An introduction: I don’t play Civ all that often. When I do, it’s on noble. But I’ve always enjoyed reading AARs, and Realmsbeyond has a great community that I wanted to partake in. So when I saw the parameters for Epic 18, Honorable Abe, I just had to do it, because that’s pretty much how I play anyway. I’m a terrible general, so I rarely declare war, and I never quite got why Slavery was such a big deal. So I decided to try my hand at Emperor difficulty, and report it to you. Hope you enjoy.
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After some consideration, I found the capital of Chicago (I’m a midwesterner, after all) one tile south of start. I’ve got access to the river, the rice, and some marble. Hopefully we’ll be able to erect some glorious monuments, and Chicago can serve as a beacon of civility to the rest of the world.
Our first recon warrior is mauled to death by a pair of hungry lions just outside the oasis in the western desert. Before he met his grisly end, however, the brave scout curried favor with the local tribes and got us 51 gold for our coffers.
Chicago finishes our first warrior, who I name Secret Service. He’ll defend the President with his life, if need be.
The byzantine Justinian’s scouts find me. The Emperor has already founded Hinduism – I warn him now that he best not seek to press his beliefs or imperialist ways on the American people.
Boudica’s scouts appear in the north. With little idea of the surrounding terrain, I hope the southwest will prove a fertile frontier for American settlers, otherwise things could grow contentious with the neighbors, not an outcome I’m looking for on this difficulty setting.
Chicago finishes constructing a replacement recon Warrior, which I name Lion Tamers for good luck. Undeterred by the horrific fate of their predecessors, the Lion Tamers strike out southward, seeking rich lands. They soon stumble upon the site for a possible city
Do I build on the tundra for access to both resources as well as the sea? Or do I build next to the river for the health bonus? The Lion Tamers leave that decision to the city planners, and head west, to survey the lands there. As they crest a rise, they see a savage lion prowling the desert, jaws still bloodied from our fallen citizen. At least the first warrior wounded the beast before succumbing. With revenge on their minds, the Lion Tamers face down the creature manfully, ready for their own deaths.
After brutal and terrible combat, they emerge victorious. Slinging the pelts over their shoulders, they climb a hill to study the surrounding lands.
Damn, all useless.
As of right now, these are our prospective city sites:
The first brave pilgrims set out from Chicago, ready to make new lives for themselves in the south. The Lion Tamers meet them at our cultural borders to escort them. When they reach the coast, I realize I made a silly mistake – by building here:
I get it all – the river, the ocean, and both resources. While I’m pleased with how this worked out, before I can settle my second city another marauding lion appears from the fog of war and attacks the defenseless settlers! But the Lion Tamers face down the beast and bludgeon it to death, which makes safe for Washington be founded. I queue a worker and fortify the Lion Tamers.
Back in Chicago, a scout finishes and heads southeast. I begin construction on another Settler. After fending off wolves during their exploration, the Scouts reveal an area flush with natural resources.
I hope to get a settler there before any of my rivals can manage it – the gold would greatly please the citizenry. I pass the turn, and our scientists finish researching Bronze Working, which reveals copper. Oh how quickly plans change. Here’s my new hoped-for city:
With my settler complete and no time to waste, I’m faced with a difficult choice. Right now our military consists of the Secret Service, the Lion Tamers, and our scouts, fortified in the hills. Barbarian Archers have been menacing our borders, and an unprotected band of settlers could be murdered in the open plains without an escort. I decide to risk it, however, and send them. If they make it, the scouts might provide token defense against any invaders, at least until I can marshal more substantial defenders.
The gambit pays off – Fort Knox is founded and the barbarians only hover, never encroaching on our lands. Chicago sends reinforcing archers just as Fort Knox summons up its own. While our territorial gains are coming along nicely, infrastructure and research could use assistance. Here is where we stand at Turn 90:
We’ve heard nothing else from the Celts or the byzantines, and we’ll use this peaceful period to put our house in order. Workers are conscripted across the nation, and begin to harness our natural resources and connect our cities in a trade network. While they do that, we are reminded that we are the poorest nation on earth. Furthermore, barbarians begin to threaten our cities. I’d like to build the Great Wall if I can, but without stone to speed its construction, I fear another civ would build it first and waste valuable production time. Fort Knox is particularly vulnerable, set on a plains with only two archers to defend it. I order walls to be built and hope the defenders have enough mettle to repel any attackers.
