Merzbow
Nov 29, 2005, 03:06 AM
(You will find three screenshots linked at the bottom of this post. Do not look at them yet, however, for that would spoil the story.)
Just played the most exciting game of Civ4 of my life. Yeah, it's only been a month, but the game HAS been my life for this month so far. This was my first cultural win on Prince, and it came after several failed attempts. In my previous attempts I'd quickly establish six or seven cities before running out of land (I've been playing inland sea and pangaea lately, continents is embarrassingly easy). I'd then attempt to grab a few religions and turtle for the rest of the game using the strategies outlined in the excellent cultural win strategy guide for monarch that's available on this forum.
However, every time I would get my head kicked in at some point by an AI who decides that my puny army isn't going to pose any threat to his invading hordes. I quickly realized that my diplomatic skills were at fault and I would have to carefully balance my religions and my alliances if I were to survive. I would also have to swallow my pride and give in to most demands for tribute; one game I lost maybe twenty turns before victory because I refused Kublai's demand for 220 gold. He immediately declared and marched over my eight cities with about ten stacks of fifteen marines each. :thumbdown:
This game I decided to follow a hybrid strategy. I'd war in the early game to guarantee myself a large empire of about fifteen cities, then shift gears 180 degrees to pursue a cultural victory. It would be more risky since I would be delaying my temple building, religion spreading, and so on by about 1500 years while I grabbed land, but I could then stand on a more equal footing with the AI militarily (which helps with diplomacy of course).
So I fire up inland sea and chose Alex, whose combination of philosophical and aggressive is perfect for this strategy. I start in the NW corner right next to Isabella, who then proceeds to breed like a rabbit. By about 500 BC she has about seven quickly-growing cities to my five chop-rushed mud villages, enveloping me in the south and east.
Time to get cracking. I quickly build two killer stacks of catapults, axemen, phalanx, and horse archers and march south, investing two cities at a time. About ten turns later I have a new stack built on the eastern front and march that way too. Things proceed smoothly and by 1100 AD Izzy is history.
I have about thirteen cities in my empire now (I would add two later, one newly founded in spare land and one captured from the barbs.) Saladin is to my south and Kublai and Cathy have expanded to my east. Three or four religions have also spread to my cities.
I now go cultural. My plan is to spread Buddhism to all my cities and take that as my state religion, because Saladin is also Buddhist and we all know how much he hates infidels. Judaism and Confucianism will be spread to 9 cities each, which will allow me to build three cathedrals each in my three chosen cultural powerhouses - Athens, Sparta, and Thermopylae.
Things proceed relatively smoothly for the next few centuries, up until the early 1700's. At this point I realize that I've made some mistakes. I'd been doing well applying my new hard-earned diplomatic skills - I'd earned a defensive pact with Saladin and had kept Cathy and Kubby sated with well-timed bribes, even though they still considered me heathen. However, I had not been paying attention to my specialists. I concluded I would need about fifteen great artists to win the game at a reasonable date due to my late start. Every so often I'd go through my cities and coax up some artists, but I quickly found that the city auto-governer likes to replace them with stacks of scientists and priests whenever it feels fit. :shakehead:
By the time I'd learned to turn off the governers and laboriously hand-manage the specialists to ensure great artists, I'd wasted maybe eight GP generations on worthless prophets, scientists and engineers, with maybe two artists among the crowd. Up until the end of the game I'd still pop up a scientist or a prophet now and then due to residual bad GPPs, but I knew what to do now to ensure a steady flow of virtual Mozarts. But would it be enough?
I also realized that with the size of my empire I could have easily afforded to temple up a few more religions, allowing for a couple more cathedrals in my cultural metropoli. Too late for that now though. At least I was able to hold my own militarily. I always kept a few cities on strict unit-producing duty, and as a result had enough defenders on the eastern front to scare some respect into the Russians and Mongols. Saladin was my blood brother of course, so I never felt the need to station more than a few advanced units in the south.
