CHRONICLES

RBCiv Epic Thirty-Five

In 310BC, contact was made with the other continent. Incredibly, the entire world was at peace!

I got lucky and had the chance to do a little brokering, scoring maps, contacts and gold, and embassies, all ultimately courtesy of the Library.

Delhi reached 1000 culture in 110BC.

Aqueduct was the largest item could build, so I started on that. Then... ARRGH! My aqueduct finished the same turn that Monarchy popped from the Library! My Gardens prebuild was gone, and this would ultimately cost me the Hanging Gardens! Sometimes the timing just doesn't break your way.

Anyway, about this time my core was set. I had my first three good cities, my bad-location fourth half-city I had to plop down, and three more half-cities squeezed in wherever there was any room at all. Turns out to be a very dense build, just like my Epic 30, and all because I sacrificed growth curve to the end-all be-all goal of maximizing culture in the capital. I guess this is what I deserve for having only two cities in 850BC.

I don't expect to be able to beat all the Emperor AI's, with their fresh water capitals, to the Gardens, not from an even start. So that is my Sistine prebuild. And let us pray that we get THAT, because if we don't, this could get very ugly.

In 130AD, you can see a helpful Korean worker bringing irrigation to Delhi for me. Ha! The only useful thing I ever got out of Korea poaching my horses.

My treasury is incredibly low for running all cash, you say? Well, of course it is, since I had to rush both temple and library in Madras to ensure its cultural superiority over both French and Korean rival cities, and I kept on rushing stuff as the dough came in, trying to catch up on my slow start. The one good bit of news is that I've been successful enough to keep the cultural victory plan alive, albeit bruised. I'm not expecting anybody else to have tried for this at this point, but if anybody did, I'm dying to see how it went for them.

At least for my cities with contested tiles, I am ahead in all six situations.

I had one more problem, though. I needed an eighth city to qualify for FP. There was no such site anywhere in my core. I decided to poach a silk out from under Orleans's nose. I figured even if the city later flipped or died, it would be worth it for the FP, so I sent an expedition.

When the Gardens got built, I switched to SunTzu. Figured I had plenty of cushion on that, but no, that got built before Theology was learned. Somebody must have been in their golden age. Blah. So there I am hanging on by a thread with Leonardo. If that falls, too, and I get NOTHING out of my 500+ shields, I will have lost this game. Or at least the cultural pursuit. My FP finished in 390AD.

Gunpowder was learned before Education, which was good news for me, the Library holder. Also good news on hopes for killing the cascade with Leo/Sistine.

Education came in a few turns later, and I had stopped spending and started saving.

Just three turns to go on Sistine. Oh pretty please. With aspartame on top!

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