WOTM 04 - First Spoiler

[cabert]

First game ever on marathon
First GotM I intend to submit
And I'm not really comfortable at emperor...

SO I'm quite happy with my game.
At 245AD, I have finally currency and CoL, construction + a huge pile of gold from selling techs.
My army isn't impressive enough to totally overwhelm Mansa Musa, although I captured timbuktu and razed a few minor cities.
Brennus RIP, and I have 9 or 10 cities, nicely courthoused and cottaged up.
I built the great lighthouse and am currently building the great Library and HE with marble (10 th city just for this, building at marathon speed is slow!)
I'm not techleading at all, but I still can research some new techs and stay in the race.

 

[AgedOne]

@Mauer
Very true. It looks like, with a few significant exceptions, we are all telling the same story.
What makes it harder to take is when you saw it coming, only kept half of Brennus' cities, and still ended up in the same mess. I wish I had the foresight, and patience, to calculate these things before they happen.

 

[Methos]

What makes it harder to take is when you saw it coming, only kept half of Brennus' cities, and still ended up in the same mess. I wish I had the foresight, and patience, to calculate these things before they happen.

True, but look at it this way. When you started you anticipated a problem and took some precautions. Now you have learned that the precautions you took were not enough. Tell me, the next time you play a game at this level are you not going to remember this, and try a different tactic? I know I will.

Thanks to the GOTM Staff, as this map has been an excellent lesson for this difficulty level.

 

[cas]

@Mauer
Very true. It looks like, with a few significant exceptions, we are all telling the same story.
What makes it harder to take is when you saw it coming, only kept half of Brennus' cities, and still ended up in the same mess. I wish I had the foresight, and patience, to calculate these things before they happen.

I kept about the right number of Brennus cities for the economy to stay healthy, but when you eliminate/raze 2-3 AI on pangea and don't fill the void...the AI will. Over time and left unchecked, the remaining AI get very powerful and become a real pain. Not so much of a problem for conquest/dom, but a very tough balancing act for the other VC's.

cas

 

[AgedOne]

@Methos
You're absolutely right. It's very much a learning exercise for many of us at this difficulty level. Well done to Gyathaar! Without going beyond the scope of this thread, I'm still enjoying the experience later on - despite fighting a long catch-up battle.

@cas
Very true. It's a fine line we have to tread between keeping our empire small enough to be manageable, but not allowing the AI too much headway.
I'm more used to this balancing act at Prince level, which is obviously so much more forgiving. You can get away with inaccuracies. At Emperor, there's no such forgiveness. Still alive and kicking, though.

 

[Willburn]

I decided to play as safe as I possible could early on this game to make sure i wouldnt die or ruin my start. So i went hunting -> archery.

My first city i calculated that it would be better to go 3 hammer tile and workboat, instead of growing imediatly, this skimmed off 3 turns on my growing to size 2, when i started to build a setler. Here was my first mistake as my 2nd workboat had 30 hammers left and after the settler was done I think i had like 16 hammers left (lost some hammers due to too long in que AUCH.)

Anyways I went for the sexy gold and fish location to boost some reserach for bw and iron working. Second mistake done, i didnt get road tech early, so I had to switch in the middle of iron working to it. auch

Fast forward a bit (Apart from the shock that the americans circumvented the globe very very early - I didnt think of it much until i read this tread and realized what that ment for the shape of the land.)

Anyways I take on brennus and make sure ive secured alphabet before i start taking over all the cities so even if my economy goes to hell i can research - and get libaries for great scientists.

The plan works, i get two trading partners (india and mali) that keeps me ahead in gold and i conquer the whole of brennus land. Its now 40 ad and im torn between moving my palace to the total left side of the land and conquer mali or play peacefull. If i conquer mali i will only have one more trading partner (india) and we are not the same religion so that aint gonna last for long either....

Before i go ahead and play more turns ive been thinking (during a shower actually lol) that since i get cheap libaries I should build wealth instead of research, since building wealth/research is not affected by libary bonuses etc, only construction bonus building affect it.

