Opening Analysis

While I'm getting more experienced, Adventure 15 will still offer some notable firsts: first time playing as Napoleon, first time on a Lakes map, first time playing against aggressive AIs, and first time in a scored event. There's a lot going on here to look at even before I get started, so I'm going to break it up into three sections.

The first thing is the map and the scoring. I tried generating some Lake maps and opening them up in the world builder: the only way I could get a lake anywhere near the size of the one that Sirian seems to have put us on was with high sea levels. Typically, there were only one or two rivers heading into even the largest lakes, but I'm guessing Sirian edited the map scripts or just hand-added more than that. The rivers varied in size from tiny, as long as a city radius, to huge, spanning almost half the map. Looking at the scoring, there are 15 points that everyone should get, winning and controlling the great lake; 1 point for each river, which everyone should also probably get; and the distinguishing points, earliest dates of control for the sea (3) and the rivers (2 each). All the differences will be in these last numbers. Early scouting will be key, to try to get earliest control of the small rivers. For the larger ones, there will be an essential trade off between settling those, and settling the sea while building fast enough to get cultural control of it. Fast expansion and warfare will be crucial in meeting all the scenario's goals, as will massing culture; I'm not sure, but I think I'll want to go with a cultural victory.

The second is the civilization selection. It would be harder to find a leader less suited to this task than Napoleon, because he has none of the advantages that I'd pick for helping: no Expansive for cheap granaries and harbors and thus faster settling, no Organized for cheap lighthouses and reduced maintenance on all those cities, no Creative for easy border pops, and no Financial for making water territory suck less. The French also have what I consider the most useless UU ever, the musketeer: I never build the musketman in the normal course of a game, and the musketeer doesn't even get any combat advantages! I'm going to have to try take advantage of Industrious to get important early wonders and build up my culture for control of the lake and rivers. Aggressive might at least help me fend off the AIs, but that's about all I can say for it.

The third is the starting position, which I can summarize in a word: awful. The French don't have Fishing, meaning the capital can't immediately start a workboat. There are no land resources to improve, period, so worker-first is wasted. There's forest all around, preventing me from moving the settler anywhere fast. It looks like there's only tundra to the north. Finally, founding the capital in-place will leave it with 6 coast tiles, 1 lake tile, 2 seafood tiles, and 3 ocean tiles, which will be murder on its long-run productivity.

This whole set-up strongly reminds me of Adventure's 2 Azteskimoes. We have an Aggressive civ stuck on the northern part of a mostly-land map, with a large sea due south, and a low-productivity capital. Lake maps on the whole aren't as rugged as Highlands, but other than that, the most significant difference are the lack of barbarians and Prince instead of Monarch. It took me three tries to beat Adventure 2, partly because I didn't have any clue what Monarch was like and partly because the starting position was so awful. Its only saving graces were that it had several food resources that required only Hunting, marble, and that it was possible to found three cities while using a single warrior to defend them all, playing a mini-farmer's gambit. (The third city required a galley to get to, because it was inaccessible by land.) However, I doubt the farmer's gambit is possible here, and there are no land food resources to be seen, nor any other resources of any sort. The one major lesson from that game that might apply here is how important control of the sea was: I built a galley early and used it to ferry settlers around the sea, preventing my enemies from settling it and thus creating an interior to my empire that was entirely under my control.

Opening

I have two choices for my warrior: scout east on the hill to see if moving Paris northeast is any good, or scout southwest to see if there's any more coast resources. I choose east, and confirm, to my dissatisfaction, that my intuition that all those tiles would be tundra was correct. The AI city placement guide, which I use mostly to tell me where the hidden resources will be, gives me three possible locations, all of which would take two turns to reach. Two turns is too long, especially when I have no compelling reason to go there. The only thing I can accomplish moving one square is trading ocean tiles for coast tiles, or picking up dead tundra tiles. That's just not worth it, so I found in place. Because Paris is in such a terrible location and expansion north is blocked, I want to move my capital later, both for better production and commerce and to reduce maintenance costs, so one of my priorities will be finding a good location for that.

