The Fate of the Mausoleum of Maussollos

In 75 AD (turn 118) I establish a new city called Bursa on an island west from Ankara. Bursa is established next to a herd of horses. I then start to research Mathematics in order to get the Calendar technology, so that I could build plantations and get some silk. I then change my government civic from Despotism to Representation and the religion civic from Paganism to Organized Religion. On turn 128 (325 AD) I also establish Konya on an island south from Bursa and west from Edirne. The island has mostly jungles but rice and spices too. There is also a tribal village, so I start training a scout to pop it. The scout gets to the village in 520 AD (turn 136) and the villagers give me a settler! I use my scout to explore the Babylonian lands and have my settler wait for a galley to take it away.

On turn 130 (375 AD) I complete the Moai Statues national wonder in Edirne. This is excellent, because the Moai Statues give +1 production from all water tiles for the city it is built in, and most of Edirne's surroundings are water. On the same turn I complete the research of Calendar and start researching Currency.

Some time pass with nothing out of the ordinary. I find a new island south from Konya. The island is very special, because there are three gold veins right next to each other! This definitely calls for a new city, but unfortunately there already exists a Barbarian city called Jute, size 5. I unload a warrior, a scout and a settler for placeholders. There is also a tribal village which is guarded by a Barbarian archer, but as my troops have the high grounds, I doubt they will attack me. I definitely won't attack the fortified archer with just a warrior so I am waiting to get better units to help. On turn 159 another archer kills my warrior but dies attacking my scout the next turn.

The Ottomanian Empire holds 1 millions souls when entering the Medieval Era in 920 AD (turn 159). More or less at the same time Edirne completes the Hanging Gardens. A little afterwards I get reinforcements to the island with the gold and the Barbarians, destroy the archer guarding the village and establish a new city called Samsun.

The subject of this post refers to perhaps the most annoying event that can happen in this game. I was one single turn away from completing the Mausoleum of Maussollos in Istanbul, when I get the message that it has been built in a far away land! The Mausoleum of Maussollos would increase the length of a Golden Age by 50 % and I even had a Great Propher waiting, ready to start the Golden Age. Instead I just had to start the Golden Age without the Mausoleum on turn 175 (1150 AD).

Hammurabi

Now that I established Ankara I can use my galley to explore the map. On turn 88 (675 BC) I find a new island with rice, west from my current cities. I enter the Classical Era on turn 90 (625 BC) when my scientist discover Machinery. I set the next research goal to Hunting to get camps, because it turned out that the galley does just fine on its own and I won't need Astronomy any time soon.

On turn 97 (450 BC) I make contact with the leader of the first foreign civilization in this game, Hammurabi of the Babylonians. We agree that there shall be peace on our time and after a couple of turns agree on open borders, too, because I need that to explore the world further.

On turn 107 (200 BC) Tipu Sultan, a great prophet, is born in Islamabad. I use him the next turn to build the holy building of Judaism, the Temple of Solomon, in Edirne.

A while after that I learn the Alphabet-technology, which enables technology trading. On turn 112 I contact Hammurabi. He knows three technologies that I don't and I know three techs that he doesn't. I offer him Monotheism and he gladly gives me Priesthood and Animal Husbandry. The next turn they ask for the Metal Casting technology, but "it's not a rose garden over here either", so I deny them this request.

Istanbul completes the Pyramids on turn 114 (25 BC) and I start training a Settler unit.

New Game!

So, it's the Christmas holidays and I have some time to play. I thought that an archipelago map might be interesting for a change, so I choose that one in standard size, temperate climate, high sealevel and the warlord difficulty. I believe that an organized leader would be good because they get double production speed for Courthouses and Lighthouses, both of which are needed in the circumstances I chose. I end up selecting the Ottoman Empire and renaming Mehmed II to Zerohmed I.

