Neb or Gustav...

shattergod

Chieftain
Joined
May 4, 2008
Messages
69
Early on I think Neb has a clear advantage... but as time progresses so long as Gustav focuses exclusively on Science (and makes *lots* of friends) he'll outshine.

Has this been anyone's experience?
 
Good luck keeping more than 5 friends on any setting. Maaaybe if you played with 22 civs on huge terra, but even then...

Soon wars and the huge ideology hate will break your alliances apart, and Babylon has already benefited from the lead given by the free scientist. It's an 8 science tile, which at this point more than doubles your science output. Nebu should already be outteching Gustavus even if he magically manages to keep 5+ friends.

Unless Science is the name of Gustav's beard and friends are actually barbers, in which case yeah - if he grows it a bit and grooms it under the watchful eye of experts, it'll be a reasonable competition to Nebu's, but as it stands now Nebu has best beard hands down (at least in my opinion)
 
Those times I have played Sweden I have (from the Medieval era and on) always had 2-3 'friends' (standard map), a short while only one but also a short while more.
I should also say that I am quite aggressive during their "era" (it is tricky but that combo can be done).

But I do think that diplo or culture is the way to go for Sweden (although I have won a science with them).
 
Actually... I just thought I'd test this. Prince. Standard map, quick, no CS, 22 civs. Focused on science. Only had one city. No spies. No caravans. My great person percentage for scientists current sits at 255%. Completed globalization *and* the great firewall at turn 233.

Garden 25%
Nation Wonder 25%
Pisa 25%
Policy for scientists 25%
Freedom bonus 25%

So it looks like I'm getting 125% bonus to great scientists from gustave. I have thirteen academies.
827 total science per turn.
 
It is, but peace is REALLY hard. There are three ideologies and if you pick the wrong one you will have stronger cultures breathing down your neck causing problems for your civilization.

Ah yes, but till then, you can still reap the benefits.

Besides, I've managed games where I've stayed allies with folks of different ideologies and crushed people the same ideology myself. Ideology does cause issues, but it's not as black-and-white.
 
It is, but peace is REALLY hard. There are three ideologies and if you pick the wrong one you will have stronger cultures breathing down your neck causing problems for your civilization.

You don't understand. I was SO FAR ahead of everyone else in tech that I was the only one with an ideology by the time we voted on them. Virtually everyone else went freedom too, except I think egypt.
 
You don't understand. I was SO FAR ahead of everyone else in tech that I was the only one with an ideology by the time we voted on them. Virtually everyone else went freedom too, except I think egypt.

However that doesn´t usually happen on higher difficulties. On immortal and deity it's much more of an issue to have the "wrong" ideology when going for anything other than CV.
 
Considering Nebby has Avoid Tundra as start bias and Gus has Tundra as start bias, it's already considered who's got the better start...
 
I'm playing a Science game as Sweden at the moment, trying to use Nobel Prize to generate as many great scientists as possible... and I'd have to say it's going pretty well. It's my first game on King difficulty, and so far I've managed to plop about 7 academies in Stockholm, thanks to making friends with my close neighbours Genghis Khan and Shaka, with the rest of the world soon falling into line (apart from Poland, who is friendly but /never/ wants to be friends) I have a +95% GP Empire bonus in Stockholm at the moment, thanks to having 7 friends and the Leaning Tower of Pisa, not to mention the 50% bonus from the Garden and National Epic bringing that to +145%. Every other city has +120% due to Gardens, and Sigtuna regularly spits out Great Scientists to help Stockholm out.

I haven't played as Babylon in BNW yet, but I think that the Swedes might have the long term advantage on lower difficulties, so long as you're good with diplomacy, and you like to play on fairly large maps. The Babylonians unquestionably have the early game edge (and are obviously better for Science Victories on smaller maps), but Sweden may well have the opportunity to overtake them later on otherwise.

Something else I've found handy is that the Nobel Prize bonus also affects GWAMs, meaning I can set up my Artist's Guild at the start of the Renaissance and crank out a load of Renaissance Art very quickly, which combined with the theming bonuses of Museums later on lets me bolster up my culture enough to avoid being influenced too much by the culture runaways. I haven't formed an Ideology yet, however, so I'm not sure how good this strategy will be in the late game.
 
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