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RBCiv Epic 21: Jack Frost |
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Being the report for the Realms Beyond Civilization Epic 21, the rules for
which can be found here <>.
Pregame rambling? Not really. Have fun, check out the winter tileset. I've played and won on Emperor level before (though my one PTW game was Monarch), so I've got confidence I can pull this one off. I suck at archipeligo, but that will start changing, I think. Also hoping for <insert PTW civ here> or France. We shall see. I shall also take the opportunity to randomly note that the PTW intro movie/title screen completely blow away the old Civ ones. The spaceship is just sweet. |
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And the People of the World Gazed Upon... |
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And lo, I was RBCiv-21 of...the Koreans? What do the Koreans get?
Commercial, scientific, and some sort of ubercannon that are almost as
good as artillery, and half the cost besides. Hrm. Doubtless, I will get
no saltpeter. Also, the fact that the music does not turn off when you
uncheck the box for it is extremely annoying. Also, what cruel, evil
mother names their child RBCiv-21?
The terrain is, uh, funky. Lots of forest, mountains, and grasslands, but they're all white. This'll be confusing for a while, no doubt. Can do lots of sledding and have snowball fights while we attempt to figure it out, however.
The starting spot looks good, so be settle there, founding Seoul and realizing there's a big lake or something next door. Oh well. Immediately begin researching Pottery, since Granaries Are Our Friends, as it were. A couple turns later, we've got a warrior scout and...stock irrigation? Been a while since I've seen that. Too used to Sn00py's stuff, apparently. A second warrior pops up, and Seoul goes into unrest. Oughta pay attention to that stuff, self. Fortunately, there's those furs being hooked up. When my first settler comes out, there's really only one spot in the running to put him:
Got deer? And in 2550 BC, Pottery rolls in. Research switches to Ceremonial Burial, as it appears I'm going to be alone on this rock for a while, and temples do so help these things. I will no doubt beat myself over the head later for not starting up the Map Making path, but oh well. I also have a goody hut.
Isn't it cute? Nice, isolated, and it can just sit there for a while. I need my explorers for a time yet, and not barbarians. Yes, I'm a goody hut pessimist. And thus was the extent of Korea in 2110BC:
Note the barbarian. He came barreling towards the undefended Seoul, but I garrisoned a warrior there last minute expecting a suicide charge, and the barbarian veered off. Then I remembered the improved barbarian AI. Cool. So the next round, he suicides on my mountaintop warrior. Go figure. 1675, Ceremonial Burial comes in, and I head for Writing at max science. Thinking compy isn't going to be hitting my anytime soon, so the -30 gold in the end won't kill too badly. It also appears that my practice of having Seoul do settlers and P'yongyang crank warriors to pre-guard the city locations is working well as a barbarian supressant. 975 BC, Writing comes in, and 36 turns to Map Making on max sci. Ouch. The scientists are quickly "persuaded" to lower the rate to something more reasonable, like, say, 10%. Because it's apparently all about horses attacking warriors fortified in cities and killing two of them. Right. Also in the news for 730 BC, pigs were spotted flying in formation over Seoul. In 450 BC, I pop the hut, and it's empty. Go figure. And finally, in 250 BC, Pyongsong was founded, and Korea finished expansion on the main island. Debate erupted as to whether Korea's name ought to officially be changed to Fishing Villages R Us, but the traditionalists eventually won out.
In 150 BC, Map Making finally came in, and research changed to Iron Working, on the off chance all these mountains will yield some iron. Pusan's granary just so happened to be 2 turns short of a galley, so it gets switched, and the settlers and spears I had made specially for the occasion all ran over in expectation. 2 turns later, they board, leap on the galley, and head for north island... Only to be rudely inturrupted by a Mongol settler/spear pair at landfall. Argh. And the whole island is FULL of Mongols. Remember the bit about wishing for Writing first? Yeah. Not that this entire game isn't turning out to be the "Let's take a lot of drugs and play Civ!" game... (I didn't tell you about ALL the times a bunch of cities went into disorder, now did I?) At any rate, Temujin knows about the Russians, as well as having gigantic amounts of tech and the need for a dentist's visit. I hold off on the trading, hoping to find the Russians, who find ME a few turns later by offering to sell me Warrior Code for 70 gold. Sure. The short story of the next turn is that Temujin gets rich, and I get tech parity, such as it is (down Construction/Currency/Polytheism/Literature/Monarchy/Republic). I start 40 turning Republic while wondering where the English are that Temujin knows about. Which though is immediately replaced by:
Immediately followed by the English. Then, suddenly, I remembered about the whole contact trading thing. Cool. Especially because Temujin wanted my soul for contact with the English. And then, in the unexplored territories:
What, I wonder, can I extort for this... Nothing except the Russian territory map and 40 gold. Weak. In 170 AD, I found my first colony - Taejon - on a random island scarcely larger than a rock in the middle of nowhere, but it's got mammoth herds. It'll take eons for it to become viable, but it's a colony... Just in time, too:
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