AU 505 The Power of Fascism DAR 4 - Contact with all AI Civs

[Theseus]

This DAR cover the time period How has your civilization evolved as you developed the technologies needed to meet the rest of the world (or they developed the technologies needed to meet you)? How are you doing compared with the rest of the world, and how have your choices affected your scientific progress? Who are the Killer AIs, if any, and who were their victims? What governments are the AIs using? Have you been able to orchestrate AI-AI wars, and perhaps plant towns in the destroyed margins?

And what are your plans as you move forward through the future?

[Modo44]

Emperor level, AU Mod

This will be one short DAR. I have discovered all AI civs before DAR 3 ended, due to a lucky Curragh, so everything is pretty much covered there.

I had no wars, no ROPs and no opportunities to plant cities while others fight - not before I've met everyone. No real KAI civs came up, although Russia has the potential to become one. No AI civs died either, I don't think there even was a war that early.

Details are here.

[UnOrthOdOx]

You'll have to forgive me. Last time I payed attention to AU, it was all one thread per course, and in the strat forum...


Anywho, STOCK emperor. (so my fascism will suck comparitively. )

To a Warmonger, there really wasn't allot to write home about in the early game , and I am notorious for forgetting about pics. So, I'll just recap here if it's all the same to you.

The early game went pretty normal, but my empire can be characterized by 2 important events:

1: A lucky barbarian horse attacked and killed a fortified spear on a hill guarding a settler in that jungle west of Rome, and Rome beat me there with my replacement.

2: Greece declared war on me after my refusal to gift them Literature while I was about 10 turns from the GL and they were about to lose on a wonder cascade and I knew had a prebuild. This ended up costing me a 1 size town that was later rebuilt anyway, though that new settler could have gone elsewhere.

So, I was 2 cities short of what I wanted. There will be more on this later.

Now. With Greece declaring war, I had the most pathetic excuse of a military I have ever fielded in a civ game. precisely 1 warrior per city and ~5 spears.

Well, with all that LOVELY extra gold back home, and with a slight tech lead, it should be no surprise that I was able to sign an alliance with both Rome and Carthage, sit back, and hope for holes while they all trigger their GA. If this was against the spirit of the rules, then I apologize.

However, this turned into a crap war. Rome declared peace, breaking the alliance before firing a shot. Carthage, despite grabbing Zeus, has failed to muster anything usefull other than having NEVER declared peace and keeping Greece out of Republic...

I get the GL, research Republic, end the alliances, switch Govt, and a lucky curragh makes contact with civs across the pond, and I am propelled to the mideival ages with mono, feudal, and chiv.

A failed prebuild to leos (1 Turn!!!) occurred when all hell broke loose on the other continent propelling some of them to GA. However, not completely lost on the cascade, I had the choice of Knights templar and Hanging Gardens...well, no need for those Knights... And, Hanging Gardens has proven most usefull given the fact I only have 1 lux...

Guess I'll wait for the proper thread for discussing the Medieval age.

[Cryptor]

I haven't actually reached the Middle Ages yet, but I just ran into the last AI civ, at 750BC. I'm playing this one at Sid, so I'm doing my best to stay in touch with the AI tech rate. I just ran into the Russians. Whats interesting is that they are the worlds biggest civ, with 17% territory and 19% population. However, they are the most technologically backward civ, and the only civ who hasn't reached the middle ages. So I sold them Currency and 20 gold for Horseback Riding and Literacy. I also have Map Making, and they have Monarchy. However, they won't do a straight deal (they're insulted by such a suggestion) and I haven't got the money to pay the difference, as I'm already running a 7 gold deficit on other deals. Also, I'm not too fussed on Monarchy, I think I'd rather go into Feudalism, or even Republic, due to my small size at present. They are also the only civ besides myself not to have Construction and Philosophy. I have 25 turns at minimum research til I complete Philosophy, so hopefully I can grab it before the Russians.

Heres a power graph in the next post.

[Cryptor]

Power graph, Russians brown.

