AU 100-A DAR 3: The Classical Era

[Fluffybunnyfeet]

Prince difficulty, 425 AD

Progress

Placed an archer in the forest outside the barbarian city to soak up experience - surprisingly, the AI chose to hammer it with two attacking archers, which almost ended that experiment. Maybe two archers to soak up experience in future.

Slavery and organised religion will help. Religion has spread very quickly through my cities.

Barrack Town begins work on chariots (cheap and powerful) and archers. Some Iron suddenly appears, what luck. Time to take care of the barbarian city! The procedure is bloody but profitable, experience-wise.



Pains me to do it, but exlusive farming/mining at Barrack Town seems like the best way to specialise there.

Barbarian wanderers became rarer as my neighbours settle close by.

In 75 AD I get around to Alphabet. I'm surprised to find that i'm ahead on Score, and with most other civs i'm keeping up in the technology race. Also in 75AD, I achieve my first long-term goal. I found my sixth city, and even better, the cities are arranged circular fashion around my capital. I'm only just dipping into 80 percent science, and starting to build courthouses.



I plan to pick only the choicest city sites now, as Maintenance will become a problem very quickly.

Several competitors are getting uppity and demanding stuff. Still, can't afford to be scared until our borders meet. My soldier-producing town is working at a mighty pace, so i'm crossing my fingers for now.

Outlook

For now, I need to keep my worker population up, and largely ignore Wonders. Not sure of survival through the next era. I will pacify my neighbours and hope for the best. I have huge holes in my tech tree. Without the trading, I will have to discover each of these the hard way.

[Derelict]

Noble Difficulty -- Classical Era Report

INDEX

Early Ancient
Late Ancient -- Brief!!
Classical
Medieval: Parts 1 & 2
Medieval: Part 3
Renaissance: Part 1
Renaissance: Part 2
Industrial
Modern

1,200 B.C. Jackpot! With my recent discovery of Iron (in my exceptionally short late ancient period, LOL) I now have two sources of iron available for unit production, which I fully intend to get started on, and now can further delay animal handling and horse back riding in favor of mathematics. Chances are I'll end up trading for those along the way if I can keep my focus on my intended goals.

I'll soon need to get my economy rolling however, as it is a bit lackluster so far. I'm hoping to see Washington grow to at least size 6 before too long and will generate another worker from one of the other cities to help the economy/development.



725 B.C. and I am started on the Alphabet. Washington is now size 5 and starting on an aqueduct. Unfortuantely, Washington isn't exactly in the most ideal of spots for high production so I may not place the hanging gardens there, but in New York instead. Overall I'm pretty confident that I'm ahead on the race toward the hanging gardens which I'm really looking forward to getting in place--the +1 health and +1 pop will help me just that much more ahead, not to mention the engineers I hope to produce.

575 B.C. I convert to slavery and pop-rush a barracks in Washington. It is going to be my main producer of units/workers/settlers and I needed to get the barracks out of the way since New York's production will be tied up for a while. I also need to get city #4 established before too long!

475 B.C. A couple barbs harassing people around Washington but they are easily dispatched. I haven't explored to the south at all and it makes me suspect that no other civ is located below me--more incentive to keep expanding in a northernly direction first.

400 B.C. The hanging gardens are started in New York with 12 turns to go thanks to the supply of stone. As a result I won't worker-chop anything to accelerate that and, instead, save such things for the Great Library which I'll also probably produce in New York (and due to the fact I have no marble).

150 B.C. Genghis switched to police state--doubtlessly he is gearing up to slam someone, most likely Hatty or Isabella. He is on "cautious" with me so I'm not quite as concerned considering his relation and relative distance, but I'll be building a couple extra spearmen just in case.

125 B.C. and the hanging gardens is up--bam! My capacity for population (and the actual population) just got bumped up. Also traded polytheism for sailing (with Saladin) and Animal Husbandry (with Genghis). Literature is 3 turns away and I also have my fourth city, Philly, established due east of Washington (as there is yet another iron source within border expansion of it--that'll safely get me three sources for trade and as a backup if attacked).

25 A.D. and Literature is up, just in time for an open que at New York--20 turns to go on the Great Library there!.

50 A.D. Genghis gives me a buzz, asking me to kill my deals with Hatty. Since she is on the far side of him, and I have every interest in making friends with a pitbull, I agree and cancel my open borders with her. To boot, she is currently leading the game score and I'm hoping that Genghis decides to chew off a little from her. Quite frankly, Hatty has most everyone a bit annoyed with only Bismarck at cautious. She's #1 but I'm betting that won't last forever.

75 A.D. Yup, Hatty is being setup as a pinata starting with Genghis up first to bat. I quite imagine he'll be calling me soon asking to join the fray, which I'll agree too particularly if someone else has also jumped in--bonus diplomacy with someone else!

