Your name: MrRadar
Game status: Science Victory
Game date: 1832AD
Turns played: 286
- Did you use your UU?
No, didn't have to. Just a caravel.
- Was your UB helpful?
Ha ha. If only there were some marshes…
- Did you use spying to your advantage?
Stole a couple of techs from Gandhi, then he caught me and I went elsewhere, but other people were hopeless, so I sent my spies to CSs. Eventually couped one cultural CS and softened and bought Zurich for lots of aluminium.
Btw, I was surprised that nobody tried to spy on me. No tech steals from me, no killed foreign spies, despite the lack of a constabulary and a nooby spy as a counteragent.
- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
Looked more like made for Brazil tbh, but eh, I hope all those trading posts in the jungle weren't completely useless
All this free space seduced me into liberty and excessive settling. I had played three practice games before this one, going tradition in all of them, and the prospect of a fourth Dutch tradition game in a row was hardly bearable. Wasn't reasonable to do this at all, too few unique luxuries, but settled 7 cities anyway, including two mountain ones. The side effect was
t149 NC, because I burned the GE from Liberty on Petra in my desert city next to the gold. Absolutely could not resist it
Given that this is my fastest SV so far, I can't complain too much about going liberty though. My three practice games on different maps and neighbours saw victory times shorten from t340 to t295, here I managed to shave off another 9 turns despite all the antics, so maybe that's not too awful. The practice games certainly helped me to time the bulbing of GSs much better this time.
- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
Nothing noticeable, although I kind of expected to steal a few more techs. And I did not expect to get the early wonders I got though – MoH, Mids, the Oracle, Petra (lol), HS, then easy ones: ET, SoL, Hubble and even the Brandenburg Gate. The GG from it restored the justice by taking into possession via citadel the Lake Victoria which should have been mine since the beginning. It was such a dilemma for the first settler: to steal Gandhi's sugar or go for the Lake. Sugar won and I was considering taking Malacca for the theft of the Lake, but then I somehow allied it and let it live for the happiness.
Workers: hardbuilt one, got one of Gandhi's via a barb proxy, so no war, got another from a CS also via a barb. Returned for diplo the first time, but he got recaptured and the second time I kept it. Love such things. One more from Lib, two from the Mids, six in total. And boy they are so fast with Mids and citizenship, I had already forgotten that. Just couldn't get them out of my hair, always asking for more work
- Was Faith helpful to achieve victory? How?
Early shrine and 8 faith from Kathmandu let me have stone circles and eventually a religion with tithe, mosques, culture from temples and itinerant preachers. I was a bit too slow to reach the Industrial era, so a very unnecessary and expensive late GP popped out, certainly cost me one additional GS. Faithbought three GSs at the end.
- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order?
Liberty left then right, Patronage to Scholasticism while waiting for Rati, then Freedom to SS parts purchase, then Rati finisher. Last one went again to Patronage for more happiness and resources from CSs.
- Did you conquer Gandhi or make him your partner?
We trolled each other by mutual forward settling – I stole 3 of his sugars, he stole 2 of my citruses, then I blocked and chased away another of his settlers, then he sulked for a while, even coveted my lands a bit, but eventually his good nature prevailed and we became BFFs.
Stole a couple of techs from him, had 3 RAs with him and some trades. He eventually went freedom in my wake.
All in all a fun map and a peaceful game, and the first one that I actually submitted. I have tried quite a few GOTM maps, but usually I get horribly sidetracked, misjudge something, then engage in roleplaying or just miss the submission deadline.
I thought the neighbourhood would be more crowded and certainly include some psycho nearby. A sole Gandhi was such a relief, and the mental case was on another landmass (poor Morocco had no chance).
Managed to ally all CSs on our continent, have only built two scouts, one warrior and a caravel, the rest of my army was gifted by a military ally and finally sold for gold towards the end. Maintained good relations with almost all civs, so the lux trade helped to keep the happiness in check.
Founded the WC, lost it for one term – had to kingmake the Assur guy in a vain hope of him possibly proposing my religion which I had given to him, then got the seat back. Of course some jerk proposed the Arts Funding and I couldn’t block it, so GSs were slowed.
Gold was a bit lacking, most of my trade routes were internal for food and production, but still managed to get a few RAs and bought unies and labs for my capital and one low hammer mountain city, the rest were built. Towards the end burned three GAs for 36 turns of golden age, which helped a lot with gold, and Catherine was rich and kind and Freedom loving enough to lend me the rest. Had to build one SS part, bought the other five. Could have shaved off another turn, but bought one part too far away. And one production route for 13 hammers to Amsterdam ended just on the 'would be final' turn, so the cockpit came short of 10 hammers to completion anyway. Double screwing up didn't hurt so much as a single one would have.
, +5 missed wonders by 1-5 turns etc...
each.
!!! Turn 305, I knew he was coming, I only needed 10 more turns. I figured he would screw around for 20 more turns before invading, but no. He got me, took city one, city two, and I beat him down but then Malacca got their revenge for my abusing them for the first 150 turns of the game to get a great general and steal back Lake Victoria. I actually enjoyed this loss more than if I had won it, it was quite hilarious to watch. I wish I had devoted the ten turns to manhatten project, this game would have gone quite differently then...
