At this time, I have already finished and submitted my game. However, I wrote the below spoiler immediately after playing my 500 AD turn, and am now copying it in here verbatim.
***
Sitting here at 500 AD and taking stalk of the situation, one question dominates my thoughts… “Where’s the catch???” Last week, at Nobel level, we were presented with MM the science freak researching at well above the rate expected from that level (note that this is not a complaint; I really enjoyed that game! Just an observation.), and this week, to this point, it looks like we have a game that was engineered to be as easy as possible. Indeed, right now, this Prince game may be below the average difficulty for Nobel level. In fact, I can confidently say that I have never seen a start to be such in perfect synergy with a leader and set-up.
Consider that our traits are industrious and spiritual. Cheap wonders and free civics changes. This strongly suggests an early pyramid, which of course is significantly speeded along by the presence of nearby stone conveniently located in our copper city. Then turn to our unique unit. It requires horses, and is designed for an ultra early rush. And sure enough… We are provided an uncontested source of horses, and an obvious first target in Peter, who in addition to being located close by, lacks an early counter to our unit, and has a poor production capital making it impossible for him to mount any significant garrison.
Adding to all that, we have a game with raging barbs, but are located on an incredibly easy to fog-bust peninsula (indeed, I don’t think I even saw a barbarian until about 200 BC when I had completed a couple or wars to expand into the mainland). In contrast, all the AI have expansive backyards, and as a result are having their growth severely curtailed by barbarian activities. This forces them to focus more then normal on military units, which means that we can even afford to go for wonders later than normal, as we are essentially not having any of them contested.
So again, my thoughts are: “Where is the catch???” I have met all the leaders, and know roughly the lay of their lands. Nothing seems particularly unconventional or threatening on that front. I am leading or near the top in all significant categories, and comfortably ahead in technology. This looks like a trivial win to push home from here, but I cant help but thinking that the WOTM staff has a surprise in stored for us somewhere. This just seems to good to be true… Of course, I have yet to set eyes on the other continent, and it is entirely possible that there would be an unusually nasty surprise waiting over there if I ever planed to set foot on it. Since I don’t, then at this point, I cannot foresee where a problem could lie. Of course, I may well end up regretting those words in a thousand or so words… Time will tell…
In any event, back to the start of our tale:
I started this game with only a vague notion of elements of a plan:
-To leverage the leader traits by building the pyramids, the great wall if useful (depending on lay of the land) and a variety of other wonders.
-To knock out a neighbor early with chariots.
-To essentially win this game in the old world, either through a pre-astronomy conquest, or if enough land is present, by domination.
So, in 4000 BC, I moved one tile south, and settled there the next turn (the prime motivation for this being the extra city shield from the plains hill, which I love for getting a quick start to city growth (workboat or worker as the case may be). I decided to build a warrior in anticipation of raging barbs, and began researching fishing to get the seafood online as quickly as possible. My starting warrior went exploring SE, and quickly found stone (Yeah! Pyramids for sure now!) and Peter (An acceptable target as he lacks an early UU.) Having located Peter’s land, and noted that there was no peaceful expansion to be had in that direction, I turned the scout around, and explored the western peninsula. At this point, I quickly figured out that my two warriors could fog-bust all the land up to where my territory met Peter’s, meaning that the Great Wall was essentially a waste of resources, so I scratched it off my wish list.
After fishing, I researched mining and BW, and found copper also in my intended stone city (yippee!!). I also met scouts from Washington and Qin before 3000 BC when, having completed the workboat, I started a worker. Saladin came around shortly after that.
In 2500 BC, I finished researching AH, and found that I also had horsies around!! I quickly whipped/chopped two settlers, sending the first to found a city ON the horses, and the second to found ON the stone. While this sacrificed a bit of long term potential in these cities, it got all my resources hook up very quickly, allowing me to execute both an early rush, AND chase the pyramids.
I continued research following the pottery/writing path, and start building the pyramids in the capital as I start producing an army of chariots in my other cities. By 1600 BC, I am ready to declare on Peter. I have 1 chariot at his border, and he moves a worker next to him. With two more chariots to follow shortly (one already on route) and more in the pipe-line, I decide to go for it, and steal a worker. I move on to the capital where I find a single archer. This number would double by the time I got 4 chariots in place, and I took the city with a couple of losses in 1270 BC. I continued the war until 865 BC, at which point I had banished Peter to the annals of history (keeping Moscow and St. Pete. and razing the rest). During the war, I completed the pyramids (in 925 BC), and shortly after the war, in 790 BC, I learnt A…B…C…D…. well you get the idea….
After studying available trades carefully, I came up with the following combination. First year, I traded Sailing and writing to Washington for Poly and hunting. The next turn, Qin gave me Iron Working and archery for Poly, sail and writing. (This combination was important, since in year one, Qin would not let go of IW for anything I had available.
At this point, my cluster of chariots was looking around for something to do, and Shaka was in the lead on score. In addition, he had a couple or workers roaming the edge of his territory. I decided to take the workers, and try to nab a city or two, stunting his growth. I also decided to quickly build Stonehenge (completed in 595 BC) at this point as it became apparent that I was picking up several cities that needed borders popped. I took once city from Shaka in 520 BC (Which had an unpronounceable name, and which I simply renamed GP farm… It was founded about 6 times west of his capital, and had about 3 food resources and tons of grassland. I then sued for peace.
In the next 500 years, I met Liz, and also built the Great Library and the Great lighthouse.
At about 0AD, I decided that it was time to attack Shaka again… He had a city BETWEEN my GP farm and my capital, which was cutting of resource routes and hampering growth, plus his capital was another juicy city. Only problem was that I was being swarmed by barbs at GP farm (I had 5 chariots there, an they where barely managing to cover all the incoming) and this would get much worst once I took Shaka’s capital which was cutting them off to the East. Clearly there was A LOT of empty land to the east of that capital. At this point I realized that the Great Wall was STILL available, and quickly set about remedying that situation.
So, I declare my second war on Shaka in 110 AD, stealing 3 workers on the first turn! Great wall completed in 245 AD, and in 260 AD with monopoly broken on alphabet, I sold it around for about 500 gc. I also sold off Literature to Washington for Priesthood and some cash.
In 275 AD, I declared with Qin in parallel. He had strayed from his peninsula and founded Shanghai on our side of the mountains dividing his land from ours. That injustice was quickly rectified. In 410, having taken Shanghai, I sued for peace, and in the same year, I managed to eliminate Shaka.
This essentially takes us to the end of the first spoiler in 500 AD. I currently have 11 cities: 5 I founded (Capital, horses, stone, and two I founded on the northern islands; one to grab crab, dear, and several beavers, and the other grabs marble and a second source of metals), and 6 that I got via the swo…I mean chariots (Moscow, St. Pete, Shanghai, GP farm, Shaka capital, and the city Shaka founded between GP farm and Moscow.)
The demographics screen shows me last in GNP, second in pop (tho I am first in pop on the victories screen, with 28% to Washington;s 22%) and first in Mfg, agg, power and land (13.7% to Sal’s 6%). I also have a significant tech lead on everyone.
So, as stated in the preamble, this looks like an easy coast to the finish line, as I should be able to role up opponents one after the other. Time will tell if there is a surprise to come…
It didn't matter though, because it was the best place for the city.
Thebes finishes the partially built Barracks in 2050 BC and starts to build Axeman.
