First early war focus game

Votal

Chieftain
Joined
Jun 23, 2012
Messages
3
Excuse the typos and whatnot. Originally I was going to jot down notes in notepad, then clean it up in Word, but ended up taking a lot more notes than I thought I would and didn't feel like transferring it over to Word for hardcore editing. The civ# denote screenshots that I haven't uploaded yet, but I'll work on as soon as my internet stops being dumb.

Game concept:
Early focus on warmongering through faith. Use the Celts UA to grab a large advantage on the religious front and use said advantage to fuel early wars and conquest.



A decent start, decide to wait a turn to move so I can take full advantage of my UA and get the +2 faith instead of +1. civ2

Going with a scout first, following up with an early worker. We'll see from there.

Luck out hardcore and my first ruin is archery tech, this will be great for my early warmongering strategy that I'm trying out for the first time. civ3

Founded the first pantheon at turn 9. No idea what believes I'm going to take since this is the first time I've gone warmonger. civ4

15 turns in and already starting work on bronze working. Normally I would be going for writing, but I want to start chruning out my UA as soon as possible.

2 wonders down at turn 17. Exploring is going well. Mt. Kailash is in a perfect position for my future second city. It giving +6 faith is going to be great with how I am planning things out.

Trouble with barbs around turn 18. A bit far away, but I also have a camp right in my backyard. Normally I would of taken care of this from the get go, but want to save them for my UU for the early faith. Hope this doesn't bite me in the ass.

Turn 19, I find my warrior that I set to auto explore (damn my lazy ass) is boxed in and will have to slowly fight his way out, hopefully he doesn't die. Luckily, the enemy unit is on marsh, so will take a terrain malus as I attack. civ6

Warrior made it out fine, took shock over my normal drill promotion to help him fight his way out. Plus I seem to of spawned in some pretty flat terrain. I could finish off the camp, but want to save it. Haven't run into any CS yet =/

Scout is cornered, again due to my laziness on auto explore. I'm able to save him an get a promotion out of it. I would like to take extra sight range, put opt to heal him so I can keep exploring without waiting for him to heal up.

India, being the only civ I've found so far, wants to DoF me. I take it, despite the fact I plan on killing them as soon as I get my war machine going.

Worker is finished, but forced to keep him idle while as I'm worried about this barb taking him. Luckily bronze working is done soon and I can start pumping out picts and I won't have to deal with this. civ7

Turn 32 and bronze working is done. I had hoped to have enough gold to be able to rush my first one, but as I look at the 155 I have, and the 350 he costs, I realize this was an unrealistic goal. I stop work on my momument and start in on him. 17 turns. Going in for writing now, even though a few other techs look pretty appealing for what's going on. I want that library.

My first policy. I opt for tradition for the extra culture. Not sure if I'll continue down this line or start in on honor next. We'll see.

Having to keep my starting warrior tied up guarding my worker. While I could easily kill off the barb camps, again, saving it all up for my first pict warrior. Faith generation is already looking really good. 1/3 of the way to founding the first religion, and its only turn 39.

I decide to buy the desert hill. I have no real production right now and plan on trying to save 3 of the 4 forest tiles for as long as I can for the faith generation. Not sure if my reasoning is sound or not, but here goes 120 of my hard earned gold. Still no CSs... the gold from them would be nice right now, and any bonuses I could get from doing their missions. Alas. Last game I didn't find a SINGLE one for around 150-200 turns. On a huge size map. wtf is that? Maybe its the continents plus map style. They seemed to all be grouped up on a few islands last time. Going to make an effort to get explore near the coasts earlier this time, and possibly get tech to embark sooner than I normally would.

Turn 40, I see my first hint of a cs, but damnit, can't get close enough to make contact...

I expand to the other wheat spot, and while it will cost me 1 faith per turn to switch to it, I do anyway as it will allow me to get my pict warrior 1 turn faster. Expanding city size in 3 turns. Not sure if I'm going to go for using that hill tile I unlocked for if I will stick with a tile that gives me more food.

Ugh, the barb camp near my base spawns some archers. My warrior is low from attacking the game (so I could have it in death range when my pict came up). I retreat him back to my town to heal, and recall my worker. Damnit.

