Circus Maximus start.

[War_Pig]

Started my first game as the Persians today (King, continents, standard) going for a domination win. So I thought I might have some fun with it and go for their ach. for getting 5 golden ages in a single game by maxing out my happiness in every way possible.

With still only my first city I build a Colosseum then the Circus Maximus before expanding at all. Then from there using happiness to pick who I go to war with. Took out China first because they had gold and gems I needed. Then next was The Incas for their sugar and iron.

So I own over half my continent with over 30 happiness and making plenty of gold per turn for my army and is going fricking awesome. Was wondering if anyone has tried going for a Circus Maximus start much like the NC rush start yet? If not it might be worth a try.

 

[blac]

I personally find leading in tech to be more useful then happiness. I personally don't find myself sinking into unhappiness that much for it to be a big deal. I guess as Persia it might be useful because of their UA

 

[vexing]

what is this happiness you speak of?

 

[War_Pig]

I personally find leading in tech to be more useful then happiness. I personally don't find myself sinking into unhappiness that much for it to be a big deal. I guess as Persia it might be useful because of their UA

I can see what you are saying but I tend to be much more of a builder and find it lot more fun then my war games. All the added and from the 3 or 4 golden ages I've had so far has been a huge help fielding a good army and with the huge boost to happiness from all the happiness buildings I have been able to expand (both through settlers and taking cities) at Insane rates! From expanding so fast I am leading in tech anyway and if not am 2nd for sure (can't remember).

 

[Smote]

Be sure to use starvation to add even more happiness!

 

[snarzberry]

It sounds like a strategy I've been kind of working on in my head lately but haven't put into practice. I'm also going to try and maximize Darius' golden age ability but I haven't really put my ideas into practice yet. If I remember correctly there are loads of SP's that really help you, and some from deep in different trees. I was going to go for small number of large cities, but I want to see how big of a happy surplus you can run with, say, three super cities. This will allow a lot of policies, keeping friends with other civs and abusing research agreements and ending up with a space race win.

 

[wcbarney]

Be sure to use starvation to add even more happiness!

That's a joke, right?:

Yeah, I've read on other threads that nuking your enemy is a good thing 'cause it reduces the population of your newly-conquered cities & thus generates less unhappiness. Your idea of starving your cities to reduce population to reduce unhappiness is similarly unsound.

A large population is a good thing! You want your cities to be as big as possible so you can generate more science beakers & support more specialists.

-- Cliff in Virginia

 

[robvollman]

what is this happiness you speak of?

I think that's what our mothers feel when we stop playing video games, go out, and meet a nice girl.

 

[slobberinbear]

I think that's what our mothers feel when we stop playing video games, go out, and meet a nice girl.

Sometimes you meet a nice girl, get the girl, and keep playing video games.

Winning!

 

[slobberinbear]

On point, yes, I have often thought about trying to maximize Darius' golden age extravaganza.

Because Golden Ages are empire wide mammoth gold and hammer boosts, you want a big empire when these go off, but of course big empires have happiness issues and therefore fewer Golden Ages. What a conundrum!

Ultimately, you want:

* lots of happiness
* building Taj Mahal
* policies that grant Golden Ages, happiness, and reduced Golden Age "recharge time." Piety is great for this
* big food cities running specialists to generate Great People, which can be used to make Golden Ages.

In my opinion, Great Person Golden Ages are best used during a "natural" GA to extend them even further, because your extra happiness is not actually contributing to a new GA while you are in a current GA. You can extend GAs get even longer by triggering a social policy GA AND a wonder-granted GA. They all are additive! Thus, on a standard speed Game, Darius could theoretically trigger a natural GA (15 turns), great person (12 turns), social policy (15 turns) and the Taj Mahal (22 turns), for a whopping 64-turn consecutive Golden Age! It is not inconceivable that a second or even third great person could be generated, theoretically extending the duration by 19 more turns.

I need to see if I can string one of those together. Basically it's one giant Golden Age, followed (or preceded) by one or two stand-alone Golden Ages.

Because your happiness is not going towards a new GA while you are in a GA, you might as well "use" the happiness by expanding or conquering someone with your incredible production.

