Trouble getting 3 continents with Indonesia

[cdubs]

I'm not new to the game, just a bad player. I'm just now with BNW trying to put some effort into strategy and becoming better....

I'm trying to do a science victory with Indonesia and there's an obviously large benefit to the Civ if you can get 3 cities on 3 different continents. Each time I try this, by the time I've researched enough to be able to travel to other continents over the sea all the space on those continents are completely full and taken over by other AI Civs.

Any strategy for winning this way? I have to be doing something wrong.

 

[Browd]

Haven't played them yet, but does the UA actually require different continents, or is it sufficient for them to be different land masses (in the same way that Indonesia itself is a collection of large and small islands)? If different land masses suffice, then try archipelago or large island map scripts.

 

[BobDole]

Pretty sure you can just settle on islands for the luxuries. I know Indonesia in my last game had Nutmeg from having a city on a one-tile island like 3 tiles off the coast.

 

[Catalytic]

I've been playing an archipelago game with Indonesia and there are a few quirks to their UA I wish would have been stated more clearly.

-Any island, even the 1-tile ones counts as a new "continent."
-Each city must be on a new "continent." If you settle on a 2nd continent twice, only the first city will receive the bonus. You really do have to recreate the Spice Islands.
-If you capture a city in a location that qualifies for the bonus, it will receive that bonus and you will NOT be able to raze it. This is very frustrating if the AI slaps its city in a horrible location and you want to get rid of it so you can settle in a good location.

However, if you do it properly and settle on new luxes with each new city, you'll be set for early happiness and be able to easily drop 6-8 cities down without nearly the same happiness stress as other civs.

 

[Monthar]

Yes, any landmass counts. However, when settling those first 3 cities on separate landmasses, do not settle on top of any resource as that resource will be deleted and replaced with your unique luxury, because you can't have 2 resources on the same tile. So that 1 tile island with the 6 iron you desperately need should not be settled until you have created all 3 unique luxuries.