[Ongoing] 4.2.6 4UC+CE Immortal Brazil Photojournal

[tlix]

Hey guys,

Decided to get into VP again after a pretty long break. I did a warmup game of Poland on Prince (Standard VP + Community events) before this just to remember how to play the game, but it ended up being too easy and I just killed everyone with blitz stalwart heavy charge landships shortly after entering modern era. The map setting I used (communitas pangaea) caused everyone to spawn very close to each other with land connections probably caused that to happen but at least its a good warmup lol.

This time I will be playing 4UC Brazil on Immortal (I haven't played in immortal before), with a less military-focused civ at a high difficulty I thought it might be an interesting challenge. Even if I don't steamroll or even lose I will probably be able to learn something from it. 4UC also gives Brazil a very nice Ironclad UU, which should allow me to defend myself and maybe do some sea conquests from industrial era onwards.

I will be forcing myself to do maximum 1.5h sessions (and try to leave a day or 2 after each update) so that I don't rush and complete the game in like 3 days. It is my first time playing a slightly more peaceful civ, and at a difficulty above emperor, so please feel free to give some tips or strats since I will certainly be reading them.

Spoiler Game settings, 4UC info :

Standard size Immortal setting on communitas VP fork with transparent diplomacy, circumnavigation and tech trading off. Events are on with community events mod to make them less boring.

4UC:
Amazonas - Ironclad replacement with innate Breacher and Riachuelo promotions. Both are kept on upgrades.
Riachuelo: Immune to plague debuffs (boarding party), can move after attacking, and can attack again when it kills a unit.
Sambadrone - Opera House replacement with 4 culture (from 3) and 10% culture boost (from 5%). 10% of culture is added to golden age points, and starts 10 turns of carnival when it is built.

Spoiler Turn 0 :

Check attachments for t0 save.

Coastal start is exactly what I wanted to make use of the ironclad UU in the future. Don't really know how good luxuries are comparing with each other, but silk does give me some early money. Starting production is kinda bad (especially with those useless flat deserts), but at least I can see a lot of possible brazilwood camp tiles.

With this much forest around, renewal pantheon looks like a perfect pick. With a few 1food2prod tiles around stonehenge looks pretty doable if I manage to get to 3pop early; starting a monument with tradition seems pretty solid as well. Don't really see a point to not settle on spot here, especially with freshwater access.

Spoiler t9 Natural wonders and neighbors :

Looks like my closest neighbor is Indonesia, which is kinda scary since they have an early (and scary) UU. Persia would probably be worse since immortals are pretty much unkillable with just archers, but looks like they are down south with all the mountain ranges inbetween. I won't be able to settle for Mt. Kilash down there, but settling at Uluru seems pretty solid.
The tech timing is pretty good with Rio having to wait just 2 more turns to start on the Stonehenge.

Spoiler t12 Starting stonehenge, CS plans :

Turns out Indonesia does get a natural wonder of his own (as in, money). After exploring a bit up top, looks like the "island" just wraps around at a 1-wide channel as a huge choke point. That being said, if I ever get to war with Indonesia (which is basically going to happen regardless), having an alliance with Cape Town would completely block off all his melee ship UU, which sounds extremely promising. Having a closeby cultural CS is also really nice too.
Stonehenge is starting at the capital now. In hindsight, I think it's better to grow Rio to 4 pop before picking up tradition, since it's fairly unlikely that it will get stolen by others (maybe except for Egypt) but at least with this pace I would be getting it by t30.

Spoiler t25 Stonehenge and pantheon :

Not growing Rio to 4pop by tradition opener was certainly a missed opportunity; there is no way someone is beating me to stonehenge here. Guess it will just be something to keep in mind when I play a tradition civ in the future (I usually go authority and do wars stuff). With so many forest tiles around, I will get a lot of value from renewal pantheon here.
Darius is at the south with a bunch of mountains between us, so it looks like I'm safe from immortals. As for scouting, I think I will just try and locate portugal (SE direction) before using my scout for beating up barbarians; I want to leave a bunch of undiscovered tiles for my recon UU.
With the early gold thanks to the luxuries, I am buying a worker at Rio to start improving the deer, and start building a settler to secure Uluru.
Meanwhile, Indonesia took progress and Persia took authority. At least I won't be fighting authority boosted Kris swordsmen, thank god.

Spoiler t38 settling second city :

The second city will be a 1-tile coastal city, between Uluru and the river. With the limited space, there's no way for melee ships to take the city, and the river and rough terrain all around will certainly help against ground units. Brazilwood camps are going to be on the other side, but I suppose it's fine. By settling the city it's also going to complete the barb camp quest from Cape Town, so that's pretty convenient.
In my capital, I am also trying to work enough forest tiles to get the pantheon bonus while growing the city at an acceptable rate; the deers and brazilwood camps are going to help quite a bit.

Spoiler t43 End of first session; some future planning :

With Uluru, I think I can afford to not build a shrine just yet. However, Sao is basically a hammer-less city at the moment, so I will need to do something about that soon.
This was also the time when I realized that my military was garbage, so I started on an archer while researching trade to get a caravan to Genoa. After that, I think I'm getting writing to unlock libraries, before heading back and researching construction for walls so that I won't die immediately to Indonesia.
Speaking of which, they are now in classical era (probably by rushing the bottom path) and built pyramids a few turns before, so it probably won't be long until their UU starts popping up.
If possible, I would like a city between the 2 CS near the silk for a bunch more brazil camps, and another near the deer row as a buffer city between Indonesia. The latter city is pretty tight with all the flat land, and it might just get settled eitherway. Guess we will see what happens next.

With all those mountains separating me and Persia, I won't need to worry about them for a while. Meanwhile, Portugal is going to have some fun with authority immortals.
I am still considering whether I should continue exploring the map with my scout, or wait for my UU for the science/culture. Part of me wants to get in contact with more CS for quests, and civs for luxuries trading to start carnivals though.

