This is my first attempt at one of the Epics. The difficulty level of the earlier Epics way exceeded my comfort zone, but since this game is at Noble, i decided to give it a try.
Another "first time" for me is the game setting: Always War.
There are a couple of settings however, that should make the game somewhat more playable for me. No Barbarians means that I can focus solely on the whereabouts of the AI's. No Tech Trading means that I should have at least a chance to be on par with the AI's tech-wise, since they cannot trade technologies with each other.
I am playing as Bismarck of Germany who's unique unit is a Panzer (Tank). A very good UU indeed, however it will come very late in the game. I am very much doubting if the game will still be around when Industrialisation is researched. I may be wrong, but the odds of me being alive that long are not odds I normally bet at...
My game plan is such that I will not pay much attention to the "goals" described on the first page, but rather just try to stay alive. Defend my cities well and when there is a possibility, try to build up an offensive force or settling party. Going out too offensive will make this game a very short game.
I spent quite some time pondering over what to do initially. If I moved the Settler 1 tile south, I would still be on a plains hill tile (which will give a boost to production) I would still have 4 Floodplains to work with and I would possibly uncover some goodies hiding under the fog. I would loose the wheat though. Another option was to move the settler to the shore line before settling, bringing in all the good aspects from the ocean, plus a potential fish- or clam resource. I would loose the cows though and I would also loose two turns.
In the end, I decided to settle on the spot. To be honest, it is a very good starting position. Lots of food and lots of hills. Berlin was destined to become a production powerhouse.
With a starting position like this, I normally build a Worker before anything else. In this game however, I built a Warrior first, which I duly fortified in Berlin.
Germany starts with Hunting and Mining so both Bronze Working and Archery are accessible as first choices of technologies to research. After lots of thinking I decided to not go with either BW or Archery but instead focus on bringing Berlin up to speed as fast as possible. Agriculture followed by Animal Husbandry was my initial research path.
Someone discovered Buddhism in 3640 BC.
In 3430 BC, I made my first declaration of war as my Scout bumped into one of Gandhi's Warriors. I tried to be as cautious as possible with my Scout. Always seeking out hill tops for better views, before venturing on.
Just a couple of turns after my encounter with Gandhi, my Scout met one of Tokugawa's Warriors and yet another war declaration was made.
I finished research of AH in 3310 BC and started, finally, on Bronze Working. Just a few turns later, in 3220 BC, my first Worker was ready. After the Worker I built a couple of Warriors, before starting on a Barracks. Tokugawa's Warrior made a circle around Berlin, so I needed to protect my Worker with Warriors as the worker started to farm the Wheat and put a pasture on the Cows.
Someone founded Hinduism in 2890 BC and the turn after, Gandhi converted, so the mystery of the founder was solved.
One of Alexander's Scouts approached my borders in 2800 BC and yet another declaration of war occured.
Bronze Working was discovered in 2770 BC. I immediately switched to Slavery and started to research Mysticism.
By 2740, my scouting had revealed that the German empire was located on a big peninsula. I saw this as good news, since it should mean that I would only have to deal with the civilizations that were closest to me and not be jumped on by all the other civilizations at once. Right.
The coloured dots on the map shows desired locations for future cities. I intended to really try to get a couple of wonders. Stonehenge and The Pyramids in particular, to allow early border expansions for visibility, and the full menu of government civics. I assumed Hereditary Rule would be extremely useful to deal with happiness issues. The "green" location would be very valuable for my wonder quest with the stone resource. Number one priority however, was to secure the "pink" location to bring the copper into my possession.
Speaking of priorities. The enemies that was encircling Berlin, really did their best to sabotage my farm and pasture. To deal with this, I whipped the Barracks in Berlin and let the overflow go into two Warriors.
After the discovery of Mysticism I started research of The Wheel to be able to connect my copper.
I started construction of Stonehenge in 2440 BC (after yet another Warrior).
My Warriors finally allowed for my Worker to conclude farming of the wheat in 2320 BC. As you can see, I have also mined the plains hill directly south of Berlin. After the farming exercise, my Worker began mining the plains hill east of the cows. With this setup, Berlin would be in a good position to crank out both military and buildings at a very good speed.
I had placed two Warriors on the place where I intended to build the "copper town" and in 2290 BC Saladin dropped by and said hi. I responded of course with yet another war declaration. Saladin did not respond well to this and sent his Warrior to Berlin, where he duly pillaged one of my mines before a German Warrior put an end to the menace.
Berlin completed the Stonehenge in 2140 BC. On the same turn, Berlin grew to size 4 and started construction of my first Settler.
Hamburg was settled in 1750 BC. You can maybe see my first Worker (another one was under production in Berlin) building a road between Berlin and Hamburg. Needless to say. that road would not stay un-pillaged for long with Warriors of all nationalities roaming around. I had to try though, and as soon as would get my first Axemen out, I should be in a much better position to protect the road. You can also see that my research at the time was pottery. I had concluded Archery after The Wheel.
Isabella of Spain was the next to receive a declaration of war in 1720 BC.
