Monarch Student^ IX - Darius

[Teelman]

Emperor/Normal

Spoiler :

Played this one but too busy to write a full write-up on this one. Started like everyone else and imm rushed pacal. By the way, nice with the holkans Meatbuster Build up lands and teched until calv/rifle. Took out alex easy with cav's. Then teched to infantry and took out kublai easy. At that point, I had the whole island so it was just pick a VC, i decided on global domination. HC capped after i took cuzco then shaka once I took his capital. Basically the hard part was taking pacal early enough with immortals and avoiding the holkans if possible

 

[pigswill]

Monarch epic 760ad.

Spoiler :

Got one more city since 10ad. Growing slowly. Confu spread so I adopted it. Alex founded Christianity and has adopted it so not such a friendly continent now. Only just discovered Shaka. Got lib>nat 760ad. Thinking about cuirassiers which need miltrad and gunpowder. Economy's ok so far. I've got a GArtist and I'm debating whether to save him to part bulb miltrad or blow him on a GAge.

@Meatbuster:

Spoiler :

I axe-rushed because knowing my luck in civ I'd have lost every immortal to holkans, been boxed in early and lost the the game.

 

[darreljnz]

Cultural victory 1720AD

1000BC to 265AD

Spoiler :

Started this round having just killed Pacal and met Alex and Kube. I had Mutal the double holy city.

Strategies for this phase:

• Spread opposite religions to Kube and Alex
• Explore rest of continent
• Priest specialists for shrines

While exploring I found a barb city near my borders which was was previously Alex's. I took it as it was placed well.

Both Alex and Kube converted religions after a single missionary. What was interesting was the diplo hit didn't have as much of an effect as I expected. It took me +5 or +6 to get friendly with Alex and Kube but they were 0 and -2 diplo with each other and still Friendly! Monarch is hard on the human player!

At this point my economy was sagging so I beelined to CoL and spammed courthouses.

I was the first to CoL so (accidentally) got Confucianism. I also popped a GS which could get Philosophy. At this stage I thought cultural victory is an option as I'd have 4/6 religions so I grabbed Taoism too.

I then changed my GP farm to priests via a temples and some early wonder (I forget which). Popped a priest and founded Hindu shrine (+10 gold) which immediately cured my economy problem.

I needed 3 more great prophets so got my GP farm to start building Ankor Wat.

I them moved my palace to Mutal since it would be my double holy city bureaucracy capital.

At this point I was still on the fence re: a cultural victory but decided to beeline to music so I could grab the GA and a cathedral then CS for bureaucracy to fuel my cottaged capital.

Buddhism and Christianity were both founded offshore so I though (incorrectly as it turned out) there would be some religious tension overseas. More about that later.

265AD to 835AD

Spoiler :

The main goal of this round was to backfill 3 city sites and come up with the remaining 3 great prophets. If I got the opportunity to dogpile Alex or Kube after a religious war - all the better.

At this stage I hadn't picked a state religion so I could take sides with whoever was winning.

I also thought about optics as I needed to take control of the religious affair overseas just in case it was all Buddhist.

My strategy at this point was clear:

• Pick 3 cities for legendary culture
• Build 3/6/9 temples for each religion
• Build cathedrals and wonders in my 3 cities
• When ready to flip the switch run caste system
• Run artists in my 3 cities priests/mines in my military cities and merchants/cottages in the rest
• Maybe grab some more land if pickings were easy

At this point Alex and Kube were still friendly and I had a tech lead of about 3 techs. I had the weakest military and even though I was +10-ish with Alex I only had 0.6 power rating compared to him. Similar situation with Kube so I needed to do something. I switched to Hinduism (Alex's relgion) and bribed Alex to fight Kube for 1 nice tech and some gold. Within 10 turns both Kube and Alex's power rating were equal to my own - one nice tech was certainly worth it to not have to participate in their escalating arms race.

Ankor Wat completes in my GP farm (took ages without stone!) and I started running 5 priest specialists.

At the end of the round I had a short stint of wonder addiction completing a shrine, national epic, sistene chapel and parthenon all within 3 turns of each other.

835AD-1265AD

Spoiler :

This round was about spreading enough religion in my own cities to build temples so I could build cathedrals. It was also about discovering optics to explore overseas.

Alex and Kube made peace at the beginning of the round and were both still friends with me. Alex would be my trading buddy for life (and eventually offers me a defensive pact in the next round).

3rd shrine gets built

Got a message that AP was built and was (predictably) Buddhist.

Discovered optics, circumnavigated the world and found Hyuana and Degalle. Hyuana is 4 techs behind and has founded Buddhism. Degalle is 7 techs behind and has no religion. Got degalles map for 65 gold (cheap!) and saw Shaka and Degalle on the same continent and neither had met Hyuana. This means the two foreign religions were isolated to one AI. Also, since my cultural borders allowed me to get to an island near Degalle without caravels my religion started spreading to Degalle and Shaka immediately. No diplomacy problems for the rest of the game (except for Hyana who would not discover astronomy until a few turns before my victory).

Alex and Kube had had it good for a few turns and I still had a 4 tech lead on Alex so I bribed him again Fun and games once more when I see both power charts plummet again.

Popped a GA at 4% chance instead of my 4th prophet so saved him for a future culture bomb.

Was beaten to university of sankore (one of the few wonders I tried for and got beaten too)

Finally got my 4th shrine.

1265AD-1720AD

Spoiler :

This round was sooooo boring.

• Culture slider at 100% and still making positive gold from my shrines alone (profits from my prophets?)
• GA's in my top 3 cities

Basically I was sitting with a spreadsheet open calculating how many CPT in each city plus generating a GA every 11-13 turns.

