AU 107 Spoilers

[nbarclay]

The year is 570 AD, and thanks to a combination of luck, skill, and unmitigated gall, I'm in a pretty decent position (playing Emperor level with the AU 1.05 mod).

I started off researching Pottery to build a granary in Rome. When the city expanded, I saw fields of wheat and decided my second city would be very close to Rome, just across the small pond, so I'd have two cities with early potential to go past size six. I got Pottery quickly and backed off to a 40-turn pace for Writing and then for Literature (with visons of my usual Republic bee-line still wandering through my head).

Barbarians were horrible! Veii's first attempt at building a granary was destroyed by them. I also lost a worker, some population, and some military units, including two of my first three galleys. But at least I had my entire continent under surveillance when the AIs started entering the middle ages, so I didn't have any uprisings to worry about. (But I'm getting ahead of myself.)

When I got Literature, I made a critical decision. Veii, my second city, had a granary and wheat available, so it could be my greatest settler farm. But it could also grow big in a reasonable amount of time and maybe, just maybe, build a Library such as the world had never seen. I decided to take the gamble, went for map making on a 40-turn pace (after all, a great library needs someone to go out and gather books for it), and then suspended all further research efforts. With a little luck, my librarians would eventually collect all the knowledge I would need.

In the meantime, I focused fairly heavily on settling and improving my land and on building barracks, warriors, and in some cases harbors, and I settled in for a real nail-biter. I repositioned Veii's workforce for maximum production when the city reached size eight (costing a small fortune in entertainment expenses) and watched as the AIs completed various wonders. Then, in 190 AD, my Great Library was ready. (I'd already made contact with most of the rest of the world.)

And my librarians really did their work! From the four corners of the earth, they collected works on Bronze Working, Masonry, The Wheel, Ceremonial Burial, Iron Working, Mysticism, Mathematics, Philosophy, Code of Laws, Horseback Riding, Polytheism, Currency, The Republic, Monarchy, Construction, Monotheism, Feudalism, and Engineering. Rome was no longer a backward nation, but had become one of the world's most advanced! And because our librarians had collected that knowledge for free, we had been able to amass 774 sacks of gold for the royal treasury.

One of our first decisions was that our despotic government had to go. We considered choosing a king, but a king would have needed too many units for garrison duty. But the cities we really wanted our thirteen warriors and four archers to garrison (once they were siutably retrained and reequipped) were all in Persia. So we decided that a Republic would be more suitable to our needs.

Once the new government went power, we quickly retrained our warriors as legionaries and started training additional forces to supplement them. As luck would have it, previous conflict between England and Persia had left a thin sliver of land that no one could claim ownership of, so a single galley was able to shuttle most of our forces back and forth (later assisted by the sole survivor of the three early exploration ships). Then we struck. Bactra's pike-equipped defenders put up a valiant defense, but ultimately a futile one. Our brave legionaries then headed toward the Persian capital, but found their progress hindered by Xerxes' so-called "immortals." In truth, they were mortal enough, but they did cause enough injuries to slow the attack.

Then our librarians brought home a new set of books. The few people who still remembered how to make our now-obsolete bows were fascinated at the new reading: "How to build a longer bow in ten easy lessons." Our four old archer units, which had been held back from the Persian war thus far, saw what a longer bow could do and were eager to take their new weapons into battle. So we delayed the attack on Persepolis briefly until our newly retrained longbowmen could join the attack, and we shifted our priorities to building additional longbowmen.

Once the newly reinforced attack force was in place, Persepolis fell quickly. Four other cities followed, but in the meantime, our librarians were starting to express concerns that other nations might soon become too educated to continue to give our them their secrets out of sheer awe. We decided to shift our production priorities to more peaceful pursuits for the remainder of our golden age. That, plus public discontent with the protracted warfare, pushed us into making peace with Persia in exchange for one more town. And that brings us up to date.

The hard part is deciding where to go from here. I'll almost certainly hit Persia again when the initial treaty expires. Two English cities are between me and Persia's latest capital, and I may hit them as well if England takes too long obtaining the secrets of Gunpowder. (Or I could attack the Persian capital by sea.) My Forbidden Palace is on my western coast just across the channel from Persia, so the English cities are definitely in the most valuable location.

In regard to more peaceful endeavors, I'm hoping that by the time my librarians discover Education, I'll be in a position to research Banking fairly quickly. I have over 1500 gold saved up for deficit spending on research, but even so, my population and marketplace and library construction aren't where they need to be for genuinely rapid research.

The one area where I really stink is culture. Fortunately, Persia is about equally badly off, and Russia maybe even a little worse. But with the rest of the world, I'll probably have to either win quickly or raze.

Here's a screenshot of the roman homeland as of 570 AD.

[nbarclay]

Here's a recap of the Persian campaign, showing my holdings now that it just ended. Note that the buttons on the bottom of the screen are obscuring Persia's new capital. Persia also has two other cities on the far southeast of the continent, so even after I take their core, they'll still be at least sort of in the game.

Nathan

[Dominae]

Yup, this game certainly is a challenge. I don't seem to be doing quite as well as a lot of you guys, but that must be a good thing because it means I'm learning more!

I originally refused to read any 'Poly thread concerning AU-107 because I wanted to see how I could do completely "by myself" (no tricks or spoilers). Unfortunately I realised in-game that something was wrong because I couldn't build Galleys after my beeline to Map Making. So I caved and read the posts and started over with the correct AU rules. This didn't give me much of an advantage though because I hadn't left my island yet.

My early-game was uneventful. Barbarian sages were nice to me and taught me Alphabet and Pottery, admittedly a bit of a fluke. During my expansion phase, I set up my Warriors to ensure that there were no "dark" spots on my continent, the result being that I fought 3 Barbarians total this entire game. Tech-wise I went for Map Making then Republic, the latter being a mistake.

Contacting the AI civs showed me a vastly different power structure than most other players here have reported. On the big continent, the Persians, Germans and Russians were all equally-sized and just entering the Middle ages, while the French were having trouble with their infertile lands. The same held for the Babylonian-Zulu continent, which again was divided up quite evenly. The English were long gone.

