seeking advice/feedback for Polynesia.

I'm thinking of playing Polynesia in an upcoming MP game (Standard-sized Continents map with five AI-controlled Civs alongside three human players). The MP games we play take a large investment in time, so I try to limit myself to Civs that feel unique in the way they play. For this reason, I don't usually consider a Civ unless it offers a path to victory that standard Civs already follow.

This is why Civs like Spain with it's focus on exploration and Natural Wonders (and the flexibility settling them with OWN offers), Brazil with its late game Carnivales and autocratically-flavored Concert Tours, or Egypt/Byzantium with their Faith-fueled Sacred Sites tourism appeal to me so much. They give me a very different path to a CV than I'd take with France (a staple Civ of mine).

Which brings us to Polynesia. They've certainly got some unique things going for them. The idea of sailing the seas early and settling all the tiny, research-rich islands I can find sounds really fun, but after that it seems like they quickly find themselves on the standard path to a Cultural Victory. For that reason, I'm worried they'll wind up playing like France, but with more beachfront property. There's the possibility of playing them aggressively, but since England is another staple Civ of mine, I fear it too would feel too familiar.

Is there any way to play Polynesia towards a CV that doesn't follow the same by-the-numbers technique regular Cultural Civs do? Or are they already outside-the-box enough to where I'd feel like I'd be playing a truly unique Civ with a fresh take on an old play style? As always, thanks for any feedback you guys can offer.

How did you arrive at the conclusion that any civ is locked in to a specific victory type? I'm not an MPer, but it's my understanding that 1) MP games are almost always won by domination and 2) the only way to realistically win a MP CV is with Futurism since your opponents would otherwise have time to react to your mounting victory.

Dushku said:

How did you arrive at the conclusion that any civ is locked in to a specific victory type?

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I never said they were. Someone can win a Domination Victory with Korea or a Science Victory with Mongolia if they choose to do so. But certain Civs obviously lend themselves to certain victory types, and I personally prefer to embrace that fact and roll with what the Civ's good at.

Dushku said:

I'm not an MPer, but it's my understanding that 1) MP games are almost always won by domination and 2) the only way to realistically win a MP CV is with Futurism since your opponents would otherwise have time to react to your mounting victory.

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I MP with friends, so it's not hyper-competitive. We don't concern ourselves worrying about which tier a Civ falls on, we don't mind coming up short on non-Domination victory attempts, the games usually last a lot longer than what I suspect most MP games do, etc. I imagine our MP games play more like SP games with multiple human players in them than a typical MP Civ 5 FFA game.

I tried them out in SP to get a feel for them. The ability to explore the oceans from the start definitely gave them a distinct early game feel, even if the pursuit of a Cultural Victory meant I eventually found myself on a heavily-beaten path. Looking for potential islands to settle to maximize Moai did enough to make them feel like more than "just France with more beachfront property".

All the bonuses from first contact with City-States and isolated ruins added up quickly, and I was able to found a pantheon without trying for one. I took God of the Sea, thinking the extra production from the many Fish resources I found myself settling near would help out with early development. In retrospect, I would have taken One With Nature and gone out of my way to settle near the Natural Wonders I discovered, even if the coasts they were near weren't ideal for Moai.

I wound up filling out the Exploration tree, thinking all my early exploration would give me a leg up on excavating all Hidden Antiquity Sites. If I had a do over I think I'd fill out the Piety tree and use the Faith output from the Natural Wonders (both Uluru and Mt Sanai were within workable distance from coastal tiles) to fuel a Sacred Sites run instead. Sending out an army of Archaeologists was a bit more monotonous than I'd expected it to be. All my excavation did lead me to muse that Great Archaeologists - styled after Indiana Jones of course - could have been a fun addition to the game, but I digress.

Anyway, Polynesia turned out to be quite fun. I do think they'll find their way into my MP Civ rotation.

They're crazy over powered on an ocean map. You get pretty much all the goodie huts and you get to settle in the best spots, not just the closest ones.

darkace77450 said:

Is there any way to play Polynesia towards a CV that doesn't follow the same by-the-numbers technique regular Cultural Civs do? Or are they already outside-the-box enough to where I'd feel like I'd be playing a truly unique Civ with a fresh take on an old play style?

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Polynesia begs the player to go wide. But going wide always seems to make CV harder for me. Or have CV players cracked that problem? (Not counting SS exploit.) If not, then I think that wide-play alone makes Polynesia quite interesting for CV! They may be the only civ that can pull it off easily.

I used to play Polynesia constantly, if you can get a good economy going you can easily win a diplomatic victory. You find all the hidden city states first, if you have good science the world congress can be yours right from the get go. Then get the world religion and ideology to be yours, and you're on track to win.

Though this is a multiplayer match so you may want get standing army tax and nuclear non-profileration first. Alternatively have a giant army of your own to defend your land and city states. To combat coups you may want to put spies into your primary city states, you'll have techs stolen constantly if you're in the lead for tech, but your spies will be leveled up from catching people attempting to steal, so they'll be very affective.