• Three high school students, all sophmores, one day decided to begin a game of the highly reccommended Sid Meier's Civilization V. The three sophmores, Tony, Vincent, and Matthew, all veterans of the game, decided on a Tiny map, Archipelago-style. Vincent chose Russia, taking the role of Tsar Catherine, a strategic resource powerhouse; Tony chose Queen Elizabeth of England, gaining control of the most powerful navy in the game; Matthew chose Augustus Caesar of Rome, the most powerful Empire of the Classical Age.

    The game began with a single soldier unit and one settler. Tony began play on a medium-size island with cotton, wheat, and deer as the first-gathered resources. Matthew began on a large island with bananas, forests, desert, wheat, and fish. Vincent, the unlucky draw, landed on a small island with cows and incense. All cities were constructed within the first three turns, and the game began.

    All Civilization games are played through acquisition of research, buildings, land, and, of course, units. Tony began play by building a monument, so as to have the upper hand in expansion of his land and to gain social policies at a fast rate. Vincent began by building a worker, the only unit to built improvements on land tiles. Matthew followed Tony's example and completed the monument at the same time as his friend.

    Starting with the research of pottery for all three was an obvious choice. This research lead to the navigation and building of a navy ship, the Trireme and Work Boat. Tony then took sailing, as did Vincent, but Matthew pushed to the side and chose Animal Husbandry for his cows. The first social policy took place around this time, and Tony chose Liberty, the policy of rapid growth. Vincent took Tradition, those of the small empire and Matthew took Honor, the first war-based policy.

    Tony, the first to finish sailing, did not use it right away, but instead began construction of Stonehenge, the wonder that provides the most culture early on. His second policy granted him a worker around the same time as Vincent finished building his. Matthew built a worker quickly, due to his geographical superiority, which led to a higher production rate than his two friends.

    Matthew settled his second city a bit northwest of his capital, and began building a road between the two. Being the Roman Empire makes for excellent beginning, and he was able to even found his third city at the top of his large island before Tony could settle his third on a small island to his west. Vincent was first to find Tony, and the two accepted trade with one another. No fighting was seen in the world, save for the occasional barbarian camp that spawned near one or the other's civilization.

    Third and fourth cities were founded, and Tony was the first to research Astronomy, and, by that, the Caravel came into existance. Matthew was the furthest along in his military, and Vincent had the most stable economy. Tony's settlement exploded, and he settled six islands in the deep ocean, perfectly protected by the deep water. Vincent was next to finish astronomy, and he found an island filled with iron for his blades. He had a large army of pikemen, and the second the iron was found, it lit a spark. Tony was the only one in the world with Iron, and he had no army save for three Caravels and two Archers. He made a mad rush with Settlers to the island. Due to his England faction benefit, he won. Matt's settlers landed that turn, but could not settle until the next. That was when Tony took the opportunity and snatched them up with one of his archer troops, transforming them into workers for England.

    Matt's wrath was unattainable by any other sovreign in that era, and Tony's new city, Wales, came under attack. Matt sent seventeen pikemen armies against the new city, and several Trireme ships. Tony, slightly disturbed by the sudden attack, housed his workers and archers in the city, and prepared for a seige. His Caravels and the secret weapon of his faction, the Ship of the Line, was two turns away. He had built his city upon a hill, so his archers could fire down into the enemy army. He sent out his Workers to the iron ore to begin making a mine, and started training a swordsmen army. Due to the city's perfect material gathering location, the swordsmen were finished just before Matthew's pikemen got there. The swordsmen covered the workers, and the fighting began.

    The first three waves were fended off by Tony's swordsmen --at the time the best infantry possible -- and Matt was forced to end his turn having dealt a small blow to his enemy's keep and leaving his swordsmen gravely wounded. Catching a lucky break, however, Tony's swordsmen levelled up. Instead of upgrading their combat prowess, he healed them entirely. That turn, his Caravels arrived, with his Ship of the Line one turn behind. Matt's Triremes were destroyed, and his pikemen routed. Matthew quickly bargained for the three remaining pikemen groups and his lone Trireme. Tony accepted, but was able to kill one more of the pikemen before they left the island.

    Matt's actions ignited a war between the two. Tony sent his Ship of the Line and two Caravels north to destroy the rest of Matt's fleet. He then quickly churned out four more swordsmen and attacked Matt's southernmost cities. He quickly took Corinth and left the war on a ceasefire before Matt could react. Tony's military had gone from weakest to strongest in only six turns.

    In the meantime, Vincent had been working on his diplomatic relations with Bismark, the only NPC sovreign in the game. The two formed an alliance, and Bismark gave him several turns' worth of gold to keep him satisfied. Vincent then took a small island and gathered iron of his own. At the same time, he had been fueling his economy and pumped out several upgrades to his research.

    Tony and Matt's cease fire lasted barely ten turns. As soon as it ended, Matt had founded a city in the north and Tony was eyeing the gold up there hungrily. Again in an attack of power, he assaulted Matt's walls in the city and bombarded it from the sea. The city was lost, and Matt was put in debt because of his excessive training of the out-of-date Triremes to take on the more powerful Ship of the Line. Six of these such ships now existed, and they were rampant in destroying Matt's fleet and transports before they could do anything to assist the war overseas. Tony's next plan: to end the fighting with Matt so he had ten turns of leeway and attack Vincent before he got too strong. Tony sold back Matt's city for two pikemen and fifteen turns of leeway, and then attacked Vincent's strongholds. He annihilated the other player's Navy, and kept Bismark marooned on his single-city desert island.

    The war was quick, and Tony killed several of Vincent's weak military units. Vincent was an econimist, not a warmonger, and because he had few men, he lost the war. Tony kept his citys trapped and Matt was setting up for a futile counterattack. That is, until the breakthrough of gunpowder for the Romans. The second it came into existance, Matt upgraded all of his units to Musketmen, at the time better than Longswordsmen, Tony's best unit. While still holding Naval supremacy, Tony kept Matt on his little island, and warned against using anything to harm him. Matt was trapped. He had barely invented Caravels, and Tony's Ship of the Line was just as good as an ironclad. There was no escape. Vincent and Bismark were removed from the game before Matt decided to act anyway.

    Tony now owned almost the entire world.

    Matt launched his biggest military campaign against his friend. He sank one of his Ship of the Lines, leaving a small window of opportunity for his Musketmen to leave the island. They set sail, and Tony pursued them all the way to his capital. Caravels now held Matt in check, and one Ship of the Line was drawing ever closer to Matt's Musket Men. That was when the ironclad came. Matt was the first to finish and commission it, but Tony was one turn behind it. It sank one of Tony's Caravels before one of his Ship of the Lines sank it. Now it was all-out war. Tony sent everything he had against Matt, and tore apart the landscape as his men crossed it, starting with iron mines. Matt, now out of iron, could not commission any more ironclads, and Tony was closing his hand around his friend's neck. The last act of assault in him, Matt sent three Musket Men into Tony's Longswordsmen and killed them. They were killed one turn later, and Tony assaulted Matt's last remaining city with archers.

    Matt managed to kill them and trained one last Musket Man army. Tony replied by sending three more Longswordsmen and two ironclads. Matt beat back the infantry, but his men fell before they could land a decisive blow. For the second time in the game, Tony levelled his men by healing them, and the seige began. Matt's city was heavily fortified, but constant bombardment from his ships sent it into chaos. Tony took the last remaining city and claimed his crown as top of the world before Matt was able to send his last Musket Man army back to assist. The game was over, and the opposition crushed. They had been warned. They did not obey the Royal Navy, and had paid the deepest price.