Deity sub 200 turn science victory attemtp

I enjoy this very much too.
I have a question though: why didn't you complete the workshop?

Because I was paranoid. Really really paranoid.
It was an overkill in retrospective, as I admitted.
3 workshops I delayed would cost me 6 per turn. With severe cash deficit and upcoming RA wave I panicked. By far not the dumbest thing I did in this game out of panic. There were some real gems. You'll have to wait to hear all about that.

But basically I didn't need them at that point.

- I couldn't benefit from them much. They would only grant me +2 for horse city and eastern city and +3 for forest city. I couldn't assign engineer - cities are too small and with raw production average of ~7 per city the 10% bonus wouldn't kick in either.
- These three cities also were about to run out of important stuff to build. They needed to finish coliseums, workshops and stables (marginal as well). Forest city was working on wat - no hurry, since I knew I wouldn't get GS from it, just for Oxford and some additional beakers. And that's pretty much it. Didn't have a coal, so no factories soon. If I needed some units I had to rush buy them anyways. Later on I actually managed to build windmills, which were beyond marginal, on top of that list.
- Another good reason to finish workshops asap is the Ironworks - no chance for that soon as pearls city slowed me down. Still had no workshop, no harbor and no seaport. Hate sea resources cities!

All that said, I did, of course, finished all of them a little bit later after my cities grew and I could switch back to production focus. And again, with better economy I wouldn't bother with any of this.

Ok, this 'steroid' part was longer than I initially planned.


Darius continues to make scary face and bring more troops. Many horses. He also had tons of iron and thus LS and cats. Whatever.


Washington came between the turns to renew a DoF. He's nearly dead with no military, fighting arabs and having no friends except for India. Moreover, he had the audacity to denounce my friend Ramesses. Declined.


Speaking of which... My DoF with Egypt has expired as well. Should take care of that.

Ouch!... Not good. Really really not good. I'm loosing RA with Darius already. Not that it means automatic DoW by Egypt but it increases my heartbeat rate.

RA with America brings in Metallurgy, Rifling and position me 3 turns off Dynamite. And another scientist was born. Two more to go, IIRC.


Sadly, poor agonizing Washington is broke and so am I.
Well, you probably guessed who is going to finance our RA renewal.
Everything on gold focus:


Double that:


Then this:


And once again:


And now we can talk some business:


Now, dear Darius, feel free to be a jerk.

And back to food focus. Pearl city starts working on harbor. Wasted few turns on building a boat which was incredibly dumb. Still, not my best moment.


Things look worse and worse for America...


Much better for me though.

Don't get it. Why didn't you agree when I approached you, dummy?
Probably he wants to be an active party of our duo. If that's what makes your happy, I'm in.


Oh, just shut up... You have no say whatsoever in... anything.

As I promised, more ships are up.


Turn 152: Dynamite is in, Railroad in the next to go.


I tried to reduce happiness to zero and save the GA for spaceship/parts building phase by selling even unique luxes. Unfortunately, no buyers. Well, I assume GA is not the most horrible thing that can happen to me. It will make next begging session easier.

Persia still demonstrates her muscles:

And I still don't care.

I hit unavoidable GA and try to make the best of it by focusing on production and high commerce tiles:

Not forgetting about WLTK day. One of the cites want whales. Let's hunt some:

You're so ridiculous. You'll have like 1545 oils of your own.
Another thing about trading system that will hopefully be fixed in G&K. AI must not buy resources it cannot utilize. Just must not.

Poor America:

0 soldiers... He's going down and going fast.

Oh-oh.. Desperate times call for desperate measures:

Darius hasn't DoWed yet. So maybe he's just trying to scare me. Anyways, he's the one who payed for our RA. So he's gonna be hit if he breaks it.

Last RA of the second wave resolves. Railroad is in. 15 turns off Combustion. 14 turns for Scientific Revolution.


More milking and some gold focus manipulations to get into positive gpt (relatively easy ones thanks to GA):


Same muscles:


On diplomatic arena things start to get messy:

Hmmm.... No.

Settler is done, back to caravel.


Now when I don't need to reduce happiness and urgent cash for RA's I can wait with reselling. Want to grow even more and trade luxes that cities desire as much as possible. Building parts with size 7 cities and no high food tiles around is not going to be pretty.

Settler dives into the sea and aims for one of two marked tiles near Lhasa.


That's not charming. Frigates scare me significantly more than horseman. And where the musket is heading?

And apparently it's even less pretty than I thought. On all fronts.


Won't take risks here:


Egypt is spamming wonders. I'm spamming GS.


Yet keeping growth in mind:


Settler lands, America goes down.


