Looking good but not healthy

So I have won the Space Race with my dominant empire of Persia. My empire is absolutely enormous. I have a ton of large aircrafts, industrial plants, and many other technological advances. The one thing that the game failed to mention as an economic problem was environmental problems such as oil spills, desecration of the forest, etc. There was small mention of forest destruction, but that was necessary in order to build my empire. If the game was up to par with real life economic and worldly problems then they would have had a bigger emphasis on environmental problems. The game did not have to be as serious about the environment as Canada is right now. It sets a goal of cutting emissions of greenhouse gases by 20%, by 2020, and air pollutants from industry by half, by 2015. Canada sets a goal of cutting emissions of greenhouse gases by 20%, by 2020, and air pollutants from industry by half, by 2015. These goals are a little bit far fetched, but it shows that I wish the game would put more of an emphasis on environmental problems because that is such a big problem in the world today. I have oil spills all over my land and I could not find a way to clean them up, there might have been a way but it was clearly shown how to do it in the game because the game did not worry itself about the environmental problems. I certainly did not have an oil spill like Exxon Valdez, which ran itno Bligh Reef off of Prince William Sound and spilled 11 million gallons of crude oil into the Ocean. This ruined the local economy of all the small towns around the area of the spill because the fisheries were the main source of income for these towns. Some oil spills can cause even worse economic problems like the tanker that spilled oil into the Tampa Bay/ Gulf of Mexico. The oil was so detremental to the fisheries and the tourist industry that helped the two cities of St. Petersburg/Tampa Bay. Fish are a major source of food for the world and to take away a large fishing area had an effect on the economy. It meant a smaller amount of food for a growing world population. My empire at the end of the game had so many oil spills close to the ocean and big cities. My empire was a large industrial giant at the end of the game, and I feel that that is the only way you can be if you want to win the space race. You cannot be environmentally sound and have a dominant empire. I know the game would not be fun if they focused on environmental problems but it would sure make the game a better real life simulator

An early start

The industrial revolution began in 1711 in the United States with it's smoke stacks and railroads. My empire of Persia is way ahead of our beloved United States. My industrial revolution has just began at the year 1680 AD. I have just gained the resource of steam power, and I have a ton of coal mines all around my land. My empire has produced many important scientists working on the technological advancements for my country. They have been strategically placed all around my empire no matter what size the city is. I figure that there is no need to have two large cities next to each other to both have engineers. I have found that by spreading the scientists and engineers around my empire I am ensuring a quicker process of discovering new technological ideas. With good trade routes between my cities my engineers in each city will share the newly aquired technologies with other countries. With the invention of the railroad, this process has gotten much quicker. The perfection of steam engine manufacturing came about by James Watt. At the age of thirteen he was making models of machines. He found himself at the University at Glasgow, and in 1763 he was fully subcumed by the invention of the unsatisfactory steam engine invented by Newcomen. He experimented with steam pressures, cylinder designs, and valves, and by 1796 he had developed a strong and effiient engine. Although Watt gets most of the credit for inventing the steam engine, he could not have done it without John Wilkinson perfecting the piston-cylinder. Before Wilkinson cylinders and pistons were being made of wood and rapidly wored out, but Wilkinson perfected it and made it with iron bellows. Somewhere in my empire I have an engineer/s that has invented the steam engine, making my empire far advanced than any other. It has improved my trade dramatically, and I can see those advances in newly aquired cities (through domination) or newly built cities. The cities are growing much faster than usual. This is just the early start to my industrial revolution. I plan on continuing my advancments with machines until the game ends with my empire winning the space race.

Making the Change

As I said in my last post, I had insufficently placed my cities. I tried to expand to fast and gain more land, but that did not work because I could not supply resources to the new cities fast enough. The result was the attacks of barbarians on my newly built cities. It seemed like the barbarians knew my strategy as one of their barbarians would wait at my borders until I built a new city. I knew I needed to produce a defense system as soon as possible, but I could not build one fast enough. The barbarians where there to destroy the city before I could produce any type of military personnel. So after my mishaps I rellized that I was in need of a serious strategy change if I wanted to stay on top of the world as the most advanced and largest empire. So I decided to build my cities closer together and expansion of my land would come with time and my advancements of technology. After my change of strategy I found that by building cities closer to each other made it easier for them to build up into a highly developed area with a good demand being supplied of natural resources. This is the same concept in the United states today. Cities, towns, or local communites that are located close to big metropolitan areas are more than often more prosperous than the small rural areas. The small rural cities are very important to the large cities because they have farms or other resources that supply the larger cities with their demand for a certain good. But these cities take a chance of being overruned by developmental projects for more housing, eliminating the cities importance. This is what I thought would be a good idea. I thought that putting my cities far away close to trees and other natural resources would be a good idea, and for a little bit it was because it was supplying me with very important natural resources, just like small rural cities in the United States. But this is not working in my game or in the United States. Barbarians are killing my cities in the game and the need for land for the booming real estate industry has overruned and dissipated some of the small rural cities in the United States.

Finding the right spot

While I am well Into my second game (around 1650 AD) I have discovered that in order to have a sucessful empire and economy it requires the right placement of cities. Being apart of the Persian empire means that I am surrounded by water and mountaneous terrain so I am constantly being attacked by barbarian states. I am lucky that I have a strong army and a successful econmy because if I did not I could easily already been wiped out by other empires that border mine (Egyptian, Mongolian, Chinese, and German). I have made mistakes on two accounts in the location of my cities. The first mistake was when I built a city that was located far away from all my other cities hoping to spread my empire but that did not go well. The city was new and did not have much defense so it was not long till barbarians came to destroy it. If I had placed the city closer to another one, I probably would not have encountered the problem. I got to greedy with wanting more land. Expansion can be too fast when you cannot supply resources to newly aquired areas fast enough. I will continue on this game and be careful on placing my cities.