I had to choose whom to attack, the Persians or the Babylonians. Initially the Persians seemed like a good idea, since they were right beside my island and had some very fertile lands. However, for the very same reasons I figured they were an enemy I could not match (their Knights were also a good deterrent). In retrospect perhaps a bloody war for a foothold on the big continent would have been a good idea, but I was deathly afraid at the time.

[Notes beginning; change in narrative ]

I build a city on the northen tip of the Babylonian-Zule landmass, right between Babylonian and Persian towns. A rushed Temple expands my borders to get some Silks, but they don't get back to my mainland before Astronomy (still quite a ways away at this point). I declare war upon the Babylonians, figuring my Legionary forces will do quite well in the Jungles and Hills against the superior Babylonian Knights. Just to make sure the all goes well, I sign an Alliance with the Zulus and, sure enough, Hammurabi is busy enough with Shaka that my Legionaries are largely unopposed.

Now here comes the sequence of dumb luck. I get a Leader early on in the war with the Babylonians, which I plan to use to rush a Palace later on. I end up just making an Army, since I figured the Leader was going to be idle for far too long. This is a bit of a gamble, as my future success depends heavily upon building a Palace on my new continent (I had already build the FP back home). Now, as I approach the bottleneck in the Babylonian lands, Hammurabi builds the Sistine Chapel for me in a city 5 tiles away! I happily conquer it. Once my Knights arrive on the scene, I make quick work of Babylonians, and manage to get my hoped-for second GL. My Palace is moved to Babylon (which, incidentally, contains the Colossus and the Great Wall).

I'm way behind in tech at this point (for the whole game, actually). On the big continent the three superpowers are nearing the end of the Middle ages, while I'm buying any scraps they're willing to give me. The only thing that's keeping me afloat economically is my monopoly on Silks.

The next thousand or so years is uneventful, with me trying to catch up in tech but failing miserably. I can only sit by and watch as the Theory of Evolution, Woman's Suffrage and the Hoover Dam are all built while I'm still still trying to get out of the Middle ages. I orchestrate some bloody wars amongst the other civs via MPPs, but this just doesn't seem to slow them down enough. I get to Replaceable Parts when the AI is at Combustion. The Zulus finally declare war upon me, and my counter-attack is fierce. I finally secure most of the my second continent (and my first source of Oil, phew!) with Cavalry and Infantry, but the Germans rush in at the last minute to grab a few Zulu cities with their Panzers.

So the year is now 1765. I'm two techs away from the Modern era, while Germany, Persian and Russia are two techs into it. Germany is pulling ahead, but the "big three" (which I don't count myself a part of) are now locked in perpetual war. The Germans have just declared war upon me, and I should be able to hold their Panzers back until I get Tanks in 3 turns.

Now, this is the real nail-biter: how am I going to win this game?


Dominae

[nbarclay]

On further reflection, I decided on a somewhat different strategy from what I'd intended last night. One of the boons of my Persian invasion was that Persepolis had built Leonardo's Workshop by the time I captured it. Since I was doing well on gold, I decided to try a dirty trick.

(1) I traded my two iron supplies away, first to Russia and Germany and then to Russia and the Persian remnant (once Germany hooked up an iron supply of its own).

(2) I went into heavy horseman production.

(3) I beelined for Military Tradition.

That leaves my city infrastructure in rather poor shape, but as of 1000 AD, I have 47 cavalry and 16 additional horsemen I can upgrade over the next few turns. Germany is already into the industrial era, which means they have Nationalism (yuck), but I'm going to try to hit them anyhow. They seem to be the 800 pound gorilla in this game, and I'm hoping the fact that they've been at war with England means they'll be a bit weaker than normal on my own front lines. I'm also thinking in terms of trying to bring Russia into the war on my side if I can manage it.

If this works, I'm hoping it will make me the new 800 pound gorilla on the block. If not, I might be in trouble.

Nathan

[nbarclay]

It's 1160 AD, and my German invasion went a LOT better than I was afraid it might. I only lost about half my cavalry force, and I conquered every square meter of Germany. I also got four great leaders (thanks in part to my Heroic Epic), letting me move my palace to Berlin and steal Bach's, Smith's, and Newton's out from under the AIs. The war isn't over, though: Germany has a settler in a ship somewhere, and since I got the entire rest of the world to join me in an alliance against Germany(except the Zulus, who later joined an anti-German alliance with Babylon), I can't end the war without hurting my reputation.

Persia decided to end its role in the alliance just as I was preparing to take out Germany's last city, so I decided to go ahead and capture Persia's last two cities in my part of the world. That war's over now, with Persia paying me what little tribute they can afford. That leaves only England with cities behind my lines - and at the moment, England does not have iron, saltpeter, or Nationalism.

Speaking of Nationalism, the only techs any AIs have that I know I don't are that and Democracy. Of course I can't completely rule out the possibility that someone researched Communism as their next tech after Nationalism.

Nathan

[Theseus]

WOW!

Hugely different world from my game... Germany is the BIG DOG!! England is such as weakling that I've been capturing random towns in the SE of the big continent, and gifting them to Lizzie just to keep her a player.

I'll do an AAR, but time constrains. The little bit I got in tonight was tough.

New concept: Cavs attacking Infantry, which sucks. If forced to do so, however, and with sufficient Cavs, and sufficient elites, I think it makes sense to use the elites first due to superior retreat odds, at the expense of potential GL generation. It feels weird to do so, but assuming the attack will take several turns, I think it's the right approach.

[nbarclay]

It's now 1300 AD, and England still doesn't have iron, saltpeter, or Nationalism - nor does it have any cities left within a few thousand miles of the Roman border. They do have two cities on the southeastern tip of the continent, next door to the Persian remnant.

