murph1822001
Chieftain
- Joined
- Jan 3, 2009
- Messages
- 14
Spanish Strategy
First off, I would like to say that this strategy was developed playing Spain in many real earth scenarios {RES} downloaded from civfanatics (wolfshanze scenario, munchworld18, Earth34, etc) and small world Pangaea with 18 civs {SP18} on quick speed. These have much in common strategy wise because in each situation you have room for only a one city start. Also Europe (in most real earth scenarios) is full of resources, a lot like a crowded Pangaea. Depending on what game start settings you prefer this strategy may be far from optimal, but in these two start conditions it is effective, fun, and quick.
Initial Settler /Production
The key to the strategy is water resources fish, clams, and crabs. In many real world scenarios Spain will have a water resource, although you may have to move your settler to get it in your fat cross. In SP18, if you dont start with fish, clam, or crab in your fat cross regenerate map. (Earth 34 Spain does not have a water resource, this strategy can still be used, start with a barracks) Spain starts with fishing, start making a fishing boat immediately. Continue to make another workboat if another resource is available or start a barracks. Do not build worker s at this point, it will only sacrifice population growth and with this strategy they have no techs available to do anything more then sit in your city.
Initial Science
Meditation is first tech to research. Buddhism is very difficult to found on harder difficulty levels and is not a part of this strategy. Ideally Buddhism/Hinduism are founded far away as possible. In RES one in India and one in the Americas is wonderful. If a close neighbor founds one of these early religions, it will make this strategy much harder to pull off. Priesthood is next primarily to unlock the oracle. Writing is next allowing an Oracle sling shot to Code of Laws, followed by Alphabet.
The Oracle
Once priesthood is researched immediately switch to production of the Oracle, only possible exception would be if a workboat had a turn or two left to capture another water resource. Building the Oracle without workers to chop, worker improved tiles, or marble may seem like a daunting task. Remember that with workboats getting 4-5 breads, your population will grow fast. Having a large population working unimproved tiles is enough to build the Oracle first the vast majority of the time. Having your original warrior in your city at this time especially on higher difficulty levels is necessary for the happy face. Take code of laws with your free tech allowing you to found Confucianism.
Confucianism
The strategy thus far has been focused on the earliest possible date for the discovery of Confucianism. This allows you to begin the spread of the religion as quickly as possible. The free missionary send to the capital of a civ that has the most cities or the most room to expand, but is relatively close to you. An example would be Poland in wolfshanze mod scenario. The inherent religion spread of the religious holy building is much more powerful in RES with Spain. Many small one city civs clustered together allows easy/effective religion spread with a holy building. In many 36 player RES, an early Kong Miao can convert many civilizations (Celtic, English, Dutch, Portuguese, French, German, Holy Roman, Italian, Carthage etc.) to Confucianism rather quickly. I immediately build a temple after I found Confucianism, so I can have a prophet city specialist for faster generation of great prophet points. Isabellas spirituality trait has great synergy with this allowing double production speed for temple.
Peace mongering
As you may have noticed thus far the military consists of one warrior, so peace at any cost is paramount. The conversion of as many as your neighbors to Confucianism is critical. The plus modifier to for the same religion vs. a negative modifier for different one is enormous. Open borders with all civilizations is beneficial to relations also. I do not cancel trading with anybody or join any wars. I also will not change my religion or civics on demand either. At this point in the game I will give techs/gold to any civ that asks or demands them. This strategy will have you trading techs often; this also gives a plus modifier to relations.
