3-way succesion game

[Tiberiu]

This is a 3-players game for a Standard Pangaea and random all civs.
The players are @Mizzenmast , @bobbobbybobbob and myself.
We rolled Sweden and a sub-average looking start.
We'll play in rounds of 10 turns and talk our strategy as the game unfolds.

I'll wait for the team members to share their initial thoughts.

where to settle?
what to research?
should warrior move N or come to the flatlands?

 

[Mizzenmast]

Nice, this should be a fun one. Thanks for the map. My initial thoughts are:

I would move the Settler 1 tile onto the Cotton, to reveal 4 tiles (maybe Sea resources), then move him 1 tile eastward, revealing 2 more (radaring first to check no potential barb camps might take him). I would bring Warrior to the Wheat, planning for him to continue Eastward through flatland to find maximum Ruins and hopefully run into an AI we can steal workers from.

Next turn, if we’ve seen Sea resources, we might decide to settle Coastally next to the Cotton. This will be a slow early game and encourage a more peaceful playstyle, but having cargo ships & the garden will probably pay off in the long run. Alternatively, if we value having production and flexibility in the early game (including defense, in case there is Zulu or someone nearby), then we could move the Settler to the hill between 2 Mountains, which has +2 production immediately and at least 2 Forests to chop, probably more, and later the Observatory. This spot also grabs up all nearby coasts in our workable radius (with minimal open Ocean) and prevents other settles. I think I prefer this spot. There is the temptation to stack GP bonuses with the garden, but from a different perspective, Sweden can compensate for not having one.

Of course, a superior third location may appear based on our initial scouting. We also could settle the cap inland, but leave room for a coastal expo at our starting location (note the Mountain/Hill spot will not allow this.) We will appreciate having this option if land ends up being scarce and there are not easily conquerable neighbors (or we want to stay friends with them).

For research, probably Pottery first for a Shrine. Then, I usually prioritize AH and BW (diverting for a luxury if needed) to have maximum settling knowledge, but that’s me. Would probably go Mining before AH so that any potential stolen Workers can chop our woods ASAP. Maybe BW before AH as well, so we can get a couple Spearmen out. Unless we have a close and friendly neighbor; then we can go AH for an early Caravan instead.

If we don’t get a Culture ruin quickly, then I would recommend a Monument after our initial Scout, so that we’ve planted our first seed towards culture when it’s time to build the Shrine.

Policy-wise, I am thinking Tradition opener, then we can either continue Tradition or transition to Liberty (partial or full) depending on the map needs/our interests and long-term plans. Tradition is safest. But we could also do something fun like Tradition opener => Liberty, Worker, +1 production, road happiness=> filling out Patronage.

Thoughts? And what is our turn order - T, B, me?

 

[Tiberiu]

Interesting thoughts, Mizzenmast. Here are mine:

Settling: My first thought is settling on the Cotton. Crossing the river in hopes of catching some other resources in the third ring is also something that could pay off. But putting city on Cotton has the advantage of getting more gold from the start and working that Wheat.

Research: I agree Pottery looks good because of opportunity of Desert Folklore and because we'll need Calendar to be able to sell that Cotton quickly. I think we should rush the Shrine to the maximum to increase our chances for DF. (I also like AH and BW, good to know where stuff is and to sell them quick if you're lucky to have some).

Policies: Since we are Sweden, we should also have in mind that we can get a quick CS ally from Honor>Warrior Code. If we meet a religious CS that is not Hostile, it can be an easy way to get a religion out of it (maybe after 5 turns to have pledge of protect). But I'm all for taking Tradition Opener first, regardless of other plans that we will know better as we discover the map.

Turn order? Anything goes. ( I just used this random dot org website to pick our order and it said: B - M - T. )

As a general principle, I think it's a good idea for the player in command to have bigger liberty of decision in his session, so we don't have to be too uptight about potentially making moves that are not 100% syncronized between us. We will improvize and adapt to new situations, should they occur. We're all good players and there is room for a bit of variation.

