Pre-thinking

All the information about the setup and the rules of Adventure2 could be found there: http://realmsbeyond.net/civ/c4tourney/adv2.html.

This report is quite short, because (a) I didn’t take lots of notes and (b) the beginning was quite uneventful and when the excitements arrived, a few pictures (some lost BTW) and words would be able to describe the actions …

The opening

Tenochtitlan has already been founded, so the choices were limited.

With 3 reindeers, marble and lake around, I started a worker immediately as it was the only way to have Tenochtitlan growing. The building queue was a worker (3440BC), a warrior for defence (3160BC), a scout to scout (3000BC), a settler for 2^nd city (2560BC) and a warrior for 2^nd city defence (2440BC) before trying to go after Wonders…

Research wise, the idea was to grab some early religions then XXX, resulting in Polytheism first (3520BC), Masonry (3120BC), the Wheel (2760BC), Monotheism first (2200BC) and fishing when I needed to work the lake (2000BC), mining to improve production (1840BC) before Bronze (1480BC).

Teotihuacan was founded in 2440BC just west of Tenochtitlan, connecting the inside lake and the sea (I am a big fan of lake with lighthouse, especially in this arid scenery) able to get all the furs and lots of forest and hills. It will be the military/units base for the opening time with barracks (1920BC), Jewish missionary to convert tenochtitlan (1520BC), work boat to explore (1200BC) and warrior (975BC)

Religion wise, Tenochtitlan was the holy city for Hinduism and Teotihuacan for Judaism.

I had the idea to turn Tenochtitlan into a GPP factory with several wonders. Unfortunately I first get confused and thought I had stone instead of Marble and realized only after connecting it. So it built the Parthenon first (1480BC) then Stonehenge (1040BC) in this order because I thought (probably rightly that Parthenon would be more contested),

The scout(s) went exploring west (no choice of course), were not that lucky with village opening in order: scout (3920BC), money (3760BC), money (3560BC), scout (3120BC), XP (2840BC) and managed to meet Jules (3160BC), Vicky (2320BC), Munsa (2040BC) and Saladin (1760BC) before being all eaten by bears (3160BC) or barbarians warriors (2280BC, 1960BC x2).

Expending

At the beginning, the barbarians were quite raging in the west, preventing to go that way until I had better military to go through archers and axemen which had to wait until I managed to get some Jaguars running (Iron in 925BC, but first Jaguar in 600BC because of others thinks to do). The first settlements were therefore founded on the sea, with galley transportation to the final point.

600BC Tlatelolco founded, fishing village with 2 fish, protected by mountains and opposite Teotihuacan.

125BC Texcoco founded, in the valley west of Tlatelolco, to get some Copper.

300AD Tlaxcala founded, to get some sheep, this time this one is in the next valley west of Texcoco (the one linking our north to the other nations) and not on the sea.

500AD Calixtlahuaca founded, trying to get some crab, with 3 grasslands (cottage, since irrigation will need to go through Copper and that is NO) and plenty of hills. The crab will need to fight (culturally) China (note, it won’t happen until the end of the game).

The picture is from much later, but shows those settlements

760AD Xochicalco founded, on the eastern side of the sea, just under China nose, by the small lake and stealing whale and sheep.

920AD Tlacopan founded, another fishing village just SE of Tenochtitlan (other side of the mountain), with 2 fish.

1060AD 2 jaguars luckily captured Scythian just before Jules and Mao and thanks to their kind help (they reduced the defence to 0 and damaged all defender).

That is more or less the end of the expension as costs are getting too high (see previous picture).

During all that time, the research was quietly going, I was second to Alphabet so had no regret sending it to everyone to go to tech parity with the leaders (as I remember, probably Vicky, Munsa and Mao). I then was quite the tech leader, except for various different path and had a nice trading time with everyone. I was first to Liberalism in 1400AD.

Also after discovering Divine Right first in 1010AD, Tlacopan (the fishing village SE of Tenochtitlan) became another holy city. Judaism was the state religion, as first it was propagating on its own and then the missionaries were more convenient to build. Mao was converted as well (for most of the game) and Cesar was for a short while until Vicky turned him Confucian around 1000AD.

Tenochtitlan managed to get: the Great Library (600AD), National Epic (760AD), while Teotihuacan got the Colossus (1400AD). Unfortunatly all the mixed GPP resulted in unlucky mainly useless GP: Great Artist #1 (750BC), Great Artist #2 (75AD), Great Artist #3 (225AD), Great Artist #4 (840AD), Great Artist #4 (1060AD), Great Scientist (1250AD). 1 Artist was saved for later, the other ones discovered various technologies and the scientist founded an Academy in Tenochtitlan.

Roman wars

First Roman War (1410AD-1560AD)

As opposed to Epic1, I had some defence in my cities, had quite positive relation with my immediate neighbours.

Cesar, who was not the same religion, but who had been a very good trading partner, with open borders and relation around +5, choose a very clever time to ‘sneak attack, just 1 turn after I revolt out of slavery in 1410AD.

As shown on the first picture, reinforcement for Texcoco and especially Calixtlahuaca could only come by sea (quite long for Calixtlahuaca). The only thing to do immediately is (a) upgrade both archers to longbow/crossbaw and (b) bribe Alex on Mao on him to distract his troops.

Luckily for me, within the first 4 turns, he mainly pillaged (mature cottages and copper), bombarded the defence and weakly attacked Calixtlahuaca, waiting for his middle stack to arrive. After that a revolution is in order to Nationhood (draft), Slavery (whip) and Theocracy (XP). With a LOT of drafting and whipping, I barely managed to repel the roman troops at both Calixtlahuaca and Scythian. Strangely there was not a lot of Pretorians and plenty of chariots.

