[BNW] Enjoyable Deity Games

[Nizef]

Here is a recap of the games in the Enjoyable Deity Games Experience (EDGE) series so far in 2020, (games from last year are listed on page 9 of this thread):
42. the Mayans 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Piety challenge
43. Siam (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Patronage partial challenge
44. the Shoshone 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
45. Poland 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Honor challenge
46. the Netherlands (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Liberty challenge
47. the Aztecs 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
48. the Celts (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
49. the Zulus (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Aesthetics challenge
50. Austria (Pangaea, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
51. Persia (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
52. the Ottomans (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Religion challenge
53. Rome (Fractal, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
54. Songhai (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
55. the Incas (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
56. Russia 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
57. India 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), CV challenge
58. Germany 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
59. Byzantium 2 (Fractal, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Religion challenge
60. the Iroquois (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Aesthetics challenge
61. America 2 (Pangaea, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded), DomV challenge
62. Sweden 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Petra challenge
63. Morocco 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), partial Commerce challenge
64. England 3 (Fractal, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), partial UN challenge
65. Portugal 2 (Continents, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), partial elimination challenge
66. Egypt 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
67. Polynesia 3 (Archipelago, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
68. Sweden 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
69. Germany 4 (Pangaea, Epic speed, Large size, Unmodded), War academy, part 1, DomV challenge
70. the Huns 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), War academy, part 2
71. Spain 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Huge size, Unmodded)
72. Denmark 2 (Lakes, Standard speed, Standard size, Otherwise unmodded but Rotate Starting Position was used)
73. Venice 2 (Fractal, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), DipV challenge
74. Carthage 3 (Hellblazer´s Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded with Hellblazer´s map script), CV challenge
75. China 2 (Pangaea, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded), War academy, part 3, DomV challenge
76. Mongolia 2 (Pangaea, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded), War academy, part 4
77. Brazil 2 (Pangaea, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
78. the Shoshone 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
79. Assyria 2 (Terra Incognita, Standard speed, Standard size, Otherwise unmodded but Rotate Starting Position was used)
80. Indonesia 2 (Small Continents, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), No Liberty challenge
81. Portugal 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
82. Japan 2 (Ice Age, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), No Order challenge
83. Persia 2 (Random map, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
84. the Netherlands 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)
85. Denmark 3 (Tiny Islands, Standard speed, Large size, Raging Barbarians, Otherwise unmodded but Rotate Starting Position was used)

 

[Nizef]

I have a pretty interesting map for this thread if you want it. You play as huns and you start with 10 faith, Petra, Hanging Gardens and Temple of Artemis. However enemies also have some minor bonuses like 4-6 settler and some of them have Mechanised infantry and Xcom on the beginning

This is quite far from my usual puritanistic approach and I am not sure I will include all games with less standard setups in this series. But it struck me that I am probably being too narrow minded and that we should give such a game a chance. So, since you think it is fun, there might be others who like it as well. I hope that we will get some feedback on this one. Also, please use the following instructions:

1. I would like that you ask before you upload (just as you did),
2. use the next available EDGE#numbering (86 at the moment),
3. Write a short introduction of what we are facing and any additional tasks (policies etc), (This is especially important in this case),
4. write behind a spoiler how your own game went,
5. upload a jpg-file of the starting location (are you familiar with an awesome site called png2jpg.com?) and obviously also
6. upload the inital starting file.

I am sorry for being a little picky, but I like a tiny bit of order.

 

[beetle]

For me it is situational. I value unique luxuries very highly and try to get them at least in the third ring if possible.

Nowadays, more than unique lux, I look to monopolize the lux that is near my starting location. Every extra copy is almost a guaranteed lux-for-lux trade (so, just as much happy as a new lux, plus you get positive relations for the trade), and it is generally easier to cover your natural monopoly than to extend territory to some unique lux.

I strongly agree that other terrain/strategic features are quite important, and that 3rd-ring lux/resources are absolutely fine (so long as you can keep any of the AI from settling them).