I decided to postpone the transition from 80% science to 80% culture until I researched infantry, which was the earliest unit I concluded that would be strong enough to delay modern-era invaders for a while. At this point I knew the game would be a nail-biter and would last well into the modern age. If I was shooting for a late 1800's victory I probably could have stopped at riflemen.
Well, the 1940's roll around and things ain't looking so good. Cathy is pushing out spaceship parts and I'm still short about 70k culture in my three cities. I have only nine great artists stashed away in Athens. I decide to put most of my empire on starvation diets to squeeze out the turtleneck-wearing, beret-sporting, Bush-bashing artists, and to build wealth everywhere so I can ratchet the culture slider to 90 and later 100%.
1976 rolls around and hits me in the face. I've had spies in Cathyland for a while now checking up on her spaceship production, and she's about twelve turns away on her last part. I think I have time to win. However, I've been neglecting my log messages and to my utter horror I find that Saladin is also no more than one part away from a win! He just needs the stasis chamber, which means he's probably already on future techs. I also have no spies on his cities, so I have no idea how much longer I have.
My aggregate culture deficit stands at about 52k, and I only have eleven great artists. My three cities are generating only about 1300 CPs aggregate a year (evenly spread), so I need at least seven more turns to pull this off unless more great artists pop up. I have two southern cities due in about six turns, but this isn't good enough. Saladin is most likely only one or two turns away from that stasis chamber. I need to do something drastic.
So I declare war on him. Yes, I declare on my bestest buddy. I honestly felt really bad about this. We were so tight that even after I declared on him he was still pleased with me. I have no hope of defeating him, of course, I was just hoping that he is nice enough to delay that stasis chamber for a few turns while going into war production.
Within two turns he has about fifteen modern armor surrounding my southern cities, and is laying waste to my interior with all types of aircraft. In the meantime I am rushing all the spare infantry I have on my eastern border to the south to delay him as long as possible. Almost there!
Uh-oh. Next turn that bastard Kublai throws down the gauntlet. I just KNEW he'd been itching to do this all game, but my defensive pact with Sally had kept my chestnuts out of the fire - until now. Packs of modern armor now roll through my now undefended EASTERN border.
But I do manage to hold on for a few more turns. My cultural cities took a few potshots and are starving at a rapid pace, but are intact! Athens needs 7k to go legendary, Sparta needs 19k, and Thermopylae needs 14k. My eleven great artists will be more than enough! So I blow two at Athens, five at Sparta, and four at Thermopylae. Corny cultural victory video statue here I come!
Oh dear. :eek: I made a bad. It was in fact SPARTA that needed 14k, and Thermopylae that needed the 19k! Blame my outrageously expensive college education, since it had taught me that Sparta was the Greek city that was always last in culture. Well not this time folks. :vomit:
So I'm screwed. I'll need at least ten more turns of growth to push 50k in Thermopylae. Or do I? I check my two southernmost cities again, Santiago and Toledo. Both are only one turn away from popping a great artist each. But both are also surrounded by modern armor! I decide to concentrate on saving Toledo, which is closest to my capital, and rush all my defenders behind its gates. I gingerely hit the enter key.
Santiago is taken, its artist lost. But Toledo holds, and out pops an Elvis impersonator, err, I mean a cultural genius of staggering proportions. He'll also have to sport 'leet survival skills, since it's a two-turn run to Thermopylae! I pair him with my remaining defenders - about five infantry - and make the rush to the capital in one turn. I again gingerly hit enter, fearing a strike at the heart of my empire.
But none comes, both Saladin and Khaan keep their armies occupied with my border towns. Sally's planes and gunships pound Sparta, but to little effect. Elvis makes his way to Thermopylae, and sure that he's in the right place now, he breaks into a dance. Victory! :king:
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b79/merzbow4242/PrinceCulturalWin/PCWin1.jpg
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b79/merzbow4242/PrinceCulturalWin/PCWin2.jpg
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b79/merzbow4242/PrinceCulturalWin/PCWin3.jpg
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b79/merzbow4242/PrinceCulturalWin/PCWin5.jpg
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b79/merzbow4242/PrinceCulturalWin/PCWin4.jpg
Just played the most exciting game of Civ4 of my life. Yeah, it's only been a month, but the game HAS been my life for this month so far. This was my first cultural win on Prince, and it came after several failed attempts. In my previous attempts I'd quickly establish six or seven cities before running out of land (I've been playing inland sea and pangaea lately, continents is embarrassingly easy). I'd then attempt to grab a few religions and turtle for the rest of the game using the strategies outlined in the excellent cultural win strategy guide for monarch that's available on this forum.
