Pre-thinking
All the
information about the setup and the rules of Epic2 could be found there: http://realmsbeyond.net/civ/c4tourney/epic2.html.
There are a complete number of rules and complex scoring table. The spirit of
the game is to try to get a monopoly on Gems (and possible Gold and Silver) and
sell them to everyone.
This report is
quite short, because (a) I didn’t finish the game in time and (b) I didn’t
finish the game full stop…I will anyway try to give as much data as possible in
order to be able to see how this incomplete could have compared to other game.
A few words on
the scoring system: there are a lot of “rewards” for having the game last a bit
(future technologies, SDI, nukes, size 25 cities) which would have been
incompatible with my Civ4 playing time, so I was aiming at either UN or Space
as fast as possible, in a peaceful manner, with possibly some exception to get
all the gems.
The opening
I spent a long
time deciding research and building orders. A worker would be relatively
useless (not expecting to work any mines until
The final
decision was as followed:
Research : Fishing (3730BC), Hunting
(3460BC), Animal Husbandry (2920BC), the Wheel (2710BC), Pottery (2380BC),
Sailing (2020BC)
Production : Fast Worker (3340BC),
Work Boat (2770BC), Work Boat (2500BC), Warrior (2350BC), Settler (1930BC).
Clams and Cows
were both online by 2650BC and
For quite a
long time,
2 galleys were
sent exploring in opposite direction around the equator to find Gems,
neighbours and circumnavigate resulting in Magellan in 280BC.
The first Gems
(by
The following
cities were founded :
Foreign
Office, the beginning
The other Civs
were contacted relatively quickly.
Genghis manage
to sneak Turfan (more on this one latter) in a very good spot in the
Cyrus is
leading, he is the founder of Hinduism and started converting everyone, which
will be me as well soon for better relations.
Caesar looks
quite strong and is the founder of Judaism (on its own).
Toku is weak
despite being the founder of Buddhism (on its own).
The 5th
and 6th Gems are definitively trickier to get
One is just south to Khan Homeland,
AND Mao founded in the small island facing it.
The other in the SE is already
inside Caesar borders at Neapolis which will be the
A
The first Gems
trading started in 310BC with Cyrus getting Gems+Clams for Ivory.
Then is 55BC
with Currency discovery, II feel like gifting Gems to everyone as I am forced
to accept the following deals:
Cyrus : Gems+Clams for Ivory+2gpt.
Toku and Cathy : Gems for 1gpt.
For a very
long time, all the Gems will be sold for that cheap, including my last ones.
On the Wonders
list, I missed Oracle (not tried), Colossus (was waiting for Copper until to
late) and Great Library. Manage to get the Gardens in Dehli.
On the
GPeople, I had 2 Prophets (normal way), that wanted to discover religious tech
first, so the first 1 was merged in Delhi, the next one was kept to be a shrine
in Neapolis, and 1 Artist (Music) which also wanted to discover a new religion
but finally was usefull in Karachi.
I want all the Gems…
Having an eye
on Neapolis, I start building a little army. Everyone but Ceasar and Toku are
Hindus, so I had no problem getting Mao and Khan help against Ceasar.
The city is
captured in 1166AD, selling maps around the world give enough money to upgrade
at least 1 archer to longbow in each city and peace signs asap in 1202AD.
Neapolis will become the
The 6th
Gems is online and sold back to Ceasar 1208AD (all 6 Gems sold to the 6 AIs at
this point).
Get Economics
first in 1388AD, send the Merchant to Neapolis for Food supply and adopt Free
Market.
The game goes
on nicely, colonising slowly any island that are worth and cruising on score
and tech easily it until I discover that horror around 1550:
The city that
Genghis managed to sneak between my lines at the beginning had popped some
Gems…
I try to
convert Khan to Christianity to avoid negative effect of a war declaration, but
with no results, even if in the end he had (way) more Christian cities than
Hindu ones. I finally declare war on my own in 1734AD, but with 3 longbows
defending on hills (plus randomw units), even City raiders (x2) cannons and
grenadiers have just OK odds so it took a bit longer than expected. The city
fall in 1754AD, giving
I popped a 8th
Gems in 1803 in an icy northern island…
When Old Sarai
reaches cultural level4, big trouble happens, and despite rushing every
possible cultural building (including Broadway and the small wonder that give
+100%) Turfan lost the control of the Gems. As a side note, I am pretty sure
that I had later more culture in Turfan than Genghis had in Old Sarai soon
after (I was above 1000k, doing 50cpt when OS had passed the 750k only 20t
ago), but was not able to get anything back.
This,
according to the rules, should let me go after Old Sarai. But this is when I
ran out of time…
With Delhi
starting the UN in 1853AD, a population of 40% and Cathy and Cyrus dislike each
other and being friend, an UN victory could be a possibility (especially if
against Cathy).
Jabah