The One Tiny Island Challenge

[Thibix Magnus]

Yep, that's me. You're probably wondering how I ended up in this situation.

Fun facts:
This a very regular Communitu79 map. I promise. Normal size, normal continent shapes, random ocean rift.
This is a very much ticked One City Challenge. Oh yes, that is it, this lonely, bare rock is your world now.
And... ancient ruins were left on.

Beta patch 5/5. Emperor difficulty, quick speed, events on, tech trade off.

Starting location spoilers:
- you are surrounded by fish. Lots of fish.
- those 2 copper are the only ones in the world
- hello Harald

How will you play this mighty fishermen village? A trade hub, controling a channel like the old Constantinople? A pirate capital, razing everything on the shores? The mysterious holy city of the world, sourrounded by misty waters? What crazy belief combo can get you out of this? Can you build a crappy city state that will stand the test of time?

Turn 1 save game :
Theodora_0000 BC-4000Lolisland.Civ5Save
Mods: VP 5/5 (last beta), InfoAddict, convenient start (not sure this one is needed).

GLHF

 

[Thibix Magnus]

First try!

Spoiler Overall situation :

This is a semi-closed sea surrounded by warmongers: Denmark, Sweden, England, Huns, Rome. This sea can become a free for all. The good thing however is that you don’t have any serious religious rival in the world.

There are obviously very few tiles for GPTI. The tough choice is how many of which, I made 2 manufactories, 2 academies, but with so much production overflow, 4 academies could be better. I moved and settled on gems to hopefully get a coral, but settling on the western copper would have been better, as you get 2 more land tiles in the north and Harald will citadel you.

Having the two only coppers means you have an immediate monopoly, a % based one which is good for OCC (+10% production), and importantly, unkillable cargo ships at corporations! The question is, fishing or mining first? I think fishing first, because immediately revealing the (7!) fish is mandatory to basically know if you continue the game (so you are halfway to fishing once revealed)... and because ruins are on.

I figured I would go for a classic tall CV: tradition / artistry / rationalism / freedom. Beating Poland's culture (on its own island and surrounded by cultural city states, cool) is the win condition. Oh and surviving.

(I knew this holy site was risky)

Spoiler Religion :

The key decision, as the big source of yields outside your tiny rock. I want something to really boost my capital, but given the lack of religious competitors, also benefit from a wide religion, with little benefits to converted civs.

God of the sea. Goddess of Beauty would have given more faith after 4 wonders, but the very early yields kickstart your snowballing.

Apostolic Tradition: More food to quickly fill all specialists and boost Ceremonial (+offset the OCC vulnerability to food poisoning), more faith as 1 city won't produce a lot, needed to quickly spread my religion to boost Ceremonial. Also I wanted to try the new version.

Ceremonial burial: I don't have a lot of tiles to work besides specialists. And even more faith to establish religious dominance very quickly.

Churches: to cement a large religion for ceremonial and world congress

Mastery: to help activate Sacred Calendar. Could be mosques though, to avoid Sankore and get a golden age wonder later, IF you are sure you won’t spread mosques to Rome.

Sacred Calendar, To the glory of god: more great people.

Not bad, but not sure it was the best choice in hindsight, particularly Divine Inheritance is really tempting for OCC. I hope beliefs that require spreading still provide more yields if successful than lazy Inheritance.

Spoiler World wonders :

Early fishing and god of the sea gets you a super early snowball. I went full wonder junkie by lack of anything else to do:

