Adventure 13 - The sixth Column

This is my first report of a Realms Beyond Civilization Adventure. I have been reading people's reports on the RB website for some time now and I still enjoy doing that very much. Much can be learned from other people's experiences and besides, it's fun! But it's also fun to play Civ 4 and with this Adventure, I wanted to give it a try. My second try in fact, because I had already participated in Epic 8 'Potluck', but I retired that game. Adventure 13 however, I finished and here is my report.

I thought a lot about this curious game and the restrictions. I wrote a 6-page analysis even before I had seen the starting location! I won't bother you with all of that, but I will give you a short overview of my thoughts.

* If you lose your capital to invasion, you lose the event.
Well, this one's easy: defend the capital!

* You may not move your Palace.
Ok. Don't do that a lot anyway.

* You may not build any Great Wonders in your capital.
I guess it means building a second city asap. National wonders are still allowed though. Wait a minute. No Wonders in capital means: probably no early wonders at all. Forget Stonehenge/Oracle/Pyramids. Well, makes it easier in a way, I guess.

* The first improvement (building) in every city must be Walls.
Good for defense. Bad for borderpops. Building only units at first is not a problem though, so that is something we may want to leverage to the max. We could do a... workboat rush? For exploration, you know...

* Every city must build a Castle before it is allowed to build a University or Observatory.
As our cities will not likely be very small by then, this is not likely a big problem. Just not forget this rule, ok?

* This is a SIX CITY CHALLENGE. You may not ever possess more than six cities.
Ok, make'em 6 good ones then. A lot of happy/health resources will help, because we want BIG cities. Total commerce will be the biggest handicap (for the later techs), so maybe a bit of a focus on that.
Domination Victory is out. Backdoor diplomatic victory is out too. And 6 cities probably won't do for a time victory either.
The tricky bit is of course the location of the strategic resources. Oil especially. We may hold out on planting the last city until we know we have oil or will get it with our 6th city. The alternative is to build 6 cities and hope to trade oil at some point in case we don't have it ourselves.

* Your six cities must all be self-founded, using your own settlers, or else captured from barbarians.
Capturing Barb cities saves us building a settler, but require an investment in military, so the only practical gain you may get is more XP for the military. It will all depend on where the barb cities are.
The most important consequence seems to be that we cannot capture an AI city. It must be razed and rebuilt by us, if we want the location of that city. Well, no big captured cities with lots of angy citizens, I then!

* You are not allowed to deliberately lose a city for the purpose of "getting rid of" one you regret.
Losing a city isn't funny anyway, but I guess we have to take extra care in settling in good locations.

* No tech-trading
Aha, the AI will not zoom past us because they trade amongst eachother and not enough with us. On the other hand, we will not zoom past the AI that easily either. Especially with only 6 cities.

Thinking about victory types, I would guess the only options were: conquest (should be doable on prince), culture, true diplo and space. The latter two seemed difficult and since I don't have a blazingly fast machine, I didn't want to go warring a lot, so I had kinda already decided to go for a Culture Win. And because I wanted the Parthenon, I would do something I never do: settler first (!).

The starting position

That is not a good starting position. Sure, plains hills give you a very valuable extra hammer, but no other resources in sight, except for the spices which would take ages to kick into effect. Worse still: no seafood tiles near the start! I had counted on at least one. Well, maybe we will pop horses or a metal.
OK, let's move the scout.

Ah! Sheep and fish! Unreachable without losing turns though. Let's plop down then. Wait, I can't believe there's just one resource near the start. I'll move the settler 1E to reveal more sea. Cross fingers....

Ah! very nice! Here I will settle down. I may lose the one extra hammer now, but I'll get 3 after mining that hill later.

The scout pops 76 gold...

And it looks like it's cold down south, so exploration will be going in northerly direction!

In 3800 Athens borders expand and spices can now be worked: more commerce! Shaves one turn off Mysticism. After Mysticism, I go for Polytheism, hoping to found Hinduism. Religions sure help when going for a Cultural Victory and a holy city (+5 culture) even more! Let's hope we get it. If not, we'll have to go for Monotheism/Judaism, but that would require us to stay on the religious branch longer, postponing sailing and worker techs...

