"Moscow, the Bear has landed..."

Still in the game, it seems, albeit barely. Although Babylon has a whole bunch of tech up on me, and I can't for the life of me buy any of it. There's a little bit of thought as to stealing tech... Expensive, but at least it'll get me somewhere. Satellites rolls in in 1900 AD, and it's time to try my hand at espionage...

Oh hell. Fortunately, Cleo is my friend. Good Cleo:

I burn up about a thousand gold trying to plant a spy in Babylon and fail a lot. So much for those veteran commie spies.

And then Greece allies with Babylon. Sorry Alex, you've chosen...poorly. SOMEBODY sabotages my production in Kiev, too. First time I've seen THAT.

Quite suddenly, there's a distinct lack of Greeks in the north, and as a minor side note, I get this:

A RoP is thusly gotten with Cleo, some guys are moved over to Greece, where they attack the last Greek riflemen, and while they wait are witness to some ruling air warfare between Egyptian fighters and Babylonian bombers. 1912 comes, and:

Finally the next turn I get my agent in Babylon. Tech stealing time! I go for the steal, and...fail. I send a few tanks in for leader farming, however, and actually get one! Ivan the Terrible rushes back to Russia, where he, uh, he, does nothing, actually. But he can rush me a nice spaceship part here in a couple of turns. Those turns come, Superconductor comes in, and then this:

Solves that problem handily, doesn't it now? This is the best resource luck I've had in forever. And finally I get enough money together to try another tech steal on Babylon, and...success! Computers is suddenly mine! As is Miniaturization! (Uh, you can steal multiple techs in one mission? I mean, I clicked it, but it didn't charge me or anything for doing it. I'll take it and run though.)

The end result of all of that looks about like this:

Seems Hammurabbit wasn't quite fast enough. And things are looking WAY up now. Thank you Ivan. Just in time, too, it seems since Longevity completes in Babylon a two turns later. I shave a few turns off Cleo's computer research, and sell it to her for 520 gold. I also check with Hammurabbit, who wants peace, and all he's got on me is Genetics, which nobody cares about. I have hopefully Arrived. Although, checking the space race, Babylon's ship has 6 parts done, as opposed to my 5 and 1 building. Fortunately, he's fighting a giant war with Egypt right now. And I keep manipulating that war, keeping Egypt in, and getting Germany back in when Bismarck leaves. Then there's this...

Ok, whatever. I want you on my side. Have em. I have tons of spares.

And then India, who I couldn't drag in for anything less than computers, leaps in on Babylon of all people's side. Whatever. I'm SO frightened.

Shut up, self.

A little bit of creative cossack sacrificing and mech infantry attacks, however, and the fun ends in my favor. The second wave comes in, my destroyer attacks, and...is killed by a transport that doesn't even take a scratch. Sure. Fortunately, all those tanks I was making are all modern armor from Synth Fibers coming in. Yay me. And then Gandhi attacks with...his marine? That's about the second time I've seen that. Unfortunately, a single regular marine against masses of hill fortified mech inf doesn't work well. ;) That same turn, Gandhi and I make peace.

By the 60s, it's clearly my game. I've got Nuke Power in the 70s coming up, and then however long it takes to get the Laser. I'm only slowed now by my tiny country and it's awful research rate.

1969 AD, Nuclear Power is mine. I sell Miniaturization to Cleo for 3k or so, and jack my science rate to max. I'm going to lose 1.5k or so from doing it, but who cares? Russia in 1979 looked about like this:

And the next turn, 1980, coincidentally my birth year, I win. Happy birthday, self.

Quoth Alex: "My doctor says I can play again in 60 seconds or so...Beware!"

The replay, as always, was satisfying. I hadn't really grasped though how much the AI was really duking it out over on the other continent. India and Germany before I started in with Greece, me and Greece, India vs Egypt and Babylon, Germany vs, Babylon vs, there was pretty much constant warfare going on from the Middle Ages right up to the end of the game. That certainly helped me out, especially the wars I orchestrated at the end, which kept Babylon from regaining the lead.

The relevant screen:

Demographics:

I had pop for a while there towards the end, but somehow lost it. My industrial base ruled though. Let's hear it for the communist economic system! ;)

End score 1525, and I'm RBCiv-15 the Fair. That's 5th (2nd to last) on my high scores, and wouldn't even be there if I hadn't have had to reinstall. But no matter. I think this was one of the most challenging games I've ever played. I had to fight a serious expansion war in the Middle Ages, which I'm not too great at. I had to play trader a LOT, which is something I'm not too bad at, but there was also a lot of finessing the science thing around, which I'm a little less skilled at. I rarely turned off research, back in my Regent days. There was a lot of luck, too. Moscow being as uber as it was, for one. My luck on getting resources to appear in my territory was about the best I've ever had - that really helped me out, since I was trading resources for tech for quite a while, and I don't think I'd have survived without it. Not a lot of combat luck, though. But I never get that, so it's ok. <grin> I also survived some pretty heavy drug usage, some of which I don't talk about - I had a LOT of civil disorders that were the fault of negligence on watching cities, which I'm not used to. I could have played the science slider game a bit better. A few other things that I'm sure will get pointed out. <shrug> Nonetheless, I had a lot of fun, and that's why we're here, right? :)