[12/3] Carthage Playthrough (Deity/Standard)

[randomnub]

Figured there'd be no better time for me to inaugurate the new forum section than wasting some quality holidays time on a beta playthrough . I'll hand pick the civ of choice (Dido, who lacked a dedicated playthrough and has been changed a slight bit) and try to test as many of the recent changes as possible before getting bored to death find a gamebreaking bug going back to work winning!. Hotfixes are in place.

Settings:

Spoiler :

"Standard" settings, no changes to map script and number of opponents/CSs. I usually play with Ruins on (I like the early exploration reward and some more randomness in the first turns - not a donut player here) but I left them out for once, since it looks like most of you do and I wanted to share the file just in case.

Starting Position:

Spoiler :

Random Map proved to be a Pangea, luckly my starting bias put me on a decent coastal spot but I can't help feeling robbed when I spot crabs, the other sea resources are more 'unique'. Nonetheless, crabs give me straight food and this start lacks river/grass so that will be welcome.

Civilization Thoughts and General Gameplan:

Carthage is possibly the epitome of a Progress civ, and I want to quickly settle all the unclaimed coast for early connections and monopoly. The quinquireme feels slighty nerfed but is available much earlier than triremes or even walls so any nearby coastal opponent is going to be forward settled and abused to the point of not being a factor in late game. Early culture output is an issue for Progress and this start doesn't help either, hence a pantheon like Festivals, Renewal or Protection would be playable, but I really want God of Commerce or Sea for better synergy, or Fertility as a fallback. That means I have to find culture 'elsewhere', all nearby CSs are warned.

 

[randomnub]

T6

Spoiler :

Investing the starting UA gold into a monument that I complete on turn 6, working the forest for just enough production. That means first policy eta on turn 20, pretty good with no ruins and not counting on cultural CS meetings. With no ruins around I am not compelled to buy another pathfinder or a warrior, and will keep some money to invest in the shrine as well, any turn I can shave off for policy/pantheon aquisition is a godsend.

Trapping->Fishing is the plan: I want to discover some good coastal tiles and upgrade them asap, with my inland not looking very promising.

I start run my pathfinder, giving him the trailblazer promotion due to all the forest around. There's a great spot for a first expansion nearby with two crabs and a NW, a Persian scout coming from the west and some barbarians already approaching my capital. I don't want to delay the shrine by building a warrior so it's already time to bring my explorer home. I suppose there'll be more crabs to the west (to the east there's Ife with a different luxury) so I don't want a barbarian proliferation over more good settling spots.

T12

Spoiler :

Barbarian camps and a mountain range to the west. If I felt I had some competition for that first settling spot I'd go Pottery and start work on a settler right after an escort unit but it looks pretty safe to delay it and continue into Fishing. I can't praise enough Progress opener being finally 'fixed' so that I don't have to juggle in between techs 1 turn close to completion anymore. It looks like I'm locked in a pangea corner so I'll probably have to move a pathfinder/archer duo to the west to wear down barbs and claim some more coastal spots. Now let heal a bit and then clear some fog of war so that I have a clear sea path in between my capital and the first expo...

T18

Spoiler :

Oh. Well, surprise. That's a lot of crappy land and a damn long peninsula (just big enough that I can't place an easy isthmus city) , and my monopoly is not that easy to connect. Roman and Ethiopian pathfinders show up from the north, looks like the south is free for grab, if I can deal with the barbarians.

In 2 turns I'll open Progress and the tech bump will be just enough to complete Fishing (so no need to delay that citizen birth to get 5 more beakers, but it's something worth consider sometime): time to put all the saved gold to use and rush buy a quinquireme while producing a couple of fishing boats. Pottery next.

T28

Spoiler :

I finish explore this weird pangea corner and decide there's room for at least two decent cities, plus a possible isthmus city north of Hong Kong (placing a future citadel on the hill SW of the orange circle to steal cocoa as well). There're at least three barbarians units in the area anyway, so the priority is to distract them running my units north of their camp while the first settler sails south to claim the spot next to the two crabs: 1 tile NW of that red circle would be optimal but I can't assign any escort to the settler and the barbarian camp is too close. Some more crabs to the east with a very defensible position to claim as well. Sadly this coastline is not easy to navigate pre-astronomy, and the first cultural CS is hard to reach for a possible quinquireme tribute. Two mercantile CSs on the other hand can make for some good early hammers, if only I could find a prey and put them to use...

Second policy: Liberty. It is weaker than Organization and the early worker isn't that useful to me (mining next after pottery though, and I improve the Copper) but Fraternity is really good to rush as Carthage while Expertise can wait: I'll be busy building units and settlers for a while.

T34

Spoiler :

There we go, a juicy coastal capital. Quite many barbarian camps and Byz started worship God of War, that was already picked by Portugal. Haile is the only one making a sensible choice and went for Goddess of Love, and I'm 4th to pick a pantheon: God of the Sea here we go, the map is simply calling for it.

