@ Um: Getting enough numbers was no prob on this map, as it has some very good coastal production sites with lots of food / seafood and enough hills. The best thing about LBs is, that they coast 100
, so by investing less then 10, one can 2pop-whip 2 of them! Did so until cities had +4 whipping anger (that's 120 turns of whipping anger on Marathon
) . I had set up for 3 major production cities in the beginning, so 3*4 2pops makes 24 LBs. On the graph, one can see my power-ratio go straight upwards:
On the screen, one can also see, how badly I had to demolish Joao, until he gave me a tech! Actually, Joao was down to 2 cities and 4 Archers in total. I took CoL, as I had massive maintenance problems at that time:
I gifted him 2 crap cities back, I wanted ot gift him one more but couldn't, because Civ thought somehow, that the city formerly belonged to Zara, even though it had all Portuguese culture. Used the time the cities were still in Revolt to convert to REP / ORG, as I planned to look after my Economy, my Production and my Research, meaning I wanted to build Forges, CHs and Libraries in most cities. That are so many
, that the Missionaries pay for themselves very fast, if constructing a CH one already spares 90
, the Missionary himself only costs 80. I didn't do mid-game caste-rush, because I was able cottage the land fast enough so there was no need for running too many specialists. Tech Situation was bad, Feudalism was the only tech only I had, but Zara and Mansa already had Currency + Calendar and even Theo and later Paper!
Even the Mahabody, giving +30g / turn didn't bring me back into the game this time, the Empire was simply too large with 25 cities at 1200 BC. As the others did have Currency though, I was able to beg quite a lot of money from them, and I still had the money from the Conquest against Joao, and that allowed me to Research Aesthetics!
In 1160 BC, after having been down to 0% of Research for almost 1000y, i was finally able to get Currency without sacrificing Feudalism. Cyrus had neither Aesthetics nor CoL, he traded with pleasure. Same turn, I also got Calendar from Joao for Mono + Aesthetics. Currency gave an instant of 45
and MoM was already pre-chopped, so I didn't lose that one also.
While Cottage-spamming and Missionary spamming, I also Wonder-spammed. Here's a Screen for you from 1000 BC:
One of the worst wonders on small maps, but extraordinary on Huge: The Hanging Gardens, giving an instant of +25 pop
. That's like getting more than 2000
if whipping or getting +75
if working Cottages, and, it gives GE-points!
I still wasn't able to keep up in tech though, the CHs simply took forever to be chopped out and I simply had overexpanded to an extreme with the Longbow-Rush, again, Mansa and Zara were running away in Tech. That's why I used Construction to bribe JC against Mansa and Genghis against Zara! I gifted them Ressources, so they'd make a good fight.
I also could trade Feudalism now, as Zara had reached it by himself. Got all the Techs the other AIs had except Paper, which was odd, but getting Philo + Theo was decent. Traded Aesthetics now with everyone, and got enough money to Research Literature and Music. A monopoly, that only lasted 1 turn, as I could get Paper for it from Mansa , allowing me to research Education
The Cottage-spam, the Super-Shrine, the REP-Specialists, my Tech-Trade-pattern, the powerchopping for CHs, Currency, it all worked and my empire recovered at a pace I could not have imagined before. In the meantime, I even had vassalized Cyrus, who capitulated immediately to my superior force of Drill LBs and Cats:
In 770 BC I reached Education, making 400
at +-0 GPT or up to 800
with deficit, which was easy to keep up, as I got about 6k Failgold from Angkor Wat multiple times.
----------
Now comes the present and the future:
Everything is set up. The GP Farm has grown to Size 15 and has the NE, more Failgold to keep up the deficit is already on it's way, and, I got a GE last turn
I'm in War with Washington atm, because I evaluated that having huge land but being low in tech, he would be a perfect target for extermination. Best thing is, he is on the way to LIzzy, who has the holy City of Hinduism (no Shrine though as the stupid Chick built the Temple of Salomon
) :
Time is on the edge, Zaras Vassal Frederick is already researching Education, but I think it's still possible to do a decent Slingshot with Liberalism. Plan is, to take the saved GA from Music to start a GA, and in that GA run 4 Priests in Cuzco aswell as 10-12 Scientiests in Moscow via CS. Then, getting like 3 GS + a GP should be possible, and, I still have the GE from last turn! Maybe use the GE to lightbulb Engineering (Mansa is researching it, but I don't have anything I'd wanna trade), use the GSs to lightbulb parts of PP, Research Gunpowder, bulb Chemistry and Scientific Method, and at least a Liberalism -> Bio Slingshot should be possible. Liberalism itself is already researched most way through and through Espionage I will see when I really have to tech it.
In the meantime, Cyrus will research Guilds + Banks, allowing maybe to even switch to Free Market without losing turns while being in the GA, seems unlikely though, because he's too slow. In the meantime, conquer Washingtons land completely and continue with Lizzy and then Found the Super-Shrine of Supershrines
Don't know what will happen, but what I know, is, that anybody loading this Savegame this time, can have a lot of fun if doing things right
It's taken from 3 Turns before I wanted to start the GA (wanted to let Cuzco and Moscow grow 1 more pop) . Experiment with it yourself, find the fastest way, but don't forget that you're in war with Washington, want to conquer Lizzy afterwards, having only few but good Forces, and you cannot build many reinforcements as you'll still need some Failgold for Lib -> Med
Enjoy and have Fun,
Seraiel
In my game everyone is Hinduist aswell, don't know how it could actually happen, as this start is a start besides a River of Doom that reaches anyone. Anyhow, Lizzy got her Religion to spread like crazy, even though she had no Meditation! The benefit ouf founding Buddhism even though not adopting it, is, that you'll 100% safely get a Shrine by 1500-1200 BC. You don't always start besides Religion Founders on Huge maps, and even if you do, they tend to build the Shrine very late, sometimes past 700 BC, sometimes they even build the wrong Shrine when they founded 2 Religions!
and 3 