In conquering all of England that matters, I took a truly huge gamble. One of my captured German cities, on the Northwest Peninsula, flipped back to Germany, and massive forces of Russian and French cavalry moved through my territory to capture it. (I didn't want to retake it myself because I wanted the bulk of my German cities to remain happy.) In the end, Russia won the race. Those Russian and French forces could have ripped the heart out of my conquered German core if they'd wanted to, and I may actually be thankful enough that I won't try to conquer Russia and France when the time comes that I could resume offensive operations. (Unless, of course, they spoil my good mood by flipping one of my border cities.)

Unless Russia or France changes its mind and decides to attack, I'm definitely in the driver's seat. I just discovered Electricity and traded it for Communism, the only tech any of the AIs had that I didn't. I also got my eighth extra luxury and tons of gold in the trades (fortunately, both Russia and Babylon were in a position to deal). That leaves Russia, Babylon, and me even in the tech race, and while I imagine they have a head start on the next tech, my six-turn pace should give me the clear advantage in the long run. I'm first in Population, GNP, Manufactured Goods, Land Area, Per Capita Income, and Productivity, although my conquests and my emphasis on banks over universities have left me sixth in literacy. I've also gotten two more leaders since last report. One built Longevity, and the other is in reserve for the Theory of Evolution.

By the way, Germany still seems to have a settler floating around somewhere, and I think all four of the remaining AI major powers are officially at war with them. Actually, I suspect that being in an official state of war with Germany may help explain why France and Russia didn't come after me.

Nathan

[Theseus]

Damn, this one is tough!!

I've had the hardest time since my Egyptian Mess (uhh, March?), and I think I know a heckuva a lot more now than I did then.

I know it wasn;t meant as such, but I think this is the "1337" challenge to throw out to anyone who shows up with too much attitude (I've been playing Emporer on the next-but-last AU mod).

I know I owe a huge AAR... I've got 12 screenshots saved up for it. I've been doing new stuff I had never considered before, including outright Cav versus Infantry warfare (elites are the BOMB). Mixed-unit Armies have been critical - HAH!!

Sorry, playing the game trumps 'poly... I'm sure you understand.

[nbarclay]

After another century or more of peace, Russia changed its mind and decided to attack, and did to me what I’m used to doing to AIs, only worse. I’d kept putting off building more troops after the war with England, so I had little more than token garrisons along the border and nothing at all in most of the interior. Unfortunately, I wasn’t thinking about how much less viable it is to rely on counterattacks rather than defense in the age of railroads (maybe because I’d never seen an AI make really serious use of railroads and fast movers until now). Cossack after Cossack came down from Bremen (the city Russia had previously crossed my empire to snag), slicing a line through my empire about eight cities deep. I also lost one city along the main Russian border. (Sorry about the lack of pictures for this, but I was too much in a state of shock to think of it!)

Worse, my two galleons were on the Persian side of the channel, so I couldn’t bring my four cavalry (yes, just four) from the homeland the first turn to aid in my initial counterattack. My first-turn counterattack did some damage, but not enough: Russia continued its attack and razed about four more cities. In the meantime, I’d shifted production to cavalry and infantry, wasting a lot of shields from more expensive projects I’d been working on but giving me significant reinforcements for my second turn of counterattack. I’d also enlisted the entire rest of the world in an alliance against the dastardly Russians, with ROP agreements for the duration with France, England, and Persia.

On my second turn of counterattack, the tide turned. Since Russia had launched its attack from an isolated outpost rather than from its core, it hadn’t been able to bring in powerful garrison forces. Most cities were just garrisoned by a couple Cossack units, and attacking cavalry could deal with that. I was also able to position infantry to help discourage further attacks. Better, very little modern offensive firepower came to attack from Russia’s core. Cossacks could have played havoc with my captured English cities along the border, most of which had been stripped of all defenders in my counterattacks. But the only Cossack or two to come from the core after the inital strike came down near the western coast where I had better defenses and terrain slowed it down.

Over the next two or three turns, I recaptured all but one of the cities I lost and took Bremen, the original Russian city in my rear area. Normally, that would have been about as far as I’d want to press a war in that era, but I still had about 16 turns left on my alliances! So instead, I mobilized my economy and prepared to see what I could do with cavalry attacking against riflemen and infantry.

As I started pressing the attack home, I got a pleasant surprise: Russia didn’t have large numbers of infantry yet. Newcastle, the one city of mine that Russia had captured using forces from its core rather than from Bremen (and which was on the west coast with more Russian territory than Roman around it), had only Cossacks defending it if I recall correctly. Russia’s three westernmost native cities had nothing better than riflemen. Moscow had infantry, but not enough against the tide of cavalry I’d built up by then. Ryazan was tougher: all my initial attack accomplished was to promote one of its defending infantry to elite. But it was too close to Moscow to have any real defensive depth, and I was able to quickly move in three recently upgraded artillery batteries. That reduced the elite infantry to three hit points, and my cavalry knew how to handle three-hit-point infantry (at least given sufficient numbers). While that was going on, French cavalry captured the two easternmost Russian cities, and it was actually a race to see whether France’s forces or mine would take Ryazan.

As the war wound down, I captured three more Russian cities and France captured one. Someone, probably the Zulus, razed a Russian city. Russia is no more.

Backing up a little, when Russia attacked, York took advantage of the distraction to revolt and rejoin the English. While I was occupied with Russia, I was content to let the situation stand. But with the war over, I wanted my city back. First I offered Elizabeth three technologies, two or three strategic resources, and five luxuries for the city. She refused. I threatened. Still she refused. So I took the city and offered Joan my knowledge of Scientific Method if she would please eliminate the two surviving English cities in her rear area for me. (I’m hoping that will have the added benefit of encouraging France to return its cavalry to its own side of the London chokepoint.) Stay tuned for more updates as they happen.

I do have one interesting thought on Russia’s strategy and the limits of AI thinking. Yes, Russia took advantage of my lack of defenders to slice through my territory like a hot knife through melted butter in its initial assault. But as they did so, they insisted on garrisoning the cities they took. As a result, as bad as it was, they didn’t do nearly the damage they could have on the second turn of their attack. Once a large percentage of their Cossacks were tied down on defense and the few Cossacks out in the field were dispatched (including an army - ouch), I was able to completely regain the offensive even though the depth of my own defenses was still atrocious. (Of course the fact that Russia launched the attack from a remote outpost with lots of stored units but no production to speak of helped to limit its options. Had they been able to bring in older units from the core for garrison duty, they might have been able to push the offensive farther.)

