Call To Arms: CBO Weekly Civ Challenge

[CrazyG]

Upon further reflection... why did you take Progress then potentially hamstring your expansion by waiting so long to build settlers?

Is 4 cities by turn 50 waiting that long?

Many cities were settling on forest or jungle (with gold ready to invest) and I wanted culture for the buildings as they go up. Progress with fast expansion just kills culture, especially in this situaiton (I get no culture from my pantheon, nor from my luxuries). I was doing pretty well culturally thanks to all that stolen tech and monument first everywhere. I think I've stolen more techs than I discovered myself (I skipped all science buildings for a long time)

You can also phrase progress as "I don't want Authority or Tradition". Its awkward to build a wonder so early with Authority, because it means I'm not hunting barbarians yet. I love tradition, but England doesn't play into it. Its great to get culture for those techs I steal, it leads to a very strong start.

I wasn't doing that poorly in faith (I had 12 per turn before my massive settler wave), but I saw a potentialy game losing mistake in missing religion, so I wanted to make sure I got it. Its possible I overreacted, but that might be hindsight bias. No one founded Catholicism this game, which means that most likely none of Aztec, Celts, Inca, Maya, Spain were in the game.

 

[Diverman]

Hi everyone! I play VP for more than a year, but first post here. So I begin with : thank you to all the people involved in this amazing project
Now, here's my game with Elizabeth.

Settings : Large - Standard Speed - Communitas - King Difficulty - InfoAddict, No tech brokering, Trade Agreements, Transparent Diplomacy, Random Personalities, Events

Queen Elizabeth started between the ocean, the jungle and the desert, with a nice lake to the south and ressources of lapis-lazulli. An idyllic place favourable to the development of art and culture. Her neighbours : Siam, Arabia and Denmark, looked friendly and we could have prosper all together. But Agent James, spy master and lover of our dear queen, convinced her that the world should belong to her, and she took the path of Authority.

Soon, Agent James brang technological secrets from the foreign lands, and told us the terrible truth about the king Harald : he use to eat pizzas with pineapple. The people of England didn't know at this time what was a pineapple or a pizza, but it was decided to exterminate this decadent civilization. Soldiers were sent to the south and fought the fierce berserkers. But the capture of Ribe and its precious iron permitted to the glorious english army to prevent their production and to finally take the last danish cities. It displeased Arabia, which decided to declare war to our nation. They only had 2 cities and some horsemen to face our knights and trebuchets. The Mecca fell and Harun became our vassal.

During this time, we worshipped the Earth Mother, but didn't found. The plan was to take the holy city of Bouddhism, founded by Siam and his God-King pantheon. The extermination of Denmark and the vassalization of Arabia infuriated him, and he killed the beloved James, while he attempted to steal the secret of the gunpowder. He declared war, and our Queen had to face the biggest army we ever fought and the tragic loss of her spy lover. Fealty permitted us to quickly build the armories and the castles required to wage the war, but it was harder than expected, as Siam was technologically more advanced, had chosen to be the Defender of the Faith, and had in his borders the Fountain of Youth. But thanks to our navy and our scout which destroyed the siamese sources of horses and iron, we finally, city after city, push the siamese soldiers from the jungles of Mulang Palang to the plains of Sukhothai. At this very moment, a revolution stroke our country : the anarchy everywhere, and barbarians spawning in our lands. At the price of a lot of pillaging, we destroyed the filthy barbarians and continued the war. War weariness started to show up, but our beloved Queen refused peace.

Then, Siam founded the World Congress, and we met the civilizations living across the seas : Babylon, The Ottomans, The Aztecs, Austria, Carthage and Assyria. They thought we could build a friendly relationship, but the destruction of the Siamese empire led to denouncations from The Aztecs, Carthage and Austria. We hit the Industrial Era and thanks to the gold accumulated, we upgraded our cannons and tercios to field guns and fusiliers. Coastal cities produced a important force of Ship of the Line, and more fusiliers, lancers and field guns were recruited. A huge tournament across the empire provided us an army of longbow men. Too bad we already had numerous musketmen.

