This is not really a guide, more like a perspective. I'm certainly looking for criticism.
I had never tried a culture game in deity, so I chose a medium-strong culture civ (I didn't want to go with an easier one like france). At first glance boudicca's trait seems pretty meh:
Druidic Lore: +1 Faith per City with 1 unimproved Forest tile next to it. Increases to +2 Faith with 3 or more unimproved Forests.
My interpretation is that this ability is weak on the surface but pretty good in some subtle ways.
1) It allows you to always get a good pantheon, and very early on (probably no later than turn 20 even in the worst of luck), delaying the need for building shrines until you have your monument/scout/archer/caravan whatever out.
2) In terms of making celts "strong for religion" it's better than the mayan pyramid (since maya has to invest hammers to get this +1 faith bonus per city) and on par or slightly weaker than ethiopia's Stele (which again has to invest hammers but it gets a full +2 faith per city that other civs don't get).
3) My favorite part of this UA is that there appears to be a forest spawn bias. Forests are great because they're versatile, you're assured to have ample food and production tiles, and you can easily chop to get libraries, making 4 city national college by turn 85 very easy to attain. In my game I had four cities with libraries well before I could reach philosophy tech, other wise I would have been able to start building the NC even earlier.
I won't speak about the UU Pictish Warrior since it's pretty ineffectual at changing the game one way or the other. If you farm barbarians with a pair of them you may get a religion like 4-5 turns sooner and that means something I guess.
The UB Ceilidh Hall, however is one of the best UB's in the game, IMO:
1. +3 happiness means it practically negates the penalty for creating a new city.
2. It's a culture building, meaning it is subject to the legalism policy. Timing legalism for when you hit acoustics means you're trading a social policy for 800 hammers, in a part of the game where a wonder is 500 hammers. Pretty huge value there.
IMO, all in all what Boudicca has to offer is a medium-wide and tall culture or science peaceful civ.
Social Policies:
I dabbled in many different trees before finishing any of them, which I think is a little unorthdox.
Tradition (open) --> Liberty/ Republic / Collective Rule
I opened with tradition because that opener is awesome almost regardless of what you want to do. I think there's a decent case to be made for choosing the tradition opener even if you 100% plan to go liberty. It saves you 1000s in tile-buying throughout the game and the flat +3 culture goes a long way in negating the delay for future policies such as the free settler liberty. I think you only lose a few turns and you gain a lot for that, especially if you intend to get legalism / Ceilidh hall combo anyway.
Aesthetics (open) or Aristocracy or Citizenship (choose one and only one)
I intended to choose Aesthetics in my game but I didn't get to the medieval era early enough. I had stolen/liberated a ton of workers so I chose Aristocracy over Citizenship as I was about to build the NC and the oracle. That said, I think I should have chosen Citizenship regardless for some reasons that will be apparent later.
Aesthetics (open) --> Cultural centers --> Legalism --> Rationalism (open) --> Secularism
Even if going for a culture victory, I would advise bulbing your first great writer to narrow the time gap between popping your Ceilidh halls and opening rationalism. The great writers don't contribute much tourism anyway since the wonders are so hard to get other than oxford, and this gets you 8 or so more turns of beakers from Rationalism and Secularism.
What I like about sloppily taking your pick between all these trees is that it gives you a lot of versatility in responding to unpredicable situations. If you have problems with happiness or GPT, you're always a few turns away from Monarchy or Commerce. If you get
DOWed unexpectedly, you're a few turns from Oligarchy to bump your city attack by 50%. If you're having trouble reaching tech parity, there's always the option of going deeper into rationalism sooner than you'd hoped.
Also, a lot of these policies are worth more if you delay getting them. Obviously, legalism is the best example of this, as it produces exponentially more free hammers the longer you wait. But this concept also applies to Artistic Genius and the Liberty finisher, as great people become harder and harder to produce as the game goes on. Finishing liberty before you ever get a great scientist is only worth 100gpp, finishing it on turn 250 is worth like 900gpp and way more beakers.
I won't go into where to go from here with SPs as it obviously depends on the situation. You'll obviously want to finish out Aesthetics first and choose Freedom ideology. Eventually you will finish rationalism (I did it for radar, but you could do it for Internet if you feel the game will go on for that long) and Liberty finisher is reserved for your coup de grace, giving you one more great musician. Finishing out tradition is fairly worthless as you don't have the faith to spare for engineers and you will be hard building aqueducts. That policy is the opposite concept of legalism, as it is worth more the earlier you get it. Open exploration of course to get the louvre and probably before you get archeologists because the naval bonus is worth it to find the random artifacts that are on deserted islands. You'll want to uncover all of the city states as well to see if they have artifacts.
