Call To Arms: CBO Weekly Civ Challenge

[Funak]

IIRC, the Continents++ maps (and maybe the simple continents+) are good for this.

Continents, Fractal, Communitas, A normal Pangaea works pretty well as well, Oval is kinda sketchy, hellblazers oval works well. A lot of the 'Scrambled' maps works well also. Inland sea probably works.
I didn't really want to give examples because that feels like I'm forcing a mapchoice on you, and this is supposed to just be advice.


One thing I have to say is that getting started properly as Portugal isn't easy, so don't be ashamed if you have to do a restart or so. I mean other than a few points of science from your caravans you're essentially playing a civ without uniques until Compass.
Give Maria a chance.

 

[thunderbird_14]

What's the link to convert Continents+ to ++?

 

[Rean]

Decided to give it a go with Portugal. Had a pretty decent spawn point on an island together with Pocatello and got up to 4 cities fairly quickly. Early on my 2nd city kinda ran out of useful things to build so I figured it might aswell have a go at Petra, see if I can get another trade route to make my UA do some work. Luckily nobody else bothered so I got it. Then I realized I was both close to a great engineer and to Metal Casting and so decided I might aswell go all the way and built the Colossus.

With both of them built, progress nearly done and my cities having mostly finished universities (gold from trade routes helped offset the fairly low production they had since two of them were mainly coastal/jungle based), my science skyrocketed and I quickly went up to Compass, where the real fun began.

I started building Feitorias everywhere, and seeing that boosts to their yields were nearby in tech they quickly became very strong tiles. I also opened Statecraft since I had a good chunk of City states around, one of which gifted me Conquistadors which I send across the world to settle inbetween 4 city states so I could quickly send Envoys from there to all of them, keeping them firmly under my control.

While doing this I started sending out Naus to all the city states I could find, and swapped my trade routes over to be almost exclusively sea routes to city states. The food and production helped Lisbon in growing to a strong capital, and the extra science for being allied with these city states added with my UA meant I was first on tech for ages (until Korea finally got it together somewhere near the end).

With all that setup I colonized another island with some conquistadors and Pioneers for 4 extra cities and started cruising towards a diplomatic victory with the help of Freedom (seriously, I ended up with city states having well over 1k influence). Only slight danger was Pocatello going Order, promptly warring me and trying to kill my city states off, but I was successful in defending them, took some of his nearby cities and let him lick his wounds. He wasn't really relevant after that (nuked him into oblivion as I was about to win though), and I won an easy diplo victory in the end.

All in all it was quite enjoyable. The Feitoria is definitely a decent tile improvement, if a little limited by the strict placement rules. The Nau's ability was very helpful, both in providing all the luxuries I could ever need, some gold to compensate for building them and ofc the food/prod from traderoutes. I didn't get to use them in combat but they'd probably wreck there too, with their increased base strength and free promos.

The UA ability gave me a ton of great admiral which basically translated to a ton of luxuries to trade away, though if you're heavily at war the UA is probably a lot more helpful. The science also helped keep me in the lead for most of the game.

One thing that bothers me about it though is that it doesn't show in your science per turn, making it rather hard to estimate how many turns you'll need for x tech, makes planning around it rather annoying. It would be a lot easier if it just added the science as a trade route yield rather than the on-move thing (which, as far as I can tell, is essentially the same but doesn't benefit from %increases and doesn't counter illiteracy).

Also, fun closing fact: if you send them far enough from your capital, you can buy Naus for cheaper than their two cargos sell for. My city inbetween the city states could make about a 100 gold per turn buying Naus, having them sell their Cargo and then deleting them (though this could also be used to field massive navies far from home). I was too lazy to abuse this but if you wanted too you could easily do this in multiple cities and make tons of gold.

 

[Funak]

One thing that bothers me about it though is that it doesn't show in your science per turn, making it rather hard to estimate how many turns you'll need for x tech, makes planning around it rather annoying. It would be a lot easier if it just added the science as a trade route yield rather than the on-move thing (which, as far as I can tell, is essentially the same but doesn't benefit from %increases and doesn't counter illiteracy).

