[BNW] Community Deity Game 31 - Russia

[Grendeldef]

CDG 31 Russia


Please see the CDG Series Discussion Thread to express yourself if you have remarks and ideas. Some maps in the series use mods. This map uses the DLC map packs, so you will need “Explorers Map Pack”, “Scrambled Nations”, and “Scrambled Continents”, as well as the earlier (and more common) DLC such as “Wonders of the Ancient World”.

Please provide a screenshot of your victory turn. We also very much encourages pictures and stories related to the achievements and keys point in the game – because it’s fun to read for all of us! Restart or reload as you like, but in your write-up (which does not have to be long) please describe the challenges you faced.

We welcome all comments and questions, but please use the SPOILER tag if you attach a picture, make a comment about which civs are in the game, about natural wonders, locations of ancient ruins, terrain features, luxes, resources, etc. In short, if it’s information you can only know by playing the game, don’t spoil it for others by divulging this information in the open. Thank you for your cooperation, and have fun!

Before you download and play the map, please take a moment to speculate here in this thread on your initial thoughts and plans for the game. Will you settle in place? Will you try to found a religion? What are your plans for getting the most from the UA and UU? What Victory Condition will you be aiming for?

Difficulty: probably Easy, but achis are there partly to slow things down and offer some challenge.
The Lite version is an unknown entity and it can turn out to be a total walkover but in that case hopefully you'll get something out of it.
The purpose of the Cossack besides being thematically suitable unit is to ease, a lot, the Worker stealing and help out clearing barb camps as there will lots of those. The wish is that it won't be upgraded before one has sufficient oil to support it but there's no penalty even if it ends up as a Modern Armor on T20.
GE is there mainly for giggles but I'm also genuinely interested in what peeps do with it and what effect it'll have on the game.

Spoiler for opening screen shot :

Spoiler for UA, UB & UU :

Siberian Riches:

• Strategic Resources provide +1 Production, and Horse, Iron and Uranium Resources provide double quantity

Krepost:

• +15 experience for all units built in this city
• Reduces Culture and Gold costs of buying new tiles by 25%

Cossack:

• Common abilities:
  • Can Move After Attacking
  • Penalty Attacking Cities (33)
  • No Defensive Terrain Bonuses
• Special abilities:
  • Damaged Enemy Bonus (33)

Spoiler for map type and settings :

Std size Terra Incognita low sea lvl, 8 civs, 18 (std+2) CS and Raging Barbs.

Has some/considerable additional land (like the Askia map), few bonus NWs, blocking ice has been removed, continental coast is usually 2 tiles wide but on islands 1 or 2.
Few added ruins, several added resource tiles so with expanding everyone has access to those, some added luxes everywhere so going wide should be easier. CSs have been spread out a bit.

Spoiler Lite version :

Players starts with

- little faith so fast pantheon should be very easy
- some cash to support extra units
- Honor policy tree opened - will help with barbs & give easy culture
- GE
- Cossack --- *** Warning *** - if this gets an upgrade from a ruin it'll be way less effective with 50% resource penalty for at least 150 turns and much more importantly will not count for the achi #2 so avoiding ruins is something to consider or just reload & detour if that's your cup of tea.

All AIs starts with only one Settler but with extra Scout.

Spoiler Opponents :

these were random

Assyria
Brazil
Celts
Dutch
Maya
Shoshone
Spain

Spoiler Achievements :

1 - Age of military outposts

a) 1pt (1,2,3,4,6) per Krepost built before NC & Library in the city, capped @6
b) 0.5 pts per Krepost built before Education, capped @4

a & b combined capped @6


2) Age of Cossacks - max # of Cossacks alive before Atomic Era

4 = 1 pt
6 = 2 pts
8 = 3 pts
10(+) = 4 pts

+2 pts if at least 5 of those are on the other continent than Moscow. Continent defined as large mass having at least 1 original capital but not Moscow.


3) It's freezing but Rasputin laughs at you - # of cities having at least one improved tundra tile other than road before NC.

1 city = 1 pt
2 cities = 2 pts
3 -"- = 3 pts
4 -"- = 4 pts
5 -"- = 5 pts

1 pt for every city settled on tundra, the city center doesn't count as an improvement. The city has to be settled before NC.

capped @6 pts


4) Screw the infidels - buy buildings with faith before Information Era

2 = 1 pt
4 = 2 pts
5 = 3 pts
6 = 4 pts

+2 pts if all your self settled cities have a building bought with faith

or mutually exclusively

1 pt for each GS bought with faith


both ways capped @6 pts


5) Playground bully - puppet cities of major civs other than capitals before Information Era

1 pt for the 1st city per civ and 0.5 for additional ones

capped @ 4 pts for starting continent (defined as accessible without Navigation) and @ 6 pts total.


so 30 pts total

Spoiler for links to previous threads in CDG series :

