Portugal PhotoJournal - An Average(?) Player's Perspective

[BlessingsBeUponYou]

Blessings be upon you!

This is my first PhotoJournal for this forum. I had recently returned to Civ 5 Vox Populi after a long hiatus (~2 years) and I have remembered how much I enjoy this game! This PhotoJournal serves a number of purposes:

1. Encourages me to actually finish a game instead of quitting early
2. Allows better players to give advice, since I am currently only playing on Prince
3. Gives a glimpse into the mind of someone who isn't very good at the game, in an effort to help those who make guides/tutorials know what to emphasize for newer or returning players

Settings
My settings are as follows:

• Civilization: Portugal
• Patch: 3.3 or 3.3.1 (the mod in-game says v.16?)
• Map size: Tiny
• Map Type: Pangaea(eaeaea)+
• Difficulty: Prince
• Game Pace: Standard
• World Age: Random
• Temperature: Random
• Rainfall: Random
• Sea Level: Random
• Resources: Strategic Start
• No Ancient Ruins, No Events, No Tech-Brokering, Transparent Diplomacy

I chose a Tiny Map because it would encourage me to finish a game, as suggested by some. I chose Pangaea+ because I read it was one of the best balanced maps. I set World Age, Temperature, Rainfall, and Sea Level to random for fun. I removed Ancient Ruins and Events to (ironically) limit the randomness. I'm not good at this game, the AI are better, and they'll use their bonuses better than me, so I think of this as a small handicap to them. Thanks for reading and please help me.

T1

Spoiler :

Right away I suspect one of two things has happened:

1. I am way south
2. It's a cold world

After moving my warrior one way and my pathfinder the other, I decide the best place to grow is where I'm planted. The silk and lapis will be good production tiles, and hopefully there are some fish around for early growth. The plains tiles are good spots for eventual feitoras. My plan is build a monument first, to get my culture going, and then Stonehenge. One of my favorite aspects of Civ 5 is religion, both in vanilla and Vox Populi. My monument is done which should give me access to the 2nd lapis. This gives me access to two 3P tiles, which will greatly speed up my Stonehenge.

T5

Spoiler :

After 5 turns, I have come to the conclusion my world is cold. Also there is Melbourne, which is great! I am really bad with maintaining relationships with CS, so one so close and found so early will help me emphasize that interaction. Once I have trade routes, I can start generating some good yields with them so close to Lisbon. I chose to tech to Pottery before the Wheel because I needed growth tiles to get to 3 pop. The theory is if I do have a fish, I can work that for growth, and then once I have The Wheel I can put one citizen on fish and the other two on lapis. If I don't have fish, then this didn't really do much - I guess I can always build a granary.

T17

Spoiler :

The Pottery gamble paid off and I do have a fish tile, which means my theory to work Stonehenge should be feasible. Melbourne had a lot of quests. After building a monument, I didn't want to build a shrine while waiting for Stonehenge to tech, so instead I built a slinger to gift for the 135 gold Melbourne was offering. The plan is to use that gold to invest in Stonehenge. If I understand correctly, gifting a unit takes 3 turns before it happens, so by T20 I should be doing pretty good. Also, they want me to find Babylon, which is great because between T5 and T17 I found a Babylonian pathfinder, but not their city, so I know generally where they are. It's looking like Melbourne and I are going to be allies.

T20

Spoiler :

The slinger has been delivered and Babylon has been found! Melbourne and I are best buds now. Also, something I learned is my map is cold but not old - there are massive mountain ranges.

At T24 I was able to adopt my first policy. I have always enjoyed wide play over tall, although I do enjoy spamming GP. As the minimap shows, I think I have a lot of room, as long as someone isn't directly north of me. I know Pachacuti is...somewhere, because I met his pathfinder. Hopefully he ain't too close because I chose Progress as my social policy. Shortly thereafter, at T27, I find two more city states (Belgrade and Hong Kong) beyond Bablyon with my pathfinder. Also, I have a T31 Stonehenge in the works, which is pretty good, I think.

