with 8 luxuries already. Nicey. I took my time and built Bach’s, then got SGL with ???some tech, forgot it??? and rushed Smiths 4 turns later (economy research time).

Around 750AD Spain and Aztecs finally signed peace. This war had last for… maybe 500 years, with a city or 2 that changed hands but nothing more. At least the flaw of Spanish longbows was protecting my NW border. At this time, Greece and Zululand had seriously started on the Aztecs in the north. I bought MT around this time and charged on Northern Azteca. I wanted their capital at least, as it had Leo’s.

I switched to communism in 850AD, even before researching Steam Power.

Around 900 AD CivAssist2 suddenly declared that I was over the domination limit.

Go figure, I guess CA counts 2 border expansions or something like this. Anyways, I took a nice chunk of Azteca land, but failed on Tenochtitlan after 2 assaults and the defence of some heroic spears against Cavs. The Zulus got the city and Aztecs were gone in 970AD.

 

[Khan_Asparuh]

4 of us had left. Enough for a “carré belotte”, but it turned out that Isabella was not really a good player. We were in the same team all the time, and I would never get mad on a lady. So I had to stop the game somehow, like by whipping out one of the players. My lovely lady was out of reach, the coin flipped was to determine the order between Alexander and Chaka.

I guess Zululand would have won anyways, as I hated his head and my real life name is Alexander. They felt it and immediately after the Aztec genocide he sent his ridiculous knights against my cavs. Of course, against my cavs and the rest of the world. Have I mentioned how cheap… Yes, I have

I took all Chaka’s captured cities in Aztecaland and then started the razing party. But Alexander was faster than me and got some cities over there. The love triangle of me and Isabella against Alexander was formed in 1270AD. And as you can imagine, I’m firstly very jealous guy and secondly very well armed guy. So guess what happened…


Wrong guess. I held for a while to let my trades with Greece end and to gather some army. Before Hoover, built in 1300 AD I had my cities building 2 turns cavalry. Then, with about 50 of them, along with a few artilleries, about 10 infantries and 2 armies, I’ve set them building the best unit they could with minimum waste. Most of them were building infantries, with occasional cavs. I saw no need to proceed building soon to be outdated units.

Back on the triangle. Alexander was in Fascism, that he knew in monopoly, and his army was said to be bigger than mine. He backed our trades and attacked me in 1325AD. No, he didn’t dare to attack my cities that were already Metropolises and had infantries as defenders (only on the border). But he managed to capture several big stacks of workers. Lucky me, I had switched on communism . Under a republic, I would have faced nearly 100% WW in the first turn of war. Worker captures are really bad stuff.

Anyways. Right after his strike, I razed his border cities and slowly but surely went for his entire empire. In 1380 AD he had the only city I wanted him to have, with a great view on the magnificent internal sea. I signed peace as we were next to the Modern age and I needed him to spare a tech research time. And even with the sea exposition he wasn’t going to be able to attract my lady better than I can.

It was time to marry her. As you can imagine, the first years were quite happy, with lovely dinners, candle light and plans for the future. But in 1415 my agents told me that she was meeting Alexander secretly. I had just entered the Modern Age. I held my anger, went to see that lovely Greek cousin and gifted him quite some techs, until the moment he pulled out Rocketry up on me. I asked him kindly to hand it to me, but he refused. Then my anger came out. I was so choked by the way he was ruining my happy marriage and his gift refusal after all the signs of good will (well after he went OCC I had never bored him), that I forgot all about my precious trade reputation, shipped him a check of about 2000gpt, payable once a turn for 20 turns and ordered to my banker to close my account. Then I went out looking for vengeance. War was declared and before the end of turn (1415AD) Alexander went fishing with some of his settlers out in the sea.

 

[Khan_Asparuh]

Then Isabella emerged asking me how I could have done such a terrible thing. I was almost quiet at this moment, but this declaration put me totally out of me. If your wife doesn’t stand behind your decisions, you can’t do anything in this world. I understood that our relation was over. I had tolerated her ranch of a few cities, and had even built one called “Isabella Land” in a beautiful area, perfect for winter sports and walk out in the forest. It was her gift for our anniversary…

Now I’ve sent my emissaries to seize her owning. The year 1455AD saw her closed in her winter palace, MY winter palace that I had offered when I loved her… What a fool…

I’ve posted some army around to keep her quiet and retired in my palace.

One last thing was left to quell my thrust for vengeance. The long fishing trip of, hum, Romeo was still undone and I had absolutely no navy to go out to search him. So I held until he had no more provisions. He tried to found 2 cities and then died in 1460AD.

My life was really messed up. I knew not what I was doing, so I’ve let the governors rule their cities and the workers were set on Shift-A. Actually, with the entire land railroaded and every tile irrigated they had not much to mess from now on.

I then felt the madness taking over my soul. The witch, closed in her high tower was still alive and the spells she had thrown were keeping me from killing her. Instead, I’ve ransacked and burned some of my own cities. (I had reached the domination limit and had triggered it once. I’ve reloaded the previous turn and care was taken of it). I felt a bit like Caligula…

 

[Khan_Asparuh]

ToE brought me some modern techs in 1515AD, then I built the Cure for Cancer and Longevity. After the discovery of Steam I had 2 or 3 cities able to build the Iron Works. MGL rushed it in Pazargadae, with a good mix of mountains, hills and grasslands. After Hoover, the city pulled more than 150spt, building wonders like crazy. Salamanca was the only other city not entirely irrigated to get some 4 turn armies of disbanding.

Since this moment the game was quite boring. I had sold the libraries and universities, but a bit late. CivAssist showed me that 100K cultural win was due in 2036. I didn’t really checked this…

The years up to 2027 I’ve spent in hitting enter, taking care of some starvations (I hate seeing a city in red) and going up in the future techs tree. I was spending 70% of my income in entertainment, 30% science. I wasn’t forced to do it, each future tech was learned with 12000% wastage in the end (according to CivAssist2) but I got bored from governor macromanagement.

In case you care about what I mean, this is:
When you spend no money at all in taxes, the governor will turn all the specialists in scientists. If you spend no money in science, they will all become taxmen. So if you want to use the advantages of the scientist above the taxmen (50% more efficient), you have to:
1) in the beginning of the turn, you set the sliders on no tax, a bit of science (or more if you don’t use the hapiness slider, at this moment for me it was 50% and more in entertainment).
2) then you go in the city, call the governor and just click OK on his screen. Immediately he changes all the taxmen to scientists.
3) you can lower science now. If the governor is not called again, he won’t touch the scientists just hired, and you can use your markets, banks and stock exchanges to generate money while the scientists do the research.
This is to be done each turn but its effect is quite good while milking if you want to keep science up. And we all know that a scientist is better than a taxmen.

 

[Khan_Asparuh]

The end of my story is near.

As I said already, CivAssist2 gave me the year of 2036 as a prediction on the 100K break.
I was 2 tiles under the domination limit, all my culture was generated from the scientific labs given from Internet (shouldn’t have built that but the thought that if Internet doesn’t exist there wouldn’t be CivFanatics neither was too painful) and from some wonders.

So in the year of Khan, 2027AD, my madness hit again. I have ordered to my military to raze the city of Pazargadae, the holder of :

Shakespeare
US
Hoover
ToE
Cure for Cancer
Longevity
Internet
Iron Works
Pentagon
Wall Street
Apollo
CIA
SPHQ

My culture generation when from 236 to 52 per turn. God that was painful…

CivAssist said I’ll hit the 100K in 2250 or something like this. But when I did the count myself the year was more like 2046. Agh. The mad one sent once again his hordes, razing Cattaraugus along with :

Sun Tzu
Copernicus
Bach’s
FP

This is how the end came.

Histographic win, 14966 points, a bit disappointed not to get 15000, but this game can become a holder of the top emperor standard score if I figure out how to load it in the HoF. Right now, I’m waiting to get my password. If I have set it well, there must not be a problem, and I’m sure the HoF moderators will understand my madness that has pushed me to trash my reputation and to cause world destruction…

So, The Evil That Men Do… because of women… in my case was destroying every world wonder built except Magelan and Smiths. CivAssist2 went KO when it saw the destruction, so all I know that the wonders left on F7 are: Magelan, Smiths, GWall, Leo’s, Zeus, Halicarnassus and Templar.

All this because of a woman… 7 left out of a total of… I don’t know, but many more…

I'm sorry for having posted so many times in a row, but I guess there's a limit in the length that I didn't exactly got...

If I manage to convince CivAssist2, animated GIF to follow soon… And thanks for reading my story. Cheers.

 

[superslug]

Good story, thanks for sharing it!

Right now, I’m waiting to get my password.

I just checked and I don't see a user with your name. On the login page did you type in your user name and then hit register?

 

[Khan_Asparuh]

Yes, that's what I've done... I thought it just takes longer for the password to go...
EDIT: Nothing has arrived yet. Should I retry?
EDIT2: Got it. Submitted, on stand by...
EDIT3: Thanks for the acceptation SuperSlug. Now I have won 2 things: a write up on a game of mine and a position in HoF...

 

[Pentium]

It's a great story. Bravo!

I suppose it was a histo win, my French isn't that good....

 

[Khan_Asparuh]

Yep, that was the idea... I'll edit the doc, I thought it was clear.

EDIT: Sorry for the animated GIF, actually my CivAssist2 is totally out of service, I don't know what happened...

 

[Baalzebul]

Great story blood brother.

By the way welcome to the HOF.

 

[Khan_Asparuh]

Thanks, Baal, how was Manowar? Don't you have a story telling about the Army of Immortals gathered under the terrifying Black Wind, blessed by the Fire and protected by the Steel, singing Warriors of the World Unite? Or maybe the ultimate Defender of the ladies trying to preserve the life of every lesser race in order to get it's vote for UN?

Spoiler :

Ride like the wind
Fight proud, my son
You're the defender
God has sent

PS. I've played the last turns of this one on Black Wind, Fire and Steel repeat for a few hours.

 

[Baalzebul]

It was their first concert at Turkey and except the playlist (they didn't played battle hymns and heart of steel damn) it was great.

The concert was played at Yedikule dungeons. It is a histrorical fortress so a perfect place for Manowar to play. A few hours before the concert it began raining and with thunder and lightning the concert began. Their performance was great. They played about 2 hours and when the concert finished all our voices were gone. We were speaking like godfather (Marlon Brando). This was the best live performance I have ever seen. Now we are waiting for Maiden to come.