Adventure 24 - It's a Wonderful Life

Sorry for this late and crappy report, but I don't have the time for something better at the moment...

I founded Paris on the spot, and researched Animal Husbandry, Mining and Bronze Working first. Since there were many resources to improve and many forests to chop for wonders, I built two(!) workers before letting Paris grow and building a warrior for protection. That way, Paris almost never had to work unimproved tiles, which was very nice.

After Bronze Working, Mysticism was researched next for Stonehenge, which was built in 2200BC. Then I researched Fishing, Sailing and Masonry, and built the Great Wall in 1720BC - I was very paranoid about the early wonders, especially the Great Wall, the Oracle and the Great Lighthouse.

Speaking of the Great Lighthouse, since our capital wasn't on the coast, a settler and another worker were chopped out while building the Great Wall, and Orleans founded on the coast in 1920BC.


It immediately began to build a lighthouse, then the Great Lighthouse which I whipped to completion in 625BC. Meanwhile, Paris build the Pyramids and the Oracle. As a free tech, I took Code of Laws, founded Confucianism, but never converted to it.

I chopped a lot of forests in this game, by the way. And after having chopped out my first settler, I always made sure that chops would only go to wonders afterwards, to take advantage of the +50% production bonus from being industrious and thus making the most out of the wood...

In 1400BC, an exploring chariot found a very nice barbarian city at the floodplain site to the east, which was only guarded by two warriors - and thus I had my third city in 1400BC, at precisely the spot I had planned to found my next city anyway. Saved one settler!

In 975BC, after having researched Pottery, Polytheism, Priesthood and Writing, I went for Mathematics next (for the Hanging Gardens, which I have seen fall in BC times quite often), then Iron Working, Meditation, Monotheism and Aesthetics, which opens up a lof of wonders as well. (For exact build times of my wonders, look at the end of my report)

In 1000BC, I got my first great person: A prophet, with whom I would found Christianity later. In 500BC, a great merchant was born, going on a trade mission to fuel my research, and my third great person was a great engineer, whom I used to rush the Mausoleum of Mausollos in 50AD, as for the first time, some AIs had a wonder tech I didn't have for a couple of turns: Calendar.

A first AI war broke out in 300BC: Justinian declared on Suryavarman, but not much happened, and they made peace again in 50AD. But later on, a lot of AI wars happened: In 500AD, Asoka attacked Pacal (peace again in 760AD), in 540AD Justinian attacked Asoka (until 940AD), in 780AD Suryavarman attacked Justinian (until 1180AD), in 1120AD Asoka declared on Pacal again and then I stopped taking notes about wars - it was insane! I haven't seen so many wars before, and I certainly haven't seen so many great generals born left and right before either! It was amazing, but I managed to stay out of all wars for the entire game. In the end, Suryavarman became a vassal of Justinian.

Anyway, I played this game in a hurry (needed approx. 2 hours to finish it) and so didn't expand very well - overall, I had only seven cities. Here's my eastern part of the empire, I forgot from when this shot was exactly...


In 475AD, I temporarily converted to Christianity to build the Apostolic Palace, but switched back to no state religion again right after finishing it. In 540AD, I researched Metal Casting and used the ex-barbarian city to build the Colossus. Speaking of that city, it not only was my main science city with all the floodplains, it was also a very decent production site, relieving Paris from wonder-building duty a lot. Because of this, it also generated a lot of culture, and both Nubia and Goa later flipped to me (I razed both cities).

In 540AD, I used the free artist from Music for my first golden age. In the end, I would start three golden ages with great people, and one with the Taj Mahal - which, together with the extra 50% golden age length, was very nice!

In 1060AD, I traded for maps: This was the situation at that time.


In 1300AD, Willem was the first to Liberalism - I didn't try to get that in this game, as it was no wonder-enabling tech. Ignoring the Liberalism race was really a nice change in this game!

I was still the first to Economics though, and the resulting merchant went on another trade mission. Additionally, two great scientists were used for academies in Paris and the ex-barb city, three great prophets built shrines for Confucianism, Christianity and Islam, another great scientist helped to research Biology and three great engineers rushed wonders. It was great to have that many great people! For what it's worth, in the end I would have needed 3000 GPP to generate the next one.

Despite my crappy expansion, I managed to stay ahead in tech - maybe because of all the wonders, maybe because of the golden ages, or maybe because the AI warred so much. Here's the tech situation from around the modern age:


In the end, the game got a bit boring - there are a lot of turns without wonders on the way to the Space Elevator! For that reason, I stopped playing after I had built that, and didn't complete the game as there were no points awarded for victory.

Here's my empire at the end of the game:


Overall, I enjoyed the game a lot though, especially the first half when I dreaded to hit "next turn", always fearing the AI might beat me to a wonder. Thanks for a quick and fun game!

Here's the list of wonder completion dates:

Stonehenge 2200BC
Great Wall 1720BC
Pyramids 1160BC
Oracle 950BC
Temple of Artemis 725BCfor
Great Lighthouse 625BC
Hanging Gardens 100BC
Mausoleum of Mausollos (rushed) 100AD
Statue of Zeus 175AD
Chichen Itza 400AD
Great Library 475AD
Parthenon 520AD
Apostolic Palace 620AD
Shwedagon Paya 720AD
Hagia Sophia 740AD
Colossus 900AD
Sistine Chapel 920AD
Angkor Wat (rushed) 920AD
Notre Dame 1120AD
University of Sangkore 1210AD
Versailles (rushed) 1220AD
Spiral Minaret 1240AD
Taj Mahal 1390AD
Statue of Liberty 1550AD
Kremlin 1645AD
Broadway 1700AD
Pentagon 1795AD
Cristo Redentor 1804AD
Rock'n Roll 1812AD
The Eiffel Tower 1820AD
U.N. 1822AD
Hollywood 1826AD
Three Gorges Dam 1878AD
Space Elevator 1908AD