Stonehenge: was a bad idea. I wanted to make sure to not be the last founder to avoid an additional competitor. I was the first to found anyway. Didn't know who was in the game though.
Mausoleum: good. All % modifiers in capital are top priority
Petra: not a priority. Trade routes are good for OCC as unrelated to empire size, but you lose the caravan, and don't need the gold anyway.
Sankore: top priority for the mosque if not taken as follower.
Borobudur: overkill. Your beliefs give you enough faith to dominate the religious game.
Globe theater: was on my way to world congress... you need a golden age one, but maybe not this one.
Leaning tower: good with Ceremonial burial.
Porcelain tower: top priority for OCC without research agreement. Boosts your entire science by 25%.
Taj Mahal: Two GA wonders is maybe too much without Divine Inheritance.
Uffizi and Louvre: not sure having both is worth the hate.
Brandenburg gate: the most important wonder for OCC (with porcelain tower). Just doubles your supply, and synergizes with conscription and invincible Firaxis trade routes with your corporation (a safe income).
Statue of Liberty: getting to T3 faster
Cristo redentor (now everyone hates me, why stop there)
Maybe I should have taken Sistine just so Poland doesn’t have it."

Spoiler How it went :

Close defeat! I did a poor job at diplomacy and was not able to secure a solid friendship. That small sea where I live became a free-for-all hell, never I have seen so many foes attacking me and each other at the same time. I was murdering fleet after fleet but Poland could snowball on its own.

Surprise surprise, too many wonders. I wasn't sure what was the wonder tolerance in current patch and in emperor, and did not take the game too seriously and went wonder trolling. But they... really did not like it.

Poland beat me at tourism for several reasons:

I had a very powerful, uncontested religion, but could not manage to pass world religion (too many wonders...). Maybe more food was not the most needed belief either. Finally, being uncontested is bad for Apostolic: you strive in the prophet wars over the same big cities. Here there was none.
I did not try enough to contest Poland's 3 (!) allied cultural CS. Constant wars don't help send diplomats far away, either.
Being at war with England all the time meant Poland could send me concert tours and I could not (also, I realized owned works of music don't seem to boost concert tours for now, should be fixed next patch).

However, victory was definitely possible for this bare, little rock. Trying again, and will have to run processes quite more often because no one likes the only hammer sinks I have! I.e. wonders and diplo units.

 

[DeAnno]

Spoiler Commentary as I went :

I settle on the right copper, commands the land tiles best and has a strong start. I go Wheel first for Stonehenge and then Fishing Mining with Tradition for a God of the Sea opening. End up snagging Petra (it was just there...) and G. Lighthouse as well as Maus with my GE. GP on turn 55.

One might think Divine Inheritance is obvious here but I disagree. I can't run food routes! My growth in capital was explosive to start, already size 12, but the fish alone will never maintain that pace while filling critical specialist slots. Apostolic not only offers tons of food but scaling Faith independent of my empire's small size, seems like a great pick for now and for the future.

I'm wary of Mosques as a follower because infinite GA has been slow to trigger in my last few runs, and I'm skipping Divine Inheritance anyway. Ultimately I decide on the Synagogue, since I'm already tied to WLTKD and that seems much easier to maintain semiconsistiently, plus in a OCC the +3 production immediately seems very useful.

Then I realize I have a bonus belief! Divine Inheritance remains quite tempting but I find myself wanting to really avoid the GA strat; I oscillate between a lot of ideas for extra founders; both Holy Law and Ceremonial Burial could capitalize on spreading with Apostolic and making instant yields, while Theocratic rule leans more into WLTKD. After a big thonk I decide on Ceremonial Burial, if only because it's a belief I haven't tried in forever and this is a pretty good setup for it.

This got out of control quickly. Tons more wonders, enhance t83, reform sometime before that. Took a pause after Sankalore, decided Statecraft was best.

After playing 80% Deity and 20% Immortal for months Emperor really showed, I felt godlike. Probably should've tried this Pauper but I had little experience with OCC going in.

Spoiler Some Images :

Update: T112, Pop 24, Notre Dame, Leaning Tower, 11 policies, holding Bluetooth off like he's a jumpy puppy

Spoiler Other thoughts after looking at above run :

I think my city location was very important, since I could buy the Atoll quickly wheras the Gem city would be delayed to it. I also ended up with generally better tile command of the land, probably small build order stuff, I only bought one tile after the atoll I think. Two wonders I snagged that the above didn't seem to which I think are quite important are Terracotta for eventual supply, and Parthenon because it's a massive culture steroid. The culture of the GW combined with the Parthenon's base culture combined with the 6 theming culture bonus is just a lot.

