A Tamils Game

Just woke up early and now I'm posting the Tamils game of mine. The game in under Regent/Normal setting on SVN revision 980.

The Tamil historical goals are:
1. The Sangam Period: Have 3000 gold and 2000 culture in 800 AD (Turn 201)
2. The Chola Empire: Control or vassalize the Deccan and Srivijaya in 1000 AD (Turn 221)
3. Indian Ocean Trade: Acquire 4000 gold by trade (trade routes, diplomacy, trade missions) by 1200 AD (Turn 241)

Some people have complained about the Tamil historical goals being hard or even nearly impossible. But of course anyone who has won a Tamil game before knows on the contrary, the UHV for Tamils is among the easier ones. So let me show you one of the strats that work well for Regent.

Great! I'm sure it'll be interesting to read, as always.

Dawn of the Tamils. I have one flipped archer and an addition warrior from the goody hut. I don't know what happened, did the archer get teleported at the beginning of my turn of something? The flipped units don't matter much, but you can use them to stay in contact with the west.



I'm not settling my capital yet. Change civics to Dynasticism+Warrior Code.



On the next turn we found Kozhikode on the gold hill. Think it's a waste of the gold mine? In exchange we can work the double fish, which means faster growth and it negates the effect of not being able to work the gold mine.



We also found Anuradhapura on the iron hill. The Hindu missionary spreads the religion here immediately. Both Anuradhapura and Kozhikode don't get any automatic religion spread, from my observation.

Chop the forest to speed up the work boat in Kozhikode.



We meet India, it's rather uncommon that India stays Hindu. Most of the time they convert to Buddhism. Nagpur is 1S of the iron and on the Deccans.



Meet the Persians. The Babylonians are still alive.



We need some luck to have no barb trireme appear while our galley sails west to contact the other civilizations.



Meet the Babylonians. Aesthetics for Mathematics is a good trade. We can research Currency next.

After building the work boats. Both cities focus on growth. Build granaries and harbors in them. Looks like I forgot to switch to research Currency but it doesn't matter. The cow can be worked by both cities so micro when necessary.

Tamils have good building cost modifier, so use the whip.



We are lucky to have a Navigation II galley so soon.



Meet Ethiopia.



And Greece. I forgot to take a screenshot of the Egyptians. Usually you can get Alphabet from Greece. It's better this way, because then you can get more techs from Persia or India.



Don't worry about making India advanced. It's Regent and you have mercenaries for the final battle.



Check the wonder situation.

Meet Carthage.



And Rome. They won't give us Metal Casting. We are not in need of it either.



A friendly India. Carthage gets conquered by Rome in the meanwhile.



The galley returns, only to see Indian Mumbai getting razed by the barbs. The city will get rebuilt soon.



Babylonia demands Meditation. They are not a threat but I choose to comply. It doesn't cost us anything you know?



India founds Golkonda.

After building the granary and harbor, let Anuradhapura grow a bit before training a settler for Chennai.



Build a sangam in Kozhikode for research and culture.



You can see how the double fish have helped Kozhikode grow. We found Chennai. Focus on growth in the city like before. We now have 3 promising core cities.

We are already hiring an artist in Kozhikode, to speed up the first Great Merchant and to get more .



Using our third free win against barbs.



Zoroastrian Romans are willing to give us Monotheism.

This domestic crisis really has no effect whatsoever. I have negative domestic stability because of lack of Hinduism spread.



Switch to Organized Reglion immediately. We have a lot of things to build.



And it's fairly useful!



Bad relations... with who? We are not the worst enemy of anyone. No one's even annoyed with us!



Doing a bit of tech trade.



Also selling outdated techs. We research Drama next, for the culture goal.

We have culturally controlled the gems mine! How convenient.



Hurry the market in Kozhikode. I should emphasis on the importance of the double fish again.



Meeting the Chinese. They have great techs, but they are not willing to share them.



We can do a bit of resource trade instead.



The barb swordsmen start to appear. We are using the last of our free wins. In addition we need some luck. I'll get some axemen later.



India is experiencing a foreign crisis. Our Hindu missionary has finally spread the religion into Kozhikode. Kozhikode hires 2 merchants and we are on our way to get the first Great Merchant, for historical goal 1 and 3.



We hurry the market in Anuradhapura. We'll have the second GM here. That's right, we don't need a Great Artist. We don't even prioritize building theaters. The culture slider enabled by Drama is enough for the 2000.

A work boat from Anarudhapura improves the fish near Chennai as its culture expands there.