Had a small skirmish with Kube to see if I could grab a city or two for the extra score but his military overtook mine quickly as I had turned research off. Took about 50 turns to win a cultural victory.

Post game analysis:

Spoiler :

• Really liked my early game as I had a good strategy and stuck to it.
• Biggest flaw in early game was not committing to cultural victory earlier and building more libraries/monasteries earlier
• Middle game was good as the shrines were definitely worth it
• End game was too slow

Lessons learned:

• You don't need heaps of units to rush if you have 1 or 2 highly mobile units in the right place at the right time
• Don't be afraid to commit to a victory condition early on if it is clearly the right thing to do
• Ignore Wall St and Oxford on cultural victories - you have so many religious buildings to build that you'll never have time for the banks and universities (i guess it might be worth building the uni's if they were half price)
• Really push your core strategy to the limit. Ankor Wat was really hard to build but fuelled my entire economy and religious presence for the rest of the game.
• The end game of cultural victories is so boring I plan to never do one again.

 

[darreljnz]

I forgot! Thanks to Meatbuster for the map, I really enjoyed it!

 

[Meatbuster]

You're welcome.

1720 is an OK date for culture. But yeah, culture sometimes we need to press enter a lot of times. It makes non-backdoor diplomacy wins seem more fun in comparison.

 

[woodman6035]

I'm trying the game now but am really having problems with happiness. What did you guys do to combat that? (having to run 40% culture) Also, production is slow as well. I have done decent at the teching but there is only one shrine on the map (shaka) so my merchants aren't cashing in (900-1300 a pop).

 

[Meatbuster]

I don't see a reason you should run 40% culture...

Let's see...
1. Did you defy any AP resolutions?
2. Are you at war with anyone for a long time? Do your cities share religions with that enemy?
3. Whipped/drafted lately?
4. Are you running Hereditary Rule civic? If you are, then build more troops.
5. Check the resource trades... is there any buddy from whom you can get happiness resources?
6. If all else fails, build more temples/colosseums/theaters.

As for great merchants, just go to the city with Temple of Artemis. Or the capital with a certain distance and large population.

It would be better if you have screenshots, a save and a writeup of what happened so far. That way we may be able to provide more "customized" advice.

 

[woodman6035]

I am a little light on the colosseums, I've been busy building knights to attack someone (Alex), I get bored after a while and have to spruce things up. As far as religions go I didn't get one. I usually don't mess with them because they usually get me into trouble and I hate the extra turn(s) of anarchy. I'm almost done with Lib. so it won't matter. On a different note, how do you get a city to grow fast and be productive at the same time. I seem to struggle at this. When I click on the production tab it'll usually make my city stagnet. Sometimes my cities will be stagnet no matter what I do.

 

[pigswill]

Monarch epic. 1450ad.

Spoiler :

Haven't played civ for about three months so I'm a bit rusty. My tactics and micro-management are pretty poor. I also wanted to try out the cuirassier/cavalry beeline, which isn't too bad..

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

After getting liberalism I went gunpowder>miltrad (I'd picked up music earlier for the free GA). Blew the GA on a GA and swopped to free religion. Meanwhile I prebuilt some HAs and eles. Once miltrad was in I spent a few turns on 100% cash and upgraded units to cuirassiers.
Declared on Alex in 1080. Took a while and had to capture 6 cities but he capitulated in 1250. KK had been teching very well and as well as the usual classical stuff I picked up machinery, optics, engineering and astronomy in trades with him.
While the war with Alex was going on I went guilds>banking>economics (free GM) >PP>RP> rifling. Got to rifling in 1280. The GM completed his TM in 1270 so I had the money to upgrade 16 or so cuirassiers to cavaly. Declared on KK in 1285, captured a couple of cities quickly and he capitulated 1295. Moved on to HC (1320-1380), De Gaulle (1400-1420) and finished with Shaka (1430-1445).
Casualties were ridiculously light even against pikes. Only used one city revolt though I had frigates to weaken coastal defences in later campaigns which helped quite a bit. Didn't build a single seige unit (first time ever).

 

[NihilZero]

Monarch epic. 1450ad.

Spoiler :

Haven't played civ for about three months so I'm a bit rusty. My tactics and micro-management are pretty poor. I also wanted to try out the cuirassier/cavalry beeline, which isn't too bad..

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

After getting liberalism I went gunpowder>miltrad (I'd picked up music earlier for the free GA). Blew the GA on a GA and swopped to free religion. Meanwhile I prebuilt some HAs and eles. Once miltrad was in I spent a few turns on 100% cash and upgraded units to cuirassiers.
Declared on Alex in 1080. Took a while and had to capture 6 cities but he capitulated in 1250. KK had been teching very well and as well as the usual classical stuff I picked up machinery, optics, engineering and astronomy in trades with him.
While the war with Alex was going on I went guilds>banking>economics (free GM) >PP>RP> rifling. Got to rifling in 1280. The GM completed his TM in 1270 so I had the money to upgrade 16 or so cuirassiers to cavaly. Declared on KK in 1285, captured a couple of cities quickly and he capitulated 1295. Moved on to HC (1320-1380), De Gaulle (1400-1420) and finished with Shaka (1430-1445).
Casualties were ridiculously light even against pikes. Only used one city revolt though I had frigates to weaken coastal defences in later campaigns which helped quite a bit. Didn't build a single seige unit (first time ever).

Spoiler :

Woo, 1450! Even on Epic I'm assuming that is pretty fast. Impressive!