Apolyton the Successor (Succession game thread).

[Dinner]

The following is a chronicle of Apolyton the Successor ruler of the English people. In the beginning they started as a small tribe inhabiting a lightly wooded river on the plains.



The founding of our first city, London, resulted in a friendly tribe giving us a map of the local area.



The reign of Oerdin the Chopper resulted in the following events:

- The destruction of a lot of old growth forest.

- The creation of five new English cities; London, York, Nottingham, Hastings, and Canterbury (I also left a settler for the next person).

- The exploration of much of the wilds & making contact with eight other civs (we have open borders with all of them).

- The beginnings of a crude trade network connecting some of our cities with the resources of bronze, cows, and rice.

- The institution of slavery.

- The construction of a barracks in our capital along with a few minor military units (6 warriors and 1 axeman).

- The following techs have been discovered: Fishing, The Wheel, Agriculture, Mining, Bronze Working, and Writing with research begun on the Alphabet.

Here is a screen shot of our empire at 1500 B.C.:



Here's some screen shots of adviser windows:




Who will take up leadership and be the next Apolyton (nee Caesar ) of the English people?
[Game note: Each person will play 100 turns and then post their save for the next person to continue. See thread for questions: http://www.apolyton.com/forums/showthread.php?t=188704 ]

[Theben]

Thaebi had never cared much for her sister Oerdina. Being sent into exile didn't make things between them any better, but it did allow her the opportunity to see that her people were falling behind the barely tolerant or downright hostile other civilizations that peppered the continent. That all changed when a small group of elders from the various city-states begged her to return and restore some sense to her homeland. After a bloodless coup and a quick re-write of history, Thaebi became the new ruler of the English.

She found she had a lot on her plate right away. Thaebi immediately drafted a work force to augment the small group already in existence. The economy was in shambles since Oerdina was convinced the best way to get the technology of foreign lands was to invent a method of universal communication so that each side could teach the other their ways of doing things. While true, the lack of any major centers of commerce or learning made the task formidable, and in order to stop the govt from going bankrupt she had to cut the research budget in half, making the process take even longer. Thaebi was particularly miffed when she noticed precious gold just beyond the reach of the workers from the city states of London, Hastings and Nottingham. That was highly prized in other nations and could solve most of the cash shortage alone!



Not everything was bad. Oerdina had built a small army and a small group of settlers was ready to strike out and found a new colony. While the lands to the north appeared quite lush, the flood plains out west along with ivory tusks from the great beasts seemed an easier task of taming. A precious stone called marble was also found nearby, and there was a sweet spot which would allow for all of these things to be incorporated into the new state, creating an opportunity for ample growth and commerce. Alas, a warlike tribe had settled there 1st.



The axemen who had escorted the settlers broke off to investigate the tribe, the vandals. Whispers from ages ago told of these warriors who had swept thru civilized lands like a scythe. Such a group could not be allowed to exist near England, so Thaebi ordered them dispersed. Although the odds were against them, the axemen prevailed in the 1st battle, yet suffered heavy losses. They had to retreat.

Sometime later, with fresh troops and the experience of the previous fight on their side, the odds had turned. The vandals were wiped off the map.



There was some discussion about keeping their city state, but in the end Thaebi decided the location was not ideal, and she felt that she would be unable to support such a large empire. The site was abandoned; a new city state, Coventry, appeared to the southeast.



With the money looted from the vandals Thaebi was able to increase the research rate somewhat. Once Alphabet was discovered, she met with several representatives from other lands and traded technologies hungrily. New centers of commerce were built on the flood plains near London and Coventry, while the French sent their missionaries in order to spread the word about the one TRUE god. In the meantime, more hostile tribes were discovered beyond the vandals.



The axe warriors who defeated the vandals were called in again to deal with this encroaching threat. A 1st battle was waged against the Uzbeks, then the Teoihuac (conquering them), then back to the Uzbeks, finally bringing them into the fold. Unlike the Vandals, these tribes were allowed to remain on their land if they swore fealty to the English.



From that point on the English concentrated on building up their cities, exploring, and getting good deals from the techs they acquired. A great thinker appeared in Nottingham's library and was sent to London. But unfortunately Thaebi had become complacent and no longer took great interest in running the nation, instead preferring to relax with games by the river or hosting great parties. Before the great man of knowledge arrived, a great upheaval shook the govt to its core; the religious caste had made a bid for authority...