 

[andersw]

I highly recommend going up to 4.2.5 a lot of important stuff got fixed.

 

[tlix]

I highly recommend going up to 4.2.5 a lot of important stuff got fixed.

thanks for the reminder, will update the game before continuing with the playthrough tonight. ill also be adding quite a few UI mods as well.

 

[tlix]

Just updated the game to 4.2.5, and downloaded the improved city view mod for easier management (especially late game, the buildings tab has so many items its a pain to scroll through)

Spoiler t56 Persia's bloodlust :

After becoming friends with Persia, I guess they got bored and wants to do something with their immortals, so they asked me to go to war with Portugal. Since both civs are nowhere near my territory I gladly accepted the order just to make them busy (it's basically a required thing to do in higher difficulties I think).
I also got an explore quest from Monaco to uncover the other side of the map (in the bottom right map view, it's the top right corner). It looks basically impossible without my explorer UU, but I am just going to send my scout top left of my capital and see if the land there connects over.

Spoiler t62 First carnival! :

I was waiting for Persia to get pearls but ended up forgetting about it, and this was when I finally remembered to trade for the carnival. After getting writing done I started working on a library in the capital, not really for the specialist slot (I don't really have enough food) but just to get more science out of it.
I also noticed that if I somehow get furs and ally with Genoa, with the improved truffles there I am also finishing the quest for Monaco. Sao Paulo is never growing to that tile in the near future, so I guess I just have to look out for a trade partner.

Spoiler t70 Golden age and CS allies :

After getting the first golden age I realized that I was making a lot of money, so I traded with Indonesia to get the furs for Genoa. However I was just a turn too late, and had to gift my warrior for the alliance. Oops.
Since Indonesia is also friends with Portugal, so I thought me being in war with Portugal might incur a diplo penalty but seems like that's not the case. Eitherway, I think I won't be at war until the DoF runs out, or he ends it prematurely.
I also discovered the barbarian island on the top left of my area with my scout, and it doesn't link to the other side unfortunately. Looks like I'm stuck with these 3 civs until compass, oh well. At least there's a militaristic CS on it, but it's currently allied to Indonesia.
Seeing that Indonesia has settled a 3rd city down south, I am now cooking up a settler for a city next to the cattle and deer near Genoa. There are a few tiles for brazilwood camps, and there are so many hills and mountains around that I don't really need to worry about defending it in the near future; the AI doesn't know how to spam roads and Persia can't really send immortals easily through that choke point anyway.

Spoiler t77 Late mausoleum build, 3rd city :

Here I am starting a late mausoleum build to stack more wltkd bonuses. I was actually almost going to build temple of artemis for Genoa, but mausoleum is just going to be much more useful. I was also half considering Petra for Cape Town trade route but my old caravan ran out just in time for me to relocate it, saving me more precious production.
With so many hills around Salvador I plan on making it my diplo factory, but my global population is way too low for scrivener's office. Currently I just need better tiles to grow more pop for more buildings in general.

Spoiler t83 Perfect timings and early Indonesin concerns :

Here, I'm unlocking Splendor (yields for GP) right as I am about to pop 2 GP on the same turn, definitely intended that to happen. I also got a new CS quest a few turns before for mausoleum as I'm rushing and finishing it next turn. Speaking of wonders though, I'm surprised that terracotta army is still up for grabs, normally it would've been gone with aggressive civs by now. Indonesia finished great lighthouse in Jarkata and hanging gardens in another city, which I'm most likely going to steal them at around rennaisance.
To my surprise, Indonesia actually backstabbed Portugal and declared war. This was good news since it means I could maybe get a bit greedy with my build order while he's busy, but I'm also getting a bit worried since he has founded a religion a few turns ago when I'm also going to found mine in a few turns. After fishing I'm definitely going to rush for comp bows to survive, but honestly I think I'll need knights to fight back.

Spoiler t88 End of session, impending war and religion dillema :

I was literally going to start a settler for a city at where Makassar is, he beat me to it. He also ended the DoF, so a war is basically inevitable now. With walls completing in Rio and Sao I'll start building archers and a bunch more melee units after. I still don't have a road between my cities, so I guess I'll need to buy a few more workers as well.
I'm pretty confident that Rio won't be going down until trebuchets, but looking at the terrain Makassar is actually a pretty tricky city to take with only 2 viable siege spots near the horses. It's also very easy for Indonesia to reinforce it with so much flat land to the right, so it's certainly going to be a challenge to take the city without knights and trebuchets.
For the research order after this, I really don't think I have the time to rush education for sankore; I might have to research chivalry first to neutralize Indonesia before that. Regardless of which option I take, I certainly will not have the time to build Oracle or Hagia/Boro.

Regarding religion I'm in a dilemma at the moment. Since Indonesia didn't pick the culture beliefs, I could go for the GP/GA set with Ceremonial/Divine Inheritance + Mastery/Mosques/Stupas, but I also found this wltkd stacking set with Theocratic + Churches. All 3 look extremely good, with the wltkd set having immediate yields and the other 2 sets being as good as it always at later stages of the game. As of this update I haven't picked the beliefs yet, so any feedback on this is very much appreciated.
FYI: Indonesian founder beliefs are God of Expanse, Hero Worship and Mandirs.

 

[Phosphoraptor]

That forward settle really hurts, especially when the horse tile would have been a great defensive city. Next time youre up against an aggressive neighbour always settle defensive spots first!

Since the city sits in between a mountain pass with bad terrain, you may not be able to move freely with knights. Furthermore, you have a lot more iron than horses, Longswords+trebs may be more appropriate here.

The spice tile NE of makassar seems to be flat, if you attack from the north you should have 3 bombardment spots. West would still be easier if the AI chops the silk tile to improve it.

 

[tlix]

Updated the game to 4.2.6 before this session. This save will stay at this stable version!
Currently, each update has around 40 turns, but we'll see how it goes. Wars tend to be pretty micromanagement-heavy so the next few updates might end up being shorter than the previous ones.

