As random civ/leader I get Saladin of Arabia. I find myself on a mid-sized continent with Montezuma
; early war, here we come! I win the war, taking the last Aztec city in 310 AD (he of course never offered more than a peace treaty every time I approached him diplomatically). Now I'm alone, and I kept too many Aztec cities. My economy struggles to keep the research rate at 30% for a long while. I finally start getting visitors: Hannibal from across the water at an island city I founded for extra trade in the east, DeGaulle with his caravels, oh, and my old favorite from Civ I, Shaka!
They start deciding who gets to eat me first. I think about quitting, and from somewhere inside decide to play it out. The only path to victory I have is cultural, so I go to it with the three religions founded on my home continent after teching my own way to liberalism for Free Speech (needless to say, I had nothing to trade to anybody except Tokugawa, who won't trade with anyone!). I took a side route to rifling to give myself a chance at self-defense. I tried to work the diplomatic relationships, but I am so far behind in military technologies that there is no way I can avoid being invaded. My strategic goal for my military is to contain the damage when my rivals come for me and preserve my chance for a cultural victory.
DeGaulle comes for me first in the late 1700's AD; in the face of his second invasion fleet, I retreat from one of my coastal cities in the southeast to concentrate my army. I fight him off at Mecca, my southern culture city, and hold out long enough to sue successfully for peace by giving him another eastern city which I did not need (he asked for Mecca, I counter-offered Basra, and he took it!). DeGaulle becomes an ally the rest of the game (reasonable guy, after the initial rudeness of invading me!
).
Then comes Shaka, the first time! In 1851 AD, he takes my coastal city in the west; I retake it and throw him back to the sea but lose 2/3 of my military in the process. If another invasion force arrived, I would be hard-pressed to defeat it. But peace comes in 1865 AD when DeGaulle calls for an Apostolic Palace vote to end the war against Codver! Even Shaka had enough and voted 'yes'! 3 turns later, I sign a defensive pact with DeGaulle. But then in the mid-1900's, so does Shaka!
I had some time to rebuild my army. Then in Jan. 1972, Shaka breaks the pact and invades the second time, with tanks, gunships, marines, paratroopers and jet fighters versus my riflemen, cavalry (the stray tech my settled great scientists netted me over the centuries after I threw the cultural slider to full) and catapults (yes, catapults!
). DeGaulle is in the fight with me, but Shaka is taking me on in the west and south, while DeGaulle is in the east and not going to help me too much, especially since he is making his own cultural victory run now! I know I can only hold out for so long; I make a plan to be sure that "so long" is as long as possible!
The war is brutal, but Shaka makes the classic mistake, splitting his ground forces against me. At a high cost, I take them in turn, with my forces led by Cao Cao (cavalry with 90% withdrawal chance) and supported by Sun Tzu (Medic III; veteran unit of the war with Monty
) . But Shaka's jet fighters are everywhere, destroying mines, pastures, farms, every resource tile I have in range of his fighters! Resource trades for gold that were holding up my economy are disrupted. My cities start turning unhealthy as I lose key bonuses. Shaka is ruthless! That's why I learned to hate him in Civ I!
But I'm older and wiser now, and I respect is high level of play as a warmonger!
Shaka's last effort is a force of eight marines that make it to Mecca on the western side. I am afraid he is going to pillage the mature riverside towns there that I desperately need for my chance at a cultural victory. But he doesn't pillage them. I guess he was hoping to take them with the city for himself. But I didn't want to give him a chance to reconsider; I decided to destroy that stack then and there. After my remaining catapults and cavalry do their thing, I expend one riflemen after another to knock them down and out, and just to add insult to injury, with the last Zulu marine down to 1.9 strength, I send out my remaining ancient era archer to put 'em down! Then as secretary general of the UN, DeGaulle comes through again, calling in Jan. 1980 AD for a vote to end the war against Codver! Shaka votes against it, but it passes! Peace comes! I still have a chance to win! And just for fun, Shaka gives up all his cities on the Arabian continent and Washington assumes leadership of them! Welcome to the game, pal!
Now to focus on victory. Could I actually make it? It seems such a long shot! DeGaulle's cities of Paris and Orleans go legendary, but you need three to win, and Marseilles, his third city, is running way behind the other two! It's on par with my three cities, and after tracking it for a few turns, I realize all my cities are going to pass Marseilles before the magic number of 75000! I just need to hang on a little longer! That is, until Jan. 1998 when I get taken to the scene at Carthage as Hannibal's space ship leaves earth for Alpha Centauri! But he only built one engine for it, so it will have a longer journey. In four turns, I am going to get a great person born in Mecca, and there is a 50% chance it's an artist (during the second war with Shaka, I had to put my artist specialists back to work for food and production, greatly reducing the percentage chance for a great artist from what it would have been otherwise). If it's an artist, I can win the game as soon as he makes it to Medina, my central culture city which is running a little behind Mecca. I already have another great artist in Tenochtitlan, my northern culture city, ready to make the great artwork that will take it over the top (it's running behind Mecca and Medina). With bated breath, I wait to see... Mani the great prophet is born in Mecca. Shoot!
I have two cities I need to get 75000 culture points as soon as possible, and now I could generate a golden age with the artist and prophet (I had only one golden age, early in the start of the culture run). I run the numbers of extra culture commerce from the golden age versus using Virgil the Great Artist making a great artwork in Tenochtitlan, and the latter is my faster path to three legendary cities. So my plan is after Mecca has already gone legendary, and just before Medina goes legendary, I will have good old Virgil write the great work that will make Tenochtitlan famous forever! But will it be in time? Or...
Will DeGaulle pull out the last minute diplomatic win? He calls for the vote to be world leader, running against Pericles. He has done this before and not come close; I abstain, and he falls short again. Sorry, bud! Must be the nose!
And then the moment comes! Virgil writes his great work, the BUG mod tells me Medina's cultural boundaries will expand the next turn, the only question is will Hannibal's space colonization effort beat me to cultural immortality! Cue up the movie of the big statue of Sid, cause Codver just pulled out the underdog win of all time!
Well, for me anyway! I hooted and hollared and jumped and clapped and I am still smiling just thinking about it!
So friends, thanks for reading, and forget the score! The real fun is in playing the game, especially it looks like you have no chance at all! Thanks to the vets around here who encourage us, and thanks for all the great ideas and skills I have learned here over the last few months. Man, I love this game!
