AU501 - DAR4: Steam Power

[Dominae]

This is the fourth DAR thread for AU501 - The Power of Seafaring, dedicated to the time period between DAR3 and Steam Power. This might seem like a long stretch, but consider that some may require Astronomy or Navigation to get all those Contacts.

What are your plans for the Industrial era? Are you playing mostly a Builder game, or a Warmonger one?

[ZargonX]

The next block...

620 - PP to Maya for Gunpowder, 11 gpt 80g
640 - Knights Templar built
660 - Theo to Egypt for Dyes
710 - Sumer get Leos... I prep the invasion fleet
710 - Dutch declare war
820 - Operation Sumery Execution launched
820 - Chem to Maya for Astro, 49gpt 100g
820 - Military alliance and ROP signed with Hittites
850 - Bad-Tibra taken
860 - Lagash taken
940 - Peace with Dutch
940 - Contact with Russia to Maya for 80g and WM
940 - Contact with Dutch and Ivory to Russia for Dyes
940 - Sumer taken
960 - Chem to Egypt for WM 11gpt and 80g
1020 - Ur taken
1060 - Kish taken
1060 - Peace with Sumeria
1110 - Magelleans Expedition built!
1160 - Mayan sneak attack Lose my far off island jungle city.
1220 - Medicine to Netherlands for Eco WM 117gpt 100g
1230 - Operation Hit the Hittite launched
1245 - Tarsus captured
1250 - Bad-Tibra captured by Mayan
1255 - Peace with Maya for Medicine
1265 - Hattusha captured
1280 - Hattusas captured, saltpeter secured
1285 - Kaddesh captured
1300 - Harran captured
1315 - Tyranna captured
1325 - Ugarit captured. I have destroyed the "solid" Hittites
1330 - Sanitation to Netherlands for Demo WM 26gpt 70g
1330 - Sanitation to England for WM 70gpt 7g
1330 - Sanitation 575g 15gpt to Maya for Steam Power

[notyoueither]

Not a single coal to share among 4 civs, the Japanese, Sumerians, Hittites, and Byzantium. Resource distribution... fvckin' eh!

[nbarclay]

I can't help but wonder whether the distance to the nearest coal is the RNG's doing or Dominae's. He's been known to do evil things to players from time to time, but then so has the RNG.

Fortunately, I had REXed all the way to the western island, which has coal. Unfortunately, as Steam Power approached, I recalled workers who had barely started trying to improve that island so they could railroad my core. Only four workers lagged behind where they could get to the coal without an unreasonable delay.

Now to back up and tell how I got to this point.

[nbarclay]

In 70 AD, the Byzantines finished researching Feudalism, entered anarchy to transition to Republic, and started upgrading forces to invade the Sumerians. Recent trades had brought in luxuries from the Netherlands and Egypt (thanks to the Great Lighthouse), so it was actually possible to change governments without the massive starvation that too often accompanies such transitions.

Tje Sumerian invasion started four turns later in 150 AD, mostly because it took time to send a Dromon with a couple MedInfs west to try to capture the Sumerian city on West Island. (I managed to settle all of the island except for that one city myself.) I seriously considered involving the Hittites in the war, but finally decided against it because a victory by one of their three-man chariots would trigger a GA for them. Since they were next on my list of possible targets, I didn't view that possibility as a good thng. Fortunately, no Sumerian galleys attacked my Dromons, so my GA was not triggered prematurely while I was in anarchy.

In 210 AD, the leader of he new Byzantine Republic issued new orders to the Dromon fleet: ATTACK! Thus, the dawn of the Byzantine Republic was also the dawn of the Byzantine Golden Age. Even though we were at war, I used the Golden Age purely for builder purposes; my military was already so large as to make its upkeep very expensive under Republic (somewhere close to 80 gpt initially) I had something like half a dozen trebuchets, half a dozen pikemen, and a little over twenty MedInfs at the start of the war if I recall correctly, plus a little over twenty workers, some Dromons, and some regular warriors that could serve anti-flip duty in captured cities.

(If I'd been at peace, Monarchy would have been a much better government at that point since I could have used a lot of my troops as MPs to help me hold down the luxury slider. And if I'd been expecting a long, drawn-out war, Monarchy would have been better to avoid war weariness. But I was gambling that I could conquer Sumeria before war weariness became a significant problem, in which case Republic would be about as good as Monarchy in the short term and a lot better in the long term.)

Russia and I were neck and neck in the tech race at that point, with the other civs behind to varying degrees. In my game, Russia did a lot better than their Egyptian neighbors, for which I compensated by making Egypt rather than Russia my dye suppliers.

Another glorious event also occurred in 210 AD: we got our first great leader when one of the two elite sword units left over from the Japanese war won a victory. He immediately formed a Medieval Infantry army to assist in the attack.

The war with Sumeria ended in 330 AD with the capture of the last city on the Sumerian homeland. The Sumerian capital jumped to the southern end of the island just southwest of the Hittites, and with war weariness having just started to become an issue, chasing it there did not seem worthwhile. My attempt to conquer the city on West Island had failed - one MedInf died and the Sumerians were building Enkidus faster than the remaining MedInf could kill them - but Gilgamesh considered that city (and everything else his nation had of value) a small price to pay for his continued survival. During the war, a second leader emerged and formed an Ancient Cavalry army.

One oddity that came about around the time of the war is that I decided to abandon Adrianople, my second city. I'd built other cities so densely along the coast to maximize the availability of coastal tiles for wealth that growing Adrianople to size 12 would have seriously compromised my ability to get any kind of meaningful production out of the coastal cities. So Adrianople dropped back to a small village churning out an occasional settler to build additional cities in AI territory (since I like denser build patterns than AIs do) and the coastal cities got to use most of the tiles in Adrianople's radius.

Here's my empire as it looked when Sumeria fell. The southerly of the two westernmost cities on West Island is the one I got from Sumeria. You can see Sumeria's sole remaining city in the southeastern corner.

By the way, Sumeria had a vastly stronger culture than I did at the time of the war, and I lost a city briefly in a culture flip (along with a couple regular warriors and maybe another unit or two). Fortunately, as of when I got Steam Power, none of my cities had flipped, but maintaining a one-unit garrison in each captured city cut into my forces available for the upcoming war with the Hittites.

[nbarclay]

After the defeat of Sumeria, I went through a few turns of "Do I or Don't I?" with regard to whether I wanted to invade the Hittites. During that time, Dromons shifted to ferry duty moving workers who were finishing improving Japan up to Sumeria to deal with all the jungle and marshland up there. Finally, I decided that since the Hittites had no iron connected (and none available that I knew of), a war with them could be conducted at an acceptable cost without the need to build additional units.

