Standard / King / Milae's map / 3+4 UC
India / Tradition / Statecraft / Rationalism / Freedom: CV turn 316
Religion:
I founded very early with a Wine monopoly + faith ruins, though having the Celts underneath me essentially nullified my chances of ever establishing dominant religion over the continent. I've already stated how I like the new flip mechanic, but I think it just needs a smidge more to help kick off; right now I still have to tip-toe around settling / growing in the early game, instead of just letting er' rip from the get go, and it feels a bit counterintuitive. Even with a tremendously great religious start (I think I founded on turn 65!), this is the (underwhelming) lead my pressure was able to establish once all 5 religions had been founded.
I had great terrain for growth, and was able to secure several key wonders early (Pyramids, Petra, Artemis), alongside forging DoF's with my Dutch neighbor to the west and Askia across a northern sea. Though initially friendly, it wasn't too long before Boudicca attacked with her Pictish Warriors, but I held off her UU with my own advanced army of UU archers and long/swordsmen. I had no intentions of conquest, but her city of Douglas was settled in a prime choke that she'd originally beat me to, so I decided to push my happiness / weariness into the danger zone in order to claim the land + a CS quest. Once secure, the game was relatively clear sailing. I paid up for the Celts to become my voluntary vassal, and then it was simply a matter of diplomatic peacekeeping / management, while praying the Songai remained complacent for as long as possible (we signed a DP after I became the Celts' master, yet Askia took my friendly Dutch neighbor and turned him into a threat with voluntary vassalage, so I had to kindly dissuade him from ever declaring by keeping control of several CS buffers and maintaining firm borders with advanced military presence).
The other continent had Spain's religion engulf their lands, while she sporadically fought with China / Korea / Germany. China was actually neck and neck with me after the WC was established, but she was immediately sanctioned and I began to pull away once deep into the Rationalism tree. Isabella was not a big fan of me either, but she knew that I'd be good protection for her flank, considering I was also top dog, so she proposed a DP that we rode throughout most of the late game. I eventually help remove sanctions on China because she is the last civ to influence, and near the end she backstabs me with a denouncement + Askia denounces me, but it's too late... I've got a 5+ tech lead on her and the rest of the field, and Jewelers Corp is amassing me +200% GPP; I'm spitting out GP of all kinds alongside crazy yields from a gargantuan capital in perma GA. A few writers + Eiffel help me zoom throughout the last 30 turns.
General notes:
- I was actually going DV this game, but CV is still over-tuned a touch, so I pushed hard for that in the last 50 turns. Though the same turn I won CV, I'd reached the required votes for hegemony and needed 1 more tech to reach Fission (to unlock hegemony vote). I'd just built the UN, so with another vote to pass Ideology, then the turns until the hegemony vote, it's probably another 20 turns before I could've realistically won DV.
- Stalker has pointed this out before, but it seems CS friendship/ally are maybe not highly prioritized by the AI in the early/mid game. I got lucky this game that only Dutch went Statecraft, and I already established dominance on the surrounding CS, but it's definitely something to still look out for. I wanted to experiment with such a massive religious lead, so I used my 2nd Prophet to spread on the 4 CS to my north which buffered me from Askia and his religion. It was a complete waste... they didn't accrue enough followers (I think it's also bugged, so I used IGE to "fix" it), and Songhai just spammed missionaries anyways to convert them after.
- Statecraft finisher "receive yields every WC based on how many controlled delegates" needs a buff, and it's not the first time I've noticed this. I was vote leader by a good margin + host, but considering how sparse the trigger is (I think there were about 7 sessions total before game conclusion), I feel the yields are too low. Here's the first (I had 10 votes) and last (40+ votes) WC before the game ended, and you can see how the yields start off pitiful, while eventually my WC dominance is getting me around 1 turn's worth of GPT, half a turn's worth of my science, and about a third of my culture per turn. It's not like those yields are trivial in the end, but these are yields at the high end of the spectrum, as most times civ garner way less. Whatever the base yield is for this, I'd prefer it to be increased a bit.
- Scientist bulb with 5 Academies + Rationalism bulb % boost was getting me between 50 - 60 % worth of a tech from Industrial onward -- I think with those conditions, a bulb in the late game should be worth a free tech's amount of beakers. I know they were nerfed recently, and with good reason (I'm an advocate for less yield bloat if possible), but maybe the Acadamy scaling could be buffed back up a bit, otherwise I'm probably just not going to waste planting more than 1 or 2 GS in any given game.
- Same thing with Merchants, but I think it may be just bugged; I had like 4 or 5 planted, but was only getting 10 WLTKD on expend. I'm pretty sure base turns is supposed to be 10 + # towns planted, so I should've been getting 15 turns. WLTKD is confirmed bugged in another form though, as I've already seen mentioned in quick questions thread, but you will not get any more WLTKD quests if you already own every lux.
- I just joked in another thread about how Jewelers was an auto pick over 2Kay (the food corp) despite playing India, but I ended up growing so much that my happiness did dip below 50% for a bit during the last 50 turns or so. A perma GA and round of Public Works helped recover, and I was actually forced to select a couple tenets that granted happiness, which I rarely ever have to do with tall / Freedom.
- I still hate that creating a landmark in CS territory results in such low influence. Also, unless the mechanics were changed (I actually hope this is the case), then Archs might be bugged, as I was allowed to excavate Dutch artifacts despite him not taking my open borders because I was imminent CV. If a civ is letting me into their lands, then I should be allowed to dig; I hope this stays. There's even a counter: I was digging in Korean lands with 2 turns until excavation, and Sejong sent his own Arch to override mine, scooping the treasure for himself while I had to move on.
- I was getting rinsed in the mid game, with civs executing mainly gold missions against me, but I never flinched considering my wealth, and mainly had spies rigging CS the entire game. Spy notifications are buggy, but one thing I found funny was that an opposing unidentified spy could perform a successful action, but it would still show their name and I'd then realize who's spying on me (e.g., robbed by spy "Kim" while playing against Korea).
- Refrigeration is a pretty empty tech now. Stadiums and offshore oil... YaY?!?
- Didn't have to build / buy a single Naga Mala or aircraft this game... lol
