The Devel's Workshop 1a - Beyond the Veil (After the Slingshot)

[Velociryx]

525 AD - Our Northern cities both finish workers this turn. Neapolis immediately begins another, and Cumae begins a courthouse.

535 AD - Guilds are ours. We COULD press on to banking at this point, but no. Japan already has Philosophy, and we don't want to get beaten to Liberalism, so we'll start toward that goal now. As it is, Guilds gives us two important items....the grocer and Knights (which officially eclipse our long-in-the-tooth Praetorians), so when we get back to troop building, that is where we shall start.

540 AD - Rome completes the Hanging Gardens and starts in on a Confucian Temple to give us a bit of cushion in the happiness department. Meanwhile, terraforming activities around the city of the Hun are beginning to bear fruit, and we now have a couple of plantations up and running. It is starting to work.... Hun & Salamanca both rush their courthouses, in a move which should greatly enhance our bottom line (currently losing 20gpt at 70% research). Both these cities will begin forges next.

550 AD - Antium's market finishes, and we discover that she somehow missed out on the granary. We move to remedy this oversight immediately.

555 AD The indian city of Kolhapur revolts with the desire to join our glorious and expanding realm. That revolt is put down, but we expect there will be others....

[Velociryx]

560 AD - Pisae completes her Granary and begins a forge.

580 AD - Neapolis completes a worker and begins one more. Antium completes a granary and begins building missionaries.

585 AD - Cumae builds her courthouse and begins a workboat (for Pisae's fishing grounds).

590 AD - Rome builds her temple and begins a courthouse. Research to 100% to rocket through the tech of Philosophy. Losing 46gpt.

595 AD - Cumae completes workboat and begins granary.

615 AD - Kolhapur revolts from India again and joins our realm. We graciously accept them into our folds and begin construction of a courthouse there.

625 AD - Philosophy is ours. Research back to 70%. We spread confucianism to Salamanca.

630 AD - Cumae begins a barracks, Neapolis finishes our 14th worker and begins a settler. Murcia rushes her courthouse (to begin a forge next).

660 AD - Sell music to Spain for 160d.

680 AD - Two million Romans.

695 AD - Cumae's barracks completes, and she begins cranking out catapults.

700 AD - Paper is ours. Research to 90%. Education in 35t. Salamanca completes her forge, and begins construction of the Forbidden Palace.

710 AD - Neapolis completes her settler and begins a Barracks.

720 AD - Trade world maps with America and pocket 100g in addition to. Now, let's shop them around. Dang, the only other person who has anything is Aztec, and we only get a hundred from there. OH well....

725 AD - The Hun city rushes their forge.

740 AD - Another Roman city founded....

[Velociryx]

755 AD Ravenna is properly garrisoned, and gets a taste of religion. Meanwhile, Neapolis completes her granary and begins building a monestary to participate in the missionary fun.

765 AD - Rome completes her grocer and begins a monestary as well. We're gonna spread our religion to every American and Indian city we possibly can!

780 AD - Antium lays off the missionaries, now that we have two other cities participating, and begins building a grocer.

840 AD - Forbidden Palace completes in Salamanca, and that city begins a granary. Murcia rushes her forge, Kolhapur rushes her court house (to begin a granary and a forge next turn, respectively).

845 AD - All American cities now have followers of our religion in them, and we turn our attention to India....

850 AD - Pisae completes her forge and begins a barracks.

855 AD - Hun completes her granary and begins a settler. Three new fishing villages are planned. Also...nearly everyone has CoL and Civil Service at this point, with Ghandi and Montezuma being the two holdouts, so there's little harm in trading them. We trade both of these to India, and net ourselves Drama and Theology (plus WM and 10g, but those are of little consequence at this point). A good trade for us.

865 AD - Three new missionaries complete this year, and our second knight. The knights are sent to the front, the missionaries to the lands of India, and Neapolis begins a forge, to further boost our national production.

870 AD Great Engineer in Rome...added to that city....+3h and +3b

880 AD - Education is ours, and we enter the Renaissance era!

890 AD - Cumae begins a Library

895 - Rome begins a university.

915 - Salamanca's lighthouse completes, and she begins a barracks.

