Last night I tried what I call the "Challenge of the Americas" or perhaps the "New World Challenge". Not my best game, but hey, what an you do.
Difficulty: Prince (I usually win on Prince, won a few on Monarch)
Map: Terra, small, high sea level, 4 opponents (standard).
Speed: Marathon (of course
)
Civ: Joao II of Portugal
Variant:
- Cannot build more than three cities on the home continent (old world).
- Beeline to Optics.
- Use the Carrack to colonize the new world.
- Move the palace there.
- Liberate the old world cities as a colony.
A cultural win is probably out, but the other victories may be possible.
The game last night went as follows:
The first city was a good one, 2 crabs, 1 clam and a cow, plus several forests. Later I discovered horses in the fat cross as well. It would have been nice to have a happy resource, but I had two fur in the 2nd border pop (or so I thought... major blunder). I built two workboats, a workers and chopped two settlers (with two warriors in between).
The first city (Guimares) was to be my production city - it had a clam and lots of plain hills and grasslands. There was a better location, but it was far away from the capital, and with julius as my neighbor I didn't dare put it right next to his capital... Oh well, the city was ok.
The third city (Oporto) was to be my commerce centre, a wonderful site with 8 river grassland, 3 river plains , 3 river tundra and a floodplain, 3 grasslands, 1 grassy hill and 1 plains hill.
So I had no metals, and the closest one was (of course) in Rome's FC (iron, of course). Chariots do the job quite nicely, except vs. prats, but they can only take you a bit up the power graph before they begin to drain your economy.
The worst part was that I'd made a mistake with the furs. Due to an eye malfunction
, the furs where inside Lisbon's 3rd border pop, and so I had NO happy resources. I didn't have stone, and Monarchy is really WAY off the path to Optics... Luckily silver popped up in Guimares after a while to help me a bit, and I caught the hindu from Tokugawa for another happy point (julius was hindu as well). The others were Lizzie (hindu at first, then christian) and Wang Kon (buddist). Wang Kon is always on my and everyone elses bad side 
The best part was when Julius agreed to lend me some iron as a gift! This gave me a welcome 20 turns of building axemen and spearmen so I could have a respectable defensive force.
So after a detour of alphabet (to pick up stray techs I'd missed) I went straight for Optics. I had nothing to build after forges (miltary was at max without damaging econ, no settlers to build and enough workers, and without happy faces I whipped like there was no tomorrow) except triremes to upgrade to carracks later, so I built the colossus, without needing it really, but since I built the Easter Island statues in the military city, my economy flourished.
Optics finally comes in, and I upgrade four triremes to carracks, and load them with two settlers, two archers, two workers and chariot and an explorer. Set sail for the new world!
The new world looks promising, and I found the two cities right away. One has corn and gold and is potentially an economy powerhouse, and one has pigs, fish and a few hills or a production city. Then I see the barbs. Their cities are so well placed with floodplains, pigs and (OMG!) bronze. The latter is being hooked up as I'm looking at them from the hilltops. Quickly, the chariot does its job and nets me two new workers and no barb axemen/spearmen.
Meanwhile, back home they've gotten word of the filthy barbarians, so I begin to crank out chariots (Julius took his iron back
). By the time the carracks are back in Lisbon, I've got 6 more chariots. (Hmmm, do I see a resemblance to real world events? )
Luckily the barbs defend with just archers in cities on flatlands. Ha! No match for my superior military skills - I just sent wave after wave of chariots after them until they fell... It took four chariots per city defended by two archers. I took no less than five cities before I noticed my economy tanking HARD! Damn this new computer that has gotten me used to large maps!
No problemo, I thought, I'll just chop the palace in the centremost city and release the old world. I just managed to build the palace the same turn my units went on strike. Hello Lincoln! (Why do I always get him, he's so cheap with his techs... I'm addicted to the gift/begging economy )
Sadly, the third world (second world?) economy of Portugal wasn't developed enough to handle seven cities and even a small army, so I had to sell Toku Metal Casting for 540 gold+polytheism. I must say it takes some getting used to Feudalism taking 248 turns at 10% science It's very hard accepting that my colony is researching like crazy, and I'm still back in medieval times at the moment.
So after a period of whipping courthouses/libs and cottaging the countryside I'm now ready to take on the world - "only" 9 tech behind Lizzy, but amazingly enough 2nd in score behind julius (who's taken Toku's cities one by one). Justinian was liberated in the "african" continent to the south of the old world (but still reachable by galley) and he hates my guts for some reason. I hope I'll have to teach the little vampire a lesson some day.
It's very hard accepting that my colonies are researching like crazy, and I'm back in medieval times at the moment.
---
Has anyone tried something similar to this, and could perhaps give me a few pointers or tips?
