TSG41 Game in Progress

[sschmalz]

OCC???

Well let me start off by saying that I don't play cultural VCs. Actually I only play conquest. So when I saw this I immediately thought to myself that it might be fun to play early aggressive with just one city. Turns out that Rome and Carthage also liked that idea because they've been handing me their cities to puppet!

Actually, Rome and Carthage haven't exactly been handing over the keys to their cities. I've had a couple wars with Rome that weren't pretty, but I came out on top in the end. It's been quite satisfying putting them both in their place as I've been backstabbed twice by Rome and once by Dido.

Spoiler :

Lesson learned??? No, Augustus continues to be a jerk so he's about to lose two more cities after I finish posting this... Oh, by the way, I see both your iron!

I feel like I'm doing pretty well. I know I'm not doing well enough to place first since the Tabarnak guy is like a Civ savant and there are some other really good players in here. I probably could have been micromanaging a bit better and there are times where my focus was entirely on trimming down Rome and not on my culture/science.

Regardless of my mistakes, I've built an empire exactly the way I set out to, with one city and several puppets.

 

[OOlorin]

I've been playing Civilization on and off since Civ 3, and it is the only game that keeps me coming back time and time again. I've learned a lot on these forums, but have never posted much (if at all). I played TSG40, but didn't submit...so this is my 2nd GOTM experience.

I haven't played a ton of G&K...in fact, TSG40 was the first time I played through to completion. My other games, I've either had my butt handed to me (on higher levels), or I've been so far ahead that I get bored and quit before I complete my win (I should really go back and finish some of those games).

When I saw the TSG41 VC was Cultural, I decided to give it a try even though I'm not very good on Emperor level yet (King is probably the right difficulty level for me at this point).

Anyway...about my game thus far:

I settled on the Ivory, which worked out well because I just completed Trapping the turn before I was going to be at 0 Happiness.

My opening build order was Scout, Monument (until I got Pottery a few turns early from a ruins), Shrine, finished Monument, Granary, Stonehenge, Settler.

Went straight to Calendar, then Writing, then Trapping (for the Ivory).

Built Stonehenge. Decided not to risk trying for Great Library, which wound up being a mistake as it went later than I thought it would. In the process of building Petra now.

Took a poor path through the Policies in this game. Started with Tradition opener, the got the Wonder building bonus, then went to Liberty and got my free worker followed by the +1 production...in hind sight, I should have just gone with one tree (probably Liberty given that Rome was one of my neighbors) and finished it out before moving on to the other.

Dido and Augustus had an early war. Dido became my friend, and Augustus was hostile from the onset (apparently, he felt the land that my capital was on belonged to him) I settled my second city about half way between the Ivory and Gold on a hill tile to the East. This proved to be a highly defensible position. Augustus DOW'd me and came in with 3 Legions, two Ballistas (which never took a single shot at my city due to the forest eliminating their line of sight), and a couple of archers. I easily repelled his 1st wave with 3 archers (one in the city), and a couple of spearmen which helped finish off some heavily bombarded Legions. At one point he had all 3 Legions in my city's first ring, but never did attack the city.

Anyway, now that the 1st wave has subsided, it's time to get my focus back on my economy and expansion.

 

[Aaronius]

I lost one of my three cities to the conquering legions. I don't think I can defend my capital. This might be it for me. I saved just in case...

Spoiler :

Turn 10: Moved to hill one tile NE. Built warrior then monument. Original warrior found three ruins which gave a map (normally sucks, but showed me Rio and Jakarta), 100 gold, and free archery tech. Met Jakarta then Rio first, and sending him West. Second warrior went South, then East to get some ruins.

Turn 20: Second warrior picked up an extra citizen. Met scouts from Dido and Caesar on turn 11. Beat them to ruins by one turn, beat them to Brussels in the South on the next turn ☺. First warrior found Quebec first and a fifth ruin for 75 more gold. I can afford a worker! I was at a loss what to build third, but Constantinople wasn’t growing so I decided to hard build a settler and buy a worker. I’m going tradition and thinking of three cities to start.

