[BNW] Enjoyable Deity Games

[Shark Diver]

Thanks. It's been years since I played a Diplo game. Now I recall that saving Scientists for late matters for Diplo.

 

[Nizef]

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

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
124. the Aztecs 5 (Lakes, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), CV challenge, Page 38
125. Mongolia 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 39
126. Spain 4 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 40
127. America 4 (Fractal, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), SV challenge, Page 40
128. Egypt 4 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 40
129. Morocco 3 (Fractal, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 40
130. the Huns 3 (Fractal, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 42
131. Indonesia 3 (Tiny Islands, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 45
132. the Incas 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded, Raging Barbarians), Page 46
133. Siam 3 (Pangaea, Standard speed, Standard size, Unmodded), Page 46

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

 

[vadalaz]

T150 Siam update

Spoiler :

I bulbed my first GS for a T120 Printing Press. I think that was the right play - the alternatives were either to tech a different Renaissance tech first, delaying World Congress and LToP, or to get another filler policy before opening Rationalism. If I want the UN vote to happen after the second congress vote, I'll have to reach Info era roughly by T190 now. It'll be a close race.

Elizabeth had researched Machinery and upgraded to Longbows a couple of turns before I was ready to attack her, which made the war more costly than it could've been. Luckily the AIs can't defend properly, and Sidon provided me with a couple of very useful Berserkers.

I chose to keep York as it had a bunch of nice buildings and Copper. I prolonged the war a little bit to farm two GGs, both of whom I'm going to use to connect Cocoa north of Muang Saluang. Annoyingly, Oda finally chose to expand there as I was moving my generals. He's in for an unpleasant surprise.

China's doing very well, other AIs are irrelevant. DoFs with India and Mongolia, denounced by England and Japan, other AIs are at a "6 gpt per lux" level of friendliness. I hope I don't get beaten by one turn to Taj Mahal here, as the first vote is about to commence and I'll need the Golden Age to win WF.

 

[Tiberiu]

I have finished my game with a Science Victory!

Spoiler edge 133 Siam full story :

Turn 265 SV. - very suboptimized... but a very, very strong and clean game, my best Edge Victory until now!

I went for a Scientific Victory and my limited experience for this victory type showed. I didn't correctly evaluate when I should bulb my scientists and for how much science (bulbed my first 4 for only 5000 )...I also ended up never building Oxford or Grand Temple, stropped growing my cities too early, and worst of all I bulbed my 4-5 remaining Scientists too late! With better play from my turn 200 I could have won at least 10-15 faster, I am sure. So I am a bit disappointed but this is nothing to be ashamed of considering how "clean" this game was - no lost units, no dead spies, no failed wonders, everything else worked perfectly. I was not sure at all what ideology to take - I was the first one. Any of them seemed good in their own way... I went with Order.

Policies: Tradition 6 / Rationalism 6 / Order 10 + bonus (Patronage 3 + Commerce 2 with 2 writer bulbs + Sydney + Kremlin at the end when it no longer had an effect).
Cities: 52 / 32 / 32 / 32
Wonders built: Hanging Gardens 102, Sistine 138, Taj Mahal 153, Porcelain 174, Eiffel 188, Broadway 196, Big Ben 201, Brandenburg 207, Cristo 237, CN 240, Neutchwanstein 245, Sydney 249 , 255 Hubble, Kremlin - forgot when
Capitals conquered and owned: London t 265. (I sold Japan's capital for gold)

I found both Uluru and Old Faithful early so I decided to build settlers right away and take them. I waited for a chance to steal a worker from England but I didn't get the chance, stole just one from Bucharest and built my own.
I am very happy with my city location decisions but all 3 cities had a 3-4 turn delay because of barbarians...horrible! I need to start escorting settlers...but I don't want to sacrifice exploration.

Pantheons went like mad, I founded my own only in turn 40 and took One with Nature and I managed last religion turn 55. England failed the religion despite having first pantheon, I was hoping to give her my religion but India spammed missionaries all game.

Religion: OwN, Tithe, Mosque, Religious Community, Itinerant Preachers.

