G-Minor 118

Guys! What do you think? :confused: I would fain welcome any suggestions. :bowdown:
Anyways, am I in the good path to win an early 1500 AD CV? Please RNG Gods, help me. :D

One Great Scientist for Academy in your Capital is enough. Run Scientists only in Cities that will not generate Great People; that usually means they are able to run only a few (1-2) Scientists. You are running too many Scientists. Run Artists instead.

You should have completed The Pyramids early and run Representation. With Representation, an Artist will generate 4 Bpt, not that much less than 6 Bpt per Scientist. Most importantly, your gene pool will have more Artists in it than Scientists and should generate far more Artists than any other Great Person. Just because you have Great Wonders ruining the purity of your gene pool doesn't mean you should not be aggressive in choosing Artists over other specialists (i.e. Scientists) when you have the choice of the GPP type being added.

You probably have close enough Cities already (3 x <# of Temples per "Cathedral"> = maximum). Every City you have has some maintenance costs and these costs are exponential with every city added up to about 25-40 Cities. See War Academy for the details. With high maintenance costs, 100% Culture slider later will likely be impossible to achieve.

You should build Cathedrals as soon as possible and definitely by the time you complete Liberalism and switch to 100% Culture slider.

Hope the above is helpful.

Sun Tzu Wu
 
Well, the problem isn't how fast I build up my empire, this attempt is extremely satisfying for me:
12 cities, 13 workers, lots of food resources, strong city positions, strong economy although the slider is at zero (thanks to plenty of food for representation specs.), all this before 1 AD.
The problem is my choice of my third cultural city. I have one city (Memphis) extraordinary food-wise, but dismal production-wise . I'm tempted to take it as my third cultural city, but a non-hill city hurts a lot and will need lots of gold-rushing. The only plus is if I can build before 200 AD TGL and The Colossus, perhaps it will have a decent base culture around 1200 AD. Thank God I still have some forest around. I need to settle asap my newly arrived great Artist, otherwise settling option will become obsolete.

jesusin, would you care to answer this question?

The Culture cities should have good Cottage sites and some hammers for earlier Great Wonders. Weath rushing Great/National Wonders will be expensive (4.5W per H versus 3W per H for buildings/units).

It has to be your decision, but if I were playing, I'd make Elephantine my third Cultural city and hire Artists, although you may need a Great Merchant, so running Merchants for 7t seems reasonable.

You need to tame your Economy. You probably need to build several Courthouses ASAP. Your Research slider should be at least 50% and needs to approach 80% soon; not sure what it is now.

True about one point: Should I research myself Currency or wait the AI to do so? I want to gun for Liberalism as early as possible without much detour...hmm... double trade routes plus temple of Artemis...hmm :undecide:

Given that you can complete Calendar in 2t at Res 100%, you can probably afford Currency in 2t at Res 100%. With 12 Cities, Currency would provide a great boost to your Commerce rate per turn. That's 12 extra trade routes, probably all foreign.

I would not wait for the AI to research Currency for you, since they will probably take a very long time to complete it at Noble level.

Sun Tzu Wu
 
Tachywaxon! Lookin' good! You have rolled a stellar map.

My two cents:

I think I would recommend Heliopolis for the next Legendary city. None of your cities has extreme food, extreme hammers or good hammer/food mix. I would farm one or both of the grasslands south and east of the lake. If you can get MC soon, workshop the plains tiles.

Screw Calender! Get currency. Trade routes good, but start selling off resource and techs to keep your research going. The AI favor calendar and will trade it to you in plenty of time to get the MoM.

In my next try, I am going to beeline currency, then go Math>CoL>Oracle CS! I will trade the heck out of my techs.
 
Tachywaxon! Lookin' good! You have rolled a stellar map.

My two cents:

I think I would recommend Heliopolis for the next Legendary city. None of your cities has extreme food, extreme hammers or good hammer/food mix. I would farm one or both of the grasslands south and east of the lake. If you can get MC soon, workshop the plains tiles.

Screw Calender! Get currency. Trade routes good, but start selling off resource and techs to keep your research going. The AI favor calendar and will trade it to you in plenty of time to get the MoM.

In my next try, I am going to beeline currency, then go Math>CoL>Oracle CS! I will trade the heck out of my techs.

