In the beginning its simple, only settlers for new cities and warriors for martial law, while racing
to discover Monarchy. Any small amounts of gold that are accumulated are used to help rush new settlers. |
4000 | Beijing, Shanghai |
3850 | Alphabet |
3750 | Sha warrior |
The first warrior was sent off exploring and scouting for the best city sites, as well as checking
out that promised land of gold and rubies. He went on to meet the Japanese, the only other civ on the home
continent. |
3600 | Code of Laws |
3500 | Sha warrior |
3450 | Bei settlers |
3400 | Canton |
3300 | Bronze Working |
3250 | Bei warrior |
3050 | Sha settlers |
2950 | Ceremonial Burial, Nanking |
2850 | Can settlers |
2800 | Tsingtao |
2700 | Nan warrior |
2650 | Bei settlers, Monarchy, switch made to that government |
This augured well getting into Monarchy 4 (or even 8) turns earlier than usual. Now science was
set to 70%, and taxes to 30% to get to Trade and Map Making quickly. I expanded quickly towards the SSC site,
already anticipating the possibility of 3 tech turns near the end of the game. Since the SSC provides almost
one of these turns all by itself, you want it positioned very near the beginning or the end of the city list. |
2550 | Xinjian |
2450 | Sha settlers, Nan warrior |
2400 | Can settlers, Currency, Bei warrior |
2300 | Xin warrior |
2250 | Tsi settlers, Can warrior, Japanese peace, give tech |
2200 | Chengdu, Bei warrior |
Chengdu was the SSC and also the 7th city. Its job was to just grow. |
2150 | Trade |
Trade came even earlier than I really needed it, so it might have been better to research Map
Making sometime before learning Trade. In previous games, once Trade was discovered, most cities would switch
from settlers to making caravans instead, to get MPE built quickly and to get going on early trade. This game,
the focus remained mostly on expanding the number of cities instead, and on getting the first colonies started
as early as possible. |
2050 | Hangchow |
2000 | Nan settlers |
1950 | Sha settlers, Che warrior, Can warrior |
1900 | Map Making, Han warrior, Tientsin |
Map Making was the final early tech that was urgently needed. This is the part of the game where
the AI become most helpful in acquiring techs, and coincidentally the time when my own city science is at its
weakest. In earlier games, when playing with a lean early Republic, I had always maximized research, but doing
this had probably been a mistake. At this stage, city growth and development is the priority, and what is really
needed most is more gold to help speed along this process until caravans deliveries take over the job of providing
income. Since I could wait a bit for the next critical techs, I reduced science to 30% and maximized income with
taxes at 70%, another good idea picked up from following Zenons successful games. As more cities were added during
Monarchy, some of the 30% being used for science had to be shifted to luxuries to help control citizen anger.
Slowing down my own research also provided the AI a bit more time to learn techs that could be traded for. Techs
coming through trades do not cost any turns of research, so maximizing the chances of this is the best policy. |
180 | Tatung, Bei trireme, Sha warrior
|
Tatung was the 10th city and filled in the last good empty spot north of the SSC, so the first
trireme was loaded up with two settlers, heading for two small islands I had located by black clicking southwest of
Chengdu, the SSC. Before sending off these settlers I had determined the likely commodities Chengdu would be
trading and had black clicked around my home continent looking for potential colony sites, using map coordinates
to check for useful wildcard commodities. The two islands to the southwest each had two promising colony sites, so
each settler was assigned its own island to develop. The plan was for the first settler produced on each island to
found a second city on the other promising site. A little further along was a third and smaller island, which became
the target for a settler on a following trip. Since all of these islands were very close to the large continent (#5)
to the west, I thought they would also be well positioned as a base for conducting trade with the AI civs in that
area. The southwest portion of continent #5 was located in the part of the world having the strongest demand for
silk, a commodity I knew the Chinese would be producing a lot of. The distance to that area was also just right
for lucrative trade. |
1800 | Japanese 25g tribute |
All those warriors maintaining martial law now outnumber any AI armies on my home continent, so
tribute can be used to tap another source of income. At this stage, every coin helps. I had also hung around Kyoto
long enough with the warrior making contact with the Japanese to allow it to be teleported home. |
1750 | Tsi settlers, Han warriors |
1700 | Can warrior |
1650 | Tsi warrior |
1600 | Tie warrior, Macao |