Hong Kong is trolling me and expanded borders just to prevent my isthmus plan. Really, why? It's a third ring plain hill with no resource (spoiler: no really, no horses nor iron are going to appear there). I'll be eventually able to settle on the wheat but that's a pretty crap alternative. Carthage won't be able to send many trade routes out of its gulf for a while.

Interesting: by checking the monopoly screen I know there're only 5 sources of Copper in the world (1 already claimed by Rome, as usual rushing for military techs and SoZ). One Copper next to my capital, one on the future expansion and one near Constantinople mean I can possibly get a second early monopoly, and a pretty nice one (+10% global production). I run my pathfinder west to see if the way is open in order to forward settle right at Byz's doors while the archer keeps distract barbarians in the peninsula. On the minimap I spot Rome borders: Caesar is close but not that close, I feel I have some time before the Krakatoa spot goes contested, so no rush there. I find some more CSs to the west coast but I'm already overextending with my quinquireme, they're too far away my sphere of influence and I am not going to send a whole navy there anytime soon, so the exploration stops there.

T36

Spoiler :

Adrianople settled in a pretty annoying position (it prevents me from settling two alright spots), so my first settler goes toward the peninsula spots. A fishing boat will follow to clean some sea fog of war and be ready to upgrade a resource. The worker will move soon, there's nothing left worth upgrade in my capital after copper is done. Third policy is a long way and I start to feel pressed to do ''something'', or will fall behind.

T42

Spoiler :

Let the snowball begin: I can tribute 90 gold or 87 production from a mercantile CS with just two quinquiremes (pre-patch 1 would have been enough...), and a new ship costs me 160 gold or 80 production. No horses around (quite A LOT of sheeps though) so my early warmongering has to rely on my naval prowess only.

T47

Spoiler :

Few turns later I have a competant navy and am ready to start the assault to Adrianople: 1 water tile only and it's on a hill, so I start to work on some more archers and toward spearmen to help with the siege. Meanwhile, the peninsula camp is dealt with, and my second settler goes claim the Krakatoa with all its crabs.

T50

Spoiler :

Actually, quinqueremes proved to be good enough on their own. With the recent patch they can't take too much of a punishment back (archers/city ranged attack hurts them more) but their siege is solid. I rotate them a bit, promote them following the dreadnaught line, while the first ship I made (that went for navigator path) sneaks behind the enemy lines to the undefended Nicaea.

 

[76ers]

The AI pantheon choosing seems bad to me right now. Both of those civs taking God of War. Korea took God of War in my last game.

 

[randomnub]

T53

Spoiler :

Monopoly unlocked, and Adrianople falls! I could also conquer Nicaea this same turn but I prefer to wait 3 turns for the first city raze to be over to not increase my (already sad) policy rate aquisition. I leave two ships there with the purpose of harassing Byz, making sure Theo wastes resources into some military/walls instead of churning out some more settlers. The main bulk of my forces now moves to the eastern CS area, making sure I get another round of tribute from Genoa and Hong Kong on the way there.

T56

Spoiler :

Turns out spearmen aren't necessary to make sure Byz stops trying to claim my rightful coasts, but bronze working isn't a totally wasted tech due to some good iron tiles discovered. I'm also sure Theodora didn't research bronze yet because else she would have claimed that tile on her borders, that I plan to settle/buy asap. I better not neglect land military because Caesar could roll over my cities anytime soon, and I'm not done pissing him yet.

I just unlocked Fraternity and with 3 cities that doubles my science output. Expansions plan is to (slowly) build monument->well->shrine->markets, but until I unlock the left Progress side my infrastructure is going to lag, mostly building (and buying) units while focusing on getting the best out of my UA (free connections mean early science that leads to early culture).

T64

Spoiler :

Gades the troll city has been founded, Iron tile bought and peace has been made with the now inconsequential Byzantium. Teching into Sailing to advance era and hopefully getting some better reward from Ife quest that I plan to complete soo: note that I can only extract a normal tribute from Kyzyl now because it has a pledge of protection from Rome, so moving some more ships in the 6 tiles range in order to get the big culture spoils. I discover a religious CS on an island east of there and promtly demand some relics. I need to get rid of an annoying barb camp on an island south of Hong Kong so I need dromons as well, or those fellas are going to plunder any possible trade route that way.

T70

Spoiler :

Classical Era, and Ife quest actually gets worse (15 , 5 xp, 100 ) . Rome is also protecting all the nearby CS, and those are hostile so tributes get really hard to milk. I'm soon going to increase my supply cap thanks to settlers from both Carthage and Utique anyway, and then I focus on the bottom part of the tech tree. Thinking about it I could have skipped Sailing, the bonus trade route is being sent to Cumae (mostly to buy some time getting a diplomatic boost with Caesar) but isn't worth much, and I skipped on the Great Lighthouse thinking it wasn't worth it due to my free lighthouses. Spoiler: it was a bad decision, I already regret it when I'm unable to cross some deep water tiles with my dreadnought-promoted ships. On the other hand, the navigator II promotion it now grants is not being awarded to ranged ships right? Anyway, early wonders are my last priority when playing Progress, they are not crucial.

