T96 RV
Settled on the Silver, got Relgious Settlements T9 and set up city 2 (T13) by the double volcano (did not really get much volcanic soil bonus over the game) and city 3 (T24) on the coast SE of capital for the Sailing boost and a Harbor spot. Never built another Settler, though I conquered 3 cities and captured 1 Settler. I was bummed to find three natural wonders rapidly (popped 2 Scouts from huts) before I could get Suzerain of Kandy, so never got a Relic.
Not having played Mali before, I did not realize how annoying the -30% production penalty would be. Since I had few Builders and mostly needed them for key boosts / chops, I never sank any gold mines till late in the game. This Builder shortage was exacerbated by my play style - I usually buy a wave of Builder with Monumentality but since I needed Exodus I was even further behind on production.
My strategy was to conquer my own continent and then race for Cartography. Took Amani first T32 and levied Bologne's four Warriors. With one of my own added to the mix, they easily ran over Scythia - declared T41 and captured their capital and only city T43. With perfect timing, their single Warrior left the capital to escort a Settler T41, allowing me to both capture the Settler and capture their capital easily since it lost the garrison bonus. The capital was a nice coastal city to hook up Turtles and Fish for the Celestial Navigation boost and chop a second Harbor for the Cartography boost.
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I leavied Cardiff’s army on T43 and declared on Japan T49, the same turn I hit Political Philosophy for Oligarchy comabt bonus. They had two quarries to pillage for 198f and their two cities fell on T52 and T55. Sadly, that was all the pillaging I got the entire game since the AIs were so backward. It probably would have been better to wait and hope they built some mines or Campus.
Built two Holy Sites, two Campus, a Government Plaza (not sure if this was really needed) and two Harbors as my only districts. I wish I had built another Campus and chopped two more Libraries. Science was definiely the bottleneck. I managed to boost Sailing, Shipbuilding, Celestial Navigation, and Cartogrpahy but couldn’t get the boost for Buttress. I had a Builder and enough trees to chop Colossus, but was 240g short on being able to buy the tiles in time. Pyramids were my only useful Wonder. I got Hagia Sophia chopped out, but it was 3 turns before the game ended so it did not matter.
Got my religion T72 and took Choral Music and Missionary Zeal. I normally take Holy Orders for RV but I saw only one religion was founded before mine and only Japan was generating Great Prophet points (and would be wiped out before they founded). So, I figured movement would end up being a bigger bottleneck than faith. I did not realize Missionary Zeal eliminates the penalty for crossing rivers, so it was even better than I expected.
I hit Cartography on T79 and made a dumb misclick - I had all my Missionaries and Gallies sitting on shallow water tiles waiting for Cartography and put them all on sleep mode since it was annoying to have to hit “skip turn” 10 times at the end of every turn. Of course, I accidentally ended the turn without moving them the turn I hit Cartography. Normally I would re-load but this is GOTM so I sucked it up.
By the time I hit Cartography I had 3 Missionaries in the shallow water on the east coast and 3 in the shallow water on the west coast. The east coast fleet found Russia and Kabul T83. I sent envoys to Kabul to get Suerain which revealed Zulu. The west coast fleet met Canada and Cree on T86. I Had Zulu converted T89, Cree T90, and Russia and Canada T91. I should have won that turn but I had made a major oversight at home….
Turns out I was sleeping on England. The turn I took out Japan, they had zero Great Prophet points so I ignored them, figuring one MIssionary would waltz over and convert them right at the end of the game. Of course, they went and founded a religion while I wasn’t paying attention, and one Missionary therefore wan’t enough. I had to wait for a 3 turns to get enough faith for one more and walk it down. Lost 5 turns because of this - very sloppy!
Overall the game was fun but easy (Religion on Prince is just a breeze with the AI almost never having Apostles or even that many Missionaries). I was kind of bummed out that I found Kandy and Nazca too late / had bad luck with quests and so never really took advantage of those fun Suzerain abilities.
Pretty happy with a sub-100 turn win but kicking myself for not paying attention to England!
Mali were fun to play as a very different Civ (I think only Maori are more unique) and I would be glad to see them in another GOTM some time down the road.
