[LP] Everybody Wants to Rule the World, Part I: John Curtin

[Jaaboo]

So, back in the day on the Civ 4 boards, a poster named Neal had a running series playing a variety of games on the fantastic Earth-18 map (and later, on variations of said map.) Civ 5 never had a stock map like that other than modded maps that melted my computer. But now with the Summer Patch and the true start Earth map at Standard size, finally there's a static map (mostly, only the Civs are random) that my poor computer can handle without turning into molten hot slag.

Now, I'm a crap player. But I'd like to change that. And reading series like King of the World and Sisiutil's All Leaders Challenge helped me learn Civ 4. Yes, there are a lot of video Let's Plays out there, but video and I just haven't really ever clicked. I like to read, and I like to write, sooo- I'm going to make my own feeble attempt at standing on the shoulders of giants and start a play through on the new Earth map. Starting with a solid builder Civ that's isolated in their own little corner of world, let's try to rule the world with John Curtin, Prime Minister of Australia. I'll be playing the game in rounds and posting a write up, looking for input at key moments in the development of the Oceanic continent.

This game will be played on Prince difficulty. My objective will be to move up difficulties. Maybe Prince is too easy for a game with forum input. Let's find out, shall we?

The Commonwealth of Australia: John Curtin
Round 0: G'Day Mate! (this post)
Round 1: Together Alone
Round 2: Solitude is Bliss
Round 3: Men at Work

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So, Australia under John Curtin, our newest Civ. Australia seems a pretty powerful Civ with bonuses to production (from the leader UA and UI), growth (from the UI) and incredibly nice buffs to science, gold, faith and culture in lieu of using high appeal tiles for neighborhoods (which is not much of a loss.) The Outback Station is a fun improvement, receiving 1 food for every adjacent pasture, and later 1 food and 1 production for every two adjacent Outback Stations; making for chains of high food/production tiles even on flat desert. The Digger I've not used much of yet, but it seems a solid replacement for the Infantry; bonus strength on coastal tiles and in foreign lands. The Land Down Under is a very cool UA; cities founded on the coast have the same (I think) housing as fresh water cities, and coastal tiles usually have high appeal, making for powerful bonuses to everything but production.

John Curtin's UA is, well, amazing. Double production after being declared upon or liberating a city makes for a solid boost, especially when fighting against a warmonger. I'm sure there are plenty of ways to leverage his UA, even from a position of strength. The Earth map can be a little crowded in Europe and the Middle East (you don't say) so I would think there might be some opportunities to both foster international goodwill while powering, say, a spaceship.

Of course, if the hivemind thinks we're better off using that time-honored strategy of RISK by using Oceania as a fortified base from which to crush the world under our Uggs, then maybe we'll see less use from it, or maybe the frightened reactions of a weak world will only fuel our war machine's beating desert heart.

Which brings me to the humble beginnings of the Australian people, the plains and hills of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, on the banks of what I assume is the Murray River;

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So, where do we settle? (Sorry if the image is a bit too reduced, please give me feedback on that.) The NSW coast is to our east with a number of fish tiles. The wooded hills to the south is Victoria's southern coast, and the plains tiles to the west of the desert sheep is the mouth of the Murray. The settler's location is a power Outback Station site, a 5 food 2 hammer tile from Guilds. Tiles are at a premium on Australia; most of the continent is desert with low appeal (but powerful to work with Petra & stations). The coastal tiles seem best for districts to use the Aussie UA, but are the only source of serious production until Steam Power.

As for goals, I see a suite of short-term goals;

• Tech-wise, Oceania has but two luxuries and they require Irrigation, Sailing and Celestial Navigation. Establishing cities on New Guinea and Borneo seem essential to pick up spices for trade. (Java, I believe, will always have Jakarta.)
• Australia has room for four cities, I think; the capital, Brisbane/Cairns, Darwin and Perth. The QLD city will pick up the Great Barrier Reef.
• We have nothing to fear from land battles for a while once the initial barbarians are cleared. Australia is an easy place to fog-bust. Still, Archery will be nice to have considering AH will be our first tech.
• Getting an internal trade network up will likely happen with harbors given our need for Celestial Navigation, meaning Currency can be delayed. Still, with the UA buff to Commercial Hubs, I see no reason not to place them anyway to fund purchases and upgrades.
• Wonders wise, while TGL & Colossus are nice to haves, Petra & Colosseum I think will be the two I need to place in the Outback. Colosseum should be able to hit all four Aussie cities, and Petra will make the Outback amazing tiles, especially once Steam Power comes in. I'm thinking our capital should be founded in a way to take advantage.