Writing is done at 46. I decide to go for calendar since I have incense and spices all around me and this sets me up for trapping to take better advantage of the deer around me. If I want to make the most of my tiles, going to have to start thinking about giving up my UA, but that is a ways down the road. 1 turn till my pict.

My first pict is done and I am torn between what to build next. I doubt I can pull off getting the great library as I was so late to the game, but it is tempting. Zeus and Artemis are also tempting for my warmongering ways. Hrm.... 2 turns till my next social policy. I think I will risk it and go for the great library and take the policy to increase my build production. Keeping my fingers crossed. Taking that policy cuts my build time down from 33 to 28. Hopefully that will be enough. I would really like to build another settler, but am going to hold off and try to get this.

Excellent, one of my scouts just hit a weapon upgrade ruin. I love having an archer than can ignore movement penalties. I usually try to baby them and hold to them forever.

Barb camp near my capital is spawning food for my pict. Yay. I think I will kill off the camp though and send him roaming to the other nearby camps. Really need 2 more cities. One on the ocean so I can start exploring more thoroughly.

Even though I really need to explore more, I decide to use my archer-scout as support for my pictish warrior for now, to soften targets up so he can keep going with as little downtime as possible.

Calendar is done at turn 59, moving on to animal husbandry to go for trapping next. Also I'm surrounded by plains, so I'm hoping I run into a horde of horses.

Turn 60/2600, India founds its secound city. It looks ripe for the 'picting' Come on 300 faith. Need faith warriors asap. 109 faith away.

Decide to chop some forests to A) make room for spice plantations and B) give my Great Library project a boost. I think the second I see an indian worker, I'm going to DoW so I can speed this up. Plus, even if I'm not actively taking their cities, my picts should be able to beat the crap out of anything they send at me, especially if they get into my territory and I can beat them up with my city and scout-archer.

Having taken out my 2nd barb camp, my pict warrior has granted me around 10 faith so far. At this stage, that is pretty huge. Turn 66 and I'm 75 away from religion. Almost have enough gold to rush another pict, debating on saving up to rush a settler or saying screw it and grabbing the pict.

Been slacking on my exploring, babying my pict, but now I'm back at it. Just ran into Germany, going to try and goad them into war. By denounching him the turn we meet. Just noticed that a small spawn of ocean seperates us, and he didn't embark to greet me, maybe my war will take longer than I thought to get started. Crap. GIVE ME YO FAITH!

By turn 70, man I've really been slacking, I've explored all of the continent I'm on. Its just me an india. I am going to murder them and claim the whole place for myself. BUWAHAHAHA. civ9

Was going to go further down the tradition tree, but then saw that honor gives culture for killing barbs. This sounds great. I almost regret taking the second perk in tradition first, but then I did manage to grab the GL, WOOT! civ10 Going to use it to grab iron working, though I thought about philosophy for temples and getting faith a bit faster. I think the possibility of iron will go better with my early warmongering. And amazingly, there is iron on the exact location I planned on founding either my 2nd or third city. Guess I know which one it will be now. Going for a settler now that the GL is finished. Even though stonehenge looks really tempting. Was thinking about rushing another pict warrior, but I think I'll save for rushing a granary. The 2 wheat and deer spaces close to me make it too good to pass up, but I have too many other important things to build to put it on the que.

Actually I decide to hold off on the settler for 7 turns. 2 reasons. 1 so I can finish a momument, and 2 so I can get my town up to 5. It is pathetically small right now.

I really want to DoW india, but I'm going to wait for a worker to pop up. I need the xp to start turning my pict warrior and scout-archer into beasts for when Germany comes after my repeated insults of them.

Turn 76, year 2100. Going in for the wheel next, then sailing I think. Hopefully I'll then have my second city founded and can build a trimere to start exploring.

First plantation/happiness resource done. This is how my capital is shaping up. civ11

I can build 1 camp without it screwing up my bonus, I think I will set my worker on that.

I decide against this and go for putting a farm on my river/desert hilltop.

Letting my pict rest before tackling the next barb camp. I think I might actually pick up march instead of rushing for blitz.

Turn 83, 1925. The wheel is done, but instead of going for sailing like I thought, going to go for philsophy since my first settler is still 12 turns from completion, and getting the national college early is really a game changer. Not to mention the temple and possibly the oracle. 21 turns on philo though, brutal.

