Spoliers for AU 401: They came down from the Mountains

[Mountain Sage]

1230AD
Another uneventful year. Bejing (she calls it Peking, after her lapdog) just fell with some other Chinese towns. Our diplomatic relations with all other empires are a bit strained, I wonder (no pun intended, of course) why.
I managed to make her understand that a bank is the natural offspring of the wanderer, so we’re building lots of these. It seems that I will keep my head on my shoulders for a while still, which is no mean achievement, since, let’s see, we are at 17 military advisors, 11 diplomatic ones and…

[Mountain Sage]

1435AD
Carthage is definitely down. Her Graciousness sent to their king the head of their general, Hannibal, mounted on top of an ivory tusk. She told me it was a private joke. I still don’t understand, but who I am to question My Graciousness?. Now it’s peace until, well, the next war.

[Mountain Sage]

1690AD
Excerpts from Her Graciousness’ speech in front of her troops.
‘Soldiers, you are poor, hungry and barely clad. Well, I give you a land of plenty, a land of fine women, lush wine, incredible land and fertile riches. Go and grab it, it’s yours!’

A swarm of locusts went out of the way of the human ones.

[Mountain Sage]

1754AD
‘Mountain Sage, tell me as the longest living advisor, was I right to destroy the Ottomans? After all, they almost challenged my supremacy, n’est-ce pas?. What do you think honestly?’

The page ends here.

[Mountain Sage]

1772AD

‘What do you mean it’s over?’ Her Graciousness screamed, ‘After the Germans, there are still some scattered town around, with plenty of loot, and other wars to fight and…’

I said as gently as I could ‘Joan, stop it, please, the game is really over’.

Joan looked at me as if she saw me for the first time. As the true import of my words sank in, she dropped on the marble floor, put her head in her hands and wept her heart out, as the arrogant and spoiled child she was.

[Mountain Sage]

The tale of the Ronams and the French, histograpicological statistics.

[Mountain Sage]

Just for the record:

I got only 1 GL late in 1600AD (more or less) for the pain. I transferred the capital to Bejing, but of course too late in the game to make any difference whatsoever.

Warmongering? BAH!

[Arrian]

MS the warmonger? Wow. And it looks like you're good at it, too.

Leader generation, I've decided, is an art form. It takes time to master.

-Arrian

[Mountain Sage]

Originally posted by Arrian


MS the warmonger? Wow. And it looks like you're good at it, too.

-Arrian

OFFICIAL DISCLAIMER BY THE MS

I wish to inform the casual reader of this thread that I unwillingly decided to play the so-called 'war-mongering' style purely for academic research.

I find this mental setting, consisting in getting an inflated ego purely on slaughtering harmless and innocent human beings (albeit virtual ones) utterly disgusting and beneath contempt.

I therefore wish to draw you attention that the wars I will fight in the future will be only defensive ones, giving diplomacy a chance at every turn.

If I were to fight an aggressive war (for the conquest of land and/or luxuries and/or strategic resources and/or fur pure fun), it will be of short duration and as harmless as possible to the civilians involved, as clearly stated by the Geneva Conventions.

End for MS statement.

I hope somebody believes the above.

[Arrian]

It's ok, MS, the pixels don't mind.

-Arrian

[vmxa1]

Nicely put Sage. (I mean the story telling, not the postion on warmongering)

[Mountain Sage]

Originally posted by vmxa1
Nicely put Sage. (I mean the story telling, not the postion on warmongering)

Just this time, I was deadly serious about warmongering...

[nbarclay]

When I saw the map conditions, I decided to deviate a bit from my usual choices of civs. The fact that I would be playing on a pangea map suggested an expansionist civ, both to meet other civs early and to grab extra huts. (That didn't work out nearly as well as I'd hoped, though, thanks to all the jungle in the middle.) And the fact that it was a pangea, coupled with the relatively small land area (80% water) suggested that a strong medieval UU could be exceptionally valuable (although the smaller land area ended up further devaluing the expansionist trait). So even though I have a rather strong distaste for playing a non-industrious civ (which can be downright painful for someone who tends to micromanage every worker throughout the game), I decided to go with Arabia. My goal would be to start conquering the rest of the world with Ansar Warriors and finish the job (at least to the extent necessary to achieve domination) with cavalry.

Coming down off the mountain, I decided to move due east next to the river. That sacrificed the possibility of a free settler, but gave me a capital with three wheat tiles in its radius and a little extra gold for research and let me found a city faster than I could have with any other starting position on the river. Basically, I gave up a chance for a truly fantastic start if I was lucky in favor of having a very solid start as a sure thing.

The results, later.

[Theseus]

Hi,

Haven;t read all the spoilers... started playing yesterday... fun!!!

I selected: America!!!

It's all about the traits, baby... I am tempted to say that America rivals Egypt as the most flexible civ.

Have a nice day!

/me as panag

[nbarclay]

My early REXing this game didn't go nearly as well as it usually does. Partly, I'm too used to industrious civs, and partly, I just wasn't as careful as I usually am. As a result, Rome grabbed a lot more good land in the home area than I would have liked. Rome also had the advantage of having iron right under their capital, which meant I had no really good chance to go after them without seriously undercutting my REXing and building efforts.

Instead, I decided to go after Rome on the cultural front, crowding Rome's cities and building temples every which way. One of my scouts discovered a city (not a settler ) near the lake in the middle of a jungle, which was good for a rush-built temple, a couple warriors, and an occasional worker, but not much else. Unfortunately, my cultural campaign against Rome bore no fruit for a very long time. I managed to do okay in research, but I wasn't able to get a clear sustainable lead until my golden age. (Normally, that would have signaled a need to fight for more room for a larger research and production base. But as Arabia, all I had to do was bide my time.)

The shot below is from 550 BC as I was making my transition to Republic. Through creative use of the world's scientific civs, I managed to leverage Republic to trade for Monotheism, giving me at least tech parity with everyone and a lead over most for the time being.