And here is the picture that caused me to freak out and make one of two really idiotic moves I've made during the entire game.


See ya next time!

I'm not sure I have the heart to go through a game that has being in -10/-22 gpt every other turn, even if it'll boost science and tech.

This is one helluva amazing game because of that.

Don't worry. It dropped to -60/-70 very soon with -80 at the lowest point.

Gold by itself is meaningless. Only what you can buy with it matters.
The most important thing is the ability to pay for all RA's while not losing many beakers during mid-game, the rest is negligible. By now I've got used to the idea that if I play with tall thin empire and have positive gpt, I'm doing something very wrong.

I don't see how you can do something stupid. Did you buy the tile the Settler is on?
I'm not sure if you can settle a city that close to another one - the island might cause it to be an exception.

It seems that he just finished the last Wat in 'forest city' and was about to start on Oxford

strijder20 said:

I'm not sure if you can settle a city that close to another one - the island might cause it to be an exception.

Click to expand...

Yeah, now you're telling me. Where were you earlier?

vanjito said:

It seems that he just finished the last Wat in 'forest city' and was about to start on Oxford

Click to expand...

Yes, you're right. I was about to finish my last wat and start on Oxford.
And no, you're wrong. That wasn't what you think.


Ok, so maybe I was overdramatic. It wasn't a game breaking stupid thing. Just a thing. Didn't really hurt me in the long run. Still, I was amazed by how bad I handled the pressure. Found another miss while was browsing through screenshots today.
However, the most stupid thing I've done here was neither of the above. Don't know if anyone noticed, but I forgot to renew RA with Hiawatha. It resolved 1 earlier than persian one and I was so preoccupied with Darius not declaring on me, that hit 'next turn' button on autopilot. Renewed with Washington who was about to die, renewed with Darius who was about to DoW me and gave me hate for the whole game, but not with my best buddy in the world. Now tell me that wasn't stupid! Could have cost me big big time.

Damn... Started a post and lost it...

Will post tomorrow...

Edit: forget it... Changed my mind. Want to finish this off.
Learning the hard way don't assemble long post in forum's form anymore.



Part VI: Desperate times

Turn 160 - busy, busy...

Obviously, I had no intention to settle right away. But the moment I saw that bloody red settler, my brain just shut down. I didn't even look at the distance between one tile island he's sitting on and Stockholm. For me it was 'now or never' time. Can't facepalm myself enough for that.

One last attempt to save my RA with America failed:

Harun just wanted to see ol' George's dead body at any cost. Even at cost of my city. IIRC, he wanted all of them. What an angry greedy dude.
Not that I would give him any. Just out of curiosity.

So, I sighed heavily, had a look at next policy time... and did it.

Sadly, 40 gold+ OP is all George had. Still better than ending up one RA short (which was way more possible than I realized at the time, since I haven't noticed the missing RA with Iroquois ). Could play cheesy. First to sell sugar, then the city. Not my style though. BTW, gifting him that city wasn't a guarantee he'd survive for another 20 turns. Lhasa was egyptian but pretty much all the other CS (Stockholm included) were allied with Arabia and Lhasa could join them any moment.

While still in the middle of a panic attack I've made another dare move and another mistake:

Should have raise 240 gold and let Sukhothai grow one more pop, it only had 4 turns left. But I've got so excited he's truly willing to do that (asked him ten times at least), that I hit 'accept' button without much thinking.

As a result Arabia and its 54564 city states DoW Persia and I keep preparing for war:


Even despite the fact I didn't keep new city, SP costs took a hit:

Not a huge fortunately, and landed perfectly with Combustion.

Pearls city, that was found on turn 25, only 135 turns later reached 20 mark. Thanks to GA, of course.


He-he... No more boring waiting between the turns.
First, Egypt got really cranky at Arabia.


Second, Harun got a bit cranky at me:


... and then... then I discovered that diplomacy in this game officially went nuts:

Wait... wait... wait... whaaaat? He's being deceptive, right? - I asked myself and answered positively immediately.

Not that George is behaving more rationally. Egypt is your enemy? As long as it's not Arabia which almost wiped you out... Which is thrashing you since... ever...

Very much to my liking, Stockholm appeared to be a perfect distraction. Persian chances at that naval battle were non existent. All their melee units were dead in two turns.

The only negative, India pulled out dirty trick on me. Again. I didn't care about the happiness, but should have check out SP date. Didn't. Another facepalm.

Statue of Liberty goes on turn 161 AI time. Crazy.

Very predictable demographics:


Enough with artillery nonsense.
6 turns for Combustion, 6 turns for Oxford.


And now I remembered to check SP date. Great. 4 turns deficit. Let's do some beggin'...