Im also wondering to set up a granery in a food strong city and making it grow to size 6, mass scientist so it has 1 food left, then mass scientist of everyone in the city so it drops to 5 and then let it grow back to 6 and repeat - to maxmise my great person production.

Anyways lots of options and stuff to do! I think i need to start playing carefull again as i have much fewer millitary (on purpose as im in pasifism) but you never know if someone will turn on me and kill me.. I am also torn between doing a domination victory/conquest or space victory

 

[Doc TK]

I went for a fast domination win. The last few G/WOTM I went heavy research to get to Bio in order to get a high score with pop. This time, I thought it would be better to use the Prats to attack early prior to Feud, especially on Marathon. Test games showed that you can kill quite a bit with them. Of course, if you don't hook up iron, pretty much game over, lucky us. In test games was to get as far as I could prior to Feud and even then with Cats, they still attack a lot like Maces which is what I conquer with most of the time.

I did the same thing in terms of keeping cities as what was described above. I kept about half of Bren and then half of Mansa. Made sure I kept a road network (to the south) that would be clear from barbs. I didn't clear the barbs to the north. I think I had nine cities total 3 built - 3 captured from each. That way I could whip + chop to get Courthouse + FP in a Mansa city that I expected was near the middle of the map. Also, I didn't have a problem with AI filling in because I didn't do any open borders and 2 of the Mansa cities cut off things. Of course, I was attacking everyone in site, so I'm not sure how much problem "fill in" would really be even with open borders. Definitely, it made it a challenge to balance conquest and research.

I think my research was BW - Wheel - Ag - AH - Writing (whipped libraries) - IW - Alpha. Then I went to 0 research while I traded up to Priest. Then went for CoL. Was able to fund most of CoL off of conquests.

After CoL, I went to 0 research again for quite a while until my cities were pretty built up and generating good $. Since I don't care about getting to Bio, the only techs I figure I need after CoL are Calendar (+happy), Const (Cats), Monarch would be nice for (+happy), Currency would be nice for extra trade route and Forums, but really Calendar and Const are only necessary techs for my plan.

FYI - I almost always stop attacking when a civ has one city left to get best techs I can get. It's pretty rare to get techs a second time, so just kill them the second time around.

 

[vra379971]

Oi. This is my first GOTM...and this Monarch treader is hanging on. Barely.

 

[Mutineer]

I did play challenger as useal.

Even I allmost never use starting warrior to steal worker, still, no warrior mean o exploration and no hats.
On this speed no warrior meaning no warrior for a looonnng time.
Actially it was my first ever game on Maraphon and I really hated it. Everything sooo slow.
Back to the game, I do not remember details, but settle in place and went work boat-work boat-warrior-worker I think. Work forested plain hill on start for max shields.

Idea was to grow ASAP, but I discover that on this speed city take agess to grow.
Research wize I really forgot, I think I went mining-bronse working and adopt slavery 2830 BS.
Build warrior went and found gold and cooper.

Where to settle? Settle near crabs and cooper, forgot I am creative for a sec and was thinking need to research mysticism for border pop.
Just to show I do not remember new leaders tr aits yet.

But border pop befor I actially started to research it.

Lots of scout found me even befor I build first warrior, so I had no idea where anyone is, untill my warrior found Brenus.

Antium founded 2650 BC and
thurd city on penecial with 2 sea resources and gold in 2065 BC.

Well, I do not think I even beelined to iron working.
I had bronse, I was happy.

Build stack of axes and declare on Brenys why researching alphavit for some extorcion.
Declared 1135BC.
Captured Viviene 1120BC and capita in 1000 BC.
I wander why Brenus near as? So we can beat him up after WotM3? It was a fun game.
870 captured thurd city and made peace.
I think I got iron working form peace deal.

Build some Praetorians.
In a mean time all my exploration attempt did not work because my scouts/warriord dying of barbarian and Cartagen never open borders.
320 BC declare second war.
Darn Brenus build a lot of cities in a mean time.
captured 2 more of them 300 and 240 bc and made second peace.

Got GG 240BC.

