AU 301 DAR - 4000BC to 0 AD

[ZargonX]

Completely arbitrary time period, but you deal with what you're got

[khearn]

This is my first AU game. I'll be using Solver's patch. As for skill level, I'm at that awkward spot between noble and prince. I can usually win easily at Noble, usually having twice the best AI score, but I've had a hard time on Prince. So I'll be playing this one on Prince to try to improve myself.

4000 BC - Settled in place. First build is another scout for exploration and to let city grow a bit. First research… Hmmm, agriculture looks good for the wheat, but it'll be 20 or so turns until I have a worker, and Ag won't be worth anything until then. I think I'll go Bronze Working first, so I'll know if a scout finds copper and can modify scouting appropriately. I should be able to get BW and Ag around the time I have a worker available.

3689BC - Second scout finished, starting a worker.

3560BC - Met Ragnar. Oh Boy.

3520BC Scout attacked by bear, survives with no damage. Hoo-Ah! Then pops hut and gets another scout.

3440BC - Finished Bronze Working. Starting Ag. Not switching to slavery just yet.

3360BC Met Shaka. Another pleasant neighbor. Hut gives fishing. This is my 5th hut, 3 gave money, one a scout, and now a marginal tech.

3200BC 6th hut gives more gold. Still have not found any copper.

3160BC - Learned Ag. Having found no copper yet and with two opportunistic neighbors, I need to think about defense. Iron working would be 22 turns away, while archery is just 7 away. I start on archery.

3120BC Meet Bismark. Nice neighborhood

3080BC Worker finally finishes. I'd like to start on a settler, but city is still at size 1. I'll start a warrior until the city grows, the switch. Worker gets started on wheat.

2880BC. Learned archery. Starting on Animal Husbandry in hopes of finding horses for my second city to settle near. After over 1000 years of searching with 3 scouts, still no copper. Worker finishes wheat, starts chopping a grassland forest to speed settler. A scout pops another hut and gets experience. 7 huts, all popped with scouts, just one tech. In case it's not obvious, I don't reload after disappointing goody huts. :-)

2840BC - Warrior finished (I forgot to switch to settler when city grew), starting settler now. Warrior guards city. He'll probably accompany the settler when it heads out. A different scout pops hut 8, more experience. This guy had just survived a fight and gotten woodsman II. Too bad recon units can't get woodsman III.

2720BC. Pop my 9th goody hut, more cash. I've got 238 gold, which will be handy for keeping me afloat while expanding, but some more tech would have been nice.

2640BC - Meet Tokugawa. So far I've met 4 civs, all meanies. Also, none of them has a religion, despite two having been founded. If this wasn't a REX game, I'd consider heading for a religion to try and convert them and get them friendly.

2600BC - Oh geez, now I meet Montezuma. ZargonX, you really are a bostich. Monty founded Hinduism, so that leaves one other out there who founded Buddhism. Which nasty AIs haven't we met who would have founded Buddhism? Saladin and Isabella come to mind. I also finally found some copper. Waaay over by Monty. I would have preferred to find Bananas there.

2520BC - Finished AH. Starting the Wheel. I'll be needing it for hooking stuff up before long. Looking around, I see three horses, one way up north by Bismark, one way east by the bay (which I'll name the Bay of Horses), and one southeast, just north of tundra and with cows and deer nearby. Not the greatest location, but it will do. It will get either my second or third city. I'd like the second city to be higher in food for cranking out settlers. I think city number 2 goes southwest, just north of a wheat field and with sheep and fish in the fat cross.

2440BC - Finally finish building my settler. My city is only 2 turns from growing to size 3, so I start an archer to let it grow, this time vowing to pay attention so I can switch to a worker when it grows. My new settler teams up with the warrior and heads SW to the coast.

2400BC - A scout with Guerilla II on a hill gets eaten by a bear. My first combat loss.

2320BC - Goody hut number 10 give me writing. Yeah!

2280BC - Found another copper, way off to the SE in tundra. I'll hope for Iron closer to home.

2240BC - Finish studying the Wheel. Now what? Nobody has founded Judaism, so I could go for it, but that would mean getting 4 techs that I don't otherwise need right this minute. And for all I know, someone else is already ahead of me going that route. Pottery, horseback riding, iron working and alphabet are more immediately useful. I'm going to need cash for expansion Real Soon Now, so I head for pottery for cottages.

2240BC - Settler arrives on coast to SW just north of wheat and founds the city of Gondar. I feel like I should have founded my seconds city earlier than this. Gondar starts work on a work boat, since Creative culture will pop the borders out before it's done and it will be able to work on the fishies. Hmmm, somehow I seem to have moved up to the top of the scoreboard.

2080BC - Bismark asks for open borders. I'd like to start working on good relations with him, but I need to be thinking about grabbing land, so I decline. Second worker finishes in Aksum, and I start my second settler. Both of my scouts are immobilized healing, and getting attacked by wolves while they heal, and healing, and getting attacked by wolves while they heal, ad nauseum.

2000BC We learn how to make pots. At this point my two main choices would seem to be Iron Working or Alphabet. Iron Working would take 19 turns, Alphabet would take 29. I go with Iron Working, in hopes of something nearby to help with defense.

1920BC first Barbarian warrior spotted, East of Aksum. Our Archer there should be able to handle him. In fact, I get bold and send the archer out, hoping for some experience. The RNG will probably punish me for my boldness…

1840BC - Now Ragnar wants open borders. Again I hesitantly decline.

1800BC - the barb off to the east has disappeared, no doubt frightened off my my archer. The archer returns home disappointed.

1760BC - A woodsman II scout on a wooded hill gets offed by a barbarian warrior. Oh well, he had served his purpose. Also this year I get a road finished between Aksum and Gondar. The two workers are now working on Gondar's wheat and sheepies.

1680BC My second settler finishes in Aksum and joins up with the garrison archer and heads SE toward the horses/wheat/deer down there. Aksum starts working on a replacement archer for its garrison. Meanwhile, one worker is starting a road that way as well. Gondar finishes work boat and starts on a granary.

1520BC archer done in Aksum, starting a third worker. Settler founds Lalibela one space NW of horses that are SE of Aksum. First build will be granary, second will probably be worker.

1360BC - Shaka wants open borders. Declined. I finished Iron Working and start on Alphabet. A check of the map reveals a few nearby sources of iron, but none in my cultural borders yet. City #4 will go to one of them.

1280BC - worker #3 is done in Aksum. I'm torn between starting another settler and letting the city grow (it's still size 3). With 3 cities, I'm at -5 gold per turn at 100% science, but I have 171 gold in reserve from goody huts. So I can continue growing a little bit more. Another settler it is. My new worker starts on a cottage. I also get Lalibela hooked up to the trade network by finishing a road to it. That worker starts on a horse pasture,.

1160BC - Gondar finishes its granary. It starts on an archer so Aksum won't be left defenseless again when its settler is done.