Turn 30: Found a sixth ruin West of Brussels, but right next to a camp. There was already an archer on the ruin and a warrior in the camp, so I went south while Dido and Caesar scouts stared forlornly at the ruins. The archer followed me so I bet one of them got it. Fortunately, there was a seventh ruin down south (and some pearls), but all I popped was another map. So, two moneys, one citizen, one tech, and two maps. Could be worse I guess.

Turn 40: Came back North with second warrior and cleared a camp for Brussels. Worker built two riverside farms just as Trapping finished. Ivory, then wine with the next tech. Founded Adrianapolis by the mountain four tiles West of Constantinople. My third city will be to the west with all those desert sheep hills and incense. I am debating river vs coastal location. I need some desert folklore and Petra action out there for sure. I took the wonder policy then the policy that lets units garrison for free. I guess I should have taken the honor opener before I cleared that camp. Oh well. I suppose I’ll take it next. I need amphitheaters to be available before I take the free culture buildings. Three cities may be it for me. The pearls down south are tempting, but ultimately too far away.

Turn 50: Lots of barbs and Caesar is a tool, so I built a third warrior in Constantinople. Rio and Quebec have now asked to have camps cleared ☺. I almost have enough money for my second and probably final settler. Pantheon still not founded yet. Hope desert folklore is still available…

Turn 60: Should pop Great Library on turn 63 if I win the race. Third city is on the hilly desert coast amongst the sheep. I decided a trireme was worth it considering all of my wine. Still no pantheon, but almost there. I’m going to try for Pyramids in Adrianople when the shrine is finished. Petra in Nicea down the road. I am researching philosophy for the Oracle to build in Constantinople. Hopefully, GL will pop Drama so I can take the free amphitheatre in all three cities. Dead last in military, at 20000 strength against a 28000 average strength. Fortunately Caesar attacked Dido after she and I declared friendship. She only has one city and might be in trouble though. I’ve decided no fourth city.

Turn 70: On turn 63 I got the GL in the capital and Jakarta asked for gold ☺. Building an archer out of fear while I wait for the Oracle to start. Turn 64 founded Pantheon with Goddess of Festivals. I don’t know if I missed Desert Folklore or if it comes with founding the religion. At any rate, my wines and incense are going to kick some butt now. After Philosophy, I’ll beeline for Currency (Petra), then Iron Working. Somewhere when its convenient I’ll pick up sailing and build a trireme to search for other civs. I have to build an archer or two before Caesar’s inevitable attack as well. Got to get the libraries up for the National College. Also, I keep making and losing all of these wonderful allies. I am first place in score, follwed by Caesar, and Dido is last. Dido and Caesar made peace, and Dido founded a city due East of Adrianapolis to get that sugar. Hopefully this blocks off Caesar from killing me. First Legion shows up at turn 70…. Gulp!

Turn 80: Caesar exchanged embassies then two turns later attacked with three legion, a spear and an archer to start. I had three warriors and two archers to defend, but some had travel time. Ultimately Caesar sent six legion, a spear, and five archers! I traded two warriors for a legion and the spear. Killed one more Legion with archers and the city, but city strength is going down from all the archers on the eastern hills. I resoldl Dido Wine but she is broke, so only 71 gold plus 3gpt for me. It buys another unit at least now. I did pop the cultural GG on turn 79. Didn’t get the gold hooked up before the attack, so the CS quest will be difficult if not impossible. I need more civs to trade with.

Turn 85: The enemy units just keep coming. Dido is leaving me high and dry. The GG helped, but some kind of very strong legion showed up. He ate three archer volleys (two of which had the rough terrain promotion) a city volley, and a warrior attack with the rough terrain promotion, this is with me having the melee 15% bonus and a GG. He had no GG, but the legion survived all of that, restored his health, and took Adrianapolis. His buddy finished off my last warrior in the same turn. I quit.

 

[Tabarnak]

I got out four cities, settled in the same spots(...)those are the best spots to settle.

