Social Policy Game 1: Autocracy

[sylvanllewelyn]

Social Policy Game 1: Autocracy

As discussed earlier, I want to play a series of games to highlight each branch of social policies. Additionally, if I (hopefully) win, I must finish the game with the entire social policy branch completed.

I'll track my progress here, the 1st game is AUTOCRACY.

Here are the others:
Tradition (coming soon)
Liberty (coming soon)
Honour (coming soon)
Piety (coming soon)
Patronage (coming soon)
Commerce (coming soon)
Rationalism (coming soon)
Freedom (coming soon)
Order (coming soon)

I will play as Russia, continents map type.
The rest are fixed : standard size, emperor difficulty, standard speed.

Links to my progress is as below:
4000BC-1960BC
1960BC-1160BC
1160BC-1130AD
1130AD-1400AD
1400AD-1540AD
1540AD-1685AD (endgame)

Any input is welcome, just remember NO SPOILERS! Read the savegame but do not issue any commands.

 

[sylvanllewelyn]

First of all, you guys really gave me a hard mission. Autocracy requires a cultural powerhouse but once you go to war, you'll have too many cities to do it. I chose Russia, I don't know why, I guess they were more autocratic than communist anyway.



A food-poor arctic start. That's Civ5: civilisations are hard-coded to get "historical" starts, so re-rolling will not help me one bit. Sure, in Civ5 there are many ways to get around food problems, but nothing that is available in the first 2000 years. For now, we're stuck in Siberia.

I usually start with animal husbandary but this time I'll go mining instead so I get upgraded advanced infantry later. The reason is I won't be spamming trading posts in the beginning in food-poor starts anyway. My starting build is a warrior because barbarians are a if you're close to the arctic. Scouts get eaten too quickly.



Maritime city-state, thank goodness. I'll rely on them this game to grow my cities since I cannot have too many cities if I am ever going to get the autocracy policies.



The Mongols! I was hoping for a more peaceful game.



And then we have the Macedonians. Not the best neighbours to work with. They did offer me a cooperation with me 2200BC.



Look, I know it's cheap but the geo-political circumstance leaves me no choice. You'll see in a minute.



I mean, really?

Good thing I had promotions saved up. I don't like wasting promotions attacking cities but I don't think the map gave me much choice in this regard.



Not quite historically correct - Mongols would never "execute" enemy leaders as suggested by him lowering his head. They suffocate or crack their necks, something to keep their bodies whole, otherwise their souls will wander in the plains forever.

Gameplay-wise, he had more units than me, they were just out of place. Timing and position is even more important than numbers in a rush.



I will stop for feedback. Points to consider:
- I see iron and I see luxury resources. They are not in the same place.
- Mongolia has iron but I am not annexing the city to kill my happiness this early in the game.
- City-states can provide iron and luxuries but cost a fortune. Plus 3 of the 4 are hostile.
- If I don't grab iron, Greece will get me now. If I don't grab luxuries, Greece will get me later.
- My capital is still suffering from barbarian issues but I am not settling in tundra. Grass IS greener on the other side!
And finally...
- I can't have too many cities. I need to save them for autocracy.

 

[bigwinw]

I would say you want to build a city south west of Karakorum. Make use of the Gems and Spices. Then build another one close to Moscow with direct access to the Iron, Cows, Deer.

4 cities should be a good starting point to build your science/culture/happy. The city you build in the south near greece needs to be your fortress. Get to Math and build or buy some Catapults to hold them off.

 

[kaltorak]

Ouch, that was fast for genghis.

Why would you need to anex teh city to grab iron? Just send a worker built in another city and upgrade the tile.

 

[bigwinw]

Ouch, that was fast for genghis.

Why would you need to anex teh city to grab iron? Just send a worker built in another city and upgrade the tile.

I thought the same thing. If you look closely the he needs to buy a tile or wait for a culture pop to get to it.

 

[pi-r8]

So, are you just going to take policies in Autocracy, or are you planning on combining it with something else?

To be honest, I don't see any way to really leverage autocracy alone. It's just not very good. The only real synergy it has is in combining the unit rush buy discount with mercantilism and big ben for super fast units. Alternatively I guess you could wait until the very end and go to war with a massive army of GDRs.

