I should first of all note that this is a shadow. About as shadowy as it gets, really.  For one, I'm playing this well over a year after it originally opened. For two, I'm playing it with vast, vast spoiler knowledge, having read multiple reports on it in the past. For three, I'm using PTW to play this.

All that having been said, I always wanted to play Epic 10. I got into the Epics community around Epic 14, and passed up 10 at the time it came out because I had never actually played above Regent, and an early war game was a bit out of my league (which is why I went on to play in 14. Because Always War is SO much easier...right). But reading the reports on the game made it sound pretty fun.

Fast forward to November of 2003, when I'm trying to complete my personal goal of having played ALL of the civs in the game and put them on my Hall of Fame. I need, at time of writing, an Iroquois game, an India game, a Mongol game, and a Zulu game. This is the Iroquois game, never mind the fact that when I first got Civ 3 back in the Day, I played the Iroquois almost exclusively, all the way through Chieftain into Warlord. That was almost two years ago. Time for a little nostalgia.

Well, I know what the start location's going to be like, so I plop down right where I am, and...

Woot.

Since I, again, know how this is going to play out, I figure I'll let the AI's do the settling, and I'll reap the benefits. So we start on a temple first thing.

And it's one thing to know how the map plays out, and then it's another to play it.

Good lord.

In 3450 BC, the temple comes in, and we start on a rax while running full speed on the Wheel. Meanwhile, Egypt and India are fighting. Have fun, y'all.

In 2310 BC, my enormous archer armies having been constructed, I move on Bombay. First, though, I trade him the Wheel for Bronze Working. THEN I declare war.

Thus it is that Bombay falls 2 turns later, in the midst of my cramming the slider as far as it will go towards researching Horseback Riding.

Chariots, if I've never mentioned this before, really are teh suck.

In 2070 BC, Gandhi comes seeking peace. As I have 16 turns left on riding at that point, and my army can't take Delhi, I go for it.

And Gandhi will give me everything. And I mean EVERYTHING.

In 1450, Cleo comes demanding 17 gold. I should by rights decline, but not thinking about it, I agree, which wipes out my treasury, throws me to -1 right as Bombay's temple comes in, and scraps my rax in Salamanca. Grr. Oh well.

Too, in 1425, it's Gandhi's time. Declare and move in. A turn later, horseback riding comes in, and a turn after that:

In 1175 BC, I wipe out Gandhi of Writing, Iron Working, and all his gold for peace. He's OCCing it in Madras now.

And for some reason, I've been building the Colossus this entire time in Salamanca, which completes in 1050 BC, launching my Golden Age. Er, ok. Should've thought about that one harder, I guess.

That having been done, I declare on Egypt and move in Heliopolis.

My singular elite archer pulls it out, on the 6th or so combat with it, in 975 BC:

I run him straight back to Salamanca to rush something the instant I get done with the rax. At the same time, I capture Heliopolis, though after some horrible combat luck that wipes out my entire archer stack.

In 925 BC, I extort peace from Cleo for Mysticism. She has nothing else to give. Too, I rush the Pyramids in Salamanca, the only wonder available before peace kicked in.

That's probably the first time I've built the Pyramids since I played Regent, and I haven't played Regent since Epic 14. It's been a loooooong time.

A short time later, Cleo completes the Oracle in Thebes for me. Worse, Rome completes the Great Lighthouse a turn later. Denied!

650 BC is Gandhi's time. As it happens, I don't take Madras on the first turn, because Gandhi picked up a lot of military when I wasn't looking. It goes down the next turn, netting a slave worker, two more slaves from a settler (!), and:

Gandhi's head is put on a rather nice decorative spear in front of the palace at Salamanca. Let it not be said the Iroquois are unkind to our enemies.

Our peace deal with Cleo runs out in 490 BC, and we ride down upon Thebes, capturing it. And of course it figures that that galley I saw slipping out of Thebes last turn has a settler on it. <sigh>

Because I can, I immediately continue through, attacking France. Paris is defended by uberpeople, meaning I don't capture it the first turn. Or the second, in fact. In fact, I retreat, before they taunt me a second time with their hordes of regular warriors.

