The Deity Challenge Lineup - Game # 4 - Sweden

Slowest possible Luxuries start, no thanks

Ok so after finishing Persia #3 I figured why not play #4 since I missed that one too! Wow... what a differnt game this time! Shaka is just being Shaka. I just bribed that bastard to attack Manilla and instead he declares on me 3 turns later lol. At least Germany gave me a DOF so I could sell my furs to him and buy another archer. I might be able to hold him off here but this reminds me of the good old days when you would get smashed by turn 50 in G&K with that fall patch!! Oh ya and look at the barbs helping shaka lol... damn horseman!

Anyway a little about my 60 turn game so far: I really didn't like this start at all. It looked like very low production so I moved the settler 1 hex and seen some hills and more whales so I decided to waste 1 turn and settle on the north river. I built a 7 turn scout and to my dismay this land looked very tough on me to expand. Ofcourse I wasn't able to slow Shaka down because I went after all these ruins that kept popping up and he built his expo close to me taking out the silk. Not that we have many lux options anyway and damn whales take so long to get some work boats up. The good news is my 2 scouts did upgrade to an archer and spearman.

Ok so my B.O. was scout, scout, gran, caravan, scout, 2 turns into library, settler at 6 pop, library, 2x archers.

SP's: I did get a cult ruin very early so Im going with full tradition and I had to take oligarchy first since I seen the war comming.

No good choice that I could see for my expo so I went down by the start and settled on the furs. Trying to get a granary up there now. Shaka was sending me a caravan but it got plundered by a barb and I cleared that camp out and decided to take his worker instead of giving it back. Maybe I should of given it back to get a nice green mod but I needed at least 1 worker. What a tough start. all the CS's I met were under protection and I really had no chance of a woker steal that I could see. It has been a very long time since I haven't been able to steal 4-5 workers.

On the scouting I was hoping to snipe out barbs by bucharest since I had a very early scout/archer but that plan was ruined when Perisa cleared the camp. I still need to meet 2 other civs. So, back to the war. I just wanted to post this early war pic since I may not last long this game

WOW super Shaka. I killed all his warriors and archers and 3 Cats. So I march over to his expo and he has 2 impis, 2 cats and 1 warrior that I can see. He killed 1 of my Comp Bows with his hidden impis! I guess I made the mistake by not stealing his workers and blocking his settler early. I should of given him his worker instead of keeping it lol!! He is at war with me and Germany and a CS and is kicking butt lol! I really am ready to just click exit to windows!! I'll take a rest maybe something even longer like a week or two since Im heading on a cruise for 7 days very soon. Getting rolled is kinda fun after winning game after game after game

After thinking about it for 15mins I think I still can win I mean he is at war with Germany and France just put a city next to his cap so Im sure he will be at war with them soon. Maybe I can sit back here and hope he doesn't send anymore units. Ok so fall back to my Cap and wait and see if 1000 impis come in but honestly this game is a mess already and after reading some spoilers I wish I would of just headed right after him and took him out early like Acken!

Well if Glory_7 had to resign this game... what chance have I really got lol! I tried to retreat and wait but I couldn't stop 3 settlers. I did stop 2 but somehow Shaka snuck in that last one that really just broke my back. Im so far behind this mess I cry UNCLE, UNCLE! Lesson learned... kill Shaka before he kills you! I could play this a 2nd time and win but I have too much information on this map and how to do it so I see no point in playing it over. What a brutal map and start! If you do not play perfect you are pretty much dead in this one. It is nice to see the AI roll me though for a change. That hasn't happened to me since that Fall Patch a year or so ago. I couldn't believe Shaka Settler/Worker baited me lol! I lost my spear stealing that settler which oddly turned back into a worker for Shaka. The only good news I can think of is that I will not be playing this game again and the next time I see Shaka next to me like this Im gonna blitz him every single time! Thanks to Acken for the info and advice for next time

Oh ya and 2 impis almost took my expo lol!!

After a frustrating start where I missed all the wonders I was aiming for (Leaning Tower went on t134, which seemed pretty early), I finally got into the stride of things midgame. Education at t107, ST at around t155 and Plastics at t201. Settling 2 cities on the coast for food cargoes had a huge impact. I also had a stable 4-5 DoF in the midgame, which really helped the GP rate.

