CHRONICLES

RBCiv Epic Fourteen

Back in 975BC, the "top 8 list" showed that the four civs closest to me were the four at the bottom of the list. That I had this many cities and was not ranked first was of some concern, but I'd deal with the Aztecs eventually.

In 750BC, with the feeling of an always war game settling into place, I approved the map, sent the start and details off to Griselda for posting, and set the game aside until Opening Day. I would, in fact, complete Epic Thirteen before resuming this game.

It was my thought at the time that this game would take a typical Always War course. Things didn't turn out that way. The situation for the AI's on my continent went into the drink during the next twenty turns. I continued my pillage-n-park strategy. At this point, it was almost all park. The English and Zulus were both stuck. I had pillaged their lands and parked on a hill within range of their capitals. They would not attack my units there no matter what. They never did, never would. Their workers sat in the city, under siege, and without improved tiles these civs were completely toothless. Rome and America were effectively in the same boat. They did not get enough time to repair the damage, so they too were stuck. India was the only one posing any kind of credible threat, and it became clear by 350BC that even that would be negligible: an annoyance, a distraction, but not a significant concern.

You can see in that shot that I researched iron working after literature. There were three sources in my territory: one at Mycenae, another at Thermopylae (denying that one to the Romans, to whom it had been closer -- the very early war declaration apparently prevented them from getting a settler out), and a third at Eretria. The one at Mycenae was the only one I would connect any time soon. There was a fourth source south of Herakleia, which I also intended to grab. There was a source just south of Zimbabwe and I parked my hoplite right on top of it. India had a source in range, but it was outside the borders of Madras and would never get connected. India has settled a fourth city, while I have fourteen, including the Pyramids, the Lighthouse about to be built, horses and iron connected, and plenty of fertile lands and developed cities. They had poor lands, small cities. The only truly fertile plot they had was the one farthest from their capital, north of my dyes city, where they had three grassland wheat.

The lands to the south were not fertile. I would have two rings of productive cities around Athens, and that would cover all the good lands in the south. Further out would be only fishing villages and/or underpowered city sites. To the north was a vast jungle and a lot of hills and mountains. The only logical direction for the Forbidden Palace was to the north. It will be interesting to see if someone who pushed at the AI's very aggressively, could manage to get enough leaders to spend on an early FP in the north, and how that might turn out. In Epic Six, though, I built my FP right next to my capital and moved my capital later, after I had obtained enough land for it to matter. This time, I delayed starting my FP, as I thought I would rush it with a leader. (I mistakenly thought I'd get a few leaders some time soon -- well, I didn't). It will also be interesting to see if anybody who was less successful at hamstringing the AI's (and thus faced more AI units) will pull more leaders and get ahead that way.

I still had virtually no offensive army. I would send my settlers out with a hoplite and soon send along a second hoplite. I figured a pair of hoplites ought to stave off any of these small AI sorties, at least long enough to bring reinforcements, if the AI's "picked that city" as their main target. I relied almost wholly on defensive units to push my settlements and borders forward. I had only a few offensive units to mop up the few AI's attempting to pillage. You can even see a pair of guards escorting a settler into Roman territory, as I intend to found a city right there on the west side of the lake, and then raze Rome later on and replace it with another city in the area to its east.

Finally, one more note on the 350BC screenshot: note the one tile of fog on a mountain north of Rhodes. I didn't realize that was there at the time. I -thought- I had uncovered all the fog on the continent around 500BC, but I missed that one. Not only did I miss it here, but I would miss it another twenty turns or so, as well, so it seems unlikely that I will score those two bonus points, even though I had been set up to compete for them.

In 310BC, a situation developed. The Zulus had two archers in range of Rhodes, and the Indians moved three more into range. That would be three archers attacking, I figured, and one unit of each civ fortifying instead of attacking (as noted earlier). Two hoplites can handle three archers, but I needed to get some reinforcements up there soon. Well, turns out I needed them sooner than I thought:

Bah! I drew one of those streaks. The Zulu archer killed my hoplite four to one, then promoted to veteran. The first Indian archer took one hp off my remaining hoplite before he died, then the next archer won three to two and burned the city to the ground! Turns out three archers WERE enough to defeat me there. Arrgh. I was not happy with this setback, but at least it was both a new colonial city and close to my core, meaning I could replace it quickly, as opposed to my dyes town, for example.

This was the only such bad streak that cost me a city, though, and that's about par for the course. Statistically speaking, it's reasonable for such a streak to show up now and then. This in contrast to some games where I've had a bad streak like that decimate my early game. THIS bit of bad luck seemed proportionate. Some other times have been a different story.

There was good news the following turn:

Unfortunately, my port cities were not strong. Corinth lacked for library or temple, and would need an aqueduct. Pharsalos was flood plains and hills/desert, so while still in despotism it lacked for shields and wasn't ready to help. Argos was too far away and too immature. Knossos, south of Corinth, was in good shape, and largely available, so I ended up training two galleys out of there and one out of Corinth. With just three galleys, I would set out to explore, sending the first one north, the second south, the third to be announced. And of course, my coastal cities on the eastern side were all weak. Eretria was pathetic, Rhodes had just been wiped out, and Herakleia was too corrupt.

With iron now connected, ships being built to explore, and just about all the useful land I could grab with settlers having been secured, it was time to turn my attention to taking the lands of my close neighbors. I produced some horsemen but mainly swordsmen for this push. I did not wait for overwhelming force, but played the odds and went in with enough to win if I drew a reasonable set of combat rolls. If not, it would just take longer, that's all.

I went after America first. My first city capture took place in 30BC:

Rhodes has been rebuilt. Note, this time it is a bit more heavily defended. You can also see a worker building a road through the mountains, to better assist reinforcements in future. India has a fifth city, NW of New York, on a river in the jungle.

You may also be able to see on the minimap that some fog out in the waters west of Knossos has been busted. My first ship is on its way north, and as it goes, it is taking time to explore outward into the sea, to see if there are any ways across to other landmasses. The ship that turned south has found such a crossing, right there at Knossos. I was not positioned to make the crossing on this turn and had to retreat, but I'll be set up for it next turn.

Across the ocean we go, to the west. This was the result:

I then sold the French horseback riding for their gold and world map, revealing a decent-sized but wholly icy continent that was a bit small to be shared by two civs.

At this point, I was regretting not setting a contact goal at 0AD, the way I had all the other millenium breaks. I had just made it before the AD calendar switch, but someone contacting these guys in 900AD will score just as much. Ah well. My ships are at least on the move. Anybody who does NOT build the Lighthouse is (as it turns out) going to be stuck on the home continent until Astronomy. With these hamstrung AI's, they're of no help on research, either, so the player is blazing the research path @1st prices all the way.

It seems that I could have made this an Emperor game and had it be playable. If the AI's don't contact one another, they research too slowly. If you hamstring them by pillaging all their lands, they fold. It now seems to me that Greece is the STRONGEST possible civ to have for always war, as you can fend off almost any ancient attack, sending out hoplites unmolested to reach into the heart of AI lands and rip out the life support for these civs, in a way that regular spearmen or even impis could not pull off. I wish I had known that in advance, but perhaps it will be good to have a moderate-difficulty game here. Only a handful of players have yet gained much experience at Always War, and this might be a good stepping stone to more such scenarios in future.

There are still four more AI's out there, and if they are all bunched, they could pose a threat. Based on how few wonders have been started and/or built by the AI, however, I suspect they are not all together. In any case, I believe I have this game firmly in hand by now. It's just a matter of how quickly I can finish it and how well I can balance my scoring pursuits along the way. My game plan hasn't changed. We'll see how it goes.

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