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Epic 15: Soyuz |
| This is my report for the Realms Beyond Civilization Epic
15, the rules for which can be found here. There is, as always, pregame rambling. This will be my 3rd game at Monarch level, the first two being a solo and Epic 14. My first in Communism, and my first as the Russians. Guess the Epics are gonna be good about getting me out and about in this game, eh? Not my first space race, though. I've won most of my games that way, so nothing new to see there, though with 14 cities and Communism, it should be a BIT different. <grin> Oh, and the rules are pretty tweaky... wonder if I can remember 'em all. ;) On to the wars. |
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Far Back In the Day... |
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And lo, it was 4000 BC and I'm RBCiv-15 of the Russians. Who have a nice,
dull brown color, which as always beats the hell out of pink. The start
position isn't bad, particularly, although I'd rather we were on the ocean.
But let us see... One over looks a little bit nicer, so we move a little
bit, and Moscow is founded the next turn:
Oh baby. The river. The shielded grasslands. The dyes that will enable our people to dye their clothes bright colors that aren't pink. The warrior that the Marcomanni nicely gave me. The ocean. I like this. I like it a lot. And for more entertainment, we'll start up research on, um, hrm. What do we need, as nice, scientific Communists? Well, maybe not Communists yet, since we've still got a Czar, but scientific, anyway. Well, let's hope the expansionist trait kicks in good. Ceremonial Burial it is. Boy howdy this is some serious land. And it's got, um, Greeks really close. 3650 BC warrior next to Moscow kind of close. Whoa. He's got Alphabet, but won't give it up for anything, including my soul, so we'll let him go for now. And yeah, sure enough, there's Athens, RIGHT THERE.
Whoa, and right past Alex is Cleo, who I run into in 3150 BC. Quite the crowd these days. I sense violence in the future. She'll kindly shave 5 turns off Ceremonial Burial and give us 10 gold in return for Pottery. Alex will give up Alphabet for Ceremonial Burial, Pottery, and 55 gold. Yearg. But I'll take it, because I want Writing and then Literature. We're the scientific Russians, after all. Writing is immediately started. And, um, my worker can't build roads. Do you need the Wheel for that or something? I think I've run into that before, but it's 1am and I probably shouldn't be playing Civ. But oh well. We'll do some funky grassland mining for lack of something better. Checking with Cleo, Alphabet and 39 gold will net me Masonry and Warrior Code. I keep forgetting how expensive Alphabet is. Alex will give me 60 gold for Masonry, so I take it. And suddenly it's 2800 BC and there's a RED border in the fog off next to Cleo. And it's...Hammurabbit! Who is completely devoid of any tech or cash. Huh. Well, no trading with barbarians. The next turn, my first settler completes, and I rush him off to found another city. 2510 St. Petersburg is founded, and the Russian world looks like this:
Diplomatic rounds are made, and tech is exchanged. Masonry and 10 gold gets me Mysticism from Hammurabbit, and Mysticism and 30 gold gets me the Wheel from Cleo. Horse locations are checked, and there's one in Moscow's radius as well as Athens'. Cleo looks pretty screwed, although there's all that black stuff out there. Some dotmapping is done, and this comes out:
That's not really ideal, and wastes a lot of polar land, but we'll deal with that. Athens is also kind of in the way, but we'll deal with that too, probably with some archers at some point. For now, we'll be nice, peaceful Russian traders. And, um, my worker can road irrigated tiles but not mined? When did THAT happen? No, really. What's up with this?:
2110 BC, Kiev is founded on orange dot. And it suddenly becomes apparent that I'm smoking some serious weed when:
And then Machiavelli thinks Egypt is more advanced than me. Eh? Oh, she picked up Iron Working last turn, which of course I can't possibly buy from her. Ah well. A couple turns later, Alex has it, and will part with it for Mysticism and 55 gold. And the iron is... Right next to Kiev, in Athens, in Babylon, and once again, Cleo gets screwed. I like that. Egypt scares me. 1625 BC, and the continent has been discovered. I of course got the ass end, whereas Hammurabbit and Cleo got good spots, relatively speaking, and Alex is almost as bad off as I am. Worse, even, since I'm taking all his expansion room. I sense a war. 1600 BC, and Minsk is founded on light blue dot. A settler is on the way to red dot as well. I think I'm coming around to this whole granary before settlers idea. This is nice. A turn later, Writing comes in, and it's full speed ahead to Literature. 1575, and Alex comes out with this demand:
The mind, it boggles. I'm not sure I can deal with this kind of thing at 2am. Well, I can't really afford to fight him just yet, so, uh, yeah Alex. He also pulled out contact with Babylon just before my turn. Argh. Screwed that one up, although it was only 7 gold. My polite relations with Cleo and 67 gold will get me Horseback Riding, OTOH. Immediately thereafter, Alex beats me to red dot by two turns. Argh. And it's apparently all about barbarian camps in the polar region, as my unescorted settler gets bushwhacked. Bad me. It produces THIS, however:
The cave gets a nice front put on it. |