T31

Spoiler :

I got Stonehenge at T31! And now comes the hard part - picking a pantheon. I considered some of the enhancements to improvements, but I don't have a worker yet, and I don't think I'll have one any time soon. I don't have the right techs for my lapis or for the silk. At the bottom is Tutelary Gods, which I think will go well with my idea for Progress - lots of small cities dotting the landscape. It'll be a nice boost to production paired with the Organization Policy to produce high production, low population cities, which should do well in my cold world.

The only other thing of significance which occurs is I find the last civ in the game on T35 - Askia and the Songhai. They are north of Babylon and the farthest from me, which is good for me. Hopefully they cripple Babylon's science and Pachacuti's...whatever he does while also killing themselves on them both.

 

[azum4roll]

Pangaea+ is not balanced since it puts all CS onto islands (if possible). Diplo civs will be in a disadvantage.

 

[BlessingsBeUponYou]

Pangaea+ is not balanced since it puts all CS onto islands (if possible). Diplo civs will be in a disadvantage.

That explains why all the CS are on islands then. That's good to know for next game. What map is considered most balanced?

 

[BlessingsBeUponYou]

The game continues! ...and I think I am winning?
T43

Spoiler :

I didn't realize this until ~5 turns later, but I found Pachucuti. He is north, and it seems like his capital is quite close - only 9 tiles north of my capital. What made me realize his location was the fact that T47 I have my first settler. I don't know if T47 is too soon or too late, but the plan is to start pumping out settlers to claim some of the land before Pachacuti or Nebbie decide to take it for themselves.

T59

Spoiler :

2nd city founded! I decided to settle north to try and cut off Pachacuti's expansion towards me. I chose the hill with a river wrapped around it, because it seemed like a very good defensive position against any potential aggression from Pachacuti. Alongside that, it has access to some horses and some silk. To the northeast of Lisbon, next to the mountain range, is a natural wonder - The Fountain of Youth! To be honest, I forgot that was in the game, but I'll take it. The settler I am currently working on was going to go west initially, but after finding the Fountain I am going northwest.

It would be probably...20-25 turns before I realized what the Fountain of Youth did for troops. I'm learning to read more.

T85

Spoiler :

I have founded Braga near the Fountain of Youth. It has a lot of production and more lapis, so I can get closer to the monopoly. I don't know how many I need for a monopoly, but I think it is more than four. Additionally, I did settle towards Babylon by a tight mountain pass. The main reason for this one was the defensive nature of it. Once my GGs start showing up, I can start citadeling that range and solidly protect my western flank. Combra will be another production city, and hopefully any future citadels will net me the marble as well.

T104

Spoiler :

Two more cities for a total of 6 so far. Funchal was founded for more iron and silk. It'll be a good production city, I think. Leiria was founded to get the coral and eventually be the connection between Funchal and Coimbra. It had three good tiles - coral, iron, and deer - which fits perfect into my 3 pop city plans. I plan on settling 2-3 more cities, some of which are going on the snow peninsula south of Melbourne for the pearls. The roads are stretching out from Lisbon, eventually going to boost my science, which I think is doing poorly at +33 by T104.

Askia did the thing I thought they would - war against the other two AI. At some point I entered into a war with Askia through supporting Pachacuti. I forgot about it until my scout got got by Askia and one of their ally CS. Diplomacy is really simple with the AI right now - shun Askia, help Pachacuti and Nebbie. It's worked well so far - I have multiple DoF with them by this point.

One of the things not helping at this point is my only available TR is to Tiwanaku from either Porto or Lisbon, so one of my TRs just sits in Porto for awhile, not giving me any boosts from my UA. I couldn't trade with Melbourne from Lisbon, despite being only 7 hexes from Melbourne. The TR says it has a range of 8, so I really can't figure out why this was the case.

T117

Spoiler :

Religion time! Woo! I went with Divine Inheritance because of the boost to GA yields and the synergy with a lapis monopoly. I chose Synagogues because I have 6 cities and plan on 2-3 more, which gives lots of faith generation alongside a helpful boost to production in all the small cities. +3P from Progress, +3P from being a 3 Pop, and now +3P from Synagogues. I am a sucker for religious buildings, so expect to see more of them.

