Greece PhotoJournal - Defeating King

[BlessingsBeUponYou]

Blessings Be Upon You!

I have begun another game to share with those on this forum, this time as Greece on King difficulty with a Standard sized Communitas map at Standard pace. I encourage y'all to offer advice as I go, as I normally struggle with Prince, so I'll definitely need help to beat King.

Spoiler Advanced Settings :

Spoiler Settling :

The game begins with the following start:

I'm in the middle of jungle and forest, next to a river, and with Cinnamon as my lux. Despite it being a plantation lux, the monopoly bonus of +2C later on will synergize well with the Acropolis for a strong Culture game. The question to answer is "where to settle?" I have a lot of food, but little hammers. Going south is more production, going north is more food (and later science). Let's get a look at the surroundings:

I sent my pathfinder south through the forest and my warrior north across the river. The pathfinder finds nothing; the warrior finds a third cinnamon, and two bananas, which pulls me north to the hill tile NW. Ultimately, I decide to settle there, as seen above, to have a cinnamon in my borders at the start and the other two within reach.

Spoiler Buildings, Pantheons, and Techs :

Already I'm thinking about pantheons, and two immediately jump into my mind (also, notice India is in this game and took Ancestor Worship): Goddess of Renewal and Goddess of Springtime. Cinnamon and bananas will make for quite a few plantations once the time comes to produce a good mix of gold, faith, and food. Add an herbalist for some extra science and production, and those tiles produce many yields. However, all the jungle tiles worked will make for a great early boost to Science and Culture. The bonus science early is really enticing, because my Hoplites are on Bronze Working and my plantations are on Calendar, and it's gonna take awhile to get both.

This leads to my decision on which tech to go for first - Bronze Working for hoplites or Calendar for plantations. After some deliberation, I settle on Bronze Working for hoplites because they are such a strong unit with immediate use, whereas Calendar takes a minute and plantations even more time to make with a Worker. The choice to go for hoplites first largely stems from the above deliberation on pantheons. I have a ton of food in the city, which will produce a high population city relatively fast, allowing me to work 6 jungle tiles for +3 science and +3 culture. That extra science, plus a council later, will help me get Calendar sooner. Overall this plan puts plantations later.

The focus on my pantheon as my crux for the time being pushes me to go shrine-monument instead of monument-shrine. This leads to an earlier pantheon and delays my policy choice, which I actually prefer since I don't know what policy I will be taking (I love progress; all this food is good for tradition; hoplites are great for authority).

Spoiler Other Civs :

I found Cape Town, met an American pathfinder and a Mayan pathfinder, and found Korea's capital. This leads me to believe I am on a continent with at least these three Civs, which gives me some good targets for early hoplite war in the near future (authority maybe?).

Spoiler T20 :

And here's where I left the game at T20:

Lots of plantation potential, lots of jungle (woodsman might be good here), lots of rivers, and lots of land (progress maybe?). Additionally, if I can get them out fast enough, my settlers might be able to snag me some gold and citrus. One city-state so far to bully and then befriend to boost my hoplites even further. Right now my people are fat and lazy - tons of food in the capital and very few hammers, which led me to invest in my monument to get it up faster.

Any advice y'all have would be greatly appreciated, as I want to beat King!

 

[BlessingsBeUponYou]

Here's the next 40 turns, putting us all the way to T60.

Spoiler T37 :

I beelined Bronze Working for my hoplites. I was going to immediately pivot to Calendar, but all this food made me think Pottery for Settlers was the better option. Given I have at least three other Civs on my continent, the sooner I can claim some land, the better. This tech path doesn't provide a lot of buildings to build, which means I can churn out hoplites at a rate of one per 8-10 turns. Amazing!

No production is starting to hurt, but the citizens I have should help once the pantheon comes. Speaking of which...

Spoiler T38 :

My two top contenders are Goddess of Renewal and Goddess of Springtime. Although, with ol' Georgie and Monty nearby, Goddess of Protection might be a good idea too. I've played a few games with Goddess of Protection, and man is it a life-saver when push comes to shove, especially early.