Scientists out, merchants in, everything on gold focus and I'm praying 250 will seal the deal:


Not entirely.

I deserve this. Had I did the same last turn, would have perfect syncro with Combustion. Will have to get help from artists.

Persian army magically disappeared. Good job Stockholm! No DoW either... So I keep milking every single drop...


Turn 164: with artist assistance synchronizing Scientific Revolution and Combustion.


First RA of the last wave will resolve in 7 turns. 2 turns after Combustion.


More milking:


Some deals expired and brought happiness back. Was glad to let Sukhothai grow but that would have delayed Oxford. Meh... Not that there were amazing spare tiles to work.

Horse city is set to wealth. Just because it has nothing valuable to build. Waiting 2 turns for pearls city to finish workshop.


My capital:


More love. Feels weird given current geopolitical situation.


Arabia and Persia have one more city to fight over after both colonized Hiawatha's private continent.


Grand celebrations in pearls city. It will have a seaport eventually.


Horse city starts on Ironworks. Will grow one more pop and switch to production focus. 33 turns are a bit under optimum.


Time to do something useful production-wise with eastern city and forest city as well.

More growing at first, production focus later.


And that's it for now.

Man that negative GPT would drive me insane.

Looking good though.

At that point it didn't matter anymore. In mid-game I was seriously worried about it as well. I'm sure everybody noticed.

Part VII: The final push

Turn 169 - the Megaturn!

Combustion is in, Oxford is in, Scientific Revolution is in, one GS is out. No comments needed:


Capital starts on Apollo. That's the time to kick out all scientists from universities/public school.

Geez, 15 turns. It's the price of undergrown capital. Told you I suck at playing with tall cities. In domination mode it's so much easier. At this stage I usually don't even care about city size. Most of the army is rush bought or upgraded. And few units that are hard built aren't as expensive and size 10-12 city cranks them out fairly easy.

Have a closer look at tech tree. RA median is on Mass Media/Atomic Theory.
The next RA kicks in on turn 174 and will grant me Telegraph and a good chunk of Electronics.
The next one - turn 175, will grant Electronics with overflow to Mass Media.
One more - Mass Media with overflow to Computers.
2-3 (depends on how big the overflow is) more will finish Computers + Robotics.
Basically you only need 5 RA for the last wave from that position, but just to be sure it's better to have one spare.

Ah, Harun got a fighter.

As you can see, Philly isn't going anywhere...

Turn 170 - nothing...

Turn 171: Horse city grew and back to production focus. The Ironworks in 12 turns. Yuck... I'm waiting for last GS to be born, then I'll kick scientists out.


Oh, really? Finally Philly took some damage. Remember, Washington has no military whatsoever and Harun is the leader in soldiers.


Workers are lined up to construct railroads. Stupid Darius and his stupid scout. All my problems in this game, all mistakes I made (well, except one or two) are because of him. Argh...


Next SP in 24 turns. Probably would have been 22, had I not found that 'american' city, not that it matters. Not taking Freedom opener was wise choice in retrospective. With Scientific Revolution on turn 192-193 I had little chance to finish under 200 turns. Even with extra GS (that I wouldn't get anyways).


Speaking of GP, I do need GA for parts building phase. Sacrificing scientist is not an option and I cannot wait to generate 700gpp for anyone else. The easiest way is to get a GG. Good thing I don't have to travel far away or put any special effort into it.


My 'monstrous' army and fleet: a rifle, an elephant, trireme and two caravels approaching Stockholm.


Turn 173: nothing. 'Army' is marching towards its target.

Turn 174: Telegraph is in.


Eastern city grew, back to production focus.


The love fest is over. Let's do some 'warring' :


Tech tree:

I need 7 techs is total. 4 will be discovered with RA's + 3 bulbed with GS.

Turn 175: Electronics is in.


And I lost a trireme to city bombardment. Should have upgraded it. Whatever...

Last GS is born. Horse city in full production mode:

Ironworks in 4 turns. Much better.

Pillaging stuff and milking Darius just for fun.


Where the hell are his units? It's a mystery.


Philly is standing strong.


Turn 176: Mass Media is in. Median shifted to Lasers.

At this point it's clear that 6th RA was redundant. Rough math: 39+68=107 turns of research needed. 2 RA with 57 turns median will grant me 114 turns of research.

Hoarding XP:

I melee attacked. Unfortunately, there was only one land tile to attack from, so conquering was problematic. I could, however, upgrade to mech or something, no real point...

Pearls city will benefit from every single hammer there:


Did I mention how ridicoulos the diplomacy is? Gandhi... Ok... But Washington? How does that makes the lightest shadow of a sense?

