The Contrast Photojournals II: The Celts - new players welcome!

[tu_79]

If I have a say, I'd go with CrazyG savegame. This is a truly isolated game, and we'll learn how to get out of this.

 

[amateurgamer88]

If I have a say, I'd go with CrazyG savegame. This is a truly isolated game, and we'll learn how to get out of this.

CrazyG stated earlier that the save is lost.

 

[tu_79]

CrazyG stated earlier that the save is lost.

Oh, right. I missed just that message.

 

[CrazyG]

I'll try to recreate a game as close to the picture as I can get.

I really thought we should all be taking the same start though, so we can do things like compare 2nd social policy trees, which have a lot of options this game.

 

[CrazyG]

This is pretty close to what I had before. I think I kept pretty close to my first game, but my borders grew to different tiles than before, nothing I can do about that. Notably my capital got another dye quite quickly. I settled in a different order too (not intentionally), I actually think the first order was smarter and I just wasn't thinking.

Religion on turn 77, 1 turn later than my first go. Sadly no CS quests completed, but I got the monopoly earlier. My science and culture is a little bit behind my first go.

Spoiler :

 

[Tzar Sasha]

Just a reminder that the deadline for part two to be turned in is tomorrow. So far only two entries using CrabHelmet's save have been posted. And I just realized that I forgot to add my save file to my post. Better go do that!

 

[CrazyG]

The next game is just until turn 180, right? No other major event stops it?

 

[Tzar Sasha]

With the Austria one it was as follows:
turn 90 or Great Prophet for religion
90 turns or Reformation
90 turns or Ideology
90 turns or victory

 

[YukiN]

Feeling kinda sad I missed the train on this. When can we expect the next one to start?

 

[tu_79]

Feeling kinda sad I missed the train on this. When can we expect the next one to start?

Once there's a 'winner' for the current part, we'll follow playing from that savegame. I could not play this time, but I'll sure take on part 3.

 

[CrazyG]

Spoiler :

Continuining my savegame.

I make Dublin my holy city. I take inspiration because its the best belief. I take Way of Transcendence. By researching sailing halfway and then switching to military theory, and I'm able to get a missionary to 2 cities before I reach the classical era for a cool 60 of everything. After that I got writing, then rushed currency, then rushed physics for the Celidh halls, went compass for caravels, then went guilds for St. Basil.

I settle two more cities and start trying to explore the coast. I cannot find a gap with the triremes. I built a road to one city, then went for lighthouses in the others.

I took Artistry. I won't use the great people immediately, but the scaler is excellent. Golden ages will boost my production and culture a lot. Right now my only strength compared to other empires is strong culture, I don't want to lose that. Artistry also has strong science.

I enhance the turn after my social policy tree choice . I choose to put some more missionaries towards those city states, delaying this but earning myself a larger bonus for reaching the medieval era. I took Mosques and Syncretism (great person points in my holy city). I enter a golden age the next turn and buy 2 mosques. I'm catching up on culture quickly.

Spoiler My stats :

Turn 155, ready to reform.
7 Cities, 77 population. 1 wonder (St. Basil), 27 techs, 6 progress, 3 artistry

+194, +222, 945(+107), 21, 566(+152)
2 Pictish Warriors, 3 caravels, 1 explorer

Religion: Ogma the Legend
Way of Transcendence
Inspiration
Mosques
Iconography (ignore wonder policy requirements, +2 for all types in my holy city)

I'm not listing all buildings for all cities. I have the barracks-forge-arena combo in all. I have the Celidh hall in all cities too.

 

[CrabHelmet]

Sorry, guys - my job is unreliable and can tie me up for a few days on short notice (law-related). I am probably not going to be free until Monday, so you will probably have to make this decision yourselves. I will play forward whatever you are all happy with, so please do feel free to start choosing now.

 

[Tzar Sasha]

Not happy with mine, that is for sure. Tho mine is the only one that has technically met everyone but that is only due to the world congress having already started. I am still interested in how you, @CrabHelmet, would continue your own save.

 

[CrazyG]

So what is the status of this?

 

[tu_79]

I guess we have to pick up a savegame without CrabHelmet thoroughly explanation of which is the best and why.