T151

Spoiler :

Finished the Progress tree and now I get to start my second Policy tree. As should come as no surprise if you've been following, I chose Fealty. I'm a sucker for religion, and I still don't know what my plan is to win, so Fealty seems to be good for religion and flexible for whatever I want to pursue instead of just Culture or just Diplomacy. Another religious building is nice too; Monasteries also provide Science, which is great! It is my understanding extra cities increase Culture/Science costs (though I don't know how much), so the extra boost for cheap will go a long way.

Speaking of extra cities,I have 8 cities now - Goa and Vila Nova. Goa gets me pearls and Vila Nova gets me another coral (off-screen). Around T130 I realized Amphitheaters are what improves lapis...so, I will be building those soon. I kept wondering what building did it. Again, I'm learning to read more. Unfortunately Lisbon is on a self-contained sea, so my capital city won't be great for Naus, although it will help with the Great Lighthouse. At least some of my other cities will be useful for that.

T160

Spoiler :

I can finally enhance my religion thanks to building Hagia Sophia (free church!)! I chose Mosques for the extra Science and Mendicancy for the extra Culture. Hopefully it makes up for the extra cities, the majority of which follow my religion. I plan to begin converting Pachacuti's cities next through Missionary spamming once all my cities have the religious buildings. I feel like my religion is my strongest advantage, and I plan on pressing it hard.

Reflections

Spoiler :

I've learned a lot just in keeping up with this PhotoJournal:

• My CS interactions are still quite weak.
• My Founder Belief isn't the right one in hindsight. I don't think I am generating GAs fast enough, and I think Council of Elders would be better for the Science and Production yields with my many cities. Other than that though, I think my religion works well with my wide playstyle.
• Specifically towards Portugal, I am not using the UA enough. One of my TRs was plundered a couple dozen turns ago, and I still haven't replaced it.
• At this point, I still don't have a WinCon. I am leaning towards Science currently, with Mosques, Monasteries, and the TR yields.

 

[azum4roll]

Internal trade routes work as well if you don't have external trade targets.

Coimbra isn't defensive against Babylon. They can shoot through mountains with their Bowman, while you can't really do anything about it.

 

[BlessingsBeUponYou]

Internal trade routes work as well if you don't have external trade targets.

I didn't realize internal trade routes worked! That's good to know.

Coimbra isn't defensive against Babylon. They can shoot through mountains with their Bowman, while you can't really do anything about it.

Reading what both Babylon and Inca can do has made me realize the various mountain ranges are more beneficial to them than they are to me. I guess it helps to read what the other civs do. I totally forgot about Bowmen since I haven't been attacked.

 

[BlessingsBeUponYou]

I was wrong in the last post.
Turn 181

Spoiler :

I have Naus now and am beginning to explore the world, finding the rest of the CSs. Unsurprisingly, with what I've been told already about Pangaea, they are all islands. Two turns later I get my first spy and send him to Wittenberg to try and earn me some faith. I'm gonna need it for all the buildings.

Also, I've decided to lean into Science as my win-con. What takes place over the next ~150 turns is making the blue number go up to get sweet dopamine hits. Unfortunately, this would also eventually piss off my neighbors.

T200

Spoiler :

I am the first one to the Printing Press tech (I think that's the one), so I get to start the first conference of the world. I decide on World Religion, choosing my own of course. A lot of the gameplay is just "next turn" and "blue people, blue yields, blue numbers" at this point. It is kinda boring, since everyone is beating up on Askia. I do get World Religion too, by the way.

T229

Spoiler :

Spoiler :

I finally get my Reformation belief. I had to build...something to get it, which I didn't realize until I built it. I have a lot of GPIs because they increase yields later on, so I wanted the immediate boost to my faith and science. The extra culture is helpful too, and purchasing Archaeologists with faith will prove very expedient. The other I thought about was Divine Teachings, which in hindsight would have probably been better in the long-term. Oh well, live and learn.

