Das Land der Dichter und Denker (Part I)

I've never gotten the hang of Civilization IV. I enjoy its many features and music, but keep backing away from the game given my inability to succeed in it. I haven't lost any matches, but I've not truly won any. All of my victories have been historiographic, save one space race victory in the original (sans expansion packs) game. I suppose I could win games via military means, but that's not my style. I'm a man of peace!

Even so, I've decided to play another game. I wanted to try the Philosophical and Organized traits, and so chose Frederick II's Germany.  Frederick the Great, an "Enlightened Monarch", is known for associating with Voltaire and strengthening Prussia by consolidating its territory through war.

The initial land looks good. I rather wish I'd settled in the crook of the river, but my scout didn't spot that until he hit the hill. I begin researching pottery. I'm sure one of the spiritual civs will pick up Buddhism, so I'm going to make my early research more practical.

The land keeps improving: I'm loving the many rivers. And lo, yet another river-crook.

The first civ I meet is France, to my east. We later meet the Portugese (to the north) and the Americans (northeast). Ours is a land like that of a four-quartered square. I am bottom-left.



My scouts are good at what they do, as not a single hut fails to render money, a scout, or other units. Huts give me both a Worker and a Settler, although the settler begins in the extreme north of the mountain. While distance-based corruption is not supposed to be an issue, I decide to chance the wild and have the settlers migrate southward. Hopefully by the time they arrive -- using scouts to help them avoid wild animals -- my econony will be ready for a second town. I never know when too soon is.

And here's Roosevelt, the last of my neighbors.

The settlers finally arrive, and I ask them to settle in the crook of the river. They'll have access to river-flanking plains, elephants, a mineral of some kind, hills, and even some flood plains. All around good site, and the river will afford protection from enemy attack.

Hamburg soon becomes the holy city of Judaism.

Here's my fledging civilization sixty-one turns after the establishment of Berlin. Berlin is building the Oracle, because I love free tech.

I found two more cities, one in the northeast and one on the west coast. Munich becomes the holy city of Christianity, and soon we build a monuments to Zeus and Athena. The Pyramids arise in Berlin, as does another civic-enabling monument. I'm able to switch to Universal Suffrage and Free Religion, making me a rather progressive classical kingdom.

Hamburg is now the holy city of Judaism, Islam, and Confucionism. Yeah. 

While I would be happy to keep making my cities cultural havens, I know I need to expand a little more -- but I can't, for I'm hemmed in by my neighbors. France in particular could have settled southward before agressing ni my direction, but he didn't. As he's constantly making demands, I begin training the appropriate troops -- macemen, crossbowmen, and catapults -- that I'll need to take a couple of his border cities.

So, thoughts: I'm going to try to turn Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich into cultural wonder-states. War may be necessary to keep the wolves from the door, but it's not going to be a priority. This Germany shall be the land of poets, philosophers, and writers.