150 A.D. I move two workers down for a chop near New York. There are 15 turns left on it and frankly, I want to get it out of the way so I can start focusing on the establishment of more cities.

350 A.D. and Genghis has indeed asked me to gang up on Hatty. I'll do so but only carry on a limited pillage war with a few spare units.

375 A.D. I now have forges under foot and need to get started on monarchy--my cities are bulging at the seams and hereditary rule would be nice, for the time, to keep things in order.

400 A.D. The Great Library is built! Excellent! Even still, I feel a little behind where I should be. In many cases, playing other civs, I'd be hitting medieval before much longer and, perhaps, I'm not as far off as I feel at the moment.

500 A.D. Here's why I strongly strongly strongly dislike Isabella. She is now starting to make demands because she knows her conquistidors are right around the corner. Start ticking her off now and it'll spell almost certain trouble with her just around the corner. And once she goes aggressive on you, she'll go *really* aggressive since the latest patch. Did I mention I dislike her? Anyhow, she's demanding I give her forges. Sorry, don't think so. However, I'm going to be giving them to Genghis right now, and seeing who else I can trade with. I see a fight with Isabella in my not so distant future.

So I get Genghis on the phone and freely offer up metal casting. He is now pleased with me, but apparently not enough to trade my alphabet for his calender. OK, so be it...but things are still shaping up more or less like I might've hoped.

For now I'm kicking some military into gear in preparation for Isabella. In fact, I'm starting to consider an early pillage hit to slow up her economy going into the medieval era. I'd like to make sure I have at least a slight tech advantage over her during that time frame. Having said that, now is the time for me to decide since I have metal casting and iron working, both of which she is lacking--thankfully due to her earlier focus on religious techs it would appear. It's my guess that she is currently ranked 5th in the soldier department, though I know for sure that she has copper units that still leaves me with a small window for attacking her cities, if I'm going too. I'll make up my mind very shortly.

Furthermore, I just got Atlanta up, my 5th city. I think this is where I feel a bit behind. By now I'd prefer to have 6 and possibly even a 7th up, being that I am Washington and Code of Laws is not so far off now.

|

520 A.D. New York produces it's first engineer. Excellent timing as this will give me a very strong tech lead on Isabella because he'll instantly discover crossbowmen for me. Given that she has bronze age units at the moment, I'm still a clear leg up on her in a military sense. New York and Philly will both be geared up to produce military for an attack as soon as possible. My hope is to take two of her cities, possibly a third, and get COL in the process to consolidate things nicely. Did I mention I don't like Isabella?

Still, I'd like to have used that engineer in other ways but this will really expand the horizons for me and firmly establish me as the world leader, assuming things go my way. Naturally, this also entered me into the Medieval era.

[Caligula 37 AD]

Re: warlord difficulty

Originally posted by chriseay

I am first in every F9 category except for trade, and far ahead in pop, prod, food and gnp. If people are bored with how well I am doing, I am willing to sit out the rest of this game and start the next a level up. As I've noted before, I am amazed how effective pop rushing can be in a game with enough happiness resources and food. It can really make up for a lack of shields.

No, please continue the game. I too am playing a game on warlord level, and I too am regreting not to play one level up. As you I am in this game thinking much more about every decision, and thus doing much better than I normally do. (DAR1 and 2 for Caligulas Trading Havens).
EDIT: linkt doesn't seem to work, it is #26 post on this page.

As far as I can see we are the only two playing at warlord level, it will be nice to have at least one game to compare with. If nothing else the two of us can compare the different strategies. As you can see I do a slightly different game consentrating all my effort on trade.

I have just completed my Classical era and will post my DAR3 tonight (European time). I look forward to read the rest of your story.

- C

[Thrar]

Read DAR1 here!
Here is DAR4.
And this is DAR5 .
DAR6
DAR7

1400BC: someone founds Judaism. There's a spanish village near the ivory, have to scout some more to see if I can still get some.

1160BC: 3 barbs simultaneously heading for NY. If they attack, it will go down.

1000BC: the 3 barbs came in, but one after another, in consecutive turns. Also, two of them got weakened, one by a spanish scout, another by my warrior reinforcement from Boston.

900BC: big barb problems at my 3 cities. Philadelphia founded near the ivory.

875BC: more trading: this time it's Alphabet!
Saladin: Alphabet -> Iron Working, Priesthood.
There's iron really close! Great!!

850BC: Drama comes in. Culture rate to 10% both for expanding borders and happiness.
Isabella: IW -> Monotheism. Great deal for her.
Saladin is the only one with Alphabet, and except Isabella everyone lacks at least 1 more tech. There is Sailing and Meditation known, though.

550BC: Atlanta founded up north. Not on the primary spot; Mongols were faster, but still ok. The sign says where I wanted to go.



500BC: Mathematics comes in. Start some research on Music, will switch to Calendar once someone is so kind as to trade me Sailing. The core builds libraries, the two cities further away theatres.