I wanted a few more cities just to the south of the SSC on the home continent. They could help rush
caravans when needed to make SSC wonders and were needed as seaports for conducting trade with the colonies and
AI later on. |
1550 | Che dye, Tat warrior |
1500 | Nan food, Japanese trade for Mysticism & Iron Working, give tech, share maps
|
I was just about to learn Writing, but was pretty sure it would be available later when MPE was built,
so had to slow down my own research by making trades with the Japanese. I was very happy to see they had Iron Working,
since all the rivers on the map had made Bridge Building more important than usual. Now this tech would be only more
one step after learning Construction. Now that almost all the cities needed on the home continent had been established,
it was time to shift more of them towards building caravans. On the previous turn the SSC produced some dye to be used
for the first AI trade a bit later. |
1450 | Xin food |
1400 | Sha food, Bei food, Tsi warrior, Che warrior |
1350 | Bei Marco Polos Embassy, Han trireme, Mac warrior, Anyang, French trade for Writing & Masonry,
share maps |
After several EL games, the MPE wonder has become a staple among all players. In games without
huts, it is more efficient not to explore and to use this wonder instead for making quick contact with all of
the AI. On average, careful use of this wonder provides 5 more techs than would usually be available through
trades with the AI. This capability of MPE more than pays for its cost. During this stage of the game, taxes were
maximized and techs came through AI trades or by beakers earned from making caravan deliveries. After some tech trades
with the French, the beakers I had accumulated towards Writing could be shifted to Construction, which was the next
tech I wanted. At this time the AI had the following techs I lacked: Horseback Riding, The Wheel, Warrior Code,
Masonry, Writing, and Pottery. Two techs I didnt have they were researching were Polytheism and Literacy. |
The trireme built in Hangchow was going to be used to carry a settler to found the first colony beyond
the southeast side of the home continent. The French occupied a small island to the south, and there was a larger
island to the east of them I had noticed by black clicking. Further north and to the east was another large continent.
I hoped to find some good colony sites on the larger island east of the French. A group of colonies there would become
a good base for conducting trade to the southeast of the home continent. I also wanted two groups of colonies to
provide more chances of profitable oil trades later on during the game. |
The dye produced by the SSC was also going to accompany this settler, and since dye is universally
in demand, I could wait to make contact with the other AI, until the trireme was near its destination. With MPE I
like to contact the AI on separate turns if possible, to help avoid setting them up with the prerequisites to
research techs already selected by others. It helps to see what one is going to research next, before deciding how
to steer the research of the others. |
Anyang was founded on this turn, a colony on the first island. On the following turn,
colonist #2 started Shangtung on island #2. |
1300 | Can settlers, Shantung, Indians trade for Pottery, peace, share maps |
The Indians were the key civ and were located on the continent to the east. At this time I hoped
to use them as a research assistant, too, just as with the other AI. Gifting them all techs to lower research costs
is more important later in the game when trying to stretch out the supply of beakers for a new advance. At this point,
I actually want my research costs to be high, to increase the size of the 2/3 commodity payments I was expecting. I
also wanted to accumulate a lot of techs now through trades in order to push my tech total over 20, so as to keep
delivery payments from being capped at 200 gold. |
1250 | Construction, Bei warrior, Han warrior, Spanish trade for The Wheel, peace, share maps |
After Construction, Bridge Building was chosen as the next tech. Having many rivers is nice, but
building bridges is the price paid for this extra source of trade arrows. Since roads on rivers take so long to
build, Bridge Building was an early priority. Another minor disadvantage of this map was the relative lack of
grassland in some areas, where many rivers were running through forests, instead. Forested rivers produce both
trade arrows and shields, but more irrigation than usual was needed around helper cities to make sure they did not
run short on food during Republic when they needed to grow. This meant that extra settlers which are often available
to work on SSC tiles were not there. Later it became a race to get the SSC tiles irrigated in time to allow
uninterrupted we love growth. |
After trading maps, I saw that the Spanish were on the large island I hoped to share with some more