Sharpshooters in Chicago destroy two invading archers and three warriors without taking a scratch. So far, so good. In 1300 BC the Great Wall is built in a distant land, confirming my suspicion that I had no shot at it.
Four tiles NE of Chicago a barbarian city has sprung up. Until I can capture it (Abe being so honest, I’d never dream of razing it), I suspect it will be a nuisance factory, sending unit after unit to my city walls. At least our men will gain experience from it.
Justinian comes calling, looking for open borders. We grant it, as our lands our well-settled and there’s no threat of a byzantine settler stealing choice land from us. Where would they go, the Western Desert?
Our workers keep at it, and soon the marble and copper are connected. Foreign prophets spread Hinduism to Chicago and Judaism to Fort Knox, but before we know our neighbor’s minds, we won’t commit to a state religion. As a mediocre player even on Noble, I’m eager to avoid all possible conflict on emperor.
New York is founded in the hills southwest of Chicago on turn 131.
Behold the currently destitute, wildly underdeveloped American nation. If there’s greatness in these people, it will take time to show itself. For now, we focus on further infrastructure development. The foreign religions help our borders expand, which brings more resources into our purview. As we display our talents for toil, Boudica of the Celts comes and asks us to declare war on Justinian. She’s the current leader on the scoreboard, but I’m in no position to declare a war, and furthermore, the Byzantine had spread Hinduism to every American city. At the moment, he’s our most likely ally. So I sent the warmongering Celt packing, frankly insulted that she’d think I could play the aggressor like that. She returns a half dozen turns later to ask that I cancel all deals with the Byzantine. Leery of her demands, I deny and decide to accept Hinduism as my state religion. If the Celts turn their eyes towards American lands, I’ll need help. Fort Knox erects a barracks, and regiments of axemen are conscripted in Chicago.
After many turns of research, iron is revealed in the Wester Desert. I may found a small port city to claim that and the nearby clams.
Soon Justinian comes to ask my help in his war against the Celts. I deny him, too, and shake my head at the bloodthirstiness of my neighbors.
Chicago has developed into a legitimate metropolis, and three cottages in the floodplains, a quarry for the marble, rice paddies, and a few mines all mean the city is booming. Fort Knox has also developed into a production powerhouse, with forested hills, a thriving copper mine, and of course the gold all contributing.
With the settlement of Boston on the western coast, the immediate frontier has been settled, and there is no more threat of barbarians popping up in the fog of war. This frees my wolf-slaying scout, who had been maintaining an outpost in the desert, to make a pilgrimage to Byzantium. Our tourist scout sees that the great city of Constantinople (not Istanbul) has been seized by Gallic Warriors. Perhaps we’ve backed the wrong player in this game…
Back at home, shipwrights in Washington complete our first naval craft, and the USS Lincoln launches from the docks in 100 AD, with hopes of making contact with foreign civilizations. Perhaps we’ll meet the owners of the wondrous city we’ve heard rumors of, a city that contains the Colossus, the Great Lighthouse, the Great Wall, Stonehenge, the Oracle, and the Temple of Artemis.
In other domestic news, our finances are an absolute shambles, with a meager 20% of our commerce directed towards scientific research. We work towards courthouses in hopes of cutting down maintenance costs. A Great Scientist in Washington helps matters by discovering the secrets of Mathematics.
Exploration continues, on both land and sea. The USS Lincoln hugs the coast and heads north, sailing by many barbarian cities. It appears the tropical belt above us is populated by savages. The USS Illinois heads east, through Byzantine lands. Our tourist scout continues to sightsee in the celtic and byzantine lands. Their cities are well-defended and populous. America’s gaining perspective, here. We map out most of the continent, and see that the Celtic civilization has grown large indeed.
Which is why it’s absolutely disastrous when Boudica declares war on me in 700 AD. I’d been slacking on the military production, and this sight seemed to signal the doom of America.