Join him to an expirience axe, thinkign about a free upgrade to Praetoruians --- oppss. One can not upgrade to UU, darn.
He survived the whole game, retreating one time.
100+ exp.
I give him City riders/ retreat+ expirience promotions.
I think at the end he was a Green with city rider3, retreat, expirience,
combat4+march promotions. Brave general.

Research wize I went after Dramma, as I wanted to grow cities ASAP and leverage creative trait.

After dramma I research litherature and build GL in Rome 110BC.

I pair in with NE, as capital was food rich, had forest to chop and I allredy know shape of land. It would take for ever for units run form capital.

I deducated ex Brenus capital as GT city, whipping HA and trow overflow into GT. It seems on this speed HA is a first unit that take 2 pop to whipe.
40BC got GS and used it to Philosofy.
I actialy adopt and used Hinduism all game, as it's spread to me.

Masta+washinton were hindi, Asoka buddist.
Adopt Pacifism.
100AD got next GS, used it for Compas and as trade bite.
110AD declared on Brenus again and was thinkign I took/aise all his remaining cities, but he was still alive! He sneak 1 more city on ice far north.

210AD made peace again.
320AD declared and kill him finally 330AD.
so 500AD I have 10 cities I think and teaching to Feodalism-burocracy.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

Join him to an expirience axe, thinkign about a free upgrade to Praetoruians --- oppss. One can not upgrade to UU, darn.

Point of info: I'm not aware of any no-upgrade-to-UU rule. I think the issue is that axemen upgrade to macemen, not to swordsmen.

 

[KingOfLands]

Over time and left unchecked, the remaining AI get very powerful and become a real pain. Not so much of a problem for conquest/dom, but a very tough balancing act for the other VC's.
cas

Yeah, Mansa's eating me alive like that since so far I seem to have been the slowest to take out Brennus. This has been rough, but it's helping.

 

[Mauer]

Point of info: I'm not aware of any no-upgrade-to-UU rule. I think the issue is that axemen upgrade to macemen, not to swordsmen.

DOH! *slaps forehead* I guess that's why my stack of axes used to take out Brennus wouldn't upgrade Makes sense now that you point it out

 

[Ribannah]

CONTENDER

It is 1AD and our Praetorians are before the gates of Djenne and Timbuktu.

That is so far away that the news from back home has not reached them yet: the treasury is empty, and we have no income at 0% science. Paper has just been discovered and that will be it, it seems. Rome will advance no further, it will collapse under its own weight. There are forges coming online everywhere where a wiser ruler would have ordered courthouses. Is this the end?

Ah, in the good old days we had just three towns: Rome, where life began, Antium on the northeast cape and Cumae on the northern shore. We were hemmed in by the barbaric Celts, but within our borders living was good. In 2095bc our exploring Warrior proved that the world is a cilinder.
The Romans founded two religions: Buddhism, the state religion, and Confucianism. The Great Lighthouse tripled foreign trade and in 890bc the completion of the Oracle gave the empire the best administrative tool ever invented: bureaucracy.

Then iron was connected and some idiot let loose the mighty Praetorians. They made short work of the neighbouring Celts, ignoring the fact that they had converted to our state religion. Several inferior towns were burned to the ground, but others were kept.
West of the Celts the Praetorians set their eyes on the kingdom of Mali, with better defenders called Skirmishers. It just had to go. New Praetorians boarded fast galleys to hurry to the frontline, where some were sacrificed to weaken the defenders so the more experienced units could finish off without risk. As the holy Judaist town of Djenne is besieged, an order for three dozen catapults to support the war effort has just reached Rome. If they arrive late, there are always more barbarian tribes...


Technology
4000 Fishing, Mining
3670 Mysticism
3295 Meditation
2890 Sailing
2650 Wheel
2395 Priesthood
2125 Writing
1570 Alphabet; Pottery, Hunting, Masonry, Polytheism, Agriculture, Bronze Working (trade)
1555 Monotheism, Archery, Animal Husbandry (trade)
1240 Mathematics
1150 Iron Working (trade)
900 Code of Laws
890 Civil Service (Oracle)
660 Currency; Monarchy (trade)
640 Calendar (trade)
570 Literature
430 Metal Casting
230 Machinery
1 Paper