We embarked a force to the austrian land, and bullied Prague, a city-state under the protection of Maria-Theresa. Our Queen also made a speech named "Fatty Theresa". It was enough for the austrian empress. Despite the fact she was at war with Assyria and his vassal Carthage, she declared the war. We crushed her navy, took three cities, and finally Vienna, with little to none resistance. She surrendered and became our vassal. During this time, The Aztecs attacked us. But the mighty SotL destroyed his embarked army, his navy, took some cities, and the fusiliers sent on his isle met just longswordmen and heavy skirmishers. It was fast and bloody. Soon, Montezuma bent the knee to Elizabeth.

At this point, the glorious English Empire led in everywhere, except in science, which was Babylon first. The Fealty had made its time, and it was the turn to Imperialism to rise. Sweet faster and tougher cruisers, previously SotL. The World Congress decided to elect the most beautiful queen of the world. Obviously, our beloved Elizabeth won, which pushed Dido to beg his master Assyria to declare war to have her revenge. He did. Once again, the powerful english navy stroke, and soon, Carthage was destroyed. Assur was landlocked, but the discovery of oil before everyone else let our landships crush assyrian armies. He finally surrendered. Like the others. Arabia asked their independance, but we laughed at them, and took all his luxuries in the peace treaty. We decided then to adopt the Autocraty Ideology, to prevent any future rebels to show off.

It was now just a question of time : Babylon lost his technological advance, and the numerous wars between him and the Ottomans weakened both of them. We declared war to both of them while they were fighting each other and quickly destroy their navy. The landships and riflemen had no equals at this time, and 3 turns after Istanbul fall, Babylon was taken too.

Now, Queen Elizabeth rules the entire world, and every week, she presents a talk-show called : "Domination Victory turn 298 : I'm the Queen of the World, b****!"





Technical stuffs :
- The early spy is really good to keep up in science. Without it, Siam would have crush me for sure. The extra level is also good to coup city states you're at war with
- I was lucky that Siam was the steamrolling civ of the game. Once I took them off, the rest of the game was pretty easy. I think I should have attack them first, once they found to chose the 2nd follower, enhancer and reformation beliefs. But Buddhism was nice : Divine Right (Gold, Science and Faith when you pick a policy, scaling with number of cities), Orders, Cooperation, the belief which gives double pressure on trade routes, and Defender of the Faith.
- Funny fact : all the civs picked Authority, and my starting pathfinder survived till the very end, where he assisted the take of Istanbul
- Thanks if you read it, and sorry if they're mistakes/grammatical or syntax errors

 

[Txurce]

Is 4 cities by turn 50 waiting that long?

Many cities were settling on forest or jungle (with gold ready to invest) and I wanted culture for the buildings as they go up. Progress with fast expansion just kills culture, especially in this situaiton (I get no culture from my pantheon, nor from my luxuries). I was doing pretty well culturally thanks to all that stolen tech and monument first everywhere. I think I've stolen more techs than I discovered myself (I skipped all science buildings for a long time)

You can also phrase progress as "I want Authority or Tradition". Its awkward to build a wonder so early with Authority, because it means I'm not hunting barbarians yet. I love tradition, but England doesn't play into it. Its great to get culture for those techs I steal, it leads to a very strong start.

I wasn't doing that poorly in faith (I had 12 per turn before my massive settler wave), but I saw a potentialy game losing mistake in missing religion, so I wanted to make sure I got it. Its possible I overreacted, but that might be hindsight bias. No one founded Catholicism this game, which means that most likely none of Aztec, Celts, Inca, Maya, Spain were in the game.

T50 isn't late at all. I meant making the decision to crank out 3 policies first -- especially on Progress. And you would probably ask me when I crank out my first settler? If it's not Carthage, it's always after the second policy. So not much of a difference at all. Live and learn!