Fresh start

I jut started my new game and, I am trying the new strategies that I mentioned in my last post. I am buliding up my persian empire. I started off by expanding my empire fast. There is a lot more land to work with than when I was with the Japanese empire. I am spreading my cities across the land, but to be sure that the new cities that I build do not get attacked by barbarians or unhappy countries I have my workers constantly building a trade route. This allows goods and resources to be passed along to the new cities so that they can be built up fast to keep up with the progress the rest of the country is experiencing. The trade route will also increase the defense of the new cities that are placed away from the rest, so my territory can be expanded. The trade routes also enable combat units to explore the areas of my territory that have just been produced. Everyone wants to trade with me and open my borders because I am the most technologically advanced and the biggest and most advanced economy. This is similar in todays society. The China and Indian government both have booming economies and that is why our country has a high demand for products that they produce. They produce a majority of the cars, toys, and electronics that we use everyday. In 1998, China's GDP was 7,955.3 billion yuan (Chinese Currency), an increase of 6.4 times since 1978, at constant prices; the outputs of some major industrial and agricultural products, such as grain, cotton, meat, edible oil, coal, steel, cement, cloth and TV sets, leapt from a low postion to first place suppliers in the world. India's economy ranks twelfth largest in the world, with a gross domestic product of US $930.0 billion. But, India is the second fastest growing major economy in the world, with a GDP growth rate of 9.2% at the end of the second quarter of 2006–2007. I hope to keep my economy on the rise just as China and India are. As long as I stay ahead of the technological race I feel that I will have the great economy that I hope for. Also keeping an open trade with other countries will help my economic status.

Dominated

I finally finished my first game, and it did not go so well. I was the least developed of all the countries, and constantly considered the "hopeless". I never did figure out how to claim other nearby empty islands so I can expand my empire which ended hurting me in the end. I declined many trade proposals through out the game fearing that to much trade would not be good. That did not turn out to be a good strategy. Many countries that had thriving economies had great efficiency; the means of achieving a goal as cheaply as possible. The best way to achieve efficiency is by having an on going trade system with other countries, such as the Germany did in my game. That way it will be faster and cheaper to achieve tecnological advances and foreign produts. The Germans were the most advanced and efficent and ended up winning the space race because their great trade system they had with other countries. My leadership abilities were compared to Dan Quayle, the vice president for George H. W. Bush from 1989-1993. His most famous blunder was when he corrected student William Figueroa's correct spelling of "potato" as "potatoe" at an elementary school spelling bee in Trenton, New Jersey, on June 15, 1992. I figure that my leadership abilities were compared to Quayle because I did not build my empire very well and I did not get very far with my technological advances. Basically I did not run my empire very smart and Quayle was not the smartest guy either. The one thing that I did well was my formation of my army. I did not go war until the late 19th century. China decided that I was not very advandced technologically, so they tried to take me out during the beginning of the 21st century. They attacked my country and took over my capital for less than two years because I quickly sent all my units to take back the city. I feel that it was a good strategy to have a good amount of units but since I did not go to war very much I think the next game I play I will work on building a stronger economy which will hopefully make my army more advanced than others requiring me to not have as many units. This is evident in history with Jared Diamond's national geographic documentary. The film shows that the hispanic conquistadors who envaded the mayan empire were very few in numbers compared to the mayans who had thousands of civilians. But the spainards wre victorious because of the guns and steel they had compared to the mayans wooden and stone weapons.

First Experience of Civilization IV

I am enjoying playing the game Civilization. I am nowhere close to mastering the gameplay yet, but I am doing the best that I can with my little nation island of Japan. I feared attacks from other countries because I am easy accessible because I am an island, so right away I built a fleet of ships so I could protect myself from the water. And if my ships failed I had a whole arsenal of catapults and Bowmen. I built up such a defense because felt I was so vulnerable, but I have not gone to war with anyone yet and it is 1837 AD. I believe that no one will declare war on me because of my great defense system; all four of my cities have a defense of 80% or higher. But the fact that I have only four cities is my problem.
The people of my cities have not been very happy over the past 300 years because the cities are overcrowded. Just like Jared Diamond said in his book overcrowded populations cause terrible diseases, and that is exactly what is happening to my empire. I do a lot of trading of livestock with other countries, so to add that to overcrowded cities has not helped my cause. The diseases cause a delay in the improvement or movements of societies. I have not yet mastered the way to obtain land nearby that has not yet been claimed by other countries. When I do I can build cities on the other land so that the cities I have now will not be so overcrowded with diseases. In the game Germany has an abundance of cities. They have expanded greatly and in doing so they are the superior power, dominating in the technological process as well.
Another way to increase sickness and overpopulation on my island would to be go to war so I could take over cities of the countries that I conquer. The death of some of my people will also reduce the population. That is exactly what China did to the Mongolian empire, and now China is extremely prosperous. I Know I have the army to conquer a few other empires, but it is a gamble that I have to be willing to make. Next time I play I am going to find out how to get more land, so I can expand my empire. If it is going to take war to do it that is a chance I am willing to take. I feel if I can expand my empire I will be able to increase technologically, and become one of the dominate powers.