Towns
4000 Rome
2725 Antium
1750 Cumae
620 Tolosa (Celts)
590 Vienne (Celts)
520 Bibracte (Celts)
480 Alemanni (Barbarians)
420 Gao (Mali)
380 Neapolis
330 Niani (Mali)
190 Chehalis (Barbarian)
130 Walata (Mali)
30 Ardaghost (Mali)

Rome
4000 Founded
3880 2-radius
3820 Work Boat
3565 =2
3490 Work Boat
3325 =3
3295 Buddhism
3100 3-radius
3085 =4
3070 Warrior
2800 Settler
2635 Worker
2545 Work Boat
2395 Lighthouse
2290 =5
2170 Warrior
2155 =6
1975 Library
1810 Settler
1705 Worker
1585 Worker
1480 Worker
1235 =7 B Temple
990 GREAT LIGHTHOUSE
890 ORACLE
880 Confucianism (m)
820 Barracks
810 Praetorian
800 Praetorian
770 Praetorian
740 Praetorian
710 Praetorian
680 Praetorian
640 Praetorian
600 =8
580 C Temple
540 Academy (GS)
530 Granary
430 Great General, Instructor (GG)
340 Forge
300 Forum
280 =10
210 HEROIC EPIC
200 Praetorian
190 Spearman
180 Praetorian
170 Spearman
160 Archer
150 Praetorian
140 Archer
130 Praetorian
120 Archer
110 Praetorian
100 Archer
20 COLOSSUS
10 Catapult
1 =11 Catapult

 

[Gnejs]

The combination of marathon and emperor was new to me, so I generated a test map and played a bit to see what happened. I found that it was very easy to overexpand since the pretorians were so very strong, and the cost of building units was relatively cheap. Code of Laws is essential before capturing cities (razing is ok). CivSetä suggested a nice tactic in the pre-game discussion thread that I tried out in my test game, where I managed to get CoL from the Oracle somewhere around 1500 BC.


Ok, time to load up the real thing.

The early expansion

Spoiler :

Settled in place, met both Brennus and Mansa very early. Is it a crowded map after all? Didn't find out since my exploring warrior stopped when he reached Brennus and sat down waiting for a worker to steal. Sure enough, an unescorted worker appears in 3310 BC. Stolen and escorted home. Peace with Brennus after 11 turns.

Rome built, in order:
Work Boat x2
Warrior x2
Settler - founded Antium 2905 BC on NE tip, getting 2 gold and two fish. I risked missing the copper but this seemed unlikely as Brennus was set back by my worker steal.
Work boat x2 (both for Antium)
Worker
Settler - founded Cumae 2305 BC, finally getting the copper
Oracle - finished in 1825 BC thanks to a couple of forest chops
Next, all three cities shift to building barracks and troops: axes and prets.


Early research:
Bronze working 3385- nice, bronze is close. I can now beeline to Priesthood/writing for a CoL slingshot without having to worry about defense
Wheel 3055
Mysticism 2785
Meditation 2500
Priesthood 2290 - Rome starts on the Oracle immediately
Writing 1945 - ahead of my research schedule for the CoL slingshot. The 2 gold mines at Antium really helped a lot
Code of Laws 1810 - from the Oracle, Confucianism founded in Antium and I convert at once, _and_ adopt Caste system
Iron Working 1525
Alphabet 1015 - I now trade for the missing early techs, but still manage to keep a monopoly on Alphabet

War with the Celts (1000 BC - 780 BC)

Spoiler :

Declare on Brennus with an initial army of 4 prets and 2 axes. With a few reinforcements it is enough to capture four cities and raze a fifth, eliminating the Celtic Empire in 780 BC. Bibcrate and Vienne (on coast NE of Bibcrate) become science cities with a lot of scientists in each, while Tolosa (NW of Bib, w/pigs, wine and copper) and Gergovia (due N of Bib) are used for production.
Brennus had a couple of Axemen but not nearly enough to make a difference.

