7 civilizations that make the game easier for you

[Shark Diver]

This is definitely the way to go but I am quite poor at that. But I remember doing the same to Ram a while back and he was lost. Sometimes it might be possible to steal the second initial settler from an AI. The AI will not recover from that blow either.

I rolled a really good game based on our conversation(s). Pacal, Petra start, right next to Shaka with no other neighbor in sight:

Yeah, I'll be taking both of those Settlers (along with a 3rd 10 turns later as Shak kept spamming Settlers even after I'd killed his whole army.

You can see I've got a Spearman early, which is helpful. Even more helpful, I built an Atlantist instead of a 2nd Scout on the hope of a weapons upgrade. You can see the Comp Bow getting ready to decimate his Level 1 units.

Also, barely in the pic at the top of the screen is Mt. Kilamanjaro, which I'd settle with my first Expo. So now I have 2 superior units with Mountaineering. It would be an easy thrashing of Shaka.

Here you can see Alex, who is a powerhouse, doing damage on China's Capital. My scout had to come back for Barb-control and the terrain is tough, so I haven't scouted well (hopefully I can get triremes out). I'm hoping I can get Shaka to DOW Alex. I haven't met any other neighbors to sick on Alex, so he might be a problem. I'll be working towards friendship with that bastard.

I've only met 2 CS. Yuck.

I made peace with Shaka around t55. Got Petra and Oracle, then Great Mosk, so now my Capital is a juicy target. I'm very close to a general and have units close to promotion. Did I make peace too soon?

Yup, here he comes. He won't War Alex, but he did agree to dogpile on China this turn for 4 GPT. I thought about giving him Open Borders and would have had he warred Alex, but I'll let him waste 20 turns going single file through jungle and mountains. By the time he gets back, I should have upgraded units, or maybe I can get Alex to go after him (I'm assuming Beijing will fall).

That's some pretty serious spamming by the AI. At t55 he had no military left. I didn't want to divert to Construction and slow Theology further, so I couldn't take his city with mostly Atlantists.

My conclusion is that I should have stuck with the plan to never let him breathe.

I built Petra on t68, so I'm a bit ahead of schedule. NC was t89, so that's on schedule too. Civil Service will take care of growth issues as I've had no time to build Caravans (hoping to grab that late HG....worth the risk). I'm betting this game will be t220 Culture Victory. The expos aren't strong enough to break my record, but if I can use the Mayan UA well, maybe I can make it close.

 

[Shark Diver]

I built Petra on t68, so I'm a bit ahead of schedule. NC was t89, so that's on schedule too. Civil Service will take care of growth issues as I've had no time to build Caravans (hoping to grab that late HG....worth the risk). I'm betting this game will be t220 Culture Victory. The expos aren't strong enough to break my record, but if I can use the Mayan UA well, maybe I can make it close.

I finished with a t237 CV.

I was right about the expos not being strong enough to support this strategy as I was playing catchup in 2 of them all game. This slowed my science, although it was a very strong late culture game after I finally met and allied 5 Cultural CS.

I also didn't optimize the Mayans UA. GP timing was good, but suboptimal. I never got the free Musician.

Conclusion: The "Greedy CV Strategy" will work for Maya, but it requires strong expos and better exploration to enhance diplomacy/CS. I"m going to try to roll a stronger start for expos and see how that goes.

Since I've hijacked this thread enough, I'll start a new one in a few days in Strategy and Tips. I'll open it with a full description of the strategy and timing benchmarks then post a game as an example (assuming I can pull off another strong game).

2nd Conclusion: Warring Shaka early is a must and it is effective. Next time I'll wait much longer to give him peace. He finally DOW'd me the turn after I got Foreign Legions and 2 turns before Platics, so my Infantrymen were 1-shoting Impis for several turns before I gave him peace (I had no shooting techs).

 

[Tiberiu]

Wow, very strong style, you're clearly a very good and innovative player! I'm curious what pantheon did you choose? Imagine desert folklore there
Also why did you make peace, did he give anything?
Going back on your screenshot T24, could you have used the settler to put a city near Shaka and finish him? For example on the sheep near the Oasis looks good, mountain river desert city. Thank you and please post how game evolves and ends, if you want also share game if you still have it! I don't have time to play anymore, sadly but this game looks very interesting to replay and test things some day. Edit: ninja'd

 

[Shark Diver]

Wow, very strong style, you're clearly a very good and innovative player! I'm curious what pantheon did you choose? Imagine desert folklore there
Also why did you make peace, did he give anything?
Going back on your screenshot T24, could you have used the settler to put a city near Shaka and finish him? For example on the sheep near the Oasis looks good, mountain river desert city. Thank you and please post how game evolves and ends, if you want also share game if you still have it! I don't have time to play anymore, sadly but this game looks very interesting to replay and test things some day. Edit: ninja'd

Really good questions and thanks for the kind words. I've had a bit of extra time to play this year and my new laptop is so freakin fast the game flies by for me now.

For Pantheon, it was again a question of raw faith (DF) vs something more well-rounded. As the Mayans, and getting 4 cities up ASAP, I was confident that early Pyramids would carry me to a strong religion, as I knew I'd be going Piety 2nd. So I chose God-King. I find this to be a very strong Pantheon if your faith generation is covered by your UB or a Natural Wonder. I think it was the right move in this game.

The main reason I gave him peace was because I had a very strong Greece creeping closer to me on the opposite side of my empire and the terrain was pretty rough. I felt safer with my units closer to his border. He ended up being a solid friend until the very end, so this was a mistake.

Edit to add: One of the motivations for peace is that I needed to run a science producing trade route to him. That whacky map and my poor exploration left me with nobody else in range at that point.

You're right about that city placement possibly helping to deal with Shaka, and I thought about it. But this strategy needs strong infrastructure growth in all cities. Although the location you suggested had decent growth potential and very good tactical advantages, I needed a 2nd coastal city to feed my weaker 2nd expo. Again, I was assuming that Shaka couldn't recover and threaten me, and I really didn't want to capture more cities. Probably a mistake, as his Cap would have been my 2nd best city by late game. I'll try to dial up another Shaka-neighbor game and finish him off next time.

The summary of the ending is in the post above yours.

I only saved the final screen save. Will remember to save t0 starts for better games going forward.

 

[bobbobbybobbob]

Byzantium is a good AI to have in game. She builds you a religion if you are a warmonger. She get bonus from religion and religion isn't something you strive for when you are trying to conquer the world, unless you go piety domination which is in my case, very rare. She also has no strong UU. Going up against here in medieval for example isn't as rough as England or America. So she builds a religion and some wonders for you. Great! She is also quite friendly.

 

[beetle]

Sorry to have missed this thread last year.

Maria I is good to find in your game. Friendly, gold enough, and a soft target should you go that way.

Indonesia used to be a problem for me, since the the 3 extra lux in play makes managing WLTKD harder. Nowadays, I plan from the start to take his Spice Islands, and regard him being in the game as a net plus.

Sweden was mentioned, but not in OP. I agree that the option for extra GP generation potential is a strong buff.