An India Game

[Fresol]

Finally I'm playing an India game again. The map of South Asia has gone through heavy modifications so it's interesting to see how that affects the India gameplay.

The map change is more of a good news to India: more room for cities, rainforest no longer causes unhealthiness, cities can be settled on top of rainforests, and maybe the +1 food to rice yield. But there're also penalties: rainforest plantations give 1 less food than before, making many of the calendar resources less appealing, and there're more barbs on the subcontinent(archers, axemen and swordsmen).

The 3 historical victory goals(under Normal speed) for India are:
1. The Dharmic Religions: Control the shrines of Hinduism and Buddhism in 100 BC (Turn 134)
2. Land of Temples: Build 20 temples by 700 AD (Turn 191)
3. Sacred Rivers: Control 20% of the world's population in 1200 AD (Turn 241)

For the first goal, it's obvious you need 2 Great Prophets to build the shrines yourself. And the second goal probably says you should get at least 10 cities. But alternatively you can try to steal a religion from your neighbors(which is not what we do in this game). The final goal says you need even more cities.

 

[Fresol]

Let's bring on the screenshots! The game was played under Regent/Normal setting on SVN revision 980.



Our game starts on turn 54, 1500 BC. We have a flipped scout but I'm going to delete it. We' move the settler 1S.



Pataliputra is founded on the dye. There's no Varanasi anymore, so we are only going to have 2 cities after the flip. And that's why I choose this city placement: it works all the productive tiles. Having only these two cities in core allows a lower expasion stability threshold but that's no the main concern right now.



Indraprastha flips to us and Hinduism gets founded there. Now Indraprastha appears as late as 1600 BC so size 2 is already the best you can have. With the added hills and forests, Indraprastha can be considered as a productive city.



We're lucky to have a fast spread of Hinduism. The workers improve the high yield tiles first. Cottages can come later.



Having acquired Masonry, we adopt Slavery on the spot.



Our 3rd city will be Purashapura on the grassland hill. The wheat and sheep will make it competitive at size 3.



Our first scout(not counting the flipped one) goes east to contact China. We research Priesthood after Masonry.



Indraprastha starts training a settler at size 6. Purushapura is considered to be on a different continent and can't train settlers FYI.



Pataliputra starts working on a Hindu temple for priest slots. The first UHV goal is rather pressing so we need to act now.



Meeting China. Their city setup omens trouble in the future: no Zhongdu->no horse, no Haojing->no copper. Indie Zhongdu spawns at 1000 BC.

 

[Fresol]

We hurry a Hindu temple before settling Purushapura, to ensure Buddhism gets founded in one of the two more food-rich cities.



Buddhism is founded in Pataliputra. It's important we get 2 temples early.



Now we can found Purushapura. The sheep is a valuable health resource.



We hurry the Hindu temple in Pataliputra.



We convert to Buddhism since it spreads to Purushapura first. After training a second scout, Indraprastha starts to build a granary for better growth.

 

[Fresol]

Our scout contacts Cyrus of Persia. Persia is at peace with us, which is good news.



Pataliputra starts to build a Buddhist temple, while hiring a priest for .



The advance Babylonians agree to teach us their Polytheism for a price.



At size 6, Indraprastha trains a settler instead.



Pataliputra hurries the Buddhist temple which will allow a second priest slot.

 

[Fresol]

We enter the Classical era with Iron Working. I chose Iron Working because we need to deal with the barb pressure soon, and being able to mine the gems is good for our economy.



At size 3, Purushapura trains workers.



Our scout in the west make contact with Carthage. There's no trades available between us now.



Since the floodplains near Pataliputra have been cottaged, I decide to hire the second priest only at size 5.



We meet Greece.



And Egypt.

 

[Fresol]

The early adoption of Slavery has greatly pleased China. They agree to OB with us.



What's more, with a rare early spread of Buddism into China, they convert to Buddhism under request.



Looks like they are going to have a hard game.



Pataliputra starts hiring 2 priests at size 5. We should be in time for the first UHV goal.



Indraprastha hurries the Buddhist temple. Maybe I should've built the granary first?

 

[Fresol]

We found the city of Indore on the cotton. Indore can share the wheat with Indraprastha. We use our free win to kill the barb archer.



Hinduism automatically spreads into Indore, so we use the free Buddhist missionary to spread Buddhism.



There aren't many opportunities for tech trades.



Checking the wonders. The Oracle has been built by Babylon.

 

[Fresol]

Taoism is founded, and Hangzhou becomes the double Holy City.



Indraprastha hires a priest to accumulate some early.



We are not joining any wars right now.



We do sports instead.



Alphabet should offer us a good tech trade opportunity.



We get Monarchy from Persia. We also need Calendar to unlock the Indian UU.



Mathematics is hard to get. Looks like we'll have to research it ourselves.

 

[Fresol]

Our axeman gets some practice.



Our first GP, Mahavira, is born in Pataliputra. Pataliputra no longer needs to hire priests.



The Kashi Vishwanath is built in Indraprastha. Indraprasthat can hire up to 5 priests now.