[nbarclay]

Emperor Level, Theseus's Original AU Mod Variant

Over the following centuries, America's first two galleys went searching for foreign civilizations. The first went north after encountering the Germans and found the Dutch, while the second followed the southern coast of the other continent and found the Celts and eventually the Russians. With the Great Lighthouse in place, the way was open for America to trade for the two foreign luxuries in addition to the remaining domestic ones.

America used its golden age to speed up research on the top part of the tech tree, and to do some building with an eye mainly toward culture. As part of the cultural project, America prioritized colosseums and cathedrals over marketplaces. (I was hoping for a culture flip or two, but never got any.) Construction of wonders continued, with New York completing the Great Wall in AD 130 and Washington the Mausoleum of Mausollos in AD 190. New York then started the Sistine Chapel. In the meantime, Greece had completed the Great Library, and the Celts the Hanging Gardens.

Contact with Russia the last of the foreign civilizations, came in AD 320. Russia was huge but backward, being missing Philosophy, Code of Laws, Map Making, Currency, and Construction. I'm wondering if Russia might have gotten into a long but inconclusive war with the Celts without ever having made contact with the other two civs on the continent; contact problems could explain how such a large civ could be so backward.

Germany and the Dutch still lacked Currency of entering the medieval era, and the Celts were also missing Republic among ancient tecs, although all three of the civs had Monarchy. Greece and Rome were in the same position as the Celts, while Carthage lacked Mathematics (and its descendents), Philosophy, and Map Making. In contrast, America had Monotheism and Theology and had just started researching Education.

A border expansion in Baltimore made it possible to build Cincinnati practically next door, which would eventually allow America to steal a dye supply from Rome with a border expansion. Farther south, in New Orleans, America had taken over a fur tile from Greece (thanks to rush builds of a temple and library shortly after changing to Republic), although that tile would change hands occasionally in future centuries as the balance of culture shifted.

[IthacaMike]

Regent level, AU mod.

I did not keep notes, this is from the play back.

Basicly I sent a couple of Galleys across the sea and almost managed to circle the entire other contenent. That gave me contact.

Al went well until the Celts demanded ~25 gold. I said no and they declared war. I trade Monotheism around and it was dog pile on the Celts.

Some time later I graciously agreed to peace in exchange for one of their last three cities.

The Dutch were keeping up with the tech race and based on the mini-map it looked like either the Germans or the Russians were going to become a KAI.

I bee-lined for Chivalry and built the Knights Templar. I did not want my neighbors to be getting free military.

I planned to keep pressing the tech pace by going directly for Astronomy and Copericus. I was trading the techs away as fast I was was researching them and everyone was terribly terribly nice to each other (except for the Celts who were mostly dead).

I was in Monarchy. It did not seem prudent to drop into Anarchy and get off the tech pace.


Ithaca Mike

[Dominae]

Fascist Abe: A Tale of the Golden Eagle

This DAR would have been a lot shorter, were it not for a Barb Galley that sunk my own exploring Galley in 510BC. I had to wait a full 220 years to meet the Russians after that.

Here's the log:

570BC:	Contact Celts
550BC:	Carthage: Construction for Gems, Incense, Right of Passage and 1 Gold
530BC:	Engineering
	Germany: Engineering for Monotheism, 2 Slave Workers, 6gpt and 6 Gold
	Netherlands: Engineering for 98 Gold
	Embassy with Celts for 83 Gold
510BC:	Barbs defeat Galley
	Theology
	Germany: Theology for Feudalism, 36gpt and 174 Gold
290BC:	Contact Russia
	Embassy with Russia for 84 Gold

Not much to report, as you can see. Germany and I have been tech-trading buddies from the start, and (frighteningly) Bismarck has yet to disappoint. As I mentioned in my previous DAR, my tech trading plan was to research just short of Education then up the bottom branch, in order make best use of Temple of Artemis. The Germans and I have have only directly "collaborated" (i.e. duplicated) research once so far.

