Siam are strong! first time playing them and finished a T256, 1730AD (score 3166) emperor, Pangaia, everything standard, gods+kings, wonders of the ancient world and all the DLC civs.
First time tried cultural under G+K, and was quickest I've done it for cultural, including on vanilla. 3 Cities. In hindsight think possibly could've done sub-250 (or at least a bit closer) had I done a couple things differently.
Starting position was;
Settled in place, mixed bag really, 8 mountain tiles in the cap's radius, but settling on a desert hill plus 6 more desert tiles (2 of which copper, one 6 iron), 3 pastures (so decent boost for stable), decent amount of grassland for settling great improvements, observatory, perfect defensively, extra resources to sell in the 4-5 range.
2nd city was coastal, 3rd marble. Could've gone for Old Faithful, but happier with where I settled. Aggressively bought fair few tiles, Only took Argos T249. Alex sent a Great Prophet down to Cape Town, so I DOW'd as was near the end, captured the GP and Took Argos and Alex settled for peace. Border wise Argos had from the Sugar across and the tile to the left and right of the fort. That little skirmish was enough to get my first naturally generated GG so with a turn to go, I used him to plant a citidal just to capture a little bit of land to increase final score. Was trying to do the same with my other GG, but was an afterthought and didn't get to the edge of my borders in time.
City States, included 4 Maritime, 4 Cultural, 1 Religious (plus nearest Mililitaristic had Cho-Ko-Nos
)
Cities: Si Satchanalai found turn 42, Muang Saluang turn 49,
Pantheon found turn 17, Buddhism founded 71; Desert Folklore, Cathedrals, Tithe, and then enhanced with Divine Inspiration +2 faith per wonder and Itinerant Preachers. Went with Tithe over World Church, due to the Capital being non-river and not overly gold rich, decided gold over culture for RA, and to leverage Siam UA on CSs. Whether that was the right decision not sure. Most AI were slack on religion so I pretty much monopolised. Finished with 42 cities following as majority (103 gpt for Tithe), compared to 3,1,2,0 for the other AI's religions.
Social Policies: Full Tradition, Full Piety, All of Patronage other than Educated Elite (didn't want random GP), Full Freedom (opened T179), Commerce opener and Trade Unions, Educated Elite as next natural GP would arrive too late to be useful really, Finished Commerce right side and then left.
GP: Settled first great engineer, can't remember if had a second one that used for Sistine but possibly not, 4 settled Holy Sites, 14 settled landmarks, 2 purchased GM near end (3 CS wanted one generated and Artists were too late and expensive to faith buy). T221 synched a GS and GE from Sukhothai so plastics-cristo. Had 2 other GS, (one from PT and one gifted from educated elite near the end; used the latter to try get closer to ecology and rush buy a solar plant),
RAs signed: Spain 121, Persia 124, England 126, Carthage 148, Spain 153, Persia 155, England 157, Songhai 159, Spain 184, Persia 186, Songhai 207
Golden Ages: 117, 146, 172, 200, 229.
World Wonders:
Sukhothai: Temple of Artemis 56, Pyramids 70, Great Library 76, National College 84, Hanging Gardens 92, Petra 99, Chichen Itza 106, Great Wall 114, Notre Dame 121, Angkor Wat 129, Alhambra 135, Sistine 143, Macchu Pichu 144, Leaning Tower Pisa 164, Taj Mahal 172, Forbidden Palace 178, Louvre 194, Big Ben 204, Eiffel 221, Cristo Redentor 222, Statue of Liberty 232, Brandenburg 238. (National Epic, Hermitage, Treasury, Ironworks)
Si Satchanalai: Stonehenge 87, Colossus 101, Oracle 117, Hagia Sophia 146 (Circus Max, National Intelligence Agency)
Muang Saluang: Mausoleum of Hal 101, Terracotta 115, Great Mosque Djenne 143, Porcelain Tower 177, Himeji 209, Kremlin 230 (Oxford Uni)
Improvements/Annoyances:
Accidently generated a great prophet. Had good faith generation (over 100 per turn), so after enhancing, building cathedrals in each city and settling 3 Holy Sites (including the GP from GMD), I aggressively sent out a load of missionaries and then in the lead up to Freedom, started accumulating faith with the hope of buying 2 GA as soon as opened Freedom. Had around 2400 faith with 2 turns to go, only to generate the prophet (needed 2300) delaying me quite a good while to recoup. Should've just bought another missionary to drop me below.
