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Civilization 4 Walkthrough 

Part 3 - 1200AD to 2011AD

1200AD – Just as my settler sallies out to the coast Mansu sends one of his own boys and builds the city of Tadmekka just inland from my ideal spot.  As we don’t have an open borders agreement my settler is trapped on the other side where he has to cool his heels until something happens (eg I crush the Malinese).  London spawns a Great Scientist, Al-Kindi, who immediately researches metal casting for me, meaning I can build forges to improve my city production.

(Pic 7 – Tadmekka thwarts my plans of expansion and traps my forces on the West coast away from the loving bosom of the motherland.)

1410AD – After a century of patient building all hell breaks loose.  Julius Caesar sends a small raiding party into my territory and declares war on me!!  Unexpected and really, really silly.  His warrior will trash a gem mine before I send a chariot to squash him and the War Elephant army I was building in Hastings is mobilised to March on Pisae, the only city he has on my border.  At the same time Kumbi Saleh the Malinese city, revolts and declares its allegiance to me.  It’s strategically useful for me so I accept them into the fold and direct unit production to my northern border.  Mansu’s army are gathering, although they aren’t particularly fierce so I can see there will be some blood-letting in the next few turns.  I ask Genghis if he fancies attacking the Malinese on their flank but he’s not keen so we swap technologies and I gird my loins for war.

(Pic 8 – Hastings is home to a War Elephant, tooled up and ready to march.  Note the almost-full blue bar under the city name means it is about to produce another one.  Eat ivory, heathen scum.)

1520AD – The war doesn’t go well at first.  Caesar packs Pisae with the right mix of units – catapults, crossbowmen and the bugger has War Elephants of his own.  Whilst I try and soften the city up with catapults he picks off three of my units.  Pisae is built on a hill making it doubly tough to break down.  Reinforcements are on the way though and I take Pisae but at no little pain.

1560AD – I implement a change of civics to mercantilism and pacifism to try to increase my Great people output.  Also two galleons are built, I load a Settler and some defence units and I immediately sail into Cyrus who inhabits an island SE from me.  We trade wine for silk and share maps and Cyrus shows me some uninhabited land further S.  I’m on my way.  Caesar says he’ll accept a Peace Treaty if I give him Pisae back. Yeah, right.  However a substantial Roman army appears on the horizon so I’ll see if he’ll accept a tech gift instead and offer him Philosophy.  He accepts and war is over.  Down south I discover a large barbarian presence on the island so I may need to send my top boys there, which is stretching me a bit thin.  However I have just discovered the many-faceted uses of the thing they call Gunpowder and switch my cities to create musketmen.

1600AD – Up pops Ghandi to greet me and we have a most profitable exchange.  He converts to Christianity in the process ensuring I have another ally, albeit not a very powerful one – he inhabits an island in the centre which still means the Northern hemisphere remains unexplored.  Saladin is up there somewhere but still won’t trade maps.  I decide on a change of direction and, ignoring the barbarian island to the S (Cyrus and the Persians have settled there anyway) swing N and look for land.

1640AD – The peace treaty lapses but it doesn’t look like Caesar is going to chance his arm – I’m sending musketmen to defend my cities.  O a positive note I produce two great People.  Wang Xitzi is a Great Artist and I’m going to mess with Mansu’s borders with him.  Also born is Harkuf, a Great Merchant.  If I can get him across the continent or, better still, the ocean, my money troubles (not that I have many of them) will be over.  Wang goes to Pisae and creates a Great Work which should push back Mansu’s cultural influence but its impact isn’t as good as I hoped.  Still, it means Pisae won’t flip back.

(Pic 8 – Brave English explorers encounter the Barbarian hordes.  Pagans they might be but not, hopefully, unenlightened ones.

1675AD – Harkuf arrives in Cuzco, the Incan capital and his trade mission nets me a healthy 1500GP.  That’s good.  I find land in the north and Coventry if founded.  That’s good too, although there is a big barbarian presence nearby.  Leonardo is born in London. He’s a Great Engineer, which means he can rush build wonders, which is very, very good.  On the minus side my ally to the E, Genghis Khan, converts to a heathen religion – Confucianism – which puts a strain on our impeccable relationship and, stupidly, I press the wrong key and accidentally declare war on Persia when I actually wanted an Open Borders treaty.  That is very silly and I might yet suffer for it.

