Monarch Tokugawa Shadow Game

[StillAFox]

So the second I hit Military Tradition, Freddy and Hammurabi just decided to become my vassals making the game an absolute cakewalk (I actually managed to get beaten to Taj by a turn). Got my fastest ever victory at 1410 AD (by 10 years) and 2nd highest score.

Spoiler :

Near the end I just put all my cities on cuirassiers since I knew it was over.

This shadow game was definitely helpful, thanks everyone!

I do wish I had a less aggressive start though, I struggle a lot more when I'm doing a more passive game with an engineering or cuirassier push off of like 5-6 cities or when I do a construction rush. After taking out Boudicca and getting her good land it was easy to snowball.

I feel like the biggest takeaways here are to put more consideration into different tech paths, stop being lazy with workers, and prioritize food and commerce even more than I feel like I do.

 

[notslin]

So, in each Era, there are a number of techs that you want. And the role they play is they let you increase the city count you can sustain and propel you to the next Era.
In the Ancient Era, those techs are Pottery and Writing, which allow you to sustain 5ish cities.
In the Classical Era, those techs are Monarchy, Mathematics, Currency, Code of Laws <-- that's a whole bunch of them and they allow to sustain 8+ cities.
Medieval, you get Civil Service, Philosophy, Music and you can certainly go past 12 cities.

Interesting analysis, appreciate it!

For Classical Era, Monarchy and Currency are often priorities -- Monarchy for happy cap, and Currency for trade route commerce and building wealth. Mathematics and Code of Laws seem less pressing, though. Mathematics is of course very useful -- nice for chops and an (often requierd) prereq Currency, CS and (if needed) Construction. Code of Laws is good if you need a couple courthouses. Hopefully I'm not missing a reason Mathematics and Code of Laws are priorities in that era.

 

[notslin]

I do wish I had a less aggressive start though, I struggle a lot more when I'm doing a more passive game with an engineering or cuirassier push off of like 5-6 cities or when I do a construction rush. After taking out Boudicca and getting her good land it was easy to snowball.

(Not the most experienced player here but) IMHO the start -- high production capital, close neighbors, not a lot of food to get a lot of good cities -- suggested an early rush because it would be hard to develop economically for a rush after Construction.

 

[BornInCantaloup]

Interesting analysis, appreciate it!

For Classical Era, Monarchy and Currency are often priorities -- Monarchy for happy cap, and Currency for trade route commerce and building wealth. Mathematics and Code of Laws seem less pressing, though. Mathematics is of course very useful -- nice for chops and an (often requierd) prereq Currency, CS and (if needed) Construction. Code of Laws is good if you need a couple courthouses. Hopefully I'm not missing a reason Mathematics and Code of Laws are priorities in that era.

You mention pre-requisites. In the spirit of "propelling you to the next era", Code of Laws is the utmost essential tech, followed by Mathematics,
Since they are pre-reqs to both Civil Service and Philosophy (Philo, a tech you may need to fall back on if you lack a good Bureau cap).

Monarchy is nice to have but better to trade for. There can be alternate sources of happiness : luxuries, trades, religion, or perhaps the Pyramids.
Currency is basically "free commerce". It's nice to have but better to trade for, again.

So, there are the bonuses the techs bring (yes to Math chops) but more important is the tech's position in the tech tree,
And your tech targets in the next Era. This is where we speak of "beelining", i.e. ignoring all non-essential techs to acquire a certain tech.

Civil Service is a tech that's worth beelining in a lot of very standard games (in fact, a lot of the most standard city management revolves around the prospect of getting CS : helper cities to develop cottages while happy cap is low, hiring scientists to set up an Academy). And Player's timing on Code of Laws has a very direct impact on the timing of CS. This is why you should not want to research all of the Classical Era techs yourself and should prioritize those that push you forward the most.
I would generally consider that Civil Service around T100 is the mark of a successful game (of course, there are other factors - land, military). If there remains useful Classical techs to be researched after CS - and they are difficult to trade for -, then Bureaucracy makes it considerably easier to backfill (Calendar is a usual suspect, perhaps Metal Casting). Otherwise, you can just move on to another important piece, like the Music Great Artist or Philosophy, which will set you up to enter the Renaissance.

Now, you don't want to beeline too far, either, like trying to grab a tech that's 25 turns ahead and ignoring a useful one that could be reached in 5 or 7 (see last parenthesis).