T76

Spoiler :

Roman coastline is if possible even more interesting than my weird peninsula. That's some crappy small islands but if I let him settle there (and the AI will do it for sure) I risk facing a very high supply cap with at least 4 productive (Rome went authority) small towns, that would control all the shallow water and would defend each other churning out ship after ship while I have to navigate ~40 tiles from my capital and the western cities to bring reinforcements, in the naval battle that would surely arise in this game.

On the other hand, if I settle those crappy spots, my sea power would know no opposition: there's ice to the north so no reinforcements could come from Caesar's other cities.

T80

Spoiler :

Turn 80 Religion! 3x 93 Faith tribute from the nearby two religious CSs shaved ~20 turns on the Prophet race, and my Faith output is actually pretty decent. I unlock Organization (it felt like it took ages) also thanks to the culture tributes I can finally extract. My military power is fading off anyway, now ranking #3 worldwhile, with Caesar #1, so I can't gamble on future tributes anymore. Gone are the early bully days and it's time for a boring empire builder game... or not.

 

[randomnub]

Bonus screenshot, my religion so far.

Spoiler :

The plan is to go for a pretty standard wide play, and due to the vicinity with Ethipia/Byzantium and a Rome with Tobacco monopoly converting my neighbours is off the list. After Progress I'm going to open Piety and make fun of people who think it's a weak tree; WLTK is pretty much guaranteed everywhere for most of the middle-late game. Inspiration fixes the early culture/boredom issues, and I have a merchant specialist everywhere to unlock the secundary benefit very soon.

I played ~50 more turns but now I have to decide between playing more or posting more . Due to the geographical situation and some debateable choices I'm going to share soon it's been a pretty enjoyable game so far.

 

[Minh Le]

This is a very good playthrough. You use Carthage very effectively. Theocratic rule, inspiration and fealty will be very strong. I picked veneration in my current game and I really regret it now.

 

[randomnub]

T87

Spoiler :

Expertise unlocked! Now I'm going to settle at least 3 more small cities: it's worth it for strategical purposes alone, but I'm pretty confident Progress will make them pay for themselves.

Here I was torn between Currency (UB, one more trade route, and Angkor Wat) or Metal Casting (Colossus): checking the tech tree showed me nobody researched either yet (the only late tech that had a discount was Engineering, and Haile (the only one ahead of me with 17 vs 14 techs) got it due to Great Wall already being built) and considering the AIs in the game I'm sure nobody is going to research either anytime soon. Considering the AIs in the game I don't think it matters which one I research first, they'll probably focus on the top part of the tech tree. Portugal is soon going to beeline for Nau but has 11 techs only and I know Sailing and Writing are among them (Great Lighthouse and can send an embassy), so only 4 techs on the bottom part. The only competitor for Colossus is in fact Caesar, who's going to research Metal Casting soon due to his UB/UU being on the two previous techs. I decide I can delay the Cothon by 7 turns rather than delay the Colossus by 14 (I'd have to research both Calendar and Mathematics, two techs that give me nothing).

I'm already drowning in money, with 81 city output and 15 from city connections, so villages are not a priority. The next step is building the holy trinity of production (Barracks, Arena, Forge, in this order except in capital and Gades with iron/copper hence Forge first) everywhere. I only have two river cities that build watermill first.

T90

Spoiler :

Third Copper connected and monopoly unlocked. I managed an alliance with Wellington by killing a bunch of nearby barbarians and freeing a worker with my Survivalism III Scout, who's been quite bad at scouting anyway so it's finally been sent on a walk. I can foresee some border friction between Darius and Caesar. Roman Units are chilling on my borders, hence walls in Hippo Regius and I use some Iron for Swordmen. The latter are actually enough to bring my military power back to bully tier and I don't mind pissing the nearby CSs a lil more.

I'm first in most demographic categories (Pop, Yields, Goods, GNP, Land), but 0 wonders and borderline happiness.

T94

Spoiler :

Haile on the other hand is wonder-whoreing at his best, going tall (Tradition and Mastery/Ceremonial Burial). Barbarians keep spawning around Hong Kong and can be a problem for sea trade routes so I have to pay some attention. Not trying to extract tribute anymore from that CS, due to a soon-to-be-completed ''give me a merchant'' quest xp. I also want to make it an ally to have visibility of the area. Panormus has been funded on the eastern island near Sri Panda and some fish, an alright location for Progress and it stops barbarians spawn next to friendly waters.