1040BC - My last scout murdered by a barbarian warrior. A Combat I, Woodsman II scout on a forested hill. Oh well. Gondar finishes building its archer. It's library time, eventually to run a couple of scientists to create a GS for an academy. Horses also get hooked up down in Lalibela, so Chariots are in the near future. They should give us a measure of security. Lalibela's worker now heads to the cows.

To be continued.

[khearn]

925BC - Now Monty wants open borders. Nobody else I've met has a religion, and Monty is a long ways away. So open borders with him isn't likely to lose me any land, and it might get me Hinduism. So I accept. The third Settler finishes in Aksum and heads NE to a nice spot by a river with two elephants, marble, and iron in its fat cross. Aksum starts on a chariot and gets to grow a bit. Aw nuts! After telling one of the settlers to make a road, I notice that a barb warrior is right next to it. Goodbye worker. Mea Culpa.

900 BC Addis Ababa is founded one space SE of the iron and one space N of the barb warrior. It has an archer in place already, so hopefully he will protect the city and get us revenge for the lost worker. The city starts working on a granary. Financially, we're doing OK with 4 cities. We have 108 gold in reserve and we're losing 9 per turn at 100% science, or we could lower it to 60% and be breaking even. We've got room to grow.

875BC - Arrgh! Now this is just stupidity on my part. That barb warrior just took out another unprotected worker. Lalibela finishes its granary and starts on a replacement worker. The archer in Addis Ababa only has a 70.6% chance of killing that barb warrior in a forest, which is too risky considering that if the archer dies, I'll lose the city as well. So as much as I want revenge (even though my losses are really my own stupid fault), I'll have the archer sit tight and hope the barb attacks the city, which should give me a much better chance.

850BC - Bloody barb pillaged the road leading back to Aksum instead of doing a suicide attack on Addis Ababa. He is going to die, and probably much less painfully than I'd like, but I'm still going to wait and give him the opportunity to do a suicide charge against my fortified archers in a city. Gondar also finishes its library and starts on a worker, but this one will be slowed because I'm assigning two scientists to work on GP points. Hmm, Gondar is also one above its happy cap. Time to switch to slavery. We start the revolution.

825BC - The barb finally attacks Addis Ababa and the archers do their job and put him out of my misery. Now I need to get new workers out there to repair the road and get that iron hooked up. Oh yeah, the revolution is over, we're officially slave drivers. Aksum is 10 turns from having the first chariot done, so I try out the new whip to get it done tomorrow so I can get another worker started. So much for letting Aksum grow past 3 population. Hmmm, a quick check of the power graph shows that I'm behind both Shaka and Ragnar, but not way behind. Demographics says I have 48000 soldiers, the rival best is 68000, rival average is 57333, and rival worst is 44000. I'm below average and barely above the worst. I'd better crank out a few more troops before someone gets any ideas. I'd rather be cranking out workers and settlers, but staying alive has priority over expanding. So instead of building a worker in Aksum I switch to another chariot. I send my shiny new chariot out to the NW where I see a Viking Scout, just to let Ragnar know I've got defenses. I don't know if the AI really takes that into account, but it feels like the right thing to do.

800BC - I finally meet Pericles, the founder of Buddhism. Not one of the leaders I was expecting. He looks askance at me, does he remember that I just finished stomping on him in my last game? Naw, couldn't be. I make peaceful sounds. I also just finished Alphabet, and could do some tech trades with Pericles as long as I have him on the phone, but I'll wait until I've checked out the big picture with the other leaders. At this point I've got Chariots for defense, and will have iron hooked up soon, so security shouldn't be an issue as long as I crank out some troops quickly so no one thinks I'm a soft target. I've got Alphabet so I can trade to backfill the techs I'm missing (mostly religious stuff). So I think it's time to work on my financial side to make sure I can keep expanding. Time to research Currency.

725BC - Looking at the tech page of the Foreign advisor, I see that only Pericles wants to trade anything with me. I make a package deal of my Iron Working and Writing for his Mysticism, Sailing, and Masonry. Slightly in his favor, but not too bad. Now that I have sailing, I am connected for resource trading with a few other leaders. The only one that has anything I needs, and needs anything I have is Monty, but he's not willing to trade his clams to be. I call him up to find out why and see that he'll never trade with me, his worst enemy. Gee, those open borders really improved relations, eh? Time to take a look at how everyone feels about each other. The "glance" screen shows that I'm at +1 with everyone but Pericles, who is +5 towards me and is pleased. So I guess that trade was effective. The others at +1 are all cautious, except for Monty, who is annoyed (which is pretty decent, for him). Sheesh, Monty is -3 against Shaka but is only cautious. Monty just hates real people because we're all smarter than him. Taking a quick scan over the AI to AI feelings, I see that everyone is either pleased or cautious with each other, except that Ragnar is annoyed with Pericles (despite being at +1 - Ragnar doesn't seem to play well with other kids). Shaka gets a -1 from Pericles and a -3 from Monty because Shaka recently founded Judaism, but they're both only cautious towards him. For now. That will probably get worse before it gets better. It's going to be time to pick sides soon, and given a choice of Psychozuma, Shaka, or Pericles, I think I'd prefer to be friends with Pericles. He's less likely to stab me in the back. I just hope Pericles can manage to spread Buddhism around a bit. The only civs with religions are the one that founded them, Pericles with Buddhism, Monty with Hinduism, and Shaka with Judaism. The rest of us are still waiting to find god(s) (or waiting for god(s) to find us). Hmmm, and on a different subject, I can see the borders of a barbarian city to my east, apparently the city is just south of the bananas. I should send someone out there to check on it soon. I also note that Gondar is 7 turns from finishing a worker, has one angry citizen, and would cost two citizens to rush the worker. Out comes the whip.

700BC - Aksum finishes my second chariot, which heads up to Addis Ababa to deal with a barb archer who just penetrated our borders up there. Aksum starts on an archer to continue pushing up our power rating. Gondar finishes its whip-aided worker and follows it up with an archer to supplement the lone warrior that is its garrison.

Lalibela also finishes its worker and starts on a chariot. Hopefully these will get my power rating high enough for safety for a while. I really need to get back to building settlers.

600BC - Despite my troop building efforts, I'm still below average, but I'm going to slow it down a bit, hoping that with plenty of room to expand, nobody will be starting any attacks just yet. Lalibela finishes its chariot and starts on a settler. I post to the AU301 thread on Apolyton asking if it's OK to raze barbarian cities and send an archer and a couple of chariots out to take a look at the barb city. Hmm, Gondar just grew past its happy cap and is starving, what with having to scientists. I let one scientist go out and work as a shepherd to avoid starvation. Looks like mutton for supper. I'll still get a GS in 16 turns with just one scientist. I also turn off growth for now and will check back and hopefully be able to reassign that scientists once the population forgets my cruel oppression.

