The Deity Challenge Lineup - Game # 5 - The Inca

The Inca are probably my favorite civ, and this map was perfect for them. I went 4 cities Tradition and settled them pretty fast to make sure I got the dirt I wanted. My final city annoyed Hiawatha and Ashur, and I was hearing about it until I launched. I stole 2 workers from a CS, 4 from Russia, and built another one to keep up with growth. I had to buy a lot of tiles to keep growing, and I let my CS alliances lag to compensate.

I had great food and production to start. I opened scout/scout/shrine/monument/scout/granny/settler/2 slingers/2 settlers. I got turn 103 Education and bought 2 unis right away, building the other 2 in my smaller cities that needed time to run specialists anyway. Production was never an issue in my expos, and I was able to get my culture buildings up fairly early to help border growth. I planted 4 musicians too. I got beat to the Oracle, PT, and Hubble by Sejong, but I did build the Machu, LToP, Big Ben, and the SoL.

I founded Judaism and Swords really helped, but eventually I was indoctrinated in Eastern Orthodoxy and I took advantage of Jesuit Scholars for 2 research labs. I could have fought back with a 500 faith prophet but decided to just let it slide. I got Plastics on T191 with Oxford and bought the other two labs with gold. I was too busy winning the World's Fair to time up Oxford properly for Radio and get everything else done in the capital that I needed to, so I hit the next best target.

On the diplo side of things, I put together a solid game that included tributes to anyone who was threatening and at least 1 DOF with everyone. Ashur was the bad guy most of the game, but Korea up and wiped out Rome with advanced units late in the game. He became the bad guy, but I got off the rock before things got too tense due to my DOF with him.

Gold was tight for most of the game, so I made the executive decision to save the Rationalism finisher until the very end of the game, possibly even missing it, to make sure I had my gold discounts in place early enough to help with buildings. I went Tradition, then mixed Rationalism, Freedom, and Commerce together as needed. I finished Rationalism and bought a GS on turn 239 (and wasted some overflow in the process), bulbed it and bought the engine on turn 240, and launched on 241. If there had been one more cultural CS on the map I think I could have shaved some turns off the end but overall I'm pretty happy with how everything timed out. I built science instead of museums and broadcast towers, so there may have been some room there too.

I promise I'll remember to set the game to English next time

Well, it was a smooth Science game. I went for freedom science, following Acken's guide and was surprised how much easier it is to buy spaceship parts than build them Went tradition, patro opener, commerce up to cheaper building buying, full ratio, 6 policies in freedom. No GP for faith, as I spent everything to spread and buy pagodas. After ideology I got -40 happiness pressure because OF COURSE I was the only one who went freedom
I warred just once with Mongolia to free Monaco. After that made peace and watched how Mongolia got slowly consumed by Russia and the Iroqua
Anyway, great map for a Deity beginner, no surprise there are so many finishers I'll pic up some culture map next and try to pull CV off

4 city tradition since the terrain was so full of hammers liberty didnt make sense.
Workers stolen from russia/mongol/hanoi. I made peace too soon with hanoi, didnt realise that i needed more than 6 workers with the massive growth.

Mongol and Assyria looked dangerous so i went construction - NC - machinary (t104) before education. Genghis took monaco (my ally.. trad fin delayed) and then declared on me around T90 but i managed to liberate monaco with CB alone. Assyria declared on mongol, so genghis gave me a good peace deal.

Russia built TOA so I marched my XB up and razed St Peters/ captured Moscow. Meanwhile Assyria wiped out Mongols so i made peace with russia and marched army down. razed 2x assyria cities and took capital, in peace assyria gave me 3 cities (he conquered my ally monaco for second time...) so i ressurrected mongols and liberated monaco. No warmonger hate after that, assyria was war target for whole world (suicide mongol declared on him later and was wiped for second time)

Went full blown infra, reached plastics at T186 with winning WF somewhere around that time as well. I miss counted CS so I found the last rel CS at that time as well...

With IG won i had enough SP for comm 3. Last part bought self funded on T219.

If anyone has some sci tips for me it would be good. I had 1 GS extra and i lost about 4 turns of overflow at the end since i didnt really care. 0 WLTK in cusco didnt help (whales....)

Social Policies: Full Trad, Full Rat, Comm 3, Freedom 6.

Wonders: Machu Pichu, Big Ben, PT, SOL, Neusch. Moscow had TOA and Boro but Assur had nothing.

Rel: Mother Earth, Mosques, Tithe, Swords, RT. Bought 1x sch and 1x lab in Moscow.

World Congress: WF (won), IG (won), WI (freedom) at end for fun.

T71 3 city NC
T105 Education
T158 ST
T205 Plastics
T217 Internet

Stole workers off Russia, a couple more from Ragusa, for total of 7. Planted 2 more cities after NC, while capital worked on Oracle, then Hagia Sophia due to high hammers. Used expos to build the additional settlers. All 5 cities had observatories.

Rome was getting beat on both wonders, and later when I decided to DoW Mongolia to liberate Monaco, he denounced me and remained hostile, so I was never able to get OB from him.

18 wonders in total.
Wonders in Cusco in order: Oracle, Hagia Sophia, Machu Picchu, Leaning Tower of Pisa, Forbidden Palace, Eiffel Tower (GE), Louvre, Broadway, Statue of Liberty, Big Ben, Great Firewall, Hubble Space Telescope (GE)

In Expos: Porcelain Tower, Cristo Redentor, Sydney Opera House (GE), CN Tower, Neuschwanstein, Pentagon

Missed Sistine Chapel, Uffizi to Rome, which had a huge capital with HG, ToA and Petra.

Religion: Earth Mother, Tithe, Mosques, Religious Community, IP
Russia and others would keep converting my cities until I use my units to block.

WC: Passed WF(won), +3 culture from WW, IG(won), world religion

SP: Full tradition, Patronage opener, Full Aesthetics, Rationalism up to free thought, Exploration opener, Commerce opener, Right side Liberty, Freedom 6

It was a lot more SP than expected with only 2 culture CS, one of them was conquered extremely early until I liberated from Mongolia.

Bribed Assyria against Mongolia, Iroquois against Rome, and no more bribes until I bribed Mongolia against everyone prior to my DoW on him around 140 to liberate Monaco, and raze his forward settled city. Was unable to get his capital or core cities. Eventually Mongolia would be eliminated by Assyria and Russia after several more wars. At some point, Rome warred with Brazil, Korea, Iroquois. All of them my friends, so he hated me even more. Eventually entire world denounced him, after me gaining friendship of every other civs except Mongolia. Extremely odd that Korea went Honor and had horrible science this game. There was no danger of invasion, even if there was one, it was extremely easy to defend due to mountain choke points. Russia eventually joined me as Freedom so there is even less to worry about.

In the end, no faith bought GM, all natural born ones used to fill Broadway. No concert tour due to distance to Rome and unwillingness to gift a city and DoW. Only used faith to buy artists for more great works, and 2 GE.

Also had insane happiness at the end, at 83