I have not played many games on map-sizes larger than normal. This is mostly due to me being more of a builder than a warmonger and playing a builders game on a large map takes pretty much forewer. However, this game will definately force me to wield my weapons instead of my gardening hoe :-)
Anyway, a large map sure means a lot of enemies to my quest for domination. I honestly do not know how a conquest victory will be possible since we cannot raze any cities.
The no-raze rule also means that i need a really good financial position. Of course, if i manage to get good finances in parallell with my city conquering spree, i will end up as a science monster...
I will try to eradicate one of my neighbours as soon as possible. However, this being an Inland Sea map, we will all carve out "pie pieces" around the lake, so really strong friends that can protect one of my flanks will be absolutely crucial.
I also intend to take control of the sea by first attacking the cities on the coast and then move to the outer perimeter. If i leave the ocean wide open, i will have boat loads (is that galleon loads) of enemy unit landing on my coast in no time.
I see no less than 5 floodplains (Food and $$!!)
3 plain hills (Production)
1 grass hill
Plenty of grass (Food to feed the miners)
1 stone
1 corn
1 wine (not in the Fat cross)
Things could have been much, much worse than this!
I settled on the opening spot and decided (due to the stone resource) to lay my hands on Stonehenge and The Pyramids for earlier border pops and "government flexibility".
Dwindling between hunting (for scouts) and mining (for production) as my first tech, i did eventually choose Mining.
My opening research path went: Mining -> Masonry -> Hunting -> Mysticism -> Pottery.
As i said in the beginning, i desperately wanted some friendly relationship with one or two of my neighbours. The easiest way to achieve this is to share a religion and, despite my "non-mainstream" research path, i missed polytheism by two turns only. I did however found Confucianism by picking Code of Laws as my free tech from the Oracle.
Yes, i built quite a lot of wonders in this game. In fact, i built almost all.
I would propably have been able to reach world domination earlier, had i churned out big amounts of early units and attacked one of my neighbours. However, the sheer size of the map turned the game very much into a builders game in the beginning. Lay the platform (productionwise and commercially) for my future expansion, so to say.
My initial build order was: worker -> warrior -> scout -> one turn of barracks -> Stonehenge (ready 2480 BC) -> Settler -> Barracks.
The warrior i started with, found the sea, quite a bit to the south of my capital. The distance between Paris and the coast is quite large which furthered my beliefs that the map is very big, and that i really need to create a solid infrastructure before i launch myself into war.
I quickly made contact with Mansa Musa, Alexander, Saladin and Bismarck. Mansa Musas settlement was directly on my left side, and i was quite tempted to attack him early, but decided that warriors against skirmishers is propably not a winning move.
My adventuring scout found himself in a "tight spot".
Needless to say, he did not survive...
The picture below shows my heartland to be.
I have got Mansa Musa to my right and Saladin to my left. Due to the tragic death of my bold Scout, I am yet to discover who the country directly south of Saladin belongs to.
The blue arrows shows my intended expansion path. I intend to settle aggresively towards both Saladin and Mansa in an "upside-down U-shape". Atleast 4 cities along the path of the blue arrows (including Paris) will have plenty of plains hills for military production. The abundance of flood plains in the middle is the place for my future money making machine (cottages on every floodplain, yummie).
Apparently, the Venerable Bede does not have any high regards for the mighty French Empire....
As you can see, i have just settled my second city after Paris. I placed it on a hill east of a river, just in case Mansa would try something nasty.
Bronze working is discovered in 1480 and Paris is awarded with yet another extremely useful plot of land.
The potential of Paris is really beyond limits. Aside from plenty of food, 3 plains hills and Stones, i now have Copper on a plains tile as well.
Paris completed The Pyramids in 1400 BC and i switched to Slavery and Representation directly upon completion.
Lyons is settled in 925 BC. Plenty of hills and quite a lot of food to support the miners. Later on, i built the Ironworks here and Lyons together with Paris created the bulk of my military. Did i bye the way, tell you i was big on wonders in this game? The Oracle, under construction in Paris, was completed in 775 BC and gave me Code of Laws.
