SOME COMMENTS AND THE START:

This is my first RBCiv Epic and my first report, so please be lenient with an Epic rookie (whose native language is not English). 

I do not have the time to join an Epic of regular length as I can not finish a game in one month when I am playing a succession game in parallel. Thus, I was glad to read about this "mini Epic", as it gave me the chance to compete in this community at least once. Thanks to the Epic sponsor for this chance.

The game itself sounded quite interesting, some sort of ancient war training. Lately, I have fought my wars mostly after peaceful expansion and some infrastructure builds, so I decided to go a different way here: I would found 4-5 cities only and then immediately go to war. Cities would mostly be razed, so I would not have to bring lots of spears with my offensive force. I even decided for a personal variant rule:
"We would not build any non-military city improvements before the extinction of the first enemy civilization." Our minds would be bent to war only.
I have to admit that I did not decide about the rule in this exact form before moving my starting settler onto the mountain next to the starting location and discovering the wheat. Before that move, I thought about excluding my capitol from the rule to allow for a granary there. With the wheat, I decided to try without a granary.

That strategy would cripple my expansion and reduce my land mass, so I decided to skip the bonus point for "controlling the whole starting continent". Additionally, I would never whip my people, and I wanted to go for the bonus for the "city on another landmass".

With that thoughts, I opened the game and started playing. 

(Comment on the report: I am sorry for the few screenshots, but I was running out of time when making the report. (More screenshots (of all captured cities etc.) were made but I wanted to reduce upload/download time, and did not have the time to reduce all pictures in size.) I will hint at pics in the form '(PIC: ..... .jpg)'. The pictures can be downloaded here: http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads3/rbciv-epic22-physicist.zip)

4000 BC - The Scout moves onto mountain and finds bonus wheat. (PIC: 4000BC-start.jpg) Thus, I decide to move the settler SW and to include my capitol into my personal variant rule as mentioned above. 
Salamanca is founded in 3900 BC. Oh oh, looks like a dead end SE. Moving the capitol looks lake a bad decision now. Oh well. 
We start researching Bronze Working at 100% sci and building a second (and last) scout. The starting worker is moved onto the wheat and will start irrigating it soon. 

THE EARLY YEARS:

(PIC: 3800BC-replay.jpg)
In 3300 BC, our scout meets an American scout. I immediately traded Warrior Code and some gold to Lincoln for Masonry.
However, meeting a scout this early in the game was bad sign for popping huts. I expected to find very few huts now, and future showed that my feeling was be right here. I popped two huts only in the whole game, the first one N of Washington in 2600 BC, giving us Ceremonial Burial. The second one would be on the small island that I should find W of my coast later. It will give us CoL, but that will be far in the future. 

We meet the English in 2400 BC and trade Warrior Code & Masonry to Elizabeth for Alphabet & 10g. Then we trade the just acquired Alphabet to Lincoln for 29 g and Start Writing at min sci.

Later, in 800 BC, Liz learns Iron Working, but lacks The Wheel, which Abe has (he knows IW, too). I buy The Wheel from Abe for 140g, then buy IW from Liz for The Wheel & 24g. We have Horses near Niagara Falls.

In 680 BC, Abe demands 20 g, we cave.

Of course we do not only trade ;) but settle four additional cities, Niagara Falls in 1640 BC, Grand River in 920 BC, Cattaraugus in 700 BC and finally Allegheny in 320 BC. The four new cities build barracks and military afterwards, except for Cattaraugus which builds galleys only. BTW, all four settlers are build in Salamanca, with spears and barracks in between. (PIC: 940AD-5CC.jpg)
 
THE AMERICAN WAR:

(PIC: 1000BC-replay.jpg)
In 1000 AD, we finally declare war on Abe. This war is the most interesting part of the game as some, well unexpected events happened.
But first the important facts:

1040 AD - Philadelphia razed
1200 AD - Boston autorazed
1320 AD - Chicago autorazed
1420 AD - San Francisco (former Boston location) autorazed, we get a leader!
1540 AD - Atlanta autorazed
1560 AD - Washington captured (with Colossus)
1580 AD - New York autorazed
1640 AD - Miami (former Boston location) autorazed, Seattle razed, we get a second leader. The Americans are extincted.
(PIC:1420AD-leader.jpg, 1640AD-leader.jpg)

Only Washington is not razed as it provides us with Furs.

