CHRONICLES

RBCiv Epic Twelve

Yet another century passed, during which I obtained steam, traded for iron, bought coal and started to build rails. The only resource in my territory so far had been that one horse way out on the edge. I caught a minor break when a coal source moved into my territory, though.

I also had this incident, although I presumed this was just par for the course:

I decided to buy an embassy with France at one point. Please note that the AI's do in fact build factories, coal plants, and small wonders.

Building wealth? In the capital, with a factory? Absurd. I made a bet with myself that this AI would not survive the game, here wasting time building wealth instead of more troops.

My little peaceful "keep my head low" plan was making progress. Time was on my side, I figured. But then the peace was shattered, and me still not to Nationalism or Replaceable Parts.

Note the Aztec battleship and airport. They had just gotten to tanks, but the rest of the AI's had not caught up yet, and much like my game in Epic Nine, where I took full military advantage of each brief window of technology edge, the Aztecs did that here with what could only be described as masterful timing.

I immediately geared up settlers in hope of poaching some lands, and indeed got the chance to do so. I grabbed four sites, all four areas where the Aztecs razed instead of capturing. Rome held out about as long as I expected. I again ran a little "innocent" blockading, but only bought them a turn or two in the process.

I finally had my own sources of iron and saltpeter. I took the chance to pillage all the neutral tiles outside my border range, too, just to be obstinate.

I decided to pay for RoP with the Aztecs, both to have better access through their rails to my new territory, and also to improve relations and let them pass quickly through my lands. If they were going to attack me, the RoP wouldn't hurt me anyway. I needed time to train rifles, infantry, artillery, and anything I might do to buy time seemed like a good idea.

Note the screenshot below, where the Aztec workers are building RAILS in my territory. They built quite a few, apparently attempting to connect their new cities up via rail. I didn't know whether to consider this an act of ultimate friendship, or one of total disdain. It made me a little nervous, though.

By now I had factories operating and was cranking troops at the fastest possible rates. I also built hospitals, and hoped that would boost my own economy, too, but for once the AI's had been very dilligent on building their own hospitals, every AI on the map having prioritized that, so even now, once again, I was a step behind and falling further behind with each turn.

I had once changed that barracks to a settler, via wealth, losing three shields. I had also once changed a fishing village to a harbor with only one shield progress toward something else. Those had been the only two times all game I had swapped projects without the shield box being empty. I didn't plan to do so again, either, but a pollution unit caused a longbow I had been training to fail to be produced, on the turn that I got Replaceable Parts tech, so... I had to waste those shields, to start on artillery immediately in a city with exactly forty shields to the good per turn:

I also bought rubber from the only supplier with extra: Aztecs. I finally started to train some infantry! Another fifty to one hundred years, even this sad economy would have me into a position where I should be strong enough to survive the rest of the game.

Of course, the Aztecs seemed to figure that out, too. Thus:

Well, there's no way I can do anything about my new territory. Unfortunately, I did something very unwise. I had sent ALL of my workers over there to hurry the construction of rails. Something nagged me at the time, that that was an unwise move, but I was in "if they attack, it's over anyway" mode, so I pushed the limit of every imaginable production advantage I could obtain for myself through peaceful means.

I didn't think all hope was lost just yet, but... of course, this was not good.

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