A Congo Game

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This is a Congo 600 AD Regent/Normal game played under SVN revision 983. In this game you can see how a backward civilization can catch up in tech via while we pursue Congo's UHV.

The three historical goals for Congo are:
1. Catholic Congo: Acquire 15% of the votes in the Apostolic Palace by 1650 AD (Turn 130)
2. The Middle Passage: Gain 1000 gold through slave trade by 1800 AD (Turn 173)
3. Industrial Africa: Enter the Industrial Era before anyone enters the Modern Era

Let's "quickly" analyze the three goals.

The first goal suggests that you should have enough Catholic population in your cities. So Catholicism and enough population in your cities are the two requirements. Catholicism auto-spreads into your cities after you have trade route connection with the Catholic civs, so make contact! One possible problem is Reformation. And for the population part, settle a few more cities, don't stay on one city building all the useless buildings! Train pombos and settlers instead.

The second goal is about selling the slave units to the colonial Euro civs. Usually they're worth 100~150 each AFTER the Euro civs have colonies in the New World. Your main buyers are Portugal, Spain(these two most likely offer 150 if they have the money), England and France(the latter two offer up to 100 for each slave). Actually any Old World civilization who has colonies in the New World may offer to buy your slaves, I've seen Arabia who conquered the Incan land offer me 300 for a single slave once as Aztec. There's a chance you'll capture a slave each time after destroying a impi or pombo. But it may not be enough. You need to "enslave" from your own subequatorial African cities(pop>=7) to get the rest of them.

The third goal is about catching up in technology. Obviously it includes expansion and having more cities as part of your game plan. But if you are new to the game or just not that familiar with the use of espionage, you might think you need to do a lot of and tech trades to catch up. Well that's not entirely true, as you'll see in this game.

 

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We start out in the rainforests in Congo. The Congolese UP(+1 and for rainforest, jungle and marsh tiles, no extra from them and the ability to settle cities on top of jungle and marsh tiles) is very convenient to have.



So we settle Mbanza Kongo on the spot. It's a pretty good capital. Actually we only need this single core city. Having a second, small core city will actually damage our expansion stability potential so I recommend you to not do so.



We adopt Theocracy+Absolutism+Organized Religion. The only problem now is we don't have a religion yet.



There'll be quite a few impis around from time to time so remember to always guard your workers. We're lucky to have a slave(two actually) so early that we use them as scouts to contact other civilizations.



The first tech you research should definitely be Sailing. Without it you won't be able to do any tech trades(because you have no trade connection).





We have found the Madinka and they agree to our tech trade proposal.



Mbanza Kongo can start training settlers at 4-5 pop. Train pombos before and after training settlers.

You can see we're already working on . The total amount of you've had will have effect on your espionage missions' cost. The more you have, the less it costs.

 

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1 slave travels along the west African coast, and the other tries to make contact with the Mediteranean civilizations. We manage to contact Italy, regardless of Turkey's unwillingess to OB.



The espionage screen(Ctrl+E) should be used more often.



Before we reveal the coast line and establish trade route connect with them, Protestantism has been founded.

Notice Italy converted, which is rare to see.



The next turn we meet Spain, and also we have established trade routes.



Catholicism quickly spreads to Mbanza Kongo.



But then we have to decide about whether to join the reformation! Here comes a problem. In this game, choosing to tolerate the reformation will have Protestantism replace Catholicism in Mbanza Kongo, thus screwing our game. Not wanting to roll another start, I choose to join the counter-reformation.



And we have declared wars on France, Holy Rome and Italy.

 

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Joao II is on our side. I hope he doesn't get demolished by the Protestants.



Being at war with Italy has its pros. Turkey is willing to OB with us. Our slave can travel east to contact more civs.

Actually from the event log you can see they declared war on Italy because of a random event!



We found the city of Kalemie(historical tile) on the copper.





We meet Poland and its master Sweden. I don't know why they are at peace with Holy Rome, while at war with France and Italy.





