quill18
Warlord
I've got a few minutes to spare on my lunchbreak and felt like posting about my most recent game. Since I'm at work, I unfortunately have no screenshots to post. (Maybe tonight, if people are interested?)
Having recently gotten my face smashed-in on Emperor (see signature), I've decided to take a step back to Monarch and try to apply some new skills in an easier setting. I decided to play as Ramsesses II for a few reasons:
- It had been ages since I've played as Egypt
- I've never tried a war chariot rush
- I felt like building wonders
- I'd just recently re-read the Hatty ALC game
It was a strange game in several ways.
After exploring for many turns with a pair of units, I was convinced that I had an isolated start on my hands. That was fine -- I hadn't played an isolated game in some time, and I felt like I was up for the challenge. I was on the south side of the world on a moderately sized continent for an isolated civ.
I was wrong. I had one neighbour, Saladin, and only three tiles separated his capital's BFC from mine!
My circular scouting pattern had progressed in exactly the right way to prevent me from finding that city until it was inevitable. Somehow, Saladin had equally failed to find me for all those turns!
Suddenly, the island felt very cramped and I remembered my plans for an early rush. Problem: Both sources of copper AND horses were tucked in the north-eastern corner of the continent. Which the protective Saladin controlled.
After a bit of a diversion to build some early wonders I picked up Iron Working (I lost the GW, but I did get Stonehenge and picked up most of the early Marble wonders thanks to Heliopolis having a quarry.) My capital, my 2nd city, and my (about to be founded) 4th city all had a source of Iron! I'd have no lack of materials for swords, but it was late enough that I'd surely need siege weapons too.
Unfortunately, food was generally scarce and plains were plentiful. This made both cottaging and specialists hard to manage (and I'm still a noob at SE). As a result, the progression up to Construction for cats was painful. I shuddered at the thought of how advanced the other civs might be. (I'm playing Big and Small, so I thought it likely that the others could be sharing a "big".)
Still, I was getting along fairly well. I founded Christianity with a lightbulb, though I adopted the Saladin-founded Hinduism for diplomatic reasons. I kept landing Great Prophets from my wonders and settled a handful to help power my economy (and research via Representation thanks to the Pyramids).
And then I met another civ.
Bwaaa? So much for being isolated, but where did they come from? Well, there was apparently a diagonal Coast connection in the fog to the north. It was virtually invisible so I never built a ship to scout. Quickly, I popped a couple boats out and discovered every single civ. ALL of us occupied a single hemisphere and a series of broken, snaky continents -- you'd nearly think I was playing an Archipelago map!
Furthermore, they were all Buddhists, in love with each other, and were quite advanced in tech. Saladin founded Judaism (in addition to Hinduism) and can only assume that the Buddhist founder also popped Confucianism but didn't convert.
Knowing that their pilgrims could hit my shores at any moment, I backfilled my last two dotmapped spots. I was then lucky enough to have Buddhism spread to one of my new towns. I converted, made friends, and spread Buddhism to all my cities except for my Christian Holy City (Memphis). I then researched+bulbed Divine Right, founding Islam in Memphis for a double-holy city (I made sure it was larger than all my non-capital cities AND had on less religion). I then traded away Divine Right and tech-brokered my way up to tech parity.
I had a strong economy. I had decent tech. I had lots of friends.
More importantly, THEY had lots of friends -- military conquest was NOT an option (except against Saladin) unless the diplomatic landscape changed dramatically.
Okay, space win, I thought. But...I was also not in a position to gain a tech LEAD, though I did avoid falling behind. I was doing what I could to buff my commercial output, but my land still wasn't really an economic powerhouse. If it weren't for the gold in Thebes' BFC, this probably would have been an outright loss for a player of my caliber.
*checks the victory screen*
Well, hello.....I *did* have a decent set of ancient wonders in Thebes and Memphis, and even one in Heliopolis. My continent had five religions present. That's a LOT of cathedrals.
BUT! I only had 5 cities. That's not a particularly optimal number. Saladin also had some excellent commerce sites, including the mature-cottage-on-flood-plains Mecca. Not enough to get a tech lead by itself, but it would help me remain at parity.
It was the middle ages. I don't do many cultural victories, but I was certain that I faced a time crunch -- especially in the culture-and-hammer-weak Heliopolis, my current #3 city.
I begged, borrowed, stole, bought, and
everything I could to rush out a Macemen/Treb army. Saladin, while not *friendly* with the other civs, was still able to do some tech trades and had protective Longbows and his Knight UU. I really took advantage of Spiritual a LOT this game by making many timely civic changes, especially as I weaved in and out of Theo/Vass while making units.