Regarding MC, Hannibal has it! I just need to continue the Attrition War until he falls on his knees and accept to give it to me. I know I'll be able to extort it (As I could before extort both IW and Sailing from him).

EDIT: After all, it seems Memphis was a bad choice after all. Hope Jesusin will be around tomorrow.
 
I think I would recommend Heliopolis for the next Legendary city. None of your cities has extreme food, extreme hammers or good hammer/food mix. I would farm one or both of the grasslands south and east of the lake. If you can get MC soon, workshop the plains tiles.

Helipolis is good too. It has more Population and more Cottages/Hamlets. I thought it had too many water plots though.

Sun Tzu Wu
 
Isn't it a bit risky? You may end up losing Oracle, am I right?

HoF=Risk
GOTM=Conservative

It is a risk, but I find my economy bottoming out after mathematics, but before CoL. With Currency, I may be able make a faster push to make up for turns spent on currency, and it will pay dividends after CS.
 
I would just like to say how pleasant and refreshing it is to see everyone coming out to be helpful to somebody who may very well be in a position to beat their own submissions :D.
This is a very community-spirited forum, the HoF :goodjob:.

The problem is my choice of my third cultural city. I have one city (Memphis) extraordinary food-wise, but dismal production-wise . I'm tempted to take it as my third cultural city, ...
I am tempted to agree with the others that Memphis is not a good choice for your third legendary. On the other hand, it looks like a nice Gt Person Pump, with all that food. You may have the makings of a set-up with two GPPs (Elephantine being the other one). You don't often get that luxury!
I know you will take into account my limited success compared with the others on this thread, but I would tend to go for Heliopolis as legendary #3. Some production. Sufficient cottage-able tiles. An off-beat alternative that no-one has mentioned yet is Pi-Ramesses! Very young at present, but it has sheep, horses, two hills and 8 grassland - plus it still has forests around for chopping.


True about one point: Should I research myself Currency or wait the AI to do so? I want to gun for Liberalism as early as possible without much detour...hmm... double trade routes plus temple of Artemis...hmm :undecide:
In my games, I have found that I needed to tech Currency myself because I needed it and the AI were just so slow getting there. You are ahead of my normal research progress, so I would say that you need Currency before you beeline Liberalism (imho).
 
I know you will take into account my limited success compared with the others on this thread, but I would tend to go for Heliopolis as legendary #3. Some production. Sufficient cottage-able tiles. An off-beat alternative that no-one has mentioned yet is Pi-Ramesses! Very young at present, but it has sheep, horses, two hills and 8 grassland - plus it still has forests around for chopping.

Yeah, interesting point of view that I would extent much more.

Let's follow this simple rule (perhaps):


Why not putting a fast thirteen city at a site which can turn out to be very good with production, food ,being coastal (TGL (hope so!), Colossus),possessing lots of forests to catch up (e.g TGL) and 8 cottage sites. True these future cottages won't be as developed as Heliopolis, but this site is attrative. Shame the Barbarian site was in the wrong place.
Hmm... What do you think?

Here's the good site in question:

Spoiler :

 
Why not putting a fast thirteen city at a site which can turn out to be very good with production, food ,being coastal (TGL (hope so!), Colossus),possessing lots of forests to catch up (e.g TGL) and 8 cottage sites. True these future cottages won't be as developed as Heliopolis, but this site is attrative. Shame the Barbarian site was in the wrong place.
Hmm... What do you think?
It's a tough choice, but now that I have studied them for a bit, we have got:
Heliopolis: 2 food, 2 hills, 8 grass for cottages, 2 plains, 1 lake, 5 empty coast. 1 choppable forest.
Pi-Ramesses: 1 food, 1 horse, 2 hills, 9 grass for cottages, 2 plains, 5 empty coast. Maybe 5 choppable forest.
New site: 2 fish, 1 horse, 1 fur, 6 grass for cottages, 3 hills, 2 plains, 3 empty coast .7 choppable forest.
Pi-Ramesses may be too short on food for a good wonder-builder.
The new site beats Heliopolis on productivity & commerce. Equals it on food and cottage-potential. Much better on choppable forests. The only downside is the time the new site will take to mature v Heliopolis which is already on its way up.