My pc has been hit yesterday by a lightning, so I don't expect to be able to play next part. My laptop is not good enough for civ v.

 

[CrabHelmet]

I will be free for sure tomorrow morning, so don't worry too much! I know I have a lot to catch up with... sadly, the meat world does like to take over at the most inconvenient moments.

 

[CrazyG]

So this project is stalling, huh?

If this is the case, I'll finish my own game and post for people to see.

 

[tu_79]

So this project is stalling, huh?

If this is the case, I'll finish my own game and post for people to see.

Thank you. After this long hiatus (partially from a misbehaving pc), I'm no longer interested in finishing this game.

 

[CrazyG]

Alright so I've played this one to the end. I'll post what pictures I have. This was intended to showcase how to play when isolated, so I will add some thoughts and general advice on that. I continue from my own save posted above.

Spoiler The Situation :

So from a very isolated start, I'm now met everyone. Siam and Germany both founded a religion and reformed it. They both choose Progress and Statecraft. Siam has food and science beliefs, Germany has production and gold. I'm not going to describe the other civs because none of them are relevant, they are far behind in culture and science. I went progress-artistry, the only wonder I have is the Cathedral of St. Basil.

Spoiler Kulture is King :

We pick up at my reformation belief. I choose Faith of the Masses as my reformation, giving +2 culture on a few buildings and letting me buy them with faith. My strategy right now is culture spam. Inspiration + Mosques + Golden age, and I'm building baths everywhere I can. I work culture specialists whenever possible. Compare my culture before and after I enter a golden age.

This quest is really useful to see how your culture compares to others. Despite dedicating my entire religion and all of those resources to culture, I'm still producing less than Germany, and he has fewer cities than me. A few players have mentioned they wouldn't really consider artistry to follow up progress, but look at this. Fealty and Statecraft cannot even approach that amount of culture, and with 20% production per city for a golden age (along with spending 0 hammers on military) I have great infrastructure.

Spoiler Tech Choices :

I went for the Renaissance era through Astronomy, in order to build Chichen Itza (I do). I would have liked to get Notre Dame, however someone else built it before I even got the tech (this is going to happen a lot this game). After that I went for Chemistry to try and get the leaning tower of pisa (I do). I actually manage to pass Germany in culture, winning that city state quest and ending up about 1/2 a policy ahead of him. Looks pretty good, right?

Well, Germany builds every other wonder of the Renaissance (not Taj Mahal because he is statecraft), and enters the industrial era on turn 177 through Railroad. Look at these demographics. Siam has a science religion so eventually passes even Germany in science, but not in culture. At the moment, Siam is winning on city states but I doubt it will continue.

Spoiler Some Good News :

I went for steam power to reveal coal, and I was relieved to see that I have plenty. I also build Slater Mill, by investing and using a great engineer. I don't have many pictures for this part because its not that exciting. I'm slowly exploring while building things. Culture first, then production, then banks-caravansary-custom houses. I managed to friend the 3 city states on my continent and I finish artistry.

I still don' have the tech for archeologists and I know I'm losing a ton of artifacts to Germany and Siam. Babylon surprises me by building the Louvre. I was hoping to just steal the tech from Siam or Germany, now its a bit late. I have other priorities right now. Germany expanded to my continent and started to send emissaries to my city states. I need to slow him down.

Spoiler World Congress :

The first congress I passed the natural wonder booster because I have one. After that, I somehow got voted the host of world congress. I guess the AI like to vote for someone who is strong, but not a diplomatic threat? I try to open door a city state (I don't). Germany and Siam both have more than 1,000 influence in Jerusalem so I try to weaken them by taking it for myself (I don't). Germany and Siam keep voting down each other's suggestions. Thank god they keep each other in check.

Also I finished Artistry. What policy path would you take next?

 

[YukiN]

Also I finished Artistry. What policy path would you take next?

Rationalism.

You chose Artistry, so Rationalism is the natural follower. I don't feel you are wide enough to fully benefit from Industry and Imperialism. At this point, I would try to get further ahead in science and maximizing output from my specialists while watching the rest of the world fight each other.