[self biased]

as tehbana went into seclusion, her cousin s. bianca assumed most of the duties associated with the throne.



she met with the great thinker and decided it would be best to establish an academy in london to inspire others, and to assist with the squalid conditions her people were living in. but before she could get the ball rolling, the vile heathens of the Khemer Empire bribed Louis of France to attack fair england, claiming that her people had been practicing heretical perversions of our true faith.




however, we were surprised by a gift from the Germans!


with Germany's gift, Bianca was able to raise several regiments of mighty swordsmen, who fought alongside our veteran axemen, we were able to capture Marseilles and potentially the only French source of iron!


Peace broke out around 180BC, and S. Bianca set up many towns and villages on the flood plains between Coventry and Uzbek, and thanks to the academy in london, established the first Elephant Riders heavy cavalry regiments, as well as several regiments of catapults. a great mausoleum was started, to mark the creation of the Errrdinian calendar, and the knoweldge of horseback riding was sold at a most wondrous profit.



towards the end of her reign, S. Bianca made several anti-french speeches and implored her nobles to find a better way to create a more centralized government to increase productivity before disappearing mysteriously.

[Thoth]

At long last the round is finished.


500 ad: Up slider to 100%. CS in 7

515: Sal asks us to go to war with Spain. We agree, but send no troops. I have a stack headed east (5 cats, a jumbo,a spear an a couple of swords)
to capture the barb city. It finds that Hannibal has beat us to it.

530: Sell Math to Stalin for 300g. Beg 200g from Hannibal.

535: Civil Service in. Start Aesthetics.

545: Hanibal asks us to declare on Asoka. We agree. Hannible goes from Pleased to Friendly.
Wang has a stack near our borders. We demand 10g from him, he agrees and we get a 10 turn peace treaty. (it turns out the stack was
headed for Stalin).

We get the "tea event" ( choice between getting +1c in a plot near London or paying 112g and getting a chance at +3 health plus
a free Scientist in London as well as the +1c). We pay the gold, but don't get the scientist.

Trade Civil Service to Louis for Philo.

The Khymer build the AP (Hindu).
Saladin gets elected.

550: Philo to William for 770g.
Philo to Hannibal for 500ish gold
Civil Service to Hannibal for Metal Casting.
Whip MoM for 1 pop.

555: Burn Great Prophet for Golden Age (24 turns.) Swap to Beurocracy.

560: Aesthetics in. Start Literature.

565: Aesthetics to Louis for 1300g.

580: Fred asks for (not sure what) as a gift. We decline.
Sign peace with Izzy and get 13g for our trouble.
We attack Agara (Indian) and loose 1 cat. 2 units left in the city. (Hannibal razes the city on his turn).

590: Drama in. Start Music.
Pig to Fred for Sugar.

605: Music in. Start Machinery. Put the Great Artist to sleep in capital for a future golden age.

615: Sell Aesthetics to Wang for 210g, sell Aesthetics to Hannibal for 135 (he only had two turns left to finish research).

625: Stalin demands Calendar. Sure thing buddy.
Sell Monarchy to Stalin for 190g. This bumps the "our trade relations have been fair and forthright" up to +4 and gets Stalin
to Friendly.


630: Aesthetics + 980 g to Willie for Theocracy.
Sell Literature to Louis for 860g (a bit of a gamble as we still have a few turns to go on the GL)

635: We pay 22g to replace lost grain in Canturbury.
We attack size 1 Lahore and it is autorazed. Sign peace with Asoka and collect 180g + 3gpt for our trouble.

645: Machinery in. Start Compass.

Theocracy to Frederick for 320g, to Stalin for 250 g and to Hannibal for 200g.

660: Compass in. Start Optics.
Pay 23 g to keep Uzbec's mine.

670: Great Library in Hastings.

685: Optics in. Start Paper. Upgrade one (our only ) trireme to caravel and start building another.

695: Fred has a monopoly on Feudalism, but is only pleased so won't trade it. We've maxed out our +diplo mods with the exception of
the "shared military struggle" bonus. We bribe him into war with Louis (compass + ?philo for the war dec + 120g). I expect him to ask us
to join him in a couple of turns and our armies will be placed to attack Louis eastern cities by then.

700: HOOBOY! Asoka and Wang declare on Louis. Hanibal declares on Asoka. Saladin declares on Fred. Well, that should stop the AIs from
peacefully teching for awhile.

