Justus II
General Staff
Welcome to RBC-14C, the story of the Cultural French. This thread is for the French team of the Realms Beyond Civilization Conquests SG Series , playing the Age of Discovery Conquest. Our goal is to win a Cultural Victory (Civ-wide or One-City) as the French on Emperor difficulty level. The special rules in place should make it a real challenge
Roster
Justus II
Romeothemonk
Cuivienen
Grahamiam
Special Rules
This conquest is about exploration, colonization, and for us, culture, not warfare. The scenario can become too easily unbalanced if the player takes over the other European powers, so we will play passive in Europe. This means no attacking other cities on the continent (including England/Ireland, but not the Atlantic islands). Wars between the powers may happen, and pillaging resources is OK, but no attacking cities except to recapture cities we lose. Accepting culture flips is fine (and I would hope we get a few!), and war may be waged to recapture a city that flips away from us. Off the continent, its fair game. Think Cold War, with our client colonies fighting the brush wars while we maintain deterrence in the homeland.
Also, the Native techs will be off limits, they should be non-tradeable, and we wont try any min-research to get them. Unfortunately, all the best cultural wonders are in the Native tree, and some high-culture improvements, but a Sacrificial Altar in Paris just doesnt quite fit the theme. (Although, there was that whole Joan of Arc thing
)
Edit: We are going to allow for the possiblity of stealing/trading our way to get Ball Courts, which reflects the influence of Native traditions back on the continent. However, no wonders or "religious" improvements.
Our goal will be any cultural victory before we hit the time limit (or before anyone else hits the VP limit). For this scenario, thats 20,000 total, or 4,000 in one city (Paris, of course).
Analysis
We start with some advantages. Our initial six cities already have temples, 5 have libraries, and a couple universities, so we start with 250cp and gaining 32cpt. We have Iron, and two luxuries, connected. Temples for this scenario are only 40 shields, so we get a break there. Also, once we start colonizing the New World, we can bring home treasure for 200g to help pay for rushing. Our UU, the Musketeer, is actually decent, getting 3-5-1 for 60 shields vs. the 3-4-1 Musketman. We do start with one Settler.
Disadvantages? Well, theres a few. First, if you see the map below, France is TINY. Most of our initial cities already have first-ring overlap with one another, and theres not much room to squeeze any more in. That means any new cities will have to be in the New World, and even with the reduced corruption for this scenario, they will probably struggle to build up culture. Second, although our two traits (Commercial and Industrious) are usually considered two of the stronger ones, neither gets us a discount on cultural buildings. Third, Libraries and Universities have reduced culture for this scenario, 2cpt and 3 cpt, respectively. (For a full list of cultural buildings, see my next post). Also, as I mentioned, the big cpt Wonders are in the Native tech tree, so we cant have them. (Sacrificial Altar is 10cpt!).
The final disadvantage is turn limit (150). We would need 4 times our current cpt (133) to hit 20,000 in 150 turns. Since there isnt room for more than one or two more cities in France (if that), and with our passive rules, we will have to colonize a lot of cultural outposts in the new world to have a shot at this. One-city isnt much brighter. Paris is currently at 11cpt, and would need to AVERAGE 27cpt to hit the 4,000 mark in 150 turns. I dont think we can build enough wonders fast enough to do it, but I could be wrong. To make it more interesting, we also have to race the 35,000 VP victory condition, which could reduce our 150 turns to around 100 if we cant prevent the AI from returning their treasures. (It also means we cant bring much of it back ourselves ).
Well, I dont mean to sound bleak. I think we have a shot, and I certainly want to see how close we can come without conquering our way to culture, but its going to take a LOT of New-World cities with rushed culture to make a good run at it. Heres our map, with my 2-3 proposed city sites. Note that we could squeeze one in 3 NW of Paris, but it would share a first-ring tile with London, probably not a good idea:
Roster
Justus II
Romeothemonk
Cuivienen
Grahamiam
Special Rules
This conquest is about exploration, colonization, and for us, culture, not warfare. The scenario can become too easily unbalanced if the player takes over the other European powers, so we will play passive in Europe. This means no attacking other cities on the continent (including England/Ireland, but not the Atlantic islands). Wars between the powers may happen, and pillaging resources is OK, but no attacking cities except to recapture cities we lose. Accepting culture flips is fine (and I would hope we get a few!), and war may be waged to recapture a city that flips away from us. Off the continent, its fair game. Think Cold War, with our client colonies fighting the brush wars while we maintain deterrence in the homeland.
Also, the Native techs will be off limits, they should be non-tradeable, and we wont try any min-research to get them. Unfortunately, all the best cultural wonders are in the Native tree, and some high-culture improvements, but a Sacrificial Altar in Paris just doesnt quite fit the theme. (Although, there was that whole Joan of Arc thing
) Edit: We are going to allow for the possiblity of stealing/trading our way to get Ball Courts, which reflects the influence of Native traditions back on the continent. However, no wonders or "religious" improvements.
Our goal will be any cultural victory before we hit the time limit (or before anyone else hits the VP limit). For this scenario, thats 20,000 total, or 4,000 in one city (Paris, of course).
Analysis
We start with some advantages. Our initial six cities already have temples, 5 have libraries, and a couple universities, so we start with 250cp and gaining 32cpt. We have Iron, and two luxuries, connected. Temples for this scenario are only 40 shields, so we get a break there. Also, once we start colonizing the New World, we can bring home treasure for 200g to help pay for rushing. Our UU, the Musketeer, is actually decent, getting 3-5-1 for 60 shields vs. the 3-4-1 Musketman. We do start with one Settler.
Disadvantages? Well, theres a few. First, if you see the map below, France is TINY. Most of our initial cities already have first-ring overlap with one another, and theres not much room to squeeze any more in. That means any new cities will have to be in the New World, and even with the reduced corruption for this scenario, they will probably struggle to build up culture. Second, although our two traits (Commercial and Industrious) are usually considered two of the stronger ones, neither gets us a discount on cultural buildings. Third, Libraries and Universities have reduced culture for this scenario, 2cpt and 3 cpt, respectively. (For a full list of cultural buildings, see my next post). Also, as I mentioned, the big cpt Wonders are in the Native tech tree, so we cant have them. (Sacrificial Altar is 10cpt!).
The final disadvantage is turn limit (150). We would need 4 times our current cpt (133) to hit 20,000 in 150 turns. Since there isnt room for more than one or two more cities in France (if that), and with our passive rules, we will have to colonize a lot of cultural outposts in the new world to have a shot at this. One-city isnt much brighter. Paris is currently at 11cpt, and would need to AVERAGE 27cpt to hit the 4,000 mark in 150 turns. I dont think we can build enough wonders fast enough to do it, but I could be wrong. To make it more interesting, we also have to race the 35,000 VP victory condition, which could reduce our 150 turns to around 100 if we cant prevent the AI from returning their treasures. (It also means we cant bring much of it back ourselves ).
Well, I dont mean to sound bleak. I think we have a shot, and I certainly want to see how close we can come without conquering our way to culture, but its going to take a LOT of New-World cities with rushed culture to make a good run at it. Heres our map, with my 2-3 proposed city sites. Note that we could squeeze one in 3 NW of Paris, but it would share a first-ring tile with London, probably not a good idea:
to make it in 100 turns, assuming no wonders. that means we need low corrupiton to build/rush all this stuff quickly... Protestant Monarchy is sounding better and better...
). 