Another builder phase

Spoiler :

Spent some time building courthouses and connecting cities and resources. Maybe too much time. Running Caste system was nice for research, but much slower than Slavery when trying to get things built...
Captured a barbarian city on top of the fur on the N coast, with 2 fish and a horse as well. Costly, but it gave a happiness resource (and a second one once borders expanded to include the silver)

Rome finishes Great Lighthouse in 430 BC. Excellent, gives +2 trade routes in all coastal cities. And all my cities save one are coastal!
Kong Miao in Antium 220 BC from Great Prophet! Even more money!

Send out two triremes to explore, meet all other civs eventually and map out almost the whole continent.

Research
Monarchy 710 BC - on the way to Feudalism to be able to Vassalize
Mathematics 520 BC - trade with Indians
Feudalism 80 BC

War with Mali (170 BC - 20 BC, 80 AD - 270 AD)

Spoiler :

With Feudalism soon finished I decide it is time to conquer Mansa Musa. In the first half of the war I capture three cities and raze one. Make peace since I don't have catapults yet and there are both walls and culture to overcome. Mansas core cities are quite well defended too.
Redeclare as the first catapults are arriving at the frontline, capture first Djenne and then Timbuktu. Mansa now capitulates and I have my first vassal!

I passed by several of Mansas cities on my way to Timbuktu. I calculated on an earlier capitulation if I captured his capital, and that was probably a wise decision.

Research
Monotheism 10 BC - from peace treaty with Mansa
Construction 30 AD
Calendar 50 AD - trade
Philosophy 110 AD - from scientist, Taoism founded in Antium. A double holy city!
Literature 110 AD
Currency, Horseback Riding 210 AD - trades
Metal Casting 290 AD

All in all, a very cautious approach to avoid overexpanding too early. As I mentioned above, the tradeoff between caste system and slavery is very frustrating. Oh, how I like Spiritual leaders! Especially on marathon, where the anarchy seems to last forever.

 

[Gnejs]

By the way, I don't think anyone has commented on it yet, so...


I really enjoyed discovering that not only did we get to play as the Romans with the Celts as our closest neighbours, we also started on the tip of the Italian "boot". If you haven't noticed, check the map...

 

[Dumpfbacke]

Didnt want to spend the whole week pushing units around again, so thought I go against the main stream and try a culture win, which I never tried before. Will see how that goes...
So I found Buddhism, later Taoism and Christianity. Could have easily done Hindu and Islam as well, as nobody seemed to want it forever. But how was I to know !?

Same goes for the wonders, as others had said, most of them just were sitting there forever. Guess the AI was all sitting in the jungle, they were all sooo slow for Emperor game.

I build the usual 3 cities, get Metal Casting from the Oracle, end have the alphabet monopol and trade a lot. Build the Great Lighthouse and the Colossus. I trade with my Buddhist buddy Brennus, but the AI keeps asking me about every 2-3 turns to stop trading. I refuse, so everyone is getting pissed at me. This sucks. I give up my pacifist ideas and brab Vienne, Gergovia, Bibracte (Pyramids and Parthenon built within just a few turns in this city that has almost NO production, but now it's mine ), and a few more. Economy no problem thanks to the Buddhist shrine and GLH.

In the early AD I get the Artist from Music, build the GL, and the Christian Shrine, which is a waste as it doesnt spread at all and I have no patience building missionaries that end up failing to spread anyway. This puts a huge dent in my cultural victory plans. I also just realize Legendary means 150,000 cutlure points, Oh boy, no quick game I guess.

Rome gets his Academy, and at this point I'm debating switching VC but I'm torn - dont want to march through this long continent, but dont want the AI to do that and then launch a space ship before I can get the culture points.
Space Ship for me is out of the question as I lack production.

Rome rocks, and 2 more halfway OK cities, that's not going to win a space race. Well we shall see - so far it is super easy for Emperor, but who knows, the Incan fleet might just be setting sails towards Rome

 

[ewokimpi]

No post since December 26th?!? I'm always a week behind everyone else!

Woe that such days have fallen upon beloved Rome!
Where the warriors of yesteryear?
Legions trod the vain Celts beneath glorious sandals!
These whelps now calling themselves warriors
Are not fit to wash the feet of Praetorians
That vanquished Vercingetorix!
Rome yearns for a hero,
a Caesar fit to rule and conquer!

