Pedro II Advice (Jungle Starts, Embargo)

[Dunkah]

SO I have tried to play Pedro nearly 8 times now in a row. Played on Continents Plus, Communitas and Pangea Plus. ALways Epic Speed, always Large Map 10 opponents, always King difficulty.

I have tried to do a Culture Victory as this seems to be what he is geared to, however I cannot seem to win.

Most of my games have resulted in very poor starts that I cannot seem to recover from that I abandon before the modern era. The one time I got a good start, with an actual religeon, I was hit with the infamous "You lose button" from Alexander. (An embargo which somehow brought me from a +250 gpt economy to a -10 gpt economy).

Question 1:
Is there a good way to start out when I am surrounded in Forest Tiles?

• Pedro has a great late advantage where he can get 10 yeilds per turn on them but this happens so late it's almost too late.
• If I get a pantheon I always grab the Culture on Jungle tiles.
• Communitas Maps seem to have much less Jungle tiles on them.

Question 2:
Is there a known vanilla bug that effects economy during conquests?

• I have had several instances where once I start conquering a civ and puppet cities my economy all of a sudden tanks but 100 -200 gpt.

Question 3:
Is there a way to get out of an embargo if Alexander has every CS under his control?

• I decided I had to attack him and was conquering him one city after another, puppeting then giving the cities away to other civs or freeing the citzens back to there old empire. But all of a sudden my economy tanked and I ran out of time.

Question 4:
Are there any Wonders I should be targeting above all others?

 

[Myrion]

@1:
Forrest is good, jungle is bad - even as Brazil you don't want jungle, you want more production (and food for growth)
Pantheon: +25% World Wonder construction (more details below)

@2:
Capturing cities means unhappiness, unhappiness means less income (2% per unhappiness or so) - is that it?

@3:
Getting embargoed usually makes the game unwinable, however: you should have won already before it is even possible.
How to avoid an embargo? Open Patronage to build The Forbidden Palace ASAP. Have trade routes to every Civ (especially those with more votes) - if it'd hurt them as well they won't embargo you.
Especially for a cultural victory you want TFP and trade routes to a lot of different civs anyway. The first so you can punch through your religion as world religion (+2 votes,+tourism) - it helps if you send a diplomat to a civ that has not founded a religion (makes it easier to bribe them), the latter because it very much helps with the first.^^




How to win a cultural victory in general?

- finish Tradition, open Patronage and Exploration (just in time before you can build The Forbidden Palace and Louvre), open Rationalism for extra Science (you have to be ahead scientifically to build more wonders), afterwards go for Aesthetics and Freedom ideology
- as far as religion is concerned: Pantheon: +25% Wonder construction; Founder: either Science or Gold on first conversion; Follower: +2 Tourism/Faith per Wonder; 2nd F: +10 Tourism for Hermitage; Enhancer: +500 Faith for expended GP; why? Tourism mostly comes from wonders so you need all of them; you need science to be the first who is allowed to construct them and gold to rush the buildings you don't have time to build because you build wonders; you will expend 4 different types of GP: Musicians, Artists, Writers and Engineers (world wonders, remember?) so you benefit more from that belief than those who only need a single type
- build wonders - whatever is nearby
- don't go for culture you'll get enough to unlock slots for great works
- find every Civ on the map and find them fast every turn without knowing one of them means wasted tourism
- have trade routes with different Civs to benefit as much as possible from the bonus to tourism they yield
- try to identify the resistant Civs, meaning those with high culture; try to get open borders with them as well as a trade route
- if your capital is not a port city you definitely need a second one (trade routes!); I have won games with a single city but usually I go for 3 so I can win the race to ideologies; more cities mostly means more slots for great works but you won't need that early on; if you have the Temple of Artemis and finished Tradition even late-found cities with thrive; depending on the circumstances you might be able to squeeze in 3 policies for the free settler via Liberty (building the Pyramids saves me the trouble of building workers, so I kinda like liberty even tough it doesn't do a lot when going tall^^)
- try to get cultural CS; not because you need the culture but because every point of culture for an opponent needs to be countered by your tourism
- NEVER EVER vote for anything that provides culture in world congress. I know it sounds nice with you going for cultural victory and all but again: you don't want your enemies to have culture - and you have no real benefit from more culture
- as Brazil your golden age is worth more than anything, especially later on; try saving them for the finish


If you do everything right you should win by 1750. Maybe even earlier as Brazil.
And if it's too challenging, try out the Archipelago it means easier trade routes, less cities for opponents (thus less culture to resist) and a more defensible position without having to invest anything at all in troops.
All of that works for me when playing Emperor difficulty.