RBC-14C Cultural French

Pre-Turn: Not too much MM’ing to do, our cities are in good shape. I swap our most productive cities to some type of prebuild, either Bank or Colosseum, in anticipation of getting the rubber connected soon. Paris has nothing to use, so it builds a Musketeer. I can back science off to 80% and still get Mining in 2. Spend a little cash, rushing workers in Fort Dusq. And S.St. Marie, to be sent to the rubber. Also rush a temple in Palenque and a Courthouse in Guyanna. Tobacco is considered a strategic resource, so it’s tradeable. I sell some to Spain and Netherlands for 9gpt each. Also sell maps around, netting about 7g.

IBT: Palenque-Temple>Spice Factory, Guyanna-Court>Worker, S.St. Marie-Worker>worker, Ft. Dusq.-Worker>Tobacco, St. Louis-Colonist>worker.

1561: Move 3 MDI and a Musketeer S toward the Mayans. Rush a temple in Chichen.
IBT: We enter the Renaissance as we complete Mining, start immediately on Free Artistry. Paris completes the musket, starts another as pre-build. Chichen-Temple>court, Quebec generates another treasure.

1562: Sell Mining to the Dutch for 57g+62gpt, Spain for 30g+11gpt, I could have gotten Professional Armies, but it just adds 10 to the cost of our Pikes, so I pass. England has no money. Workers land at Palenque. Spend a little gold hurrying workers in several cities. Also load 2 pikes from the continent to send toward the New World.
IBT: A Privateer sails out of the fog to sink our Carrack full of MDIs.
Probably Spanish, it came from the area around Panama City. Louisburg-Worker>Court, Guy-Work>Library, Ft. Du Chatres-Worker>Court, Praire du Rocher-Worker>Court.

1563: 3 Workers road the Rubber in one turn. Rush Harbor at Chichen. St. Phillipe is founded NE of St. Louis. Our forces are positioned to attack Copan:
Vet MDI kills Reg Spear, losing 1hp
Vet MDI dies to reg Spear.
Elite MDS kills reg Spear, losing 4hp, taking Copan and a worker. (Has Gold and Silver)
Vet Musketeer kills reg Archer in the open, which triggers our Golden Age! [dance]
I check for minor adjustments, we can now get Free Artistry in 6 turns at 100%.
IBT: Chichen-Harbor>Court

1564: Swap our pre-builds to Ball Courts. Islands (Ville Marie, etc) will need harbors first.

1565: Nothing much, workers start to clear some forests. Take our two treasures from Quebec, with 2 reg pikes, and send them home.
IBT: Marseilles is first to complete, Ball Court>Bank (Pre for Art Guild), Baton Rouge-Worker>worker.

1566: Rush temple in Copan, move troops to Tikal.
IBT: Copan-Temple>Court, S.St. Marie-Worker>worker.

1567: Several GPT deals finally, so there should be some money available, but England already got Mining, so we don’t have much to sell but maps. I do get 7gpt from Spain for Dyes, and sell wine for 4gpt and tobacco for 4gpt to England. Rush the Ball Court in Guyana for 528g, we want to maintain cultural dominance here. Battle of Tikal:
Elite MDI kills reg spear, losing 2
Elite Musketeer kills reg spear, losing 4
Vet Musket kills unfortified reg spear, losing 1, and Tikal is ours.
IBT: Paris, Brest, Quebec, Guyana all complete Ball Courts, start pre-builds for Art Guilds. New Orleans-Harbor>Ball Court, Louisburg generates a treasure.

1568: Pikes have returned home, so I cash in the two treasures, netting 400g. We don’t want to do too many, but a few now can pay for some key rushes. I rush the Harbor at Ville Marie, and temples in Tikal and St. Phillipe.
IBT: Free Artistry comes in, what to research next? Mercantilism is tempting, but I would guess the AI will go after that as well, so I go for Counter-Reformation. It allows Jesuit Colleges, another culture building (although at 200sh for 2cpt, not a great value), but also allows Missionaries. These are 30sh invisible units, that can enslave Archers, Spears, and native Unique Units into workers. Also spot other invisible units. I think they will be useful to protect and/or expand our new world holdings. It will only take 6 turns at 100%, then we can decide where to go next. In other news… Lyons-Ball Court>Art Guild, Ville Marie-Harbor>Ball Court, Tikal-Temple>Courthouse, St. Phillipe-Temple>Worker.

1569: Now we can get some money out of our AI friends. Dutch can pay 88gpt+125g for Free Artistry, Spain gives 160+32gpt, England 25gpt+11. Again, I avoid Professional Armies. We should be able to afford to continue rushing where needed, I rush a couple courthouses and a colonist, but leave most of the gold for the next leader.
IBT: Ft. Dusq-Court>Tobacco Plantation, St. Lous-Court>Ball Court, S.St. Marie-Colonist>Court.