I'll upload the starting save later if people are interested.
Difficulty: Prince (I usually win on Prince, won a few on Monarch)
Map: Terra, small, high sea level, 4 opponents (standard).
Speed: Marathon (of course
)Civ: Joao II of Portugal
Variant:
- Cannot build more than three cities on the home continent (old world).
- Beeline to Optics.
- Use the Carrack to colonize the new world.
- Move the palace there.
- Liberate the old world cities as a colony.
A cultural win is probably out, but the other victories may be possible.
The game last night went as follows:
The first city was a good one, 2 crabs, 1 clam and a cow, plus several forests. Later I discovered horses in the fat cross as well. It would have been nice to have a happy resource, but I had two fur in the 2nd border pop (or so I thought... major blunder). I built two workboats, a workers and chopped two settlers (with two warriors in between).
The first city (Guimares) was to be my production city - it had a clam and lots of plain hills and grasslands. There was a better location, but it was far away from the capital, and with julius as my neighbor I didn't dare put it right next to his capital... Oh well, the city was ok.
The third city (Oporto) was to be my commerce centre, a wonderful site with 8 river grassland, 3 river plains , 3 river tundra and a floodplain, 3 grasslands, 1 grassy hill and 1 plains hill.
So I had no metals, and the closest one was (of course) in Rome's FC (iron, of course). Chariots do the job quite nicely, except vs. prats, but they can only take you a bit up the power graph before they begin to drain your economy.
The worst part was that I'd made a mistake with the furs. Due to an eye malfunction
, the furs where inside Lisbon's 3rd border pop, and so I had NO happy resources. I didn't have stone, and Monarchy is really WAY off the path to Optics... Luckily silver popped up in Guimares after a while to help me a bit, and I caught the hindu from Tokugawa for another happy point (julius was hindu as well). The others were Lizzie (hindu at first, then christian) and Wang Kon (buddist). Wang Kon is always on my and everyone elses bad side The best part was when Julius agreed to lend me some iron as a gift! This gave me a welcome 20 turns of building axemen and spearmen so I could have a respectable defensive force.
So after a detour of alphabet (to pick up stray techs I'd missed) I went straight for Optics. I had nothing to build after forges (miltary was at max without damaging econ, no settlers to build and enough workers, and without happy faces I whipped like there was no tomorrow) except triremes to upgrade to carracks later, so I built the colossus, without needing it really, but since I built the Easter Island statues in the military city, my economy flourished.
Optics finally comes in, and I upgrade four triremes to carracks, and load them with two settlers, two archers, two workers and chariot and an explorer. Set sail for the new world!
The new world looks promising, and I found the two cities right away. One has corn and gold and is potentially an economy powerhouse, and one has pigs, fish and a few hills or a production city. Then I see the barbs. Their cities are so well placed with floodplains, pigs and (OMG!) bronze. The latter is being hooked up as I'm looking at them from the hilltops. Quickly, the chariot does its job and nets me two new workers and no barb axemen/spearmen.
Meanwhile, back home they've gotten word of the filthy barbarians, so I begin to crank out chariots (Julius took his iron back
). By the time the carracks are back in Lisbon, I've got 6 more chariots. (Hmmm, do I see a resemblance to real world events? )Luckily the barbs defend with just archers in cities on flatlands. Ha! No match for my superior military skills - I just sent wave after wave of chariots after them until they fell...
It took four chariots per city defended by two archers. I took no less than five cities before I noticed my economy tanking HARD! Damn this new computer that has gotten me used to large maps!No problemo, I thought, I'll just chop the palace in the centremost city and release the old world. I just managed to build the palace the same turn my units went on strike. Hello Lincoln! (Why do I always get him, he's so cheap with his techs... I'm addicted to the gift/begging economy
)Sadly, the third world (second world?) economy of Portugal wasn't developed enough to handle seven cities and even a small army, so I had to sell Toku Metal Casting for 540 gold+polytheism. I must say it takes some getting used to Feudalism taking 248 turns at 10% science
It's very hard accepting that my colony is researching like crazy, and I'm still back in medieval times at the moment.So after a period of whipping courthouses/libs and cottaging the countryside I'm now ready to take on the world - "only" 9 tech behind Lizzy, but amazingly enough 2nd in score behind julius (who's taken Toku's cities one by one). Justinian was liberated in the "african" continent to the south of the old world (but still reachable by galley) and he hates my guts for some reason. I hope I'll have to teach the little vampire a lesson some day.
It's very hard accepting that my colonies are researching like crazy, and I'm back in medieval times at the moment.
---
Has anyone tried something similar to this, and could perhaps give me a few pointers or tips?
I'll upload the starting save later if people are interested.
