So im currently playing a TSL, Huge map in which ive added Australia into its true start location, in Australia... so far playing them is somewhat... difficult. Im not exactly a pro civ 5 player, i know the essentials and i play for fun, and ive never had as much difficulty playing on Prince as i play Australia.
Settling in
Basically 20 people in europe found a mystical portal in 4000bc which transported them to where sydney would be (haha yeah right)
Anyways, i founded my city where Sydney generally was, resources here were pretty decent: hills, grassland, plains and access to 4 close-by luxury resources - this was great! as i settled there, things seemed to go well for the better half of the BC years.
Eventually i spread north, and created Brisbane where brisbane would be, and Melbourne approximatly where melbourne would be.
Brisbane had access to decent tiles, but no luxury resources (the barrier reef was there for them as well).
Melbourne on the other hand had mostly plains, a wheat resource and a few hills. However Tasmania had 4 horses which could be reached by melbournes land.
No problems so far here - everything was decent, i was worried about where i could further grow out to - New Zealand, the northern islands, north and western australia, they all seemed like tangible ideas.
As for what i knew about the world internationally, America had been suprisingly wiped out very early in the game (probs 2500BC), and a couple of city states were eradicated.
Barbarians
After my 3 cities had been established i began to think about creating a couple of triremes and exploring New Zealand. So after they were built and sent them off there. What they discovered was rather poor, it was pretty much a miny snaky land mass, with a 3 wine resources, but only grassland with no forests. I contemplated settling, but decided against. The luxuries might come in handy, but the city itself would pretty much be useless
So i decided to explore the North. I sent my two triremes up to where Papua New Guinea would be and was met with a horde of 7 or so Barbarian Galley's and Triremes (with possibly more). Evidently, no civ has been monitoring the location, and barb encampments were free to form, and being mostly coastal they'd have quite the navy. Needless to say, my forces were almost slaughtered, i deleted them because they were straining my economy.
Close to home Aussie barbarians were becoming quite a problem themselves, they were massing large armies on the west coast of australia, and were raiding at a constant rate on all 3 of my cities that it was becoming too much of a problem, apart from that, the economy wasnt in the best of state and neither was my military. Worst of all, i was locked in, i couldnt explore or expand or do much until i did sometthing about the barbarians
So i was left with 3 distinct choices, i could build a land army in Australia and kill the barbarians plaguing my cities, i could build a navy and destroy the barbarian navy... or i could just focus on improving the economy where i could. The first and the last choice wouldnt leave much room for expansion.. so i went for the navy - probably the best choice.
The navy was able to also circle much of the south, west and north parts of australia and with the help of a trusty swordsman, wipe out all the barb camps in australia. i was then able to push north and wipe out hte large but fragmented barb fleet, and destroy most of the encampments there.My economy also grew as well, with +30 gold and great happiness and decent culture i could safely purchase new units and upgrades for my cities
Economic Collapse
The effective culling of them enabled me to move my fleet north and establish relations with many civs in the old world. However this is where my next problem set in. My economy went from riches to mediocrity to near collapse, i let this accidently go on for several turns until i almost hit bankruptcy and found the source of the problem. My capital had dropped in population to 8 to level 3... doh! turns out i left production focus on too long. and food was put on -1. I saved my economy by trading my extra cotton, iron and horses to china for 500 gold - enough to keep my units alive until the city regrows...
and this is where im left at now at 1400AD my fleet has almost reached the american continent (where i suspect the iroquai have conquered most of the land), my economy is slowly stabilising and im stuck until it fixes itself up..
in a nutshell, this is one hell of a ride.
I think the main factors contributing to most of these problems are:
my lack of focus on city management and noobness
the australian continent
the freakin' huge barbarian threat..
i will continue playing and will somehow figure out how i will be able to conquer the world... im thinking of taking europe, there are many civs there, and not too much room for them to grow, so ill probably take them all out..
Part 2
Fixing things
So with my navy exploring, and my empire falling to crumbles due to the depression in the capital - the only thing i could do is sit back and patch up Sydney and overall my economy. I deleted my navy, it was far too much of a strain on my economy and i had already discovered most of the world players, i contemplated keeping them for their levels of experience, but cash was so low that i barely had a choice.
To fix my economy, i put Sydney back on a food focus, and focused on keeping diplomacy up with a mix of players on the world table - trading my spare furs, cottons, horses and even iron to keep myself up to place. I also focused on Maritime city states to bolster food in my cities and more importantly my capital.
It took several centuries for my economy to become as strong if not stronger than it was in its best before, and when it was done i was left with a 6-city empire with possibly the 3rd best economy in the world (behind China and Egypt).