All Hail Augustus!

***
Back to current reality.

My test game led me to expect a large continent with barbarian generating open spaces, and one opponent close by. The starting location is hammer oriented, and I planned initial development to use the seafood and hills. Also, money is going to be a heck of a problem, so I prayed for a money location close by, and included cottages in my plan.

The initial track:
Rome founded
Rome begins: Work Boat
Rome begins: Work Boat
Rome begins: Warrior
Romle begins: Worker
Research begun: Bronze Working
Research begun: Hunting
Research begun: Archery

The Celts find me on turn seven! Fear us, Brennus!

Gyathaar hears my prayer, providing a money city to the north. Also, Cu is available Northwest of that. This sets my initial three city locations. I settle too close to the Cu, perhaps trying to avoid pressure from Brennus.

Turn 74 (2890 BC)
Contact made: Incan Empire
Turn 76 (2860 BC)
User comment: Huayna Capac is 1st to circumnavigate the globe. Apparently, ships are unneeded. Why does not his scout not pick up an exrtra movement point? It seems so unfair!

Turn 121 (2185 BC)
War declared: Celtic Empire
Archer defeats (3.00/3): Celtic Worker
I was going to wait until Iron Working came in, and I saw where Fe was, but the worker was just too juicy!

Turn 165 (1525 BC)
User comment: What is this, Linear World? Looks like RingWorld, aka Larry Niven.

Turn 173 (1405 BC)
War declared: Celtic Empire
Praetorians are ready.

Turn 190 (1150 BC)
Captured Tolosa (Brennus)
Celtic Empire eliminated
The Celtic empire evaporates like gelato in the sun, leaving a sticky financial mess behind.

Rome keeps three Celtic cities, only one of which is really good, the capital Bibracte.

My economy doesn't tank as badly as some posting here. Rome has six cities, a least one too many. I don't take any cities in the Barbarian Gap (The Teutorburgerwald?) until I absolutely must have one to remedy happiness troubles. Even then, I raze them and resettle to grab the resources properly.

I don't go on to annihilate Mansa, because I haven't yet figured out that you've got to raze nearly all cities you capture on this map. Or maybe on Emperor.

At this point in the game, I speculate that Conquest would be doable, or Space Ship if I could only research!

Turn 212 (880 BC)
User comment: Where the Heck is everybody??
Turn 218 (820 BC)
User comment: The Brave scout continues on, exploring to the end of the world, which now appears imminent, with the discovery of Washington!

Washington is a looooooooong way from Mansa, as Mansa was from Brennus. The evil nature of the low water map is becoming very clear.

Turn 225 (750 BC)
Tech learned: Alphabet
User comment: Got Alpha, it appears I am close to the AI's except in the religious track, where they are far ahead.
User comment: Went ahead and traded Alpha, which I would never do in a lower difficulty game, or maybe not in a faster game.

I figured I needed to trade it, as I had little else, and I believe one AI had discovered it.

Turn 252 (480 BC)
Johannes Kepler (Great Scientist) born in Rome
Turn 253 (470 BC)
User comment: Dilemma - If put GP towards tech, moves me forward, but no long term benefit, like I usually get from Academy. But there is no obvious Research town where can get 20+ beakers / turn currently.
Tech learned: Compass

Turn 271 (290 BC)
Tech learned: Metal Casting

Finally, now Forges for happiness.

Turn 312 (120 AD)
Bibracte finishes: The Colossus

Turn 316 (160 AD)
Rome finishes: The Great Library

These two Wonders keep Rome in the game, and:

Turn 315 (150 AD)
Tech learned: Code of Laws


And this will allow Rome to sack Mansa -- but after this spoiler is over!

Turn 354 (532 AD)
Rome finishes: Heroic Epic

A bit after the spoiler, but worth inclusion. Rome is/will become the military production center of the empire.

***
In summary, while I utilized the excellent starting position to defeat Brennus easily, I did not know how to carry this victory forward. My thanks to Erkon, JimBeam345, Doc TK and others, showing that razing cities while eliminating civs can be the path to victory. Seem heartless, though.