By the way, one of the nastier effects of the Russian war was that losing so many cities pushed war weariness through the roof from the very first turn. I had to crank the luxury slider way up, which heavily damaged my research rate for the duration of the war. After my latest tech-for-luxury+gold deal with Babylon, my tech lead is back down to Atomic Theory, Electronics, and about half the research needed for Combustion. (The price I got for Refining gives the strong impression that that was what Babylon was working on at the time.) France and the Zulus still don’t have Corporation yet.

Nathan

[nbarclay]

By the way, the Russian attack uncovered a couple serious blind spots in my thinking. In spite of how desperate the situation was, I never did think to use the draft (which might have saved cities the second turn), and it took me a few turns to think to mobilize. I'm too used to fighting wars on my own terms by the time the industrial era rolls around.

Nathan

[Dominae]

Well, I beat the "Son of SVC"! I accomplished a Space Race victory in 1894, scoring 3674 points. The game was hard-fought almost all the way to the end, and thus extremely fun.

[Begin narrative.]

I eventually conquer the entire Babylonian/Zulu continent after a brief German-expulsion campaign. This little war was funny. At this point in the game the Germans were still at least 4 techs ahead of me, and were parading around their territory with Panzers and even a couple of Mechanized Infantry. My best offensive units are Infantry and Cavalry. But I do have about ten Artillery lying around, so I rail them up to the German cities and proceed to bombard for three turns straight. Then my Elite Cavalry and Cavalry Army run in to finish off the badly damage armor. Say all you want about the "lack of realism" in Civ3 with respect to advanced units losing to older units, my Cavalry beating up Mech. Infantry was the sweetest sight in this game, bar none.

After kicking the Germans out of my continent, I concentrate on being a pure builder. I know I have to grab the UN in order to not lose the game diplomatically, because my reputation sucks after my history of breaking deals in order to pit AI civs against one another. I eventually do beat the AI to the UN, but its ends up being irrelevant because everyong hates everyone else equally.

I finally pull ahead technologically and on the Power scale in the Modern age. I research Fission first (as I mentioned, in order to build the UN), and it seems none of the other contenders (Germany, Russia, Persia) have it by the time I discover it! The Germans trade me Rocketry and Computers for it, while the others give me some pretty good per turn deals. The Germans are still ahead with Space Flight, but I can just feel a tech lead coming up in the near future. However, I'm deathly afraid to fall behind again, so I trade for Nationalism with the French. Although Joan asks for Flight and Atomic Theory, I'm more than willing to give those up to make her a better opponent for the "big three". I trade for Communism similarly and proceed to plant a spy in the German capitol. Success! I end up stealing a couple of techs from the Germans for a very low price (between 2000 and 2500 Gold), which creates and cements my lead in the Space Race.

Germany tries to keep up for a bit, but ends up deciding to try to win by Domination at some point. Bismarck apparently stops researching completely after building on two SS parts and proceeds to wipe out the French and a lot of the Persians in under 10 turns. I actually start to worry as I'm in the final stretch toward Robotics, but Russia and Persian are putting up enough of a fight that I eventually manage a launch.

Great game!


Some general comments about this game and AU-107:

1. At one point the Germans had upwards of 30k (that's thirty, not three) Gold in their treasury, making trading with them very daunting. I've never seen the AI stockpile so much Gold. However, around 20 turns later they're down to 6000 and 1 turn after that they're go down to 1000 and hover there for the rest of the game. I'd really like to see what was going on in the German empire during those turns...They were using Espionage a lot because I kept on catching spies in my capitol, but that doesn't account for tens of thousands of Gold, does it?

2. The threat of Domination by the Germans was completely unexpected. Check out the attached image of my World map the turn before my launch. I'm pretty sure the AI didn't actually think: "Hey, the Romans are going to beat me to the Space Race, I'd better try to win by Domination first", but it sure felt like it. In any case, the game was hard-fought throughout, which was a unique experience for me.

3. The only "big" Wonders that I had access to in this game was the Sistine Chapel (a "gift" from the Babylonians). This proves to me that Wonders are not essential to success, they just make life easier. The FP is probably the exception to the rule.

4. The 8-power on Infantry in the AU Mod was good enough to make even me (a human player) use them offensively. Although I'm not going to say this is unbalancing, it does mean that Infantry are the dominant force for a large period of the game and Riflemen are completely eclipsed by this vastly superior unit. I'm not saying I don't like the change, just that appears to me to be a rather big one.

5. Another Mod comment: the reduced cost on Espionage missions definitely makes them a viable option. If you're ahead anyway, I agree there's no point in spending a relatively large amound of money on something that isn't a sure thing. On the other hand, if you're behind and trying to catch up, espionage is a life-saver, my game being a good example. I'm happy with the change.


So, again I learned a lot from AU. Great job everyone else who is brave enough to try this scenario, and two thumbs up to anyone who beats it. I'm now eagerly waiting for AU 108, "Always War".


Dominae

[Theseus]

Well done, Dominae!!

I'm still at it... my general lack of posting is do to my obsession with this game. I may have made a huge mistake, committing to an ongoing two-front-war against Germany and Babylon.

I'm about to take a huge gamble; it's time to attack Germany again (for some reason, Berlin is still at 12 pop... contrasting to the other nearest metro (I forget), which is at 32 pop!), and Bizzy-marcky *might* have some Panzers. If so, not a lot, and I've got 2-3 Infantry fortified and in forts on every vulnerable location. I'm leaving this for tomorrow night, so of course I'll be terribly distracted throughout tomorrow.

I've never seen anything like Germany... my wish for a killer AI civ has been met.

BTW, it's awfully hard to changes habits... I know I should be using Infantry and Infantry-led mixed-units Armies (I think I've got 4 or 5) on offense, but I default to Arty and Cavs.

