Had a fun time with this game. I enjoy playing Sweden (especially for the Great Person generation bonus) and really liked going for a Cultural Victory (I think Diplomacy would have been too boring and predictable for Sweden).
Finished sub-300, but not as good as a practice game for Sweden (also at Emperor, which is my favorite difficulty) which I had tried a week before TSG49 was released. Of course that one was an Archipelago with 8 opponents, all of who I was able to maintain Friendships with the entire game. My practice game also included DLC, which gave me the benefit of ToA, but also saddled me with the less useful Mausoleum and Statue of Zeus (which the AI seems to like more than the Pyramids, so that messes up my build order).
Also, due to my schedule this weekend, I had to play the GOTM in many shorter sessions. When possible, I kept the game running but window minimized, which may result in a long "game time," but even that method eventually runs your CPU out of resources!
So Saturday especially had several shorter sessions.
Settled four cities. Capital Stockholm was in the middle of the two rivers. While normally I like Coastal cities, the starting position just looked like a poor coastal start. When I discovered there were two rivers in the area, I decided that settling between them would yield lots of gold and irrigated tiles. Alternatively, it would have been interesting to follow the river to the coast and settle on a river/coastal flood plains tile which was in reach of the Marble and to then take Desert Folklore. However I discovered the Marble until much too late, plus there would have been a lot of desert tiles (no desert hills) and I would have preferred saving Petra for a city with desert hills.
Speaking of which, my second city (Sigtuna) was in the north, where all the desert hills were (on the river, near the gold, a little east of Old Faithful). My third city (Helsinki) was my coastal city, settled far to the west, just west of Gibraltar. Finally, my fourth city (Birka) was settled a bit north, between Stockholm and Sigtuna. Lots of interesting tiles (2 Wheat, 2 Banana, 1 Cattle, 1 Iron) though most of them 3 tiles away.
SP's: Completed all of Tradition, all of Piety, Patronage opener + Aesthetics, All of Freedom, rest of Patronage, all of Commerce (right side first).
Religion: God of Craftsman + Ceremonial Burial + Divine Inspiration + Cathedrals + Religious Text.
Research was fairly balanced and general (no major beelines, such as to Education or Archaeology). In fact, I got Chivalry and Physics before Education, and it ended up faster to open Industrial through Industrialization than through the Navigation/Archaeology route.
At Emperor and above, my research and wonder paths are often dictated by what the AI is doing. This game, my wonder build was actually pretty ideal. After the initial Scout / Monument / Shrine, I spent the rest of the game building wonders in my capital (except for a brief lull in the beginning Renaissance and late Modern periods when there were no wonders to build). Sigtuna was my desert/mountain city with Petra, Machu Picchu, Neuschwanstein, and (while capital was building Utopia) Pentagon. Helsinki was my coastal city with Great Lighthouse and Colossus. I needed a wonder for Birka, which ended up with the Leaning Tower (wasn't developed enough to risk Hagia Sophia or Notre Dame). The other wonders all in my capital.
If it wasn't for the computer AI, I probably would have preferred building the HG before the Pyramids. On lower levels I would have considered saving the Oracle and beelining for Industrial (saving it for Rationalism is do-able, but for Freedom is *extremely* hard and risky). I had to prioritize Chivalry (Alhambra) and Physics (Notre Dame) over Education's Universities because the AI's typically prefers those wonders. Similarly, the Forbidden Palace isn't all that useful but I prioritized it because I know the wonder flavors are heavily weighted. Would have been nice to do Porcelain Tower and Big Ben earlier, but my build order was largely dictated by the order along the tech tree (to keep ahead of the AI's).
Culture was slow in the beginning (I usually ramp it up in the mid-game when I open Freedom). Early science was fast due to GL/NC prioritization, but hit a snag due to delayed Education and not getting a GS early (in normal games I often pop a GS and GE at the same time, but the early Forge and late Universities meant it didn't work out this time). Things went well once I got universities, but it took some time to set up public schools and research labs (especially since I didn't have the cash for a long time to buy them in my capital - instead the money was going for museums and broadcast towers).
Genghis offered a DoF very early on. Alex was willing to DoF as soon as he started fighting Genghis. The other three took a bit of time to warm up but then offered DoF's as well. Most of the game I had all 5 DoF's. Signed a full round of RA's with everyone. Then signed three RA's (no gold for RA's with Mongolia and Arabia). After that, Greece turned on me with a backstab denouncement (fortunately about a dozen turns after the RA completed). The two main factors was that I was friends with his enemies (Netherlands and Mongolia) and he was expanding like mad and even encroached upon Helsinki (near Gibraltar). Actually everyone ended up hating on Greece, and we had a good coalition for awhile (signed one final round of RA's with my four pals). Near the end, Mongolia's city state aggression caused the coalition to split along Mongolia/Arabia vs Egypt/Netherlands lines (but everyone still hated Alex).
