Do you ever struggle with Suzerain?

[Disgustipated]

Hmm, I never counted my envoys. I took a screenshot, it looks like I got 66. I was flying through the tech and civic trees so fast, that getting a lot of quests done wasn't feasible. And I admit I ignored the envoy game most of the game as I was focused on war.

I was actually proud I got some many Suzerains this game, but it helps when you eliminate the competition. But then I read the 100 envoys above, and I realize it wasn't all that great.

I've played Alexander before, but this game I was really dominant. Despite not a great starting position where I only had room for one city. I conquered Yerevan near me, and then focused on religion, then took everything in the old world. The civilizations smart enough to get to the new world got to live another day. It's only a King level game, but sometimes King level can get me more challenge than this. This shows how OP Macedon is. I got inspirations and eurekas for nearly every civic and tech.

 

[Disgustipated]

112 envoys. I'm kind of proud of this one. I didn't focus completely on the city-state game, but I did put forth more effort on the quests. But I didn't delay game progress for very much in an effort to get quests. The quest for globalization I get nearly every game, and I never do it. I'll never ever build 3 airports. It's a lot easy when I'm not doing a total war game since I'm not distracted by troop movements and can focus more on peaceful play. Screenshot taken the turn of victory (cultural victory, took a while since nearly every AI civ was going cultural).

Perhaps this is too easy you may say. But I'm pretty happy with the balance where it's at. In civ5 it was too easy to get suzerain with every single city-state once you were making enough gold. You really have to work on it in this game. I got every one but Preslav. But honestly, I don't even care for the suzerain bonuses of almost any of these city states I have in the screenshot aside from Zanzibar. The Kabul bonus is useful in my total war games, but this was my total peace game, so useless. You do have to focus more to get over 100 envoys, it's not a cakewalk to all suzerains like Civ5.

 

[liv]

That is nice. And what a pretty map. What kind of victory did you go for?
And no science states. That is a bit of bummer when that happens

 

[Victoria]

You do have to focus more to get over 100 envoys, it's not a cakewalk to all suzerains like Civ5.

You certainly do, well done, would you agree it makes you much more aware of them having played hard for them?

 

[Archon_Wing]

Some acropolis spam. As usual, I didn't pay attention to quests and I don't remember to slot the 2 envoy card

I also could havs liberated Hong Kong but didn't bother since I used it as a landing pad against the other continent

Edit: Fixed broken link

 

[kryat]

So I'm unclear on something, do you get the +2 envoys with diplomatic league from quests as well as manually sending an envoy?

IIRC, you also get the bonus if you are first to discover the city state.

 

[Victoria]

IIRC, you also get the bonus if you are first to discover the city state.

Yep, When you can get your boats out early on a continents map you can get a boat load of envoys if there is a cluster of CS on an island with this card.

 

[Disgustipated]

That is nice. And what a pretty map. What kind of victory did you go for?

Terra map from the YAMP mod, standard 2 to 1 size. I'm going to start playing this one more and more since I'm burned out on the Greatest Earth map. This is without Earth like continents, just random continents. It turned out to be a pretty interesting map, I'm happy with it. The mountains impeded my progress initially and could only get those 2 main cities you see in the foreground on the screenshot, had to get shipbuilding to get more cities. Luckily I had coast tiles to the "new" world where many of my cities ended up. Low production over there, but a ton of luxuries. Oh and barbs were off which tends to have the AI build more cities and overall be more competitive.

I should also note I was first to meet many of the city states since I explored the new world with my galley. So that certainly helped my envoy count. Also this map had more city states than I normally run with in a game. More city states = more city state quests.

And cultural victory is what I went for. I sometimes turn this off because when the AI starts going cultural victory I find myself building lots of theater squares to defensively compete, which kind of sets me on the path for cultural victory, so more often than not that's how I win. Both Nubia and Kongo were pumping out lots of culture this game, so it took me a little longer than usual. Peter was doing pretty well on culture as well.

You certainly do, well done, would you agree it makes you much more aware of them having played hard for them?

Most certainly. I still didn't focus 100%. Amsterdam trade route I only got on the last turn of the game since I was focussed on a lot of internal trade routes to help get lots of wonders up. I admit I was more focused on wonder building than city-state quests. Took a while to get enough trading posts to extend my trade routes far enough to Amsterdam. I generally tried to remember to check city state quests each era. In the past, often time I forget to check city state quests when entering a new era. That modern AT crew you see is from a quest to build a spearman.

 

[Canadian Bluebeer]

I don't like meeting all the CS until I have the 2-1 card. Then again, getting the free envoy for being first is also useful. decisions.

I will try to do as many of the quests as I can, depending on what they want, some are "um no, ain't gonna happen".
On marathon, the extra points per turn IS handy. It does add up.
Apadana is also very useful if you plan on doing a bunch of wonders in the cap.

Of course, there's always firetuner to just dump a bunch of envoys in.
Alas, no way to add them via worldbuilder. that I found. hmm... I wonder.... nope. Tried adding to the map via firetuner, but nope. drat.

 

[agonistes]

I don't like meeting all the CS until I have the 2-1 card. Then again, getting the free envoy for being first is also useful. decisions.

I will try to do as many of the quests as I can, depending on what they want, some are "um no, ain't gonna happen".
On marathon, the extra points per turn IS handy. It does add up.
Apadana is also very useful if you plan on doing a bunch of wonders in the cap.

Of course, there's always firetuner to just dump a bunch of envoys in.
Alas, no way to add them via worldbuilder. that I found. hmm... I wonder.... nope. Tried adding to the map via firetuner, but nope. drat.

Look at like this: either way, you're going to end up with 2 envoys. But if you meet them first, the other guy loses 1. Net effect +1 vs. the competition.

 

[agonistes]

As an aside, typically, my games are based around getting suzy of certain city-states.

Currently I have +2 culture per coastal district, +2 from trade routes per district at the target city, and +2% per great person earned... as Russia. And suzy of Granada. I have 1 theater district but 600 or 800 culture per turn in a world with most civs in ancient or classical age (for example, I just researched iron working, and as the leader in tech its 26 turns to machinery.... meanwhile I'm cruising to humanism at a blistering rate).

Which is unusual, I admit. I got lucky on quests matching up. But it also involves knowing when to spend envoys, and when to hold them, how to use the diplo cards, and civic hopping.