I start a warrior and Fishing, and click next turn a bunch. In 3920, I pop the hut and get Hunting. Argh! I could have a scout instead of another warrior. Oh well. In 3720, I finish Fishing and start on—Mining! All but one of Paris's land squares are forested, so any improvements will involve chopping, and that requires Bronze Working. Slavery is also the best method for getting production out of this food heavy start, because I have only have seafood to work. In 3680, I finish my warrior and send it northeast to circle the lake the other direction: there aren't any barbs and there can't be any civs north of me, so I'm likely to meet any enemies coming in.

By 3560, I've discovered my first river, which I've called the Rhine. [I'm going to name the rivers after real French rivers, for easier reference. One feature I really miss from Alpha Centauri is the ability to name landmarks. The signs are good for tactical and strategic notes, but they don't look like they belong on the map.] I've also discovered my first enemy: Ghengis. There's going to be war in the BC era, I can tell. I'm experiencing some doubt my opening choices: with nothing substantive for my worker to do, I'm almost certain my choice not to build worker first was correct. Should I have built a settler, though? It would have taken me 25 turns to finish, with no growth while I was doing it. It's going to take me 8 + 11 turns to finish the warrior and work boat; will the extra population growth during the remaining 6 turns let me finish the settler fast enough to make up for it? I guess I'll find out.

In 3680 and 3560, Buddhism and Hinduism are FIADL, respectively. The Mongols get floodplains; why couldn't I have had floodplains. I discover Mining and start Bronze Working. In 3240, I finish my workboat and send it out to the fish, and start another workboat: at this point, I don't see the point in starting the settler much before Slavery, for the better food-to-production conversion. At 3200, I've taken 20 turns, so I would be done with the settler in 5 turns if I'd gone for it first. In 3160, I get 27 gold from a hut. In 3040 BC, Genghis Khan adopts Slavery; I sigh, as I'm still four turns from Bronze Working.

By 3000 BC I've discovered my second river, the Meuse. I've also started a very tentative dotmap. In 2920, the only non-forested square at Paris gets forested; wow, a worker really would have been all but useless before Bronze Working. The same turn, I finish my second workboat. I store one turn of production in my barracks so I can grow to size 4 before starting the settler. In 2880, I develop Bronze Working and revolt to Slavery. I'm now at least four turns slow on my settler, but I have a warrior, two workboats, and some commerce to show for it; on the whole, it's probably worth it, though it's close.

At this point, I need to consider what wonders to go for. I haven't seen any stone or marble so far, so that doesn't help much with my decision. I really want the Great Lighthouse and the Colossus for the water bonuses this game. As an Industrious civ, I have one of the few advantages that speeds construction of the Great Lighthouse, but the computer still builds it very early, so I'll have to get started soon if I want it. For it, I'll need Masonry and Sailing. I still think I want the Oracle, but not for the CSS this game: Paris sucks so much that I don't see early Bureaucracy as being worth the effort I'd have to invest to get it, especially since Paris's only real advantage is large food production, which Bureaucracy affects not at all. Instead, I think I'll build the Oracle with an eye to taking Metal Casting, for early cheap forges and the Colossus. That takes Mysticism, Meditation or Polytheism, Priesthood, and Pottery. The last early wonder I really like is the Pyramids. It doesn't have any particular advantages for France, but the early engineer points and government flexibility is never bad. It just requires Masonry. Stonehenge will make border expansion much easier in the early game, and might possibly give me earlier control of one of the rivers. It just requires Mysticism. Even on Prince with Industrious, there's no way I'd have time to get all four even with stone or marble. Without, I'll be lucky to pick up two, but I'm not sure which ones I want to get, in what order.