Finally, at turn 86 and the year 1850, my first great prophet! EVen though this is super early, all I've been doing since I started this game is waiting for this moment. Founding "Ironic Religion" right meow. Taking tithe (+1 gold per 4 followers) because its amazing, and holy warriors (lets you buy ground units for faith). I debate on whether I should take this first, but decide to go for it anyway. civ12

Turn 87, year 1825. I finally have enough to rush my granary. This provides a much needed +4 food boost in my capital.

Turn 92. New social policy, yay! Almost tempted to get piety for the cheaper shrine costs (I still haven't build my FIRST one in my capital, wtf am I thinking?!?), but decide to go for Warrior code in honor. I think I really want to start causing some trouble with india. The general will really help, as well as the 15% production bonus, and placing me just 1 step away from that all important 50% xp bonus. Also, India has founded their 3rd city.

Turn 94 and I make contact with wittenberg because they have a ship. They are a religion civ. Hopefully they'll give me some quests I can do for them. My first settler is done and I start on a shrine, something I probably should of made a whiiiiiiile ago. This 2nd city is really going to open up some serious posibilities for me with iron and access to the ocean.

Shrine is done, about to found my 2nd city and think I'm going to take a chance on trying to build stonehenge. That +5 faith is just too tempting. On a side note, just noticed that the shrine only gives +1 faith. I must be WAY ahead on the faith front, much further than I thought.

Founded my 2nd city. Going to go for a library so I can go for the national college next. 38 turns, yuck.

Turn 122, 950. I can't believe I got away with building stonehenge. I originally selected King because I had never really attempted to take an early game warmongering path, and I've only played 1 game at emperor, which was trying for a time, but I eventually whipped it, but this is just too easy so far. Oh well, maybe when I actually go to war... any day now.. maybe. Anyway, with stonehenge being done, going to pump out another pict while I wait on my 2nd city to finish their library so I can build the national college. I was thinking of spending some faith to buy some, but figured I would go ahead and get my second prophet and see if I could finish off my religion before anyone else even founded one. India STILL hasn't built a worker for me to DoW them over. *grumble*

Masonary is done, going on to mathematics for catapults. I am torn between doing my normal hardcore focus on science, or trying to stay in this era as long as possible to keep costs down on faith buying. Plus I don't want to hit pikemen until I've got a number of picts ready to upgrade. I think at least... 5-7.

128/800 bc. 2nd city finished the library, 2nd pict warrior is finished. Starting up on national college while saving up enough gold to rush a trimere. I gotta get off this island. Also got my next social policy, increased xp. Mathematics is done in 3 turns, and even though I don't think I'm really ready, I might throw caution to the wind and attack india after I get my first catapult. 20 turns for national college.... uuuuuuuugh.

Turn 141/485bc. Now that I have a trimere, starting to find some CS. Looks like on contients plus, they are usually grouped up on little islands? And just got my 2nd prophet, before another religion has even been founded, haha. Taking Pagodas (+2 happiness/culture/faith building) and Religious Texts (spreads religion faster).

159/215bc. Here we go... F YOU INDIA! F YOU! PLS DON'T KILL ME!

SUCCESS!!! 164/140bc. After dancing around, I managed to take the city without any loses. I think I only pulled this off because I caught their archer outside the city walls and pummeled him. City had a library already built. Going to puppet for now. Will probably keep it that way.

Wow India.. just wow. You offer peace and hand over one of your other cities? Dropping you back to only your capital? Sounds good. I'll be taking that in 10 turns you spineless bastards.

And BAM. 181/115 AD India is gone. I razed one of their cities because it wasn't that great of a location, the other is puppeted, and I annexed their Capital, waiting for unrest to calm down so I can buy a courthouse for it. Trading away the cotton/incense I got to the Huns and Arabs to keep happiness in check. Germany is next.

Just realized that upgrading a pictish warrior to a pikeman loses their faith bonus. On the bright side, they keep their +20% in foreign lands and free pillage. Arabia is looking really tempting. LOTS of gold, marble, and almost all of their cities are surrounded by desert, which will give me +1 faith on each of them. Going to stablize and build up a bit, then dive in and see what I can do.

