To End the Game!

Woohoo! I have just won my first game of civilizations and am starting another one to experience the other civilizations other than Indian. I successfully incorporated the knowledge from Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel to expand my civilizations while maintaining my supreme status. Towards the end, I had to do away with the peaceful and spiritual agenda because my civilization needed to grow and there was no place that wasn't inhabited. So I began conquering neighboring civilizations (not Persia as we had a very good relationship and wasn't going to be compromised by my expansion). This went on for awhile until I entered the final era and was declared the winner!
Now off to the second game! Wish me luck and thanks for following!

Renaissance Era

As 1800 AD approached, exploration became a top priority. Numerous cities of mine continue to dominate surrounding lands both militarily and economically. This is a result of early trading I had accomplished with neighboring states, enabling me to combine the items and resources traded to those that I had in possession, resulting in quick advancements. As the true hegemon ruling during this time, I have just finished researching the constitution, corporation, biology, combustion, and electricity. In 1828, with the research of electricity, I am now able to research flight. This is a far advancement as neighboring states have just accomplished building the chariot, establishing knights for military guard, and began converting to organized religion. Currently, I have numerous cities spread over the greater part of Asia. From the readings and my own personal knowledge of the terrain in Asia, I know that resources are abundant near the rivers and peninsulas. Also, oil is abundant in certain areas so with the research of combustion, I am able to establish oil rigs both on land and in the waters. As said, my priority for this era is exploration as I now have galleons, frigates, and caravels that I am able to transport explorers, settlers, fast workers, and missionaries to distant lands. So, I began to create more explorers and missionaries, as well as move my great scientists and artists to new, uncharted territories. This will enable my civilization to grow at a faster rate than the previous era.
Later in this era, both Mongolia and Greece are annoyed with me for continuing to trade and establish defensive pacts with Persia and Egypt. The both have threatened war, however, I believe that they have not acted on their threats due to the vast difference between our armies. The size and capabilities of my military, on land and off, are far greater than either of theres and I believe that this fact alone is what keeps them at bay. My relations with Persia and Egypt remain to be pleasant and allow me to grow economically. Gold per turn results from previous trade agreements. As a showing of my hopeful peace with Mongolia, I offered a gift of a valuable resource.
Through my continued efforts for expansion, I am heading towards the lands of the Americas. History tells us that during the Renaissance Era, Christopher Columbus used Caravels such as the Marina, Pinta, and Santa Maria to travel the oceans and discover the new lands. So, I figure (even though I am not the Brits) that with my highly specialized skills, people, and technology, that I should be the first to travel to the New World. My plan to is have three to four ships (galleons and caravels) travelling that direction, all carrying settlers, fast workers, great scientist/artist, and a military unit to go forth and expand. As the ocean waters are rather vast, this could take a while so at the end of the Renaissance Era, I will have a new post to update the success of my voyage. Bon Voyage!

Medieval Era has arrived!

At 125 AD, my civilization entered the Medieval Era. At this time, Mongolia with Genghis Khan is getting anxious to attack Persia and has begun asking on numerous occasions to stop all trades. This I would not allow do to our very good relationships through trading and expansion. This also makes me wary of Genghis Khan so I increased my soldiers and place them near the borders of our two territories as a precautionary strategy.
Also at this time, I had researched theology and was then able to discover Christianity. I had all cities within my civilization convert to Christianity, which allowed more culture to evolve and created more happiness among the people. Through the research of Monarchy, this was able to be a success. My continued expansion led me further northwest towards Germany. Here, I ran into the German leader who immediately wanted open borders. I agreed to peace but decided to refrain from open borders as, at this time, there was no benefit to my people. My culture continued to increase because of my new research in music, literature, and others. I also expanded my water territory by creating galleys that would allow me to move fast workers, settlers, and soldiers to other open territories. This allowed my civilization to further expand towards Rome and then to Egypt. I maintained peace with the Roman Empire and the leader of Egypt. My primary objective of trade with others continued to be my main focus, however, as new technology was being discovered and invented, my priorities became more detailed. I began to focus on trade, research, and more advanced technologies to secure my standing as the most powerful civilization thus far. I researched the alphabet early on as well as metal casting, which allowed my military to experience a growth in size and capability.
An unfortunate experience I have had with my largest city is the unhappiness they keep experiencing. Thus far, I have maintained a relative balance between the amount of happy verse unhappy and healthy verse unhealthy. However, I have experienced times when the people's unhappiness prevailed. This caused me to focus entirely on that one civilization to create certain buildings and structures to provide more health and happiness than others that would have benefited the civilization as a whole. Despite these obstacles, happiness was able to prevail in the city, as well as the others, enabling my civilization to become "Asoka the Glorious". As far as technology, wealth, and prosperity, I was well ahead of the others and am easily maintaining the number one position in all civilizations.
In 860 AD, I came across the Greeks and declared peace with Alexander the Great, as trade with them would prove to be very beneficial. Also at this time, I came across the Japanese Empire who was wary of me and visa versa. I maintained peace with them however, I remain uneasy about them due to their vast amount of war they are experiencing with other civilizations. They also have become annoyed with me early on as I am allied with Persia. As I move into the next era, I remain uneasy about Japan and have increased my military and technology in order to maintain my position within the situation.

