NC LXIV: Louix XIV of France

[TheMeInTeam]

Immortal/Normal

1 AD

Spoiler :

Settled in place, worker first. After scouting around I saw the stone + food resources very nearby and noted France has AG/wheel. Went settler straight after scout and plopped a city right on the stone. Picked up marble later.

By 1 AD had all kinds of fun nonsense Gwall/mids/TGL/Paya/parthenon/etc as well as 6 cities with room for a couple more good ones. Generally if the player survives openings like this they tend to win; mass wonders slows AI tech pace + enough cities to do something is an advantage.

Liberalism

Spoiler :

I delayed it to take democracy. Wanted some kremlin rush buy. Boudica has stupid huge #'s of land (for all the "balance" OP did, he still left an AI with almost 2x the land of an average 7 way split, poor freddy got shafted . The conclusion is to try to down Boudica since we've a tech lead, using rifles or infantry. At least, that's what I thought at the time.

1938 AD Space

Spoiler :

Okay, off we go with rifles upgraded to infantry and frigates to bombard vs PRE RIFLE troops.

Let me say this now. I almost quit this game twice while fighting her. She had SO many units and they kept coming. Mass cavalry vs infantry wins hax too, since she was able to bog me down so much she could get cavalry before I even captured 3 cities. I had massive WW, lost >50 infantry vs an AI that never, ever caught up in tech. I didn't attack cities with defensive bonuses, either.

THIS is what happens when the RNG feeds the AI freebie land to superpower up. It was really like fighting 2 backwards AIs instead of 1. However, unlike usual where I'd quit on such a slugfest, civ V taught me that it could be worse; I could be fighting the UI EVEN MORE than I fight it in civ IV (where it's still awful). This lesson in patience paid off; I continued to tech FTW to tanks/bombers. That's about when boudica's defenses broke completely.

Not much from our runner up AIs; Shaka/Toku are their usual selves (shaka was bribed vs me w/o astro) and sully/vassal fred vs justinian almost completely obliterates all tech trade.

I bribe japan off shaka, so I can cap him.

Bombers and modern armor vs rifles. Kay.

From there I was tired of war tedium and had a clear tech lead. I left my slow hammer pathetic cottage cities to build space parts best they could (using production automation otherwise since nobody was even close to a VC) and eventually got it.

Ending civics (and during wartime) were all bottom civics except I used SP instead of environmentalism (though I put FP in boudica's land just in case the UN tried to scr00 me).

Rusty beyond belief, but despite the annoyance of low sea level + AI fed land the relatively poor global land quality + human wonder spam read makes this map play pretty easily ultimately. I'll take a W considering I haven't played IV in a LONG time.

 

[Amao]

@TMIT

Spoiler :

What a ride! Just a question, what if you start with Justinian/Fred/Sully and then on Toku/Shaka before you start war with Boudica? Could she run away before you finishing off others?

 

[TheMeInTeam]

@TMIT

Spoiler :

What a ride! Just a question, what if you start with Justinian/Fred/Sully and then on Toku/Shaka before you start war with Boudica? Could she run away before you finishing off others?

Spoiler :

I was very afraid that I'd see either that or a backstab from her (though she doesn't DoW @ pleased the instant I capped someone or had to refuse a bad demand I'd be wide open). I suspect I was right, too. From when I declared it didn't take her long to reach rifling, though I did enough damage to badly slow down her tech to assembly line at least. If I'd left her alone and she had 300+ INFANTRY era units or air support it would have been a much more annoying game, even if I had more power when hitting her.

Then again, the best answer to ginormo stacks of backwards crap is generally to just nuke them.

 

[drlake]

Are you back to Civ 4, TMIT, or just visiting over the holidays?

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Are you back to Civ 4, TMIT, or just visiting over the holidays?

I'm not one of those guys who announces themselves "gone" or "back". The frustrations that IV always held are still there for me, but I always did play a large variety of games. I find it rather odd that I actually seem BETTER after playing civ V; I guess all the mundane micro stuff bled over.

 

[vranasm]

hehe TMIT the same me... i think i am now better player too after 200 hours of CiV... maybe because of that damned 1UPT the micro in CIV is not that big of drag.

 

[Charlesbusa]

Up to 120AD

Spoiler :

It took forever, but I finally got one of the AI's religions. Been trading a lot with Fredrick, Justinian is way behind and stingy. Trying to decide if I should stay with slavery or go caste system. Once I get to Liberalism I'll go into full cultural mode, for now still using scientist to tech away. Spreading confuc so I can start working on temples. Any comments are welcome.

 

[popalopa]

Spoiler :

I got lucky, a random event killed Justinian so I could settle on his part of the map but I got the cultural victory only in 1950 or something... I was pretty much set up since 1400-1500 years (sliders up to 80-90%, running artist under caste system) I don't know why it's taking me so much time to build up to cultural victory...

