The Deity Challenge Line-up - Game #11 - Morocco

[Sclb]

T247 SV

Slightly faster start than I would've got since I reloaded the starting save to get

Spoiler :

El Dorado

But still not very fast.

Late NC at 103 with 5 cities
Education 116
ST 165
Plastics 204

Grabbed PT, BB, SoL, Hubble. Could've also got LToP since AI was slow with wonders this game for some reason. Staying allied with CS was a huge problem starting from mid game, when

Spoiler :

Alex

would keep buying CS. He actually got all 40 votes near the end and would be a problem if a WL vote is triggered before my SV. Very rare to see him go that far for Diplo V.

Won WF easily, also passed Freedom ideology as world ideology. Constantly had to bribe my N neighbor as he swallowed up his entire part of continent and always had troops near my border. Religion was my E neighbors' with pagoda, my own religion is limited to my capital and was the peaceful growth. The other problem was my WLTKD requirement was silver which was banned early.

Spoiler :

 

[reddishrecue]

Another good deity win. Im pretty sure that it could be done now that so many people are getting some kind of victory in deity.

 

[claudiupb]

Really lazy SV, nothing really special: 4 city tradition, beeline for Petra before NC.
What was somewhat special was the positioning of the cities, I wanted to get the most of the Kabash, so I tried to get as many desert tiles as possible in the capital, even plain desert tiles with Petra, Kabash and desert folklore give 2 food 2 hammers 1 gold and 1 faith, so that is pretty strong on paper but I wound up working other tiles for the most part of the game, so that was a failed experiment.

Spoiler :

I have to admit I underestimated the UA for them, but I didn't get any DoWs the entire game. I had 0 millitary (3 archers, a spearman and one warrior which I eventually gifted when getting Arsenal of Democracy), and 0 bribes for wars the entire game, with the exception for one bribe to DoW France who was building Petra. Nobody really wanted to attack me, not even the Celts who I forward settled really aggressively. I also had lots of gold from the beginning which was pretty nice.

I got a DF religion, which was pretty strong for the capital, it enabled me to buy 2 GS and 2 GEs in the end. The Celts had mosques and cathedrals so I bought those before enhancing, and since the religion was tailored mostly for the capital I didn't even bother spreading it. I got Desert Folklore, Tithe, Religious Community and later Divine Inspiration and Messiah. Messiah got me a cheap 3rd Prophet but I decided it was best to plant it.

Early game went straight for El Dorado (I had map knowledge), and forward settled the Celts with the bought settler. Stole 4 workers in total, 2 form the celts and 2 from a CS. I was in a paper war with Greece but in reality I was battling the neighboring City States, who did some pillaging in my 4th city, which lagged a little behind in the end. I delayed ending the war to get a couple of GG and steal some land from those city states as the 4th city was in between 3 city states. The location was strange, but I wanted a coastal city for mid/late game external Cargo Ships.

The game was really a classic SV game, with beeline to Education, then Astronomy, ST (which I got in late T150s I think), then Oxford into modern era to get Freedom faster, detour to Chemistry, and then straight to Plastics, with Fertilizer after that. I used Commerce as a filler tree until getting to renaissance, and eventually got to finishing it. The early milestones were pretty good, but something happened in my mid game and I lagged behind. I probably didn't grow fast enough. Also, in the end I wasted 2 Scientists so I think with a better management of the bulbs I could have saved 14-15 turns. I also did not make a single RA, but the timing was really bad with those, either I didn't have money, or I would have to fund both sides.

I got a lot of wonders, because there were times when there was nothing to build: Petra, Oracle, LToP, PT, Eiffel Tower, SoL, Neuschwanstein and in the end the Hubble.

 

[stormtrooper412]

Spoiler :

See how easier it is when Alex is not around to buy every city state on the map

 

[claudiupb]

Spoiler :

Alex was actually eliminated pretty late, but thanks to Acken's discovery if I was competing with Alex for a CS, I would just buy more influence, so that the AI needed to spend more than 500 gold to get that CS back. I was timing two unit gifts at once, so that was 40 influence then another 500 gold gift would let me keep the CS. Then I would periodically gift another unit to it, just to be way above Alex with the influence. This meant that my allies were close-by, since gifting units to far away CSs was only possible once every 3 turns.

Come to think of it, since in the end I was so focused on getting CSs, Patronage would have been a way better choice than Commerce. I could have hard build one of the parts in the capital, and sold things like factories, hydro plants, and in the end even take some loans to compensate the lack of mercantilism and Big Ben.

 

[consentient]

Decided to replay this after finding Acken's LP. Followed (copied) his play as much as possible until NC, then applied the tips from his Liberty guide about Metal Casting before Education, etc.

Want to see how well this empire sets me up for pumping out Cannons and Cavalry and wreaking havoc. Sweep order will be:-

Spoiler :

Danes (inc. captured Honolulu)
Celts
Ash
Alex
Poc
French

Thanks to Acken for his LP. I want to see what I can do after standing on his shoulders.