The AI really wants to settle in the Boston location, I watch additional two settler pairs moving and founding there. I could have killed them before founding, but I allow for building the cities as capturing cities will give me additional points, capturing the settlers not. 

Around 1200 AD, the game moving along at 60 years per turn, I had the feeling that the game will end quite soon (maybe in 30 turns or so), and that I will never fight on another continent. That was wrong of course, and after the American war I learn that from my capitols culture, too (divided by two it gave me approximately the number of turns aready played). Thus, I did not really care for long term development and made some mistake. This includes forgetting to check Diplomathy with Liz and turning off reseach for some turns without need. But, my probably strangest decision was using th first leader for, guess what, a Chariot Army! That decision seemed to fit quite well into the spirit of the game, but from an objective point of view I should have build a wonder (Pyramids). The Army was quite useful, but not *that* useful. But it was funny, I have never had an Army of Chariots before (and will probably never again).

Another funny thing is the tale of my first mini-SoD (or I should call it warband). It consists of 6 archers (2 elite, 3 vet, 1 reg) and two spears (1 elite, 1 vet). This warband captures Philadelphia and then should go for the nortern cities, killing some troops and maybe capturing one or two more city. It indeed did do that, and even more: Boston, Frisco, Atlanta and Seattle fell before my Warband, and both leaders were created by this groop of archers! For each city, I move next to the city (often found it badly defended), take it, rest for healing and then move on. In the end, when Seattle was attacked, the warband consisted of three elite archers and one elite spear.

Not all combats were that lucky. The battle for Washington was bloody, seeing the death of many Iroquis archers, and New York was not captured in the turn it was attacked, it needed the support of the Chariot Army and part of the "Washington-SoD" to take that city.

During the American War, in 1120 AD, Liz and Abe sign an Alliance against us, but I make peace with Liz in 1420 AD. I give her Map Making for peace as I want to avoid battles with English troops that would weaken my forces.

Also during the war, in 1460 AD (the year of the building of the Chariot Army, actually), a small event happens that have some impact on the course of the game: Our first galley drops a settler pair on the little island west of our coast (the settler will eventually found Oil Springs in 1480). The galley did not explore the coasts before. After dropping the settler pair, the galley spots a barb galley, decides to attack AND LOOSES. This slight bad luck with the RNG will result in a more than 10 turns delay in contact with the other continent, the other civs and a difficult decision after the end of the American War: I have to decide what to do with my second leader without knowing about the proximity of the second continent!

I consider what to do with the second leader. Another weak & unshippable army is ruled out, rushing a FP too (where?). I consider rushing Pyramids, Lighthouse or Heroic Epic. Heroic Epic would increase the chance of another GL in the upcoming war against England. Pyramids would speed up our growth and our production, and we need more workers and settlers urgently. Lighthouse might be our only chance to reach the other civs. If we can not reach the other continent with galleys, we will not get any more points after a possible extinction of England (except for the bonus points for controlling our home continent :( ). A win or loose situation. 
We buy an embassy in London and learn that London will never complete the Lighthouse early enough for us to capture (London is size 2, completely unimproved and makes 2 spt).
After long consideration, I decide to rush the Pyramids.

EXPLORATION BETWEEN WARS:

(PIC: 1660AD-replay.jpg)
During this short inter-war period we finally find the other continent and the other civs. 
In 1720 AD we meet Isabella of Spain. She trades contact with us to the Aztecs in 1730 (we did not buy the contact because of the high price). We learn that we are on tech parity with both civs. In this year, we also found Tonawanda on our home continent. Three turns later, our peace treaty with Liz expires.

THE ENGLISH WAR:

(PIC: 1800AD-replay.jpg)
In 1790 AD, we declare war on England. Other than in the American war where I concentrated my build orders strongly on military units, I continue expansion during this war. I manage to found three cities, but also Spanish and Aztecs found one city each on my continent. Look at the picture of my SoD approaching York (PIC: 1800AD-SoD.jpg). This SoD will conquer whole England. Timeline of this war: 