Alphabet/Tech Trading
The techs obtained thus far are meditation, priesthood, writing, alphabet, and code of laws. Up until now there have been no techs for a worker to use. I will build my first worker so it coincides closely with the discovery of alphabet. After alphabet enables tech trading, I get whatever early techs I can for mysticism, meditation, and priesthood. After that I will trade writing to civs that are farther away from me on the map. After I get all I can out of those techs, I will trade alphabet to a civ that is far away and is next to a powerful rival civ. For example in muchworld18 I was having trouble with India being overpowered, so I would trade alphabet to Persia for many lesser techs to help keep India in check. The civ that you trade alphabet to, will get a significant boost in power for the remainder of the game. I generally will be able to get a trade for every tech that has been researched by the AIs and propel myself to tech leader. On higher difficulty levels the computer will only accept rather lopsided trades, with the more players in a game doing lopsided trades hurts you less than a game with fewer players. I will avoid trading code of laws, as this tech has great trade value for a long time. Ideally as the game progresses you will be able to trade code of laws to different civs for other techs as they are discovered by other civs. This will be important because the next tech to research, mathematics is often a preferred research of the AI and this limits its tradability. Next is civil service and this takes a long time to research, so getting a lot of trades for code of laws during this long research time is essential to not fall behind in the tech race.
Civil Service
Civil service is a key technology for this strategy to get as early as possible. Civil service allows bureaucracy and bureaucracy increases your capitals economy/production by 50%. When a civilization has only one city it effectively increases your civs economy/production by 50%, this obviously is very beneficial. Civil service/machinery are the prerequisite techs for mace man, in this strategy earliest possible production of mace man is essential. Also, being the first civ to research civil service has excellent trade value with other AIs. Like alphabet and code of laws, trading of civil service to back fill your tech tree is essential. Civil service/machinery are the prerequisite techs for mace man, in this strategy earliest possible production of mace man is essential. The next tech goal is machinery secondary to this.
Great Person Generation
Running caste system to allow as many as possible scientist city specialist will help decrease the long research time for civil service. This will also allow the increased generation of a great scientist and allow you to place an academy. In the period from the completion of the oracle to the discovery of machinery sacrifice production/population growth for at the very least a great prophet (Kong Miao) and a great scientist (academy). Also the only way to expand your borders to get resources up to this point has been by cultural expansion. So, if you are close to a resource you want running artist specialist for generation of a great artist for a culture bomb is also an option. This sacrifice of production/population growth will make you drop on the scoreboard during this period, but will allow your capital to be very powerful down the road. Using your workers to chop at this time will help lessen the effects of decreased production; also having mathematics when you chop will allow you to get more hammers out of your forests. After discovery of machinery, stop using city specialists and have your population work tiles.
Machinery
After discovery of machinery it is time to produce mace man after mace man. Once theology is available for trade get it and run theocracy. With theocracy and barracks, do city raider 1 and 2 for the vast majority of your mace man army. I also recommend at least one mace man with combat 1/medic 1. The next research goal is engineering; make nothing but mace man until then. Also make a long bowman with guerilla 1 and 2. With an early Kong Miao, your economy should be able to support a huge army while keeping your research slider at 100%.
Engineering/Conquest
After engineering, construct a citadel. The plus 5 exp points to siege weapons, will allow trebuchets to have city raider 1, 2, and 3. These trebuchets will allow you to pwn face until the AIs have rifleman. I generally begin my conquest with around 7 mace men with city raider upgrades, 1 mace man with combat 1/medic 1, a longbow man with guerilla 1-2 and 6 trebuchets with city raider 1/2/3. I march my stack along hills to enemy cities where I bombard city defenses to 0, then attack with trebuchets and let my mace man mop up after wards. At this time I will produce longbow man with city defense 1 and 2 to occupy my conquered cities as my stack continues to push. I will also continue producing trebuchets so I can get as many as possible with city raider 1, 2, and 3, before citadels become obsolete. In RES Spain is surrounded by many juicy targets Lisbon, Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, and Berlin will often have some world wonders, settled great people, academies, and military academies in them. Try to capture enough cities to allow you to build the requisite number of universities and banks, to allow construction of Wall Street and Oxford in Madrid. The research goal at this time will be Steel to allow you to upgrade your elite group of trebuchets to cannons. After that the next research goal is artillery, to allow your elite group of siege weapons to be upgraded to artillery. At this point you should have enough prime real estate and a strong super capital economy to get you a victory.
Conclusion
Thanks for reading about my style of playing Spain in real earth scenarios and small world Pangaea with 18 civs. I find it to be quick, effective, and a fun way to allow Isabellas conquest of the globe or be the first to blast off to alpha century.