Ruins stuck around a very long time, longer than I'm used to. I should've probably scouted with warrior as well or even an extra pathfinder but I kept the warrior back worrying about barbs or a quick strike by Bluetooth.

I don't feel very militarily endangered at all yet, though that might change. I plan to build a massive fleet though.

 

[Thibix Magnus]

Spoiler Commentary as I went :

I settle on the right copper, commands the land tiles best and has a strong start. I go Wheel first for Stonehenge and then Fishing Mining with Tradition for a God of the Sea opening. End up snagging Petra (it was just there...) and G. Lighthouse as well as Maus with my GE. GP on turn 55.

One might think Divine Inheritance is obvious here but I disagree. I can't run food routes! My growth in capital was explosive to start, already size 12, but the fish alone will never maintain that pace while filling critical specialist slots. Apostolic not only offers tons of food but scaling Faith independent of my empire's small size, seems like a great pick for now and for the future.

I'm wary of Mosques as a follower because infinite GA has been slow to trigger in my last few runs, and I'm skipping Divine Inheritance anyway. Ultimately I decide on the Synagogue, since I'm already tied to WLTKD and that seems much easier to maintain semiconsistiently, plus in a OCC the +3 production immediately seems very useful.

Then I realize I have a bonus belief! Divine Inheritance remains quite tempting but I find myself wanting to really avoid the GA strat; I oscillate between a lot of ideas for extra founders; both Holy Law and Ceremonial Burial could capitalize on spreading with Apostolic and making instant yields, while Theocratic rule leans more into WLTKD. After a big thonk I decide on Ceremonial Burial, if only because it's a belief I haven't tried in forever and this is a pretty good setup for it.

This got out of control quickly. Tons more wonders, enhance t83, reform sometime before that. Took a pause after Sankalore, decided Statecraft was best.

After playing 80% Deity and 20% Immortal for months Emperor really showed, I felt godlike. Probably should've tried this Pauper but I had little experience with OCC going in.

Spoiler Some Images :

Update: T112, Pop 24, Notre Dame, Leaning Tower, 11 policies, holding Bluetooth off like he's a jumpy puppy

Spoiler Other thoughts after looking at above run :

I think my city location was very important, since I could buy the Atoll quickly wheras the Gem city would be delayed to it. I also ended up with generally better tile command of the land, probably small build order stuff, I only bought one tile after the atoll I think. Two wonders I snagged that the above didn't seem to which I think are quite important are Terracotta for eventual supply, and Parthenon because it's a massive culture steroid. The culture of the GW combined with the Parthenon's base culture combined with the 6 theming culture bonus is just a lot.

Ruins stuck around a very long time, longer than I'm used to. I should've probably scouted with warrior as well or even an extra pathfinder but I kept the warrior back worrying about barbs or a quick strike by Bluetooth.

I don't feel very militarily endangered at all yet, though that might change. I plan to build a massive fleet though.

I'm quite curious, how did this one go?

My second run was extremely close (like hardcore close: by modern era, influential with everyone for 1 turn!!!). But couldn't quite do it. A CV is definitely doable around modern era/early atomic if you can keep world religion, after that it becomes probably impossible. Still quite surpised this tiny rock can actualy win a game!

 

[DeAnno]

I didn't ever finish it as it felt very won when I stopped, I might go back to it later though.

 

[azum4roll]

Can anyone do an auto-run on this and see how the AI performs being on the tiny island?

 

[Thibix Magnus]

Can anyone do an auto-run on this and see how the AI performs being on the tiny island?

you mean with the save game parameters? quick OCC? Because I'm not sure how the AI would fare with an OCC in general... I am not very familiar with how it works, I wonder if there is a way to save the map, civs and starting locations, but change the parameters. It is also an interesting for non-OCC with the island capital and expansions on the shores.