 

[vhhawk]

1872 / Diplo / Noble

Spoiler :

Wiped out Toku, wiped out Fred, gutted Suleiman. Late game slog was tedious. Definitely should have played on higher level. But it was a fun map.

First Nobles Club win! thanks for the fun, OP!

 

[Grashopa]

popalopa - post a save before you go 100% culture slider and people can give you some tips.

 

[Charlesbusa]

Ok, I'm at 875AD. Just got Lib and with it Nationalism. According to the cultural victory guide, its now time for me to go up on the cultural slider as much as my economy will allow. Take a look and see if its that time and also any advice as well.

Spoiler :

So next build in my GP Farm will be Hermitage. Building temples to get the cathedrals. Finally got a military city ready, just starting to crank out units.
Not sure if I should have settle on Justinian's continent. But he never settled and it was juicy floodplanes to feed my economy....

Gonna be weird not keeping my tech advantage. But that was the whole point of this game, culture win.

 

[Hrun]

@Charlesbusa

Spoiler :

You did the right thing in settling on Justinian's land and settling the large island (which I failed to do) and its surprising he hasn't spread Buddhism to you. Why did you settle the one tile island? It seems useless with no resources.

Your running representation with lots of cottages where you could have farms. You could get a lot more science and then a lot more great artists by having farms, running scientists and then when you have all your techs running artists. You also might wanna run free speech.

Are you aware Justinian is prepping for war against you? With your city on his continent on a hill with a lbow you're temporarily ok but you probly wanna get more lbows over there otherwise you shouldnt need too much military. In my game all I had was 1 unit per city ofc it helps if the angry AI are too backward to reach you. However, I notice you're on marathon which I never play don't know if thats different.

You could have split the SW food and gems (and in your game gold) into 2 cities and not wasted the rice.

You're right to build cathedrals and stuff now although the build times look painful to my normal speed eyes.

Don't work plains farms! they don't give anything to growth and neither do the coastal tiles you are working could be artists.

So yeah, irrigate -> run specialists

If this is contrary to what the cultural victory guide says by all means ignore me but I think you've put up the cottages very late to have a commerce based culture victory

 

[Charlesbusa]

@hrun

Spoiler :

You did the right thing in settling on Justinian's land and settling the large island (which I failed to do) and its surprising he hasn't spread Buddhism to you. Why did you settle the one tile island? It seems useless with no resources.

I waited and waited, no buddah for me.... I didn't think I'd settle on Justinian's continent, so I settled that 1 tile island as a buffer and with collassus it should add to the economy, right?

Your running representation with lots of cottages where you could have farms. You could get a lot more science and then a lot more great artists by having farms, running scientists and then when you have all your techs running artists. You also might wanna run free speech.

I just switched from scientist to artists, but I see your point about more farms equals more specialists. Especially since I only have a few towns so far.

Are you aware Justinian is prepping for war against you? With your city on his continent on a hill with a lbow you're temporarily ok but you probly wanna get more lbows over there otherwise you shouldnt need too much military. In my game all I had was 1 unit per city ofc it helps if the angry AI are too backward to reach you. However, I notice you're on marathon which I never play don't know if thats different

My Dell laptop with win 7 seems to have a problem extracting .rar files. So I'm not running the BUG mod. How can you tell when an AI is preparing for war without BUG?

You could have split the SW food and gems (and in your game gold) into 2 cities and not wasted the rice.

You're right to build cathedrals and stuff now although the build times look painful to my normal speed eyes.

Don't work plains farms! they don't give anything to growth and neither do the coastal tiles you are working could be artists.

So yeah, irrigate -> run specialists

If this is contrary to what the cultural victory guide says by all means ignore me but I think you've put up the cottages very late to have a commerce based culture victory

So if I don't have the commerce, use specialists to generate culture instead of gold. I was waiting in a couple of those cities for the population to grow, work 2 bread tiles, and eventually get to a 3bread surplus, then run another specalists. If I run a specialist now, the city's growth with be stagnate. Is that better in this case? Thanks!

 

[Hrun]

@Charlesbusa

Spoiler :

with collassus it should add to the economy, right?

Umm, umm I actually don't know. As for being a buffer I presume you mean to stop them settling your continent but you needn't have been worried about that they clearly had plenty of land to settle themselves.

To check for war prepping either click each possibly declaring AI and see if they won't declare on anybody because the "have enough on [their] hands". Then you just have to gauge whether you might be the target. In this game though you can tell because justinian has a small stack in his nearest city to you, however when moving up difficulties you may need to compare what you fear is a stack with a regualr city garrison. Unfortunately without BUG I think thats all you can do.