I don't know how many turns behind Heliopolis the new city would be. I think this is what you have to consider. The new city would be better than Helio once both are fully mature (cottages and all). For many turns, the new city will lag behind Helio on commerce. For wonder-building potential, however, I would use the new city. After all, you will still have Helio's commerce.

So. I would go for the new city. Probably. ;)
 
Had another try, but once again failed to improve on 1800AD.

I have rolled a series of new maps, picking my opponents using slightly different criteria: avoiding Industrious leaders. Ensuring leaders in the North do not start with Mining (so will be slower to hook up metals). In the North, emphasised leaders who don't build military too often. In the South, went for friendly traders.

However, I found myself right next to Pericles once I arrived North, his copper already hooked up and phalanxes & spearmen looking at me!! He was squashed against the East border of the map, so I continued undeterred, taking out Hammurabi and Lincoln to my West. I needed a second city for the horses (just outside of Thebes' borders).

In retrospect it was all a little too slow. I completed my war on turn 94, now having 6 cities and about 1/3 of the Northern lands at my disposal. Not really good enough.

I did better with religions than recently. Although I missed Confu, I founded Tao and later Islam. Christianity spread to me from Pericles.
However, looking back, for a long time I only had Taoism, and that set me back quite a bit. I had spread that everywhere and built most of my temples before I finally got the other religions and could start spreading them. Things like this make a big difference.
I was determined to prioritise religious buildings over wonders this time, knowing that the multiplying factor is so important. Not having enough religions early enough put a spike in these plans.

I think there were another few reasons behind the slow progress:
My 3 legendary cities did not have enough food. One of them was still only size 6 at the end. Awful!
I missed the Oracle slingshot by 1 turn :mad:. That set my tech progress back about 12 turns.
Possibly the best location to emerge on the North coast is in the middle, I feel. Then you have a shorter distance to travel to eliminate 2 or 3 rivals and claim their lands. Arriving near one edge makes things a little more difficult.

Anyway, it all drizzled away again.
Still time for a few more tries over the weekend.
 
Why not putting a fast thirteen city at a site which can turn out to be very good with production, food ,being coastal (TGL (hope so!), Colossus),possessing lots of forests to catch up (e.g TGL) and 8 cottage sites. True these future cottages won't be as developed as Heliopolis, but this site is attrative. Shame the Barbarian site was in the wrong place.
Hmm... What do you think?

Here's the good site in question:

Spoiler :


You have enough Cities. Use Heliopolis or Elephantine as the Third Cultural City. They are already partial developed. Do you even have a Settler ready to settle the new site?

Consider slavery to help build things, especially buildings like Cathedrals in the Cultural Cities. The Spiritual trait is great for 5t of Slavery between longer stretches of Caste System.

Be sure to consider all half price buildings as early as possible, like Temples (Spiritual) and Libraries (Creative) and other half price buildings that the Creative trait permits.

Sun Tzu Wu
 
However, I found myself right next to Pericles once I arrived North, his copper already hooked up and phalanxes & spearmen looking at me!! He was squashed against the East border of the map, so I continued undeterred, taking out Hammurabi and Lincoln to my West. I needed a second city for the horses (just outside of Thebes' borders).

It is quite tedious, but I only try a map where I see desert/flood plains at the start. I head north and try to settle by turn 13. Find a decent spot, and hope for a good BFC. If not, try again.

Actually, on my first submission at 1570 AD, I accidentally settled my city. It was a green location, but had only an oasis and grassland for food. I said "what the hell!" and tried it anyway. I got horses, and was on a quick conquest.

If Pericles has copper hooked up already, you are too slow getting the ball rolling. Obviously, research AH, then build WC immediately. No barracks! Whip your second. Two WC should be enough to take the city.


EDIT: Essentially, the same thing happened to me. It has to be the AI popping BW form huts!
 
It is quite tedious, but I only try a map where I see desert/flood plains at the start. I head north and try to settle by turn 13. Find a decent spot, and hope for a good BFC. If not, try again.

Actually, on my first submission at 1570 AD, I accidentally settled my city. It was a green location, but had only an oasis and grassland for food. I said "what the hell!" and tried it anyway. I got horses, and was on a quick conquest.

