The Community Deity Game # 8 - Austria

[IronfighterXXX]

CDG 8 - Austria a.k.a. The pen is mightier than sword!

Main 'theme' of this game is to establish if Austria's UA will be helpful to achieve (esp. faster) science victory. This map is normally rolled, not modified in any way.

Map type and settings:

Spoiler :

Pangea, standard size and speed. Designated victory condition is science.

Extra settings:

Spoiler :

high sea level to encourage to make use of Austria's UA, handpicked opponents (friendly)

Difficulty:

Spoiler :

very easy

Starting location:

Spoiler :

WARNING! WARNING! Extra spoiler about map (read only, if you think that starting location is not good enough )

Spoiler :

two moves north from starting location is coastal - mountain spot with keeping all visible resources; so it may be good idea to settle capital there

Achievements:

Spoiler :

A. Win the game by science victory before:

a)<200t - 6p
b)<220t - 5p
c)<240t - 4p
d)<260t - 3p
e)<280t - 2p
f)<300t - 1p

B.Diplo-marry city states:

a)5 or more in 5 or more different eras -6p
b)5 -5p
c)4 -4p
d)3 -3p
e)2 -2p
f)1 -1p

C. At the end of game be friend with 5 or more (or all remaining) civilizations - 3p

D. At the end of game be ally of all remaining city states - 3p

E. Have coffee houses in all cities (puppets don't count) -2p

Good luck everyone!

 

[gobbledydook]

The salt is real...

 

[stormtrooper412]

I played 120 turns. Got Education on T99, bought 2 city states but there's seems to be no way to keep the happiness up. Man, I forgot how to play this ..

 

[budweiser]

I think what works best for Austria is marrying a lot of CS in the late game. A steady diet of one every age might not be good.

 

[beetle]

I love the dilemma of coast or mountain or SIP. Also, avoid plain for Stoneworks.

I went for the river hill on mountain. I figured an expo could get the coast, and share the salt. Too soon to tell if that was a good choice!

EDIT: Missed &#8217;mids (T63, by 6 turns) and last religion went on T86. Earth Mother not really doing the job. Maybe this map is strong enough for a Piety opener? NCT100 with four cities.

 

[gobbledydook]

I played 120 turns. Got Education on T99, bought 2 city states but there's seems to be no way to keep the happiness up. Man, I forgot how to play this ..

You are a much better player than me, but if you are playing tradition and tall, don't you run into happiness problems with four cities let alone six?

 

[JamesCivFan]

Hm, I think I will properly try this one. It looks promising!

 

[stormtrooper412]

I'd like to see valadaz and Manpanzee taking swings at this

 

[beetle]

How do Austria puppets work? There is no option to build a courthouse. So should I always be annexing? I don&#8217;t quite get it!

I think if you want to found without opening Piety, settle the dessert hill (even though it is one hex from the coast) and get desert Folklore? I got the last religion by running Piety, but it was close. Jesuit Education was off the table, so I went with Charitable Missions. Also have Papal Primacy, both for the RP.

 

[Blatc]

EDIT: Missed ’mids (T63, by 6 turns) and last religion went on T86. Earth Mother not really doing the job. Maybe this map is strong enough for a Piety opener? NCT100 with four cities.

Last religion on T66

 

[Manpanzee]

I have played up to t104. The start wasn't super amazing (few ruins, failed to get a pantheon), but I've had some good luck in other areas that should lead to a nice result. Sub-210 seems very doable here.

Spoiler :

I settled the river mountain hill visible from the starting screen. Going up the coast probably would have been better, but I chose not to spoil myself, so I didn't know. I ended up doing a 3-city Tradition opener, with a set of cities that had very nice early tiles but not much space -- I'm already running out of workable tiles. I also bought Wellington early-ish (t55 or so) for a fourth city.

The big development is that weak, pious Gandhi built both Temple of Artemis and Chichen Itza, which are really the ideal two wonders to steal. I DOW'ed him at t85, fighting with a mix of Chariots, CompBows, and Pikes. This is a bit late for that set of units, and it was unclear if my forces would be strong enough to get the job done. I decided to bribe Sweden into war on my side, which was a somewhat risky move -- him conquering Delhi would be disastrous. I cut things a bit close on that front, and once Delhi was close to falling I bribed Sweden to make peace, ensuring that I'd be the one to take it.

Gandhi also offered me his second city in the peace deal, but I declined in favor of gold. I will probably sit on five cities until the Industrial era, then expand via marriage to 8-10 once I have Ideology happiness. I currently have five City-State allies -- two Culture, then one each of Mercantile, Religious, and Militaristic. I'm getting plenty of happiness, plenty of culture, and will have plenty of expansion opportunities once the marriage-fest begins.

The toughest recent decision was what to research after (t96) Education. If I went straight into Acoustics, I could have gotten to Renaissance for Rationalism one policy earlier. The cost would be delaying important utility techs (Workshops, trade routes, Observatories). Ultimately, I decided to put off Rationalism in favor of smoother development. The upside is that the extra pre-Rationalism policy will be purchase-discounts in Commerce, which is a nice efficiency policy. I will be able to buy both of my Observatories, and can probably save enough to buy Public Schools too.

 

[budweiser]

I just got Rationalism on t118, Oxford>Astronomy. Two city coastal.

Spoiler :

T141 - Annex marry Hanoi, science goes up to 252.

