Viralvoid
Warlord
Good day everyone, I'm Viralvoid; I'll be writing a photojournal using @pineappledan Colonialist Legacies' Republic of the Philippines for VP (https://forums.civfanatics.com/thre...es-republic-of-the-philippines-for-vp.653803/) and 3rd and 4th Unique Component for VP (https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/3rd-and-4th-unique-components-for-vp-official-thread.631657/)
I decided to write this because right now, I have a lot of freetime due to the current community quarantine. I hope you enjoy this journal, and I'm excited to share my experiences. Feel free to comment, criticize and ask questions!, It's been almost a year since the last time I played, so I've missed a lot of changes.
Settings:
This is the setting for my game; I forgot to change the difficulty to immortal, I don't want to replay the whole game for that.
Standard map size, standard speed, emperor difficulty, communitu_79 map.
Overview:
Philippines is a custom civ as you can see, and I'm very excited because this is my home country, anyway, let's discuss its UA.
My initial view on this UA is strong, but it's hard to use and it is quite random. It's UA allows Philippines to "build" different infrastructures from different nations, as well as policy building from Rationalism. In the early game, it is hard to maximize this UA because the number of trade routes is limited and some target cities have slow production, but it's a beast in the mid game to late game. You can get a lots of "free" diplomatic units, public works, and military units!
Unlike other trading civs like Morocco and Ottoman, The UA of Philippines is not that good when trading with city-states because these cities are not that great in terms of technology and production. Tactical switching of trade routes is a must if you want to maximize its UA, for example, sending all your trade routes on Japan to get a Dojo, then changing towards another another Civ with UB, then on cities with "rationalism" for the free observatories (if you're not planning on taking rationalism). Although, you can just send trade routes on good cities if you hate micromanaging.
For the unique component, let's start with Balangay because it's available on the ancient era. I really like this UU because it allows early exploration because it can travel across oceans, and it's cheap because it contains a settler and a naval unit.
The Coral Church has a lot of yields, it provides faith and gold, available at Civil Service and it can be built on landlocked cities. Balangay and Coral Church wants me to go wide, but it's not necessary though, I just prefer wide plays.
So let's begin!
Manila was founded on a coastal flood plain (ideal for Petra and Colossus). This is my starting location, where I'll have a tea luxury. I like tea luxury because it provides 10% culture, and it gives high production on tiles. I got a nomad ruin, and started working on Shrine->Monument.
After building the shrine-monument, I started building a worker. I wanted to try Goddess of Home, initially, I'm about to take Springtime, but I found out that it no longer provides faith on markets, and I'm researching trade for Petra. Home+Progress is quite a combo, so I took it instead.
I explored the landmass and realized that I'm alone, which is not ideal for my UA. In the image below, I marked the red tiles for the first wave of settlers, and the pink tile for the second. Cities on red marks are nearer, so it's safer to send internal trade routes toward that cities. Before building Petra (researching trade), I built granary->balangay. This step is important, so Petra is readily functional after being built.
I built the Balangay, and moved it on the east and started building Petra. I also started researching Wheel->Calendar, I need the production from tea, the 10% culture is not that important in this stage of the game. While moving my balangay, I met Kabul. I took Progress as my ancient policy, as I plan to go wide fast and it is synergistic with my pantheon.
I found Caloocan, and moved my balangay east to continue exploring, where I met M'banza Kongo and Hanoi, who gave me free pathfinder. I want to explore more on these group of islands for more city-states and to guide my pathfinder on collecting ruins.
I started researching Fishing->Animal Husbandry->Mining. I built Petra and started building another Balangay. I found Cebu and started exploring the western ocean. I took the left path of Progress which focuses on buildings. I started exploring the landmass on the south, and started collecting the ruins on the east. New cities will build Shrine->Monument->Well (if available)->Council. I started building caravan on the capital to send in Cebu.
I used my UA to build council in Manila by changing Cebu's current project to council, then swapping it back to Shrine. I started building different infrastructures to gain the free instant culture, food and faith from Progress and Home. I should've build Herbalist first before Market, but, it's not a big deal. I met Zulu's pathfinder on my landmass, so he must be at the north? or east?, it just mean that there is a shallow coast between us. Then I met France on the west. Zulu is also willing to trade 9 gold for Tea, which is a good help.