The indie city of Kanchipuram appears at turn 120. I'm bringing 2 axemen to the battle.



Kanchipuram is captured and razed. This should cripple the Tamils for a while.

 

[Fresol]

Our contact to the west is lost as our scout dies to an Assytian vulture.



Our chariot is ready for the barb axeman. For more information on the barb appearance, refer to the file Barbs.py.



We finish researching Mathematics.



Qin Shi Huang, being a true friend, teaches us the secrets of Calendar.



We settle Visakhapatnam on the eastern coast.



Our second GP, Siddharta Gautama, is born in Indraprastha.



And later the Mahabodhi gets built in Pataliputra.



We are just in time for the first UHV goal.

That's it for today.

 

[calad]

I will be very intrested how you succeed second goal.

 

[ales_]

Thank you! Looking forward to the next parts.

 

[Fresol]

Okay, here are some updates on the game:



Silk in exchange of gems, quite a fair trade. Honestly, this is rather surprising, because usually AI would ask for a whole bunch of things in exchange of a happiness resource.



We found Panaji on the plains hill. It's a pretty rich spot with lots of tiles to work. It's our 6th city.



We meet the Roman conquerors in the west with a chariot.



And we meet Korea in the east.



Patiyodha does not counter war elephant, but in this case it'll have to do.



Persia demands tribute and we pay it.



Meeting Hindu Ethiopia. Seems like we can arrange a tech trade with them later.

Why does Tamils hate their Hindu brothers?

 

[Fresol]

Chariots counter the barb axemen perfectly.



To my surprise, the remaining Greek conquerors have taken Jerusalem back from the Roman conquerors.



The Xiongnu horse archers are rampaging in Chinese lands.



We get HBR from the Ethiopians. I believe there's a bug that prevented me from putting anything of mine on the trade table. I had to agree to whatever they asked for the tech.

 

[Fresol]

We adopt Dynasticism+Organized Religion. I'm finding OR to be really useful in hurrying buildings.



Kashtpur is founded on the floodplain. It's a pretty dangerous move as the Kushan Asvakas will appear soon. But the city grows so slowly, I want to settle it as early as possible to have enough time to build the temples.



We get such a sweet trade with Augustus Caesar, but I'm afraid it won't last.



War time! A small army assaults Tanjapuri. Obviously their other units are either busy capturing my worker or protecting their own. There are only 2 defending units in Tanjapuri.



The Tamils fall too easily. I wonder why didn't they settle their other city?

 

[Fresol]

Yeah, the previous deal got cancelled and I'm negotiating a new one.



Here come the Kushan Asvakas. They come in fours but Patyodhis counter them well. They'll die trying to attack Purushapura from this position, lucky for us.

Purushapura and Indore are our military unit training centers. They can both whip out a unit every other turn if needed.



A true friend, I can say no more.



Taking some time to deal with the barb problem. I don't think we have Metal Casting yet, so we have to rely on the Ethiopian trireme for peace at sea.



Having hesitated for quite a while because of all the barb war elephants, I finally decide to settle Hanoi. A patyodhi will take indie Pagan in the mean time.

 

[Fresol]

Our first self-trained Buddhist missionary comes out of Pataliputra.



And our first fish! These are all small things.



Getting 83 gold from Meditation. Why this specific number?



Taking Pagan.



And founding Hanoi. Hanoi is a good city, the pig and crab are both important to us.

We have 10 cities now, but we lack the manpower to improve all the tiles.



China just experienced a crisis and 2 of their cities seceded.

 

[Fresol]

After 200 AD barb swordsmen start appearing. Axemen would deal with them well. Indraprastha starts to build the Khajuraho after we get Aesthetics.

Khajuraho gives +100% when constructing state religion buildings, therefore it's critical for our second UHV goal. 88/2.25=39.1, which means we can hurry a temple in a size 4 city after building it for one turn.



Another wave of Kushan Asvakas. We take them out on open field.

I sell techs for gold from time to time.



The plague has hit us!



We found Anuradhapura on the Sri Lanka iron. This is our 11th city and we are ready to construct the 20 temples.



An overview of our cities. The new Indian UP gives 1 health for every 3 extra happiness.



So religions do automatically spread to Anuradhapura! I thought they wouldn't.



Manually spreading Buddhism to our cities.



A lucky event, we have discovered copper near Indraprastha. A free +2 bonus.

 

[Fresol]

Indraprastha finishes Khajuraho.



There's a bug in the display. The +100% is not hinted.



China has fully collapsed! I was hoping to get more tech trades with them! Well, now I can try to take some of the indie cities after I finish the second UHV goal.



Selling techs for gold.



We spread Hinduism to all of our cities too. Train missionaries in one or two selected cities only.



Theology brings us into the Medieval era.



Again, entering a new era relieves the pressure on our expansion stability.

 

[Fresol]

Hephthalite horse archers have replaced Kushan Asvakas.



We'll finish the Buddhist temples in all our cities first, and then switch to Hinduism and build the Hindu temples.



Buddhist URV is quite impossible for us, but somehow we have achieved the third goal?