Isabella - The perfect cottage spammer?

[Zherak_Khan]

Short-version: Spi/Exp/Mysticism (Religion) for Happines/Health. Capitalize on a few, large-size cities in the early game, setting yourself up for militaristic expansion with Macemen/Conquestadors/Catapults. Gain a sizeable lead and win however you feel like.

I've been trying some random leaders lately, and after having had fun with Qin -> Pyramids -> UniSuf and Towns, which works rather well, I wanted to try something different. At higher difficulties, I always found a huge problem to be:

AI has bonuses to research.
You need more base income.
Your citizens are less happy/healthy.
You need more cities.
Your cities cost a lot of upkeep.
You lose.

Unless you succeed in claiming loads of health and happiness resources, which is difficult on smaller maps, there is no simple winning forumla, if we ignore slingshots and warmongering for a while.

Isabella, though, works around this rather nicely. (Emperor, Standard size, Continents, Default Civs, Agressive AI). The basic idea is, Expansive supplies health, and until Charismatic comes along, Spiritual is the closes you get to happiness, because of cheap temples.

The idea is, seize an early religion. If you've got stones (har har) you could get both Hinduism and Judaism and get those Pyramids going with Organized Religion and Quarry. Focus on moderate expansion, peace and spreading your religion in the early game, and use the synergy of Spi/Exp to get some huge cities. Seeing as Isabella is neither Phi nor Ind, I prefer a cottage-based build while making a couple of Prophets for my shrines while working my way towards a mid-game war.

Early-game wars simply don't work for me. I end up bankrupting myself, so with Isabella, I can actually build a solid infrastructure, and when Courthouses are available and Towns are in place, you can double your territory. If possible, use your Religion to your diplomatic advantage. A good time to go on the war-path is with Conquestadors, which the AI doesn't counter very efficiently. Outmaneuvering the AI doesn't take much strategy - at this point, you can afford the military expansion, which should set you up for a comfortable late-game win.

(Can I get Hinduism on Immortal? Deity? Can I found any Religions with hut-tech?)

 

[Nestorius]

I'd love to be able to found two religions, hook up stone, build the pyramids, and not get overrun by barbarians or another civ on just Monarch level. You can do this on Emperor? How do you get by with late archery, bronze working, and cottages? I assume you beeline to Monotheism before Bronze Working, Archery, or Pottery, right?

 

[DaveMcW]

Hereditaty Rule and Archers is all you need for happiness.

 

[cabert]

Hereditaty Rule and Archers is all you need for happiness.

hereditary rule is somewhat far away (unless pyramids)

i had a much easier game at monarch with isabella than i had with others before :
got buddhism
had marble close, so went for priesthood and oracle (got masonnery from a hut) for CoL = confusianism
no copper in the vicinity, no horses either, had to go for iron, but still could keep up, get alphabet first, trade everything with my buddhist buddies, and got philosophy soon (going for liberalism!) = taoism

i second Zherak_Khan's opinion = easy to maintain health and happiness at a good level without too much trouble

 

[ese-aSH]

zerak is rigth ! on higher lvl isabella is the garanty for early 6 cities size (4happy + religion + temple.. eventuals ressources will be bonuses, and no health troubles).

Big cities, religious one, the early game is dedicated to culture with isabella. You are not financial, so spreading your religions worldwide is a solution to get income. UU conquistador, by that time you should have great cultural cities ; great culture means no problem for working all your tiles, this also means the opponent cities lying near your border should not be dangerous and will be easily integrated into your eimpire. The benefits of fast moving UU will allow you to pillage civilizations on the other side of the map. Dont expect score leading before 1000 - 1500AD, but this period is yours, time to expland and to weaken the challengers.
Once leading, your diplomatic advantage given by religions will allow single wars - i mean war with only 1 civ at the same time (razing ennemies one by one and make sure the guys your not at war with are fighting each other).

 

[Zherak_Khan]

I got a rather perfect opening in this game. Includes Hinduism, Judaism and Pyramids. Wasteland to the north and Agreesive Monty to the south made it a bit riskier than usual, but still rewarding.

Emperor, agressive AI, btw. I have trouble switching from Representation to US, because I really need all my happiness.

Now I'm wiping Monty out with Maces. He's quite backwards, and I have no Iron.