710: Wang asks us to declare on Louis. We do.
Fire ants eat our silk plantation. (I did *not* have good luck with events this set)
Capture 5 workers from Louis.

715: Capture Dijon and Amiens.

Sell Aesthetics to Stalin for 400g.

725: York finishes the Parthenon.

740: Sign open borders with Sury. sell Sury MC for 400g.

750: Capture Chartres.

755: sury demands Paper (currently we have a monopoly on it). NO!

785: Capture Tours and produce a GG. Settle it in Coventry (which has the Heroic Epic)

790: Finish National Epic in Hastings.

IBT: A French mace from out of the fog recaptures Chartres.

795: GScientist born. Bulb 5400 beakers for Education (enough to finish it next turn). This saved us 19 turns of research and gets our Unis online 19 turns earlier.

Re-recapture Chartres.

Fred has been friendly and willing to trade Feudalism for a couple of turns now. We trade Philo and Paper (William had researched paper by this time)
to Fred for Feudalism, his World Map and 360g.

800: University in. Start Guilds.

810: William comes begging for Feudalism. NO!
Sell Aesthetics to Wang for 510g.

815: We circumnavigate the globe and our ships gain +1 movement.

830: ORLEANS FALLS! The Jewish shrine is worth 63 gpt! I think we've found our Wall Street city.

AP vote comes up: Declare war on Izzy. We vote "yes".

835: Mass dogpile on Izzy. We cheer for the team, but send no troops.

Sell Lit to Hannibal for 630 g + World Map
Sell Lit to Stalin for 430 g + World Map

840: Drama, Music and compass to Fred for Engineering, 140 g and World Map.

865: Paris falls.

885: Banking is in. Start Printing press.

890: Hannibal asks for Drama. We give it to him.

A Great Priest is born in Hastings. We use it plus the Great Artist from Music to start our second Golden Age.

Change civics to serfdom and Mercantalism.


Compass to Hannibal for 680g + WM.
Literature to Asoka for 510g
Lit to Wang for 510 + WM
Compass to William for 510 + WM

895: Dye to Hannibal for 10g/turn

920: Corn to Sury for 5g/turn. Renegotiate our wine deal with Wang from 4g/turn to 6g/turn.

William has Education. Check demographics, and there is no way he can tech Lib before we do.

Switch back to slavery to whip our 8th University.

925: Start Oxford in Teotihuican. This will be our best commerce city with 2 gem mines + 16 cottages.

930: printing press in. Start Lib (7 turns)

Compass to Stalin for 460g. Sal swaps to Vassalage. Ugh. Protective longbows.

940: Dye to Stalin for 9g/turn

945: Fred builds Sistine. I would suggest we do not ever accept a vassal offer from Fred, he may well be going culture. We should be able to win
before he gets there, but it's always nice to have the option of razing his top 3 culture cities if he gets close.

In other news, we capture Grenoble and the French are dead.

Swap back to Serfdom. We have 29 workers (16 captured from Louis), but there is still a lot of work to be done.

950: Wang declares on Sury. Sal and Izzy make peace. We make peace with Izzy and pocket 40g.

960: Hanibal asks for help against Asoka. We agree, but send no troops. We bum 200g from Hanibal.

Hastings pops a Great Artist. He's sleeping in London for a future Golden age (combine with the GM from eco and the GS from Physics?)

965: Sury asks us to declare on Wang. NO.

LIBERALISM. We take Replaceable Parts as the freebee, and start researching Nationalism.

We bum 200g from Fred. We bum 140g from Stalin. We bum 200g from Willie.

Research is set a 70% giving us about 700 BPT at a loss of 60ish. We have 1340 in the kitty. Nationalism in 10 turns.

970: Carthage gets a good event for us: They send food to London, and we gain a +3 relations boost.

AP vote: Stop the war against Asoka. We vote NO.


975: AP vote FAILS.

We can now see Fred's research. He just finished up Guilds and is researching Gunpoweder. he'll have it in 25 or so turns.

990: The walls in Teotehuican become a tourist attraction and give +1g/turn.

York finishes a knight and is set to build wealth until Nationalism, it should then be configured for max hammers and build us the Taj.


1000: Holy crap that was a lot of work. But damn good fun.


Teo is a few turns from finishing Oxford, it's over it's health cap but the aquaduct in the queue should finish a turn or two after Oxford. Let it grow.