Spoiler Final religion beliefs :

In the end, I decided to go for Theocratic Rule to go all in on carnival bonuses. Since I don't want to spend faith on buildings just yet with the war with Indonesia looming, I went for Mastery for some instant yields on my capital. I'll just be getting churches for enhancer instead, hope that nobody else will beat me to it.

Spoiler t106 Tradition finisher, CS updates :

Nothing super important happened in the last few turns, just kept building units and finishing the Tradition tree. If Indonesia wasn't a threat I would be beelining Education for Sankore now, oh well. Carnivals are still popping off since I still have past trade deals with the other civs, well until they decide to demand Indonesian luxuries. I'm starting to feel like not getting churches for founder beliefs was a mistake. Speaking of religion though, a few turns before this an unmet civ has finally founded a pantheon. I probably stole Stonehenge from them, LOL
I'm building the scrivener's office in Salvador since I'm seeing a lot of production potential there, and just doing any finishable CS quests when they pop up. One of which is Monaco's barbarian horde, there is absolutely no way for me to not get that ally (or else Indonesia will be getting it), so I dispatched one of my idle spearmen and scout there to help. They certainly can't kill full hp units, I'm just using them to killsteal for free influence.
Meanwhile, Indonesia has been spamming wonders with its extra production. Just more free wonders to make use of when I decide to conquer them, I suppose. They have also gone for statecraft which I'm not sure if I like very much, I'll be taking artistry (for obvious reasons) so there's certainly going to be a lot of CS competitions from now on.

Spoiler t119 Is that a free settler? :

Persia ended up taking a city from Portugal (and razing it), not surprised when 2 civs with classical UU are ganging up on them. Apart from that, nothing really happened other than Indonesia sending missionaries through my territory to spread their religion, and me secretly getting 4 CS alliances while the rest of the continent is busy fighting each other...
..until now. While managing my cities I noticed Indonesia trying to sneak their settler through my territory with just a spearman in range of 4 of my ranged units. Seeing that Indonesia just ended the war with Portugal the previous turn (meaning all their units are nowhere near my territory), I decided this was the perfect time to declare war to slow down their expansion. Declaring war now will also prevent them from stealing the CS alliances from me, so the timing just ended up being perfect.
Chivalry will be done shortly, so I'm pretty confident that I won't be losing any of my cities in this war with castles (now that Indonesia has knights).

Spoiler t124 End of session, future plans, another free settler??? :

I think the AIs don't get smarter at higher difficulty levels, yet another free settler(worker) present from Indonesia along with a dead knight. Since Persia has denounced Indonesia a few turns before, I'm also denouncing them for a diplomatic boost to make sure Persia doesn't get any funny ideas. (I have DoF with them so I hope that's enough for me to ignore them for the time being)
Even though my military is probably less than half of Indonesia's, they are taking a sweet time to march over here so I think I'll be fine. Curse the non-existent supply cap of tall tradition. Even then, I think I can just chill and overwhelm the overextending units with comp bows unless they rush me with a crap ton of knights (which I checked, they don't have a lot of horses in their territory). Taking out 2 settlers certainly makes up for declaring war early. I hope to capture Makassar at the end of this war, but I think it's going to be pretty close since I'll most likely need steel and physics, now with a castle in the city. Maybe I could place a citadel in the forest tile next to the cotton or on the hill one tile above that, but I think it still won't be enough.
Rio and Salvador (the city down south) are demanding Indonesian luxuries so sadly no carnivals there. I'm getting citrus from Portugal though for the carnival at Sao though. I also realized my faith production is horrible, so I'm actually building shrines and temples after the core buildings now. I still need more supply cap!!!

I actually haven't shown my science tree in this thread yet, so this is what it looks like now. I would've gone top path for Sankore + Hagia if Indonesia didn't forward settle me, god damn it. But anyway, my current plan is to research Steel to neutralize Indonesia, then Physics after that if catapults aren't enough to take Makassar (It most likely won't be, my supply cap is so small). I'm opening Artistry in a few turns, so researching Drama and Poetry is a good choice, but I don't think I have the time to do that before Steel or even Physics (especially since I'm getting free carnivals with circuses). After that, maybe Education for Sankore if it's not gone yet (but honestly, seeing how slow the wonders and religion get taken in this game I feel like I'm the only tradition player in this world), but researching Compass for UU to explore the rest of the world makes a lot more sense.
For social policies I'll be opening artistry, then the left side first (for faster golden ages). I have read a little bit about policy mixing, but I don't really know how to do it properly. Maybe I can figure out when and how to do it in the future.

To solve my desperate military cap situation, I have plans to settle 2 more cities on the Island to the west, with the 4th city probably getting settled probably in the next session. That city will also be important for a canal at the blue arrow. I might settle the 5th city on top of the deer instead, but I don't think I'll be doing that until Banking. I can also see a potential city on the island right of Sofia, but with the map border and snow tiles there it's not really that promising.

 

[tlix]

That forward settle really hurts, especially when the horse tile would have been a great defensive city. Next time youre up against an aggressive neighbour always settle defensive spots first!

Since the city sits in between a mountain pass with bad terrain, you may not be able to move freely with knights. Furthermore, you have a lot more iron than horses, Longswords+trebs may be more appropriate here.

The spice tile NE of makassar seems to be flat, if you attack from the north you should have 3 bombardment spots. West would still be easier if the AI chops the silk tile to improve it.

Yeah, unfortunately indonesia beat me to it. On the bright side their unique luxury (i think its pepper?) getting placed on the useless tundra makes the city location better, when i get to take it.
Rough terrain in wars is solved by spamming roads, so even though knights look kinda bad here i think its still better than melee units with no rivers running above the city. They did end up chopping the forest on the silk tile, but i really can't siege very well with the supply cap at 12. Maybe with like 2 more trebs and 3 more melee units i could do it, but regardless i would still need to be extra careful with my positioning so that i dont actually run out of units.

