William of Orange and the Pursuit of Culture Victory

[topsecret]

What's puzzling me the most though, and I hope someone can explain:
How on earth did Roosevelt manage to cross those ocean tiles with his Workboat?! I'm unable to do so....

You can move on ocean if YOUR culture is on the spaces!

Also get that Great Artist and stick it in your LEAST cultural of your 3 Culture Cities!

Next,get Liberalism and adopt both free speech and free religion!

Lastly,Use the Great Prophet on a different religion,(Thus, a different city)and spread IT for $$$!

 

[Dimy]

You can move on ocean if YOUR culture is on the spaces!

Ahh...of course. Maybe I should put a city up there so I can spread my religion to Roosevelt.

Also get that Great Artist and stick it in your LEAST cultural of your 3 Culture Cities!

Yes, that was the plan . Or in my GP Farm, because it doesn't have a lot of cottages and will suffer later on when I go 100% culture.

Next,get Liberalism and adopt both free speech and free religion!

That's another goal, but I probably want to pick up Iron Working before I beeline.

Lastly,Use the Great Prophet on a different religion,(Thus, a different city)and spread IT for $$$!

Good point, I didn't think about that!

 

[Silu]

Autospread will very probably spread some of your religions to Roosy soon. Note that if you can't get a workboat to his island, you also can't get a missionary there before Optics... Anyway, spreading your religions outside your empire is usually a waste of resources in going culture. Shrines aren't that great either to be honest, though the culture can be a nice extra.

Bulbing Theology was about 50x better than making a shrine Amount of religions is what counts, not petty pennies from a shrine you can't even spread without major troubles.

Your first priority should be getting Sistine up ASAP. It's insanely good for culture. +2 culture for each artist, and +5 culture from state religion buildings, after modifiers and doubling that can easily add up to 100-150 culture per turn in each city in the grind-phase. Aiming for Lib and Nat (Hermitage) after that is the next natural goal.

Be sure to start spreading all your religions ASAP (up to 6/9 cities, to be able to build 6/9 temples, to unlock 2/3 cathedrals of that religion you can build in your designated cities) as well as building temples in peripheral cities (after basic infra like a Granary and CRE Library). The three designated cities should build your state religion buildings ASAP (a 1000-year-old Sistine state religion monastery is 14 culture per turn!) and then build other culture buildings and spread the faiths. The cathedrals are a major grind, be prepared to be in OR for a long time

I actually shadowed this game to a finish the other day, maybe I'll post something about that later on in your game.

 

[Dimy]

Autospread will very probably spread some of your religions to Roosy soon. Note that if you can't get a workboat to his island, you also can't get a missionary there before Optics... Anyway, spreading your religions outside your empire is usually a waste of resources in going culture. Shrines aren't that great either to be honest, though the culture can be a nice extra.

Bulbing Theology was about 50x better than making a shrine Amount of religions is what counts, not petty pennies from a shrine you can't even spread without major troubles.

Your first priority should be getting Sistine up ASAP. It's insanely good for culture. +2 culture for each artist, and +5 culture from state religion buildings, after modifiers and doubling that can easily add up to 100-150 culture per turn in each city in the grind-phase. Aiming for Lib and Nat (Hermitage) after that is the next natural goal.

Be sure to start spreading all your religions ASAP (up to 6/9 cities, to be able to build 6/9 temples, to unlock 2/3 cathedrals of that religion you can build in your designated cities) as well as building temples in peripheral cities (after basic infra like a Granary and CRE Library). The three designated cities should build your state religion buildings ASAP (a 1000-year-old Sistine state religion monastery is 14 culture per turn!) and then build other culture buildings and spread the faiths. The cathedrals are a major grind, be prepared to be in OR for a long time

I actually shadowed this game to a finish the other day, maybe I'll post something about that later on in your game.

That's some good advice and will definitely help William in his quest. I'd be interested to hear about your shadow game, so feel free to post in spoiler tags (because this game will probably take a long time to finish ).

 

[BuckyRea]

Are other civs besides US showing up in boats yet? I'd be worried about all that unsettled land on your continent.