Going back and forth over if I'm going to shoot for arabia or germany next. Germany has an isolated city that looks ripe for the "picting" and they would have to cross a small ocean strait to get to me, and I don't think they have the tech yet. Even if they did, I think I could easily destroy them if they tried. Finished a circus in my capital, happiness is at 2. Almost have enough faith to get a pagoda, that will help a lot. I am torn on getting a missionary instead though and spreading to Arabia, as they don't have a religion yet. Going for the Chichen Itza. While I don't think I'll enough happiness anytime soon to generate Golden Ages, hopefully my faith/great people production will keep generating great artists and able to start them that way. Not to mention its just a good wonder in general to deny the AI. I do decide on the pagoda for the much needed boost to happiness and culture. In addition that, with the +2 faith boost, I'm generating 19 faith a turn.


280AD Looks like the huns and Arabia are at war. Going to hopefully swoop in and pick up the spoils. Researching guilds. I think machu pichu is a really underrated wonder, and if I can manage to pick up mecca, with its marble and high production rate, it will be a perfect place to build it. The thought of this decides me on attacking Arabia next. Going to take my little army a ways to get there, as I had originally planned on going for Germany, but hopefully in that time I can build up enough to make it a quick fight.

460AD Guilds is done and I decide to go for physics, having the trebuchet to quickly wear down city walls so my other units can rush in sounds good. And if I manage to get Notre Dame, that +10 happiness is going to be HUGE!

520AD I decide to spend my next 300 faith on a missionary to spread Ironic Religion to Arabia's continent so I can use Faith Warriors as down there as soon as I establish a base. Right now I'm watching the huns beat up on the arabs. I'm ready to swoop in at any moment if Mecca starts looking like its going to fall.

Ugh, right as I get my missionary, arabia founds a religion. Oh well, even more reason to proclaim jihad against them.

Manage to pick up the Chichen Itza. I think only going King difficulty is going to make for a boring game. Starting work on a workshop.

565 AD no idea why, but an archer left mecca. He'll problably make it back in.. but this is it boys, this is war! I immediately grab 3 unsuspecting workers and begin my charge in hoping to overwhelm them quickly with my 3 pictish-pikeman warriors, 2 swordsmen, 1 catapult, and 1 composite bowmen. Along with the great general and my social policies from honor, I'm hoping this is quick and painless.

So after getting decimated trying to take mecca, I reload and decide on a more roundabout approach. Going to convert one of their outlying cities, take it, use faith warriors to buy some units there, then hope they waste a lot of units trying to take it back. When I attacked Mecca, between their archers and city bombardment, my catapult/archer died instantly, and the rest of my small force followed shortly after.

Alright, take 2. Going to swoop in and take out these archers and this worker, then have at the city. civ21

690 AD Success! Baghdad is mine. I annex the city with plans of razing it later. Right now I simply want it as a base to heal at, a place to use faith warriors to spawn another unit or two and gold rush another if needed. Happiness is down to negative 2, but thats alright. I lost one of my pict/pikemen, which is a bummer, but so it goes. I spawned another Great General and am sending him down. I think I'll use my current general to build a citadel and use that to bombard mecca with my newly upgrade trebuchet before rushing in to kill it. Hopefully the AI will rush me and the citadel/my forces will destroy it. civ22

My missionary arrives right in time and converts Baghdad. 5 turns till I can faith rush a trebuchet. In the mean time, going to build my citadel and start bombing Mecca. The Huns seem like they want to join in on the fun. My workshop is done, and I decide to go for the Petra. It takes 14 turns and should really make the non-flood plain tiles worth working, which will be great for the 2 plots of incense I have there and the 2 hills.

730AD My first great person is born a scientist. I think I'll use him to improve a tile. Using them to rush tech, especially this low, seems a bit underwhelming compared to the science boost they'll give my capital for the rest of the game.

Ugh, find out my trebuchet can't attack from my citadel over the forest sepperating us. Damnit. Oh well, hopefully the huns will soften them up and I can sweep in for the kill.

850AD steel is done. Waiting on my general to get here, and my units to heal, then going to push for Mecca. Going for Chivalry next. Knights and the Alhambra will be great.