 

[Phosphoraptor]

Yeah, unfortunately indonesia beat me to it. On the bright side their unique luxury (i think its pepper?) getting placed on the useless tundra makes the city location better, when i get to take it.
Rough terrain in wars is solved by spamming roads, so even though knights look kinda bad here i think its still better than melee units with no rivers running above the city. They did end up chopping the forest on the silk tile, but i really can't siege very well with the supply cap at 12. Maybe with like 2 more trebs and 3 more melee units i could do it, but regardless i would still need to be extra careful with my positioning so that i dont actually run out of units.

The extra cities planned here will help, maybe even split the spots between multiple cities for more barrack/lighthouse flat supply. There is a lot of land on that little continent that can get you a lot of supply for a secure late game.

Another good citadel is 3E of your capital, it lets you spam roads and heal at 2 tiles right in the city’s face, and controls the river crossing. The AI wont be able to counter-citadel very well too.

Dont forget you can boom from your UU at compass to get a tech advantage.

 

[tlix]

The extra cities planned here will help, maybe even split the spots between multiple cities for more barrack/lighthouse flat supply. There is a lot of land on that little continent that can get you a lot of supply for a secure late game.

I think i would consider settling more cities if there wasnt all the desert junk on the southern side. I can certainly make use of the forest tundra on the island though.

Another good citadel is 3E of your capital, it lets you spam roads and heal at 2 tiles right in the city’s face, and controls the river crossing. The AI wont be able to counter-citadel very well too.

Its a very solid spot, but since i have limited number of units having my citadel there would make indonesia's units to move from the top side more. citadeling top side instead may make them try to push through the rivers, which i could easily bombard with comp bows. Regardless though i think ill just keep the GG for combat bonus for now, and just buy the tiles surrounding makasaar.

 

[tlix]

I was going to split this update into 2 sessions but ended up playing for 4 hours before realizing that I should go to bed. Oops.

Spoiler t126 Unit blanket :

The unit swarm has officially started. To help my units stay in defensive positions I bought several tiles directly adjacent to Makassar so that they can sit in front of the units, stay fortified, and take more hits while my ranged units at the back fire away. Indonesia has just finished researching Physics which kinda sucks, but hopefully I can penetrate through and sneak in with my kamikaze knights. To help with that I'm also starting my road spam to the border to help my troops rotate between positions, especially since I do not have the luxury of having spare troops at the back of the line.
After taking note of Indonesia's strategic resources I found out their only source of horses is at Makassar, so I pillaged it so that I won't need to deal with their knights at all in this war. However, I really need to kill the camp west of Rio on the other island so that I don't lose horses myself (it's my only source since I traded some to Persia a while ago), but I really cannot afford to divert my troops away from the front line at the moment.

Spoiler t142 Citadel planted :

After realizing that it would take too long to kill their units, I decided to finally plop down a citadel to speed stuff up. I actually got a great general about 5 turns ago and was trying to place a citadel on the hill near the horses, but my melee units just couldn't take the hits from their several trebuchets behind the city. After a while, I decided to just plop it down south (which is still a very solid spot) since I have roads there and could move him and place it down, but with that, my northern flank will get a lot of attention and without any CS support there (which is why I preferred a citadel in the north front). My troops will hopefully manage that COPIUM
My first great diplomat and second great prophet is finally spawning soon. For the diplomat, I will send it to Cape Town so that their troops can maybe pillage a few tiles and divert some of their troops over. I think I can sneak in with my scout and pillage a few tiles as well, but I need to be extra careful not to lose him (since he's highly promoted and I would love him to explore the rest of the map once after Compass).

Spoiler t144 Enhancer :

Thank god nobody took Churches, it would be a hog to get carnivals during the war (since all my cities are stuck with demanding Indonesian luxuries). I decided to take Sacred Calendar since I'll be getting a golden age in a few turns, especially after unlocking the first artistry policy (left side). The foreign city part will suck since everyone but Portugal (on the exact opposite of the Island) has a religion of their own, but that hopefully means I can spread to more cities when I can cross the oceans. Symbolism is a slightly less risky pick but I feel like it doesn't stack very well into the late game.
The war is going surprisingly well after placing down the citadel. Their troops have moved to the north more, but thanks to my road spam it's mostly contained now. In addition, Indonesia actually gladly built Borobodur a few turns before, so that would help me spread my religion whenever I capture their capital.

Spoiler t151 Surprise CS alliance with more free workers! :

On the main front, Indonesia has finally started to run out of units so it's about time to move in. It only took 30 turns to get the first bit of damage to the city, never too late. Next turn I'll finally be exploring the other continent, and finally see what exactly is happening over there. Sankore still has not been taken yet btw, so I'm very certain that nobody took tradition except for me in this game. (I still don't have Education LMAO)
With the Great Diplomat, I got the alliance with Cape Town. Funny enough Indonesia was trying to send 2 settlers through the top channel (since going through my territory just won't work) and ended up walking straight into my definitely intended trap. 2 free workers again! However Cape Town is also having a horde moment literally starting this turn which I nor Indonesia had the time to send troops to, so I hope that they can survive long enough for me to help them out and break the siege.
This is also when I realized that the upper channel does not connect to the other side of the ocean, and the only thing I can do now is to pray that the CS is nice enough to build a fort to act as a canal up there. I can't raze a city-state, so technically I could let it die to barbs before recapturing it myself, but I don't think it's worth it for just a canal, especially after expending a great diplomat on it.
After getting my explorer UU, I'll settle my 4th city on the other continent to the west.

Spoiler t166 Makassar, Plans, and the Other Continent :

After 40 turns of attrition, Makassar finally falls with way too many melee unit sacrifices due to me getting impatient and my brain starting to not work at 3 am. Now that it's captured, I'll try and stabilize the city a bit before making my next push towards Jakarta with cannons and tercios. With the increased supply cap, I'll also start building more units with the increased supply cap.
Cape Town is still holding on well, but I think they will need some help so I'll send 1 crossbowman and 1 knight there for now. Speaking of knights, my horses near Rio got pillaged. Again.

