Hypnotoad
Nov 26, 2005, 01:53 PM
I just had an incredible game as Saladin on the Earth map on the Emperor setting. I had played on the "Earth8" map a couple of times and some general patterns emerged: Germany always dominated, Greece always did poorly, Egypt always did well. So I decided to make a custom Earth map and it worked perfectly: take out Greece, add in Russia and the Malinese. I wanted to play the Arabians, so I added them also, but had them start in the Tigris and Euphrates area. Throughout the game, the top scores constantly switched: Russia and Germany kept each other in check, giving Persia and China a chance to be at the top of the latter (or right behind me).
I wanted to build my three top cultural cities right away: one on the western coast of Turkey, one in Babylon and one in Arabia, but the Egyptians always got to the third city spot first. So, having always played peaceful games before, I thought I'd try to play a game with war this time: I'd take that third cultural city by force. So I built the Oracle and Parthenon in Turkey, where I also founded Christianity, Confusionism and Judaism and I built the Pyramids and the Hanging Gardens in Babylon, where I also founded Buddism and Hinduism. I used the oracle to net me Alphabet, which allowed me to pick up almost a dozen techs, which shot me from last to first in the point score. I secured some Iron and went to war with Egypt. It worked like a charm. As spirtual, I could quickly change to a theocracy, Police State (Pyramids), so I was pumping out Swordsmen with two city-attack bonuses very quickly. I quickly took the city on the Western Coast of the Arabian Pennisula and Thebes. Then I sued for peace and starting turning Thebes into my third cultural city.
This is right around when I discovered music, so I quickly dropped 2 great artists in Thebes as artists in residence and then used 2 great engineers (from the Pyramids/Hanging Gardens) to build the Spiral Minaret and Versailles.
In my previous games I haven't had much fighting, but in what ensued, the Romans declared war on me and then the Egyptians again and then the Mongolians. I had to devote a fair amount my resources to defense. The only thing that saved Granda (my city on the coast of Turkey) was a Longbowman with city defence and (by the end) 5 extra first strikes. He must have killed 10 Roman knights, at least, without getting hurt. Those First strikes are crucial.
Anyway, so I went for a Specialist strategy: Government Representation, Sistine Chapel, lots of population because we're on flood-plains, Caste System. Built many great artists and engineers. And I had 12 cities, so I could (in theory) build a cathedral to each religion in each of my cultural cities. By the end I had about 4 Cathedrals in each of the cultural cities.
In the late game I skipped factories/industrialization and just went for Biology (all those Flood plains now produce 5 food) and then Refigeration/Genetics. Then, at the end, I went for Fiber Optics to produce the Internet before the game ended. It meant I could have won about 10 turns earlier, but I waited for the Internet (got rid of my artists, actually went off Free Speach and back to Buracracy for a while), but my score went up 300 points when I gained 7 new techs, plus hey... I got the Internet. I won the next turn.
-- The Hypnotoad
I wanted to build my three top cultural cities right away: one on the western coast of Turkey, one in Babylon and one in Arabia, but the Egyptians always got to the third city spot first. So, having always played peaceful games before, I thought I'd try to play a game with war this time: I'd take that third cultural city by force. So I built the Oracle and Parthenon in Turkey, where I also founded Christianity, Confusionism and Judaism and I built the Pyramids and the Hanging Gardens in Babylon, where I also founded Buddism and Hinduism. I used the oracle to net me Alphabet, which allowed me to pick up almost a dozen techs, which shot me from last to first in the point score. I secured some Iron and went to war with Egypt. It worked like a charm. As spirtual, I could quickly change to a theocracy, Police State (Pyramids), so I was pumping out Swordsmen with two city-attack bonuses very quickly. I quickly took the city on the Western Coast of the Arabian Pennisula and Thebes. Then I sued for peace and starting turning Thebes into my third cultural city.
This is right around when I discovered music, so I quickly dropped 2 great artists in Thebes as artists in residence and then used 2 great engineers (from the Pyramids/Hanging Gardens) to build the Spiral Minaret and Versailles.
In my previous games I haven't had much fighting, but in what ensued, the Romans declared war on me and then the Egyptians again and then the Mongolians. I had to devote a fair amount my resources to defense. The only thing that saved Granda (my city on the coast of Turkey) was a Longbowman with city defence and (by the end) 5 extra first strikes. He must have killed 10 Roman knights, at least, without getting hurt. Those First strikes are crucial.
Anyway, so I went for a Specialist strategy: Government Representation, Sistine Chapel, lots of population because we're on flood-plains, Caste System. Built many great artists and engineers. And I had 12 cities, so I could (in theory) build a cathedral to each religion in each of my cultural cities. By the end I had about 4 Cathedrals in each of the cultural cities.
In the late game I skipped factories/industrialization and just went for Biology (all those Flood plains now produce 5 food) and then Refigeration/Genetics. Then, at the end, I went for Fiber Optics to produce the Internet before the game ended. It meant I could have won about 10 turns earlier, but I waited for the Internet (got rid of my artists, actually went off Free Speach and back to Buracracy for a while), but my score went up 300 points when I gained 7 new techs, plus hey... I got the Internet. I won the next turn.
-- The Hypnotoad