Standard / King (modified) / Milae's Map / 3+4UC / Hex Conquer modmod
CV turn 369 with Indonesia: Progress / Fealty / Imperialism / Order, Springtime / Theocratic Rule / Mendicancy / Churches / Orders / ttGoG
Despite being the aggressor, sometimes it pays to be patient and wait for the right moment to arise organically, this game being a prime example.
While starting in the northeast corner of a continent housing Brazil, Babylon and Egypt, the early turns allowed me to expand peacefully towards the core. I'd held a solid military alongside friendships with Pedro+Ramesses, and while Nebuchadnezzar held the land I needed to establish a naval presence off the western coast, he also held a tech lead and DP's with both of my neighbors. Starting a war on 3 different fronts would have been suicidal, so I decided to forward settle him in order to gain a vital choke point(s) and a large iron deposit that would further enable my army of Kris. Babylon also founded the other religion present on the continent, so I used waves of Borobudur aided missionary spam to earn religious authority and negate his "Defender of the Faith" bonus. Any friendship we'd first created was set aside after I fully converted him, and that was the perfect tension necessary to catalyze my plans.
I was getting antsy, contemplating when, how and who I would attack of the three to initiate the conquest, when suddenly Babylon caught me off guard with his own DoW after hitting Gunpowder. He technically had the advantage, but I was able to utilize the terrain, and most importantly he allowed me the opportunity to fight 'under weight' by focusing on a single target. After all was said and done, I'd acquired the two cities I'd set out for -- plus I settled a third on the front line during the war, a tactic I've never really used before, but one that was especially critical in holding position -- but was unable to completely push through his capital for vassalage.
Then the sights were set on Brazil, who'd actually been the tech/policy leader, and was already influential with several civs, but I again had to tip-toe around the fact that he was considerably stronger at that moment -- we were still also in a DoF, and he was an ally through the WC considering he was the initial host. Attacking Egypt was an inevitability, but he re-upped his DP with Babylon and my current unhappiness didn't allow for large margins of error. I had to once again sit patiently in my web, awaiting the proper time to strike; staying passive throughout the entire Imperialism tree seems counter-productive, but sometimes it is the right play. Turns passed as Brazil, while leading the pack, began attracting some negative attention from the civs inhabiting the other continent (China, Japan, Ethiopia, Huns). Pedro took Freedom slightly before I got to Order, and while he was engaged in his first war of the game (China), I realized his Pracinha were about to come online and that time was of the essence. I got my forces into position while eagerly waiting for the DoF to conclude, and then finally admitted to my plans when confronted by the Brazilian leader. Fighting in tandem with China gave me the breathing room necessary to take him head on, and my patience granted me the ability to now fight with a few crucial early tenets (Guerilla Warfare + Hero of the People) in my arsenal. My preparation was key to victory; the bordering city of Makassar provided the Red Fort, and my prior conquest of Babylon granted my swarm of Cruisers (upgraded "Djong" UU) to freely control the western waters.
A few turns into the war, Egypt decides it is his best chance to catch me off-guard, and this is where the real fun began. I played defensively and contained Ramesses (who'd built Himeji) on two southern fronts, again utilizing the mountainous terrain, while focusing my efforts to push north through Pedro. By this point I'd amassed ridiculous faith, and with ttGoG primed to fire, the 4 turn cooldowns couldn't come quick enough; a steadily consistent diet of GS (spending as much as 50k on my last) and GW (I passed/won World's Fair + had Eiffel, so the culture bombs were glorious) let me zoom ahead in both techs/policies. I was able to utilize extreme synergy to my advantage, bee-lining through the bottom part of the tree after bulbing a couple GS and selecting "Great Leap Forward". It's almost as if the timing itself was so gloriously gifted, the events manifested by the One and Unly himself, and before he knows it, my remaining experienced Kris/Fusiliers are now knocking on Pedro's doorstep as lethal Guerilla Fighters, essentially skipping Riflemen altogether (I was pleasantly surprised to experience the recent fix allowing units to now actually upgrade into these policy exclusive units e.g., B17, Guerilla, Zero). I did as much damage necessary in order to prevent a Brazilian CV -- he had 5/7 civs influential when the war began, with me sitting at over 60% including just having used a GM against me for a Concert Tour -- and once he surrendered, Egypt soon found that it was a grave mistake to attack me without all hands on deck. My freshly upgraded military re-positioned to the south and made quick work of his remaining forces, securing his capital alongside two other cities of strategic importance.
