The Deity Challenge Lineup - Game #6 - Byzantine Empire

Finished rather late with a SV t277,but i was kinda slacking the whole game,even though i managed to run aaway 14 techs from the second in tech,i messed up a lot in the early game and got a rather late edu..
but it was still very fun and strong map,Elizabeth also conquered our whole continent excluding me ofc :D
also had only 2 RA's,so that also slowed me down a bit..was also uncertain about VC,so went for the safest bet(Sv),though i could've won easily with any other VC (except DomV ofc^^) but w/e..

Maybe ill replay it sometimes in the future.
Full detailed report and pics inc tonight.

PS:sorry if i bumped a bit inactive thread,but i wanted to share the story with this awesome community :)
Thanks again for the fun map!!
 
PS:sorry if i bumped a bit inactive thread,but i wanted to share the story with this awesome community :)

Never worry about "bumping a thread", the DCLs are there for us to do whenever we want, they're continuous threads. And now I'm going to bump it again!
 
T256 Futurism CV

This was my go at a futurism cultural victory.

It was of course a very nice start. Got four awesome coastal cities, the FoY, that desert wonder in Currency, Hanging Gardens, and Collosus. Still missed out on Oracle, Sistine and Uffizi, but never mind.

So it was just going for as much science until Industrialisation, rushing factories, timing all three guilds, and then making use of my insane amount of faith. I got 2 GMs, 2GAs and 2GWs straight away. But it only got me about 2/3 of the way to the tree, so I had to also buy some scientists to bulb me to the internet.

A decent turn time for an average deity player, but could be much improved.

What I've learnt actually is that ideologies aren't that important. Or better said, they're very flexible. And even more than before, faith is key, whether from your own sources or from CSs.
 

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T301 CV. Why so late? I have fully themed Uffizi and Hermitage, Broadway and Sydney Opera. That's 5 musicians. :p

Also, I went Piety-Exploration, both of which kind of suck, but I had fun. Specifically waited for Pachacuti to take ideology to be in the same boat. In the end, I DoW'ed Ramesses for 50% tourism bonus, and sailed 3 musicians for the grand opera tour. I actually took Jesuit Education for Reformation but ended up only buying universities and schools because I had money for labs and wanted to save faith for musicians, artists, and writers.

No one on my continent picked a religion, so at first I was waiting for it to spread, but cities grew super fast and my religion never became the majority.. so once I saw "Byblos and an unknown player are now allies!" I knew I had to do the good old missionary spam. Converted the entire continent to my religion, which got so entrenched that even Incan prophet spam could do nothing against it. I founded religion on t40 with a faith ruin and desert folklore, and the last religion was gone on t60. :eek:

Fun fact: Pachacuti voted me as the WC host, I proposed world religion (mine) and paid him 43 gpt to say yes, but he failed it anyway. :crazyeye:

Might replay this map for a DiploV using Piety again, though I may not be so lucky to found the only religion on my continent this time. I actually wanted to get Pilgrimage to experiment with fpt gain from it, but I had such severe cash problems that I picked up Initiation Rights to deal with -20 gpt. :lol: Might also skip religious buildings this time around to experiment with IT+RT or pick Messiah and prophet-spam for gold and culture. We'll see.
 

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So I replayed this map again 3 times. Petra gone on: t65, t74, t66. Ffs. :mad: How did I get it on t84 the first time I played?
 
T277 Science Victory

Spoiler :

Found this one kind of boring; never built any unique units so it was almost like playing a neutral civ.

4 city coastal, Tradition/Rationalism/Freedom (with 2 in Patronage), peaceful science game. I was able to avoid any wars through overly cautious diplomacy (never stole or tried to steal). Oddly enough, I also had hardly any friends, so very few RAs. Anyway, not much of interest to write up.




 
So I tried out the "Pick on Poor Little" Ormuz, level up Dromons and kick Naval Butt Strategy. It's shockingly fun, but not as purely effective as a turtle / science strategy [I had previously won SV on 277, this would have ended up higher I think]. I took Aarhus T140, London 155 and Venice 175. But then stalled out - too many in-land capitals. Logistics / Range / Supply Frigates are made of win.
 
Proofpic:
Spoiler :

Story:
Spoiler :
Settled on the desert coast, beelined for Petra after pottery and mining, but it was built even before I researched it :mad: This was the biggest mistake, as it screwed up my beginning, and I didn't get education until turn 125 and that's why probably missed Pisa. Apart from that, everything went super-well: good religion, a lot of wonders: Uffizi, PT, Louvre, Eiffel, Broadway, SoL, Cristo, 4 museums with theming bonuses (I dug up everything except one landmark on my continent) 691 tourism by the end of the game - not too shabby! ;) Bombed 40000 culture Celts with 4 GMs and won :) Lost like 8 turns transporting musicians there, so could be faster if I gave her a city. But I wanted my empire intact :D Went full tradition, full aesthetics, freedom, some ratio and patro, exploration opener. Let all cargo ships run for food, obviously. Enacted world religion and managed not to get killed after doing it :p Proposed Games, and would have probably won them too, it was like security in case something went wrong with my fleet of musicians :)
Anyway, culture is fun, but I'm not sure I'd be able to do this with a less godly start!

My empire:
Spoiler :
 
I got my first deity win on this map and i would like to ask which other map is recommended for a poor player like me? Usually i play Emperor and i just have one Immortal win (Denmark Challenge) and one Deity win now - there is still so much to learn. I saw the Russia challenge should be an easier one - true? Are there any older easy ones posted here? They don't tell difficulty level like the newer saves. I don't really know where to go now. ^^
The April Fools thing sounds funny but i'm not sure if all the bonuses there really can help me against multiple Shaka's! *Haha*

Oh, and sorry but that i can't post a Screenshot because i deleted the save already, but i'm not really here for this Finisher Spreadsheet or anything, just fun and learning.

I think it was only because of FoY that i had a chance here, the happiness really helped me out a lot, and the settling options with luxuries are good too.. Other then that, i payed constantly every one else to go to war each other, only late game i had a small war, but a few turns later (somewhere in the 300's) i started my Space-ship. Funny thing is, for being my first Deity win i did not steal any Workers, i was bad in Tourism and that stuff but kept my own Ideology, i was the only one with Freedom and buying the Parts for the Sace-ship was the reason i managed to win before culture or science victory of other Civ's.

Thank's for the map!
 
The Venice one (#25) is by far the easiest. Then Russia (#28) or Spain (#20).
 
The ones with the fewest finishers, I presume.

Which would be:-

#10 (Polynesia), with 8 finishers
#14 (The Netherlands), with 7 finishers
#23 (The Huns) with 7 finishers
#24 (Arabia) with 8 finishers
#27 (Denmark) with 7 finishers

Personally, I thought the hardest were Polynesia, Denmark and Rome (#9), but of course there are differing opinions on this.
 
I'd disagree with Arabia, plenty of finishers there.

I'd say Huns, Denmark, Polynesia but personally I'd also add Sweden, Maya and Persia
 
Persia? Are you joking?

Spoiler :
Great Barrier Reef AND Uluru?
 
Persia? Are you joking?

Spoiler for why that might make sense:
Spoiler :

Persia is deceptively hard - Oda/Dido/Suleiman can all be tricky to handle and there is a major CV risk in some games from the other continent. Building a solid core is straight forward, however :)


Of those I've played I'd say: Denmark (a loss for me), Polynesia, Sweden. I think some are challenging to play well, but hard to lose: Carthage, Iroquois, Celts
 
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