In 3680, my scouts find a food-rich place to settle the next city. This one will be able to support a few specialists down the road. You know, those artistic types? Spread culture like bad odor? And they breed man! Every so often, they produce a superartist and those really smell produce culture! Anyway, it looks like the location for culture city #1 is found. I decided againt using the capital for a culture city, because I couldn't build great wonders there. But I may still change my mind about that.
By the way, you can see I'm using the recently approved turn counter mod. I never had a good idea of the relationship between year and turns left, because the amount of years between turns changes a few times going from 4000BC to 2050 AD. But with this mod I do. I'ts great!

Well, I didn't get Hinduism. It was founded elsewhere (hmm... FE: much shorter than FIDAL/FIADL!) around 3480. Leaves Monotheism. Monotheism or bust!

Oh, and there's gold in them thar hills...

I put the scout on barb watch duty: I can now see the whole island except for 1 tile near the capital. I should be pretty safe from barbs.

Much pressing of 'End Turn' ... Polytheism -> Masonry ...

In 3000 BC my settler is done. I set Athens to a workboat. You can see the only unrevealed tile in the west. Let's hop sheep have built-in barb-repellants...

Now... as to the placement of the second city. I first wanted to put it in the westerly blue circle location, but then I changed my mind and put it two tiles east. It also had a blue circle, I'd still get both the pigs and the corn and I wouldn't have any overlap with Athens' BFC. I would lose a little production at the start, but gain more tiles for cottages in the future. Also, I'd get the gold inside my cultural border a lot sooner. I would also be able to relieve the scout from barb watch duty and send him to south to make sure those sheep had the most recent version of the Barb-Be-Gone (TM) barb-repellant.
In the mean time, Masonry had come in, so I could immediately start building walls and I was now researching Monotheism. Keeping those fingers crossed...

Sparta was founded in 2840 BC and it started on walls. Whoa, 50 turns! Ah well, it'll improve. Too bad there wasn't any stone on this island. Knowing that stone speeds up walls before I saw the starting position, I kinda hoped Sirian had put some on the starting island. Or, maybe it would have been more Sirianesque to put marble on the starting island, even tempting player to (gasp!) build the Oracle in the capital... Big no-no!

In 2600 the workboat finishes and next turn I deploy it over the fish. I put a few hammers in another one (for scouting purposes), while growing Athens to size 2 before starting a worker. The scout is now in place and my island is now 100% barb-free.

And 2400 BC is a year worthy of celebration! I found Judaism and have my coveted religion. Sparta is of course the holy city (I don't understand why the game will never found a religion in your capital once you have more than one city, but that's the way things are...). Of course now the borders of Sparta will pop quite soonish-like!
I don't convert to Judaism, to not lose a turn in Anarchy and to avoid making enemies immediately upon meeting other religious civs. I costs me one happy, but for now, I'm okay with that.
Research is set to... Animal husbandry to pasture the pigs and eventually the sheep.

Next turn, I get this message. Strange... I always thought you needed Sailing (which I don't have yet) to get trade routes but apparently it's enough for the cultural borders to connect (which happened this turn due to the borderpop at Sparta).
In the mean time I discovered that I actually forgot to swap Athens to the worker, so it will now first finish the work boat.

In 2320 Judaism spreads to Athens. Wow, that was quick! You can see that I'm using a 1280x800 resolution: I get eggs instead of circles... Am I a farmer of what? Sheep, pigs, corn and now eggs! All I need is some cows and...

...horses! OMG! What a lucky break for the hammer-poor Sparta. I send my worker over there in a hurry, once it's done.

Attention! Barren lands to the east! Hmmm... not a very promising direction to expand into.

This shot was supposed to show the overview of the most cultured civs. We were average, but the screenshot didn't take completely. I guess it only shows how barren the lands were... Even Sparta is gone (aghk!).

Whoa! Sparta is in disarray due to lack of military. Fixing... Athens on a warrior also. This city is supposed to build The Parthenon after the walls, but we haven't even finished the walls!

In other news: goody hut located! Where's my scout? What do you mean, you can't sail a fishing boat?! Alright then: swim! Swim, or be cast into the sea! (Uhm...)

