Five Cities of Gold - Spain Deity Challenge

Five Cities of Gold
Spain Deity Challenge

Hello everyone. I know that we're all anticipating the G&K expansion and I suspect some of you feel that SP games are becoming a bit routine. So here is a fun challenge for you!

Objective: Gain control over all 5 natural wonders* in the game. The first to have all of them within their territory wins!

Civ: Spain
UA: Gold bonus for discovering a Natural Wonder (bonus enhanced if first to discover it). Culture, happiness, and tile yields from Natural Wonders doubled.
UU: Conquistador & Tercio

You will be playing on small continents, standard settings (quick combat enabled)

All DLC required. No mods.

Screenshot of starting position:





I think this challenge opens up for various different tactics which all depend on where the natural wonders are. Spain is obviously the best and most fun Civ to play in a scenario like this.

Do you go for a super scouting start, exploring all of your home land with several scouts and immediately research sailing and optics to see what's out there? Or do you go for a chivalry strategy where everything initially is perfected to get the Conquistador asap?

You might be forced to do unorthodox things like conquering several city states (natural wonders tend to spawn next to them) which will upset the AIs. For once there might also be a benefit of using a GA for culture bombing since that could be the easiest way of getting the tile from an enemy.

Have fun!






* (If Krakatoa appears in the game and is situated on a tile non-accessible to a city then placing a unit next to it counts as control. Similar to placing a flag on the North Pole)

Sounds like fun!

I will give this a shot after TSG 31.

I'm at turn 164 and have control of 3 of 5.

I plopped my 2nd city down 2 tiles from Mt. Fuji and immediately bought it before Bucharest could snag it. I went with 3 cities for a while until getting Notre Dame then put my 4th city near Old Faithful.

Lizzy is a beast in my game - she has wiped out Hiawatha and has Nappy stranded on a 1-tile island. She also has the tech lead and has entered the Industrial Era. I am right behind and have 3 GS saved up. She has the Grand Mesa (previously part of the Native American territory) and I have yet to find the elusive final wonder. I have visibility into 97% of the map and it's either buried in Nebby or Wu's lands. I've paid for open borders so I can find out shortly.

My thoughts have been to tech to Stealth or Nukes and then go conquer the final 2. At this point, I don't think I'll be able to sneak in a city and culture bomb it. But I'm not opposed to doing some other cheesy tactic if the opportunity presents itself!

JeanBaptiste said:

Five Cities of Gold
Spain Deity Challenge

All DLC required. No mods.

Click to expand...

Dang. I dont own Polynesia/Denmark. Sounds very interesting though.

t196 win!

Don't want to spoil too much ATM so I'll keep the info not too detailed for now.

Went initially for a semi-chivalry rush as I expected to have problems with China. However, tech-wise I also crammed in sailing & optics so that I could scout my coastal vicinity asap and be lined up for astronomy/navigation. Settled three cities early, one next to Fuji.

Policy wise I filled out the Liberty tree really early thanks to the 10+culture from Fuji. This made it possible to get the free GP (scientist) for popping chivalry at around t85. After this I went for the Commerce tree and the left side. The naval tradition policy was extremely helpful for finding all of the natural wonders.

My finish date was the result of an early decision to win by a strong naval power. I made some tactical choices that perhaps wasn't the most efficient time-wise but made it a more fun and solid game.

Without telling too much, 3 natural wonders where settled. The other 2 were conquered, the first one was really tough.

I've attached my end save. I'll wait a while until I've seen if more people will play this challenge and then I'll post some screenshots and give some more info.

I have to say it was a really interesting game. However not too difficult and I could see emperor/immortal players also try this challenge.

Mazer Rackham said:

I'm at turn 164 and have control of 3 of 5.

I plopped my 2nd city down 2 tiles from Mt. Fuji and immediately bought it before Bucharest could snag it. I went with 3 cities for a while until getting Notre Dame then put my 4th city near Old Faithful.

Lizzy is a beast in my game - she has wiped out Hiawatha and has Nappy stranded on a 1-tile island. She also has the tech lead and has entered the Industrial Era. I am right behind and have 3 GS saved up. She has the Grand Mesa (previously part of the Native American territory) and I have yet to find the elusive final wonder. I have visibility into 97% of the map and it's either buried in Nebby or Wu's lands. I've paid for open borders so I can find out shortly.

My thoughts have been to tech to Stealth or Nukes and then go conquer the final 2. At this point, I don't think I'll be able to sneak in a city and culture bomb it. But I'm not opposed to doing some other cheesy tactic if the opportunity presents itself!

Click to expand...

Exciting to follow your progress! Did you find the final wonder yet?

I wished I could have used great artist culture bombs in this game but unfortunately 2 natural wonders had to be conquered, no other choice.

Hammer Rabbi said:

Dang. I dont own Polynesia/Denmark. Sounds very interesting though.

Click to expand...

Sorry you can't play it! Maybe I should have excluded some DLC.

JeanBaptiste said:

Sorry you can't play it! Maybe I should have excluded some DLC.

Click to expand...

no worries. it's definitely beyond my skill level anyway. i should get those dlcs if for nothing more than some save files i cant play. but dont cater some of these for people who dont have them. there's always people who dont have certain versions.

