Canada UHV, Regent/Normal, 1700 AD, SVN rev.986

[Fresol]

Here's the promised Canada game. I'm certainly no expert on playing these new civilizations, and I'd appreciate it if you guys can give me some pointers on how the game can be better played.

The three historical goals for Canada are:
1. A Mari Usque Ad Mare: Connect your capital to an Atlantic and a Pacific port by railroad by 1920 AD
2. Great White North: Control all cities and 90% of the territory in Canada without ever conquering a city by 1950 AD
3. Peacekeeping: End twelve wars through diplomacy by 2000 AD

The first goal is clear and not hard. Acquire the only coal in Canada and then build a railroad to connect Montreal and Vancouver. Notice that you probably need to have all the railroad built within your territory.

The second goal provides challenges. 90% of territory labelled with "Canada" means you need some thought on city placement. Cities can't be built on tundra(exception: lakeside or coastal) and ice, so look for available spots.

The "without ever conquering a city" part provides two challenges, actually. The first is racing against America. America has some historical tiles in "Canada" so you need to beat them to those places. Don't open border with America, and settle cities along the US-Canada border ASAP to block them off.

All cities in Canada, except St. John's will flip to you 2 turns after the Canadian spawn. That's right, St. John's won't flip to you, you'd have to acquire it through a congress, or by other means. You'll fail the goal if you acquire any city through conquering. So shift your focus from training settlers and workers to after the initial rush.

The third goal, peacekeeping, asks you to "buy peace" in the diplomatic interface for other countries, usually with technology or a handsome amount of . When you find yourself unable to negotiate anymore peace deals, research a new technology or accumulate . There's no shortage of war, and you can always create new ones with defensive pacts.

 

[Fresol]

Our starting city is Montreal.



I choose to adopt Scholaticism to spread Protestantism(our state religion) to Catholic Montreal.





Since St.John's(the only city in Canada that wouldn't flip) is under British control, I choose to sign DPs with France and America. America is the only real military threat to us, try not to be at war with them. However, don't sign OB agreement with them either.



OB with England.





World Congress. New Orleans and St.Louis keep changing hands between America and France.

I choose to chop all the forests near Montreal to hurry settler production. We need 3-4 settlers ASAP to block the Americans from settling western Canada and Alaska.



Chop forests to hurry a Protestant missionary in flipped Toronto.



Quite a few units joined up in the flip. However, the lack of workers is a problem.



Focusing on culture in Lousibourg(or 1SW) doesn't really help much with converting St. John's. We need spies to do the job.



We train settlers in Thunder Bay. Focus on settler production at the beginning of game.

 

[Fresol]

We have trained our first settler in Montreal. Prostestantism has spread to the city.



Buying Coporation from Japan(or any other country).



Hurry the forge production in Toronto. I'm not even waiting 1 turn for the discount.



Buying world map from the backward civilizations is a good idea.



Also hurry the levee production in Toronto. And after that, train settlers.





It's the right time(?) to change civics to Fanaticism+Free Market after training a third settler. The +25% bonuses from Fanaticism and Standing Army apply to settler production as well. Also, Fanaticism ensures only Protestansim spreads to our newly founded city.





Doing some trading.



I really hate this sort of city founding by the Americans. Terrible city location, luckily it is not in the "Canada" region.

 

[Fresol]

Look for possible wars to end. Right now there isn't any.



Our first GP is a prophet, let him wait.



We found Calgary in a hurry since an American settler is already in the vincinity. The founding of the city has expelled him back to the American border.



The founding of Regina ensures no American settler can travel through the midwest.



Hurry theaters and hire artists in all border cities for more . We need the coal and we need more cities to lock down the border.



The Canadian UB: royal mounted police provides happiness and a good amount of .





Another congress, this time in Marseille.



We settle Vancouver, our first Pacific port city.



Right now our only tradable resource is fur. Fur for whale is a very good trade to us.

 

[Fresol]

Our first caravel is out. Use it to contact more civilizations. Train an explorer too.



The coal is connected. Now we can build railroads. We need more workers so if you didn't get many of them in the flip, be sure to train some now. After sealing the border, it's possible to train some workers before spamming settlers(again) to settle all of Canada.



We found the city of Prince Rupert.



And Prince George. Remember that non-coastal(coast, lake) tundra tiles cannot be settled on.



Is is the Great Bear Lake? A city to the NW of it and another to the NE of it seem to be mandatory.



I can't resist signing defensive pact with Russia.



Bonus to coal plants, that's great! The only problem is we don't know what a coal plant is.



The city of Athabasca is founded. I used to hate settling cities close to each other, but not anymore.



We settle Barrow, but it's really not Canadian.



We also settle Hay River. I feel a big part of Canada gameplay is about figuring out where to put your cities. Of course it's not hard, but if you look at the historical goals, they are only about expansion, espionage(to get St.John's), and a tiny bit of (buying peace deals with new techs).

 

[Fresol]

It shouldn't take long to finish the trans-Canada railroads. If you fail(unlikely), train more workers next time.



Now we can shift our focus to espionage(not saying you should ignore settling the rest of Canada). Direct all on England, train spies and spread culture in St.John's. Royal Mounted Police can help with the job, Autocracy(we are staying with Dynasticism this game though) too.



Espionage missions are frigging expensive at the beginning. It might be wise to wait a while to perform missions(lower cost from accumulated and stationary spies). But do train a LOT of spies.