400BC: Washington finishes its library. To get those things going in the other cities, I finally switch to slavery. Still no Sailing in sight...

350BC: According to St. Augustine, I'm the least cultured. I guess he's right...

325BC: Boston can finally rush its library. Still no Sailing.

300BC: NY rushes library (2 citizens). Guess what...
Stats are interesting: I'm first (!) in GNP, last in production, 4th in food and land area, 7th in pop (very low health/happy thresholds). That GNP/production is weird, that's normally the other way round! The AI has 4-6 cities, I'm at 5.
Boston as a border city also gets a theatre.

250BC: Wheat connected!! Ok, I'd prefer a lux, but that's something! Sailing is now in stock, but Math is the least I'd have to pay. I wait, and keep going for Music (16).

175BC: Genghis reminds me of something...resource trade! Corn to him for gold. Happiness!!!

150BC: Philadelphia built theatre. Time to get those elephants back! Rushed theatre in Atlanta. Also founded Chicago in my backyard.



100BC: somebody founds Confucianism. Late, very late it seems. Of all people, it's backward Genghis!! Rush theatre in Boston. Philadelphia is already putting pressure on Sevilla's borders. ETA for elephants: 4 turns. Conveniently with camp already built.

75BC: We just got our own gold! Conveniently roaded and mined by Genghis! I have to correct my estimate on the elephants: ETA 1 turn! Now I'd like to cancel that gold deal with good old Genghis...but it's too early. Well, it costs him 1 lux, me only a trading opportunity (for health).

50BC: as planned, elephants arrive! Genghis comes around and demands Alphabet. I give in. Bastard. Still no Sailing.

25AD: Doh! Mongol bastard settles right next to my stone. That city seems to cry: "Flip me!" He picked the worst location I could have imagined. Nobody really wants to trade with me.



125AD: an arabian city in my backyard. I guess that comes with open borders... That one will be BAD in upkeep for him!

150AD: discover Music, enter Medieval Age. The rest of the world doesn't have Drama yet. There are tons of tech available from them, but NOBODY wants to trade!
Washington is currently building a theatre to get the next culture expansion, and flip that goddamn mongol stone city. Then start on Notre Dame. Still contemplating about the artist, if I wanna bomb the stone for faster Notre Dame. Or I just wait til it flips, after all I have a monopoly on Music and its prerequisite, Drama.
I have enough resources at the moment, no need for calendar. I go for Theology, hopefully Christianity, or at least Islam later. Hinduism is really big: 4 of 5 civs have it! It just started to arrive in America, though.
Stats: now 7th again in GNP, 5th production, 3rd food, 2nd land area. Weird, that with the GNP. 3rd in score, some distance in both directions. My land area is actually 0.02% bigger than that of Genghis - apparently the unknown civ is even bigger. One more culture growth in Atlanta (the one at 100) and it culture attacks 2 cities - one mongol, one spanish. That mongol stone city will also be flipped in a while.
I have Drama and Music ahead of everyone, some have Calendar, Mongols CoL, some Monarchy, some Metal Casting. No trades available.
Oh right, I need more workers.

Notes on the Alphabet beeline:
tech-wise, it sucks when nobody wants to trade with you. But that's always the case I guess. Once they do, I'm quite confident to turn out as tech leader again, I got 2 techs nobody has (Drama, Music).
Drama is a big thing - bigger than I thought. On Emperor, those 10% culture rate I'm running since then makes a big difference in happiness - cities get to 3 instead of 2! By now I have some more lux, so the limit is higher, typically 5 (6 w/ theatre). Theatres are another useful thing - for pushing back those enemy border expansions (from obelisks or, harder, creative leaders), and even culture attacking them! Remember that I was last in culture a few turns ago, and probably still am. What matters, is getting it in the right places, and that's what theatres do!

[chriseay]

Re: Re: warlord difficulty

Originally posted by Caligula 37 AD


No, please continue the game. I too am playing a game on warlord level, and I too am regreting not to play one level up. As you I am in this game thinking much more about every decision, and thus doing much better than I normally do. DAR1 and 2 for Caligulas Trading Havens. EDIT: linkt doesn't seem to work, it is #26 post on this page.

As far as I can see we are the only two playing at warlord level, it will be nice to have at leat one game to compare with. If nothing else the two of us can compare the different strategies. As you can see I do a slightly different game consentrating all my effort on trade.

I will be happy to continue, though I am going to go for a win as soon as possible as this game is just too easy to be entertaining. I am thinking about either culture (while it would take a while it will give me goals and things to build) or space (it could be interesting to see just how early I could achieve this victory type). I don't want to go for a war based victory on this level as I feel it will lead me to using bad strategies (beyond those I might already be using) that I cannot use later and because of the amount of time it will take in a game that I am not completely enjoying. Any suggestions on which victory to go for are appreciated.

