Ethiopia - Game A - Turn 139 RV
What did you prioritize for research and policies?
- Astrology - found the wonder north very quickly to boost it - then boosted faith/wonders/GPP (religion, then scientists plus a writer and general to get city-state quests done) and science as I realized I needed to cross an ocean pretty early. Focused on getting as many eurekas and inspirations as possible to speed everything up along with high science/culture until needing the religious buffs
Religion - Desert Folklore for pantheon, Production from adjacency, ignores movement penalties for initial founding, then added the +faith for each converted city and the building that gives and extra charge to missionaries/apostles. Got golden ages for Classical and Medieval eras - used the first to convert my own island, the second lined up with my 'army' buy and travel to the new world - didn't reach the next era before winning - Travel time was the worst for adding turns as I converted all 4 of the AI on the other continent in the space of 5-7 turns with missionary killing helping a lot - No apostles to be found. Nuked Nubia's religion within 2 turns of founding before she could even purchase a missionary. Made sure I bought diplo favor from the AI just before starting the conversion to avoid a religious emergency - they could not resist the great works of writing I offered for cheap. Only Gran Columbia was above 30 anyway due to the recent World Congress but one other was in the 20s...
- Did you bother with Culture ?
Yes - Got all 4 secret societies in the first 10-20 turns and promoted Pingala up for culture and grants first to help with first religion and quick advancement to Theology.
- How did you pump your Science or Religion?
Combo of Pingala, Voidsingers Old God Obelisk+early relic, and getting tons of eurekas - +4 campus to start plus Oracle/Pingala boost plus +2 Scientist GPP card nabbed me a lot of early Great Scientists - boosts to early tech to finish classical techs, the nice one that give science to your campus, one that had 3 classical/medieval charges I held onto until I had boosted all but 3, and another that did two Renaissance plus an Inspiration but sadly not the one that would have sped up the last civic before Theology. Took desert folklore (could have had +2/+4 more by placing site directly below wonder but worked out for iron mine boost) and had a +16 faith/science/production Holy Site by the end. Void combo+Menelik ability helped pump the faith/science/culture with a few late rock-hewn churches to help out
Switched to a fully upgraded (at least down to the double promotion) Moshka once Theology was about to come online so that I could faith buy a religious 'army' with the almost 4,000 faith in the bank - sent two groups East/West, smaller to Gran Columbia. I scouted the second island barely ahead of that decision with extra great writers that left shore immediately after I could travel the seas
- Were City-States helpful?
VERY - Geneva for the +15% early science boost and Brussels (far south?) for the wonder bonus - I was Suzerain of all CS on my home island except the trade one as I held back to keep the key ones. I managed to get lots of quests completed to get free envoys plus my culture was so high I earned a lot more than the AI. Was first to meet Valletta on turn 120ish but didn't need anything back in the home city at that point.
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
- hoped to get my scouts across the ocean but barb ships killed them while looking for a crossing - there wasn't one and later great writers were available when ocean travel was available.
-Built Great Bath early to hopefully get faith on the river - though didn't remember the Soothsayer cheese until after the first Volcano unit-tossing event - Spawned one in around turn 100 to try it and found it was broken for the tiles in the city - did reload a turn back to not waste the investment as I had not other use for one and confirmed on forums it wasn't just me as I could go to Opening Actions at that stage. Had so much faith that I didn't even notice the absence as I can never build the Bath on Deity so I never try it.
- Did you enjoy the game?
- A LOT - super fun to optimize one city and made the game go very fast - Got lots of fun wonders to make everything nice and make a +8 Theatre square to push the culture to Theology. Was lucky with huts in getting extra scouts for finding city-states first, tech boosts, and even stole a barb camp or two others had knocked down. I think I could have knocked 10-20 turns off by optimizing a bit more but it was so much fun I don't mind.
-What do you think of the One City Challenge?
It was a blast - Looking forward to the more challenging game B with Norway on Deity. Going to have to fill the ale horn this weekend to get in the proper spirit.
NOTE: No save attached as I can't play without my UI-only mods - vanilla is too painful for me