For clarification, if you work a tile with 2 food when the city grows you are then working that tile and another tile/specialist. So if you work a plains farm pre biology you effectively get 1 hammer and 1 specialist instead of 1 specialist sooner. A small city of size say 4 could work some food tile eg fish with lighthouse and run 3 specialists with stagnated growth. Adding a 2 food tile would make it grow to size 5 while running 2 specialists as it grows and then run 3 specialists again once it has grown. All you have gained is the small benefit of whatever comes with with 2f tile and you have lost some time running that specialist. Stagnation doesn't matter if you're getting the most out of that city with the least waste.

Other things I just noticed you should have founded Chartres (I think thats its name, the city on the larger island) 1 south. That would have given you the fish in the BFC (I think) and it would enable contact with the civ on Germany's continent. Although I don't know if that site was culture pressed when you settled it or something. Plus, why do you have Virgil stored up? He should be settled earning you culture. Thats assuming you will take another 500 turns and are going to get more multipliers in the city you settle him in otherwise a bomb would be fine I'm sure. Actually the more I think about it the less I agree with that. That estimate was based on speculation from my game which finished circa turn 300/500 which would be circa turn 900/1500 for marathon so maybe less than 500 turns away... hmm i dunno. Great advice, huh?

 

[Charlesbusa]

@ Hrun

Spoiler :

Plus, why do you have Virgil stored up? He should be settled earning you culture. Thats assuming you will take another 500 turns and are going to get more multipliers in the city you settle him in otherwise a bomb would be fine I'm sure. Actually the more I think about it the less I agree with that. That estimate was based on speculation from my game which finished circa turn 300/500 which would be circa turn 900/1500 for marathon so maybe less than 500 turns away... hmm i dunno. Great advice, huh?

Thanks! Good points. With the Great artist, I was waiting with him(only like a couple turns just to get to the save point) because I didn't know whether to settle or bomb and waited to see if anyone knew which way would be better. I decided to bomb the northern of the 3 culture cities since it was behind. ugh, 300,000 culture points, seems so far away...

Thanks again for the pointers.

 

[Charlesbusa]

Hmmm. I went as high as I could go on the culture slider(60-80%) and 0% on the science slider at 875AD and all the way up to current. I'm only half way there and its already 1736AD, how long is this gonna take? Am I neglecting something?

Is it because I'm on marathon?

Take a look at the save, thanks

Spoiler :

I was attacked by Justinian, it was very weak. Easily fought him off and took a city. In any other game, I would have wiped him out. This time I only took one city and made him give a tech for peace. Maybe I should have crushed him??

Later the Japanesse attacked. But I think I was successful in making just about everyone else go to war and hate them.

I'm finally losing my tech advantage due to having the culture slider up instead of science. Should I adopt pacifism? Doesn't seem smart, Great Artist only give me 12,000 which only saves me about 19 turns for not having the culture bomb. And I now need a big army just to hold my own.

Sure I made a couple small mistakes that may have cost me a few turns, but I still have a long way to go....

 

[Charlesbusa]

Cultural win in 1901AD, finally.

My biggest question is how Istanbul reached 350,000+, more than any of my 3 cities. I was running 100% culture slider in the end, 3 or 4 cathedrals in all 3 cities. I know the Ottaman wasn't running the culture slider that high and had only one cathedral in Istanbul. How did he do that?

Spoiler :

 

[cain3456]

I usually play on Noble. I've won space races, but haven't been able to win any other way. I figure if I'm going for culture, Louis is the leader to do it.

No problem with settling in place. I'd like to see what's on the other landmass, so I'll probably want the seafaring techs. OTOH, going cultural means getting a religion, so I'll want to do that too.

Playing with the BUFFY mod, standard speed. Standard takes long enough on my computer, epic would take forever.

 

[popalopa]

popalopa - post a save before you go 100% culture slider and people can give you some tips.

Here.... I didn't turn the slider to 100%, maybe more like 70%...

Spoiler :

Also now it's 1800 and I'm at war with Boudica.

Thanks.

 

[Hrun]

@ Charlesbusa

Spoiler :

Grats about the win sorry I didn't post a reply to your earlier update. Nevertheless I took a at that save.

You maybe should have been heading towards the electricity -> mass media culture wonders and probably should have been going there a while ago when you had an even bigger tech lead.

Could you have founded sushi? It was a big help in my game.

As regards to war perhaps you could have buttered them up a bit and got defensive pacts? DPs with Boudica and Justinian kept the others away in my game. Boudica I think will sign one at pleased and seeing as she's huge that makes it fairly easy.

You were probably right not to adopt pacifism. If you had adopted a religion you're diplo woes would have been compounded further.

Strange about Istanbul. Have you checked world builder?