550BC - We finally get an iron mine built and hooked into the trade network. About time, I've been getting tired of having no metals at all. Hmm, that barb city is Thracian, and is size 2 with 2 archers defending. I'm not real happy with its placement though, so I think I'd prefer to raze it rather than capture it.

450BC - A check of the demographics screen shows me in 7th place in the number of soldiers. This is so not a good thing with the neighbors I have. Time for another round of troop building instead of expanding.

400BC - Lalibela produces a settler. I decide to send it east to grab the gold. It's kinda close to that barb city, but I should be able to keep it defended.

375BC Judaism spreads to one of my cities. To convert or not to convert? I notice that Ragnar is now Buddhist, and I'd rather be on Pericles' side than Shaka's, so I hold off in hopes of getting Buddhism. I also notice That Tokugawa has founded Confucianism and converted to it, and someone (unknown) just founded Christianity. This could get messy.

325BC - Bismark has also converted to Buddhism. Time to open borders with him, since I also happen to have a chariot out scouting for Pericles' cities that needs to pass through Bismark. I found Yeha one square NE of that gold that's off to the east. I have a feeling I should have sent this settler west to grab land between me and Ragnar/Bismark instead of uncontested land to my east.

300BC After building an axeman in each of my cities I'm now up to #5 in terms of soldiers, which is better. I'm still below average, and with the crowd in this game, that could be bad.

275BC - Learned about Currency. Financially I now have 25 gold in reserve and am making +4/turn at 50% science. My finances aren't holding back my growth, but keeping myself strong enough to avoid being attacked it what's doing it. I start working on Code of Laws for courthouses. I've been neglecting trading lately. I see that Bismark wants wheat and has corn to spare, so I set up that trade. Hopefully Buddhism will come as a bonus. The only tech trades possible would be giving up alphabet for polytheism, which ain't gonna happen, especially while I have a monopoly on alphabet.

250BC - Now Christianity has spread in my lands. I don't even know who founded it, and nobody else has converted to it. I'd be damned if I did so (in more ways than one). Gondar finally produces a great scientist, who gets sent up to create an academy in Aksum. The scientist specialists are turned off in Gondar.

225BC - Now Shaka wants open borders. I've been watching one of his Jewish missionaries hanging around wanting to get in for a while. If he manages to get Judaism into all of my cities, I'll never get Buddhism, so I tell him no.

175BC - Buddhism finally spreads into my lands, and I'm happy. Currently I'm in first place with no religion. Tokugawa is second, and is the only Confucian. Then Pericles, Bismark, and Ragnar are 3rd, 4th, and 5th, all Buddhists. Then Shaka is 6th as the sole Jewish civ, and Montezuma brings up the rear as the only Hindu. So Buddhism is the camp I want to join. With any luck I can sic Pericles, Ragnar, and Bismark on Shaka, Toku, and Monty and keep them all busy.

150BC - A scouting Chariot has confirmed that Christianity was founded in Sparta. I'd been fairly sure it was the Greeks. This means that Pericles will probably build the AP, so Buddhist is definitely what I want to be. I've got 10 turns to go to get CoL, nobody but Pericles seems to know Meditation, and he's not willing to trade it, so I'm putting CoL on the back burner to spend 3 turns getting Meditation so I can build a monastery and spread Buddhism to all of my cities.

100BC - Got Meditation, now I'll go ahead and get Priesthood (2 turns) before going back to CoL. I put a monastery in the queue for Addis Ababa (my only Buddhist city)

50BC - Shaka (Annoyed) asks me to help him by teaching him to fish. It's a cheap tech, and it'll keep him off my back for a little while, so I give it to him. He's still annoyed, but now at +0 and with a 10 turn peace treaty.

25BC Get Priesthood, now returning to CoL.. Nuts, I was sending out a settler and found another barb city one space away from where I wanted to settle. It's on a hill, too, so it will be harder to get rid of.

0BC - I'm up to 5 cities, with a settler looking for someplace to stop that doesn't already have barbs. I've got a couple of spots inside my area that I can also settle later, but nobody else could make a reasonable city because of my cultural borders. I've also got some land to my south that is on the edge of the tundra that I could put cities in. Financially, I have 96 gold in reserve and am doing +5/turn at 50% science, so I'm not hurting (and probably should be expanding faster). Score-wise, I'm in first place with 474 points, second place Tokugawa has 414. I'm #1 in land area with 126000 km^2, number two has 120000, average is 82833, worst is 59000. So I'm not doing too badly there, I guess. Population is also #1, with 581000, compares to #2 with 473000 and an average of just 265500 (less than half of mine). So I seem to be doing OK on population as well. For soldiers, I have 92000, which puts me in 5th place. The best is 115000, average is 98833, and worst is 89000. So I'm weaker than I'd like to be, but at least there are two others behind me. I don't have to outrun the wolves, I just have to outrun those two (at least until the wolves get them!). Politically, I've joined the largest religion, both in terms of influence (21%) and in terms of the number of leaders who follow it. My religion is shared by the #2, #3 & #4civs, and none of the other religions have more than one civ. Hopefully that will put me in a good position for playing the AIs against each other.

All in all, I feel like I've done ok. I think I could have put out one or two more cities if I hadn't made a couple of mistakes, like letting a barb walk up and kill two of my workers (d'oh!). But I still seem to be ahead of the AIs in expansion, and I have a little more room to spread (especially if I can take out the barb cities). I think I'm in a pretty good position going forward.

I see that Blake has declared barbs to be fair game, so that's two more city sites I should be able to pick up.

[Vaugula]

Price@normal(Solver's patch)

I start off by moving the scout east to reveal the lands there. The choices for settlement are either in place or NE. It looks like in place has better production (3 hills vs 1 hill and the marble) but less food (more grassland to the NE). While food is certainly important for getting off to a flyer I think the hills will help me more in building settlers and workers. I settle in place. Set research to Agriculture to be able to farm that wheat.

My plan is to settle as close as possible to closish neighbours and not sign any open borders agreements to try to block off as much land as possible. Hopefully I can leverage Creative and the Stele to really push back the other Civ’s borders.

I end up exploring a large slab of terrain before I find any neighbours. I eventually discover that Ragnar, Bismark and Shaka are all packed in to the north while Toku and Monty are to the far east. If I can expand to the north and use my culture to cut off the northern civ’s expansion routes then I can expand to the east in a more leisurely fashion.

I found my first city in 2320 BC and I found it as close to the Vikings as I dare, this is what the site looks like:

It should be a good production site and became my barracks city while the capital pumped out settlers and workers. The site 2 plots east looked good but I wanted to get right up in the faces of the Vikings. The Viking city to the west turned out to be Niadros but Gondar has so far managed to hold its own culturally, by 1 AD it had almost grabbed all the tiles in its fat cross.

