So now I had more and better lands, but was slightly behind in tech - and that around a time where AI research usually speeds up considerably! Fighting more wars wouldn't help me, as it was too far into the game already to make any new gains productive before someone would launch the spaceship, and I figured my lands were good enough now to have a shot at winning. But I needed to slow down the leading AIs...especially Mansa Musa and Victoria, who were the leading in score. So...let's have another round of diplomacy, shall we?
Mansa was taken care of, I think. 
Unfortunately, afterwards I couldn't persuade
anyone to declare war on Victoria (and she herself didn't want to go to war as well). Mao had been the only one willing
to attack her, but I didn't dare that - they were direct neighbours, and Victoria had a huge tech lead on him; he didn't
even have infantry yet! So if he had attacked her, it might actually had helped her instead of slowing her down.
(Again, by the way, you can see the pattern: Those who stayed out of wars the most were the strongest in tech, and vice
versa!) So instead, I signed a defense pact with her. Not only would I have automatic help from a strong ally if someone
should decide to attack me, it would also force her into a war as well.
I really think the game should penalize civs who bribe other civs to attack them more. After I had persuaded two civs to attack Mansa, look at my relationship to him:
He was still friendly towards me, as the two bribes only gave me a meager -2 penalty with him!
That doesn't feel right.
Anyway, seeing that I had a defense pact with Victoria, Mansa feeling friendly towards me and Mao pleased, I decided
the U.N. would be a good way to win this game. I was not sure I would be able to win a space race, seeing how fast
Victoria teched, so I beelined to Mass Media instead and built the U.N. in 1937AD. Meanwhile, Mao had made peace with Mansa
only a few turns after I had persuaded him to declare war, but later redeclared again on his own. Mali, on the other hand,
captured Argos, Knossos, and Mycenae from Greece. Hey, that hadn't been planned that way! I wanted him to be slowed
down, not making his empire larger! 
First U.N. elections happened in 1939AD, and I was quite disappointed with the results.
Saladin voted for me, but Victoria voted for Mansa? After I had fought Saladin and brought three allies into the war
against him, and have a defense pact with Victoria and fought a war alongside her?
Yeah right.
Okay, so space race it was. That could get ugly! Alexander for example had completed the Apollo program in 1918AD already, while I hadn't even started it... Victoria was still not fighting anyone but peacefully teched in her corner. Mansa, the other main competitor, I could try to slow down though!
I was producing a lot of tanks now, and gifted them all to Mao, about three dozens overall. While the war had not went
well for him until then, this
helped him immensely and he slowly gained the upper hand. 
Of course,
I was still best friend with Mansa... Look also how I was first in
score now, although I would have preferred to be first in technology instead. Anyway, I had to reduce my help to Mao in
1943AD, when the game provided me with yet another surprise.
Argh. Not only would another war slow me down in the space race, he also attacked Calixtlahuaca, a city in the northwestern corner of the map which happened to be my best producer and was busy building the Apollo program...
This was yet another city I could only defend via my galley (yes, it was still a galley, and yes, it was still the only
naval unit in the whole game besides work boats! 
), and if Alex managed to take
it before reinfocements would arrive, the game would be over for me, as restarting the Apollo project in another city
was simply not an option! I hadn't had the time to research flight for
airports, so I had to use the galley instead to circumnavigate that damned mountain at my capital for my
reinforcements...
In fact, I have no idea how wooden galleys are able to transport heavy tanks.
Anyway, the only good thing about this war was that my defense pact with Victoria had been activated, and she was at
war now, too. Hopefully that would distract her and slow her down!
Some turns later, Mao made peace with Mansa, and I immediately gave Mansa 300 gold so he would declare
war on Alex, too, to keep him busy as well (and to help me!).
To save my Apollo city, I had to shut down research for some turns to upgrade its garrison, lost several units and some improvements against his artillery and tanks, and had some really hairy moments - but I made it. I finished the Apollo program in 1952AD, between artillery and tank attacks, but now had enough units in that area so that Alex was no longer a real threat! Phew, talk about excitement.
Excitement wasn't over yet of course. Suddenly in 1957AD, while I was still at war with Greece, Rome declared war on
me as well! And here comes the really silly part: He was no threat at all, his units were outdated and easy prey to my units,
but...war wearines immediately shot up, and I had up to 9(!) unhappy faces in my cities before a single shot
had been fired! My war with Caesar had been a long time ago, so this was
kind of ridiculous. Due to an UN resolution I had been unable to prevent, I was unable to switch to police state, so I had
to increase culture spendings a lot to fight war weariness, which slowed me down immensely. Additionally, Rome would not talk for
ages even when his units died by the dozens in my territory, which made this war really frustrating.
But on a happier note, let's have a look how world relationships can be if you have an instigator and general trouble-maker
as I am in the game: 
Reminds me a lot of a typical Civ 3 end game.
Previous Page |
Next Page
