[BNW] Enjoyable Deity Games

[Shark Diver]

EDGE#65 - Thru t57

Spoiler Quiche-Eating Surrender Monkeys Must Die :

The challenges of this map described by others was very readily apparent. There's no freakin room. Oh, and I share my island with cannibals (Zulus).

I settled on the Sugar as it looked like it would have more production tiles over time. I found out quickly that it was a 4 lux Capital, so at least that's useful. It's still going to be a bit slow at the beginning.

I sent the Warrior South and found the goodie there (El Dorado). Since I was working the cows to get to Pop 2, I was able to buy the Setter quickly and marched straight to El Dorado and bought the tile. This city is very defensible, surrounded by CS, Mountains, and El D. It's going to need to be, because I unknowingly settled right in Hiawatha's face (sorry buddy, I didn't know you were there.) That early Culture boost got its borders expanding fast and I worked the Bananas once it grew there for 5 turns so I could get to Pop 2.

Because of the early Culture, I opened Piety after Opening Tradition so I could get my shrines up in the Cap and City #2. I got a 30 Faith Pantheon and took One With Nature. I figured that'd give me my best chance at founding. 3 other Regions went very early, including one to my neighbor Hiawatha. I guess I'll use the Culture boost to get some Honor policies, which is rare for me.

I only got 2 ruins - Spearman and Pop ruin to take my cap to Pop 3.

Tech is all over the place but I should get a reasonably early NC.

BO was Scout - 3 turns into a Settler while I waited for Pottery to finish - Shrine - Archer - Settler - Archer - Library - Archer - Granary starting work boat. I used up all of my chops early. I considered Mausoleum but it went early. Oracle is probably the only early Wonder I'll try for and I may not delay my NC for it, as I'm going to beeline crossbows to deal with Shaka so I'll be late to Universities.

BO in City #2 was Shrine - Granary - Archer - Library

BO in City #3 was Caravan - Library

I thought about settling the River next to Lake Victoria, and still might depending on what's going on with Shaka. It's got plenty of production and won't need a Caravan to grow.

France forward settled me and quickly grabbed my Marble. That simply won't stand. I DoW'd him with a Worker Steal and ended up stealing 4 from him (so far). I used one of them to bait his units out of the city, so now he's mostly defenseless. I was going build a Chariot or two to take that city before marching on Paris, when Shaka DoW'd France. With Shaka doing damage on his expo, I was easily able to move in and sack the city. It'll fall this turn and I'm razing it. No crappy cities allowed.



The problem here is that Paris is already taking damage and my only capture unit is going to need to heal for a couple of turns. Maybe I can get my archers there in time to block any melee units he has. Or maybe built a scout in the 2nd expo? I don't know, but if Shaka takes Paris, it'll ruin my chances of getting a strong infrastructure game and I'm going for Total War.

If I can get promoted X-bows before Shaka's inevitable Impi rush, I should be able to handle him......hoping for Defender of the Faith.

This is not going to be pretty.

T67 Update

Spoiler Down goes Paris :

After Shaka helps me take down Paris, I am very unhappy and will be for another 8-9 turns. Paris didn't keep its library and even though the AI is building a library, the pace of 21 more turns would have delayed my NC, so I'll have to leave it as a puppet for now.

Shaka then offered me a DoF and I hastily accept. This caused me to totally pivot my strategy into playing a Tall game. I'm going to try to time a settler on the Lake Victoria spot and hopefully friendly Shaka doesn't mind too much. I've only got one coastal, so seafaring conquest is probably out. I need to see how strong Hiawatha is and see if I can time when I want him warring with Shaka. I imagine he's not too happy with my war mongering. Maybe I'll dogpile him with Shaka and see if I can get a cheap 3rd cap. Shaka does the work, and I get the rewards......sounds like a good strategy to me.

I don't normally play this aggressively, but these EDGE maps seem to dictate some space clearing, at the minimum. I'm enjoying new challenges.

I should have plenty of happiness, especially if I get a decent religion. 3 are gone and I haven't been checking what's been taken as I haven't really developed my religious strategy yet. My Prophet should spawn soon and my El Dorado aided Culture start is pretty good, even with the upcoming delayed Monument in Paris.

Oracle is still out there and I may build it first (before NC) now that I don't have to beeline to X-bows.

 

[Shark Diver]

EDGE#65 - T100 Update

Spoiler This sucks :

Since I changed my approach to go peaceful (hopefully) I planted my General to steal some happiness and iron. Let's hope I don't regret that. I'm gambling that I can keep Shaka friendly and at Hiawatha's throat and friendly with me. I'll be kissing Shaka's arse all game as he already has Impis out and I haven't even upgraded to CompBows (although I can afford it). Shaka and I gave Napolean peace, so he's left with one feeble city from which to denounce us. It'll be useful if I ever need to pay Shaka to war someone cheaply instead of coming my direction (I'll have watchers on his lands). I did ally a Military CS who is giving me Kris Swordsman (I've got 1 so far) so that's kinda nice. I diverted my tech for 4 turns to get Iron Working and I expect to be able to get 4 or 5 if I can keep them allied.



I didn't get a religion. The last one founded when I had 188 Faith banked. The problem was that Hiawatha's religion overpowered my pantheon so El Dorado stopped producing 4 FPT. That is frustrating. At least Hiawatha's Protestantism is useful, perhaps I'll conquer him later if he reforms with something good. I gave him open borders so his religion would spread to my sh*tty cities faster. At least I've already bought 1 Cathedral.



Shaka beat me to the Lake Victoria spot so this is going to be 4 city Tradition, if I don't go for conquest later. If I replay this game, I'm going to settle that spot and hopefully not p*ss off Shaka. It's a really nice city spot and I would have taken it had I scouted better, but I didn't find it until too late.