Lookie here... A nice location for a 3rd city: clam, cow-on-grass (uhm...) and horse! Will be able to support 4 specialists too, so it could even become cultural city #2.
That really is one of the disadvantages of trying for a cultural win on a archipelago map: there's almost no fresh water and therefore almost no farming until very late in the game. Food surplusses are bound to be small and so will the number of supportable specialists. But 4 artists is all I need, so no great loss.

It is 1680 BC. Sparta's woes are over, and it's continuing Walls. Worker has arrived at the horses. Found elephants up north (under 'Mining (3)'). That is looking like a nice little island: close, so I'll likely be there first, and i'ts got three resources on it I don't already have. Good food spot as well, so hopefully that elephant spot has some production potential, so I can continue my strategy of building two cities per island: one for culture and one for production/protection. Galley started in Athens.

On the next turn I would find rice near the elephants and my mind was made up: that island was going to be mine. Speaking of mine, Mining was done soon after and research was set to The Wheel. A couple of turns later, Sparta started the Parthenon and the game was beginning to take shape.

From here, I stopped cropping my pictures, to speed up the report, since it's already reporting day.

In 1440 BC I have the big island north fully recon'd and I'm sailing to what looks like a big island in the east. I want three big islands, with 2 cities on each of them.

Two turns later, my galley is done and I'm building a settler to settle north island. Until the settler is finished, I use the galley to scout out the sout(h).

The eastern island has piggies too! Nice location for culture city! And goody hut too. Again, the screenshot didn't take the user interface, but it got the most important stuff.
I also moving my scout up north, so it can hop on a galley and pop those huts some day.

In 1160 I see Cathy sail by with a settler party. If she' puts that on the northern island I'll be more than slightly annoyed.

After writing, I go for Theology. Who needs copper? Hah! Sistene Chapel sounds much more exquisite than 'copper'. And I shall be cultural like there is no tomorrow.
But, in fact there was a tomorrow and I ended up not getting the Chapel. Too bad, because +2 culture per specialist would have been really nice.

1000BC. Here is where I want to put my first city on the eastern island. Nice location huh? Pigs, Ivory, Fish. All duplicates though, but I could trade them away. Trade is good to make friends and friends are good if you want to survive to win culturally.

In the mean time, my galley picks up the settler and heads north. Cathy doesn't seem to have settled on the northern island yet. My worker is hooking up the gold near Sparta.

On the next turn I meet Mansa and sign open borders with him. This is all done by my friggin' scoutin' fishin' boat, but I am starting to get nervous about the circumnavigation bonus. I haven't really been pushing that yet, especially not in westerly direction. Need to build another scouting boat.

The eastern island has bananas too. I see a nice place to settle, next to the lake. I'll get bananas, rice and a three-food lake eventually and a lot of grassland for production cottages... A whippin' village, but a bit close to Mansa. Hurry...

In 850, the gold mine is hooked up and Sparta can now grow to size 5. Parthenon in 48 turns...

Dropped off settler and scout, which will go after the goody hut in the NE. Galley goes back to pick up a warrior. Set research to 0% (!) after reading interesting stuff about 'binary research'... Binary research has you either doing 100% or 0% research, to prevent losing beakers or gold due to rounding effects. They seem to have solved this in Warlords, but not in the original Civ4.

The hut popped gold and I can now go back to 100% research for a while. A little while later I meet Isabella and I see Cathy's galley again, empty. It's coming from the east.... Tell me she didn't! If she's settled my ivory-pigs-fish spot then I'm-a-whip-her-ass! Classical era style (I'm not in the medieval era, so unfortunately I can't get medieval on her yet...).
Ah, and Isabella seems to know how to build settler parties too (I spot a rather crowded galley of hers near 'my' northern island). Hey Isa: you settle there, you die, get it?

500 BC. Cathy wants open borders. I want the circumnav bonus. So I say no.
My Settler for city 4 on it's way to the east. I hope Isabella or Cathy didn't beat me to that juicy spot on the eastern island.

I let Sparta stagnate to prevent unhappiness. Who says citizen specialists are useless? They still give you one hammer and I'm using that to not grow. I'll have to change the last plains tile to a citizen too when I hook up more health resources.