I understand your point about going monument first after that. I've learned you can wait to build those shrines.

 

[Txurce]

Hi everyone! I play VP for more than a year, but first post here. So I begin with : thank you to all the people involved in this amazing project
Now, here's my game with Elizabeth.

Settings : Large - Standard Speed - Communitas - King Difficulty - InfoAddict, No tech brokering, Trade Agreements, Transparent Diplomacy, Random Personalities, Events

Queen Elizabeth started between the ocean, the jungle and the desert, with a nice lake to the south and ressources of lapis-lazulli. An idyllic place favourable to the development of art and culture. Her neighbours : Siam, Arabia and Denmark, looked friendly and we could have prosper all together. But Agent James, spy master and lover of our dear queen, convinced her that the world should belong to her, and she took the path of Authority.

Soon, Agent James brang technological secrets from the foreign lands, and told us the terrible truth about the king Harald : he use to eat pizzas with pineapple. The people of England didn't know at this time what was a pineapple or a pizza, but it was decided to exterminate this decadent civilization. Soldiers were sent to the south and fought the fierce berserkers. But the capture of Ribe and its precious iron permitted to the glorious english army to prevent their production and to finally take the last danish cities. It displeased Arabia, which decided to declare war to our nation. They only had 2 cities and some horsemen to face our knights and trebuchets. The Mecca fell and Harun became our vassal.

During this time, we worshipped the Earth Mother, but didn't found. The plan was to take the holy city of Bouddhism, founded by Siam and his God-King pantheon. The extermination of Denmark and the vassalization of Arabia infuriated him, and he killed the beloved James, while he attempted to steal the secret of the gunpowder. He declared war, and our Queen had to face the biggest army we ever fought and the tragic loss of her spy lover. Fealty permitted us to quickly build the armories and the castles required to wage the war, but it was harder than expected, as Siam was technologically more advanced, had chosen to be the Defender of the Faith, and had in his borders the Fountain of Youth. But thanks to our navy and our scout which destroyed the siamese sources of horses and iron, we finally, city after city, push the siamese soldiers from the jungles of Mulang Palang to the plains of Sukhothai. At this very moment, a revolution stroke our country : the anarchy everywhere, and barbarians spawning in our lands. At the price of a lot of pillaging, we destroyed the filthy barbarians and continued the war. War weariness started to show up, but our beloved Queen refused peace.

Then, Siam founded the World Congress, and we met the civilizations living across the seas : Babylon, The Ottomans, The Aztecs, Austria, Carthage and Assyria. They thought we could build a friendly relationship, but the destruction of the Siamese empire led to denouncations from The Aztecs, Carthage and Austria. We hit the Industrial Era and thanks to the gold accumulated, we upgraded our cannons and tercios to field guns and fusiliers. Coastal cities produced a important force of Ship of the Line, and more fusiliers, lancers and field guns were recruited. A huge tournament across the empire provided us an army of longbow men. Too bad we already had numerous musketmen.

We embarked a force to the austrian land, and bullied Prague, a city-state under the protection of Maria-Theresa. Our Queen also made a speech named "Fatty Theresa". It was enough for the austrian empress. Despite the fact she was at war with Assyria and his vassal Carthage, she declared the war. We crushed her navy, took three cities, and finally Vienna, with little to none resistance. She surrendered and became our vassal. During this time, The Aztecs attacked us. But the mighty SotL destroyed his embarked army, his navy, took some cities, and the fusiliers sent on his isle met just longswordmen and heavy skirmishers. It was fast and bloody. Soon, Montezuma bent the knee to Elizabeth.

At this point, the glorious English Empire led in everywhere, except in science, which was Babylon first. The Fealty had made its time, and it was the turn to Imperialism to rise. Sweet faster and tougher cruisers, previously SotL. The World Congress decided to elect the most beautiful queen of the world. Obviously, our beloved Elizabeth won, which pushed Dido to beg his master Assyria to declare war to have her revenge. He did. Once again, the powerful english navy stroke, and soon, Carthage was destroyed. Assur was landlocked, but the discovery of oil before everyone else let our landships crush assyrian armies. He finally surrendered. Like the others. Arabia asked their independance, but we laughed at them, and took all his luxuries in the peace treaty. We decided then to adopt the Autocraty Ideology, to prevent any future rebels to show off.