Into the Classical Era...

At the approach of the Classical Era in 1200 BC, I decided to maintain my priority of food surplus and open boarders for trading. From the beginning, my first city, Dheli, is unhappy do to overcrowding. They are happy with most of the building I build and the roads that are in place, yet they still complain. I have learned to keep that in check however, because I figure as long as my good outweigh the bad, my city will prosper. By this time as well, my military was very large and most remained posted on the outskirts of my territory. Some ventured in and took on the role of exploring, while others went after the barbarians to ensure the safety of my people. I continued to research iron working, pottery, and then ventured on to calender.
The first foreign city I ran into during this period was the Japanese. They were wary, as was I of them, but maintained peace. For further use of fishing, I created work boats, which would enable me to create fishing, crab, and whale boats... although I have yet to have one. Through my expanision, Persia and I agreed on open boarders and have made many beneficial trades. Also, I created open boarders with China. These two civilizations are on either side of my territory, making exploration feasible and less dangerous with open boarders. Each side contains several different benefits to my civilization, as I have aspects they need.
Through each turn, there was not much action occurring as we all were mainly exploring and expanding. Our workers were continually making improvements, religion was takin effect, and new technology was being invented. Through my strategies of creating enough surplus to begin specialization, my prosperity grew well beyond that of the other civilizations.
Towards the end of the Classical Era, I ran into Genghis Khan from the Mongolian Empire. We declared peace and neither side wanted conflict and immediately agreed upon open boarders. This was beneficial because they were directly north of my civilization and we in prime exploratory areas. After open boarders were established, my civilization continued to expand at a faster rate than the others. I had developed and adopted hereditary rule because of the organized religion. It wasn't until the very end of the Classical Era that I established my third city. My third city was located south of my initial one, on the border of the Mediterranean sea and the mouth of the river. These decisions, supported by the suggestions of Guns, Germs, and Steel, were most beneficial in enabling all my cities to prosper and advance at fast rates. During this era, trade continued to be something I participated with Persia and China, which enabled my civilization to beginning establishing its own identity. My culture was beginning to increase as new buildings were built and diversity was spread. My economy was also increasing do to my trade agreements and my exploitation of resources.

Welcome to the Ancient Era!

