RBC-14B Netherlands Deity

So we are the Dutch, we play a deity level game and our goal is a Victory Point win, without waging wars in Europe! VP's can be gotten by bringing back treasure units to our homeland (1000 VP each). We have to get a total of 35,000 VP's. These treasure units can be obtained by having mines, factories, trapper camps, and plantations near resources. While this all sounds very logical, I have no idea what it means atm. This is my first attempt at this scenario!

We are very small. Three cities on the edge of the map. Our traits are agricultural and seafaring, very useful for this scenario. We start with Navigation, Education, Exlporation and Astronomy. Wonders that we already can build:

Dias' voyage: gives us extra ship movement and a colonist every 8 turns. This colonist is a settler that only requires one citizen from a city.
Navigation scholl: increases or ship movement by two and gives an explorer every 10 turns. This is a small wonder, which everyone can build.
Copernicus: same as in the epic game

Anyone with a good general strategy? I assume that we have to grab as many resources and luxuries as we can to produce the treasures? I made a roster, but comments are welcome. I didn't put myself at the start, because my experience with this scenario is zeor. That was the case with other scenarios as well (the Danes in medieval times), but after a good discussion and clear gameplan the first turns turned out to be quite easy to play.

ROSTER:
-Ridgelake
-Aggie
-Yom
-barbslinger

Umm, can I join, or is it too late already?

As for strategy, I've played this scenario in Singel Player as The Spanish on Monarch and whomped the computer's butt. I'd reccomend puting our first colony on the Panamanian Isthmus, as that will allow us quick access to both oceans (and the ability to move troops/settlers between them), also try to send colonists to some of the better African areas, as they are closer to Europe, and therefore have less corruption (not to mention that hauling Swag back to your capitol will be much easier). But those are just a few observations I made while playing my Reagent game. As for luxuries, there are only 2 luxury resources: Ivory & Wines, all others (except fish and whales) are strategic. Since Gem, Gold and Silver mines produce treasures the fastest, try to grab as many of them as possible (the particular game I alluded to I was getting over 5000 VP/5 turns, and that was only because I was having trouble keeping unit and ship production up with the treasure production).

Hi Hikaro Takayama. I think that 4 is a maximum for a game with 150 turns. But there are porbably other SG's in this series with open spots. You could check out this RBCiv discussion thread

Okay, then, I guess I'll just haveta start my own SG.

Oh, and one more thing about possible strategies for this Scenario, when it becomes feasible, try to steal the Enslavement tech from the NA civs, that way you can research ballgames in a fairly short time, and (if you followed the previous suggestion) get access to some rubber in either southern Mexico or Northern SA, and build ball courts. Ball courts make 4 unhappy citizens content, cost about as much shields as a cathedral, and generate 8 culture per turn, with only 1 gpt upkeep, so this is a strategy worth trying. It worked wonders (no pun intended) in my game.

Thanks for the tips

I know that when I played as the French one time the Dutch got very powerful controlling the islands near Europe. I can't remember if there is a big enough island near Europe for a core but the Dutch was powerful. They didn't go for the big presence in America though. I think it may be advisable to try to get the Dia's Voyage and really settle, as Hikaro states, the African areas for treasure and the other islands as much as possible. If we can't declare, I presume we can retaliate upon a foreign aggressor and that Paris would be nice to have.
I am a noob though except for one crack at Emporer as France. I was well on my way to victory in that game with a core in America set up in the Bayou country from Florida to Virginia and over towards St. Louis. I had also knocked out Spain and then went to bed and never continued. I can open the map for resource locations. I don't know if this is spoiler because I'm sure many people have played this scenario.

Checking in. I have not played this scenario yet, so I am in the same boat as you, Aggie. I will open the game and try to familiarize myself with things and comment. Aggie, do you want me to start it off or someone more experienced with this scenario?

Ridgelake, I'm OK with you starting this. Do we need to discuss this further before you start? Or is it relatively straight forward?

I looks like we have to start an initial landgrab on the other continent.

I think we want to research Printing Press, to get the colonist. And also Colonization and Mining appear to be important. Piracy -getting the Privsateer- appears to be a very useful tech as well. One of the goals is to prevent an other European civ from getting the VP's...