Looks like England has gotten both conquerors. It's a sign of them becoming a "boss" in this game. But this is only a Regent game so it's not that bad. And remember espionage? Actually fast tech rate from the AIs helps us enter the Industrial era quicker.



Elizabeth hates Ragnar so much that she'd rather vote for a Protestant guy!

 

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England has converted to Protestantism. That explains the abnormal behaviour they showed...



From hindsight, I made a blunder not leaving enough room for the English to settle a city in South Africa. Stealing techs from them would be the best strategy in this game.



Portugal is not a good target. They'll declare war on use with their Trading Company troops later(when they have both Astronomy and Gunpowder).



I have to manually spread Catholicism.



You can see with these 11 pop we already have 13.64% votes in the Apostolic Palace. Leoreth has modified the AP votes counting mechanics in favor of the smaller civs, it's not linear to the population percentage.



We meet Abbas I of Iran.



Italy is willing to cease fire. So are we.



And we meet the Mughal empire. Unfortunately Pataliputra is still independent and we can't get to contact China and other East Asian civilizations.

 

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Spain has cicumnavigated the world in 1545 AD.



A nameless GG is born in the battle against the natives.



We settle Kisangani(historical tile). The banana and fresh water lakes will be good for its growth.



Manual religion spread as well.



Now this! The Apostolic Palace resolution calls for a holy crusade against Italy. Our effort in peace was wasted.



Moors collapsed after capitulating to Spain.



We have 16 Catholic populations.



And that helps achieve our first historical goal. In the unlucky case of having very few cities convert to Protestantism upon reformation, this goal can get much harder. But usually it's not a problem.

 

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One possible problem is Reformation.

I thought it helps Congo to acquire a bigger part of Catholic population.

 

[Fresol]

I thought it helps Congo to acquire a bigger part of Catholic population.

Of course you're right, but when reformation erases Catholicism from your own cities, it's a problem. I had to choose to join the counter-reformation to avoid that.

I've seen one time that almost everyone converted to Protestantism, and Mbanza Kongo alone was enough for the 15% requirement. There were also times that no one converted, and it was much harder in those cases.

 

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Vikings collapsed after capitulating to the French. The capitulation-into-collapse phenomenon is prevalent now.



France is willing to make peace. I don't see how the war could benefit us.



Peasant revolt in Mbanza Kongo.



Notice that Portugal is researching Gunpowder, we should train some pombos and station them in Mbanza Kongo. Pombos have 50% against gunpowder units so they are the natural counter to the Portuguese Trading Company troops.



We have met the Dutch. They have some good techs to steal.



We settle Luanda on the Durban tile. Expansion means better economy later.



Philip II of Spain has been elected Pope of the Apostolic Palace.



We also meet Hongwu of Ming China.

 

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We settle Kinshasa to grab the crab. I'm not sure I'm making the best choice here, because I'm blocking possible British colonies. Since they're going to be the tech leader it'll be best to steal techs from them.



We make peace with Holy Rome.



Our first slave sale. There's something interesting here: since we used the first 2 slaves as scouts, we don't want to sell them right now. Choose the slaves below them on the diplo screen. Actually, I believe that each slave has a number, so if you want to keep say the #2 slave, then after selling all the other slaves and getting some new ones, remember that slave is still #2, the second one on the diplo screen, not the first one(the slaves are not entirely sorted by the time they are acquired).



France also buys one.



The Portuguese TC event. No way I'm giving away my only city in core!



4 muskets and 2(?) bombards is not a problem.



The Russians even need to buy a technology from Congo.



Making peace with Italy a second time.

 

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Someone has researched Liberalism. In 1635 AD. Who could it be?



We reject China's empty threats.



We settle Loubomo near the cape.



Portugal just suicided all their units trying to take the city across river. Now it's time to clean up.



I lost a pombo to the natives and their GG is.



Joao II is willing to make peace. Portugal is actually doing quite well this game.



England is our 3rd slave buyer.



Italy has capitulated and is now a vassal of Russia.

 

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The stone is just not worth much these days.