Not really if we count the SOH wonder. No coastal cities mean no SOH. But i didn't want SOH in this game because in my only and last cultural game played i didn't have time to reach SOH playing at immortal and pangea settings. There is not really good spots too i think. Maybe the pearl section to the south but there is no hammers.

I would like to see some good players doing it though and see how you can tech fast enough to make a good use of it.

 

[Aaronius]

Spoiler :

Interesting. When my game started I could see the coast from the outset.

Moderator Action: Once you open the save, please do not post in this thread as you may reveal spoiler info, like what is in the above tags.

Sorry, I just thought it was interesting, and since I hadn't made a move, I thought it was OK. I am curious why that is though. Do you have fog voodoo Leif?

Moderator Action: No problem, just do not want to spoil the game for others who haven't started yet. I moved both posts to the Game in Progress thread just to be sure.

 

[kamikazees]

WAR WAR! This game has been crazy. Thank goodness for rough terrain.

With Byz, I knew I wanted to found a religion early. When I saw the desert, I beelined for a shrine and desert folklore. I also saw I had a bunch of wine, so I considered the culture/faith from wine/incense, but I saw more desert to the west so I picked desert folklore. I hit a religion early, chose 2 founder beliefs so that other civs would not benefit from my extra belief (tithe and world culture one). Pagodas as my follower (culture/happiness). I enhanced with just war, as Rome had not chosen a pantheon and I knew war was coming.

And he did. Around turn 70, Rome comes with 5 legions, 1 warrior, 2 archers and 3 bastilla. I saw them because I had a scout deep in his lands. I had 2 archers and a spear, but I had settled my 3rd city on the hill east of the river (near the stone/marble). It was surrounded by trees. They were about 10 turns away, so I made 2 more archers and got construction. Upgraded to 4 comps and a spear when he came knocking. Also sold all my luxs to him.

He did not declare! He changed from hostile to friendly and pulled all his troops back. He even offered me friendship the same turn. I guess he saw the military and changed his mind? Smart move. Instead, he DoW'd Dido, completely wiping her. She was my friend

About t100 Rome comes knocking again. He DoWs me this time, but his units get stuck in the rough terrain and I pick them off 1 by 1.

100 turns of war commences. My culture comes to a halt as I have to stop Rome. He's got 7 cities now, including 2 of Didos and a CS he wiped. I'm in the tech lead, but he's got muskets and I only have pikes and comps.

So... I beeline to Navigation, which messes up my policy selections. Don't think I can take him by land, so we'll see if I can knock him around by sea.

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

yuck. i tried my OCC puppet empire but forgot to try and puppet anyone, haha. i lost to rome on t109 because i didnt have a single unit in my borders and he brought 5 legion and 3 ballistas. i never stood a chance. i did get petra, hanging gardens, oracle and NC early though. didnt get to found a religion. i took the Religious Settlements pantheon thinking ill get desert folklore when i found. i didnt care for the wine incense one becasue you have to work it and i was going full growth then.

i completed tradition and opened honor the turn i was gonna start my military building. the next turn Rome DoWd and 5 turns later took me out. Dido was hostile with me the whole game for some reason. i was doing OCC so no settled anger and i didnt take any CS quests from her. Im guessing i beat her on a wonder or something. around t95 i denounced her for attacking my protected CS but it was in hopes of garnering Rome's favor. plus she ws hostile and wouldnt trade for anything already so i went for friendship w/rome. they were at war. i tried to make friends thru some favorable trades, wine, embassies, and tried to DoF but no dice. 9 turns later was when he backstabbed the deals and DoWd.

im gonna do this again but tech comp bows earlier than turn 100, haha. and hopefully have a couple puppets by turn 150.

this is just the 2nd GotM ive lost. of course i havent tried all of them but i remember an impossible one from vanilla, like GotM 28 or something playing as france.

 

[S.K. Ren]

I finished my second game on Turn 312... not much of an improvement Didn't help that Rome exploded, killed Carthage and began encroaching on me. I had to waste a lot of money on emergency troops and got locked out of a lot of CS. Im gonna try again later with a new plan: Puppet Rome asap. This means Liberty opener, GL to get Horseback Riding and use Cataphracts to send him back to the stone age.

