Religious Victory. 1560AD. Score: 790
Summary
After the first 100 turns, I met England and the Swedes. Kandy bowed to Cthulhu on turn 108 as the classical era came to a close. I adopted Monarchy to start the medieval era and started building a series of harbors on my island settlements. Despite his protests, followers of Cthulhu flocked to Suleiman's cities, eradicating Islam on turn 120. We built the Colossus in R'yleh to honour this achievement. Many nations joined against us in a religious emergency, but they could not save Instanbul. After defeating the combined religions of the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden, we reformed our church and made it central to our government, adopting reliquaries, holy order, mosques, and papal primacy. We converted the Mali to Cthulhu and completed the Meenakshi Temple in R'yleh. When the medieval era ended around turn 150, R'yleh had grown to a metropolis.
Narrowly avoiding a dark age, we built Mont St. Michel in R'yleh and continued expanding our faith into Dutch lands, eventually stamping out Hinduism on turn 159. We celebrated the end of these heathens by building the Kotoku-in in Kawhia, which by this point had become the epicenter of Cthulhu's followers, thanks to Moksha. Warrior monks from this wonder spread to our island nations, eager to defend the faith. Cthulhu's disciples continued expanding west towards Norway. Some reclusive Hindu missionaries temporarily turned Amsterdam away from Cthulhu when our followers had left, but some Apostles quickly solved this transgression. By turn 182, they had also replaced Sikhism in Norway with the faith of the Ancient One.
The Industrial era was a Golden Age for the followers of Cthulhu, but the heathen nations again banded together to stop our spiritual ascendancy. They formed a religious alliance to pull Nidaros from Cthulhu. After London turned to the Drowned God, England and Norway also declared war. They were joined soon after by Suleiman (angry with grievances from our proselytising) and the Swedes. This made religious conversion somewhat difficult for a while. The four nations abandoned their religious emergency by turn 203, but remained at war with us. We turned our attention to Dido and the Phoenicians, natural followers of the ocean gods. We began a massive limes project, building ancient walls throughout the empire to defend against seaborne invaders. We also started a large-scale shipbuilding venture, finishing sending 4 privateers out to claim the waves. Moksha moved to R'yleh to oversee the wonders of Cthulhu. Soon after, we made peace with Norway and England, solidifying our hold on their continent. Suleiman managed to land on Kapiti Island several times, but was soundly rebuffed by our warrior monks and ancient walls. By the time that we sued for peace, Suleiman and the Swedes were ready to agree. We had accrued significant levels of faith in Cthulhu by this point, and Moksha promptly baptized 5 more apostles. These 5 joined the 3 who had pacified the three-nation continent to quickly turn Sweden into Cthulhu's final conquest around 1560 AD.
- How many cities did you settle, or capture?
I settled 8 cities: 3 on the Northern Island, 3 on smaller islands just south of the Northern Island, and 2 on the medium western islands.
- What did you prioritize for research and policies?
This was my weakest science game ever. Near the end I prioritized seafaring techs so that I could defend myself from all-out war. Throughout, my focus was on religious technologies and civics. I ended up with 30 techs, compared to Dido's 43.
- Did you send anyone to the dustbin of history?
Every other religion...but no civilizations. I killed a few of Suleiman's invaders during the second phase of the War Against Cthulhu.
- What did you build for an Army and Navy and how did it change?
I had 4 warrior monks, 1 musketman, 1 archer, and 4 privateers. My quadrireme was sunk by Suleiman's barbary corsairs. My military strength was 420, while the Mali were at 1376. I'm glad they didn't declare war on me.
- Did you use your UU? Was it useful?
Not at all. Garrisoned at my religious capital. Never saw combat nor built a "pa". I built a few Maraes, but they weren't terribly important.
- What was your most useful unit?
Apostles? Perhaps Gurus during the first expansion of Cthulhu's followers into the Netherlands.
- Was diplomacy useful? How?
No. I generally kept to myself. Dido liked me best, denouncing me but not declaring war.
- Were City-States helpful? Did any other civ give you a hard time about city-states?
La Venta and Kandy provides significant levels of faith, and Kandy donated a relic. Preslav and Brussels jumped to other nations temporarily a few times, but were relatively inconsequential.
- Did religion play a role in your game?
Absolutely. While I didn't want to abandon the cultural VC, I have only won using religion once before, and it was a lot of fun.
- What was your strategy, how did you gain your Culture VC?
I was leading in culture when the game ended. Suleiman and Harald may have been able to make some headway, but I had recently finished my third Marae, and I think that things were going to favour Cthulhu as the game progressed.
Alas, I did not win a culture victory.
- How many Dark Ages and/or Golden Ages did you have? Did you have a strategy?
Generally golden, except for one normal.
- What effect did Loyalty have on your settling or conquering? How did you mitigate its effects?
Surprisingly, it wasn't an issue at all.
- Any surprises you ran into, how did you deal with it?
After taking over every Hindu city, somehow Amsterdam flipped back to them. I assume there was a faraway missionary who came back to help, but that was a surprise. The multiple declarations of war were surprising, especially because my apostles were unprotected in enemy lands. A few of them were killed, setting back Cthulhu's advance for a few turns.
- Did you enjoy the game?
It was a lot of fun. I would have liked to see how global warning panned out. I didn't pay much attention to diplomacy, except to note the grievances that were building up.
Thanks for setting this up!