870 oh hell. The huns just DoWed me. There goes a bunch of happiness and they have a horde coming at the one city I have on their continent. I don't think I'll have any real trouble holding them off, but Mecca is going to have to wait. Damnit.

890AD Petra is finished and my capital city is looking pretty good tile wise. The war with the huns is going well. Despite the fact that it is delaying my conquest of Mecca, they are giving me some super easy xp that I think will make the fight for mecca a lot easier. I decide to go for Notre Dame, as I really need the happiness at this point. Sitting at negative 8. Thankfully my fur camp will be done soon and help with a little bit of that.
civ25

900 AD Monty finds me. That slacker has no luxury resources to trade though. What a punk.

940 AD The Huns have had enough and want to forge a peace. I think I will destroy them a bit more, then let things cool down before tackling Mecca again.

960 AD I should end the war with the Huns, but my real goal is to get at least one of my trebuchets promoted to the point where it can attack twice. Just got a longswordsman with blitz, and he is wrecking things, just need to be careful not to over extend. They have a horde waiting to decend on me, I just know it!

Decided to start on a LONG road to dehli for the trade route bonus and for when I eventually decide to invade Germany, or for when they come for me. 12 turns till Notre Dame is done, and building a mine on gold at my semi-permenant toehold on the Arab/Hun's continent.

1000 AD with being able to grab military caste, I'm finally breaking even on happiness and my cities will start growing again. Couple more turns and happiness shouldn't be a problem for a while with the mine completing on gold and Notre Dame hopefully finishing. One more policy until honor is done. I decided to buy poor Dublin a worker, as I have been neglecting that city pretty hard. Doubt I will build a road out there for a while. Will probably wait until I have a harbor to connect it with Dehli and the rest of my soon to be trade network. My trebuchet only needs a little more experience to get double attack. That along with my other units, I think I'll be able to make peace with the huns and get Mecca.

1080 alright. Going in. First turn in, they attack my trebuchet, which gives him enough xp to get double attack. Things are looking good so far. With the double attack on my first trebuchet, and the city attack bonus on the second, I take down the defenses in 1 turn and send in my longswordsman for the capture. I lost one of my pict-pikemen, but oh well. A small price to pay for the Arabian capital. Also, I didn't notice it, but they have the temple of artemis built. 10% growth and 15% production on ranged? Don't mind if I do! I immediately start razing Baghdad, it served its purpose admirably, but with Mecca under control, its just too much unhappiness and increase to my social policies with not enough perks. I also just had my first great engineer born. Going to use him to rush the Alhambra. The 20% culture and free drill upgrade make it amazing, especially since it doesn't count as xp, making it super easy to get whatever units you make in that city up to the high end promotions. Some undiscovered civ got Machu Pichu, those bastards. When the revolution comes, they will be first against the wall. civ28

1120 AD Gunpowder is finished, making me the second civ to get to the Ren era. On to education. My army, though a little small, has a massive amount of experience, that, combined with the ******ed AI makes me confident that I can take on Germany, despite them having about 20% higher score than me (I'm guessing its from military I can't see). They are taunting me pretty much nonstop. I wish they would just go ahead and DoW me so we can get this started. In my capital, I start building the Great Mosque of Djenne, as I think I'm going to quit blowing all my faith on units and start spreading my religion to take advantage of tithe. I stop razing Baghdad for a turn to buy an inquisitor to squash Islam in the former Arabian capital. Being starved for gold from all my units are costing me, I sell off 3 of my very ample luxury resources to the huns for 21 gold a turn. I try to do the same with Monty, but that scrub is broke. I decide to make peace with Arabia as well. I feel sorry for the little guy. Hong Kong and Wittenberg both want my religion and are fairly close. Hell yeah. As Mecca stops resisting, I'm up to +39 gold a turn, with 13 happiness. Science seems about on track, possibly a little behind. I send my units back to my starting continent to prepare to go destroy Germany. I don't really want to conqure them, I'm just worried they might get out of check if I leave them alone. I start a scout at Mecca to explore the rest of this continent. I'm tempted to conquer the Huns, but they are my main source of income with trading away my excess luxury resources. I don't like being so spread out, but I think it will be fine.