After Gunpowder, I'll try to quickly research Chemistry for Piza, which shouldn't take long with my explorer UU uncovering a bunch of tiles on the other side of the world. After that, I'll probably try to beeline Astronomy for Chichen Itza, I really, really want the golden age bonus from it.
For Himeiji Castle, I haven't decided whether to build it in Rio or Jarkata yet, but I think it's a pretty good one to have to raise my supply cap. I can build Sankore whenever basically, I'll just time its completion before my next great person spawns (in 13 turns).

On the barbarian island, I have settled my first city, with probably 2 more after banking (for pioneers). I currently can't spare any of my supply cap to clear the island from barbarians, my UU on it will just have to work overtime to keep my city safe.
Persia stole my alliance with Genoa, but I'm getting pepper hooked up next turn so it's all good. Speaking of Persia though, they might be my next target for naval combat since their cities are extremely exposed to melee ships. We'll see how it goes though.

On the other side of the world, Shaka, England, Korea, and Arabia share a continent with Korea probably getting wiped out by Shaka, what a surprise. A naval mid-late game war with Shaka is basically inevitable, I think I'll strike when I get my ironclad UU running full steam. Hopefully, impis won't be a threat anymore by the time I need to land my troops there.
England and Portugal (on my island) don't have their own religion, I'll just bomb them with 3-spread missionaries after capturing Jarkata.

 

[randomnub]

To me Brazil works best with Progress, due to early UI and no real focus on gp. Tradition can work too obviously, but with enough room for some good early expansions it wastes some potential imo. That being said, since you attached the initial save, I gave it a try. I usually don't play with 4UC/CE and tbh the latter mod has been underwhelming so far, 100+ turns and a dozen events, only once I could select between two options and it was a pretty lame choice between 100gap and +1 happiness in every city for 30 turns, it basically evened out. The funniest one forced me to give up 300 faith while I was still building up for my first prophet (it also was the only possible choice) and delayed religion by 15 turns... I still beat you by one turn tho

T87 Religion:

Spoiler :

It looks like our science/culture output at this stage is similar, both at 5th policy and approx same tech, I'm still expanding and growing because I'm working improved tiles only. I rushed the first settler with progress Organization hammers before grabbing a uncontested Artemis (a CS asked for it) but then Halicarnassus went early in my game, while I was still researching masonry; no biggie, I focused on the Roman Forum, spent the Great Diplomat on a early alliance and with the paper I can rush buy 190gp emissaries before having the population req for the scrivener's office. I'm swimming in money so I feel safe against Gajah, can always rush buy units in my homeland while the early troops deal with barbarian cs quests.

My religion so far is focused on science, because with progress it pays off to era advance quicker: Stonehenge pantheon for the cheap Ancestor Worship, council first building and often delaying the first pop growth. Holy Law that scales better than Elders for wide pacifist and Mandirs because I love to deny it to the AI: they provide good yields in fresh cities and I can foresee no happiness problems for a long time. The tricky early part will be decide when to save for a mandir because a converted city is growing soon and when to buy a missionary because a new policy is unlocking in few turns and I should convert some pagans...

T101 Medieval:

Spoiler :

Here I think our tech path differs: I have been friendly with Gajah for the first 85 turns, then he went hostile but I arranged a war between Portugal and Persia/Indonesia while keeping myself out of early politics: trade deals and caravans kept Persia happy and my military score isn't abysmal enough to be a target, also it's probably inflated by all the CS allies. This means I could focus on the top tech, grab Oracle and enter Medieval through Education. Next, I'll beeline to Compass for the explorer UU. Those Amphitheaters you see in city queues are going to be delayed a bit, I'll switch to chanceries now, and in a few turns when Lhasa will ask for forges I'll switch production again because stealing that alliance from Persia and putting Lhasa at peace with nearby Melbourne (where I used the early GD) is going to drown me in GAP and money... then another CS will ask for Arenas and my building queue in all cities will become a mess

I finished Progress at turn 93, next I'll take a dip in Fealty for a welcome discount for early mandirs and missionaries but also for monasteries, I value that early science (and culture, through Expertise) worth the ''wasted'' policy due to the snowballing potential: also, there will be no hurry to finish Artistry I think, and the Industrial trees are better for a pick and mix approach.

T128 Reformation and 129 Compass:

Spoiler :

Progress unlocks the UU 23 turns before Tradition, I stopped expanding to not inflate the tech cost but I'll be filling the good nearby spots soon now. I'm filling my supply cap with soon-to-be-upgraded Scouts, just in time. I have Mandirs and Monasteries in all cities, enough missionaries to convert the nearby CSs and reform: I already have libraries in 5/7 cities (Capital also University/Oxford) and amphitheaters in 4/7 so neither Divine Teachings nor Faith of the Masses offer great instant benefits... I think I'll go To the Glory of God for late game scientists and easy themings, eventually some pre-industrial faith will be dumped in Great Prophets but that's not too bad with my founder granting +5 culture on holy sites, that's good for wide Brazil tourism.

Persia attacked but I can train knights and he has no pikes yet, I'm not even bothering building castles, instead I'll build a big road network to move reinforcements north quick should Gajah attack as well: Indonesia and Portugal stopped fight and I entered a defensive pact with Maria soon after their peace treaty, that should delay Gajah attack (iirc he can't declare on me until his peace treaty with Maria lasts).

