Many Leaders Game 4 - The Cultured Monarch

How about a plan, plans even.

Well there's three main plans. Start building wonders in the capital (maybe shove Pyramids somewhere else), get a couple more cities and start cottaging Illinois as I suspect it may be my third cutlural city.

Let's see how we go.

I realise my tech order was all wrong before and I switch to Masonry before Aesthetics, so I will have Marble hooked up before I start to build Parthenon.

Parthenon built.



Some more cities.





I pop the free GA from Music and decide to merge in my definate second culture city.



Statue of Zeus built. Missed screenie but you know what it looks like.

Taoism founded.



Sistine Chapel built.



I convert Roosevelt to Confusedness as well. One happy continent.

National Epic built.

The turn before Civil Service completes I do a last round of whipping as no more slavery for me.

Here's the new civics.



And the capital after Caste System.



Trying to work all the cottages to get them to towns as soon as possible. I'll work the hills when I'm building wonders.

And here's the state of things after 50 turns.



I'm pleased the way things are going. I've got 8 cities. All are confuscian except one and I've got 2 missionaries ready to convert. I've started my first Academy in my 2nd culture city (Tiwanaku). I'm still not sure what my third city will be though (Kyoto or Illinois), so can't build second academy. Was building Pyramids in Kyoto and lost them 3 turns out (the cash was great though). If this completed it would have been a legendary. Need at least one more city for next turn as well.

Next turn I'll convert everything Buddhist and Taoist as well hopefully.

Wonder wise, I'm spot on where I wanted to be. Mausolleum is still out there so might try that for the 2 GA points and Heroic Epic. I'll go for Globe Theatre as well but not sure where. The only other definate I want is Taj Mahal.

I've got 2 GAs sitting about in the capital ready to bomb somewhere. I think its better to bomb later than merge now.

Research wise, I've just got Education, Liberalism, Printing Press, Nationalism, Constitution and Democracy to go. I won't delay Liberalism as the civics (Free Speech particularly) are almost as important as the free tech (which will be Nationalism for Taj).

Both Rossy and Joao are pleased with me, trying to get them to friendly but haven't got a single +ve from trade yet.

Research: Masonry, Aesthetics, Mathematics (trade), Calendar (trade), Music, Currency, Philosophy, Drama, Monotheism (trade), Civil Service, Paper, Construction (trade), Education (not finished)

105: Aesthetics in, started the SoZ. Hoping to have enough time to do that first, and the parthenon after, since I won't have marble for several more turns

109: pick up my GS



110: founded the worst city in a while


111: math in, polytheism next, bulb philosophy, taoism pops in my banana sugar iron city, which I'm planning to make the third legendary city. Yay.

113: SoZ in, parthenon next. poly in, mono next

115: mono in, literature next.

119: literature in, CS next. Hoping one of them will trade me calender

121: parthenon in, great library next



123: Joao converted to taoism after one city, and my 3rd city gets a fortuitous free spread.

I won't be whipping anytime soon, so I flip the civics to caste system + pacifism to run 4 artists in the capitol



124: trade mono + aesthetics to roosy for calender



130: got a great artist. Saving for music.

131: Roosy got a lucky taoism spread, and converted, but he's still being a bastard with the resource trades. What I really want to do is bribe him into a war with Joao, but he doesn't want to. . .. .. .. .. ..

133: take a relationship hit with Joao with a random event



136: got another great artist

140: begrudgingly going to research theology > divine right to get a second religion.



My third leg is 209 long.

Having built a library in Istanbul, I hired a couple of Scientists in the hope that my next GP would be able to LB Philo and claim Taoism. In anticipation of this event, I sent a missionary to spread Confu into Konya. Handily, he reached his goal just as the coin-toss GP came out in my favour:



Lovely. Two religions in a cashcow like Edirne. Wall Street here down the line (obviously). A few turns earlier, I noticed Joao had Alpha, so it trade him CoL for it (Roosy has Stone). Toku got CoL for free, giving +4 relations and the chance for OBs.





1 lousy piece of gold from a possible 4 city spread of Confu to Roosy! Still, option two gave me Confu in Bursa, Ankara and Washington, so it’s not exactly a disaster. I get another event the next turn which grants 44 beakers towards Drama. Lucky me! Meanwhile my Taoist missionary is scouting out Toku and Joao’s lands. Toku had dropped to Cautious, so he got Poly for free seeing as I’d just balgged it from Joao anyway.

Aesthetics had also been learned, but I messed about and started ToZ in Edirne. I decide to cancel this and start it in Istanbul instead, after it had completed Hanging Gardens (T114). Free pop is always good (even if most of them were born ANGRY). Jesus was born in a distant manger on turn 123. Had a Confucian wedding (Portugal) but could only afford a token gift, but I was trying to get to Music ASAP.