colonies. By this time, my trireme was nearing Tatung, where a settler and the dye caravan were waiting. As expected,
all three Spanish cities were demanding dye, to guarantee a good trade. |
1200 | Any warrior, Shan warrior |
1150 | Tie dye, Bei warrior, Che hides |
1100 | English give tech, share maps; Japanese 50g tribute |
The English were located on continent #5 to the west. |
1050 | Tat silk, Xin settlers, Any warrior, Sha warrior |
1000 | Mac settlers, Tsi settlers, Can dye, Sha settlers, Russians peace, give tech, share maps |
The Russians were located in the silk starved part of continent #5 and ended up as the best AI
trading partner. Now that contact had been made with all AI, I knew that my half of the Spanish island was open
for colonization. My trireme headed for the nearest tile there that would have spice as a supply wildcard. Spice
would be the demand wildcard for the SSC later on in the game. There were several other potential spice producers
nearby, making this a great location for colonies. |
975 | Nan hides, French trade for Literacy, share maps; Russians give tech, share maps |
The Russians were primed again to research something new. |
925 | Han settlers, Che silk, dye(d) to Madrid, 208g |
900 | Che Hanging Gardens, we love begins, Bridge Building, hides(d) to Hastings, 184g; Spanish trade
for Engineering, give tech, share maps |
Now that there were 13 cities, angry citizens were making some cities almost untenable, so the
Hanging Gardens was built in the SSC. Trade was starting up too, so there were times when the research rate
was boosted to get advances a turn or two earlier, after which taxes would be reset at the maximum rate. The idea
was to minimize city science until trades supplied most of the beakers needed for the next advance I was researching,
and then to turn on as much science as was needed to finish learning the tech. After Bridge Building was picked up
this way, The Republic became the next research priority. |
The trireme delivering hides to Hastings gave the SSC its second trade route. It was also carrying
another settler towards that third island near the Russians. The settler dropped off on the Spanish island revealed
a banana special, which was ideal for rapid growth. A nearby sea tile also had a whale. |
875 | Bei settlers, Chinan |
Chinan was the first colony on the Spanish island. On the next turn, settlers were produced on the
two smaller islands so that an extra colony could be added to both a little later. |
850 | Sha settlers, Any settlers, Tat settlers, Che silver, Can settlers, Kaifeng |
Kaifeng was another mainland helper due south of the SSC. |
825 | Tie dye, Sha dye, Japanese 50g tribute |
800 | Chi warrior, Japanese 50g tribute |
775 | Tsi silk, Nan dye, Ningpo, Mac settlers, The Republic, Chi warrior, Indians trade for
Seafaring & Mathematics, give tech, share maps; other AI give The Republic, share maps |
Ningpo was the colony founded on the small island nearest the Russians. It was paying off using
the Indians now as researchers rather than as the key civ. In fact, they were keying off my tech lead instead of
me keying off them, allowing them to learn Mathematics followed by Seafaring on my behalf. All AI that wanted
Republic received it. |
750 | Han dye, Che gold, Xin silk, Bei gems |
700 | Nin warrior, Japanese trade for Warrior Code, give tech, 50g tribute; Russians trade for Polytheism,
give tech, share maps |
By now one of the AI would usually be researching Feudalism, but the ones having Warrior Code were
not cooperating, so I decided to trade for this tech and to give it to the other AI that lacked this prerequisite.
Its very useful to have the AI learning Feudalism, Chivalry and other military techs, while I go after more useful
ones later on. I was hoping the Russians would research Monotheism after Polytheism, but they didnt, so I decided
I would have to incur the carrying costs of Polytheism, too, in order to make sure I could learn Monotheism in
time for building MC. |
At this time, the east coast trireme was almost back with another settler headed for another banana
special revealed by a French trireme after trading maps in 775 BC. Even with bananas, I knew that if I was going to
fill up my half of the Spanish island with colonies, I would not be able to get them all to size three in time for
we love celebrations planned a few turns prior to 1 AD. So rather than build the Colossus now in the SSC, I decided
on the Pyramids instead. Even thought this decision caused me to lose out on building the Colossus later, having the
Pyramids probably helped even more. Granaries and bananas combine for rapid colony growth! |
675 | Xin The Pyramids |
650 | Can salt, Tat trireme, Any trireme, Indians give tech, share maps |
625 | Chi settlers, Tie settlers, Paoting, Sha trireme, Yangchow, Japanese 50g tribute |
Two more colonies were founded, one on a western islet and another on the eastern Spanish island.