Good job on grabbing religions. That's gonna help you out a lot in the middle game when you start really interacting with other nations.

 

[Silu]

Good job on grabbing religions. That's gonna help you out a lot in the middle game when you start really interacting with other nations.

The less religions left for the other AIs, the more they like each other since there's less religious strife. If they have any, that is Usually a culture runner is doomed to be somewhat disliked by post-Astro continents since you HAVE to run a local state religion (Sistine, OR, Pacifism).

 

[topsecret]

Bulbing Theology was about 50x better than making a shrine Amount of religions is what counts, not petty pennies from a shrine you can't even spread without major troubles.

OK so right now it is good but later you might need more and later! If you get 1 more Great Prophet then you should do it.You can make income and still be at 100% funding!

 

[Dimy]

Announcement: William has been slightly distracted by trying to take over the universe in a game of Sins of Solar Empire: Diplomacy, however.... he will be back very soon with an update!

I'll try and have an update before the weekend, my goal will be another expansion round and spreading religions to my cities.

 

[topsecret]

I'll try and have an update before the weekend, my goal will be another expansion round and spreading religions to my cities.

Yes, Spread that and make !

 

[Dimy]

Sorry for not delivering the promised update. Unfortunately I don't have much free time this weekend, but I'll try to at least play my next turnset and then hopefully the report will follow shortly after the weekend.

New cities will be a drain on William's economy, which as a result will cause slower research. With no AI available to trade techs this is not going to be pretty. Should I try and get some economic techs? Courthouses take forever to build in a new city, I'd much prefer to get those temples up first before I start on courthouses.

So anyway.... some help required here with tips on how to build up my economy after my next expansion round (I want to get a total of 9 cities up and running and have 9 temples for each of my religions).

 

[topsecret]

New cities will be a drain on William's economy, which as a result will cause slower research. With no AI available to trade techs this is not going to be pretty. Should I try and get some economic techs? Courthouses take forever to build in a new city, I'd much prefer to get those temples up first before I start on courthouses.

So anyway.... some help required here with tips on how to build up my economy after my next expansion round (I want to get a total of 9 cities up and running and have 9 temples for each of my religions).

Yes, Spread that and make !

Again, Missionaries are cheaper than courthouses and Shrines bring . So listen and build a lot of missionaries when you build a shrine. Then spread like the world is coming to an end and x2!

 

[Dimy]

Again, Missionaries are cheaper than courthouses and Shrines bring . So listen and build a lot of missionaries when you build a shrine. Then spread like the world is coming to an end and x2!

I'm not going to build shrines, they'll give me great prophet points which is something I want to avoid... I already generate those points with the Oracle and that's it... I need Artists! I'm not going to waste resources to spread my religions outside my own borders either, so I'll need other sources of income.

 

[Dimy]

William, being financial, loves to count his coins at the end of a tough day. Unfortunately over the last few years he was counting less and less of them, not because he didn't have enough tough days but because he was losing coins. As you can imagine this was driving William mad and so it happened he was calling in his advisors...

topsecret: "Sire, you must build shrines and spread our religion accross! It will make you coins guaranteed!!"

William thought it over for a moment and answered: "I'm not sure we should go that way, getting one Great Prophet is all we should ever need and we already used him to discover Theology."

Silu nodded in agreement: "Indeed majesty, using him to discover Theology was about 50 times more useful than building a Shrine. In addition a Shrine would increase chances for another Great Prophet to be born within our borders and I believe we should go for Great Artists, building the Sistine Chappel as soon as possible should be priority! We should also spread our religions within our cities and get those relgions buildings up. We'll need more cities!"

And so it happened, William changed production to Settlers in both Amsterdam and The Hague. One Settler was currently on route to a promising location east of Rotterdam.

Maastricht was founded in 10AD on the coast east of Rotterdam. Normally I'd put a picture up, but unfortunately William's artists were too busy elsewhere to paint the scene.

In 20 BC Christianity has spread to Washinton and the next turn (5 BC) Roosevelt converts... this is not good. It would be better if we'd share the same religion, I'll have to try and convert him later on.

