Double Magnus promotion in secret societies

[Zeuxis]

Hi Everyone,

So a while ago I won my first couple of games on Deity playing as Russia for a culture victory. I enjoyed it and so next I tried Eleanor of England because I love flipping cities with culture.

But I never seemed to be able to overcome her slow start and just got swamped every time.

Yesterday, I tried again and made one “small” change. Previously, I had always put Pingala in the capital as my first governor - for much needed science and culture. This time with the extra titles you get in Secret Societies, I double promoted Magnus as my first move. To cut a long story short, it is turn 95 and I am in the middle of the pack score wise and accelerating to the top with 11 cities already and 3-4 more to follow!

A growing capital, even with settler production, meant I was able to get an army of archers when Norway sneak attacked and take 3 of their four cities. I could spam out more settlers and start building theatres and amphitheaters.

With friendships with all bar one other Civ, it is perhaps the best start I have had - it shows how one early decision can make a huge change!

 

[tetley]

I always hated Pingala for first governor, but I like Liang for first governor when playing SS. That extra build charge pre-Pyramids, pre-policy-card is just too important. Then I like Magnus-Magnus for 2 and 3. That tends to time well with the +50% settler policy card.

What can change up the situation is whether you initial settle your capital on fresh water or not. The game is harder without it, of course, but sometimes that's just the hand you were dealt. Without fresh water, I see little need for Magnus #2 early on. You run up against the housing limit. And the antidote is to settle a second city, hopefully on fresh water this time.

 

[Zeuxis]

I normally get 3 governor promotions very quickly with ss so I can do Liang as well if needed.

I am not really good enough to win on Deity without a half decent starting position and so I restart if the first city has no fresh water. This game I had fresh water so it wasn’t an issue.

In my current game with Eleanor of England on Deity I really noticed a huge difference with the 2 x Magnus start. My capital grew and my science and culture went up even though I was spamming settlers from the same city. The double speed settle card added to this. Normally, I have to choose between growth of my main city and settler expansion and it was not uncommon to have my capital at pop 4 pretty late because it was the faster city for settler production.

I am completely blown away with my current game Deity game. It is turn 175 and after a brief early war that wiped out Norway (they declared on me) I now have over 30 cities! I settled about 18 and then started to culture flip cities to me. The third Void Singers promotion made this even easier and I could flip cities than had a small positive loyalty per turn. Scotland is our purely through culture flip and I am
over 500 points in the lead.

The last time I played Eleanor on Deity with a similar strategy but without the double Magnus opener, I had given up by this stage.....

 

[cain3456]

Moksha to Divine Architect is one I've used to good effect. Nothing like plunking down 3600 faith to instabuild a spaceport.

 

[Zeuxis]

Finished the game now and it certainly worked as by turn 225 I won a culture victory.

Being a bit of a nerd, I played on and by turn 276, I had flipped all of the cities in the game to me.

The cultists with -30 loyalty made this easy.

The AI doesn’t know how to use cultists at all. They make loads but don’t use them. They could have flipped my major cities but didn’t even try.

That double/triple early governor promotion certain changes the Secret Society mode games compared to other games!