Hello there. So now that my game has official begun and my strategies are in place, I am ready to take on the ancient era and all it's obstacles. First starting off, I chose the easiest condition of the game: "Earth" however, decided to challenge myself just a bit by becoming a Chiefdom to start. That way, I wasn't allowing myself to participate in a game that was too easy. I decided to become an Indian civilization as there were many aspects I believed would be beneficial to my strategies... which were still being refined. Asoka's civilization was spiritual and organized, which would be advantageous towards religion and intellect, their starting technology was mining which could be traded, used, and overall, was a great resource, and the unique unit associated with Asoka was the fast worker. This allowed me to construct improvments, buildings, roads, and trade routes faster than everyone else. Consequently, this increased my growth rate of my civilization.
Starting off, my first city generated a warrior that allowed me to explore and protect while I was starting off. I needed a way to protect my city from the beginning as I was surrounded from every angel by other civilizations so having that warrior was a major advantage. The location I chose was near animals that could be domesticated, rivers, and plains, allowing my city to prosper. Once settled, I created a fast worker to take advantage of the great resources. Using the knowledge from Guns, Germs, and Steel, agriculture and animal husbandry were my first priority for research. This would allow me to domestic the animals that I had settled near and get full use of the plains surrounding my city. While the fast workers were working and the warriors were exploring, I game accross a small village. This escalated my progress as they gave me a fast worker. My first decision was to build a farm and a granary, so as my people would not starve. This would also ensure that as my food surplus grew, I would be able to specialize and grow.
The first foreign civilization I ran into was Persia. They were immediately East of my city. They showed no signs of aggression and I knew that from the resources in their land, trade would become a necessity between the two of us, so I opted for peace. (Later, this was the best decision as it has allowed my civilization, and theirs, to prosper well past the others). After agriculture and animals husbandy were both researched, I decided to discover hunting. This would be beneficial as there were mountainous regions that hunting would be useful. This also led me to research fishing, as I was near the Meditterranean Sea and two oceans.
As the city was growing, my need for warriors became evident as the barbarian animals were quickly invading my territory. By this time, I already had four people living in my city and felt the need to build another one as this one was becoming too crowded (a complaint I would continue to hear). To find new and beneficial areas, I created a scout to help explore. After hunting and fishing were researched, I chose sailing to make use of the open waters. The granary needed to establish my food surplus came after I researched pottery. My people were happy with that decision.
The second foreign civilization that I ran into was the Chinese Empire. They came accross as wary but not aggressive so I opted for peace. Trade with them would also be beneficial to my civilizations. The lessons learned from Guns, Germs, and Steel were becoming more evident throughout this game as my civilization began accelerating in developement. The locations in which my civilizations were located were playing a major role in the growth rate of my civilization and the overall satisfaction of my people. As I was continually making improvements and expanding my city, the health of the poeple started to deteriorate. Two causes were behind this: overcrowding and the surrounding forests. From this, I decided to research iron working as I would then be able to chop the forest down (at least in areas I needed to) in order to increase the health of my cities.

As promised, I have started a new game. Well, actually, the new game was started last week but as of right now, I am Asoka the Glorious. I'm excited :)

FIRST IMPRESSIONS:

Having had little experience with games in general, except board games, I expected a bit of a struggle; both with the set up and the overall understanding of the concepts. The last computer game played was at the age of ten and was Need for Speed 1. Not very difficult. Settlers of Catan and other strategic board games are something that are common for me so I had an understanding of which regions worked best, which resources were more prevalent in the beginning and what basic strategies work best. However, because board games are not able to move further than the basic civilizations without having expansions, advanced strategies have not been formulated.
At first, I found that some aspects of this game were very interesting and were very beneficial to the overall understanding of ancient civilizations. The geographical detail was amazing as the game emphasizes the regions where certain resources were more or less common, routes that were being able to travelled. And the game's portrayal is accurate of locations of rivers, regions, and resources. The civilization I chose was the Indian people and aspects of India were portrayed in great detail. I found that this demonstrates how the geographical location of a civilization plays a very important role in a city's prosperity, both economically and politically.
First starting off, annoying aspects were also evident and really hindered my attention on the game. With only one or two cities started and only a few people within the city limits, there are only a few movements allowed. This shortens the lenth in between ending your turn and starting another, which, with every click of the enter key, becomes really monotonous. Also, as the people begin to explore, the travel distance is relatively small to the amount of land that is wanted to be explored. This also causes the beginning years to be filled with key pushing and less exploring and action. One other annoying aspect is you are unable to research multiple things at once nor are you able to finish an agenda of one unit without having to think about another. In relation to real life, this is pretty accurate as leaders were pulled in multiple directions in order to accomodate each aspect of their civilization.
In experiencing this game for the first itme, I have not had the opportunity to formulate successful strategies. From teh knowledge gained from Guns, Germs, and Steel, I know that expansion is key for prosperity in my civilization. In relation to the location of India, I knew that areas near rivers and fresh water, as well as protection from the mountainous region, were beneficial to the civilization. Being vulnerable from all angels, as China is to my East, Germany to my West, and Egypt to my South (along with others in between), I knew that I needed to protect my newly founded city before work was to be completed and explorers set out. Also, the location in which I founded my city needed to be capable of farming, domesticating animals, in relatively close relation to resources, ect according to Guns, Germs, and Steel.
With this information in mind, I started my first civilization in the Indian Empire.

I started a new game through Civilizations due to the fact that my society died early on. The reasons were due to the leader's (mine) military decisions and the forceful imperialistic nature that I used to take over surrounding lands. I learned that even though a successful military is beneficial in conquering other nations, without trade and commerce, destruction is inevitable.