Regarding goverment types: Protestantism appears to be a good government, but we have to research/buy a non-required tech.

I'm thinking that if we have 2 ships to send out initially we should send a settler, defense and a WORKER to get the jump on the other civs in developing a new core. I don't know if we have 2 initial workers but if we do we can quickly replace him. If we go the settling america route, and if we can get the land near Virginia, we can build a nice core there. One ship should then tour south to pick up the other contacts from the natives for cash and contact trade value.

Checking in. I'm pretty much a noob at this scenario, as I've only played once as the Aztecs (and I never finished the game) so I really don't have much to say until I take a look at the civilopedia.

I think I played Spain at Monarch level. Cuba would be a great place to settle.

LOL, looks like most of the teams are going for Cuba! I have a question if you guys don't mind:

Are you going to bring a worker to chop the forest there so you can grab the ideal spot(river & fish I think,) or just settle next to the forest? Same thing really goes for a few other places(like Florida.)

Ok, I will get this started. I like your ideas, barbslinger. I will try to get something up by Sunday night US time.

Edit, do we want to follow Gobi Bear's "style" guidelines and declare war on Spain for the first 80 turns? Here are his comments

Personally, I wouldn't do so. The game's going to be hard enough with three crammed cities on diety. But if the rest of the team agrees, I'll go along with it.

Ridgelake, we should not declare war on Spain and should generally avoid wars in Europe.

RBC14B Dutch

1490AD (0) The French, Spanish, Portuguese, and English start on Sistene.

Load a settler, explorer, and pike into a galleon and set sail. A worker, pike, and MDI in another to join it.

Brussels starts on a worker. Amsterdam on Navigation School, and Antwerp on MDIs. Printing press due in 13 at max science and –36gpt per turn. We have 500 gold to start

Diplo check reveals that all Euro countries are at peace and have about the same map. I send out one of our two remaining boats to fogbust a bit. I expect these to be brought back once we have PP and can make colonists.

1491 (1) snooze

1492 (2) pick up about 20 gold selling maps. Our boats are about to make landfall.

1493 (3) Brussels worker to explorer. Sell maps around.

1494 (4) same

1495(5) Make contact with the Iroquois and sell them Alphabet for their WM and 110gold. They have 2 cities and are located approximately where New York City and Buffalo are located. I also see furs that are unclaimed. I sent our settler north and he is in the artic ocean north of Canada. I will drop them off to settle south.

I now sell Iroquois contact and WMs around to get about 125 gold.

1496 (6) drop off settler, pike and explorer in north Canada. That boat continues to explore to the west. Another boat is going down south. The other with the units is going to drop off in Canada as well.

1497 (7)

IT France demands 50gold and TM. I cave.

1498(8) I find gold in the Caribbean islands

France made first contact with the Maya and Aztecs. Our WM gets us contact with the Maya. I sell them writing for 50 gold.

1499(9) Our WM bring contact with the Aztecs. We now have all contacts. Every turn, we make a lot of gold from map trades.

1500(10) Our settler is on a spot that can get furs, iron, and fish, all in its second ring. I recommend it.

We get PP in 2 turns. That allows for Colonists and we should make several. We need to settle, settle, settle. Our home lands will be maxed out for shields soon. Probably in 15 more turns. Then, we can move them to the West.

The Rocky Mountains seem to have a lot of gold. Gold seems to be the best resource for making VPs.

My thought is to stay to the North and exploit Canada and the Western US. Those seem to be good territories and hopefully will not be heavily fought over.

Good luck, and have fun!




The Game

Well, I learned a few things:

1) Cities can only be founded on open tiles. No founding on forests. They must be cleared first. That wonderful site that I pointed out doesnt work. Instead, I would try the spot due east of teh furs on the river/lake.

2) Ocean tiles take 2 movement points off boats.

Got it.

ROSTER:
-Ridgelake
-Aggie------>up
-Yom------->on deck
-barbslinger

I agree with settle, settle, settle in western Canada and America.

Should I simply contstantly build colonists in Antwerp and Brussels while Amsterdam finishes the Navigation school? Also, the 2nd settler could go to the hill on the lake, S of the fish, NW of the furs and with iron two tiles NW. Is that a good spot?

EDIT: We have only 1 settler So that should go back to the furs?