CDG1: Persia, Oct. 31st, 2015, domination, Pangea, hard, map by Consentient
CDG2: Assyria, Nov. 15th, 2015, science, Pangaea, medium, map by Consentient
CDG3: Ethiopia, Dec. 2nd, 2015, culture, NQ Pangaea, hard, map by Consentient
CDG4: Spain, Dec. 17th, 2015, domination, NQ Pangaea, medium, map by Consentient.
CDG5: Indonesia, Jan. 2nd, 2016, culture, NQ Continents, hard, map by Consentient.
CDG6: Zulus, Jan. 15th, 2016, domination, Oval, easy, map by Consentient.
CDG7: Shoshone, Feb. 2nd, 2016, culture, Oval, very easy, map by Enslingkorp.
CDG8: Austria, Feb. 15th, 2016, science, Pangaea, very easy, map by IronfighterXXX.
CDG9: Brazil, Feb. 28th, 2016, culture, Pangaea, medium, map by Blatc.
CDG10: Denmark, March 14th, 2016, domination, Lakes, hard, map by Beetle.
CDG11: Venice, April 1st, 2016, domination, Archipelago, very easy, map by Wild_Woojsha.
CDG12: Byzantium, April 15th, 2016, domination, Continents, very hard, map by Beetle.
CDG13: Inca, April 30th, 2016, culture, Pangaea, medium, map by Shark Diver.
CDG14: Celts, May 18th, 2015, domination or culture, Oval, hard, map by Consentient.
CDG15: America, May 30th, 2016, diplomacy, Mesopotamia, medium, map by Beetle.
CDG16: Sweden, June 14th, 2016, domination or diplomacy, HB Continents, medium, map by Consentient.
CDG17: Germany, July 2nd, 2016, diplomacy, Pangaea, easy, map by Dan Quayle.
CDG18: France, July 14rd, 2016, diplomacy, HB Continents, hard, map by MaxAttack.
CDG19: Ottomans, Aug. 5th, 2016, domination, Continents, medium, map by Beetle.
CDG20: Portugal, Aug. 20th, 2016, domination, Pangaea, medium, map by Beetle.
CDG21: China, Sept. 9th, 2016, domination, Pangaea, medium, map by @Dan Quayle.
CDG22: Maya, Oct. 2nd, 2016, domination or science, NQ Pangaea, hard, map by @consentient.
CDG23: Iroquois, Oct. 15th, 2016, domination or culture, NQ Oval, very hard, map by @consentient.
CDG24: Babylon, Nov. 11th, 2016, science, Terra Incognita, medium, map by @beetle.
CDG25: Arabia, Jan. 15th, 2018, domination, Pangea Plus, medium, map by @beetle.
CDG26: Polynesia, Jan. 29th, 2018, culture, Small Continents Plus, easy, map by @beetle.
CDG27: Poland, Feb. 18th, 2018, domination, Terra Incognita, medium, map by @beetle.
CDG28: Huns, March 4h, 2018, domination, Terra Incognita, hard, map by @Grendeldef.

 

[beetle]

I love the achievements, very creative! We are thirty games in, and @Grendeldef is still coming up with new twists!

Looks like even the start was tweaked, as I have never seen Settlers spawn on a lux. Warrior two hexes to the East, but if nothing too startling, I will settle one hex NE to get off the hill and have one more workable Tundra tile.

I am going to chase achievement points as best I can, but given my limited skill set, I am predicting another late SV.

 

[Grendeldef]

Yup, as much as I can remember it Gems is an addition and a sort of bate for settlement I think. I did the usual 20 turns for kicks and so far it has been good.

Spoiler :

I went & settled for the riverside hill, got pop & culture from the first ruins and Mining from the 3rd, DoWed William on T12 for a worker and he gave another one 2 turns later. Then another culture & faith ruin so I'll get a pantheon next turn. Only met with Will & Isa so far which is a bit odd but lots of land to settle.

 

[beetle]

For 1a, Kreposts before NC: For scoring, is it a requirement to build the Kreposts before Libraries?

 

[Grendeldef]

Yes, that's the point.

Otherwise there would be a possibility to build Kreposts for 1 point on cities settled post NC.

And to make a further clarification there can be Libraries in other cities just as long as the build order in the city is Krepost before Library.

 

[raider980]

I think I'll settle on the furs to the west. I was tempted to settle on the Gems but since its bait, I figure that is probably not a good idea for some reason that I don't see. But the furs are better because they're worthless to work until later anyway. I'll move the warrior to the hill to the NE just in case there's something good over that way which would make me rethink my settling spot.

 

[Grendeldef]

As a general scouting advice I suggest going South and as more case specific you could do much worse than what I did. Sure, I played only 20 turns but I don't think I did a bad move.

