I'm making this thread a bit early, to engender discussion and get my thoughts on paper.
When I looked through the Steam achievements, one in particular jumped out at me:
Bollywood
As Gandhi, win a cultural victory with 3 or fewer cities in your empire
I've always preferred smaller populous civs to huge underdeveloped ones, so the opportunity to win a game with a 3-city empire is appealing. It also goes hand-in-hand with the Indian UA of high population cities, with the SP/city cost increase, and the Indian UB providing culture. On top of all that, I recall reading somewhere that Jon Shafer usually plays with 3 cities, and if it's good enough for him....
Prince difficulty, since it's my first game, and I'd rather not jump right into King.
The five SP trees I'll likely fill are:
Tradition
Freedom
Piety
Patronage
Honor/Commerce
The first three are obvious - Tradition boosts capital growth, Freedom helps culture (via straight bonuses, GPs, and specialists), and Piety gives Golden Ages and culture. Patronage is there since I'll need a few city-state allies due to small size, if only to prevent other civs from going for diplomatic victories. The last one is open, depending how the game plays out; if I'm in danger, I'll use Honor, and if I need gold, Commerce.
Tech-wise, I'll stick to the top path of the tree and try for a Writing->Great Library->Civil Service slingshot, depending how gutsy I feel and how many river cities I have. Ultimately, my goal is to more or less beeline Archaeology for Museums and The Louvre, for the two Great Artists, and go from there. I shouldn't have too many tech issues due to high population.
Production: Growth, then Culture, and GP count on the side. I'll start with Granaries/Waterwheels, then move on to Temples and whatnot. I'm hoping to have each city running a full cadre of culture specialists by the end of the game.
When I looked through the Steam achievements, one in particular jumped out at me:
Bollywood
As Gandhi, win a cultural victory with 3 or fewer cities in your empire
I've always preferred smaller populous civs to huge underdeveloped ones, so the opportunity to win a game with a 3-city empire is appealing. It also goes hand-in-hand with the Indian UA of high population cities, with the SP/city cost increase, and the Indian UB providing culture. On top of all that, I recall reading somewhere that Jon Shafer usually plays with 3 cities, and if it's good enough for him....
Prince difficulty, since it's my first game, and I'd rather not jump right into King.
The five SP trees I'll likely fill are:
Tradition
Freedom
Piety
Patronage
Honor/Commerce
The first three are obvious - Tradition boosts capital growth, Freedom helps culture (via straight bonuses, GPs, and specialists), and Piety gives Golden Ages and culture. Patronage is there since I'll need a few city-state allies due to small size, if only to prevent other civs from going for diplomatic victories. The last one is open, depending how the game plays out; if I'm in danger, I'll use Honor, and if I need gold, Commerce.
Tech-wise, I'll stick to the top path of the tree and try for a Writing->Great Library->Civil Service slingshot, depending how gutsy I feel and how many river cities I have. Ultimately, my goal is to more or less beeline Archaeology for Museums and The Louvre, for the two Great Artists, and go from there. I shouldn't have too many tech issues due to high population.
Production: Growth, then Culture, and GP count on the side. I'll start with Granaries/Waterwheels, then move on to Temples and whatnot. I'm hoping to have each city running a full cadre of culture specialists by the end of the game.
. After that I'd think I'd want to grab the Great Wall, preferably, by rushing it with the GE that Stonehenge generates. Theoretically, if the AI is trying to win you'll need to prepare for the endgame dogpile, and the GW is important for that. Also, note the only 2 other wonders besides Stonehenge that provide more than 1