The biggest challenge was keeping the reins on Shaka, especially after I got a bit cheeky and did a semi-forward settle. In the early game I decided to spend a ton of gold getting him to DoW as often as possible. After taking out Bismarck and Persepolis he was universally reviled. At one point I got a DoW for 2 coal... By the late midgame I had him fighting every other civ, which was fun to watch He still won...



The plan was to go for DV, but I missed Forbidden Palace. Since I had gotten Shaka to fight everyone, and couldn't keep up with all the money being spent on city states, he captured two city states before I could regain status as an ally. After that I realized I had no chance at a DV and switched to Science. There was no way I could take him on in a fight. That and not getting a religion were the biggest setbacks, and I also had to reload after stupidly losing a settler to a barb camp that popped up, and losing 3 cargoes to a single barb trireme (!). Finishing time could definitely have been faster.

I did the usual early game thingie…..settled on the coastal river spot, sent out scouts, stole a 2 workers and a settler from Austria. Seeing Shaka as my neighbor was a bit irritating, but the lad asked me to DoW far-away Byzantines early on, so I agreed to get on his good side. I then pumped out 2 settlers ASAP and put them right in his face, which saved me later when he started his land grab.

I realized pretty early on that a Diplo victory wasn't going to happen because Persia went full Patronage early and had more money than Gawd. As awesome as Sweden's UA can be, we went back and forth the entire game for most votes in the WC. I lost WF, but came back and won IG (which saved my rear end).

Most of the mid-game was spent playing "block the settler" with Shaka, as I hadn't closed out my borders through growth yet, and he was trying really hard to drive a wedge and split my 4 cities. This kept me from joining in any wars, so I got a lot of DoF's pretty early.

Since Diplo was out, I considered a CV, but France was in the game, and Darius and Shoshone were building every wonder in site, so I focused on science from mid-game on. I only had 1 Observatory city, but it was enough.

I went full Tradition (and the patch really slows things down), Patronage to consulates, 3 in Rationalism, full Freedom, then went back and finished Rationalism and Patronage.

Wonders were Oracle (in 1st expo), PT (very late), SoL (GE), Hubble (GE), and Great Firewall (GE), which saved my rear end again.

I was the only 1 who went Freedom until Germany joined me late. Shoshone started out Autocracy but joined everyone else in Order pretty quickly. Although I was alone in Freedom, happiness was never an issue, mostly due to CS alliances.

At the end, I had plenty of defense, but wasn't strong enough for a big military push, although I could have joined in on the jihad against Shaka and grabbed a few cities. There was a shortage of Aluminum (I had none) and none of my CS allies had any, so I ended up trading horsies for aluminum….a deal I'll make all day long.

Darius became a military and cultural beast. I finished the game as the only civ not influenced by them, and they had me at 94%. I spent the final 10 turns building cultural buildings in my expos to fight them off.

Shoshone also had 5 SS parts built, but I had tech lead so knew I'd get the last part first once I got my $ up to buy the last one.

It's my first time playing Sweden on Deity, and I would have liked to have done more militarily, but the Shaka factor held me back. CS were stingy in GP gifts, as i only got 2. I faith-bought a GS to finish my last tech and paid the 3050 for the final SS part.

(Interestingly, I reloaded back to t317 to see how close Shoshone was to SV. He completed the SS on t321 so it was closer than I thought. It looks like Darius would have had CV over me on about t325)

I tried it out twice now, Shaka didn't really want me around both times even though he wanted to and attack Theo but apparently backed out and came for me instead, whelp

Settled in place, Shaka forgot to scout and got at least 10 ancient ruins(3 pop, 3 gold, mining, couple maps and couple culture). Shaka settled his first 3 cities to the East, saw that awesome city spot to the North of Shaka but held off because well its Shaka. Went 3 city NC, first city to the north 2 tiles NE from kilimanjaro on the river and 2nd city went to the south to pick up all those sea resources(and probably oil). Late NC at turn 110.

Shaka asked me to DoW Byzantine early so I graciously accepted, then Persia DoW Shaka with no bribes. Lucky me Shaka waited to DoW with his damn impi but I got him to DoW Germany. Persia and Shaka wiped out Germany. Maintained 4 DoF most of the game with Theodora, Darius, Pocahontus and Germany/Austria.

