CHRONICLES

RBCiv Epic Fifteen

With the Lighthouse, I didn't have to go all the way south to Babylon to cross the ocean. There were two crossings in the north, each requiring the full four moves to go from sea tile across to sea tile, but they were there, and good thing. If not for those, I would only have gotten one settlement on the other continent.

In 30BC, I caught another break. Owning four ancient wonders (Pyramids, Great Wall, Lighthouse, Colossus, and soon to be the Hanging Gardens, too) and all those libraries and temples was paying off. The Greeks were stuck with few cities and had wasted a lot of shields on the Pyramids and Oracle only to get nothing. (Germany built the Oracle). Thus, already I gained another flip, this time erasing that dreadful green blight from the map in the heart of my territory.

That gave me eleven cities! Two of them were suburbs, but if I did manage to settle more than three cities on the other continent, I could abandon one or both of my Greek suburbs. And actually, this one, Pharsalos, would be the first to go, as my borders would soon expand to close the gap there, preventing any resettlement. This would not be true south of Kiev. If I abandoned that one, I'd either have to run a permanent unit blockade in neutral territory (ala the "spice gambit" from RBD SG10) or the AI's would resettle. At this point, though, I still had a three city cushion before I'd have to worry about any of that.

In order to remind myself about which cities were the suburbs, I renamed them. Those were the ones that could not have workers of their own, but only borrow from immediate neighbors. The one south of Kiev was really out in the cold, as Kiev's worker could not be spared. The other suburb overlapped two cities and could borrow from either, plus the Greeks had already improved some of the lands near it, so it was doing a little better.

By the time my FP was completed, I had a settler pair on the soil of the other continent, moving into position.

Note that St Pete didn't have its temple yet. You have to make a special effort to build ancient wonders. You can't dilly around with other infrastructure, or with military units. You have to coordinate projects, meet those needs with other cities. I ran some risks this game with my three first cities all tied up for dozens of turns on wonder building. I got away with that largely thanks to the free settler to start. I'm sure those (if any) who did not get the settler will have had a slower growth curve and build fewer ancient wonders.

There were spices along the coast on the other continent (in a jungle patch) in the unclaimed area. In the very center of the continent, there were incense unclaimed. I had to have a harbor town, and whatever towns I did settle over there, I wanted them to be together. So I ended up ceding the incense resources to the AI's. I could have had them and the spices, but then the AI's would have put a city between my two, and that was not acceptable. I did not have the resources to put a third settler over there in time. The AI's were gobbling up the remaining lands faster than I anticipated. I suppose it was the ending of all their wonder building that freed up their core cities to pump out a few more settlers. That, or they were just at that point where their production curve in the core was on the upswing.

Now I could have settled the coast first, going inland with my second settler. That would mean a half-dozen turn boost on the first city, but an equal delay on the second, and with the AI's gobbling up the lands, I figured I'd better go inland first. I picked out the pair of tiles I wanted, careful to match the two sites, then settled the first. A barb camp had appeared in the area on the same turn, complete with two conscript warriors. Blah. I'd also suffered some pillaging at my coastal city in the far north (forgot to talk about that) on the homeland, which didn't stop completely until Greece settled in the area where I was not allowed to. Anyway, here's a peek at my first grab on the other continent: lots of jungle in the area, but also some fertile lands.

Salzburg had just then been settled, so I was not beating the AI's to this region by much at all. My spear fended off one barb warrior, then the AI's swarmed.

Note that I rushbought the library in Yakutsk already. I'll buy the one in Vlad next turn (I'll have just enough to do it, too). I had also spent a goodly bit of cash rushing the libraries, walls, and some extra defenders, in the southwest. There are benefits to the min sci gambit!

I now had thirteen cities, and I had a ship on the WEST side of the continent moving in to place to pick up a rushed settler from Sverdlovsk. There was a nice fat patch of jungle on the EAST side of the other continent, opposite those two new cities, that I figured I could grab.

That would make for fourteen cities. So... when THIS happened to me:

I actually rebuffed the rebels! Oh, I could have taken the city, kept it for a few turns (until my last settler was in place) then disbanded it. That would permanently enrage the Greeks, though (if you disband a city with foreign nationals in it, it's the same effect on relations as razing one of their cities). I could also have kept it and then given it back, but the Greeks were already so sad, I did the friendly thing and rejected the uprising. I didn't want those lands if it meant giving up a more productive city. Even my other suburbs were in a better spot. One dyes resource was not worth that much. I already one for myself.

Hanging Gardens became my fifth ancient wonder on the next turn:

One negative effect of preserving my golden age, however, was in leaving the Great Library for the AI's to build up shields, then cascade to SunTzu and nab several of the early middle age wonders. Blah.

I had a palace prebuild started in St Pete, so I would get one of them. Which one did I want? Well, I could go for Bach, or Sistine. Since I planned to live well into the modern age, and have all huge cities, and I had some on the other continent, I figured Sistine was the best value. So that's the one I targetted.

The AI's got ahead of me a bit, and it seemed I might have made a mistake rejecting that flip, as it now looked like I would NOT get a spot on the east jungle of the other continent. There was, however, a smallish icy island in the south seas. It was large enough to support two cities, but with all that ice, I figured there would be oil or aluminum down there. I saw a way to bring all but one of the tiles under my control with a central settlement, to try to control the entire island with one city. I'd have to park a unit on the one tile out of range until my borders expanded to three rings. Well, that seemed doable. I sent my military escort to the far east tile to sit on it, blockade it. The AI's will never settle within two tiles of an existing city, but will settle within three, so I had to block that tile. I rushed the library, of course, then trained a warrior and swapped him with the spearman. Here's my fourteenth and final city: twelve settlements of mine, full cities, and two flipped suburbs.

By this time, things were getting crowded in my area on the other continent. The AI's filled in all the gaps pretty quickly, so I figure I was lucky to have gotten the two cities I did.

Progress was steady. The world remained at peace. At 500AD, it was steady as she goes. Look! Even Kiev is finally getting some irrigation.

| Back to Chronicles | Epic Fifteen - Part Four | Return to the Main Repository |