Goddess of Renewal will provide me a lot of immediate culture, faith, and science as well as turning another building into a nice source of science. Goddess of Springtime gives a nice boost to gold and faith, but much later once the 10+ plantation resources are online. Further in GoS favor is it improves the herbalist instead of the market. Unfortunately, I think it will be too little too late in the race for a religion.

Given my already large population and the large swathes of jungle and forest, I went with Goddess of Renewal, instantly increasing my culture, faith, and science output by 3 and turning the market both into a gold/science source and a goal to build in the near future.

Spoiler T41 :

At this point, I should bring up my first policy choice. Originally, I chose Authority, hoping to lean on my hoplites to generate important yields. I chose authority and went until about T55, and then realized how bad of a decision that was.

1. I have no production whatsoever, and +1 hammer ain't gonna cut it. I could not build an army fast enough to do much of anything. If I had gone south instead of north, maybe I would have had more production.
2. I am quite far from any of my neighbors and the number of barbs is surprisingly low. Ol' Georgie and Monty are quite close to each other, and they both went Authority, so the sparks are gonna fly soon, but probably not near me. Also, Monty has the Fountain of Youth, which greatly discouraged me attacking him (nearest neighboring Civ).
3. My closest targets are city-states, which seems counter-intuitive to attack as Greece since I want to end up with all the city-state allies in the future. Additionally, if I attack city-states, my two other Authority neighbors are gonna get uppity with me.

I went back in time to T30 and chose again. I love Progress through and through, but I don't think I have enough land to really expand properly without infuriating my neighbors and getting dragged into an early war. As I muddled over my Authority choice, Tradition began to make a lot more sense, leading to the reversal of time.

1. I have a ton of food in my capital. Add a granary, herbalist, market (Goddess of Renewal), and water wheel and I should have a massive amount of food, allowing me to work a lot of specialists comfortably.
2. The first policy choice of Justice gets me started on generating a GE, immediately doubling my capital's production and eventually producing a Manufactory to get even more production in the capital. It also gets me some early defense, which will go well with walls and the Acropolis. Include a bunch of early hoplites, and I should be able to weather any early wars rather comfortably.
3. The two extra citizens produces an additional 1 culture, faith, and science through my pantheon, as well as +3 culture from the opener. A decent initial boost all around from the extra 2 pop.

The goal now is to find defensible positions for cities which also provide decent tiles and luxuries.

Spoiler T51 :

THIS IS SPARTA! ...sorry, I had to.

I chose this place first for two reasons - amber and gold. The sooner I plant here, the sooner my borders grow, the sooner I snag two luxuries for the price of one city. This is also why I chose monument over shrine. I have three hoplites, one of which is on escort duty, and the plan is to purchase more hoplites as the gold from the various city-state quests comes in. It is faster than interrupting buildings and cheaper than buying workers. The biggest downside to Sparta is the lack of immediate forest and jungle tiles, so my pantheon ain't doing much, but I figured the two luxuries outweighed the pantheon here.

This also claims some land America or Korea would have snatched up, giving me some breathing room should hostilities arise.

Spoiler T60 :

A big population allowed for two back-to-back settlers. Corinth will hopefully snag me some citrus and some iron, as well as benefit from my pantheon. I'm settling on hills and near rivers to try and stack defensive positions, making Corinth into a stop-gap should Monty be mean. When I founded Corinth on T59, there was no Tlatelolco. That was founded T60, which is probably going to cause problems in the near future. I have another settler in the works, which is going north-west towards the coast. Also, at some point, I met an Assyrian pathfinder, so he's here too.

Hopefully I will have carved out a nice pocket on this continent to get ~3 more cities. Ideally walls will be up soon, followed by either beelining for Masonry to get water wheels and more importantly the Great Wall, or beelining for Drama and Poetry to get Acropolises up. Ideally both, for a really defensible Tradition game, but I won't hold my breath.