It was now just a question of time : Babylon lost his technological advance, and the numerous wars between him and the Ottomans weakened both of them. We declared war to both of them while they were fighting each other and quickly destroy their navy. The landships and riflemen had no equals at this time, and 3 turns after Istanbul fall, Babylon was taken too.

Now, Queen Elizabeth rules the entire world, and every week, she presents a talk-show called : "Domination Victory turn 298 : I'm the Queen of the World, b****!"





Technical stuffs :
- The early spy is really good to keep up in science. Without it, Siam would have crush me for sure. The extra level is also good to coup city states you're at war with
- I was lucky that Siam was the steamrolling civ of the game. Once I took them off, the rest of the game was pretty easy. I think I should have attack them first, once they found to chose the 2nd follower, enhancer and reformation beliefs. But Buddhism was nice : Divine Right (Gold, Science and Faith when you pick a policy, scaling with number of cities), Orders, Cooperation, the belief which gives double pressure on trade routes, and Defender of the Faith.
- Funny fact : all the civs picked Authority, and my starting pathfinder survived till the very end, where he assisted the take of Istanbul
- Thanks if you read it, and sorry if they're mistakes/grammatical or syntax errors

Great game and great read -- especially the pineapple pizza and the spy lover.

 

[CrazyG]

T50 isn't late at all. I meant making the decision to crank out 3 policies first -- especially on Progress. And you would probably ask me when I crank out my first settler? If it's not Carthage, it's always after the second policy. So not much of a difference at all. Live and learn!

I find the key to progress is not settling too many cities before your cutlure gets far enough (I want at least 4 policies quickly). The specifics will vary, but I find this general principle very important. And England does early wide so well, no other civ can so wide, so early and ignore councils for so long

 

[Txurce]

I find the key to progress is not settling too many cities before your cutlure gets far enough (I want at least 4 policies quickly). The specifics will vary, but I find this general principle very important. And England does early wide so well, no other civ can so wide, so early and ignore councils for so long

I know about not needing councils, but it never occurredto me to go slow expanding on Progress, especially (since exapnding is the point). Throw in the fear of not getting a religion, and... but I've seen I have longer than I throught to get a religion, and this really opens my eyes. I'm very excited to try some variation of your opening. Thanks again.

 

[vyyt]

@Diverman that was a great read!

 

[Txurce]

I just finished my game. China developed with a hemisphere to share with Venice, and had won the game by the time my crowded hemisphere discovered them. At the end I was 16 techs behind. China launched for a SV, but was close to a CV due to a combo of culture and conquering.

England never lost a war, and wound up ranked second, the only civ with an empire to speak of besides China by the end. The game on our continent was tough, intense, and a lot of fun, even though the end was pre-ordained. Elizabeth was fourth in science, although I weirdly did worse acquiring policies than I ever do, despite taking Tradition and Artistry. I picked up the Great Lighthouse and Hanging Gardens early, then Neuschwanstein, Slater Mill and the Porcelain Tower later. After that, though, I was too far behind to have a shot at any.

As CrazyG pointed out recently, Tradition is hard. I would only add that it's become a lot harder over the past six months. Next time, Progress for sure, unless I spawn in a situation like this game.

On the vassal front, China and Venice broke up without a war, and dominated the WC like a tag team: very impressive. In other vassal news, Austria was down to one city, yet was still the master of #5 Siam. Not sure what Siam's rationale would have been, but... they got kicked out into the cold, cruel world soon enough, when Austria went under since, as a Master, they couldn't capitulate!

