A nice game with an interesting variant (full details here at Realms Beyond) - tree hugging - hmmn. It sounds like a 'sort of' twin to Adventure 17 - PETA Crusaders where we had to look after the animals. Now we have to look after the trees. Adv17 was a loss for me - let’s hope that this game turns out better.
Oh, and this is a shadow report. I used a non RB-approved graphics mod but unfortunately not for the whole game as it crashed my system when the game got too big. The BUG team is also in code-freeze mode before our next release. This means lots of testing but no new features. Thus I am using this game to bug-test BUG. Lucky for BUG as it turned out (more on that later).
Ok - no roads on trees and given that this map is tree crazy ... it means almost no roads at all. I had read Sullla's instructions to say that I could put down roads if I was connecting a resource but further clarification expanded on this to mean that you could only road the resource tile - not adjacent tiles. This would mean some clever city placement plus very slow unit movement through my land. My hope is that some AI takes pity on me and decides to road my land - we've all seen this before (Stagnation I where almost everyone reported on the road gang roading through their country).
I only have 1 objective in this game - aside from winning ... and BUG testing ... oh, and having fun. HA! That reminds me of Monty Python's Spanish Inquisition skit...
... but I don't want to share this (my objective) just yet. I will be amazed if this isn't an objective for everyone so you, the gentle reader, probably already know what this objective is and my attempt at building suspense will fail.
Apart from this mystery objective, I have no plans, no general design, no mid term aims. I'm just going to tread water establishing my civilization and see if anything comes to mind (or if the game issues any instructions). Khmer is Expansive (Health, faster worker, granary and harbour production) and Creative (free border pops, faster production of library, theatre and coliseum). Well, the free border pops will come in handy as it will mean that I don't have to build Stonehenge (my usual non-creative opening).
I settle in place, start a worker and start teching Animal Working (cows) - I'll let others spread their religion to me. Also check out our two free techs (Scientific Method and Medicine). ScMthd means lots of things are obsolete - including monasteries - that will mean that I have to run Organized Religion for longer to spread my (hopefully) future religions. It also means Forest Preserves - the only 'legal' improvements on forests. Here I learn that these guys are +1 happy to the city. That is great news - no happy cap and no health cap (hopefully) for really big cities.
I forget to convert to Environmentalism on Turn 0 - luckily the game nags me on Turn 2 and I revolt. My scout goes out scouting and finds a bunch of huts. I pop map after map after map - I hate this game sometimes. I also meet Louis XIV, Willem van Oranje (is his jacket graphic fuzzy or what!) and Pericles. Hmm - there is something fishy going on here ... I bet the other 3 AIs come from Catherine, Gilgamesh, Hatshepsut, Suryavarman (nope - that's me!), Kublai Khan and Zara.
On Turn 21 (3475BC) the game issues its first instructions to me with the Horse Whispering Quest. I've been tasked with building 7 stables. Ok, seems like a plan.
I then met Gilgamesh (yes!) and Hatshepsut (oh yes, am I good or what?) and, finally on turn 99(!), Catherine. All leaders in this game are Creative! We are going to have a border culture battle royal.
On Turn 68 (2300BC), I found Hariharalaya (see below) and start it on an Archer. I actually build quite a few archers for fog busting purposes and future city garrison.
Now, looking back at this, this seems like a very late 2nd city. I think I was pretty lucky given how far Catherine was away in the North. From here, I quickly founded a few cities South and then pushed some cities north ...
- Turn 87 (1825BC): Angkor Thom
- Turn 98 (1550BC): Angkor Wat - copper!
- Turn 116 (1100BC): Nagara Jayasri
On Turn 127 (825BC), I capture my first Barbarian city (Aryan) and keep it - I really like its location. Then on Turn 139 (525BC) I take and raze Goth and then found Rajavihara close by. This gives me 7 cities and the territory is just about tapped out. Not to good but ok. Hang on a minute - how many stables did I have to build