Every now and then, a situation arises in which building a city specifically for an invasion can be good strategy. In this case, I determined that building a city where the land juts out on the southwest of old Sumeria would allow me to use my Seafaring-enhanced, Lighthouse-supercharged Dromons to land two loads of troops each on a hill two tiles away from the Hittite city of Harran. I could land my eight Trebuchets (which included two captured and upgraded Sumerian catapults), my four surviving pikemen, three Ancient Cavalry, and ten MedInfs - essentially my entire military other than anti-flip garrisons and my two armies - in a single turn. The force landed in 410 AD. (Remember that an army with three units in it can't travel on anything more primitive than a galleon! So the armies would have to travel over land.)

[nbarclay]

Instead of attacking at my invasion force, the Hittites decided to send their northern offensive forces through the isthmus connecting their land with the former Sumerian lands. Bombardment by Dromons softened them up and the two armies, with the aid of the two nearest MedInfs serving as anti-flip garrisons, were able to take care of the threat. (If the AI had taken the time to concentrate a single force instead of sending each unit as quickly as it could go from wherever it started, I would have had a much harder time of it.) Still, the invasion kept the two armies out of the main fighting for a few turns.

Not that that helped the Hittites much. Even the mighty three-man chariots proved to be a joke when they were foolish enough to stop inside Harran's city radius after it was captured; they didn't have enough movement left to actually attack. Dromons and trebuchets pounded them, and Ancient Cavalry with a little help from MedInfs dispatched them easily.

The invasion force didn't run into any real trouble until the main body started approaching the capital and the fast-movers attempted to bypass it to strike at the Hittites' southernmost cities. Then, much to my surprise, pikemen appeared! It turned out that the Hittites had an iron supply I hadn't known about on the island they shared with Sumeria, and they finally completed a harbor. My Ancient Cavalry army died at the hands of a lucky pike unit in the far south (after its brave leader pushed his luck a little too far attacking in spite of having some injured troops), and other attacks were a little more costly than I had hoped they would be. But the Hittite pikes ultimately proved to be too little, too late. The last Hittite city fell in 590 AD after only a single turn in which war weariness was a problem.

(I did have one other happiness problem early in the war: I hadn't noticed, but the only sea trade route to Egypt and Russia went through Hittite territory. So I had to do without dyes for a few turns until I conquered enough Hittite territory to reopen the trade route.)

I'm really impressed with the power of Dromons for bombarding coastal cities defended by anything less than pikemen. Against pikemen, they have a much harder time scoring hits, but even so, it was purely Dromon bombardment that softened up the last Hittite city so I could take it. (The last two cities were far enough apart that bombarding with Dromons and invading with Ancient Cavalry was a couple turns quicker than moving in Trebuchets would have been. After what happened to my Ancient Cavalry army, my Ancient Cavalry commander insisted that he didn't want to go up against pikemen without some sort of artillery support. That shows he's not stupid. )

During the Hittite war, I got a third leader, who build a Forbidden Palace in Harran (just east of where my heavy force landed in the screenshot). I'm not sure how good a place that is for it (especially since this is my first 1.15 game), but I figured waiting to build it until I could figure out the perfect place for it wouldn't buy me anything. I'd be very interested to hear other people's thoughts on FP placement on this map.

[nbarclay]

While the military units already built and the occasional new Ancient Cavalry from the Statue of Zeus were busy fighting, the people in the Byzantine homeland were busy with more peaceful pursuits. Research typically ran at a four or five turn pace through most of the middle ages, first with the help of the Golden Age and then with the help of the city improvements the Golden Age helped make possible. Cheap universitites are nice! The rest of the world, including even Russia, quickly started to fall behind in technology. Periodic tech-for-luxury+gold deals helped the Mayans, English, and Dutch a bit, but they had started far enough behind Russia (and Russia had presumably received enough of a boost from its cheap universities) that they couldn't catch up with Russia until around the time I reached the industrial era.

The Sistine Chapel was completed in Constantinople in 410 AD; Leonardo's Workshop in Nicaea in 530 AD; Copernicus's Observatory in Constantinople in 610; and Newton's University in Nicaea in 730 (during the research of Steam Power). Russia built Sun Tsu's, while the Dutch built the Knights Templar. The Mayans and Russians had just started work on Bach's Cathedral when I discovered Steam Power, and no one's gotten around to researching Economics or Navigation yet. (By the way, the Mayas have an Iron Works city not far from their capital. They could be a bit nasty in any wonder race they're allowed to compete in once they get the tech to take advantage of that fact.)

In 670 AD, Russian ships were spotted sailing up the former Hittite coast. I decided to do some final tech deals taking advantage of the lack of contacts (since the Northern civs had Chivalry but not Astronomy and the opposite was true for Russia) and then sell contact with Russia and Egypt to the Dutch. I've also sold and traded my world map pretty broadly, acquiring maps of the entire known world in the process.

The Byzantines entered the industrial age in 720 AD and got Medicine as a free tech. (I'd been hoping for either Stem Power for railroads or Nationalism for Civil Engineers, but such was not to be.) Steam Power could be researched in five turns at 90%, so I decided to boost the slider to 100% in the hope that completion of Newton's University and an important regular university in two turns would make a four-turn pace possible. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough, and Steam Power wasn't completed until 770 AD. At this point, Industrialization and Nationalism can be researched in four turns, but Electricity requires five.

Russia, the Netherlands, the Mayas, and the English are all tied for second place in technology. I have six techs that they don't: Metallurgy, Physics, Theory of Gravity, Magnetism, Medicine, and Steam Power. On the other hand, they all have Music Theory, which I lack. In addition, Russia has yet to get their free tech, which cuts into the size of my lead for practical purposes. Still, with four- and five-turn industrial research as easy as it is, maintaining a tech lead should not be a problem. Fortunately, I'm raking in enough gold through various deals to finance a 100% luxury slider setting.

The really annoying thing is that the Mayas and Russians have coal already hooked up to start their railroad networks the moment they get Steam Power, while I'm going to have to waste a few turns hooking up coal before I can start mine. Still, things could be worse: at least I have a supply available to hook up.

[notyoueither]

Wait for it. The better bit is yet to come...

[notyoueither]

Wow, that mini map looks cool, Nathan.

In my game the Dutch wrapped up the Pyramids, then the Colossus and the GrLH. They are well on their way to being the KAI of the game, having already held off an all against them dogpile once.

See all those islands? They're all Dutch. I have just reached parity with them in tech midway through the Industrial era.

