The Immortal Challenge Lineup - Game #28 Spain

All games in this series will be set to IMMORTAL difficulty. User civilizations, maps, and opponents will change each game, but the pace will always be set at standard and the starting era will always be ancient. We will try for a variety of starts, and not just having a crazy warmonger as your next door neighbor (although there will be that too). This isn't a competition so there will be no predefined victory conditions. New challenges in the series will be posted every other Wednesday.

Who can play?
Anybody can play. The more the merrier. Even if you normally don't play immortal games you are still welcome to try. The games can become great learning resources for the player trying to improve. Even if you don't finish the game, we are still interested to hear about your experience.

Do's and Don'ts
We are going to be using the honor system. Feel free to restart, reload, play the same game multiple times, but don't use the science overflow exploit. Also please don't edit the game in IGE. If you do chose to cheat, please don't share your results in the comments. Also, please use the spoiler tag if you post a picture, comment about neighboring civs, close by wonders, or locations of ancient ruins.

Also, please tell us about your Build Order, Social Policies, Tech Order, and what type of wonders you went after. I know a lot of this stuff seems pretty mundane to the experienced player, but the details are incredibly useful to people trying to learn.

Future Games in the Series
I want users to submit saves from turn 0. Preferably the person submitting the game has played enough turns to know the map is either difficult, fun, or unique in some enjoyable way. Write a short description as to why it is special and email the save to immortalchallengelineup@gmail.com

Important
If you submit a game for the challenge, you must have the DLC map packs disabled. Not everybody has them and they are honestly kind of useless. Having them disabled will allow more participants.

Click to expand...

Game #1 - Japan
Game #2 - Poland
Game #3 - Ottomans
Game #4 - Arabia
Game #5 - Brazil
Game #6 - Denmark
Game #7 - Songhai
Game #8 - Sweden
Game #9 - India
Game #10 - Russia
Game #11 - Germany
Game #12 - Aztecs
Game #13 - Egypt
Game #14 - France
Game #15 - Austria
Game #16 - Siam
Game # 17 - Venice
Game # 18 - Iroquois
Game # 19 - Greece
Game # 20 - Persia
Game # 21 - England
Game # 22 - Ethiopia
Game # 23 - Assyria
Game # 24 - The Celts
Game # 25 - America
Game # 26 - China
Game # 27 - Korea
Game # 28 - Spain

OP-Spain on steroids!

I've been wavering between which victory type to choose, especially between CV and domination. I haven't really decided yet, but there will be frigates .

I actually didn't notice the reefs until turn 50 or so, as I was busy with barbs and didn't use every move to get a few extra tiles of sight, so it was my second expo. The reefs seem to be bugged, because they give me double yields.

Coming into the game and scouting for the first 15 turns I wanted to go wide, but after building a 3 city NC i just didn't see much reason to make more - especially since I consider domination as a VC and the spots for a fourth city look weak.

I've still only met two AI's, and with the current strategy I hope the other AI's are on smaller continents as well, so naval warfare can be more effective. We'll see how it develops - it has been an interesting map so far, and Astronomy will help in that regard.

Took Beijing, going for Venice after that. Then I will probably use Riflemen to take out everyone else, or switch to CV, haven't decided yet.

I have Beijing, Venice, Sukhothai and am preparing to finish off the other continent before I turn on my good buddy Gustavus. It won't be the fastest finish, but it was because I was banking on the capitals all being coastal. Alas, if I had gone for a traditional XB and Cannons swimming attack, it would have been faster, but hey this has been a lot of fun so far. Am away from good internet right now, but the LP will be up within a couple of days.

The reef gives you double yields

I was lucky enough to hit a pop ruin on turn 4, so I was able to buy my settler quickly enough that I was able to buy the Lake Victoria tile before Hong Kong grabbed it. I then scouted the reef, and bought a settler to send north. Using the 500 gold I had left over, I was just barely able to immediately buy both reef tiles. With that amazing +8 science, I went Pottery - Writing - Sailing - Optics - Mining for luxuries - beeline to NC - Masonry - straight to Civil Service and then Theology/Education.

My religion was +4 faith from natural wonders (obviously), tithe, +15% production, +2 faith per world wonder, and cheaper prophets for more holy sites.

