Polynesia for a Cultural Win?

[eisforeccentric]

I know Polynesia's not considered one of the stronger civs by many on this forum, but I'd like to give them a shot. I'm considering using them in a G&K game with all VCs but cultural turned off. Does anybody have any tips? I know there's a fine balance between building too many Moai and not enough, but other than that I don't have much else to go on. I can put up an initial save once I start the game, but does anyone have any initial thoughts?

 

[Browd]

Why turn off all of the other victory conditions? That distorts AI behavior.

 

[eisforeccentric]

I wasn't aware of that. Ok, with all VCs active, does anybody have pointers?

 

[TheGrumpyBuddha]

I wasn't aware of that. Ok, with all VCs active, does anybody have pointers?

Search "Polynesia", we had some good discussions on moai building a few weeks ago. There are some of us who are big fans of the heads!

I'd go archipelago -- btw, back then I posted an entry-level Polynesia Deity game that you can goof with.

 

[joncnunn]

As long as your core empire isn't the center of a landmass, I would agree that Polynesia is slightly easier to go for cultural victory than generic civ.
You could still go after science or diplomatic victory if you'd like, but in that case Polynesia isn't giving you any advantages over generic civ.

It occurs to me though that most Polynesia threads predate BNW.
So if you have BNW, you'll also want to look into a thread dealing with new cultural victory. And then just add building your UI in clusters to it.

 

[TheGrumpyBuddha]

It occurs to me though that most Polynesia threads predate BNW.
So if you have BNW, you'll also want to look into a thread dealing with new cultural victory. And then just add building your UI in clusters to it.

There were two or three Polynesia threads just two or three months ago, definitely included BNW. Big discussion about when to go crazy on Moia building, whether to start with a 5-scout or 5-warrior exploration team, whether it's good to build an early trireme, lots of stuff. Highly recommend digging those up.

 

[eisforeccentric]

Thanks all. I'm playing this on G&K, as I've yet to pick up BNW - I plan to rectify that soon, but for now, just G&K. I'll still give those threads a look, as I really don't know much about playing Polynesia at all, other than what I've already mentioned, and that more often than not Kamehameha gets the +1 for proving the world is round.

 

[kb27787]

I wasn't aware of that. Ok, with all VCs active, does anybody have pointers?

umm spam moai and use food ships to stay afloat? not much to say really... with the right map, it feels like playing as Poland, except that Poland's UA doesn't protect you from tourism pressure or extend your borders, but moais do. Get 3-4 cities up preferably with at least 3-4 luxes, don't worry about the terrain too much because food ships cover a multitude of sins... just make sure you can get good clumps of Moai; with those, don't worry if a lux/strategic resource is in the 4th or 5th ring as your borders will reach it eventually.

I would feel guilty (just a little bit) playing Archipelago with them... simply for the fact that the AI sucks at using food ships and I find their tech is very much slowed down because their cities don't grow nearly as much. (I've seen some deity AIs start on an island way too small for 2 cities and end up having that extra settler until they learn how to swim)

but for GnK... go liberty and clump moai, use pagodas and mosques when you can... fill your artist specialist slots and play normally... (in GnK Moais are not worth nearly as much because of the artist slots from culture buildings)