Long-term goals is where I get hung up. As mentioned above, I see two good paths; Oz is isolated and its naval needs will push our tech path towards Cartography, so we should see some colonization action. On the other hand, our isolation can be used as a launching pad towards Australian supremacy, like so many games of RISK.

Thoughts? Jeers? Post less newb? I'm quite nervous to throw myself out there, but I loved reading Neal's games and you know what they say about imitation and flattery.

 

[gimper42]

I would definitely research sailing stuff ASAP. Frigates from Oz to rules the world.

 

[Jaaboo]

Even if we're not planning on crushing everyone under our Digger's heels, I agree. We need to settle as much as Indonesia as possible, and possibly South America. But I'm guessing you're in favor of a less peaceful Down Under?

 

[gimper42]

The YnAMP TSL Earth maps that I have tried both had Torres del Paine down towards the bottom of South America with adjacent hills. That would probably be a good spot to aim a settler at.

And yeah, I'm a huge warmonger in this game.

 

[MaximusPlatypus]

I like going for Panama, which gives you access to the Atlantic coasts.

 

[Jaaboo]

Yes, if we can plop a city on the Panamanian isthmus, it'll be a big boon to our navy. That being said, in Civ 6, is a city the only way to traverse an isthmus?

Warmongering, I'm not sure. I do like it. I imagine, however, that's a decision that can be made once we see who's in the game. I imagine every start in this location is going to be about setting the Oceanic continent up to a position of strength and science. I'm guessing any attack is going to start with Frigates.

Any thoughts on settling? In place makes a lot of sense, but I'm leaning to oddly settling on the desert sheep. Canberra doesn't need to work additional water tiles (can they even be improved?) and if I go for a stab at Petra (it's Prince, I expect I can get it) working more desert tiles is a good thing. Settling 2W could work as well? I believe it's appeal is only Charming, so I wouldn't be losing a powerful district tile and the sheep with Petra is potentially a powerful tile, plus all the stations it will power.

 

[Jaaboo]

Round 1: Together Alone

In the beginning, the Earth was without form, and void. Wait, no. That's another story.

In our world, the beginnings of modern-day Australia came about when the British Empire claimed the eastern half of the island as penal colony and began to deposit exiles and convicts at Sydney Cove who would soon found that city. But this, too is a different story. In this world gone mad, native settlers found themselves weary of the nomadic lifestyle and found fertile ground surrounded by the beasts they had hunted for game. They promptly said "Screw that!" and founded Adelaide on the southern coast.

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I decided on this location for a few reasons. It should open up more choices for founding a city on the eastern point, I'm thinking a push to Petra will pay off with more desert tiles to work with Outback Stations, and it gave us an immediate Eureka on Sailing, a high-priority tech. Maybe that was a bad move. Short-term it's not as strong.

I do like to plan out the first three improvements my worker will make for the Craftsmanship boost, and with the fish, Sailing will be needed as well. I obviously started on Animal Husbandry and built three Slingers. I didn't need three Slingers this early, but my thought was to get the early boost on Machinery. A barbarian enclave in the Gold Coast area provided me with the chance to kill something with a Slinger, and even before Code of Laws was in, Archery was boosted. My wise men got started on Sailing.

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After Code of Laws, I started Craftsmanship, planning to switch at 50% to let the boost complete. Card choices were +5 against barbarians and God-King. Both are no-brainers at this point in the game, especially with no recon units to boost. Pantheon-wise, both God of the Sea and God of the Open Sky seem like good choices. Divine Spark is often available. I think however, the production-poor Oceanic islands favor God of the Sea. Sailing finished, and I started on Astrology with the same goal. Discovering Great Barrier Reef would complete it (or so I thought!)

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After eliminating another barb camp in the Perth area, I had enough gold to rush-buy a worker. My gold-per-turn seemed enough to replenish for archer upgrades. The worker improved the desert sheep first to push the borders towards the cows, and the horses next to claim all the high-appeal tiles to the south. Archers got upgraded one at a time, though you can see I upgraded my promoted slinger last. I don't think it mattered and I didn't want that scout to report back and start a raid.

For the capital, I'm thinking Commercial district just south of the river and a Campus just south of that. The Harbor will go SW of the city, leaving a water tile to the west for TGL or Colossus should I choose to go for it. Thoughts? Not sure if I need bother with a holy site or theater, but there are two more breathtaking tiles for those.

This next screenshot shows Craftsmanship being completed via the boost as the worker improved the fish. Also, Astrology is ready to be boosted by GBR. Or is it?

