1000BC     The First Wonders

Having reached 1000BC, I was preparing most of my cities to build libraries which would soon be discovered upon the researching of Literature. Here was the situation of my five cities at that time:

Mecca is most definitely not trying for the Oracle; that is a prebuild for a library, as are the granaries in Baghdad and Cairo. Damascus is about to go to a prebuild as well, and Medina is faithfully working on the Colossus still. Getting my libraries build right away was vastly important; the difference between 750BC and 550BC is only 10 turns, but the difference between 250AD and 450AD (the time when those respective dates would get the 1000-year doubling bonus) is 20 turns! Obviously speed was of the essence, all the more so in my "late blooming" cities of Baghdad and Cairo, the former of which was heavily corrupted and the latter buried under jungle.

I discovered Literature first in 800BC and traded it around for Horseback Riding and some good cash. My cities swapped over to the new city improvement and all but Medina quickly had libraries up and running. Mecca went back onto worker production; since I had to skip granaries to focus on producing culture, I would have to make up for that in my low-culture cities by merging workers into them for growth. I would do this particularly with the slow-growing Cairo, which also needed a ton of workers to cut down its jungles.

530BC presented an interesting dilemma. Osman had just discovered Monarchy, and had a monopoly on the tech. Egypt had Philosophy and Code of Laws, neither one at a monopoly but both at a high cost nonetheless. I could only pay for one of Egypt's techs straight up, and couldn't afford Monarchy at all. What to do, what to do? Abu had an answer:

Nothing better to use all that excess cash on than a safe tech steal! An Arab was seen leaving Istanbul with a suspicious-looking package, and within days Abu Bakr was proclaiming the Arabian Monarchy. Naturally I traded it to Egypt to get the other techs I lacked, and since the Arabs are religious I could revolt right away to the superior government. Sweet! Of course, I just gave up the scoring points for honorable play in the ancient age, but I would have a chance to get that back in the next age.

Medina finally completed the Colossus in 450BC, prompting a Golden Age?! What? Don't tell me it's a religious wonder too? Arrgh, I swear every game I'm not going to be surprised by wonder-induced golden ages, and here I go again. I could have sworn that the Colossus was only commercial and expansionist... Well, now I had it and I would have to make the best use of it that I could. I certainly wasn't going to pass up on a great wonder like the Colossus, so at least I was fortunate enough to be in a non-despotic government when I triggered it.

The AI wonder cascade finally began to act up a few turns later. I had decided not to pursue any early wonders in order to focus on culture in the lagging cities (which I believe was the right move), so now I wanted the cascade killed as soon as possible without overlapping into the Middle Age wonders. France took the Pyramids in 350BC and England cascaded to insta-build the Oracle. As I had not seen either of them to this point, these were just empty pop-up messages at the moment. Egypt finished the Hanging Gardens in Thebes on the next turn, and so the big wonders were all gone. Still in the mix was the Great Lighthouse and the Great Library. I had no shot at the Library, even with golden age production, but I cash-rushed a courthouse and decided to see if Baghdad could get the Lighthouse. Here was another unusual decision I had to make; I could, in fact, get the Lighthouse easily if I built it in Medina. But that city was already #2 in culture; building a wonder there would serve little point in the scoring, only putting that city further ahead. I had to try with Baghdad, which looked to have a good shot; the only wild card was what France and England were doing on the other continent, which of course I didn't know anything about.

The next big event was the discovery of Construction in 210BC. This is usually not a very important tech, but in this game it enabled something big - colosseums! Yes, they cost a lot of shields and don't provide much culture, but any culture is good culture in this game. Damascus, which had been prebuilding, swapped to the Great Wall, due next turn. My other cities except Baghdad swapped to colosseums, and they all finished them before 10AD with the golden age production. That meant that by 1000AD, each colosseum would double to produce a much better 4 culture/turn - not bad at all! Also at this time Medina shouldered Rome off the F11 list and appeared in spot #5; a good start.

Egypt showed up with the tech Republic in 190BC; as much as I wanted it, I just couldn't afford it and had to wait for a price drop. My gold at this time was being used for cash-rushes of crucial city improvements, which was a better use than buying techs at that time. Speed matters so much when you're going for culture; a rushed building here could mean hundreds of culture later. BAD news was the completion of the Lighthouse in a French city in 130BC; Baghdad was only six turns away. Baghdad swapped to the Great Library; either it would built it and end the cascade or someone else would build it and do the same. It would be good for me no matter what happened. Around this time a lot of cities started trying to flip to me; I rebuffed them since they were useless desert ones. Just look:

My golden age ended in 50BC, but I was still in a dominant position. The Ottomans ended my Great Library dreams in 10AD (with Baghdad swapping to colosseum), but the important thing was that the cascade was over. Here was how my cities looked as the dates switched over to AD years:

Cairo was, of course, lagging behind my other cities in terms of culture so I had put it on a very long-term palace placeholder for Sistine. Since it was only getting about 6 shields/turn, I had to start very early to have a good chance at the wonder. Getting only two of the ancient age wonders was not very good, but I simply did not have much of a chance to get them in my low-culture cities - and that was the only place they would do any good for me. The Middle Ages would be where this game was won or lost in regards to wonders.

I made a round of trades in 130AD to pick up Currency and Republic and enter the next age. I revolted right away to Republic and was rewarded with greater commerce and production; now Baghdad was able to get about 70% of its shields back. Research started on Monotheism, of course; I needed cathedrals as soon as possible too. After having produced a ton of workers for my civ, Mecca went instantly from size 7 to size 12 as five workers rejoined the city. Population transfer is a somewhat slimy move, but I since I wanted to do well in this game, I suppose it was pretty much a necessity.

In 250AD I traded away my only Iron resource to Osman for Feudalism; it was well worth it since I had no need to build any military units at the time. Then in 270AD I finally had the city I actually wanted flip to me - Edrine! The opportunity to take those spices was simply too important to pass up, so I accepted the city and abandoned it. Chalk up dastardly act #1 for the Middle Ages; there goes that scoring opportunity. Without warning, Egypt suddenly sneak-attacked the Ottomans in 290AD; they had been fighting Rome for awhile, and no sooner did they reach peace with one foe before picking another. This would have been a trivial event not worth mentioning, but... in 450AD Egypt pillaged all of the roads around Istanbul with their military units. This naturally broke my trade route (with iron) going to the Ottomans. Instantly I became the pariah of the planet, despite having done absoutely nothing to merit that distinction.

This unlucky turn of events set me to thinking. I had already committed a dastardly act in this age, and the scoring rules only count whether a dastardly act occurs in each age or not; it says nothing of how MANY dastardly acts take place. And all the civs now hated my guts for all time to come, thanks to my "treacherous" act. Why not fan the flames a little higher? Why not go on a great Ansar crusade, smashing the AI civs, slowing down the tech rate (a good thing), maybe even picking up a leader to rush a wonder? It sounded like a plan. With Cairo locked up on a prebuild and the rest of my citites having nothing to work on, I turned my civ over to pumping Ansars (having discovered Chivalry in 450AD). The game was about to get a lot more interesting!