I did find Morocco and it looks like I can explore the other continent(s) without having to divert to Naus. This was a pleasant surprise and I build an immediate Trireme. I may not have any resources to trade with other Civs, but at least I should be able to meet them all in a reasonable time.



My cities suck. My cap sucks. My tech sucks. My culture is OK. Gold currently sucks but I'll be fixing that soon. At least happiness isn't an issue when you are barely growing.



Opening Piety was a mistake in retrospect, considering I didn't get a religion. Since that's already happened, I may take Organized Religion to generate some Faith as I do want to purchase some great people. Will need to find and focus on some Religious CS.



My strategy right now is to stay peaceful, explore, and build what infrastructure I can with my weak production. This Empire will have decent growth, so Science will be strong later on, but these cities aren't going to produce diddly squat until Hyrdro Plants. I'm going to focus on Portugal's strength, GPT generation, in the midagme and late game and hopefully buy all for Hydro Plants. That ought to make me competitive late game, if I can stay peaceful and work the CS game well, which is possible if I can get my GPT rolling.

Cultural Victory is probably off the table, seeing as how I'm unlikely to build many (any?) Wonders. Science Victory is the most likely, but if I can get the GPT really going, maybe a sneaky Diplo Victory is in play. Should I beeline for banking and get Forbidden Palace, and then open Patronage? I'm thinking a Commerce game could work well with Portugal. We shall see.

Prediction: If I can execute, a Science Victory pre-t300 seems doable with all 4 sh*tty cities being garden cities. This game is winnable, but I've got a ton of work to do and am starting out further behind than I'm used to. Fortunately, I had years of playing sub-optimal games before I learned enough from these boards, so this isn't totally foreign territory and I may have a few tricks up my sleeve. I'm going to need them all. I'll hid Education before t120, so I'm only about 10 turns behind my benchmark. Early NC (t85) will help a bit.

I thought my use of the General was pretty darn clever and it made Sh*tty City #2 much more viable, not to mention some benefit if Hiawatha ever tries to invade.

 

[Nizef]

Both fantastic and hilarious report. Everybody who has tried #65, will know what kind of frustration you are talking about.

 

[Shark Diver]

Both fantastic and hilarious report. Everybody who has tried #65, will know what kind of frustration you are talking about.

It really is a challenging map, but it's the right Civ to try to steal a victory with GPT and I'm growing now with Civil Service. I'm rusty on this Civ, but if I can pull off the needed Diplo success (meaning managing Shaka), I think this is winnable. Of course, I haven't seen the rest of the world yet, and a runaway would be annoying. I'm going to be late for the sea techs, but I'll get there about the same time I'll need Nau gold for Hydro Plants, so there are some synergies possible.

 

[Shark Diver]

T117 Notable Updates

Spoiler Viva La France :

Napolean is being a jerk for some reason. Perhaps he doesn't like what I've done with Paris, but he's not letting my Trireme pass for any price. So I paid Shaka a small pittance to remove his arrogant arse from the game. This will hopefully trigger more acrimony between Shaka and Hiawatha and I can get them to war more cheaply than they are currently demanding. Hiawatha might be able to hold him off given the narrow passage to approach, but both have open borders with me, so Paris could get messy.



Look at that screenshot above again. How the F#$^ can someone have built Sistine on turn 117. That is ominous. So now I have a weak start, scary neighbors, no production for 1000 years and now I have an unknown AI somewhere doing tech things I've never seen? Yeah, this sucks.

Edit to add: Yes, getting Education on t100 and then beelining Acoustics by t108 is doable, but when was the last time the AI prioritized Sistine like that?

Cities are finally growing after Civil Service. I should be able to work Scientists early this game as I'll get to Pop 10 everywhere quickly.

 

[vadalaz]

Finished #121 Ethiopia with a T212 victory

Spoiler :

Second time playing the map. I played this map to about T70 the first time with the capital settled in place, and I hated the slow growth so I scrapped the game. In my second playthrough I settled on the coast, then planted two more coastal cities and an inland one in the north to connect all those sweet resources.

Spoiler T50 :

Reasonably fast religion and Reformation, but the AIs focused on faith pretty hard (5 of them went Piety), so by the time I got my first Prophet there were no faith buildings or good happiness beliefs left to take. Ended up with a pretty mediocre religion: Gem faith / Tithe / +2 faith per wonder / +15% production / cheaper Prophets / To the Glory of God (which ended up being useless as I only bought Musicians anyway).

After Writing I went for Iron Working to grab Colossus and finished it on turn 73. Tried to go for Oracle next, but Askia got it on turn 78. On the bright side I managed to get a late Hanging Gardens in my inland city so it wouldn't need any caravans to grow.

NC T91, Education T115 with detours for Iron Working, Engineering, Guilds and Optics.

Spoiler T114 :

Note that I'm trying to make use of Piety production overflow here, working max hammers in Adwa, Lalibela and Addis Ababa. Universities are critical buildings, so it makes sense to me to time the Temples this way. I'll buy the university in Harar.

Stole Astronomy from Portugal and Banking from Morocco. The spy in Marrakech revealed that by turn 125 Ahmad had been building Globe for a few turns already, so he had Printing Press, but the World Congress hadn't been founded yet. Apparently the Ottomans got crushed by Carthage before any Moroccan scouts could reach Istanbul.

I knew I had to hurry if I wanted to get LToP, so I sold the Shrine in Addis Ababa and rebuilt it as I researched Printing Press, getting some good overflow production again. I also burned one Artist for a Golden Age there. That might've been overkill, but who knows.

Spoiler T150 :

Radio T152 with one bulb and Oxford. I chose Order, took +25% to Great People and Skyscrapers first, as I didn't really need the Monument happiness at the time. World's Fair was easy to win, I think I put 1400 hammers into it (that's 50% on Standard size&speed I believe?) and then started spamming Archaeologists.