I think I'm going to post a game attempting this. My guess is that it may be best to defer the first GA until you are ready to string together multiple GA-granting events.

So something like this for strategy: REX while growing GA counter to 80%, then zero out happiness accumulation as much as possible while prepping other GA-granting events. The timing doesn't have to be perfect; the GA-granting events only have to trigger sometime during the GA to keep it going.

 

[DiamondPirate]

I was playing with Gandi the other night, entered a golden age in mid 10xx and it lasted 400 years. If I'd been playing as Persia, you'd probably have conquered the world by the end of that.

My only question would be do you for the actual Darius achievo, do the GAs need to be happiness triggered. Also, do you need to come in and out.

Because I cant remember ever playing a non-rush game in which I didn't trigger at least 5 GA's in some form or other. I can only see it being a real challange if you have to time them seperately.

 

[snarzberry]

On point, yes, I have often thought about trying to maximize Darius' golden age extravaganza.

Because Golden Ages are empire wide mammoth gold and hammer boosts, you want a big empire when these go off, but of course big empires have happiness issues and therefore fewer Golden Ages. What a conundrum!

Ultimately, you want:

* lots of happiness
* building Taj Mahal
* policies that grant Golden Ages, happiness, and reduced Golden Age "recharge time." Piety is great for this
* big food cities running specialists to generate Great People, which can be used to make Golden Ages.

In my opinion, Great Person Golden Ages are best used during a "natural" GA to extend them even further, because your extra happiness is not actually contributing to a new GA while you are in a current GA. You can extend GAs get even longer by triggering a social policy GA AND a wonder-granted GA. They all are additive! Thus, on a standard speed Game, Darius could theoretically trigger a natural GA (15 turns), great person (12 turns), social policy (15 turns) and the Taj Mahal (22 turns), for a whopping 64-turn consecutive Golden Age! It is not inconceivable that a second or even third great person could be generated, theoretically extending the duration by 19 more turns.

I need to see if I can string one of those together. Basically it's one giant Golden Age, followed (or preceded) by one or two stand-alone Golden Ages.

Because your happiness is not going towards a new GA while you are in a GA, you might as well "use" the happiness by expanding or conquering someone with your incredible production.

I think I'm going to post a game attempting this. My guess is that it may be best to defer the first GA until you are ready to string together multiple GA-granting events.

So something like this for strategy: REX while growing GA counter to 80%, then zero out happiness accumulation as much as possible while prepping other GA-granting events. The timing doesn't have to be perfect; the GA-granting events only have to trigger sometime during the GA to keep it going.

Yes, we're thinking along the same lines. Don't forget Chichen Itza of course. Every Piety policy helps you achieve what you're aiming at. And there are good policies scattered in Freedom and Patronage.

 

[kamex]

Be sure to use starvation to add even more happiness!

And don't forget, if you balancing on the edge of a Golden Age, and really need a few more smiles; dropping an atomic bomb on your own capital will be enough for peace and prosperity to begin.

 

[slobberinbear]

And don't forget, if you balancing on the edge of a Golden Age, and really need a few more smiles; dropping an atomic bomb on your own capital will be enough for peace and prosperity to begin.

Sounds like the Libya unique ability.

 

[Paradigne]

I was disappointed when I found out that popping Great People for a GA apparently doesn't count for this achievement.

 

[War_Pig]

I was disappointed when I found out that popping Great People for a GA apparently doesn't count for this achievement.

Yea this is way atleast on this play through trying this I'm passing on wonders and stuff that extend a golden age so it's not going to be a full on golden age like like Bear has going in another topic. After playing this one out I might have to give one a try since this game has been quite fun so far.

 

[vexing]

maximizing happiness for darius is going the wrong way - happiness does not matter when you're in a golden age, and there are plenty of ways to extend golden age perpetually as darius.

 

[War_Pig]

maximizing happiness for darius is going the wrong way - happiness does not matter when you're in a golden age, and there are plenty of ways to extend golden age perpetually as darius.

Yes i know. I'm not really going for a never ending golden age game just one were I get lots of them. Was going for the Get 5 Golden Ages in one game Ach. for them.