I don't actually know if there is a practical difference between getting science/GG/GA points per turn for every active trade-route and the getting points every time a trade-route moves. There might be one.


Glad to see you enjoying yourself anyways, my Portugal game ended up failing miserably because of a terrible spawn and terrible neighbors.
I was also making things harder for myself by playing a Pangaea (and ended up with most city-states inland). Probably going to give them another go tomorrow and later today before I reveal the next weeks challenge.

 

[Gazebo]

I'm going to give Portugal a small numbers bump (+3 from +2) and add Gold as an on-move yield to their UA. Should help sustain their relevance.

G

 

[Rean]

I don't actually know if there is a practical difference between getting science/GG/GA points per turn for every active trade-route and the getting points every time a trade-route moves. There might be one.


Glad to see you enjoying yourself anyways, my Portugal game ended up failing miserably because of a terrible spawn and terrible neighbors.
I was also making things harder for myself by playing a Pangaea (and ended up with most city-states inland). Probably going to give them another go tomorrow and later today before I reveal the next weeks challenge.

Assuming the trade route bonus is giving in a similar fashion to Morocco, I think it benefits from empire wide stuff like Rationalism opener, but don't quote me on that. More importantly though, it saves you the effort of calculating yourself when your techs will actually be finishing.

And yeah, I had to restart my first game since it gave me a terrible tundra/snow start, couldn't be bothered sitting that one out.

 

[Funak]

Assuming the trade route bonus is giving in a similar fashion to Morocco, I think it benefits from empire wide stuff like Rationalism opener, but don't quote me on that. More importantly though, it saves you the effort of calculating yourself when your techs will actually be finishing.

I don't think so. The Moroccan yields are actually added to your total income, the science from Portugal isn't.

And yeah, I had to restart my first game since it gave me a terrible tundra/snow start, couldn't be bothered sitting that one out.

I actually ran with it, tundra-start and all, until I realized that I had to fight a landwar with Shaka during the gunpowder era to be able to catch up

 

[tompliss]

Currently playing with Portugal. Not ending soon, as I'm trying a Marathon game, and reached the Nau 30turns ago.

I feel like Portugal needs it's UA to be included in the city more than it getting buffed. My game is more tall than wide (5 cities), but getting 5 trade routes (got colossus) would boost my science per turn by 30%.

I'm currently leader in number of techs without rushing science buildings nor science techs, and focusing on high cost techs...

 

[Funak]

Currently playing with Portugal. Not ending soon, as I'm trying a Marathon game, and reached the Nau 30turns ago.

I feel like Portugal needs it's UA to be included in the city more than it getting buffed. My game is more tall than wide (5 cities), but getting 5 trade routes (got colossus) would boost my science per turn by 30%.

I'm currently leader in number of techs without rushing science buildings nor science techs, and focusing on high cost techs...

But the new challenge is revealed tonight you'll never make it.


Anyways, how did you build this? Policies and general strategy? Also a bit curious about your mapchoice.

 

[Rean]

I don't think so. The Moroccan yields are actually added to your total income, the science from Portugal isn't.


I actually ran with it, tundra-start and all, until I realized that I had to fight a landwar with Shaka during the gunpowder era to be able to catch up

I meant if they changed it, currently it doesn't get benefits from anything indeed which is rather annoying.

 

[tompliss]

Anyways, how did you build this? Policies and general strategy? Also a bit curious about your mapchoice.

So, the basics :
Map : Fractal, Large
Difficulty : King
Speed: Marathon
12 civs, 28 CS (increased from 24, I think).

IMAGE of turn 507 : 1035 AD.

Spoiler :

I originally wanted to try an aggressive game, so I went with Authority.
I "quickly" settled 2 cities: Goa and Luanda.
Goa was settled there because Moscow is just behind the 2 CS in the East (You can see its 12 pop at the bottom right of the screen). The first GG I earned (mainly through caravans) got me my first horses and the ivory to build War elephants
Luanda came soon after, to secure the peninsula where I settled Sao Tome afterwards.