4 cities - tradition, T 95 NC. I avoided Culture to test the strenght of taking Rationalism directly after and I did so, but my conclusion is that this is not worth it. Straight to Acoustics and built Sistine Chapel, but having Patronage and building Forbidden Palace is better in my opinion, not to mention strenght of early Consulates. Otherwise Commerce or Aesthetics are always useful perks regardless of building their wonder.

I was planning to conquer England after she builds Petra and Collosus but she failed both of them, and she had a lot of army, so I switched plans and wanted her as my friend. She kept sending caravans, too... My diplomatic game was very strong in this game as I managed to keep England friendly by gifting Elizabeth 5 gold every now and then to appease her and sponsoring the right wars all the time. She kept units near my borders and a war would have slowed me down. I pre-emptively declared war from the start to Japan so that he doesn't try to co-opt England against me, this was a very strong move.

The only problem was that England took hold of almost ALL city states in the game by the Industrial... it was impossible to get them to ally me. But I was content to have them all as my friends after International Games. We never went to war except in the last 5 turns when I captured her cities and her capital with advanced weaponry.

My early game consisted of farming XP via trapping an indonesian scout. I farmed 2 great generals from it and made my initial warrior an enhanced medic, and also 2 lvl 6 scouts, one with sight and one a doctor, both were very helpful in defending from Japan a bit later. The first general was extremely useful in stealing Silk and Dyes from Jerusalem, 8 happiness when I needed it the most! Not to mention super defense vs Japan. (see t 157)

Screenshots!

turn 100

I planted my citadel in turn 121 when Japan started sending units... great timing! The archer was promoted to composite bowman so it can tank one samurai without too much trouble.

turn150

I bought 6 hills in my capital area for ~1250 gold, not sure it was worth it but I wanted to have Taj Mahal ready when World Fair begins.

The first major war... I am very proud of my citadel, Japan had no solution to my setup... Japan did not manage to do any serious damage to my empire except blocking a few tiles for several turns.

I never needed my capital to work World Fair, it constructed Ironworks, Windmill, Market instead. All civs had low production so my 3 cities were enough to win World Fair by far.

Japan citadel - bombed me and stole my Natural Wonder! But it would backfire badly against them as I used my general to steal both of their citadels and press them to capitulate.

turn 200 - Japan, Mongolia, France and China surrended all their gold due to my Army Strenght skyrocketing because of Infantry, bringing me into +700 GPT that I would use to buy all CS from Elizabeth, buy Hospitals + Medical labs, etc.

TROLL. I sold Kyoto to Indonesia for 120 GPT but kept my unit in the city so that England can't capture it. The AI stood there for 30 turns trying to figure out what to do.

Final Empire turn 265:

 

[vadalaz]

Very nice! Love the level 6 scouts. I don't think I've ever had a scout upgraded beyond level 3.

Japan citadel - bombed me and stole my Natural Wonder! But it would backfire badly against them as I used my general to steal both of their citadels and press them to capitulate.

That little blob of Siamese land cut off from the rest of the empire by mountains and the Japanese citadel looks really cool - not something you see in every game.

TROLL. I sold Kyoto to Indonesia for 120 GPT but kept my unit in the city so that England can't capture it. The AI stood there for 30 turns trying to figure out what to do.

That's hilarious. I knew about blocking AI captures by having open borders and surrounding the city with your units, but this is something I've never seen.

I finished my game as well and will post a writeup later today. Interesting how poorly China performed in your playthrough. In my game Wu was the only AI that did anything, she eliminated France, got 12 wonders, was #1 in all demos except tech and had over 450gpt with 10000 gold saved in the end.

 

[Tiberiu]

I finished my game as well and will post a writeup later today. Interesting how poorly China performed in your playthrough. In my game Wu was the only AI that did anything, she eliminated France, got 12 wonders, was #1 in all demos except tech and had over 450gpt with 10000 gold saved in the end.

I'm happy you liked my post and I can't wait to see your game end. In my game China lost an early settler to barbarians, this crippled them badly I think, and also I paid England to attack them early game because it was the cheapest. I like how civs do very differently in different people's playthroughs depending on our relashionships with them, what wars we sponsor, what religions/wonders they get...If I am not mistaken their policy choice can be different too, this makes a big difference if in a playthrough they go Tradition and in another one they go Piety.