I establish my capital city, Istanbul, right where the Settler starts:


I had the idea of rushing for some sea-going vessels as fast as possible, but instead I figure that I'd actually like a religion, too, so I start researching Mysticism. By turn 4 (3840 BC) I have explored my entire little island -- there's barely space for another city but nothing special except for the elephants. On turn 5 Istanbul finishes training a Warrior and starts training a Settler unit.

Mysticism has been researched on turn 6 and I start researching Meditation, which gives Buddhism to whoever discovers it first. On turn 10 Buddhism is founded in a distant land (d'oh!) so I start researching Polytheism to get Hinduism, but on turn 11 Hinduism is founded in a distant land (double d'oh!). At this point I decide to go with my original plan and research Fishing and Sailing, which gives me galleys.

Istanbul completes the Settler on turn 25 (3000 BC) and starts constructing a work boat to explore a bit and to make use of the clams on the coast. Sailing is completed on turn 26 and I continue researching Meditation. On turn 27 I establish Edirne to the other end of my little island, west from Istanbul. Edirne starts producing a galley.

After the work boat and galley have been completed a (yet another?) fault in my plans unveils: galleys cannot enter the ocean squares! This means that my galley won't go anywhere from my own coast... Turns pass fast: Istanbul is building the Stonehenge and Edirne is building a lighthouse. Only the scientific research gives me something to do. After Meditation I continue Polytheism. Then I realize that there are still religions available and decide to go for Judaism, which I indeed get when Monotheism is researched on turn 50. I then start researching Mining to get Bronze Working so that my workers could chop down forests.

On turn 52 something great happens: the expanding cultural borders of my civilization push back the fog surrounding the map and I see a hint of another island in the north. This alone is not that great -- what makes it great is that when I try to approach the island with my galley, it succeeds: a galley can enter ocean squares after all! It just needed the ocean squares to be within my cultural borders. (This, of course, took me a while to notice... The end result was that I didn't establish a new city, Ankara, on the new island until turn 86.)

Istanbul completed Stonehenge on turn 58, giving a free Monument to all of my cities, which is great, because Monuments produce culture, which then expands the cultural borders. Istanbul then trained a worker. Here is yet another mistake: I didn't notice there were hills next to Istanbul, because they were covered with forests. It took me quite a while before I realized that I can actually build mines there, greatly boosting Istanbul's production... By turn 86 my world looked like as follows:

The End

Around the time Churchill capitulates Hammurabi completes the United Nations wonder and initiates the U.N. Secretary General elections. The U.N. Secretary General can, in turn, initiate the vote for the diplomatic victory. In the previous post I also noted that I completed the Apollo Program, which allows me to start building the space ship for the space race victory. I also complete Fission which allows me to start building the Manhattan Project wonder, which in turn enables the building of the ultimate Doom's Day weapons, Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. As if all this wasn't enough, I also get a menacing counter telling me that there's only a hundred turns left. So it is quite obvious that the game is going to end sooner rather than later, the way it will end is just not clear yet.

In any case, I managed to win the U.N. Secretary General election. Me and Pacal voted for myself and Churchill and Hammurabi for Hammurabi. Note that this was shortly before Churchill capitulated, otherwise he would have had to vote for me. After Churchill capitulated I initiated the vote for the diplomatic victory. The sole competitors in this voting were Hammurabi and myself. Unfortunately I did not get enough votes to win -- but neither did Hammurabi. We voted for ourselves, Churchill voted for me and Pacal abstained. Result: I got 247 votes when 260 would've been needed. Well, at least I didn't lose, so the game continues.

In 1980 AD I complete the first part of the space ship, the life support unit. New York and London are complaining: they would wish to join the English empire that, in retrospect, I probably should've conquered entirely. I keep the cities to myself and watch the Mayans and the Babylonians build more and more cities on the lands that I conquered from England. Well, I'm not only watching, I do establish Kazan on the coast, next to a source of silver.