Having basically never played in Marathon speed, it felt like I was falling further behind, every turn. The Inca settled Sipan and attacked me mid-late-classical. I had no Iron at that time, so I fought defensively and lucked out culturally, managing to get the Honor Policy, spawning 2 garrisons to turn the tide. I didn't want to capture Sipan, and the other Incan cities were protected by mountains and hills, so I agreed to the first Peace offer he gave me, and focused on getting back on track.

Russia was much nicer, and agreed to buy my luxuries and even the horses at a high price, helping me rush-buy most of my buildings.
After a while, the Inca then even the Shoshone became friendly and bought my whales (I got monopoly).

Once in medieval era, the political relations seem stable :
On my branch of the L-shaped continent, Greece is the jerk nobody likes. On the other branch, it's Attila, of course.
I am happy not to be Greece's neighbor, as, as usually with Alexander, he declared war on everybody at least once. As he's the only other who managed to found a religion on this branch, I could spread my religion to the Inca, Russia, the Shoshone, and Germany.

I was helped by going piety (currently have 3 piety policies, opener included, leading by 1 in number of policies). I took this tree to help me go wide in the future, if I decide to try a domination victory.

I'm thinking about Science victory, otherwise, as I am leading (26 techs, second ones have 24), and will have high prod cities thanks to Feitoras (I think).


I basically just discovered Egypt in its island. He hasn't met anyone else. I am not sure why he has that low a score. I think it's because his island isn't that big, and he has nearly no army. He even let barbarians capture one of the CSes of his island. anyway, once I have astronomy, I'll have to decide whether I conquer him or just convert him.



PS: about the UA : I currently have 80 science per turn + 20 thanks to the trade routes. I have libraries in half of my cities (and no university).
Gazebo, would it be possible to put the +2 science to the origin city ? It would help the player know when the techs will really get researched.
Also, as it will help against illiteracy and that it will be boosted normally (by happiness bonus, and the +X% science), it may not need to be +3, I think.

 

[Funak]

Cute setup you've got going anyways

 

[Funak]

This week I figured we'd move away a bit from Europe and instead focus on Asia. I had originally planned something else, but the recent talk about this civ, and the semi-recent change to their UA made me change my mind.

Anyways, this week we back our word with nuclear weapons as we play as Gandhi, leader of India.

 

[tompliss]

the semi-recent change to their UA made me change my mind.

What change ?

 

[Funak]

What change ?

Gazebo changed how their religious pressure was calculated a few versions ago. It used to be completely worthless, the religion never spreading from your capital to your satellites, now it is supposed to work better.

 

[tompliss]

Well, India it is, then.

So I went with more normal options (back to Epic speed, and only "Standard" sized map).

Here I was, 30 mins ago :
(turn 316, 1480 AD)

Spoiler :

Rome just vassalized, Egypt and Indonesia in my 2 previous wars.

I chose the God-King pantheon and Liberty policy tree. I settled 3 cities, but didn't build more than one shrine. Indonesia got his religion up and running quickly (bonus from fishing boats with pearls monopoly resource and some other fishes; science-boost building, and Sacred Garden). He spread it Egypt and the city I forward-settled near Egypt quickly, so I didn't try to found my own religion : I already decided that I would conquer the world

I got Ivory near my second city, so I produced some War Elephants and Catapults and trained them by capturing Zanzibar. Seeing as it was fine against a high strength city, I went after Egypt. I managed to destroy his army and incapacitate him relatively quickly (his UU is so early in the game it was nearly obsolete against War Elephants).
I captured his capital and 2 other cities, included one nearing Indonesia; then vassalized him.

After some turns, I unlocked the India UU, produced some of them (while continuing to produce War Elephants) and attacked Indonesia. the Assault was a bit longer, because of the wide front, but the Indian UU has a high defense, so I got him, while upgrading my catapults to trebuchets. Then, same thing as for Egypt, I took the relevant cities (only the Capital and the western city). Once I built the East India in Jakarta, I got 2 of the Spices monopolies anyway, including the growth one. Jakarta was also the Holy city, so I got some great prophets (3 in a few turns, as I got some faith generation from the captured cities).