As usual, they researched all the dead-ends. That allowed me to get Darwin's and I have a good jump on Hoover, for all the good it will do me with 8 home cities and no coal in sight.

/me glares at Dominae

[nbarclay]

You can't take the coal center on the island two islands west of home?

[ZargonX]

Here's a shot from the beginning of Operation: Hit the Hittite. The main reason behind it was to secure a source of saltpeter, the second reason being that I wanted more territory

[ZargonX]

The nice thing about having Magellean's Expedition and the Knights Templar was that I could get my heavy-hitting Crusaders out to the nearby islands almost instantly. Having that level of speed a power let me blast through the Sumerians and Hittites. The Sumerians were lucky enough to have cities elsewhere that I decided not to hunt them down; the Hittites weren't so lucky. This shot is of the closing days of the Hittites. It's also about 6 turns from me getting Steam Power and learning the nasty secret about coal availability. Unfortunately for me, the Maya controlled the coal source on the large island 2 west of the homeland, and I was in no position to tangle with them, as they were the dominant power in the game at this point.

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by nbarclay
You can't take the coal center on the island two islands west of home?

I can and I will, but it is taking time. It is occupied by the Dutch, English and some others. This gets into consequences of decisions.

Way, way back, I decided to play this without camps and to focus more on building. Strike 1.

Then when deciding when and how to deal with the Japanese I put off invasion for the sake of some Libraries and other builder type things. When I crossed, I had a bad run of RNG and found the island to be teeming with Spear and Archers, so I put off further invasion til Chivalry. Strike 2.

Having finally subdued the Japanese I had to decide what next. I thought I could live without SP for the game and instead counted on Rubber to get me Oil. I figured with the terrain on the Home Island, and the Western Jungle Island, and Japan, and a piece of Sumeria I grabbed with Knights prior to them getting too many Riflemen, that I would have Coal. Strike 3.

I'm not sure how many more strikes I get, but it should be fun finding out.

I have just captured the Hittite SP and should now be able to build the Frigates and Cavalry that will be required to keep the shipping moving and to take Dutch cities away from them (and keep them). Thus I am now assembling the force to go there and get my Coal as I tidy things up with the Hittites.

I'm not sure Strike 1 is a strike at all though. Not cramming cities in introduces serious risk of losing the game at Emperor. I find it more satisfying when each decision and action has more hanging on it due to lower room for error. However, some things can then be even more annoying when they happen.

[cracky]

AU 501 DAR 4 --monarch -stock rules

This DAR tends to tail off in detail towards the end as I forgot to take notes....

530 BC: Polytheism to the dutch for Construction and 89 gold.

490 BC: Volcano active again. The Gods hate me!

470 BC: Popped Lit from a hut. 9 turns to currency and I’m out of this age. No republic for me!

310 BC: Uh-oh. The Japanese just started building the statue of Zeus. Looks like I’ll be attacking with Medieval Infantry…

290 BC: Entered Middle Ages, got Feudalism as my free tech. The second island to the west is nearly full. Looks like I’ll have 4 of 7 or 8 cities on it.

230 BC: Gah! Japanese sneak attack! And I don’t have a single Med. Inf. Built yet. However they do have a galley in range of one of my Dromons. To start my golden age or not. I AM in monarchy at least, but I’ve only just started the Middle Ages.

Sigh… An early golden age it is. Before it ends, I should be able to wipe out the Japanese and be close to Chivalry (eyeing the Hittites). I can’t figure out if I should go for Sun Tzu’s. For one thing, I don’t want anybody else to have it, but is it really worth all those shields when half the cities on my continent already have barracks. Nope, not worth it while I can still go for The Hanging Gardens. Golden Age Begun.

90 BC: Sold Lit. around the block for 700 gold

50 BC: Hanging Gardens built. What the heck, Constantinople starts on Sun Tzu’s.

90 AD: Bwahahaha. With two cities left the Japanese have finished the Temple of Zeus.

170 AD: The Japanese menace was ended the same year as our Golden Age, with chivalry one turn away and 22 to go on Sun Tzu’s. I’m up monotheism, feudalism, and chivalry on everyone. With some laggards like the English much further behind than that. I’m going to do Theology next and try to get The Sistene Chapel before bee-lining to Cavalry.

230 AD: The volcano on Japan’s island erupts, toasting the two ancient Cavalry about to enter a Dromon!

280 AD: Just realized Sumeria and the Hittites are already going at it. I don’t exactly have many spare military units at the moment. I’m still digesting Japan. But maybe my 4 elite Med. Inf. Can take a city or two and generate a leader. Even if not, I’m still going to need a foothold on that continent for the knight/cavalry push. Sumeria and the Hittites will probably be my last conquests of the game (unless of course, someone gets uppity).

320 AD: Hittites made peace a turn after I declared war on Sumeria. So much for the war on two fronts. I took one city next to some gems at least. I did lose three of my four elite Med. Inf. However… Traded Monotheism to the Sumerians for Engineering, and Currency to Egypt for Dyes.

420 AD: Sistene Chapel built in Constantinople. Knights a-massing for Sumerian conquest.

630 AD: Hang on a moment! Still prepping the war. Thought I’d build some trebuchets to help soften up the pikemen. Then I realized I’m researching Chemistry. Great Scott! No gunpowder on the home island or any of the other three I own (the ones to the west). And with no other civ knowing what gunpowder is, looks like this’ll be a low-tech war. …better get a move on then!

740 AD: war begins. The main thrust is 6 ancient Cav, 7 knights, 5 trebuchet. Two diversionary thrusts of 3-4 AC, knights strike other Sumerian targets. Hope the Sumerians have some saltpepper for me.

800 AD: Leader Generated taking down the last Sumerian city. I’m kind of torn here. I don’t expect to do much more fighting, so I’m not all that interested in the heroic epic, and a second core. in Ur could be nice. FP it is.

820: Leo’s finished. No salt pepper in Sumeria…

830: FP rushed with leader in Ur.

The Dutch and the French start a war that lasts on and off for the next 400 years. Somewhere in here the Dutch catch their golden age and make me look like a gimpy snail in the tech race.

1140: Finished Smith’s. The Dutch have a 3 tech lead: free artistry, magnetism, and theory of gravity. The French and English both have free artistry as well.

1150: finished Magellan’s Voyage. Going into revolt for democracy now… Scratch that, have to take salt pepper from the Hittites first.