Ok. So Cathy settled on East Island. But not in ortoo close to my favourite location and she left the goody hut, which pops... A scout. Great. I disband it at once to save cost. And I now have a future enemy. That Island is going to be mine, all mine. So Cathy has to go. And since the designers of Civ did not provide an option for the AI to just gracefully retreat, I'll have to fight her. It's all their fault, really.

Two turns later, I sign Open Borders with Isa. In the previous turn, Mansa founded Confusianism. I'm settling Corinth on the eastern island in the planned location and set it on Walls. The scout defends. For now. I mean, he can roar real load, you know? Even keeps the elephant at bay.

Next turn I meet Washington. This game sure packs a lot of potential tech monsters, with all the water tiles and the 50% bonus to commerce financial civs get. I can forget about a Space Victory, that's for sure. I sign OB with him to explore further east.

Judaism spread to Corinth. That's something then.

25 BC. Walls in Corinth and Thermopylae are done. Both go to obelisks. Theology in 6. Athens building lighthouse. A couple of turns later...

Circumnavigation bonus time! Break out the champagne! What? We haven't invented that yet? Where are the French when you need them...
Corinth's borders expand. I recall the workboats for fishing purposes.

Isa wants me to stop trading with Mansa. I give in after checking that I can still get my workboat back. Mansa however goes from pleased to 'refuses to talk'/cautious. Uh-oh... My military is still... researching Theology without having Bronze Working?

125 AD. I found Christianity in Thermopylae, which is good, because it needed culture for a border pop. I meet Ghandi, sign open borders. Spot some Gems, but Ghandi is probably going to settle there and I'm almost done founding 6 cities. Delphi was founded the turn before, you see so it's 5 down, 1 to go. And that sixth one will be founded in Cathy-land in the east.

Two turns later I find Isabella's lands and probably the Russian core as well, both in the NE. I try to switch Thermopylae over to Sistene's, but I can't. Has someone built it with an engineer? Use the Christian Missionary to spread religion in Delphi.
Next turn I discover why I couldn't build Sistene's in Thermo. It was still in Corinth's queue. I make the switch, because Thermopylae has better production, since I still don't have a worker over at Corinth.

Get this: 275 AD, millenia after pasturizing the horses near Sparta. Ha! Apparently I never built that road.
Bronze working in 3. Then on to Iron Working and Agriculture. Uh, yeah, Agriculture way after AD...

My eastern scout workboat can't get past Mansa unless I sign OB with him again, which I can't (refuses to talk). Oh and someone discoverd Music, I guess. That workboat is heading for the fish near Corinth. I guess it'll have to take a detour.

In 350AD... it turns out there is copper UNDER Athens. No time wasted hooking it up then, but it's a bit of a waste of hammers. We do get +1 hammer in the city tile though. I switch to Slavery.

I poprush a library in Athens and Sparta. Activate a citizen specialist in Thermo to speed Sistene's a bit. Must chop those jungles!

640 AD: First Great Artist born in Sparta: off to Corinth with you!

Why Corinth? Well, Cathy declares war on me and I need that Artist to sing very loudly off-tune, together with my screaming scout (TM) to hold at bay the terrifying... chariot? Not even chariots. I have... a phalanx, which has about a 250% chance to win here... Anyone want to place bets on Catherine winning?

I decide to settle my first BA (Battle Artist) in Corinth. It's still early enough to have a good shot at generating the same amount of culture after, say, 250 turns and building Cathedrals and such. And I can really use the +3 gold. Iron Working comes in and we have Iron next to Corinth. That location is getting better and better!

After a good while of nothing, Cathy is going after my fishing nets near Corinth. Good thing I have a Magellan Overdrive (TM) on my galleys. You can't see one in this picture, but there was one close enough to be in time to succesfully defend the fish and get some XP.

And it was all about getting XP for the next couple of turns, because I had built a small stack (in Athens and Sparta) and I now have 2 units (Axe, Phalanx) at the gates of Novgorod, which is defended by 2 unpromoted archers. I have 2 more units coming up.
I promote the axeman to CRI and the odds improve, but I decide to wait on the incoming units (3 turns)

In the intervening turns, more wars break out, but I don't remember between who, as my screenshots didn't fully take. What is this with Irfanview? I have to use Irfanview because the built-in screenshot function doesn't work for some reason.
More setbacks: I lose Sistene's. Well, it pays well, I hope. And Novgorod's Cultural defense went to 40%. Shouldn't have waited. I guess I forgot that Cathy is Creative. I hope 4 units can get the job done.