Meanwhile Ahmad finishes Uffizi. Marrakech is starting to look like a fantastic city to capture as it has Great Library filled with theming Great Works, Globe, Uffizi, Notre Dame, Mausoleum and more. Songhai is in the way though, so Gao needs to fall first. Besides, I still haven't forgiven Askia for stealing Oracle.

I bribe Carthage to attack Songhai, meanwhile making a tech detour to Dynamite and building cannons. Dido deals with Askia's units, so I move in a few cannons and take Gao easily. I upgrade to artillery and, to my amusement, Maria asks me if I want to attack Ahmad. Why yes, that sounds like a great idea.

The only issue here was that I backstabbed Askia. If I had planned the attack earlier I wouldn't have renewed the DoF. Enrico was really mad at me - this will end up costing me a couple of turns in the end, as I couldn't get open borders with Venice.

Spoiler Spoils of war. What's with all the unimproved tiles though? :

The second Congress was perfect: I proposed International Games, Ahmad proposed Cultural Heritage Sites, and both were passed. Victory is in sight, it's just a matter of time now.

I finish Aesthetics, and get Monument happiness + Five Year Plan from Order. You can get insane production overflow with these policies. Monuments have +150% to production from Order and Aesthetics, so selling and rebuilding them every other turn can allow you to build World Wonders and Archaeologists really quickly:

40 hammers go towards the Stele itself, the rest overflows to the stuff you actually want to build.

After I was done with Archaeologists and IG, I started building "Research," finished Rationalism and timed it with 3 GS bulbs to get Radar. With a loan from Maria, I bought all 6 Airports on the same turn and won a few turns later. I actually made a mistake and bought my 3 faith Musicians before Airports, as I thought I might win quicker that way.

Spoiler Victory :

Overall an enjoyable game. It's kind of a shame that going Piety didn't have much of an effect on the game, but at least I had 6 Holy Sites across the empire, which is 36 tourism with Hotels, Airports and IG active.

 

[Nizef]

I used the phrase "daunting task" in the presentation on #121. With vadalaz finishing on t212, my statement sounds ridiculous. But then again maybe the thruth is that one knows it is a tough game, if it takes him more than 200 turns to finish... Anyway, an absolutely stunning performance!

 

[Shark Diver]

Finished #121 Ethiopia with a T212 victory

Spoiler :

Second time playing the map. I played this map to about T70 the first time with the capital settled in place, and I hated the slow growth so I scrapped the game. In my second playthrough I settled on the coast, then planted two more coastal cities and an inland one in the north to connect all those sweet resources.

Spoiler T50 :

View attachment 580499

Reasonably fast religion and Reformation, but the AIs focused on faith pretty hard (5 of them went Piety), so by the time I got my first Prophet there were no faith buildings or good happiness beliefs left to take. Ended up with a pretty mediocre religion: Gem faith / Tithe / +2 faith per wonder / +15% production / cheaper Prophets / To the Glory of God (which ended up being useless as I only bought Musicians anyway).

After Writing I went for Iron Working to grab Colossus and finished it on turn 73. Tried to go for Oracle next, but Askia got it on turn 78. On the bright side I managed to get a late Hanging Gardens in my inland city so it wouldn't need any caravans to grow.

NC T91, Education T115 with detours for Iron Working, Engineering, Guilds and Optics.

Spoiler T114 :

View attachment 580500

Note that I'm trying to make use of Piety production overflow here, working max hammers in Adwa, Lalibela and Addis Ababa. Universities are critical buildings, so it makes sense to me to time the Temples this way. I'll buy the university in Harar.

Stole Astronomy from Portugal and Banking from Morocco. The spy in Marrakech revealed that by turn 125 Ahmad had been building Globe for a few turns already, so he had Printing Press, but the World Congress hadn't been founded yet. Apparently the Ottomans got crushed by Carthage before any Moroccan scouts could reach Istanbul.

I knew I had to hurry if I wanted to get LToP, so I sold the Shrine in Addis Ababa and rebuilt it as I researched Printing Press, getting some good overflow production again. I also burned one Artist for a Golden Age there. That might've been overkill, but who knows.

Spoiler T150 :

View attachment 580501

Radio T152 with one bulb and Oxford. I chose Order, took +25% to Great People and Skyscrapers first, as I didn't really need the Monument happiness at the time. World's Fair was easy to win, I think I put 1400 hammers into it (that's 50% on Standard size&speed I believe?) and then started spamming Archaeologists.

Meanwhile Ahmad finishes Uffizi. Marrakech is starting to look like a fantastic city to capture as it has Great Library filled with theming Great Works, Globe, Uffizi, Notre Dame, Mausoleum and more. Songhai is in the way though, so Gao needs to fall first. Besides, I still haven't forgiven Askia for stealing Oracle.

I bribe Carthage to attack Songhai, meanwhile making a tech detour to Dynamite and building cannons. Dido deals with Askia's units, so I move in a few cannons and take Gao easily. I upgrade to artillery and, to my amusement, Maria asks me if I want to attack Ahmad. Why yes, that sounds like a great idea.

The only issue here was that I backstabbed Askia. If I had planned the attack earlier I wouldn't have renewed the DoF. Enrico was really mad at me - this will end up costing me a couple of turns in the end, as I couldn't get open borders with Venice.

Spoiler Spoils of war. What's with all the unimproved tiles though? :

View attachment 580502

The second Congress was perfect: I proposed International Games, Ahmad proposed Cultural Heritage Sites, and both were passed. Victory is in sight, it's just a matter of time now.

I finish Aesthetics, and get Monument happiness + Five Year Plan from Order. You can get insane production overflow with these policies. Monuments have +150% to production from Order and Aesthetics, so selling and rebuilding them every other turn can allow you to build World Wonders and Archaeologists really quickly:

View attachment 580503

40 hammers go towards the Stele itself, the rest overflows to the stuff you actually want to build.

