1AD-1000AD

My tech jumpstart, decent (at least I think) growth through the BC ages, and acquisition of a few key wonders (Great Library was being worked on) has led me to feel fairly confident in my BC years play. However, other Civs were beginning to take notice of my woefully inadequate defense. Alexander comes knocking in 55BC

A request I am willing to grant. Then in 5AD I hit “enter” only to hear the horns of war….fortunately it was just Tokugawa declaring against Frederick. Phew, maybe I’m in the clear…

Fortunately he leads off with a fairly weak stack, 1 Archer and two warriors. Enough to pillage the rice farm in Philly, but not to do much else. Notice my failure at spreading Hinduism in Boston YET AGAIN (Vishnu bears an unfortunate resemblance to Alex Rodriguez).

More aggressive AI fun goes down as the Spain/Aztec war is back on (we need a sitcom centered around the hilarious misadventures of Monty and Izzy, the original odd couple), and Germany comes asking for my help against Japan. Hoping that Japan isn’t close enough to me to do much damage at this point, I agree, more or less assuming trying to buddy up with Tokugawa is an uphill battle anyways. I’ve been TRYING to get Peter to like me more, but to no avail – but he’s still my main tech trading partner, as I get Math, Calendar, and Monarchy for him during this general period. Here’s a look at relations on 185 AD, right after Khan declares on Egypt (both Jewish!)

My scout encounters Japan’s, and they engage in war the only way they know how; an intense, no holds barred scout-off.

While that’s about as hot as it gets, the war with Rome has gone cold. Aside from a few more warriors that he sends sauntering over to try to pillage New York, nothing really happens. Ironically enough, the AI on AI wars don’t seem to be nearly as bloodless:

The 260AD scoring deadline comes by, and I have 4 libraries and 3 temples. Not stellar, really, but something. But as a bonus, the GL finishes in Washington. Taoism is FIDL in 290, my second GA (Thespis) was born in 335 (sent to settle in Philadelphia, naturally), and Christianity is founded in Sparta in 350. Should I have been more aggressive about getting a bigger share of the religions? Hard to say. I stop worrying about my cathedral futures when the Aztecs declare war…

And unlike the last two wars, the Aztecs actually come packing, with a few horse archers, spears, and axemen. They pillage some of my spices plantations and whatnot around Washington, but aren’t horribly hard to beat off with a few cracks of the whip, and some quick shifting of units northward. Fortunately both Caesar and Tokugawa are tired of all of the intense action (uh, I didn’t so much as see a non-Scout Japanese unit) and sign peace to free up those units. 

Meanwhile, I research Music in 635, and start on Currency, which I end up trading halfway through once they give it to me for a discount. I then start on Drama – probably pathetically too late. But Montezuma seems unthreatening enough, so I continue to try some expansion – Chicago founded down in the southeast.

Both Saladin and Caesar have both converted to Confucianism at this point – despite my attempts to spread Hinduism around, Confucianism had been much more successful in spreading around on its own! So when Saladin asks me to convert (what the hell does he mean, his gods! Who do you think invented that religion!), I figure the relations boost with two of my neighbors was important enough to convert. The war with Montezuma, as the others, had ended in a whimper, and my cities concentrate on building cathedrals and other such things. And then the Mongols converted to Confucianism too, so I was pretty happy with myself at the little religious bloc I had kind of accidentally started. But I make a HUGE error in not getting to theology sooner…

No Sistine’s! I imagine that people who get that are going to manage a MUCH faster finish than I do. Just pathetic! This is why I should have more strongly identified important goals to shoot for, in lieu of just “winging it”.