[Catt]

I'm back from 3 days away from computers (and 'Poly). Glad to see that at least some of us are enjoying Son of SVC. I have collected a ton of screenshots and will probably post an abbreviated AAR after I'm done, heavy on sceenies and light on commentary since I've been posting a rolling summary of my game as I played.

My last few turns on late Friday night allowed me to secure my 8th locally-controlled luxury, make peace with Bismarck (he absolutely refused to give me much of anything in the peace negotiations, even though I had taken more than half his empire and forced his commissars to decamp to the foreign Moscow as their new German capitol). During the course of my war with Germany, Babylon lobbed several nukes against Bismarck - I saw Berlin get crushed (thank you, Hammy) and later came across 2 or 3 more cities that had recently been nuked.

France has actually made it into the modern age, but doesn't seem to pose a real threat to me in any way. Hammy has built five SS parts and has one in the works, but hasn't yet discovered Ecology -- I wonder if he's taking the southern route for the Wonders? I will allow as much time as possible to pass due to continuing war weariness concerns and then march on Babylon to destroy the spaceship -- at that point, assuming all goes well and I don't receive too many nasty surprises -- I think I can win via spaceship or domination. Big wild card could be Hammy's nuclear arsenal, now that he has shown a willingness to use them.

Catt

[Catt]

I finished last night and hope to have screenshots posted tonight or tomorrow morning.

Finished in 1980 AD with a spaceship victory -- I didn't have to invade an raze Babylon after all, and with an invasion force of 3 MA armies and 25+ more MA and MI sitting off the coast of Babylon, I happily built the last few SS parts and launched.

My victory has brought some interesting questions to mind though -- my total cultural value was something like 60,000 points, and, just looking at the histograph culture screen, Babylon had to have more than double my culture and more than double Germany's culure -- it seemed to me that Babylon should have had a "100,000 culture point + double the closest civ" culture victory but didn't?

[Catt]

Part 1 of 9

Since I have already provided a running commentary on my game in previous posts, I’ll just post bullet points of key dates / events, together with some of the screenshots I captured (or went back to reloads for). I didn’t have a lot of screenshots or saves from the early game simply because I didn’t know I was playing an AU game in the early game. Most of the dates below are accurate, some are off by a turn or two.

2000 BC: Only two cities. Ugh! Roman exploring has revealed a harsh world and has resulted in many losses to barbarians. Nearly every hut seems to pop barbs and I had dreadful luck against them.

430 BC: Barbarian uprising! meaning 2 AI civs have entered the Middle Ages! Caesar had placed several spearmen and warriors in his “frontier cities” north of Rome where the only “fog of war” exists – he had planned to send search and destroy forces out to kill any remaining barbs and to act as sentries against the fog of war, but the uprising occurred before Roman forces were in place. Pisae loses the garrisoned spearman, two warriors, and a small amount of gold when barb horseman attack and pillage .

More depressing was the state of Roman technological backwardness. Rome had yet to discover all of the following techs (all of which are known to at least 2 civs): Iron Working (3 turns away), Masonry, Mathematics, Construction, Currency, Philosophy, Code of Laws, The Wheel, Horseback Riding, Mysticism, and Polytheism. Rome had also not discovered the optional techs Literature, Monarchy, or Republic. While Roman scientists had completed their research on Map Making, they had not yet contacted any other civilizations with the first galley, although the green borders (Persia?) to the Roman isle’s (“Old Rome”) southwest were visible.

Up to 310 AD: Roman exploring galleys have made contact with 4 civs to the southwest. Somehow, Caesar neglected to explore the passable route to Old Rome’s southeast, but a suicide galley made an eastern run in the far south from what would soon be fully developed France, spotting both yellow and blue borders. Though the galley sank before encountering a foreign unit, Caesar was promptly contacted by Hammurabi on the next turn (Babylonian units must have rescued a few Roman sailors) and was able to buy communications with Shaka.

310 AD: With a Zulu galley within reach of the Persian border at the southwest of the Roman isle, Caesar traded contact and maps among all civs for techs and gold. Through a massive trading round, the Romans were able to launch themselves into the Middle Ages. Inexplicably, most leaders seemed annoyed with Caesar for no apparent reason.

Precious gold is preserved for later warrior-to-legionary upgrades, and for rush-building harbors and markets now that Rome is a Republic, and so embassies were not established. Caesar had little knowledge of the state of world diplomacy, but it is obvious that Elizabeth of the English had been destroyed, regrouped, and was then destroyed again.

Here is the MiniMap from 310 AD:

[Catt]

Part 2 of 9

Up to 450 AD: Rome’s remaining 4 galleys have congregated in the port of Pompeii; they will soon operate as a ferry service, transporting 8 legionaries across the sea to Persia every two turns. Caesar plots the attack on Persia when Xerxes, bless his heart, has the nerve to demand something from Rome. Xerxes is rebuffed and declares war.

Caesar notes how fortune has smiled on Rome – Xerxes had been involved in long warfare with Elizabeth and perhaps Catherine and Bismarck too, and the deprivations of extended warfare show clearly on the Persian empire – it is smallish, and though more advanced than Rome, is technologically backwards compared to its immediate neighbors. Eight Roman legionaries disembark in the forests east of Persepolis – only two turns march from the Persian capitol’s gates.

490 AD: Persepolis is captured by Rome! A major blow to Persia. Though Persian pikemen and some immortals are in view, Rome’s conquering heroes report no sightings of knights. And from Rome’s field commanders arises a Great Leader. An army of legionaries is formed. At the time of Persepolis’ fall (and after the casualties suffered in taking Persepolis), the Roman forces consist of 15 Legionaries, 12 warriors (soon to be Legionaries), and 6 spearmen. Most Legionaries are either already in Persia or boarding galleys in Pompeii for the short trip to Persia and “New Rome.”.

The mobility of knights is cause for concern, and as reinforcements from the homeland arrive in the forests outside occupied Persepolis, the advance force moves south to capture Susa and its supply of horses. It too falls quickly, although Rome’s troops are dismayed to see a Persian horse colony established farther south, many miles’ hike. Reinforcements continue to flow across the channel and soon Roman legionaries take Arbela to the northwest of Persepolis – Arbela controls Xerxes sole supply of iron and with its fall comes the end of trained Persian immortals.