Yup, an Indian Warrior was the first to attack my road network in 1510 BC. I had placed Warriors on top of my three resources and the Archer inside Berlin had quite weak odds to beat the warrior so I had to let him pillage.
The pillaging Warrior inched closer to the copper resource and all of a sudden a Scout from Peter of Russia dropped by (in 1450 BC) and was greeted with a declaration of war.
In 1330 BC, my list of enemies was completed when a Warrior from Roosevelt entered my territory. Just a couple of turns ago, I was thinking to myself that my starting location at the end of the world on a peninsula was great, because I would only have to deal with a few enemies at a time. Ugghhh!!!
You can also see that the bloody Indian pillaging Warrior of Doom has not only eaten up three quarters of my road between Berlin and Hamburg, he also managed to kill my fortified and promoted Warrior on top of the (now completed) copper mine!! I was beating myself severely now for not taking a chance with my Archer in Berlin.
One of my two Warriors in Hamburg killed the Indian on the same turn On the turn after, another Worker was completed in Berlin and immediately started to rebuild the roads... This time, I only built a road on the tile SW of Berlin, since that would be enough to create a trade route between the two rivers.
Since I did not have access to the copper mine, Berlin was cranking out plenty of Archers followed by a Granary. However, in 960 BC I managed to squeeze out another Settler. It was absolutely crucial that I could move the front line away from Berlin, allowing Berlin to expand instead of maniacally building Archers. The only way to move the front line was to build more cities, giving the other civilizations more targets to shoot for.
In 940 BC, Munich was settled on the "yellow" dot. Food wise, this is an extremely poor city location. However, with a border expansion, this city would give me access to horses so that I could build Chariots. I think chariots are very good to use against pillaging Warriors and even Archers. In due course, i will also have access to two happiness resources.
As you can see above, my Workers have finally repaired the road enough for Berlin to start construction of an Axeman.
My choice of technology at the time may be a bit weedy. I had decided that a religion would be nice to have. Both for commercial as well as happiness reasons. The plan was hence, to go for Code of Laws and Confucianism.
It came as a nasty surprise when Gandhi plonked down a city, almost on top of my "dark blue" dot. I knew from the start though, that my dot map was only a wish list and that expansion would only take place when, and if I could. I was at the time, preparing a settler with escorts to settle my "green" dot next to the stones to give me some chance to get The Pyramids. My Axe SW of the horses had a ridiculously low percentage to kill the Archer, due to Bombay being placed on a hill, so I let the Axe park next to the mountain and keep an eye on Gandhi.
There is nothing like a free worker!!
Gandhi, unwisely, sent a weekly defended Settler into the area I had declared German property.
The worker was sent over to "green dot" to get a fast connection of the stones once the city was settled.
Cologne was settled on the green dot in 625 BC. It did stop my enemies poring into my lands from the north flank. However, it took me forever to cultivate the lands around Cologne due to the never ending waves of pillaging intruders. In retrospect, I would have picked a different spot for this city. Either directly on the stone resource or on the hill NW of green dot.
When Berlin completed the Settler, I set Berlin's production onto The Pyramids. At the same time, I decided to give The Oracle a chance, so I queued it in in Hamburg after a Worker. However, since it was fairly late in the game, I decided that the risk that someone else would complete the Oracle before I could time the completion with the research of CoL (a Civil Service slingshot). With two turns to go (and another 10 turns for CoL), I whipped the Oracle in Hamburg and picked Metal Casting as the free technology to get some forges up in my cities.
Moses was born in Berlin in 460 BC. I decided to keep him until I founded a religion to build a shrine.
Berlin completed construction of The Pyramids in 355 BC.
I discovered Code of Laws in 325 BC and Munich became the Holy City of Confucianism. I converted to Confucianism at once and woke up Moses to build The Kong Miao (holy shrine of Confucianism).
In 235 BC, Thucydides told the world that the might German empire, in all honesty, was not exactly powerful. The picture shows another interesting occurrence. Gandhi sent another Settler + Archer towards my lands. This time I waited to see what they would do and the settled Madras, SW of my Axeman. Madras location matched my cities really well, so I decided to wait until it reached size 2 and then capture it.
I had finally *blush* managed to send a scout out on the ice south of Hamburg. It discovered that the ice ended in a small peninsula but also that I had a marble resource two tiles south of "white dot". I sent a Settler down to claim the land and the resources and so, Frankfurt was settled in 115 BC. It was not the best of lands, but it had a fresh water lake, a horse-, a sheep- and a marble resource as well as a plot of grassland next to the lake. The layout of the land made the city quite easy to defend as well.
In 85 BC, Madras grew to size 2. I had long since amassed a couple of axes for the celebration so the turn after, Germany engaged in the first non-defensive act of war during this game. I am fairly certain that this date is nowhere near early enough to give me any honourable mentions.
I took the above screenshot at the end of the BC years. Madras and Cologne are now acting as "meat shields" to my core cities of Hamburg and Berlin. I am using the enemy military filter in the picture and you can see incoming military stacks of three different nationalities. Spain, Russia and Greece.
I am also, finally, researching Meditation to be able to build some Confucian Monasteries.
And thus ends Part I.
