Civilisation: Iranians (through Congo)
Score (normalised): 2287 Dan Quayle
Winning date: 1799AD
Difficulty: Viceroy
Gamespeed: Normal
Version: SVN 663
Scenario: 600AD
Strategy:
The Congolese era:
Well
, I just gave Congo a total of three cities, access to bronze and calendar, so it can survive a while. Around 1500AD I jumped to Iran.
The first period is divided into two parallel periods corresponding to the first two goals.
The eurotrip:
Usually, Turkey will be unwilling to open the borders for you, even if you have the same religion. So you have to go through Russia. However, it is possible that your diplomatic missionary won't be able to access all euros, so it is a good idea to train a caravel to Shiraz ASAP and send it to Europe through Africa. You can conquer Jerusalem and build a fort-canal to cut way through mediterranean (or build the caravel in Jerusalem, but this needs a lot of time). Last, you can build a spy, but it will be revieled sooner or later.
In this game I sent the knight as a diplomatic missionary and a caravel. There are two kinds of euros: the friendly and the cautious. Friendly, which include Vikings, England, Netherlands, Poland, Italy and Portugal are willing to open the borders without any further question. Cautious, which include Russia, Austria and France need some gifts before the desirable aggreement. Spain will open the borders only if you abort Islam (or convert to catholicism, but this is strange). Handling a good diplomacy will be a little difficult, you have to make sure to open your borders with the worst enemies after you open the borders with everyone else. Moreover, requests, tributes, diplomacy crises of your partners, collapses and war requests will make the task more difficult. Europe will experince the reformation conflicts at that period, so you have to be careful not to make anyone unhappy, the situation will be unstable and you don't really know which civs will be alive in 1650AD. In one of my games the friendly Vikings, Poland and Italy collapsed.
In my game I converted to no religion, opened borders with all euros (8 agreements and 3 euros where unstable) before reconverting to Islam.
The conquests:
Your initial cities are good only in one thing: moderate production. Wealth, sciense great people, all of them will be available from the conquered cities. So begin the conquests ASAP.
In the latest version Mongols will be collapsed, so Transoxiana is the first target and an easy one, due to the minor assimilation effect you will able to conuer both cities in one turn. Then you should go for Northwest India, or in other words Lahore and Delhi. Pattala, which will be built by Mughals, is optional. Then you can get your last city Bagdad. However, if Turkey is weak make sure to capture Bagadad before it vassalises in a european power. If you go for Bagdad first, then you will be at war with Turks in the weast and Mughals in the east, a situation that can become dangerous. If you begin with Mughals, after conquering Delhi they will collapse, so you can go to the west with secure east.
Merv, Samarquand, Lahore, Delhi, Bagdad are all the cities requested to complete the 2nd goal. It would be wise to capture Jerusalem, Mecca (if it is indy) and Azimahad, 3 shrines plus the temple of Solomon will give a good boost to your economy.
The artistic era:
20000 culture by 1800AD without being bcakyard can only be achived by great artists. You will be have entered the industrial era by 1800AD, so every great artist will produce 4000 culture points. So you need a total of five great artists.
The first technology I discovered is Drama, built theatres in biggest cities (Merv, Bagdad, Lahore, Delhi and Shiraz) and starting Great Artist pointing. Converting to scholasticism is needed. This also could simulate the religious difference of Iran, let's say that being islamic and sholastic is like being shia islamic instead of sunni Islam.
Discover Liberalism and run Republic. Republic+scholasticism+the golden age, you will be able to get the five artists before 1775AD. Don't use the great artists ASAP, wait until you enter the industrial era.
The soonest way to enter industrial era is discovering steel. I propose to do so ASAP. So the tech tree is as follows:
Drama->Liberalism->Steel
Notes:
Iran is rumored to be an isolationist state. The same goes for Russia. So having a diplomatic goal like "Have 6 open border agreement with someone who has different religion than you, but you also run fanaticism" is weird.
At some point indy #1 controlled all shrines and Jerusalem. No question why he entered industrial era by 1650AD.
The UHV is easy if you have a plan to conquer relatively soon and maintain the diplomatic balances. However, if you don't plan properly then it is easy to lose it, too. So it is a balanced game.
rolleyes