Unfortunately, Caesar’s decision to use Rome’s golden age to build as many marketplaces and aqueducts as legionaries, combined with growing war weariness at home in Old Rome, compels Caesar to cut short Rome’s march of conquest. In 680 AD a peace treaty is signed with Xerxes.

Here is a view of the Roman empire at 690 AD:

[Catt]

Part 3 of 9

830 AD: Xerxes, after repeatedly being ordered to cease marching Persian bowmen and pikemen across newly secured New Roman lands, declares war even before the peace treaty expires. Roman legionaries take a spice-rich city to the north of Arbela, and later use a second Great Leader to inspire building a new Roman Palace in Arbela.

910 AD: A third Great Leader forms another Roman army, and around 930 AD, a Roman army and supporting legionaries converge on the then-current Persian capitol of Antioch located in rich floodplains to the south. Despite being guarded by a musketman formation and pikemen, it falls. Sporadic warfare and city destruction to the north allows new Roman settlements in the frozen tundra that is so reminiscent of the “home” of Old Rome.

950 AD: Unprovoked and non-allied Babylon declares war against Rome. Caesar does not fear the distant Babylonians.

980 AD: Hammurabi bribes Catherine of Russia into an alliance against Rome, and Caesar quickly entices Bismarck to plunder Russia.

1020: AD: with approximately 6 turns of research remaining for the discovery of Theology, the Babylonians complete Magellan’s Voyage. Caesar understands that the Roman empire is the better part of an age behind its foes, and frets about his continued capacity to lead.

1100 AD: With the Roman city of Caesaraugusta established on the hills above the Antioch floodplains, Roman forces concentrate their attack on Pasargadae, intent on destroying the city and rebuilding Jerusalem on its ruins. Two separate Roman legionary armies, supported by numerous other legionaries, march on Pasargadae from different directions. Despite facing fortified musketmen in a city on a hill, their objective is met, and with the Persian capitol now located in the forests to Arbela’s west, Caesar once again makes peace. The Romans secure both Music Theory and Astronomy from the Persians as part of the peace treaty.

The assault on Pasargadae:

[Catt]

Part 4 of 9

1225 AD: Caesar is both thrilled and surprised to have succeeded at discovering the understanding of Economics prior to any other civilization. Trading the knowledge of Economics, especially prior to the completion of Smith’s (and therefore presumably more valuable), allowed the Romans to acquire all remaining required Middle Ages technologies except for Theory of Gravity, but failed to secure the knowledge needed to train cavalry.

1240 AD: Bismarck captures the last remaining Russian city, destroying the Russian empire and securing the whole of the continent south of New Rome for the Germans. France controls most of the peninsula to the east of Germany.

1250 AD: the remnants of Persia are destroyed by both German and French forces.

1315 AD: Restless German cavalry storm into southern New Rome without even a declaration of war, bypassing the hill cities of Jerusalem and Caesaraugusta defended by legionary armies in favor of Tyre, defended by a lone musketman and a legionary division. Caesar is said to declare “I think I’m screwed” and frets that German forces, superior both in technology and in numbers, will eventually seize all of New Rome’s budding cities. Caesar immediately induces the French to enter the war against Germany.

The German surprise assault:

[Catt]

Part 5 of 9

Tyre is captured and destroyed by the Germans. The razing of Tyre emboldens Roman defenders to fight to the death and spare no advantage – death and destruction are all that await with defeat.

1330 AD: The Roman city of Veii completes Adam Smith’s Trading Company – a financial boon to the Roman empire as all existing and future harbors, marketplaces, banks and airports will come maintenance-free.

1320 AD – 1425 AD: Roman forces valiantly fight a defensive war against invading German forces. Roman legionaries, sometimes supported by the odd musketman, engage the enemy on open ground, taking advantage of the mobility available to them through the Roman road network. Whenever possible, Roman forces secure the high ground and turn the approach to inviting Roman cities into killing fields. Though valiantly fought, the Roman casualties far outnumber the German losses, and only a steady stream of reinforcements form the Roman homeland prevent further city losses. All Roman cities are training troops for the war effort, and all civilian infrastructure projects are abandoned, dealing a further blow to Caesar’s ambitions to compete with the great nations.

The Franco-German front to New Rome’s southeast seemed to draw much of Bismarck’s attention, for the raiding German forces become smaller and smaller, and Caesar learns that several French cities have been razed. When Joan of Arc makes peace, breaking her alliance with Rome, Caesar quickly negotiates a truce with Bismarck. Both Germany and Rome must have been close to violent overthrow of the governing rulers for the war was bloody and long.

Thankfully, the German war ends with no land lost to Rome. A new city is built upon Tyre’s ruins. But the war cost dozens of Roman legionary divisions their lives, and severely disrupted Caesar’s modernization process. Unabated military production and training continued for many years after the war’s conclusion in order to secure New Rome’s southern border with Germany with sufficient troops to either deter or repel future German aggression. Thereafter, libraries, banks, and universities are built as quickly as possible – obsolete troops are sacrificed to the cause, powerful cities build new units to be transferred to distant cities as available supplies, and the treasury is stretched thin with judicious rush-building.

1400’s AD: Roman scientists, upon entering the Industrial Ages, focused their research on Nationalism out of necessity – the war with Germany raged, and trained riflemen were needed at the front. Towards the conclusion of the war and then with the peace, Caesar directed his scientists to do all they could to work towards the discovery of the Theory of Evolution.

Here is a minimap from 1425 AD:

[Catt]

Part 6 of 9

1560 AD: Roman scientists discover Electricity, a monumental achievement for Rome. First because the secrets of Electricity were traded for Sanitation, Industrialization, the Corporation, Communism, Espionage and over 500 gold, putting Roman knowledge on virtual parity with the world’s leading civs, and second because the new knowledge allowed the southern portion of Old Rome, as well as a few scattered fields throughout old Rome, to be irrigated. Irrigation allowed Old Rome’s south to grow and prosper.