T253

Spoiler :

I have opened the Rationalism Policy tree, which should come as no surprise at this point. I'm also going for Science techs. Anything to increase the blue number. Again, more or less just "next turn"ing at this point. Pretty soon my gold gets wonky and I go negative for a time, but it catches back up.

Also, I'm letting my cities grow so they have more citizens available to work science specialists. I have such a high amount of happiness I can spare a few dozen extra citizens across my empire.

T319

Spoiler :

Ideology time and it was between Order and Autocracy. Order seemed to be more beneficial to science, so I went with Order, taking Worker Faculties for the Factories and the 10% boost to Science. Later on would come Peace, Land, Bread to try and salvage my economy, which it did quite handily. The amount of gold spent on building maintenance is absurd.

Besides this, Lisbon a few turns later has become the "most dazzling city" in the world. I've been Wonder spamming quite a bit, but I'm so far ahead in techs they are basically free at this point! In about 12 turns I enter the atomic era and get a cool new bomb!

Also, not pictured is the conquering of Askia's capital by the Inca. It won't be long before he's dead or vassaled. I'm glad my friends are doing so well. I, on my part, conquered Melbourne because they got uppity as Askia's ally. Now they are my ally. Forever. Just like I said in the beginning.

I've run out of buildings to buy with faith and now I sit on a mountain of faith. This will be used for Great Scientists later.

T336

Spoiler :

RIP Askia. You were truly one of the civilizations of all time. The Inca took most of his stuff, with Babylon getting a city as well. After 2-3 millennia of warfare, they decided enough was enough. My friends are both doing great! Now we can all be peaceful and happy together forever.

T367

Spoiler :

I thought Babylon would be cool, since we both chose Order. I thought Pachacuti would be cool since we had so many trade routes. I had just finished the Appollo Space Program. I was going to the moon! Then Babylon declared war and attacked my western front by land and eastern front by sea, turning a few CS against me. The Inca finally declared war on me and came over the mountains, turning the rest on me (he had the most CS allies). My hopes that they would murder each other were dashed. Pachacuti was even the score leader and everything - nevermind I was 10 techs ahead of him!

If there was one thing I neglected in my pursuit of the blue number, it was my military. I was horrendously under-prepared and was killed for it.

Reflections

Spoiler :

1. The Late Game is completely foreign territory to me. Given I usually restart around the Renaissance, getting to the Atomic & Information Age was eye-opening. There are SO many things in the Late Game - Wonders, Reformation Beliefs, Orders, Corporations & Franchises, Proposals. It's nuts. And, like a frightened animal, I went with the best option in the short-term, putting little thought into the long-term. I didn't realize my monopolies determined the Corporation I could get. My best option for a Corporation was whatever focuses on Production. Early game stuff really rears its head in the Late Game, even with GPIs and Great Person yields. I didn't even know what half the proposals did.
2. I need to keep up with my military in all stages of the game. I lucked out this time around with Askia being the punching bag. If it was me, I'd have collapsed 100 turns ago. While I had great military techs, I had almost no military that took advantage of it. Vast armies of slightly weaker units steamrolled my small army of slightly stronger units. I was expecting my better units to do, well, better, and they kinda did, just not as much as I had hoped.
3. I need to manage citizens better. I fell into a rut of just letting cities grow without paying attention to the specialist slots. I had cities with specialists in libraries and empty research labs. I probably lost a few hundred, if not a few thousand, science overall because of that slip up. By the end I had corrected my mistakes, but it took ~150 turns or so.
4. I need to make use of my civilizations strengths at every possible opportunity. At times I was down 2 TRs as Portugal without realizing it for a couple dozen turns. Not becuase old ones were plundered, but because new ones became available. The Naus were used to get money quick, but it was during a time when my economy was really strong, so I didn't use enough of them. The Feitorias weren't used well, but that's partly because I didn't have the greatest ocean tiles for them.
5. Probably other things as well, like diplomacy and religion with missionaries and inquisitors. This game is DEEP and I'm only scratching the surface. What's nice is now I can start a new game and take what I've learned and do better next time.