After I was done with Archaeologists and IG, I started building "Research," finished Rationalism and timed it with 3 GS bulbs to get Radar. With a loan from Maria, I bought all 6 Airports on the same turn and won a few turns later. I actually made a mistake and bought my 3 faith Musicians before Airports, as I thought I might win quicker that way.

Spoiler Victory :

View attachment 580505

Overall an enjoyable game. It's kind of a shame that going Piety didn't have much of an effect on the game, but at least I had 6 Holy Sites across the empire, which is 36 tourism with Hotels, Airports and IG active.

Very nicely done. Your Pop and Science were both really strong.

Your expos all outperformed mine at the t150 screenshot. Were you using food trade routes? I was using production routes and growth was a challenge.

I thought a sub t220 victory was achievable on this map, but I wasn't envisioning the path you took. If you have the save, can you please share the demos, Econ, cap, culture, and tech screenshots?

Consider me impressed.

I used the phrase "daunting task" in the presentation on #121. With vadalaz finishing on t212, my statement sounds ridiculous. But then again maybe the thruth is that one knows it is a tough game, if it takes him more than 200 turns to finish... Anyway, an absolutely stunning performance!

I love it when someone takes a different path and beats my finishing time. It's the best way to learn what to do differently. Looks like he had a very strong science game that carried him.

 

[vadalaz]

Your expos all outperformed mine at the t150 screenshot. Were you using food trade routes? I was using production routes and growth was a challenge.

I thought a sub t220 victory was achievable on this map, but I wasn't envisioning the path you took. If you have the save, can you please share the demos, Econ, cap, culture, and tech screenshots?

My first three trade routes were all food cargo ships, one to each coastal city (let's call them Capital, GBR and Truffles), and I ran them for the entire game. I think I used Engineering and Compass trade routes for CS quests, and Banking for another food ship to the capital. When the CS trade routes ended, I sent food to GBR and production to Truffles, because the latter was running out of decent tiles to work. I really don't like working 2-food ocean tiles, so I saw little reason to grow the city further. In the very late game I was sending one food and one production ship to each coastal city.

Being able to build Hanging Gardens in the inland city was lucky and unexpected. If I didn't get it, I'd be sending a food caravan there from Engineering to game end. I had good luck with early maritime CS quests, so that helped a lot too.

Screenshots:

Capital

Interesting to look back and notice a mistake. At least some of those 2f/2h riverside farm hills should've been mines at that point. Working 3f/1h, 3f/1h and 5h yields an extra hammer over 2f/2h * 3. And there's no good reason for the capital to be at +2 food there anyway.

Demos, Eco, Culture, Tech

 

[Shark Diver]

My first three trade routes were all food cargo ships, one to each coastal city (let's call them Capital, GBR and Truffles), and I ran them for the entire game. I think I used Engineering and Compass trade routes for CS quests, and Banking for another food ship to the capital. When the CS trade routes ended, I sent food to GBR and production to Truffles, because the latter was running out of decent tiles to work. I really don't like working 2-food ocean tiles, so I saw little reason to grow the city further. In the very late game I was sending one food and one production ship to each coastal city.

Being able to build Hanging Gardens in the inland city was lucky and unexpected. If I didn't get it, I'd be sending a food caravan there from Engineering to game end. I had good luck with early maritime CS quests, so that helped a lot too.

Screenshots:

Capital
View attachment 580548
Interesting to look back and notice a mistake. At least some of those 2f/2h riverside farm hills should've been mines at that point. Working 3f/1h, 3f/1h and 5h yields an extra hammer over 2f/2h * 3. And there's no good reason for the capital to be at +2 food there anyway.

Demos, Eco, Culture, Tech
View attachment 580549 View attachment 580550 View attachment 580551 View attachment 580553

That's nice work with the Cargo Ships. I was arguing with myself all game about sending hammer-ships, but GBR and Truffles cities really needed the hammers every time the decision came up. I've also been playing a lot of Petra games, and have been spoiled by the extra trade route. I think that's throwing off my use of trade routes in non-Petra games. Something for me to work on. I was definitely punished for not being able to send food to the Northern river expo until late.

If anyone wants to see the power of a coastal cap vs a non-coastal cap, comparing your game to mine is a really good example.

In your endgame, you are producing wealth in all cities. This is something I almost never do, although I've been working science occasionally. What was your rationale? My guess is that you had all the buildings you needed for Tourism and had something to buy, but I can't fathom what?

One of these days, I'm going to replay this game and try to get the early Sacred Sites. I'll re-roll until I get it, because that's the only way I think I can beat your finishing time on this map.

 

[vadalaz]

In your endgame, you are producing wealth in all cities. This is something I almost never do, although I've been working science occasionally. What was your rationale? My guess is that you had all the buildings you needed for Tourism and had something to buy, but I can't fathom what?

Enrico's open borders. Unfortunately he hated me so much he wouldn't sell them even for all my gpt and luxuries. I suppose I could've changed production to something else after Enrico had declined my offer, but there was nothing else left to build anyway.

 

[Nizef]

EDGE#123: Wait a minute! Is this really Fractal?

I found some time to wrap up a game that was in my pipeline and thus you will all have the "benefit" of having an agonizing time with this one...

This game offers:
- One of the most pleasing Fractal maps that I have ever rolled
- One of the worst starting locations in this series
- The starting location is basically good only for one thing: getting a religion
- Some friendly faces nearby (who will fill your lands with profets-of-false)
- The nasty surprises will come a little later and
- All in all this is quite a tall order!