1700AD – Thankfully Cyrus is most forgiving and he even offers to supply me with wine and converts to my religion.  Nice guy.  I give him elephants in return.  You can say a lot with elephants.  My galleons in the N stumble upon Saladin’s land but the old git refuses to let me past and won’t share maps.  He’s skint, so I toss a few coppers his way and hope it will make him come to my way of thinking.

1800AD – Well I never.  After a century of peaceful expansion, fair-trading, city building and general consolidation I end up at war with someone whom I thought was a friend.  The Incans, led by Huayna Capac has sent his boys over my border and wants a slice of the pie.  All because I told him to get lost when he asked me to reveal the secrets of Education to him.  I was planning a mighty army to sail to Coventry and slaughter the barbarian hordes up there but that idea is on hold.  Anyway what Mr Stupid Inca hasn’t thought of is that I’m on good relations with the Chinese and a quick word in the shell-like of Mao and a brown paper bag under the table and Mao declares war on the Incans.  As they share a border and we don’t, I think the Incans will live to regret their petulance.  PS I stumble across a dusty but resource rich island and Warwick is founded.  It has no defence for now but hopefully its location will make that irrelevant.

1820AD – I kick Huayna’s army back over the border and hope Mao can deal with him.  Being selfish I hope they bleed each other dry.  I still have one eye on the Malinese who are building their armies up. 

I enter the Industrial age with a strong technical lead.  My cities are productive and my cultural influence spreading.  I have some money worries in that I’m losing a lot of cash and all that I earned in the Trade mission has been spent upgrading my units to cavalry.  This gives me an advantage in the short term, which I hope to extend as the 19^th century progresses.  One point of interest is that oil is discovered on the island near Coventry but nowhere else within my borders, so getting my ass up there was a good idea.

1828AD – Change of government for the English as I adopt Universal Suffrage, Free Market economics and free religion.  This means I have no state religion so it won’t antagonise my enemies as much.  In the north my galleons reach the barbarian city and two cavalry units take Cherokee and its lovely wineries.  Mao and Huayna make their peace and I join in a big group hug.  Beware though Hauyna – I have a long memory and am starting to build cannon.

1882AD – Another period of stability and growth.  Not in terms of my empire as I have nowhere else to go but my men are busy building railways, my ships have mapped out the world and I am still ahead in technology.  China is my main rival though and has expanded through the spoils of his war with the Incans (which I encouraged).  My thoughts now turn to the end of the game.  With no sight f a conquest or cultural victory it looks like being a Space race.  This game will be won when a rocket is launched to the stars and I want to be the first to do it.  A second Great Engineer, Brunel, is born in London and waits for his Big Project.  I finally discover Emancipation which, as well as providing a cash boost, causes bad feeling in Civs that don’t have it.  There is a chance of a diplomatic victory but I’ve pissed too many people off.  Maybe I should start being nice to them…

1912AD – The 20^th Century has dawned and my position as most powerful Civ is precarious.  China is discovering techs that I don’t have and their cities are just as productive as mine.  In the north Julius Caesar goes to war with his erstwhile ally and my perennial pain-in-the-neck Mansu.  I sense an opening here.  With Mansu’s forces committed elsewhere I put together a couple of armies of cavalry and cannon and declare war…

1918AD…and Gao and Tadmekka are mine.  Rather easy actually and quite timely as Caesar’s War Elephants are bearing down from the N.  I don’t want to stay at war for to long because my namby liberal populace don’t like it but I am still looking for a city on the N coast and I have Tekedda in my sights…need to get there before the Romans…which I do two turns later.  All good and having taken my pound of flesh I make my peace with a bloodied Mansu and emerge richer and have an expanded empire.  I notice the large city of Djenne, recently captured from the Incans by the Romans is in perpetual revolt.  This is because it is on the edge of my culturally rich empire.  I have another Great Artist…maybe he can persuade them to the English way of life once and for all.

