Cultural domination - My first Story

[MRick]

Civilization : Babylonians
Difficulty : Regent
Civ Version : C3C 1.22 (French)
Map Size : Medium, 8 Civs
Pangea 70%
Everything else : random.

Variant : Cultural Domination
Cultural Victory is OFF
SpaceShip Victory is OFF
Diplomatic Victory is OFF
Wonder Victory is OFF
Domination & Conquest are ON

I'm not allowed to take a city by force, nor can I raze one.
I can only capture a city by flip, or by propaganda.

This variant is inpired from here :
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=117392
and here :
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=85350&page=3

Here is my start :

 

[MRick]

Cool start !
Gems not far away, Flood plains and hills (I love hills)

I hope the French text on my screenshots are understandable for every one. I will subtitle if needed.

My first objectives are to build at least 3 AA wonders.
The most effective ratio for culture/shield are the GL and the Colossus.
The third one will be either ToA or the Pyramids, or both if I can.

I start Wandering around and I find some wheat on a flood plain, I will put my 2nd city around.

 

[MRick]

That's nice, I find lots of gold, more flood plain (and desert unfortunatly, I wish I was AGR) and a second wheat !

My 2nd city will fit well on that hill near the wheat flood plain and with golden hills and mountains to the south.

But I will not put my 3rd city near the 2nd wheat, I need a costal city fast If I want to build the Colossus.

Oh, and there is a goody hut !

 

[MRick]

Unfortunatly there's only a bunch of stinky barbarians in that goody hut !

Well, that is only regent, it should be Ok and my warrior will get veteran !

By that time, the road to the gems is completed. My people is happy !

 

[MRick]

Ok my warrior gets rid of the barbarians, and becomes Veteran as expected.

I found my 2nd city as planned, and find some water in the south (look at minimap) It is a bit far but it could be OK...

 

[MRick]

Hmm I think I post a little too much screenshots.

Ok then it is the REX race, and the wonder race.

My other cities are founded quickly, but I need one close to water for the Colossus. One of them (Uruk) is finally founded in the north as I found an ocean near water there.

The GLib is built in Babylon (after a prebuild with some other random wonder).
I start a pre-build in Niniveh for ToA or Pyramids, and Uruk starts building the Colossus.

I discover the Germans to the east, I'm not too happy, they are scientific, and usually build loads of libraries and therefore get strong on culture.

I find the Mayas to the West. In the hands of a human player, they are great builders but controled by the AI, I've never seen them become really strong.

I find the French to the south. It should be Ok but I've always seen them well played by the AI.

I find the Egyptians to the South-West. They are Religious so they will have a good culture. Not so good, but I'll have to do with it.

I find the Celts to the South-East. I have not much experience to see them as AI, as I very often play them myself. But as AGR and REL, they should be annoying if they manage to build lots of cities and cheap temple in them... Also there is a lot of desert to the South-East, they could take advantage of that.

It's quite longer until I find out the 2 other civs, even though I know they are the Mongols, and the Japanese (I've seen Karakorum and Kyoto in the F11 screen).

The Mongols, it is fine, they are always very low on culture. It's only too bad they are so far away from me.

The Japanese are REL, so they will have cheap temples, I have to be carefull about them to...

Unfortunatly there are no Zulus. In the games I play against the Zulus below Emperor difficulty I always flip several of their cities, I think they are the worst AI Civ on culture...

Ok after some time I find a Japanese warrior in German lands, and a Mongol one in French Lands.

I build embassies and I find there capitoles on the minimap :

 

[Azash]

Great story! The screenis are appreciated, but try keeping in in less posts (Yeah, like I have anything to say )

 

[MRick]

I switch my gov to Republic as soon as I can.

I lower my science to 0% with only a scientist in a city, and wait the techs pourring from the GLib. It is not necessary at regent, but I can get a decent amount of cash that way. This cash will be usefull for rushing buildings later.

I finish the Colossus in Uruk
And the Temple of Artemis in Niniveh.
I'm too short for the Pyramids, the German build them in Berlin.

The Germans are quite anoying, they planted a city (Frankfurt) very close to me. Nevermind, I build Shuruppak right next to Frankfurt, I rush a Library.