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Apparently not - upon discovering the wonder, I expected Astro to be in, but it was still one turn away. Why is that? Am I missing something there? Was this just a weird effect of having juuusssst not enough science and I should have managed that better? I switched to it as my settler completed, ready for assignment, which is where I called the round.

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Where should they go?

My thought is to settle the Queensland coast, but where? On the eastern tip in the Brisbane/Gold Coast area seems a likely choice. There are a few fish tiles to work (especially nice if I get God of the Sea). The grassland tile north of the Murray River's head is a primo Outback Station tile, giving 6 food and 1 production. Nothing in that area picks up GBR, which should be able to work with a city up north somewhere. Of course, Australia's sole luxury is off the Darwin coast near my warrior. Maybe I should be heading up there?

Build wise in Adelaide, I'm leaning towards getting a Galley in the water to discover Asia (for the Foreign Trade boost) and maybe even some future victi— neighbors.

Also, here's the status of the initial Great People we have a shot of picking up. I'm thinking Writing is my next target, regardless of meeting anyone, so I can reap the benefits of a Breathtaking campus. Is it worth it to push for Euclid, noting that we want Petra? Math isn't all that hard to boost but I don't see building Holy Sites. Maybe an Encampment is a better early district to start building up General points for our future world conquest?

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I leave it to hivemind. Save is attached, if you're into that whole thing.

 

[MaximusPlatypus]

I usually settle SE of the horse. Oops, I didn't read your post after. IMO Petra is best built in your second or third city, slightly NW of the center of the desert. You'll have to rush trade routes and I have no doubt you will build it on this difficulty. But, seeing as where you settled, you might as well just build it in the cap. Reason I don't like a Petra capital is that I prefer building a lot of districts in the capital. Petra city should have few districts to maximize the yields and outback stations. Don't even bother with land units or techs unless you get declared on or have barb issues. Just keep a couple quadriremes around between your closest enemy and your continent.

 

[Jaaboo]

I didn't even think of that location. There's iron on Tasmania, too. Sorry, I figured I'd jump ahead and get the game rolling.

 

[MaximusPlatypus]

Marbozir just started up an Australia playthrough you might want to follow. Marbs is an excellent tactical player, tbh one of the most skilled Civ5 Deity streamers when that was a thing. He does a great job of explaining his decisions, and is not afraid of trying different strategies for the fun factor.

 

[Jaaboo]

Awesome, looks like there are a number of let's play for Oz. I'll definitely take a look!

 

[Jaaboo]

Also, Veneke just finished playing the exact same game, so there's that.

 

[Jaaboo]

I usually settle SE of the horse. Oops, I didn't read your post after. IMO Petra is best built in your second or third city, slightly NW of the center of the desert. You'll have to rush trade routes and I have no doubt you will build it on this difficulty. But, seeing as where you settled, you might as well just build it in the cap. Reason I don't like a Petra capital is that I prefer building a lot of districts in the capital. Petra city should have few districts to maximize the yields and outback stations. Don't even bother with land units or techs unless you get declared on or have barb issues. Just keep a couple quadriremes around between your closest enemy and your continent.

Just saw the edit for this. I didn't quite think about things in that manner, but it's a good point, with Petra you want to work those tiles. Well, Adelaide is just going to have to grow to a good size then. Tech wise, agreed - it's the naval techs to settle SE Asia and meet the world then infrastructure techs and civics.

 

[Jaaboo]

Round played. I have to say, cities without walls are AWFULLY tempting targets. But I resisted. More to come!

 

[Jaaboo]

Round 2: Solitude is Bliss

The last round was all about conquest. Conquest of our tiny island from the vile clutches of the barbarians. Now, the order of the day was consolidation. To that order, I sent my settler to found Cairns in a place that could pick up GBR, the two fish around Brisbane and the high appeal tiles in far north Queensland. Looking back, I can see that moving my capital wasn't a great idea; I've missed the high yield sheep tile 1S of the east corner of the island. Sometimes I guess I outsmart myself. Adelaide started on a Galley. Cairns first build was another one, to boost Shipbuilding, a key tech for us.



Moving on, our Pantheon came in and I picked up God of the Sea. With the number of fish and pearl tiles around Oceania and SE Asia, this seemed a no-brainer. God of the Open Skies would have been powerful too.



Adelaide's Galley started its journey north and met Gajah Mada!