Tech Beelines:
Pottery --> Animal Husbandry --> Luxury Tech --> Bronze working --> Writing (no threats) or Construction (threats) --> Sailing if early trade routes or available, otherwise no --> Philosophy
Try to get four cities and a national college by turn 85. Settle your cities in such a way that you stake off some extra space for post NC/legalism expansion. Patrol it with blocking units. This is a civ that has the capability of going 5-6 tall cities and that will make your beakers/turn explode. Obviously not every deity game allows for this much expansion, but definitely go far out of your way to get at least 4 cities.
Engineering --> Civil Service --> Education --> Acoustics
Engineering is a tech detour on your way to CS and acoustics but its a necessary one as you will need to hardbuild aqueducts and the 3rd trade route is crucial. As for acoustics, it certainly hurts not getting workshops for so long and waiting 12-14 turns for a tech, but it's very worth it to get early rationalism, since its the fastest way to get to Renaissance era. It will also give you a great chance of getting the crucial Sistine Chapel, which you should turn off every specialist and stop growth in your capital to build as quickly as possible.
Metal Casting ---> Machinery --> Printing Press
Try to get pisa and probably fail. In my game I crashed growth and science in my capital and second largest city and had them each try to build Pisa and Globe respectively, Pisa failed and Globe succeeded.
Scientific Theory --> Archaeology or Industrialization
I chose industrialization in my game because I had a very good chance of getting the first ideology. If you don't think you have a good chance, it's probably worth more to get artifacts earlier.
Electricity --> Radio
I used oxford to get radio. There's probably a case for saving it for a more expensive tech but you're wasting theming tourism and some flat beakers per turn for that so it's hard to strike a balance.
Refrigeration (hotels) --> Replaceable Parts (Statue of Liberty) --> Radar (airports) --> Plastics (research lab) --> Telecommunications --> Internet
Pretty self explanatory here for culture victory. I popped rationalism finisher to get Radar and won on turn 270, well before NVS/internet would be necessary.
Wonders:
You should be able to get all of the modern era and later wonders that you want since you will be ahead in tech by then, as far as early ones, I would definitely try for the oracle, probably in a city that isn't your capital. The AI really doesn't prioritize this wonder and since it has no tourism use, it should go in a satellite city to get the flourishing of the arts +33% bonus. Porcelain tower and statue of liberty should ideally go in your 3rd and 4th cities for the same reason.
Oracle, Pisa, Globe, Sistine Chapel, Eiffel Tower, Uffizi, and Broadway are the big ones you should at least attempt. I don't think any of them are required though. I think if I lost pisa AND sistine I would probably look at artillery rushing that guy's capital to get those wonders, though.
I had never tried a culture game in deity, so I chose a medium-strong culture civ (I didn't want to go with an easier one like france). At first glance boudicca's trait seems pretty meh:
Druidic Lore: +1 Faith per City with 1 unimproved Forest tile next to it. Increases to +2 Faith with 3 or more unimproved Forests.
My interpretation is that this ability is weak on the surface but pretty good in some subtle ways.
1) It allows you to always get a good pantheon, and very early on (probably no later than turn 20 even in the worst of luck), delaying the need for building shrines until you have your monument/scout/archer/caravan whatever out.
2) In terms of making celts "strong for religion" it's better than the mayan pyramid (since maya has to invest hammers to get this +1 faith bonus per city) and on par or slightly weaker than ethiopia's Stele (which again has to invest hammers but it gets a full +2 faith per city that other civs don't get).
3) My favorite part of this UA is that there appears to be a forest spawn bias. Forests are great because they're versatile, you're assured to have ample food and production tiles, and you can easily chop to get libraries, making 4 city national college by turn 85 very easy to attain. In my game I had four cities with libraries well before I could reach philosophy tech, other wise I would have been able to start building the NC even earlier.
I won't speak about the UU Pictish Warrior since it's pretty ineffectual at changing the game one way or the other. If you farm barbarians with a pair of them you may get a religion like 4-5 turns sooner and that means something I guess.
The UB Ceilidh Hall, however is one of the best UB's in the game, IMO:
1. +3 happiness means it practically negates the penalty for creating a new city.
2. It's a culture building, meaning it is subject to the legalism policy. Timing legalism for when you hit acoustics means you're trading a social policy for 800 hammers, in a part of the game where a wonder is 500 hammers. Pretty huge value there.
IMO, all in all what Boudicca has to offer is a medium-wide and tall culture or science peaceful civ.
Social Policies:
I dabbled in many different trees before finishing any of them, which I think is a little unorthdox.
Tradition (open) --> Liberty/ Republic / Collective Rule
I opened with tradition because that opener is awesome almost regardless of what you want to do. I think there's a decent case to be made for choosing the tradition opener even if you 100% plan to go liberty. It saves you 1000s in tile-buying throughout the game and the flat +3 culture goes a long way in negating the delay for future policies such as the free settler liberty. I think you only lose a few turns and you gain a lot for that, especially if you intend to get legalism / Ceilidh hall combo anyway.