First off, I would like to say that this strategy was developed playing Spain in many real earth scenarios {RES} downloaded from civfanatics (wolfshanze scenario, munchworld18, Earth34, etc) and small world Pangaea with 18 civs {SP18} on quick speed. These have much in common strategy wise because in each situation you have room for only a one city start. Also Europe (in most real earth scenarios) is full of resources, a lot like a crowded Pangaea. Depending on what game start settings you prefer this strategy may be far from optimal, but in these two start conditions it is effective, fun, and quick.
Initial Settler /Production
The key to the strategy is water resources fish, clams, and crabs. In many real world scenarios Spain will have a water resource, although you may have to move your settler to get it in your fat cross. In SP18, if you dont start with fish, clam, or crab in your fat cross regenerate map. (Earth 34 Spain does not have a water resource, this strategy can still be used, start with a barracks) Spain starts with fishing, start making a fishing boat immediately. Continue to make another workboat if another resource is available or start a barracks. Do not build worker s at this point, it will only sacrifice population growth and with this strategy they have no techs available to do anything more then sit in your city.
Initial Science
Meditation is first tech to research. Buddhism is very difficult to found on harder difficulty levels and is not a part of this strategy. Ideally Buddhism/Hinduism are founded far away as possible. In RES one in India and one in the Americas is wonderful. If a close neighbor founds one of these early religions, it will make this strategy much harder to pull off. Priesthood is next primarily to unlock the oracle. Writing is next allowing an Oracle sling shot to Code of Laws, followed by Alphabet.
The Oracle
Once priesthood is researched immediately switch to production of the Oracle, only possible exception would be if a workboat had a turn or two left to capture another water resource. Building the Oracle without workers to chop, worker improved tiles, or marble may seem like a daunting task. Remember that with workboats getting 4-5 breads, your population will grow fast. Having a large population working unimproved tiles is enough to build the Oracle first the vast majority of the time. Having your original warrior in your city at this time especially on higher difficulty levels is necessary for the happy face. Take code of laws with your free tech allowing you to found Confucianism.
Confucianism
The strategy thus far has been focused on the earliest possible date for the discovery of Confucianism. This allows you to begin the spread of the religion as quickly as possible. The free missionary send to the capital of a civ that has the most cities or the most room to expand, but is relatively close to you. An example would be Poland in wolfshanze mod scenario. The inherent religion spread of the religious holy building is much more powerful in RES with Spain. Many small one city civs clustered together allows easy/effective religion spread with a holy building. In many 36 player RES, an early Kong Miao can convert many civilizations (Celtic, English, Dutch, Portuguese, French, German, Holy Roman, Italian, Carthage etc.) to Confucianism rather quickly. I immediately build a temple after I found Confucianism, so I can have a prophet city specialist for faster generation of great prophet points. Isabellas spirituality trait has great synergy with this allowing double production speed for temple.
Peace mongering
As you may have noticed thus far the military consists of one warrior, so peace at any cost is paramount. The conversion of as many as your neighbors to Confucianism is critical. The plus modifier to for the same religion vs. a negative modifier for different one is enormous. Open borders with all civilizations is beneficial to relations also. I do not cancel trading with anybody or join any wars. I also will not change my religion or civics on demand either. At this point in the game I will give techs/gold to any civ that asks or demands them. This strategy will have you trading techs often; this also gives a plus modifier to relations.
Alphabet/Tech Trading
The techs obtained thus far are meditation, priesthood, writing, alphabet, and code of laws. Up until now there have been no techs for a worker to use. I will build my first worker so it coincides closely with the discovery of alphabet. After alphabet enables tech trading, I get whatever early techs I can for mysticism, meditation, and priesthood. After that I will trade writing to civs that are farther away from me on the map. After I get all I can out of those techs, I will trade alphabet to a civ that is far away and is next to a powerful rival civ. For example in muchworld18 I was having trouble with India being overpowered, so I would trade alphabet to Persia for many lesser techs to help keep India in check. The civ that you trade alphabet to, will get a significant boost in power for the remainder of the game. I generally will be able to get a trade for every tech that has been researched by the AIs and propel myself to tech leader. On higher difficulty levels the computer will only accept rather lopsided trades, with the more players in a game doing lopsided trades hurts you less than a game with fewer players. I will avoid trading code of laws, as this tech has great trade value for a long time. Ideally as the game progresses you will be able to trade code of laws to different civs for other techs as they are discovered by other civs. This will be important because the next tech to research, mathematics is often a preferred research of the AI and this limits its tradability. Next is civil service and this takes a long time to research, so getting a lot of trades for code of laws during this long research time is essential to not fall behind in the tech race.