I was happy when I saw another warlord game, as I felt like when I was reading other DAR's they were different games, because it was so easy for me to expand and stay ahead of the AI in every category, and all without confrontation. I will play the turns and write/post the DAR for the medieval period tonight.

[DeepO]

Re: Noble Difficulty -- Classical Era Report

Originally posted by Derelict

Derelict, just a small suggestion: if you use the upload service, there are 5 links you can copy in your posts. You picked the normal thubmnail one, but there is also a 800 pixel one. This looks better...



I like the DAR, BTW. Well, in general I must say I'm very much enjoying following everyone's game!

DeepO

[Caligula 37 AD]

Re: Re: Re: warlord difficulty

Originally posted by chriseay

I will be happy to continue, though I am going to go for a win as soon as possible as this game is just too easy to be entertaining. I am thinking about either culture (while it would take a while it will give me goals and things to build) or space (it could be interesting to see just how early I could achieve this victory type). I don't want to go for a war based victory on this level as I feel it will lead me to using bad strategies (beyond those I might already be using) that I cannot use later and because of the amount of time it will take in a game that I am not completely enjoying. Any suggestions on which victory to go for are appreciated.

I was happy when I saw another warlord game, as I felt like when I was reading other DAR's they were different games, because it was so easy for me to expand and stay ahead of the AI in every category, and all without confrontation. I will play the turns and write/post the DAR for the medieval period tonight.

This is my thoughts exactly. I might be writing shorter DARs for the remaining of the game, just to save time (I'm closing on 10hrs already).

However us playing on lower levels might be usful to the occational reader. After all we are not participating in the AU only for ourselves. I can only guess, but I think the occational reader and player often plays levels beneath Noble, and maybe our lower game DARs are useful to them. When someone comes around to organize this DARs into a readable fromat, this Warlord games might be the ones our guests read first.
(somebody stop me before I turn into an !)

To the victory issue:
I too would like to complete this game early. We will both find ourselves way ahead in the tech race soon. This means, I think, two easy ways to win: domination and space race. For culture I think I have spread it to much, and lost some early important WWs. You could do it though, as you have more hammers for WWs.
I wasn't really trying my best to win this game at the earliest years, my prime goal was to see what happens if I consentrate on trade in every thought. That means neglecting some of the more obvious choices like religion and wonders for GP's. I had a theory that this might work for a commercial civ like the americans.
Lets play another era, shall we, and maybe we can find a common goal as the game commences?

- C

Anyway: DAR3 "The Classical era of Caligulas Financial Havens" is ready for shipment:

[Derelict]

Re: Re: Noble Difficulty -- Classical Era Report

Originally posted by DeepO

Derelict, just a small suggestion: if you use the upload service, there are 5 links you can copy in your posts. You picked the normal thubmnail one, but there is also a 800 pixel one. This looks better...

[ Image removed for brevity ]

I like the DAR, BTW. Well, in general I must say I'm very much enjoying following everyone's game!

DeepO

Glad you like the DAR--I was hoping it was interesting since it was my first attempt at one!

As to the thumbnail sizes, I'll keep that in mind and will probably do so for the more important screens in future ones, though, for example, my medieval era DAR(s) have 21 pic's! It'd crowd the thread up pretty well if I were to do all of them at the larger size, I'm forced to think, but as you point out it's probably ideal for me to do the larger image/thumbnails when there are fewer in a particular report.

That makes me wonder...do most people tend to upload larger images than 800 X 640? I've been reducing most all of my screens to that size for upload, in consideration of speed and storage size alike. Would people prefer larger screens and the larger thumbnails in general? I guess most people have high bandwidth connections these days, or many if not most, so it might not be as big of a deal.

[Caligula 37 AD]

Warlord level

DAR3: The financial haven of Caligula IX
A rather short DAR this is. Not many turns played, and notes were alas scarce...

Overall strategy
Will try to make a strong commercial civ by developing trade havens in coastal cities.

Recap status from DAR1&2:

4 Cities (3 on Coast). (size7+2+3+1)
Total commerce: 30(all base) Total beakers(90%): 24bpt, Total gold(10%): 6gpt
Trade: 1 route in each city for 5 commerce (2 from Karakorum to capitol)
Strategy evaluation: In the beginnig of the Classical era my coastal cities were still poor. In this era I it will be revealed what the Great Light does to that.

Starting this rounds turns
Beginning the Classical era by trading possible techs, starting with the lowest scorer.
mysticism(t), archery(t), animal hus(t). Mainly beaker for beaker. Bismarck won't trade Iron working (that’s understandable)
I have contact with 5 of the other 6 civs, suspect the last one being isolated.
We are way ahead of the others regardning score at the start of the era.

1520: Judaism founded somewhere. The Woodsman II-killing barbarians from back in 2400 (read DAR1) are spotted near Philly, but we withstand the urge to hunt them down (for now).
Remembering I have to bulid a Temple in my Woodsmen's honour.
975: Discovering Compass for Harbours, hitting on Drama. Harbours are some of the major buildings for the strategy as they give +50% on trade routes.