 

[Tabarnak]

Turn 195 : Dido escaped from death by placing Hippo Regius(this city name is weird) where are pearls south of Brussels. Good because we made a DoF(yes the same civ that DoWed me and turned hostile after putting a citadel to steal some sugar) and a RA will pop-up soon.

I also DoFed Monty and Ghandi some turns later. That makes 3 RAs that will give me broadcast towers tech a bit later. Right side of Freedom is excellent for culture games. My cities are growing back again and it gave me some extra happiness.

I worked on Pisa in capital after Hermitage and picked a free ge for Louvre. Other cities are still working on PT, Taj and FP.

Romans don't want to lose this war but i also don't want to win it . Just defending. I don't need his buildingless cities. They will only eat happiness. My super units with 4-5 promos are standing like rocks and face arrows and fireballs from his latest captured city. heal>damage(free gg points). Other civs are pretty equal by themselves. No runaway AIs. So i'm still the leader by a large margin

If everything is ok i will maybe beat my personnal record(270) even if i finish Freedom later this time. A lot of landmarks are already in place. Now with 7 allies. Gathering gold for towers now.

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

 

[stickyfingers]

This is my first attempt at emperor and it's definitely been more challenging than the last GOTM king game.

I'm a little past turn 100 now and I'm still leading all civs in score, though the damn romans haven't made things easy. When I met dido and rome, things were great. they were both friendly to me and soon declared war on each other. unlike in other people's games, dido took one of rome's cities before they made peace.

I went with liberty for the free settler, but stupidly i picked a great artist as my person. i think it would have been better to get a great engineer and rush a wonder. I built 4 cities total. Settled the capital without moving then one city to the north, one to the east and one - which i think may be a mistake - down toward the bottom of the peninsula by the bananas. it's having a hard time growing. I managed to build Petra in my capital, but I honestly don't see what the big deal is - I don't think it helps very much? even with making the desert tiles more productive, it still seems better to work pretty much any other tile instead?

So things were going pretty good until Rome settled a city a stone's throw to the north of my eastern city and then settled a second city a stone's to the east of the same city. Then he tells me I'm settled too close to him? the nerve! i was here first a-hole. anyway, he denounces me and so does dido. somehow they are best friends now. so i see what is coming and i bee line for construction to get some CB's.

Soon enough, he DOWs and starts invading. Prior to that, I was able to get a maginot line of all my units built, and using the terrain to my advantage, it worked a lot better than the french version. One thing that made it extra hard - since rome and dido both hate me, they only give me 80 gold for my resources in trades. So when I did get to construction, i spent all my gold on upgrading my archers. Rome came at me HARD. I wish it still counted the number of units you killed (does it?) because I killed at least 5 ballistas in addition to a bunch more legions, warriors, and archers. I suffered some decent losses too, but I managed to eventually turn the tide, counter attack, and puppet both of his cities he settled near me. I made peace right after getting the second one and he gave me all 200 of his gold.

So that's where I'm at now, my army needed a big breather and he still has a bunch of units so good thing he made peace. The good news though, I have rome pretty much surrounded now. I think he just has one city. And now I just realized I can probably use my GG to create a citadel to not only take more of his land/resources, but also rough him up if he ever declares again - which he will.

The bad news is, this war bankrupted me. I was losing so much gold that it was eating my science - but I really had no choice. I needed pretty much every one of those units or I was dead meat. Now that the war is over (I stopped playing the turn the war ended), i'm close to 10 unhappiness, but my cash flow is starting to recover. My plan for the next few turns is finish the library in my crappy city to the south (I had planned to rush buy that but the war killed that idea) and then build my NC. then i need to get some boats out so i can find some trading partners. I'm still leading score-wise, but i fear I trail in science by a lot due to neglecting it for so long.