 

[vadalaz]

I finished #133 with a T200 DiploV

Spoiler :

I did get Taj Mahal on T151, and I was right to worry about potentially missing it. My spy in Beijing revealed that Wu was 3 turns away from completing Taj Mahal, building it at 90 hammers a turn. She started PT next and there was no way I'd beat her to it except with a GE, so I bought one for 1000 faith and one-turned the wonder.

Winning WF was a breeze, and I proposed Arts Funding next to please the AIs. I bulbed a GS for Radio (saving Oxford for Info era) and adopted Order. Skyscrapers, factory science and a free GS seemed more important to me than what Freedom had to offer.

China had allied most of the CSs on their side of the map, and Genghis had captured Sydney. I chose to ignore China's allies for a bit and focus on science first. I had a DoF with Genghis, so I couldn't take Sydney from him without backstabbing Mongolia.

London was my only coastal expo and it provided me with the option to buy a couple of Battleships to quickly liberate Sydney, but I decided to check if I had enough gpt to simply buy the city from Genghis and DoW him afterwards to break the deal. Turned out that he only wanted ~250 gpt, so once our DoF ran out, I bought the city and declared war.

Beakers per turn peaked at 1170 with two labs and 4 factories. I entered Info era through Telecommunications on turn 184 with 2 turns left on the congress vote counter. Oxforded Globalization, sold my science buildings and started saving up gold to buy China's CSs. Once I had allied every CS on the map, I declared war on Wu who was making 400 gpt to make sure she couldn't buy any CSs back.

Spoiler :

 

[Shark Diver]

I finished #133 with a T200 DiploV

Spoiler :

I did get Taj Mahal on T151, and I was right to worry about potentially missing it. My spy in Beijing revealed that Wu was 3 turns away from completing Taj Mahal, building it at 90 hammers a turn. She started PT next and there was no way I'd beat her to it except with a GE, so I bought one for 1000 faith and one-turned the wonder.

Winning WF was a breeze, and I proposed Arts Funding next to please the AIs. I bulbed a GS for Radio (saving Oxford for Info era) and adopted Order. Skyscrapers, factory science and a free GS seemed more important to me than what Freedom had to offer.

China had allied most of the CSs on their side of the map, and Genghis had captured Sydney. I chose to ignore China's allies for a bit and focus on science first. I had a DoF with Genghis, so I couldn't take Sydney from him without backstabbing Mongolia.

London was my only coastal expo and it provided me with the option to buy a couple of Battleships to quickly liberate Sydney, but I decided to check if I had enough gpt to simply buy the city from Genghis and DoW him afterwards to break the deal. Turned out that he only wanted ~250 gpt, so once our DoF ran out, I bought the city and declared war.

Beakers per turn peaked at 1170 with two labs and 4 factories. I entered Info era through Telecommunications on turn 184 with 2 turns left on the congress vote counter. Oxforded Globalization, sold my science buildings and started saving up gold to buy China's CSs. Once I had allied every CS on the map, I declared war on Wu who was making 400 gpt to make sure she couldn't buy any CSs back.

Spoiler :

View attachment 586712

Nicely done. I'll be lucky if I get my Diplo victory before t250. Lack of GPT and Science are killing me in the midgame. Liberty was the wrong path to take.

 

[Tiberiu]

EDGE # 134 ----- Uneducated but STRONG

With Nizef's approval, I present to you this standard pangaea map. We play as Arabia and... we have a start with a sheep, a deer, and an oasis. Wait, no, please don't go, I was joking. I mean, we have a lot of empty desert too... There is something good in this game, I promise! I mean, the start IS bad, but...oh, and, good luck building Camel Archers, did I tell you that you don't have horses? Really, you don't have horses. But I'm sure you'll find somebody to trade some to you if you pay the right price. After all that's why he have those unique market fueling our economy, right?
Seriously now, this map is strong enough to easily win under turn 200 with Arabia and it will not take a lot of exploration to understand why. You have enough compensation for that empty horseless desert to make a great game.
In fact, to add some challange, how about you, like I did, win without ever discovering (or stealing) Education technology? I didn't even enter the Renaissance in fact, but feel free to do so if you need to. I had a lot of fun with this map and I won a turn 164 Domination victory. Experienced warmongers will do even better. It was my first victory under 200 turns and I wanted to share this great game with the community. Good luck!
in this spoiler below I put the order and turn time in which I captured the capitals and my final empire screen for comparison.