To shorten an already long tale, two campaigns wiped Saladin off my continent -- though I *did* have to bribe some other civs to join the war before he would capitulate his island holdings. He is STUBORN!
With no fewer than 5 religions at hand, and over 9 cities in my possession, I hunkered down (in the late-medieval to early-renaissance era) for a cultural win.
As evidence of my commercial problems, I managed to complete ZERO of the later cultural wonders (i.e. Broadway, Eiffel Tower). Partially this was due to making Biology a priority -- but the extra
allowed me to run a meager set of Artist specialists and also cottage some plains for extra 
from the slider.
I never had very many slots for artists though. I don't know if I was missing buildings, but I could never run more than 2 (3?) except for one city (can't remember which wonder gave me +3 slots).
I was NOT in Caste System most of the game because of an Emancipation requirement that started while I was still warring with Saladin. It never occurred to me that with my culture slider at 90/100%, I'd have enough happiness to spare...
Despite that silliness, and only ever popping 2 Great Artists (both creating late-game Great Works in my 3rd-ranked city), I still managed to pull out a late 1800's cultural win. Again, I did have some early wonders, but virtually all of my cultural efforts started during the early renaissance. Having 5 religions probably made all the difference.
I had to spend a lot of time in Organized Religion (hurting my GP production but helping to build shrines/cathedrals) to spam out Missionaries, but virtually all my (15) cities had all 5 religions present. My three legendary cities each had 5 cathedrals except one, which only gained the option for that final building about 12 turns before my victory. All my cities hit Legendary within 3 turns of each other.
It was hard to judge if it was better to build the later Cathedrals vs. converting hammers to culture, but the vast majority of each city's culture was from commerce and buildings. Furthermore, the quad-shrine income allowed me to rush-buy most of the cathedrals after only a couple turns of building.
This is probably just my second cultural victory to date, and it was the most enjoyable game I've played in a long time. My only disappointment was that I couldn't found a helpful corporation. I mostly just got Great Prophets and two late-game artists.
It just strikes me that cultural victories are not something you can count on at the start of a game after Noble or Prince. You need very favorable circumstances to make it fast (3+ religions), and you're probably ignoring a faster domination/diplomatic win path or much simpler space victory.
Sure was fun though.
Having recently gotten my face smashed-in on Emperor (see signature), I've decided to take a step back to Monarch and try to apply some new skills in an easier setting. I decided to play as Ramsesses II for a few reasons:
- It had been ages since I've played as Egypt
- I've never tried a war chariot rush
- I felt like building wonders
- I'd just recently re-read the Hatty ALC game
It was a strange game in several ways.
After exploring for many turns with a pair of units, I was convinced that I had an isolated start on my hands. That was fine -- I hadn't played an isolated game in some time, and I felt like I was up for the challenge. I was on the south side of the world on a moderately sized continent for an isolated civ.
I was wrong. I had one neighbour, Saladin, and only three tiles separated his capital's BFC from mine!
My circular scouting pattern had progressed in exactly the right way to prevent me from finding that city until it was inevitable. Somehow, Saladin had equally failed to find me for all those turns!Suddenly, the island felt very cramped and I remembered my plans for an early rush. Problem: Both sources of copper AND horses were tucked in the north-eastern corner of the continent. Which the protective Saladin controlled.
After a bit of a diversion to build some early wonders I picked up Iron Working (I lost the GW, but I did get Stonehenge and picked up most of the early Marble wonders thanks to Heliopolis having a quarry.) My capital, my 2nd city, and my (about to be founded) 4th city all had a source of Iron! I'd have no lack of materials for swords, but it was late enough that I'd surely need siege weapons too.
Unfortunately, food was generally scarce and plains were plentiful. This made both cottaging and specialists hard to manage (and I'm still a noob at SE). As a result, the progression up to Construction for cats was painful. I shuddered at the thought of how advanced the other civs might be. (I'm playing Big and Small, so I thought it likely that the others could be sharing a "big".)
Still, I was getting along fairly well. I founded Christianity with a lightbulb, though I adopted the Saladin-founded Hinduism for diplomatic reasons. I kept landing Great Prophets from my wonders and settled a handful to help power my economy (and research via Representation thanks to the Pyramids).
And then I met another civ.