The effect of the Great Light: (In Boston)
925: Commerce in 4 cities total (16+10+12+6=44)
900: Commerce in 4 cities total (16+14+16+8=54). This is a substantial difference, but no more than expected.
Well it is still early game.

800: Hinduism spread to New York, swich to state religion for closing friendship with the #2 and 3 on the score list.
775: Atlanta founded on the shores west of capitol. Again not on recomended blue tile, but maximize the number of
workable coast tiles according to strategy. Hey! There are NO trade routes??? Possibly there are no available foreign cities?
Correction 750BC: 3 internal trade routes in Atlanta, each of +1cpt.
I guess the trade is not shown until first turn of existence.

750: Gjenghis disliking us trading with Hatty, give him Mystisim to calm him down (dont know if that has any effect, though)

325: Discovering Music, Enetring Medieval era.
Got a GA in Capitol. He is on his way with an escort to Philly to become a super specialist.
I won't however use him as a cultural bomb as this might affect my relations with Gjenghis more than I am ready for.
I really want Philly to achive greatness according to her potential, but she still needs a worker, wich she will train herself.

The end of classical era. Status:

5 Cities (4 on Coast). (size8+5+5+4+3)
Total commerce: 77 Total beakers(90%): 80/Turn, Gold in coffers: 128 (+1/Turn)
Trade: Good! My five cities have a total of 13 trade routes for a total of 23 cpt.
9 of the trade routes are to foreign cities generating 18 of the cpt.
Military: Totaly sux. I will need to correct that quickly, even on warlord level such a weak military force
will call the AI's to you like sharks to a wounded mafioso.
Tech wise: I have gone far up in the tree (music) and have dropped several essential early techs (Meditation).
Many available techs now take only 1 turn to complete. Since no one except Hatty will trade with me (some can't)
I will have to do the research myself. Hatty offers only tech trade to her own advantage +100beakers or so.
I will do currency (for extra trade routes) before backfilling, then maybe the two next religions if my defence minister will accept it.

F9 wise: 1st in money, food, area, pop and trade (export32/import16 rival average 2/2 mohahahah!), mfg: 5th, military:4th.
Diplo and religion: Hatty and Bimarck are all "happy and smile" as Hidu, Gjenghis is a +3 Hindu,
Izzy is a cold bitsj heathen (Buddist) at -4 (I think she is too weak to be a threat though), Saladin, the only
remaining pagan on the continent is at +2. I must teach him the right ways if I come to it, hopefully also the others will. I must teach my own people it too, only NY on state religion so far, Phillys pray in the Synagoges of Judaism.
Religious strategy at this point is to found all the remaining ones, but not swich. This will be a happy place if everyone
read their Vedas and obey Krishna, Vishnu and Shiva. (There will probably be trouble anyway, but one might hope)


Strategy evaluation:
My coast cities are now starting to look good. It is a little worrying though that Atlanta has no foreign trading partners.
This might be a major drawback to my strategy if there is only a limited number of foreign trade routes allowed. I will have
to find the mysterious 7th civ soon and see if more foreign trade can be established.

Game mechanics: I am not sure if the harbors are up to speed, they should give 50% bonus trade. For now I only
have +2 trade routes, some should have been +3 I think. Boston is building Harbor now, I will watch the effects closely.

There is a barbarian city in the middle of my country (well I see it as mine, there are just no americans living there yet).
These barbs might have created a 6th city for me. I will take it by swords or maybe elephants.

[DeepO]

Re: Re: Re: Noble Difficulty -- Classical Era Report

Originally posted by Derelict
That makes me wonder...do most people tend to upload larger images than 800 X 640?

I simply use the in-game ones (1024x768). I upload too many pictures to start cropping them

I think I might have more upload space then you, though. Keep in mind that the AU threads are in general reread long after they finish: you may need to keep your pictures around.

I've been reducing most all of my screens to that size for upload, in consideration of speed and storage size alike. Would people prefer larger screens and the larger thumbnails in general? I guess most people have high bandwidth connections these days, or many if not most, so it might not be as big of a deal.

Well, I figure that by the time you read the text, any connection will have loaded the pictures that goes with it

If you want to show a lot of pictures, divide your DAR a bit into different posts: I'll generally try to keep it down to ~5 pictures each post. That way, the thread will faster start on the next page, which will improve loading time. Don't start posting 50 posts per DAR, though

DeepO

[chriseay]

Re: Re: Re: Re: warlord difficulty

Originally posted by Caligula 37 AD


This is my thoughts exactly. I might be writing shorter DARs for the remaining of the game, just to save time (I'm closing on 10hrs already).