Pull a big trade with Joao:




He’s welcome to Angkor Wat, and I don’t need to be first to Liberalism in this game (though it would certainly be helpful). Music and the Artist are claimed on turn 127, and Samsun is founded on the marble. Looking at the situation, I decide to make a quick dart for MoM because Istanbul can build Sistene in a piffling 8 turns and no-one has Aesthetics, so I can afford to switch away from SoZ. Sadly, Roosy completes MoM four turns later, but I get a very useful 213g cashback.

I researched Currency as my economy needed it and the AI had so far ignored it. Set off for CS and switched to BUR when it was in (having completed SoZ in Istanbul the previous turn). Founded Gaziantep up at Whales/Fish on the same turn. My tech-whoring continued apace: Toku got Maths for 40g, gave Feud & 5g for Philo, and Joao got CS for MC, Archery & 70g, bringing him to Friendly (and later we traded HBR for Aesthetics).

Shwedagon Paya was completed in Edirne in 740 AD (this city has only Great Prophet points), Sistene took only 7 turns in Istanbul (T148), then a GP constructed Dai Miao in 800AD (Edirne). This only gives 5gpt at the moment (compared to 14 from Kong Miao), but I’ll have 7 more cities of my own in which to spread it.

Overview:







Where next? Well, I decided to get Literature before Nationalism, so I can sooner build National Epic in Bursa. Also feel I have too few workers, so more have been put in the build queues. Ankara will train a Settler for Banana/Iron after its missionary. Istanbul will try for Parthenon after its forge.

Longer term, my main cultural dilemma is on where to house the Hermitage: Istanbul is ahead in culture and has more wonders that will double their culture, whereas Edirne has commerce aplenty. The trick is to judge it so that these two cross the line at more or less the same time, allowing all Artists to be bombed into Bursa for the desired blanket finish.

Strategically, I plan to research Nationalism, use it to trade for Guilds, learn Banking (revolt to Merc), then head to Liberalism for a late-ish grab for Constitution. I also plan to trade for Gunpowder to unlock Janissaries. Ideally, I’ll be able to learn PP and trade for Economics then research Corporation. I normally tech deeper (Biology, Medicine, Radio) in culture games, but with Janissaries to protect me, and some really food-rich cities, I think I’ll risk an earlier tech shutdown.

My strategy is to expand quickly, and to bee-line to drama/literature to get theatres, the culture slider, and to build NE to start generating GA:s in my capital, which will be my GP farm.

Milestones:
1120: Oracle, CoL (with Confucianism) as free tech
525: Buddhism spreads to Indian territory. Japan converts, and relations become bad. Need to keep an eye on Tokugawa in the future.
475: get a GP from the Oracle and build the temple of Solomon, which improves my economy enough to settle another city to block of the Americans.

I'm interested as to the placement of Poverty Point. It gets more production where it is but why not 1S (where most people have it)?

What did the fish say when it hit the concrete wall?

War continued on against the Japanese throughout the entire turnset. Did someone say Bindy sucks at war? One of the many great things about Civ IV is major swings of momentum can hinge on such small things, like unleashing an assault on a protective Civ’s hill city, and missing taking it by 0.2 strength:



A miss is as good as a mile, though, and there was a Japanese axeman on the fogged tile to the southwest ready to move in to the city IBT, and the archer was promoted to 1.9 strength the next turn. The city is still Japanese in 800 A.D., and Toku is adamant about getting Kyoto back in a peace treaty.

What do you get when you cross a pit bull with a chicken?
Getting to a point with many religions founded, none on our continent. My philosophical nature was able to pull this off.



With no respite from the war in sight, I have not changed to pacifism, given that I think I’m trying to rebuild my army, grab the bull by the horns, all that nonsense. My other neighbors are coming over to my side, religiously speaking, which is a good thing for a cultural game.

What is green, fuzzy, has four legs, and could kill you if it dropped out of a tree onto you?

I played with espionage a bit to see if I can do anything good against Toku. The EP pool builds up way too slowly, though, as you can see from this table:



He swiped mysticism from me, though.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

I lost the iron to the east to Rosie, although the founding of Taoism has pushed his borders, so it’s not a very good city for him anymore. I did settle the gold corn site, and need to hurry up and settle the marble/iron site (Too much to do, as always), even though it’s about as food poor as it can get. I will have to share the corn with my gold city.



Not on the map is Kyoto, which has a theater, a library and a monument, but you wouldn’t know it from it’s shrinking borders. If I can get a missionary safely to the other side of Hill city, then I’ll have religion and two more cultural buildings to work with there.

What’s brown and sticky?

Finally here’s the stats and culture. Not a pretty picture, but I just have to stick with it!

Well, after reading the other reports it is now confirmed what I knew already: I suck bigtime ! Knowing that I'll present my turns...

First of all I was told my army is hopeless. Nice.



Then Joao came bullying. Well, I'll not forget that as I'll put your cities to the torch later...



Finally found a city at Gems-spot.



No Pyramids for me. Thanks to Roosey !



Time to get rid of Japan.



The coastal city is rather well defended, but I have sufficient arms in place.



Captured and kept.



I hate those hill cities. Fortunately there were only 2 Archers in it.



Burn. Japan destroyed ? No.

Toku had planted another annoying hill hideout.