1220: Scratch the Hittite war. Knights vs. Musketmen is not my idea of a good time. I’m 8 turns away from steam power. Got medicine as my free tech. The dutch are on par except they have nationalism instead of medicine. England and france have neither of those two. Everyone else is a few techs behind. (I traded Magnetism when I got it to England (Free Artistry) and France (Theory of Gravity, but I had to give them ivory as well).

1240: Revolution!

1270: The thirty year expirement in anarchy is over and our people opt for Democracy.

1295: Steam Power discovered. I have coal, but it isn’t hooked up yet. Needless to say every worker on that island has been converted into CalTrans, orange vest wearing, pavement rollers.


Overview: I screwed up a number of times in this DAR. To get Democracy I traded the Maya contact with the Hittites, Egyptians, and Russians. I then traded the contacts to everyone else before the Mayans could. If I hadn't done this, the Hittites might not have know what their salt pepper was good for before I was ready to attack. Instead of trading Banking + some gold to the Dutch for Metallurgy, I sold them banking and then didn't sell it to everyone else because they were broke. Should have sold it anyway, This was the point where the Dutch took off in the tech race.

Anyway... I have a ToE prebuild going in a shield rich city. I might trade medicine + gold for nationalism. Both the Dutch and French have it.

I'm going to entirely ignore the Communism/Espionage/Fascism mini-branch. I have no use for them but usually get them anyway on Regent because I can.

[Rhothaerill]

Well I haven't written my DAR for this block, but I finished up to this point last night by researching steam power and I just wanted to share a few thoughts.

During this DAR I conquered both the Hittites and Sumerians. I had somewhat neglected settling on the two jungle islands, only getting 3 of the 5 cities on the closer one (one of which inexplicably culture flipped to the Sumerians despite me having a library in it ) and one city on the farther island. At the close of my Sumerian conquest I had taken their homeland and the closer island, but didn't have enough units on the far island to take their cities (and war weariness had started setting in causing me to have to use the slider and lose gold) so I offered them peace and grabbed two of their remaining three cities in the peace deal. So I finish researching steam power and the only coal within distance of me is IN THE BORDERS OF THE ONE REMAINING SUMERIAN CITY! Ugh, a mini war is in the offing.

On another note, something happened to me that I hadn't ever had happen before. While I was taking the closer jungle island I left my two cities undefended with the knowledge the Sumerians had no units that could get to it quickly enough and no ships close. The same turn I declared they put two medieval infantry in a caravel in their homeland and sailed it toward my homeland. I thought for sure they'd go for some of the undefended cities of my home island, but I wasn't worried since I had several cavalry in a central location and roads everywhere. Nope, they go for the cities on the small island and manage to take one before I can get a couple more units over there to take it back. I'm impressed! The AI passed up some cities that were nominally undefended, but had cavs in striking distance, to go for the completely undefended city that didn't have a cav in striking distance.

BTW, I just wanted to mention that I still have not been hit by the plague and NEITHER of the volcanoes on my two main islands has erupted yet and I'm almost to 1000ad.

[ducki]

This one is super-short and very incomplete because I forgot to take notes. I got too engrossed in the game. Sue me.

---------------------------------------------
280 AD - Japan is eliminated. Yum.
320 AD - With 1 turn left on Education, trade Chivalry to Russia for Education and some gold. Can get Gunpowder and 40 gold for Edu and Printing Press...
Researching Music Theory at 90% in 7 turns. Definitely want to get Democracy soon, but once all my MPs quit working, I'm gonna need some help. I need more lux too. Hmm..if I trade, at least I'll know where it is...


360 AD - Everyone is building Sistine, and since my GA ended, I'm pretty sure I'm going to lose out.
MM a bunch of cities to get Music Theory in 2 instead of 3. Cross fingers.


Erm, lots of stuff. Looooooooooooooooong war with Hittites that just trimmed my forces down, basically. Very poorly executed, but Egypt joined my in Alliance 3-4 turns into the war and she's still at it. They did steal a town on the southern island which later flipped back, but no longer had the accumulated culture and had lost the rushed library and other stuff. Then they recaptured it. I gave up. Many many many turns later, Egypt takes it and valiantly defends it. Damn, I didn't want to have to fight her.
I also traded for Saltpeter in there somewhere, which was lucky, as I couldn't seem to take any from the Hittites.

Oh, and somewhere in there I think I built Bachs.

On another note, I completed Shakespeare's Theatre(why don't they call it The Globe?) in 750AD - revolted that same turn - anarchy lasted FOREVER - Entered democracy in 850AD. FINALLY!
Gonna have to MM all the towns around Duckst. to work tiles away so I can grow to max size. The upside is, I'll MM as Duckst. grows to avoid unhappiness, though that shouldn't be a problem.

Researching at 100% with +83gpt - I must have some trades going - Theory of Gravity has 2 turns to go, which is 2 turns better than when I entered Anarchy - I love scientists.

Fell behind by Magnetism.
Amassed a treasury of 4535 gold.
England declared war on Dutch - - I hope she does well.

Ack! I accidentally exported all of my ivory. Gaaarrgh! Riots in Edo and Smyrna, other cities getting restless. Dagnabit!

Argh, I got beat to Metallurgy, too, so I had to buy both of the M techs - Egypt gave me Metallurgy for Territory map and 120g and England gave me Magnets for World Map and 1360g!
Steam was the freebie, so here I stand.

Russia and Sumeria have Medicine and Nationalism.
Netherlands has Medicine.
I'm running a 26gpt deficit with 2892 in the bank.
Dutch will give Medicine, Map, 31gpt, 420g for Steam.
Sumer will give Medicine, Map, 127gpt, 9g.
Russia will almost give me Nationalism for Steam. Stingy wench!
To trade away Steam or not? That's a toughie. A jumpstart on the ToE line would be nice and Rifles would make my anemic military less problematic, but I'd be trading away Steam! Argh.


Research Electricity in 8 at 80% with 26gpt deficit. Arg.
Oh, yeah. I had been pretty aggressive with "my" western islands, so I just have to get the coal connected. It's one tile away from a town. It's also on Sumeria's border, who is a cultural force, so I hope I can rush some culture and not have to go to war with Sumeria - that would be rough. heh.
It's a good thing Unit support is only 1gold in Demo, otherwise I'd be in big trouble, I think. Not sure why research is slower under Demo than it was under Monarchy. Must be luxury slider-related - which should clear up when I get my ivory back. Stupid, stupid, stupid! Always clear out previously offered deals before negotiating. Greed kills.