 

[LukaSlovenia29]

Not sure what the protocol is, but I have an idea for a future challenge, if someone will develop the idea at some point in the future. I've been trying out a strategy (I play on immortal, standard map, oval map, 8 civs, enabled RAs, tech trading (not brokering), events system (no bad/neutral events), ancient ruins, barbarian GG/GA points, saving policies, otherwise default settings).

The strategy is to play the early game without selecting any policies, then taking the first two policies from fealty when hitting medieval era (if succeeding in founding a religion), and then waiting to hit industrial era before immediately using up the saved policies (usually around 8-10 policies) all in one go, or just finishing one of the imp, ind or rat trees and saving the rest for atomic era/ideologies. I've been having quite some success (unless there's a game with a huge runaway, like Txurce mentioned in the above post), the trick is to try to get a religion (my favourites are god of war or the expanse, if I'm not playing with a religious civ like Ethiopia or the Maya) if possible, and with or without a religion just try to hold on until you get to the industrial era, where you can quickly catch up with everyone and eventually pull ahead. A benefit of intentionally playing from behind is that you get a lot of culture&science from trade routes with other civs, which helps you not fall behind too much. I'm really really really careful about settling good defensive positions and avoid settling coastal tiles (unless it's a good defensive position), I usually settle no more than 6 cities.

Anyway, if someone is interested in a challenge of a new kind of strategy to play, that's my advice - play with the saving policies options and try to hang on as long as you can with using as little social policies as possible, saving them for the industrial era and for the ideologies.

 

[Funak]

So, my own England game ended up not actually finishing, ran into some problems with the late-game situation and I didn't really make proper use of my uniques in the game.


Anyways I figured a weekly challenge starting Fridays isn't very weekly (even though it makes a whole lot of sense for people playing weekends) so I figured I'd move it to Monday. Now you weekenders have 5 days to prepare your strategy for the game, so I guess that's a plus.


So for this weeks challenge I figured we'd do something new. I have personally not played Japan since the whole yields per promotion thing went live, I thought the entire system looked fairly boring. So this week my challenge to you will be to give me the answer to the question: "How do you play Japan?".

 

[doublex55]

I play on epic speed large maps (well tectonic normal is equal to continents large) and unfortunately japan is unplayable because the amount of science and culture you get from your pathfinder in the early game puts you obscenely ahead.

 

[Jakman217]

Japan is kind of in an odd spot. I usually play on Huge Continents at standard speed, and he's relatively balanced, but he's odd.
Basic strategy is just: "Be AGGRESSIVE! B! E! AGGRESSIVE!"
Use your pathfinder to get some early culture and science, fight moderately and expand until the medieval age, then when you get your Samurai and Dojo's up, claim ownership of the world and don't let your unit's die so you can keep rolling in the culture and science.

The strategy as best I've seen is just, be a warmonger, and get high-level units. He's not weak, the culture and science gains he gets are beefy and don't so much fall off as just seem insignificant on their own, he's the only leader who can almost wholly shut down a victory option by his presence alone(culture), and the Dojo's buffs are almost always good for you.

If I had to give his weakness it's that he's probably the closest to a warmonger distilled to its most pure. The only real difference between him and other warmongers is that he has another reason to keep old units alive.

All of his things are focused on war and its rewards. The Dojo is an armory, the Samurai is a Longswordsman, and his UA is to gain more rewards for keeping units alive while delaying other people's culture victory. He's kind of a one trick pony. You can do other things with him, but they are all based on his warmongering.

 

[CrazyG]

I think japan is a good choice for the challenge.

I don't think I'll finish my game with England, its turned into a long, dragged out war with Austria (who has the great wall and somehow got an iron monopoly with only 5 cities). Its been like 40 turns of war already and its an absolute stalemate, I'm doing very well overall though

 

[Blue Ghost]

I’m in the mid-medieval era as Japan now, and decided to do a write-up of how the game’s gone so far.