 

[Mizzenmast]

Good points about the Cotton. Especially if we see Fish with that first move, we could settle t0. Getting 1 city-center faith from DF would be nice. I think selling the Cotton is most advisable if we can get at least some of it as lump gold in a peace deal after worker-stealing, and if there is a duplicate source nearby. Without those conditions, it is less attractive, and rushing Calendar is less important. We will probably know what to do by the time Pottery is finished.

Warrior Code trick could be worthwhile for a Faith state as you say. But for the culture investment, we will probably want to engage in heavy melee-warring at some point to get more mileage out of the policy, and maybe continue with Honor. And between production & maintenance costs, GP%loss, warmonger penalties, lack of the GGs themselves, etc, I think it may end up strategically breaking about even in the long run, compared to if we invest the policies elsewhere. Very difficult to say. I would fully support it on an Epic speed map. Probably still worth it for Faith CS if we are late to get DF or someone else takes it, and there will be the fun factor.

That turn order is fine with me, so Bobby can take us away! And I agree that the player at hand is the captain and should feel empowered to do whatever he thinks is best, the other two are there to brainstorm. Edit: If there are differences in our approaches, or changes from earlier plans, we can chalk it up to new dynasties/administrations taking over and pulling the empire in a new direction. I have a feeling my line will be known for unscrupulous foreign policy.

 

[bobbobbybobbob]

Greetings. I moved warrior across the river and saw nothing special on the other side. I took the cotton and I think it's OK. Looks like there is a lot of production here but not much food. We will solve that with cargo ships.

BO - Scout, Scout.
TR - Pottery
SP - No policy taken and no idea what to take either. - All four seems pretty good here.

Pretty good vision on the map except the south. No other AI found nor CS. However two CS will be able to be discovered for the next player.

This game can go in many directions so it's up to you guys how you wanna go with this one.

 

[Mizzenmast]

Bought three cheap tiles (Sheep, a hill, and Truffles), rushed the Shrine, now finishing Monument, and stagnated at 3 thinking that we can build Settlers hereafter (there are lots of nice desert spots to pick up early faith). Someone took Dance of Aurora. Found one ruin: a Spearman upgrade. Met a Mongolian Scout t19, sold our embassy to him and hoping we can steal from him with the Spearman. Scout is in position by hostile Cahokia to steal their first Worker (and hopefully more later.) When we get Cahokia’s worker, we could use it to radar where the Mongolian lands are if we haven’t run into them yet.

There are nice spots all over and we are relatively isolated. The capital is a bit lacking (especially because it will share tiles with a city that I assume we will found on the Cows to the Southeast to get the Circus and Cocoa). Tradition opener seems irrelevant since there’s not much to grab in the cap. I think Liberty straight to the Settler and focusing on a rapid spread of DF cities with Shrines before Monuments is the way to go. Maybe we take Tradition after that if we have enough Workers, or Honor.

Currently researching Mining, then Calendar or BW would make sense. I favor BW because Genghis seems poor.

 

[Tiberiu]

What a map... I didn't expect us to be so isolated. It's not all bad, right? At least we know we won't get attacked any time soon, and as long as we don't piss off other civs, they should see us as DOF material for us to use our UA.

t22 - took Liberty. Somebody took food from camps pantheon. I chose Calendar as next research as it is sure to give us a bonus and something to sell
t25 - met Inca.
t28 - culture from plantations pantheon was taken by somebody.
t29 - met Germany and Old Faithful for 1 more happy.
t30 - Cahokia did not spawn a worker yet. Germany has 250+ gold and we could DOW early and sell the cotton (and maybe the embassy) for 275 gold.

I haven't found Ghenghis, unfortunately. I wonder if there's a bigger landmass to the south of Sofia.
Hopefully we will still get our Desert Folklore eventually, but it looks a bit unlikely now. Otherwise we can have plan B in mind and maybe finish liberty for a prophet. This would probably mean that we should build Oracle too, but the tech pace is a bit slow without beeline.