1605 AD: Once again converting an ongoing construction project, Roman scientists are able to build a great wonder of the world: Theory of Evolution. The construction switch wasted 283 accumulated shields (a huge amount), but Caesar did not rue the waste – the goal of securing ToE was worth the far over-cautious approach of undertaking as much pre-building activity as possible. Soon thereafter Arbela completed Hoover Dam, prior even to the time when many cities in New Rome had completed factories.

1610 AD – 1780 AD: This period consisted largely of massive Roman infrastructure projects in an effort to bring Rome’s productivity up to world standards, and two different wars of aggression from Hammurabi of Babylon, the first in 1620 AD when Hammurabi petulantly demanded the secrets of Atomic Theory but was rebuffed. Caesar, with no common land border with Babylon, took little offensive action, preferring to bombard passing Babylonian ships and to bombard and then destroy landed Babylonian troops. At one point, a significant force of Babylonian cavalry and infantry landed in the mountains east of Rome, but bombardment and defending infantry soon enough made short work of the invaders. During the second war, Hammurabi declined to even accept Caesar’s envoy for many, many years. Finally, in an effort to end the hostilities, a Roman expeditionary force was assembled and sent south to harass the northern-most Babylonian cities. A force of 5 infantry, 3 cavalry and 8 artillery landed in the hills outside Izibia. After one turn of heavy bombardment, Hammurabi was ready to discuss terms. After understanding the terms Hammurabi could offer, Caesar decided to take and raze the city, as punishment for the Babylonian aggression and to secure more favorable terms.

But Hammurabi was a crafty diplomat. After Caesar determined he could secure peace plus a tribute of 83 gold (all the Babylonian treasury), he made the decision to destroy Izibia and then seek peace. Before the next opportunity to do so, however, Roman diplomats reported that the Babylonians had succeeded in securing an MPP with France, Rome’s long-standing trading partner. The MPP with France was disturbing – Caesar presently imported gems from France, but perhaps more importantly, an older Roman expeditionary force which had secured 2 Zulu cities in the far east of France’s lands during a brief skirmish with Shaka remained lightly defended, were surrounded by French cities and troops, and supplied the Roman mainlands with a needed supply of luxurious furs. Caesar, faced with possible war with France, decided he must make peace. Crafty Hammurabi demanded tribute of his own (20 gold) in order to secure a treaty, which Caesar begrudgingly paid.

In the meantime, Caesar continually upgraded and strengthened his defensive forces along the German – Roman border.

[Catt]

Part 7 of 9

1850 AD: After several years of offensive war, the Babylonians succeeded in destroying the Zulu. It was a particularly treacherous war, as Hammurabi had long traded with Shaka and violated an existing agreement with the Zulu in declaring war. Caesar concluded that the Babylonians were led by an egomaniac who would stop at nothing short of world domination.

1864 AD: Powerful Roman strike forces land outside the Babylonian cities of Nippur and Zariqum. Each force, consisting of numerous Mechanized Infantry, Tanks, a few workers, a Roman settler and an empty army, captures and razes its objective. New Roman cities are established on the Babylonian continent. Empty Roman armies are used to rush airports, and with airports come ivory and dyes to the Old and New Roman lands, and reinforcements to the Babylonian outposts. Nonetheless, Hammurabi puts up a very strong counteroffensive, and despite a steady stream of Roman reinforcements (subject to a cautious build-up of defensive forces along the New Roman and German border) the Roman expeditionary forces are able to make little headway. Caesar contents himself with having taken the initial objectives – ivory and dyes – and makes peace with Babylon.

1916 AD: Babylon declares war against Germany.

Some years before, Caesar had concluded that war with Germany, and the taking of Berlin, would be necessary. German scientists were presumably working feverishly towards launching a spaceship, and German technological leadership now far outstripped Roman knowledge. In 1926 AD, in an overtly hostile act and in an attempt to precipitate a war, Caesar clumsily planted a spy in Berlin. But his efforts went undetected, and peace reigned. The new Roman spy reported that Berlin was indeed constructing a spaceship, and had already completed or commenced building 6 of the 10 necessary components. Caesar directed the spy to do something, anything, but to be caught en flagrante in an effort to start a war with Germany, but also to show the world (and the Roman citizens) that Bismarck, a traditional enemy of Rome, had once again acted the aggressor and declared war. The Roman spy was promptly caught attempting to steal Bismarck’s personal copy of the German world map, and Bismarck declared war.

Here is a look at the battlefield, immediately before hostilities:

[Catt]

Part 8 of 9

In the first year of the war, the prepared Roman forces of Modern Armor (approximately 70 total) stormed across the border, seizing 4 German metropoli amid heavy casualties. A total of 7 Roman settlers were dispatched to the newly acquired lands where they built Roman cities as the German cities were abandoned and destroyed. In one fell swoop, Rome’s armor had severely damaged the German economy and morale, and had secured a rail link to a forward city within striking distance of both Berlin and the rich gem mines to Berlin’s north.

But the crushing Roman offensive spurred the madman Bismarck to throw caution to the winds. German nuclear missiles were launched and fell upon both Caesaraugusta and Persepolis causing much death and destruction. Caesar expected his longtime ally Joan of Arc to immediately express her countrymen’s outrage at this first use of nuclear weapons by declaring war against Germany, but the French remained neutral. Perhaps France was aware of the Roman propensity to either raze or abandon captured German cities and so felt little outrage at Germany’s nuclear strikes.

Here is a look at the battlefield, 4 years into the war:

[Catt]

Part 9 of 9

1932 AD: With sufficient Roman forces to take Berlin readied on strategic high ground two tiles outside Berlin, Babylon launched a direct nuclear strike against Berlin, ravishing her defenses and cutting her population in half. The nuclear strike was welcomed by Caesar (still far from the ability to build nuclear weapons) as Berlin needed to be taken rather than razed (it contained Sun Tzu’s Art of War and the Great Pyramids), and a lowered native population would lessen the resistance (flipping chances). Berlin was taken the next year.