Mongolia was *very* aggressive towards city states. An early attack on Brussels was thwarted by my scout and worker (originally from Monaco but who joined me after being rescued from barbarians). Brussels got attacked later on and got taken (I was cash strapped and didn't have the money to bribe for peace). I did save Jakarta from Genghis with 500+ gold. Losing Brussels was annoying (since this was Cultural VC), but no other city states died. Early on, city states are rather vulnerable (especially against Mongolia). However by late game, assaults on city states seem pretty laughable. Near the end, Mongolia attacked Jakarta again (and Egypt attacked Wittenburg), but they were sending Riflemen and Keshiks (in Mongolia's case) against city states with 80-90 defense. Hilarious. Didn't bother with city states much until I opened Freedom (which was why I was actually looking forward to Aesthetics!). After that I allied the Cultural city states, and everyone else by the end. Took me a long while to find that final 20th city state though (the light green one not on the mainland!).
In the end, Stockholm was at 35 population, Sigtuna at 23, Helsinki 26, and Birka 24. Great Person count:
Great Artists: 9 generated normally, 3 bought with faith, 1 with Pisa, 2 with Louvre. Of these, 8 were settled into Landmarks and 7 burned for Golden Ages.
Great Engineers: 5 generated normally, 1 gifted with Educated Elite. All 6 settled into Manufactories (5 in capital).
Great Scientist: 1 generated normally, 1 with PT. Both settled as Academies.
Great Merchant: 1 bought with faith (mainly to fulfill city state quests) and settled into a Customs House (NOT in my capital though, where real estate values are so high they can't be bought with mere gold!!!).
Great Prophet: 2 generated normally to found/enhance religion. 1 generated through Hagia Sophia and settled. In the end game, bought 3 with faith to convert the heathen Greeks!
Great General: Never got a single XP that contributed to GG's. Got one from Brandenburg and one from Educated Elite.
Great Admiral: One from Naval Tradition.
Building the Utopia Project was actually much faster than I expected (only 6 turns). That was probably due to having a 35 population capital which had 5 Manufactories. I also shaved off 2 turns through hammer overflow (Intelligence Agency -> Arsenal -> Stadium). Too bad I didn't have a world wonder available for overflow!
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Insights:
1. I think for the fastest times, you would want to beeline GL/NC, then Education (universities), then Acoustics/Architecture (Hermitage), and then go for Archaeology to open Freedom. It's especially crucial for Continents maps since Astronomy is along the way. However, due to the AI's strong preference for beelines, I've found that going this route means giving up a lot of wonders (particularly the bottom branch including Great Wall, Notre Dame, Himeji Castle, and Kremlin). As a wonder whore, I prefer a more balanced approach, which means I can get these wonders, even if it means a slightly slower time. Interestingly enough, a lot of these military wonders actually have a decent amount of culture (GW, Himeji, Kremlin, Brandenburg, Pentagon all have 3 culture so it's a bit slower but not a total waste for Cultural VC).
2. My attempt at slingshoting Industial was a failure. Due to my tech path, the fastest option was through Economics/Industrialization. I first opened Patronage. I *could* have opened Industrialization with Oxford in time for my next SP. But it was risky because it would significantly delay Sistine and Himeji, and Greece was close to finishing Liberty (Alex often chooses a GE and could rush the wonder). My relations with city states was pretty pathetic, so I was actually okay getting Aesthetics and waiting another SP to open Freedom. Also, I was involved in a religious "war" with Greece, so I wanted to keep the Missionaries cheap for a little bit longer. I got everything lined up to Oxford Industrialization, but by this point my beaker output was getting good. Industrialization would only take 8 turns, and (I didn't realize) I had 3 RA's coming to fruition. I still ended up "wasting" Oxford on Industrialization (already invested the hammers, and the extra science/culture didn't hurt) but I probably should have saved Oxford then and entered Industrial through normal research and RA's. I think if you do a real beeline, your research output is still low by the time you can Oxford into Industrial, but because I did a more balanced tech path, by the time I was ready to do Industrial, the slingshot didn't help as much.