After setting this cozy and friendly tone for this game, I will tell you what this is about. We play as the Ottomans on an unmodded Fractal map with Standard size and Standard speed. QC and QM are turned on and all VCs are enabled as usual. Any VC will do for this one, just to give some more room for creative thinking The starting location is, as stated above, not the greatest. In my game I really struggled with both growth and happiness issues for most of the game. Of course it didn´t help that I was taking -41 from ideology pressure... One of the AIs had a fantastic game and had the tech lead well into the Information era. So what are the options here? A DipV will be very hard to achieve here, the combination of map and AIs will not be helpful for that. Your early game will most likely be too poor to get those midgame wonders for a CV. A DomV is of course always an option but you will need both naval and land units to pull it off. Anyway, regardless of what you decide to do, this is definitely something to chew on! Enjoy!

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

Spoiler :

Settled t1 on the coastal Gems. It was not a good solution but everything else seemed worse! BO: Scoutx2, Shrine, Granary and Settlerx2. I stole workers from Budapest and stayed at war with them until I was ready to conquered them. It was a low production city but the NW made it worth the while. And in all honesty there were not room for more expands (well the Sugar could have been okay but I used a GG to get that).Sharing a small continent with Austria and Byzantium is not that bad. Unfortunately all three of us got a religion. All those Missionaries and Profets running around, I was near a nervous breakdown. Fourth religion with TotG/Tithe/Pagodas/Plowshares/IP. Early growth was laughable but I kept myself in the game thanks to trade routes to my neighbours. I reached Education on t115, however, that was thanks to heavy beelining and I had to go back for all techs in the bottom half of the tree. Very shaky start and I was not sure if I would play on at all! But I liked the map so much that I decided to fight for it.

The CV wonders went quickly. The only one I tried for was Uffizi (nobody else had points in Acoustics, more than maybe the opener). It was a long shot and Theodora beat me to it. Dido ended up on the recieving end of double attack (Arabia and England) and after fighting bravely she ended the game on one city. Assyria, Arabia, England and Greece all had their own starting continents and thus spammed a lot of cities. I played catch up with my four cities and the first wonder I managed was Neuschwanstein!. Not impressive. I went Order and Assyria and England followed. Theodora went Authocracy and she was the cultural powerhouse of the game. Still I tried to keep it all together without wars...

But in the Modern era the pressure was just too much. I built some RAs and upgraded my Infantry and went for Nicaea and then I also had to take the main prize, Constantinople. I gained something like 18 happiness by taking these two cities! Only SV seemed to be left on the board and I did a late tech rush to catch Assyria and build those Spaceship parts. With cities like mine (and going Order), it took forever. By the end of the day I won a hard fought SV on t319. This was not pretty nor was it convincing. But at least I got the job done and now you have the chance to enjoy this interesting map! SP: full Tradition, Aestethics opener, full Rationalism and Order 6.

 

[JeffreyLXV]

Is there a method to search for the original post of a specific saved-game file?

For example: 48. the Celts (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)

(Page 10, Post 198)

 

[Shark Diver]

EDGE#65 - T195 Update

Spoiler World Fair Boost :

This game has been a grind. There's hope, but it's going to take some work for a SV.

Shaka finished off France and then cheaply went to war with Hiawatha and they have remained that way for 50+ turns, with neither taking a city due to the narrow strip of land they're fighting over.



Hiawatha was allied to Belgrade and Shaka sent troops to sack the CS, so I sent some blockers. Problem was I wasn't friends with Belgrade so got a bunch of trespassing penalties before someone else allied them and Shaka backed off.



Hiawatha still doesn't like me much and won't even consider open borders. I don't want Shaka taking him out, so checked to see if he'd make peace just in case he starts rolling but no luck. The rest of the world loves me after proposing World's Fair and IG. The CS game has gone as well as can be expected given my lack of exploration and not meeting half of them and my lack of resources and gold.

Persepolis is a beast.



I popped an Artist for a GA for World's Fair and put every hammer I had into it. Even then, I was 4th in production heading into it, but still won going away, probably because the rest of the contenders are at war. Hopefully IG goes the same way. I'm way behind Persia in Tourism and Culture even with WF (I haven't found time to build Culture buildings or Musician's Guild in the Cap yet. Due to the late first World Congress, I was able to get all 4 Public Schools up the turn before the Fair, so at least science is strong.



Here's the Cap on t195. I timed this game so poorly that I had to stop building 10-12 Hydro Plants in the expos to build Archeologists. I need a good Archeology game to catch up in Culture and all 4 cities have Cathedrals from Hiawatha's religion so I'm going to have to build 13 of them. I should get all of the ones on my continent if I can ever get Open Borders. This is also delaying Naus, which I'm counting on to rescue my GPT, so I'm sending workers off to expore the world and build Feitorias. At least I've got plenty of Aluminum to trade for Open Borders, because I don't have a single horse or iron to trade and almost no GPT. I did get a natural GE for Eiffel and Faith bought one for Broadway, so putting the 2 points into Piety paid off a bit.



This is the ugliest set of Demos this late in the game for me in a long time. Hydroplants will change this but that's 20 turns away. I'll have a bunch of Scientists for after Labs go up, so late game has potential. At least I'll be able to buy spaceship parts.



Here's the empire on t195 just dying due to production not keeping up with tech.



Science has been the strong point, and I was 2nd to Ideologies and went Freedom. Persia went Order and the others aren't there yet. It's been awhile since I went for a Science Victory, so am likely to make some mistakes.



Culture will start kicking in soon, so I'll have no problem hitting the policies I need. I'm thinking strongly about grabbing some Commerce policies.



The plan from here on out is to beeline for my Spaceship parts and hopefully live long enough to enjoy it. I've got plenty of army from my early war and 5 Kris Swordsmen gifts, but no money to upgrade. Maybe if I can get my gold shortage fixed with Naus I can make some money warring with Infantry, but I really don't want any other cities and I'm worried about Ideology pressure hurting my happiness, even with Feitorias.

Prediction: I'm guessing I can get a SV prior to t300 and I'm not worried about losing to tourism once my Culture kicks into gear. My Scientists are going to save the day, I hope.

