Help with my endgame

[IDave]

Ok i'm nearing the end of my 3rd ever Monarch game and it's been going pretty well. It's a Large Fractal temperate map and I'm Elizabeth.

Anyway i started off semi isolated with washington, killed him with macemen and trebs, then built up a bit. Was nearly nailed when Joao Sury and then Mehmed all DOW'd me i managed to hold off Joao and Sury only just and decided mehmed was the weakest of the 3 so i decided to take him out, it was a slow war and took me 3 peace declarations including him vassling to Hannibal and me redeclaring on him.

Anyway the whole world hates me, except maybe Ragnar and Asoka.

So that kinda sets the scene, i will attach the save below. Now i have to decide how i'm gonna win. It's gonna have to be domination or a space race, but i'm thinking domination is out as i would just have to much work to do, so my question is should i just go for it and try and beat asoka into space (he'sthe only 1 who has finished Apollo), or should i take on him and Joao to assure my space victory.

A couple of other things i would like advice on, where should i put my Ironworks? I know i should have built it already but i couldn't decide, and my war with Mehmed only just finished, so my 3 potential candidates were Washington, Istanbul, and also i think Oxford would be good for it, but obviously it would take a bit of growing to be useful 1st.

2nd question, should i try for UN? Joao has just finished Manhattan and i'm getting really paranoid he is gonna start nuking me anytime soon. Problem is Asoka has been stealing all the good wonders and has had Mass Media for quite some time.

Which brings me onto a 3rd question, can some1 tell me how the hell Asoka has been outteching me and beating me to all the wonders i want with just 5 cities??? Is it coz he is trading with Joao or what?

Anyway any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[LlamaCat]

seems pretty apparent to me that Ironworks can go in Washington - there is enough health there and it's the highest production city.

Asoka has very little maintenance costs compared to you - in fact I'm surprised your maintenace is so low, even with State Property. I thought since you are on two continents that colony expenses should be higher - unless it is because you have Forbidden Palace or something? Anyway it looks like Delhi is wonder-central, and he is running all the best civics for highest science output. Has he fought any wars? Maybe he was left alone to quietly outpace everyone in techs and could build more infrastructure for science - the number of cities is not as important.

Speaking of science output, I'm curious why you put Oxford University in Hastings... that's kind of a neat idea to pair National Park with Oxford and use all those free scientists, but Oxford would get you much more bang in London. London is producing almost as much science right now as Hastings with an Academy and that gold mine and all those developed cottages. Plus you don't have other National Wonders there yet and it can grow a lot more than Hastings. You could also put Globe in London as it is still growing a lot, so all those cottages with scientists and Oxford would mean you would probably be in the tech lead.

I would go for Space Race in this game - seems like it's easy enough to win at this point vs. Asoka. He is teching faster right now but your production is much better.


ps looks like you're about to get a Great Artist... I would burn those 3 great people on a Golden Age... very powerful at this stage of the game.

 

[IDave]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Well Asoka Vassaled to Joao very early in the game through his choice, so he hasn't actually been in any wars apart from declaring along with Joao.

I put Oxford Uni there coz i just thot i'd try it as something new, i like to try out new ideas, altho in hindsight i realised i forgot about National epic and really should have put that in Hastings. But nevermind, anyway i was worried about putting IW in Washington coz it's not got a lot of food, i like to be able to max out my engineers in IW city.

My maintinence is not really that low, and i'm yet to put the Forbidden palace on my new continent, i do have Wall St in a double holy city so it's raking in the However i have still to spread my 2 religions to my new continent, when i do that it will be making even more.

So should i be worried about Joao launching nukes? Should i try for UN? If Asoka builds it will he b up against Sury for the vote?

 

[Refar]

Staate Property shuts down all Colonial Expenses, as those are tied to Distance, which is also canceled by SP. AS Forbiden palace reduces distance maintenance, it might be useless here, since you dont pay any distance maintenance anyway.

 

[futurehermit]

Try and bribe the AIs into war with one another--especially the ones who are space race competitors--and look to eek out a space race victory. In the future, try to work harder on diplomacy so things go more smoothly for you. You want to be the one on the right end of the dogpile not the wrong one.