Ashoka WR - Chola - Exploration Age
(
@MutilationWave 's challenge)
I only had 2 Academies and 1 Amphiteatre from Antiquity, so didn't pick a Golden Age. I obviously grabbed Fealty and went hard for the points - I got a total of 8 Attribute points! This allowed me to get the Alliance bonuses for both Culture and Science (+40 per turn) as well as 1 extra Settlement limit and +50% towards befriending IPs.
I upgraded two Towns and changed capital to Samapa (the City by the Machapuchare).
I was way ahead of the AI in yields already on Turn 1 - well, except for Confucius' Culture:
I had spotted some Distant Lands to the West of my little island, so I prioritised Cartography (only 3 turns - even without being boosted!) and also - as always - went for Piety first.
There was only 4 IPs in our Homelands; 2 Militaristic, 1 Diplomatic, 1 Scientific. I had enough Influence off the bat to befriend two of them, so I picked the Diplomatic one for the Embassy (which prints Influence when you've got alliances) and the Scientific one (despite it being Hostile), hoping to find more of them through Exploration and really make use of the "+5% towards constructing buildings for each Scientific CS" bonus.
All my Towns required 20+ turns to grow, so I specialized all of them.
On Turn 7 I had my first Temple up and could pick and choose freely from the Religion bonuses. I decided to try something new - 2 Relics for converting City States (I typically pick the one for converting Capitals, Cities with Wonders or Cities with 8 Urban population).
Early exploration revealed a decent island with 3 treasures north-west, as well as a plot of land with 3 treasures just outside Friedrich's borders to the west. Of course both locations had Hostile IPs, so I scrambled my Commanders.
Within the first 20 Turns, I manage to build 3 Wonders: Wat Xieng Thong, Serpent Mound and Grand Bazaar. I lost out on the Rila Monastery by 2 turns - another wonder I always struggle to build. If I hadn't gone for Cartography first, I would've gotten this one!
On Turn 17 I disperse the IP in the north-west and settle the island. On top of the 3 treasures, it's got 2 juicy, active Volcanoes to boost yields
Then, as my other Commander and Settler are approaching Friedrich's borders, he suzerains the IP that I was going to disperse. I haven't found any other DL spots to settle yet, so this was a big setback:
A few turns later he beats me to the Brihadeeswarar Temple, my Civilization's Unique Wonder - it's quickly becoming clear who my main enemy this Age will be!
I eventually discover another island further east, with TEN Treasures, so I send a couple of Settlers there.
On Turn 34 I complete the fourth Chola Unique Quarter, which between them should give me a total +60 Naval Trade Route range. However, something is wrong, I'm not allowed to trade with the Distand Land civilizations! It seems there is a bug at play here, I made a post about it
here. This bug means that I'll
have to settle on the DL Continent in order to trade, so I redirect one of my Settlers heading to the Treasure Island - I have to send him south of Friedrich's borders and hope to find some juicy land down there. The problem is he'll need 12 Turns to get there, meaning the first 40 or so Turns I'm not able to take full advantage of Chola's trade bonuses
While my Settler is on its way there, I find an excellent location for a Treasure Town on the west side of the DL Continent, I build a Settler but he'll need 14 turns to get there, I hope it'll still be available:
At this point, my yields are verging on the ridiculous; I'm making 102 Influence per turn (closest AI is making 32), my Science is more than double of any AI's (except for Confucius who is on par).
Wars are starting up in the Homelands, Rizal declares on Confucius, I'm allied to both, but as my Commanders are now in DL, I cancel the alliances, losing me +40 Culture and Science per turn.
On Turn 42 I meet the 8th and final player, Edward Teach! Seems he won't pose us much trouble
:
As I'm running out of places to settle, I decide to go after Eddie, and send my Commanders towards his borders. He's allied to Augustus, so it'll be a war on two fronts, but I'm way ahead of them!
Crisis hits, it's Religion, and the Religious Tolerance crisis policy card actually gives me +120 Happiness! I never bother converting the religion of my own Settlements, so this Crisis is always just a big bonus for me, even more so with this Leader!
I get Gunpowder on Turn 61, upgrade my units and a few turns later I declare on Eddie, who's traded away his Settlements for peace, and only has his capital Carthage left. Some 8 turns later I conquer it - but by then Eddie has taken over one of my CS and also settled a Town somewhere.
At the same time I realise that I've completely forgotten about Trade, having made such a big deal of it not working earlier... I could've been trading with all the DL civs for the past 13 turns!
Augustus wants to trade his ex-capital Nineveh for peace, but I'm making good progress, so I refuse.
I take two of his Towns, raze them both, and on turn 80 the 20-turn timer pops up. I empty all my stacked Convoys to get the Economic legacy path done - and also convert all my DL Towns to complete the Cultural and Military paths. I had already completed the Scientific path some 10 turns ago, so I'm already on 4/4 with 19 turns left!
I conquer Kalhu (pop 13) from Augustus, and keep it as it's got the UQ Ekallu. I then make peace, which gets me Nineveh (pop 46) as well.
With 8 turns left of the Age, and a rested army, I set course for Friedrich's borders, his yields are a bit too strong for my liking (still way behind me though):
I wanted to get Assur and Waset (with 8 Wonders!), but in the end I had to make do with Assur + Babylon, as well as a couple of his Towns which I razed.
I also ran out of time when it came to the man with the burning beard, 1 or 2 more turns and he'd be gone for good:
So all in all a great Exploration age, I ended with 22 Settlements (of which 6 Cities), 8 City-States (I had many more, but multiple got killed by my enemies) - and I managed to build 11 Wonders
I'm well set ahead of Modern, where I'll continue the Indian theme and pick the Mughals.
Final scores, standings and empire:
