I'm playing on Pangaea, as Elizabeth of England. The map size is standard. I turned off events, but everything else is enabled. The difficulty is Emperor because it's been awhile, so I knocked it down a peg from my usual. We start off with a good capital (though not the best; missing best resource) with wet corn and gold. However, following the river north and south shows we're.......sandwiched between ocean, desert, and tundra. Not to mention that not one but TWO barb cities spawn almost immediately on either side of me! They were the first ones to pop up on the map, and they'd require careful guarding to make sure that nothing happens with them either being captured from under my nose or that they send too many archers for me to handle. I wanted to settle where Sarmatian popped up, but just as I was getting there, the barbs beat me to it! They're clearly making a move for the plains-cow. Can't say I blame them. I'm thinking of going Domination or Cultural, but I want to see who I'm around first before making the call. Right now, it's all about expansion and early economy (which I probably could have managed better). I am generally fan of settling and having cities make their own workers most of the time, so that's what I did for the most part to avoid wasting more worker turns running them around too much given the barb pressure.
I start meeting the gang, and I soon discover that the field is made up of mostly stereotypically incompetent peaceniks and....Monty. Ol' Abe is right near him, as I'll soon find out, and he'll probably be Monty's punching bag during the early game. I get Confucianism (which took an absurdly long time to spread to my land) and capture a barbarian city to liberate a herd of noble plains-cows from their dark shadow. I also discover that the only thing separating me and Montezuma is a single ocean tile, which otherwise would have made the map into a giant letter "O." I decide that I'll go for a Cultural victory and use the Confucian religious bloc as a shield against Monty's inevitable expansion. I manage to get The Sistine Chapel and Shwedagon Paya on the same turn, which is also nice. For the most part, it's business as usual with trying to get as many religions to spread to me quickly and start building religious structures.
The Aztecs have been attacking everyone since the capitulation of Lincoln, and they've sent a naval force to land troops in my cultural space to attack some Egyptian border cities! It's knights and trebs against rifles and grens, but Monty being Monty decides to go for it anyway. He makes more headway into Egyptian lands to the south, but he gets booted out of the war after Babylon joins the fray and vassals Ramesses. Some of Monty's forces are abandoned in my territory, awkwardly waiting for their next chance to taste Egyptian blood, while his other battle-worn soldiers start the long journey home through the middle of the "O." Sensing danger, they give a wide berth to the plains-cow tile near Sarmatian, not daring to tempt fate and experience a cowmakazi.
Since I'm one of the only empires managing to stay on good terms with everyone else, I'm able to keep my borders open. Ever since I turned on the culture slider, my borders have been pressing harder and harder into the AI. Eventually, the small bit of coast is claimed by my culture, and I gain access to spices. I send workers on a quick walk alllllll the way around the known world rather than build a boat for them (gotta get those steps in!) so that I can access the spices that would otherwise be absent in my domain. Hooray for capsaicin!
My growing empire can use a bit of extra health, especially since I've made it all the way to Biology. After checking my resources tab, I realize that I don't have any crabs available, so I decide to settle the arctic to get that sweet, sweet crabby goodness for my ill-feeling Londoners. Additionally, I manage to win the Apostolic Palace seat with the majority of the world having my back. Montezuma has been haranguing me non-stop to convert to Hinduism, but I refuse! We are peaceful cows who know our way in life, but won't back down if bullied. My specialists are also going strong with larger cities and more farms to sustain them. I decide to pay extra attention to my cities to make sure that I don't wind up having the AI assign them as spies or engineers...
I do a little trolling with the AP since I'm the only Confucian left with a large enough empire to challenge the title. It helps out to weaken Monty and to give me some breathing time, but I decide to not go for the Religious victory option at any point since I've put all of this effort into winning Cultural. Hammurabi swapped into Buddhism a little while ago, and he's gone from Friendly to Annoyed. However, a bit of gold here-and-there along with the ever-present threat of another war with Montezuma keeps The Hammer at bay. Hammerman's also got a mean grudge against Russia; they've been trading cities on their border throughout most of the game. Unfortunately, all this is doing is making themselves good and weak for the Aztecs to come by later and swallow them into their empire as vassal states. Ramesses is putting up a fight against Monty as best he can, somtimes as a free man and sometimes as a vassal of Hammurabi, but he's slowly starting to get ground into mummy meat.
Montezuma is on a real rampage now, smashing into the Russian capital city. Having infantry is just such an advantage for the war-hungry AI attacking in doomstacks against cavs and rifles. It's here I'm staring to wonder if it will be the plains-cows vs. the world once Monty's had his way with the other AIs. Even the AP won't be able to save me then, especially considering the size of the Aztec empire.
Now Monty's currently the master of most of the known world despite them resisting his armies for centuries. Oddly enough, Russia still isn't giving in, but it's only a matter of time until the Aztec infantry tame Catherine the Not-so-great. Thankfully, my top three cultural cities are only a few turns away from becoming lengendary. I consolidated some soldiers in them just to make sure I could buy enough time, but I still have managed to avoid getting DOW'd by Monty this entire game. If he did declare on my empire, it would have been a case of me vs. the world. Good thing I had the luck of the plains-cow tile near Sarmatian on my side! Additionally, I still have loads of great artists getting cranked out, and I manage to settle them all to hasten the cultural buildup needed to tip me over the edge to victory.
Here's the score and the rest of my details! All-in-all, it was a game with a lot of mitigating AI twists and a reliance on diplomacy to divert attention away from me so that I can win with culture (as is a common strategy). I had a lot of fun taking some time off to play this game today, and I almost felt like I was watching an episode of AI survivor with how much back-and-forth there was between the various computer players. Hopefully you all enjoyed this short AAR about my latest game, and I hope you also get to have some fun playing CIV IV this anniversary weekend!
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to our favorite strategy game!