I continued exploring west and found this healthy sea, where I met Spain, Brazil and Aztecs, war will always brew here I predict (Turn 68). I also found this beautiful small island, I plan on settling here. Caloocan started building Herbalist->Balangay to settle on that island. I will build a balangay on Manila, to settle on the pink-marked tile (turn 26 spoiler).
Manila and Caloocan started building Balangays. I continued exploring the west, to meet Germany.
I continued collecting ruins on the east. I started to build 2 archers on Manila then a worker. I got the military theory technology from a ruin, so I changed my build order to Barracks->Archer->Archer->Worker. My tech order is from Bronze Working->Construction->Masonry->Iron Working->Metal Casting. I wanted to beeline Colossus. Bronze Working first to reveal iron and upgrade my warrior, and since I don't have enough workers, I made masonry 2nd.
I adopted my 3rd policy from progress, the free worker. I found Davao on turn 79 and moved 1 of my worker to improve the tea.
And a sudden hearbeak
I decided to just settle the city on the north of the landmass; 1st because it has 2 teas, and I don't want the Zulu to settle on that area after finding out that the Zulu is just nearer than I anticipated .
I discovered a stony island on the west.
I found Butuan and started exploring north to find the Zulus, although I made a detour and started wandering northwest lol. I started building another set of balangays to settle on that hill with a tea, on the stony island (Marked pink), and on an island on the east. The landmass on the south is uninteresting, so it is not a priority, but I'll settle there as soon as I got Banking.
I met the last major civ, Ethiopia, the first founder ofc.
I managed to found Sikhism on turn 93, with Holy Law and Mandirs. I took Holy Law because I'm planning to have highly populated cities (Mandir + Goddess of Home), and spread my religion on the neighboring city-states, and if Zulu failed to found a religion, then lucky me .
Manila finished constructing a balangay, and will build another one. After the last wave of balangays, I will start constructing lots of workers (about 10) and start building Luxury Resources->Roads->Horses->Quarries->Banana Plantations->Bonus Resources.
Thank you for reading, hope you enjoy! any comments?
I decided to write this because right now, I have a lot of freetime due to the current community quarantine. I hope you enjoy this journal, and I'm excited to share my experiences. Feel free to comment, criticize and ask questions!, It's been almost a year since the last time I played, so I've missed a lot of changes.
Settings:
This is the setting for my game; I forgot to change the difficulty to immortal, I don't want to replay the whole game for that.
Standard map size, standard speed, emperor difficulty, communitu_79 map.
Spoiler Setting :
Overview:
Philippines is a custom civ as you can see, and I'm very excited because this is my home country, anyway, let's discuss its UA.
Spoiler Philippines Unique Ability :
Trade Route Origin Cities gain 34% of the Target City's specific Production Progress each turn, increasing by 8% per Open Border Agreement with the Target Civilization. Both you and your Trade partners gain Culture when either of your Trade Units move through the other's territory.
My initial view on this UA is strong, but it's hard to use and it is quite random. It's UA allows Philippines to "build" different infrastructures from different nations, as well as policy building from Rationalism. In the early game, it is hard to maximize this UA because the number of trade routes is limited and some target cities have slow production, but it's a beast in the mid game to late game. You can get a lots of "free" diplomatic units, public works, and military units!
Unlike other trading civs like Morocco and Ottoman, The UA of Philippines is not that good when trading with city-states because these cities are not that great in terms of technology and production. Tactical switching of trade routes is a must if you want to maximize its UA, for example, sending all your trade routes on Japan to get a Dojo, then changing towards another another Civ with UB, then on cities with "rationalism" for the free observatories (if you're not planning on taking rationalism). Although, you can just send trade routes on good cities if you hate micromanaging.
For the unique component, let's start with Balangay because it's available on the ancient era. I really like this UU because it allows early exploration because it can travel across oceans, and it's cheap because it contains a settler and a naval unit.
The Coral Church has a lot of yields, it provides faith and gold, available at Civil Service and it can be built on landlocked cities. Balangay and Coral Church wants me to go wide, but it's not necessary though, I just prefer wide plays.
So let's begin!
Manila was founded on a coastal flood plain (ideal for Petra and Colossus). This is my starting location, where I'll have a tea luxury. I like tea luxury because it provides 10% culture, and it gives high production on tiles. I got a nomad ruin, and started working on Shrine->Monument.
Spoiler Turn 3 :
After building the shrine-monument, I started building a worker. I wanted to try Goddess of Home, initially, I'm about to take Springtime, but I found out that it no longer provides faith on markets, and I'm researching trade for Petra. Home+Progress is quite a combo, so I took it instead.