Judging by your tech screenshot my actual science output with 7 progress cities is comparable to your with 5 tradition ones at turn 166: it takes me 5 turns for Theology and 7 for guilds, similar to your numbers. I think I'm going to enter Renaissance through gunpowder only because Notre Dame is on the way, another tempting option was to go Banking and colonize the Western Isle with Pioneers but that's not on the way to my 4UC UB; I'm taking a break now anyway, maybe the next patch hits soon

 

[tlix]

To me Brazil works best with Progress, due to early UI and no real focus on gp. Tradition can work too obviously, but with enough room for some good early expansions it wastes some potential imo. That being said, since you attached the initial save, I gave it a try. I usually don't play with 4UC/CE and tbh the latter mod has been underwhelming so far, 100+ turns and a dozen events, only once I could select between two options and it was a pretty lame choice between 100gap and +1 happiness in every city for 30 turns, it basically evened out. The funniest one forced me to give up 300 faith while I was still building up for my first prophet (it also was the only possible choice) and delayed religion by 15 turns... I still beat you by one turn tho

Cool playthrough, it's really interesting to see the difference between our playthroughs. I have also considered taking progress instead of tradition, but ended up defaulting for tradition since brazil doesn't get early science from UA/UB, and wanted to go for a more peaceful/bunkering playstyle as a cultural civ.
I think the largest deviation comes from the fact that you could secure a city to the east of capital fairly quickly, and that you were able to get away with taking teching top path for oracle into universities. That huge science boost just allows you to get ahead of the rest of the continent and it's just going to be much easier into the mid game after the boost from UU explorers. The science focus of your religion also helps a ton in this regard too.

 

[randomnub]

One thing I see now, do you only have the first pathfinder into UU? I'm happy I massed them up to the supply cap because the science on tile reveal yields don't scale very well in the late game, but in early renaissance they're crazy These are my 12 bandeirantes at work:

Spoiler :

 

[azum4roll]

so I pillaged it so that I won't need to deal with their knights at all in this war.

Circus Maximus gives 2 horses now, so you ALWAYS have to deal with knights!

 

[tlix]

One thing I see now, do you only have the first pathfinder into UU? I'm happy I massed them up to the supply cap because the science on tile reveal yields don't scale very well in the late game, but in early renaissance they're crazy These are my 12 bandeirantes at work:

Because of the significant war with Indonesia occupying my entire supply cap, I can only afford to have 2-4 explorer UUs unfortunately. After the war I could spam a few more to get all the ocean tiles uncovered, but I would most likely allocate the rest of the cap to my navy.

Circus Maximus gives 2 horses now, so you ALWAYS have to deal with knights!

Oh right... but at least now with tercios and crossbowman they are nowhere as scary!

 

[tlix]

I got busy with school work so the update was delayed a bit. But don't worry, the game is still going strong!

Spoiler t170 Both CS got flipped! :

Unfortunately, as I was busy taking Makassar Indonesia decided to focus on taking Monaco with their injured units and it fell in 4 turns. They also staged a coup in Cape Town, which I just pulled back my units and let the city die to barbs. Indonesia will probably liberate it later, and I could then maybe take it myself for a puppet, don't really know yet.
Gunpowder is done now, Chemistry is up next with Leaning Tower. Instead of delaying Sankore, I decided to build it now, because I'm going to rush Himeji Castle right after with an engineer seeing how Jarkata still has very good production potential and that it will be an absolute slog to siege past it. The wonder will also help me consolidate my next push toward Jakarta and give me some much needed supply cap. Rio will be spamming a few more wonders for the next 30 turns or so, before going back to building more units.

Spoiler t174 Himeji Castle :

Just like that, Himeji Castle is coming up next. It looks like Indonesia has just got tercios and cannons of their own, so the 15% boost from the wonder is going to help a lot. My ranged units are also getting closer to range upgrades, which will certainly make the siege much easier.
Instead of going back to research top path, I'm going 1 step further for lancers and musketmen since it will be a pain to go through their tercio carpet with medieval units. The scout on the other continent will speed up the research quickly.

Spoiler t188 Moving in :

With the rest of the continent also declaring war on Indonesia, I can finally start pushing in with my units. I also got a defensive pact with Persia just in case, but I think I'll be safe pilling the rest of my units towards Indonesia. I attempted to stage a coup in Cape Town to take it myself, but he died for it. Oh well, I guess I won't be having a spy for a little bit.
There isn't a lot happening in world congress, since I barely have any votes for it anyway. Shaka is trying to pass casus belli, which I'm sure everyone will vote against it. I'm voting against Treasure Fleet, since Shaka is certainly going to win and I absolutely do not want their water units to get stronger.
Leaning tower will be built in 2 turns with gold investing, but it's getting a bit close and I'm not sure if I can secure it.

Spoiler t205 End of session, Jarkata falls :

And with that, Indonesia is essentially out of the game. I'll still capture Cape Town as a puppet to place down a canal and liberate Monaco for a CS quest, but that's about it. Surabaya has Hanging Gardens, but I don't really care about that anyway; I think it scales pretty poorly past renaissance.
Unless Persia decides to backstab me I don't think there will be a lot of wars in the upcoming turns, I'll just be focusing on building up my infrastructure, getting a few more explorers to uncover the map, and colonizing the island west of the capital. Shaka did end up beating me to Leaning Tower, but thankfully I got to build Chichen Itza instead. The next wonder on the list is either Uffizi, Sistine Chapel or Porcelain Tower, I'll only build one so that Brandenburg Gate won't be unreachable and get snatched by Shaka.
Culture wise, even though I'm supposed to be leading I'm actually 2 policies behind Shaka (the leader); their constant wars with Terracotta Army and 4UC UB (Writer's Guild replacement, +culture whenever a unit levels up) give them so much culture it's actually pretty crazy. I have just finished artistry (honestly, I should've gotten fealty opener first but too late now) and will be opening rationalism with my next policy. I think I'll also be getting imperialism opener later after Brandenburg for the war against Shaka as I'll be getting ready for a naval war with them with my 4UC UU.

8 wonders in Jarkata, yum. The biggest ones of which being Pyramids and Great Lighthouse, with naval wars coming up in late-industrial era. Funny enough, I'll actually get some use out of Karlstejn since I haven't reformed my religion yet; I wanted to take Borobudur before spreading my religion. I think I'll get divine teaching or inspired works for reformation belief, while defender of the faith got taken by Shaka (which makes them even more difficult to beat in the future).