I decide to go for Pottery first: I want a granary for better abuse of Slavery in Paris, and it's on the path to Metal Casting. The only visible copper is in the far northern ice. I was planning on building my first city towards the Mongols, at the nearest position on the Rhine but since I have no defenders at all and making that city productive would require me to develop Animal Husbandry, I'm inclined to go northeast first instead, getting the rice and tundra deer instead. I meet Huayna's quechua heading north on the east side of the lake in 2760; are all my opponents going to have the Aggressive trait? In 2680, I draft my settler, so it will be built 9 turns after I would have had it if I had gone straight for it. Was it worth it? I have, approximately, two workboats, the extra warrior and all of the scouting it's done, and some more tech. It's pretty hard to know, honestly. I suppose at least my intuition was not clearly bad in this

By now I've found my third river. I meet Saladin, founder of Hinduism, Catherine, and Frederick in quick succession. Obviously Sirian decided this game needed nothing but warmongers. I think I'm not entirely clear on what's "gentle" about this adventure, because I can't imagine how I'm going to make it through the game with fighting several wars.

I've discovered most of the inland sea by now. I finished Pottery and started on Mysticism. At this point, my plan is to build another settler and colonize the first position along the Rhine, then try to focus on other matters. I have too many things I need to do: I need to build a military to ward off attacks, I need to get a boat in the water to explore the inland sea and to ferry units across it, I need to start some wonders, and I need to explore the north for more huts. After getting Mysticism, I start Sailing. I whip my granary in Paris and put some work into Stonehenge while waiting for waiting for it to grow and some whipping unhappiness to wear off.

In 2120 one of my explorers uncovers something that makes me start rethinking my strategy: stone across the lake. As much as I want to, I don't think I can put my third city there: I just can't get a boat done in time. So that will have to be the fourth location, and my last city for a long time for fear of tanking my economy. In 1920, I meet Isabella; she is, in fact, living on the Seine. I'm feeling more and more like I want the Pyramids for police state.

I also finish exploring what is most likely the last river to flow into the French Sea.

In 1080 BC, I complete Stonehenge. I've also developed the Oracle techs and Masonry, and am working on Animal Husbandry. A bunch of my opponents have just developed Bronze Working, because they're all adopting Slavery. In 1040, Paris whips out a worker and starts the Oracle. Orleans took a long time to whip out it granary, so its sitting on the happy cap, so I have it start work on a settler while Lyons goes for the lighthouse for the Great Lighthouse.

In 1000 BC, I discover horses near Paris. Buddhism also spreads to Paris. If I was spiritual, this wouldn't even be a question, but as it is, I hesitate before converting for the extra happiness in 950 BC. Saladin will hate me, but he's a long ways from me; Isabella is closer, so chances are better for people being Buddhists than Hindus. Still, I never guess the shape of religions right in this game, so I imagine I'll end up changing later. As AIs offer me open borders, I sign them: there's no way to block off land on this map anyways, so I'd rather have diplomatic bonuses.

In 775 BC, I whip out the Oracle and take Metal Casting, as planned. I'm worried about the Great Lighthouse, but I'm just going to have to start it late and hope most of my opponents are land-bound so the competition isn't as intense. I've been working on Iron Working, but my GNP has suffered from rapid expansion.

In 700 BC, I found Rheims to get stone. In 550 BC, someone else completes the Pyramids; I'm not surprised, I just didn't have the position for them. Pushing so hard to get Rheims was probably unwise, since I don't have any other immediate uses for stone. In 525, Huayna gives me a brief scare with two quechua on my borders, but he doesn't attack. I've brought my exploring warriors home to beef up my border guards, and I'm adding archers to my garrisons.

