Terra Maps

So recently I've been playing exclusively Terra maps, for those of you who don't know, basically, it's like continents but all the Civs start on the same landmass. I play mostly for the realism, plus some other reasons - because all the civs start so close, they pretty much break out into wars as soon as they start dropping cities, which keeps any one civ from becoming a runaway. The AI on AI aggression really helps at the higher difficulties, especially if you're doing OCC or only building 2 or 3 cities max. What I like about the realism is that when you hit the New World, it's roaming with barbarians, with a couple of more organized city states, like what would have been the Iroquois Nation or the Incan civilzation.

So here's what I want to try. Start a terra map as Polynesia, and use the UA to settle exclusively on the New World (The capital would of course be on the Old continent). I assume this would not result in a diplo hit from settling, but I'm not entirely sure. This opens up the entire continent to yourself, allowing you to farm a large army off barbarians, and more importantly, full access to all the City States, luxuries (and all resources), and goody huts, while all the majors civs war each other out. I would probably go for a science victory, although the easiest would probably be diplo. A late game domination might also be possible.

So I've played about 170 or so turns, and it's looking promising so far. Settings are Polynesia, Terra, Immortal, Standard, Normal Speed, everything default except for quick combat (duh). Here are the note's I've made, although they're start off a narrative, they eventually become line by line ramblings. Will post a save.

My settler spawns on the coast of course, however, I move inland to settle next to a river on top of sugar in order to take advantage of the extra gold, and a better location, more cows etc. When Iron showed up in the new borders, I knew I made a good move.

Research-wise I do my usual start: Pottery,Writing,Calendar (or equivalent resource),Animal Husbandry,Mining, followed by Philosophy

Build order follows: Monument, Warrior, Library, National College, Heroic Epic

Policies: Liberty, Citizenship, Meritocracy (GE used to rush Oracle), Collective Rule (From Oracle SP)

Although I'm going for a scientific and not cultural, I figures going for the Oracle would be beneficial because of the +1 Great Scientist point that helps before I can get Education, and then getting Collective wouldn't cost any extra culture.

So I spawn kinda close to Babylon, which is very bad as he's going to compete for the victory with me. He declares war on me early, which means this is gonna happen a lot and I may well use that to take his capital later in the game. He doesn't send a single unit except a scout he had nearby. Like I said in the first post, several other civs are at war with each other, Inca and Arabia, Rome and Songhai. The spread out wars only help me by hindering them. When I get the free settler from Collective Rule, I send him along with a warrior straight west to try and find the New World. Meanwhile, I found Samoa on the coast next to the same river and another sugar.

Babylon declares war on Songhai, so I'm hoping Askia's superior military will take his capital. I use the ton of gold I have saved up and ally with Ragusa (Maritime). After 15 turns or so, I come across the new world, and Lhasa, who I immediately ally. Unfortunately, I get my next policy before I can unlock Patronage, so I get Representation which will ultimately help for the future. Rome and Inca declare war. The more the better. I ally with Askia, because of our mutual hatred for Nebby, and his already large gold reserve. 2 iron shows up in my borders, and I use that to upgrade one warrior in each world, the other having to deal with a ton of barbs alone. I have 4 horses I don't intend to use so I sell them all for lump sums, as well as an extra sugar. I meet Tyre on the New World, which isn't too helpful, but getting dibs on the 30 gold rocks. I search the coast for a good spot to drop my city, but I ended up having to settle (terrible pun intended) for a sub par spot which I'll pump settlers from later. It does have 3 fish so economically that helps.

Out of nowhere, Arabia declares war on me, but Songhai is between us and they're at war also so that's no problem. I get a free ally in Dublin by destroying a barb camp and freeing a worker, and they give me pearls. I check scientific progress to see if Babylon is a runaway, and am surprised to see that he's not the leader - he's been warring (and losing) against the Inca, who have taken one of Nebby's cities. Pachucuti is the leader, 26% to my 24%, so not bad at all, considering the massive amount of cities I'm gonna shoot out thanks to my monopoly on the New World. Lhasa for some reason refuses to bombard a 2hp Archer in it's borders, so that's free influence for me. I set myself back a little for forgetting a scouting warrior I fortified sometime during the beginning of the game.

America is scouting with a Great General. :facepalm:

I had enough money to ally Genoa, but like an idiot, did so before the next policy, Philanthropy. I hit the first Golden Age, 33gpt really helps. Askia is ridiculously rich and I can't wait to sell him MY sugar that he took from me after our DoF. Greedy Bastard. Plans so far are to connect my two worlds with a harbor, and found a city on the new world next to some whales. To speed up the process, i'm gonna build additional settlers in my capital and send them overseas. About 30 hexes separate the 2 coastlines.

Arabia declares war again, but this time backs it up with a couple of embark units. Fortunately, I have not one, but two barbarian Galley's on my side. Inca has surronded Babylon with longswords. I immediately make a declaration of friendship, in part thanks to his awesomeness for taking Nebby out of the science game. I adopt Scholasticism and establish the trade route between the continents. I soon get a Great Scientist (thanks to the Oracle), which I use to pop banking, because my Gold reserve began to dwindle, thanks to Dublin's useless spearmen. I disband them.

I took a gamble and went for the Hagia Sophia which I got, and will really help for the GE i'm working on. I become the scientific leader by turn 160 with 42%. I settle another city on the new world next to some marble. I adopt rationalism just as happiness is at 0, the 4 turn GA is enough to let me push towards a theater in my cap and connect the marble.

So far, that's how the game is going. as money starts to flow in, I'll have plenty to snag a couple more CS's and some RA's, I'll begin to start up a military for defense, although my location is extremely strategic (my peninsula connects to the rest of the continent on 1 tile, which is a hill surrounded by other hills). A couple of caravel's should decimate any army that tries to come through. Trying to find more luxuries on the new world, although my scouting was severely delayed due to the constantly spawning barbs, but now I have a longsword so it's fine. Since I don't know how to take screenshots, I can't provide any, but I'll post the save and everything that happened so far should make sense.

One dipo hit you might encounter settling on Terra is "settling cities too aggressively" or something like that. I always get it when I settle it in the mid/late game. Not too sure how it will pan out for you settling in the early game.


The problem with the terra map of course is A) the AI rarely attempts to settle on the New World and B) It usually isn't worth your wild to settle. I will admit the concept of the terra map is one of my favorite from both civ 4 and 5, but again the economic challenges are too high for both users and AI to make it feasible.

When I first heard of the "Puppet Empire" mod I was ecstatic because I figured I could found puppets on the new world for resources and not take the SP hit for my "tall" empire back in the old world but unfortunately the "Puppet empire" mod is broken and you still take a SP hit even when you found a puppet.

in CIV4 Terra was my favorite. (new resources only to be found there, extra commerce income, colonization)
in CIV5 it is not so interesting