Polynesia Runaway

[Vegito]

Hello CivFanatics. This is my first post on this forum and I wanted to share a recent game I had with the Shoshone on Emperor difficulty. In most of my games, I typically have the tech lead. I usually am the first to get to the Renaissance era and I am always the first to get to the Industrial... until now. While I was researching the tech to get the Porcelain Tower, a popup appeared to inform me that another Civ had built it. Another popup had also appeared to tell me that Polynesia had entered the Industrial Era. This was a double surprise for me since not only was I being beaten in late-game tech, it was by Polynesia, who typically ends up at the bottom of the scoreboard in most of my games. Although they possibly did have the Great Library (not sure), that usually doesn't mean anything for me. I've played games where Babylon or Korea AI built the Great Library and I'll have beaten them in tech by the mid-Renaissance. And it shouldn't be the difficulty either since this is my 10th game or so on Emperor. So is there an explanation for why of all Civs, it is Polynesia who on the top of tech race?

 

[KingKong76]

well... if its a island type of map, they are very powerfull... they will rackup tons of ruins, if they are lucky they can end up getting 3-4 free techs early on and also discover lots of NatuW wich can please a lot of CS that you never even heard off...

I cant see no other explainations...

 

[phillipwyllie]

...and also discover lots of NatuW wich can please a lot of CS that you never even heard off...

If these were Maritime Cs then the Polynesian capital will be huge thus generating lots of science. He built the Porcelain Tower so unlocked Rationalism, possibly early. Sometimes the AI can play this game, but it is rare.

 

[compwiz1202]

Yes, plus if it's a lot of separate land masses, they can build a lot of cities without early competition for more pop which is more science.

 

[KingKong76]

If these were Maritime Cs then the Polynesian capital will be huge thus generating lots of science.

There is many way to generate science... but this is indeed the easiest! Grow that capital!

 

[qemist]

Interesting. I have never seen speedoman run away.

 

[Salvatierra]

Vegito, what kind of map are you playing? If you are using the Shoshone I suppose that it most be a Pangaea or a continents map, It would be very unusual that Polynesia can become a powerhouse in those map scripts , but if it was a little islands map, a large islands map or even a little continents map they can actually have a chance, but even with that, they no are that competitive.

Also, do you have the Random Personality option selected? Because maybe Mr. Randomness did actually work this time and made Kamehameha a monster, maybe he has the expansionism of Cathy, the competitiveness of Alex, and the nuclear flavor of Ghandi!!.

 

[Scooter47]

Weirdly enough in a recent game I played, Polynesia did become a runaway. I was playing America on King and it was a small Pangea Plus map. For most of the game someone was constantly spamming wonders, now I was playing a domination game and I was mainly concerned with cranking out units.

When I did finally confront the monster that was the Polynesian Red Speedo Man my Minutemen had a hard time against his Great War infantry. Add to the fact he invested in a lot of planes and an insane sized navy. Thankfully I managed to tech up and with a lot of massed artillery I managed to take Honolulu and Athens which I needed for my win.

Normally I never see Polynesia with more than 3 cities on a Pangea map. Maybe he was successful because he had Theodora as a neighbour and all she did all game was concentrate on missionary spam. However the fact that Polynesia wiped out the Mongols, the Greeks and also took half of India's cities really shocked me.

 

[reddishrecue]

Don't always expect to always get a porcelain tower, man. You can use scientists as specialists to make academies and make science that way. The only bad thing about this is that most AIs will underestimate you and attack so make sure you have defenses.

 

[Vegito]

Vegito, what kind of map are you playing? If you are using the Shoshone I suppose that it most be a Pangaea or a continents map, It would be very unusual that Polynesia can become a powerhouse in those map scripts , but if it was a little islands map, a large islands map or even a little continents map they can actually have a chance, but even with that, they no are that competitive.

Also, do you have the Random Personality option selected? Because maybe Mr. Randomness did actually work this time and made Kamehameha a monster, maybe he has the expansionism of Cathy, the competitiveness of Alex, and the nuclear flavor of Ghandi!!.

This was a regular continents map. He had a declaration of friendship with nearly everyone on the map though and lots of research agreements as a result. That could have been it. Typically, Polynesia forward settles half the Civs on the map and pisses everyone off but he did manage to make friends that game.

Don't always expect to always get a porcelain tower, man. You can use scientists as specialists to make academies and make science that way. The only bad thing about this is that most AIs will underestimate you and attack so make sure you have defenses.

I've managed to build the Porcelain Tower on every Emperor game I've played so far except for that particular game. I've even gotten it as late as the Modern Era when I opened Rationalism late to finish the Patronage Tree so I've been under the impression that the AI doesn't really like it.

 

[dopingman]

AI seldom opens Rationalism and therefore the Porcelain Tower is usually available for a long time. Polynesia is more likely to open Rationalism though and then can snowball like every other civ. Usually King Goku just tends to be a forward settling idiot who gets wiped out for being a forward settling idiot.



E.g. in my last Immortal match Polynesia decided to forward settle Queen Lizzy of all people, but no one is willing to declare war, because I kinda started a hug fest with two early DoFs.

Spoiler :

Did I mention that Assyria needs clay, lots of clay?

 

[Dr. D]

This was a regular continents map. He had a declaration of friendship with nearly everyone on the map though and lots of research agreements as a result. That could have been it. Typically, Polynesia forward settles half the Civs on the map and pisses everyone off but he did manage to make friends that game.

Bingo. Kamehameha can meet all civs faster, allowing him to research technologies faster. The more civs you know that own a particular technology, the cheaper that technology is. And, just like you mentioned, the potential for research agreements only enhances this technological advantage. It's actually kind of surprising Kamehameha doesn't perform better more often.

 

[crawf0rd]

I want pics -- I've never seen such a feat
On a related note, has anyone seen Byzantium's 5th city name? I've never seen Theodora settle more than 4 cities.

 

[Abraxis]

I've seen a runaway early Byzantium before with loads of cities