However us playing on lower levels might be usful to the occational reader. After all we are not participating in the AU only for ourselves. I can only guess, but I think the occational reader and player often plays levels beneath Noble, and maybe our lower game DARs are useful to them. When someone comes around to organize this DARs into a readable fromat, this Warlord games might be the ones our guests read first.
(somebody stop me before I turn into an !)

To the victory issue:
I too would like to complete this game early. We will both find ourselves way ahead in the tech race soon. This means, I think, two easy ways to win: domination and space race. For culture I think I have spread it to much, and lost some early important WWs. You could do it though, as you have more hammers for WWs.
I wasn't really trying my best to win this game at the earliest years, my prime goal was to see what happens if I consentrate on trade in every thought. That means neglecting some of the more obvious choices like religion and wonders for GP's. I had a theory that this might work for a commercial civ like the americans.
Lets play another era, shall we, and maybe we can find a common goal as the game commences?

- C

Both excellent points. I hadn't thought about how other people will be reading these, and the fact that many of them might be people who know next to nothing about civ, but did a google search and found us.

On the victory front, you're right about culture. I went in and looked at my save, and while I could do it, I don't think I focused quite enough on it up to this point. I'm going to beeline for space race techs and see how early I can launch.

[Morrissey]

DAR3 Noble difficulty

DAR1
DAR2
DAR3
DAR4
DAR5
DAR6
DAR7


OK, this DAR can be summed up by three letters - REX. Well as Rapid as Civ 4 will allow... in fact, think about it, this DAR can be summed up in two letters - EX (pansion).

In 650BC, my new poor little unprepared city to the north of Boston (next to the mountains north of the start) gets destroyed by an evil barbarian! One turn later, I destroy that evil barbarian (just didn't quite make it in time). Another settler is being built, so it'll be built back up again and a swordsman is on his way to protect the little city, as well as a warrior and an archer wandering about up there. A few turns later, I discover there's a barb city to the north-west and the next turn, I see one to the south-west! I fear an impending babarian invasion, so start building a few swords (as well as settlers).

Genghis declares war on Hats around this time too. Hats asks me to join, which I decline, but manage to trade (her) meditation for (my) monotheism. Whilst they're fighting away, I manage to take over the SW barb city with one swordsman. I saw it was defended by two warriors, so decided to have a stab (literally). Meanwhile, the expansion continued....

Genghis made peace with Hats in 150AD, with no cities trading hands on either side. A few turns later, Genghis demands iron from me. Realising it'd be silly to give him this, I say nope, although make a mental note to build up my military.

Salad takes the NW barb city in 375AD, as my military focused on getting my settlers around OK and not on that city. This means he has a city to the west of me, which I wasn't planning on letting anyone doing, but he can't get any units there as I don't have open boarders with anyone and won't have until everwhere's settled. Start trading (my) corn for (his) crabs to keep him happy (or appeased) for now. Also sell Polytheism for 160 gold to him as this expansion's hurting my economy.

In 760 AD Genghis declared war on Hats, again. Also Salad cancels the corn for crabs deal, but I get ivory for insense instead.

980AD - all areas I want to settle in are now settled. This means that I can now have open boarders with everyone. Although it seems only Bismark and Isabella are interested, everyone else is annoyed with me. Also swap techs with Bismark (Monarchy and HBR).

1030AD - enter Medieval era.

For the people that like stats, here's mine.

14 cities (good)
9 workers (bad), 10 archers, 1 chariot, 2 warriors, 2 spearmen, 3 axemen, 6 swordsmen and 1 galley.
I've also built the pyramids, which I forgot to make a note of, but it's there. Also the Hanging Gardens is nearly complete (in the same city).

Plans for the future is to build units of all kinds (except settlers). Economy is in bad shape, but I seem to be keeping up in science. I can see someone declaring on me soon, probably Genghis, so will build up some military in preperation. I think the main thing for now is WORKERS!!! I needs them!

[polarnomad]

So, having not really been able to explore nearby territory, I now find that I have barbarian cities on 3 sides. Bactrian to the southwest (which I quickly conquer and rename Pittsburgh), Olmec to the east (which I raze because it is poorly placed in my opinion (I found Philadelphia nearby), and Assyrian to the north (which I will conquer in my next DAR). Incidentally I remember someone in another thread mentioning that if you don't remove the fog-of-war quickly, you are more likely to find barb cities later... Perhaps this is indeed the case, and could even be turned into a strategy by someone who might not want to pump out settlers as quickly, instead concentrate on military units, and then use them to take barb cities that appear. Thereby, gaining exp for the units and cities for "free", albeit sometimes in slightly wrong locations...

Otherwise, my lack of religion continues to bother me. I narrowly miss Christianity in 300AD. Washington's unhappiness continues to rise and the only way I can find to alleviate it somewhat is by linking up fur in Pittsburgh. Isabella starts spreading Judaism in my cities, but I am loathe to convert since Spain is the weakest civ and just next door. I would rather try to get Islam if possible, or convert to Egyptian Christianity and get chummy with Hatty who is #1 at the moment. So far there is only one religious camp. Bismark, Genghis and Saladin are all Buddhist, and for a while Hatty was too, but once she founded Christianity she quickly converted.