Now helpers and colonies could start shifting their main emphasis on getting trade going. Trireme and caravan
production began in earnest, so that when the switch was made to Republic in 525 BC, there would be some helper
caravans waiting to be delivered. With fewer shields to work with in Republic, city builds would have to be helped
along by using gold earned through trade. As for trades, the plan was to trade an SSC caravan whenever a new commodity
became available, and to try and establish one trade route for each of the other cities, before we love growth
planned for about 200 BC. At this stage, most cities were producing caravans, so it took a bit of work to sort out
which ones should be sent off for establishing these trade routes and which ones should be retained for building
wonders. Cities having at least one trade route take fewer luxuries to celebrate and have the potential to grow larger
even if they have corruption, so its worth making a special effort to try and ensure this happens. |
600 | Kai settlers, Che trireme, Nin warrior, French trade for Banking, share maps |
575 | Sha silk, Che size 4, Spanish give tech, share maps, dye(d) to Orleans, 200g |
550 | Che marketplace, silk(d) to Minsk, 500g, revolution |
525 | The French build the Colossus, Che temple, Nan silk, government to Republic, Naples |
Considering how well Zenon did in this game by shifting to Republic earlier, it might have also
been a better idea for me to do this in my own game. Perhaps a blend of robust early Monarchy and a leaner Republic
quickly afterwards is the best way to an early landing. However, this game was planned on the promise of having
several 3 tech turns near the end. Naples was a colony sharing the island with Shangtung. After shifting to Republic,
I did not disband warriors as much as usual to free up shields for production. Instead, I shuttled as many as possible
into the SSC, so that one could be disbanded there each turn to start of the SSCs next rush buy. I think doing this
saved a lot of gold throughout the game. |
500 | Chi settlers, Any settlers, Mac dye, Che we love commences, Tsi copper, Philosophy & Monotheism,
Bei gems, silver(d) to Kiev, 540g; salt(d) to Paris, 184g |
475 | Yan settlers, Nin settlers, Sha dye, Tat hides, Han dye, Che settlers, Tie trireme, Issus,
French give tech, share maps |
Development of SSC tiles was so far behind schedule, the SSC had to build and add another settler to help out
with the irrigation. Issus was another colony, which was founded on the isthmus separating the Spanish side of their
island from my own. It was used to block them off and to facilitate sea travel in that area later. |
450 | Pao beads, Kai dye, Che harbor, size 5, Medicine, Xin silk, Can silk, English give tech,
share maps |
425 | Che size 6, gold(d) to Cordoba, 578g, dye(d) to St. Petersburg, 392g, Cunaxa |
Trade is picking up well. Cunaxa was the strongest colony having two spice specials and good
commodities to work with. Later on it contributed about 150 beakers of science. |
375 | Nap gems, Kai salt, Any beads, Mac silk, Che aqueduct, size 8, Tsi gold, Nan gold,
Cremona |
Cremona was founded southwest of the SSC to provide a port with access to the eastern colonies
on the Spanish island. |
350 | Iss gems, Chi gems, Che Shakespeares Theater, size 9, Bei silk, English give tech, share maps |
The English were useless for research, every time picking known tech to learn next. |
325 | Yan settlers, Nin dye, Sha beads, Tat copper, Han salt, Che bank, size 10 |
300 | Tie silver, Can hides, Che size 11, Cannae, silk(d) to St. Petersburg, 599g |
Cannae was yet another colony near the Spanish. Both Zenon and myself sent a lot of silk to St. Petersburg! |
275 | Astronomy, Pao cloth, Kai copper, Che library, size 12, Tsi copper, Nan silk, Indians give tech,
share maps; Spanish trade for Democracy, give tech, share maps; gems(d) to Delhi, 348g; dye(d) to Moskau, 304g |
One of the AI learned Astronomy on the same turn I did. This happened again later with Conscription.