Plans for industrial:
Get ToE and Hoover(duh). Try for Universal Suffrage.
Build more workers for railroading and hope Demo speeds slaves as well as natives, since it's mostly slaves roading coal.
Continue to grow capitol to behemoth size.
Consider Infy-Arty war if I have rubber. *crosses fingers
Figure out way to support more troops. Dutch will have to be destroyed, though I'm making sure England has things she needs to fight the good fight.
Also, Sumeria will have to be knocked down a peg or two.
After getting lots of World Maps in trades, I can see an island waaaaay to the west with tundra and forests, I think. Maybe I can get there before anyone else. Already dispatched settler+crusader.

So, to sum up, Buildermonger is the plan, though I need more income to support units and Science. Blarg.

[Catt]

Stock rules; demi-god.

My last DAR ended in 850 BC shortly after contact with all civs. My plan at the time was to research Republic, hold off on the revolt a bit; and take Japan since that little island so properly belonged to Byzantium.

Sometime around 600 BC, Japan demanded Philosophy and declared war when rebuffed! Silly Tokugawa. And the Japanese were sitting on what seemed to be the world's sole supply of ivory but hadn't yet researched Mathematics. Between 600 and 300 BC, several other civs declared war when rebuffed on demands (maybe I should build a few more units?), including the Russians, and the English. Rather than drop the hammer on Japan, I concentrated on Rexing and used the powerful Dromon force as immobile blocking forces -- hardly honorable work for such feared beasts (as I learned later).

Here's a screenshot of my Dromon wall preventing all but the GL-powered Dutch from exploring west to Japan and the western islands.

Catt

[Catt]

In 290 BC the Dutch joined the party by declaring war when rebuffed on a demand for Literature. By now, with all the war happiness accrued, I'm enjoying largish cities without a temple without happiness problems. In 270 bc I learned that the Russians had destroyed the Egyptians.

Around this time I had finally eliminated the final barb camp from the home island (something like 40 barb horsemen), and the troops moved west towards the embarcation point for Japan. I had assembled a small force of swords with a few covering pikes for Japan. I traded Monotheism for Feudalsim and Engineering, upgraded most swords to Med Infs, and landed next to Osaka for the assault. The landing force was 15 Med Infs and 3 Pikes, and the 9 Dromons bombarded the foritifed spears in Osaka. In 130 AD my landing force came under concerted counter-attack -- numerous archers and even a few warriors attacked my stack, killing or gravely wounding all 3 pikes, and inflicting some damage on Med Infs. I had been at "war" with Japan for 500 years during which time I had done almost nothing -- I figured Japan might have been concentrating on forces and so expected large numbers -- I planned on taking Osaka and the ivory, and then whittling all the AI attackers after Dromon bombardment - I would then press on or sign a 20-turn peace to prepare for the conquest. I got quite a bit more than I bargained for.

My 9 dromons scored 7 successful bombardments and yet an undamaged and fortified spearman still guarded Osaka. I also knew that there were several archers in Osaka since they had been attacking my landing force the turn before. Finally, my landing party's lookouts reported hordes of Japanese troops converging on the plains surrounding Osaka. I decided to make peace with troops at the door of Osaka for better terms, but then have them pile back aboard the Dromons, and get the heck out of Dodge.

Catt

[Catt]

Prior to the failed Japanese invasion, I had decided to revolt to Republic because I didn't want to trigger a GA while in Despotism and the number of Dutch galleys was increasing. I decided to revolt to Republic before I was forced to use a Dromon to sink a galley. I was going to be on the hook for upwards of 50 gpt in unit costs due to a large Dromon force and a large worker force. My anarchy lasted 6 turns. And I actually sank a Dutch galley, via bombardment, with 1 turn to go before I came out of anarchy because I didn't want to risk a landing of troops next to an undefended city.

The ignimonious ending of the Japanese campaing at least freed up Dromons for coastla blocking -- both the Sumerians and the Hittites were sending galleys west. The Dutch war consisted entirely of massive Dromon bombardment and sinking of Dutch galleys. The Dutch never landed a single unit before making peace shortly after the retreat from Japan.

The turn after peace with Japan (in 150 AD) I traded either Philosophy or CoL to Japan for Ivory. The Japanese still hadn't discovered Mathematics. I had made peace with the Dutch shortly before the Japanese invasion (leaving me at war with, and enjoying war happiness from) the Hittites, the Russians, and the English. I sold some tech to the Dutch for a decent-sized gpt payment (+/- 45 gpt). I had used my GA to build and research, taking the upper tech branch towards Astronomy. The gpt helped a bit.

With 12 or 13 turns to go on my gpt payments, the dastardly Dutch declared war again, threatening my most distant, and underdefended colonies. Here is a shot of the far western island one turn after the Dutch renewal of hostilities. I have all of 1 spearman and 2 Med Inf on the island, and the Dutch galleys seen below are there to off-load additional troops.

Catt

[Catt]

Over the course of several turns, 1 of my cities was captured and another was abandoned in the face of Dutch troops, and 2 workers had to scramble aboard a Dromon to avoid capture. Coastal blocking duty around the homeland was abandoned and, with a healthy contingent of Dromons to protect the home island, a second healty contingent of Dromons loaded troops left-over from the Japanese campaign and headed west.

Seafaring trait to the rescue!

Catt

[Catt]

By 450 ad, the distant colonies were secured and a defensive naval net was in place to deal with threats.

Catt

[Catt]

My research path through the Middle Ages was entirely the upper branch: Monotheism (free tech), Theology, Education, Astronomy, Navigation, Banking, Economics, and Theory of Gravity. Rather than promote a fast tech pace, I deliberately withheld techs in an effort to slow the pace down -- until I could get my FP built, I wasn't convinced that trading techs would help more than it would hurt. I did trade Navigation and Economics for techs like Gunpowder, Physics, and Metallurgy. A wonder cascade seemingly assured me of Smith's by the time I was ready to trade Econ.

In 720 AD, I traded ToG to England for Magnetism, launching both of us into the Industrial Age. The Dutch had been there for a half-dozen turns, and the Russians, fully caught up in tech once contacts were made, had also just entered. I received Steam Power as my free tech; the Russians had received Nationalism and sold it to the Dutch for massive gpt. I quickly sold SP to Russia for 250+ gpt plus other goodies, and then made the rounds with it to others. I planned my tech path to be Electricity, RP, Medicine, and Scientific Method -- I didn't plan on bothering with Industrialization since much of my empire was laid out to emphasize commerce rather than production.

In 730 AD, the Mayans built Smith's! They had discovered Mil Tradition and must have gotten an SGL because I was confident that I had broken the wonder chain -- I was able to switch my Smith's build for Bach's, but would much, much rather have had Smith's (the Mayans, and many other civs, had been building Bach's for a long time before they acquired Econ from me which is another reason why I suspect it was an SGL that did me in).