A scout from Julius Ceasar visited my lands in 725 BC.
A great prophet was born in 625 BC and i used him to build the Kong Miao. None of my immediate neighbours (Mansa, Saladin or Julius) had founded a religion yet, however Rome had applied Jewism as state religion.
In 575 BC, i finalized research of Iron Working and a desert tile inside Orleans's "fat cross" was blessed.
Hatshepsut dropped by and said hi in 425 BC and it turned out that she was the founder of Jewism.
In 250 BC , the layout of my empire had the following shape:
As you can see, i am following the expansion plan i made up earlier. I also said that i intended to settle aggresively towards Mansa and Saladin. The placement of Rheims illustrates this perfectly.
The lovely Isabella of Spain made her presence known in 200 BC and who could have guessed she was the founder of Buddhism...
As usual, she was annoyed right off the bat and to be honest, that would not improve.
In 50 BC, i built The Hanging Gardens in Orleans. This wonder was followed by The Great Library in Paris, AD 250.
I used my free Great Artist from the discovery of Music to help Rheims in the cultural battle against Damascus and a Greece city. This move was very important since it disabled Alexander of any chances to settle into my heartland while at the same time create a cultural route into Greece for a future "non-friendly" expansion.
As you can see from the list of civilizations, i have made contact with Kublai Khan as well. The Mongolian empire is already converted Buddhists, as is Greece.
At this stage, i had already decided not to attack Mali or Arabia first, but instead turn them into true followers of Confucianism. Not primarily for them to act as "meat shields" but rather to create a commercial stronghold.
I met Catherine of Russia in 475 AD, completed Chichen Itza in 580 AD and Notre Dame in 620 AD.
In the year of the Lord, 640 AD, the French revolution saw the first step of a crucial set of events. My first confucian missionary on roman soil managed to convert Neapolis. As i had decided from the very first years, i would need a strong ally to keep the enemies from my borders if i should have any chance to reach world domination. JC was exactly what i needed and i started to spam his lands with missionaries. As you can see from the picture, he adopted Christianity the same year and i was really afraid that he would switch to Theocracy which would have put my effort to a definite halt. However that never happened.
My desire for wonder caused the Malian sea village of Niani to join the illustrious French empire.
Niani was really close to Timbuktu, the Capital of Mali, but the cultural power of Orleans still managed to create this flip. Quite funny.
In 720 AD, another member of the Buddhist block, Elizabeth of England, made her presence known. This was shortly followed by a request from said Elizabeth to assist her in a war against Russia. I declined, humbly but steadfast.
Machiavelli had a much more sensible and knowledgable view on the French empire than that punk Bede the Venerable.
I must admit that i was quite surprised to see that at least one more unknown civilization was out there somewhere.
In retrospect, i find the next picture quite entertaining. I suppose i took it to show the birth of one (of many) Great persons. However, the real funny part is that the year is 1010 AD, it is a game completely targetted to war and domination, i have not participated in one single battle and my two top-production cities are producing a market and a settler...
The skilled eye will see that JC have now adopted Confucianism and i am nurturing him into my best buddy.
The next turn revealed the last picture of the jigsaw puzzle when Cyrus of Persia dropped by and said hi.
With the settling of Chartres in 1030 AD, the buildup of my heartland was concluded. The total city count was 8 and my research rate was decent with sustained profitability.
I discovered Liberalism in 1200 AD, picked Nationalism for my free tech, set Orleans to build Taj Mahal and started to research Machinery.
I squeezed in Angkor Vat in Paris and the Colossus (not really useful, but hey, i like wonders) in Marseilles at the end of the peacful years.
The next picture is not a schematic picture of my HTML code on this page (eventhough one may think so). No, it is showing the state of affairs among the empires.
Not a single red line anywhere in sight. Let me assure you, i won't stay like this for long.
And thus ends the days of the plow.