You play as huns and you start with 10 faith, Petra, Hanging Gardens and Temple of Artemis. However enemies also have some minor bonuses like 4-6 settler and some of them have Mechanized infantry and Xcom on the beginning

I am all for people crafting and sharing interesting scenarios. My own preference is for maps that I might roll for myself, if the RNG just happed to be good. I would like to see your game @BlackWizard posted to a different thread. OTOH, this thread has been so prolific, and there are already so many games I will never get to, that I happily defer to @Nizef.

 

[ForkOfSpite]

EDGE#80: The pain, part 1 (no liberty challenge)
Here the task is play as Indonesia on an unmodded Small Continents map with Standard size and Standard speed. QC and QM are turned on and all VCs are enabled as usual. I really wanted a map that we have not used much in this series, so thus I picked this one. The starting position is okay, there is definitely room to expand, many resources can be found where you would expect, so surely this is a nice ride. Well, NO! There are some nasty limitations down the road. In addition it is not allowed to open up Liberty! This is a much harder game than many others in this series. If you feel like giving yourself a rough challenge and some grey hair, this is the game for you. "Enjoy!"

Enjoyed. Science victory on turn 298.

Spoiler :

I went Scout - Scout - Shrine and ended up with the fifth pantheon (OWN) and last religion (Tithe, Peace Gardens - eventually enhanced picking up Asceticism and Reliquary). It took forever to get and Candi's up, so in retrospect, it would have been better to pick Asceticism first. Siam didn't found - used a couple of missionaries to help spread to the two city states and Siam. While doing so, I saw that Ram's army could absolutely annihilate me. It looked like he was going to DOW - wouldn't renew a lux trade deal for 7 gpt, and he asked me to stop expanding (which I did). For whatever reason, his attitude changed and we were best friends for most of the game - right up until the end. His attitude changed for the better before I got any of my trade routes up, and I didn't use any diplomacy tactics to change his attitude - I think I just got lucky.

Four city tradition: first expand to the NE and the other two near the natural wonder so I could switch which city worked it. Picked up the Oracle in the first expand and a very late Hanging Gardens in my capital because no AI's went tradition. In part due to the isolated start, I struggled with happiness until I was finally able to get Candis and the Circus Maximus. Later, I decided to expand to a 5-tile island with four hills and numerous fish and atolls. With settlers already in route to other locations, electricity revealed needed aluminum in a reasonable spot near Sri Padra (which I bought after Dido razed the Moroccan expansion which had it). Biology revealed some ocean oil three tiles away from the single stone island near the NW part of the starting continent. It wasn't a great spot, but it was workable. Ended with seven cities.

Trade routes were extremely late, and could only meet Siam early - very slow science early. My first espionage steal (Civil Service) only took 5 turns. Continuing, it was quicker to steal Education rather than research it on my own. In all, I stole at least six techs - four early from Siam (asked to stop after the fourth one) plus two from Mongolia. I think research agreements were helpful as well. I didn't want to anger Siam by competing for city states (stole one from Venice using my initial spy) but only remained friends with the two mercantile CS by Siam. Ended up with a strong 5-way alliance (me, Siam, the Inca, Venice, Morocco) through the middle and most of the end game. Ahmad followed me to freedom, but the other three went order. Enrico fell out of the alliance first, but after I renewed a late DOF with Ahmad, Ram and Pach turned.

Was on pace to be able to buy five spaceship parts and win in the 280-s or early 290-s. After upsetting Enrico, a spy indicated he launched an attack against an unknown civ, so I took some subs up there to take a look - it'd be useful to keep the aluminum expansion. I never found out where he went, but soon thereafter, I saw Dido moving an army/navy. When she was near my capital, I upgraded most of my navy, but she sailed right by - not sure where she went. Due to the upgrades, I lost the ability to buy five spaceship parts. After that scare, ideological pressure suddenly caught up to me (dropped to about 2 excess happiness) and was denounced by the order federation. After a couple of turns, I bought four spaceship parts (had recently finished hard building one) and then switched to order on turn 282 (mostly for the happiness but hoping that would be enough to avoid the DOWs). Ram declared on turn 291 but I was easily able to defend with x-coms, mech infantry, helicopters, destroyers, nuclear subs, and guided missiles. Pach declared later (296 or so) but never made it to my borders. Launched on turn 298. I didn't plan on switching to order - thought I had all the social policies I needed. If I had kept a GW or two, I might have been able to engineer the last spaceship part.

