Victory, t253. The game felt like a personal improvement, since some techs were undoubtedly faster than usual, eg Electricity 4 turns. My timing at the end was also a bit better than it has been before, not wasting resources on the wrong things. I expect to be beaten by scores of turns, but if someone beats 200 turns I will fall off my chair.
Fortaleza was the problem child. I only settled it where I did in the hope of getting Petra (and an observatory thanks to The Grand Mesa), but on emperor level that was a fool's hope. Black Vegetable's attempt to get Petra on the coast near the crabs to the north made more sense, but for some reason I didn't see the crabs and was concerned about happiness at that stage. A 4th coastal city by the crabs looks like a total non-brainer in hindsight. Yet Fortaleza was better than nothing. It built 2 wonders and in the end its stats were roughly equal to Cuzco, except in size.
Speaking of which, as the minimap reveals I wiped out the Incas and kept Cuzco (Petra and Statue of Zeus). I later upgraded a few units in order to mess with the Maya too, but that was mostly for fun, and my rep was shot anyway.
Late wonders:
Medieval/renaissance: Chichen Itza, Machu Picchu, Taj Mahal, Globe (for the writer and as a Shakespeare tribute), Sistine Chapel, Leaning Tower, Porcelain Tower.
Industrial and later: Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty, Big Ben, Hubble Telescope.
Culture: I saved my Great Writers until after World's fair. I thought their value would go up instantly when my culture was doubled, but instead it surged upward until the rise started to level out after about 8-10 turns. I didn't know about this phenomenon.
I also learned more about the "Each city you found will increase the
culture cost of policies" rule, and here is how:
Because gold was scarce, half a dozen city states wanted it hooked up, and WLTKDs required it, I sent a settler to the gold:
One turn later I gave it to the Aztecs...
...thinking that the cost of policies and techs would go down again. But no! Apparently it's literally the cities you "found" that counts, and not the cities you own!
Social policies: Apart from the obvious Freedom tenent Spaceship Procurements, I also aimed for Wagon Trains (cheeper roads), Mercantilism (Hello Donald) (Science from commercial bulidings) and Scholasticism (25% science from allied city states). Space Procurements came in last, which meant my timing was good.
I also opened Aesthetics at one point.
Missed late wonders: Notre Dame.
Enhanced Religion: (Pantheon was sacred path (+1 culture from jungle) founder and follower beliefs were tithe and divine inspiration (+2 faith per wonder)). Then I picked Swords into Plowshares and Holy Order.
"- What did you think about the map type?" I'd love there to be more games with unknown landmasses, but I suppose not many map types come with that. I wonder if the game can be tweaked so that the landmass type is kept secret?
To summarize, I remember the last time I played Brazil. Then my growth suffered because I placed too much trust in the jungle tiles. I think I struck a better balance this time, allowing my cities to really grow before considering working the jungle tiles. But of course founding only 3 coastal towns on the east coast was a bit of a blunder.
but it was a good map. Happiness was a little scarce but I managed to keep it just barely positive most of the game. (Notre Dame and Chichen Itza would have been nice but I missed both of those) I used about half of my great artists for golden ages. I was a little concerned that I might accidentally get a cultural victory, so I delayed building hotels and didn't build any airports or the visitor center.
). Because of the large distances between the capital, I could not send a cargo to Madrid, which was still a little sad at the end as a result.
This was made worse by the fact I knew I was going Order since I didn't need the food from Freedom at all, and by the time I got to tier 2 I had 4 Factories mostly built, so I couldn't take full advantage of the production bonus.
