CHRONICLES

RBCiv Epic Eight

The Zulus also declared war on the Chinese. I thought that was a lot to bite off: one reason the Aztecs and Zulus get eliminated early so often is the frquency with which they take on more than one opponent at a time. This is particularly bad as the opposing fronts often end up "pulling strings", causing the army to shift back and forth from priority to priority without committing to either. They end up shuffling around doing nothing at all and losing cities, then collapsing. Would that happen this time? Well, the Babs looked so weak, it seemed unlikely. Also, the Zulus were kicking some Chinese tail in the west, too. Here, my scout on his way home passes a Zulu army in a captured Chinese town.

If you check the minimap in that screenshot, you can see where the Zulus beat me to the site west of Boston. Arrgh! I did grab the other site, finally, at the rest of the wines, and then my "spare" settler diverted from the lost race in the west over to the north end of the east coast, where I founded a dry fishing village in the desert. So my ancient kingdom was rounded out: nine cities, including shortened Atlanta and fishing village Miami.

I decided to build my FP in Philadelphia, right next to my capital, on the east side. Why? Well, two reasons. Firstly, if I played peacefully, this was all the territory I would have, and it was so small, that was the best site anyway. If I made war, I could adopt a "move the palace later" strategy which... I will talk about more at another time. Either way, Philadelphia was a good site, and I went about it at full speed starting right about this time.

The war between the Babs and Zulus raged on, but because the Zulus also had the Chinese, they let Hammurabi hang around too long. He settled a third and fourth city, hooked up iron, got his golden age going with bowmen, then built a lot of swordsmen and actually started WINNING the war!

Around 700BC, I spotted a Babylonian minisod advancing on Bapedi, the easternmost Zulu town at the spice in the middle of the continent there. Bapedi had a regular impi there, maybe two, vs one elite sword, two vet swords and one regular bowman approaching. Bapedi was size 1 and no culture! If taken, it WOULD be autorazed, so I diverted one of my cities (Boston, I think) to a settler, to try to grab the site for myself if the Babs were victorious. I saw the miniSoD the moment it left Bab territory, so I actually had a couple of turns warning to get a settler into position. The turn after the Babs indeed destroyed Bapedi, my settler and warrior escort arrive on the scene:

What a coup! I'm going to get another lux online, grab a choice site in good strategic position, and it's a city that will not have any cultural pressures on it from any direction. It's fertile land, too!

Even with the foresight to spot the opportunity coming and the quick response on my part, I only beat the Zulu replacement settler to the site by two turns. Still, Houston founded and it was a great boost to my civ, adding another lux to my tally. It was a great boost to my economy. At the bottom of the shot, you can see the offending Zulu city, Intombe. I considered it poetic justice to steal a better site out from under their nose, after they stole my city site down there. Not just a spice at Houston, but another iron and a flood plain wheat. You can also see the poorish lands the Babylonians have: lots of desert, and their capital isn't even on fresh water. It will be interesting for me to read the reports from the Babs players in this one.

Those elite swords hung around some more and pulled a leader in 590BC. Below, you can see the UNESCORTED Bab leader wandering through my territory on his way home. I could kill him now and stop them from getting an army or rushing a wonder, but I was in NO position to fight just at that moment. I'd lose at least two cities, maybe much more, to their rigorous veteran army, me with a few spears and warriors and running high infrastructure and greats wonders campaigns.

In fact, you can see that I'm about to grab BOTH of the remaining ancient wonders on the same turn! That will kill the cascade and strand everyone except the Lighthouse winner with a pack of wasted shields. If I get there first! (Not a sure thing). But... I was the only player who had Literature, too, so I had a backup if I lost the Pyramids race. What I hoped to do was end the cascade here and now, get both Pyramids and Great Wall, THEN start the Great Library and get that one, too! Very ambitious for Emperor, but these AI's had not started on the wonders early, quite the opposite.

Yep, sorry little half-city Atlanta was my second best city! It had two plains cattle, a flood plain, was on a river, had no corruption to speak of, and had a mined iron mountain and several hills in range. It was an actual powerhouse, even if it never would get much above size 12. (Just one more reason why a dense build often comes out ahead of a more spaced build... at least up to a point).

So I let the Bab leader go. What choice did I have? Houston was a lucky break, I couldn't waste it and then some just to spite Hammurabi.

Although it was close, none of the AI's researched Literature before my wonders finished. I don't know much I beat England by, but it couldn't have been more than a couple of turns. My Pyramids and Great Wall finished. Japan nabbed the Lighthouse next turn and ALL other players were shut out, their accumulations of shields up in smoke.

Here's something I'm not used to, from playing all these Deity games and tough emperor variants lately: having the most territory this early, and pulling in RoP profits from all the other civs:

Right after the wonder pair was finished, I revolted. I drew 5 turns of anarchy and emerged in a Republic. My Forbidden Palace completed in 90BC, one of the earliest times I've had for a nonrushed FP, but then again, I DID build it right next to my capital!

Here you can see the Power list at the turn of the calendar notation:

My lone scientist research on Engineering has almost come in. My bankroll has swollen. I have Pyramids and Great Wall in the bank and some progress on Great Library in a shield-strong city. The only thing is... Education is just around the corner! It's too late for the Library, and that fact is about to dictate the course of my game.

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