As for buildings, after monuments and shrines will come walls and markets in all cities. Corinth will probably get a stone works and a trade route back to Athens to boost production. I'm excited to see how this plays out, as I prefer defensive play to offensive play, and I think I have a shot at a really strong Artistry game. I'd say Diplomacy (for obvious reasons) but I think some of the city-states might not be around by the time Statecraft is available.

I'm open to any advice, suggestions, or tips y'all have. I'll see you at ~T100!

 

[gabrielsfarias]

How many cities will you settle? Assuming you're going for CV?

 

[BlessingsBeUponYou]

How many cities will you settle? Assuming you're going for CV?

I plan on settling 3 more cities - a coastal one close-ish to Korea, a coastal one behind me on the peninsula, and probably one near my capital to work good tiles while my capital is working great people. Maybe a 4th if I find a nice island spot, but I won't hold my breath.

I think I will go for a CV this game. It definitely complicates things because I've never done that on VP, but hey, why not? The Acropolis gives some nice culture and tourism boosts early and my cinnamon will give further culture boosts. Plus I have at least three neighbors on my continent who will surely love the Greek arts. Maybe I will be able to tailor my religion to further strengthen this win-con.

I didn't really know what my victory condition was going into the game. Greece, in my super-expert opinion (/s), seems to have two viable options - DV (better option) and CV (interesting option) - so I assumed it would be one of those two, and I don't think they are mutually exclusive.

 

[gabrielsfarias]

I'd vassalize the continent before going for DV starting with Aztecs. The city states help A LOT if you get their quests. I'd not go Tradition either, and would settle another city near that Amber and sheep to the south.

 

[BlessingsBeUponYou]

The city states help A LOT if you get their quests.

Something I need to work on is doing city-state quests, and Greece will hopefully encourage me to do that with their UA.

I'd vassalize the continent before going for DV starting with Aztecs.
I'd not go Tradition either, and would settle another city near that Amber and sheep to the south.

You are a far more confident and aggressive player than I am! Forward-settling like that, especially towards America, seems like asking for a war.

 

[gabrielsfarias]

I'd forward settle all of them, before they do it themselves. I'd only take a little more care about America because of the tile buying ability. Look if the amber is in reach for them, if yes then forgetting about a city down there and just attack.

 

[BlessingsBeUponYou]

Here's the next 50 turns, putting as at T110. Unfortunately, I forgot to take as many screenshots, but quite frankly, not a lot happened.

Spoiler T60 :

We pick up right where we left off. In re-orienting myself with this game, I looked through the city-state quests and found this one. Hanoi wants a hoplite, and what do y'know, I have some of those! The lump of gold isn't great, but the alliance is for both the science and the units. This alliance will result in 3 units by T110 - two archers and a catapult.

Spoiler T62 :

This comes as no surprise, really. After Tlatelolco, I knew this would happen, and it didn't take Monty long to start being a meanie. Thankfully, I just allied with a city-state very close to him, who is also gifting me units and happens to have one of my hoplites. If he wants to dance, I'll dance. In response to this, I move majority of my military units (read: two hoplites) down to Corinth and queue up some walls.

Spoiler T68 :

Huh? This one caught me way off guard. I was prepping to fight Monty and ol' Georgie took up arms against me. I would say I took screenshots of our war, but that would be lie. But don't worry, you didn't miss anything. Ever see spearmen and hoplites move back and forth over desert tiles, one at a time, for about 20 turns? It's riveting.

That was the whole song and dance. I didn't kill any of his units, he didn't kill any of mine; the most devastating thing of the entire war is my pathfinder pillaged one tile in his capital and played footsies with an American spearman and some barbs. I have no idea how this AI is coded, but "brain damaged" comes to mind.

Funnily enough, after peacing out, he immediately asked to be friends. Then he traded 9 gpt for some cinnamon (which greatly helped my economy, which was negative). Then, a few turns later, he asked me to join him in a war against Monty ~T105. Again, brain damaged.

In other diplomatic news, I am also friends with Korea.