 

[Nizef]

Here is a recap of all games in the Enjoyable Deity Games Experience (EDGE) series so far:

Note that I added the pages on which each challenge appears.

1. Korea (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 1
2. the Shoshone (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded with Really Advanced Setup (RAS)), Page 1
3. America (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 3
4. Denmark (Continents, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 3
5. Byzantium (Fractal, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded with RAS). Page 3
6. Germany (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 3
7. Polynesia (Small Continents Plus, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 4
8. Brazil (Continents, Standard speed, Large size, Modded with RAS), Page 4
9. Mongolia (Pangaea, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 4
10. Spain (Terra, Standard speed, Large size, Modded with RAS), Page 5
11. Carthage (Continents, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded with RAS), Page 5
12. the Aztecs (Lakes, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 5
13. England (Continents, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded with RAS), Page 6
14. Korea 2 (Small Continents, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded with RAS), Page 6
15. Venice (Fractal, Epic speed, Standard size, Modded with RAS), Page 6
16. Egypt (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded with RAS), Page 6
17. the Huns (Oval, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded with RAS), Page 6
18. Japan (Hellblazers Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded both with RAS and Hellblazers map script), Page 6
19. China (Pangaea, Epic speed, Standard size, Modded with RAS), Page 7
20. Babylon (Hellblazers Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded both with RAS and Hellblazers map script), Page 7
21. Polynesia 2 (Hellblazers Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded both with RAS and Hellblazers map script), Page 7
22. Korea 3 (Hellblazers Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded both with RAS and Hellblazers map script), Page 7
23. Russia (Hellblazers Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded both with RAS and Hellblazers map script), Page 7
24. Portugal (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded with RAS), Page 7
25. France (Lakes, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 7
26. Germany 2 (Lakes, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 7
27. England 2 (Fractal, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded with RAS), Page 7
28. Sweden (Fractal, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 7
29. Arabia (Sandstorm, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 8
30. the Mayans (Tectonics map, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded with both RAS and the Tectonics map template), Page 8
31. Ethiopia (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 8
32. Assyria (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 8
33. Poland (Fractal, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded with RAS), Page 8
34. India (Pangaea, Standard speed, Small size, Modded with RAS), Page 8
35. the Aztecs 2 (Hellblazers Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded with Hellblazers map script), Page 8
36. Morocco (Sandstorm, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 8
37. Babylon 2 (Large Islands, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 8
38. Spain 2 (Inland Sea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 8
39. Greece (Fractal, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 8
40. Carthage 2 (Fractal, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 8
41. Indonesia (Archipelago, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 8
42. the Mayans 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Piety challenge, Page 9
43. Siam (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Patronage partial challenge, Page 9
44. the Shoshone 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 9
45. Poland 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Honor challenge, Page 9
46. the Netherlands (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Liberty challenge, Page 10
47. the Aztecs 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 10
48. the Celts (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 10
49. the Zulus (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Aesthetics challenge, Page 11
50. Austria (Pangaea, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 11
51. Persia (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 11
52. the Ottomans (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Religion challenge, Page 11
53. Rome (Fractal, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 11
54. Songhai (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 11
55. the Incas (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 11
56. Russia 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 11
57. India 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), CV challenge, Page 11
58. Germany 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 11
59. Byzantium 2 (Fractal, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Religion challenge, Page 11
60. the Iroquois (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Aesthetics challenge, Page 12
61. America 2 (Pangaea, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded), DomV challenge, Page 12
62. Sweden 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Petra challenge, Page 12
63. Morocco 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), partial Commerce challenge, Page 12
64. England 3 (Fractal, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), partial UN challenge, Page 12
65. Portugal 2 (Continents, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), partial elimination challenge, Page 12
66. Egypt 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 12
67. Polynesia 3 (Archipelago, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 13
68. Sweden 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 13
69. Germany 4 (Pangaea, Epic speed, Large size, Unmodded), War academy, part 1, DomV challenge, Page 13
70. the Huns 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), War academy, part 2, Page 13
71. Spain 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Huge size, Unmodded), Page 13
72. Denmark 2 (Lakes, Standard speed, Standard size, Otherwise unmodded but Rotate Starting Position was used), Page 13
73. Venice 2 (Fractal, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), DipV challenge, Page 13
74. Carthage 3 (Hellblazer´s Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Modded with Hellblazer´s map script), CV challenge, Page 13
75. China 2 (Pangaea, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded), War academy, part 3, DomV challenge, Page 14
76. Mongolia 2 (Pangaea, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded), War academy, part 4, Page 14
77. Brazil 2 (Pangaea, Epic speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 15
78. the Shoshone 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 15
79. Assyria 2 (Terra Incognita, Standard speed, Standard size, Otherwise unmodded but Rotate Starting Position was used), Page 15
80. Indonesia 2 (Small Continents, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), No Liberty challenge, Page 16
81. Portugal 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 16
82. Japan 2 (Ice Age, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), No Order challenge, Page 16
83. Persia 2 (Random map, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 16
84. the Netherlands 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 17
85. Denmark 3 (Tiny Islands, Standard speed, Large size, Raging Barbarians, Otherwise unmodded but Rotate Starting Position was used), Page 17
86. America 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Large size, Unmodded), No Tradition challenge, Page 18
87. the Incas 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 18
88. Korea 4 (Pangaea, Quick speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 19
89. the Ottomans 2 (Continents, Standard speed, Large size, Unmodded), Page 20
90. Arabia 2 (Lakes, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 20
91. Ethiopia 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Pantheon challenge, Page 21
92. Greece 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 21
93. France 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), CV challenge, Page 21
94. Siam 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded),Incense challenge, Page 22
95. Byzantium 3 (Continents, Epic speed, Large size, Unmodded), Page 22
96. England 4 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 23
97. Sweden 4 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 24
98. Babylon 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 24
99. the Zulus 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Large size, Unmodded), Page 24
100. Germany 5 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), CV challenge, Page 25
101. Brazil 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 25
102. Austria 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 26
103. England 5 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, modded with RAS and Acken´s balance mod), Page 27
104. the Celts 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 27
105. Rome 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Large size, Unmodded), Page 28
106. Songhai 2 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 28
107. Poland 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 29
108. Russia 3 (Lakes, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), DomV challenge, Page 29
109. China 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 30
110. the Aztecs 4 (Lakes, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), DomV challenge, Page 30
111. the Shoshone 4 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 32
112. Korea 5 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 32
113. the Mayans 3 (Continents, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 32
114. Assyria 3 (Continents, Standard speed, Huge size, Unmodded), Partial domination challenge, Page 33
115. Japan 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 33
116. Egypt 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 33
117. India 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Religion challenge, Page 33
118. Germany 6 (Lakes, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), DomV challenge, Page 34
119. the Zulus 3 (Lakes, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), DomV challenge, Page 34
120. Carthage 4 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 34
121. Ethiopia 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Piety and CV challenge, Page 34
122. the Mayans 4 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), CV challenge, Page 35
123. the Ottomans 3 (Fractal, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 37