Here's a snapshot of the minimap and infoscreen as of 730 ad. I just recently completed the FP on the near western island and certainly hope that my research rate improves from 7 - 9 turns, depending on the tech, once libs and univs are up and running and the far western isle is RR'd, irrigated, and "scientist'd."

Catt

[Catt]

I'm going to save some detail and some additional thoughts on the Power of Seafaring for the "Post Game Thoughts" thread when I get to the post game.

For now, Russia is a big bad civ in my game, and the Dutch have a nice commercial empire. Interestingly, I've gone through Elec, RP, and Medicine, and no civ has researched Printing Press (or Democracy, or Free Artistry). The GL was built after I had already discovered Edcuation (and the builder civ had traded for Education). I built the Statue of Zeus well before Japan had discovered Mathematics (Japan was a basket case in my game) and did so more for denial than for worth -- the ancient cavs came late enough that I saw them as mild mobile defenders and shield transfers (disband) rather than a potent force to be used.

The large map is actually becoming quite sluggish on my laptop -- not enough to sour the game, but enough so that it is quite noticeable. Plenty of volcanic eruptions; no plague yet.

Catt

[vmxa1]

Those stacks are ugly Catt, dam all that free support.

[Rhothaerill]

Emperor level played with the AU mod

30bc – Settle Nicomedia on the Japanese island.

I wanted to fill in one more coastal city. The Japanese had actually done a fairly decent job of city placement. There is now only one tile on the island that can’t be worked by any cities.

50ad – Finish research of monotheism. Start research on chivalry at 10%

As I mentioned in my last DAR my plan was to build up a large amount of gold and a bunch of horsemen at the same stroke while researching this tech. Even at 10% research I was still on course for 29 turns of research while gaining 202gpt. I did not want to take the full 50 turns to research the tech so I didn’t use the one scientist minimum research strategy. I wanted to remain at least a little flexible in case I needed to finish up a little quicker later on.

70ad – A round of tech trading.

I gave the Mayans engineering for 34gpt and 150 gold; engineering to the Dutch for 44gpt and 40 gold; feudalism to France for 70 gold in the hope that would balance out the Mayans a bit; and then gifted some tech to Egypt, England, and Russia to improve their view of me. I didn’t gift or trade to either the Sumerians or Hittites since they either already had a slight lead over their AI counterparts (Sumeria), or were my first target (Hittites).

90ad – Discover the Hittites have settled on a tiny island east of the dutch.

That was interesting. It would mean I’d either have to send units over there to wipe them out or leave the city as their new homeland after conquest. I had at first wondered how they got there until I remembered they built the Great Lighthouse.

110ad – Pay 23gpt to the Sumerians to keep Gems coming in.

Unfortunately it would have cost me almost double the gpt at the time to use the luxury slider to make up for the loss of gems. With only two luxuries on my two islands and no sea trading yet as I hadn’t made the Great Lighthouse a huge priority, Sumerian gems were my only recourse. Since I wasn’t going to be hitting them first I didn’t mind keeping myself locked into a deal.

190ad – Golden Age ends.

Bummer. But it was useful as I was able to build a lot of infrastructure and get a huge jump on Leonardo’s Workshop. My main infrastructure building consisted of finishing up libraries, marketplaces and aqueducts in my cities. As there was a certain lack of fresh water on the islands almost all of my old established cities needed aqueducts to continue to grow, while my newer cities (in the old swamp) did not so it worked well for timing. My horseman force was also growing apace by this time as well.

260ad – Leonardo’s Workshop completed in Constantinople

This was the wonder that was crucial to my plans. With the amount of gold currently flowing into my coffers I would have had enough for straight upgrades of all my horsemen, but it wouldn’t have left me much gold. This way I still had gold to be able to rush buy libraries to help avoid culture flipping, etc. Speaking of that though on this same turn I lost a city on the closer jungle island to culture flipping to the Sumerians. The city was just about to increase its culture radius after building a library, but it flipped to the Sumerians who had not yet built any culture improvements either! It was a little strange for me as I’m usually very careful about maximizing culture to avoid flipping when close to other nation’s cities.

300ad – Another round of tech trading

Monotheism is discovered by the Sumerians so I trade it around before they can. The Mayans give 22gpt and 15 gold; the Dutch give 22gpt and 120 gold, the French give 7gpt and 70 gold, and I gift it outright to Egypt since Russia gained it as a free tech.

370ad – Complete the Statue of Zeus in Caesarea

A little later than I would have wished. My mistake in not pop-rushing the harbor in Kyoto and losing a bunch of shields after a wonder cascade left me to build a temple in Constantinople hurt. During the Golden Age Constantinople was building Leo’s and my other cities were concentrating on infrastructure which left this wonder a little late in my time schedule. I didn’t get a whole heck of a lot of use out of it, but it wasn’t too bad to have.

380ad – Sumerians complete Sun-Tzu’s Art of War.

I’ll have it soon enough. I also continue my gem trading with Sumeria. I notice that I’m beginning to fall a little behind in the upper branch of techs as Sumeria already has theology and gunpowder and appears to have education as well. That won’t last long though.

420ad – Finish research on chivalry and a round of tech trading begins

After a long bit of research I now have a great deal of gold saved up and immediately mass upgrade 32 horsemen to knights. And wow, I also have 16 dromons for transport and support (though a few are still out exploring). I immediately cut my iron to begin building more horsemen since I have plenty of gold, but my island doesn’t have great shield producing cities (10spt is about it for most of them). I also started research on chemistry.

After this I traded chivalry, ivory and 175 gold to Sumeria for gunpowder, knowing that they don’t have horses for knights and can’t build the SoZ out from under me anymore. I then traded gunpowder and 45 gold to Russia for Theology since they have finally started to make a play in the tech research department. Now comes my decision…Hittites or Sumerians. I still had several deals going with the Sumerians and none with the Hittites. The Sumerians had iron for pikes, but no saltpeter. The Hittites on the other hand had saltpeter, but it looked like they didn’t have enough gold for upgrades. Or so I though.

A look at my forces circa 420ad.

To be continued…

[Rhothaerill]

Emperor level played with the AU mod

450ad – Begin the war on the Hittites and capture Hattusha and Tarsus. And I generate my first MGL!

I loaded 12 dromons with 24 knights and left the remaining knights at home as a mobile defense force in case of a sneak attack. I sailed close to the Hittite land, declared war (as they weren’t going to declare on me) and finished sailing into toward Hattusha only to discover musketmen defending the city. Oops! I was expecting to find spearmen with maybe a few musketmen. But apparently the Hittites had gotten hold of some cash somehow and managed to upgrade practically all of their spearmen to either musketmen and, even more shocking, a few pikemen. Once again I had forgotten about their Great Lighthouse and their extra ability for both contacts and resource trading.