Spoiler :

Siam -122 / Spain - 126 / Shoshone - 139 / Venice - 147 / Aztec 151 / Celts - 160 / Egypt 164.

 

[Bruhmoment]

Not sure if I would call this enjoyable, considering you have a crappy capital and no horses

 

[FritsF1]

EDGE #131 SV t364

Spoiler :

This was indeed a relaxed Deity game. It is only my third deity win and in general I still struggle with Deity, but not in this game. At the start I had to hurry to get some nice expo locations. After that I was in no hurry and was allowed some mistakes. I was the first to choose an ideology and chose Freedom. Most of the world chose Order. To repeal Order as world ideology, I went for Treaty Organization as level 3 tenet and got a lot of CS allies. This was not verry efficient for a quick win. By the time I could buy the spaceship parts with my second level 3 tenet, I was ready to launch.

Mongolia and Spain DOWed on me a few times, but most of the time I paid them to take their war elsewhere. With lots of spare luxuries I tried to keep the world at war as much as possible.

Turn 102 still some turns away from NC:

Turn 364, not fast, but still plenty of time before an AI is about to win:

 

[Tiberiu]

Not sure if I would call this enjoyable, considering you have a crappy capital and no horses

You have something else, but I prefer not to spoil it.

 

[Nizef]

EDGE #131 SV t364

Spoiler :

This was indeed a relaxed Deity game. It is only my third deity win and in general I still struggle with Deity, but not in this game. At the start I had to hurry to get some nice expo locations. After that I was in no hurry and was allowed some mistakes. I was the first to choose an ideology and chose Freedom. Most of the world chose Order. To repeal Order as world ideology, I went for Treaty Organization as level 3 tenet and got a lot of CS allies. This was not verry efficient for a quick win. By the time I could buy the spaceship parts with my second level 3 tenet, I was ready to launch.

Mongolia and Spain DOWed on me a few times, but most of the time I paid them to take their war elsewhere. With lots of spare luxuries I tried to keep the world at war as much as possible.

Turn 102 still some turns away from NC:
View attachment 586843

Turn 364, not fast, but still plenty of time before an AI is about to win:
View attachment 586844

Congrats! The AIs are indeed not at their best on watery maps, but I think it is valuable to know that it is possible to win on Deity even when the player has a slow start.

 

[Nizef]

Not sure if I would call this enjoyable, considering you have a crappy capital and no horses

It is nice to see you commenting! Thanks for participating. Even if you perhaps do not like the idea for this particular game, I hope that there are some other games in this series that you could consider playing. You are also welcome to offer your thoughts for games that you would like to see in this series.

Many maps with mediocre starts have different types of compensation nearby. That is also the case in #134. Sometimes it might be justified to move the settler 2-3 times before settling and personally I remember a few starts where I moved even 5 times. As an example, also #4 with Denmark and #102 with Austria comes to mind as games that have rough starts.

I am grateful for Tiberiu´s additions to this series. He is such a creative player and his games definitely add diversity to the series in a way I perhaps would not be able to offer otherwise.

The next additions to the series will probably be with Spain and Persia. The former is a collaboration product with @Shark Diver and the latter with @vadalaz. Hopefully I will be able to publish one of them during the upcoming weekend.

 

[Nizef]

EDGE#135: Go for the kill (DomV challenge)

Now we play as one of the more versatile civs. The game concept and map is provided by @vadalaz. The idea of the game is to find and befreind military CS, which will give you interesting additions to your army and then sweep the map. Sounds easy enough, I hope. To get a second opinion on this game, I played it for a SV. However, this map is not very well suited for peaceful play! You can read about my struggle behind the spoiler.