You're an idiot. Harun got Lhasa a while ago. Our RA resolves in only 2 turns, so I'm not worried anymore. But you should be. Pray.

GG is closer and closer:


Horse city finished Ironworks. Windmill is next. Every tiny bit counts.


The irony... Turn 179 AI time Philly finally falls...

Had I not gifted Washington that city I would have lost RA that was about to resolve at this very time. Or not? I guess, it depends who's turn is first, american or arabian. On the other hand, I could gift it 29 turns later. Or not? Had Darius declared on me, I could have lost the settler and both RA's.

Who cares now. All is well that ends well.


News from battlefield:


Pears city is working on windmill too.


More news:


Lost Geneva to Arabia. So be it.

Eastern city wants windmill as well:


Railroads are done. Workers in position to chop forests:


And here is my GA:


Many deals expired recently. Didn't renew them on purpose. I might need the cash in the future, but deficit will swallow it right now.

Timing is perfect once again!
Apollo is in next turn and so is Robotics (ha-ha, thanks Darius for not DoWing me all this time! ) Despite the fact he has fleet again...

Hahahahahah ffs so much preasure man, 15 turns to build all the parts
I give you 2 turns spare

But before anything I thank you for this post, which has been making me forget I can't play ciV this whole 2 weeks, THANK YOU

Good luck
Also, interesting to see how you can get research by solely RAs. 150 beakers isn't that impressive (although I realise it would be more with scientists).

DevilHell said:

Hahahahahah ffs so much preasure man, 15 turns to build all the parts
I give you 2 turns spare

Click to expand...

Well, AI does this in 50-70 turns. Let's see if we can do it a little faster.

DevilHell said:

But before anything I thank you for this post, which has been making me forget I can't play ciV this whole 2 weeks, THANK YOU

Click to expand...

You're welcome. Thanks for following and rooting for me... I think

strijder20 said:

Good luck
Also, interesting to see how you can get research by solely RAs. 150 beakers isn't that impressive (although I realise it would be more with scientists).

Click to expand...

My own research is over. It will only get down from here, since I'm gradually removing specialists in all cities. I think I peaked at 230. Not impressive at all. Severely limited by cities size and terrain. Oh, well

Part VIII: Per aspera ad astra


Turn 184:

Thank you Darius. And don't stress me out again with that fleet of yours, please.

Triple bulbing:


Apollo is done.
Pearls city finishes windmill, SS Booster queued up. 2 + 13 turns.
Eastern city finishes windmill, SS Static chamber is next. Should have switched to it right away, screw the windmill, I guess. 1 + 16 turns.
Horse city works on SS Engine. 16 turns.
Forest city works on SS Cockpit. 18 turns.
Capital works on 2 SS Boosters. 9 + 9 turns.
Can't believe I didn't capture all of them. It was the pressure Darius' fault.
Workers chopping forests.

Don't start GA until all cities working on parts.

Turn 185:

Forget to queue up the overflow, so it was carried over Refrigeration. Why not? ))


Don't like persian frigates around. But he has only one melee unit in immediate proximity. The wounded pike. Blocking him. Just in case. He can bombard forest city as much as he wants as long as it's not pearl city. Naval blockade would have hurt production big time. But one ironclad doesn't scare me.
Anyways, I suggested a DoF. Well, sort of predicted.


Turn 186:
Windmills ridicule is over. Parts are built everywhere! And we are Golden!



Construction times in two 'bottlenecks' the capital and forest city reduced to 14 turns with a little starvation.

Workers chopped some forest near forest city. Moved to neighboring tiles to chop few more.

Not enough. What will happen when GA will be over? It'll last for only 8 turns.

Turn 187:
Nothing. Waiting for more deals to expire.

Washington made peace with Arabia last turn and declared on Egypt. Right...


Turn 188:
Don't want workers to chop all forests yet, b/c then forest city won't have high production tiles to work. So I stop them for a bit. Could micromanage them better, send one to eastern city to chop there. Oh well...


What was I saying about deals? Yeah, some got expired. Let's bargain. Gold focus as much as needed.

Still hate me? Guess what - too late!


Capital gets a factory:

4 + 7 turns for two boosters. Little better. Should be 4+6 with overflow.

Turn 189:
Absolutely nothing.

Turn 190:
Next policy on turn 199, since I lost Geneva.


Turn 191:
Forest city is starving. It can work in the same mode for two more turns before loosing pop.


Turn 192:
First booster is out.


Forest city is desperate for food. Won't starve it anymore.


Let's check out our inventory and shop.


And here is the spaceship factory.

8 turns cut down to 6.

Capital, despite it's also starving, won't loose pop soon.