1220 AD I finish my mosque. This lines up really well with my faith generation, and I only have to put off getting a missionary to go convert Hong Kong and Wittenberg for 1 turn. The extra convert he gets will pay off. Things are pretty quite right now, waiting on my units to get back to my home continent before engaging Germany. The road from Dehli to my capital is almost done. While the trade income isn't THAT important right now, it will be nice for the extra movement it will afford me. Education just finished and I'm moving on to Acoustics so I can start building my UB. Going to go for the Oracle in my capital since the AI seems content just letting me spam wonders.

1260AD of course once I all but 1 measily pikeman back to my home continent, the Huns decide to DoW me. While they outnumber me pretty hard, I'm not too worried. I have my units heading back and they aren't TOO far away and I left a general there incase of this situation. I should be able to hold them back long enough for help to arrive or for enough faith to be generated to recruit some ranged units to destroy them from the safety of my city. I do start work on walls as opposed to the mint I was building, which sucks seeing as how there are 3 plots of gold just begging for some sweet minting action. On top of that, I have barbarians attacking/pillaging poor Dublin. Despite this, I'm pretty happy. For the first time since the game started, the AI is giving me a slight challenge.

1265 AD wow.. that is a HORDE coming at me. This is going to be rough.

1290 AD by gold rushing walls I was able to stop them. They want peace, I give it to them, but plan on ripping them a new one in 10 turns. Lost a nicely upgraded musketman, but got some other units a fair amount of xp in exchange, including my bowman, who now has logistics for the extra attack. This is the first time I've taken honor so early, and I have to say, the xp bonus is really nice. Its tempting to stay friends with the Huns to trade them my resources, but I just don't trust them at my backs after that. If they had waited 1 more turn, for my main army to be just slightly further away, the would of gotten Mecca, and probably been able to hold it off against my returning army. On a side note, the oracle is only 2 turns away from being built, and my road to Dehli is finished. Which is definitely needed at this point, seeing as how the Huns just screwed up the majority of my income.

1295AD The Huns come back asking for the old gold for resources deal, and really, it is just too good to pass up. I finish the Oracle and with it, finish off Honor. Starting a University, even though I feel I could get away with going for another wonder and I feel I'm about equal with most of the other civs with science, maybe even a little ahead. In Dublin, I'm going for Hagia Sofia. I think I can pull it off, which will save me having to build a temple there, which would be great. With my upgraded bowman and pikeman, I think I can afford to leave and go tackle the germans, who at this point, have the best score and are starting to worry me. So far all they have done is talk, but I am worried none the less. Focusing on spreading my religion, tithe is starting to kick in and is currently providing me with 14 gold a turn, I feel I can get it much higher with the enhanced missionaries from the Great Mosque, and seeing as how I can get one every 10 turns or so. I need to start exploring further so I can get a jump on spreading it faster.

1305AD Askia finds me, I sell him my last two excess resources for all the gpt he can spare (12). I'm torn on what policy to go next, I always plan on trying a wide empire, but end up going tall. This being the case, I take legalism over piety for the free culture buildings as I only have 4 cities right now and have just finished acoustics, granting me access to my ceilidh hall. Having taken legalism, I definitely agree with my choice. I had 2 amplitheatres built and got 2 halls off the bat, along with another 2 amplitheatres giving me a huge boost to culture/happiness. I wish it prioritized non-puppet cities, but oh well. Happiness is at 18 and shouldn't be a problem for a while. Waiting on my army to get back to my home continent, then I think I'm going to take a scorched earth style war to the Germans, who are constantly taunting me. My mint is about to finish in Mecca, which will bring me up to around 50 gpt. Excellent. Now I just need to hope that the Huns don't get any ideas while I'm off trouncing those arrogant Germans. PS. Taking chemistry so I can get cannons for my non-stop warmongering. 22 turns, yuck.
 
1385 AD I got caught trying to build the terracota army with ONE turn left on it. Oh well. The extra culture would of been really nice, but not a crucial wonder by any means. Going to start work on the sistine chapel. Which I really should of started on from the get go, but was thinking I would save it for Mecca, they don't have the population to be the production power house I am, but they do have marble, making up for it slightly. 31 turns as opposed to my capitals 21, and I was planning on gold rushing a workshop for them, which would of cut it down even further, just needed 2 more turns for the cash. Live and learn.