With a little more favorable timing about this, I might have saved a few more turns of research by trading for these
rather than having to learn them myself. However, the Spanish had learned Invention and Democracy, so I had no reason
to complain. At this stage, I was devoting more to science than taxes since there was a lot of income coming in from
trades, because the AI were nearing the end of their usefulness as research assistants. |
250 | Mac silk, Che sewer system, size 13, Xin copper, Sha hides, University, copper(d) to Chengdu,
88g, dye(d) to Toledo, 272g
|
225 | Cre beads, Cun spice, Any silk, Che gold, size 14, Tsi food, Nan food, Pao trireme, dye(d)
to Madras, 232g, Capua |
Capua was the 11th and final colony. In retrospect, I might have overdone it with my emphasis on this, but this
brought my city total to 24, which I feel is the optimal number. There were enough cities to allow 3 tech turns near
the end and 24 is the number of parts needed for a 15-3-3-1-1-1 ship, allowing it to be built in one turn. Not all
cities were size 3, but it was time to build MC and start helper and colony celebrations, so that they could reach
their maximum sizes before the target date of 1 AD. |
200 | Yan settlers, Chi settlers, Che dye, size 15, Nan Michaelangelos Chapel, Economics, gems(d) to
Chengdu, 408g; gems(d) to Chengdu, 396g; French give tech, share maps; Japanese give tech, share maps |
Two gems in a row to Chengdu were made possible because they came from colonies, where all workers
were made into entertainers just before delivery. This cut the payments a bit, but allowed gems to remain in demand
by the SSC. After trading maps with the Japanese, I noticed that they had founded Edo close enough to Chengdu to permit
the railroad trade route bonus. Earlier I had been dismayed that Kyoto was just a bit too far away for doing this,
so this was a very happy development. So I decided on establishing two more cities, one as a station outside the SSC
and the other as a station close to Edo, in order to get the rail bonus later on in both directions. |
175 | Cap spice, Can spice, Cun gems, Iss dye, Yan spice, Nin beads, Tat gems, Che stock
exchange, size 16, Theory of Gravity, Bei silk, Pao warrior, Any warrior, Cre warrior, Tsi warrior,
Sha warrior, Tat gems, English give tech, share maps, we love begins everywhere |
I was making a lot of warriors for two reasons: one, to demand tribute from the Japanese and
Spanish during the transition to Democracy; and two, to obtain a lot of musketeers later when Leonardos built.
Most musketeers would be shipped to the SSC to help it start off each build for the remainder of the game. |
150 | Nap silk, Mac hides, Han silk, Che size 17, Nan warrior, Chi warrior |
125 | Kai silk, Mac hides, Tie silk, Xin coal, Can dye, Che warrior, size 18, Nin warrior,
Any warrior, Pao warrior, Tsi warrior, Yan warrior, Cun warrior, Iss warrior, dye(d) to
Delhi, 320g, Turin |
Turin became the SSC station city. It also became a another port leading to the eastern
colonies. |
100 | Han beads, Che university, size 19, Chemistry, Nan silk, Bei harbor, Cun warrior, Cap warrior,
Chi warrior, Sha warrior, Nap warrior, Tat warrior, Can warrior, Chi warrior, Cap warrior, spice(d) to
Chengdu, 342g; spice(d) to Chengdu, 300g; gems(d) to Chengdu, 342g; Spanish trade for Invention, give tech,
share maps; Indians trade for Navigation, give tech, share maps |
Again, the trades to Chengdu were from colonies and demand was preserved by using
entertainers. |
75 | Cre gold, Gunpowder, Pao spice, Mac silver, Che Copernicuss Observatory, size 20, Xin colosseum,
Tsi coal, Can harbor, Sha coal, Bei Leonardos Workshop, Nin, Any, Kau, Tur, Yan, Cun, Iss, & Tie
musketeers, gold(d) to St. Petersburg, 516g; silk(d) to Kiev, 408g |
This was another El first for me, since two wonders were built on the same turn. All warriors
were converted to musketeers, providing a good pool of units to start builds with 15 shields. On following turns I
noticed that cities that did not change their build orders from warriors were able to keep building them, so I kept
doing this for awhile. Producing cheap warriors and using Leonardos to triple their value on subsequent turns is
something I wish I could manage in the stock market. On this turn the first colosseum was built in Xinjian, to
begin getting ready for 0% luxuries later. Cities that were not able to build quality commodities started working
on their own colosseums, too. It would be a daunting task to get all cities content by the time The Corporation
was discovered. |
50 | Iss colosseum, Nap colosseum, Chi spice, Sha colosseum, Any dye, Tat coal, Che food,
Tsi silver, Explosives, Tsi silver, Can musketeer, silk(d) to Moskau, 414g |
25 | cun colosseum, Nin spice, Kai gold, Chi colosseum, Tie silk, Che food, size 21, Mac colosseum,
Xin dye, Genoa, dye(d) to Minsk, 444g |
Genoa was built by Chengdus warrior so it could grow further. It was the station next to Edo.
I could have built Isaacs this turn, but decided to send out more caravans for trades, instead. This might have
been another reason my landing was a little later than Zenons. |