Settings: Custom difficulty (halfway between King and Emperor), Communitas map, standard size, research agreements enabled, no tech trading, transparent diplomacy

Mods used: Community Patch Events, World Congress Reformation, Unique City-States, Wonder Race, Leugi’s Barbarian Immersion Enhancements, Historical Religions


The Annals of the Conquests of Oda Nobunaga and the Japanese Empire, part 1

For the first centuries of its existence, Japan was a humble nation composed of a few cities on the eastern continent. The Japanese people made their living by fishing and tending their vineyards, protected from barbarian invasions by the elite horsemen under their esteemed military commander, Oda Nobunaga. But even from their humble beginning, Nobunaga’s ambition was taking form in visions of a great, world-spanning Japanese Empire.

The world as they knew it was divided down the middle by a narrow strip of sea. To the north were the spice traders of Indonesia. To the west was a land torn by religious division, with the nations of Spain, Ethiopia and Siam vying for religious supremacy. Barbarian raiders from established their own nation as well, the kingdom of Denmark under the command of the warlord Harald Bluetooth. The Japanese people made attempts at settling the larger western continent, and established a single settlement, the coastal settlement of Satsuma.

It was at the beginning of what is now known as the classical era that Nobunaga made his move. Stirring a wave of public resentment against the encroaching settlements of Indonesia, Nobunaga staged a swift military coup of the government and declared himself Emperor of Japan. Taking command of Japan’s elite forces, he launched a swift and brutal invasion of Indonesia, conquering their capital, while independent Japanese militias dismantled the Indonesian settlements in ancestral Japanese lands.

In the years after the conquest of Indonesia, Nobunaga oversaw the building of Japan into a major world power. He brought order to the land, driving out the lawless barbarian brigands that had popped up in the chaos of war. He liberated the independent city-states of Valletta and Almaty from the oppression of barbarian hordes, securing them as staunch allies of the Japanese Empire. During those years, missionaries from Spain and Ethiopia brought their competing religions to Japan. What his people believed was of no concern to Nobunaga. He worshiped no god but himself.

Nobunaga’s ambitions would not be quenched, and he turned his attention to the western continent. The warriors of Denmark had settled outposts in the north, immediately to the west of Satsuma. Nobunaga knew that he could take those outposts if he wanted, but it would not be wise to challenge Harald Bluetooth’s militaristic kingdom at this point. So he began building a navy, planning to circle around the Danish encampments to strike into the territory of Spain.

But his plans were interrupted when the remnants of the Indonesian government declared war, intending to take back their capital. They were a small and disorganized force, no match for the highly trained and well-equipped soldiers of Japan, and were quickly crushed. The leaders of Indonesia, realizing their mistake, ceded their largest city to Nobunaga’s control in surrender. Shortly afterward, the remnants of Indonesia declared their loyalty to Ethiopia as a vassal. Nobunaga knew that the level-headed Haile Selassie would not allow the Indonesians to continue their war, and so the threat was neutralized.

With that, he turned his attention back to Spain. A fleet of Japanese triremes and dromons sailed their way into Spanish waters, carrying with them an elite strike force of samurai. The Spanish forces were weak and ill-equipped for war, and were swiftly and brutally conquered. With all but one of her cities stripped from her, Queen Isabella capitulated.

But there would be no rest for the Japanese forces. Just as Nobunaga signed the peace treaty with Spain, reports came in of Danish berserkers landing on the shores of the former Spanish lands. Harald Bluetooth sailed in on a longboat to greet Nobunaga personally, jovially wishing him a good war.

Nobunaga disdained the barbaric Viking’s nonchalant attitude toward war, treating it as if it were a game. But there was no denying the might of the Viking berserker hordes. This would be the greatest test of military might that he had faced yet.

---

OOC notes:

After playing as Japan for the first time, I’d rate Japan’s mechanics on the low end in terms of fun. Aside from pushing toward an aggressive strategy, they don’t really encourage any different styles of play than you would normally do, and the bonuses they give are more of the same. That said, it is still quite satisfying to get all those science and culture boosts from your units’ natural level progression, especially when they get you a tech or a policy. It says something good about Vox Populi’s civ design that even one of the more generic civs can still be this satisfying to play.