 

[S.K. Ren]

Time for round 3. I decided to go 5 cities this time and... things got weird. Rome took forever to expand, Carthage expanded into him and neglected the sugar... so I bought it. The worst part was that... Dido founded a religion! T_T that's a new one. Looks like Comfort Eagle is going to have some competition. Honestly I wish Rome would man up and war with Carthage some. I prioritized getting my Luxes up asap as I settled each city so I only briefly went unhappy so far. I've also had much better luck with CSs.

Spoiler :

I'm about right where I was in my second game progress wise if not a little ahead. Lets see how this turns out.

 

[Morcar_civ5]

Time for round 3...

S.K. Ren

I think your game is no longer "in progress", so i would suggest to move your posts about your succesive attempts to "After action thread". This way i (and some other people maybe) would be able to avoid getting undesired information about map and other CS/civs location/resources. I want to play fair after all!

This also related to Tabarnak's posts, but i try to avoid reading them entirely until i finished .

Please use this thread to discuss your goals for the game and your opening moves through about the first 60 to 80 turns.

 

[S.K. Ren]

If you don't want to be spoiled then don't look in the spoiler. Nothing I've said really says anything different than what anyone else has said so far. I mean that's kinda the point of this thread right? Besides this is the second page. If you've read this far you are already well spoiled.

 

[leif erikson]

If you don't want to be spoiled then don't look in the spoiler. Nothing I've said really says anything different than what anyone else has said so far. I mean that's kinda the point of this thread right? Besides this is the second page. If you've read this far you are already well spoiled.

Game in Progress thread is generally about the first 60 to 80 turns. Posting about over that and replay really do belong in the After Action thread. Please place further posting there.

 

[PeppermintLarry]

Wow its been an exciting 200 turns, Rome is like an angry swarm of bees with all those UU and he just keeps pumping them out.

I can't really remember all of the early moments but the big one I do remember is missing the Petra by a few turns...that hurt, but I'm still doing well.

My favorite moment of the game so far, settling aggressively in the NW right next to the lake and the gold dessert tiles just in the SE of Rome, our borders touch, scary right. Then a Turn later Carthage settles just south of Rome and diverts his mighty swarm like anger. Rome DOW Carthage and what do I do, run interference with my lonely scout, archer and warrior, and it actually worked. I did the whole UN peacekeeping troops mission style of thing and placed my units in front of Rome's advancing army to scatter the offensive. They still took Carthage's city just south of Rome but I moved my guys south to defend Carthage. It was all I could do to stop the waves of legionnaires and ballista (I think thats the name of the unit), I saved Carthage from being wiped out by one turn, city defense at ZERO and they pick off the last legionnaire before they fall and then take a few turns to clean up the roaming ballistas. Such an excellent moment, ever since then me and Carthage have been buddy buddy against Rome, he even didnt complain when I founded my 4th city on the Coast S of the Mountains and just E of Carthage capital.

Since then I have been DOWed by Rome twice and survived with superior archers, tactics, and a beautifully placed defensive yet aggressive city. Then I see the swarms of legionnaires again and the DoW to Carthage. He would have been wiped out so it was time to turn up the intervention from UN pace keeping style to all out American invasion style.

So at this point I may have broken some informal rules and would like the communities opinion on this. I haven't read anywhere that says this is expressly forbidden but some people take it as an exploit so I want to know the general consensus for the GOTM.

I gave Rome a few turns to move their troops to the S and SW and then I bribed Rome with GPT and Luxuries to attack the remaining two city states on our island that I was not allied with. Then I traded the rest of my GPT to Rome for a very pissy amount of gold...i don't remember the numbers but it was roughly 1 GPT for 10g return, really bad interest rate. Lastly I asked Carthage how much they would pay for my help and accepted a small chunk of change to attack Rome, thus netting me all of my Luxuries and GPT back. Is this against the rules or unfair to the spirit of the game, I know different people see it differently but I'm not sure of the GOTM feelings regarding this? In all I only netted about 150g and two more city state allies (which is actually a huge gold equivalent) but I want to know your opinions.

Since then I have bled Rome of units and have been refusing to white peace with them because that just means they will swarm again and this way I can just whack a mole their units as they make them with no worry of a build up or threat to me.