Social Policies (in order):
full tradition
exploration 3
full rationalism
freedom 7
order 5

 

[Nizef]

EDGE#86: Bad neighbourhood (No Tradition challenge)
This is a wild game. The task is to play as America on an unmodded Pangaea map with Large size and Standard speed. QC and QM are turned on and all VCs are enabled as usual. The starting position is good but you will need it! I manually added some of the bad boys to set a theme for this one. It turned out that I got more than I asked for... You can go in any direction you want but you are not allowed to open up Tradition. Enjoy!

There is a short recap of my game behind the spoiler.

Spoiler :

I settle on t1 where the Warrior started. 4 city NC on t83 and Education on t108. So far so good. It was helpful to have Sejong as my neighbour and that made it easy to catch up. Mr. Khan was thinking of visiting me early, but I diverted his attention towards Napoleon. Gustav had a bad time next to Monty but he managed to survive with two cities. New York (founded on the hill next to the desert Marble) was growing nicely and helped me a lot.

In the midgame I financed wars all over the place. What can go wrong when Shaka, Alexander and Monty start next to each other? I also settled the Dyes to the S for Iron as well. It was very isolated and I feared that France or Mongolia would take it. However, I stayed out of the mess. Nobody built the Louvre, so I opened Exploration and built it. Sejong was first to Industrial and I was third. He was also first to Modern and seemed clear that nobody could take him out, since the warmongers were falling behind. He took Freedom and I followed. By now it was clear that all other VCs were off the board, but SV was still possible.

In the endgame I went for a SV and launched on t307. Sejong had five spaceship parts but he still needed 1-2 techs. Gustav and Genghis were out of the game and Alexander had a bad time. Napoleon and Monty were the military threats, while Shaka had 20 cities but only outdated units. SP: full Liberty, Patronage opener, Commerce 2, full Rationalism and Freedom 7.

 

[ForkOfSpite]

On Deity, I haven't been prepared well enough for potential early DOWs - will try EDGE#86 to see if I can manage it. Hopefully, first try; otherwise, I'll use it as another lesson map to practice.

 

[beetle]

The next map I expect to share will be Polynesia. It occurs to me that I never have been able to abuse galleasses properly with them. Probably I will try Tiny Islands again. Suggestions are welcome, because it will be a bit before I am ready to post.

 

[Nizef]

The next map I expect to share will be Polynesia. It occurs to me that I never have been able to abuse galleasses properly with them. Probably I will try Tiny Islands again. Suggestions are welcome, because it will be a bit before I am ready to post.

You could try out EDGE#67 for a galleasses sweep. Of course you are also welcome to upload a Tiny Islands map with Polynesia.

 

[Nizef]

I finally had another go at EDGE#42 and got away with a SV on t338. Eventful game with wars even beyond t300 and no AI was close to win the game. 5 city NC and founded a sixth afterwards. I took Salvador in the midgame and Rio (from Carthage) in the late game. SP: full Piety, full Liberty, Rationalism 3, Order 7. One of my more exciting journeys but it felt a little bit like playing with the parking brake on.

 

[beetle]

You could try out EDGE#67 for a galleasses sweep. Of course you are also welcome to upload a Tiny Islands map with Polynesia.

Thanks! That is a great suggestion, so I am off to play your map!

Nope, sorry to say I cannot find the YASS map script.

 

[Nizef]

Thanks! That is a great suggestion, so I am off to play your map!

Nope, sorry to say I cannot find the YASS map script.

YASS is not a script at all. It was just my name for Salt starts when I realized that I uploaded unproportionally many of them. EDGE#67, as most other games this year, is totally unmodded.

