CHRONICLES

RBCiv Epic Seventeen

What comes after the grab phase? Often the AI warring phase. I paid off a few extortion demands and the AI's ignored me for the moment. Meanwhile, the India-Persia war ended and a new war broke out. I knew the moment I saw it that it would not end well for Caesar. Cleo had built the pyramids and gotten her golden period already, and with her industriousness, her cities were all well developed and high in population. Rome was a collection of backwaters, and had suffered for being late to the trading table. I labeled this screenie "Roman Weed":

Surprisingly, Rome showed no ill effects of this move for a couple hundred years. They had not lost any territory at the point in which my FP completed, but right before that, Egypt pulled X-man into the conflict on her side, and I figured that would swing the tide.

Note the cultural battles going on. Ur, despite its head start and my cheap library, has fallen behind El-Amarna. Thess dominates all my cities except Babylon, so I've got extra units on garrison in those town. I even have extra units at Ur, lest some dreadful die roll take out my FP site! Ack. On the up side, Ellipi has managed to stay ahead of both its neighbors, and I made it a priority to keep it that way.

Greece and Egypt split all the wonders. Persia built the Lighthouse, but got nothing else. India and Rome were shut out. Greece had Colossus, Oracle, and SunTzu. Egypt built Pyramids, Sistine, Leo. They split all the wonders, and as a result their cultures were both soaring. I poured everything I had into culture and still barely kept above the one-third mark. Yes, I'm even building colesseums!

When India declared on Rome, Caesar was left without luxury imports and the AI's were in pile-on mode.

I was so intent on connected all my cities and supplying good tiles to them that I didn't connect my horses until 320ad. Babylon had by then finished its available cultural buildings and stopped training settlers, so it was time to supply cardboard cutouts to man the walls in all my cities.

Note that Rome still has not lost any territory. That's about to change soon.

By 400AD, my lone scientist research on Engineering came in and I bought my way up to banking and printing press, starting in on democracy research. With only two second ring cities (Ellipi, and Lagash across the bay), my empire was tight and only lightly corrupt. Persia had to be in their golden age now, while Greece was not involved in the war. Research was flying along, almost at the old style pace. (Well, maybe that's overstating, but it was flying faster than I've seen since the change, and incredibly enough, I was keeping up fairly well).

The period between 400AD and 500AD came to be known as the Great Collapse. Rome folded like a house of cards. Egypt was capturing at first, and so was Persia, but once they got to the heart of the Roman territory one or both started razing. They left gaps, and I realized I had a poaching opportunity. I did not have anything prepared, so I needed ships AND settlers. I thought Rome might get peace after losing a bunch of territory, but apparently their economy was so bad off, they were truly helpless. I was stunned, as I watched an entire deity civ disappear in just ten turns.

I tried to be clever and buy in to some techs with gpt just before Rome expired. Well, for once I got bit doing that. Rome had one town on that tiny island off the coast of Veii, and instead of the big dogs finishing him off, they immediately turned their sights toward Greece. Hmm. Uh oh. This... could... get... ugly...

Note that my "useless" fishing village has turned out to have a saltpeter. I can't use it yet, but it would eventually come into play. More on that later. Also note my second shipload of poachers: two settlers, one unit of guards. A similar ship was further north, looking like I would indeed be able to poach some of the land, although like my poachings in Epic Twelve, if war broke out these would all fold quickly. Still, there were some lux available, and who knows what resources might be hanging around. It was worth a shot. Poaching war-torn lands gave me a big boost in Epic Nine.

Now the other big dog follows his mistress into the fray on the same turn. You see, the top AI's were already into the industrial age, and Egypt had MPP with Persia. So what does Alex do? Why of course he attacks one of her cities immediately, biting off more than he can chew. These be interesting times.

The side effect of all of this was that the AI's now ignore Rome's last town on its little island, leaving me to pay the full extent of gpt payments for Navigation and Physics. Oops.

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