The next 2 cities were parked up in the faces of the Germans:

This site is to the north of Gondar. By 1 AD it had culturally captured the floodplains so I am predicting that the city will offer to flip (we will of course say no).

This is to the east of Lalibela and just south of the Germans and SW of the Zulu.

I then put a city between those 2:

This finishes a wall of culture to the north of my capital. I then needed to go more to the east to lock down some more territory. The next city finally grabbed the marble plot:



I tried to concentrate on the bare essentials in terms of technology and did pretty well I think (I still don’t have fishing!) but I did get led down a bad path at one point when I noticed no one had founded Judaism so I researched Polytheism instead of alphabet. I, of course, missed out on Judaism so I wasted those research turns.

At 1 AD I have 6 cities (with another settler about to found another city), a science rate of 30% and am 1 turn away from alphabet. I am busy cottaging and working towards Currency and Code of Laws to try to keep this empire expanding but I am not sure how it will work out as I have never expanding like this before.

[Blake]

Emperor Difficulty (no patch, YET!)

The First Decision: Capital Location.

The capital location choice is often a difficult one, because it's an uninformed one. You might be unwittingly doing horrible things to an otherwise good dotmap. Or you might end up leaving out a resource, which it turns out is isolated and not worth founding another city for.

In this case, I didn't have much difficulty reaching a decision:



Moving to bring the marble into radius was quite safe. This was due to visibility of what the capital WOULD have:
River wheat for +5f.
Ample Grassland Hill tiles for production, in fact moving would certainly bring in MORE grassland hills.

The risk here, was that there may be a good tile to the south - say grassland cows. I justified taking this risk on the basis of the marble - knowing that there was jungle to the north, it was LIKELY that there would NOT be a good 2nd city site for the marble. So that leaving it out of the capital radius would doom me to not having it.

First Build: Worker.
First Tech: Agriculture.

When you have a 5f tile, you get it in play ASAP .


I sent my scout out "away from the jungle", so basically eastish. I started meeting a bunch of nutjobs, starting with Shaka (uh, yay?) followed by Monty (uh, the yay was sarcastic), then Pericles ("Hey, stop hugging me, I'm not the gay one!").

Also technologies came in.
Agriculture -> The Wheel (since my worker was well employed with mining) -> Masonry (since the marble is better than a mined hill) -> Mysticism (you'll see)

My build progression had gone:
Worker->Warriors until Size 3->Settler

The Settler founds Gondar



This location was chosen on the basis of being what I eyed to be the best direction to expand aggressively in (due to resource availability and the fact I hadn't found any civ borders). Additionally it's a very nice site - founded on a Plains Hill (+1h) with a grassland Cow, river Ivory and Gold Mine. Gondar immediately started on a worker, as was my capital.

I meet a couple more Nutjobs in the form of Ragnar and Tokugawa. Luckily these are not entirely aggressive nutjobs, they are kind of isolationist in their military policies, and Ragnar even talks to people.


My plan continues apace:



In my capital, the Oracle coincides with Writing finishing, for the obvious target tech of Code of Laws.

I believe that, in this game, Oracling CoL is a no-brainer move. The reason for this is due to the availability of marble and that wonder building is a hammer intensive activity, expanding is also a hammer intensive activity. As such building the oracle and picking up a tech with cheap pre-req techs does not go contrary to the goals of the game. In this case there were just too many good reasons:
1) The pre-req tech of Writing is highly desirable for a creative leader, and open borders are always useful for financing expansion.
2) The tech of CoL is brilliant for an organized leader since it allows courthouses.
3) Religions are nice, particulary for organized leaders for whom it's a good idea to run Organized Religion.
4) Masonry is on the way to Monotheism anyway.

Having completed the oracle and bagging CoL, I notice that Judaism is still available, and decide to immediately pursue it. Creative leaders have more liberty in chasing "Techs which aren't pottery/bronze working", this is because creative cities are very productive just from having a high quality city radius, there's no particular need to leverage granary+whip, at least for the first few cities.

Furthermore, I decide to go with the rather bizarre double-holy city of Conf + Judaism (in that order ), I decided this extravagance was acceptable primarily because my 2nd settler was going to walk a long way. Unfortunately I did have to delay founding that city for 2 turns while monotheism completed. In the end this move was strictly opportunistic - wanting Organized Religion at some point, I decided to make that point earlier due to the availability of Judaism.



And so it came to pass in 1000BC, that my 3rd city was founded.



Note the courthouse is just a placeholder for the Granary : I'm only just getting around to that less than essential tech ( ). Please note carefully here - Creative plays by a different set of rules. Creative is meant to be played fast and loose, aggressively pursue exactly what you want and round up the other stuff later. Creative has the strongest early game and that lets you get away with doing some crazy stuff.

Also note that there are 2 workers sitting ready to start improving the city. This is especially important because I darn well NEED those horses ASAP! It's 1000BC and my empire is defended by warriors!

The 3rd city site is a VERY nice site. Lots of river including river corn, horses, a floodplain, bananas and several hills. What more could you possibly want?

[Blake]

Emperor Difficult (Solver's Patch)

Noting again that an empire optimized for expansion speed is also optimized for building wonders, I decide to try for the Temple of Artemis. However, Pericles has other ideas and steals it away from me.



I was however very happy with the refund. For those turns I was building the temple, every hammer became 2g (marble), this means that each 1-3-0 mine, was acting like a 1-0-6 tile, which is pretty nice! Like a rep specialist which half feeds itself!

My forth city is founded in 725BC.



It claims for me unique instances of Rice and Clams, and hopefully steals away Shaka's chance at training Jumbos. This was a difficult choice to found here - it would have been nice to be on a hill. But it'll do.

In 500BC Bismarck rolls up and demands I switch to Conf, I'd been waiting for this and readily agree.

In 450 BC, teh city of Yeah gets founded:


Sometimes when expanding we must do without certain luxuries, like garrisons . My chariots were stretched thin dealing with barbs - but do note there are sentries out.

Anyway teh city of Yeah is very nice - with several floodplains, and unique instances of Stone and Spices. Better yet, it's on a hill, very handy since it defines borders with both Monty and Tokugawa. Lalibela, being a bit of a squishy city, kind of needs that kind of fortress protecting it. That's the main reason I pushed out so fast, even going without garrisons.

In 225BC (with my defenses slightly more in order), The Trumpets Sound!
However I'm safe - Ragnar has declared war on his friend Pericles! I suspect that Pericles might have decided to start experimenting with that Greek hedonism and Ragnar decided to tell him "I'm not into that kind of stuff!" with a good honest ass-kicking.

In 200BC after running around with chariots for a while, I research Iron WOrking (with the last of the Artemis money) and it turns out there is a deposit of Iron in my borders - up north of the Capital.

In 1AD a Prophet is Born.


While it would have been nice to use him to found Christainity (only for the 1AD thing ), I much rathered use him to found an institution for separating fools and their gold, the Conf Shrine!
Note also that unfortunately two civs, Shaka and Tokugawa, have picked up Judaism instead of Conf...

