Kallikrates
Prince
Thanks for the info! Interesting that it is not transparent why espionage "injection" works better than directly building culture. I am not at all interested in high scores and while I respect people playing for that and looking for smart "exploits" I see the game as a kind of simulation, however abstract in many respects. And while I (have to) use some things that do not make a lot of sense (e.g. building wealth/culture/science) there are limits.
On the weekend I won a crazy culture game where I started as Brennus in isolation with mediocre land (no high commerce squares except a few fur), oracled CoL, got Phil, Music and the chapel, lost lib and the taj. I then let the AI find me, was really far behind in tech, partly because they had all been in contact and apparently happily trading techs, partly because I traded the few techs I had a brief monopole on too quickly. Gilgamesh later on gave me flight as a gesture of magnanimity... I was at best pleased with them but they were not united in religion and had Augustus as their whipping boy they declared war on and later vassalled. So although they could have crushed or crippled me (I build, rifles, cannons, machine guns etc. but was always by far the weakest and had no oil so anyone could have taken my seafood). But they let me be, fought petty wars against Rome, build later wonders like crazy (without ever approaching legendary culture), founded corps, several built the Apollo and a few SS parts but they were far from completing the spaceships when I won a culture victory around 1850. (It took long because I had only two religions, I am not that good and I also had a few non-artists popped against all odds - it sucks to get an engineer when there are no fitting wonders left). The greatest danger was probably Gilgamesh getting diplo victory - in the end there were some global civics passed, fortunately too late to interfere with my culture production).
As I mentioned above, in the Cathy isolation I thought I had fared better and was not (or only slightly) behind in tech but the AP resident decided to hate me, so I gave up after continuous crippling by embargos and unprovoked war on two fronts.
On the weekend I won a crazy culture game where I started as Brennus in isolation with mediocre land (no high commerce squares except a few fur), oracled CoL, got Phil, Music and the chapel, lost lib and the taj. I then let the AI find me, was really far behind in tech, partly because they had all been in contact and apparently happily trading techs, partly because I traded the few techs I had a brief monopole on too quickly. Gilgamesh later on gave me flight as a gesture of magnanimity... I was at best pleased with them but they were not united in religion and had Augustus as their whipping boy they declared war on and later vassalled. So although they could have crushed or crippled me (I build, rifles, cannons, machine guns etc. but was always by far the weakest and had no oil so anyone could have taken my seafood). But they let me be, fought petty wars against Rome, build later wonders like crazy (without ever approaching legendary culture), founded corps, several built the Apollo and a few SS parts but they were far from completing the spaceships when I won a culture victory around 1850. (It took long because I had only two religions, I am not that good and I also had a few non-artists popped against all odds - it sucks to get an engineer when there are no fitting wonders left). The greatest danger was probably Gilgamesh getting diplo victory - in the end there were some global civics passed, fortunately too late to interfere with my culture production).
As I mentioned above, in the Cathy isolation I thought I had fared better and was not (or only slightly) behind in tech but the AP resident decided to hate me, so I gave up after continuous crippling by embargos and unprovoked war on two fronts.
