Game: Civ5 GOTM 44
Date submitted: 2012-09-17
Reference number: 27240
Your name: Aaronius
Game status: Culture Victory
Game date: 1820AD
Turns played: 280
Base score: 1022
Final score: 1825
Time played: 4:11:00
I decided to tackle this game yesterday since I knew it would play quickly. The city start location was epic. The position was so easy to defend (not that it mattered as it turns out) and it was perfectly situated between the east and west empires, so everybody wanted/needed open borders. The river, the luxes the sea resources, plenty of hills for production and the camps provided plenty of food with Goddess of the Hunt.
Last but not least, Mt. Sainai was a godsend (literally?). I didn't build Stonehenge or even a shrine until maybe turn 150 or so. Instead, I waited until I had sold my first ivory and reached population 5, then I bought the Sainai tile and worked it for the rest of the game. The result was 8 faith / turn. I got the second pantheon, the first religion (Buddhism), and when I upgraded my religion, only one other civ had founded one (Ethiopia - Christianity).
As I mentioned, Goddess of the Hunt gave me good food from all those camps. I took Cathedrals and later Pagodas. I also took the option where the religion did something good with friendly CS, and I believe I took the option that made it spread faster. The end result was fantastic. I got a Cathedral up before I even enhanced, to get my great artist rolling. I sent a missionary to convert those three bundled CS to the South.
Those three CS all reinforced the religion amongst each other, completely spread to all of china, all of japan, and all of the other three CS between China and Japan. I think the option I chose where my religion spreads faster really must have helped with this. I didn't have to do another thing, and fulfilled a couple of CS requests without doing another thing.
The far NorthEast coast with the four CS up there required some active spreading. I had two requests for yet another prophet, so I saved up for one after my Pagoda and sent him to convert the four CS in that part of the map.
I was making so much excess religion in the midgame I was making prophets just for fun. Attila already had a city or two with my religion and didn't have a pantheon so I sent a fourth prophet to convert his capital, and the last two CS in that far SouthEast part of the map. I also sent a prophet and a missionary West to spread religion to all the CS and to Darius, who also had no pantheon. My religion (Buddhism) dominated the world.
My only religious competitors were Halle (Christianity) and Ramses (Islam). Towards the end of the game Halle really began fighting to spread Christianity. He undid a couple of the CS nearest him after they had gone Buddhist, and he spread to Siam before I could, and a couple of Attila's cities. Ramses kept his religion to himself for the most part...
@lymond "Funny and surprising things happened quite late. Ram completely floored me by sneaking a prophet across the sea there and converting my Shinto Holy city to the infidel Islam religion. I was so flargin' po'd."
The exact same thing happened to me. I had a prophet down near Ethiopia fighting against Christianity when my capital suddenly converted to Islam.
I knew from past experience that if I built a prophet or a missionary at this point that they would simply spread more islam. I tried instead to use an inquisitor, but that just killed the last of my buddhists?
I thought that maybe I was doomed to be Islamic from there on out, but then I remembered my prophet on the far side of the world. He had two spread left, so I decided to bring him all the way back home. It took forever, but when he got back to Seoul (pop35 at the time, 20 something Islam), with one spread, he eliminated all Islam and installed 28 Buddhists).
I ended up leaving him in the water in front of my capital, and surrounded it with my other units for the rest of the game to keep the Islamic prophets away.
Interestingly, I did notice that my culture actually went up with Islam, and I wish I would have checked to see what the follower beliefs were that made that the case. I went from about 700 cpt, to 800cpt when I was Islamic. When I converted back, I went down again, but eventually reached that height again. By game end I was at 834cpt. Clearly tho, Ramses had some policy I should have taken.
There were other things about this game that were unique as well. I spent almost the entire game building wonders and I purchased a great number of regular buildings (watermill, granary, windmill, factory, harbor, amphitheater, opera house). I got the ToA, the GLib, and the HG early, even tho a couple CS wanted SH. I was also dismayed to see that every CS on the map wanted the one wonder I could not build, CI.
I built all the World Wonders but 7, and I didn't complete CR before I won. I think I could have been a bit faster if I had teched less but smarter. I always get so wonder hungry I never prioritize as I should. I already had two Renaissance techs before the one that would allow opera houses for example, b/c I wanted the Salt Tower and many CS wanted Forbidden Palace. Also, I simply had more tech than I needed and probably could have bought the culture buildings earlier if I had known that. Still the Statue of Liberty I think helped me build the Utopia wonder a little bit faster, as my 39pop city had maybe 20 specialists in it.