 

[ForkOfSpite]

EDGE#86: Bad neighbourhood (No Tradition challenge)
This is a wild game. The task is to play as America on an unmodded Pangaea map with Large size and Standard speed. QC and QM are turned on and all VCs are enabled as usual. The starting position is good but you will need it! I manually added some of the bad boys to set a theme for this one. It turned out that I got more than I asked for... You can go in any direction you want but you are not allowed to open up Tradition. Enjoy!

First attempt - failure. Resigned on turn 76 after failing to defend New York. An interesting challenge might be to recover from massive setbacks, but that would be for a different thread.

New York forward settles an aggressive neighbor and it's open to attack, but I want that expansion - I'll use this as a practice map. The diplomatic and defense problems were already apparent when I decided to settle there, so the practice might be beneficial (i.e.. the strategies I'll try could reasonably be made without exploiting map knowledge).

Spoiler :

I had four composite bows to defend, but they were out of position - gaining XP on Sofia units to the south. Even if they were in position, I don't think I could have defended with only four composites. My only other two non-scout military units were an archer clearing barb camps on the east coast and a spear that escorted settlers and workers to the ill-timed northern expansions (and stayed there to hep protect against potential barbs).

In my next attempt, I'll try to expand more quickly in order to help get more units out. In addition, I'll make sure to research bronze working and get two or three spears. Preferably, I'll be ready when Genghis marches east, but if not, I'l try to bribe him to attack France instead.

 

[Nizef]

First attempt - failure. Resigned on turn 76 after failing to defend New York. An interesting challenge might be to recover from massive setbacks, but that would be for a different thread.

New York forward settles an aggressive neighbor and it's open to attack, but I want that expansion - I'll use this as a practice map. The diplomatic and defense problems were already apparent when I decided to settle there, so the practice might be beneficial (i.e.. the strategies I'll try could reasonably be made without exploiting map knowledge).

I settled NY one tile to the W from where you have Boston. That way I got one tile of Salt in range without Genghis being angry. Combined with where you have Atlanta&Philadelphia (and all of the mountains), they are a formidable defensive chain. I think I would not have dared to settle the spot you chose for NY, at least not if I didn´t go for Karakorum very soon after. Have you met all AIs already?

 

[raider980]

@ForkOfSpite I'm playing Edge 86 too. And just got to T78. My screenshot is in the spoiler, I like to compare maps so thanks for uploading yours.

Spoiler T78 Map :

I was tempted by all that salt at that expansion location too. Its an awesome spot. But I took the advice of everyone when talking about the Shoshone game because of all the warmongers in this game. I built my cities with defense in mind too. They're roughly in a square pattern. And there's room for two more coastal cities behind my empire that I'm going to try and settle.

I had to bribe Genghis to attack Napoleon around T70 because French troops were marching on New York. Hopefully it'll keep them both occupied for a while. Napoleon already took a new Mongol city and Genghis is about to take a French one.

I got Desert Folklore and a religion so I really want a city in that spot way to the west near that desert wheat and flood plains. Its very close to France though. Its so tempting to join Genghis and attack France but that would be risky. Better to stay on my side of the mountains until later. This might actually be a winnable game for me.

Spoiler Washington T78 :

 

[ForkOfSpite]

I settled NY one tile to the W from where you have Boston. That way I got one tile of Salt in range without Genghis being angry. Combined with where you have Atlanta&Philadelphia (and all of the mountains), they are a formidable defensive chain. I think I would not have dared to settle the spot you chose for NY, at least not if I didn´t go for Karakorum very soon after.

On my next attempt, I'll definitely settle on the referenced tile (desert river hill W of the marble). I chose settling directly on the marble so a worker didn't have to improve a tile I'd rarely (never?) work and to give the tile the city food & production bonus to make it reasonable. The second part of that rationale is, at best, misguided and a bad strategy habit I need to break - it's almost certainly better to give up the extra gold from settling on the marble for the extra production (and defense) from settling on the hill.