From then on, it was just a matter of pursuing each VC while maintaining secure borders with advanced military presence in case of attack. The optics of the other continent had Babylon peacefully vassal to China, who eventually eradicated my longstanding friend, the Huns, while Japan and Ethiopia held together firm for the majority of the game. At this point everyone had succumbed to Order, and so I used a GM on China once I realized I could divert to CV. When the game ended, I was sitting just a few votes shy of Hegemony and had just begun building my first SS part. I finished with double the score of 2nd place, but the pack actually wasn't too far behind in techs considering they all took Rationalism.
General notes (excluding bugs):
- Diplomacy was very good in practically every facet (I encountered a single 'bug' that I'll relay in the appropriate thread), and the polish is really shining through thanks to Recursive's amazing contributions. There are moments of nice flow, reason and consistency, while still providing many surprises and hurdles to overcome without insurmountable burden/solution.
- Are Merchants still only supposed to grant 5 turns WLTKD as a base? If intended, I disagree and think the bonus should start at 10 turns + 1 for every town.
- I'd like to see Mendicancy start at 1 f+c with era scaling, but my faith generation was insane this game, regardless. Me and Neb had the only religions on the continent, so by the first WC I'd completely converted the land and secured World Religion. Though I had no faith sink until ttGoG later on, I was gaining over 2k per-turn throughout the end-game. GA's and WLTKD synergy had me pumping out massive yields in general.
- Happiness did its job and felt really good this game. I experienced reasonable weariness relative to the length + damage of my wars + chosen policies (no Authority), while also enduring periods in which I had to shift production to build a couple Public Works in several cities in order to stay afloat. Here's a quick screen of what I was looking at at the conclusion of the Babylonian war.
- I know it's tough finding the right balance for the new Concert Tour mechanic, but I suspect it still might be a smidge too powerful. Either that or maybe the modifiers from late game tech need to potentially be reassessed; once Radio and Internet activate, it seems almost as if every civ is a walking permeation of Cristo Redentor. I know this is by design, and I personally don't get to complete enough games in order to have completely valid judgement of the late stages, but it's something I'll continue to monitor. For some perspective, I was pursuing DV and then SV, and must've bulbed almost 10 GS while not even finishing the tech tree, yet I only had to bulb a single Musician to secure the CV when at no point in time was I heavily focusing on it (I didn't take any tourism tenets, though I did invest in broadcast towers nation wide, and ended up building CN Tower once I knew CV was attainable, but still). I also understand the general nature of wide conquest, and the varying factors game-by-game (capturing the Brazilian capital in this instance, brought with it mass amounts of tourism that he'd established as the initial CV threat). In all though, I'm definitely pleased with the new empire size modifier, and just in general with the strides and efforts made to improve CV. There's a small typo after the Concert Tour where it says "Indonesian lands/people" instead of "Chinese lands/people".
- This is the first time I've taken 2Kay since it was tweaked, and I must say that it was tremendously useful. In the right situation where an empire finds themselves in some instability or anticipates themselves pushing wide throughout the late game, it provides the ability to practically ignore any happiness issues for the game's remainder. In my case, I was treading around 45-50% during the turns following my wars with Babylon + Brazil, and then within a few turns of selecting 2Kay + Nationalization, my empire was set at 100% for the remaining 40 turns.
- It'd been a while since I got to fully utilize them, but IMO Guerilla Fighters are the best unit in the game. Alongside the Hex+Conquer modmod, which allows you to essentially push while retaining the healing bonus, they terrorize and dominate the enemy. On even ground they are a menace, but if your warring with a tech advantage, they become absolutely Supreme. And then you consider when you upgrade into them from an existing UU... Here's the death combo, for anyone curious: enter Modern era through Combustion, then spawn + faith buy GS to get Replaceable Parts, then bulb Writer or be in position to select first tier3 tenet "Great Leap Forward", finally allowing you to grab Ballistics -> Combined Arms. Congratulations, you've skipped an entire era of military tech; you may proceed by annihilating your foes and any who oppose you. Follow this up by building the Pentagon (if Imperialism) and enjoy spraying death from above with a pair of Jet Fighters for over 30 turns, before you will ever even research flight... lol