I started out the game on the European map. I chose not to randomize start positions and not to randomize resources. I chose deity difficulty and raging hordes. I started out as the English. The other civilizations were the French, Spanish, Russians, Mongols, Japaneese, and Americans. Right away I bulit nothing but settlers until I had enough to build 8 cities on the British Isles, plus have at least one settler for each city to improve the landscape.

Being deity, the unhappiness set in quick, but nevertheless I built the Colossus, Great Library, and Pyramids. After dealng with unhappiness I being setting trade routes from all my cities to the Mongolian empire which was behind Russia near the eastern edge of the map. From my Colossus in London I setup 3 profitiable trade routes to Mongolia's capitol of Krakorum. Each caravan netted me 11 trade, combined with the Colossus gave me an INCREDIBLE boost to work with. I quickly built up my cities and the advances were flying in every few turns. I was quickly into gunpowder while everyone else was playing with catapaults and legions.

I founded colonies on the little chunk of land that's supposed to be America, and landed some more settlers on Norway, Sweeden, and Denmark. My colony on Denmark was perhaps the most vital of all. It gave me easy access to the continent, and with Magellan's Expedition I was able to tranport large numbers of troops onto the continent in 1 turn without running into French troops.

From there I continually worked on building my cities and advancing my science.I got into democracy and had a science rate of 90% and 10% for tax. J.S. Bach's and Michaelagelo's Chapel kept the masses happy, along with the occasional "Elvis". By the late 1600's I had discovered every single tech, and was working on Future tech's. Immediately I switched to Republic and jacked up my tax to 80%(the max). By this time my cities on the Isles had solar plants, offshore platforms, and manufacturing centers.

Needless to say I had great industrial output. Immediately I went all out building stealth fighters, stealth bombers, heavy tanks and mechanized infantry. I already had the largest navy and a ton of transports(for all my caravans/freight). The other civ's just RECENTLY discovered gunpowder and spread it all around. I was still only second in military might, as Russia was huge by now. One way or another, everyone hated me except the Russians, who were Cordial. At this time the French and Spanish allied to fend off the hordes coming from Russia. Mongolia and Japan were allied and were attacking Russia. America was dead. They died in the first few turns of the game, swallowed up by the Russian bear.

Anyways, France was jealous. They came into one of my cities and stole space flight! They just got gunpowder, and they HAD space flight and I built the Apollo Program! Needless to say, I needed to wipe them out before they spread the knowledge. So from my city in Denmark, I airdropped and transported about 10 heavy tanks, a carrier group which included a carrier with 8 stealth fighters and 8 stealth bombers, and escort aegis cruisers and destroyers. Anyways, I allied up with Russia, and swept over France in a blitzkrieg if you will and conquered them in 3 turns, but not before they gave Spain Space Flight. Using my naval power to bomb their coastal cities and air power to reach the interior, then paradropping in. Well when I first attacked Spain declared war to honour their alliance with France. So I loaded another transport of 8 heavy tanks, and shipped it to a costal Spanish city, bombed it to nothing with my stealth bombers, then moved my tanks in. I conquered Spain in 2 turns.

But after the first of the two turns which it took to conquer Spain, they made a peace treaty with Russia, which included the technology of Space Flight. Now Russia had Space Flight. So anyways I started working on my Space Ship, while still outputting military. I controlled all of Europe, except for European Russia. Then, Russia decided to start bulding their Space Ship, and in 5 turns they completed it and LAUNCHED(mind you they had about 50 cities). So I ended my alliance with Russia, and started to make a bee line to Moscow. However, by this time Russia had infantry(a more advanced unit than riflemen that's in the Fascist patch), and fighters. They threw everything they had against me to protect Moscow. Back at home I was building up my Space Ship, and no more new units were coming off the line.

My forces on the continent had been drained and I barely had enough units to defend myself when Russia counterattacked. Their ship was going to land in a few turns, so I only had one option. I switched all my cities to building nukes, and purchased them right then and there. Let me tell you, buying nukes from scratch is expensive, but on the next turn I had 4 paratroopers and 4 nukes. I placed them all in a frontline city.

On the next turn I nuked 3 cities and paradropped into each. These 4 cities were all on one rail line that lead to Moscow. Then, I used my last nuke to nuke Moscow itself. I brought a heavy tank from Spain that was defending a city, and because of a movement rate of 3, I was able to run it along the rail line that led to Moscow. The nukes knocked parts of the rail out here and there, but I was able to make it to Moscow with 2/3 movement remaining!

I took Moscow, and they didn't have enough to relocate their capital, so the space ship came home, and they split. Persians were now in the game, having taken half of Russia's cities, they were still huge. Then the Russians built their capital at Kiev(it was right next to Moscow, so I took that and Russia split again, giving us the Egyptians. Knowing that I was safe from being beaten to space, I stared building military again, and conquered the entire former Russia(Russia, Egypt, Persia), and the entire Mongolian Empire(about 20-30 cities).

Then years past, with only the Japaneese remaining who I stayed friendly with. I had my spaceship built and ready to go. Then around the year 1970 or so Japan stole rocketry from me, and with Manhattan project already built, this posed some problems. Given the opportunity to declare war on Japan, I declined. In the next few turns Japan built nukes, and LOTS of them. Relations quickly declined even though I gave them money and tech. Out of nowhere in the late 1980's, Japan nuked 14 of my cities, over a span of 3 turns. They took every single one.

I hadn't built any SDI's, because I didn't think Japan would ever be a threat. I immediately launched my ship, and prepared for a nuclear war, but during the war with Russia I moved my capitol onto the continent to centralize my government(was a republic, reduced corruption). Before I knew what was happanning, Japan nuked my capitol, and . seized my ship. I couldn't relocate my capitol because I spent almost ALL my money bulidig SDIs.

Unfortunately, I neglected to build one in my capitol thinking it was out of range(it was too until they blitzed me with nukes). By this time Japan had a ship and launched. There was no way for me to beat it, as the game would be over before I could successfully build another ship fast enough to make it before the game eneded.

The morale of the story? NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THEM. The odds of Japan beating me to launch were a million to one, and they got lucky.

***
Mike Hunt bsteeles@hotmail.com
***