On the other side of the world, poor Arabia got absolutely rolled by Impis from the left and longbowmen from the right. With no more targets after this (England and Zulu have a defensive pact) I hope that it will slow down Shaka a bit, or maybe Shaka will even start attacking England when the pact runs out, I don't know. I just wish Shaka doesn't pull out a bunch of naval units out of nowhere and bombard my cities to oblivion in the next 50 turns lol

 

[tlix]

Some renaissance-industrial city management before more wars! If I were playing a more military based civ I'd probably be conquering everyone in this time.

Spoiler t208 Shaka literally pisses off everyone lmao :

So I expected Shaka would be fighting England very soon after Arabia died, but I certainly didn't expect him to declare a surprise war even with their defensive pact, I thought they had the highest loyalty values. But yeah, England is probably going to lose a few cities if their longbowmen aren't ready, I'll try to befriend everyone (especially Persia) by denouncing Shaka in the meantime before I get my UU.
Speaking of which, Indonesia is now Persia's vassal, even though I took their capital. This really sucks, I really wanted Indonesia to be a buffer zone between me and Persia in the late game but oh well. With my units, I'll take Cape Town as a puppet (since that location sucks) for a canal through the top channel. Because Indonesia plopped down the luxury exactly at the tile I wanted the canal to be, I'll just have to citadel it. I don't have uses for my GG at this time anyway so it's probably fine.

Spoiler t225 Reformation belief, Colonization :

After way too long I finally reformed my religion. I was considering To The Glory of God but seeing my pitiful faith generation I went with Divine Teaching to save myself some production when I get public schools and research labs in the future. With the new faith I'll try to bomb English cities with missionaries to encorage them to propose world religion (they are the host), but I'd also love to have some extra golden age points from sacred calendar.
For the renaissance wonder I decided to go with Taj Mahal instead for the golden age points. It will be built in 2 turns after gold funding.
After getting rationalism opener around 10 turns ago, I decided to open up industry instead of continuing down the tree. Since my actual goal is to snipe Brandenburg Gate from Shaka (and I'm currently behind on policies), I'll time the free tech from rationalism to get military science on the 16th policy to start on the wonder immediately. For the meantime, since I don't have either train station or seaports yet, taking industry right side will help my cities set those up, especially seaports since I'll need my coastal cities to make ships shortly after getting those set up.
For those extra trade routes I'll dedicate them for food to Rio, since I really need it to fill in all the specialist slots. I currently have 3 food and 1 production routes to Rio, with 2 more food ships coming in.
Right now I have half my army scattered around the west island to clear off all the barbs, I'll keep a close look at Shaka and pull my highly leveled units back to the right if Shaka is about to attack me.

Spoiler t243 World War :

In the end, Shaka sniped my Taj Mahal literally 1 turn before mine got built, god damn it. It got built not in his capital too, I'll make him pay for it later. I can start Brandenburg in 4 turns, and when that's done dynamite should also be finished with military academies everywhere so I can get highly leveled ships by then.
After building all the seaports, I have already started on building some ships to defend myself along with field guns, but I suppose Shaka got a bit impatient from being outside of war and attacked me. Before DoW I have defensive pacts with Persia and England, so basically everyone is dragged in to the war now.
Since Shaka only has 4 real coastal cities to make boats, and with my Himeji Castle there's no way he's taking Jakata with only 1 melee tile and 3 cruiser tiles to bombard from.
After researching railroad, I'll settle a strategic city on the iron tile between me and Shaka. The city will be terrible before tidal plants, but it serves as an important healing station for assaulting Shaka's territory with my navy. I think I'll also need landships to make progress inland, but I should be able to hold the coastal cities with gatling gun spam, now that impis are essentially obsolete. Their fusiliers will still get buffalo promotions and probably blitz/march after that too, so I'll need to be careful.
By the way, I don't really care about those CS spanish boats getting destroyed since they are pretty low-leveled, but I'll try to make the most out of them anyway. If they survive they'll be good medic boats since they come with innate boarding party 1.

Spoiler t260 Counteroffensive begins :

Finished Brandenburg, so all my larger coastal cities are making more boats now. I currently have 9 melee and 7 ranged boats (3 for units and 4 for cities), which should be enough to start doing some damage on Zulu cities. I think I'll probably need more cruisers to support the landings (and also make a lot more fusiliers and gatlings too) but it should be good enough to start doing damage. The main limiting factor right now is gold (I realized unit upgrades are stupidly expensive without imperialism), I'm getting a golden age shortly to hopefully remedy that. I'll probably also have to switch some of my food trade routes to gold but we'll see.
Manaus will be my main healing station for this war, I probably have to buy a few more tiles to the west too. My first target is Bucharest with its extremely exposed coastline, hopefully the city is defendable enough for me to land my units there. I have a CS quest to conquer Bucharest, so I'll try to train a bunch more units before I capture the city for a crap ton of promotions. After that will be Umgungun, which is key for the capital siege. There's also a city just blocked by the minimap (Bulawayo), but that city has red fort so I probably can't do anything about it without my own ground siege units closing in on it.

Currently, I'm teching for research labs (which I can buy with faith), then probably archaeology for a quick louvre before getting combustion. Shaka is 2 techs ahead of me (scientific theory and combustion), and he's starting to build arsenals so I'll need to be fast to take (at least) his coastal cities before he can set those up. I plan on taking at least 2 of his closest coastal cities and getting a peace treaty out of him before he can overwhelm my ground units with landships, and I'll most likely need replaceable parts to hold my positions once their armor units start running. After that, probably ballistics for artillery to beat Shaka.