The subseries MIDGE consists of:
1. Finland (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size. Otherwise unmodded but the civ to play is Finland), Page 26
2. The Papal States (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size. Otherwise unmodded but the civ to play is The Papal States. You also need Austria-Hungary.), Page 27
3. Phoenisia (Continents, Standard speed, Standard size. Otherwise unmodded but the civ to play is the Phoenician civilization.), Page 27
4. Norway (Ice Age, Standard speed, Standard size. Otherwise unmodded but the civ to play is Norway. You also need the modded civs Finland, Iceland and Scotland.), Page 29
5. Belgium (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Otherwise unmodded but the civ to play is Belgium), Page 30

 

[Shark Diver]

EDGE#65 - T246 Update

Spoiler I think I've got this :

When I last left off this awful story of the "Worst Game Ever", I was struggling to get anything done. I proposed IG, and regretted it every turn afterwards. I got lucky with WF being #4 in production. Could I do it again? I was thinking I could, and it would be a good defense against a Persian CV attempt, but man, this could backfire.

I couldn't quite get a Golden Age for IG, but still maxed out every hammer in my empire. Because everyone else was at war, it worked:



The free policy, CS bonuses, and some Tourism were nice, but the key was making sure Persia didn't win. I doubt I'll be able to fix the current -9 happiness he's giving me thru Tourism, but I am now confident it won't get worse. I suspect I've now eliminated the CV AI threat.

I lost my DoF from Shaka due to him taking a different Ideology and just Shaka being a random d*ck. I'm still really struggling from GPT and resource issues, so can't even control Diplo thru bribes. Thankfully, he's still grinding away at Hiawatha, finally taking a city. I can easily bribe him to war with Morocco so I'm not too concerned yet..... I've got a ton of non-upgraded military, which helps with my sense of security but is killing my GPT. If I wasn't on a contintnet with Shaka, I'd have been gifting units. Probably should have anyways.

Diplo is going well, as pretty much everyone likes me due to my Congress proposals of WF and IG. Hiawatha finally gave me Open Borders, which made Archeology easier, but he finally lost a city and now I have to worry about Shaka finishing him off. Then Hiawatha follows me into Freedom, so now I have to worry about Statue of Liberty.

In an interesting quirk, Hiawatha's dislike for me was based on a fictional claim that I had spied on him. This just didn't happen. It's the 2nd recent example of this game lying to me, and it had a bad effect:



I've got my Hydros up, have completed a very slow but perfectly executed Archeology/theming game, and am now focusing on Culture/Science buildings.

Morocco also took Freedom, but I got a 1500 Faith GE 11 turns after getting Replaceable Parts and bulbed for SoL. I was a bit worried about getting snaked.

I'll finish up Aesthetics up soon to protect against Persian CV. Next is to mix my Freedom policies with some Commerce to fix my GPT. I doubt I'll be buying many SS parts.



I'm working towards maxing my science output so I can start bulbing my stash of Scientists. That'll happen very soon.



My inexperience playing Portugal, and my lack of going for SV lately led me to make several mistakes.

• I went straight through Astronomy to Navigation and therefore never built any Naus. I didn't really have time, but that'll cost my already feeble gold game.
• My Scout was disbanded one turn before I was about to fix my negative GPT, so 2 workers were doing all of my exploration. I did build a couple of Feitorias that gave me a long-awaited King Day in the feeble Cap.
• I spent a lot of effort getting my Culture game in place instead of maximizing Science, so this will slow any victory time. I justified this by my fear of losing to a runaway Culture Persia. I've got 2 Writers on standby just in case.

Now that my cities are now all semi-functional, there's not much else to talk about. Here are the key stats before I finish getting my Science buildings up and bulb my way to hopeful victory;

 

[Shark Diver]

Edge#65 - T296 Science Victory

Spoiler This was ugly.... :

The late game was all about turtling, bulbing Scientists, and bribing Shaka into war across the globe. He used 3 Generals late in the game to snatch territory, but I wasn't building anything useful in those expos so I didn't even mention it to him. Shaka was teching pretty well this game judging from his advanced units, otherwise I'd have smacked him around some for fun, as I had a ton of units, but didn't really have the gold to be upgrading if I planned on buying any spaceship parts. GPT was an issue until the very end, but I did manage to buy 2 parts.

Persia and Japan were both monsters, and Shaka wasn't far behind. Morocco was no pushover either, and Hiawatha had a few decent cities on the Eastern continent so had a decent score. He finally stopped hating me for long enough to give me Open Borders, which helped in the Archeology game. Even though he followed me into Freedom, he never gave me DoF and even falsely accused me of spying on him again. The game has another bug that needs fixing.