France needs a lot of work to get fully operational, but it's great land under all that jungle. There are a couple of good production and commerce sites, plus Paris which has a settled GG (thanks Louis!). I've got workers chopping every forest in Orlean's fat cross to speed up Forge/Stock exchange ect. I'd recomend waterwheeling as many of the flatland river tiles as possible, Orleans has a lot of hammers that need to be invested in infra.

Techwise, we'll have Nat in a couple of turns DONT TRADE IT UNTIL WE GET TAJ. We don't want some idiot AI to pop a GE and rush it on us.

After that we have a few options: Gunpowder and Rifling. This gives us Redcoats and would let us build an unstoppable army.

Economics is still available for the GM and would be a good second choice. Fred is friendly so we will be able to get Gunpowder from him in 20 turns or so. If we go this route, I'd suggest getting Constitution after Eco (we'll likely tech both before Fred gets guns). Then Rifling and Demo. The Taj GA would let us swap to US/Emancipation allowing us to rush-buy Redcoats. We have copper, so SoL is a decent value.

With the GA from Taj, we can also swap into Nationhood/Vassalage for 5 turns and draft 20 or so Redcoats.


We should give some thought about how we want to win this: Conquest/Domination should be a walk in the park, we'll have Redcoats against Longbows for at least the first war or two. We have more than enough good land to tech our way to space (if we go that route we'll want more cottages in France).

Lastly, our SOD is sleeping in Dijon.

[Thoth]

Oh, and one more note: There are two turns left on the Golden Age so if the next player wants to swap civics it's still anarchy free. We are large enough now that a single civic swap outside of a GA will cost 3 turns, so I'd recommend not switching unless we are in GA. Taj should be ours, and Hastings will pop another GP in 8-9 turns so we will be able to do two more GAs easily.

[self biased]

exciting! no screenies?

[Blaupanzer]

Good stuff. My games seldom go so well, and I only have one personality! (Eek! Maybe it's not the right one. )

[Dinner]

Who is next?

[Thoth]

exciting! no screenies?

Sorry, forgot to take any.

[Hauptman]

The first 50 turns....

So France has fallen, leaving us with a large empire with great potential, however France was nothing but Jungle, disease, and worthless towns. The wild northwest.

First order of buisness was to take advantage of one of the two great prizes, The Great Lighthouse. Granted our coastal cities are limited in both number and size, but switching back to a decentralized economy as well free speech increased total comerce enough to slow the hemorraging of cash. Pacafism was also selected to take full advantage of our great nations traits and begin full scale production of great people.

Workers were spread all across the lands working in the worst conditions often alone. Under such conditions it would be a half century before any land would become usable all the while our own heartland was left underdeveloped and stagnant. So I began i mass migration of the workers towards the capital and hired even more to help speed things along. Still it isnt enough, but resources are finite and we have to make due with what we have.

I also trimmed the fat by disbanding a number of useless outdated military units that provided zero combat ability, having warriors any where on the map at this stage is a waste of money.

The world stage is quite managable. The war with asoka was soon ended by his capitulation to whomever fealt the need to invade him, I cant be bothered by such trivial things anyway. What I will worry about is the west. Two friendly civs, one of wich is about as trustworthy as a '72 Pinto with bad tail lights. So before we can handle the less than friendly civs to the east, we must secure our rear in the west. So, my plan, 50 turns to build the infrastructure, then the remainder will be spent to make a name for my self in the anuls of history.

Plans never go according to plan.

Technologicaly speaking, we are doing right well. The most advanced nation and moving along at a good clip. I let Nationalism complete and immediatly began construction on the Tajmahal. Set to complete just in time for the second stage. I wasnt worried about it being built out from under me. Noone else was even close. After nationalism I went for economics, that extra trade route in every city will boost research even more, for the push to rifles and beyond.

I managed to improve tiles around a few key cities at the expense of newly captured cities and the western frontier. few if any roads connected us to Russia and Germany and the border is full of jungles and impassible mountains. Any wars in that dirrection will surely be slow moving. Hope the workers can make it there beforehand.

It did not take long to begin the buildup of new modern units. 5 turns before the completion of rifling I started setting production to muskets, knowing they would be upgraded before any finished. I sent a token force of longbows to man newly built forts on the eastern frontier to buy time in case of invasion should I be looking the wrong dirrection. And all this couldnt have happened soon enough.