I went Authority -> Fealty, and found that Fealty is quite good even if you don’t get to found a religion. Monasticism gave me an outlet for all the faith I accumulated that I wasn’t able to use due to not having a religion of my own. And of course, getting those Dojos up so quickly is sweet.

I ended up vassalizing Spain without taking their capital and holy city. Part of it was because I saw the Danish forces amassing on my border, and I wanted to close up my current front as quickly as possible. Also, I didn’t know where Madrid was, since Spain never allowed me to get an embassy. Vassalizing Spain eliminates her as a threat, but it also means that I won’t be able to take Madrid and usurp Catholicism until I release her from vassalage. Maybe it would have been better to just sign a white peace, and then come back and take the capital after I was done with Denmark?

 

[Funak]

So that was Japan. To be perfectly honest that was among the most boring civs I've ever played. Yeah the Dojo was pretty good and the Samurai were decent, but the UA just felt like a complete non-factor.
I never had any scout reach level 6 or whatever people mentioned in the other threads, got a few +5s and maybe two or three +20s from it during the early game. Once I got Samurai out I got 120 once or twice but by that time those numbers represented one third or quarter of a turns culture/science and really did not feel impactful at all. The other part of the UA, the one stopping civs from sending you trade-routes just feels like a pure negative, I mean you're not going to be a tech or culture leader so why would you want to stop people from sending you trade-routes?

I did never finish my game, I grew increasingly bored with it after gunpowder was introduced and quit once I got rifling. Maybe that was my problem? Does Japan start feeling fun only during the late-game?


Anyways for this week, I remember reading a lot of hate towards the recent Celt nerf, and I myself never really liked the Celts so how about we take another crack at it and figure out of they are really in as bad a position as I think they are.

 

[CrazyG]

I'm in Renaissance era currently as Japan and I love it. Samurai are amazing, very easily reaching the march and mobility promotions which turn them into super units. With march, medic promotions, healing on kills, and Bushido they become so hard to kill. Even a very large powerful Swedish Empire got blizted rather easily by a force of heavy skirmishers and samurai. I currently have 4 vassals with one more to go.
Began on a fur monopoly, took god of all creation and of course promoted my units. From this I got a massive culture lead, the world leader in Sweden being 3 policies behind when I get my 13th. The early science was very noticeable, letting me unlock horsemen, skirmishers and catapults earlier. Rushed the Steel and a Dojo, then used saved up faith to zealotry spam samurai.

A big thing is I took tradition, and only built one settler (on turn 80 something, and I only built him to get iron). I also annexed the holy city I conquered, meaning that I have only 3 non puppet cities in an 18 city empire. Took Artistry second because Fealty seems OP right now (I considered Authority as a second tree too). I didn't focus on getting kills or taking cities, just getting experience. Took a nearby CS just for XP, then a holy city, then fought a tough war with Persia. Rolled over Rome and the rest of India because of samurai. Sweden put up a decent fight but his bonuses paled in comparison to mine at this stage. Volley trebuchets and Samurai rolled over his cities, while skirmishers and samurai slaughtered his units.

The big thing I noticed is that the domination penalty for holding capitals is really high. 8% per capital makes fighting someone on your tech level extremely difficult, I actually sold Rome back to Cesar to avoid the combat penalty. It meant that I needed to cripple my enemies without actually taking the capital, I plan to do a reconquest wave later when I have big tech lead.

The trade route thing is weird. Japan already has a lot of bonus culture so he isn't vulnerable to a tourism win. It definitely hurt me more than it helped

 

[Myrrdin_Emrys]

So that was Japan. To be perfectly honest that was among the most boring civs I've ever played. Yeah the Dojo was pretty good and the Samurai were decent, but the UA just felt like a complete non-factor.
I never had any scout reach level 6 or whatever people mentioned in the other threads, got a few +5s and maybe two or three +20s from it during the early game. Once I got Samurai out I got 120 once or twice but by that time those numbers represented one third or quarter of a turns culture/science and really did not feel impactful at all. The other part of the UA, the one stopping civs from sending you trade-routes just feels like a pure negative, I mean you're not going to be a tech or culture leader so why would you want to stop people from sending you trade-routes?