Spoiler Tech :

Right after ol' Georgie war-dec'ed me, I had the opportunity to choose my next tech. As I said in the previous update, it was either going to be Great Wall or Acropolis . At the time of the decision, I though America was actually about to do something. Plus, I thought Monty would jump in and I'd be fighting on two fronts. I went with Great Wall in the hope I would get their fast enough to beat others to it. Engineering also opens up forts, which was an important consideration for more defensive play, and aqueducts to speed up my growth in the capital.

This puts me behind in getting me Acropolises (Acropoli?), and hurts my culture somewhat, but hopefully my monopoly's +8 culture per turn, my Great Artist slot's +3 culture per turn, my religion's +3-4 culture per turn, and the Arenas I'll build soon all make up for it in the meantime.

Spoiler T110 :

This is the glorious Greek empire, ~7 turns from war with Monty. I'm hoping to take Cape Town from him before the war, but I don't think I'll be able to because my scout is currently trapped within a bubble of Korean borders. Whoops.

Argos was planted to get me my monopoly on cinnamon, which I now have, so my culture is doing pretty okay. I think. If I'm being honest, I have no idea what are good benchmarks for science, culture, faith, or gold in Vox Populi. I had some idea of "I should have X science per turn by Turn Y" in vanilla; I don't in Vox Populi. Is 25 culture per turn good at T110? Is 28 science per turn good at T110? Beats me.

I'm getting a little nervous about getting a religion. Not too many have been taken, but my faith per turn isn't great. I would have liked to have a religion about 15 turns ago, but that wasn't in the cards. Probably because I'm bad at this game. I think I will still get one, but not having a religious city-state hurts.

Sparta is going to produce my 5th settler, which will either go between Sparta and Argos near the iron or behind Athens and Argos near the fish and horses.

Overall, I think I'm doing pretty poorly. That being said, I'm realizing areas I need to be better.

1. I'm definitely focusing on city-states more, which is important in general, but especially for Greece. I just wish I could actually complete more of the quests.
2. I'm realizing I'm bad at citizen management. This is pronounced because I went Tradition, but also because I don't switch quick enough between "war-time production" and "peace-time growth". As such, my capital is not as efficient as it could be.

 

[azum4roll]

As Tradition, make sure you have the Artist always locked, and the Engineer too in this game because your capital's production looks horrible. You also should've built Councils long ago.

Early on number of policies matter a lot. Try to not be more than 1 policy behind any AI. Techs don't matter as much.

 

[BlessingsBeUponYou]

All of that is super useful to know! Thank you.

 

[BlessingsBeUponYou]

Here's the next 45 turns, taking us to T155. I remembered to take a lot of screenshots.

Spoiler T113 :

Time for the greatest wall ever...in 3 turns, because I have to wait to get my 5th policy. The Great Wall will go a long way with my defensive strategy, especially once the Acropili are built. Speaking of, I'm now teching towards the Acropolis. This also unlocks libraries for me, which is good, because my science has kinda taken a backseat.

I would say my religion is making up for it, but that would be a lie, because I neglect to build markets for...awhile, and I end up clearing a lot of jungle because of plantations. Definitely could have played around it better. It would help if I played more consistently on this game. I take 2-3 day breaks between, playing other games and dipping my toes into streaming on Twitch, so I kinda forgot what all was going on. I do my best to orient myself in coming back to this game, but my pantheon was overlooked for a number of turns, unfortunately. I'll need to play this particular game more frequently to stay fresh.

Spoiler T118 :

Ah, crap. So much for the peninsula. Assyria has joined the continent, which is not ideal. It is largely my fault though - I did not prioritize settlers enough. At least I still have the iron west of Athens for a 5th city once Sparta makes the settler.

Additionally, Korea founded a religion and took the founder policy I wanted - Way of Noble Truths. I still have 13 more turns before my religion. Once again, not working my pantheon belief correctly has come to bite me, because I really wanted Way of Noble Truths. Something to remember for next game.

Spoiler T122 :

I have built the greatest wall of all time. No other wall is greater. Name a better wall.

You cannot.

This will come in handy in the future.