Jakarta's quest, as you can see, was to build a Galley. Easy money. A few turns later, my valiant explorers found the coast of Vietnam and with the boost from finding a new continent, finished Foreign Trade. With the new policy window, I threw out our old policies of killin' barbarians and worshiping John Curtin as a demigod for the more sensible production boosts to our two fledgling metropoli and to boost Cairns' build of a Galley. Maybe Ilkum was a stronger move as I had builders going in the capital to help Cairns get running, but Adelaide has a pretty strong production.



This screenshot doesn't show much, just that barbarians have founded Singapore. As a former resident of the Lion City, I find that offensive. There's not much I can do about it for the moment, though.



Farther up the Chinese coast we met Hong Kong, who wants us to build a Holy Site. I'm not thinking that's in the cards. Shame, Hong Kong has quite nice bonuses. Still, we were the first to meet them, so I have the +2 cog boost in our capital now. That does speak to little in the way of Asian Civs, so an aggressive settling period might be in the cards once our trade infrastructure is up.

Cairns started on trader after the Galley, which I would move to the capital. You can see we're already struggling with entertaining the masses, making Adelaide's next settler a lock to found Darwin and claim pearls. Our worker is about to solidify our ability to build trade units by completing a second fishing boat and finishing Celestial Navigation. You can also see that my fogbusting isn't great. I had more than enough troops to wipe out any barbarian insurgency, so I wasn't worried, but I took great care to move units one turn at a time lest some ill-timed spawn capture a settler or builder.



Adelaide was going to build a campus, but we were stymied by our lack of knowledge on how to chop down trees. At the same time, Jakarta gave us a new quest - boost Iron Working. Okay then! The capital started a builder for Darwin, using the Aussie UA and some gold to claim the Iron tile in West Australia. I also built a boat on those pearls.

To the north in Asia, we met Hojo Tokimune! He hadn't quite left Nippon yet.



I've found Civ 6's counterpart to be much more reasonable and easy to get along with say, Nobunaga or Tokugawa, so it should be no problem to... oh.



Oh well. He would later take us to task for not developing enough culture or faith. It's a fair cop.

I didn't take a screen shot of this, but Kyoto had no walls and was 15 strength. My Galleys are 25 strength. For a brief moment, Curtin had visions of pirates in rowing boats storming the shores of Nippon, but shook it off. Japan is on our list to kill, but I'd like a proper war with a real casus belli and not just a warmongery "Suprise!" Plus, just my luck, he gets walls up and then it's no-go.

Apparently, his people, enamored with tales of far-off Australia and the splendor of the Outback, decided to worship the ways of the sand, despite there being little to no sand on Honshu, and definitely no deserts.



The whole "no mining" set back corrected, the capital finished its Campus, laying down the basis for Euclid's recruitment (maybe), boosting our science considerably, and finishing off a key civic. Darwin and Cairns both were working on monuments to help boost our culture as well. With State Workforce in, I switched to Conscription and Colonization, two early favorites to boost my economy and my settler production. Adelaide has started on a third settler to lay claim to the entirety of Australia and once it's Harbor is complete, Cairns will start on one to send across the Arafura Sea and claim New Guinea.



With that, I decided to call it a round. The next round will feature more of the same, I'm sure, so maybe there's little to talk about just yet. Borneo and Indochina are ripe for the taking and should be settled ASAP. China might be in be in play seeing how slow Hojo-san has been at developing his naval techs.

Here's the tech tree on turn 70; Shipbuilding seems a no brainer so that I can build Quadriremes and settle Asia. With a force of Quadriremes, is it worth it to declare a surprise war and take out the Japanese? Euclid might not be useful after all, especially if we get a second campus going in North QLD.



So far, so good? This does seem to have the hallmarks of an easy game, but as I've mentioned before, it's the closing rounds that tend to get my wheels spinning. With no nearby targets save Japan (which isn't that nearby), should we still be thinking late-game domination? Or should we settle all the breathtaking tiles in Asia and build campii and commercial hubs everywhere and just shoot for the stars? I've never done a science victory, so help with that would be nice.

Save is attached.

 

[Jaaboo]

Round 3: Men At Work

This round was all about building Petra and claiming SE Asia. While both objectives were met, a few difficulties have arisen that I'd love advice on how to tackle.



I took one turn to finish Mysticism for the Envoy and sent him off to Seoul. I would battle Japan (I presume) for Suzerain status of Korea, but my investment in Jade Scholars would pay off with two tech boosts, one for Castles and one for Mass Production. I then of course started to work on Political Philosophy to open up proper forms of government. That came in and I went with these cards, in furtherance of my goals;



Classical Republic seemed to me the best choice at this point. With most of my cities building Harbors or Campuses soon, the additional amenity would be nice as I am lacking in those. The Great People boost will be handy down the line, and with a need to settle land, military cards weren't needed as much. I opted for boosts to Settlers, Builders and Wonders; exactly what I was aiming for.