They can. My Cover Phalanx kills off an Archer, but then I lose a cover Axe. His City Raider I promoted brother finishes the remaining Archer and Novgorod gets razed. And it's money time! I get 300+ gold for losing the Chapel, 100+ for razing Novgorod and 14 for pilaging a Hamlet with the remaining Phalanx. We can spend it on research for a while. Bonus: two workers and a promotion for my Axe. I get a second Great Artist and send it to Thermopylae for a Great Work.

After I take Cathy's first city, Isa comes along and wants me to fight Ghandi, but he's the most powerful Civ. No way. I'm not risking declaring a war with Isabella signing peace the next turn! My GA builds his Great Work (GW) in Thermo and I upgrade the conquerors a bit. Move more units to St. Petersburg and build a Settler in Corinth.

The coming battlefield. Is Cathy going to attack me or just moving that Chariot to St. Petersburg? If so, he'll be late...

In 1090 Mansa gives me this deal. I don't refuse.


I raze St. Petersburg and kill the chariot. Bonus Worker. I look at my options for Peace with Russia, but she can only throw in Rostov, which is a no-no. So no-no it is and Rostov will go down too.

In order to save costs, I disband my scout and the extra workboat, saving me 4 gpt. I lose a phalanx attacking Rostov while it has still only 20% defense (not making that mistake again). But the archer is badly wounded.

Kill one archer in Rostov with my sword and I now have a third religion in my lands! Sign OB with Mansa and check out his capital.


Whoops! Better not make him angry!

Not wanting to lose my Lvl4 Phalanx, I go in with the wounded Sword and Axe. I lose the sword, but the axe wins. Rostov razed.


Here's the screenshot, but it was malformed. I mean, I'm really getting the hang of this razing cities, but I'm not THIS good!
I sign peace.

Next turn I plunk my settler from Corinth down and have my six cities. Time to build up the empire and get some great artists. I start researching towards drama. I saw some big stacks of units at Mansa's place. Hope they're not coming my way.

I start spreading Judaism, build courthouses, temples, monasteries...

Ghandi wants to trade his gems for my ivory. I refuse and instead give my corn to isabella for her dyes, which will give me 2 happy with theatres (I cannot build forges yet and I'd rather befriend Isabella than Ghandi.

I destroy the improvements made by Cathy. I won't be using them and I don't want anybody else to sttle there and be able to use them. Funny how you don't get gold for pillaged improvements in your own territory, even though they weren't built by you (pillaged that Hamlet: no coins for Alex. You bad boy!)...

A couple of turns later, Drama is done and theaters are being built.

Get this: I'm largest! With 6 cities...

Great Work #2 explodes in Corinth. One down, gazillion to go... I meet Mao in 1550.
A few trades make me a small profit at 50% research.

Hm... Mansa is trying to steal my bananas. Pah! I'll steal his city (and then raze it, of course).
Sorry for the malformed screenie.

In the following turns, nothing too exciting happens. I build Heroic Epic built in Corinth, National Epic in Thermopylae, Great Works are created in Sparta and Thermopylae.
The observant reader will by now have concluded that Sparta, Corinth and Thermopylae are my three culture cities. The other city on each of their islands has the job of producing military for protection and/or commerce. Pharsalos is by no means a production powerhouse, but it was just too late to become a culture city (and really too low production to even think about building Wonders.
Isabella drops by to drink a cup of teademand horses. Proud Greeks as we are, we give in, but show Isabella that we don't need horse droppings to build a Great Work in Corinth!

A while later, I renegotiate to get more money and trade my worldmap around for a total of 600 gold. Research again at 100%. I'm no longer doing binary research. It's too much of a hassle.

Tekedda wants to be Greek... Told you! Heh, I don't want Tekedda to be Greek. Bye!
I got a whole chariot out of it!

