Random map/civ on Deity.

Hello everybody,

yep, time for another. If you remember my last LP I said I wouldn't do another one before G&K. But after nearly 6 months of not playing Civ V I played another game or two and found this one very interesting from the start.

I'm gonna do some tweaks to the format. I'll still post alot of pictures with trivia stuff like trades and scouting, because those little things infact matter alot, but will do one "big" write up in each post instead of commenting every picture for itself.

The settings are very similar to my last LP. Random Civ, Epic, Deity, Random map type, large, 13 civs, 24 cs's, no bias start, no reloading.
Why do I allways play with settings like that? Personally I load up a map and play the first one I get 90% of the time. Obvious expections are ice and real stupid tundra spawns.
What I really don't enjoy is playing, lets say pangea and tech to IW right away, because I KNOW theres someone near me.

Settings:


Savegame with all DLC will be attached, feel free to play along .

Aaaand we rolled the Aztecs. While I really love their UU's ability to heal on dealing killing blows, I hate their UB. How rare is it make real use of it? You would need to reroll for ages to find a good spot with a river and some lakes.

Looking at the start, it's not a very popular one I guess? Most people prefer inland spawns instead of sea ressources. I don't really mind to be honest. It certainly is a rather slow start if you buy your first boat and sell the luxury for a net profit of 40 gold, but meh, from that point on you have 4 luxuries in your capital. Together with the UB and the tradition growth bonus this capital should grow very large in a short time.

I'm teching sailing first. After sailing most likely trapping for the ivory, but also to work the deers. I'm going to build a granary very early, so I'll want that deer improved. Talking about buildings my usual opening is: scout, monument, worker, granary.
Even tho mountains are unlikely I still prefer a scout to our UU the jaguar, for the chance to pop a archer.

First ruin we get is a boost in population, approved! Make sure to allways work 2f1h tiles, if you start with some. In this case they are picked because the have 1g as well. If they hadn't the city would work the whales.

Found the Mt. Fuji and popped a culture hut. I allways open tradition. Like I tried to explain in some thread at the strategy forums it is way better imho.
Let's do some simple math.
If I pick liberty now I produce 2 culture for 4 turns and 4 after the monument finished. Need 50 for the next policie (4x2)+(11x4) = 15 turns for the settler.
If I pick tradition now I produce 4 for 4 turns, 6 after the monument finished and 7 after picking up liberty. (4x4)+(6x6)+(13x7) = 23 turns for the settler.

So ... why is 23 better than 15 turns? Let's pretend we have a inland start with two luxuries and get our free settler at ~3400 bc. You pick your settler, settle near a luxury and now ... what? You have to wait ~15 more turns until you have the money to buy a worker for your second city. The one and only upside I can find is, you can grow your citie in those 15 turns which results in size 2 and one extra tile you can work.
Why I like to wait those 8(really ... it's only 8 turns on epic speed)turns:
-Better scouting
-I need to protect my settler. I think most people just move him around and reload when he gets captured by a barb ...
-When I settle my second I can buy a worker right away, after selling my first luxury.
-And well, obviously, thanks to picking tradition first - more culture.

Sadly all this doesnt effect this game at all ;p. Instead I'm opening: scout, monument, granary, buy boat, buy boat, boat, worker. And I'm picking liberty>settler to work the culture mountain asap.

Meeting Polynesia and Russia - I have a feeling they won't be friends, hum.

My units are way of, so I need to wait with my settler. Once I'm out of my capital I'll move one tile, wait, move one ... and so on.

Buying the first boat, selling the whales to Russia. With that money I'm going to buy another and sell it to Polynesia. The third boat I'll build myself and buy the borders.

Took my Aztecs, uh...
Culture, I suppose?

The problem is not that you delay a free settler, much worse you delay all other policies as well.

Other than that good luck!

If you look close enough you'll notice I didn't sell the whales to Poly right away. I like to wait until I can get the full sum in cash and not some shabby gpt.