930 AD - Antium's Grocer completes. Begins Library.

970 AD - Arretium is founded, just south of Antium (CH)

[Velociryx]

995 AD - Liberalism is ours! We select nationalism as our free tech, and begin researching Military Tradition. Also, adoping Free Religion immediately, for the 10% research kick.

1004 AD - Neapolis completes forge and begins Library.

1006 AD - Rome begins Taj Mahal. Begin systematically building Libs and Unis ANYWHERE it is profitable (this, to avoid giving out building orders for every city, each and every time...immediately followed by Markets and Grocers)

1060 AD - Military Tradition is ours. Now researching Banking.

1070 AD - Give India Education for Divine Right & 20g

1076 AD - Banking is ours. Adopt Mercantilism, and now researching Economics.

1082 AD - Arpinum founded...another fishing village.

[Velociryx]

1090 AD - Japan declares war on France

1108 AD - Open borders with Spain...nice.

1110 AD - Taj Mahal completes in Rome, and our Golden Age begins.

1112 AD - Economics is ours. Cash in the free merchant to gain 3500b toward Constitution (which we are researching next). Time to research drops from 17 to 10 turns. Woot.

1126 AD - Trade with America. Give Liberalism. Get Engineering + 310g.

1132 AD - Constitution is ours. Now, to Gunpowder.

1134 AD - Sign a defensive pact with America??? How can they have this tech. It's not showing on the board....

1146 AD - Prophet born in Antium (Printing Press). Him, we'll keep for the moment.

1152 AD - Gunpowder is ours. Now researching Printing Press (normally 18 t). Cashing in the Prophet cuts this to 9t. Upgrade our six horse troops to Cavalry configuration. We've got five more cav training, and that will be enough to begin a war....The last jungle tile disappears from our borders....

1166 AD - The war begins.....

Order of Battle:

Chicago - Lightly defended. Still, they have a large cultural bonus, and we lose two macemen in taking the city (guarded by a crossbow, longbow, mace, and a catapult. First blood, however, goes to us!) One worker captured.

[Velociryx]

1168 AD - LA Captured, at a loss of one unit of cavalry. Killed Pikemen x2, Mace, Longbow x2, Galley, and captured one worker.

Printing Press is ours, and we are now researching Democracy.

Also, we observe that several of our peers do not yet have Divine Right, so we shop it around for cash, selling it to the Aztec for 460g, the French for 430g, and the Japanese for 810g. A nice haul for a tech we never even bothered to research....

1172 AD - A furious America counter attacks in Chicago with an impressive stack, containing 2x Elephant, 2x Knight, 2x Longbow, 1x Horse Archer, and 1x Crossbow. Sadly, this army is insufficient, and all American units are killed, with no Roman losses whatsoever. Meanwhile, we have four healthy units of cav available, and are scouting toward Seattle....

1180 AD - Hilltop Seattle proves to be a more difficult nut to crack, and her two longbow and 1 pike garrisons spell the end for two units of our cavalry. Nonetheless, we grind them to dust and capture a third American city. Between that and hammering their main battle group, we are in great shape to put the wraps on this war!

1184 AD - Again, 2 Longbows and a Pike, again, a hilltop city, and again, two cavalry units lost in its taking. Nonetheless....victory is ours, and a fourth American city falls. Having captured nearly half of the American cities (4 of 9), we're ready to sue for peace. We do not wish to DESTROY America...at least not yet. Rather, we needed to get ourselves situated so that we could easily destroy the Spanish. We owe them some blood, and now, with a bevy of highly promoted units and clean lines TO them, doing so should present no problems at all....

1186 AD - In a fortuitous turn of events, Spain declares a war against India on the same turn that we make peace with the Americans (680g and their World Map which we did not need). We shall let our troops heal, which will give Spain sufficient time to get her armies mired in India, and then, we'll take them out in one shot.

In the meantime, let us adjust our civics while we're waiting....Representation + Free Speech

1192 AD - Peace between Japan and France....

1208 AD - Surprise attack on the Spanish city of Toledo, guarded by 3x Conquistadore, 2x Longbow, 1x Pike, and 2x Catapult. We capture the city with no losses to our force.