I open borders with cathy for some more trade income. Trying to get to Liberalism first, but Mansa beats me to it. Swap to Feudalism. Sparta gets another Great Work.
So does Thermopylae. Isabella comes along to convert me to Buddhism. I refuse, because I want to have Buddhism in all my cities first. Maybe not the wisest decision, but she'll get over it. I hope.
Ten turns later do switch to Buddhism, followed by Pacifism. Starting to really make an effort to get those Great Artists out. This is actually more work than just put a few cities on Artist Specialists. It also involves preventing those cities from enabling additional, non-artist specialists and other cities from enabling any specialists at all, because every non-Great Artist makes the next one a little harder to get.

All 6 cities now have Buddhism, Judaism and Christianity, so I will be able to build 2 cathedrals in each, for an extra 100% culture.
Thinking that cathedral tactic through I actually cancelled a Synagoge (60% done) in Corinth in favor of a Buddhist Stupa, because that would also give me +2 happy. Thermopylae already had a Stupa, but I didn't have enough temples for my second Stupa yet, so Corinth ended up waiting quite a while for that Stupa. You see, Sparta could go without a Stupa, as it had the Globe Theatre. It eventually got the Synagogue that corinth scrapped.

Both Ghandi and Washington want me to stop trading with Mao. I refuse. I do pop a silver at Athens. And a great scientist, which builds an Academy in Sparta, next turn. Sure a Great Artist would get me more culture, but that Great Scientist/Academy was welcome for the research side of life.

Then again a peaceful time of mostly generating culture, with a few Great Works, another silver pop (I trade it to Mansa for Crabs), a switch to Mercantilism (free specialist) and Free Speech after getting the required techs.
I'm still the largest civ. One of the Great Artists I pop is Rembrandt van Rijn, which is funny, because lived in the city where he was born for 9 years. I guess it was my right to get him then.
In the meantime, everybody is going emancipation and free religion and Golden Age on me. I'm still some ways off of those civics, but I don't have happiness problems yet. Or angry neighbours.

1902 AD: I unexpectedly pop a Great Engineer in Pharsalos. Wasn't paying enough attention to the specialists there. He'll build the Hermitage in Thermopylae, so it's not a big loss.

More pressing 'End Turn'... more Great Works...


More wars... More Isabellas demanding I fight Ghandi... More me refusing...

With roughly 100 turns to go, I start fiddling with the culture slider. As you can see, I'm about half way in culture with all 3 cities and I expect to get at least another Great Artist each. Quick calculations tell me that I won't be having a lot of turns to spare.
I'm also starting to build culture in my Cultrue Cities and Wealth or Research in the others.

Some body says I'm the most cultured. Really? Who would have thought that...
Sigh, Isabella wants me to fight Ghandi again... No! But you can play with my sheep if you'll give me your silk to make ballet tutus for my army? Thanks, Isa!

Things are going fast now. I regularly see ships sail by with units that are more advanced than mine, but the AI is still in settler mode (At least the AI's near me). I do get Rifling and save some money for upgrades and start to temporarily feel a bit safer.


Mao and Washingotn are at war again and Mao wants me to join in. Uhm... no. Yeah you me be disappointed, but I'm cultural. Hah! See my tutus?

Things go faster (hm... maybe that's because I hit 'End Turn' three times per minute...): destroyers... SS Casings (whoops!)... Thermopylae going Legendary... wait, that's good right? Let's look at how we are doing:

Not too bad. I'm starting to believe the game is mine. Just hope nobody declares war on me...
All I need is about 16 more turns!

Corinth Legendary!

The horns of war... NOOOO!


Phew!

Yes, I wi... no, wait...


Ok, so I'm not the only one with Legendary Culture cities. One clap of applause for you, Isa. Now let me show you about REAL Culture:

I win my first RB adventure game!
Not the best score, I'm sure.

What could have been done better:

-Lot's of things could have been done better.
-Bronze working / slavery muuuuch sooner. Shouldn't have gone for Theology.
-Caste system way earlier. May have stunted growth in the culture cities, but they needed culture more than growth.


Final observation: I actually 'forgot' about going for a (competition, not game) win. Well, I don't think I stand a chance at all against the seasoned players, so it's a moot point, but I sure didn't try to win. I didn't strategize to get the quickest victory, I just tried to win my game. Not that that is bad in itself, as the important thing is to have fun, but it just feels like I 'forgot' about the competition.
Ah well, The Stange Power Duck will be back with a vengeance on Adventure 81 (when he's had muuuch more practise...)