Early scouting locates Ghengis Khan to the south and Mehmed II of the Ottomans to the west. Pump out some Queshuas with the intent of taking out Khan. But odds are crap and forces too light, so have to postpone it. Scouting with them instead. Found two cities by 2000BC; horse to the south-west and copper to the west. Then a city further NW with sheep and corn and hills, which becomes the main production city. Meanwhile a solid Queshua force has been assembled and we walk on Ghengis Khan's 3 cities. They are sacked by 950BC. We now control the whole area east of the Ottomans. I found more cities in this area, but am content with the land and progress to get the economy up to speed again.
The land is reasonably good, but with loads of plains tiles and thus limited food supply outside of food resources. Therefore I decide to farm much of the area to make sure the cities can still grow from the new 2-food plains on the back of food surplus elsewhere. Also discover this is a rather good civilization to spam wonders with, and start with this fairly early. It isn't really a conscious choice, rather one of necessity, but when Civil Service comes in (chain irrigation) and especially Biology, the early farms groundwork is excellent for a specialised economy. Couple that with wonder spamming and ensuing culture points, and it is a great foundation for going for a culture win - something I have never attempted before.
Darius in the far west is not at all well-liked, so when my friendly neighbour Mehmet asks me to dogpile on him I oblige and DoW him. The army is already stationed in the south west border (between iron and fish, just east of the incense), so we can get there reasonably quickly. As it turns out that is good luck, because despite Mehmed's cities being closer, we get to the frontlines quicker. Mehmed does take one small city, while we march around the coast capturing 4 good cities, the latter two just 2 turns before his army would have (Knights got me the last one, most likely, as the slow infantry and siege wouldn't have gotten there in time). Boudica takes cities off Darius too, and when I take his four coastal ones in 1160AD he is only left with one out at sea, and is vassaled to me.
Meanwhile I spam wonders thick and fast and begin to crouch upon Mehmed's lands, putting serious pressure on several of his cities, though none flip (but a small Roman one up in the Arctic does). Mehmed asks to become a vassal in 1625AD, which I don't understand as we're not at war - but I'll take it.
With access to Cuirs and Cannons, I begin to assemble a second army (the first camped out west in the new territory) from the production cities and automatically assemble it in the SW city. The goal is to take out some good Celtic or Japanese cities. The stack grows to some 45 Cuirs, 20 cannons and a handful of grenadiers and various defenders - but it does not march on any one - surely to the delight of Boudica and the stone-faced Tokugawa.
With a culture win the goal, I spam missionaries and Temples, and build the +50% religious buildings whenever they become available, in the 3 main culture cities. The prioritising and odd artist's great work comes together very neatly, and all three cities reach Legendary status with only 2 turns between them. I win on Culture in 1750AD
It's the first time I've even tried that. It was very pleasing and I learnt much from the experience, not least about the usefulness of religion (which I basically just saw as a diplomatic tool until now).
Have attempted a specialised economy a couple of times before, and failed miserably, but now when it wasn't really a goal, it came together very well. With founding of Sid's Sushi also contributing to massive excess of food, by the game's end I was running 97 specialists in the 18 cities
This is from the city with most specialists, Machu Picchu, with 12. It doesn't show too well due to how the game marks 5 specialists, but there are actually 10 artists, plus a priest and engineer.
Info screen (see the farms count)
Wonders (built 30 of 35 Wonders, including the two in production)
Specialists (97!!)
Culture from City Overview
(Good commerce and research in Vilcas, and pleasing city size overall.
1090
/turn out of Tiwanaku must be decent too)
I got bored toying with him ~600BC and killed him off (as a merciful gesture mind you). REXd out to 14 cities and won Lib kinda late (960 AD iirc) taking MT.
).