Also in 1AD, my 6th city is founded:


Debre claims unique instances of Deers and Furs (wait, Deers is a word?). It also brings in a spare source of Iron, also denying that source from Pericles. To give slight spoilers, both of these factors actually end up of some significance!

State of the Empire at 1AD:


And a Map:

[claestw]

Noble (Sovler's Patch)

First time doing something like this, please do complain if I've done something bad and I'll make note to remember it.

4000BC, I first moved the scout SE two tiles, revealing the Wine, and settled in place. The Marble was interesting, but we either waste one turn or loose production, so I gave it up. Research goes into Agriculture first to farm the Wheat, we start with a Worker, and the Scout starts to explore the world clockwise about the capital.

Our first hut NW of the capital gave 92G, and then Hinduism FIDL in 3560BC(11). The next turn we meet Ragnar of the Vikings and I immediately decide we'll put our second city down that way.



The Rice/Dye/Gold looks nice.

3480BC(15) saw Buddhism FIDL and the next turn Shaka's Scout appear SE of our capital. We would then get to see Bismarck's border in 3120BC, and Pericles' scout in 2960BC.

Research path was Agriculture to Bronze Working, Archery and Mysticism. Archery was because we could see no Bronze and wanted some proper defense. Mysticism was for our unique building.

Capital build was Worker, Worrior, Worrior, Settler (size 3). And we already have a grand plan to steal as much land as possible from the Vikings and Germans. Those peaks are nice. They must have been intentional. It was a sign that said, "come expand up here!"

And then we the people of Ethopia started on our lucky streak. Our Scout popped...



and that Scout also got promoted to Woodsman I. He found out how best to grill Panther meat, with our newly made iron grills, no less.

This was truely significant, and it made me determined to get that NW spot by Ragnar for my second city. Not only will it get Rice/Iron/Dye/Gold, it fits with the idea of expanding towards our rivals.

Research went on with The Wheel and then....





Settler whipped in fear of loosing our Iron/Dye site. Gondar was founded at 2400BC and we start on the Stonehenge to grow back the capital.



Why was it building a Worker? Must have been the thought that we need to grow back the capital (we probably shouldn't have whipped it) and we wanted to have a Worker.

I know we don't really need the Stonehenge, but it was cool to have an "automatic unique building" so I actually chopped two forests for it. All in all it took 10 turns. (And of course I was later to regret it.) Besides, this is Noble, we're supposed to have some slack for having short bursts of illogical fun.

Research went on with Pottery, Polytheism, Priesthood, Writing, and then Animal Husbandry. And we started pumping units from Gondar, first some Archers for quick defense and sentry to future city sites, then Axes for real defense.

Pericles went Slavery in 2120BC, and the Venerable Bede said we were third in Culture by 1960BC. Pericles was first. Then in 1680BC we founded Lalibela on some elephants. Now I was thinking of putting it one tile West, but it was the overlap that swayed me. (See dotmap below.)

We hear that the Viking Axemen were all getting shocked, I mean promoted to Shock in 1560BC. Mental note not to get on Ragnar's bad side. It was also then our Scout found Shaka's border. Ouch. Already that close?



With Charlie and Delta, we could completely block off the Vikings and Germans. Foxtrot was a tentative site, we really needed to explore the East. Too little info.

Then finally in 1400BC we meet a Japanese Warrior, and soon started getting requests for open borders as Writing finish. We refuse all but Pericles. The reason was that he wasn't an immediate neighbour. It'd be a long time before he would want to build a city on our side of the world.

Our lucky Scout used up all his luck popping techs and died to a Barbarian Warrior in 1240BC, and...



...we see German Settlers heading towards our Delta city site! Argh...we would have had a shot at Delta if we didn't build that Stonehenge and instead chopped out a Settler...

There's an old saying in Chinese. "People can plan all they want, but in the end God will decide." Ah well.

Tokugawa founded Judaism in 1040BC and a Barbarian city pop up just East of Lalibela.

Research continued with Monarchy as it was my plan to get into Hereditary Rule (we have the Wine to improve anyway). I planned to have a relatively large standing army to avoid war, and HR would make that army useful. Then the Great Wall was built far away.

Toku converted to Judaism and it turned out he was the owner. I wonder why he didn't switch immediately.

Addis Ababa was founded 975BC, revealing it was two tiles away from Hamburg. This city would later convince me how powerful the Creative trait is in early times, slowly but steadily stealing tile by tile away from the Germans.



Buddhism got to Addis Ababa in 850BC, but the diplomatic situation was still not clear, so we waited.

The last rival (which was last indeed in score) we met was Montezuma, in 775BC.

750BC, Yeha was founded to the East by the Banana, with one border expansion it will cut Shaka's land access to the South. That Barb city was ugly but I didn't know whether we could take it. So I left it there for the time being.

After Monarchy, we went into Code of Laws. I was expecting to need Courthouses soon. This was 550BC and we were at 30% science with +3GPT. I check on the board and found that we could take out Barbs, so finally my Axe went in and razed the Barb city that's been sitting there for five hundred years.

Debre Berhan was founded in 550BC, too, by Foxtrot. Then the capital started on the Oracle. I was wondering why nobody has built it, and had only connected the Marble by then, so I thought I'd give it a try.

In 425BC our Great Prophet was born and settled into Aksum to bring research back up to 50% at +4GPT. Then 375BC the Temple of Artemis was built far away.

It was only until 375BC we discover Japanese land. Those peaks must have been intentional. Please tell me they are. It seems like this map had peaks around our starting location to guide us. It was another sign saying, "come and expand here!"



Note that Barb city. Again I don't know what to do with it. I'd love to take it. In fact, I WANT IT. It's the perfect choke against the Japanese. But it was closer to their border than mine, and I read on the board that it wouldn't be in the spirit of our game to take it.

350BC, the most advanced was Japan, followed by the Greeks, Aztecs and the Zulu. We were fifth. Not good. But we got the Oracle built and happened to be able to choose Feudalism. Now that I think about it, maybe this was also not a good idea? Instead of the Civil Service slingshot, we accidentally went for the Feudalism slingshot. Hmmm...but it was the only tech that made sense then. I was thinking Longbows could keep us safe from AI aggresion better and longer than Axes and Archers.

Anyway, so we entered the Medieval era. Civics changed to Hereditary Rule and Serfdom. It was then I realized we're seriously short of Workers. There were only three I think, to share between six cities. I always forget about workers. I never have enough of them.

In 300BC, I found the vitim of that Spear uprising news I saw one turn ago.



I feel sorry for Toku and yet relieved. This was one Spear that stopped to pillage the horse. Another two were seen heading NE deeper into Japanese land.

Adulis was founded in 175BC at Bravo, filling in the last space up North. It was deep in Jungles, but I don't think we can afford to loose another good spot like that to the Germans.



