Epic 7
Page 3
Greedy.
Now usually I promote my cats to bombardment, but based on what I’ve been reading lately, I decided to try this
game by upgrading them to city attack. I sent in a couple of cats (after reducing defenses) and then sent in the
elephants. Corinth fell easily, only losing one cat while I was still whipping up elephants and cats on the
homefront along with galleys to continue my forays into Alex’s lands. I hadn’t seen any more of his turf yet,
because he had not been interested in open borders so far at all. I also felt I had to strike while the iron was
hot, because his score was getting further ahead of me. A 140 pt spread had grown to almost triple that in just a
few years. Probably due to all the great people and wonders he was making over there. In 1136 ad Alex decided
that one city was enough for me I guess, but I still needed to explore a little, so I said no to his piddly offer
of 110 gold and piece and sailed forth. He had not landed another unit on my home continent either. I guess 4
units was all he could muster? Maybe he was still building wonders? Also of note, I now became the largest civ,
though I think his culture had overtaken mine now. Corinth went into revolt almost immediately, as I was sailing
around his islands. I came to what I assumed was his home island, and one below it that I assumed was not, as it
had a barb city on it. I figured by this time 1085ad, with only 3 archers on defense, the only logical reason he
would not have control of that city is that he had just settled that island. So since the rules don’t let me
smack him in the face on his own turf, I decided to land and peek at his city besides the barbs. I was also afraid
to continue searching around with loaded galleys. I didn’t want to lose units needlessly. This island was juicy
and ripe for the pickin’s. I captured the barb city and set my sights on the other two cities that Alex had so
thoughtfully founded for me.
Fortune favors the bold! Who cares that I’m at war with an immortal AI? I’ll still stop off to take a barb city!
This island also had lots of resources that I wanted. After realizing that his cities were in trouble… er… sort
of…I was down to 4 units by the way, he asked for peace offering money again, and I accepted, in order to build up
some more forces. I moved my units east and west to see what each city had to offer. It had longbows. 3 each to
be exact. Promoted long bows actually…but in 1365, I declared war and attacked them anyway, taking both in a short
amount of time. I then say Mycenae to the south also on this island, but it had longbows and macemen, and I was
out of ammo again. Pharsalos, all by it’s lonesome on a tiny island with wines also looked tasty, but I had to
recoup again before I could take more land.
As you can see, I had now overtaken Alexander’s score, something I never thought possible when I started this epic.
I should have had more faith in myself! But the battle was won, not the war. I asked Alex what he would pay me
for peace. I had the option to make him convert to Hinduism, but he flat out refused. He offered 170 gold
instead. I took that plus 3 gold a turn, thank you very much! I had to get my research out of the gutter. Which,
by the way, I had researched monarchy to hook up my wines on my home continent, and then was heading for
industrialism to get some firepower going. I thought about picking up the techs for horseback riding and guilds,
but felt I didn’t have time to get all that. I want to take a moment to ask a questing of the Civ veterans here
about city revolts. Corinth had revolted 3 times by now, and would actually revolt twice more in the coming years.
Is that normal? Don’t you usually lose a city on the second revolt? I noticed that it was very low in Egyptian
residents, so I built what culture I could there, and cracked the whip a lot thinking that this may speed up the
change to Egyptian blood by making the city repopulate? It appeared to work that way, but I don’t know if that is
how it really went down, or if I am just patting myself on the back for no reason. Anyway, back to the story. I
started building courthouses and more military units, to try and hold my own, and even built the chichen itza
because I felt my poorly defended cities needed all the help they could get. I apologize for not stopping to
detail how I spent all my great persons, but I didn’t have THAT many anyway. I had a few engineers, scientists
and an artist over the course of my game, adding most of them to cities. The only thing I lighbulbed at all was
an engineer for a little help on engineering at one point. So years went by peacefully for a while until I looked
at the F8 screen and saw how close I was to a domination victory…. Then I turned my sights towards the attack
again.
Alex beat me to the punch around 1740bc, sending 3 calvary units to the southern island I had stolen from him…
Uh oh, I was really worried. But he didn’t attack the city directly, so I met him on the field. I lost two
units, but took out his horsemen. Thank you dice gods, that was a close one. But again, that’s all your forces,
Alex? In 1772ad, St. Augustine reports that Alexander the Great is the most advanced civ in the world. No shit?
What a shocker there, as I fight with spearmen and war elephants and cats, I see his calvary and recently upgraded
RIFLEMEN! Well, with said units, I headed south to take out Mycane with it’s 2 riflemen anyway! The odds were
pretty good, so I went for it. One more city under my belt!
Can you see my crappy 30% research level though? Oh well, I’m not trying to out-tech him, I’m only trying to
survive. He had gotten galleons by this point also, which were making short work of my galleys, but not really
landing any new threats. While I had my units at Mycenae though, he landed 3 more calvary on my shores on this
tiny little island. I was so close to his home cities, how could he not? Well, I didn’t have defense for those
guys, so I quickly sued for peace after taking one of them out at the cost of two a unit. It cost me 190 gold and
10gold per turn! But I was willing to pay that to keep my cities. What a terrible trade off for him, but hey,
I’m not complaining. He could have gotten a city back, possibly two. He had pillaged as soon as he landed, but I
could rebuild, I wasn’t worried. I went to free speech and free religion as soon as possible and switched to
hereditary rule and mercantilism also at first opportunity. Alex liked my choices, and our relations started to
improve. Ironically, once we got up to pleased with each other, I was even more worried. I knew a sneak attack
was eventual. I finished some more courthouses, a few banks, and the forbidden palace on my acquired island and
my finances started to improve. I began building musketmen, and then riflemen at first opportunity during our
peaceful years. I also took a few years of history to build a naval fleet. I spammed a ton of galleons and
finally settled my tiny island with iron to build some frigates. I was up to hovering between 60-70% research.
60 at a gain, 70 at a loss, and back and forth and back and forth. With my finances in order, here is my current
tech tree.
Continue
Previous