Anyway, here we play as Persia on an unmodded Pangaea map with Standard size and speed. The starting area is nice and you will most likely get a religion, if you want one. No further introduction is needed, you know what to do here. Enjoy!

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

Spoiler :

SIP. What else? Found Uluru early and settled it asap. Second expand coastal in between Pasargadae and Persepolis. Second religion with OwN/Tithe/Pagodas/RC/Messiah. Morocco with the first religion "stole" Itinerant Preachers. I had knowledge of vadalaz´s game and set out to test a peaceful route instead. In a way this was one of my strangest experiences for a long time. Hiawatha had a fantastic early game and I was afraid that he would snowball. I had to engage him in numerous wars to slow him down. 3 city NC on t86 and Education on t111 after minor detours. I settled a fourth city near Sweden to pick up Truffles. The AIs were very teching surprisingly fast and I was last by a mile to Renaissance.

In the midgame all wonders went VERY early. I was able to steal several techs very early on and thanks to that reached Industrial on t163 even with my small and pitiful cities. I was second to choose an Ideology and went Order. This turned out to be a strike of good luck. Hiawatha went Freedom and Morocco Authocracy but the rest of the pack all went Order. So I had no ideology pressure for the entire game! Hiawatha´s positon on the map and the frequent wars were slowing him down as Morocco and Russia emerged as the new powerhouses. Morocco´s religion were dominating the whole world and also my cities finally converted (except my capital). I was going for a SV with no ideology pressure, so it did not really matter. With all the wars going on, the outcome was very surprising. No AI succumbed to defeat and there were almost no border adjustments at all!

Russia built Apollo already on t228 and I was a little worried. However, I was finally catching up and got Apollo on t259 which usually is good enough. The only thing bothering me was wether my culture output was enough to finish both Rationalism and get six policies in Order. At this point it was clear that only me and Russia had a chance to win the game. Morocco´s culture was impressive but Indonesia and Brazil had good output as well. There is a screenshot from t298 where you can see that I was building the last spaceship part and I would win on t302. (Three more turn until my sixth policy in Order and I would of course use the GE to finish the last spaceship part). To my surprise, Russia finished their own spaceship on t298 and thus I lost the game. That was a very strong performance by Cathrine! Obviously, this was not the way to go about this game!

 

[vadalaz]

Sorry to hear the game didn't end well for you! I had a very different experience with a T201 total domination:

Spoiler :

Many times I have read about how you can get Chu-Ko-Nus with 3 attacks a turn as Persia, but never got to experience this myself. This map has 5 militaristic CSs, and you spawn next to one that gifts CKNs.

I settled in place and went Liberty. I found two culture ruins, so I got Collective Rule quite early and sent the first settler to Uluru, then planted two coastal expos in the tundra.

Spoiler T50 :

It's a bit of an isolated start with a lot of early barbs, which made it really easy to ally Belgrade and Monaco with camp quests and worker returns. It helps to get early allies here, because there aren't that many unique luxuries around.

Uluru made it easy to get a religion, but Ahmad beat me to Pagodas and IP, so I got Earth Mother / Tithe / Temple happiness / Religious Community / Spreads Faster. Morocco had a really strong religious game and it was hard to fight the pressure from IP because Bismarck planted 6 early expos, all of which got converted to Ahmad's religion.

I went for a CB push, took Fes from Ahmad, got two luxuries and 200 gold in a peace deal with him. Then I sent my CBs to Germany and took Frankfurt, made white peace and sold the city back to Bismarck for 42 gpt.

Meanwhile I also allied Almaty which gifted African Forest Elephants. This is a fun unit that acts sort of like a mobile Great General. You move it next to an enemy unit that you're about to focus down, and they get a -10% debuff to combat strength. Persian UA offsets the elephants' movement penalty, making them quite strong indeed. I never upgraded the elephants and eventually gave them Mobility promotions so they'd have 5 movement.

SP-wise after Collective Rule I went for the worker policy, then Patronage to Scholasticism. I really like Patronage on Deity as of late, with enough allies Scholasticism carries you through Medieval era even if you delay NC, and I've come to really appreciate the policy that buffs gold gifts to CSs.