And in 150BC, another barbarian uprising came. This time Axes. Thankfully it wasn't by my border---but we soon found out who was the victim.





I must mention, though, I have not been hit with any random events at all! No good nor bad. Right up to 1AD. This is rare. Usually I get hit by tornadoes or hurricanes and have to rebuild two or even three buildings by this time.

Our first tech trade came in 125BC. Pericles gave us Alphabet for Monarchy. With Alphabet in hand, I traded Priesthood away to Montezuma for Fishing. It was the only available trade around and he was bottom of the pack anyway.

Code of Laws came in, and we go on to Aesthetics. My idea is to make sure we get the Statue of Zeus to further discourage war. Then I want to cottage spam and see if we can get enough cities for a spaceship victory. May have to use Spies a lot in the end, though.

This brings us to 1AD with 7 cities:



We already have a Settler heading towards Golf. It will reach either Kilo or Juliet in a few turns. Juliet will truely block Shaka, add Kilo and Lime and we've blocked off the Japanese. I'd like to get some opinions on that Barb city close to Kilo. If I can take it, I want to redirect that Settler to take Pigs/Stone, getting a much better seal on the Japanese, and allow the next Settler to go to Juliet.

I must make note to get some Workers out asap though...Yeha and Lalibela will pump military units, and the rest will either be Settlers/Worker or infrastructure.

...arrrrgh, loosing Delta to the Germans was such a big mistake. That dent is like a sharp knife, it pains to look at the map.

Which now reminds me, I've been so obsessed with land I forgot to plan for city specialization!

[Vaugula]

Re: Emperor Difficulty (no patch, YET!)

Originally posted by Blake
I believe that, in this game, Oracling CoL is a no-brainer move.

I guess that's why I play at Prince and you play at Emperor (and program the AI) I obviously have a long way to go. Very educational Blake, thanks for explaining your reasoning.

[claestw]

Originally posted by khearn
2320BC - Goody hut number 10 give me writing. Yeah!

Ten huts...maybe I should try to have two scouts exploring as well. I usually play small maps (insufficient hardware) and got used to just one scout. In this game I only got three huts I think. I also didn't replace my scout immediately when it got mugged by a Barbarian Warrior.

Originally posted by Blake
I believe that, in this game, Oracling CoL is a no-brainer move.

I got fixed onto the "no CS slingshot" thing and didn't realize what it really really meant, and simply ignored the Oracle. I still built it, but it was because no one seemed to want to build it. In the end I actually got Feudalism out of it...

A question for Blake if I may. I see your soldiers is way below at 7th place, do you usually do that even on Emperor? Isn't that taking a lot of risks? Or is it exactly because it is Emperor combined with the rules of this game that you decide to stretch a bit to get expansion done? I was already building up to four, five units on my border cities up North and still thought it wasn't enough.

[Chopper]

Noble/Normal - No patch

Ok, first go as well posting to the University so this is it. Reporting as at 560AD as first religous conversion request from an immediate neighbour though Monty did ask a while ago but he wasn't a neighbour at that time.

I have had a number of starts at this map and struggled but now have close to what I originally intended in the extreme horizontal growth without wonders or oracling anything (I have oracled both Feudalism and Theology in past games but didn't redline economy so stopped those games). I want to get really down in the gurglar to see if I call pull out of it whilst building military for as Blake says so well "the nutjobs".

Due to the inhabitants of this isle and barbs in the vicinity I have predetermined to concentrated o military. I have also not expanded too far from each city as it is built and prioritising walls and steles to help with defense and extra border pushes. I have also taken three barb cities by force. Was considering settling on the Eastern horses to get the clam but Monty beat me to that location.

My research path was:

Bronze > Agriculture > Masonry > Wheel > Iron Working > Mysticism > Animal Husbandry > Pottery > Writing > Alphabet (nothing stellar amongst this lot)

I reduced research to 70% until after Iron Working and then reduced to 20% and now at 10% to pay for troops.

I upgraded all troops as cash became available as not researching archery meant warriors were barb fodder.

Open borders with Ragnar first, then Pericles and Shaka. Not sure about last one.

My aim now is to get a GS out of Gondar and build Academy in capital. I will also be cottaging all river grasslands where possible.

Settlers being built to fill the south, with swords standing by to take Etruscan, with cities in North building axes and spears to defend against the inevitable Shaka attack. Axes and spears will be built in the East to defend against the inevitable Monty attack also.

Research is to trade if I can after alphabet with Calender beeline next on the agenda for happy, then construction for ernie els and currency to get some cash.





Lets see how I go with the experiment.

[joncnunn]

Jon's Dar Noble - Normal - 303 / Aug 29 Unoffical patch installed aprox 2500 BC
Ancient Era 4000 BC - 1120 BC

Personal restriction: I will not start construction of any wonders until after building the last settler.

The first thing I did was move the settler 9 and found there to bring in the Marble while keeping the other known resources.

Early game tech strategy: Open up the resources / worker actions first.

Early game build strategy: Scout, Scout to go explore the Pangena
Next a Warrior for defense while awaiting growth and more resource techs
Then a Worker for resource explotation
Then start a Granery, but will switch to a settler as soon as the city grows to size 3 and then complete it.

Goody hut yields: Multiple Gold, Multiple Maps, 2 Scouts, 1 Warrior, Bronze Working, and Fishing

2000 BC Found city 4-4-4-4-7-7 on hills as close as I dare to the Vikings bring in Rice & Gold.

1320 BC Found city 8-8-8-8-8. Expand northern claims as most likely contested direction and also bring in Bananas.

1120 BC Discover Iron Working, advancing to Classical Era. Incidently this discovery greatly increases the value of those two cities founded due to Iron in both of their C.R.s

End of Ancient Era Summary: The Vikings and Greek are the most crammed in at this point; the Vikings borders already touch the Germans, the Greeks and mine. While the Greeks were crammed between the corner of the landmass and the Vikings. In other directions we seem to have a large amount of land to potientialy claim but also have several agressive civs to worry about. We've decided to go with opening borders with everyone we can for the +1 in relations. We might also want the Greeks to spread their religion to us at some point (if they also spread it to the Vikings). In the unlikely event it appears an AI is about to trying to cross settlers thru our land, we will close the borders to it, but we also note AI could easily build Galleys to land "colonies" south of our starting position. The best random event news was we got better shields (free cover promotion for melee units). No bad random events befell us.

Use of Creative traight: In addition to the counting on free culture for city placement, we have already built a half priced library in the capital immedately following the second settler build.

Use of Organized traight: So far only the passive reduced maintenance cost.

Use of Unique Building: None so far. In fact we only bothered to resarch Mystism immedately prior to Iron Working dispite it, since the +25% culture appears pointless until the city also has a library.

[joncnunn]

Jon's Dar Noble - Normal - Unoffical Patch
Beginning of Classical thru the BC years: 1120 BC - 1 AD

Personal restriction: I will not start construction of any wonders until after building the last settler.