We settle Impfondo in the middle of the marsh for an unspeakable purpose.



Looks like parrots are immune to plague.



Geez, the Dutch already have too many cities and they will not accept our lovely Impfondo. I'll wait for the Germans then.



Kisagani is responsible for producing all the GPs.









And that's 600 through slave trade by far.

 

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I won't complain about give France some in tribute. They can use the money to buy more slaves.





Just like this.



A nameless great engineer is born in Kisangani.



English Trading Company in 1690 AD. It's more or less the same time compared to my own Mughal game.



Defensive Pacts only lead to bigger wars.



We settle Matadi.

 

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Now comes the standard abuse of process. I used a slave to contact Germany.



Gift a civilization a crappy city in your land, preferably within you other cities' cultural influence, with your state religion. New born civlizations are good targets because they are vulnerable to . The tech leader is the best choice.



Then use stationed spies to steal techs and perform all sorts of cheap missions to accumulate great spy points and spy experience. You can quickly steal a lot of useful techs with little cost, and you'll get great spies in the process. The discount factors are multiplicative.





We continue our slave trade.



Checking stability.



Free techs are welcome.



has allowed us to acquire Guilds within 4 turns.

 

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Remember to have some pombos defend your cities, because the native pombos will cause you some problems.



Thailand is a vassal of Turkey? That doesn't make sense.



Geez, crusade again? This time it's against France.



It seems like Spain has won the Eighty Years' War?







We are selling the last two slaves for the 1000 goal.



The GA is triggered within the turn, notice it's 9 turn-long one. And obviously I sold the wrong slave, my slave in Amsterdam was #2, this new one is the #1 on the diplo screen.



We'll keep selling slaves if the price is right.

 

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We have been performing a lot of Spread Culture missions in Prussian Impfondo, due to the proximity. In return our first Great Spy is born in Mbanza Kongo.



We actually have a shot of building the Versailles! I'm making a bad decision not to use the GE to hurry its production.







Have the great spy infiltrate the city so we can steal more techs.





We need more while focusing on .



The GS and GE start a golden age for us.



Viking has respawned, though in a very bad situation.

 

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I should've used the great engineer to hurry the Versailles! Now the Spanish has built it.



Rifling obsoletes walls, some of cities won't have castles in them.





Slaves are important for our economy.







A second great spy infiltrates the Prussian city of Impfondo and we steal Chemistry from them. Time to research Steel by ourselves.



This is a post-war Congress. It's a different type of Congress.



France and its vassal Iran have collapsed after losing the war to Spain.

Notice England is about to acquire Physics and enter the Industrial Era. It's best to steal techs from the tech leader so you can finish the game more quickly. But Prussia is a good choice too, in case you failed to do so.

 

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Random event.





The AIs are getting wealth now, our resources are worth some good money.



Our 3rd great spy. He'll allow us to steal all the techs from the Prussians.



150 is usually the amount you can get from Spain for each slave. I settled for 100 previously because I was afraid they might now be able to accumulate a bigger amount of gold, and I might lose the deal.





Another Congress, this time we are invited! But there's no substantial results.



We are only one turn away to victory now.



The tech spread factor suggests we'll be the second to have researched Steel, after England. But of course England has quite a few more techs than us, they have already entered the Industrial Era through Physics.

 

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Overviewing tech rates in the world. England is really taking off in this game.



An overview of our cities.



Take a look at the interior advisor. 14*(4*2+1)+10 = 136, 14*(3*2+1)+10 = 102, so I don't think entering the Industrial Era has taken its effect on core population yet. (8+9)*0.5+(10+8+10+8)*1.5+10 = 72.5, the peripheral population matches pretty well.







And we have won the historical victory for Congo! This has been an easy one, you can see how our abuse of the new spy system has helped our game. It's so powerful that it feels broken.

 

[Fresol]

To sum it up, the Congo game is quite simple: Make contacts. Expand and train pombos. Research and/or use espionage. You can do it in Paragon difficulty, and the game won't be too different.