I was a little concerned since fighting fortified musketmen with knights isn’t a winning strategy. I had deliberately not bothered to build any catapults or trebuchets figuring my large stack of dromons would be more than enough to bombard the heck out of spearmen since almost all the Hittite cities were coastal. But now I was committed. I wanted that saltpeter for my own forces and wouldn’t be able to effect a peace for several turns. I expected to lose a bunch of knights, but at least I’d have my saltpeter. What I didn’t count on was that those little dromons provided my salvation. Even with only a bombard strength of 2 they managed to tear through the musketmen in the city. And thanks to some knights being promoted to elite on defense the turn before, during the taking of Hattusha I managed to generate a great leader.

I thought about building a quick army for some heavy hitting, but decided to wait and use the MGL to rush build a forbidden palace in Harran after I took it. I had all along wanted to build the FP on this island with its wealth of cities compared to the Japanese island, but I had originally figured it would take a while to do. This would just speed it up.

After taking Hattusha, the remainder of my knights took the lighter defended town of Tarsus, which contained the Great Lighthouse, which also put me within quick striking distance for my last few knights to pillage both their saltpeter and horses. I long ago learned the necessity for pillaging an opponents strategic resources before moving on in conquest (it was AU208 that was the last time I made that mistake ). In one turn I had completely cut off the Hittites from all their resources (including iron since they obviously had a deal going to receive it).

460ad – Settle Amorium on the far western island.

For a while this was the only settler I was able to get over there. After building it I concentrated heavily on military for my wars. The Sumerians and eventually Mayans and Russians were able to settle this island too.

480ad – Capture Harran. Make my first luxury trades overseas.

After a bit of resting and recuperating (and beginning to starve down my new Hittite cities) I began my new campaign to the north, focusing on Harran as it would be my FP site. Most of my dromons headed north, with a few heading south to take care of any Hittite galleys that may have tried to sneak up on me. Harran fell quickly as the dromons once again did their work and pounded the musketmen in the city. For some reason, when the city fell, there was not a single resister. So instead of having to wait a while for the resistance to go down I was able to rush the FP this same turn. That proved very valuable a few turns later.

I again forgot about the effect of the Great Lighthouse, and this time it was in my possession. I opened up the foreign affairs advisor to see what was going on with my chief rivals and discovered they had some luxuries to trade, and had them ready for me for 3 turns since I captured the Lighthouse. Oops. I traded chivalry, ivory, incense, and 125 gold to Russia for education, and then traded Engineering to Egypt for dyes and 20 gold, and to England for furs and 10 gold. It was quite nice having the ability to trade old techs for luxuries (and still am to my current point in the game). Those extra luxuries provided me the ability to keep the war going even longer because I was a republic that had started the war.

Also, the Dutch demanded 100 gold this turn…despite my military superiority. I didn’t want them entering any war against me with astronomy and those sea lanes so close so I gave in.

490ad – Capture Tyrana/

By now there was not much resistance left in the north, and nothing pushing up from the south. The Hittites had already sent all their offensive forces at me and all were obliterated. All that remained were defensive forces.

510ad – Capture Aleppo and generate my second MGL

With Harran having no resistance and allowing me to use my first MGL already it proved quite a boon since another one popped up. This one I did use for an army and immediately put three knights in it. Now I had a real heavy hitter. It didn’t occur to me until a bit later that I wouldn’t be able to get him off the island until after researching magnetism, but it ended up not mattering. Within another turn I had a three-knight army, four elite knights and three veteran knights back in the south and knocking on the door of the Hittite capital.

Here is a shot of my first MGL in Hattusha in 450ad.

To be continued…

[Rhothaerill]

Emperor level played with the AU mod


530ad – Complete Knights Templar in Constantinople. Capture Hattusas and the Oracle.

I hadn’t been sure I’d build the Knights Templar so a few turns before I used some of my gold to view the other nations that were building it. It turned out that the Mayans would complete it a turn before me. I quickly rearranged my work force of my best production tiles around the capital and was able to pick up just enough to be able to build it right before the Mayans would have.

Hattusas was by far the toughest nut to crack of the Hittite empire. Except for Tarsus and one of the northern cities (which had spearmen defending it not muskets), I had always been able to have my dromons bombard the city first to soften it up enough that I took little damage. This time I had no bombard abilities as Hattusas was an inland city. My knight army and my seven other knights barely hung on to finish taking the city and I lost several of them and almost lost my knight army.

A bunch of tech trading followed as I also finished research on chemistry this turn. In return from trading around that one tech I received astronomy, printing press, spices, 129 gpt, and 49 gold from trading to just the three civs that could use it. I was now back to near tech parity (down only by banking and music theory, even after taking so long to research chivalry) and had drained the available gpt of my competitors dry for the next 20 turns. Research began on metallurgy. After the near debacle in Hattusas I wanted cannons for the eventual Sumerian war. Plus it was on the way to military tradition, and I now had saltpeter.

560ad – A strange oddity occurs and I capture Ugarit

Again on the closest jungle island. Several turns ago I had a city flip that had superior culture. Now I have Naissus culture boundary grow…and instead of growing, it loses three tiles to Agade…including the game tile I had just finished draining and improving.

I capture the last city on the Hittite mainland and once again almost lost my knight army. The Hittites now had only two cities on the southern island and one far off to the east. They had some tech I wanted and war weariness still wasn’t much of a problem because of my proliferation of luxuries so I kept the war going to take their last two cities close to me.

600ad – RNG luck turns against me.

I had originally landed only a few knights on the southern island since the rest were healing still. Even with dromon bombardment I lost three knights to a pike. I landed another four knights and with dromon bombardment the city of Ankuwa was down to one pike with 1hp. Those four knights proceeded to attack and get the stuffing beat out of them before retreating. Luckily each one retreated instead of dying and I had a barracks in the city I had received from the last Hittite war. I must try again another day.

630ad – Capture Ankuwa.

This time the pike didn’t fare so well and I killed it with my first knight.

640ad – Tech trade nets me banking.

I traded chemistry and 235 gold to Russia for banking. All that was left for tech parity was music theory which I planned on getting from the Hittites for a peace deal after taking their second to last city, and navigation which had recently been discovered.