If Pericles has copper hooked up already, you are too slow getting the ball rolling. Obviously, research AH, then build WC immediately. No barracks! Whip your second. Two WC should be enough to take the city.


EDIT: Essentially, the same thing happened to me. It has to be the AI popping BW form huts!

I'm less worried by finding an AI with copper all hooked up and working around turn 25, than I am by my own choice of a Greek leader as a potential early victim! What was I thinking of? I guess I was following my own logic path - he's not Industrious, doesn't start with Mining, and he's not notably inclined to build military. He's also reasonably peaceable. I have to admit that it did cross my mind - Greeks and phalanxes - but I dismissed it with the thought that I was going to knock them down before they got any metals. Wrong!

As you said, they must have popped BW.

I don't think I was particularly slow getting going. Maybe fractionally. Thebes founded on turn 16, whereas like you I aim to settle my capital around turn 13 if I can. It was just the unpromising land I stumbled into - no resources visible until I moved on a couple of turns. Then I found silver, but no food. I settled, and was relieved to find sheep in the bfc. I was on riverside grassland, so my initial hammers were low and my first worker came out 11 turns later on turn 27.
Probably the biggest slowing factor was that the horses revealed on turn 28 were going to need a second city, being tantalisingly 1 tile outside Thebes' borders (even after the cultural border expansion on turn 40)

All-in-all, I think the problem I have to get over is when to call it a day on a game when too many things are going slightly wrong. Let's face it, I am not going to beat 1800AD unless the start all falls into place: settling around turn 13, horses in bfc, nearest civs have not hooked up metals by the time I kill them.
 
You have enough Cities. Use Heliopolis or Elephantine as the Third Cultural City. They are already partial developed. Do you even have a Settler ready to settle the new site?

Consider slavery to help build things, especially buildings like Cathedrals in the Cultural Cities. The Spiritual trait is great for 5t of Slavery between longer stretches of Caste System.

Be sure to consider all half price buildings as early as possible, like Temples (Spiritual) and Libraries (Creative) and other half price buildings that the Creative trait permits.

Sun Tzu Wu

Sincerely, I expected you saying "stop expanding like mad, it's hurting your economy" in my last post. I do consider what you're saying. ;) After all, I think I'll take Heliopolis as my third future legendary city. The primary factor that influenced my decision was how developped my cottages were there. Alexandria did cross my mind because of the river (I did notice in Shulec 1705 AD CV, two of his legendary cities did have a long river around), but there is too much watery tiles and not enough plain tile for workshops. Another factor that partially affected me was the possibility to get TGL, meaning a juicy 4 trade routes with currency. This means stronger than Elephatine undeveloped tiles regarding cottages. But still, two civs (Washinton and Justinian) still can steal this wonder from me (If it's Justinian, I'll burn his chopped head! :devil:).

And, :blush:...yeah, I don't have any settler around, Sun. Better settle asap my great artist, thus scraping that interesting site.

Still, thanks guys helping me out (STW, Shulec and AgedOne), even tough I can be a threat (O Rly? :nope:) (Ho Ho Do you really think so AgedOne!, I'm the newbiest here. :crazyeye:).

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Specifically @AgedOne

I have rolled a series of new maps, picking my opponents using slightly different criteria: avoiding Industrious leaders. Ensuring leaders in the North do not start with Mining (so will be slower to hook up metals). In the North, emphasised leaders who don't build military too often. In the South, went for friendly traders.
Strangely enough comparing to you and Shulec, I had another one aspect I did consider in choosing leaders, avoiding any leaders possessing the knowledge of Hunting as this provide a free scout instead of the usual warrior. I wanted to pop as much as possible tribal huts not only techs but especially for gold; that is one reason why I didn't economically collapse.

I missed the Oracle slingshot by 1 turn

What...again by one turn! There's a evil spirit after you or what?

Possibly the best location to emerge on the North coast is in the middle, I feel.

Exactly. In my attempts, I always tried to begin in the middle. Beginning at the side of the map means empire spread inequally, thus ugly maintenance cost. I don't want to bother building the palace somewhere else. Every hammer counts.

[...]there are two 'ranks' of starting positions in the south, and you may be lucky enough to be in the more northerly of the two ranks.

