CHRONICLES

RBCiv Epic ThirtyThree

Since I was forced to spend my golden age in despotism building troops, I'm darned well going to get my value out of them!

Nabbed a settler and a worker on the mountain next to Aydin. Also got my sixth elite victory. Should have had my seventh at Bursa, but no, my elite there loses 0-5. I swear, if it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all. At least in Civ3 this summer. My good luck seems to have packed up and left with Charis a few months back. (I wonder if he put some kind of voodoo curse on me?)

Another elite dies attacking Aydin! Good grief! I've only got two elites left! I get my seventh elite victory there mopping up, no leader. I also lose a vet at Izmit and promote the defender. Blah. I should have waited there for reinforcements before attacking.

Aydin and Izmit are autorazed. I gain an eighth elite victory taking out another settler pair. Still no leader. (Someone who pulls a leader out of their first wars to rush an FP ought to beat me handily in terms of in-game progress. I tell you, the leader luck factor is what makes ancient-era war too much of a dice roll for me to enjoy it on a regular basis. WAY too much reward turning on purely random factors. The odds are too long to manage reliably. All you can do is maximize your elite victories and pray).

I take a tech and half his cities for a promise of twenty turns of Turkish survival. Despite the leader drought, it has been long enough since I played Persia to enjoy the ridiculous power of their UU in a little early bullying. I may lose the race to faster turtles, but I'm enjoying the scenery on my journey. The Babs are not off the hook yet. I've only paused to reload.

I should have quit my minsci on Polytheism and switched to Republic immediately, but once again hindsight is 20/20.

Here you see the grand Persian Empire in 90AD, as I am finally starting research on The Republic. I've got a long dark age ahead of me with no FP online.

I'm just praying the purple civ will march a worker into view of my borders, across the channel.

I tried to beat the Turks to the Ansalya location and lost. Blah. I should have left Izmit standing, as it was in a better location and could have been captured later instead of razed. Hindsight is 20/20. I'm getting whiplash here from turning my head around so much. I blame that on rushing through the turns. Even though I know I can't place first in the Epic any more, I don't want to turn in a ridiculously high time, either.

On the up side, I bet my civ looks a whole lot more impressive than that of some puny builders playing it safe, who never get into a major war. That's the real secret: turtle up inside your shell and pray you get left alone. I'm playing too much like a hare here, wandering off course, smelling the roses, beating the tar and feathers out of my neighbors, etc.

A Scandinavian unit did eventually come into view, giving me first contact with them. I traded contact with the civs I knew for contact with the civs they knew and that was that. I brokered my way into the next age and got some value out of trading my free tech, Engineering. (I'm SO glad they finally randomized the scientific free techs. If only Diablo II had ever randomized the Tome Quest among the temples in Act 3, a similar gameplay boost would be achieved).

I held off changing governments, though. I was unit-heavy, infrastructure poor, and in need of whipping libraries in all my distant, corrupt towns.

Osman came due for his final comeuppance. The idjit would be hanged for letting Babylon walk all over him in 3000BC and force me to have to contain Hammurabi.

The Babs are up to eleven cities. Going to have to do something about them, soon.

At least the Turks were out of the way, now.

There are a few more whippings I want to do, then I'll be ready to change government finally.

Oh, I'm up to ten elite victories now. Still no leader, and I've wiped out a civ and a half. Very few promotions, and four of my elites (half of the total!) died from ridiculous streaks. I decide I'd better start an FP in Istanbul as soon as I can triple-whip its courthouse, just in case I never pop a leader.

| Back to Chronicles | Epic ThirtyThree - Part Five | Return to the Main Repository |