Epic Twenty-six: Splendid Isolation
This is the story of my game of Civilization IV Epic Twenty-six from Realms Beyond Civilization.
As I've mentioned, I've wanted to do a dedicated espionage economy game for some time. This might be it. High difficulty and a variant ruleset that prohibits trading while the AIs are allowed to do so. That sounds like a great setup for stealing, plus we start with Mining which is adjacent to the Great Wall.
There is just one potential flaw with a stealing plan, the £64,000 question: is our start isolated? We have quite a number of clues towards that end:
The game title itself, of course.
England as a thematic choice, which should be expected to be on its own island.
The game info page says how we can "mostly ignore what the other civs are doing".
The Big and Small map choice, which should create several islands suitable for a civ to call home.
The land visible across the water gap, which is indication that we are in a Small sector of the map with outlying islands rather than Big.
But there are also clues against that:
Epic speed. If we are isolated and not expected to fight, there's no need for Epic speed.
We see no sign of water southwards, so we could indeed be on the Big landmass.
We've already done Immortal isolated start back in Holiday Surprise. Would Sullla want to rehash that? Both games are numbered 26, is that coincidence or a connection?
Let's find out.