Sisiutil
All Leader Challenger
All Leaders Challenge Pre-Game Show:
Game #5 - England/Victoria
Game #5 - England/Victoria
In the next ALC game, I'll be playing as Victoria, leader of England.
The fact sheet:
- Traits: Financial and Expansive
- Starting Techs: Fishing and Mining
- Unique Unit: Redcoat
Poor Vicky. Elizabeth's homely cousin.
I considered skipping both English leaders for the ALCs, as I did the Americans. But then I remembered that I had never played a game as Victoria, and that I rarely see anyone else posting that they've done so either. Elizabeth seems to outshine her as a Civ leader; even in the last ALC game, when I encountered Victoria, several people referred to her as "Lizzie". I pictured Vicky pulling a Jan Brady at that point ("All day long I hear how great Lizzie is at this or how wonderful Lizzie did that! Lizzie Lizzie Lizzie!").
(Historical Aside: While Victoria is generally regarded as dour and humourless, as usual, reality was quite different. While not considered beautiful, she was widely regarded as "handsome" in her youth, and was apparently quite the party animal. Later, she was utterly besotted with her husband, Albert, and bore plenty of children as proof. When she had a little "female trouble" in middle age, she consulted the royal physicians, and one of her questions for them was, "Can I still have fun in bed?" When Albert died, she went into a period of mourning that some say she never came out of. I don't know about you, but any middle-aged woman who both adores her old man and still puts out is a-okay in my book.
)So why is Victoria the bridesmaid and never the bride? She starts with the same techs as Elizabeth and has the same, awesome UU. She is also Financial, possibly the most powerful (arguably overpowered) trait available. The only difference is that Elizabeth is Philosophical while Victoria is Expansive. The latter is probably the most undervalued trait in the game, while Great People are not only fun, they're key to several slingshots and other gambits, and Philosophical means you get more of them. So let's talk about Expansive first, especially since the other characteristics, with their obvious advantages, require much less discussion.
Expansive bestows a +3 health boost per city (with the 1.61 patch). It also reduces the production cost of two buildings which provide additional health boosts, as well as promoting either growth (Granaries) or trade revenue (Harbours).
The overall advantages of the trait and its cheaper buildings aren't immediately obvious in the early game. You need to research Pottery for the Granaries and a later tech, Compass, for the Harbours. And your cities need to grow to mid-size, usually 7-9 pop, to benefit from all the health bonuses (bonii?).
I usually find that by the end of the early game, Calendar-activated luxury resources, Hereditary Rule, and religion will lift the early happiness limit to city growth. What remains is the health limit. Expansive means you don't have to worry about that nearly as much. It also means you can build cities early on in locations that would normally present health problems (jungle, floodplains). And you can chop more forests to rush production, since you don't need their health bonus. You can also delay a lot of health-benefitting buildings like Aqueducts until much later in the game and prioritize health-reducing buildings like Forges, Drydocks, and Factories with less fear.
So Victoria's Expansive trait really only kicks in at mid-game, but it kicks in big time, and the larger cities it makes possible can really help on the run to Rifling and her UU which happens shortly thereafter. In the early game, both her traits make rapid expansion viable. Financial will help alleviate the maintenance costs, while Expansive means you can build in places--especially jungle--that the AI civs normally shun. Reaping these benefits, however, will require careful micromanagement of city growth and a little more restraint than usual with the good ol' whip.
This plan would also have an impact on early warfare. Instead of the early warring and later expansion I did in the Hatshepsut game, in this one I'm leaning towards REX early on. Let's put the "expansion" back in "Expansive". Bee-line Bronze Working (which the Mining starting tech makes easy) and chop Settlers like there's no tomorrow since I don't need those forests. Expand quickly, beyond my usual 4-6 early cities--more like 8-10. I usually start on a continents map either in the north or south end of the continent, so I'll be looking to expand in the opposite direction, especially into all that lovely equatorial jungle and its underlying grassland. Find copper quickly and claim it. Build Axemen for city defense and barb-whomping, then for weeding out any neighbours foolish enough to get in my way.
But I don't want to war too much early on; the expansion will tax my economy more than enough. I want to found my early cities, carve out my territory, turn builder, and work towards Rifling and those lovely Redcoats as soon as possible. THEN it will be time to conquer to world, or at least my continent. It would be useful to do some warring early on, though, to have some veteran units with City Raider promotions that can be upgraded to Redcoats, and to build Heroic Epic and West Point. If I have a neighbour with a holy city, especially with a shrine, they're going down.
Now the other option to a mid-game Redcoat war is to keep on the builder track. I could consider pursuing a Financial-funded cultural win. The decision will have to be made early on, and it will depend on three factors: (1) do I have reasonable neighbours; Gandhi, Mansa, Hatshepsut, Washington or Roosevelt, and even Cyrus and Saladin would be preferable to Alexander, Montezuma, Kublai, Napoleon, Tokugawa, Genghis, and Isabella; (2) do I have enough cities (at least 9); and (3) do I have enough religions (at least three--I don't have to found all of them myself, but I need them early enough to build their monasteries so I can spread them to all my cities). Redcoats would still be advantageous here, as they would safeguard my cities from attack while I pursue loftier, cultural goals.
It will be hard to pass up conquering with those Redcoats, though. Shooting for the Liberalism win makes sense, and I want to make sure I have Machinery at that point so I can choose Printing Press as the free tech, which is a pre-req for Replacable Parts, which is in turn a pre-req in turn for Rifling. Any other ideas on tech-pathing to obtain the UU early?
What more can be said about Financial that hasn't already been said? I've already mentioned that it can help with the expense of REX. In addition, with all those cities, it makes sense for several of them to be coastal, since Vicky starts with Fishing, and Financial makes coastal tiles more lucrative. The Colossus and the Great Lighthouse are both very attractive Wonders to build in these circumstances to multiply the moolah even more. And yes, Pottery and cottages will be an early priority, as always.
As long as I've brought up the topic of early Wonders, I will probably make my preferred run at both Stonehenge and the Oracle. Forgoing both with Hatty cost me big time. They'll go in the same city for the Great Prophet points. Between the GPs and a Code of Laws slingshot from the Oracle, I find I can usually snag Confucianism and Christianity; if I can build the Great Library and generate a Great Scientist in time, I can probably nab Taoism. While I don't need the health benefit of the Hanging Gardens, my cities could certainly handle (and may need) its pop boost. I will likely forgo the Pyramids, even if I have stone; I'll need the early hammers for settlers, workers, and city defenders. The Parthenon may be tempting to compensate for my lack of the Philosophical trait. If I finish my early REX and it's available and I have marble, I may take a run at it.
So that's the game plan as I see it. REX, then look at the lay of the land and my neighbours, and decide whether the Redcoats will be getting City Garrison promotions for a cultural win or Combat I and Pinch for domination.
Your turn now to weigh in with your thoughts on playing as Victoria.
in place, and missing out on the rounding bug as a result).
combined with Hereditary Rule means big cities early on; combined with Financial means monstrous Cottage spam (assuming the terrain supports it). Now, if you don't start near Stone, have you considered a GP->CoL/TO->Monarchy dual-slingshot? Or a GP->CoL/TO->Metal Casting, research Monarchy path, get those key Forges up in the cities that can utilize them (strong Food resource{s} and moderate production; grow/produce between constant whipping).