This is one aspect I did take into account when trekking to the north (explaining why I settled at turn 11). Every saved turn can be converted in training a warrior (in the best case on PH and first working tile is a forested PH produce three-turns-warriors) to steal a worker to a neighbour. I did bring my warrior along my initial settler in my latest attempt, but he turned out to be too slow for a fast worker stealing.

Other thing I really want to mention: don't fear to make lots of attempts: this mapscript prones us to do so as it is totally unbalanced. Bad start: roll again. No horse in BFC, roll again. Bad conquests, roll again. No appropriate resources, roll again. Beaten to Confucianism, Oracle, etc. , roll again. True I don't win as much as Shulec, but my few victories (only one for now, perhaps a better one later) are effective. Of course, I have a vice, I discourage easily: when Justinian built the SH, I wanted at first throw away that [stellar] start. Truly! ~~

My main question, having read your post, is "How on earth can you manage your economy, having 12 cities, presumably most of them without courthouses, in 75BC?". My research usually hits rock bottom, even if I only have 6 cities in 1000 BC! What's the secret? Do you whip courthouses, or what?

If someone is interested here, I'll continue my write-up about what happened next 75 BC (after playing it tomorrow) and I'll try to be more in detail why I did survive the crippling maintenance cost (looking at AgedOne). For now ,in a nutshell, merchants, some chopped courthouses in far cities, merchants, Huts, merchants, lots of wars... did I say merchants? :)
 
Still, thanks guys helping me out (STW, Shulec and AgedOne), even tough I can be a threat (O Rly? :nope:) (Ho Ho Do you really think so AgedOne!, I'm the newbiest here. :crazyeye:).
I've been around long enough to know that newcomers burst onto the scene every now and then. Some of them are still learning, and are on an upward sweep. These are the ones that become established amongst the first rank of players.
What I've noticed about you - not just in this gauntlet - is that you like to ask for advice. You are evidently one of the 'learners'. So they ought to recognise you as a threat, yes!
However, my point was that folks around this forum are quite generous in nature and are often happy to give advice rather than keeping their secrets. It's a good thing :D.


Strangely enough comparing to you and Shulec, I had another one aspect I did consider in choosing leaders, avoiding any leaders possessing the knowledge of Hunting as this provide a free scout instead of the usual warrior. I wanted to pop as much as possible tribal huts not only techs but especially for gold; that is one reason why I didn't economically collapse.
Yes. I didn't do that this time, whereas on some previous 'hut-popping expeditions' I was very careful to exclude them.
Looking at my latest 'opposition list', I notice that I have been very lucky. Only 2 of my rivals start with scouts - Pericles and Frederick.

Other thing I really want to mention: don't fear to make lots of attempts: this mapscript prones us to do so as it is totally unbalanced. Bad start: roll again. No horse in BFC, roll again. Bad conquests, roll again. No appropriate resources, roll again. Beaten to Confucianism, Oracle, etc. , roll again. True I don't win as much as Shulec, but my few victories (only one for now, perhaps a better one later) are effective. Of course, I have a vice, I discourage easily: when Justinian built the SH, I wanted at first throw away that [stellar] start. Truly! ~~
I'm right with you there! I think I must have started going on 50 games during this gauntlet - most of them abandoned when things didn't work out. I have completed about 10 - 3 of them making significant improvements on my finish date, but the others ending as failures because they were too slow.
[Off topic: A few months ago I was having a try at completing each of the civs in the Rhye's and Fall of Civilizations mod. I posted on that forum, asking for help and saying that I had made about 75 attempts at one scenario. The first response I received was from somebody who was evidently quite alarmed at my insane persistence. He ordered that someone bring "a sling for this man's gonads" :lol:]

I was thinking about the most perfect start you could hope for.
A short journey to the north - maybe 10 turns. Horses not only in the bfc, but underneath the city. Pop Animal Husbandry from a hut. Pop BW from another hut. Steal a worker.
With this kind of start, you would definitely have your first War Chariot out by turn 20, but you would be limited by city size and lack of a worker to chop around your city. I can imagine that you would have a useful force of (say) 6 War Chariots by turn 35 - which is about 15-20 turns earlier than I usually manage it.