T100

Spoiler :

No surprise here, Caesar went all-in military with appropriate policy/wonders/religion picks. He also gave up on protecting the nearby CS. Legions are in play now, but he lacks a navy and I happily settled those rocks to prevent him from doing so. Council first (those small towns working all water tiles grow really fast), then Wells and Walls for a safe play. Rush buying fishing boats and a couple of tiles. Markets and other specialist buildings after, to get something better than open water to work. Disress/Poverty and Isolation are all taken care of, so surprisingly little unhappiness from the latest batch of settlers.

T108

Spoiler :

I invested in both the Cothon and the Wat and get both done before I complete the next tech: this second wonder is pretty good with average culture output in the expansions and so many workable tiles in the third ring, but its main selling point was the free Mandir in the capital. Half the trade routes go to feed Carthage (higher pop means frequent science from Progress opener, and with pretty average tiles I am working all specialists), the others will help the fresh cities catch up on infrastructure.

Steel next: it's not giving me anything of immediate use but it's the quickest way into Medieval, when the yields from councils/expertise double up.

Darius and Caesar are at war now, I'm waiting for the Roman legions to conquer Yerevan and then I'll join in the fray.

T110

Spoiler :

I manage to ally the distant Sidney by denouncing Assyria, a poor guy who did nothing bad to me. I only hope he pisses his neighbours enough so that I get some positive diplomatic modifier out of that. I took the scoreboard lead and don't see myself losing it anytime soon: working toward befriend all the poor CSs I abused in the ancient era and clearing the barbarian menace once and for all, with ships coming all the way from Gades (that had nothing worth building anymore) and Hippo ready to churn some dromons as well.

T114

Spoiler :

I like the Oracle and sometime it's been ignored by the AI, but with my UB being on Currency and Steel being the fastest access to Medieval I knew I couldn't grab Philosophy in time if I wanted to play on my strengths. Still, I'm always saddened when I see it going, especially when it's worth 1000 /. Ashurbanipal also manage to snag the last religion... a pretty random one with Protection/Sinagogues/Pilgrim that's not going to be a factor. Tradition Babylon on the other hand went for Expanse/Cooperation/Divine Inspiration and is already spreading into Portugal and Persian lands... it could have used a scaling founder but is solid enough and is going to net him some friends.

Yerevan falls... and I remember the Rome UA has been buffed recently when I spot a city strength of 18 and walls still up . Anyway, the city borders 3 water tiles so brute force and sacrificing a quinquireme or two is probably going to be enough. I'll wait a couple of turns before DoW to move dromons and soften it up a bit anyway.

T118

Spoiler :

Turns out a lot of CS came from the garrison, once it was moved outside (probably toward the Darius forces on the north) I sneaked in and liberated the city, also getting the wall-less Mediolanum on the coast: I had no hopes to keep the city with Legions nearby but just conquering it and putting it on raze for one turn was well worth sacrificing a ship because it meant destroying a bunch of buildings, halving the population and stopping whatever was under production: it also means there's only one city (Cumae) able to send naval reinforcements and harass my nearby shops.

I am able to open the second policy tree now, and it's going to be Fealty. Truth to be told I think there were no bad choice: I have many trade routes and nearby CSs for Statecraft to be worth it, and Artistry is good when ahead and working many specialists as I am. Anyway, all nearby CSs have cocoa/wine/pearls/cotton... local monopolies that give me nothing, and I have no gold issues. About Artistry... it's not synergic at all in this situation. Fealty is going to give me a lot of food per city while making me able to spread and mantain my religion on a wide empire, and I have some funny religious plan to try the latest changes.

T122

Spoiler :

Turn 122 religion enhanced: I only spent faith on three missionaries before that, to spread to my own cities.

The war for Yerevan has been bloodied, especially for the CS citizens. I think I can hold on it now thanks to my longswordmen, but the sea has became a dangerous place with Caesar producing/buying new ships every turn, I lost many dromons and my dreadnought-promoted quinquiremes can't match boarding triremes. Ethiopia is colonizing all the land near to Byzantium and its religion is spreading like a cancer. He definitely doesn't like me and makes a defensive pact with Rome. Persia is lagging behind (Rome is sieging and soon conquering Ecbatana) and I want to focus on infrastructures (temples->amphiteatres->chanceries->universities, with the capital building great temple and Oxford asap) so calling for peace with Caesar whenever he gives me a chance, not like I can make any more gains from this war (I have no siege and his city defense is going through the roof). Pissing him and liberating Yerevan was all I had in mind, and it worked well.