I'm checking for possible tech trades every turn. Tamils has trade route connection to almost every civ so tech trades are convenient.



Oh no! The plague has striken.



Good news is China is willing to give us Calendar.



Barb swordsmen again. Our friendly India neighbors have taken care of one.



With Drama we can build theaters and use the culture slider. Theaters are more useful when they are built early.



Drama is also a good bargaining chip in tech trades. We are getting Compass much earlier than I expected.

Compass unlocks the Tamil UU: Dharani. The Dharani has 4 movement points, 4 strength, 2 first strikes and can carry 2 land units. It's the uncontested champion on the sea during our game period.

Greece collapsed shortly after. They were the last of western civilizations.



We are on full culture slider. Do the math and don't go overboard with . Meanwhile I'm building some Dharani(s?) for sea control.



We have stolen the elephant/ivory from the Indians.



Our first GM, Todar Mal is born in Kozhikode. Kozhikode can stop hiring specialists now.

I forgot to have the galley wait for the GM on the eastern shore. Could save a turn or two.



This galley is almost a caravel! There's the indepent Pagan, I will take it later. We have stopped our research.



Selling Drama for some .



And trade misson for more :gold.



We have enough time for the first goal.

We take unguarded Pagan.



It's a present to the Chinese. I just wanted to secure the trade connection.



The west is now a dangerous place.



Chennai is getting quite culturally competitive. We have more hills to work now.



To be on the safe side, we need 6 swordsmen to conquer Srivijaya. Less could do, if you S/L and get lucky.



Finally, time to switch to Mercenaries. We are doing quite well this game, so we start the war preparation earlier.

Meet Arabia. The huge diplomatic penalty means we'd have no business with them.



Meet Khmer. They are willing to OB.



Now I'm adding some difficulty to the game. Can I make up for the 620?



It's even more than that.



There're two good things about Theology. Firstly, it enables Theocracy, which give us stronger troops. Secondly, we can enter Medieval era and afford more peripheral population for expansion stability(which normally isn't a problem in a Tamil game).



WOW, the Indians just collapsed. This literally makes the whole Indian subcontinent ours. Of course, through hiring mercenaries, we can take Deccan with a combined army of catapults, axemen, spearmen and swordsmen in time even if India is alive. That was the plan.

I guess good luck comes when you play right. Or not. I should mentions there's a stability hit for AI India after 600 AD, so...



Independents don't count against the goal, so we are in control of Deccan already.



But that doesn't mean we don't want to get more cities.

I forgot to mention Anuradhapura has been hiring 2 merchants and an artist at pop 8 for quite a while.

The Indonesians have spawned. Unlike in the 600 AD scenario, we can't declare war on them immediately. Or should I rather say there's a bug in the 600 AD scenario which allows you to declare war on them at their spawn? It's a huge exploit for Khmer(and maybe other civs).



We take Mumbai. Some of the Indian cities descended into ruins.



It's not updated yet, but you can see we have a lot of room(?) for expansion.



Nagpur, the last city on Deccan.



The Khajuraho is inside.

For newly conquered cities, don't forget to let you old neighboring cities work the shared tiles when they are still in rebellion.



Is the Tamil spices so good, or are the Chinese really that fond of spices?



Another Hindu missionary from Anuradhapura spreads the religion into Mumbai.

Hurry buying swordsmen and dharani to conquer Srivijaya.



The annoying barb swordsmen. Luckily we are on Regent, there're only two of them each time.



The Indonesian city placement. Terrible choices.



The city conquering has made us (virtually) achieve the first goal earlier than expected.



Metal Casting from our friend(?) Khmer.



Our stability is fine and fine.



An interesting and questionable city choice. A workboat will be supplied by homeland soon.

I'll stop posting for now(took me 2 hours, I'm a slow poster). Please leave a comment if you feel interested.

Fresol said:

I'll stop posting for now(took me 2 hours, I'm a slow poster). Please leave a comment if you feel interested.

Click to expand...

Continue. You are extremely lucky in this game, but continue. On conquest you get extra culture, did you get extra gold as well?

I think you have to reaload couple of times. Your Greece game was also very lucky.

Can it occur to you that you that I'm just lucky? Normally if you win, you shouldn't be too unlucky. I tried a few games before, with different starting situation and city placement.

This is Regent difficulty right? Sometimes there can be even better situations in normal difficulty games, and I think lucky game itself is also interesting as others.

Yeah it's Regent, and I try not to exploit the game because it's not really that hard.