Turn 112 Cultural Victory
Hi all,
My first post on the site so I hope I did this right. Been playing the last couple of gotm's and really enjoying it so figured I'd jump in and contribute. This is the first one I didn't read though a lot of the posts before finishing (Spain) or actually bothered to finish (Aztec).
-How many cities did you settle or capture?
Built no settlers, first game I've ever done that.
Captured 1 settler and the capital of Brazil to knock them out
Conquered two Spanish cities to put them out of the race next
....then that was it aside from capturing a barbarian settler fairly late from I'm fairly sure Scythia ( though could of been Brazil or even Spain too). Was fairly inconsequential though as this city didn't get up and running properly before the game finished.
So 6 cities all up
-What did you prioritize for research and policies?
First went with a builder
, then 3 war carts then Stonehenge. bought a 4th war cart with cash. After this I had 3 cities (Brazil's capital and their first settler) ran manoeuvre policy and pumped out another 5 war carts. (no upkeep makes these things really good). 1 war cart did die to barbs not to long after this so I finished the game with 8 of them. Important to note what really helped me get so many of these quickly was meeting Kandy early. This meant I got god of the forge pantheon very quickly, without even needing to run the god king policy or get lucky with a goody hut. After this it was holy-sites in most my cities. So fairly standard policy wise until I finally got my first government. Went with classical republic and I ran scripture (holy site adjacency double) and literary tradition (great writer points) for a while.
Also used the 100% shipbuilding policy to chop out 3 galleys, to find the other civs/ get the eurika and have the 100% overflow from the chops to put towards other things mainly districts and buildings.
also bought a scout and scored one from a goody hut for similar proposes around the same time.
Spend a large chunk of my gold on a shrine and temple in one of the more low production cities.
went with a very non traditional culture path, focused on an early military tradition over early empire for the card (plus the combat bonus's were gravy) and then again delaying political philosophy again to get to theology for multiple temples and earlyish theatres'.
-Which VC did you opt for?
'Religious' Cultural Victory.
After meeting Kandy within the first dozen turns, having stone to build Stonehenge and it being price difficulty (so the AI bonus's wouldn't have their culture game being super strong).
I figured the stars had aligned for my first attempt at the culture rush. I must say, it does seem powerful if you get a few things to go your way.
by the end I had 5 relics, only 1 from goody huts and not till turn 90 something which I thought was extremely unlucky considering the number of barb camps and good huts my army of wart carts ran around like mad shutting down with this goal heavily in mind. It was honestly like wackomole barbarian edition that my karts at various time barely kept up with as there was so much fog all around my continent. This did power me through the Eurekas though and gave me a lot of gold and faith, really showing off the power of Gilgamesh.
Also gained 3 writers, though only 5 books as i won the turn before my 3rd writer could create the second. Didn't have printing yet either ( was 3 turns from completing as I'd focused on cartography first to meet the other civs for the tourists (like mutiple others here that was a mistake as there was no ocean between the civs.
made a real effort to maintain good relations with Russia & Scythia. Open borders, trade route to each and trading horses to Scythia and extra sugar to Russia etc. also made sure to open boarder with all other civs on the other continent. had to pay the Aztecs for the privilege but not much.
Won the game with 16/15 tourists, the next leading domestic tourist civ being Aztecs. every one else was a couple behind. Nearly won around turn 104 at 12/13 tourism but the Aztecs got a little jump somehow which set me back a few turns .
- Did you bother with Religion?
Yes
I built Stonehenge, though didn't make it my first priority, went with reliquaries and papal primacy.
Focused on spreading my religion to Kandy for the extra faith then Russia and Scythia for the tourism. had to re-spread to both later as they both founded a religion. I was ready for it though and pre-emptively sent a missionary and Apostle to each and quickly reconverted them. also partially converted Kongo late but didn't covert then fully before the end.
Was up to around100 faith per turn by the end, a few of those buffed up relics just carry your religion. Would of got even more powerful as I was 2 turns off finishing Mahabodhi temple in the capital with 2 more beliefs to come and there was another religious CS on the other land mass
- Did you bother with Culture?
Didn't make it my main focus early but certainly switched to culture focus mid game to grab some great writers, ended up with 3. All of which where partially faith purchased. constructed the oracle in the capital for the 2nd and 3rd writers (plus the tourism) purchasing the 2nd writer the turn after it finished. finished the game with 3 theater districts the one in the capital where the stone used to be for Stonehenge. Certainly worked out good i think, mostly thanks to the difficulty. Being able to grab those writers while focusing on temples and early cart rush first, would of been challenging to out-rite impossible on higher difficulties i think.
- Did you bother with Science
not really
Build one ziggurat in the capital...and that's about it. was powering through Eureka's, so that let me somewhat keep up. was on about 30 science when I finished.
had a very odd looking tech tree, never researched archery even though its now connected, missing all the medieval techs minus machinery to get to printing, and had completely skipped the medieval period to chase cartography. However due to all the barb camps, nearly every tech I'd skipped had its boost so wasn't to far from breezing through it.
- Were City-States helpful?
Yes - key
Kandy obviously was integral to the victory and was suzerain very early through first meeting bonus, first quest then mysticism envoy and i had them in the fold for most of the game. had Scythia steal it for a dozen turns mid game but soon got it back without runing into and natural wonders lucky.
also chased Amsterdam, Carthage and Kumasi for their envoy boosts.
Ends up suzerain of Amsterdam, Carthage (by chance with quests more than anything as only really needed that first envoy), Kandy and was suzerain of Kumasi for half a dozen turns before losing them to Russia for the rest of the game
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
Land masses not separated fully - badly
having Russia and Kongo in the game and still getting writers - obviously not to badly
just how important it is to meet everyone quickly for a quick culture victory as it potentially multiplies your tourist gain - room for improvement
how effective it is to not produce any settlers to slow your cities down
- Did you enjoy the game?
First time finishing a game as Gilgamesh, got to make good use of the UU and abilities. Won a new kind of victory with a good time. YER!
Domination
After finding Mansa, took a city and upgraded to knights and crossbows. A second army took Scythia while my first force ran around sweeping up capitals.
Then built up my infrastructure for a while. DoW'd Scythia to steal a settler that was about to claim some iron that I needed. That war dragged on for a while, but eventually I defeated her too and had the whole continent to myself (shared with the city states) I think I lost just one unit in all 4 wars (the war cart that stole the Scythian settler) The barbarians put up a better fight than any of the AI's.