It was here i noticed that the world was split between superpowers and third world countries. Superpowers on the map included China, Russia and Egypt - China being the strongest. Many others were operating on a negative cash flow, and did not have the resources worthy of trading, as i was really only interested in cash. I was determined not to let Australia fall into the third world category and thus i pushed as hard as i can to improve the economy to its highest peak. I was able to hit +50 gold per turn whilst maintaining more than 10 happiness.
Age of Diplomacy and Colonisation
I knew at this stage of the game i couldnt possibly win, it was far too late, i had no army, i was behind the superpowers and i no longer had a navy - regardless i had no inclination to end the game here, it was only just getting interesting. I didnt care if i won or lost, i would still be a part of a fantastic game.
And so comes the age of renaissance, by this stage with my economy fixed and the abundance of luxuries and strategic resources, i turned to an age of diplomacy, focusing on making China my best of friends. China had been the lead civilization since i met them, and we had no qualms in the past, plus, they often had stores of more than 5000 gold with like a 171 income per turn. I traded them most of my spare luxuries and all my strategic resources when i could, it caused me to have large excess amounts of cash which i could spend on my cities.
This led to my decision to colonise lands far away from Australia, namely in South America: which had been empty except for one city-state (Rio), plus, they had about 6 dyes and several incense, which i could trade away to China if i acquired them.
And so Australias own first colony was founded: Colonia. Placed on the west coast near the bottom tip of South America. It had access to 2 dyes, a coal and many hills/grassland, plus natural mountain defenses. Eventually i created a second colony: Menzies, named after Australia's 12th and longest serving Prime Minister.
And this is where im at now, its 1945AD, I have a strong economy and good happiness. A 8-city stably growing empire and good trade relations with the strongest empire in the world.
Things are looking up
until....
The Second Depression
No more than 50 years had gone past until Australia suffered its second great economic depression. In the light of events which had been happening, Australia had been expanding too fast, building too many structures and even creating its own small army. It had also been relying on Great-people Golden Ages to keep itself afloat in the later years. In the matter of 10 years, Australia went from having one of the best economies of 2nd world countries, to verging on complete bankruptcy. Plans to conquer North America were abolished, its army which was created to acquire new territory had to be deleted.
It forced Australia into a recession and de-evolution. Maritime city states could no longer be afforded and would eventually dwindle, units will eventually die out. Trading was becoming increasingly harder as well, for demand of Australian goods were decreasing as China was becoming more economically independant and offered little if any prices at all. And ontop of things, Australia had too many Government controlled cities: Something would have to be done.
Australia has been in a constant war with its own economy since its birth, suffering many economic slumps but rebuilding it stronger each time. This is only a setback for Australia, and they will revise their empire structure and improve the economy once again.
Settling in
Basically 20 people in europe found a mystical portal in 4000bc which transported them to where sydney would be (haha yeah right)
Anyways, i founded my city where Sydney generally was, resources here were pretty decent: hills, grassland, plains and access to 4 close-by luxury resources - this was great! as i settled there, things seemed to go well for the better half of the BC years.
Eventually i spread north, and created Brisbane where brisbane would be, and Melbourne approximatly where melbourne would be.
Brisbane had access to decent tiles, but no luxury resources (the barrier reef was there for them as well).
Melbourne on the other hand had mostly plains, a wheat resource and a few hills. However Tasmania had 4 horses which could be reached by melbournes land.
No problems so far here - everything was decent, i was worried about where i could further grow out to - New Zealand, the northern islands, north and western australia, they all seemed like tangible ideas.
As for what i knew about the world internationally, America had been suprisingly wiped out very early in the game (probs 2500BC), and a couple of city states were eradicated.
Barbarians
After my 3 cities had been established i began to think about creating a couple of triremes and exploring New Zealand. So after they were built and sent them off there. What they discovered was rather poor, it was pretty much a miny snaky land mass, with a 3 wine resources, but only grassland with no forests. I contemplated settling, but decided against. The luxuries might come in handy, but the city itself would pretty much be useless
So i decided to explore the North. I sent my two triremes up to where Papua New Guinea would be and was met with a horde of 7 or so Barbarian Galley's and Triremes (with possibly more). Evidently, no civ has been monitoring the location, and barb encampments were free to form, and being mostly coastal they'd have quite the navy. Needless to say, my forces were almost slaughtered, i deleted them because they were straining my economy.
Close to home Aussie barbarians were becoming quite a problem themselves, they were massing large armies on the west coast of australia, and were raiding at a constant rate on all 3 of my cities that it was becoming too much of a problem, apart from that, the economy wasnt in the best of state and neither was my military. Worst of all, i was locked in, i couldnt explore or expand or do much until i did sometthing about the barbarians
So i was left with 3 distinct choices, i could build a land army in Australia and kill the barbarians plaguing my cities, i could build a navy and destroy the barbarian navy... or i could just focus on improving the economy where i could. The first and the last choice wouldnt leave much room for expansion.. so i went for the navy - probably the best choice.