1395 AD Chmemistry just finished. Despite my earlier thoughts on attacking the germans, it took me longer than I had thought to get in position. This is fine though, as it gives me the chance to upgrade my trebuchets into cannons. I was going to buy some more missionaries to spread my religion further, but 750, as opposed to 450, I could have my first great prophet that I didn't need to focus on finishing off my religious beliefs. He spawns this same turn and I use him to build his tile improvement, as I feel my faith generation (33) isn't as high as I would like. I want to found another city so I can connect Mecca with a harbor, but I resist as I don't want to take the hit to obtaining more social policies, and at 53 gpt, I'm doing fine cash wise. Going to start in on machinery, as I would like to get printing press to increase the rate my religion spreads passively, via religious texts. Looking back, I think I should of taken a different enhancer belief. Religious texts would be fine for a more passive game, but with me not really allowing anyone near me to grow, I'm almost exclusively reliant on missionaries to further my religious agenda.

1415 AD Huns just DoW'ed me. Deja Vu, I am literally 2 turns away from going to war with Germany when they pull this. Alright, no more. The Huns have got to go. Machinery is about to finish, and a good thing too. If Mecca is going to survive this, its going to be her walls that I built from last time, and the crossbow man that can attack twice a turn. It is looking a bit grim though.

1420 AD Able to take a new social policy, I was going to start in on piety, but think I'm going to be forced to take Oligarchy for the +50% ranged combat strength. At this point I might as well finish the whole tree. Bleh. On a good note, Dublin finished the Hagia Sophia, and now I have another great prophet. I think I'll use him to setup another religious tile near my capital. With that, my faith generation will be up to 49 per turn. My old citadel that I was using to originally take Mecca is currently a godsend in fending off the oncoming horde of Huns.

1440 AD The citadel and their poor positioning was their undoing. Despite the fact that I'm in position to challenge Germany, I'm going to (again!) put that on hold and get rid of the Huns once and for all. They've raised my ire now. Germany is starting to get out of hand, but I have faith I'll be able to handle them with how strong my army will be after I finish the huns off. They just hit the industrial era, and a score of 803 to my 708.

1475 AD Golden Age. I'm surprised I have so much extra happiness. I guess my normal play style focuses a lot more on a huge population that just doesn't have this much extra happiness to spare. My UB is helping a lot as well. Army is almost in position to punish the huns for their insolence. They've just been letting me build a forst leading into their territory. I plan on parking my cannon there and blasting away at them. I left one back on the home continent incase Germany gets any ideas.

1510 AD My army is finally in place to start invading Hunnish territory. Also I got another great engineer, I'm going to use him to rush Leaning Tower in Dehli so later down the road I can get the culture bonus from having wonders built in other cities. My army may not look like much, but its super promoted. One of the musketmen already has blitz, and the cannon has logistics. I should make short work of their cities. Working on fertilizer, despite there being some much less expensive techs that would be beneficial. With all the plantations around my capital (6 in total, all being worked), it will help a lot, along with it eventually leading to artillery, which will make my current cannons stupidly strong when upgraded. Going to choose a scientist with the free great person. I want his tile improvement. While I am not doing bad in science, I feel the +15, a 12.5% increase over my current output, or so the tile will bring will greatly benefit me. civ31

1515 AD I'm able to take a new social policy. I only need 2 to finish off tradition, which is tempting, rationalism is tempting too as it would really give me a jump on science, piety also looks really good with bonus to culture it would give me seeing as how high my happiness is, but I think I'm going to put off choosing until I can grab freedom. With all my wonders, I'm putting out a lot of great people and burning a lot of them in tile improvements.

1520 AD The first hunnish city falls with no loss on my side AND my cannon that has logistics just got promoted again. Choosing to increase the range. The rest of this conquest is going to be even easier. I choose to raze the city. Of the 5 Hunnish cities, I think I'm going to puppet 1, and possibly annex their capital.