I discover Iron Working and start Writing, planning to go to Alphabet so I can play tech broker. The best source of iron involves relocating a planned city: the desert island southeast of Paris has iron on the north end, and given the three seafood and lack of other production, I want the mine. In 375 BC, I birth Moses. I don't have Meditation yet, so I can't lightbulb anything, and I have no self-founded religion, so no shrine; I decide to settle him, because with both Stonehenge and the Oracle in Paris, I'll almost certainly get another, and I need the cash-flow now. I'm still sitting near the bottom of the score pile, and in 350 BC Livy tells me I'm least powerful. Gee, thanks. In 225 BC, Saladin completes the Parthenon, almost certainly with Imhotep, the great engineer from the Pyramids. In 200 BC, with the help of a chop, I whip out the Great Lighthouse in Orleans, which greatly improves my tech rate.

Victory Conditions

With no copper anywhere in my near future, I start the Colossus in Orleans, since there's no reason to wait. I also send a settler to the iron island from Paris.

I feel like I've been thrashing around without much of a plan so far, and I have lots of problems.

So, for the first part, the plan: to win the scoring, I have to expand as fast as I can without tanking my tech rate so badly the AIs come to take it all away from me. The most annoying aspect of this is that most of the cities I need to control the rivers are worthless ice trash, so founding them is a net deficit. The only good cities are so far south of my capital they'll cost an arm and leg in maintenance. Maybe someone else will figure out how to run an economy while at the same time building on the trash positions, but for me, I have to leave it to the midgame, at best. Given that I'm going to have to kill at least two people to control all the territory I need to control, it strikes me that I'm going to want to go for a domination victory, probably using a mid-game cavalry rush.

The worst of the problems I have is that my only real ally, based on my religion, is Isabella, and I absolutely have to kill her because all of her cities are on the Seine. Worse, she's founded a city near the mouth of the Seine in a terrible location, right off the coast. I should really probably making nice with the Hindu bloc now, since they'll be better allies later in the game, but I'm relying on Isabella's ivory and Buddhism for happiness.

A secondary problem is that I have no happiness resources whatsoever. I have health resources coming out my ears, including most of the good early-game easily-doubled resources, but almost no happiness resources. Meanwhile, I also have almost no production resources, so I'm in the problematic position of having tons of food and not enough happiness to use it. My economy can't accommodate expanding to get happiness resources, so I don't really know what to do other than suck it up and try to turn food into production with slavery.

In 125 BC, Ghengis Khan founds Confucianism. In 75 BC, I switch back to no state religion: I need to be able to pick and choose my enemies, and though Isabella is the strongest, she's also the only other Buddhist and the first on my "to kill" list because of her control of the Seine and her apparent hostility to me when I'm not a Buddhist.

In 50 AD, I discover Alphabet and get to assess the computer tech situation. I can only make one trade immediately, Polytheism for Meditation with Saladin. The other trades involve me giving up Alphabet or Metal Casting, which I don't want to do yet. I intend not to trade Alphabet at all, for two reasons: the longer I keep my monopoly, the further I can get through Literature (and work on the Great Library) and Music; and the greater advantage I'll get from the AIs' inability to trade with each other. The problem with trading off Metal Casting is that the AIs haven't developed any technologies near it in cost, and I'd prefer to get a little further along on the Colossus before I sell it off to them. I'm pretty far behind in tech: I don't have Mathematics yet, so I'd bet at least some of the computers also have Calendar, Construction, or Currency. I think about getting Literature first, but with none of the computers having Alphabet yet, I think the Great Library is safe for now so I go for Mathematics, since it's a decent trade tech for the AIs that don't have it yet and it will open a lot of trading for me, including some techs I won't feel bad about swapping Metal Casting off for. My next great person with probably be a prophet in Paris, who I intend to use to develop Theology; one of the computers will probably get to it before then, but if so, that's not a huge deal. I really want the Sistine Chapel, though, since it's by far the easiest method expand borders in new cities forever, and one way or another I will have it.