I tried taking a few screenshots but I'm not sure how to take a .tga file and make it into a viewable screenshot for this forum.

Its turn 200, I have 4 cities. Capital settled in place, pop of 17. Wonders: National College, National Epic, Angkor Wat, Great Mosque of Djenn, Sistine Chapel, The Oracle.

Andrianople settles NW of Capital, South side of River, 1 tile E of Wine, pop 13. Wonders: The Hagia Sophie

Nicaea settled between gold hill and one tile lake on Rome side of tiny mountain chain, pop 10. Wonders: Machu Piccho

Antioch settled on coast sandwiched SE of Mountain and NW of Pearls, pop 12. Wonders: 8 turns until Notra Dame

4th to found Pantheon, 2nd to found Religion...Note Rome doesn't even have a Pantheon, they went military and never even looked at pottery.

Religion: Pantheon: Goddess of Festivals (+1 faith and culture for each Wine and Incense)
Founder: World Church (+1 culture for every 5 followers of this religion in other civs) [Question, does this count City States as well?]
Follower: Monasteries (Faith to buy, +2 Culture and Faith, more from incense and wine)
Bonus: Oral Tradition (+1 Culture for Plantations)
Enhanced
Follower 2: Cathedrals (faith to purchase, +1 Faith, +3 Culture, +1 Happiness, 1 Artist slot)
Enhancer: Protector of the Faith (+20 combat strength when fighting near friendly cities with this Religion) Good for the defensive wars against Rome

Tech, 4 Turns from Archeology, but lack Machinery or Steel on bottom half, I have a spy in Rome Stealing a Military Tech every 5 turns though.

Culture +184 per turn. +126 from cities, +15 from excess happiness, +24 from City States, +16 from Religion.

Policies: Full Tradition, Full Piety, bottom two from Patronage. I know I'm going off the beaten path from Tradition and Liberty but by the time I got around to it I had no need for the extra settler or worker from liberty and had a ton of city state allies so lets see how this plays out, this is probably the most significant difference from other Culture games.

I'm not sure where this puts me in regards to other players at turn 200, I think I'm a bit behind on Tech since I still drag Archeology, but I expect to do well from here on out. The hardest part was dealing with Rome and the only way to do that was by keeping Carthage alive, now I just won't sign peace and can deal with Rome in my own way, I have enough to mow down troops but never enough to take a city, which is fine by me.

Back to play more turns.

 

[Totibbs]

Im in war with Rome too. He allied with Rio and Geneva/Singapore. The one between Rio and Rome. Not QuebecCity or Brussel.
I thought to capture Rio, but I fail very hard. How do you capture cities in middle-age? Ive catapult (not yet trebuchets), the uu ship, the uu horse and swordsman. But Rio has longsowrdsman and crossbows. Now they kill every turn one of my units.
When I attack with mij UU horse, I do around 10 damage and take 90 damage... it is like sending your units on a suicide mission

 

[CharonJr]

Hi,

I haven't played CIV for quite some time, but G&K got me started again

Settled in place and build my 2nd city to the east - just in reach of the sugar/gold/pearls (send a work boat the long way around to get them) - and my 3rd and final one at the coast/river in the desert to the west.

I started with Tradition for the +3 culture, then switched to Liberty for the free settler and then back to Tradition.

My build order was scout - monument - worker - grainary - Stonehenge.

I delayed the GL since Stonehenge felt more important due to not having build/bought any religious building otherwise.

Founded and enhanced my religion as the second player, taking Festivals for culture/faith, Tithe/Catherdrals/Religious Texts and Itinerant Preachers/Pagodas (would have liked the wine/incense one, but it was already taken). Basically once I release this religion into the world I am fairly certain that I will not have to work very hard to spread it and rake in the money I enhanced around T100 IIRC.

Augustus attacked around T70, but since I have been saving some money to buy a maritime CS I was able to buy 2 additional archers (switching research to construction for comp bows). With some additional warriors->swordsmen and cataphracts I took two of his cities including Rome as puppets, leaving him with 3 cities around T130. The terrain around my eastern city was a large help (2 sides protected by mountains and the rest rough/woods).