I teched to Machinery before Education to get CKNs as soon as possible. In the meantime my CBs needed something to do, so I sent them to Gustavus and Hiawatha, and the goal here was to get some cash out of them to upgrade to XBs. Ahmad also attacked me around the same time, but I defended pretty easily.

Spoiler T100 :

Then came the power of Persian UA. I stopped growing for a bit to keep my happiness up and make sure the first natural Golden Age would hit right after I'd upgraded to XBs. Then I got another GA from finishing Liberty (took an engineer for Forbidden Palace), two more from Great Artists, another one from Taj Mahal and then the third Artist spawned just in time. That was a really long Golden Age.

I attacked Hiawatha first and took a city from him, which cleared the path to Germany. So I made peace with the Iroquois and declared war on Bismarck next. Berlin was the first capital I took, and in the meantime I was building a second army to kill Morocco.

Spoiler T150 (1) :

Spoiler T150 (2) :

Pedro was first to Industrial era, and I was lucky enough to have a spy in his capital. I stole Industrialization, upgraded to Gatling Guns and built 3 factories to adopt Freedom and get Universal Suffrage.

Early Gatling Guns with Persian UA are quite strong, and CKN-Gatlings with Range are outright scary. They decimate land units and can hit cities as hard as Artillery (3 shots at 30 strength vs 28 strength with +200% vs cities). Got one of those guys up to Level 8 in the end.

I meant to Oxford Dynamite for Artillery, but I was razing cities without Universities which blocked me from building Oxford. That's a pretty annoying mechanic - puppets without the required buildings are OK for building national wonders, but burning cities aren't.

So I researched Dynamite the normal way and got it on turn 175. Artilleries with 3 moves are as good as they sound, so cleaning up even this fairly big map with lots of cities didn't take long.

Spoiler T201 :

 

[Nizef]

Sorry to hear the game didn't end well for you! I had a very different experience with a T201 total domination:

Well, I must say the game was still very interesting and in my experience it is very rare for an AI to win before t300!

 

[vadalaz]

Well, I must say the game was still very interesting and in my experience it is very rare for an AI to win before t300!

Spoiler Spoilers about an AI in #135 :

I just checked civdata and it appears that Catherine actually has the highest Spaceship and Science Flavors - 9 and 8 respectively. Sejong and Wu are next with 8s for both stats. Interestingly, Hiawatha and Askia both have high a Spaceship flavor at 8, but low Science at 4. How exactly are they supposed to get a spaceship without science?

Another AI trait that's odd to me is "victory competitiveness." Shouldn't they all be trying to win?

 

[Bruhmoment]

It is nice to see you commenting! Thanks for participating. Even if you perhaps do not like the idea for this particular game, I hope that there are some other games in this series that you could consider playing. You are also welcome to offer your thoughts for games that you would like to see in this series.

Many maps with mediocre starts have different types of compensation nearby. That is also the case in #134. Sometimes it might be justified to move the settler 2-3 times before settling and personally I remember a few starts where I moved even 5 times. As an example, also #4 with Denmark and #102 with Austria comes to mind as games that have rough starts.

I am grateful for Tiberiu´s additions to this series. He is such a creative player and his games definitely add diversity to the series in a way I perhaps would not be able to offer otherwise.

The next additions to the series will probably be with Spain and Persia. The former is a collaboration product with @Shark Diver and the latter with @vadalaz. Hopefully I will be able to publish one of them during the upcoming weekend.

I have only played Deity once, and was clearly going to win it so I just quit. Every other try - a fail. Too bad I don't play on Deity so I could share some interesting save files.
Also - about the oddness of "victory competitiveness". Greece clearly follows that rules, and that's basically it I don't see anyone else follow it

 

[Nizef]

I have only played Deity once, and was clearly going to win it so I just quit. Every other try - a fail. Too bad I don't play on Deity so I could share some interesting save files.
Also - about the oddness of "victory competitiveness". Greece clearly follows that rules, and that's basically it I don't see anyone else follow it

If you are interested, #73 with Venice and #131 with Indonesia are probably among the easiest journeys available in the series.