CHRONICLES

RBCiv Epic Six

Each passing turn now, I'm sweating bullets about trying to pull down my third leader. Almost 500AD in Always War and just two leaders??? We had so many in the other game, I felt sure I'd have more than this by now. It will be interesting to see what happens in other players' games in this regard. I still don't have contact with Russia, the last civ, and no idea what wonders they may be working on. Lots of folks vying for Sistine, though. Each turn passing was painful, knowing a leader was my only hope. And my worst fear? I pull one, don't use him to make an army, then go another 500 years without a fourth leader! Heh.

The enemy presence around Konigsburg is now so heavy, they're tripping over one another trying to find room to crowd in. The enemy units are getting tougher, too. Egypt in particular seems fond of training knights. France is also large on tougher units. Zulus are sending longbows with the impis now. Still some weaker units moving about, but the freshly arriving reinforcements are heavier duty.

I got a lot of bombardment damage as units passed by Konigsburg. I got some as they passed the iron fort, as well. I had some secure defensive zones on high ground, but the AI penetration past Konigsburg still exceeded my counterattack capacity. Part of the problem was that those forests wouldn't let my units retreat after attacking, so I could attack the extras in a stack or attack when there was a minor lull in the onslaught, but most times I had to hold my fire, attacking units in the open but letting some spill over and burn themselves out, or else attack them in the back the moment they stepped onto any of my roads (from which I could then retreat after the battle). I had about ten cata's by now, mostly in the east. To my amazement, the AI's made relatively few attacks on Bonn. I did lose troops now and then there, but more so losing knights and bows in attacking passersby, than from actual losses during an assault. Still, it was enough that I had to keep a ship on hand there to ferry reinforcements up to Bonn as soon as spares came available.

Then, finally, my elite archer (built in the distant years BC) scored a kill and popped my third leader! In 480AD! (Sheesh)

Note the security at Salzburg is holding. I kept my vow that once I pushed forward, that I would not be pushed back. (The down side to that was some slow pushing, but at least I was always moving forward or standing still, never in retreat). Now check out the penetration around Konigsburg. I've got a samurai on top of Berlin! I even had the occasional impi speed past Berlin to the back lines, where I'd have to take them out. The samurai mostly attacked once they got to Heidelburg, Salzburg or Berlin, but the impis were pure mischief, looking to pillage. I had so far a perfect record in preventing any pillagings, but not because they never had the chance. Just that the few times they did have the chance, they went deeper, trying to disconnect my resources, and I caught up with them).

Those sad little Iro units are what gave me my leader. Two regular warriors and a regular archer, so pathetic they got shot up walking past Konig and then got shot up again retreating. And what did I do with the leader? I rushed Sistine right there on the spot, in Konigsburg even though it wasn't well secured, for fear of the AI's building it before I could get the leader back to a safer area. So three leaders, all used to rush wonders I was highly worried about losing. Still no army, no heroic epic, and worse odds for the next leader, but oh well. What use fifty leaders AFTER the AI's have snagged all the most urgent wonders?? I had to get what mattered.

The next turn, my wounded ship reached the shore of Russia.

I disbanded the ship after that. Nothing left to explore, nothing left to do, take too long to get him home.

I was now cranking a new knight every three turns from Berlin, a new longbow every two turns from Munich. I had trained nine or ten knights in the back lines, but they now went onto infrastructure. Even with all this military production, there were turns my losses exceeding my replacements. Not bad -- on average I was gaining strength, but slowly, so slowly.

The Japanese got a victory off a samurai about this time and went into their golden age. I thus had to fend off MANY such units over coming years, and it wasn't long for Japan to start showing increased production. I believe I avoided ever giving Egypt its golden age, or the Iro's, but Zulus definitely had one, and I'm pretty sure France got a musket victory in there (but more on this later).

With me still not having the Epic built, I thought I had better start a Palace prebuild in Hamburg. If a leader came soon enough, I could have the Epic ready to finish sooner. If not, I could build Copernicus from scratch.

In 560AD, not too awfully long after the last one, my fourth leader, from a longbow victory. The cats bombed, the bows finished the top of the stack, knights killed off the final or lone units.

I used this leader to make an army, finally, and put three knights into it, but that took two turns. I got the victory in 580AD vs an English unit at Stuttgart, I believe, and swapped the prebuild in Hamburg at some shield waste to have the Epic pop the NEXT turn. I then moved the army westward to reinforce Heidelburg, to deal with the mass of Samurai units pouring in over there. (Especially to deal with those who ventured past the forts and cities to my roads).