In 1985 AD I enter the Future Era because of finishing the research of Fusion. I complete an ICBM or two and the space ship cockpit before I get another opportunity for the diplomatic victory vote, which I win by receiving 296 votes -- 295 votes was needed. :) I get a score of 9086 and my leadership abilites are compared to Charles de Gaulle. Even though I won, I know I can do better in the future games, as this was my first game of Civilization IV.

The history of the world is summarized in the four images below. Just click them if you want read the texts in them.

The Story Goes On

The razing of Canterbury is soon followed by the burning of Hastings. I also conquer and decide to keep York because the city is located strategically near the Babylonians. In the process a Great General, Michiel de Ryiter, that I had attached to one of my units is killed but such is life.


In addition to the war my other businesses are going pretty well and I am finishing many wonders: Cristo Redentor, Mount Rushmore, The Internet, Globe Theater, Apollo Program and The Three Gorges Dam. The last one of these is an interesting case because it was built in Ning-Hsia which is of size one! Apparently I had toggled the citizen automation off at some point and forgot to put it back, allowing the city to shrink because of unhealthiness or something. Surely it must have been larger at some point... I think... The city still has pretty good production values which is rather strange. Around this time I also finish researching Medicine, which enables the Environmentalism civic, which I adopt immediately, because it makes the cities healthier.

Anyway, meanwhile in the war zone I destroy Nottingham and Coventry and, much to my annoyance, find that the Babylonians have established a new city on the areas that I conquered from England! However, I cannot do anything to that at this point.

In turn 393 Churchill does something weird: he adopts the Pacifism civic. Seriously? In the middle of a war? I reward him by having my submarine sink his frigate and by capturing London. London turns out to be a pretty nice place with several wonders: Parthenon, Temple of Artemis and the Mausoleum of Maussollos. At this point the Englishmen have only one city left, on an isolated island, under the constant bombing of one of my warships. I contact Churchill who has no choice but to capitulate: England becomes my vassal state.

War!

On turn 358 I finally declare war on England! I take Oxford on that very same turn and Newcastle just four turns later. This means that Beaver Island is now completely mine! The English Redcoats were no match for my tanks. I also complete the Forbidden Palace in Circassian on the Beaver Island, reducing the city maintenance costs there.

I also dominate the seas: the English sailing vessels are no match for my modern ships. With the support of my war ships I get my first transports to the English mainland. The first fights there yield three dead units from my side and about six of their units dead. Using Marines I also take Liverpool, which is located right next to the Beaver Island on a lone, 1x1 island and was completely defenseless.

In 1947 (turn 367) I get a message informing me that a new computer game called Civilization has been developed in Mongolia. I get to choose whether to sell its rights away, use it to make my citizens happy or, because of it's historical accuracy, use it in the education system and as such use it to boost my scientific research. I choose to use it to boost the scientific research, even though my funds are running low because of the new cities I have conquered... I solve that problem by taking some money away from the research.

I also get my first Mechanized Infantry units and ship them to the war zone. The Redcoats are helpless! In spite of my aggressive war, the Englishmen act like gentleman: they have healed some of my units and returned them to my capital city. This is called a "heroic gesture", but as it happens, no good deed goes unpunished and I just decide to ship the units back to the battlefield.

My units get something to listen to from their field radios when Beshbalik completes the Rock 'n' Roll wonder on turn 376. Maybe because of this they conquer Canterbury immediately. I choose to raze the city because defending it would take too many units out of the main business.

Modern Age

In 1923 AD my scientists develop plastics and the Modern Age begins! I'm also constantly hauling more and more troops to the Beaver Island. I also finish constructing my first tanks and get them into the ships. Soon after that I also get my first Battleships that will dominate the seas...

My preparations for the war turn out to be useful when suddenly some English agents get caught in one of my cities! I try to declare a war immediately but apparently we have a peace deal that cannot be canceled for 10 more turns. Well, too bad for them, I'll be even more prepared and motivated when the time comes...

This is also a productive time for wonders: in a short period of time I finish constructing the Pentagon, the Statue of Liberty and the Broadway!