JeanBaptiste said:

Exciting to follow your progress! Did you find the final wonder yet?

I wished I could have used great artist culture bombs in this game but unfortunately 2 natural wonders had to be conquered, no other choice.

Click to expand...

I still can't find that last one! It wasn't with Wu or Nebby and I have 99% of the map visible. I'm clearing out the last remaining fog.

Turn times have gotton really long. I'm at 174, no in the industrial era with the tech lead - woohoo! I may need Satellites before I find this last wonder! Still yet to fight a war. Wu is friendly and Nebby has no interest in coming at me through Bucharest.

Mazer Rackham said:

I still can't find that last one! It wasn't with Wu or Nebby and I have 99% of the map visible. I'm clearing out the last remaining fog.

Turn times have gotton really long. I'm at 174, no in the industrial era with the tech lead - woohoo! I may need Satellites before I find this last wonder! Still yet to fight a war. Wu is friendly and Nebby has no interest in coming at me through Bucharest.

Click to expand...

Took away a question. Don't want to spoil your search! Hope you didn't read it

So are you on your way of taking Grand Mesa? Stealths or nukes?

I did find that last wonder. I had already been through that AI's lands and there were just a couple of 1-tile fog spots left. It happened to be one of them. Very unlucky! But I don't know that it could have helped me in my strategy.

It looks like simultaneous Nuke attacks would get the job done in 1 turn. (Hope I have some Uranium!) Luckily, my lone CS ally is within Tank distance from one city. The other city I need to take is coastal. I'm about to hit the cycle of RAs to clear the techs I need (along with 4 saved GS).


I'll be interested to hear how you went about this. Having China as puppets would certainly help right now. I haven't had any trouble funding RAs, but won't have the cash on hand to just buy 4 Nukes and a Sub right away. Maybe Lizzy will lend it to me.

Cool idea on the challenge!

quick question, when it says must have all dlcs does that include the Cradle dlcs? would they also prevent me from playing that save file?

there is a 2k sale on steam this weekend and i might get Poly/Den but i had no interest in the cradles.

Hammer Rabbi said:

quick question, when it says must have all dlcs does that include the Cradle dlcs? would they also prevent me from playing that save file?

there is a 2k sale on steam this weekend and i might get Poly/Den but i had no interest in the cradles.

Click to expand...

I don't have the Cradle DLCs and am able to play.

thanks, good to know!

t172 Victory!

First try. I am more of an immortal player but I always like these challenges. Thanks for posting it. My victory was almost exactly the same as yours Jean, founded the three cities with wonders and conquered the other two. I barely made it at the end, if I would of played two more turns I would of lost the 1st conquered city to Liz. The only two cities I conquered the whole game where the two wonder cities and with Frigates, same as you. Otherwise was peaceful for most of the game except when I declared war and at the end when Liz and Wu declared after I had declared on the last Wonder Civ. Would of been alot more difficult if one of the Wonders was inland. But was alot of fun. Thanks again.

cashorlife said:

t172 Victory!

First try. I am more of an immortal player but I always like these challenges. Thanks for posting it. My victory was almost exactly the same as yours Jean, founded the three cities with wonders and conquered the other two. I barely made it at the end, if I would of played two more turns I would of lost the 1st conquered city to Liz. The only two cities I conquered the whole game where the two wonder cities and with Frigates, same as you. Otherwise was peaceful for most of the game except when I declared war and at the end when Liz and Wu declared after I had declared on the last Wonder Civ. Would of been alot more difficult if one of the Wonders was inland. But was alot of fun. Thanks again.

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Great job. I expected to see a much earlier finish time than mine. Frigates do the work in this one!

Settled on that marble, first discovered 2 natural wonders for 1000 cash, built GL HS, rushed PT and ND. Bulb astronomy and navigation in turn 98. Trained 6 triremes and upgraded. Now milking XP till logistics before declaring war on elizabeth and exploring the LAST natural wonder.

Interesting map but that last wonder is really a headache to find

EEE_BOY said:

Settled on that marble, first discovered 2 natural wonders for 1000 cash, built GL HS, rushed PT and ND. Bulb astronomy and navigation in turn 98. Trained 6 triremes and upgraded. Now milking XP till logistics before declaring war on elizabeth and exploring the LAST natural wonder.

Interesting map but that last wonder is really a headache to find

Click to expand...

Impressive. Which policies do you have so far?

will wonders never cease (pun intended), i can now play this save. just got the last 2 dlcs.

i also have a good deity wonder save for Isabella if anyone wants to play it. read the spoilers if you want the opening notes.

it's pangea, deity, standard settings, random opponents with quick combat clicked. no mods.



View attachment AutoSave_Initial_0000 BC-4000.Civ5Save

Hammer Rabbi said:

will wonders never cease (pun intended), i can now play this save. just got the last 2 dlcs.

i also have a good deity wonder save for Isabella if anyone wants to play it. read the spoilers if you want the opening notes.

it's pangea, deity, standard settings, random opponents with quick combat clicked. no mods.

Click to expand...

Good luck with the challenge.

For fun I'll have a look at your file, the start seems a bit OP though!