I didn't get the tech lead unitl I bulbed the 2nd or 3rd Scientist. I ended up with I think 9-10 naturally spawned Scientists, 1 from Porcelain Tower, 2 from Hubble (GE), and I was able to Faith buy 2 after finishing Rationalism. Science never got much past 900 so I needed all of them. I didn't have any DoFs after t250 and therefore no RA's, which I couldn't afford anyways.



Darius beat me to Apollo by 2 turns, but never built any parts. Maybe because he was warring with Japan for ages.



My culture game ended up ok, and I was able to get all of the important policies thanks to not theming my Writers. I didn't get a very good boost from WF, so this was needed, otherwise I'd still be playing. I did enough to get Darius' Tourism pressure back to neutral happiness, but he out-cultured me 47k to 36k.



The Cap wasn't totally useless in the endgame, but there really wasn't much to build. I did not deem it worthy of a name change.



Nothing much to say about the Demos and Econ. Thank God for rivers.



And here I am on Launch Day



I am glad this ordeal is over with. Very challenging map, and I made a number of mistakes due to unfamiliarity playing Portugal (I built 0 Naus and only 2 Feitorias). I also didn't take an efficient tech path, as a few diversions were needed for Culture and other timely techs.

Is there a method to search for the original post of a specific saved-game file?

For example: 48. the Celts (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded)

(Page 10, Post 198)

Great idea, and it looks like some kind soul has already satisfied your request.

BO: Scoutx2, Shrine, Granary and Settlerx2

Spoiler Question :

Why build the Granary before Settlers?

EDGE#123: Wait a minute! Is this really Fractal?

I found some time to wrap up a game that was in my pipeline and thus you will all have the "benefit" of having an agonizing time with this one...

This game offers:
- One of the most pleasing Fractal maps that I have ever rolled
- One of the worst starting locations in this series
- The starting location is basically good only for one thing: getting a religion
- Some friendly faces nearby (who will fill your lands with profets-of-false)
- The nasty surprises will come a little later and
- All in all this is quite a tall order!

After setting this cozy and friendly tone for this game, I will tell you what this is about. We play as the Ottomans on an unmodded Fractal map with Standard size and Standard speed. QC and QM are turned on and all VCs are enabled as usual. Any VC will do for this one, just to give some more room for creative thinking The starting location is, as stated above, not the greatest. In my game I really struggled with both growth and happiness issues for most of the game. Of course it didn´t help that I was taking -41 from ideology pressure... One of the AIs had a fantastic game and had the tech lead well into the Information era. So what are the options here? A DipV will be very hard to achieve here, the combination of map and AIs will not be helpful for that. Your early game will most likely be too poor to get those midgame wonders for a CV. A DomV is of course always an option but you will need both naval and land units to pull it off. Anyway, regardless of what you decide to do, this is definitely something to chew on! Enjoy!

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

Spoiler :

Settled t1 on the coastal Gems. It was not a good solution but everything else seemed worse! BO: Scoutx2, Shrine, Granary and Settlerx2. I stole workers from Budapest and stayed at war with them until I was ready to conquered them. It was a low production city but the NW made it worth the while. And in all honesty there were not room for more expands (well the Sugar could have been okay but I used a GG to get that).Sharing a small continent with Austria and Byzantium is not that bad. Unfortunately all three of us got a religion. All those Missionaries and Profets running around, I was near a nervous breakdown. Fourth religion with TotG/Tithe/Pagodas/Plowshares/IP. Early growth was laughable but I kept myself in the game thanks to trade routes to my neighbours. I reached Education on t115, however, that was thanks to heavy beelining and I had to go back for all techs in the bottom half of the tree. Very shaky start and I was not sure if I would play on at all! But I liked the map so much that I decided to fight for it.

The CV wonders went quickly. The only one I tried for was Uffizi (nobody else had points in Acoustics, more than maybe the opener). It was a long shot and Theodora beat me to it. Dido ended up on the recieving end of double attack (Arabia and England) and after fighting bravely she ended the game on one city. Assyria, Arabia, England and Greece all had their own starting continents and thus spammed a lot of cities. I played catch up with my four cities and the first wonder I managed was Neuschwanstein!. Not impressive. I went Order and Assyria and England followed. Theodora went Authocracy and she was the cultural powerhouse of the game. Still I tried to keep it all together without wars...

But in the Modern era the pressure was just too much. I built some RAs and upgraded my Infantry and went for Nicaea and then I also had to take the main prize, Constantinople. I gained something like 18 happiness by taking these two cities! Only SV seemed to be left on the board and I did a late tech rush to catch Assyria and build those Spaceship parts. With cities like mine (and going Order), it took forever. By the end of the day I won a hard fought SV on t319. This was not pretty nor was it convincing. But at least I got the job done and now you have the chance to enjoy this interesting map! SP: full Tradition, Aestethics opener, full Rationalism and Order 6.

I'm not sure I'm up for another slog of a game after that Portugal debacle, but will give this a shot. From your description, I'm thinking DomV.

 

[Nizef]

Spoiler Question :

Why build the Granary before Settlers?

It is my "main opening line" when I am waiting for the cap to grow to pop4.

 

[Shark Diver]

It is my "main opening line" when I am waiting for the cap to grow to pop4.

That makes sense in those scenarios. I don't know why I was assuming you were on Pop 4. My mind must be going to mush from that last game.

 

[Nizef]

I'm not sure I'm up for another slog of a game after that Portugal debacle, but will give this a shot. From your description, I'm thinking DomV.

Yeah, I had nightmares after #65. But I have a very good start going with the Aztecs, so most likely #124 will be an easy one. Besides, the Ottomans are really interesting to play for a DomV and the map in #123 might contribute to an interesting journey. As always, it is mostly about reaching key techs in time to be competitive.