15 turns before I would have taken the initiative Stalin declares war upon Germany. He was still armed with ancient units while Fredrik had gunpowder. Well, this can either remove Stalin from the equation and possibly remove any need of mine to go west. Fredrik is a reasonable man and him alone I could abide. Or possibly it could weaken them both to the point where neither one could put up a fight. Both seem like good outcomes of thier war for me.

However it didn't take Stalin long to realize he was in an untennable possition, and what else could he do but ask for my protection 10 turns before I was ready to give it. I still accept his vassalization and begin moving the newly upgraded (care of the worlds cash reserves) army west for a fight with Germany. First target, the salient city in the center of the border. Stalin had attacked and reduced it's defenders to a single damaged musket but my units were far off, The knights and a single redcoat got there and found 2 fresh longbows added to the defense. I loose 3 knights but the city fell on turn 48 with the main force coming up ready to push inland, delayed by a jungle crossing.


Research; Nationalism (3 turns remained) to economics. Planted great merchant in jewish holy city in preperation for wall street. Then to gunpowder, rifling, chemestry then steel (completes in 4 turns).

National epic city generates 3 great scientists. 1 builds an academy and other 2 settle in oxford city. A held great artist was settled on the western border to help keep german culture from growing out of the salient, and bring some extra cash in.

Since the new screenshot service is borked, I wont include them now, perhaps later if somone could point me towards a hosting site that doesnt require any signup/info. Or mayhaps I'll zip em and just post that. Until then, heres the save file if u wish to have a look.

[Dinner]

imageshack requires no signing up or info. Just up load it and then cut and paste the link with the img tags.

[Hauptman]

Winning the game in 50 turns!

Alright, shall we first start with the plan? It was my intention after the capilutaion of Germany to move the stack back to the north east and begin a march through the minor nations up north, wich could have then been followed by an all out struggle for the win with Hannibal. But nothing ever goes according to plan. Before my army could even cross my own lands Sala-Hadin's spies had somehow learned what was coming and volantarily became Hanibals vassal. Now it would have required a very long slug match against the number two nation and his vassals. So instead, I opted to build build build.

The war with Germany was short and painless. A total of 4 Knights had been lost, 3 on a rushed push to take the first city, and one more on an unlucky RNG roll. over 70% win chance and still lost. 3 Redcoats were able to take another minor city to the north with no losses and our main forces met in the south. I both outnumbered his units, and out powered him, destroyed all but 2 units holding the city and he capitulated. Western border secured.

Now I could go on about the details from the remainder, but it's just boring infrastructure building. So, I'll use the screenshots for the highlites.

Research; Finished steel, on to steampower then railroad. We had one single coal pop in the very south east edge of our lands. In between our fort and Hanibal's city. Possible danger of loosing it if he gets culture happy in that city. That of course would be Casus Beli.

After railroads it was on towards democracy to nab that Statue of Liberty. I had just enough time to finish Representation and endure 3 turns of anarchy.

The new republic shall now take the reigns, for I must retire and live the good life in my grand Forbidden Palace I had built myself in Teotihucan, to live amongst the Educated youth at the Teotihucan University.

[Hauptman]

A look at the empire at my start.



A civic switch as my new Government takes the reigns.



The capital after the workers had gone through.



7 turns before I would have taken the initiative, Stalin presses my hand.



The Taj Mahal completes just in time for the buildup.



Hannover and Stuttgart both fall quickly, making a nice straight border.



Germany's paltry forces meet the combined forces of Russia and England.



His army defeated, he has no choice. I of course let him keep his city.



My plans alas, have been dashed...



So I set the Government to emphasize on the infrastructure build.



A streak of luck! making a great city even greater.



Yet more luck, the gods smile upon me.



And again....



... and again. This is getting monotonous.



The first rails are layed, a new age of trasportation has dawned!



In preperation for my retirement, I decide the people should rule themselves. They of course prove completely inept for 3 turns.



My own home city taking shape, already, it provides 1/3 of the nations research. this will only improve.



100 turns of growth...

Production has reached previous golden age levels.



Security assured.



We have options, cultural, conquest, or spacerace.



And the empire as i leave it.

[Hauptman]

NEXT!

[Beta]

The first 50 turns....

Two friendly civs, one of which is about as trustworthy as a '72 Pinto with bad tail lights.

My brother had one of those, and fortunately no one ran into the back of him, so he is still with us.

On a related noted - great thread folks. Thoroughly enjoyed the read and the game. Well played!

I may have missed it in the initial post or two - but what difficulty setting was it set at?