 

[Alraun]

Well, I'm finially getting around to part 1 of this. Submitted my game already. Maybe I'll do part 2 later today and maybe not.

So I'm a tad fuzzy on what happened before 2875BC as I forgot to turn my autolog on until then, but I'll try to guess. First, I started this game with the intention of going space race. I founded in place and I believe I started by building a work boat and researching Bronze Working, then I built a second work boat while my city was growing and then a worker and then a settler. I may have gotten a 2nd worker in there, but I'm not sure. I know I ended up dropping my 2nd city NW of Rome so that it got the cows and the copper and my 3rd on the NE peninsula to get the gold and the fish. After that, I was blocked in from building any more good cities by the Celts. I tried to build a 4th city on the other side of him on the river with 2 flood plains, but a barbarian archer happened to be next to it immediately when it was founded and killed it and the warrior inside in only 2 turns in 2095BC.

In 2875BC, Asoka circumnavigated the world. This is what made me think to check my autolog and get it turned on.

After Bronze Working, I went Road Building, Pottery, Writing, Alphabet. I had considered going for Iron Working in here, but since I had copper I wasn't too concerned about it and you can usually trade Alphabet for Iron Working anyway.

I got Alphabet in 1555BC, the same turn I built my first Axeman. I ended up trading for Mysticism, Agriculture and Hunting and saving Alphabet for the moment. I believe I was able to only get one of Math or Iron Working and was saving it to trade for both. At any rate, I went for Polytheism and Literature at this point so I could build the Great Library, with Rome pumping out Axemen this whole time.

I finished Literature in 1090BC and had Antium start building The Great Library. I also traded for all the rest of the Ancient Age techs around this point, including Iron Working. Another thing is I noticed that I was going to have an awful lot of coastal cities, so I decided having The Great Lighthouse would be a good idea and started building a lighthouse in Rome in 990BC and the Great Lighhouse in 950BC.

Of course building two wonders when I only have three cities makes it hard for me to start building Praetorians, but... not a problem, I already have plenty of Axemen! I declared war on the Celts in 970BC. In 960BC, I captured Vienne and in 940BC I captured Tolosa. I shortly decided that I could probably use some Praetorians (after I got the iron hooked up) and stopped building the Great Lighthouse to build some. After pumping out a few, I went back to working on the wonder. In 780 BC, I captured Bibactre and in 660BC I razed Gergovia to finish off the Celts.

At this point I had 6 cities. I finished the Great Library in 730BC and the Great Lighthouse in 660BC. So far, all 6 of my cities were coastal and benefitted from the Great Lighthouse. I noticed at this point that the Oracle still hadn't been built and that I could build it in a fairly short amount of time via chopping, so I decided to give it a shot. It didn't end up working out though, as the Incans built it shortly after I started (but before I finished my chopping so I wasted little), and took Civil Service! with it.

After Literature, I went Metal Casting, Code of Laws, Civil Service, Paper. I got my first Academy in 350BC. I love Academies and generally work towards getting Scientists at the exclusion of all other GPs. It was around 100 BC that I decided my economy was going well enough to expand some more and I build a few more settlers. I founded city #7 Pisae (flood plains) in 40BC and Ravenna (silver, pig and lots of hills) in 50AD. Ravenna became my first and only dedicated production city. It was also in 50AD that I finished Civil Service and changed civics. At this point I had forges, granaries and libraries in most of my (older) cities and was starting to work on a few forums. With 8 cities, I was still ready to expand some more, but I was going to need some military to do it, with one barbarian city to capture north of Ravenna (with furs) and Mansa Musa to the west of that, with other random barbarian cities around to be taken care of. Rome was able to pump out Praetorians every 2-3 turns and did. After that, it pumped out a few settlers then some more Praetorians. I founded my 9th city on the furs in 280AD. In 350 AD, I founded Philosophy and Taoism, and I'm continuing to mass a bunch of Praetorians, and that is where I will end this post.

 

[civ_steve]

Gack! I just submitted GOTM13 earlier this week, and thought I'd try this 'marathon' speed game. Not for me! Too slow; I'll never have a chance to finish it with my computer. On to France and GOTM14.