CHRONICLES

RBCiv Epic Seventeen

I made my way up the tree with India's help. I waited things out, then arranged 2fer deals, pretty much like this one, which put us both into the industrial age.

While that was going on, Greece was pulling off a miracle against Egypt. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. Alex had some ships and for whatever reasons, he preferred to target Cleo's Roman acquisitions rather than her core cities. The result is that he ended up "pulling her strings", as his forces would land in small numbers on the western shores, and ALL of Egypts forces would pursue them, tying them up in largely useless maneuvers in the rugged western lands, keeping them off the back of the Greek core. Alex even managed to capture Artaxata once, briefly. The result is that he only had Persia to fight on the main battle line, in the early years of the war.

I managed to poach five sites. Four of these were from the two shiploads, and on the western shore. Sippar was near my saltpeter town, securing one of three spices there from a defensive location. (I could have gone for all three, but I was minimizing my risks here). Izibia was founded directly on an ivory, also in a defensive location. I founded two other cities in defensive locations in former Roman lands, then I also poached a fifth site from the destroyed Greek site west of Lagash. Here you see my acquisitions:

It will be interesting to see if Rome survives or even becomes strong in anybody else's game. Once they were gassed in this one, they popped like a balloon.

Egypt would squeeze a town between Larsa and Shuruppak, but it would never manage to expand its borders. Cleo was mobilized now, and so not only was she pulling half-culture, but she was also unable to build any new culture. Alex was suffering a similar fate, so I actually started to gain ground culturally, thanks to my high culture strategy. I was also still on target for a wholly honorable game.

India was the only civ without nationalism, and I held off trading to them. It was a HUGE gamble, but I hoped and prayed they would research or buy into either steam or medicine before they could buy in to the very pricey (now inflated for trade value) nationalism tech. Yes, even between the AI's they charge one another more for certain key techs now.

As turn after turn rolled by, I really started to sweat this strategy. I mean I worried big time that I'd lose the nationalism trade opportunity altogether. But then sometimes it's better to be good than lucky. My chance came and I seized it, trading nationalism @last for steam power, military tradition and 20 turns of very pricey iron. I paid for coal from Cleo, as I didn't have any of that either, and started on railbuilding.

Wow, what a resource-poor region. One iron, too close to Egypt. (If anybody does grab it, I'll either be impressed or suspicious ;) -- maybe both!) Only one horse, barely in reachable range. Not a coal or (later) any rubber, within a gazillion miles. This is almost RBE1-ish in its poorness of resources. I'll be looking forward to the rest of the reports on this game, for sure.

Now as Democracy had approached, I started a palace prebuild in Ur, to try to grab Shakespeare's. The cascade was broken at Newton's when Persia finished it. They were, apparently, NOT mobilized, or perhaps going in and out of mobilization between wars. I figured that if I were to have a shot at Suffrage and Evolution, I'd better make sure there was no cascade from an ill-timed Shakespeare's.

Here's what my democracy looked like at its founding, complete with rail crews hard at work.

Note that with El-Ash captured by Persia, there's a bit of unused land inside my border over there now. It seemed like a good chance to poach one more site right here inside my own country, now with less fear of losing it to a flip. I decided to do it, much like I added one core city to my civ late in the early industrial period in Epic Nine, once I was confident I could hold the ground.

In 810AD, mighty Rome launched a massive coastal invasion of Egypt, terrorizing the entire western third of the continent.

I did nab Shakespeare's, with Wall Street due next turn and a new prebuild underway in Uruk. Note my military railnet progressing, now backed by democratic labor.

As you can also see, I had the treasury and income with which to buy more tech. There was none to buy. The previously rigorous tech pace collapsed, as Egypt and Greece became locked into communism, while Persia went to monarchy. India was in democracy but still lagging behind the others, and the once-blazing tech pace dropped to a slow crawl. That was fine with me, let me tell you, although I did worry about Greece collapsing. I was strong enough now to fend off an AI without dire peril, but the cost would be high. Just... hold... out... a little... longer... and I would be to factories, and in solid shape. I held to the discipline of buying two for one, waiting on India to get something I didn't have, then buying something they didn't have and trading. I prefer to have a situation where I can do that multiple times on one brokering, one round of dealing, but there weren't enough AI's left in this game to allow that. You almost need a large map and twelve AI's to pull off the mega deals ala my coups in Epic Four.

Finally, Persia swatted the fly that was what left of Rome, and late-civ prices improved for Ghandi and me. :)

You can see that Greece is starting to lose it, as Persia has accumulated a significant SoD. Ephesus is still standing in this screenshot, but it was razed a turn or two later. I signed a new RoP with Alex and used his roads to move my settler and escorts around behind the lines, to get there within a few turns.

This is also where my extra saltpeter comes in. I hooked it up, then was able to supply some to Alex while still able to build my own cavs and cannon. Alex was using up his RIFLES on offense, rather than building longbows or knights, so I realized that if I didn't get him back to producing new cavs, his demise would come too quickly. Once Alex started training cavs again, the hemorrhaging stopped. For the moment.

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