There are many possibilities for settling cities. A good thing is the good places are likely to have Circus from the horses so we'll get a bit more happiness. Later we could also connect the Marble.
I was thinking the city to the S could wait a bit if we want to maximize chances for the religion and stick to the desert first. With Sofia likely to give a barb quest, we should consider a city maybe on the Truffles near the Oasis at some point, maybe earlier rather than later. But there are some barbs around so an escort would be needed. I pledged to protect it to have a head start.
This might not be the easiest game ever, but we should be fine overall.

screenshot with few ideas below

 

[bobbobbybobbob]

Got the settler and decided to build another one. Sigtuna has been founded on the spot northwest (where the x is marked). Since there are barbs around I couldn't risk go even north since I went in without escort. The scout west took a worker from Cahokia, but the worker is stuck with the worker. We gotta shoot down the barb camp which will take a few turns.

On the eastern front I took two workers from Inca and I'm bringing all units back. I think it's best to just gather up at the base and we can send out a scout or two when we are cleared from barbarians.

BO - CAP: Settler, EXPO - Shrine
SP - Liberty left. - I didn't see a problem with going liberty so I just went safe. Perhaps Piety is a thing but it's up for the next man.
TR - I went for trapping since the next city is going on the truffles most likely.

EDIT: Oh.. I forgot, we can pick desert folklore right now!
EDIT: We still at war with the CS, so we can perhaps get one more!

 

[Mizzenmast]

Great job getting us 2 Incan Workers bobby without even having to make peace, that’s going to be huge. Sending our Eastern scout in that direction to hopefully end the war with a 3rd steal.

40: Took DF, got our Faith going. Pledged to protect Sidon as they have put out a discovery quest for Mongolia. Stuck with Trapping, but I decided the Oasis city will be better off on the Stone, not right on the Truffles. Not only will this grab an extra early faith, it will take up a less-than-stellar tile, allow for a Stoneworks (even without Masonry), and leave the 2nd Horses available for a Circus for another city south of it. Here is a picture of the spots I see as best to settle. The lines indicate which cities can grab the situational happiness buildings. (Edit: forgot to indicate the NW Circus). For the NW spot: we won’t get a double Stoneworks, but if we settle on the River next to the Stone then we will not get the Stoneworks in Sigtuna at all (unless we build it there before settling the new city, unlikely). Since we are not drowning in luxes but have a great opportunity to go wide with hopefully some nice Religious buildings, I think we should push local happiness to the max. All of our continent’s resources are claimed by these spots. Food for thought. (Note: Our SE city should definitely go on the Cattle rather than the spot T marked, because Stockholm has by now already claimed that Horse tile despite being out of Circus range, and settling next to the Horse-tile will re-claim it for the new city. It will take longer to get the Cocoa online but our long-term happiness is improved.)

42: Sidon puts out an encampment quest for the same camp as Sofia.

43: Someone got Pyramids. Cleared the Sigtuna camp, putting us at enough gold to buy a Scout to escort our latest Settler to the Oasis area. Start building 1 more Settler.

45: Genghis offered Friendship! I accepted. This may provide some insurance against rapid settling hate. Started Archer in Sigtuna over Monument. Take Liberty Settler; this one I sent towards the NW Truffle spot to get that lux immediately.

47: First religion, Catholicism, takes Mosques. Scout takes a 3rd Incan worker! we make peace and sell our embassy. Start tech: Bronze Working

48: Second religion, Protestantism, takes Temple happiness.

49: Found Helsinki without issue, start chopping for a Shrine Asap.

50: Handaxe spawns from the Helsinki encampment we were about clear with a Scout. Stockholm claims Horses and reveals a new camp down there.

Closing thoughts: Exploration could be very powerful this game. We could actually fill it out and try to make the most of the Admiral policy a la Warrior code. Finishing Exploration would also give a Faith=> Influence sink. We might want to delay Culture so we don’t overextend before the Medieval.
I've been radaring Cahokia, no 2nd worker yet. That scout has Survivalism.

