After a slug fest authority/domination Ottoman game and a disappointing tradition/tourism Venice game it's time to go wide/progress with Indonesia:
Spice Islanders- When you found or conquer a City, one of three unique Luxuries will appear next to or under the City.
Kris Swordsman, replaces Swordsman. Starts with the Mystic Blade (promotion is replaced with a randomly chosen new promotion after the unit completes its first combat) Promotion.
Candi, replaces Garden. 2 Faith and 2 Culture. A Clove, Pepper or Nutmeg Resource will appear near or under this City when built. +25% Great People generation in the City, and +20% to Culture and Faith during 'We Love the King Day'. +1 Food and +1 Gold from Citrus and Cocoa worked by this city. 2 Maintenance.
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My plan is to use his extremely wide-friendly kit to settle as many early cities as I can while also leaning into the WLTKD bonus of the Candi to see how many WLTKD bonuses I can stack.
First- Indonesia is super friendly to going wide. Every city he settles/conquers gets a copy of one of his unique luxury spices (with a second copy coming from the Candi). This solves the two main obstacles to wide play- having the happiness to settle wide and having enough city locations worthy of settling. He gets happiness from the first 3 copies of his luxuries (as well as happiness from whatever luxuries were naturally in his settle locations) and any subsequent copies can be traded for other luxuries if happiness is needed or just for gold which is always useful. On top of that, one of his luxuries has a monopoly bonus of +6 happiness to provide an extra buffer and allow rapid expansion. Also, even pretty bland city locations without nearby strategic/luxury resources can still be fairly decent as Indonesia when you can count on two nice tiles appearing for your city to work (made even nicer by having their monopoly bonuses applied from the beginning).
Next, the bonuses to WLTKD I am aware of that I will be targeting are the following:
Religion:
Founder - Theocratic Rule - 'We Love the King Day' boosts the Faith, Culture, and Gold output of a city by 15%.
Follower - Churches - 15 Turns of 'We Love the King Day' in the City when constructed
Follower - Synagogues - During 'We Love the King Day', City Science increases by 15%).
Policies:
Fealty - Burghers - +15% production and city Border Growth doubled during 'We Love the King Day.'
Rationalism - Enlightenment - +15% Culture and Food during a WLTKD.
Wonders:
Mausoleum of Halicarnassus - 'We Love the King Day' begins in the City (20 turns [standard]). During 'We Love the King Day', City science, gold, and production increases by 10%.
If you add all of those up you get the following bonuses:
Faith = +20%, +15%
Culture = +20%, +15%, +15%
Gold = +15%, +10%
Science = +15%, +10%
Production = +15%, +10%
Food = +15%
Growth = +20% (the default WLTKD bonus?)
You also have Churches that can be used strategically to start WLTKD in cities with tough luxuries to connect and Mausoleum that can start a long one in the (presumably) capital that builds it.
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Policy choice:
If I want to stack the bonuses above then my renaissance and industrial trees are set as Fealty/Rationalism. Fealty I think is a nice choice regardless as the Candi pushes Indonesia toward being a religious civ anyway and Fealty has some nice bonuses to wide play. Choosing Rationalism means I won't be opening Industry with its bonuses to great merchants or being able to buy merchants with faith- I'm hoping I will be able to maintain near 100% up-time in WLTKD anyway via Churches, Circuses, a few merchants, and lux trading when possible.
For my ancient era tree my first instinct is to open progress for the benefits to quickly settling wide as well as the free/improved workers to quickly connect all of my luxuries. Authority has its advantages as well if the nearby area is crowded and I need to conquer to go wide, as well as having some synergy between Tribute (bonuses on border growth) and Fealty's Burghers double border growth during WLTKD. However, I wanted to play a progress game so that's what I'm going to stick with, initial starting conditions be damned.
For ideology I'll likely target Order for its general wide benefits.
Since I'm likely going progress/fealty/rationalism/order I will most likely default to a science victory, having not taken the best trees for diplomacy (statecraft), tourism (artistry), or domination (imperialism).
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Early game:
First, I think Indonesia is a good candidate to grab Goddess of Festivals (+3 Gold, +2 Culture and +1 Faith for every unique Luxury Resource owned or imported) as its default pantheon unless there is something much better from the terrain. Early game you will likely have 6ish luxuries you can improve in your initial cities and maybe more if you trade for a few and I would think that would be enough to found with (aside from getting a ton of gold/culture for that part of the game). I would guess that only Netherlands has as much synergy with this pantheon.