However, every time I would get my head kicked in at some point by an AI who decides that my puny army isn't going to pose any threat to his invading hordes. I quickly realized that my diplomatic skills were at fault and I would have to carefully balance my religions and my alliances if I were to survive. I would also have to swallow my pride and give in to most demands for tribute; one game I lost maybe twenty turns before victory because I refused Kublai's demand for 220 gold. He immediately declared and marched over my eight cities with about ten stacks of fifteen marines each. :thumbdown:
This game I decided to follow a hybrid strategy. I'd war in the early game to guarantee myself a large empire of about fifteen cities, then shift gears 180 degrees to pursue a cultural victory. It would be more risky since I would be delaying my temple building, religion spreading, and so on by about 1500 years while I grabbed land, but I could then stand on a more equal footing with the AI militarily (which helps with diplomacy of course).
So I fire up inland sea and chose Alex, whose combination of philosophical and aggressive is perfect for this strategy. I start in the NW corner right next to Isabella, who then proceeds to breed like a rabbit. By about 500 BC she has about seven quickly-growing cities to my five chop-rushed mud villages, enveloping me in the south and east.
Time to get cracking. I quickly build two killer stacks of catapults, axemen, phalanx, and horse archers and march south, investing two cities at a time. About ten turns later I have a new stack built on the eastern front and march that way too. Things proceed smoothly and by 1100 AD Izzy is history.
I have about thirteen cities in my empire now (I would add two later, one newly founded in spare land and one captured from the barbs.) Saladin is to my south and Kublai and Cathy have expanded to my east. Three or four religions have also spread to my cities.
I now go cultural. My plan is to spread Buddhism to all my cities and take that as my state religion, because Saladin is also Buddhist and we all know how much he hates infidels. Judaism and Confucianism will be spread to 9 cities each, which will allow me to build three cathedrals each in my three chosen cultural powerhouses - Athens, Sparta, and Thermopylae.
Things proceed relatively smoothly for the next few centuries, up until the early 1700's. At this point I realize that I've made some mistakes. I'd been doing well applying my new hard-earned diplomatic skills - I'd earned a defensive pact with Saladin and had kept Cathy and Kubby sated with well-timed bribes, even though they still considered me heathen. However, I had not been paying attention to my specialists. I concluded I would need about fifteen great artists to win the game at a reasonable date due to my late start. Every so often I'd go through my cities and coax up some artists, but I quickly found that the city auto-governer likes to replace them with stacks of scientists and priests whenever it feels fit. :shakehead:
By the time I'd learned to turn off the governers and laboriously hand-manage the specialists to ensure great artists, I'd wasted maybe eight GP generations on worthless prophets, scientists and engineers, with maybe two artists among the crowd. Up until the end of the game I'd still pop up a scientist or a prophet now and then due to residual bad GPPs, but I knew what to do now to ensure a steady flow of virtual Mozarts. But would it be enough?
I also realized that with the size of my empire I could have easily afforded to temple up a few more religions, allowing for a couple more cathedrals in my cultural metropoli. Too late for that now though. At least I was able to hold my own militarily. I always kept a few cities on strict unit-producing duty, and as a result had enough defenders on the eastern front to scare some respect into the Russians and Mongols. Saladin was my blood brother of course, so I never felt the need to station more than a few advanced units in the south.
I decided to postpone the transition from 80% science to 80% culture until I researched infantry, which was the earliest unit I concluded that would be strong enough to delay modern-era invaders for a while. At this point I knew the game would be a nail-biter and would last well into the modern age. If I was shooting for a late 1800's victory I probably could have stopped at riflemen.