Spoiler T130 :

I finally got to my religion, coming in at religion #5. I decided, among what was left, to aim for a WLTKD/CV strategy. Churches were incredibly useful to me - WLTKD, culture, and 40% religious pressure. On my now crowded continent, I think the increased pressure is important to have, especially since I won't have many cities.

Oh, and if you notice my gold and happiness, there's a reason for that. I was prepping to join ol' Georgie's war on Monty, so I had some units nearby to his borders. I was waiting to strike when he asked what all my units were doing. I could have lied, but I think that incurs a diplomatic penalty, so I just war-decced him. I never actually know what the right answer is when another Civ asks, "what's up with all the units?"

As an aside, Hoplites might be one of, if not the strongest, early era units in the game. Them, plus some catapults I was gifted, makes for city-taking potential. Maybe Authority would have been the right choice.

Spoiler T134 :

Woo! Greece early war kinda busted. Their bonuses, plus my UA's bonus, plus my two very nearby city-state allies made for a big enough advantage even I could take a city. To my surprise, though in hindsight I should have seen this coming, Tlatelolco is a better city than most of my cities.

Now, are my people happy? No. Are they actively rebelling against me? Yes. Will I have to slaughter my own people in the city streets for their rebellion? Yes. Is my economy in the toilet because nobody will trade with me? Yes. Have I been too busy building military units to build trade routes? Yes.

But do I know have access to more citrus fruit? Yes.

And I think that's worth it.

Spoiler T149 :

While my attention was split between murdering the savage "other" in the South and murdering my own civilians, I failed to notice Assyria built another city and Korea took my other city spot. The settler I made in Sparta unfortunately got nabbed by one of Monty's scouts, and that was all she wrote. I eventually got the worker back, but that's a small consolation.

Looks like I'm going to acquire more cities by war in the future. Good thing I have the greatest wall of all time. Additionally, Acropoli are being built, so that's making me feel better about the whole situation.

Am I in a good spot? No. Not even close. Is the game completely thrown at this point? Probably not.

Maybe.

We'll see.

Spoiler T150-155 :

Look at this idiot loser begging for mercy. He's lucky I'm so nice and I accept this. Glad we've put this silly war business behind us, because my economy and my happiness really can't keep taking these hits. My people are screaming at me and taking up arms. I'm also so far behind in my capital.

Hopefully, despite the eventual re-war with Monty, I'll have some peace in the future to try and save my sinking ship.

The screaming begins again.

 

[gabrielsfarias]

Hmmm yeah, I'd take Authority's opener and first right-side policy if I were you, looks like you'll need that

 

[randomnub]

I always went Authority with Greece, milking early heavy tributes from CS in the ancient era and then relying on Alex's UA to get influence back and ally them in classical+. With the new patch the tribute mechanic has been heavily nerfed and CS quests are available very early so that play style might not be optimal anymore, but having a great early UU and authority production (so easy dealings with barb camp quests), and a UB that rewards warring is still swinging the pendulum in Authority favor imo. In your situation, you're not going to have a peaceful Tradition game anyway, you're too boxed in between AIs.

I don't understand the beeline to the Great Wall, you lose so much by not going Acropolis first, and with tradition you could have benefit a lot from Parthenon as well (easy theming). The bottom part of the tree is very weak: Iron working offers next to nothing (you'll always want to use hoplites over swordmen, no mine resources) and I would have stopped at masonry. Mathematics in your situation is next to useless, instead trade for Petra in Sparta and earlier markets (that you should have beelined, due to the pantheon pick as well) would have supported your war machine better.

 

[BlessingsBeUponYou]

Hmmm yeah, I'd take Authority's opener and first right-side policy if I were you, looks like you'll need that

That's actually a really helpful reminder! I often completely forget that I can dip into more than one tree.

I always went Authority with Greece, milking early heavy tributes from CS in the ancient era and then relying on Alex's UA to get influence back and ally them in classical+. With the new patch the tribute mechanic has been heavily nerfed and CS quests are available very early so that play style might not be optimal anymore, but having a great early UU and authority production (so easy dealings with barb camp quests), and a UB that rewards warring is still swinging the pendulum in Authority favor imo. In your situation, you're not going to have a peaceful Tradition game anyway, you're too boxed in between AIs.