Also on this turn the Mayans complete the Sistine Chapel and the Russians complete Copernicus’ Observatory. It was unfortunate as Constantinople was building Copernicus and all I had left on my wonder chart was the Heroic Epic for a 64 shield loss. That was of course the turn before I received music theory and would have been able to build JS Bach’s Cathedral. Oh well.

650ad – Capture Adana. Peace with the Hittites.

Adana didn’t stand a chance as it only had two spearmen. I offer peace and receive music theory. The Hittites now live far away from me.

A bit of tech trading with metallurgy, music theory and incense this turn netted me navigation, everyone’s world map, 145 gpt, and 362 gold. I still continued to rake in the gold while maintaining close to a 4 turn research pace on all the techs.

670ad – Finish research on military tradition.

All my non-elite, non-army knights are upgraded to cavalry. During the war I had also built several horsemen with my iron pillaged and upgraded those too. Once again I had a mobile force to be reckoned with. And this time I had some cannons to go with them.

680ad – Re-up my luxury deals.

I had let the luxury deal with the Sumerians lapse, but kept my deals with England and Egypt going for more old tech. It would have cost me over 100gpt to lose those luxuries, whereas I traded education to both nations…a tech that is about 8 techs behind the current leader (me of course).

710ad – Finish research of physics and begin magnetism.

I wanted to have some frigates start patrolling the waters before any enemies researched the tech and started sending frigates of their own. I also started a prebuild in Constantinople for Adam Smiths since economics would be my next tech research. With almost all my established cities and even many of my new ones having marketplaces and harbors that wonder would be a definite gold saver.

At the end of 710ad I have a stack of cavalry and cannons waiting to board several dromons and a few caravels (I did upgrade a couple) to drop into Sumerian land quickly without having to slog through the unimproved swampland. My knight army would have to do so though since I didn’t have galleons yet. You’ll also notice the complete lack of initiative the Sumerians had in draining swamp and chopping jungle.

To be continued…

[Rhothaerill]

Emperor level played with the AU mod

720ad – Mayans complete JS Bachs Cathedral which starts a mini cascade in which the Dutch build Magellan’s Voyage.

But at least no one had researched economics yet so all the wonder builds were done beforehand. A military tradition round of trading the very next turn netted me democracy, spices, 86gpt, and 575 gold. I didn’t trade with the Sumerians since I had plans for them.

740ad – Begin the invasion of Sumeria

On their mainland I dropped off my stack of cavalry and cannons. The dromons couldn’t join in the bombardment yet since Lagash was an inland city. On the jungle island close to me I left my two cities undefended to send all the units toward Agade. As I had mentioned a few days ago there weren’t any ships around and the Sumerians hadn’t cleared any jungle so I wasn’t too worried about a counterattack. I guess I should have been since one happened after a galley left their mainland sailed around my main island to drop off a few units.

750ad – Capture Lagash and Agade

Along with 5 workers and a trebuchet. Neither city provided much opposition. The Sumerians have iron, but cannons and cavalry work well against pikemen. Because of their laxity in clearing jungle and building roads, their counterattack the next turn didn’t even reach me. I was able to take out their entire counterattack forces with nary a scratch to my cavalry.

Also this turn I finished research of magnetism and began researching economics.

760ad – Capture Sumer

Again not much resistance. This time I had to use only my dromons for bombard because my cannons couldn’t get through the jungle until I had a road built. I also sent my cavalry to cut their iron. I refuse to repeat my AU208 lesson.

790ad – Capture Kish. My city of Naissus is retaken by a force of cavalry from my mainland. Another MGL is generated.

Kish again didn’t hold much resistance after a dromon bombardment. Regarding Naissus, I retook it only a turn after the Sumerians captured it. Not bad. I lost a library, work done on a courthouse, and two population points, but it could have been worse. I believe I said above that I was impressed that the AI went for that city as it was the only one that they could possibly take without me having a chance to wipe them out beforehand. During the fight I generated my third MGL which I used to build a second army, this time comprised of cavalry. So far (at the point I’m writing this I’m almost to the end of DAR5 in terms of turnplay) I’ve received 4 MGL’s and not a single SGL despite being a scientific civ and having been the first to discover all the lower branch middle age techs and almost all the industrial age techs. Ah, randomness.

810ad – Capture Ur.

With a road build and my cannons covered I advanced inland to take out the Sumerian capital. With it came the Great Library which was far outdated, and Sun Tzu’s Art of War, which was only useful on that island…and I still haven’t even built a new unit in old Sumerian/Hittite land as yet.

[i]820ad – Capture Septum and Bad-Tibira

The Sumerians are almost finished. Only one city on their mainland, one on the closer jungle island, and three on the farther jungle island.

830ad – Finish research of my the last required tech in the middle ages and advance to the industrial age. Capture Erech.

I was the first to get there. I received medicine for my troubles. Erech was the last city on the closer jungle island. It fell quickly.

850ad – Capture Umma. Peace with the Sumerians. And a mistake.

Umma fell and I asked for peace and received the cities of Isin and Zabalam on the far jungle island. I had an idea I wanted to try so I decided not to capture those cities yet. Instead I received two peacefully, leaving the Sumerians with exactly one city left. What I found odd at the time was the city that remained was the youngest of the ones they settled there. You know where this will be heading of course.

My idea at the time was to send both Sumeria and Russia into the industrial age and hope that they would get the two starting techs I didn’t have with their free tech, and then I could trade for those. I picked up free artistry for theory of gravity from the Russians and then gifted them magnetism. They received medicine as well. Strike one. So I sent theory of gravity to Sumeria for their last remaining worker and then gifted them magnetism. They received nationalism, but wouldn’t trade it for anything I had (medicine, over 4,000 gold, almost 50gpt, even combined they still snubbed me). Strike 2. Sigh. The Dutch and Mayans had also entered the industrial age this past turn so I decided to send them medicine so that the Russians wouldn’t give it to them and so they wouldn’t have enough gold to purchase nationalism from the Sumerians. I received 279gpt and 97 gold and updated maps of the world for my troubles. But this wasn’t strike 3 since I did force them to have to research nationalism on their own instead of buying it from a one-city nation cheaply.

880ad – Finish research of steam power

And naturally the only coal within striking distance of me is in the remaining city of the Sumerians. There was still 17 turns remaining on the peace treaty, but I didn’t want to wait that long for railroads. So I started gathering my forces to hit the last city and prepared to bite the reputation bullet. But that’s a story for DAR5.

The screenshot is of my homeland, Japan, and the closer jungle island.

To be continued…

[Rhothaerill]

Emperor level played with the AU mod

And the east island. A lot of work still needs to be done with clearing and draining. Many workers will be necessary.