If someone is interested here, I'll continue my write-up about what happened next 75 BC (after playing it tomorrow) and I'll try to be more in detail why I did survive the crippling maintenance cost (looking at AgedOne). For now ,in a nutshell, merchants, some chopped courthouses in far cities, merchants, Huts, merchants, lots of wars... did I say merchants? :)
Yes. Please do let us know how it went. And economy tips just for me, please :D.
 
Any quick tips on what terrain to look for in a culture city?

Maximum food.


Now, I have to stop and chew over where will I settle that Great Artist?! The problem is I didn't pinpoint my third legendary city yet. My super food city (Memphis) is an interesting candidate, but production-wise, it is dismal...absolutely dismal. No hills at all, except the hilly sheep. The other candidate would be Gandhi's Capitol.

Guys! What do you think? :confused: I would fain welcome any suggestions. :bowdown:
Anyways, am I in the good path to win an early 1500 AD CV? Please RNG Gods, help me. :D

Don't settle that GA, keep it to even out finish date among all 3.
Or is a settled artist going to generate more than 4000c from 1AD to 1500AD? I don't think so.


Choose the maximum food city. When its pop is maxed, grow some more and run a 5 turn slavery period, during which you will whip 2 cathedrals. Grow again and hire maximum artists, while slowly completing any other cathedrals.

Don't choose new cities, don't dream about many WW, don't dream about new cottages, it's already 1AD!
 
Maximum food.




Don't settle that GA, keep it to even out finish date among all 3.
Or is a settled artist going to generate more than 6000c from 1AD to 1500AD? I don't think so.


Choose the maximum food city. When its pop is maxed, grow some more and run a 5 turn slavery period, during which you will whip 2 cathedrals. Grow again and hire maximum artists, while slowly completing any other cathedrals.

Don't choose new cities, don't dream about many WW, don't dream about new cottages, it's already 1AD!

Oh damn!!!:eek: I've just settled it in Heliopolis...:sad:.
Don't say I was right to choose Memphis at first :crazyeye:...hmmm hope I can at least beat my last submission.
 
I have stopped at 1AD in a very odd game. Strangely reminiscent of Tachywaxon's game.

The main feature was that the enemy civs simply dissolved in front of me! I have only had to beat warriors so far, until the final city that I took, which built an archer.

I have been looking for starts (as shulec said a few posts back) where desert or floodplain is visible, in order to make my 'Trek North' as brief as possible. This time Thebes was founded on turn 11. I found that it was sandwiched in between Willem and Isabella. The horses were not in the bfc, but were beside Willem's border, only 4 or 5 tiles from Thebes.
A bit of exploration revealed that I had arrived in a central position on the North coast.
As borders were opened, and my War Chariots were being produced, I could see that both Amsterdam and Madrid were defended by a single warrior!
I took Amsterdam on turn 67 and the Dutch were gone.
Exploring further East, I had found Pericles, and this time he was using warriors only.
I declared on Isabella on turn 67 and Pericles the next turn.
By turn 70 I had eliminated both Spain and Greece. Madrid and Barcelona were kept, but Athens I razed since it was misplaced and had nothing of value, and then Sparta, which was well placed, sadly auto-razed.

I now had 10 War Chariots and turned my attention to science. I had gained the Hindu and Buddhist holy cities. Soon I founded Confucianism myself.

I was amused to get a random event offering rewards if I built 10 War Chariots. I succeeded without doing anything, and the reward was to spread Hinduism to 4 more of my cities! Thank you!

I pondered attacking Gandhi in the South, as he was the founder of Judaism and was already unhappy at me for stealing a worker early on. But he was so far away that my empire would have been in danger of economic troubles, being so far-flung.

Then I investigated my next neighbour to the West - Lincoln. Since this was about turn 80, I was stunned to see that he also defended Washington with a single warrior!! I sent only a handful of my War Chariots over to deal with him.
It was in New York that I saw my first archer, but that was easily dealt with and America was eliminated by turn 86. I kept both Washington (which had Judaism) and New York, which was productive and well sited.

So, at 700 BC I had a vast swathe of the Northern territory, 7 cities and 4 religions. :D

I also completed the Oracle sling-shot to CS on turn 90, so my tech progress was looking good. My 8th city was quickly founded to get access to Marble, and then my 9th was at one of the pleasant sites in Pericles' old lands.