Landmark placement; remembered Alhambras 20% but forgot the multiplicative effect of Hermitage (had just a normal +8 in my mind due to the belief
). As such, as Si Satch was coastal, and didn't have as good production as the other two so less wonders, would send some landmarks there instead of Sukhothai. In the main I prioritised Sukhothai first, but as never got to SOH, probably should've maxed out more. Ended with 7 landmarks plus manufactory on Sukhothai, 6 on Si Satch plus 1 holy, 1 on Muang plus 3 holy.
Probably should've gone Liberty instead of Commerce. Had in my mind that didn't need settlers, workers etc, that 2 CS wanted a great admiral, and that the extra happiness from protectionalism might be quicker, 12 luxuries, 24 happiness, so 12 extra cpt. Probably negligible at that stage, so Liberty probably would've been better option for the golden age and GE for manufactory......especially as mucked up my last golden age.
Firstly was generating a good amount of happiness and earlier in the game wasn't sure if happiness continued to accumulate whilst under a Golden Age, thought it did but alas no. Secondly, didn't realise can no longer burn a GG on a golden age. Built Brandenburg to generate a GG thinking could burn when my GA would expire (last 10 turns ish), didn't really need it for the culture but would've been nice for the +20% production for building Utopia. Annoying, as settled a GA just before too.
Probably mucked up my route into radio. T186, had just resolved a RA on 183 and 185 (which I'd used to hit into Industrilization), my open techs were Gunpowder 4 turns, Industrialization 4 turns left, Biology 10, Radio 13. Had a RA resolving 187 and 189 and a GS iirc. As opposed to going straight into Radio, was trying to push my median up by closing off industrilization, and completing Biology leaving Refrigeration, Radio and Gunpowder. Anyways ended up with having to hard research 4 turns of Radio, when probably could've hit straight in. Possibly didn't cost too much though, as delay allowed me to buy 2 broadcast towers straight away, with the 3rd couple turns later. Can't remember now but possibly saved the GS for later then.
Got held up slightly with bandits when trying to settle my cities.
Ghengis moving quite a few units seemingly to the borders of Si Satch early game, when would've struggled with a war (probably could've held them off, but would've delayed worker improvements), so I chose to use some money to bribe him to attack Liz thinking he'd divert his troops north, only for him to accept and immediately go an capture Cape Town instead, my adjacent maritime CS (T61). He then DOW'd me T71, sending his troops to Muang Saluang, I took no casualties and went to try and attack Cape Town with the hope of liberating, only for Alex to do so. I got good terms for peace so accepted, but could've probably taken his capital if so wished.
Alex competed a little for a couple close CS including Bucharest (cultural) and Capetown from him liberating. From being allied to two militaristic city states, had enough military power that possibly could've puppetted and crippled him financially. Figured staying on friends basis with Bucharest and Capetown would be better than war though, so stayed peaceful, and eventually stuck spies in. Debateable whether taking some puppets, getting a nice peace offering, and using that to buy favour might have got quicker results though. A Maritime got captured by Askia too, (though mid-to-late game).
Was generating enough fpt that neglected building shrines/temples in Si Satch and Muang, forgot that theocracy would've given a decent gold bonus that might've helped.
Starting Save if anyone interested.
. I usually go for liberty before finishing off piety on Imm. though. To make sure i finish Cristo with engineer as soon as i unlock it. Cathedrals are nice for an artist slot, did you get them? Definitely worth warring with Montezuma. Due to a Aztec start bias you get scientific jungle starts, so might as well use promoted Jags to capture few puppets to your advantage!