The navy was able to also circle much of the south, west and north parts of australia and with the help of a trusty swordsman, wipe out all the barb camps in australia. i was then able to push north and wipe out hte large but fragmented barb fleet, and destroy most of the encampments there.My economy also grew as well, with +30 gold and great happiness and decent culture i could safely purchase new units and upgrades for my cities
Economic Collapse
The effective culling of them enabled me to move my fleet north and establish relations with many civs in the old world. However this is where my next problem set in. My economy went from riches to mediocrity to near collapse, i let this accidently go on for several turns until i almost hit bankruptcy and found the source of the problem. My capital had dropped in population to 8 to level 3... doh! turns out i left production focus on too long. and food was put on -1. I saved my economy by trading my extra cotton, iron and horses to china for 500 gold - enough to keep my units alive until the city regrows...
and this is where im left at now at 1400AD my fleet has almost reached the american continent (where i suspect the iroquai have conquered most of the land), my economy is slowly stabilising and im stuck until it fixes itself up..
in a nutshell, this is one hell of a ride.
I think the main factors contributing to most of these problems are:
my lack of focus on city management and noobness
the australian continent
the freakin' huge barbarian threat..
i will continue playing and will somehow figure out how i will be able to conquer the world... im thinking of taking europe, there are many civs there, and not too much room for them to grow, so ill probably take them all out..
Part 2
Fixing things
So with my navy exploring, and my empire falling to crumbles due to the depression in the capital - the only thing i could do is sit back and patch up Sydney and overall my economy. I deleted my navy, it was far too much of a strain on my economy and i had already discovered most of the world players, i contemplated keeping them for their levels of experience, but cash was so low that i barely had a choice.
To fix my economy, i put Sydney back on a food focus, and focused on keeping diplomacy up with a mix of players on the world table - trading my spare furs, cottons, horses and even iron to keep myself up to place. I also focused on Maritime city states to bolster food in my cities and more importantly my capital.
It took several centuries for my economy to become as strong if not stronger than it was in its best before, and when it was done i was left with a 6-city empire with possibly the 3rd best economy in the world (behind China and Egypt).
It was here i noticed that the world was split between superpowers and third world countries. Superpowers on the map included China, Russia and Egypt - China being the strongest. Many others were operating on a negative cash flow, and did not have the resources worthy of trading, as i was really only interested in cash. I was determined not to let Australia fall into the third world category and thus i pushed as hard as i can to improve the economy to its highest peak. I was able to hit +50 gold per turn whilst maintaining more than 10 happiness.
Age of Diplomacy and Colonisation
I knew at this stage of the game i couldnt possibly win, it was far too late, i had no army, i was behind the superpowers and i no longer had a navy - regardless i had no inclination to end the game here, it was only just getting interesting. I didnt care if i won or lost, i would still be a part of a fantastic game.
And so comes the age of renaissance, by this stage with my economy fixed and the abundance of luxuries and strategic resources, i turned to an age of diplomacy, focusing on making China my best of friends. China had been the lead civilization since i met them, and we had no qualms in the past, plus, they often had stores of more than 5000 gold with like a 171 income per turn. I traded them most of my spare luxuries and all my strategic resources when i could, it caused me to have large excess amounts of cash which i could spend on my cities.
This led to my decision to colonise lands far away from Australia, namely in South America: which had been empty except for one city-state (Rio), plus, they had about 6 dyes and several incense, which i could trade away to China if i acquired them.
And so Australias own first colony was founded: Colonia. Placed on the west coast near the bottom tip of South America. It had access to 2 dyes, a coal and many hills/grassland, plus natural mountain defenses. Eventually i created a second colony: Menzies, named after Australia's 12th and longest serving Prime Minister.
And this is where im at now, its 1945AD, I have a strong economy and good happiness. A 8-city stably growing empire and good trade relations with the strongest empire in the world.
Things are looking up
until....The Second Depression
No more than 50 years had gone past until Australia suffered its second great economic depression. In the light of events which had been happening, Australia had been expanding too fast, building too many structures and even creating its own small army. It had also been relying on Great-people Golden Ages to keep itself afloat in the later years. In the matter of 10 years, Australia went from having one of the best economies of 2nd world countries, to verging on complete bankruptcy. Plans to conquer North America were abolished, its army which was created to acquire new territory had to be deleted.
It forced Australia into a recession and de-evolution. Maritime city states could no longer be afforded and would eventually dwindle, units will eventually die out. Trading was becoming increasingly harder as well, for demand of Australian goods were decreasing as China was becoming more economically independant and offered little if any prices at all. And ontop of things, Australia had too many Government controlled cities: Something would have to be done.
Australia has been in a constant war with its own economy since its birth, suffering many economic slumps but rebuilding it stronger each time. This is only a setback for Australia, and they will revise their empire structure and improve the economy once again.