Well, the 1940's roll around and things ain't looking so good. Cathy is pushing out spaceship parts and I'm still short about 70k culture in my three cities. I have only nine great artists stashed away in Athens. I decide to put most of my empire on starvation diets to squeeze out the turtleneck-wearing, beret-sporting, Bush-bashing artists, and to build wealth everywhere so I can ratchet the culture slider to 90 and later 100%.
1976 rolls around and hits me in the face. I've had spies in Cathyland for a while now checking up on her spaceship production, and she's about twelve turns away on her last part. I think I have time to win. However, I've been neglecting my log messages and to my utter horror I find that Saladin is also no more than one part away from a win! He just needs the stasis chamber, which means he's probably already on future techs. I also have no spies on his cities, so I have no idea how much longer I have.
My aggregate culture deficit stands at about 52k, and I only have eleven great artists. My three cities are generating only about 1300 CPs aggregate a year (evenly spread), so I need at least seven more turns to pull this off unless more great artists pop up. I have two southern cities due in about six turns, but this isn't good enough. Saladin is most likely only one or two turns away from that stasis chamber. I need to do something drastic.
So I declare war on him. Yes, I declare on my bestest buddy. I honestly felt really bad about this. We were so tight that even after I declared on him he was still pleased with me. I have no hope of defeating him, of course, I was just hoping that he is nice enough to delay that stasis chamber for a few turns while going into war production.
Within two turns he has about fifteen modern armor surrounding my southern cities, and is laying waste to my interior with all types of aircraft. In the meantime I am rushing all the spare infantry I have on my eastern border to the south to delay him as long as possible. Almost there!
Uh-oh. Next turn that bastard Kublai throws down the gauntlet. I just KNEW he'd been itching to do this all game, but my defensive pact with Sally had kept my chestnuts out of the fire - until now. Packs of modern armor now roll through my now undefended EASTERN border.
But I do manage to hold on for a few more turns. My cultural cities took a few potshots and are starving at a rapid pace, but are intact! Athens needs 7k to go legendary, Sparta needs 19k, and Thermopylae needs 14k. My eleven great artists will be more than enough! So I blow two at Athens, five at Sparta, and four at Thermopylae. Corny cultural victory video statue here I come!
Oh dear. :eek: I made a bad. It was in fact SPARTA that needed 14k, and Thermopylae that needed the 19k! Blame my outrageously expensive college education, since it had taught me that Sparta was the Greek city that was always last in culture. Well not this time folks. :vomit:
So I'm screwed. I'll need at least ten more turns of growth to push 50k in Thermopylae. Or do I? I check my two southernmost cities again, Santiago and Toledo. Both are only one turn away from popping a great artist each. But both are also surrounded by modern armor! I decide to concentrate on saving Toledo, which is closest to my capital, and rush all my defenders behind its gates. I gingerely hit the enter key.
Santiago is taken, its artist lost. But Toledo holds, and out pops an Elvis impersonator, err, I mean a cultural genius of staggering proportions. He'll also have to sport 'leet survival skills, since it's a two-turn run to Thermopylae! I pair him with my remaining defenders - about five infantry - and make the rush to the capital in one turn. I again gingerly hit enter, fearing a strike at the heart of my empire.
But none comes, both Saladin and Khaan keep their armies occupied with my border towns. Sally's planes and gunships pound Sparta, but to little effect. Elvis makes his way to Thermopylae, and sure that he's in the right place now, he breaks into a dance. Victory! :king:
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b79/merzbow4242/PrinceCulturalWin/PCWin1.jpg
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b79/merzbow4242/PrinceCulturalWin/PCWin2.jpg
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b79/merzbow4242/PrinceCulturalWin/PCWin3.jpg
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b79/merzbow4242/PrinceCulturalWin/PCWin5.jpg
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b79/merzbow4242/PrinceCulturalWin/PCWin4.jpg