Around 1550AD, Mao dropped the fight, but I had a little stack of macemen, pike and catapult started on offensive toward Antium (that is the first picture above!), resulting in 1560AD in the following:

The city was razed and peace was declared for all the roman gold (350g) as a more dangerous stack was approaching Scythian (ex-barbarian city in the north).

Some more Peace

The razing of Antium freed some room for 2 cities, Tzintzuntzen (1565AD) between lake and wheat and Malinalco (1585AD) at the extreme border. The use of the saved great artist to repel the border around Malinalco (1660AD) had very strange results.

At more or less the same time, 2 other cities were founded in the north-eastern side of the side of the sea (claiming horse and latter oil), but all inside barbarian cities were captured by HUGE Greek and Arabian stack of grenadiers/knights.

I also discovered that I had no coal and that the closest one (see above) will need more than a culture bomb…

Second Roman War (1685AD-1760AD)

With our history and the border at Malinalco, it was just a matter of time (except if I had managed to impressed him too much with extreme defence), until Cesar declared again. It happened in 1685AD.

This time most of the action would be at Malinalco, my defence was serious (around 10 units) including at least 5 Grenadiers (with between 8-12 XP) and thanks to the culture bomb, the defensive bonus is high. The plan now was to capture Arretium on my back, try to reduce the pressure on Malinalco and get the COAL. Cesar, despite being backward in almost all the game, was now showing grenadiers, riflemen and catapult (!) in great number. And I rediscovered that having a city with no security border s a nightmare as I was several time just 2 units (generally very injured longbows!!) short of losing the city even if I was trying get together forces able to counter attack. The roman army was therefore free to bomb the city to almost no defence, do lots of collateral damage AND withdraw the injured without much trouble.

I got Mali in this fight as well but they were not very helpful, wasting some forces on Arretium without positive results.

Nothing short of Malinalco would be enough for Rome to stop the fight, so I manage to dispatch some spare troops toward Arretium (including 2 canons), bomb the defence to 0%, but they have grenadiers with city defence x2 here. In 1760 while bigger stacks (see below) were going to doom Malinalco, I had no chance, so I had to dare at Arretium: 1 canon died (expected at 85%) but did MASSIVE damage to the main defender, then another canon and a musket are able to get the city (with several knights in Malinalco to continue the attack if necessary).

With the capture of Arretium, Cesar was then ready for peace but wanted Divine Right for that which I of course accepted.

Conclusion of Roman War

The consequences of these 2 wars where really bad, even if I had won 3 cities during that time, I had to almost stop research during that time to be able to pay for upgrade, hurry production (2^nd war) and also badly damage city whip drafting and whipping. In 1760AD, Vicky and Mansa were starting to run away with the game.

Ending

With no coal inside my territory and none to buy (and I was not going to give Cesar the tech to discover it), my production was slowly going down compared to the other AI. While trying to get back in the game, the main events were:

· around 1790, Vicky finished Statue of Liberty while I had 1200 (out of 1500) already invested on it.

· 1790 Mao declared on Mansa, which was nice but results in a draw with both capturing a city.

· 1824AD, got my first Great Prophet so I could build the Temple of Salomon.

· Missed the Eiffel Tower as well by 5t.

· 1912AD, Mao completed both 3 gorges and Apollo while Saladin finished Apollo as well (Vicky had that already).

· 1918AD Alex completed Apollo and declared on Cesar, he will send huge stack of doom.

· 1922AD Alex razed Arpinum, freeing some room to expand south.

At that point I was going straight for the Internet, neglecting every other techs, hoping to score it and try to race the AI while they needed the last techs. I was also trying to get the UN just in case (at first only to avoid losing it as I would not be in the voting contest), then I realise that Vicky was the biggest AI and that except her and Cesar, everyone was friendly (having sold techs for 200g to get money to upgrade troops might have helped):

There is a Greek-Arab-Chinese alliance (with good relation), Mali on its own (good relation as well), Rome unhappy with everyone and England Neutral to everyone but Mali (friend). Therefore, not wanting to lose the UN I rushed it (costing 2000ish gold).

So in 1927 I was elected Secretary with Mao, Alex and Saladin votes against Mansa, Cesar and Vicky votes (618/1087), good but not slightly sure for global victory. I had to find a way to have more vote in our block and less in the other one.

1931, First motion, I try to win the game just to see. During the turn Alex managed to capture Rome (!!), I decided to pay him to stop (otherwise I might have him for opponent next time) and Mao build Manhattan. The election results were a slap in the face, not only did Saladin and Alex abstain (despite Defensive Pact), but Mansa voted for Vicky who finished first (but of course not enough to win).

The next turn, after the borders of Rome had changed, miracle, coal is inside our borders. At least the production now could climb again and railroading could start.

To try to please my ‘friends’, I cancelled all deals to everyone not Greek, Chinese or Arabs.

I passed minor motions to annoy/slow Vicky until the next Secretary election in 1943 with the same results, elected with 660/1144 to continue being a puppet, even manage to fail easy motion like Universal Suffrage. In 1951, try my chance again with almost the same result (Alex and Saladin abstained).

Check the space race, as SS parts are being built everywhere, Vicky needed only the last 2 and I guess Alex and Mao are not far away.

Internet and Apollo for me are going to be online in 1973, probably far too late.

1960 New Secretary election, won again with the same block (694/1175), try another victory but same results (despite cancelling deals on request, gifting lux and resigning Defensive Pacts).

1970 Vicky needed only the SS Engin now.

1972 Vicky launched (pic lost) – GAME OVER 3308 points.