I finish mapping out the rest of my map, including most of the cities on the rivers in the parts of the map I can see, not including trash cities in the north. I have an evil plan to get control of my first river, though: fill in the two cities marked on the Meuse, then use the free great artist from Music to culture bomb the one to the northeast, putting the Meuse in my cultural borders for the points and claiming a fair slice of territory in that direction. The optimal way to use it would in the south against Isabella or Frederick, but my military is weak enough I don't want to push my luck at this point, and I want the points for earliest to claim a river.

After founding Marseilles, I discover something horrible: I'm right across the water from the Confucian holy city. What the hell? Why would Confucianism be founded there? The city was small and as far as I know the Ghengis Khan's other, larger cities are still atheist. Oh well, the Confucian holy city is going to get razed this game. Strategically, it makes a lot of sense to wipe out Ghengis first, because he's the weakest of my opponent and now looks to be pressing on my borders on the hardest; unfortunately, Isabella is the correct target for the rivers. My real problem is that I still don't have the monetary resources to go on a conquering binge.

In 200 AD, I'm almost finished with Mathematics so I speed up research by trading Huayna Priesthood for it. In 325 AD, I finish the Colossus. The computer is still making ridiculous trade demands: Saladin won't trade Monotheism for Mathematics even though they've both been spread all over the place and the latter is almost twice the cost of the latter. One turn later, Catherine has give it to him, apparently, probably because they're best religious buddies. Meanwhile, no one will trade any luxury resources with me, so my cities can't grow past size 4. The computers also have tons of techs they straight-up refuse to trade with me. (But which I'm sure they'll be happy to trade with each other once more of them get Alphabet.) The only religion I have is still Buddhism, but I refuse to switch to it because that will immediately earn the hatred of the two most powerful computers and the help of only Isabella. I can't solve any of these problems

In 400 AD, at last, I get two breaks: Paris pops gems, making my happiness problems less acute, and births a great engineer. In 475, I develop Compass and trade it to Ghegnis and Huayna, neither of whom have Alphabet, for Monotheism and Calendar, respectively. I start Theology: I won't complain if I found Christianity, though I don't consider it likely, but I want the Sistine Chapel. In 520, Ghengis Khan, of all people, founds Christianity. In 560 AD, Huayna converts to Hinduism, increasing the size of the Hindu bloc to three. Why did I have to get stuck next to the person whose religion hasn't spread at all? All of the computers now have tons of techs they won't trade with me. In 600 AD I'm finally able to sell Compass to Frederick for Monarchy and switch to Hereditary Rule, pushing happiness issues into the distant future.

I've begun to appreciate the amazing power of the Great Lighthouse for expansion during this early game. I knew it was a priority wonder, but I didn't appreciate quite how much of a difference it would make in this game now that I've managed to get open borders and trade routes with most of my enemies. The new cities I've founded along the great sea all but pay for themselves even before they grow to size 2 or get any tile improvements. I feel like I should push the expansion more aggressively now, since there's still land to fill and I think my economy can support it.

In 680 AD, Ghengis founds Taoism. That's three religions—I've never played a game where Ghengis was a religion hog. The AIs are now actually willing to trade a tech, but not in actuality: Catherine won't give me Currency for Theology, even though three people have the former and it costs 616 whereas only two people have the latter and it costs 770. I'm bitter about being trapped in the religious bloc I have to kill: I've done little spreading of Buddhism on my own, it was almost all natural, but with three out of six enemies being Hindu, this is a serious problem. If I was Hindu, maybe I could get them to pleased, but it's not going to happen in the near future. At least Huayna and Catherine like me because I'm using Hereditary Rule: that might carry me into trading relationships with them into the mid-game.