I talked about getting Euclid, but there was no way that was worth it, even with the +2 Great Scientist card. However, I did allow Math to be completed by a boost from building a Harbor in Cairns and a Commercial Hub in Adelaide. While that delayed the start of Petra, I used the time to build workers and settlers, sending one from Cairns to New Guinea and the first one from Adelaide to found Perth.

All the while, I sent a Galley along the south Asian coast to find new civs. It took a while. It wasn't until my intrepid explorers rowed up the Red Sea that they found someone;



Despite her initial reservations, Cleopatra finally warmed up to me and asked for friendship. I consented, knowing that even if I am going to viciously stab her in the back later, it'll come much later.



Merauke was founded on New Guinea (yes, Port Moresby is the larger city on the island but it'd be where the nanners are.) It would take me longer than I wanted to get Irrigation and improve those spices, but I felt I was good at keeping my cities small for the time being while working high production tiles and building settlers.

My workers were busy chopping trees to clear land on high appeal tiles for future districts, mostly Campuses. Improving the horses around Perth resulted in Hojo offering me this trade, to which I consented.



The image is a bit scaled down but that's 10 gold and 8/turn for 30 turns. The money was needed and I was not going to be building any cavalry for the time being.

While the capital worked on Petra, my Galley found Zanzibar. Their unique amenities would be needed and I was working on The Wheel anyway, backfilling early techs, so I rush bought a Water Mill in Adelaide. It gave me a small boost in production and a free envoy. I sent any envoys I earned and briefly won Suzerain status but have since lost it. I suspect Egypt and I will be fighting for that city state. Great. My brief time as Suzerain revealed Mt. Kilimanjaro, and I also uncovered Tsingy after rowing around Madagascar.

Exploring up the west African coast, I met two other civs;



Catherine would applaud my capacity for espionage and Harald liked my large navy. That's cool.

Petra was finally finished in Adelaide. I'm not sure if that was the best location for it, but it should allow for a nice cluster of Outback Stations to the north. Obviously, Guilds is now a priority civic. You can see where I built my Commercial Hub, that's giving +5 adjacency bonus, which will go up once I plop a Harbor in the St. Vincent Gulf. A campus is adjacent to that, with a wonderful +4. As soon as I nabbed Recorded History, I slotted the 100% boost to Campus adjacency values, which gave a nice boost to science.



I settled Bandar Seri Begawan on the north coast of Borneo. Maybe the south coast might have been better to claim tiles away from Jakarta's future expansion, but it can work the fish and nanners near the southern Philippine island.

Something distressing popped up in India...


Suspecting I would meet Tomyris, I sent my SE Asian navy (a Quad and Galley) to check out those borders. Sure enough, I met the warrior Queen;



I'm thinking she's got to go.

I also got a heads up on another future contact;


You can see that Cartography is closing in. As soon as it completed, my European Galley started west to meet the American civ(s). I also got a settler into Indochina and founded Siem Reap.

With Recorded History in, I called it a round. Education is a boost away from completing, but a Great Scientist (Abu Al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi, +20 healing, or a random boost and +5 healing for all units) is due in no more than 12 turns. Perth's library is one turn away and Cairns and Merauke's campusii are 5 and 6 turns away, respectively. Does it make sense to wait?



As you can see, I've currently set my research on bottom tier techs. I'm thinking a push to Machinery is a good call. I have the boost, I've slotted Limes and Siem Reap is working on Ancient Walls in case Tomyris makes a play for Cambodia. My three archers are in the area too, ready to be upgraded.

Here's SE Asia;

My priority there is to buy the silk tile next turn and improve it. My cities are suffering from a lack of amenities, as I battle for supremacy for Zanzibar. They want a trade route, which I was unable to send previously. Next turn, I can send a route from BSB to Zanzibar.

Here's the status of the City States. I think Zanzibar is top priority. Should I deviate from Guilds to pick up envoy-granting civics? My choices are Theology and Naval Tradition, the latter I have a boost for.


I think I'm in a strong position. My cities need luxuries but once that's accomplished, the capital should grow quickly, especially as I get Guilds. Tech wise, my thought is to get Machinery and then Gunpowder, to get some Muskets on the board. I can go barb hunting with the Muskets to boost Square Rigging and then maybe it'll be showtime? My culture/turn is a bit low and there are a lot of civics I still need. Perhaps some theatre districts are needed as well? Government wise, should I look towards Monarchy?

The save is attached, and as always, feedback is welcome!