You cannot win this game. Or can you?

[bingen]

I was a bit inspired by Doc's playing so today I tried to one up him. It was a huge success, Idustrial Age in 12 turns. Following is a synopsis.

Firstly, I disbanded most of the army and sold off some buildings (mostly walls and Colloseums). I cannot remember all the trading details but here is an outline. Initially I deduced that the other laggards were France and Germany and that the Inca were hopefully not that far ahead. Using these 3 as partners I was able to get Feudalism, Engineering and Education for little cost. Then I gifted France and Germany any outstanding techs I knew. Then I revolted to Republic.

I self researched Banking, Invention and Navigation, one only partly. Astronomy, Chivalry, music theory, was traded for from the French and Germans. Now, since there were no trading oppurtunities for a while I decided to try and catch up with the Incas. I bought Gunpowder and Chemistry from them, Saltpeter got me Metallurgy from the Russians which I traded for Physics from the Inca. I was finally able to get a world map by gifting the Germans up to Chemistry and the trading the subsequent techs to them.

I bought Magnetism from the Indians as they had the lowest score, but in retrospect the Egyptians probably would have beed better. I tried to trade Magnetism to the Incas for Theory of Gravity but they must have been already done with it so I had to chip in most of my remaining gold. No extra MM was necessary though. Voila, Industrial Age!

I was most lucky with my scientific ability and got Nationalism. Gifting techs to the Germans gave them Medicine which the Egyptians did not have. Finally I recouped a substantial amount of my gold along with Democracy from the Inca.

I have now caught up with the Egyptians except for optional techs.
My next target is Electricity so I can finally start som irrigation, I will gamble on researching Industrialization since the Chinese do not have that, i at least hope to beat the Egyptians to it. Research is very slow at the moment due to gold outlays, but it will improve once more Banks and Universities are constructed.

I was very worried about Incan troop shuffling since I had only token forces left and relations were not good. Now I can draft a couple of units and once a rudimentary rail net is completed I will be impervious.

 

[citizen001]

- How come you irrigate plains? That may be the reason why your cities aren't growing.
- Also, stack workers 2 for industrious and 3 for non.
- I see from the screenshot that nearly all your cities are in wealth and you're still losing gold which means you're not building enough money building like marketplaces etc.
- If you're that far behind in tech should build up money then start buying techs instead of researching as the price is very low.
- If you can switch govt ,despot isn't gonna do much for production, food or commerce.

Just a few things i learnt from people who advised me in my struggles with regent.

 

[bingen]

I sat up all night

In my game the UN was started later than in Doc's, I think the Greeks must have gotten Fission as their free tech in his. I was able to start my prebuild the turn after the AIs started building theirs.

The industrial age went by very smoothly. The only key move was to trade away my rubber which was almost enough for Atomic Theory!

If I hadn't got the UN I would definitely have caught up in time for the spaceship, barring a Diplomatic Loss obviously.

Just short of 40 turns in all. I have actually only played Accelerated Production once before. It's just like Deity except with the human player in a constant golden age, heh.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Wow, great job!
Congratulations.
The reason my game went much worse was that Iros completed ToE and Hoover, thus they did run away with insane speed; regardless of when I'd reached the IA, there was no chance to grab the UN by myself.
I didn't hurry that much to hit the IA, and saved more cash (had about 600gp and 150gpt) to aquire all 1st tier techs at ear advance via The Big Picture, to get a second tier as free tech. That would have worked easily (especially with gifting Germany to the IA at that time), but with the insane Iros, it was pointless - I would still have needed some turns to cruise through the IA.

 

[bingen]

In my game the Maya were the ones to get ToE and the Hoover Dam (and SETI and Manhattan Project). Most of the behind the scenes events seem to have broken my way.

Since, I had gifted away and traded quite a bit I did not seriously try to buy the election hence it was quite close. What really surprised me was that no one abstained. This makes me believe the AIs would win an election had they built the UN. To counter this one would have had to incite a world war, which might have had trading for the spaceship quite hard.

Finally, Accelerated Production halves costs, yet it seems that stealing tech still has a regular price?

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

To counter this one would have had to incite a world war, which might have had trading for the spaceship quite hard.

SS victory isn't even enabled.

 

[KarstenL]

Thanks for all your comments, and first and foremost thanks to Bingen. To me it seems like pure magic that you could win!

I will comment on some of your suggestions:

1) Government type: It’s not a surprise for me that all of you suggested that I should choose republic instead of despotism. But I have previously had problems whit both republic, monarchy and feudalism. As soon as I change I begin to run a huge budget deficit. I tried to reopen Babylon 860. I set the science rate to zero, and the budget now was this:

Income: 228
Corruption: -36
Maintenance: -142
Unit costs: -18
To other civs: -25

Giving me budget surplus of 7.

I now started a revolution and was in republic in 880. Now the budget was this:

Income: 377
Corruption: -51
Maintenance: -142
Unit costs: -116
To other civs: -25

Giving me a budget surplus of 43.

Great. I should of course have done so much earlier. But please notice: Increased unit costs by 98 and increased corruption by 15. In this case I’m still benefiting from the new government since my income has increased by 149, but I have played other games where the balance has been different, and therefore I have preferred staying in despotism till I could change to democracy.

2) Too many cultural buildings, even coliseums in size 3-4 cities. Yes, I see your point. But I use to think of culture as a strength to make other cities joining me. But maybe I overdo on that point. Maybe a temple is good enough for a small city.

3) Start wars? I’ll still say it’s out of question. Even if I could build up a army of medieval infantries I would soon face riflemen and even infantries in this accelerated production game.

So all in all I think that Babylon in 860 must stick to her good reputation and her culture for many, many turns.

By the way I’m about to finish the Babylon game. UN was built in about year 1100 by Maya but still in 2040 Smoke-Jaguar has not called for a vote. And since he attacked me in 1994 he certainly won’t get my vote nor do I think anybody else will vote for him.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Of course, you should disband 2/3 of your army (all those regulars) before you change to Republic. Culture wasn't a bad choice, just Colossei aren't worth it.

It's interesting how different yours, Bingen's and my game went; that shows how much luck is still involved. For example,when I hit the IA, I traded for all 1st tier Techs via TBP, and what did I get as free tech? The only absolutely useless one (Communism) ; then, Greece got Fission as free MA tech, and the über-Power Iros built ToE, Hoover and started UN first. Sure, you still can sign in anyone that matters, but I simply don't felt like playing on for another millenium...

Agred, in 860 wars were out of question; but with Astronomy, you could have hit France (they have Horses, at least).

 

[punkbass2000]

"Increased unit costs by 98 and increased corruption by 15."

Corruption isn't actually higher, you're just producing one extra commerce in every tile that already produces one, which can close to double the city's commerce easily enough, making more corruption.