Tiberiu, not sure where you will send our Settler currently in production, but we might consider letting Sigtuna and/or Helsinki grow to 2 pop before we enter unhappiness, for the extra faith.

 

[Tiberiu]

Good job guys. I'm not at home, will continue tomorrow morning.

I forgot about that "no plains" requirement for stoneworks, well done to have it available in our city.

Great point about circus in SE city! Happy to learn tricks! I like getting as many bonus buildings too, good for mizzenmast to point these things. I think if we get a religion we'll have a nice game and spread it easily.
I'll be sure to maximize faith so we can get our religion.

 

[Tiberiu]

Hey guys. Sorry for the delay...


51 - took camp for Sidon and Sofia and revoked pledge.
53 - Oracle and ToA were built in far away lands. Met Pacal and Cape Town.
55 - our cities have grown (waited for both of them to grow as Mizzenmast suggested) and we are unhappy.
56 - discovered Bronze Working but we dont have much iron. Founded Birka directly on Truffles just to sell it quickly to Mongolia.
57 - Met Zulu and Siam!
58 - Improved one more Truffles and we are happy again.



I think we're doing quite well now. We are sure to have a religion soon. And I also think we have many options for what to do next. I am really thinking there are ways to attack the Incas and also that we can secure another city somewhere to also connect that Citrus. With our economy, it shouldn't be hard to defend from the Incas if they attack us, and also we can gain the upper hand at some point with a well placed citadel on a hill to kill their units.

So I brought a settler in the area near the Incas, look at that rich lands, I think it would be a pity to not go all the way and get all these riches.
I think the settler should go on the Gems where the Scout is, and then please share opinions on maybe another city spot to connect the Citrus.
Masonry is 1 turn away from being researched, we'll need it if we place a city for Marble (I am thinking directly on it, looks like a good spot, gains time, and has observatory. We should maybe try to keep friends with Mongolia as much as we can and use him to attack our enemies.
We are stil at war with Cahokia - maybe we should remain at war and try to steal workers with a Horseman... we might need quite a few workers.
For policies, going for Liberty worker is the first thought. We should maybe finish Liberty now, and engineer the NC?

Also we should consult on what to get from our Religion when the time comes. I suggest to take something with happiness and production if we can.

@Mizzenmast @bobbobbybobbob what do you guys think? Hopefully you'll agree that a bit of extra expansion wasn't too greedy.

 

[Mizzenmast]

I loaded the save just to check the Iron values and look around. No doubt we are doing well. The "problem" is that there is more good land to work than there are luxuries to sustain us, even with bonus buildings. I am glad @Tiberiu moved a Settler towards the Eastern area. Genghis is farther away than I would guessed.

The Gems is a good spot. Hard to pick an obviously "best" arrangement. That said, this is my estimation for the best city-pair:



Compared to the Gems spot, The Western city breaks even with freshwater farms and picks up the 6-source Iron. It's extremely defensible, retains the Observatory and Garden, and will allow for a city connection via Harbor instead of having to make a long road around/through the CS. Also gets Exploration bonuses if we pick that. Another small perk is that this city is within 10 tiles of both our cities to the West to receive natural religious pressure; the Gems city only gets 1 and would probably need a Missionary. But hard to predict this sort of thing. Anyway, we can just use a short road to connect it to the Eastern city, which will get an Observatory, the Citrus, a Circus, and a Stoneworks. From the second city, we could immediately send a Caravan to Mongolia to shore up that friendship and get some Science.

I think that after these 2 cities, we should settle 1 more in our Cocoa spot, but leave our Northern coast alone for now. We should stabilize our happiness, raise gold to buy the tiles we need, and try not grow beyond 2 or 3 pop in any city until it converts (or is receiving significant pressure). Regarding the Marble, I don't like settling right on it. I don't see this city ever being large or productive enough for Observatory option to matter, and it misses out on good tiles. I think we should wait to settle in stronger spots at a later point (I re-nominate the spots I pointed out), when the cities will be converted quickly, we have massive Worker power, more AIs to trade the duplicate luxes with, Exploration policies, etc. Inca also has a source of Marble which Cusco might grab eventually. Btw I do support warring him but we should let him build Macchu Picchu first.

