Latest game: Al Falah, pursuing Harmony victory. The last time I played AF and emphasized Harmony, I ended up with a Contact victory. Which was nice, filled in another row on the spreadsheet, but I wanted to get that Mind Flower.
I had a medium-sized land mass all to myself. PAC was just across the western ocean on some 10-tile islands, with Polystralia on a larger land mass just west. A narrow waterway separated my land mass (on the north side) with a similar sized mass to the south. NSA started on tthe western end (due south of me) and Chungsu started near the eastern end. The other large land mass had INTGR in the north, Franco-Iberia in the south, and Polystralia on the east. Kavitha started on larger islands in the north, jus east of INTEGR.
Early Game (to turn 150): Since I had no close neighbors, I expanded peacefully, including some aquatic cities off my western coast. Diplomatically, I got to Cooperating with PAC, NSA, FI, and INTGR. Hutama kept talking trash, but made no moves on me. Chungsu, on the other hand, kept attacking my "pet" station (on the northern polar edge of my landmass) and another station right next to it. I fought early wars with him, to protect the stations, but his cities were more than 20 tiles away... too far to defend effectively in the first 150 turns.
Runup to Starting the Wonder: Everyone else seemed to dislike KP and NSA, who received multiple war declarations. PAC seemed particularly warlike this game, declaring on both great and small powers. I settled 11 cities by turn 200, got to Harmony 15 by turn 235, and learned the final tech on turn 256. During that time Elodie launched her lasercomm satellite on turn 191 and Lena launched hers on turn 252. I spent many turns building Mind Stems, even in my smaller cities. One can purchase Xeno Sanctuaries, but one must hard-build Mind Stems. A small hiccup: In many games, I have plenty of strategic resources. In this game, I ran out of xenomass, so I had to delay building the last few XS until I hooked up some more.
What up, Hutama? Polystralia seemed very scattered in pursuing victory. By turn 240, he was 5/5/9 emphasizing Supremacy. On turn 258, I got the notification that he had researched all the techs for a planetary link (Harmony), even though his affinities were 6/6/10 at that point. By turn 285, he had both parts of the signal and decoded the signal just 7 turns later. Poystralia was expanding into his northern ocean, with at least 6 aquatic cities. Hutama was #1 on the scoreboard until turn 270 or so, so he probably had lots of energy to charge up his Beacon. Yet, he still kept researching Supremacy techs. Diplomatically he had me at Sanctioned off an on thru turn 220. I was able to get him to Cooperating around turn 270 so that one of my explorers could hit a Progenitor site on his land that was *still unexplored* that late in the game.
Affinity and Objectors: I started the Mind Flower on turn 285, it finished on turn 307.
- Al Falah (me) 18/7/8, #3 on scoreboard
- PAC 9/7/4 Cooperative
- NSA 3/7/4 Cooperative
- FI 3/13/3 Cooperative
- Chungsu Dead (eliminated by FI on turn 261)
- Polystralia 9/7/12 Cooperative, #2 on scoreboard
- KP Dead (eliminated on turn 233 by PAC)
- INTGR 7/6/12 Cooperative, #1 on scoreboard
Objectors were Polystralia and INTGR, both Supremacy.
As I had one part of the signal from lots of explorer missions, I set one of my other cities to solve the Transcendental Equation (turn 276) and decode the signal (turn 308). Ard was building the MF, wth all the trade routes flowing into it.
I saved the game, did a test place of the Beacon on turn 308, and checked the objectors: FI and PAC, Purity and Harmony, respecitvely.
Observations:
- Since the AI always object when I start a victory wonder, I have often been curious about whether the AI object when *other AI* start a victory wonder. I did see PAC declaring war on both INTGR and FI late in the game (after turn 250). That could have been when they started their respective gates. Even when Daoming only had two cities!
- Timing is key. The Transcendance victory is the easiest to speed up. By building 23 accelerator buildings, the game said that my Mind Flower would connect in just 21 turns. Yes, Elodie finished her Exodus Gate on turn 306, but she had packed her cities close together. Settling 20 Earthlings would take time. Yes, Hutama built his beacon on turn 309, but it takes 45 turns to contact the Progenitors. I spent some mental effort for 10-15 turnns, worrying about fighting a 3 front war with my two objectors and getting close to Elodie's gate. Then I poured a drink, did some math, and focused on INTGR, whom invaded on turn 311.
- Mysteries of AI Expansion: Some games, I've seen factions like INTGR and Polystralia settle into a 4-5 city stable empire. This game, they expanded to 10+ cities. Most games, I see NSA and Chungsu settle even smaller, with only 3 or 4 cities, even when they have open water to expand onto. Has anyone noticed a trait, a behavior that influences expansion?
- Hutama did not declare on me, even though he was one of the objectors. He stayed busy attacking NSA and PAC, who were much smaller neighbors.