You can also see I've moved pikes onto the hill north of the iron. I was starting to make some push to get a road, finally, to Konigsburg. I would go through the hills, zigzagging and plopping forts down on each one if need be. Instead of the road coming up from Berlin, it was coming through the iron, up from Stuttgart. In the mean time, I was forming a kill zone above Stuttgart to have more than one way to attack the mass of units coming down the coast toward Stuttgart every round. I could put my catas into the forts and hit them sooner.

Even with the Epic now operational, there were a lot of wonders coming up here, with the AI starting some of them, and I got worried. I decided to build Copernicus in Berlin from scratch, and this turned out to be a good decision. It was due to finish in 730AD, after using colleseum prebuilt to have ~110 shields already stored the turn that Astronomy would come in. Shortly after this, in 660AD I popped my fifth leader and saved him for a couple of turns to rush Magellan's at my second city, Leipzig, on the coast in 700AD.

Note that that's the same leader name as the first leader. WHY the militaristic civs, who get way more leaders than other civs, have so few leader names, I have no idea. I know all three Japanese and all four German leader names by heart. Heh. Yet some civs like Babylon have like eight leader names. Go figure. At least the Aztecs have a lot of names. By the time you finish this report, you'll know the German names by heart, too! Haha. Barbarossa, Baron von Richtoffen, Hengest, Horsa. (Sing it with me now!)

Shortly after 700AD, I finally have a road connected to Konigsburg. The area behind the city was not yet fully secure, but I did prevent any pillaging of the roads there. The Japanese onslaught in the west was unbelievable, with two or three new vet samurai arriving each turn. I lost a number of units over there, and my army saw heavy action, attacking, then retreating to Leipzig for a couple turns to heal, then attacking some more, sometimes without being fully healed yet. Sometimes attacking twice on one turn, too, with the army blitz ability. Copernicus finished in Berlin, leaving Berlin having built all three of its great wonders from scratch! Great Wall, SunTzu, Cop. 1200 shields worth of wonders! If I had only pulled three more leaders, imagine the units I could have made! (And for those who play this and have the same leader luck I do, imagine the wonders they will MISS for not building them, if they concentrate more on units).

I got another leader from a longbow and used him to rush Bach's also in Leipzig, where I had built the coastal wonders. (I rotated the wonders through my cities, so as to avoid the risk of 20k culture in any of them overtaking my ambition to conquer the world, and with Berlin and Hamburg both now "full", this was a logical place to get a third "top 5" city but not overdo it).

I got another leader the turn after rushing Bach, my seventh leader, and used him to make a second army, leaving that empty at Berlin for now. (I had plans for it, more on that later).

Yes, still weathering the storm in the west. You see a musketeer on the horizon now. England had also sent muskets and other troops. Still no word from Russia yet, militarily, almost some thirty turns after making contact, but they have to be coming along soon, probably with some SoD's.

And yes, I'm working on the printing press. I feared a Shakespeare cascade taking out Theory of Evolution at some point, and might as well research to it since that was what the AI's were researching, and I followed them everywhere to lower my costs. The savings of that paid for the optional research. Note also my depleted treasury, after spending megabucks upgrading pikes to musket (and still only upgraded about 60% of the total -- I figured I could leave some pikes in the back lines, upgrade them later if there was an urgency).

By 800AD, the Japanese onslaught was slowing. I was making my move to take control of Konigsburg (ironically, I'd had ivory online since about 500AD, via harbor from Bonn). Konig is still only size 3, but soon will be growing. Egypt and England are now sending a steady stream of knights, in stacks of two to four. I had founded my 15th city, the half-city Dortmund near Berlin.

Also note the brown unit. Russia has finally deigned to join the party, arriving fashionably late and with a significant force, the largest pack of knights I've yet seen.

Lots of cultural pressure on the enemy but no city flips. And STILL no defensive leaders, despite now having the Epic. I lost the Hanging Gardens and Leo's but I did get all the urgent wonders, and I now had enough leaders coming in that I was certain I would grab the rest of the wonders.

The only question now was, how soon could I make my first push to capture an enemy city? I decided that the target would be the silks, and that I would build another city east of there on the river and target THAT to be the future home of my palace and my second core.

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