G-Major 11

[dutchfire]

I won!

So you're a Quattromaster now?

 

[Misotu]

I played Great Plains at first, which is a map I quite like, but found that there seem to be far fewer food resources at this level than on lower levels. Switched to Inland Sea and have done much better - my last submission was 1604.

Inland Sea is far better on resources, has rivers, and you don't get the close border problems with more than two civs, typically. When I tried Pangaea, the resources & rivers were fine but the AI seems to be on top of you right from the start making it hard to get a minimum number of good sites.

 

[Airny]

A quick question, what map types are people using? I've used Inland Sea for the two times I've ever gone for cultural, but I'm not sure that if that's the best. And, also, what do you look for in a starting position?

I used Pangaea for the resources. I want copper, stone and marble (stone or marlbe in my starting position) for fast cathedrals. Having close neighbors is no problem for me, I ususally get 3 cities due to cultural invasion and build 4 on my own.
You should of course have one city on a river to the coast or directly at the coast for your trade routes.

 

[Misotu]

Maybe. But waiting for cities to flip takes a while sometimes, even with a few bombs. I had stone and copper, traded very early for marble (in fact, I used my own worker to link it up for Victoria ).

I've had another go today - Liberalism in 390 AD or thereabouts. But I still only managed to shave off a few turns, ending in 1592. So I still haven't quite got the hang of this. I'll probably have another go - I quite like cultural games.

 

[KMadCandy]

Yeah, I got Stalin's Globe Theatre in my game. I had to change strategies and turn that city into a sort of Great Artist farm.

hey, couldnt you just give it back to him or someone else, that way you dont have it anymore

i got advice from a friend who's very good at plays at a level far higher than me. i then WB tested it, since i trust him but hey, this is a major gauntlet and i need one! it turns out that national wonders work kind of like missionaries. the limit of 1 is "how many you can have at once", it's not like a world wonder limit of "1 can be built and then no more chances, ever". in the WB test i stole cyrus's NE, then couldn't build one myself, gifted the city back to him, and NE again appeared in my own build lists. so i'll give washington atlanta back in the gauntlet game and put my NE where it truly belongs. philadelphia i'm keeping, for stone and the "neener neener i got your chicken" factor.

thanks for listening, and for the thought that made me investigate a bit more. i hope this helps anyone who gets frustrated like i did. it wasn't in time to help harbourboy but you got an impressive win anyway

 

[ccccc]

My first ever Monarch win of any kind, on my first try at this Gauntlet!
Squee! (Well, I did have barbarians off, and hand-picked neighbors.) 1861.

Continents map, Gandhi-Warlords. Two big continents -- I found Buddhism and spread it to everyone on my continent, forming the giant Buddhist block that usually destroys me in non-cultural mid-games. Kept up in tech using ridiculous tech trading all the way up to Constitution when I realized I didn't really need any more tech. My only wonders: Pyramids (400 BC) and Great Library (545AD ). I got a lot of yucky great people that I didn't want.

In the end, founded four religions (Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism, Islam) and built 8 cathedrals. 9 great artists got dropped into various cities. For all the cottages I ran, I really should have been financial, not philoisophical! And finally, another first: with barbarians off, no one on my peaceful Buddhist continent ever saw a single battle!

Flipping of national wonders

I did culture-flip a city with Ironworks, which was fun since I didn't get the prerequisite tech until the very end when Cyrus gave it to me. Ironically, it also had Hagia Sophia!

Some dates to compare with other games:
400 BC: My Pyramids
400 BC: The Oracle has been built in a far away land!
1160 AD: You have discovered Printing Press!
1250 AD: A distant civilization is the first to discover Liberalism!
1532 AD: You have discovered Liberalism!
1758 AD: Frederick has completed Apollo Program!
1861 AD: Cultural Victory

 

[Methos]

in the WB test i stole cyrus's NE, then couldn't build one myself, gifted the city back to him, and NE again appeared in my own build lists.

This begs the question, what happens if you have a completed NE in one of your cities and you capture a city that also has a completed NE? Does the one in the captured city get destroyed? Does yours get destroyed? Or do you get to keep them both? I'd guess the captured cities would be destroyed, but I'm definitely curious.

 

[KMadCandy]

This begs the question, what happens if you have a completed NE in one of your cities and you capture a city that also has a completed NE? Does the one in the captured city get destroyed? Does yours get destroyed? Or do you get to keep them both? I'd guess the captured cities would be destroyed, but I'm definitely curious.

that one i'm fairly certain the captured one would be destroyed, since i've never captured one that i've built.

but you'd have to test it yourself , since i'm more curious about whether my cities will hit legendary in time or not, given that gandhi seems to be getting 4 new techs a turn or something like that, in my game. i had an education monopoly for a long long time, so long that i decided to research nationalism, hoping for constitution from lib (i researched it up to one turn away first); i had the PP prereqs out of the way as my back up. gandhi did learn education when i was, i dunno, 7 turns from nat (i wasn't researching real fast since i could always pick up PP and wanted some money to buy stuff, with the tech rate it seemed probable i'd get democracy and need money to buy buildings). i changed to liberalism pronto and took PP. a mere four turns after learning education, gandhi adopted free religion ! i am glad i played it safe.

grats ccccc . first monarch win, and first try at this gauntlet, triple grats in fact!

 

[Infantry#14]

This begs the question, what happens if you have a completed NE in one of your cities and you capture a city that also has a completed NE? Does the one in the captured city get destroyed? Does yours get destroyed? Or do you get to keep them both? I'd guess the captured cities would be destroyed, but I'm definitely curious.