I am in the 250s now, still have 7 or 8 techs to go so it wont be a very fast finish. I missed out on PT I married 2 CS, but playing fast, I didnt manage happiness well enough to marry any more.

Might not even finish it.

 

[adcarrymaokai]

Spoiler :

The coastal CS you could marry for cargo ships to the capital are actually not that amazing.

 

[gobbledydook]

Spoiler :

T107 Education and rush buying three universities is fun.

 

[gobbledydook]

T251 SV 6 points

I broke my personal SV record by 59 turns (!!)

Spoiler :

Very standard 3 city tradition opening, commerce to mercantilism, rationalism, freedom from radio. Only difference is I got archery from a ruin and stole 2 workers from India, so I went ToA and actually got it...The first time ever that I had the money to buy every university, public school and research lab...I wonder how people have the money to buy all those buildings on average starts?

3 points for SV, 2 points for coffee houses, and 1 point for Hanoi. I didn't have the spare gold to ally every city state, and most AI went order so there was no way I was going to be friends with everyone. It also meant there was no way I had enough happiness to annex a few more city states.

My verdict on Austria's UA and UB:
The UA was rather useful actually, because it allowed me to acquire a full sized 4th city without spending the precious happiness before ideologies. If the cultural leaders had gone Freedom too, I would have been able to buy even more city states.
The UB is nice because you can build windmills on hill cities for that nice production boost and the specialist! Not too game changing though.
The Hussar...well, it would probably be useful in an artillery cavalry domination push, but that's not the point of this challenge.

 

[IronfighterXXX]

I broke my personal SV record by 59 turns (!!)

The first time ever that I had the money to buy every university, public school and research lab...I wonder how people have the money to buy all those buildings on average starts?

Usually by taking loans, but this time I will spend money on RAs.

So far I'm not very impressed with Austria's UA in early and mid game (will see later); however I have very strong game, but obviously playing with map knowledge. Details later.

 

[stormtrooper412]

Nice game. If only I can figure out how to manage the happiness (2 failed attempts so far), I might get around to finishing a game in a while

 

[Wild_Woojsha]

Spoiler :

Spoiled myself and settled on the coast. Did 2 city NC with a city 3 tiles west, also on the coast. NC was around Turn 80, Education right about Turn 120. Rationalism not opened yet, but going for it soon. I have three cities now thanks to marriage and universities in all of them. This game is going very well, I am friends with everyone and will be buying city states wholesale in the industrial era onward.

The gold production on this map is unreal. I married a city state in classical era (Byblos, no barb quests so I just took the first one I could get) thanks to all of that gold. I've signed at least 4 research agreements so far. I finished tradition and took philanthropy in patronage. Going to open commerce eventually, but right now I am working hard towards rationalism. Opening is timed to be 4 turns after I get acoustics.

I am trying to decide if I should go with Order or Freedom. I usually go Freedom, but with so many cities Order may work out better for me happiness wise. Especially if everyone else goes Order. It's too early to tell though, I have followed This guide every time I go for a science victory. I am enjoying this so far, It was 5 AM when I went to bed and I forgot what time it was but know I am making 60 GPT and will be buying more RA's and several more City states shortly.

BTW, what is up with these city states. Two resource/lux tiles per city is not enough! Byblos with three sea resources is actually one of the better ones, Hanoi and the northern one are lacking highly. I'm buying them anyway though, I could use the cargo ships in Vienna.

 

[vadalaz]

To T100

Spoiler :

Salt start gives so much production that I've been spamming archers and warriors all game and gifting them to CSs. Completed a quest for Wellington, gifted units to become allies, married. Gifted the same units to Hanoi, completed a quest for them, married. Gifting all the units to Kabul and Panama now to keep ally status and likely marry them when I get the happiness for it... Wanted to go for Gandhi but he spammed elephants, got Great Wall and Terracota early and no useful wonders so I decided against it.

Settling on the forested hill might've been a mistake since the capital has pretty much run out of growth now, but at least the expos are looking healthy. I went Engineering before Education for the extra trade route. Will be going for Astronomy next, picking up another trade route and observatories.

Spoiler :

 

[Manpanzee]

I've finished out with a t208 victory. Probably could have shaved a turn or two with better lategame play, but no major blunders that I saw. This beats my previous Austria/Science/Deity best by one turn.

All in all, I think Austria is extremely strong on these settings. The UA becomes relevant faster than you probably think, Coffee Houses are very good, and buying entire developed cities for a few hundred gold is just insane in the late game. I'd place Austria in the second tier of Deity Science civs, behind only the truly broken ones.

Spoiler :

I ended up marrying a sixth city in the Renaissance, then picked up four (!) more in the Modern Era, for a total of ten cities. That's a lot of beakers. I think I actually should have gone for an 11th city, but it can be hard to project whether you'll have the spare gold. I thought gold would be my main endgame constraint, but it turned out that I had enough that I could have bought some more science somehow.

Interesting things:
--I didn't take the specialist food tenet in Freedom. I'm not sure that's ever happened to me before. However, Austria's ability to add tons of extra population drove me to invest in another happiness policy instead. Who needs to grow when you can just buy entire cities?
--The AI was super into Sciences Funding. Three of them voted for it, which I don't think I've ever seen before. I was able to get that through on the second congress, which sort of (but not entirely) made up for missing both Pisa and Porcelain Tower.