1940AD – I am the first Civ to be properly industrialised and I start to build factories in all major cities.  I have to have at least 8 good production cities if I am to win the space race.  Djenne eventually comes round to my way of thinking and decided to rebel and join us, as do some smaller satellite cities.  That’s culture for you – often a much better conqueror than bullets and bombs.  Now to get my head down and build, build, build.  Meanwhile both the Romans (begging) and the Malinese (threatening) want favours from me.  Apparently Mansu wants 200 gold or he’ll destroy me!  I damn his impudence and show him the door.

(Pic 10 – 6 workers hard at it improving the land around London, building farms, windmills and mines.  A goldmine is to the South of the city.  If you look at London itself you can see some of the buildings that have been constructed including Stonehenge, a coliseum and the Great Pyramid.)

1950AD – Gaah!  Do some people never learn?  Hauyna Capac and the Incas, who have been quiet for ages now, turn up on my doorstep tooled up and declare war.  And for what reason?  None at all - except maybe to commit suicide.  I have a defensive pact with Cyrus so he declares war back (not that it will do me any good, the Persans are very weak) but I ring up my old buddy Mao and ask if he will help us out for the small price of the tech Fascism.  He agrees.  I take a look at how much of a threat Hauyna is. He has sent 10 cavalry and a couple of cannon over and, although its unlikely he could take a city he could certainly destroy a lot of precious resources.  I decide to upgrade my old War Elephants and catapults to Cavalry and cannon and take him head on.

1957AD – I kick his bony backside back across the border but have no desire to chase him any further.  This presents a problem.  I’m not going to invade him and he’s not going to hurt me but a state of war continues to exist. If Hauyna won’t talk to me – and he won’t at the moment – my people start to suffer war weariness and become unhappy and unproductive, which I don’t want.  I’ll have to use my feline charms.  Meanwhile another Great Engineer pops up in London, I switch production to the United Nations and the engineer finishes it off in double-quick time.  This might lead to an early victory but I doubt it.  In the elections for the Secretary-General I stand against Mao.  Cyrus, Saladin and Ghandi vote for me; Caesar, Genghis (git) and Mansu vote for Mao.  Unsurprisingly Huayna abstains.  The votes are skewed by population so I am elected.  This gives me some power but it is unlikely that I’ll be able to vote myself a victory.  Maybe I need to butter Genghis up a bit.  Oh and some more good news; now tanks are starting to roll off my production line.  Them boys are tough. 

1964AD – I table a UN victory resolution; but only Ghandi votes for me.  Bloody Cyrus abstains and it’s actually Mao who comes out on top.  Thankfully he doesn’t receive the 66% he needs to win but it shows that I can’t win diplomatically.  Space Race it is then.  Just after this something very important happens.  I discover the atomic bomb and we enter a new phase.  There’s a small chance I could be nuked by a rival but it’s highly unlikely.  Maybe because of this Huayna accepts a peace treaty so I’m no longer at war.  I don’t like it whichever way so I table a disarmament motion at the next UN session and it is unanimous – no nuclear weapons to be built.

1975AD – I construct the Eiffel tower, which spreads my culture even wider and begin the Apollo Program.  I can’t rush this like I can a wonder but I can do something else to give it a boost.  Using two Great Persons the English Civilization enters a Golden Age – 8 turns of increased production and wealth.  Let’s see Mao match that!

1986AD – The Apollo Program is complete and I can start to build my spaceship.  There are many different parts and it will take some time but I will be warned if anyone tries before me; news of which I soon receive. Mao is putting together SS Casing, the first and cheapest parts of a spaceship.  I hope he doesn’t yet have the technology for the more advanced components, but it is a hurry-up call.

2001AD – the new Millennium dawns! It’s a frantic race to put the spaceship up as the other victory conditions will not be fulfilled. Mao is behind me – he must he as he’s come begging to me for the Fusion tech (just say no).  I build the Space Elevator and the Three Gorges Dam to help me on my way. 

All my cities are working on the spaceship – I can’t do anything else but wait and hope Mao doesn’t do anything silly like send a spy to sabotage my production.

2011AD – VICTORY!  The spaceship is launched to Alpha Centuri and I win the game.  Mao was second but quite a way back.

(Pic 11 – I win!  A fond look over my victorious Empire from the West coast.)

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