I go scurrying to Justinian to beg succor, but the sonofabitch won’t do it. So much for christian charity, huh? Celtic raiders terrorize the countryside, torching productive villages and threatening the capital itself. The archers stationed in Chicago put up a spirited defense, and there is fighting in the streets, but soon it is just the Secret Service ready to face down the Horse Archers. With the situation grim, I entreat Justinian again. He’s unmoved by our plight, but after I gift him Code of Laws, he agrees to join the struggle. A spearman is rushing from Fort Knox to defend Chicago, and the nation hangs in the balance. I pass the turn…
And the Celts retreat! Justinian must be threatening them elsewhere in their territory, and the Secret Service watches them go. I sigh in relief and begin to pay attention to our military. American cities churn out spearmen, axemen, and archers as the scientists make a beeline for Civil Service. Reports of captured cities flood in from the front, and it appears my uneasy ally Justinian is getting his Byzantine ass handed to him by the brutal Boudica. The USS Illinois meets a Celtic galley in combat off the eastern coast, and defeats it. Angered by the attack, the Illinois’ captain decides to embark on a campaign of naval raiding. He begins prowling the coast, looking for undefended fishing boats…
Before he can even get started, that yellow Justinian strikes a peace with Boudica. Without the Byzantines to distract the celtic warlord’s attention, we come skulking up to the bargaining table. It takes Currency and a little gold to sue for peace. We continue to beef up our military, hoping to dissuade any further declarations of war.
We make contact with Louis XIV soon thereafter when a French caravel appears in the waters outside of Boston. He’s got a healthy point total, and I suspect he’s the kingpin over on the other continent. Boudica declares war on Justinian AGAIN, and one fears for the safety of the king of Constantinople. I just might have to convert to hinduism if this keeps up. My conversion might be hastened by the fact that Justinian, when I ask him for wines, offers this:
The greedy bastard circumnavigates the globe shortly thereafter. Good for him.
Feeling a little left out on the scoreboard, the isolationist Americans are figuring to get their Teddy Roosevelt on. Our generals present the target:
Spare troops bivouac at the border, and push forward through the jungle. The stack appears:
And the siege begins. A brand new war machine invented by our scientists, the trebuchet, rolls through the dense jungle and rains death on the savages within the city. Sakae falls in 1360 and is promptly renamed Democratia by the benevolent liberators. The engineering corps descends on the outlying terrain to clear the malaria-infested jungles and build cottages. The American army has been blooded.
As the insurgency calms in Democratia, some “inspired buddhist monks” offer to spread their religion both at home and abroad. I pay them 34 gold and four American cities and 4 Celtic cities suddenly have buddhism. Perhaps a great revival could bring the brutal Celts into harmony with Justinian and I?
Scratch that plan: two turns later Justinian capitulates to Boudica, and agrees to become her vassal. We aren’t happy about this subjugation, and now America is the only free-born nation in the land. We’ll hope the puppet Justinian doesn’t acquire any of his master’s belligerence.
Ten peaceful terms lull us into thinking we might be able to escape this war-torn continent (Compass is nearly complete), but Boudica and Justinian declare war. Celtic war elephants and Byzantine swordsman swarm across our borders, and Fort Knox is threatened first. I scramble troops towards our embattled production center, but it seems a futile effort. And with no one to call upon for aid, this is America’s darkest hour.
Enemy catapults bombard the Fort Knox walls, while its defenders wait inside the citadel, ready to lay down their lives. At last the walls are breached, and they must do exactly that. In one swift turn, the celtic invaders overrun the city. As the once industrious city burns to the ground, reduced to no more than smoldering rubble, the game rubs it in:
The war host rumbles on towards Chicago, and beats the extensive fortifactions there to dust. This time, there is no miraculous salvation for the Secret Service. And our other hero of the early days, the Lion Tamers, incensed by the brutality of this war, charges behind enemy lines to conduct guerilla combat. He is run down by Celtic knights before he crosses the border.
Washington is next to fall, then Democratia and Boston. New York endures longest, the last bastion of freedom, and the cruel War Elephants trample its valiant defenders in 1550 AD.
Now, for the post mortem.
Justinian and I struggled for “Most Futile,” while Boudica established herself as an absolute force. That incredible city with all the wonders? That turned out to be Paris, and by the time I went down with the ship, it had even more.
It was a brief exit for me at 3hrs and 45 minutes, but a very fun one. In retrospect, I should have settled and scouted much more aggressively. I assumed the north was cut off by Boudica, but she was actually in the very northeast of the continent. Had I captured some barbarian cities, perhaps I could have put up a better fight. Also, siding with Justinian was my downfall. I don’t know how I could have known Boudica would become the dominant power, but had I allied with her I could have survived into the 16th century.
It’s really tough for someone with builder tendencies to try and make it on Emperor difficulty – I didn’t even have the requisite techs to attempt wonders before they were being completed in a distant land. Also, I’m not at all accustomed to how aggressive the AIs are on this level.
In all, that was a very fun, challenging game. Thanks for reading if you did.
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