Next policy would be rationalism left path for observatories, which should be enough science to catch up to Shaka. For ideology pick I'm looking between freedom and order, since autocracy requires me to keep the war going to get yields and I probably will just settle in after Shaka capitulates (which means diminishing returns later in the game). I'm leaning more towards order; although freedom has the golden age length bonus and a lot more extra yields from specialists, statue of liberty is a bit out of the way at the moment. Meanwhile order gets me a crap ton of production (I could just get 5 free factories as my first tenet without even researching industrialization) with Kremlin in my current tech path. Shaka picked up autocracy (3rd policy now), so I could hopefully mess his happiness up a bit once I capture his capital, which hopefully shouldn't take too long.
England is starting to buckle a little bit, but with me advancing on the other side I hope to divert Shaka's attention a bit and let the war weariness kick in for him.

 

[tlix]

Spoiler t272 Zulu navy destroyed :

Although it looks like nothing has happened since the last update (which nothing really big happened tbh), the Zulu navy is basically destroyed to individual boats now. As planned, I will first siege Bucharest because of its extremely exposed coast.
Replaceable parts is up next on research, which gives me riflemen to (attempt to) hold onto the city once it's captured. Since I picked up order as my ideology, I'll also be building Kremlin.

Spoiler t288 Stabilizing Bucharest :

I had to flip Bucharest a few times, but it's finally captured now. Zulu made a huge mistake of letting me rush in and place a citadel right in front of the city, which I can very comfortably fit a cover 2 rifleman in. Although the situation looks very grim, the city is actually fairly safe from getting recaptured again, since the AI is dumb and don't know how to sneak in a buffalo3 infantry unit in from the south or a landship from the north. Shaka tried to put up a naval fight with those units down there, but they certainly can't beat my decently leveled boats now.
Speaking of landships, I have a grand total of 6 surface oil in my territory (2 more near Manaus after refrigeration), this means that I will only be getting 6 landships for the war with Shaka, which is probably nowhere near enough. Not to mention that I won't be having any oil for planes either. Oh well, I guess I'll have to wait until refineries. Because of this I'll be popping the free tech from great leap forward on combined arms, so that I can end the war quickly with my 6 T-34. A bit suboptimal, but it will have to work I guess.
Archeology is coming up next with Louvre, then I'll just research for ballistics since I think by that time I'll be able to start using ground units, and machine guns will be huge to kill riflemen and landships.

Spoiler t297 Very slow sieges... :

After creating *some* space in Bucharest I'm now pulling most of my ships up to Umgungun and slowly beat down the city. Since my UU can move after attacking, I'm basically just rushing in 2 tiles, ram once, then pull back 2 tiles to safety until the city dies. This is taking forever after Shaka built arsenals here, but slowly but surely it's going down. This is also the turn that I have oil and landships, so I expect that I can start making more space with them very soon. P.S. the Himeji castle I built around 100 turns ago is really helping here.
While that's all happening, Indonesia broke out of vassalage from Persia and is now getting owned by him. England has also joined the war with Shaka and took Arabia, so the game is basically left with me, Shaka (who will probably be out of the game very soon), England, and Persia, since Portugal is falling behind badly and should be wiped out by Persia too.
Persia ended up taking autocracy (not a surprise), while England took order with me. England order is a bit weird since I think they are going for diplo (and order gives nothing to that VC) but it's probably a smart thing to do; I'm already popular with them with a higher tourism bonus so them going freedom/autocracy would probably ruin their happiness. I'm not really complaining though, since I would definitely want to pass world ideology without taking out England myself had they gone for another ideology.

Spoiler t311 1 more Zulu city down, Bulawayo next! :

Umgungun is down with (thankfully) no retakes, though it did lose some population from an event. It's fine though, it gives me more than enough room to work with. As you can notice the supply cap I have lost probably way too many units (especially ships) than I wanted, but I think my navy is going to finish their job very soon. Although I can't see anything near Bulawayo there are like 10 artilleries waiting for me behind the city and unfortunately I really cant do anything to those. I'll just have to do the sneaky ram strat like how I took Umgungun, and also do the same with my logistics cruisers.
I'm currently researching corporations and will be taking the culture one. Unfortunately Persia took the golden age one, that would've been my top priority but oh well; I think I might have researched ballistics a little bit early.

Spoiler t320 Great Leap into Atomic :

With great leap forward I'm now into atomic era with proper infantry and my T-34s. I've been slowly replacing my dead ships with ground units, so maybe my recklessness of putting my ships into no man's water tiles wasn't a complete blunder after all. All my 4 artilleries have range, but since I only have 4 I'll be making a few more of them after some more infantry to hopefully end the war quicker. By the way, the only reason that I'm not in permanent unhappiness and have to end the war is due to carnivals. Although the weariness is really starting to take a toll on me and golden ages are taking forever to start and I really need to wrap up the war soon. However, I'm intentionally delaying taking Ulundi since England is also currently at war with Shaka, and I absolutely do not want England to steal the vassal from me.

My next goal on science is plastics for cristo redentor, then straight into refrigeration for oil. Getting flight right now is pretty pointless as I have no spare oil, that can wait for a bit.
Interestingly enough England took imperialism instead of industry (they have statecraft too) and nobody else took Industry, which means that I can probably build Broadway at some point, if the game hasn't ended already.

I think taking academy of sciences was a mistake honestly, since I could faith purchase research labs with my religion. Anyway, since I don't have nationalization (and I probably won't be getting it now) I'll probably send most of my internal trade routes to external for money and spread my franchise, so iron curtain will be my next tenet to grow my capital with maybe 2-3 food trade routes while finishing the war with Shaka. After that, most likely peace land bread and cultural revolution (I'm brazil so my happiness is over the roof if I'm not at war). If I have spare policies after that I'll just finish off industry and build broadway while waiting for influential with every civ, but honestly I think the game would be over by then.

 

[randomnub]

I'm not going to finish the progress game, turn 199 and entered the modern era, 10 techs and 3 policies ahead of the Zulus: I peace out with them after a short war over my distant colonies in order to finish off Gajah, after I razed 3 Persian cities with poor infrastructure to resettle them with colonists, while letting Maria take over Persepolis to make her happy and avoid warmonger penalities. Not that it matters much, as everybody rightfully hates me for being ahead (Influential/Popular with everybody for now).

Spoiler :