I did never finish my game, I grew increasingly bored with it after gunpowder was introduced and quit once I got rifling. Maybe that was my problem? Does Japan start feeling fun only during the late-game?


Anyways for this week, I remember reading a lot of hate towards the recent Celt nerf, and I myself never really liked the Celts so how about we take another crack at it and figure out of they are really in as bad a position as I think they are.

I totally agree with you. Played a game with japan. Feel like the UA was doing nothing except giving me more time for a domination victory by slowing down the cultural one ... not t he most appealing. after the ancient era i felt the upgrade bonus totally not appealing. the only edge of japan is its unbeatable samurai on teh battlefield... plenty of promotions, combined with autority gives u 25 health on kill .... but before that, for me it was like total emptiness of bonus and after taht too ... so really boring



for the new challenge few weeks ago i had a game with celts so i will pass this one.
I took the pantheon giving you +1/ per improved ressources and +?per city.

It is damn good with authority. usually for each city i have at least 5 ressources to improve so it nearly give you a second scaler of authority that is available earlier. SO if you have plenty of hammer in ancient era when you dont have so much to build you often go war. but the restricting part is gold. Cuz if you go war in ancient you often need market in some or even all your city to manage the upkeep. With this pantheon you can delay market technology to rush to mathematics (for catapults). And even if you go a bit above your unit cap (that is unlikely cuz u should have barrack in all ur cities with ur abondant production) you have so many hammers that it does not really hurt u there (only the growth).
Last but not least, the + per city is good with the policy that give food and gold for border growth.

So with this civ and this pantheon you can easily go war (and still catch up in infrastructure, it is not ALL-in like the pantheon giving you more yields on kills)

 

[Jakman217]

I've been playing the Celts for a chunk of today, and I can really see why I don't care for religious Civs.

My current assessment of the Celts is that the Pantheon is powerful and fairly easy to chose. Her Pictish Warrior is ok, coming in earlier, being slightly stronger, and giving faith on kill is nice. I have yet to progress a game far enough to experience her UB, but it seems nice enough. But with Religion being her selling point, I just find myself wondering what she is good at. To me Religion is a way to either shore up your weaknesses in a game, or to push an advantage in what VC you're seeking. But when your bonus is religion, it feels lackluster.

I'm currently working for a culture victory, but just feel like I'm always playing her wrong honestly. Maybe it's just my suck showing, or it's just my dislike for religious focused Civs, but that's my current stance. I'll keep trying the Celts, but any help or ideas would be nice.

 

[Owlbebach]

I also don't like Japan. While i can see it being strong - i think its just boring, moreover for it to be strong you need to cosplay Hitler and try to dominate the world. Wars are interesting and fun but not when fight for the whole 300 turns of your game, and this is exactly what Japans UA is pushing you towards to. And if you want to dominate the world - play Venice, its much more fun

 

[corrigan3]

So I tried 2 games as the Celts. And similarly to Jakman I couldn't get much success, UU helped to get a pantheon and religion early but I had to march across the world and attack my neighbors to do it. Tried a Progress run and didn't feel like I was even making use of my UU, so I tried Authority next game. Either I have no clue how to play Authority(which is the most likely one) or just had a bad run, but I fell behind almost immediately didn't have the happiness to annex any of the cities I took due to having to neglected infrastructure So I ended up with a few core cities and a bunch of puppets that didn't give me anything. Was near bottom for tech and policies the entire game. Eventually just gave up on the run.

I'm going to try another Progress run because that seems like the only thing I have success in. But I doubt the Celts are even close to the ideal progress civ.