Due to my wonder focus and having to deal with Augustus I took me till turn 160 before signing my first RA with Dido (who liked me after me beating up Rome ).

I try to ally and keep allied a bunch of maritime CS for faster growths, but my focus has switched to cultural CS now.

I reached the other continent around T140, but took till T180 before being able to sign a few additional TAs. The main players are India, China
and Monty with scores from 500-600 (at T191, my score is at 1100).

I got all the wonders I was after and even have a couple in my other 2 cities. Actually after getting Petra my desert city has a higher production than my capital. My main focus was getting SH, HG, CI and Petra - in addition to NC to get my research up to speed (even waited 3 turns before I settled my 3rd city to complete NC).


Some data at T191 (during a GA):

Capital: Pop 26, Prod 54, Gold 70, Sci 113, F 23, Cult 155 - wonders: Alhambra, CI, Great Mosque, Hermi, NC, NE, Notre Dame, SC, SH, Taj, Terracotta, GLib, HG, Oracle

Eastern City (Mtn): Pop 13, Prod 34, Gold 27, Sci 36, F 13, Cult 25 - wonders: Machu, Hagia, Pyramids

Western city (desert/sea): Pop 18, Prod 65, Gold 76, Sci 36, F 9, Cult 53 - wonders: Angkor, Leaning Tower, Petra, Colossus, Forbidden P, GLight

Overall per turn: +201 beakers, +247 gold, +472 culture (78 from GA, 130 from CS), +55 faith

Policies:
5 Tradition
4 Liberty (Meri still open, saving up the GP - GE - for later and happyness is no issue at +46)
4 Piety (Theo open - neither the boost from Theo nor from completing Piety are worth it atm IMO)
0 Patronage (opened it up, but havent been able to buy anything there)
Freedom will be next now that it is unlocked, up to Constitution.

 

[Haphaz]

My word, this is hard. Am now 90 turns in. I almost thought I'd be posting this in the after action report, so scared I was that I'd be KO'd.

Settled a city East, by the mountains. Great start - alienating both Carthage and Rome. Luckily, for me seemingly in compared to others, Carthage went on the offensive, capturing a Roman city (for a turn) and blunting the inevitable attack. Which I wasn't expecting, because I usually play Prince/King. Rome blocked Carthage and DOW me, with about a dozen units. I had 3. Despite panic buying I didn't have enough time to save my third city NE of Const. but luckily (again), I'd allied with Jakarta, so that diversion of attention was enough to blunt the attack. Somehow, this continent has fluked three civs (2 AI and me) who are inept enough to maintain a balance of power by accident.

Have survived and thrived peacefully at least - first religion (tithe, monasteries, ceremonial burial, Goddess of Festivals) and built Stonehenge, Petra (with lib ender) and Oracle. This game is finely balanced. Tense, but fun!

 

[stickyfingers]

I have a question someone probably knows the answer to: If I puppet a city, does it increase the cost of social policies?

I'm in a position now where I've beaten back Carthage and Rome to the point where they each have one city. I'm way up in technology on them and I could easily take their cities. Rome still has legions and ballistas and I could wipe him out in a couple turns with artillery. I just don't want it to screw up my attempt at a cultural VC. those cities are pretty big so they'd be worth some serious coin as puppets.

 

[metalmadt]

Not really if we count the SOH wonder. No coastal cities mean no SOH. But i didn't want SOH in this game because in my only and last cultural game played i didn't have time to reach SOH playing at immortal and pangea settings. There is not really good spots too i think. Maybe the pearl section to the south but there is no hammers.

I would like to see some good players doing it though and see how you can tech fast enough to make a good use of it.

THere's one really good spot. I settle Nicae by the coast south of Quebec City and that's where I built Petra.

4 Sheep with Petra and farms or mine depending on river. 2 fish. You got all the food and all the production you need. Feel like it would be more useful to build it there then in capital which was on starting spot.

But I don't know if I'll make it to SOH...

BUt I'm no good player and I don't tech fast so we'll see if it work. I will get to Archeology around turn 185.