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Jan. 28th, 2010
Normally, it takes me 2-4 hours to play a Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword game, longer if I get obsessive about adjusting specialists in cities and juggling my Great Persons.
With that in mind, I started a game this afternoon. Playing the Byzantines on a map that hap one large continent and a spread of islands. The first thing I researched after founding my first city was Meditation. Being the first to do this makes you the founder of Buddhism. Religion keeps your population happy, so it is worth it.
Build, expand, grow, and come to realize that I have some troubling neighbors. Not the psychos like the Aztecs or Mongolians, but states that I know are touchy and expansive. I had direct border contact with the Carthaginians under Hannibal, the English under Victoria, and my usual nation, the Holy Roman Empire under Charlemagne. Beyond them were the Greeks under Alexander and the Mayans under Pacal II. Mehmed II and his Ottoman Empire started out in the islands and was never really a factor.
Obviously, I needed to keep my neighbors friendly. This became critical when I came up snake-eyes on finding a source for horses in my empire (and no one was interested in trading them.) One way to build closer ties is through religion. So I built Buddhist missionaries. Lots of them. I also burned a Great Prophet to build the Mahabodhi. This increased the speed of Buddhism's spread and also brought me income (religious pilgrims. I eventually also built the Temple of Solomon and the Church of the Nativity for the money.) Before too long, everyone but Mehmed (Hindu) and Alexander (Christian) were officially Buddhist, and a significant number of Alexanders cities had Buddhist citizens.
I then built the Apostolic Palace. My main goal was to have a way to stop any wars against me through "Papal" action. The first two issues to come up were Diplomatic Victories. In 1280 I won in a landslide. This is my earliest victory by about 600 years! Third best on my all-time list, and the best showing for a non-Holy Roman game.
But seriously. I was expecting this to take a few hours, not 34 minutes. Which is one reason y'all are getting a detailed write up.
With that in mind, I started a game this afternoon. Playing the Byzantines on a map that hap one large continent and a spread of islands. The first thing I researched after founding my first city was Meditation. Being the first to do this makes you the founder of Buddhism. Religion keeps your population happy, so it is worth it.
Build, expand, grow, and come to realize that I have some troubling neighbors. Not the psychos like the Aztecs or Mongolians, but states that I know are touchy and expansive. I had direct border contact with the Carthaginians under Hannibal, the English under Victoria, and my usual nation, the Holy Roman Empire under Charlemagne. Beyond them were the Greeks under Alexander and the Mayans under Pacal II. Mehmed II and his Ottoman Empire started out in the islands and was never really a factor.
Obviously, I needed to keep my neighbors friendly. This became critical when I came up snake-eyes on finding a source for horses in my empire (and no one was interested in trading them.) One way to build closer ties is through religion. So I built Buddhist missionaries. Lots of them. I also burned a Great Prophet to build the Mahabodhi. This increased the speed of Buddhism's spread and also brought me income (religious pilgrims. I eventually also built the Temple of Solomon and the Church of the Nativity for the money.) Before too long, everyone but Mehmed (Hindu) and Alexander (Christian) were officially Buddhist, and a significant number of Alexanders cities had Buddhist citizens.
I then built the Apostolic Palace. My main goal was to have a way to stop any wars against me through "Papal" action. The first two issues to come up were Diplomatic Victories. In 1280 I won in a landslide. This is my earliest victory by about 600 years! Third best on my all-time list, and the best showing for a non-Holy Roman game.
But seriously. I was expecting this to take a few hours, not 34 minutes. Which is one reason y'all are getting a detailed write up.