Cleared that camp. Usually I would walk past it with a warrior, but with the Aztecs I'm trying to clear anything. The obvious reason: free culture. But unlike other games, where I try to get a highly promoted archer, I'm trying to get xp for my 2-4 jaguars im going to build. Ever saw mech inf that gets health back for every kill it does? Pretty beasty.

I'm NOT clearing the camp north of Sidon. Killing units over and over and over again will give me culture, influence and at some point a quest to clear the camp.

Poly-Russia lovefest begins. I'm not taking a side and neither will I sign a DoF.

Discovered horses. They certainly will get me a nice bunch of cash with those 2 guys/girls at war. Also our capital looks really good. I'll settle the third/fourth city north of the horses. Mostly to get more tiles for my capital.

Picking up honor. Liberty is sooo 2011 !

And remember guys .. also stay safe ... when scouting ... and scout to the edges :d. No seriously, quite lucky I found that wonder. +1 happyness won't hurt.

I really wanted that ruin with my jaguar. Had he took 1-2 hp more damage I would have used the instant heal. Oh and yeah, ruin was a map .. revealing the ocean. Sweeeet. Meanwhile my archer is on his way finishing the first quest.

Capital is going to build tri-jaguar-tri.

edit:knew I forgot somethng. Tech-wise I wanted to get the calendar luxury up first. Then changed my mind and getting philo first, so I can buy the NC.

Buying the worker, so I can sell the horses.

Korea captured? Oh dear ... Something is not right with my AI.

Finished the quest for Dublin and got lucky to get another one right away.

Capital starts a libary for the NC. I'll buy one in Teotihuacan too, as soon as I have the money. Would love to have a shot at the GL ... with Korea down allready I might had a shot at it, but decided against it. Mostly because it would delay the NC by ~20 turns.

Arabia is located northwest to Polynesia. Also it were Arabia and Poly who killed off Korea.

Horses get pillaged and the deal is canceled, what a pitty. If I have units near I kill the barbs before they can pillage anything ... feels kinda cheap abusing it and not protecting your stuff.

Free warrior, wooooohooo .. nah, not really .

Nothing really amazing happens. I'll let the camp near Teotihuacan(jeez, this name ...)stay alive, hoping I can get a quest reward out of it ... just like in the north for Dublin.

At one point I had a look at the GL and thought ... oh damn, I should have build it - next turn some other civ finished it . But with NC at 6 turns I should have gotten the GL ... :/.

My Trireme is at the edge of "our" continent. Hope theres a connection to the next civs.

Tech path will be: optics, iw, theology. Build order for the capital: nc, floating garden, lighthouse, settler, Hagia Sophia. I don't like going for the HS right away in this situation. Even with every luxury sold there are still ~5 happyness just waiting to be used.

Indeed found another continent. Denmark won't trade borders, so I'll have to scout to the right first.

Oracle? yes/no ? Again played the chicken and decided for no with no acces to marmor/the wonder build policy.

Bought the settler to keep Tenochtitlan(once again, those names ...)growing. City will be placed one tile north of the horses. Tenochi... will get the deer right away.

Didn't sign with Polynesia or Russia yet. However I'll sign a DoF with Denmark so I can get past their borders.

The first RA is done. The next one will finish in ~15ish turns. I'll tech compass for harbors next, then mathematics. This will leave civil service as middle tech for the next RA.

Finishing liberty, picking a GE. He'll be used for the PT, the Hagia Sophia(fingers crossed) one for Notre Dame.

Killed a camp for Geneva while scouting through Polynesia's land, not bad . Another one north of Dublin showed up. Going to move my archer there. But most likely Dublin will kill it anyway. Meanwhile picking up that one hut .. Come on give me a tech .. uh 30 culture ...

Bought another settler. Will settle between Capital and second city. Right now they are connected by 6 or 7 roads, which is way to expensive. So I'll plump a city inbetween and grab the whales aswell.

So who dunnit on Korea?

I disbanded one of my naval units after it scouted everything possible.

