CHRONICLES

RBCiv Epic Eighteen - Game B

With no wonders to build, I took the time now to build a harbor, then two vet galleys, out of my capital. (Still no granary, and almost to size 12, no urgent need for one any more). Why galleys out of the capital? Because my other cities (none of which had granaries yet either) were training settlers so I could grab a bigger share of the land. These galleys picked up settlers from the shorelines and off they went. Meanwhile, my lone explorer galley was sunk by barbs off the northeast coast of Iro lands. I had hoped to contact the last civ but it didn't happen, so I would end up trading for that contact here shortly.

I revolted to Republic with half a turn of anarchy. You can see my two new ships heading off in different directions.

Tenochtitlan went from oppressed to thriving, just like that, picking up a food each from the wheat tiles and a shield each from the hills. That meant 20 spt now, though one was lost to corruption. I started a courthouse.

Here you see the Iroquois have landed ahead of my settler pair (still on the ship), so I had to turn that ship southward and grab the last of the jungle on the south end of this thin island.

That's the first war declaration in the game. This thin island was situated for the Greeks to grab, but the AI of course tied up its capital in wonder building, so I ended up getting all but the north end (all desert) that the Iro's just seized. Ironically, the Greeks would end up grabbing the entire large island between Rome and Germany, so they still came out with a fair share of the land. The one Roman city on that island would be taken by Alex in this war. Foolish Caesar. Like Shaka and Monty, he's too aggressive for his own good, often collapsing the moment his offensive units are gassed.

After I built the courthouse, I started on a granary (finally). But wait! Construction popped the turn before my granary was to be completed, so I happily swapped to the Great Wall. Since I already had two religious wonders, building a military wonder would see the start of my golden age. Already in Republic, I welcomed the opportunity.

Ten turns later, pulling 30spt during the golden period:

Note that I settled three fishing villages on the icy island to my west, completing my land grab. I got my whole continent, the two islands to the west, the fur island and most of the thin island east of Greece. I had dyes, ivory, furs and one incense. Also note that I'm running lone scientist on engineering. Turned out to be a prudent move, as the AI's beelined to Education, discovering only Feudalism besides the mandatory techs for Education. Bah.

A turn and a half later I had to decide whether to go for Sistine Chapel. SunTzu was also on the table, but there was a live cascade from the Gardens underway. I determined that I only had two real rivals who could beat me, and one was building SunTzu. The other had gone to Sistine, and I investigated to see how close they were. Yikes, almost halfway. Still... I calculated that I could beat them if they did not grow too large. I had to MAKE SURE not to sell or trade them any lux, either, so as to force them to continue with entertainers. I had half my golden age left, so that would be over 320 shields in ten turns. It would then take me another fourteen turns to get the rest. This was going to be enormously close. I would literally have to steal the wonder right from under their noses to get it. Was my city strong enough to do it? Well, I had to try.

Here's my civ at the end of my golden age (and note, I shaved one turn off my wonder ETA via food deficit).

I did indeed squeak out the Sistine Chapel, which I could not have done if I had built the Pyramids then the Great Library. I also needed the Great Wall when I got it, for the golden age, or I'd have lost the Gardens, too. I guess in the end, missing the Pyramids probably helped speed my victory, giving me more total culture along the way. Note that Zulus have attack Germany, taking over the jungle-gem island and the Germany city on the big island in the north, leaving Germany only their homeland.

And for the first time I can recall, I self-built my FP in an icy fishing village. Heh.

Now time to squeeze in my cathedral, colesseum and university, before starting on another great wonder. The cascade took out Leo, Bach and on the very turn the second of those was done, the AI discovered Astronomy, taking Cop's out too. Blah.

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