This whole time, meanwhile, I've been running around with galleys and even a settler or two. Our first off-island settlement is Niagra Falls on the big northern island in 330 BC:

I once again attack Paris in 270 BC, losing a bunch of mounteds to vet spears there. Argh! Nevertheless, it all works out in the end, including my bagging 2 French settlers. Joan's head goes up by Gandhi's on a rather nice carved spear in front of the palace.

Taking the western way around, I run into Rome in 90 BC. Hi Rome! Do some trading, and...whoa. England got roughed up pretty hard.

In 30 AD, our peace with Cleo has run out, so...

Cleo's head goes up on a rather nice carved spear with the others.

It takes me all the way until 290 AD to get ready, but I am. Dial up Caesar, declare, and drop my SOD of mounteds on Rome. As it works out, I am 1 hp from wiping out Rome on the first attack. Argh!

Not that it matters, in the end.

The question, though, is do we keep Rome, or do we raze Rome? In the end, I get greedy. I could use the Lighthouse. And it works out - Rome's counterattacks are, like, totally weak. Where all his units are is totally beyond me.

In any case, the very next turn, Monarchy comes in, and we revolt. We also take one of Rome's irons offline at Veii, just because we can. By 390, York and the other Roman iron are gone.

In other news, Rome attacks York, across the river, up the hill, redlines my spear, which then kills a vet legion. The second legion straight up attacks an elite mounted, and just dies. Woot. Meanwhile, the horse SOD moves on Cumae.

Cumae dies, and London goes down in 450 AD, followed by Nottingham soon after. Antium, however, is a tougher nut to crack - it has the Last of the Molegions guarding it.

In 520 AD Currency comes in, and we are the first and only civ in the Middle Ages, and if things keep going the way they have, the ONLY civ in the Middle Ages. We start on Fuedalism as if it's going to actually matter.

Antium goes down in 560, the last city on the Roman mainland. It's on to England, now.

Things get a little interesting in 580, when Beth demands Currency. I tell her to bite me, and she declares. Well, ok Beth. Whatever. Your funeral.

There's some slight curiosity as to if she regretted that move after I took the entire little island between us away in a single turn after I moved in my entire army that was loading up to take on Rome's last city. We may never know.

Meanwhile, the great hero Cornplanter is for some reason off beating the hell out of Rome's singular colony in the middle of nowhere:

We take Neapolis, too, and this happens:

The head is a bit moldy by the time it gets back to get put on the rather nicely carved decorative spear, but it's the thought that counts, really.

Too, we're starting to have a shortage on mounteds over in Olde England, but there's a reason for that:

Not to mention the enormously long transit times to get Mounteds over there.

Nevertheless, by 790 I'm set, and Coventry and Oxford go down, leaving England with 2 cities. They both die in 820, and:

Beth's head is sent home to adorn a rather nicely carved spear by the palace. There's a nice set, really. Gandhi and Cleo to one side, Joan in the middle, and Beth and Caesar to the other side.

Oh, and:

I'm, uh, first in all the categories for some reason. Must be a bug or something. Yes, that's it.

Final score is a totally ridiculous 6983 points, catapulting this game way to the top of my high scores list, supplanting my English game where I got the entire Ancient Age in tech and ended up dominating the entire world with ease.

And, well, that was fun, if entirely predictable. I call Mounted Warriors Munchkin Warriors for a reason - they're almost totally unstoppable when they get to attacking. Legions? Bah. I ran over Legions with ease. Everyone else had spears. <yawn>

Speaking of Legions, where WAS Caesar? I mean, on the replay he brutally dominated England in like 5 turns. When I showed up, he just fell over and played dead. It was very sad, actually. In fact, the whole game felt like Regent for some reason. Funny, that.

And you know, I never did use Cornplanter for anything. He just sat around outside Salamanca, planting corn. That's a first.