1958 AD: Having reduced Bismarck’s German holdings to less than half their former size, having seized control of all eight available luxuries in the known world, and having secured an accessible land border with France (should an invasion of France be necessary), Caesar made peace with Bismarck. The war effort was simply putting too great a strain on the Roman scientific progress, as much spending needed to be diverted towards morale in order to avoid a vengeful and war weary populace from revolting. The war was won, and many objectives were achieved, but the obstinate Bismarck still refused to deliver the knowledge of Space Flight to Roman scientists.

With the conclusion of the war, Roman scientific research once again went into full gear, and, after trading Ecology for Space Flight, Roman scientists were able to research Satellites in 4 years and Superconductor in 5 years. While the conquering Roman forces rallied just outside Babylon’s territorial waters for a planned march on the capitol and the destruction of the Babylonian spaceship (6 parts completed), Caesar began to realize that Rome could probably build her own spaceship before Babylon was able to launch.

The Roman expeditionary force remained lurking at sea should the order come, but Caesar devoted all effort into securing the necessary spaceship componentry to launch.

1978 AD: Babylon appears to have completed its research on Synthetic Fibers (long since known to Rome), for the Babylonians have finally begun constructing 3 of their 4 remaining spaceship components. But it will be for naught, Rome is only a few years away from understanding the Laser, and with it, enabling a launch to colonize Alpha Centauri.

1980 AD: The Roman spaceship launches successfully, achieving for Caesar his hard-fought acclaim as master of the universe.

[Catt]

Additional Strategic / Tactical / Gameplay Notes:

* After getting a sense of the bleakness of Roman lands, I set my mind as follows: (1) Very few cities will grow beyond 2 citizens with harbors; (2) even with harbors, very few cities will grow beyond 6 citizens without a tremendous wait while building aqueducts in a shield-poor environment; (3) I can’t do much to increase food supply beyond harbors and I won’t have much in the way of shield production – gold production is the only alternative; (4) gold production requires a Republic on this map – if I can find a way to keep people happy up to size 6, I should get to Republic as soon as possible; and (5) I have to explore and ultimately go on a war of conquest with (probably) out-dated troops and with the hurdle of a sea-borne invasion.

* I lost far more units to barbs than I have in previous games – just bad RNG this time. I had the right idea of trying to station sentries to push back the fog of war before an uprising, but didn’t get there fast enough.

* I got really lucky in that Persia, my closest foe, was stunted quite considerably by some early warfare. In my experience, I could expect to see knights and possibly musketmen by 500 AD or so on Emperor; my invasion of legionaries met with a few pikemen, some immortals, but no Persian knights.

* I used my GA to build infrastructure as much as to build units – I really felt I needed marketplaces and aqueducts up in “Old Rome” to help in generating gold – I was running research at 0% with one scientist, and really was producing a ton of gold during my GA. Still, a more focused effort on shipping legionaries to New Rome would have netted me more land more quickly, and reduced the number of musketmen fortified in cities that I had to face in the second Persian war.

* As I think I mentioned in earlier posts, I had the distinct pleasure of getting to kill 3 AI leaders this game – 2 Germans and a Babylonian.

* Germany was an absolute “Killer AI.” Better concentration of German forces on New Roman cities would have cost me the game. The AI seemed to avoid my legionary armies at all costs – even though their total defense of approximately 7 (fortified in a city on a hill) was more or less matched by German cavalry. The loss of one of the two army-defended cites would have been crushing – they were obviously going to be production and population powerhouses for me.

* First time I’ve seen an AI launch a first nuclear strike and not had other civs immediately declare war / counterstrike. Joan sat on her hands, and Hammy waited some time before striking (it’s possible that Hammy didn’t have nukes yet).

* At the time of my war with Germany, I had Ecology and Synthetic Fibers, and Germany had Space Flight, Satellites, and Superconductor. I had to turn science down to nothing for many turns during the war while researching Nuclear Power, but Bismarck still beat me to that tech by 2 turns after the war had concluded. Even the perpetually trailing France acquired Space Flight before me, and Hammy definitely had both Satellites and Superconductor before I had Space Flight.

* I bit the bullet with the German invasion, expecting to be nuked, but confident that I could get to Bismarck’s sole uranium supply quickly. I did, pillaging the connections and holding the position with several MI in a mountain, but a new uranium source appeared pretty quickly thereafter – fortunately, it too was within reach, and Bismarck never got a chance to build another nuke until the game was a turn or two from being over.

I had a lot of fun with this game! I thought I had lost it several times, especially when Germany invaded with cavalry against my few musketmen and out-dated legionaries. Once again, a more focused and diligent AI tech research could have also cost me the game – first, someone (Babylon?) researched The Corporation before Electricity, enabling me to sneak into ToE, and secondly, by goofing around in the Modern Age with needless warfare instead of just out-researching me to a SS launch.

This was definitely the toughest Emperor game I’ve played, and was far harder than most Deity games I’ve played. It was a bit much though – I don’t want to do this every game. It took a long time because I felt I had to concentrate so much on each move (particularly wartime logistics), and because I had to micromanage much more than I am usually willing to put up with. I was still manually controlling all my workers until the very late Industrial Age, and I did a lot of “build in the core and disband in the hinterlands” which I normally avoid out of sheer laziness (it is an effective tactic, just takes time and effort).

Catt

[vmxa1]

That is just a tremendous write up and fine job of playing. A lot more fortitude than I am willing to use. I read every word.

[mattcj]

Great story, Catt... a very entertaining read.

[Arrian]

I can only echo the last two posts.

-Arrian

[Dominae]

Yup, nice game and write-up Catt. Attacking Berlin to mess up their SS dreams must have been very fulfilling!

Just for interest's sake, am I the only one who went for the Babs instead of the Persians?


Dominae

[Theseus]

Unbelievably great game, story, and observations.

Haven;t had much more time to play it... Dominae, I went after both the Babs and the Germans.

[Dominae]

Originally posted by Theseus
Dominae, I went after both the Babs and the Germans.

Heh, I would expect no less of you Theseus!


Dominae