800 BC Found City 3-3-3-2 Taking in Cow & Horse

450 BC Found City 6-6-6-6 Taking in Ivory & Gold

75 BC Found Confucism

Classical thru 1 AD summary

Techs: Instead of my normal beeline to alphabet that I usually make at this portion of the game, I decided with all the agressive AIs to instead go first for the ultra cheap techs that lead to useful techs and then go for Code of Laws for the Court Houses to keep maintenance costs at a reasonable level. We used a couple of scientists in the capital to hurry along Code of Laws.

Religion & Civics, we are still running default. Basically with agressive AIs we are just trying to get along with everyone. Besides with the number of cities we have now and are planning we can't really afford the maintenance costs of Organzied Religion. And we really don't have cities with more food than they know what to do with either.
The Greeks founded Budism & Christanity, the later around 50 BC and are running Budism.
The Vikings are also running Budism.
The Germans don't have a religion.
The Zulus founded Judism and are running it.
The Aztecs founded Hinduism and are running it.
The Japanese are running Hinduism.

Use of Creative traight: We continued to count on the free culture for city placement and also built a quick Library in our city next to the Vikings.

Use of Organized traight: The moving up in the tech queue of Code of Laws. Court Houses have entered our build queues but none have been completed yet,

Use of Unique Building: We have placed it in multiple cities to help secure and expand borders.

Effects of our open borders: I think the extra gold is helping keep the economy afloat; we're at 60% science. I haven't seen any AI try to cross our lands with settlers, they've primarily crossed it with scouts and other units apprently assigned exploration missions south of us. This has greatly reduced the amount of barbs that would otherwise form there. The only barb town I noticed formed just SE of the Zulus, but that town was destoryed and not kept so either the Zulus didn't like it's location or else one of the other AIs, most likely Japan raized the barb town to the ground to deny the Zulus a free town.

Effects of no conquering AI cities rule and agressive AIS: Basically instead of 2 Swords with C.Rs being built in our city bordering the Vikings we built 2 Axes with combat I instead. In addition we've built more baracks & archers than normal (with City Garrison I) on the borders with the AIs.

[Swiss Pauli]

Emperor, Normal, v3.02

It’s better to be lucky than good (or how to play badly and still survive)

I played in somewhat of a rush. That’s my excuse anyway. Scout finds wines, so move 1E to grab them. Build warrior as I’m feeling wary.

Why no shot of the capital? Well on turn 4...




It’s not all rosy as a panther eats my warrior, and there’s no copper to hand. Worker gets whipped on turn 22, and a settler started at size four, to block in Vikings and claim rice and banana.




Less banana, more That’s really a poor choice of second city, which should have hurt me a lot more than it did. CoL Oracle was my plan, but my choice of second city led to me chickening out:




Was getting a bit late, even with my lucky rabbit’s foot working its mojo. Or whatever it is they do. Gondar’s plonked down, ignoring the horses (until 3rd ring). That was intentional, because, though irritating, the barb attacks haven’t cost me an improvement, even with only archers on patrol. Less intentional was my failure to notice some good spots to the east.

Spot the difference:







I forgot to take a screenie, but Monty captured Yayoi on the floowing turn!! Not that it’ll do him much good, with mighty Ethiopian culture pressing the city. Speaking of which, Haithabu is in revolt as you can see and it flipped in 225 (disbanded – but I wouldn’t have kept it anyway). Happily for me, Raggy declared war on Pericles in BC 250. With Construction at hand and evil intent, he would have flattened me in double quick time. I whored Monarchy to Pericles from Poly, Fishing and the seven turns left on Maths. But my generosity doesn't extend as far as helping him out against Raggy .

I finally gain access to Iron in 1AD, which is rather cute, and hugely coincidental (like I was playing well enough to anything so cheeky).

[rrs_racer]

Hi everyone. I did one of these in the dim and distant past, so thought I'd have another go now it's started up again. I remember these comparison scenarios being a lot of fun.

Thought I'd try Prince, because that's the difficulty level I've been doing OK on recently. If I was feeling brave I'd go to Monarch. I'm not, so I won't.

So, Zara Yaqob - Creative/Organized. So the goal (as the aim of the course) is going to be to grab as much real estate as possible. We'll see what the terrain's like before going pure ICS - I'm not prepared to kill myself grabbing land with the new BtS AI around.

Start with Hunting and Mining - one is useful for a free scout, the other for being on the way to Bronze Working.

Start: So we've got an early-game production city, but later game this will be used for cottages, largely, I imagine. Second city is likely to be near the marble, and should give us a bit more production as well. Some good commerce spots would be nice.

4000BC: Agriculture first, building a Worker. Scout starts off to the NE to look for a second city site worth having.
3800BC: OK, so the second city is likely to be SE after all, as that's where the nearest food resource is. And gold. But not just yet. Will be interesting to see where the copper is, if there's any.
Two golds uncovered, and a nice crop of incense directly to the west. With the wine, ivory, dye and incense, we shouldn't have any real problems with happiness in this game.
3680BC: Agriculture -> Bronze Working
3600BC: Goody hut for XP to the south-west. Hinduism founded IDL.
3440BC: Wow, gems to the NW as well. Lots and lots of happy people.
3400BC: Worker completes - city building Scout while it grows. Buddhism founded IDL.
3320BC: Weirdness. We meet a Buddhist Pericles. Yep, you heard. Buddhist. Anyway, another hut popped for a piddling amount of gold. That marble city site is not looking promising right now.
3240BC: Farm completes - city now working 4-1-1 wheat.
3160BC: Bronze Working -> Animal Husbandry. Toyed with the idea of going Wheel/Pottery, but cottages aren't a huge priority with those potential gold mines (which we will need for quick expansion). Immediate switch to Slavery. There's a disgusting lack of copper as well
3080BC: Meet Shaka. Another scout finishes in Aksum, which begins a warrior. When the city hits size 3 (which will coincide with warrior completion) we'll start a settler.
2940BC: OK, so due to the completion of a mine I got another warrior in. One for each city. Settler now being built, will be completed in 10 turns - I plan on chopping then whipping it, however.
2780BC: Animal Husbandry -> The Wheel
2600BC: Loving the God of random events. All my axemen will get the 'shock' promotion. That's assuming I find any copper anywhere at all.



Settler is chopped and whipped as promised, and will complete this turn. Worker next.
2560BC: Choice of first city site is an interesting one. It's going to have the cows and gold in the immediate radius. A question of long-term growth sacrificed for short-term gain (in terms of the gold research).
2520BC: Shaka is found in the north-east, and he's going to have elephants, which is not in the least groovy.
2480BC: Second city, Gondar, founded.