The next tasks were the courthouses, and the religious buildings.

So, at 1AD my empire consists of 9 cities, and I have locations for 3 more if I choose to expand that far. I am researching Music - still about 15 turns away since my tech rate has had to be lowered to 50% :(. I am in the process of spreading my 4 religions to all cities, and building temples everywhere.

I now need to stop and think clearly and carefully before I continue. I don't want to mess this one up!
 
Sneaked out some time from real-life and submitted my first and only attempt.

Horrible, horrible game.


Oasis map is not so bad. Plenty of FP sites to settle. The only problem is you have to settle all across the map to find marble, but Prince maintenance is so low that you can easily afford it.
Now, a leader without the Philo trait is a pain for a cultural victory.

Tried to play a peaceful game without cottages. Minimum number of opponents.

Settled with pigs, gems, fur and cows. Found another pig, great.
Bad luck, only a close neighbour and he builds settler before worker, nothing to steal.

At 2000BC I had 2cities+settler, 2workers, 2Axes. Stole a worker at last. Soon I took both cities and another worker, together with 1 religion. Went into peaceful mode for good.

Oracle taken by other 1400BC. What!!?? And they choose CoL for leaving me without confu too. Arg. Time to abandon this game... but I won't have the time to start and finish another one, so bite hard and continue.

Pyramids built 800BC. Settle a city for Marble on the other side of the world. +0gpt at 100% gold. Cities start to grow, hire some specialists.

Maintenance forces me to hire merchants, I think it would be useful for a GAge needed for revolutions, but I am mistaken, since we are Spiritual... I am force to build a few cottages too.

Research is paralyzed for many turns. Currency prioritized. Lose the Music GA.

Finally my cities grow, I get Currency and I hire many artists. 1 religion spreads.
5 turns out of Castes and Pacifism to get cathedrals whipped.

Liberalism 720AD, ugh.

Bad luck with GP. First one was a desired GS, but since I was going to be at 0% for ever I never built an Academy, but bulbed Philo for my 3rd religion.

GM used for money when it was already too late, GM used for GAge, GS+free GM used for GAge. GE used in a useless WW. 21GP in all. 16GA bombed. None settled.

Key data: cultural victory 1370AD, 3 religions, multipliers 4.5 3.5 3.5. 16GA bombs.
Capital has a few cottages and a lot of WW giving GA points and many arrtists.
02 is GPFarm, with many artists.
03 has in the end many artists, but had many hills and built many GA points giving WW before Liberalism.

With this settings I think a 1100AD victory shouldn't be hard to achieve. Failing to get CS sling set me back at least 30 turns.





EDIT: I had 2 cities 2000BC, 7 cities 1000BC and 10 cities 1AD. I think I should have had another city (with excess food of 8) to get an additional GA, but as my economy was broke I didn't dare.

The capital I took was horrible, zero resources in the fat cross! I thought the map generator helped capitals.

WW: I chose the important ones (Pyramids, Parthenon, Sistine's, MoM, TajMaj) and ignored all the rest (except for one, SoZ I think, that my capital built because it had nothing to do at the time). The capital very soon stopped building WW, as it needed to build cathedrals, Hermitage, etc. The hammer city had some 8 FP and many hills, 18hpt normally and 24hpt when maxed out. After 1AD it stopped building WW, it finished its cathedrals and then every miner was hired as an artist.

GP: I tried for GP purity but I failed miserably due to economy crash. If I played again I would get 2GS (Academy and bulb), 1 free GM from Economy for a late GAge and all the rest would be GA.

Civics: went to Castes+Pacifism very early, as son as I had a dozen artists hired civwise. The last thing I whipped in the auxiliary cities was a monastery to be able to finish with missionary spam out of OR. After that I went slavery+OR just once, for just 5 turns, whipping 2 cathedrals on the GPFarm in that period (and sending all overflow into the NE, that got built as late as 640AD). At the very end, after researching Banking (Mercantilism), PP (improve those 5 cottages) and Corporation (+1trade route) I realized I had money to spare and nothing to research, so went to US. I only bought 3 Universities and one WW. I sure could have used a 4th religion.

In the end, base culture output in the three cities was 228 119 172.
 
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