Definitely take the Liberty Worker policy, and continue to farm Cahokia. Then finishing Liberty is probably best, but I'm not sure which GP to take. Engineer for NC could be good, but I wonder if we should stack our NC in a mountain city, not the capital, to put all our Academies there? We could also take a GG, either for fighting or as a gift to one of our fading friends/allies. This has the nice benefit of not raising any GP costs.

Edit: For religion, probably Pagodas > Cathedrals > Production % for the first belief.

 

[bobbobbybobbob]

You wanna settle south city before northern? So there is those three cities going down and then NC? The marble city up north is going down after NC?

 

[Tiberiu]

I like Mizzenmast's ideas and city placements for the 2 cities near the Inca, and I would agree that it's better to first plant the one for the Citrus, to make sure we get the spot before anybody plants a city nearby.
From now on, I think we shouldn't build any more shrines, and just prioritize monument then library and after that granaries and aqueducts.
I also agree engineer NC in a mountain city is a cool idea.

 

[bobbobbybobbob]

We got a religion. I took production because pagodas and cathedrals was taken already. I settled the western city and I decided to go for Iron to sell it for good money instead of the luxes. I haven't bought any tiles. I think it's better if the next man does it. Another worker was stole from Cathoka.

Great news is that Shaka has a flat, coastal capital! It will be very easy to take the way it looks right now. Yes, the unhappiness is annoying but that will sort it self out now. Perhaps it was stupid to go another settler but I figure it nice to have all the settling done. Now we can just focus on development! We also got another unit from our city state. A spearman. Good! A decent melee is always welcomed.

To put it simply I haven't done much other than securing the cities and scouted the cities of Zulu and Mongolia.

Inca got the GW so war with them will be rough. We are liberty so we could settle a city near them instead of going south, but that will require more units towards them which might be not a good idea. I like peaceful play here. We got a lot of cities and we can probably rule the sea later with frigates and battleships.

I hope you are not disappointed @Mizzenmast

EDIT: Sofia wants GE so yeah... that's an ally right there soon.
We could also take a prophet, spread three times and then gift it for 90 influence. Well this is a later topic.

Zulu is probably winning the war against Mongolia which is good for us. Mongolia is brining an unprotected settler towards us. I think we beat him to any settlement however.

 

[Mizzenmast]

Not disappointed, although it is unfortunate we didn’t get any religious happy buildings.

70: Traded a Truffles +3gpt for Zulu Incense. Since Genghis may die soon, I started siphoning off his gold. Bought out Cotton and Gems in Uppsala.

72: Shaka gets Great Lighthouse. He captures Beshbalik and razes it. It turns out I was wrong that a Caravan would have reached that city anyway though so no great loss.

73: Sell a spare Cotton to Inca, he seems to have a large army and reason enough to hate us but still offering 7gtp. And I settle the Citrus city in a different location (preserves all the same buildings). I have to because there is a Siamese scout blocking our way, but the new spot ends up superior because it allows for a TR to Cusco, and hopefully friendship.

Spoiler :

76: Pacachuti gets Mausoleum.

77: Third worker from Cahokia! We’re up to 8. I also saw a captured Sidonian Worker which was taken back to an encampment at the indicated forest, we have up to 3 Spearmen ready to rescue and release him:

Spoiler :

Eventually we will take Mathematics and get a couple Siege Towers from Sidon, which will be powerful as embarked aids to our naval assault of Ulundi. Sold Gems to Siam.

79: Sent a Caravan to Cusco. Sent our recently double-sighted Scout towards the area to prevent camp spawns. Zulu founded a city somewhat close to us.