2440BC: The Wheel -> Pottery
2280BC: Toku OMG. Northern Wood2 Scout dies after I stupidly put him on an unforested hill, only to find a lion waiting.
So, early defence will be a problem. Archery might be a priority in the near future, after Pottery, as I don't have metal yet, and the horses are not going to be hooked up in the near future. Barbs will become a problem sooner rather than later, I fear.
2160BC: Pottery -> Archery (4 turns, as the gold is now hooked up and being worked)
2120BC: Ragnar, close to the west. Another nice peaceful neighbour with which I can co-exist in perfect harmony.
2080BC: And a Hindu Montezuma just about completes the set.
2000BC: Archery -> Iron Working (OMG pleeeeeeease can I have some iron?) And Bismarck is just about the least aggressive of our competitors.
1920BC: Fishing popped from a hut. Hey, it's a technology, I'm not going to complain.



1880BC: First barb sighting.

1800BC
Situation is as follows. No coppers, Iron Working in a handful of turns, so I'm keeping everything crossed. I'm not prepared, at this time, to plop a sub-optimal city down just to get horses. If an axeman appears I might rethink that (taking a bit of a risk, in all honesty).

3rd city is about to go down east of the second one (near the corn) - priority is an economy at the moment, for further expansion. Note that both 2nd and 3rd cities are able to switch into production mode if they need to (not right away, but they shouldn't need to right away).

[rrs_racer]

1720BC: Third city goes down to the east.



1520BC: Iron Working -> Writing and there's iron to the south. Yaaaaaaaaaay. Oh, and a slave revolt in Aksum. Lovely. In fact, there's loads of iron absolutely everywhere. The northern patch next to the ivory might be favourite for the moment, even if I am going to have to grow it with farms and a granary. Will be another good commerce city, as well.
1240BC: Writing -> Masonry. Open Borders signed with Ragnar, and I'm off to have a closer look at what he has. He's the only civ with a higher GNP than me at the moment.
Settler for city 4 will complete shortly, and it'll be near the iron and marble to the NE of the capital.
1160BC: Barbs everywhere. City to the SW, city to the east. Lovely. Settler completes and looks to settle next to iron.
1120BC: Masonry -> Mysticism.
1080BC: Addis Ababa founded near the NE iron. That will be hooked up soon and hopefully we'll be able to churn a couple of axemen out.
1040BC: Mysticism -> Alphabet (for tech trading. It'll be 14 turns though )



900BC: Libraries going up everywhere, because a) I'm waiting for axes and b) it'll help, as everywhere is contributing to research at the moment. Plus it allows me the luxury of scientists if needed.
725BC: Alphabet -> Meditation. Pericles comes straight on and offers Polytheism for Archery/Pottery - no-one else will trade anything, though.
675BC: Meditation -> Priesthood. Pericles (champion fellow that he is) decides he wants to spread Buddhism to Aksum. What a guy. I fully intend to adopt it, and hopefully Ragnar will join in on the Buddhist party too. Switch to Buddhism, as I reckon I'm strong enough for the time being to hold off the Hindu alliance (Montezuma/Tokugawa).
625BC: Priesthood -> Monotheism (3 turns - amazingly, no-one's founded Judaism yet! Possibly the latest I've ever seen Judaism founded, and I've got an outside shot at it)
575BC: Haha, Pericles beats me to Judaism by one turn. Not that I'm bothered - the main reason I was researching it was to switch to OR. Turns out Bismarck discovered it in the same turn too, but didn't get the religion.
550BC: Monotheism -> Code of Laws. For Courthouses and a religion I'm almost guaranteed. Waiting until my settler completes before switching to OR.
475BC: Shaka joins the Hindu alliance, meaning we're 3 on 3 for the moment. The nice peaceful builder types versus the horrible nasty warmongers.
450BC: Apache captured (was the barb city to the SE). There should be room for 2 more cities down there, one of which will be coastal (and hopefully the Maoi Statues city).



375BC: Major uber-expansion coming right up. 3 more cities in the pipeline, hopefully with a fourth straight after (and that'll be my lot). I lose a turn of CoL due to a crappy random event.
350BC: Pericles buils Pyramids.
300BC: Code of Laws -> Mathematics (which I just can't delay any longer, for the hammer chop boost and the fact that it's on the way to Construction), and Confucianism is founded in our easternmost city. I'll spread it across the empire - it'll be useful for the happiness. Not switching out of Buddhism officially though, because of the diplomatic benefits. Finally I find a spot to switch to Organized Religion.
225BC: Eventful couple of turns. First of all the sodding Zulus nicked one of my city site - however, I did beat them to another site by literally one turn. Note the Zulu settler and archer about to found a city in exactly the same place as me the following turn :




200BC: The city of Phyrgian is pwnt by my CR1 axeman. Valuable experience for the inevitable Shaka declaration. The one thing I need right now, apart from a military, is a small army of workers, which I'm currently in the process of assembling. This is the first game in a long time I've neglected workers to such an extent.
125BC: Mathematics -> Monarchy. For wine hookup and Hereditary Rule. Nobody's built the Oracle yet, so I decide to take a shot, just in case no-one's going to. Shouldn't be any longer than 4 turns.
100BC: Finally people want to trade with me. Ragnar gives me Sailing for Priesthood and Polytheism. Slightly one-sided, but hopefully that'll make him like me.

The good news is, nobody else has much of a military either:



25BC: OK, so we get the Oracle, quite hilariously!



Latest I've ever seen it go, I must admit. Take Civil Service as a bit of a no-brainer, given the options available. City #7 founded in the hope of getting both the sheep and deer to the south, along with yet another source of iron.
1AD: Ragnar declares war on Pericles?! LOL. Both Buddhist, but apparently not Buddha-buddies. For a horrible moment I thought it was against me.

So there we have it, the first 4000 years. We have seven cities, for a total population of 25, which could be a lot higher if I'd bothered to build workers sooner. My military consists of a handful of archers, a small but experienced band of 4 axemen, which have so far seen the destruction of four barbarian cities, and a couple of warriors which are useful for nothing at all. I should disband them really.



The economy is going quite nicely - it got a good start with that gold mine, and I got a few cottages down nice and quickly. I'm going to have to sort a couple of these cities out, which will be tricky - there's no obvious specialization strategy in place at the moment, it's been a question of grabbing as much territory as possible, with a smattering of cottages to keep my tech rate respectable. Switch to bureaucracy will occur next turn, after the discovery of Monarchy.





Diplomatically, things are OK - the Hindu alliance dislikes me, whilst my warring Buddha-buddies love me to pieces. Well, maybe not to pieces. But they like me, nonetheless, and I'd say a declaration is unlikely in the near future, especially with me, until recently, being 2nd in soldiers (somehow).



Religion needs spreading at some point, but that's not a priority, as a Great Prophet has to come from somewhere for it to be worthwhile. It may come from the Oracle.

But that's about it anyway. Intriguing game at the moment, and I must admit it's gone far better than I thought it would.
Anyway, that's the lot.