Next, for early techs we are in a bit of a quandary. We really want Calendar ASAP as we will want to connect our 3 spice luxuries as soon as possible (those monopoly bonuses are nice right off the bat) but we also want to get to Construction in order to get Mausoleum. My guess is that we can probably hit Calendar first and still unlock Construction around the same time we have the requisite number of policies to build Mausoleum, especially given progress's mini burst of science from its opener. After grabbing Calendar and Construction I would look to make my way toward Kris warriors and then toward Theology to get to Candi.
For a build order I will plan to go shrine-monument-warrior (purchasing a worker) and then possibly straight into settlers ad nausea (with military or other buildings sprinkled in as I see fit, often as a way to let my capital grow before starting a new settler). I may even try to build settlers in secondary cities if there are enough spots available that I want asap, maybe after grabbing shrine/monument in them. It will also be important to keep up with workers (either bought or produced) as improving available luxes is key to having the happiness to expand and to playing off of Goddess of Festivals.
Once I've filled up the immediately available city locations and have an army of Kris I will likely look to hit a neighbor for some extra cities, attacking while my UU power spike is online. I will probably try to include Barracks as an early building priority in all of my cities to increase unit cap and have my secondary cities contribute toward building my army. I will also be on the lookout for island city locations not gobbled up in the initial settle spree.
Once I've founded a religion I might hold off on aggressively trading for luxuries from other civs. Having a few luxuries available for purchase is a handy way to make achieving WLTKD easier as the luxury needed for WLTKD is picked from those you don't currently have. This is, of course, if I don't need those luxuries for happiness reasons.
Mid/Late game:
I assume that my mid/late game for Indonesia will play out similar to any wide/science civ. I'll try to get my religion enhanced/reformed and pick whichever available beliefs either fix a problem for me or aid me toward a science victory. I'll also target the usual science victory techs/buildings/wonders.
So that's the plan. If anyone has critiques or their own preference with Indonesia I'd love to hear!
Spice Islanders- When you found or conquer a City, one of three unique Luxuries will appear next to or under the City.
Kris Swordsman, replaces Swordsman. Starts with the Mystic Blade (promotion is replaced with a randomly chosen new promotion after the unit completes its first combat) Promotion.
Candi, replaces Garden. 2 Faith and 2 Culture. A Clove, Pepper or Nutmeg Resource will appear near or under this City when built. +25% Great People generation in the City, and +20% to Culture and Faith during 'We Love the King Day'. +1 Food and +1 Gold from Citrus and Cocoa worked by this city. 2 Maintenance.
----------------------------------------------------------------
My plan is to use his extremely wide-friendly kit to settle as many early cities as I can while also leaning into the WLTKD bonus of the Candi to see how many WLTKD bonuses I can stack.
First- Indonesia is super friendly to going wide. Every city he settles/conquers gets a copy of one of his unique luxury spices (with a second copy coming from the Candi). This solves the two main obstacles to wide play- having the happiness to settle wide and having enough city locations worthy of settling. He gets happiness from the first 3 copies of his luxuries (as well as happiness from whatever luxuries were naturally in his settle locations) and any subsequent copies can be traded for other luxuries if happiness is needed or just for gold which is always useful. On top of that, one of his luxuries has a monopoly bonus of +6 happiness to provide an extra buffer and allow rapid expansion. Also, even pretty bland city locations without nearby strategic/luxury resources can still be fairly decent as Indonesia when you can count on two nice tiles appearing for your city to work (made even nicer by having their monopoly bonuses applied from the beginning).
Next, the bonuses to WLTKD I am aware of that I will be targeting are the following:
Religion:
Founder - Theocratic Rule - 'We Love the King Day' boosts the Faith, Culture, and Gold output of a city by 15%.
Follower - Churches - 15 Turns of 'We Love the King Day' in the City when constructed
Follower - Synagogues - During 'We Love the King Day', City Science increases by 15%).
Policies:
Fealty - Burghers - +15% production and city Border Growth doubled during 'We Love the King Day.'