 

[randomnub]

So, about my religion plan:

Spoiler :

I'm on a pangea, boxed between two strong faith output religions and next to Byzantium. Inspiration only requires 12 followers to cap, but with coastal start/progress/fealty and a couple of nearby maritime CSs I want to grow out of control. I just want my religion to be the majority for Inspiration and Fealty to kick in, but I'm going to have a number of foreign religions followers in my cities: buying inquisitors and get >12 Noobism followers won't be worth it. Pagodas are going to make all those heretic enclaves useful. The +2 buff the building received made it worth build with just 1-2 religions in a town, so I can bid my time: I'm soon going to use my trade routes to spread distant religions to my cities, while passive pressure from Ethiopia/Rome might do the trick.

1 foreign follower is enough to buff the Pagoda, but I'm probably going to have way more than that (especially from Orthodoxy), so here enters Syncretism for some more yields, and even more important a nice culture bump every time a soon-to-be-heretic citizen is born in my wide empire.

I keep hearing horror stories about the new happiness system so we'll see how badly this strategy is going to perform (religious division is going to be funny). My little islands are already sporting Catholicism as religion, I'll buy some Order before converting them back.

After Education/Theology I'll research Civil Service and have good chances to get the Forbidden Palace before Ashurbanipal (the only other competitor using Progress, Theodora is beyond recover), then straight into Renaissance through Banking. That means my buildings faith cost is going to increase but I don't want to meddle for too long in the Medieval, due to all the scaling yields (councils, expertise, progress finisher, syncretism, Oxford) I'm going to sport.

 

[besset]

awesome game, really good decision making. Im excited to see how this game turns out. Never knew progress can be so powerful, i always went tradition or authority on deity and thought of progress as very situational, atleast on standard map size when the land gets "filled up" quicker on higher difficulties so that you cant settle many cities

 

[KaoticKanine]

Excellent playthrough so far, good sir! Can't wait to see how this game ends lol

I find it very funny how your two closest neighbors ended up being Rome and Byzantium With one variant of the cursed empire already beaten down to hopelessness, I look forward to when you pillage and burn Rome to the ground Carthage and the Punic people will be avenged!

 

[randomnub]

T131

Spoiler :

Reforming has been quite easy with a number of pop ~10 cities. Ethiopia and Babylon already did, picking TTGoG and DoF, and I am torn between faith-bought science or culture buildings. I have to blame my vanilla mentality here, I always like more science, hence Jesuit Education for me. This basically translates in +6 in cities after laboratories, vs + 10 after stadiums... but for my immediate needs I'm looking at getting +4 to either after public schools/opera houses... and public schools I plan to beeline.

I am at peace with Caesar now, only got few gpt from him. Darius also peaces out soon after. Caesar declares on Byzantium, really no clue why.

Happiness is under control, mostly thanks to many CS alliances and 1:1 luxury trades with the AIs.

My religious masterplan is already at stake: I let Byz live hoping to have a 6th religion buffer in between me and Ethiopia, but Theodora accepted to be converted! I'll get one less yield from pagodas and my nearby cities receive some tremendous passive religious spread. I'm not sure if Byzantium happily adopting another religion is 'wad', but sure she chould have made better use of faith than building missionaries sitting in her lone city there. I connect my cities with a road so that Noobism spreads quicker than Orthodoxy, or at least not have to use a missionary every few turns.

T135

Spoiler :

Okay so looks like ballsy Caesar plans to expand in the middle of everybody else, that might explain his DoW on Theo. The issue here is that he scared her so much that she... sold Adrianople to Haile? Or low happiness made the city flip? I'm not sure of what happened in these few turns, notification log tells me nothing and Ethiopia and Byzantium never were at war with each other.

I'm going to plant my second scientist, and the two academies along with a town are the only GPTI I plan to have, everything else gets bulbed.

T137

Spoiler :

Babylon is the first to reach Renaissance, few turns before me, and he did so through the Printing Press so that he is able to host the first world congress. I'm going to send my spy to Babylon, hopefully stealing that after I'm done with Banking and will focus on other medieval techs. Everybody but artistry Ethiopia is opening Fealty as their second policy tree. Haile briefly gets a laughable score lead over me but I'm not worried. The Byzantine settler there is annoying instead, it might be interested in the land between me and Hong Kong.

T138

Spoiler :

Just a quick look to the other side of the pangea, after the funding of the first congress of Babylon let me spot Assyrian lands for the the first time: Buddhism is spreading to the religion-less Portugal and Persia, but also taking over the mediocre Assyrian religion. It's a lame religion to spread though, Babylon is not taking advantage of that with Divine Inheritance as founder. The Admiral I got from the first Punic War has been sent all the way over there looking for future trade partners, but there're not many coastal cities on that coastline.

T140

Spoiler :

I have to tell Haile to stop send missionaries to my lands, and he doesn't like it. I'll just park an inquisitor in the border city after my missionary establish Noobism superiority back again. I'll have to send some land trade route to get some religious diversity there soon, before Orthodoxy gets too many followers. I get the Forbidden Palace (I have money to invest for every building and wonder in my capital, and most buildings in the expansions). Aqueducts and Workshops everywhere now.