The Netherlands have the Great Library and so are following closely behind, but we have yet to reach a point in the tech tree where the Dutch can break off and make some money of their own.

Economically, the only interesting thing that I can say is that I used my Library build in Philadelphia to get a head start on the Forbidden Palace. It should be complete anytime now. If the Strat forum threads speak the truth, this was a good move.

I have started joining Workers to my cities; they should all be maxed-out, within the bounds of necessary infrastructure, in about 20 turns.

Finally, I simply must point out that Washington is already showings signs of greatness: in a couple of turns it should reach 23 Shields per turn, and upwards of 60 Beakers per turn. I have 213 Shields ready on a prebuild for some Wonder, not sure which yet. I might have to settle with whatever is convenient, because I definitely want to snag Copernicus'. Go go Super Science City!

Here's a view of "Alaska" (those Roman-American borders shift every turn!):

[Golden Bear]

During this period I continued to trade for techs and develop infrastructure. I gained Sun-Tzu but lost Sistene by a turn. I got Copernicus and should get Newton. Romans declared twice on me and the second time I paid the Carthagenians to attack them. Russia declared and then paid for peace.

I decided to ignore the non-necessary techs in order to get throught the medieval era rapidly. Perhaps I could trade for them later.

I decided to put my FP up to the NW in order to cover the nice Roman area once it becomes mine. I picked up a Roman city during peace negotiations. Hopefully that is not too much of a rule violation. They actually offered more but I turned the other city down. Carthage had them in a vise.

So far my plan seems to be holding together: stay in touch tech-wise, don't take the score lead but stay near. Keep the army among the largest in order to discourage predators. Basically be powerful but non-threatening.

I may regret not diverting to get Military Tradition, but I am gambling that Rifles plus Knights will be enough to clear my own continent. Then race to Tanks and go for the big continent.

My late screen shot disappeared but it wasn't much different than what I will post in the next DAR.

[jshelr]

Emperor Level, Au Mod -- period from about 500 ad to 980 ad.

Going into the run up to ToE, we had two big problems. First, we were still in Monarchy, with all opponents in Republic. Second, Hannibal has done a truly outstanding job in the tundra and Carthage had both the Statue of Zeus and Knights Templar

However, Cumar had flipped over to our benevolent rule, bringing all the Roman lux bed with it So, who's complaining?

We also got Leo's. At this stage, we were constantly one step behind the AI in getting to the next tech.

This nearby concentration of war wonders in Carthage represented an actual threat to our civ, despite the lateness of the game where the human player usually is invulnerable. When we made an embassy in Carthage, there were a dozen ACs in the garrison, giving me visions of Bongo Our military is judged weak by the "reliable" military advisor compared with Carthage.

Despite our middle of the road economic statistics, after banking, we decided to risk a run for democracy, hoping to trade it a bit, but not thinking we would get there first. It was fun to still be worried at this stage of the game.

We were happy when the Dutch researched economics, giving us a decent shot at arriving at democracy first. Germany or the Celts got astronomy and trade opened up, solving happiness problems before the switch into democracy. WLTPDs all over the place. The AI civs, of course, would not give us decent lux deals

We didn't quite get to democracy first. Indeed, it was only steam power that where we finally clearly beat the AIs to the punch.

At that stage, we sold steam for medicine and tons of gold around the trading wheel, afterward getting coal from the Celts for a bargain price.

Almost immediately we were able to capture coal up on resource island when the Dutch destroyed a city that contained Carthage's coal source there. We had some late-arriving settlers lurking around to see what we might steal. Greece also has coal on resource island, and we plan to get that via culture.

We are now the number two economy. Carthage is busy with a war with the Dutch. We have gold to upgrade trebs and pikes, using Leo's. (We skipped cavs since we plan a late military engagement.)

The situation looks decent.

Time to tool up for ToE. Not much need for Universal Suffrage in this scenario. We may be a step late with the pre-build since we are small and the palace is not going to give us many shields of room to work with.