Then did some micromanagement at the capital. The moment the next border changed to the hill I purchased both tiles, since the cost got reduced by 50%. The forest was allready pre chopped and just needed one more turn.

Russia is still pretty much behind, after the early warmongering they did. On the northern continent Denmark and Mongolia are fighting it out aswell. So far everything goes according to plan . The last continent(s) have 6 civs left if I counted right. Most likely they will fight each other too.

Anyway - got PT and ND, yeah! Using the GS for astronomy like allways. Capital will start a caravel asap.

I took the patronage opener policy and missed to take a screenshot of it. Next in line will be the RA boosting opener, then honor ... we have to start a war at some point, right?

... Or maybe cathy will do that for us, if you have a look at the last picture. No wonder they missed some units at their Capital.

Finishing currency before the next RA kicks in. Middle tech will be chivalry which I will tech. Next middle tech will be banking/acoustics. Only then I'll start to fill up the bottom side of the tech tree.

Russia declares after standing next to my borders for like ... ages and gets smacked pretty badly.

Also tried to sign DoF with everybody. Pretty strange that both guys from the other continent accept, but Polynesia don't .. but meh, if you don't want to be my friend .

Next RA in 3 turns for a huge boost.

Meeting the last couple civs and getting a RA with everybody asap. Or better: they found me with a caravel theirself. But mine is underway too.

Found a pretty sweet spot with those 2 national wonders. Hope I can get a city there. Got influence for Bucharest as well.

Nothing exciting happening right now. But don't worry, my masterplan involving the early pick of honor will begin to show itself soon .

Still the same. Meeting new civs, renewing RA's, settle new cities ...

Taj Mahal should be a safe bet, prolonging the natural GA even more.

Sadly missed out on the natural wonder city spot. Meh, will settle near the capital then.

Still the same old. Don't worry, will get more exciting soon.
Settled Xocho... god knows how it's spelled correctly. Pretty sweet spot.

Stupid russian caravel seriously pillaged that tile and destroyed my boat. How dare you AI, doing something smart for a change ...

Rome has cannons, so I guess they are a little bit ahead in tech ?

3 RA's soon, sweet .

Really been in "enter, hum new RA? no? Allright, enter ..." mode in those turns. I'm just waiting for dynamite and the last honor policy.

But BAM, suddenly a unit of mine gets bombarded .. allright, let's have a look. A russian CITY ?! What da ...

Oh, and I noticed a road to the second city was pillaged for like 600 years. It's not like someone told me to fix it ._. ... stupid citizens!

Capturing that russian city got me my first GG. Hopefully not the last . Thought about letting the CS take it, but they didn't had any meele units around.

At this point I ed up pretty bad, buying only 2 scouts for the garrison happyness boost. I put normal units in every other city thinking I could buy scouts later ... yeah well, forgot you can't build scouts forever ... -.-

Peace my dear? No, not really. 1200ad infrantry ready to rock.

Railroads combined with all those harbors is simply amazing.

I'm selling every lux I got, upgrade my units and get moving. Planing to set up 2 artilleries to bomb on yekaterinburg and then take it from the sea.

Got my first destroyer for 500g, will upgrade the other caravel asap as well.

Taking yekaterinburg was kinda easy and well ... its not really getting any harder. I can just march over those kills with my jaguar-infrantry, kill a unit, loose 1 hp and get 2 hp back .

She asked for peace with 30 gpt. Thats a good sum of cash. I'm taking Petersburg and Moscow as fast as possible and will sign peace for her remaining money.

the last bit for today, will post the everything else tomorrow or the day after.


Was scarred Polynesia would declare on me, but np, they allready are at war with 5 or 6 other civs. Adding ~3-4 civs to the mapsize really makes things more interesting.

I also did not declare on Babylon, my mouse was over the option when I took the screenshot.

France is a goner. Quite sad, think our RA was nearly done.

Moscow, forbidden palace, luxuries, 35 gpt, 300 gold. I'm happy.

Polynesia, you are next.

Let the nukage begin!