Then, it was Rome's turn. It was faster than India, even though Rome had a bigger army : the front was wide but flat, and his capital was all the way to the north, so his forces were spread too thin. Same protocol as before: Annexing some cities, keeping my empire continuous, trying to get nice cities, and capturing the capitals. In the screenshot, he just surrendered.

I played a bit more after the SS, getting open borders from Persia, Brazil and Polynesia, as I'm going after Korea (because he's leading in Techs and Policies, getting all the Wonders).
Tech-wise, Compass was near the bottom of my non-researched tree, so I'm reaching the point where I'll have to change my Trebuchets for Canons so get some damage agaisnt the Korean army, but I'm really low in Iron (and my 3 Longswords have march and medic, so I keep them).
Korea also has 8 delegates (I'm the second highest with 4, I think), so he's leading for everything except army size and list of friends :/

Anyway, I'll post again tomorrow, I think, for the next episode

 

[Funak]

A new week, a new challenge. This week I figured we'd tackle Brazil, because of the Olympic games currently being held there.
Anyways same deal as all other weeks, if you want to, you play a game of Brazil, and if you feel like it you can report back here. Good Hunting.

 

[tompliss]

So, after my previous post, I continued my Indian game.

I managed to conquer and vassalize Korea (same deal as before, get most of the cities, including the capital, and vassalize it with 3 rubbish cities), even though he was the second in score, science and army.

He had many double-hitting trebuchets, upgraded from his UU, but didn't often managed to get two hits from them, even on his roads, because of the action needed to set up after moving. Being on the defensive against my units that would come up to them didn't help those.

Anyway, it was pretty micro-intensive, but I managed to do it. Afterwards, I still had nearly double the military score of Brazil or Persia, and 20 turns before the declaration of friendship with either finish. First in tech, policies, army, votes, ...
And there was why I don't usually do domination victories : I already knew I basically won, but it would have been a slug to finish it, so I stopped

To sum up my feelings about this game :
Not founding my religion but conquering the holy city that spread its to me felt like a good choice, because by then, the religion was in 2 other civs who would spread it with their missionaries. Of course, that means you don't really choose the first beliefs of the religion :/
The growth part of the UA doesn't feel active at all and I didn't really feel it. I wonder whether it would not be more fun to have an effect on "new pop" to encourage the player to get growth, rather than giving them growth.
The UB felt like a nice little boost, but nothing exceptional.
The UU, on the other hand was really good. IT is easy to rush quickly in the tech tree and stays relevant for a very long time. Their increase CS help them survive even on a full on assault, which means they accumulate promotions and stay ahead of most other units.


Anyway, now I'm gonna try Brazil, for a Science or a diplomatic victory, I think

 

[Funak]

Anyway, now I'm gonna try Brazil, for a Science or a diplomatic victory, I think

Yeah, the extra culture doesn't necessarily have to translate into a tourism victory. Culture is useful for most games.

 

[Myrrdin_Emrys]

First huge post here. I played your first civ challenge with america Funak, but due to some issue with my computer (or should i mean with no computer) for several weeks, I just end this game 5 days ago, maybe a bit late to post a report here.

So i tried ur new challenge, my first time with Brazil. Long time not playing Civ V but i'm confident maybe a little too much and got crushed by attila neighboor in less than 150 turns, so nothing to report here.
I decided then to lower down the difficulty to immortal and i was crushing the AI too easily... so nothing interesting to report again !
Damn i'm stucked between 2 difficulties !

Well let's go for another round of Deity Brazil (communitas map, raging barb, normal size with matching number of civ and city states)

Shak'a Jungle !​

I, Pedro II from Brazil, Emperor from the cultural Empire started near the coast : 4 jungles near me (if i don't the one with encens in it). Could grab some ruins(maybe 4 or 5) so it's a good start.

Spoiler :

On my landmass only 1 neighboor but it's Shaka from the Zulu's people. The weird form of our landmass force us to expand quickly for the same spots.
Who will run faster to be the best settler ?

