The Results Are In . . .

I'm beginning to think that China is blessed. Both of my games as China have far surpassed my other games, and my strategies, while varying slightly, have not been radically different. I can only conclude that there is something innate in the Chinese soil, the Chinese air, that is highly conducive to prosperity.

But enough mysticism. If you remember, I focused this game on technological advancement, equating research with capital investment and hypothesizing that increased technological research would increase my prosperity. When I left off last week, the early signs were that my hypothesis had some merit, though it was too soon for victory dances. I've now finished the game; the results are in, and since I know you're dieing to hear them, I won't keep you in suspense any longer.

Technological advancement certainly has advantages. I researched every single technology, reaching (to my great delight) the mysterious future tech and discovering that, once you've discovered everything else, you just keep researching future tech. I reached about future tech 16. Since this adds health and happiness to your cities, I wasn't complaining. Health and happiness is where I saw the biggest difference from my first game as China (the best game for comparison). In the first game, my emperor's approval rate was 79% and the average life expectancy was 73 years. In this game, the approval rate reached 83% and life expectancy hit 82 years. Maybe that's why so many rival cities along my borders revolted and joined the Chinese empire. When rival averages were 65% approval and a 63-year life expectancy, who can blame them.

Advanced technology also allowed my to prepare for a space race victory, building all but one part until about three turns from the end, while pursuing other avenues of victory. I'm really keen to get a diplomatic victory, but I think it's nearly impossible. I built the UN, was elected Secretary General eight times, passed every single resolution, and tried nine times--nine times!--for a diplomatic victory. Each time I was the leading candidate but didn't get enough votes. This just goes to show that being technologically advanced won't make people like you.

Two other statistics were higher than in my first game as China: Imports/Exports (666/365 vs. 588/290--units are million gold) and GNP (1229 million gold vs. 1129 million gold). GNP, like GDP, is a measure of wealth. My civilization was wealthier the second time I played China than the first time, even though it's only by 100 million gold. Given that the first time I played China I had more land, a larger population, high crop yields, and produced more manufactured goods, the fact that I wound up wealthier in the second game (even by a small amount) is significant. To me, it indicates that technological advancement does indeed correlate with prosperity, since in this game it compensated for lower crop yield and population, which also correlate strongly with growth and prosperity.

So there you have it: it pays to invest in technology. In future games I'll definitely keep technological research as high as possible. I'll also be more aggressive. In this game I was nice to my rivals because I wanted to achieve a diplomatic victory, but after nine failed attempts, I've given up for now. I could have crushed some of my neighbors so easily with my planes and tanks and artillery, but I refrained from doing so since I thought it would put me in bad standing with observing nations. Not any more. Next time, I'm going for a land victory, conquests included.