Quest for Glory - Deity Challenge #9

[ForkOfSpite]

Don't want to take away from other Quest for Glory games in progress, but I also want to share this game. Hopefully, at least one person enjoys it! I'm about 65 turns in and don't think I'll actually win, but I'm going to try something that I've never done (which provides the objective and reason for me sharing the game).

Carthage on a Random map (Standard size, Standard speed). The objective is to use the Phoenician Heritage unique ability to cross mountains in a meaningful or amusing manner (or meaningful - AND - amusing). Bonus points if it provides the tactical advantage and contributes to your overall strategy to achieve victory!

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edit:
Ended up not as suitable as I thought it might be for the mountain rush glory, but what's done is done. Good luck!

 

[ForkOfSpite]

I shouldn't have posted this map (will delete this thread if I can figure out how to do so), but nevertheless, I'm pleased I did. If I hadn't, this is a type of map I would have just given up. The post gave me incentive to complete it, and I came away with a T292 Science Victory. No grand glory rushing though mountains, but it's good to know I'm capable of winning a deity game on an average (bad) map. Feels like an accomplishment and a step forward for me.

No grand summary, but I will go over a bit to highlight some of the issues I had.

Spoiler :

Let's start with a midgame screenshot - the only one I have. It's T160, and I'm in the middle of the Renaissance. Unis and workshops are up, but no chance for a wonder.

Spoiler :

Four cities - four lux - five copies of regional. Excess happiness is 2, and that's after reacquiring an AI duplicate that just switched from Morocco to Siam. Two turns earlier, I suddenly found myself at 0 excess happiness with Hippo Regius set to grow in one turn. Rationalism is open - want to avoid going unhappy if I can (a garden happiness city got converted, so I went unhappy anyway), so I tick the avoid growth. In all of my cities, I start working max science, production, and gold - i.e., max specialists (secularism was NOT open yet). Set every city to produce zoos as soon as possible. It didn't take too terribly long to restabilize happiness, but I never really focused fully on growth again.

Part of the problem was not getting a caravel ready to meet the world. Another part of the problem was that not long after I got all the trade routes up (effectively 1 food cargo for each city since 2 caravans = 1 cargo), I quickly outgrew what my empire could support. After refocusing back to at least moderate growth, they became reliant on the food routes (except for Carthage which was eventually converted to production).

I think there were two reasons this happened. The first was extremely low production - that's just the land I have (and is why I would ordinarily quit the game early). Perhaps sending some early production cargos would have been more appropriate, but then again, most were up before I had workshops. The second reason was actually the same (bad land) but also a questionable choice by me - these cities share way too many tiles. There weren't enough good tiles for one city to work while sharing some with another. Seems like a better strategy would have been to conquer land rather than settle four mediocre cities, but I'm not sure I could do that even if I had the production for an army.

As for the late game, I started to analyze the approach as soon as research labs were done. I had generated 7 Great Scientists by then (plus an intentional Engineer for Statue after the first three or so GS), and at most, I had one faith purchase available. Seven + one faith + maybe two from Hubble was clearly not enough. The next set of GS was a group of three starting in 20 turns. To generate them though, I would have had to drastically reduce the number of engineer and merchant slots I was using. That wouuld have been a big hit to science, so I went with what I had. Let the other great people generate along the way - engineer used for Hubble, two merchants for gold. Even after those five additional great people, the next scientist came on the same turn as the launch.

 

[Nizef]

edit:
Apologies, this is just a bad map. I thought I had settled a mountain city four tiles away from an AI capital. Instead, it's six tiles away and not the capital. Using the Phoenician Heritage ability certainly seemed glorious, so I was in a hurry to post. Should have double checked first.

Feel free to play the map, of course, but this should NOT be in the Quest for Glory series.

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Don't want to take away from other Quest for Glory games in progress, but I also want to share this game. Hopefully, at least one person enjoys it! I'm about 65 turns in and don't think I'll actually win, but I'm going to try something that I've never done (which provides the objective and reason for me sharing the game).

Carthage on a Random map (Standard size, Standard speed). The objective is to use the Phoenician Heritage unique ability to cross mountains in a meaningful or amusing manner (or meaningful - AND - amusing). Bonus points if it provides the tactical advantage and contributes to your overall strategy to achieve victory!

I suggest that you change the title to Quest for Glory - Deity Challenge #9. The map would fit very well in the series.

 

[ForkOfSpite]

Not really suitable for the intended glory, but maybe someone could make it work.

 

[Nizef]

Not really suitable for the intended glory, but maybe someone could make it work.

Winning on a tough map is glory enough, in my opinion.

 

[Hans Tork]

T296 SV

After a long hiatus I finally decided to give Civ 5 another go. Not my best game but enjoyable none the less. It seems like I have forgotten much of Acken`s tips for quick SV though I did go Tradition-Commerce-Freedom route. Also moved my starting settler to a different position.

Spoiler :

On the second attempt to improve the time I found that a 2 city NC at T72 might be a better play. After that go for the other 2 expos.

Edit: I retried the map and shaved a few turns off but the map is still hard if you are a peaceful player.