Spoiler Turn 21 :
I explored the landmass and realized that I'm alone, which is not ideal for my UA. In the image below, I marked the red tiles for the first wave of settlers, and the pink tile for the second. Cities on red marks are nearer, so it's safer to send internal trade routes toward that cities. Before building Petra (researching trade), I built granary->balangay. This step is important, so Petra is readily functional after being built.
Spoiler Turn 26 :
I built the Balangay, and moved it on the east and started building Petra. I also started researching Wheel->Calendar, I need the production from tea, the 10% culture is not that important in this stage of the game. While moving my balangay, I met Kabul. I took Progress as my ancient policy, as I plan to go wide fast and it is synergistic with my pantheon.
Spoiler Turn 35 :
I found Caloocan, and moved my balangay east to continue exploring, where I met M'banza Kongo and Hanoi, who gave me free pathfinder. I want to explore more on these group of islands for more city-states and to guide my pathfinder on collecting ruins.
Spoiler Turn 41 and 42 :
I started researching Fishing->Animal Husbandry->Mining. I built Petra and started building another Balangay. I found Cebu and started exploring the western ocean. I took the left path of Progress which focuses on buildings. I started exploring the landmass on the south, and started collecting the ruins on the east. New cities will build Shrine->Monument->Well (if available)->Council. I started building caravan on the capital to send in Cebu.
Spoiler Turn 60 :
I used my UA to build council in Manila by changing Cebu's current project to council, then swapping it back to Shrine. I started building different infrastructures to gain the free instant culture, food and faith from Progress and Home. I should've build Herbalist first before Market, but, it's not a big deal. I met Zulu's pathfinder on my landmass, so he must be at the north? or east?, it just mean that there is a shallow coast between us. Then I met France on the west. Zulu is also willing to trade 9 gold for Tea, which is a good help.
Spoiler Turn 62 :
I continued exploring west and found this healthy sea, where I met Spain, Brazil and Aztecs, war will always brew here I predict (Turn 68). I also found this beautiful small island, I plan on settling here. Caloocan started building Herbalist->Balangay to settle on that island. I will build a balangay on Manila, to settle on the pink-marked tile (turn 26 spoiler).
Spoiler Turn 68 :
Spoiler A Beautiful Island :
Manila and Caloocan started building Balangays. I continued exploring the west, to meet Germany.
Spoiler Turn 73 :
I continued collecting ruins on the east. I started to build 2 archers on Manila then a worker. I got the military theory technology from a ruin, so I changed my build order to Barracks->Archer->Archer->Worker. My tech order is from Bronze Working->Construction->Masonry->Iron Working->Metal Casting. I wanted to beeline Colossus. Bronze Working first to reveal iron and upgrade my warrior, and since I don't have enough workers, I made masonry 2nd.
Spoiler Turn 76 :
I adopted my 3rd policy from progress, the free worker. I found Davao on turn 79 and moved 1 of my worker to improve the tea.
Spoiler Turn 79 :
And a sudden hearbeak
Spoiler Sadness :
I decided to just settle the city on the north of the landmass; 1st because it has 2 teas, and I don't want the Zulu to settle on that area after finding out that the Zulu is just nearer than I anticipated .
I discovered a stony island on the west.
Spoiler Turn 82 :
I found Butuan and started exploring north to find the Zulus, although I made a detour and started wandering northwest lol. I started building another set of balangays to settle on that hill with a tea, on the stony island (Marked pink), and on an island on the east. The landmass on the south is uninteresting, so it is not a priority, but I'll settle there as soon as I got Banking.
Spoiler Turn 90 :
I met the last major civ, Ethiopia, the first founder ofc.
Spoiler Ethiopia :
I managed to found Sikhism on turn 93, with Holy Law and Mandirs. I took Holy Law because I'm planning to have highly populated cities (Mandir + Goddess of Home), and spread my religion on the neighboring city-states, and if Zulu failed to found a religion, then lucky me .
Spoiler Turn 93 :
Manila finished constructing a balangay, and will build another one. After the last wave of balangays, I will start constructing lots of workers (about 10) and start building Luxury Resources->Roads->Horses->Quarries->Banana Plantations->Bonus Resources.
Spoiler Turn 94 :
Thank you for reading, hope you enjoy! any comments?
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