Bwaaa? So much for being isolated, but where did they come from? Well, there was apparently a diagonal Coast connection in the fog to the north. It was virtually invisible so I never built a ship to scout. Quickly, I popped a couple boats out and discovered every single civ. ALL of us occupied a single hemisphere and a series of broken, snaky continents -- you'd nearly think I was playing an Archipelago map!
Furthermore, they were all Buddhists, in love with each other, and were quite advanced in tech. Saladin founded Judaism (in addition to Hinduism) and can only assume that the Buddhist founder also popped Confucianism but didn't convert.
Knowing that their pilgrims could hit my shores at any moment, I backfilled my last two dotmapped spots. I was then lucky enough to have Buddhism spread to one of my new towns. I converted, made friends, and spread Buddhism to all my cities except for my Christian Holy City (Memphis). I then researched+bulbed Divine Right, founding Islam in Memphis for a double-holy city (I made sure it was larger than all my non-capital cities AND had on less religion). I then traded away Divine Right and tech-brokered my way up to tech parity.
I had a strong economy. I had decent tech. I had lots of friends.
More importantly, THEY had lots of friends -- military conquest was NOT an option (except against Saladin) unless the diplomatic landscape changed dramatically.
Okay, space win, I thought. But...I was also not in a position to gain a tech LEAD, though I did avoid falling behind. I was doing what I could to buff my commercial output, but my land still wasn't really an economic powerhouse. If it weren't for the gold in Thebes' BFC, this probably would have been an outright loss for a player of my caliber.
*checks the victory screen*
Well, hello.....I *did* have a decent set of ancient wonders in Thebes and Memphis, and even one in Heliopolis. My continent had five religions present. That's a LOT of cathedrals.
BUT! I only had 5 cities. That's not a particularly optimal number. Saladin also had some excellent commerce sites, including the mature-cottage-on-flood-plains Mecca. Not enough to get a tech lead by itself, but it would help me remain at parity.
It was the middle ages. I don't do many cultural victories, but I was certain that I faced a time crunch -- especially in the culture-and-hammer-weak Heliopolis, my current #3 city.
I begged, borrowed, stole, bought, and
everything I could to rush out a Macemen/Treb army. Saladin, while not *friendly* with the other civs, was still able to do some tech trades and had protective Longbows and his Knight UU. I really took advantage of Spiritual a LOT this game by making many timely civic changes, especially as I weaved in and out of Theo/Vass while making units.To shorten an already long tale, two campaigns wiped Saladin off my continent -- though I *did* have to bribe some other civs to join the war before he would capitulate his island holdings. He is STUBORN!
With no fewer than 5 religions at hand, and over 9 cities in my possession, I hunkered down (in the late-medieval to early-renaissance era) for a cultural win.
As evidence of my commercial problems, I managed to complete ZERO of the later cultural wonders (i.e. Broadway, Eiffel Tower). Partially this was due to making Biology a priority -- but the extra
allowed me to run a meager set of Artist specialists and also cottage some plains for extra from the slider.I never had very many slots for artists though. I don't know if I was missing buildings, but I could never run more than 2 (3?) except for one city (can't remember which wonder gave me +3 slots).
I was NOT in Caste System most of the game because of an Emancipation requirement that started while I was still warring with Saladin. It never occurred to me that with my culture slider at 90/100%, I'd have enough happiness to spare...
Despite that silliness, and only ever popping 2 Great Artists (both creating late-game Great Works in my 3rd-ranked city), I still managed to pull out a late 1800's cultural win. Again, I did have some early wonders, but virtually all of my cultural efforts started during the early renaissance. Having 5 religions probably made all the difference.
I had to spend a lot of time in Organized Religion (hurting my GP production but helping to build shrines/cathedrals) to spam out Missionaries, but virtually all my (15) cities had all 5 religions present. My three legendary cities each had 5 cathedrals except one, which only gained the option for that final building about 12 turns before my victory. All my cities hit Legendary within 3 turns of each other.
It was hard to judge if it was better to build the later Cathedrals vs. converting hammers to culture, but the vast majority of each city's culture was from commerce and buildings. Furthermore, the quad-shrine income allowed me to rush-buy most of the cathedrals after only a couple turns of building.
This is probably just my second cultural victory to date, and it was the most enjoyable game I've played in a long time. My only disappointment was that I couldn't found a helpful corporation. I mostly just got Great Prophets and two late-game artists.
It just strikes me that cultural victories are not something you can count on at the start of a game after Noble or Prince. You need very favorable circumstances to make it fast (3+ religions), and you're probably ignoring a faster domination/diplomatic win path or much simpler space victory.
Sure was fun though.