Incidentally, I have open border agreements with everyone except Genghis. Hatty asked me to cancel my agreements with Genghis earlier and I did, which I thought could make the game interesting, but seeing that Genghis is now in league with Bismark and Saladin, I'm starting to think I was the wrong decision...

In other news, Isabella decides to be sneaky and found a city right on the edge of the eastern peninsula, just a few tiles from Philadelphia. I can feel a war coming along soon.

My immediate goals for the Medieval era are to start a war with Isabella, and take the Barbarian city of Assyrian.

The date is currently 540AD.

Western empire:


Eastern empire:

[Dubhghlas]

Part 1 (to 1 AD) - Noble

The Classical Era

To recap: The Scots have spent the previous seven hundred years working solely on perfecting the use of a method of organized writing symbols to represent sounds (Alphabet). In the meantime, they built libraries in New York and Boston, while the capital trained a series of workers and settlers so that the clan could expand and grow. The Dubhghlasses hope to seal all other peoples of the world out of the area to sunsetward and to coldward with a string of cities running from near Washington to near Boston.

Abroad, the Scots are aligning themselves with the Egyptians, engaging in friendly trading of knowledge. The Mongols loom ever nearer to Boston, though the Khans of Genghis are so far still friendly. The unfriendly Spanish, ruled by the Itchybellies, keep mostly to themselves across the desert located in the direction of the rising sun. The Arabs have built down the coast north of Boston; a city called Baghdad can be found along that coast, across a river.

The Scots hope to further encourage their bent for knowledge and understanding by fostering the writing of tomes of knowledge, stories, poems, manuals, and so forth. However, the shamen have insisted that the clan devote some years to pacifying the spirits and gods of the world; they have been shaken by the news of mighty places of worship in far away lands. They threaten the Scottish people with the wrath of the gods of the world if the Scots do not build shrines and temples to the gods. With barbarians roaming the borders to both sunrise and sunset, this does not seem far-fetched.

The Barbarian Incursions

Four hundred years have gone by. For most of this time, the Scots have suffered at the hands of barbarian raiders. Long had the barbarians roamed the lands to sunsetward of the Scots, rarely venturing closer. But shortly after the founding of Philadelphia in the Great Bend of the Dubhghlas River, barbarians started pouring into the Scots lands from the direction of the rising sun, across the desert and the hills. Boston and Washington came under repeated attack. Often, the raiders would stop to ruin the works in the lands around the cities; but eventually they would attack the city itself and they would be defeated and hunted down.

Just about the time that a new batch of settlers had been recruited in New York, to be sent to the coast located to the warmer climes slightly sunsetward of that city, barbarians began pouring out of that quadrant. It takes 200 years for the barbarian raiders to be rooted out completely from the lands around New York; at one point the timid warriors of that city stayed behind the city walls refusing to attack while the raiders destroyed the farmlands feeding the city.

During the incursions, the Scots generally prospered. Boston completed its library, and started work on a marvelous obelisk, tribute to the gods and the favor they have shown the Scots. New York began work on a very mighty wonder, a building in which they will give thanks to the Virgin goddess that shelters them from harm; they hope this will prevent further barbarian troubles. Taking its name from the Virgin goddess, it will be called the Parthenon. This will take them years to construct. Meanwhile, Boston finishes its relatively puny obelisk and starts work on training archers to protect it.

Shortly after discovering the so-called alphabet, the Scots are dismayed to learn that the Mongols have settled near to Boston. The Mongols are not to be trusted, the Dubhghlasses feel; it becomes quite apparent that Boston will have to be a strong and mighty city, a beacon of all that is Scots for the world to see. Fortunately, deposits of copper are found near Boston, and work begins on mining them. But Egypt, Spain and the Arabs all develop a caste of priests at the same time, giving their gods more power. The Germans have an even more amazing thing happen. A German man is nailed to a cross for asserting that the world would be a better place if everyone would just love everyone else. This spawns a religious reaction. The Scots shake their head at this news; everyone knows that the world is a dour place and that saving money and accepting fate is the only way to endure it.

Thus do things stand. The Egyptians have finished a marvelous Oracle temple. But the Scots have completed the task of codifying and legitimizing the worship of the gods and have established a strong tradition of organized writing, called Literature. They now work to appease the gods again with an priest caste, whose task will then be to codify all the laws under which the Scots live, and write them down. This will enable them to apply the same law in all their cities, allowing the Dubhghlasses to reduce petty theft and waste.