 

[vranasm]

couldnt you please adjust the size of screenshots a bit? photobucket does it automatically from my experience...

oh and subscribing

 

[Ulti_mecia]

I'd say you could probably raise enough culture to add in some Honor SP's, who'll go nicely with Autocracy

 

[iamflatline]

Subscribing; never used Autocracy in a game so I'm interested in seeing how you pull it off.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

I don't think I could handle this challenge. I think social policies come way too slow, and I am somewhat opposed to "holding" policy initiatives so I can rush buy later in the game. It would drive me crazy to have benefits sitting around waiting on me all the way until the industrial age. Still, I'm subscribing to see what happens.

 

[Nunya]

Screw happiness, as long as you don't get all the way to -10 you're fine. So go for Iron and kill Alex. Then find the last person on your continent and kill them too. Once you have the entire continent for yourself beeline for Industrial.

And I now just noticed that Moscow could get Iron if you buy 2 tiles. So you can have your cake and eat it too.

Build a Krepost in every city, it's like a mini Angkor Wat.

 

[DonChipotle]

You might consider staying on three or so cities and puppet the rest, as aimlessgun did in his Deity rifle rush game. Maybe 3-6 cities. You can conquer and still get lots of policies. I'd aim for 12 policies for the game. Is it too late to get the oracle?

Also, I think you should delay doing too much conquering until the later ages, when autocracy will shine (or not). The key will be getting there. I might:
-grab iron working and/or horseback riding for defense and to pick up a few puppets
-beeline education, to maximize research
-beeline biology to unlock autocracy, and also lots of cultural buildings
-in the meantime, maybe grab the left side of rationalism to speed up research
-once autocracy is unlocked, come back for the bottom of the tech tree and go straight to GDR

 

[CrimsonEdge]

As Nunya said, if you're waging war there is no reason to worry about happiness unless it gets to about -5 or -6, then you may want to start razing cities or building coliseums.

Since you'll be waging war at some point, you won't care THAT much about city growth, and the production penalty will be negligible.

It may be in your interests to ensure you have a large happiness surplus early on so you can raze everything.

 

[harry_flashman]

Horses horse horses! I love horses with Catherine. You get great production from a few horse tiles and some forest. I can't see any 3 horse tiles anywhere, but with a krepost in Moscow you'll not be lacking for production. 2 horses and an iron I think. Plus you get to sell your extra horses.

 

[Martin Alvito]

I'd annex Karakorum and turn it into a Settler pump. -7H for a Settler pump and Iron is a pretty good deal in your present situation. Do you have Genghis's Worker or not? Can't see it in the last map. If not, what happened to it?

Masonry, Trapping and settling to the SW of Karakorum for the Gems tile will solve your short-run Happiness problems. (You need to settle that soon, and it's going to tick off Alex, which is why a Settler from Karakorum and Iron are dire needs.) Sucks that you can't go for Writing first to speed things up, but you need to hook up your luxuries now.

I'd sell the first luxury you hook up to Alex and buy Genoa, if I were you. You'll get it back when one of you declares anyway.

 

[gaiko]

Yes second this even if a bit late with the suggestion: You should aim to feature pairs of SP branches.

The reason is that in the typical game you are going to have more than enough SPs available for at least 2 branches. It is the synergy (or lack thereof) between branches that makes the SP game interesting.

One example would be Commerce + Order. Very good in you know you can found you early core cities on coastline, on a coastline heavy map. And so forth.

So, are you just going to take policies in Autocracy, or are you planning on combining it with something else?

To be honest, I don't see any way to really leverage autocracy alone. It's just not very good. The only real synergy it has is in combining the unit rush buy discount with mercantilism and big ben for super fast units. Alternatively I guess you could wait until the very end and go to war with a massive army of GDRs.

 

[Bibor]

You should've started in the industrial era.

In any case, Piety, Honor and Rationalism work great with Autocracy. Considering Autocracy games are aiming at domination, is not a problem and neither is (small number of core cities, puppets build temples and monuments). That leaves and to take care of, which are perfect for a small number of riverside core cities (and benefits from both Piety and Rationalism).

Actually, killing off Genghis was a bad idea. Now you have to plant your own cities, instead of going piety and a small core first, investing the 2 free policies into Honor and later going for Honor+Rationalism until you can get to Autocracy. Capturing Genghis's cities before he can field Keshiks would give you both the needed experience and puppets for Autocracy to work.