1210 AD - Roving War Elephant and HA killed by our cavalry....

1218 AD - Lose Toledo briefly to a sneak attack by the Spanish (A lone conquistadore took out our Mace garrison). We snag it back the next turn and press on with our invasion without skipping a beat. Democracy is ours, and we begin researching Astronomy.

1222 AD - The battle for cordoba sees us lose a unit of cavalry, and destroy mace x2, longbow x2, catapult x2, caravel x1, galley x1, and capture a worker. Hugely in our favor, and the Spaniards are really on the ropes now, with the whole of their country laid bare to us.

1224 AD - Ten million Roman citizens now....sweet.

1228 AD - Leonardo Da Vinci is born in Rome (Engineer). Hilly Santiago costs us a unit of cavalry, as we battle a pike, a longbow and a catapult. Still, Spain has only three cities remaining now...it will not be long....

[Velociryx]

1234 AD - Lose one unit of cav attacking Madrid. We kill Longbow x3, musket x1, pike x1, catapult x3, buddhist missionary x2, and capture a worker. Two Spanish cities left.

1242 AD - India makes peace with Spain, but it is far too late.... Rome completes Oxford University and begins the Statue of Liberty. We cash in our Engineer to give us a huge headstart ON that project.

1246 AD - Not wanting to drag the war out, we take a chance and divide our forces against the two remaining spanish cities. Kill 3 cat, 1 mace, 2 longbows in Santiago (no losses), 1 marauding WE, and 3 longbows and a pike in the other spanish city (2 cavs lost). And just like that...Spain is a memory.

Our next objective, of course, will be to turn our attention back to the wounded lion that is America, find a good place to build Versailles, and then we'll kick India off of the continent. They can have the little island south of us....I don't care about that, but I WILL NOT share this continent.

[Velociryx]

1260 AD - After building up our forces a bit, we declare a second war with America, capturing three workers on the opening turn. There will be no quarter this time. We mean to end their civilization.

[Velociryx]

1268 AD - We enter the Industrial Era with the acquisition of Scientific Method and begin researching Communism. Battle for Boston proves bloody....kill a pike a musket, a mace, and two longbows, but it costs us three cavs.

1272 AD - Another grim and bloody battle...this time, Washington. Kill FIVE longbows, a crossbow, a musket, a pike, and two cats...again, lose three cavs.

Lose Seville to Indian culture. We'll get it back shortly, but for the moment, it's a source of annoyance.

1288 AD - The battle of new york costs us two cavalry. we take out a musket, mace, and a knight, plus two crossbows, two longbows, and two cats, and capture a worker along with the city. Only two american cities remain.Sell Education to France and Aztec for a total of 820g to raise more fundage (it's an older tech at this point, and everyone else has it....plus, we could use the spare change, cos we're getting ready to have to do a wampum lot of development....

1294 AD - Communism researched. Immediately make the switch to state property (3t anarchy). Capture another american city (Atlanta), killing pike, lb x2, mace, caravel and galley. Lose one cav. One american city to go.

1298 AD - The last bastion of american culture (Philly) falls when we defeat a crossbow and a catapult. America has been utterly subjugated.

[Velociryx]

1300 AD - We emerge from anarchy, and get set for yet MORE anarchy soon to come. Our forces are too stretched thin as it is (with most of our cavs tied up pulling garrison duty, and light garrisons in ALL cities, we opt NOT to press on to India. They will have to wait. Besides, we have more than enough to say grace over just now....

1302 AD - Build Orders: Cumae begins West Point. Pisae begins Hermitage. Murcia begins training muskets.

1304 AD - Atlanta = Courthouse, Neapolis = Musket. NY = Library

1306 AD - Antium begins the Kremlin. Civics changes. Usuf + Emancipation...five turns of anarchy.

1316 AD Emerge from Anarchy. Rush theater in Philly (culturally overwhelmed by India), and begin LIb next turn. checking cost on rushing the Kremlin.