I understand the timings and strategy of Authority the least, and I rarely ever play warmongers. Greece and the Inca are probably the closest I get to warmongers. I prefer to play Civs that enjoy Progress and/or defense, and I understand the timings and strategies of Progress a lot better.

My flawed understanding of Authority is I need a close neighbor(s) and if I don't get enough barbs I'll suffer tremendously. I always feel like if I'm not gearing up to war within the next 10 turns or my enemy is more than 10 tiles away I'm wasting a lot of resources going Authority when I could go Progress or Tradition. I also don't know how to balance producing military units versus buildings versus civilian units as Authority. I think Authority leaves a bad taste in my mouth because I want to build buildings and civilian units and Authority wants me to build military units. Couple all of this with a distaste for early war when my cities are shaky and an understanding the AI are better than me, and it creates a very strong bias against Authority. Strong enough that, even when Authority is the right choice (like it probably was in this game), I will do Olympic-level mental gymnastics to not choose it. I'm in no way disagreeing with anything you've said, just explaining my personal inclinations as to why I rarely ever choose Authority. I think I need to spend some time playing Authority Civs to get more comfortable with the playstyle, like the Huns or Denmark, because I really don't understand it.

I don't understand the beeline to the Great Wall, you lose so much by not going Acropolis first, and with tradition you could have benefit a lot from Parthenon as well (easy theming). The bottom part of the tree is very weak: Iron working offers next to nothing (you'll always want to use hoplites over swordmen, no mine resources) and I would have stopped at masonry. Mathematics in your situation is next to useless, instead trade for Petra in Sparta and earlier markets (that you should have beelined, due to the pantheon pick as well) would have supported your war machine better.

The only Wonders I understand early are the trade wonders, like Petra and Colussus, because I play Civs like Portugal and Morocco a lot who really like extra trade routes. I beelined Great Wall because I easily understood what I was getting - a giant wall which made it harder to conquer me. I wish there was a better explanation, but that's literally it - "Great Wall makes it harder to murder me" vs "Parthenon does something with culture and science". I'm not saying it was the optimal choice, but that's the mindset I have. I really struggle to understand long-term plans over short-term plans in this game, and it shows up in decisions like this. The many bad decisions I've made so far are due to my own ineptitude and the long pauses between play.

The redeeming thing is I have people on this forum who tell me why it was wrong instead of just "you're bad", so I can play better next game, so thank you!

 

[gabrielsfarias]

Being close to Aztecs is a reasonably clear sign this won't be a pacific game. Being close enough to Assyria is another. Being close to an Authority America is another (although you didn't tell in this case, America can be annoying in other ways). All of these plus the proximity with a science runaway civ (Korea) gives a pretty clear offensive, Authority game. That means wonders that will raise your unit cap (Parthenon), make you build units faster (Temple of Artemis), or gain something from killing (Terracota Army). You can shape your religion in that way if you want, they'll settle near you and declare if you don't anyway.

 

[BlessingsBeUponYou]

Here's the next 53 turns, up to the end.

Spoiler T157 :

I took the dip into Authority, finally, in the hopes it won't be too little too late. The game is still at a place where hoplites are a force to be reckoned with. The plan is to go down the right side of the tree to gain as many benefits as possible from killing units, since I will be forced to do that this game. The good thing is the difficulty is King and it is still early in the game, so the carpets of death have not yet been made.

Spoiler T170 :

Ah crap.

I figured this would be coming. Assyria is pussy-footing around, so I haven't had to do much defending in the north-east and I was able to keep most of my forces in the south near the Aztec. Monty and I were playing this really fun game of GG bombing each other. I think he's just a sore loser. Thankfully, Monty is also at war with America, so that should divert some of his attention away, although America is doing terribly. They are lower than I am score-wise.

Spoiler T189 :

This may come as a surprise to some, but Washington is NOT the name of a Korean city. Also, Washington lost both Boston and New York to revolution. Now the city-state of Ur is the third most powerful entity on the continent. I think I'm fourth.