We buy our first 2 peace deals of the game from China. Remember the caravel? You need water units to contact the rest of the world.



We need more work on converting St.John's. Aside from that, we are constantly looking for possible peace deals.



The city of "Cambridge".



Great merchant Elizabeth Arden.

 

[Fresol]

I have no idea why Napoleon would want to cancel our former deal.



AI China always collapses, in 3000 BC, 600 AD and in 1700 AD scenarios. And often multiple times.



The city of Flin Flon.



And Lake-River.



"Hastings" in Ungava Peninsula.



We offer Spain 600 for a peace deal with Agentina. Maybe we should've offered Railroad instead?



Immediately after that, a world war breaks out, starting from Spain declaring war on France.



Yep, it's truly a World War.



We settle White Horse. By now we have finished settling Canada, just let the cities focus on for a while. We need more work on St.John's.



Now it's safe to open border with America(and it's only possible thanks to the war).

 

[Fresol]

Stability is just (uselessly)amazing.



A roaming Spanish rifleman was taken care of.



English infantries from St.John's are invading our territory! Luckily there're only a small number of them, they shall not take any of our cities.



Renaming the city to Hawaii. Or should it be Honolulu? Our unescorted galleon was sunk by a Spanish frigate.



I give up to Turkish destroyers.



Our cities are in place, time to start a golden age!



It's a shame anarchy still exists in a GA. Autocracy gives us the much needed bonus.





Doing some resource trading.



We are constantly spreading culture into St.John's.

 

[Fresol]

Canadian culture is starting to overwhelm the city, but there's no sign of revolt or city flipping. The congress wouldn't work either since we are in a war.



We need St.John's for our 2nd historical goal.





Peace deals come with a price, this time at the cost of Democracy. AIs really like to skip Democracy(for a good reason).



The in-city and tile culture percentages are different.





Signing peace treaties is the first step toward negotiating more peace deals.







A post-war congress and its decision: what does it have to do with France anyway? And why is Germany not in it?

 

[Fresol]

The backward countries are easier targets to negotiate peace deals, but very often they are not in a position to end the wars.



I feel the third goal of Canada should be called "peace making". Keeping peace is not what you do, you create wars and then negotiate peace deals.









Another meaningless world congress. If we had made peace with England earlier, we could've asked for St.John's.



Jing Ke, an assassin who failed to kill Qin Shi Huang, has a modern Canadian reincarnation.



Woo hoo! Go team America! Please board our Canadian Express!

 

[Fresol]

America takes the city of St.John's.



Now we need to redirect all on America. Seems like Jing Ke's mission was in vain, just like 2000 years ago.



Expansion stability is meaningless when you can't expand.



Ice tiles are really hard to cover with city culture.



Buying another peace deal.





Either fur is greatly valued or football is uninteresting. Anyway the Turkish people like the former better.



Democracy has brought us many peace deals. I thought the power of it was in collapsing civilizations you don't like.



Thank you very much, Lincoln. By the way, how did you know I'm trying to post this game on CivFanatics? You are truly saving me here.

Anyway, spreading culture to St.John's was the correct thing to do.



I don't think this can be called the 2nd World War.

 

[Fresol]

We have achieved the first 2 historical goals and only 3 peace deals away from victory.

And we are officially clear to wage wars! Against America! Hmm, I'd rather not do such a thing.



Man and woman, everyone loves fur.



We have no good use for this great artist.





Spreading culture to Boston actually made us lose the forest preserve tile! I'll stop doing that.



Our first and only oversea colony in Hawaii provides us with sugar.



An overview of our cities.



The great spy could've provided us with an additional 1 to 2 techs.

 

[Fresol]

Some strange bug happended when I first played this turn. Unit cycling was disabled and I received no pop-up in winning the game. I had to reload and play it again.





We steal techs from America with the we've accumulated.



With Communism we are finally able to negotiate another peace deal. And this is the last one of the 12 peace deals our historical goal requires.





And we have won historical victory with Canada.

 

[Fresol]

Comments anyone?

Next is a Brazil game.

 

[Eric Cartmenez]

Great to see some late game gameplays, I usually don't have the patience to play them.

Btw that act of graciousness from Mr.Lincoln came 2 strokes to midnight

Curious for the next one - interested especially in the Wonder goal realisation.

 

[ales_]

Thank you. It was quicker than I thought. Games as Canada are extremely rare, so thank you. Waiting for the next one!

 

[Fresol]

Great to see some late game gameplays, I usually don't have the patience to play them.

Btw that act of graciousness from Mr.Lincoln came 2 strokes to midnight

Curious for the next one - interested especially in the Wonder goal realisation.

I suggest trying a new start if you see Russia and Turkey having DP with each other. But otherwise it is possible to grab the wonders. Luck is needed but I got it the first time I tried the "into Canada" strategy.

Thank you. It was quicker than I thought. Games as Canada are extremely rare, so thank you. Waiting for the next one!

Soul-breathing demonstrated better gameplay in his Canada game posted in the UHV challenge thread. Unfortunately I don't get to see the many details in his game(as well as the many other games posted by various people there).

 

[Shadow Warlord]

So it looks like you needed 15 settlers to cover all of Canada? Maybe one day i'll give them a try.

 

[Fresol]

So it looks like you needed 15 settlers to cover all of Canada? Maybe one day i'll give them a try.

More or less.

I didn't notice anything about the Canadian UP during my game.

 

[calad]

Nice loophole founded. I never thought of getting defence pact and using it to make peace.