3. Wasn't impressed by any of the early Pantheon options. Desert Folklore wouldn't help my capital and there were only one or two good desert locations in the vicinity. Not a lot of pastures/plantation sites for good culture (especially since I usually keep Bananas in the jungle). In the end, I was split between Fertility Rites and production. Early on, I was situated in lots of plains, just barely breaking even with food and not really growing so Fertility Rites wouldn't have helped. In the mid to late game, Fertility Rites would have helped immensely, so I wonder if I should have chosen it. The alternative was production (God of Craftsman vs Monument to the Gods). Looking at my current production output and seeing the longer term viability of the former, I went with Craftsman. Part of me feels like I should have gone with Fertility Rites. Then again, I did get the ancient wonders (and in several cases just barely beat the AI's) so the +1 hammer *probably* made the difference in the early game wonder race (it's hard to say).
4. I don't regret the other religious choices. After this game, I did get a healthy respect for Religious Unity though. My early religion (with Religious Texts) meant that I could overwhelm the Egyptian and Dutch religions before they could take root (Arabia was slow to expand and never spread their religion either). I've found that when an AI gets a second Prophet, they will prioritize spreading their religion to their other cities (if they have become infected) rather than enhancing. By the end of the game, only me and Greece had enhanced. Egypt/Netherlands/Arabia kept trying to use their Prophets to preserve their religion (which didn't help because in the end, their religion was only present in their holy cities). Greece however was a problem:
A. They chose Desert Folklore
B. They went with Liberty for massive city spam
C. They were very far away from my capital
D. I was Friends with Alex and was trying to be diplomatic (so I was practicing containment as opposed to outright religious war)
In normal games, the city state blocks of Hong Kong / Florence / Tyre / Monaco and Vatican / Ragusa / Marrakesh, would be enough to contain his religion, but that was a losing battle due to Greece's Religious Unity enhancer (double pressure against city states).
I spent A LOT of faith on missionaries to peacefully stem the spread of Greece's religion. It was certainly fun and a learning experience, but I probably could have shaved a significant amount of turns if I just settled a bunch of Great Prophets instead. I at least got a healthy respect for Religious Unity as a choice.
BTW: After Greece backstabbed and denounced me, all bets were off. I bought 3 Great Prophets who, when combined with the Great Mosque, can instantly convert 15 cities. Was never at actual war with Greece (or anyone), but I had a religious battle with him, wiping out his religion in his cities. By the end of the game, the religious count was:
Arabian Religion - 1 city (only holy city)
Dutch Religion - 1 city (only holy city)
Egyptian Religion - 1 city (only holy city)
Greek Religion - 6 cities (mainly in Arabian cities which I didn't risk converting. All major Greek cities, including the holy city were converted to my religion. The few remaining would convert to me soon due to pressure).
Swedish Religion - 71 cities!
With Ceremonial Burial, that meant an ending Happiness of 177!
So this probably delayed my victory by 10+ turns, but it was rather fun, especially since I never got in a "real" war.
Also, Arabia seemed intent on converting Helsinki with two Great Prophets (even though there were nearby Greek cities with an opposing religion, and there were far away Arabian cities with my religion). However, I kept the Prophets at bay with my own units. Normally, the last 30-40 turns of a Cultural VC are a bit boring by constantly clicking next turn. In my game, it was actually a bit fun because I was toying with two Arabian GP's by opening and closing tunnels to Helsinki.
5. In the early game, I occasionally bribed AI's to fight each other to keep them busy, improve my diplomatic standing, and reduce competition for wonders. In particular, I was able to delay Arabia with a proxy war, to make sure Helsinki could get the Great Lighthouse and Colossus. Surprisingly, there was no real competition for the early Renaissance wonders but I got lulled into a false sense of security as I was somewhat surprised when everyone started building late Renaissance wonders. Almost lost the Porcelain Tower to the Dutch (who I chanced upon with a spy making the rounds), but I bribed Greece to attack him, and that changed his build queue to give me the turns I needed to get the PT first!
6. Normally I love coastal capitals, but I have developed a healthy appreciation for land-based capitals after this game. With a population of 35, I really needed all the tiles I could get. It even got to the point where I built a manufactory on an otherwise useless desert tile and worked it (0 food, but just a straight-up 9 production from the manufactory). However, I also realized that forests are a bit overrated. I guess it's a legacy from my Civ IV days (when forests repopulated themselves) but I have a tendency to save forests when possible. For production poor locations, it's especially good. But my Petra city of Sigtuna had lots of unused forest tiles (I even had unused mined desert hill tiles at times!). I really should have cut down the forests for farmland (even non-irrigated farmland after Fertilizer). Would have let me grow the city a bit more. Also, I normally want cities with non-overlapping 3 tile radii (to maximize available tiles), but lately I've begun to appreciate overlap at the third tile away. In this game, I had two cities share a Manufactory that was 3 tiles away (and in my practice game I had two cities share a Landmark).
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