sendos
Immortal
I successfully managed to beat civ 5 on king level on standard speed, as was advised. My greatest advantage to my Persian game was that the fractal map gave me my own medium-sized island, enough to hold 5 cities with enough room amongst them.
What I learnt was that geopolitical pressure was paramount. The reason why I lost my previous games on king level on standard speed was because the runaway AI (usually just 1 civ) was virtually unchallenged and was thus able to build a spaceship without too much trouble. In those games, I was not strong enough to really bother my opponents with a tough military presence as well as have strong development domestically.
In my Persian game, since I was on an island by myself with 2 CS' (Brussels and Warsaw), I did not have to focus too much on early defences. My social policy direction firstly involved unlocking tradition, getting aristocracy and then completing the liberty path. I remembered the advice not to touch legalism until much later in the game (until modern era once I could acquire broadcast towers).
I was also able to build lots of projects early in the Ancient and Classical eras, but im my opinion, the most significant project of the classical era was the Hanging Gardens. This meant quick growth, which meant more gold and production down the track. As a result, my capital reached 40 pop. Not a record, but still good enough. When I started a project, I ordered the town building it to focus on production. This also put me in the red on budget matters but I had enough reserves to cope. I also ordered my workers to cut down any forests nearby. I was so successful in my domestic policies that other nations denounced me earlier in the game in pure envy. Again, thanks to the island, I hadn't discovered another civ until past 0AD. However, sadly, I did not acquire Chichen Itza in time. Another civ acquired it as soon as I started working on it.
The runaway civ in this game were the Polynesians. The Japanese and the Siamese were also quite strong. Later in the game, I managed to acquire a lot of gold through golden ages. I decided to get patronage and off I went, bribing CS' all over the place to build up my military forces, to increase growth and to increase culture which would inevitably contribute to my victory. In macro-diplomacy (between civs), I befriended Polynesia, but everyone hated them, and in turn they directed that hate back at me. Babylon eventually became friendly and I started to declare war on Rome, Spain and India respectively on behalf of Polynesia and Babylon. I also sold off some captured cities to Polynesia in order to bolster happiness and gold. I also managed to sell a city for 3000 gold at one point. I tried 5000 gold initially.
With the excess cash, I built a huge navy and lots of bombers (mostly from the capital thanks to the Brandenburg gate). I captured parts of India and Spain, they sued for peace, I got money + a Spanish city situated on Japan's island. I then directed my forces at Siam on behalf of Babylon. They were quite strong at first, until I got stealth bombers. By the time I got the stealth bombers, I had a cultural victory in the bag.
So to recap, my main reflections for future games are:
- Get Hanging Gardens ASAP.
- Develop a large force and be able to threaten all civs from working on big projects. That's what I meant by geopolitical influence.
Possible criticisms I might receive:
- You had it very easy, being on an island. Yes I did. Luck was indeed a beginning factor, but skill did help me over the line and I tried to focus predominantly on golden ages. I managed to prolong a golden age for about 50 turns, using a natural golden age + 2 GG's. However, I intend to do another king, standard speed game, as Romans, but on continents instead. This means no more easy start. Check attachment to see my Roman game. I now need to work on how to respond to early wars. My main concern is conceding too much in peace talks.
- Could have stalled the cultural victory and aimed for domination. I could have, but I wanted to cement my victory first.
- Why didn't you get piety to get cultural victory faster? I felt that patronage was more important to focus on at the time.
- Why don't you get G&K!?! I'm sorry!
What I learnt was that geopolitical pressure was paramount. The reason why I lost my previous games on king level on standard speed was because the runaway AI (usually just 1 civ) was virtually unchallenged and was thus able to build a spaceship without too much trouble. In those games, I was not strong enough to really bother my opponents with a tough military presence as well as have strong development domestically.
In my Persian game, since I was on an island by myself with 2 CS' (Brussels and Warsaw), I did not have to focus too much on early defences. My social policy direction firstly involved unlocking tradition, getting aristocracy and then completing the liberty path. I remembered the advice not to touch legalism until much later in the game (until modern era once I could acquire broadcast towers).
I was also able to build lots of projects early in the Ancient and Classical eras, but im my opinion, the most significant project of the classical era was the Hanging Gardens. This meant quick growth, which meant more gold and production down the track. As a result, my capital reached 40 pop. Not a record, but still good enough. When I started a project, I ordered the town building it to focus on production. This also put me in the red on budget matters but I had enough reserves to cope. I also ordered my workers to cut down any forests nearby. I was so successful in my domestic policies that other nations denounced me earlier in the game in pure envy. Again, thanks to the island, I hadn't discovered another civ until past 0AD. However, sadly, I did not acquire Chichen Itza in time. Another civ acquired it as soon as I started working on it.
The runaway civ in this game were the Polynesians. The Japanese and the Siamese were also quite strong. Later in the game, I managed to acquire a lot of gold through golden ages. I decided to get patronage and off I went, bribing CS' all over the place to build up my military forces, to increase growth and to increase culture which would inevitably contribute to my victory. In macro-diplomacy (between civs), I befriended Polynesia, but everyone hated them, and in turn they directed that hate back at me. Babylon eventually became friendly and I started to declare war on Rome, Spain and India respectively on behalf of Polynesia and Babylon. I also sold off some captured cities to Polynesia in order to bolster happiness and gold. I also managed to sell a city for 3000 gold at one point. I tried 5000 gold initially.
With the excess cash, I built a huge navy and lots of bombers (mostly from the capital thanks to the Brandenburg gate). I captured parts of India and Spain, they sued for peace, I got money + a Spanish city situated on Japan's island. I then directed my forces at Siam on behalf of Babylon. They were quite strong at first, until I got stealth bombers. By the time I got the stealth bombers, I had a cultural victory in the bag.
So to recap, my main reflections for future games are:
- Get Hanging Gardens ASAP.
- Develop a large force and be able to threaten all civs from working on big projects. That's what I meant by geopolitical influence.
Possible criticisms I might receive:
- You had it very easy, being on an island. Yes I did. Luck was indeed a beginning factor, but skill did help me over the line and I tried to focus predominantly on golden ages. I managed to prolong a golden age for about 50 turns, using a natural golden age + 2 GG's. However, I intend to do another king, standard speed game, as Romans, but on continents instead. This means no more easy start. Check attachment to see my Roman game. I now need to work on how to respond to early wars. My main concern is conceding too much in peace talks.
- Could have stalled the cultural victory and aimed for domination. I could have, but I wanted to cement my victory first.
- Why didn't you get piety to get cultural victory faster? I felt that patronage was more important to focus on at the time.
- Why don't you get G&K!?! I'm sorry!
