Post Game Analysis Requested (Emperor - Sitting Bull)

[mercury529]

Last Turn Save (Pop Artists for win)
4000 BC Initial Save

So I set out in this game with the intent of getting my first cultural win on Emperor. I figured I'd use Sitting Bull to leverage Philosophical for an SE, and use late GAs to get the cultural win. I also picked SB because I wanted to play with a weaker trait like Protective.

Things started well with stone nearby, so that was priority number 1. I got the Pyramids easily and then settled my third city, hoping to get in a position to settle 6 total. Unfortunately, the AIs REXed quickly and cut off all my city locations. I did however have a little luck in that all three of my neighbors (Stalin, Zara, and Ramses) were Hindu. I converted to Hindu and was able to maintain good relations. However the low number of cities and the Hindu power block made expanding via war seem unfeasible. By the time Liberalism rolled around, I was so far behind on the power graph that it seemed like war was out of the question (especially when war would inevitably evoke the ire of the other Hindus and lead to a likely counterattack). I settled one more city for the resources primarily and powered through toward Biology and Medicine. I felt I could leverage the SE enough to stand a chance for a cultural victory if I had the extra food from Biology and Sids Sushi. The combination worked out.

I avoided war by maintaining Pleased relations with Ramses and Stalin. The clincher was the Defensive Pact I had with Zara. That made it so any attack by anyone except Ramses or Stalin would have to go through Zara first (who was in the lead for most of the late game). I amassed enough defensive units to stand a chance against a stack if Stalin or Ramses attacked. Luckily, I avoided war the entire game (so protective proved almost entirely useless - I at least got a few trade routes and soldiers out of walls/castles).

I ran in Pacifism for the entire game to pump the most Great People that I could. I settled GAs in my weakest city early for the gold and increased cultural benefits over time. I saved my last 8 GA to pop the last two cities to Legendary (the save is right before I popped all 8 for the win on the next turn).

I am curious what the experts might have to say about the game. Obviously there is only so much you can glean from a minimal view, but any observations would be welcome (you may be able to gather more information from the end game analysis as far as city founding times locations). Do you feel the start location was strong? Was I at a disadvantage compared to the capitals of the surrounding cities? Was the aggressive settling of the second city for stone the right move given the value of the Pyramids? Do I need to run an SE more in the red to ensure I can get to 6 cities? The first 3 cities were slowing me down quite a bit, and by the time I was ready to settle the 4th location, it was too late. Any other observations about the game? Kind of just curious to see what it looks like to people with more experience than me.

Thanks for any input you can give.

[futurehermit]

A general point: I'm not sure getting the pyramids is worth getting boxed into such a small empire.

[mercury529]

Originally Posted by futurehermit

A general point: I'm not sure getting the pyramids is worth getting boxed into such a small empire.

Yeah the small empire definitely made things more tense. I was fairly confident I could secure a cultural victory before the AIs won, provided I was able to avoid a costly war.

Do you have any tips for recognizing when/how soon you are going to be boxed in? The Pyramids were up and running by around turn 70. It seemed like expanding to another 2 cities shortly in that time frame would have crashed my economy. It was pretty apparent from the start that I was going to be somewhat confined, but I thought I would be able to secure one more solid city site even with building the mids. With one more good site, I would have Chaco Canyon and a city site 3 west of Cahokia to at least bring me up to 6. Unfortunately, my potential sites were already settled a few turns before my settler came out.

Thanks for the input. Any other observations?

[Winth]

My 2 cents, because I'm a Monarch player:
I'd go for Pyramids w/o stone only if I have a strategic resource nearby that I can use to claim some land for myself, or I am isolated.

[vicawoo]

There's a deity cultural victory guide that calls for pyramids, for universal suffrage -> rush buy temples and cathedrals.

[mercury529]

Originally Posted by Winth

My 2 cents, because I'm a Monarch player:
I'd go for Pyramids w/o stone only if I have a strategic resource nearby that I can use to claim some land for myself, or I am isolated.

I did get the mids with a stone hookup though, so I did not incur the full 500 hammer cost for it. When I saw stone reasonably close to Cahokia and in a solid position to block the expansion of other civs, I figured it would be a tremendous boon to my economy to snatch up.

It had two major non-civic benefits as well. The capital was able to reach legendary culture without any culture boosting buildings in large part because of the Mids. There cultural value was a tremendous boon in the late game. Also, I was able to rush the GL as soon as Literature was online because of the mids. This saved me 350 hammers of production on the lib, and made sure it was up and running as soon as possible to maximize its benefits.

On the whole, I think it was worth the effort. I am not sure if I could have secured 6 city location sites without crashing my economy prior to the AI boxing me in.