Strangely, even though Washington was captured by Korea, they are a vassal of the Aztecs. I don't think the Aztecs have a single American city. I'm not sure why America is the vassal of the Aztecs and not Korea. I was under the impression AI became vassals of the Civ that took their capital. Regardless, ultimately what this means for me is T190 Washington declares war on me again.

This game is spiraling out of control, and I don't think I can swing it back. The only thing keeping me afloat is Korea and Russia giving me absurd amounts of GPT for my luxury resources. Unfortunately, that does not help with my happiness, which has been, and is still, abysmal.

Spoiler T192 :

First I was unhappy, but I had a lot of citrus. Now I'm unhappy and have only one citrus. All good things must come to and end, I suppose.

Also, I don't think I have a single city-state ally at this point. They all belong to either Korea, Monty, or Assyria.

Speaking of Assyria, after we knocked a few units around he offers a peace treaty in a few turns, so for at least a short time, it is just a one-front war. I can consolidate a little better against Monty.

Spoiler T204 :

Ur is a force to be reckoned with.

I never liked Sparta anyways.

Spoiler T208 :

...and this is where I called it. I don't think I would have made it another 20 turns.

Tlatelolco was recaptured, and my early war forever sank my happiness.
Any city-state allies I had were taken.
Sparta revolted.
Assyria re-declared war in the midst of an already losing war.

But hey! I have a nice wall!

There's always next game. Hopefully this one, despite the miserable failure it was, provided some entertainment for y'all. Maybe it even made you feel better about your own games!

Spoiler Reflections :

1. I have to better understand when to go for certain policies. I also need to be comfortable with all the starting policies, which I'm not. Authority was, it turns out, the way to go in this game, and I weaseled my way out of taking it because I don't understand it. I ended up choosing Tradition, which I also don't really understand, hamstringing myself even further. The policy choice was my biggest mistake. I'll need to play as Civs I'm more comfortable with to get a feel for the other two Ancient era policy trees.
2. I have to play this more frequently. I took multiple-day-long breaks from this game and, coupled with my own ineptitude, it resulted in a worse game all around than if I had played more frequently and kept my memory fresh. Even just a few turns each day when doing a forum game would make a difference.
3. I need a better understanding of which Wonders do what and which Wonders are good for which situations. This also leads to my final point.
4. The long-term impact of certain choices in this game is still opaque to me. This was made evident this game in my policy choices, my tech choices, and my pantheon/religion choices. I largely make decisions based on the short-term because I can see it better and largely disregard the long-term because I can't see much of it at all.

 

[gabrielsfarias]

Looking forward to you next game. A couple things about this one:

• I didn't see you doing your allied city state quests. It's a must to keep them with high influence if you're playing with the likes of Greece/Germany, since your UA depends on them (at least 5 of them, minimum). I never saw you donating units to them so they can fight for you. You have to take advantage of diplomatic missions, or when they request units/a specific unit/"help them in their war efforts" kind of quests. Ur was took over in a coup, that you could recover faster, again, because of your UA. Losing that alliance also gave Amber to Korea, and by losing Sparta you also lost the last Amber and it seems, also Gold.
• I also never saw in the screenshots you analysing your happiness problem, so this together with losing CS monopolies crippled you even more. I'm willing to bet it was mainly due to Poverty, which I also face frequently in my games, but I see very few, if any, Villages or Towns being worked in your cities.
• Only 1 internal trade route is less than optimal, because you lose the ability to thwart Distress in another city.
• By the last screenshot, it seems you have only 2 Hoplites, and is still with Pikemen, while Assyria is already with Tercios. I don't know if you lost most of them, but that is very little upgraded units, in the wrong place. Since you have Great Wall, would be better defense to keep the crossbowmen inside the Wall in Athens, and send the bulk of your melee units to fight Montezuma, it's a OHK to those Trebuchets and he is still with Pikemen too.
• You don't need to spend your Generals, that territory will soon be yours. Keep at least one and use your Hellenic League with your Hoplites and maybe a couple of Knights.