I'm increasingly antsy about how many irons I need to have in the fire, and how incapable I am of supporting them. I'm still only holding on a rough par with the tech leaders because no one will trade with me, and with Theology just finished, I need to bee-line Literature so I can get the Great Library (I'm industrious, there's really no reason not to leverage that advantage as much as I can), and then Music for the Great Artist. I need to choose a location for my great artist culture bomb city, to pick up either the Loire or the Meuse; ideally, I think I want to settle both, but that will stretch both my military resources, to defend those gigantic open borders, and my already-overstretched economy to the limit. Finally, I have a third project, that I need to get underway sooner rather than later: I need to kill Ghengis. He's the weakest of my enemies, he's putting cultural pressure on the great sea I want to remove, and adding his resources to mine will put me in a much stronger position. I've been building swordsmen, but I'd hope to have catapults to accompany them; however, I'm not going to research Construction and no one will trade it to me. My survey of Ghengis' lands indicates he mostly has archers, so maybe swords will be enough. However, I want to split Frederick off from Ghengis first by converting him to Buddhism, so that when I declare war on Ghengis, I won't also get penalties with Frederick.

In 700 AD, I build the Sistine Chapel using my great engineer: in a game about cultural control, the ability to get extra culture from specialists is just too powerful to pass up. In 720, the AIs are finally willing to make some trades, so I do so: Frederick had developed Metal Casting, breaking the monopoly, so I trade it to Huayna for Currency and 10 gold and to Ghengis for Code of Laws and 100 gold. Those two are, not coincidentally, the weakest civs. (I'd worry about Ghengis using forges against me, but the AI sucks at that and I'd rather him not have the gold to upgrade units if we're going to be fighting).

In 740, Isabella demands I convert to Buddhism. I refuse, and she drops to further annoyed. I'm seriously worried about the possibility of a sneak attack from her right after I say, declare war on Ghengis. I give her clams, hoping to get the resource boost from supplying resources, but I doubt it will be enough. In 800 AD, the AIs are finally willing to trade Construction, so I sell it to Saladin for Metal Casting. Catherine has Literature now, so I'm racing her for the Great Library and Music; the latter I have a comfortable lead on, but I'm nervous about the former. There's not much I can do about it, though. I now have all the techs I can see except for Ghengis' Philosophy and Frederick's Feudalism. In 840, I comply with a demand from Catherine for 70 gold, which irritates me no end—I'm helping the points leader because I need people who don't hate me. Despite having converted three of Frederick's cities to Buddhism, he still hasn't converted away from Confucianism, which is incredibly annoying.

In 840, I develop Music and get the great artist. I opt to go for Civil Service next, since Paris produces a remarkable amount of commerce, and it's on my beeline path to cavalry. In 900 AD, Frederick converts to Buddhism, finally; unfortunately, Genghis has been building up his military, so I'm going to need more catapults and swords to take him out. This puts Isabella and Frederick together, which will make the later wars more difficult; however, I anticipate using cavalry to take them out, so I'm hoping that will smooth the difficulty some.

In 900, I found Avignon, but I don't immediately put the great artist there. I have in mind a more ambitious location in the far south, on the Loire.

I have no idea if I'll be able to manage that, but I think it's a gamble worth considering. I switch from Civil Service to Feudalism, since Feudalism will reduce the cost of Civil Service and until my (hopefully brief) war with Ghengis is over, Feudalism is probably a better choice than Bureaucracy.

In 960, Isabella cancels open borders. This cuts me off from my trade routes except through Ghengis; since she's likely to declare war soon, I have to change targets, and I start redirecting forces.

In 1010, I discover Feudalism, revolt to Vassalage, and pop copper at Lyons; I start on Machinery for macemen. I don't like picking on strong opponents, but I don't have any choice here. In 1020, I birth a great merchant in Orleans (from the Great Lighthouse and Colossus), and send him on a long overland expedition to Moscow, which is both tremendously far away and already has 15 population, so should bring in large amounts of cash for both deficit research and building units. Catherine, meanwhile, is becoming a monster and there's nothing I can do to stop her: my only hope is successful war against the Spanish; of course, I won't gain much benefit from it because I'm going to have to raze most of her cities since they're in terrible locations.