I grabbed the Oracle early on (t70ish), but unfortunately the Parthenon and Hanging Gardens went before turn 60, so I couldn't get either of those. I was able to get Chichen Itza, Borobodur and the Hagia Sophia. I picked up Acoustics to unlock Rationalism with my eighth social policy (7th was Aesthetics opener), then I then went for Physics to build Notre Dame, followed by Chivalry for the Alhambra. Next I researched Printing Press to get the Leaning Tower of Pisa, whose GE I used to pop the Sistine Chapel (I left it late since AI never builds it early and if you want ND and Alhambra you have to build them ASAP).

I then hard built the Globe and the Uffizi, but Siam sniped the Taj Mahal 3 turns before I was finished with it. I built the Porcelain Tower and entered the Industrial Era via Scientific Theory, allowing me to start spending my massive reserves of faith. I popped Oxford for Radio, then two purchased GEs built the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower. I started spam-building archaeologists since there were many many antiquity sites around me and the adjacent city-states. I got two landmarks and about 7 artifacts.

At this point, all the important wonders had been acquired, so all I needed to do was tech to the Internet. I took Freedom and put in enough policies for +4 influence per turn for city-states and +33% culture in cities with a broadcast tower. However, I was able to bribe the city-states enough (3 points in Patronage) that I didn't really need to send them the trade routes. Those three extra Freedom policies were wasted; I should have just filled out Rationalism. If I had filled out Rationalism and bulbed the Great Scientists, I am sure I could take 30 turns off my win time (I only put two points in Rationalism since I had the tech lead by then, but more will still make your game faster).

While I was teching, I took control of the World Congress, passed Historical Landmarks, Cultural Landmarks, and my World Religion, so after I hit the National Visitor Center and the Internet it only took three musician bulbs on Siam to win the game. I opened Commerce and Honor just to build Big Ben and the Statue of Zeus since nobody else had taken them.

Wow, I really need to get better at filling out trees so I can spend my faith. 7000 wasted faith :/

edit: replayed w/ full rationalism and was ale to get down to 244. Still not really happy with it, but am tired of this map so I think I'll leave it there.

Spent early money on Settlers, then focused on Workers. A double shrine gave me the one with nature pantheon.

I missed Lake Victoria by one turn, so farmed a general to get a nice post NC Cordoba. Nutty game.



Only downside is that someone keeps stealing my wonders. Only landed Colossus so far.

I suspected GBR was in this game so I moved my warrior NW which gave me a quick settle on LV. My first scout luckily went NE. The worker that I snagged from Zanzibar got captured by a barb and Zanzibar recaptured it back. Since happiness was going to be an issue I rush bought a worker or I would've settled a 4th city. Since GBR is in the game I decided on a SV in which I made one major mistake in that I didn't want to generate a 1200 faith GP so I bulbed 2 GS to enter the Industrial era, as you can see it wouldn't have mattered.

I'm going to try and beat the CV time set by gerrard above

I made one big mistake so far: I thought Futurism was a Tier 2 tenet, so I scrambled to line up culture with Radio (t138), only to find that Futurism is Tier 1

I put up Natural Heritage Sites as the first vote and have bought two AIs, so I think I can get that. Hotels are not far away, so I should have some solid tourism soon.

Added Macchu, Sistine, Pisa, Globe, Taj, Eiffel (Faith Engi) and think a late Uffizzi might work ...

Tried doing a CV but every-time something went wrong like a wonder going so I went for a 4 city SV with a 4 city NC. Nothing out of the ordinary happened and I think no major mistakes were made.

Yowsa, OP is right! I really enjoyed the April Fool's DCL - this may end up my 2nd favorite.

I am generating much hate - I stole a Worker from Zanzibar just after Sweden pledged protection. I didn't find LV until looping around, so just as I got my 500g Settler up there Hong Kong nabbed it. Had I found GBR earlier, I would have bought tiles and citadeled the hill to get whales and GBR, but I had to settle for a lakeside Citadel. Found GBR with a Trireme, bought 2nd Settler and some Workers, plus stole a 2nd Worker from Zanzibar. So both Mercs hate me, not smart.

So now I have 3 in Tradition and 2 in Honor. Not optimal. I would love to go full Piety in this game too for fusies - I hope to get Holy Warriors and Pagodas and go absolutely nuts. 26 fpt with One With Nature, nice. Plus, there is a fish in the GBR, I didn't know that was possible. I suppose I should finish Tradition, realistically...

Hotels+Futurism+Natural Wonders+World Religion

I don't think this result is that great on this map - Siam had nearly 10k Culture to climb past, otherwise a mid 170s win would be possible. Quite a few lategame errors too - used Broadway too early, etc.