I buy the tile in the third ring of my capital where the longswordmen are sitting now, to prevent Byz settle on either the iron or the wheat. Then I wait one turn to upgrade that settler (took 1 turn only to be built in the capital) into a pioneer once Banking is done. 600 gold to save 3 turns and be able to instantly settle the wheat spot and buy the Atoll. I don't mind Byz settling on the small wheat island or bethween Utique and Carthago nove, in fact it's good to have a small city to trade with there, but I want my isthmus town.

T146

Spoiler :

I research the pre requisite for Printing Press but it looks like it'll take ages to steal it from Babylon so I'm going to move my spy elsewhere, trying to get some intelligence and share it for soem diplomatic boost.

Spoiler :

Banks everywhere, to get some science boost out of all the investments I'm making. Karalis first building is a chancery, for a lot of production: with a lot of spare gold to buy tiles/invest and a trade route, it's taking little time for that small city to become worth it. I don't plan to found new cities anyway.

I'm becoming the CSs best friend now. Rome is at war with Portugal and Babylon: they don't share a border but the city of Ife looks doomed: another liberation war is going to be called soon!.


T151

Spoiler :

A look at the diplomatic situation: I don't care too much about either congress resolution, so I might upvote all of them (I have 2 votes, but a great diplomat is busy exploreing the fog of war in the western pangea and I'll settle an embassy right before the vote) in order to get a diplomatic boost with all my direct competitors (well, except Caesar, but we know there can be no peace between us).

I'm finally building harbors, maybe I delayed them too much but didn't feel like I needed even more production. Astrology next, nobody knows it yet and I'm approaching my second Golden Age, it would be cool to grab CI before that.

 

[Vektic]

Great work, can`t wait for the next part!

 

[randomnub]

try to test as many of the recent changes as possible before getting bored to death find a gamebreaking bug going back to work

I have to admit we're getting very close to unlocking all the usual culprits of having to abandon a game

Anyway! Some interesting things still happening.

T158

Spoiler :

My diplomatic efforts (trying to please everybody upvoting their resolutions) ended with swinging the balance and passing everything. I'm quite surprised Ethiopia preferred to ban tobacco (monopoly of his DoF buddy Caesar) rather than downvoting the no-trade-routes-to-CS resolution, was counting on Haile blocking that one and now I regret having helped Assyria. My TRs are internal still, and I'll switch them to some buddhist or zoroastrian AI town asap: no big deal not being able to trade with CSs, but there're not many coastal cities on this pangea so I might have to delete some cargo ship and buy caravans.

I do have some sea superiority and want to get first strike on those Roman dromons but don't want to drag Ethiopia and Assyria in the war as well. I don't even have a clear casus belli here (read: nothing to gain) and Rome has muskets and caravels already in place, but my actual happiness and supply limit put me in a pretty safe position to start an attrition war just to stop Rome from being a troublesome neighbour: I don't want my good buddy Persia to fall.

T160

Spoiler :

Persia being bordered by both Rome and Portugal with their improved GG generation means their land is being eaten by hostile citadels, and they're more than happy to attack Caesar. For a price. About 120 GPT is not even that much when I have a net +350ish and am to enter a golden age. About that, an investment and working mines instead of specialists for a turn in Carthage meant I am able to complete Chichen Itza just in time for my second natural GA. Such small things always make me stupidly smile at the monitor for a minute.

Knowing Persia is more than happy to battle for its lost territory, I politely ask Caesar to move his troops away from my borders. If it wasn't obvious he was ammassing troops there, my diplomat shares an intrigue as well. That way, I get first strike on his ships on my turn and his defensive pacts are moot.

T163

Spoiler :

Yerevan contribution to the war is to be conquered and liberated every single turn in order to ramp warscore/war exhaustion against Caesar. I befriend Babylon, so he's not going to mind me sniping his CS alliance too much: Ife is going to join the Punic Suicide League soon, to give me a buffer against Roman muskets while I ignore military techs and beeline the upper tech tree toward Industrial and the public schools I'll be able to faith-buy. Hopefully the spy in Rome will be able to steal gunpowder sometime soon (Spoiler: no, it won't. Being tech leader has its disadvantages).

T167

Spoiler :

I...seriously understimated Roman army. The navy I demolished was just a cherry on top of a pretty impressive amount of gunpowder units.

Fortified longswordmen in defensive terrain can fight muskets as long as cannons don't have a clear line of sight, and hopefully the Persian front is keeping more Roman units busy. Ife is going to fall and I won't be able to make any gain before frigates though.

Trade routes to other AIs when ahead in tech/policies make wonders on the diplomatic chessboard (they all like/tolerate me): I don't gain too much from those, not even with Dido's UA in play (in fact, the gold I get from TRs is a little underwheling), but I'm slowly spreading their religion in my empire powering up the syncretism-pagoda combo.