Thank y'all for reading. I'm sure I'll post another one at some point, as I personally enjoy it and I would assume others like reading about other player's games. If y'all have any questions, I'll do my best to answer. If y'all have any tips, both for posts like this or for Civ 5 VP, I'd greatly appreciate them.

 

[azum4roll]

I had cities with specialists in libraries and empty research labs.

All specialists of the same kind are equal. That's why the Improved City View mod groups them together, so you don't get confused.

You shouldn't have hoped that Askia was out of the game or vassalized. Without the common enemy, AI makes a new one, and it's obviously going to be you with your weak military and victory contending status.

 

[BlessingsBeUponYou]

All specialists of the same kind are equal. That's why the Improved City View mod groups them together, so you don't get confused.

I loaded up the an auto-save from the game, and it was giving me 8 Science from the library specialist and 13 science from one of the newer buildings specialist.

You shouldn't have hoped that Askia was out of the game or vassalized. Without the common enemy, AI makes a new one, and it's obviously going to be you with your weak military and victory contending status.

As for the new common enemy, I was hoping Babylon would turn on the Inca because Babylon and I had the same ideology and the Inca were starting to pull away in score.

 

[azum4roll]

I don't think scientists ever give that much science until the very late game. Are you sure you didn't confuse it with something else?

Scientists give 3 science base. This is the list of buildings/techs that increase scientist yield. Statecraft also gives +1 science to every specialist.

 

[BlessingsBeUponYou]

Unfortunately my old auto-saves have perished with the auto-saving from the current game I am playing, but I was able to load the game around T250 when I had a library and a university in the capital. The library specialist gives me 6 science, the university specialist gives me 7 science. There was a much larger difference (6-8 science) with the more advanced buildings.

 

[azum4roll]

Can you check whether you actually get this amount of science on the city UI?

 

[BlessingsBeUponYou]

I couldn't check on this game because I updated VP and couldn't load it, but on my most recent play I looked and you are right. The difference comes from the values of the buildings, not the values of the specialists.

 

[adams643]

Unfortunate end, those mountains would have been helpful if it wasn't the Inca you were facing..

 

[der_weihnachtsmann]

You definitely should have gone for the stars and the skies pantheon on that climate.

 

[der_weihnachtsmann]

And in general if you're going for an early wonder, you dont have any time to research anything else before on higher difficulties.

 

[der_weihnachtsmann]

Two more cities for a total of 6 so far. Funchal was founded for more iron and silk. It'll be a good production city, I think. Leiria was founded to get the coral and eventually be the connection between Funchal and Coimbra. It had three good tiles - coral, iron, and deer - which fits perfect into my 3 pop city plans. I plan on settling 2-3 more cities, some of which are going on the snow peninsula south of Melbourne for the pearls. The roads are stretching out from Lisbon, eventually going to boost my science, which I think is doing poorly at +33 by T104.

Askia did the thing I thought they would - war against the other two AI. At some point I entered into a war with Askia through supporting Pachacuti. I forgot about it until my scout got got by Askia and one of their ally CS. Diplomacy is really simple with the AI right now - shun Askia, help Pachacuti and Nebbie. It's worked well so far - I have multiple DoF with them by this point.

One of the things not helping at this point is my only available TR is to Tiwanaku from either Porto or Lisbon, so one of my TRs just sits in Porto for awhile, not giving me any boosts from my UA. I couldn't trade with Melbourne from Lisbon, despite being only 7 hexes from Melbourne. The TR says it has a range of 8, so I really can't figure out why this was the case.

You shouldn't have founded Leiria there. Far too many snowtiles. You should've focused on settling near Babylon or next to the many resources tiles north of Leiria

 

[der_weihnachtsmann]

Same for Goa.

Portugal is one few very Diplomacy focused civs and therefore its super important to take statecraft.

 

[der_weihnachtsmann]

And you didn't really go that wide. 8 cities is quite tall. But the map probably causes this

 

[der_weihnachtsmann]

Also you should aim to reform before enhancing by spreading your religion more.