CHRONICLES

RBCiv Epic Ten

I was hesitant about founding a third city (fishing village) on that lip of land above Delhi. As such, I delayed longer than I should have, and did not go for it until about 1700BC. My Writing tech came in on min sci. I had in mind to trade it for the Wheel, but India wanted that AND cash! No one else had the wheel yet, and the clock was ticking. I let it tick for a few turns, running min sci on Literature, but then the idea of waiting for these weak AI's to research or trade wheel for me, then research horseback riding, that was apparently going to take too long. I needed to crush or at least cripple them soon, and preferably before they even got to mapmaking, so that I might crush all four of them here on the home continent, then have all the islands to myself to push for rapid domination. So I made the trade with India and started research on horseback riding at my best pace. I learned that there were horses RIGHT UNDER the original start tile, and it doesn't get any better than that! So this map was a keeper. After that trade, I also traded writing to Egypt, the hopelessly poor second chance for Cleo, who had been at constant war with France the whole time.

We've since had some debate about buying workers, but even though I felt this was "early" for a worker buy, that's mainly because I don't check for them regularly, or much at all. I might buy one if I notice, but I don't count on it. I train my own workers and don't care to try to cripple the AI's by artificial means. Problem with that here was so little land, so little food, no time for a granary or I'd only have ONE city, so no time to train workers. I had trained one out of Niagara Falls, so I did have two. I can't ever remember going the first 2500 years and not ordering up fewer workers. So the one Egyptian worker I got here was actually of significant help: a 20% boost to my work force, with no maintenance cost. Besides, Cleo was under constant siege and that worker was only going to rot in their city, or worse, be captured by France, who kept sending more units at them.

Note the settler north of Delhi in that screenie, next to Cleo's picture. The reason I didn't want to settle there at first was that it would be an unproductive city, shield-wise, but would increase corruption at my second city. I was more concerned about troop production than income and research. Then I figured out that 8 unit capacity was not going to be enough. I needed another city (or two) just to support my army. That is what threw the decision over for me.

In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of one more city. India's borders had not expanded to 3rd ring yet, so there was ONE tile on the lake not yet within their borders. It would be highly pressured, but I could "store" all my units there, to supress flip chance, and get my Mounted Warriors within one turn's ride of the capitals of both Egypt and India. I decided I had to go for that.

As horseback riding tech was researched, I founded my fourth city and immediately started training MW's out of my two strong cities. This continued unabated for a dozen turns, during which I amassed about four or five units, with more due in soon..

India expanded to a third city, which alarmed me. France still had only their capital plus Thebes, and Egypt still only their corner respawn location.

I pressed my attack quickly, with only four units ready, one left in Allegheny, just produced, and one more due the next turn. And I LOST the first thrust. One of my units was killed, one retreated, and two succeeded, one of them promoting to elite. I underestimated how many units Cleo had, so I had to move my vet warrior from Allegheny to cover vs her Archer, as she had a wounded spear and one archer left!

Cleo's archer slew my warrior! At least the mounteds were saved. I now had golden age production in the pike, too, which was just enough to pull ten shields per turn from each of my two larger cities. Problem with that is, even one every three turns means only fourteen more produced total by the end of the GA, and that would take 20 turns to complete. Should be enough to conquer the continent, but would it be in time to finish them all off before they got ships and made it to the islands?

I pressed another attack vs Cleo a couple turns later, this time finishing her. I lost a second MW -- my elite! -- who failed to retreat, in the assault. Gah, what awful luck. I would have loved a leader to save to rush the Lighthouse. Oh well. So I had lost two of my original six MW's, one of them my only elite, and also a warrior, and the city I got from it was whipped.

When Egypt did not respawn again (and especially later, after I had explored the map and seen all the lands they might have had) I pretty much concluded that the respawn factor IS tied to some kind of mandatory conditions to allow a respawn. That probably means respawns are more likely on larger maps and pangaeas.

I still felt good. I would need at least eight or ten MW's to press an attack vs India, though. A spear or two wouldn't be a bad idea, either, to cover them on the approach and to defend the cities once captured.

I would use my workers to build roads in the tiles SE and SW of Allegheny, so I could approach and attack India on ONE turn, either direction. I would attempt a lightning strike attack, to take Delhi the same turn I declare war. Or so I planned.

So I heal up my surviving units and continue to train more. It takes almost a dozen more turns before I have enough units to satisfy myself. In that time, India and France both start the Pyramids in their capitals, and India also starts the Oracle in its second city AND the Lighthouse in its third. At least they aren't building troops -- but I agree with those who say that the AI's rabid wonder-building priority poses a tactical WEAKNESS on smaller, tighter maps, when they tie up their producing cities and fail to prepare an adequate defense.

I did not intend to wait for Delhi to finish the Pyramids. I'd let the French do that. India researched Mapmaking in this time, though. Arrgh! (Not starting the Lighthouse until they did).

Then the very same turn when I massed my forces in Allegheny, planning to attack the next turn, I get this message:

Well, that was convenient! Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. Gandhi enjoyed his Pyramids and its 4 culture per turn for precisely one turn. Then I was enjoying them. The sad part is, I had spent a lot of time and energy building granaries in all four of my starting cities. The one at Salamanca was essential, but now the others were redundant, especially the one in Grand River fishing village. I could have had two more Mounteds instead. Oh well. No way I could have anticipated that Delhi would finish the Pyramids for me. There were two other civs out there who might be in better shape than any of us in this sardine can.

The Pyramids would at least eliminate the 4gpt granary upkeep costs, and give me free granaries in all other settlements I founded or captured on the home land.

I lost a mounted in the attack and one on India's counterattack, as my spears could not reach Delhi the same turn. (I had failed to get the road built in time through the forest on the west side of the lake).

I rested for two turns, quelled the resistance, got my spears into Delhi. I considered letting Madras finish the Lighthouse, but it had only just started, and I couldn't live with the flip pressure on Delhi. I had to put India in its place here and now, lest a flip take out my army and cost me the game, or at least any hope of an early finish. So Madras was captured too. Another mounted lost. I've lost one in every single round of attacking, four of four times so far. Arrgh. I had not expected this kind of casualty rate with such a strong numerical advantage. Why the deuce weren't more of my units retreating when they got low? Bad luck? Or is this really typical of warfare at this stage of the game? I don't do enough of it to know for sure.

India offered such nice terms that I decided it would be worth it to let them live another 20 turns. Besided, French had cascaded to Oracle, and I expected them to finish that. Bombay might then cascade to the Lighthouse and hand me the keys to this game.

This also got me mapmaking six turns faster, and I swapped immediately to shipbuilding and settler production to go grab any nearby lands.

After whipping the temple in Delhi, I started it on my FP. Only site I had with a legit chance to build the thing from scratch. It was going to take 50 turns though.

Here's my situation at the end of my golden age:

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