My strategy was to gift all great people to city-states and try for a DV. Got arts funding to pass, with my 4 DoF, garden, NE and Aesthetics opener I'm pumping out GA/GM/GW like crazy. Used to GS as academies and gifted the rest(painfully).

Persia and Shaka were the two powerhouses in this game tech and military wise, and both went autocracy. Got them to fight each other(saving Austria who was at war with both). Persia steamrolled the Zullu getting flight first. I own all the city-states now but Persia has 60K in the bank and keeps stealing them from me. Me, Theodora and Pocahontus went Freedom with everyone going autocracy minus France(order). Built only 2 wonders so far SoL and PT(missed FP by one turn to Persia)

I'm at t250 with Persia denouncing me. I have a descent defensive line with 5 great war bombers, 8 infantry, 4 gatling guns and a swordsman. Just waiting for the world leader vote to happen(thought it was modern era when it started but I guess it's atomic)

Paid Persia off to DoW France, he eliminated him(5 cities) in 6 turns. Continuing to fight with Persia for city-states, good thing AI doesn't like to spend though money, he had near 200K in the bank at the end of the game. Darius then DoWed the Shoshone who stood their ground well enough. That's when I realized that Persia needed 3 more turns to become influential with Austria and Shoshone which would win them the game. The world leader vote was also happening in 3 turns but it would be too late as he'd win on the same turn where we'd be voting. Managed to pay him 50GPT to DoW war on Austria which delayed his cultural victory by 2 turns. Built Sydney Opera House, Big Ben and Neuschwanstein while waiting for world leader vote.

OK, so, step by step:

1. It must first be said up front that this is a 2nd play through, so I had complete knowledge of the map, something that helped me considerably putting my strategy together. But I don't discount my win completely - it was still quite hard to achieve on this map, and in real life of course someone plotting huge strategic conquests (like Alexander, Genghis, etc) would have quite a lot of knowledge of the surroundings.

2. The challenge was not to win by Domination, because I'm a little bored of that right now, but to win using Futurism. I've completed 'warring CVs' before, but always with Liberty-Commerce-Rationalism-Freedom, seizing the tech lead and building all the late-game wonders, having taken out all the cultural AIs. This time I wanted to experiment with Futurism, and I have to say that I think with practise I can make this my go-to strategy. It's a little more interesting than sheer domination, but allows me to play the first half of the game as I am used to.

3. Of course, the biggest challenge was getting past Shaka. This is where the 'gamey' side of my play through came. My first 75 turns were completely contrived, I have to say. I went Honor left side and gifted my 1st general to Bucharest to race through the rest of Honor, so I could complete it crazily early and earn enough gold from killing Shaka's Ancient Era units to buy new ones and snowball him into an early grave. I had to get on top of him immediately, and smother him completely. He HAD to be disabled before Impis came online.

4. To achieve this aim, I pre-chose spots for my expos and used my first units to steal his settlers, or push them to settle away from me. I chose Stockholm as a food-poor, hammer-heavy spot so it could pop out my own settlers in 6 turns or less.

5. Once Ulundi was mine, I gave peace as I knew I would struggle to hold off the attempts to retake. I barely took it in the first place. Dead units were quickly replaced, surviving units were by now quite nicely promoted, and upgraded to XBs so the sweep could begin.

6. The key to this strategy is to always go after the lifetime cultural leaders next, so as to be constantly limiting the total culture. This means the battles are harder, but the spoils are greater - more wonders earlier, not just nice for one's own CPT but also great at denying the culture of the AI. Any city without a wonder is razed unless it is a really good strategic location or has lots of luxes.

7. This meant that Darius was next and I had bribed him to war with just about everyone before I came in to find his units away.

8. Persepolis fell quickly, and I was rather fortunate that after I took it, Bismarck backstabbed me and saved me waiting the 9 turns for the DoF to expire. German resistance was light after his wars with Darius and Shaka, and I took Cologne and Berlin.

9. An army of captured workers then built roads west to Vienna and East to Constantinople. Maria Theresa's army was diverted north to Shoshone territory by means of a hefty bribe that I had to keep going while my Eastern conquests were being cemented.