1530AD Arabia has a great prophet right next to Mecca. Nope. DoWing them and capturing it. Free holy site, woot woot! They are weak and I was only ignoring them because I had bigger fish to fry. This is their whole empire, as you can see, they are ALL converted to my religion. You done goofed Arabia. civ32

1550 AD My worst fears have come true, I'm starting to fall behind in tech. While I was snoozing, the Huns hit industrialization. I'm about 2 techs behind, and have Oxford building, so hopefully I can catch up. I'm currently fighting a stalling action against them at our border on their continent. This is going fairly well as I have a couple units highly upgraded and able to take out their gattling guns with my logistics/range upgraded cannon without too much trouble. But I need to catch up asap on the tech front and will be devoting everything I can to it. I've also decided that I need to pickup the military production. I was focused mainly on city improvement, but this war with the Huns has shown me that while my much more upgraded army can take down a much larger foe, it will be slow going. Begining work on barracks and other +xp building in my cities, particularly Mecca and my capital.

1712AD I make peace with the Huns and start focusing all my efforts into catching up in tech.

1790AD Oh boy... Germany just DoW'ed me. This could be really bad. I use a general to build a citadel inbetween the two cities they are invading, figuring that between my cannon and the two cities attacking, I should be able to keep it from being pillaged and rendered useless. Been working like a charm so far. Doing this I've effectively made it so they have to pay very steeply to attack either one of my cities. I usually never build walls, but did for the happiness bonus from honor. Next warmongering game I will pay more attention to them. Much more attention.

1993 AD Well after Germany and the Huns ganging up on me with superior infrastructure/tech, I realized that a conquest victory wasn't going to be possible. I started working on a cultural victory, but ended up winning with a science victory, with 2 other civ literally 2-3 turns behind me.

Summing it all up:
This being my first war focused game and first game as the Celts, at the difficulty (King) I am use to playing at (I've only played Emperor once, it was a much easier game, playing as the Mayans. I didn't finish the game, but had double anyone's score around 1500 AD and said to hell with it.) I feel I did okay, though a lot of room for improvement. Doing it over again, the first thing I would of done differently is setup my religion a bit differently. I took Desert Faith (+1 faith per desert tile) since I started around the desert. This ended up being a decent choice as my other main city was Arabia's capital, which was surrounded by a very nice desert. Tithe (+1 gold per 4 followers). I feel this was and always is the best choice if you are going to put the effort into spreading your religion, which I could of been better at. Even with my slight slacking on this, it was netting me 104 gpt at the end of the game. My cities were generating 500, though I only had 5 total. Faith warrior (lets you purchase units with faith). This was, when I first had my vision of how this game would play out, the keystone to how I planned on playing. I feel like I didn't generate enough faith to really take advantage of this. I think I should of expanded a lot harder and created a pretty vast puppet empire, with a few more cities under my direct control to really get my faith flowing. The next trait I took was Pagodas, for the nice faith/culutural/happiness bonus. I feel this was a pretty solid choice, though another trait probably would of been more useful since I didn't expand like I planned to. Finally, my last belief was religious texts. Again, I feel this would of been a much more solid pick if I had gone for a wider empire. Taking down India, on my starter continent so early netted me 3 cities I directly controlled, and 1 puppet city. Very widely spread out. It took a while for my religion to really spread between them and get across the small oceanic gap to the other civs/city-states. I believe, in the end, my religion was the most wide spread, but not by much. Besides religious texts, I think this setup would of been pretty viable if I had expanded a lot harder. I believe I would of gone with holy order, for the cheaper missionaries/inquisitors. Pagados weren't a bad choice, but seeing as how I was faith starved, if I play this style of game over again, I would take mosques. Faith Warriors, I think would of been amazing on a wide empire, but I never realized its full potential with my tiny empire and my shody faith generation.

I should of really pushed and even risked a two front war to shutdown germany early. Also, the second the Huns backstabbed me, I should of destroyed them, instead of letting them lull me into complacency with such a huge tribute and the gold I was getting from trading my extra luxury resources. I find myself almost always going for a tall empire and I feel this tendancy got me in trouble this game. It is always hard for me found that next city and take the hit on my social policies. Realizing I wasn't going to be able to go for a domination victory, I should of gone piety over rationalism, and gone straight away for the cultural victory. As it was, I was around 10 turns away from getting the cultural victory, with science narrowly beating it out. The increased faith, cheaper social policies, and better great prophet tile improvements would of made a cultural victory much easier to obtain.
 
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