In 25AD we get the following message:


We have little coins to spare so I choose the middle way, 4 of our cities will be converted to Confucianism for Free and 1 of Roosevelt's cities. The more expansive option would have converted 4 of ours and 4 of their cities to Confucianism, but we're low on cash already.

As it turns out only 2 of our cities get free Confucianism (as the others already had it) and New York as well:

Turn 175/750 (25 AD)
Confucianism has spread: Nijmegen
Confucianism has spread: Maastricht
Confucianism has spread: New York (American Empire)

At least Roosevelt has Confucianism now, so with a little luck we can convert him, for now I'll let him alone and get on with more important things.



The Settler from The Hague founded Middelburg in 130AD just west of Rotterdam. I decided to build it on the coast so it could benefit from the Lighthouse later on. There's a worker en-route to connect Middelburg to the rest of the Dutch Empire and to hook up those Rice fields.



Last but not least, Delft was founded in 175 AD just North of Amsterdam. With 3 new cities and a total of 8 cities the Dutch Empire is suffering from the worst Financial Crisis of it's short history. Science has to be put down to 20% to avoid bankruptcy. Let's hope things will start looking better when those new cities are growing and hopefully adding much needed coins to the treasury rather than draining it empty...

William meanwhile is not amused by the current situation! Rumours are that he's running around his castle screaming of anger and shouting at everyone who just as much as blinks at him....

Roosevelt, by the way, agreed to convert to Confucianism!

And this ends the current turnset, below some screenshots of the Dutch Empire at 175 AD and relevant advisor screens.



There are three pink dots left for the taking. I have decided not to colonise the jungle area in the north tip of my continent. It's too far from Amsterdam and will be a massive drain on my economy. I'll build only 1 more city, so it'll be one of those 3 spots, I'm thinking west of Amsterdam for the Whales.





And here's my current Tech Tree so you get an idea of what I have researched so far... Roosevelt is still refusing to trade techs with me and I haven't met any other civs!

Spoiler :

 

[topsecret]

Research Currency and Compass for Markets and Harbors. You HAVE to build Courthouses or no !

BTW, Beeline for divine right and build the Spiral Minaret and the AP because AP adds +2 and The Sprial Minaret adds +2 for every religious building!

We should also spread our religions within our cities and get those religious buildings up. We'll need more cities!"

And every city with those buildings = +2 and +2 .

 

[mechaerik]

Yeah, build some of those courthouses, and if you don't have currency, you should research that.


BtW, I thought your portrayal of me was hilarious.

 

[Kullervo]

I'd advise you to tech IW (Because if you can trade iron to Rosy, you might even get some decent GPT as well as a resource in return, and 2 extra hammers on some tile is not to be sneezed at), then Compass (Harbors. You really need some cash, fast) and then Optics (your continent seems to be very poor in resources, especially luxuries. You might need the colonies, even if it does mean a further drain on your finances.)

 

[topsecret]

Dimy,are you Alive?

 

[Dimy]

Of course I am, and I'll continue the story shortly I'm playing this game rather slowly, sorry

William will continue his quest!

 

[topsecret]

Research Currency and Compass for Markets and Harbors. You HAVE to build Courthouses or no !

BTW, Beeline for divine right and build the Spiral Minaret and the AP because AP adds +2 and The Sprial Minaret adds +2 for every religious building!



And every city with those buildings = +2 and +2 .

Yeah, build some of those courthouses, and if you don't have currency, you should research that.


BtW, I thought your portrayal of me was hilarious.

I'd advise you to tech IW (Because if you can trade iron to Rosy, you might even get some decent GPT as well as a resource in return, and 2 extra hammers on some tile is not to be sneezed at), then Compass (Harbors. You really need some cash, fast) and then Optics (your continent seems to be very poor in resources, especially luxuries. You might need the colonies, even if it does mean a further drain on your finances.)

Thought I would get your advisors Together

BTW, Build the AP!and Hurry!

 

[ilduce349]

I have returned, ur priorities should be getting currency to improve ur economy
building courthouses and theaters to improve econ and culture
also did Rose convert to ur religion? because if u can getting techs out of him will be easier