Washington works on it's own library. It is a big city now, with too many souls to count, a handful of handful of hundred hundreds, at a guess. It is unhealthy there, and the citizens are unhappy, but the leaders ignore them and insist that work continue on the library. Ghengis, the “Great Khan”, slyly offers to teach the secret of pottery works to help improve the health of the Scots, but his desire for horses is palpable that the Scots have no trouble saying no. Better a sick mother in the house than one sick mutha for a king!

The Way to Ren

For fully 400 more years the Scots have worked to expand and perfect themselves. In Boston, there is work ongoing on an Epic about the Scots; the hope is that it will inspire great things out of pride in the Scots and their grand achievements. The settlers of Philadelphia have begun farming the lands surrounding their city and are working on their own library. The work on the Parthenon continues in New York. In Washington, the library was completed, but the people there are prideful and intend a much grander design, a “Great Library” containing all the written works of the world. Those who argue for pragmatic things like more military companies or a granary to store food are shouted down and ridiculed. A cadre of workers was recruited, first, to help improve the land and the roads.

Atlanta was founded in the year 3625 (AN: 375 BC). It sits upon the peninsula that sticks out into the Ocean of Warmth directly to sunset from Boston. The hope of these people is to become great traders and sellers of goods and other things, with which trade they hope to make themselves quite wealthy and allow even more effort to go into improving the Scottish people. They have a hard path ahead of them, but the sea is bountiful, much more so than the jungle that surrounds their city.

The Egyptians have continued to be helpful. Hatsheptsut allows the mystery of pottery to be given to the Scots in exchange for learning the mystery of pictoral writing. The Dubhghlasses hope to begin the building of small towns in the lands around the great cities, and to build great granaries for the storage of harvested grain to use in times of famine. But the struggle to increase their knowledge is difficult for the Scots. While other tribes perfect things like Meditation, the working of Iron, and the worship of only one, Supreme God, the priests of the Scots busily attempt to codify Scots law. The focus on great works is costing the Scots chances to found new cities; no one wants to leave and start a new city when a wonderous construction project is providing work for the young men. Yet there is danger in this path, for the Scots are aware that other peoples also aspire to great works. News of gigantic tombs built in the shape of pyramids reaches Washington, though the people who built them are still an unknown entity (AN: England).

Into such uncertainty a shining beacon of light suddenly shines. While working to help codify the laws, a Scot by the name of Connefushis begins to put together a way of thinking about life. After several years, when he is an old man, he begins teaching this Way to students. It stresses the need to think more about how you interact with your fellow man than how you work to achieve your own needs. His influence is felt in the final codification of the Scots Law, and his students now work zealously to convert their fellow Scots to this new way of thinking. Confushunism is born in New York, just 50 years short of the celebration of year 4000!

Author's Note: I'm breaking up the DAR here on purpose; others have opnined, and I agree, that stock should be taken of the situation at the turn 1 AD.

The Classical Era to this point has been a slog. Some positives include the founding of Philly and Atlanta, but the rampage of barbarians was a pain in the neck from 850 to 450 BC. This was mostly because I still at that time hadn't spent much effort on military units like horse archers so that I could confront the barbarians in the field far from the cities. Stupid, that, given that I researched horseback riding just for that purpose! As a result, I have had to rebuild infrastructure, and the founding of Atlanta was literally pushed back eight or nine turns!

Speaking of Atlanta, this city is a gamble. That peninsula looked so juicy for settling and taking advantage of the wonderful bonus that my leader gets on squares with commerce of two, which will apply to all the coastal squares. That will be eight of the fat cross' 20! And this way, only one impassable peak is in the fat cross. A better spot would be one square to the east, but that's ocean and, well, unlike Call to Power, you don't get to settle there. But Atlanta is surrounded by jungle and has very little production capability, so I'll have to be very careful what to build there, which hardly explains why I started with the soon to be obsolete obelisk!! However, I need to grow it's cultural influence fast so that Baghdad and the Arabs get shut down from coming down the coast any further.

Again, as with the last DAR period, I find that researching well ahead of the time is costly. Code of Laws took from 400 BC to 50 BC to research. Meanwhile, the other civs are filling in the much less costly lower level techs. I'm going to be first to Music, I am certain, but I'm increasingly uncertain that I can justify this path. Oh, well, on your sword, if not with it!

My Empire is doing well (see the screenie). Five cities, (8, 6, 6, 3, 1), and second place in points behind Egypt only. My Confucian missionary is going to spread the religion to Boston, where the cultural boundaries are crucial in the eventual war with the Mongols north and east of me. On to Monarchy and wine, women, and song!

[Cort Haus]

To the Warlord players (Caligula & Chriseay) - congrats for outgrowing that level during this game. The power of the AU is that documenting your play and reading other players' accounts raises your game rapidly. I'm not quite ready to step up from Prince to Monarch, as I haven't mastered Civics Management yet, or learned the tech tree (especially in the later game) and Monarch looks like a very big leap in difficulty, but I'm a lot closer than I was before this course. Enjoy Noble level - I doubt you'll be there for long