A lot happens on the eve of t80. Zulu denounces us and wipes out Mongolia, giving us back our Truffles, and Germany immediately asks for it, so I swap it for his Copper, making us freshly happy on t80 (all our yields should be re-examined now). I had been building a Cargo ship in Stockholm and Trireme in Uppsala to set up a lucrative TR to Ulundi (10 gold, 6 Sci, diplomacy boost), but now I’m not sure if we can avoid war. I should probably have sent the Caravan to his new city rather than Cusco.

The Wheel is 1 turn away whenever you’re ready to build Roads, I have us on Philosophy now.

 

[Tiberiu]

Good job Mizzenmast! Small comment until I get home to play... If I am not mistaken, siege towers no longer give the bonus when embarked, and not to naval units, anyway. But I have read that they used to. Probably fixed in final patch. It was a bit too good and a bit unrealistic too..(visualize a battleship gaining power from a medieval tower floating in the water, lol).

 

[Tiberiu]

t80: I decided to pay Shaka to attack Inca (so that he doesn't get to ask Incas to joint war us), and also Siam and Germany (because Cape Town is Siam's ally and they might help kill some Zulu units, or if Cape Town gets captured, we'll liberate it later and get an ally). Hopefully he will want peace in short time and then we can use the Sea Route to him. And he will now get hated by everybody.
I also denounced him before DOW, hopefully to inspire others to do the same and to get positive modifiers with them.

t81. We received 3 proposals for Friendship and I accepted: Germany, Inca and Maya! I settled our Marble city with Mizzenmast's preference but this has the drawback of having to spend some expensive gold (260) to reach the Marble. We'll spend a few more turns unhappy but it's not that big of a deal. I started work on road network, we'll need the happiness. Taking loans from Inca as long as they have gold and made a big loan from Germany to be able to buy the needed tiles. Sold our open borders to Germany and Pacal.

t83 - could not find the worker of Sidon as Inca has already 4 units there and took it. 3 swords and 1 composite. Bought one more worker in Uppsala because he'll improve a cotton faster and pay off. We'll need a lot of them anyway.

t84 - killed a horseman for Sidon and they are ally again. Our trireme is just on time, a Zulu trireme has come to our area. Cargo ship in standby to see if Shaka wants peace next 2 turns. I start to build Granary in capital, I think it has time for a few other buildings while cities get libraries.
Bought one more worker in Lund to improve one more Truffles, we could sell it to Siam so I think it's a good investment.

t86 - bought Inca's open borders to continue scouting with our promoted scout with sight 2. A bit of gold issues because of the roads and loans but nothing we can't manage.

t87. Shaka doesn't want peace, I sent the cargo ship to give food to our capital. A bit risky without the trireme in the area but it felt a waste to not use it.

t88. Philosophy on 1 turn, I switched to Construction.

t90. Prophet spawns! Unfortunately Itinerant Preachers is already taken, but we can take Religious Texts. For the second follower belief, 2 good beliefs seem Asceticism (+1 happy shrines) or Feed the World for extra food but I think happiness will be the limiting factor and not food here.

Notes:

- Care is needed around Sofia because Zulu might ally it out of nowhere. Please treat it as potentially hostile.
- I exposed 1 spearman near Shaka who already has some Impis there, but he should be able to escape to safety. I think we can defend without difficulty. Maybe move to the right, the river will keep him safe to run. The Trireme should also be careful, I only saw 1 Zulu Trireme but there might be more of them.
- please re-examine citizen so as to maximize growth now that we have enough happiness
- we are richer than we seem, I took a lot of loans. We still have 4 horses but nobody wants to buy them.
- We should check for peace with Zulu often and make it when we can, I think.
- Ally Sidon will expire soon so we'll lose 4 happy from Pearls but we should be able to find 250 gold to give them to help us continue growing.
- we are low on science a bit but it will skyrocket after libraries and NC and universities will be up, I think we're fine.

 

[Mizzenmast]

Nice work Tiberiu, I like how you've handled Zulu, especially seeing the Cape Town opportunities. I support Asceticism belief as well. And Religious Texts means Uppsala will convert in no time with 2 cities' pressure on it.

