Epic17 was not going to be new territory for me. I had just finished playing in RBE3, a Deity succession game with the Chinese that also used the Honorable ruleset. A builder's game on a map with lots of room to put cities seemed like it would be rather easy for Deity and a good deal of fun. My goal would be to get a diplomatic victory, with spaceship as the backup plan. With that in mind, I opened up the save file and started.
I moved the worker and, not seeing anything that would justify moving, settled on the starting tile. A warrior was ordered for exploration, with Pottery set as the research goal at 100% rate. On a map with lots of room to expand, a granary in the capital was a very high priority. After the first warrior was produced I built a second one for exploration, and then began prebuilding a granary with a temple. In 3100BC I discovered Pottery and turned research off for the moment, expecting to run a 40-turn min science project as soon as I traded for some techs.
Contact was made with Egypt in 3000BC. Cleo was located to the north of me, quite close to my starting location (only about 3 city-lengths away). Since this was a Deity game, naturally they already had several more techs than me and refused to trade for anything. My granary completed in Babylon in 2900BC and I began work on my first settler (of course Egypt already had 4 cities by this point). Here was the situation in 2800BC:
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The first highly significant event was contact with Alexander in 2750BC. He was off to my east, and he did NOT have contact with the Egyptians. This is of course the ideal situation for any Deity game, by exploiting lack of contact between the AI civs. Just take a look at what we managed to do with that in the RBE4 succession game, even at Beyond-Deity tech prices. Anyway, I first traded for Alphabet from Greece for Pottery + Ceremonial Burial + 24g + 3gpt. That's expensive, but remember that Alphabet is the most expensive of the starting techs. Then I traded Alphabet to Egypt for Masonry + 5g. Then Masonry to Greece for Warrior Code + 34g. I then started a 40-turn min science project on Writing. I gained three techs and 15g for a price of 3gpt. That's a good deal no matter how you look at it.
I didn't found my second city until 2390BC. That's awfully late, but I had my reason: Ur went to claim the incenses to my north that were close to Thebes. If I didn't send a settler there right away, it was unlikely I would ever get control of them. It proved to be a good move. Between settlers, I snuck an early temple into Babylon both to help out my overall culture and so that Babylon wouldn't fall back to size 1 after producing a settler. By 2190BC, the AI civs already had Writing (heh) and it appeared that contact between Egypt and Greece was imminent. To get something out of this, I sold Contact with Egypt to Alex for The Wheel + 39g. More trading opportunities opened up shortly thereafter: I bought Contact with Persia from Alex for 103g in 2150BC. Then I traded Xerxes Alphabet, Ceremonial Burial, and Pottery for Iron Working + 10g. This is what trading on Deity is all about.
I founded Nineveh in 2030BC for my third city. At this time I was of course enormously behind the expansion of my enormous neighbors; I was later to discover that they both had multiple food bonus tiles next to their capitals. Not what you want to see on Deity. :) Here's the map from 2030BC:
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My only comment on this map concerns Nineveh. With tons of land to be claimed, I made the decision to build a granary in Nineveh rather than simply to build a settler from it. I though that there was enough land to be claimed to justify this move. In retrospect, I can say that this was a mistake. If I had simply built a settler from Nineveh I could have laid claim to the territory to the northwest of the city. As it happened, the Egyptians got a city there three or four turns before my first post-granary settler from Nineveh was ready.
I saw another opportunity to get techs in a 2 for 1 deal a bit later. Getting two techs for one is always the goal of trading on Deity, where you can only stay caught up in tech peacefully by finding the holes in AI tech parity and using that to your example. I bought Mysticism from Egypt for 31g + 4gpt and then traded Mysticism + 14g + 1gpt to Greece for Horseback Riding. At this point I now had complete tech parity other than Writing with all the AI civs. I was unfortunately broke, but once my gpt payments wore off that would go away. In 1750BC my scouting warriors noted something interesting: Egypt and Persia were at war! This was to have a profound effect upon the outcome of this game, though at the time I didn't know it. At that moment, I was more than happy to see the AI civs wate their production throwing units at one another.
Around this time the AI civs got Map Making and I was able to trade around for their maps. I didn't make any huge profits though, as it appears the AI civs traded each other their world maps right away. Egypt built the Pyramids in 1700BC (yikes!), which was a bad omen for me. The same turn I traded my world map for Xerxes' WM, then my new WM + 35g for Egypt's WM. Alex then paid some chump change for the updated map. At least now I had some idea of what my continent looked like; Greece occupied a large penninsula to the east, Persia was crammed onto a small peninsula to the north, and Egypt was an enormous blot in the center of the map. Egypt made contact with the Romans in 1650BC apparently to the west; since they wouldn't sell it to me I began moving my warriors in that direction to make contact myself. This next map shows a bit of what the world looked like in 1650BC.
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I got my first demand in 1475BC; you better believe that with most of my cities undefended I caved in to it. Ellipi was founded in 1400BC to the east, filling out a first ring of cities around my capital. Writing was finally discovered in 1375BC, opening up a number of diplomatic and traing options. On the next turn in 1350BC I made contact with Rome and that touched off a new round of deals. I first sent a number of outdated techs to Rome for their WM, which revealed an enormous amount of unclaimed land in the southwest. Armed with this new map, I traded my WM + 73g to Egypt for Literature. Then my WM to Greece for 27g and his WM, which I did not have up to that point. Then Literature + WM + 19g + 5gpt to Persia for Code of Laws and Philosophy. But the trades weren't done yet: Mysticism + Philosophy + Literature to Rome for Map Making + 18g. I was now officially broke, but once again I was at full tech parity AND had a complete world map of the entire contient. Sid said I was "technologically advanced" on the F6 screen! I was playing the trading game to perfection.
I founded an embassy with Egypt in 1250BC; after all, in the event that someone declared war on me I could recruit the biggest bully in the game to go after them. Cleo was 8 turns away from the Great Library in Thebes (which she would get) and at war with the Persians. Shockingly, in 1225BC the Greeks stuck a city in my backlines in worthless tundra. With tons of open, good land to settle they went for territory that was clearly mine. I guess I don't have to mention that there turned out to be oil there... I was not pleased with the AI at all when that city was placed there. I founded a number of other cities over this span to fill out my territory and establish a good base: Akkad in 1350BC to get furs, Uruk in 1150BC as a fishing town, Eridu in 1100BC. In 1000BC Alexander snuck yet another city into my southern tundra, passing up far better sites outside of my sphere of interest. At this point, I was convinced that the AI was just trying to spite me. I think there turned out to be aluminum there, but I can't remember exactly. Stupid ability to see future resources...
I swung one final 2 for 1 deal in 1000BC, getting Polytheism from Greece for 96g + 11gpt and sending that to X-man for Mathematics and a worker. At this point, I was finished with the contact trading and most of the land grab phase. I had more than enough territory to win (RBE2 showed us just how little you need) and it was time to kick the trading game into high gear. Swearing off force, Hammurabi would have to live by his wits.