I think I'll try at least two more times to settle New York where I did in my first attempt, but I'll likely not replay it 10+ times to make it work. Even if I do manage to hold off Genghis, I'm also forward settling my northern neighbor - no idea when that civ will attack (had a DoF in my game), but it will happen.

Have you met all AIs already?

No - in that game, I had met ...

Spoiler :

Korea, Mongolia, Assyria, France, Aztecs, and Sweden. Since then, I've ready your summary, so I know Greece and the Zulu are in the game. Presumably, there's one more out there somewhere.

 

[Nizef]

Presumably, there's one more out there somewhere.

Yes. Not a very relevant one, but at least the leader is of the backstabbing type...

I'm playing Edge 86 too. And just got to T78. My screenshot is in the spoiler, I like to compare maps so thanks for uploading yours.

NY and Philly in the same locations. Washington two tiles to the N on the plains hill. Boston in range of the NW.

 

[beetle]

YASS is not a script at all. It was just my name for Salt starts when I realized that I uploaded unproportionally many of them.

Yet Another Salt Start, LOL.

EDGE#67, as most other games this year, is totally unmodded.

Weird, it does not even list when I try to load a game. I will try again.
EDIT: PBCAK — Problem Between Chair And Keyboard.

 

[Nizef]

EDIT: PBCAK — Problem Between Chair And Keyboard.

That is probably a very similar troubleshooting diagnosis to one that I frequently suffer from: PLTABE (Problem Located To the Area Between the Ears).

 

[beetle]

EDGE#67: I am sailing … Obviously we are playing as Polynesia with a YASS and some fish as well. We are playing on an unmodded Archipelago map with Standard size and Standard speed

I really enjoyed this map, thanks very much! I got a late Domination VC on turn 386. But that was before I won the WL vote, and none of the AIs had more than three SS parts, so it felt legitimate enough.

I wanted to try Polynesian Galleass-as-Frigates — but the map did not work out for that. (Shallow water between Polynesia and the nearest AI.) I really want to find a map where there is Ocean separating most of the civs. Maybe Tiny Island or Small Continents would be better for that?

 

[Nizef]

EDGE#87: The unconventional expansion (A challenge to conquer the capital of your neighbour early)
You have a fantastic start and your capital will be huge and have splendid production capacity. However you are short on good expansions and you have an aggressive neighbour. Furthermore there are not many mountains. What to do with that? Well, you have to conquer your neighbour´s capital before t100. The task here is to play as the Incas on an unmodded Pangaea map with Standard size and Standard speed. QC and QM are turned on and all VCs are enabled as usual. Keep your options open and go in any direction you want. Enjoy!

I played my game according to HOF rules and also submitted my game. There is a short recap of my game behind the spoiler.

Spoiler :

I settled on the desert hill on t0. 3 city NC on t80 and Education on t108. I took Tenochtitlan on about t85 as my fourth core city. I also got the fifth religion and took Tithe/Monestaries. However, Monty´s religion was superior (both Pagodas and Cathedrals) so I didn´t spread my own religion. Monty had a bad time between me and Carthage and eventually he was eliminated. Arabia and Babylon both had a rough time near Denmark. Both survived with one distant city until the end of the game.

In the midgame I was surprised to see myself being first to Printing Press and Acoustics. Thus I built both LToP and Sistine and later also the Uffizi. I wanted to go for a CV and Denmark (!) was my only threat with their massive culture. However, I had to endure 3 DoWs (2 from Portugal and 1 from Carthage) and was not able to push in front. I was second to Industrial, Denmark picked Authocracy but I went Freedom. After taking three cities from Portugal, I was satisfied with the size of my empire. Carthage and Sweden went Order but Portugal join me in Freedom. Arabia and Babylon never made it to Ideologies.

In the endgame I went for both a CV and a SV and launched on t312. I had to found a city quite late in the game to pick up some oil for defensive purposes but I was so far ahead of the AIs that not even Denmark dared to attack me. My culture output was decent but a SV was faster. SP: full Tradition, Aesthetics 4, Commerce 2, full Rationalism and Freedom 9.