1324 AD - Salamanca begins Scotland Yard.

1332 AD - Research to 60% to generate cash needed for rushing. **** - NOTE: THIS is key. If you take nothing else away from this workshop, then PLEASE remember this. NOTHING is more powerful than getting yourself into a position where you can begin to use gold to rush infrastructure. As soon as you reach this point, the game is OVER (in SP). You can quickly turn your per turn cash surplus into an insurmountable lead, as you will see by reviewing the numbers in this, and future stat comparisons. Nothing in the game is more powerful than this.

1338 AD - Japan founds a city on our continent, and we rush-buy the Kremlin, now...let's see where we are and where we need to be:

[Velociryx]

Relevant stats:
GNP: 1st - 429/187 - More than double our next nearest rival. Nice. That means we can run ~50% research and STILL get techs faster than our rivals...important for rushing all the infrastructure we now need.

MFG - 1st, 250/129 - Nearly double our next nearest competitor, and with several forges in the works, this gap will only widen.

Food: 1st - 513/180. Hugely bigger than anybody else. Probably nearly as big as the rest of the world combined.

Troops: 2nd, 657k/738k, and climbing, with several cities working on garrisons.

Pop: 15,916,000 vs. 7.3 mil.....more than double, and growing rapidly.

In short, in every measure that matters, we're vastly bigger than all our competition, and with our research set to 60%, we're gonna be able to widen that gap to just silly levels via rushing. Watch and see...we'll check back in on the numbers before long.

Goals:

* Surpass the leader in troops
* Properly garrison all cities
* Rush build infrastructure in all newly conquered cities (get the basics down, happy factors, granaries, barracks, ch's, and forges, then either finance multipliers and/or research multipliers as needed.
* Widen our lead on all fronts.

[Velociryx]

1348 AD - Physics is ours (we get the Great Scientist). Cash him in to get a jumpstart on Chemistry. 10 turns becomes 2 turns. Sweet.

1352 AD - Chemistry is ours. Now researching Corporation. Rush Versailles. We're gaining momentum.

1356 AD - Rush statue of Liberty

1368 AD - Rush West Point. Gain Corporation. Now researching Replaceable Parts (9t)

1370 AD - And now that all the wonders we wanted are out of the way, let's start rushing some infrastructure. Priorities will be placed on CH's, and anything that multiplies our money first (since that will give us MORE money for rushing, followed by research enhancers, and then, forges and basic infrastructure.

[Velociryx]

The Builder Phase

It always happens. I get complacent with the military at some point in the game, and usually it's right when I get the cash surplus and start rushing thru infrastructure in all my cities like gangbusters.

Invariably, somebody has to show up and spoil the party, and in this case, it was the sick old man of the game, the Aztec. Thankfully, or it could have been worlds worse.

As it was, they made me stand up and take notice that my military was suffering, even as I was building a sterling economy. They landed their two attack groups near washington, and briefly took and held the city. Thanks to a good road network and techniological superiority, we beat them back and re-took washington, but the "cultural kiss" of the Aztec can be seen for the whole rest of the game (you'll see Aztec green around Washington anytime I show culture maps, and this is why....all because of a sneak attack by the Aztec that temporarily cost me a city. Note that had they burnt it to the ground, it would have hurt a LOT more!

Timeline of events as we rocket thru this next phase:


1378 AD - Japan declares war on France. Perfect. Let them fight while we build.....

1384 AD - Replaceable parts....ours. Now to Biology to widen our food lead....

1388 AD - Twenty million Romans!!

1414 AD - Biology is ours. Now to Rifling.

1418 AD - Rush Wall Street in Rome.

1430 AD - Rifling is ours. Now to Electricity.

1460 AD - Electricity is ours. Now researching Steel. Beginning Broadway.

1476 AD - Steel is ours. Now to steam power.

1492 AD - Steam Power is ours. Now to Assembly Line.

1520 AD - Assembly Line is ours. Now Rail Road.

1526 AD - After taking two cities, Japan makes peace with France. Meanwhile, we've been steaming ahead nicely.....

1542 AD - Railroad is ours, now researching combustion. And suddenly, the workers have LOTS to do again!

1554 AD - Broadway rushed to completion. More than half our cities are now building factories or coal plants....

1558 AD - Combustion is ours, and we make a side-stop to pick up fascism....

1560 AD - Great Prophet is generated....we send him to Rome to add him to our city....

1568 AD - All Praetorian units are upgraded to Infantry.

1570 AD - Fascism is ours. Now to Radio....

And then.....




