CIV Take Two...

Ok the last time i posted the game was slowly progressing, and we werent developing too well, however as luck would have it the game didnt save, so its time to start over and do it again, maybe this time things will go better :)

We pretty much started out as the last time Romans, near a water body, then we irrigated around it, so as to ensure food, the most important thing as it sustains life and they dont have to wonder and look for food, because as Diamond says hunting and gathering the nomad way of life has never produced enough food. The it was time ot expand, broaden our horizon, we built a colony outside the boarders of Rome and then built a road from the colony to Rome, as this was a problem the first time around. Then we built another city parellel to or city but on the other side of the landmass so as to cover a broader distance and there was wheat there. Wheat which was according to Diamond, in the fertile cresent which was the reason why they wre so successful at remaining in one place and developing accordingly. So we set up there and again built a road to Rome, connecting the two cities. A passing settler asks to join our city, hence we must have been doing something right seeing as someone wanted to join us. Right? OK so now we had our main city near water, a colony which produced wine and grapes, and a city of wheat, now to mine the hills and set up a city there. The mining was extremly successful as we found alot of gold, and then built a city and again made a road going to Rome, as history shows, all roads lead to Rome.

Our technological advancement is also as important as geography, although Diamond says that it is because of our geography that we evolve. Which the game proves to be somewhat true. We moved from the stone age to the bronze and the iron age accordingly, however we traded the knowlege we had with our neighbours for their advancements, such as a near by tribe taught us pottery, the Greeks gave us masonry, the Persians gave us ceremonial burial, and the Egyptians gave us the wheel. If we werent located in a central place with neighbours who were developing we would not have advanced as we did, if we were located on an islnd, such as New Guinea, we would not have neighbours with who to trade with hence stunting our development. With these tools we were able to develop an alphabet and uncover the secret of writing, Diamond shows us that writing and the alphabet necessary for development and this is what certain civilizations such as the Incas, who showed to be advanced but could not move forward due to the fact that they had not developed writing skills, or an alphabet with which to follow.

As with all socities there is conflict, our conflict didnt lie within the city like with the Incas when Huascar and Athahualpa fought for the right to be emperor in South America, we had the problem of conflicting space, our cities were getting close to that of the borders of Persia, the Persian King asked us to move and said that if we did no move they would declare war. It seems that we have not learnt from history and our infantry was weak and we could not survive a war, so we took a page from history as where the Romans of history did not trouble the Persians neither did we, we retreated and set up our city further away from the boundries of Persia.

The game is getting quite intersting, however I am looking out for the barbarians to strike and they have not yet and if there is anything history has shown about civilization at this time was that the barbarians strike and they strike without warning so you always need to be prepared, so next move is to build our army. Most successful countries have an excellent military force, and the Romans were known for theirs so we need to make ours known for ours too, :)