1 turn to my third Great Scientist, I'll bulb it to move closer to Industrial. Also, Carthage will be ready to invest/build/engineering Taj Mahal asap, with no AI competition.

T170

Spoiler :

My religious situation. I only have to keep an eye on Gades making sure it doesn't flip to Orthodoxy.

Cape Town wants Noobism pretty badly (enough that it would net me an alliance), and I already faith-bought all the inquisitors/missionaries/pagodas/monasteries/universities I need, so the 3rd natural born prophet has something to do. I'll actually ''escort'' it sending a sacrificable missionary ahead to clear the fog of war

Allying with that CS is going to hopefully attract some attention from the Roman Army. Caesar is plotting something along those lines when he drags Ashurbanipal in the war as well: now I have to divert some caravels to patrol all the eastern sea to avoid having my routes to Babylon plundered...

I'm pretty much out of useful buildings, except some 1-2 turns small things (granaries/herbalists and the like, useless for the yields they might provide by now, but good for the instant yields from Progress) and circuses: I delay everything until I enter the next era, putting windmills everywhere and 'building science' for the remaining turns. Taj Mahal is going to be worth 12-15 of every yields and will prolong my golden age so I'll use the GE for it even if I have no wonder competitor for that side of the tech tree, the earlier I get it (and free the capital build queue) the better.

T173

Spoiler :

Turn 173 Industrial! I also completed Fealty (Burghers first for the WLTK synergy, then organized religion and last the crappy divine right... this was before the latest patch that might have made the tree a lil OP) and I'll open Rationalism next: more growth, less unhappiness from cultural division, and I don't need what Imperialism or Industry can offer. I don't plan to win via domination (booooring, without some fun late game UU or a warlike UA) and already swim in gold.

The culture output shown on the GUI is not representing well enough how good I'm doing in the policy acquisition camp, syncretism culture on birth and progress culture on builds are pretty relevant in a wide empire.

T176

Spoiler :

I complete the Porcellain tower as well, and bulb that scientist to unlock my way to frigates even sooner: a bunch of CS quests giving production make me opt for the Leaning Tower of Pisa as well, judging from the tech price only 2 other AIs researched that tech, and hovering all over the map doesn't show any city building it (with vanilla wonders it's possible to spy their construction through the fog of war, a bug? I call it a feature!) so it should be quite safe.

I'm also buildspamming navigator-promoted caravels in my southern cities, hunting Assyrian ships, while rushbuying galleasses in Lilybaeum (Orders granting bonus XP).

T179

Spoiler :

Rome calling Assyrian in the war backfired, now me and Haile are fighting the same enemy and befriend each other, just in time for me to piss him a bit by downvoting his World Religion proposal. Here I missplaced my votes, figureing everybody would be happy to vote Treasure fleet (ops I forgot to say, I proposed it: it pleased everybody and I'm sure I can outproduce any competitor), where I put a single vote ''just as lucky charm'' (spoiler: it worked!) and I had to help fight the Ethiopian proposal... turned out everybody freaked out at the world religion proposal so it wasn't necessary. Anyway, small diplomatic hit, and Treasure Fleet passed anyway.

Now frigates are into play, I'll heal my ships and upgrade whatever I can. I have no war weariness issues at all while it looks like Rome happines is being tanked.

T180

Spoiler :

Funny screenshot of Kyzil contributing to the war efforts and conquering Yerevan. My land units backed by double medic archers are more than able to hold the position, while frigates are slowly tearing down Ife walls. Roman UA proving very annoying for the re-conquest duty once more.

T184

Spoiler :

Turn 184 and Sistine is free for grab, I get it on my way to Seaports mostly to fight boredom. I am starting to suffer some happiness and war weariness problems. The good news: I can safely approach Mediolanum and chew its health every turn, parking ships right under its walls to prevent more than one caravel being produced/bought every turn. Cumae on the other hand is a tougher nut to crack.

Assyrian ships aren't showing up anymore and the Sea is mine; only a couple of TRs to the orthodoxy-enhanced Buddhist cities of Babylon caused enough pressure that Lilybaeum almost switched religion so I'm going to welcome a different TR setup to avoid waste faith into noobism missionaries: all my southern cities only sport 1-2 religions only, I want more diversity there as well...

 

[randomnub]

T187

Spoiler :

Caesar's troops are starting to hate this pointless meatgrind. I even spot some rebels in Rome. My army isn't very well promoted so I don't mind sacrificing units to stay below the supply cap, if that helps me cut through all those muskets.

I try to enhance my positive relations with everybody with some trade routes, research agreements with all friends, and Haile even approaches me with a defensive pact proposal I accept, just to avoid him to renew his one with Caesar once this war is over.