1800 AD - We found 'Stronghold' on the South-American Continent (PIC: 1800AD-Stronghold.jpg)
1805 AD - We raze York
1815 AD - Monte has Contact with Liz, so I trade the contact to Isabella for WM & 16 g
1835 AD - We raze London, Liz loses her capitol and one of her Iron sources.
1845 AD - We found St Regis in the former Philadelphia location
1850 AD - We raze Nottingham. Liz looses her second source if Iron.
1855 AD - (I) We discover Monarchy and revolt immediately. Ouch, 7.5 turns of Anarchy...
1870 AD - We autoraze Coventry.
1875 AD - The Spanish have founded Pamplona one round before our settler has reached the spot (east of Allegheny, our second ring).
1885 AD - We raze Warwick.
1890 AD - We found Centralia in the former Boston etc. spot.
1895 AD - We become a MONARCHY! We raze Hastings and cash-rush a harbor in Stronghold. 
1925 AD - We raze Canterbury. The English are destroyed ! 

In that year Monte founds Tula on the Incense on my home continent. I wanted to settle there, too. :(

A, well, interesting comment from my in-game notes (do you rememeber my 'personal variant rule', "no non-military building before the extinction of at least one enemy"?):
'1915 AD - (I) We complete our first (!) Temple (first non-military building) in Grand River.'

Beginning with the end of this war several of my core cities completed some non-military buildings, mostly temples, one colosseum (in Samalmanca) and two aqueducts (Grand River & Cattaraugus). These cities should grow to increase my production and, especially, my income,  as the unit costs really hurt me. The government change to monarchy had made things much worse here; I had expected that, but nevertheless decided to change government for higher production and lower corruption. 

(1925AD-America-England.jpg)

INTER WAR:

(PIC: 1930AD-replay.jpg)
Just a short period where we prepare for a war with Spain, i.e. we try to move our "England corps" partially to the English cities on my continent, partially they are shipped to South-America (the other continent) together with fresh troops. Some in-game notes:
1950 AD - We found Tyendenaga near the Ivory.
1962 AD - We enter the Middle Age, barb uprise.
1964 AD - We rush walls in Tyendenaga. Spain has founded Santander North of our borders. 

The SPANISH WAR:

(1976AD-replay.jpg)
During this short war the game ended. Nevertheless, we take five Spanish cities, three of them oversea. Some in-game notes again:
1976 AD - We declare war on Spain. We raze Valencia (oversea) after a hard battle where we lose several chariots.
1978 AD - We capture Pamplona and raze Santander on our continent.
1984 AD - We defend Stronghold against a stack of 2 swords and 2 archer, with no losses due to our extensive use of catapults.
1988 AD - Our Troops in Stronghold easily kill two swords (1 vet, 1 reg), both redlined due to cat use. BTW, Stronghold is defended by 6 spears, 7 cats, 5 archers & 6 chariots. Hm, I might be able to hold it until the end of the game ... ;)
1996 AD - We capture and raze Vitoria & Zaragoza (both oversea).
(PIC: 2000AD-replay.jpg)

We have troops near Tula (Aztec city on our continent) and could probably take it, but that would mean breaking a gpt deal with Monte. This dastardly move may be allowed, but in my eyes it would be close to an exploit as I would not have any disadvantages from the rep hit, 3 turns before the game ends. 
I prefer staying semi-honorable (concerning not breaking treaties) over 2 points. :)

2000 AD - The game is over.
SCORE: Iroquis: 634 (Azteca: 666)
We lose! :(
(PIC: 2000AD-defeat.jpg)

CONCLUDING COMMENTS:

Well, an interesting game. I kept to my self-objected rules (even not capturing Tula to stay "semi-honorable"), did never use the whip and founded & held Stronghold on the other continent. 
Not knowing the exact number of turns hurt me much more than the limited access to troops. I made several mistakes during this game, so I do not expect a good scoring in comparison to others. The AIs did not go war among each other (except for an early Aztec-Spanish war that triggered Monte's GA but did not seem to hurt any of them), so I had to do the conquering myself. Actually, I am quite sure that several players have won a conquest victory before 2000 AD. Earlier contact to / settling on the other continent and better use of the leaders, maybe with a FP on the other continent, would have been the way to success for me. Well, even I would have won the game in 30-40 turns or so...

Thank you for reading!

- Physicist


SCORING:

Great Leaders:			 2	 2 pt
Captured Cities (home landm.) 	18	36 pt
Captured Cities (other landm.)	 3	 9 pt
Eliminated Civilizations	 2	40 pt
BONUS:
City on Different Landmass		 5 pt
No Forced Labor				10 pt
					-----
Sum					102 pt