Yea, the new one is destroyed, I tried it in a MP game with my roommate. When I give it back to him, I think all the improvements and religious ones remain, but the national wonders are destroyed.

 

[The-Hawk]

It's been a long, long time since I tried a culture win, so I decided to give this gauntlet a try. I got off to a pretty good start, I think I had liberalism shortly after 500AD. However, I didn't play the end-game well at all, made some bad decisions because I was a little rusty on this victory condition. I ended up with five religions and built 9 cities, so I decided to spam 5 cathedrals to each legendary city. This took forever, I think I would have been much better off building culture sooner. Anyhow, I crawled in at 1649 AD .

Great fun though. Now that I worked off the rust, I might give it another go.

 

[AnitaGaribaldi]

Last week I figured out how to play large maps, I had to decrease the image quality of my graphic card. I was so excited that I started a game with the wrong settings and played a lot before I noticed it. I decided to play it to the end. I won that game, monarch/large/normal.

I got a nice start today and I want to finish it. My capital got gold, pig and iron, plus a few flood plains. I have a city with three gems and banana. Another city with stone, 3 wines and wheat. Another city with two dyes, two sugar and one rice. I already have 6 cities, Mansa Musa built two cities almost cutting my territory in two. I guess these two cities will flip. Some of the resources I still have to culture fight, but this is not a problem in a cultural game. I have marble near the border of my territory, I'll get it soon. . I have already three religions.

I stopped the game to think about how to salvage it. Yes, I think I may loose it. My problem is Louis, he is annoyed with me, he has just canceled our open borders. This means war! He will attack me! My cities have one archer or one warrior only. I have few options:

1. adopt his religion and try to avoid the war, no other AI share his religion. I'll please him only.
2. prepare for war, defense and pillage only. I have horses.
3. prepare for war. Take one or two cities. I'll have nine cities, as soon the Mansa's cities flip.

What would you do?

 

[Ozbenno]

What would you do?

Can you bribe anyone into war with Louis? That'll keep him busy.

And get some defenses up as well.

 

[azzaman333]

What would you do?

Pray to the RNG that he doesn't attack, and continue along my merry way to culture heaven.

 

[KMadCandy]

Pray to the RNG that he doesn't attack, and continue along my merry way to culture heaven.

that to me is the key. my current game is going quite well. but george washington hates cyrus, quite a few people do actually, and i had to cancel trades with cyrus. that took cyrus from pleased to cautious and he still refuses to talk to me. it's been at least 20 turns and he still won't talk. i think he's gonna come get me. but, i'm continuing along my merry way since i am having fun, and learning. so even if i lose, it's worth it, and i have plenty of time to try again.

as long as it's a case of "your merry way", then the situation is okay no matter what louis does, really. i do of course hope for the best results and that you win! . if you'd be devastated and it'll no longer be fun if he beats you up, take a break before you choose an option, is my advice. not all that useful as advice, i know. but sometimes we lose sight of that.

 

[AAA]

What would you do?[/QUOTE]

How close is he?
That seems to make a big difference on wither the AIs attack. If he is next to you he will attack, Louis is like that. I like Ozbenno idea, bribe someone to do the dirty work. The cost is always cheaper if you declare war first.
If you can create a pile on, it gets cheaper and cheaper as more civs join the war, and it creates positive points with everyone that joins.

 

[Misotu]

Yes ... but if you're right next door and a sitting duck with warriors & archers, which is how it typically is in a culture game, he pretty much only needs to send in a couple of swordsmen and it's game over in terms of the cultural win.

If you're relying on cottages and he pillages those, the chance of an early cultural victory is also gone.

I'm afraid I'd switch religions and do anything else I could to try to get him back to cautious rating - it worked for me in several of my games when various civs were teetering on the brink of invasion. And then I probably wouldn't include Louis in my next game - he's always irritable

 

[azzaman333]

If he is not an immediate neighbour, as soon as he declares bribe an ally and pop rush and draft some units. If he is an immediate neighbour, you're most likely screw anyway.

 

[ccccc]

You could also try "no state religion" instead of adopting his... even on Prince I find myself often with no religion in order to keep from annoying my neighbors. Also, if you have no state religion, then all religions give +! So that double-holy-city can have 10 instead of just 5!

ccccc: Favorite Civic Paganism?!

 

[Airny]

I usually go pacifism all the time, if you get one more GA with that, switching already payed itself.
If your neigbors are annoyed then you picked the wrong civs and/or didn't trade (and gift them) enough.

 

[KMadCandy]

[*]prepare for war. Take one or two cities. I'll have nine cities, as soon the Mansa's cities flip.

do you mean you'll have nine cities even without taking his cities? in my game i have more cities than i need, it turns out. next try (whether i win or lose this one) i'll try it with fewer cities. it's costing me a lot but i'm learning a lot too. anyway, that should be a factor in your war, if you do have the war.

as far as my war with cyrus ... he did declare war two turns ago. but not on me, on mansa. i feel bad for mansa but am glad it's not me! everyone's in FR now except for 2 that are jewish (hatty and cyrus) and mansa the buddhist. i adopted hinduism last turn and finally get to use pacifism for the first time this game, yay! i'd been in no state religion until liberalism, and then FR, the entire time up to this point for the lovely culture bonuses and to avoid the horrible diplomatic negatives. except for once or twice when i got demands to convert to somebody's religion and did it for diplomacy. i accepted those demands, switching back after 5 turns, while hating my choice to be elizabeth and really wished i was gandhi again.