The Immortal Alphabet Game #15 - India

Hellblazer Continents, Opponents are picked, no other alterations made

A. Children of Peace
- - - - - - - - - - - - - -

[Final population (in millions, rounded to the nearest ten million) / 10] - 1
e.g. 38 million = 40/10 = 4 pts => -1 = 3 pts

B. Followers of Peace
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

[# of cities where your religion is majority at game end (rounded to the nearest 10) / 10] -1
e.g. 17 cities = 20/10 = 2 pts => - 1 = 1 pt

C. Wonders of Peace
- - - - - - - - - - - - -

[# of points for Wonders built at game end (visible in the Victory Progress screen, rounded to the nearest hundred) / 100] - 1
e.g. 200 for wonders = 2 => -1 = 1pt
BONUS 1pt for each of Taj Mahal and Red Fort

D. Happy Peace
- - - - - - - - - -

Happiness at game end (rounded to the nearest ten) / 10
e.g. 45 happiness = 50/10 = 5pts

E. Early Peace
- - - - - - - - -

Turn of win

<T250 = 3 pts
T250 - T280 = 2 pts
T281 - T300 = 1 pt

F. Great Peace
- - - - - - - - - -
Final score (leaderboard version) above 2500 = 3 points

G. Prophets of Peace
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1 point for each Great Prophet gained (popped/produed/bought/gifted) -2

H. Neighbours of Peace
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Finish the game with 6 green diplomatic modifiers with a civ with which you share your continent = 3 pts

I. Resolutions of Peace
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Pass World Religion = 1 points
Pass World Ideology = 2 points

J. Points of Peace
- - - - - - - - - - - -
(FPT + CPT on turn of VC, rounded to nearest hundred / 100 )
e.g. 99 FPT and 254 CPT = 353 PT = 400/100 = 4pts

Elephant rush Zulus who have Impis on turn 85. War is not really an option here since there's a significant mismatch in the UUs of your neighbor and yourself, so I'm going to assume a different strategy will have to work here

Did you not notice all the references to peace?

Uh, yeah... peace? Saw the start and drooled over Petra. Settled 2 NE, thinking it looked like more desert that way. I guess there's only 5 desert hills. Met Shaka early, so left units SE of Ulundi to block his forward settle. I planned to settle SW of Mt Fuji for defense, but later I found Mt Sinai, so settled away from him instead. Sent my first Caravan to Mumbai as it is food poor.

Pantheon (DF) t26 and founded first t54 (Tithe and Holy Warriors). I figured I wouldn't have time to build units, what with ToA and HG to build... They went t53 and 54, yikes! Is this Deity? Built some Workers; bought, built, and faith bought 6 Archers and a War Elephant; and finished Petra t89. Started teching for Engineering but someone already built the GW t89.

Sooooo, not sure this game will even be worth it. He will come flying down and easily pillage 3 unique lux immediately. Shaka will have Impis in a few turns, and I will finally have some CBs - likely 30-40 turns before XB. Nobody else to bribe him against - I gave him a Silver to hit Germany - he already took one expo. I don't see any decent ocean spots for a 4th city.

The usual plan with Shaka is settle in his face and just pump out units. I may have to reload and try that, but that wouldn't be peaceful...

The continent has no Iron. Edit edit - Whoops - just the 2 near me.

Bah, missed Taj Mahal by one turn. Neb is running away with this one (13 wonders). Didn't even try for Red Fort as Poc is in the game, no way for that one.

Biggest frustration is I (again) misread the Achievements. Somehow I missed the Diplo VC, and didn't go into Patronage - went into Commerce - will never get those policies back. Also, with Peace in every sentence I somehow missed that there are no points for peaceful play of any kind. DOF with Shaka, but he's suddenly giving horrible trades, hmmmmmm. I have kept him sort of hemmed in with 9 units around Mt Fuji - figuring he can't see tiles to make a waypoint in front of Delhi. He finally eliminated Germany, I have 4 green modifiers with him, but I doubt that will last. Tempted to resurrect Germany and snipe Berlin. Also considering finally plopping a city by Mt Fuji. Should be able to kill a lot of units there.

I also bungled my religion - I Enhanced before anyone else even founded, so I could have had 2 faith buildings, or food rel buildings instead of HW. Production in my first 3 cities is through the roof, so building units has never been an issue. Plus, for the first time ever I took Defenders of the Faith, which means in an offensive war he gets the bonus!!!

I've emphasised DiploV in the OP so hopefully no one else makes a total Love Pump of their strategy!

My plan is to ICS the continent and go for very high population.

My warrior and scout went the wrong way and I only got 2nd pantheon, took the gold and silver one. Went 3 city Liberty and spammed elephants. Eliminated the Zulus on T70, Germany T91. Bismarck founded a religion after I took his capital, so Hannover is a holy city and I can't raze it.

Enhanced religion with a GP from Liberty finisher. I took Tithe, Pagodas and food from shrines and temples. Will go Piety next.

The map is fantastic. So many resources, very few trash tiles, nice river systems, good hill/flatland ratio. A great continent to spam cities on.

I beelined Machu Picchu after the wars to fix my economy and planted 3 more cities in the crucial spots (Furs, Sinai with a citadel bomb, Fuji). I'm not sure if I'm going to expand any further pre-ideologies. I have Forbidden Palace, all the Pagodas are up, many cities have happiness buildings, but I'm still sitting on 6 happiness only. I'll get a couple of Caravels up soon, perhaps with some trading partners I can get additional luxuries. I think I have enough spots for 20 cities.

Policies: Full Liberty -> Piety to cheaper buildings -> Patronage opener for FP -> Secularism (burned a GA and a GW). Aristocracy will be next, I think, then Freedom. Sistine would help a lot with the policies, it might be too late to build it now though.

Achievement points:
Once I met everyone my happiness jumped to over 30 thanks to lux trades, so I managed to plant all my 22 cities pre-ideology. I actually never had any happiness problems after finishing off Germany, and during the final 30ish turns happiness was going up, not down.

I took Aristocracy, then Secularism, then Universal Suffrage. Easily won World's Fair and dumped all the culture into Commerce, which was perfect both for the massive happiness boost and gold purchasing discounts. I ended up faith-buying 3 Great Merchants too, at 1800 gold and 30 influence each they were pretty useful.

Once I had good gpt I stopped micromanaging, selected food focus and just watched my cities grow, occasionally rush-buying Hospitals and other buildings. CN Tower brought me extra 20 million population in the end.