1570: Did some worker and troop movements. I have 2 vet pikes headed back to the New World, with an empty Carrack on top as an escort. We will need to build up our navy, once the current round of Ball Courts and Art Guilds are done. There is a Colonist, with a couple workers, S of Copan, there is room for another town there. I have another colonist headed for a spot SW of Quebec, I irrigated the spot I had planned on (doh!), but you can still settle there, or pick another spot. I wouldn’t settle ON the iron, as it can be a productive tile to work, with a courthouse.

I have noticed a few weird things, like Louisburg is not able to build a Spice factory, or Sugar plantation, although there is spice next to it. Maybe it has to be roaded, as well as in the radius? Not sure. Anyway, even if we don’t need the treasures, they act like mini-factories, for 20 shields, not a bad price. As far as the treasures go, we are currently at 6979VP, with 70 turns to go. With minimal combat, we could afford to turn in one every 2-3 turns, without going over the VP limit, but I wouldn’t cut it that close. I would turn in a few more, just to pay for rushes, then I guess we start disbanding them? Not sure how to go about that, probably best to use up some of our regular pikes or free explorers to capture them, (Can an explorer capture one?), and then disband them in a town that needs a few shields. I don’t know the best answer here.

Here’s our map of our New World empire, focused on the former Mayan lands. We could easily stop here and make peace, as we are running out of troops, we barely have enough left to garrison the towns we have. We could try to push further south, but I’m not sure what’s to be gained, at least until we can get some reinforcements over, and that’ll have to wait until after the round of cultural building. Once Missionaries are available, it would be nice to send a few out to ‘worker-farm’, enslave some Mayan troops, as we have a lot of jungle-clearing to do.

OK, here’s our cultural situation now. Paris is at 1298, gaining 26/turn. Even with Shakespeare, Art Guild, and another wonder, I don’t see it hitting the 4,000 mark, but it will certainly be the most cultured city on the map. We could swap over and complete the Art Guild, then back to Shakespeare, no one else has started it yet, and Paris is easily the most productive city on the map. We do want Shakespeare, though, as it will allow Paris to grow beyond 12. When it completes, we will need to re-irrigate several tiles so it can grow.

Civ-wide, we are at 5444, gaining 162/turn. With current projects scheduled to complete in the next 10 turns, we will be at 190, and we can easily rush 2-3 ball courts by then, to push us up over the 207cpt we will need by that point, as you can see in the chart. After that, continue to build and/or rush culture, which will bring our finish date closer, and keep an eye on the VP status of our rivals. Spain is closest, at 5205, but we don’t have a fleet yet to block their treasure flow. Once the high-payoff culture buildings are done (Ball Courts and Art Guilds), I would focus on Privateers, so we can interrupt the flow without provoking a war. They should work best in ‘wolf packs’ of 3-6 ships, since the AI is pretty good at escorting transport ships in C3C.

Here’s the save, have fun with our Golden Age!!

Roster:
Justus II = = > Just Played
Cuivienen = = > Skipped until further notice
Romeothemonk = = > Up now
Grahamiam = = > On Deck

Looks great. Awesome set of turns. I look to get this in the morning tomorrow. Civ-wide culture it is then.

very nice! at some point, after the culture push, we want ship building as we will probably need Man-0-Wars to hold onto our culture, in case someone openly declares. we should also push for new colonies so we can pull this off with some comfort

On my set of turns I will primarily focus on ripping out as much culture as possible. All of my cities builds will be for culture. If the culture builds become exhausted, then I will crank Privateers and Muskets/MDI. For research, I will probably go for the one that allows Newtons, so we can get copernicus and Newtons in Paris. The longer we delay researching shipbuilding, the more expensive it is for the AI's, and the less likely they are to actually research it. I might go after the Milling Tech too, as factories sound cool.

We have 13-14 turns left on our GA, which should be enough time for Conter-Reformation and one other first-row tech, either Scientific Method (Newtons) or Shipbuilding. Newtons' would be nice, if we time it right we can complete Shakespeare's before Newtons' is available, so there will be no cascade. We can make a push for naval supremacy now with Frigates, which is probably a good idea once culture is done, and upgrade to Man-o-war when the tech becomes available. I'd be content to let the AI research that one for us, as we won't need it before they have it, if that makes sense. Mercantilism is another nice tech, the Commercial Docks would be a big boost with several coastal core cities. Definitely need some Privateers, though, so we can interdict their treasure runs without provoking war. We want to keep those gpt payments coming in!

EDIT: Left out the word Shakespeare's, made that sentence sound redundant...

ok, sounds right. no need to give the ai new toys to turn on us

OMG!!! LMAO!!! Don't forget sacrifical altars give you culture as well...and slaves give 40.

Heh, think you guys can get the Temple of Kukulcan? It gives 8cpt, acts as a Leo's, and costs 40.

Kiech said:

OMG!!! LMAO!!! Don't forget sacrifical altars give you culture as well...and slaves give 40.

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those builds are off limits (self imposed, see opening posts) and we shouldn't need them according to Justus' calcs

I'm finally ready to return to my SGs -- I'll take this after romeothemonk.