10. Shaka had recovered surprisingly well and had spammed several cities that got in the way of the road to Constantinople, so I had to DoW again and raze these to the ground so I could get through to the first of my cultural wonder cities. Again, Theo was culture leader before I took her out. I seized Constantinople, Napoleon took Adrianople, and after razing all her other cities and stealing the Great Works inside, I DoW'ed Napoleon for the first of a record 8 times. I had decided that to make the game a bit more challenging, Paris would be the capital that I would never take. In some ways this meant that I was playing 'sub-optimally', by delaying victory, but I also think that in some situations Futurism could be faster than DomV because the other capitals you seize will give you enough tourism. I'm not sure.

11. Around this time I reached Archaeology and bought Museums in all my cities. Commerce finisher let me Annex them to achieve this, and I spammed 22 archaeologists and took basically all the antiquity sites for myself.

12. Vienna and Moson Kahni and Adaidika fell in quick succession once I had artillery, as did (French city I can't remember the name of), so no one really had any culture except Napoleon.

13. What was interesting was that after becoming Dominant with the other AIs (the ones I had left alive, that is), they all went Autocracy too, even though Freedom and Order had free tenets on offer. First time I've seen this.

14. Once I hit Internet, coinciding nicely with winning IG, I won within a few turns.

Of course this strategy was:-

a) slower than a DomV, but was more interesting, and I think, if refined could be made much quicker.
b) slower than a peaceful CV, but was not a 'next turn' type of game. Also, peaceful CVs are harder because you have not crushed the AIs ability to create culture.
c) an excuse for my sloppy play, but at the same time, I think I deserve some credit for trying something new on a map that was quite hard initially.

Things I could have done better -> Maybe sped up the victory with cleaner warfare and better use of peace to fill the AI with culture. The wars should stop their culture but be over quicker so the tourism can flow in. I think I'd also be better off finding the right balance between wiping out civs and letting them respawn. Darius especially added a lot of turns by filling in the space I'd left with maybe too much razing.

Things I really enjoyed -> The UUs, of course. SO powerful when you've already given them Shock/Drill 3, Blitz and Medic, and they get March for free when you upgrade them from Muskets to Caroleans. Also, staying at war the whole game gives a ludicrous amount of GGs which means I was in control of all the CS virtually the whole game. And, as usual, the absurd amount of gold earned. In the last war with Austria I was earning nearly 1000 gold a turn.

I went for ultra peace but without using Small Piety. Worst turn time I think I've ever got on Civ, but the other civs weren't anywhere near victory. Went workshops before education and I think that was a good decision as I was able to get Uffizi with the Engineer. I couldn't use Sweden's UA too much due to everyone hating Shaka, but tried to do so as much as I could. There were so many cultural city states that it was extremely difficult to keep Persia from running away. I went Freedom, then changed to Order in the typical peaceful style after getting SofL. Only got about 4 or 5 archeology sites but just focused everything in the capital. Just needed the 3 GMs in the end, settled and gave away some cities to finish off Byzantium.

What a frustrating start. I tried several different starts: Liberty, Tradition, Honour...early religion, ignore religion...etc. Finally decided to go full on Domination from the start. I opened and completed Honour, immediately went to Archery, and sent 4 archers over to the Zulus, along with the upgraded Warrior and a worker I borrowed from them. Wiped out Shaka while purposefully not scouting, so there were 3 unmet Civs when I razed his last city.

Sent the army West to pick up the hills upgrade from the wonder near my capital, adding a few more archers, and kept going to Austria. Took the Austrian capital with archers, upgraded to Comps and raised their 2nd/final city around turn 90.

Despite having the great wall, the nearby Shoshone were the quickest to conquer. After taking their first 2 cities, I used their 3rd city to build up some XP while researching Xbows. I'm well behind on science at this point and comps won't be enough anymore.

As they each had only 2-3 cities, and I had 1-3 unmet Civs, I decided to completely wipe out the first 3 conquests. I worked through the Persians decently well, picking up a few puppets and their capital, but then the Germans just shut me right down. Around turn 200, I gave up on Domination and decided Diplomatic was the most obvious alternative, being last in science and of course being Swedish. After Honour, I had gone full Patronage, followed by Rationalism (completed) and some Order.

I didn't put much thought into the final 100 turns, just tried to play nice, avoid war, and took the diplomatic win on turn 306. As you can see on the map, the Germans and Persians built all around me creating an ugly final map.

UN Vote



Victory, but not the one I wanted.