Spoiler :

To enlight the world with my culture the first step is to take control of the best place of the continent, and i found 4 others cities first on the landmass. All is under control, first step is a success.
In the meantime our exploration is well-rewarded, people love sophiticated glorius flok as mine. I meet the city state of La venta and by helping them they gave my a nice boost of religion point in this early stage. And soon they understand they need my social enlightment and are looking for an alliance with us, we gladly accept this rightous and pious people.
La venta helps us to get religion third, even we a pantheon that doesn't give a lot of faith (patheon of all creation for early culture bonus, we never are too much advanced, and for the great boost of happines helping us to settle and getting those precious golden age and carnaval !)

So by the end of the classical, the blessed land of brazil are a religious, and cultural power. Even the economy due to the brazilwoodcamp flourished. But the fact is Shake is annoying : by going for authority he could settle fast too (even if we had the great pyramids of brazilian egypt) and now our empire is divided.
Time to renforce our only weekness : our military strengh, so end of classical/start of medieval are time for us to prepare to export or righteouness ! We build a "large" army either to prevent any hostile intention from our nieghboor and maybe to grab some new-already colonized land !

Spoiler :

But let me explain here the situation :
As you can see the two cities of Kwadukuza and Bulawayo are cutting my empire in 2 parts, in the north, Shaka could conquer the city-state of Omus which was one of my target to get some tribute and grab some land by building forts or citadels from them... now its not really worth it since they rallied Shaka's empire.
So to expand now there is only one way... lets speak our weapons ! But our empire could maybe not stand a fight against the fearsome Zulus. So the best idea is to remind our ancien allies (La Venta) who was perveted by some nasty foreign diplomats to be now an integral part of our empire.

Our religious power grows up quickly, the 2 mix up empire of brazil and zulus helps a lot to pressure and convert Zulu's cities. They happily accept our religion and are eager to spread it over the world. Finally Zulus can be of an great help : they convert in our holy name the empire of china south to us on an isolated landmass and far away the kingdom of Japan.

Spoiler :

During the Renaissance we contiue to expand our territory by taking control of another religious city state. Our religious power should not be contested by some people who call themselves "religious" !

China colonized the extrem south peninsula of our (zulus and mine) landmass. Shaka didn't take it well and soon after went for war... Those pacifist strangers didn't really bother us, and if shaka and china weakens tehmselves finally it's good for us !

But something might fear us... a weird designed ship not afar from our coast ! Seems our religious cultural empire is really really late in technologies ! 49 for the Aztecs we are barely near 35 discovered technologies : what a gap ! But it's not so important, i have good relation with otehrs empire, and our religion is fascinating the whole world (mandir + stupa + reformation belief that add tourism for religious building ! + with shrine, temples and the 2 submentionned bulding in all our cities our empire generates a big amount of faith that leads to a lot of great prophet then holy site generated ! religion=tourism)

Our cultural-tourism power is in place but on fact is troubling us : the war between China and Shaka is over. Time to reinforce our troops which one didn't really grow up in number since the middleage. Few decades later ( a little more than 10 turns) the impossible happened : war betwee, Zulu and me, the doomday of the enlightment over the brutal force

Spoiler :

Incapable to fight against such army our empire fell off into the limbo of the hell ...



Even if i lost it was a great game. Maybe deity is a bit too harsh for me but seems immortal is a bit too easy, so i'm a little stuck.... but if you have any advice i would gladly hear them out !
About my possibles mistakes or my thoughs about this game. I went for progress maybe authority would be a better choice. When i started the war against La venta i had the military power to fight against shaka, and i really would have if i had a little more fleet. (if we were even in term of ground force, he wad a strong navy not as mine). During the renaissance/start of industrial i had to focus on tourism building, because montezuma had such good leading position in science i could not afford to delay tourism over military... if i was probably right to do that to pretend to win the game it finally was lethal few turns later against shaka.

The UA of brazil was really fun. I had tons of happiness (pantheon belief + another advanced belief gave me happiness per foreign followers) so I could start perma golden age and carnaval (the social policy in art or science or religion that starts a golden age helps a lot !)

Finally english is not my native language at all, feel free to comment my strategy or my english here