Civil Service
Civil service is a key technology for this strategy to get as early as possible. Civil service allows bureaucracy and bureaucracy increases your capitals economy/production by 50%. When a civilization has only one city it effectively increases your civs economy/production by 50%, this obviously is very beneficial. Civil service/machinery are the prerequisite techs for mace man, in this strategy earliest possible production of mace man is essential. Also, being the first civ to research civil service has excellent trade value with other AIs. Like alphabet and code of laws, trading of civil service to back fill your tech tree is essential. Civil service/machinery are the prerequisite techs for mace man, in this strategy earliest possible production of mace man is essential. The next tech goal is machinery secondary to this.
Great Person Generation
Running caste system to allow as many as possible scientist city specialist will help decrease the long research time for civil service. This will also allow the increased generation of a great scientist and allow you to place an academy. In the period from the completion of the oracle to the discovery of machinery sacrifice production/population growth for at the very least a great prophet (Kong Miao) and a great scientist (academy). Also the only way to expand your borders to get resources up to this point has been by cultural expansion. So, if you are close to a resource you want running artist specialist for generation of a great artist for a culture bomb is also an option. This sacrifice of production/population growth will make you drop on the scoreboard during this period, but will allow your capital to be very powerful down the road. Using your workers to chop at this time will help lessen the effects of decreased production; also having mathematics when you chop will allow you to get more hammers out of your forests. After discovery of machinery, stop using city specialists and have your population work tiles.
Machinery
After discovery of machinery it is time to produce mace man after mace man. Once theology is available for trade get it and run theocracy. With theocracy and barracks, do city raider 1 and 2 for the vast majority of your mace man army. I also recommend at least one mace man with combat 1/medic 1. The next research goal is engineering; make nothing but mace man until then. Also make a long bowman with guerilla 1 and 2. With an early Kong Miao, your economy should be able to support a huge army while keeping your research slider at 100%.
Engineering/Conquest
After engineering, construct a citadel. The plus 5 exp points to siege weapons, will allow trebuchets to have city raider 1, 2, and 3. These trebuchets will allow you to pwn face until the AIs have rifleman. I generally begin my conquest with around 7 mace men with city raider upgrades, 1 mace man with combat 1/medic 1, a longbow man with guerilla 1-2 and 6 trebuchets with city raider 1/2/3. I march my stack along hills to enemy cities where I bombard city defenses to 0, then attack with trebuchets and let my mace man mop up after wards. At this time I will produce longbow man with city defense 1 and 2 to occupy my conquered cities as my stack continues to push. I will also continue producing trebuchets so I can get as many as possible with city raider 1, 2, and 3, before citadels become obsolete. In RES Spain is surrounded by many juicy targets Lisbon, Paris, Rome, Amsterdam, and Berlin will often have some world wonders, settled great people, academies, and military academies in them. Try to capture enough cities to allow you to build the requisite number of universities and banks, to allow construction of Wall Street and Oxford in Madrid. The research goal at this time will be Steel to allow you to upgrade your elite group of trebuchets to cannons. After that the next research goal is artillery, to allow your elite group of siege weapons to be upgraded to artillery. At this point you should have enough prime real estate and a strong super capital economy to get you a victory.
Conclusion
Thanks for reading about my style of playing Spain in real earth scenarios and small world Pangaea with 18 civs. I find it to be quick, effective, and a fun way to allow Isabellas conquest of the globe or be the first to blast off to alpha century.