 

[beetle]

Here is my GotM style Open Action Report:

• Spotted the river but settled the Tundra to NE.
  • I did not realize just how bad the food situation was, and on T99 when the Eastern neighbor took the good expo spot to the north, I reloaded to get a Settler out before Pyramids.
• BO: Scout x2, Shrine, Monument, Archer x3, Settler, Pyramids, Settler x2, Granary, Krepost, Library
• Hit my ninth (and last) ruin on T60 (for sixty faith), so that was was pretty good.
• I got the last religion, walking my GPr to St. Petersburg on T66. No faith buildings left, but neighbors are letting me buy theirs.
• Used Liberty finisher (T103) for GE for Oracle (in St. Petersburg, since it had good population), and Oracle to Open Tradition. Commerce was not unlocked when I got my next SP, so I will be putting the spares into Piety.
• With Kreposts-before-Libraries, and all the expos (I am at seven cities, and will plant at least two more), NC was late, T141. Four Kreposts before Libraries before NC (which I built in St. Petersburg, since it has such better production than Moscow. I won’t have a problem building four more before Education. So four achievement points for now, and I will max out at six.
• I have two Tundra cities w/ improvements before NC (for two points) I doubt if anyone will do better than that, as the Tundra terrain is worse than usual.
• Mostly I have been bribing away the problematic neighbor to the SE, but he just DOW’d me along with the further away AI to the SE, and she has both her UU. I think I will be okay, and make peace ASAP.
• Gold is a huge problem, but I have a DOF with the neighbor to SW, and I am periodically doing lump sum trades with him.

Two thumbnails attached, the second because Raging Barbarians is always amusing!

 

[Grendeldef]

Lovely barbs and I think that out of my 9 cities 4 of them share location with yours. I cleared few camps and saved one nicely located for culture farming but sadly in the first 100 turns I only got 2 camp clearing quests from CSs.

In general I do like RB but it is a bit of a double edged sword as it can also seriouly mess the AI which is gloriously incompetent in clearing the camp.

Spoiler :

I wasn't planning to do that many cities but since the others didn't I took the land. One reason for might be that @T100 I just made peace Will and I killed 2 of his Settlers. Also Assyria attacked Pedro right after I got my 2nd Gems online and the war is still going on. He also DoWed Isa ~T60 which I'm also to blame and managed to get Madrid few turns ago.

Oddly enough Assyria is also the tech lead but no one has hit Rennaissance yet. I'm slowly making my way towards Machinery around T110 and I'll start harvesting Assyrian troops though there is a fair chance that he will come to me before that.

 

[beetle]

Yes, that's the point. Otherwise there would be a possibility to build Kreposts for 1 point on cities settled post NC.

Well, I feel that Kreposts before NC would still tough enough. I build a couple while building NC.

In general I do like RB but it is a bit of a double edged sword as it can also seriously mess the AI which is gloriously incompetent in clearing the camp.

Yes, but I feel like that is a feature! I don’t know if you checked it out, but current GotM, Deity Songhai, disabled the barbs. I griped about that.

 

[penguin74]

Wasn't paying attention and did not realize that starting with honor opened would screw up my normal policy times. May use the free GE to get Oracle and put me back on track, may start over and factor in the extra policy this time. The barb culture helps offset it of course, which will factor in if I reload.

 

[Grendeldef]

Yes, but I feel like that is a feature! I don’t know if you checked it out, but current GotM, Deity Songhai, disabled the barbs. I griped about that.

I did take a look at it as you suggested but process went roughly like this: no barbs, no ruins, no go & move on.

Wasn't paying attention and did not realize that starting with honor opened would screw up my normal policy times. May use the free GE to get Oracle and put me back on track, may start over and factor in the extra policy this time. The barb culture helps offset it of course, which will factor in if I reload.

I was under the impression that if the policy is set on T0 it is actually free and not affecting the culture counter and if this is not case then sorry, clearly my bad but then again RB should offer enough kills to finish Liberty in timely manner.

 

[Grendeldef]

Two thumbnails attached, the second because Raging Barbarians is always amusing!

Bloody hot place and that sort of sentiments. I was about to comment the lazy scouting on T100 but just now I realized that the pic is from T141 - that looks just weird and the gpt is even more so.

 

[beetle]

I lost by SV T327 to faraway runaway who conquered his continent. I never did get my war on to any effect. I followed the obnoxious neighbor into Autocracy (to keep him happy), and stayed in it longer than he did, so I got Prora. Still, I had to switch to Order but never did get the 3rd tier policy. I also failed to get Hubble or close out Rationalism. So I was pretty doomed.

I am going to reload back to T200, right after I won Worlds fair, and play more conservatively. I kept putting down expos, even a couple after Oxford.