Pre-turn: Hurry art guild in Paris. Rush courthouse in Louisburg. Sell Granary in Cape Verde (capped at size 2). Change clown in Tikal to Scientist. Advance on Yaxchilian. Various MM. Get WM 33 gold, and 10 gpt from Portugal for FA, everyone else had it already.
IBT: Q bowmen takes 2 HP off of a Musketeer. Portugal and England sign peace. Looooong war.
Turn 1: Paris Guild to Shakespeares. Edinburgh Ball court to guild. Louisburg courthouse to library. Found St. Genevieve. Lose an MDI at Yaxchilian. Rush plantation at fort D. ( I abbreviate city names oddly, sorry).
IBT: Treasure convoys head for Europe. Everyone starts shakespeares.
Turn 2: Marsailles guild to MDI. FOrt D. Tobacco to ball court.
IBT: Privateer (Dutch) sinks a brit ship or 2.
Turn 3: Bordeaux Ball court to guild. Trois rivers pike to guild. Praire fu Rocher court to Ball court. Swap Palenque to Ball court and rush it. Swap CI and St Phillipe to Ball courts. Starving Marsailles for Bordeaux to Produce stuff. Switch back when bordeaux finishes
IBT: Lose a Carrack and an Explorer to privateer. I think our escortless ship days are over.
Turn 4: Marsailles MDI to MDI. Palenqu Ball court to Library. Lose elite musket at Yaxchillian.
IBT English move. Maya start temple of the moon.

Turn 5: counter reformation comes in. Rush ball court in Ville Maire. Counter reformation is not tradeable to England or Dutch. Spain offers nothing but Portugal gives fortification, PA, WM, 196 gold, and 58 gpt. Sorry but couldn't pass up that deal, even though we got PA, it counts for VP for us.
IBT: Ships move.
Turn 6: Marsailles MSI to Jesuit college. Brest guild to duct. Ville Marie ball court to college. Baton rouge worker to LB. Found La-here, rush duct in Brest after disbanding an explorer there. Return a treasure. Swap Edinburg to College, rush ball court in the big easy.
IBT: London builds Luthers Boogie Woogie (Johnny Cash Throwout )
Turn 7: Brest Duct to College. Quebec guild to Cathedral. New Orleans Ball court to Library. Lose 2 more troops attacking Yaxchillian. Get Largento, 23 gold, WM and 3 gpt for peace with Maya.
IBT: Ships do their thing.
Turn 8: Lyon guild to College. Chartes Courthouse to College.
IBT: Not much
Turn 9: rush ball court in CI. Rush Temple in Largento.
IBT: not much.
Turn 10 CI ball court to Library. Sault St Maire courthouse to Ball court. Largento temple to Pike. There is treasure on its way home (Brest) and vairous units remain unmoved. You can probably rush another ball court somewhere. (Think small production cities though).

Some thoughts:
We have 7439 culture and currently make 225 cpt. This will have us win in 56 turns. There are currently 60 turns left in the game.
So rush ball courts only!!! No other building has near the cultural impact. We have 8- 10 cities that can produce ball courts yet. Try and get them to finish them. Try and get colleges in Europe. The culture payoff is low but they also act like universities, making our research that much more dominant.
I would recommend going after medicine next, but you can also go after the tech that allows mills.
We were leading the VP race as well ~8,000 to ~6,000.
Good luck next player, and take us to culture heaven. It looks like we will win this Gobi's way after all.

Got it. (Random spam to lengthen post)

Good turns, romeothemonk!! Sounds like you were making the most of our Golden Age. I want to echo your parting words, I wouldn't rush anything but Ball Courts for now, they are the best cultural value we have. 8cpt for 150 shields, works out to roughly 75g per culture point, slightly better value than the 80 gold/culture for temples. Libraries and Art Guilds are at least twice as much per culture point, and not worth rushing. (Core cities should continue to build the guilds and colleges, though).

Cuivienen, welcome back, hope you were successful with your school work! Make sure to smooth out the transition when the Golden Age ends. Good Luck!

nice set romeo culture looks good, now the task is to hang on to what we got and win this as early as possible

Are any of the civs getting close to winning? The AI should be able to grab a win by turn 100 if no one stops thier boats. I don't think the american civs will be able to beat you.

romeothemonk said:

Some thoughts:
We have 7439 culture and currently make 225 cpt. This will have us win in 56 turns. There are currently 60 turns left in the game.
So rush ball courts only!!!
We were leading the VP race as well ~8,000 to ~6,000.

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Excerpts from my previous posts. It would be key to note that the flow of treasures was impeded by the long early war series. Spain is second in the VP race, but lands their ships right next to our home territory. In 15-20 turns I envision fleets of privateers sweeping the seas around France clean.
This, coupled with the high skill level of the players and the relatively low level of the AI (emporer) means that this should be on controlled coast now.
I have never heard of anyone winning a Civ-wide culture on this conquest. First time for everything, we just have to dot the eyes and cross their bows.
Or some similar mixed metaphor.