SV T311. First and only game.
Clearly, I went the long way round and compounded mistakes on the way. A game where I had almost no religion, and that makes a big difference! I was struggling for cash and had to pay for the 2 (only!) CS that Arabia didn’t own! This was my second ever science game in civ5 and my first deity Science win, but this was a domination game with delayed win to build a spaceship instead.
I was at war the entire game, more or less. I could have lost the game before I had plastics (my beeline before I backtrack to combat techs), but the attacks that could have finished me never came, my bribes helping as much as possible. After my first Shaka war, a few turns after plastics I knew I would probably win the game, but it was going to take a long time, in game terms and IRL, I played the game over many sessions It feels as if I played a dozen different games. Discontinuity cost me, eg I voted for World Fair end of one session and next session, days later, I forgot about it and never contributed until late.. might have worked out ok as it did trigger a golden age instead of the culture hit I was planning. I had a tech advantage, got the foreign legion and created a large number of infantry units who soaked up hits and died a lot too. I lost a lot of units this game, I was trying to keep science focused but this was a domination game essentially. I didn’t go Honor until late game, when I was chasing the happiness bonuses.
I had no early CS alliances, no faith, no money. Mid game I was struggling with happiness, missing my religious building crutch. There was a world vote for a trade embargo against me.
Early ram I should have used against Arabia or Korea and not Egypt, which could have been building useful wonders for me.
Arabia came to attack and I built HA, so he turned away. I should have taken his army and cites at this point, that would have led to a faster and easier game. Instead I went south to take Korea, who had the great wall, I was making slow progress and my non promoted HA were essentially cannon fodder, I lost 4 or 5 taking the first city, so I asked for Shaka’s help, which was almost a disaster as he ploughed through the cities and I only just managed to take Seoul before he did. Then my bff Shaka, with no warning, denounced me and captured my luxuries with a general. By the time the inevitable war with him came I had plastics, just, and could defend my land.
The great wall was a huge bonus in my upcoming wars. I was bribing Shaka and Monte to start wars all game, and I found a neat new trick. I can capture a city and when I know it will be re-captured I sell it to another civ for gpt, When the city falls next turn I keep the gpt and repeat the process 2 or 3 times before I take the city myself, I am being paid for a city that I now control. Also, the unit that took the city survives and it sent out past the borders. I did this throughout once I discovered it. All the other civs had large amounts of gold, 10,000+ most of the game, I only came into wealth in the late game.
Shaka and Monte are both insanely schizophrenic, and I was at war with one or the other, and sometimes both, for almost the rest of the game, but I had to take Arabia, who could have easily won a tech race. Arabia controlled nearly all CS so a war against them involved all my cities. Rocket Artillery are my latest besthingever (TM) first time I have played with them. They probably secured my victory, though it would still be a long time coming, fighting wars all game on so many fronts.
When I finally finished off Arabia Monte bought all the CS instead, so same global war problems. Controlling my immediate CS neighbours was vital to my strategy.
freedom ideology to buy spaceship parts with gold. More or less this order: Tradition, Freedom, Rationalism, Honor and Commerce.
A domination victory on this map would have had a faster finish time.
Shaka was one part away from finishing the spaceship, and several others were working on it.
