Playing in Monarch as the Romans on a huge map with (once 16 now) 6 civs. I've had probably more fun playing this particular game than any I can remember (though there was this one time in Civ II.... ). There have been a couple fantastic things that've happened that are pretty much totally unique to me. There's also been some stuff that I'm really not okay with.
POSITIVES
Didn't get the GL, didn't get the Pyramids, but enjoy - and have enjoyed - a sizable lead over the AI for a vast majority of the game. On the F7 key, it takes a while to get to a Roman Wonder, but entering into the late Industrial Age it's just a sea of red from there on. Beautiful. Beautiful.
The AI is tenacious and seeks to overwhelm. For seven turns or so the Egyptians sent massive amounts of cavalry and knights against little old harmless Aureolionorum after I had declared war on them to gain an Iron resource and an Ivory luxury. I was successful, they were not - but I had never before seen such a determined siege. Really impressed.
Many, many centuries later, the Egyptians (still peeved, I guess) declare unprovoked war on me. They do so by massing no fewer than 58 cavalry around little old harmless Cologne. (At this point in the game, I am statistically in the lead, with Cleo's gang a close second and the Greeks number 3.) To make a long story short, the next turn they turned tail and fled back to Egypt with 16 *wounded* units, not ever having attacked Cologne at all...but I was happy (in the aftermath) to see the AI bring-it with such gusto. Indeed, this pattern would repeat itself over and over again. The next turn the Greeks joined the cause against me and did the *exact same thing*, this time grouping nearly 65 units around little old harmless Ashur on the other end of my empire. I was successful, they were not, and ultimately I crippled, fractured, and otherwise belittled the Egyptians.
These are the only positives to speak of. The coordination and power of their attacks, and the fact that you can still win even if you miss out on the GL or the Pyramids - the latter, undoubtedly, being old hat for some of you wizards.
NEGATIVES
Now to the really fun part.
The last time Rome declared war against a civilization without provocation I was probably monarchy, or something, and it would have been literally ages ago and we were a neat little civ fighting for dear life against, alternately, the British, the French, the Babylonians and the Egyptians. The landscape now in the early 20th century is absolutely littered with the ruins of civs who attacked me. I have been a pacifist whom, when roused, inflicts the fury and wrath of All Mighty God on my foe. The point being, of course, that I haven't been a war monger. And yet, at probably the most dire junction of Roman history, as I defended against massive Greek and Egyptian incursion, my lousy-ass citizens ousted my gov't and threw me into anarchy.
6 turns with my city factories lying dormant and literally hundreds of enemy units knocking at the door. I was a democracy, of course, so perhaps I had it coming...but of course I *didn't* have it coming, because *I* didn't declare war.
This has continued. The war weariness is simply too much to bear. I've got Universal Suffrage and police stations out the yin-yang. I am attacked by aggressors for no good reason and yet am forced to up my luxury level so severely that, when at war, I have given up on research completely. I have recently been attacked by the Japanese and the Greeks, in alliance, and there is yet more egregious massing of troops, and half of the 89 cities in my empire just went into civil disorder.
All I can say is: "It's not my fault! They told me they fixed it!"
...ah hell, I can't remember what the other negatives were. Must not have been that bad.
POSITIVES
Didn't get the GL, didn't get the Pyramids, but enjoy - and have enjoyed - a sizable lead over the AI for a vast majority of the game. On the F7 key, it takes a while to get to a Roman Wonder, but entering into the late Industrial Age it's just a sea of red from there on. Beautiful. Beautiful.
The AI is tenacious and seeks to overwhelm. For seven turns or so the Egyptians sent massive amounts of cavalry and knights against little old harmless Aureolionorum after I had declared war on them to gain an Iron resource and an Ivory luxury. I was successful, they were not - but I had never before seen such a determined siege. Really impressed.
Many, many centuries later, the Egyptians (still peeved, I guess) declare unprovoked war on me. They do so by massing no fewer than 58 cavalry around little old harmless Cologne. (At this point in the game, I am statistically in the lead, with Cleo's gang a close second and the Greeks number 3.) To make a long story short, the next turn they turned tail and fled back to Egypt with 16 *wounded* units, not ever having attacked Cologne at all...but I was happy (in the aftermath) to see the AI bring-it with such gusto. Indeed, this pattern would repeat itself over and over again. The next turn the Greeks joined the cause against me and did the *exact same thing*, this time grouping nearly 65 units around little old harmless Ashur on the other end of my empire. I was successful, they were not, and ultimately I crippled, fractured, and otherwise belittled the Egyptians.
These are the only positives to speak of. The coordination and power of their attacks, and the fact that you can still win even if you miss out on the GL or the Pyramids - the latter, undoubtedly, being old hat for some of you wizards.
NEGATIVES
Now to the really fun part.
The last time Rome declared war against a civilization without provocation I was probably monarchy, or something, and it would have been literally ages ago and we were a neat little civ fighting for dear life against, alternately, the British, the French, the Babylonians and the Egyptians. The landscape now in the early 20th century is absolutely littered with the ruins of civs who attacked me. I have been a pacifist whom, when roused, inflicts the fury and wrath of All Mighty God on my foe. The point being, of course, that I haven't been a war monger. And yet, at probably the most dire junction of Roman history, as I defended against massive Greek and Egyptian incursion, my lousy-ass citizens ousted my gov't and threw me into anarchy.
6 turns with my city factories lying dormant and literally hundreds of enemy units knocking at the door. I was a democracy, of course, so perhaps I had it coming...but of course I *didn't* have it coming, because *I* didn't declare war.
This has continued. The war weariness is simply too much to bear. I've got Universal Suffrage and police stations out the yin-yang. I am attacked by aggressors for no good reason and yet am forced to up my luxury level so severely that, when at war, I have given up on research completely. I have recently been attacked by the Japanese and the Greeks, in alliance, and there is yet more egregious massing of troops, and half of the 89 cities in my empire just went into civil disorder.
All I can say is: "It's not my fault! They told me they fixed it!"
...ah hell, I can't remember what the other negatives were. Must not have been that bad.
Comment