T190

Spoiler :

Enlightenment: I do have some good deposits of coal in my borders (21x) and some more in the nearby allied CSs, so I don't mind picking Industrialization as my free tech and start building factories on top of seaports everywhere. I don't have a single corvette so the ironclad upgrade won't be necessary anytime soon, and I'll probably build ships from scratch rather than double-upgrade my old navy should the need arise, but it looks like the naval war will be over soon.

T191

Spoiler :

My final push into Rome: the nearby CSs have been liberated after a bloody siege that left both in ruins and my southern forces manage to kill some cannons and now pretend to look dangerous standing near Roman borders while warscore ramps up: I'm at +70 now, and Mediolanum health has been depleted... I could conquer it, but I would only destroy a bunch of buildings and won't be able to stand Caesar land counter attack, while my happiness is approaching the negative (not that it matters for the GA clock, I'll be able to enter 15 more GA turns after building the Hermitage I was going to build anyway thanks to the CS quests). This is the best time to sit at the peace negotiations table.

Spoiler :

I don't want those two cities I can't even spot in the fog of war that Caesar is offering me: they're going to be an unconnected bag of unhappiness with no use. Cumae on the other hand... it's the holy city of Catholicism and with just 1 sea tile nearby I would have no hopes to conquer it in reasonable time.

Spoiler :

I instantly annex Cumae and buy a bunch of missionaries I'm going to send to my distant cities to spread a drop of Catholicism here and there. Veneration and Zealotry means I'm also going to use that city to faith-buy the first 1-2 "cheap" writers and artists plus any unit I'm going to need should Rome decide to declare once the peace threat is over, because I'm going to get some culture out of those faith purchases (pretty tiny amount of it, this was pre-patch buff, but everything helps).

I now remember about the instant yields GUI little star, so time to show how good Progress+Syncretism is doing culture-wise.

Special session for the Congress since most AIs entered Industrial by now, and it shows they really love me! Me and Haile are tied as for # delegates but 3 AIs vote for me as well.

T196

Spoiler :

A look at my religious situation after having unlocked Free Thought in the Rationalism tree (better scientists and less religious disorder unhappiness): my small expansions spawned some Orthodox follower thanks to TRs to Byzantium towns (I can't help be saddened by Theodora not having founded her own religion in this game...) and are ready to send some oversea TR toward the coastal Buddhist/Zoroastrian cities, while Catholics missionaries are on the way.

Spoiler :

I do have a diplomatic in Addis Ababa so let compare Progress Carthage to the Tradition capital of leader rank #2: That's syncretism+taj mahal in a 5-religions city.

T200

Spoiler :

Turn 200 is a nice breaking spot (for now?). I'm leading by a good margin over an Ethiopia that despite running out of free techs and early game advantages is still a threat: now I'll have to work in securing some more alliances with those juicy cultural CSs but the distance is big, I send envoys there mostly to force Haile to do the same and avoid compete for the Suicide League ones. Assyria and Rome stopped being world powers, in fact Assyria is losing badly even in war (no surprise here for me, they always underperform as AI trying to be aggressive early on when their kit gives them nothing to win the actual battles /rant).

Congress is going to vote the next turn, and surprise surprise Haile will force me to sink a good amount of delegates into downvoting his world religion proposal once more*, also Babylon proposal is irksome, while I don't care too much into passing mine (again I proposed something mostly to keep my diplomatic situation healthy... but I wouldn't mind a buff to the two natural wonders in my borders).

Happiness from boredom is through the roof and I don't understand how: Inspiration (6) + pagodas (3/5) + fealty finisher (3), all cultural buildings up to opera houses built everywhere, along with Rationalism, Sistine Chapel and guilds almost everywhere (should I have put 0 guilds in the capital? it doesn't look like making too much a difference though, expansions with a single guild have -3/4 happiness from boredom anyway). Even Illiteracy is ramping up and I have every single specialist slotted plus Jesuits. I guess I'll have to move to the most recent patch for a less obscure unhappiness mechanic, but I'm also irked by Religious Division being so high after I picked up everything to mitigate it (temples, pagodas, Taj, Free Thought): I'm getting a buttload of yields from my syncretism strategy but the unhappiness from all those welcome eretics can be an issue.

Next turns I'll bulb toward Dynamite (I do have a GE ready to help for the Eiffel tower, let fight that boredom once more) and then into Corporations: Wire Services are interesting with my alliances network but I don't feel the need to pursuit military techs now, they'd delay public labs and entering Atomic through Penicillin even more. By now entering a new era isn't a milestone that important (Medieval/Renaissance bumps to instant yields were a lot more important) and I want to start play with my Centaurus Extractors. Depending on my boredom situation I might also want to change plan and enter atomic through Radio (Broadcast Towers) -> Refrigeration (Stadium), and corporations are on that way. We'll see.


*didn't one of the recent patches put an halt on trying to pass the same resolution twice in a row?

 

[besset]

Awesome photojournal, you should really do these more often if you are up for it! I've learned quite a lot!