You need to stick a city between Ragusa and Helsinki ASAP, because it's the one and only good coastal site (2 iron, some food) and you won't want to kill off those two nice Maritime City-states for mere border issues. Having a dozen destroyers with Logistics and Range is pretty much mandatory if you are aiming at an Full-Autocracy domination (which means Modern era conquests).

 

[Martin Alvito]

Personally, I would plant in the tile between the Iron and Horses, then put the coastal city on the coastal Fur in the tundra. Right now he should be maxing out Settler production to Happiness cap, slap down Colosseums, then go punk Alex and start puppeting. One Hill and three Forests with Lumber Mills should be plenty of Hammers for the coastal city.

Note that I would never take that Iron/Horses tile with anyone other than Cathy. But that will be a strong early city with two 2/3 tiles and a 3/1. Great Science city later on.

 

[sylvanllewelyn]

I read all the comments. Unfortunately I cannot actually implement all of them because some goals are contradictory so I’m afraid it is not possible to keep everyone happy. Although the decisions of the Russian government can seem autocratic and arbitrary (translation: Friday night vodka) at times, please understand that this will all ultimately lead to the glory of our people.

First off, the new settlement will be placed on the coast to get iron. I know some people are not happy about not settling next to the luxury resources. But please be reminded that we could also obtain said resources by other means.



You might also ask why I’m settling to grab the 2 iron and sitting close to a city-state. This is because I expect the 6 iron will be taken by Karakorum after a while and I want them to use the hammers there to build infrastructure later on. The second reason is that while the obvious choice is to settle one tile South-East for a better location and to use both iron resources for lots of hammers, the fact that both of these tiles are two hexes away from the actual city means it will be too long before culture spreads to those tiles, and/or too expensive to buy the two tiles to access either source.

Besides, 2 iron = 4 swordsman, which is enough in case anything happens.

1800BC: purchased a warrior. 200 + 90 < 410 (who’s the lead designer?!)
1760BC: great lighthouse built.
1680BC: great library built.
1600BC: sold silver to Alexander for 261 gold. Plunge into unhappiness.

In the diplo screen, I also see that he doesn’t have any other cities. I guess I have to actually build those cities myself then. But that’s actually fun, because choosing city sites is one of the favourite parts of playing Civ4 and now I am about to do it again here.

1560BC: hanging gardens built. Note to self: do not attempt early wonders. If you want them, capture them.



I should be able to pull this off. Again, it’s about speed and position, not numbers. I had to move a little bit until his hoplites were out of position. I actually wanted to work with my neighbours rather than being a brute but Mongols and Greeks are two neighbours you just don’t want to have. If I really wanted to, I would have had to maintain a large standing army for deterrence, costing GPT while standing around idle until astronomy. Don’t forget that Russia can defeat the Golden Horde, they can defeat Napoleon, they can strike back against Nazi Germany but they lost to the US in the end because they could not sustain an arm’s race. Cold wars are bad.



Oh boy, what a city. I almost want to stop running scientists just so I can get a Great merchant here except I need to reach the industrial age as quickly as I can. Here are my other cities:





The land I’ve explored so far:




My tech situation:


Dot map suggestions would be lovely because without liberty ICS won’t work so well. As for getting all autocracy policies, I concede that maybe that is an exaggeration but at least I want to get most of them, especially ones that people have never used before because “they suck”. Well if they do I’m here to prove you right or wrong. One question I do have is why the mercantilism social policy is so important to have when I could get the same benefit from building the Big Ben without wasting precious social policy slots (or heck, just take that wonder by force).

This is another short update because it just so happens that I’ve reached another turning point. The next update will probably span for a lot more turns as I grind through boring economic development.

 

[Feyd Rautha]

Seems to me that you have a good base of cities to sit on until you unlock the industrial period. Any more than these four and the policy costs are going to get silly.

Get construction to get those colluseums up and then calendar and sailing for resources. After that I'd hit Philosophy and then beeline Astronomy. When you get those caravels out to find the other continent, you'll be in good shape. From there you can beeline industrial.

I'm not sure where you want to go policy wise, but I'd complete honor and piety (timing the last of piety for a quick investment in Autocracy). Other policy tracks are up to you. The idea of pairing commerce, big ben, and autocracy benefit to get very cheap troop purchases is a fun combo, but you are going to be waiting for that for a long period of time. Personally I'd maybe pick up patronage traits to make city-state culture more accessible and then hold all other policies for Autocracy.