But finally, in 400 AD, it was accomplished. Toku is dead.



Meanwhile I was trying for wonders. The Parthenon for example.



Whipped it in Paris as I didn't want to lose it.



Kyoto then came up with another one:



The SoZ will be good for my future wars...

I got my first GP, but instead of a Priest it's a very low odds Artist. Grrr. I wanted the Shrine !



I decided to merge him into my future Globe/National Epic city.

The stats:




Well, I don't know what to say about this game. It feels like my usual Monarch experience. The AI is ahead in tech and on the verge of pulling away further. Joao will found Taoism next. I already missed out on Christianity. All the same, then I must get those religions the hard way. With troops. Kyoto now houses the Heroic Epic and can build Axes 1 per turn. I plan on heading Construction/HBR after Music for War Elephants/Cats. The AI will have Longbows by that time, but I think I will be able to come up with overwhelming numbers. We'll see. I feel that I have not played well with the early rush, as it ended 400 AD. It slowed me down considerably. Others executed this way better.

What makes my game so different is that Joao has REXed aggressively towards my and stole the Marble spot and is also close to other sites. Doesn't make it easier. But at least the way to the front is shorter...

So this is the turnset where we really start to focus on culture so the objectives I set myself where

1. Grab Philosophy with a Great Sicentist completing my 3 religions
2. Build most of my 8 / 9 cities
3. Spread all 3 religions to the vast majority of my cities
4. Secure the Sistine Palace, Parthenon would be nice but not essential
5. Start Accumulating Great Artists
6. Don’t forget to maintain a very healthy economy

So..

Some elements of the plan were easy.

My capital would be the wonder-hog and there was a prime site for my 6th city which would also secure Marble (for Parthenon and Sistine Palace)

Research

No when Alphabet came in 300BC I face a key cross roads. The two routes were:-
a) Maths – Drama – Music which would probably be fast enough to secure the Great Artist or
b) Try and sneak in the key tech on our map of Calendar
unlocking stacks of resources but endangering the free Great Artist. (I wasn’t worried about losing Sistine Chapel as being industrious + marble I would willingly back myself in a race)

Now as I had a strong economy all 3 AI where willing to trade with me buit it was only towards the end they had worthwhile techs..

In the end Techs went
300BC Alphabet
275 BC Sailing & Meditation via trade
150 BC Mathematics
50 AD Calendar
100 AD Monarchy via trade for CoL
250 AD Drama then Philosophy from Great Scientist

520 AD Music (No free Great Artist)
580 AD Literature
700 AD Construction from a trade
760 AD Civil Service which picked up feudalism & Metal Casting via Trades
At the end I am setting out on the Liberalism line.

Expansion

Well Alexandria was founded in the spot shown above in 75BC and soon hooked up the key resource of Marble. Other than that 1 fill in city was founded in 560 BC in a position where it can help to grow the Capitals cottages.

This puts me on 7 cities so I need potentially two more and 1 will definitely go for the fish and Green Dots are alternative sites for the last one.

Wonders

Well the Capital went and got Parthenon & Sistine Chapel and is now getting round to the National Epic

Relations

Who says Toku is a PITA, he just needs a shared religion and avoiding close borders et al..


And yes when I say peaceful look at the size of my end turn army and combat experience. The ultimate peaceful game so far..

Great people

We have 2 farmed Great Artists it would have been nice to have the extra one from Music but we needed Calendar..

EOT Report


We have a healthy economy as promised


Culture nothing special but it will come.
Religion well spread ready for mass building phase

Not much to say.....
My turnset started with some not so heart-warming news:

Oh well... wasn't expecting much anyway

Better news came soon:

All running smoothly in that sector... the stage was set for the Oracle tech:

My plan is to give the shrine to the second city as a source of culture and to let our third later to be bombed or even sushied, letting our capitol to do the most of the wonders....

Another day, another tech....


Soon I was ready for my third city:

I know that the positioning of this city is arguable ( I'm not sure if putting it in the hill is the best long term option) , but I expect winds of war from toku or from João ( the guy is already making those pushy cities ), so making a hill city looks sound. Not sure if this will be the 3rd Leg....

After a slave revolt in capitol ( grrr...) and some barb action ( nothing serious: I've a Portuguese and a Jap archers fogbusting the NE for me ), I founded my 4th city:

Not a bad city, but it was made mainly for blocking wash from getting North...

And then a nice tech for a Ind civ arrived:

Backtracked for Poly ASAP ( Parth power ). After that I'll follow to Drama and Music ( maybe maths in the middle for extra chop power )

And then people started asking for OBs... no, my dear ReX people, the NE is mine....


Some intel from the end of the turnset:

Map ( Not much of exploring )


And F8 ( or 3 leg.... BTW that is the name that in the north of Portugal people gave to tripod benchs )


Small apointements:

I'm seeing a war coming soon.... the ReX people are without room and they became all budhist ( well that may change with the expected shrine, but that is hardly reliable ).
We have 3 civs and 2 religions lacking.... Good sign or not? Not sure