30% GP increase in our cities is huge too... It has made me theorize a new strategy which is not serious but you may appreciate the efficiency/Swedishness of the idea. We could abandon the Liberty GE, go for a General instead, and use him in our war against Shaka (planting him, keeping him, or donating him according to our needs). Meanwhile we favor Currency, build a Market in our richest city (Uppsala?), immediately work the slot, and get a GMerchant with only 100 points, which we donate right away, optimally to maintain or gain happiness (Incidentally, maybe we should peace Cahokia after the next Worker steal to get our Influence back towards 0?). I am not sure of the immediate benefit of NC considering our Wideness, it will be a relatively small proportion of our total beakers if we are growing all our cities well. But, I just remembered Sofia has the GE quest out, that adds a lot of incentive to stick to GE... Another idea which is maybe more serious is to use the GE on National Epic in Stockholm, get our Writer & Artist guild, and start pumping them out & generating protective culture.

 

[Tiberiu]

Nice work Tiberiu, I like how you've handled Zulu, especially seeing the Cape Town opportunities. I support Asceticism belief as well. And Religious Texts means Uppsala will convert in no time with 2 cities' pressure on it.

30% GP increase in our cities is huge too... It has made me theorize a new strategy which is not serious but you may appreciate the efficiency/Swedishness of the idea. We could abandon the Liberty GE, go for a General instead, and use him in our war against Shaka (planting him, keeping him, or donating him according to our needs). Meanwhile we favor Currency, build a Market in our richest city (Uppsala?), immediately work the slot, and get a GMerchant with only 100 points, which we donate right away, optimally to maintain or gain happiness (Incidentally, maybe we should peace Cahokia after the next Worker steal to get our Influence back towards 0?). I am not sure of the immediate benefit of NC considering our Wideness, it will be a relatively small proportion of our total beakers if we are growing all our cities well. But, I just remembered Sofia has the GE quest out, that adds a lot of incentive to stick to GE... Another idea which is maybe more serious is to use the GE on National Epic in Stockholm, get our Writer & Artist guild, and start pumping them out & generating protective culture.

Thank you! I was a bit worried you wouldn't like that I DOWed Zulu but I think it had to be done, to pit Shaka vs Pachacuti so that we don't get a nasty joint DOW. The plan with the Cargo would have been nice maybe if Mongolia managed to put up a fight... too bad they didn't... On the other hand, we already have a good bonus for Diplomatical Victory possibility in the endgame if we liberate Mongolia so it's not that bad that they got taken out.

The idea with the General... well, I would have surely liked it if we could have stolen a new luxury with it from Shaka or Cape Town, but we can't... however we should always keep tabs on the Inca.. I am slightly worried they might cause trouble. We should try to have them at war with somebody at all times or have units ready just in case. Earlier, when we were still settling, I was thinking of the possibility to forward-settle Incans and steal their Ivory+Gems with a great general. I like to do this type of steals. But it would have required Honor most likely.
In our current situation where we are on 8 cities and slightly behind in tech because of this, I think we should maybe not delay building NC, so I favour Engineer (or maybe Scientist and put academy in hard-built NC). But Sofia wanting Engineer is a factor to consider.
About the idea with the Guilds, I like building the guilds quickly, maybe build Writer's Guild in Linkoping and Artist in Uppsala? To cover as much ground as possible in the area? I like trying to cover a lot of ground, and it helps later with Heritage sites and with coal/oil access. But if you guys will prefer to build them in the capital, I also like that since the guilds should usually end up in the capital late game. We will profit a lot from working Universities so they should also be a priority.

I am also concerned about Sofia. Sooner or later I think they'll cause trouble, we have to be cautious around them.
A few more thoughts- I am in favour of not building Missionaries - just wait to get Prophets and plant them somewhere for extra faith.
And ideas for policies after Liberty- I would really like Tradition Opener. We cover ground too slowly without it, IMO. Plus, it unlocks a happiness policy, and we will most likely need a lot of happiness. And after that, continue into Exploration since we have 6 cities and it will give us 18 hammers and 18 happy later.