Txurce
Deity
I played a fast, relatively sloppy game using 7.21 on Emperor level, using a war strategy to win by culture. I was on a five-civ continent with Babylon, Japan, Greece and the Inca.
The layout of the nearby luxuries led me to build only one city, despite starting with Liberty and then spilling into Tradition and Honor. My early game developed infrastructure as I sized up my neighbor, continent-leading Babylon. As a result I failed to get Stonehenge and the Sistine Chapel as well. Saving Aristocracy for Opera Houses also resulted in a wasted SP.
I attacked once I had a couple of longswords and four trebs, taking Babylon with its six (!) Wonders and Akkad before making peace. This established me as the continental leader, with all the local Cultural CS alliances. From there I declared war on Japan, taking Dublin from him before making peace. At this point I was awash in gold and bought every single building available for all five of my cities.
This did not seem right.
I soon declared war on Greece without a targeted city, just to keep killing for culture. With my forces shifted to the CS that was our battleground, Japan attacked and took Dublin. I eventually took it back, but liberated it now that I had a warship. (None of my cities faced the open sea.) A second peace with Japan had me swimming in gold again. From there I coasted to the end in one never-ending GA, filling out Commerce, Piety and Freedom as well, winning a Cultural victory in 1715 (turn 253).
At this point I was second in tech (after having been first), second in land, fourth in pop (having been first), fourth in military, and had 107 happiness.
That last did not seem right, either.
While I don't view this game as definitive - in different circumstances I would have built more cities, explored earlier for more cultural allies, and most importantly focused on the Chapel - I still won in very good time with top-tier science while essentially playing a war game. I think it's fair to say that more conquests would only have made my progress faster, because I could always buy the cultural buildings that more than negated the new-city handicap. So again - too much gold, too much happiness, and plenty of science while producing a very good Cultural win.
That bottom line also doesn't feel right.
Oddly, I think the cultural loot from SOW could be higher, but the gold may still be too high. Part of this is that getting gold from the AI after a successful war (and most are) already gives a lot of gold. Thal mentioned recently that gold is much more powerful than hammers, and I think that perhaps it's too much so. The answer to the "have your cake and eat it too" warmonger approach may be to scale down available gold - without unduly penalizing the peaceful player who isn't raking it in with warfare.
The layout of the nearby luxuries led me to build only one city, despite starting with Liberty and then spilling into Tradition and Honor. My early game developed infrastructure as I sized up my neighbor, continent-leading Babylon. As a result I failed to get Stonehenge and the Sistine Chapel as well. Saving Aristocracy for Opera Houses also resulted in a wasted SP.
I attacked once I had a couple of longswords and four trebs, taking Babylon with its six (!) Wonders and Akkad before making peace. This established me as the continental leader, with all the local Cultural CS alliances. From there I declared war on Japan, taking Dublin from him before making peace. At this point I was awash in gold and bought every single building available for all five of my cities.
This did not seem right.
I soon declared war on Greece without a targeted city, just to keep killing for culture. With my forces shifted to the CS that was our battleground, Japan attacked and took Dublin. I eventually took it back, but liberated it now that I had a warship. (None of my cities faced the open sea.) A second peace with Japan had me swimming in gold again. From there I coasted to the end in one never-ending GA, filling out Commerce, Piety and Freedom as well, winning a Cultural victory in 1715 (turn 253).
At this point I was second in tech (after having been first), second in land, fourth in pop (having been first), fourth in military, and had 107 happiness.
That last did not seem right, either.
While I don't view this game as definitive - in different circumstances I would have built more cities, explored earlier for more cultural allies, and most importantly focused on the Chapel - I still won in very good time with top-tier science while essentially playing a war game. I think it's fair to say that more conquests would only have made my progress faster, because I could always buy the cultural buildings that more than negated the new-city handicap. So again - too much gold, too much happiness, and plenty of science while producing a very good Cultural win.
That bottom line also doesn't feel right.
Oddly, I think the cultural loot from SOW could be higher, but the gold may still be too high. Part of this is that getting gold from the AI after a successful war (and most are) already gives a lot of gold. Thal mentioned recently that gold is much more powerful than hammers, and I think that perhaps it's too much so. The answer to the "have your cake and eat it too" warmonger approach may be to scale down available gold - without unduly penalizing the peaceful player who isn't raking it in with warfare.