Aesthetics (open) or Aristocracy or Citizenship (choose one and only one)
I intended to choose Aesthetics in my game but I didn't get to the medieval era early enough. I had stolen/liberated a ton of workers so I chose Aristocracy over Citizenship as I was about to build the NC and the oracle. That said, I think I should have chosen Citizenship regardless for some reasons that will be apparent later.
Aesthetics (open) --> Cultural centers --> Legalism --> Rationalism (open) --> Secularism
Even if going for a culture victory, I would advise bulbing your first great writer to narrow the time gap between popping your Ceilidh halls and opening rationalism. The great writers don't contribute much tourism anyway since the wonders are so hard to get other than oxford, and this gets you 8 or so more turns of beakers from Rationalism and Secularism.
What I like about sloppily taking your pick between all these trees is that it gives you a lot of versatility in responding to unpredicable situations. If you have problems with happiness or GPT, you're always a few turns away from Monarchy or Commerce. If you get
DOWed unexpectedly, you're a few turns from Oligarchy to bump your city attack by 50%. If you're having trouble reaching tech parity, there's always the option of going deeper into rationalism sooner than you'd hoped.
Also, a lot of these policies are worth more if you delay getting them. Obviously, legalism is the best example of this, as it produces exponentially more free hammers the longer you wait. But this concept also applies to Artistic Genius and the Liberty finisher, as great people become harder and harder to produce as the game goes on. Finishing liberty before you ever get a great scientist is only worth 100gpp, finishing it on turn 250 is worth like 900gpp and way more beakers.
I won't go into where to go from here with SPs as it obviously depends on the situation. You'll obviously want to finish out Aesthetics first and choose Freedom ideology. Eventually you will finish rationalism (I did it for radar, but you could do it for Internet if you feel the game will go on for that long) and Liberty finisher is reserved for your coup de grace, giving you one more great musician. Finishing out tradition is fairly worthless as you don't have the faith to spare for engineers and you will be hard building aqueducts. That policy is the opposite concept of legalism, as it is worth more the earlier you get it. Open exploration of course to get the louvre and probably before you get archeologists because the naval bonus is worth it to find the random artifacts that are on deserted islands. You'll want to uncover all of the city states as well to see if they have artifacts.
Tech Beelines:
Pottery --> Animal Husbandry --> Luxury Tech --> Bronze working --> Writing (no threats) or Construction (threats) --> Sailing if early trade routes or available, otherwise no --> Philosophy
Try to get four cities and a national college by turn 85. Settle your cities in such a way that you stake off some extra space for post NC/legalism expansion. Patrol it with blocking units. This is a civ that has the capability of going 5-6 tall cities and that will make your beakers/turn explode. Obviously not every deity game allows for this much expansion, but definitely go far out of your way to get at least 4 cities.
Engineering --> Civil Service --> Education --> Acoustics
Engineering is a tech detour on your way to CS and acoustics but its a necessary one as you will need to hardbuild aqueducts and the 3rd trade route is crucial. As for acoustics, it certainly hurts not getting workshops for so long and waiting 12-14 turns for a tech, but it's very worth it to get early rationalism, since its the fastest way to get to Renaissance era. It will also give you a great chance of getting the crucial Sistine Chapel, which you should turn off every specialist and stop growth in your capital to build as quickly as possible.
Metal Casting ---> Machinery --> Printing Press
Try to get pisa and probably fail. In my game I crashed growth and science in my capital and second largest city and had them each try to build Pisa and Globe respectively, Pisa failed and Globe succeeded.
Scientific Theory --> Archaeology or Industrialization
I chose industrialization in my game because I had a very good chance of getting the first ideology. If you don't think you have a good chance, it's probably worth more to get artifacts earlier.
Electricity --> Radio
I used oxford to get radio. There's probably a case for saving it for a more expensive tech but you're wasting theming tourism and some flat beakers per turn for that so it's hard to strike a balance.
Refrigeration (hotels) --> Replaceable Parts (Statue of Liberty) --> Radar (airports) --> Plastics (research lab) --> Telecommunications --> Internet
Pretty self explanatory here for culture victory. I popped rationalism finisher to get Radar and won on turn 270, well before NVS/internet would be necessary.
Wonders:
You should be able to get all of the modern era and later wonders that you want since you will be ahead in tech by then, as far as early ones, I would definitely try for the oracle, probably in a city that isn't your capital. The AI really doesn't prioritize this wonder and since it has no tourism use, it should go in a satellite city to get the flourishing of the arts +33% bonus. Porcelain tower and statue of liberty should ideally go in your 3rd and 4th cities for the same reason.
Oracle, Pisa, Globe, Sistine Chapel, Eiffel Tower, Uffizi, and Broadway are the big ones you should at least attempt. I don't think any of them are required though. I think if I lost pisa AND sistine I would probably look at artillery rushing that guy's capital to get those wonders, though.