1572 AD - The Aztec declare a war against us....

1586 AD - All our ships have been upgraded to Destroyers....

1594 AD - All axemen upgraded to infantry (4)

1600 AD - We enter the modern age with the discovery of radio. Now researching Mass Media.

1604 AD - All Macemen (11) upgraded to Infantry.

1610 AD - Force peace with the Aztec for all their money (50g).




1612 AD - We lose Philly to the Indians...:

1618 AD - Mass Media is ours....now to Artillery.

1636 AD - Japan declares war on France.

1638 AD - Artillery is ours. Now to Rocketry.

1650 AD - We get a Great Scientist and complete Mt. Rushmore.

1664 AD - Rocketry is ours, and now to Industrialization

1670 AD - Eiffle Tower is completed

1674 AD - Rock N Roll & Pentagon complete this year.

1692 AD - Industrialization is ours, and now to computers.

1698 AD - Cash in our great scientist toward the research of computers

1708 AD - Computers are ours, and now researching Sattelites. Now that we're first place by such wide margins in every category, the game is essentially over. We could win in most any fashion we choose (excepting culture), so we're just killing time at this point. Let's boot India off of our continent.

[Velociryx]

Note that durinig the phase mentioned above, although there are no screen shots (because nothing outwardly had changed), I build EVERY IMPROVEMENT that it was possible to build in ALL my cities.

Not because I needed them, but simply because I could. I could because the aforementioned cash stream is THAT powerful. It was pure builderesque PRIDE that prompted me to build every friggin improvement in all cities. Just cos I COULD (with time and resources to spare, I might add). I like that.

Anyways, India. Yeah. We want the continent to ourselves, so they've got to go.

The war with India was just like the other wars we've fought, so I'll not bore you too much with the nitty gritty.

Sufficie it to say that on the opening turn of the war, as we had done every other time, we blitzed in, pinged a couple of cities (our former ones, actually), and captured some workers...then proceeded to eat their counter attack and roll them up.

Here's a shot of us winding things down on India....

[Velociryx]

1710 AD - The war begins when we blitz across the border and retake Seville and Philly (the two cities that joined the Indian Empire), One cavalry lost during these maneuvers, and some seven enemy garrisons destroyed, but our army (still mostly cavalry at this point) got banged up pretty good, and is forced to spend several turns healing, so our advance stalls. No matter...we've got tanks in production by the fistful, so we'll be able to carry on as soon as more of them come online.

In the meantime, the Indian navy (far inferior to our own, being galleons and frigates) DOES manage to land troops on our soil. These don't live long, only getting to pillage three tiles before they are utterly destroyed by infantry and marines (assisted by one tank unit), and our fleet converges on the offending navy, sinking 6 frigates and 2 galleons, all in the same turn, before positioning themselves just off the coast of every Indian city to bombard their defenses down.

1716 AD - It takes some years to complete preparations for our attack (and we opt to wait until the bombarding naval units have time to do their work), but we finally go back on the offensive here, taking Bangalore from the four garrisons holding it, with the loss of only one unit of cavalry. The defenses of the other Indian cities on OUR continent will be no match for the kind of firepower we can bring to bear against them....it should be over soon.

1717 AD - The offensive gains momentum as we attack and capture bombay, killing six defenders and capturing a worker, no losses on our part.

1722 AD - We get a great merchant in rome (added to city). Sattelites are ours (WM revealed). And our troops draw up outside the gates of Delhi. This war will be over soon.

1727 AD - Appollo Program completes, and we move on the last Indian city.....we're so far ahead of the rest of the world at this point that it's not even funny....well, okay, it's pretty funny, but...

1728 AD - The last Indian city falls to our forces. Now....it's time to pay the Aztec's back for their earlier slight against us, but an important objective has been accomplished here....we have secured the whole of our continent, as we had envisioned.

A couple of turns of cleanup puts us at 1730, and here are some screenies of our world, and other information....