Rationalism - Enlightenment - +15% Culture and Food during a WLTKD.
Wonders:
Mausoleum of Halicarnassus - 'We Love the King Day' begins in the City (20 turns [standard]). During 'We Love the King Day', City science, gold, and production increases by 10%.
If you add all of those up you get the following bonuses:
Faith = +20%, +15%
Culture = +20%, +15%, +15%
Gold = +15%, +10%
Science = +15%, +10%
Production = +15%, +10%
Food = +15%
Growth = +20% (the default WLTKD bonus?)
You also have Churches that can be used strategically to start WLTKD in cities with tough luxuries to connect and Mausoleum that can start a long one in the (presumably) capital that builds it.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Policy choice:
If I want to stack the bonuses above then my renaissance and industrial trees are set as Fealty/Rationalism. Fealty I think is a nice choice regardless as the Candi pushes Indonesia toward being a religious civ anyway and Fealty has some nice bonuses to wide play. Choosing Rationalism means I won't be opening Industry with its bonuses to great merchants or being able to buy merchants with faith- I'm hoping I will be able to maintain near 100% up-time in WLTKD anyway via Churches, Circuses, a few merchants, and lux trading when possible.
For my ancient era tree my first instinct is to open progress for the benefits to quickly settling wide as well as the free/improved workers to quickly connect all of my luxuries. Authority has its advantages as well if the nearby area is crowded and I need to conquer to go wide, as well as having some synergy between Tribute (bonuses on border growth) and Fealty's Burghers double border growth during WLTKD. However, I wanted to play a progress game so that's what I'm going to stick with, initial starting conditions be damned.
For ideology I'll likely target Order for its general wide benefits.
Since I'm likely going progress/fealty/rationalism/order I will most likely default to a science victory, having not taken the best trees for diplomacy (statecraft), tourism (artistry), or domination (imperialism).
----------------------------------------------------------------
Early game:
First, I think Indonesia is a good candidate to grab Goddess of Festivals (+3 Gold, +2 Culture and +1 Faith for every unique Luxury Resource owned or imported) as its default pantheon unless there is something much better from the terrain. Early game you will likely have 6ish luxuries you can improve in your initial cities and maybe more if you trade for a few and I would think that would be enough to found with (aside from getting a ton of gold/culture for that part of the game). I would guess that only Netherlands has as much synergy with this pantheon.
Next, for early techs we are in a bit of a quandary. We really want Calendar ASAP as we will want to connect our 3 spice luxuries as soon as possible (those monopoly bonuses are nice right off the bat) but we also want to get to Construction in order to get Mausoleum. My guess is that we can probably hit Calendar first and still unlock Construction around the same time we have the requisite number of policies to build Mausoleum, especially given progress's mini burst of science from its opener. After grabbing Calendar and Construction I would look to make my way toward Kris warriors and then toward Theology to get to Candi.
For a build order I will plan to go shrine-monument-warrior (purchasing a worker) and then possibly straight into settlers ad nausea (with military or other buildings sprinkled in as I see fit, often as a way to let my capital grow before starting a new settler). I may even try to build settlers in secondary cities if there are enough spots available that I want asap, maybe after grabbing shrine/monument in them. It will also be important to keep up with workers (either bought or produced) as improving available luxes is key to having the happiness to expand and to playing off of Goddess of Festivals.
Once I've filled up the immediately available city locations and have an army of Kris I will likely look to hit a neighbor for some extra cities, attacking while my UU power spike is online. I will probably try to include Barracks as an early building priority in all of my cities to increase unit cap and have my secondary cities contribute toward building my army. I will also be on the lookout for island city locations not gobbled up in the initial settle spree.
Once I've founded a religion I might hold off on aggressively trading for luxuries from other civs. Having a few luxuries available for purchase is a handy way to make achieving WLTKD easier as the luxury needed for WLTKD is picked from those you don't currently have. This is, of course, if I don't need those luxuries for happiness reasons.
Mid/Late game:
I assume that my mid/late game for Indonesia will play out similar to any wide/science civ. I'll try to get my religion enhanced/reformed and pick whichever available beliefs either fix a problem for me or aid me toward a science victory. I'll also target the usual science victory techs/buildings/wonders.
So that's the plan. If anyone has critiques or their own preference with Indonesia I'd love to hear!