The Celts also are expanding in the desert. I build Samara right between 2 of theirs (Alesia and Augustodurum), and also rush a Lib.
(I already have Temples in every cities thanks to ToA)

Well it seems Brennus didn't like it, he declares war on me !
This fool doesn't have Iron ! hehe !

I have swords (from upgraded warriors mainly) and also several bowmen (that's my UU !) and start to upgrade spears to pikes.

It is now the begining of Middle Age, I think it is OK to trigger GA, so I use my bowmen against him !

And I start crushing every Celt unit around, and go pillaging his lands.

And suddently, in the same interturn 2 cities flip !

The wise citizen of Augustodurum and Frankfurt wish to join my Republic !

 

[MRick]

Then Brennus comes and begs for peace.
I've pillaged all Celtic lands except around a far remote city, and they are only sending an archer every 2 or 3 rounds, so I accept peace.

During this war I was still building lots of cultural buildings, and starting wonders (with Sun Tzu as pre-build for the Sistin Chapel). But I still didn't have Monotheism so I couldn't build Cathedrals.
But the IA (lead by the French, the Maya and the Germans) were very slow on techs and developping only the path to Gunpowder. So I resumed some research on Monotheism, to be able to build Cathedrals.
I did that only around 300 AD, and it was already a little too late, I should have build Cathedrals earlier, because every Cathedral I build before 500 AD will double their culture output before 1500 AD.

Also my Sun Tzu prebuild for Sistine Chapel would be wasted if Theology comes too late. I don't need Sun Tzu for this kind of game, it's only 2 Culture/turn...

As I did in the east, I build Eulbar and Izibia close to Mayan cities to make them flip.
But they didn't flip (I think because Chichen Itza was too close)

 

[MRick]

After Frankfurt and Augustodurum, I wanted to put some cultural pressure on Heidelburg and Richborough, this is how I did.

Edit : Cool, I found out ! I had to upload the picture, not attach it !

On the F11 Screen, everything is fine :

- Babylon is the best city in the world
- I was reelected for the 1428th time at 72%
- The Baylonian Republic is the most populated country in the world
- We are the richest people in the world, GNP or by citizen
- The most productive, total and by citizen
- The largest territory
- The most educated thanks to our Libraries in every city
- The least polluted

For desease, well ok, we can do better, I've ordered to cut all those jungle and marsh, but I don't know what to do with the malaria in the flood plains. We need those flood plains for the food !

Well we don't have the best life expectency, but that's because of those crappy pyramids in Berlin. The German people pretends that their nobles, live forever in those big tombs ! That falsifies the statistics.

For the family size, I suspect the statistics are false. How can my population grow with only one child per family ?

And my citizen only have to spend 3 years in the military service, that's the shortest time of the world !

 

[Own]

Wow! I never could've gotten this far on cheiftan. Good game so far.

 

[CoolioVonHoolio]

domination by culture??? you know theres no way to win conquest by culture (capitals dont flip)
this game is crazy! in a game ive only flipped maybe 2 or 3 citys from little civs.

 

[MRick]

Coolio : Yes I know, conquest is almost impossible.
Well it's theoritically possible because I can get a capital by propaganda. It is very very difficult but not impossible.
But domination is easier by far, all I need to do, is get 66% of territory, by culture...

Here is some usefull piece of info :
The probability of flipping :
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=41933

The rules for propaganda (and other espionnage missions) :
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=97042

Here is my culture graph by 320AD :

 

[Lord_Iggy]

And he can get cultural victory easily too.
Oh, I know a little french, but what's the 'Marche' unit? It should mean walk or something like that, but I don't know any units named anything like that.

 

[Own]

No, he turned cultural victory off.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Oops. My bad.

 

[MRick]

Lord Iggy : "Marché" is not a unit, it means Marketplace.

And yes I disabled cultural victory.
As Xerol stated in this thread :
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=117392
It would be harder if left ON because I'll have to complete domination before triggering Cultural victory.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

Oops. My bad.

 

[MRick]

I didn't have time to come and post the rest of the story but I had time to play it, it is well advanced now, but still I don't know if I will be able to win by domination, I'm only 36% territory and I need 66%...

I'll try to come and post tomorrow or Friday, hope I hope you like the story.

 

[Lord_Iggy]

I still like it. I'd never thought of a cultural domination victory until you started this thread.