 

[Grendeldef]

After that I think there's a justified case for changing the difficulty from Easy. As a first thing in the morning I took a SS to compare the starts though I was only on T126. The other pic is after a small stint partly illustrating what playing in short sessions does - I finally noticed that I haven't enhanced my religion though I had bought half a dozen Pagodas & 2 Missionaries, huah.

Spoiler T126 :

Spoiler T142 :

 

[beetle]

I reloaded back 120 turns, was only a little more conservative as I could not help myself from planting more cites. I played better, but I got to Ideologies only seven turns faster. That was enough, as the AIs then made very choices. I was was still fifth to Ideologies, but this time I could be first to Freedom. I flipped to Order after getting the FLeas but missing SOL. Happiness actually got worse, but relations were better. Most importantly, I was able to close out Rationalism this time, and I got Hubble, so that (and with being able to faith purchase three GS) made a huge difference. My SV was late, T341 (hard built all the parts), but getting Hubble slowed down the faraway runaway (and also, I declined his RAs invitations).

I am going to try again from scratch, settling the river hill in OP, like a sensible player!

EDIT: Attached is a T222 screenshot from this first game of mine, showing how the AIs suckered me into planting late cites. Rostov and Vladivostok were in decent spots. In my loosing wars with the psycho neighbor AI to the SE, I would give those cities to the AI to the E. Eventually I peace out, and soon after the psycho SE AI dows the AI to the E, who surrenders Rostov and Vladivostok in peace deals. The psycho SE AI then burns down his spoils. So I replant once the hex is vacant. This sequence happened twice, in two different pairs of wars.

Also attached is my T341 SV screenshot.

 

[Grendeldef]

I got myself into T250 with two capitals to go so estimated ToA is ~T265 as I'm not expecting too much of resistance by troops but Rio is in not-too-good place besides my Army there isn't made battle agaist groung troops.

Pointwise it'll be 28-29 area the main obstacle being the tundra tiles. Also puppeting on the other continent was supposed to be an issue so I've played way too carefully as a build up for the last stage. Running 60+ happiness when the other two powerhouses have different ideology just came as a surprise so I've put too many hammers into happiness and slowing down the tech pace so no RLabs for example.
Another thing is that I wanted to avoid nukes this time and keep Cossack as the end of the line. Instead of waiting and wasting time I could just have bulbed my way into Bombers and be done with it long before this. Now I'll end up with half a dozen surplus GS , faith enough to buy at least 3 more, unbuild Oxford, Rationalism unfinished and Hubble still on the drawing board.


------add.------

Being away from the game even a short while makes wonders for motivation to end quickly so instead of building a proper attack force for coherent offensive I went all in and as occasionally I was truly surprised by the lack of proper opposition and took the last two capitals on T254.

For achis: 25,5 pts - I seriously failed with damn tundra tiles. After a recheck it seems to have been even worse.

1) 5 pts, 2 pre Library & 6 pre Education
2) 6 pts, 10+ Cossacks from ~T210 onwards till the end
3) 2.5 pts, one city + a tile in 3 cities
4) 6 pts, Pagodas in every settled (and annexed) city
5) 6 pts, puppets from Assyria, Spain, Shoshone, Celts & Brazil

 

[beetle]

@Grendeldef, sorry to be a rules lawyer. My replay from settling the river hill in OP is going much better.

+2 pts if at least 5 of those are on the other continent than Moscow. Continent defined as large mass having at least 1 original capital but not Moscow.

Do I get those two points if I do not keep the five on the other continent? So I have 5+ plus at home, while 5 swim over to another continent -- just to say hello -- and come back. I am not ready to DOW anyone on the other continent. DOM VC is not off the table, but I will not finish early.

 

[Grendeldef]

@Grendeldef, sorry to be a rules lawyer. My replay from settling the river hill in OP is going much better.

No worries. Amongst many of my perversions I have an odd interest in semantics though I'm more comfortable on home ground besides Finnish is more interesting in that respect and somehow I don't doubt that you're having a better start now after looking at the earlier pictures a number of times.

Do I get those two points if I do not keep the five on the other continent? So I have 5+ plus at home, while 5 swim over to another continent -- just to say hello -- and come back. I am not ready to DOW anyone on the other continent. DOM VC is not off the table, but I will not finish early.

Yes, as long as at least 5 Cossacks simultaneously are on the other continent (defined in the OP so swimming nearby or landing on a 1-tile islands doesn't count) while you have minimum of 10 Cossacks. No need to enter anyone's territory or keep'em there for more than 1 turn.

 

[beetle]

I don't doubt that you're having a better start now after looking at the earlier pictures a number of times.

No need to mince words, it quite humbling for me to compare my ~T140 progress to your own!

No need to enter anyone's territory or keep'em there for more than 1 turn.

The achievement had enough of its intended effect I think. I had half my Cossacks chasing the two points (and thus away from home) when I unlocked Clauswitz’s!