Turn 274 Domination Victory
With so few other civilizations, took a different approach to a deity start than I normally would. Initial research priority was Pottery ->Writing -> Calendar. The goal here was to support an early Great Library rush in the hope that neither of the other Civs would aim for it. This gamble worked out, and then I switched production of a capital-only National College build. Only after the National College did I finally get my two expands out, the first to the northwest for whales and then to the northeast for silk.
I prioritized growth and food in these three cities. I rushed reciprocal food cargo ships between city 2 and Rome. I got Hanging Gardens late for a deity game around turn 94 which helped growth too.
I was lucky in the early game to get a Great Prophet ruin which helped establish a religion, where I chose tithe and extra 15% production. Much later I added guruship for +2 production with a specialist.
The early game was slowed down by a poor job on my part stealing/rescuing workers. I only managed 3 from the local city states, but took two from Geneva and permanently hampered my influence there.
Science: My science production was helped by having the 2 great scientist points from the Great Library and the 1(?) from the Oracle. I produced two great scientists (GS) early enough that planting Academies seemed like the best option.
The mid-game was about completing as many city-state quests as possible and then getting the scholasticism policy in the patronage tree. That boosted my science output a lot. I got 1 GS from the Porcelain Tower, 2 from faith and 5-6 more naturally. I used Oxford for Radio (I think) and the rationalism finisher to get Plastics. Once all labs were up for about 10 turns I started bulbing the great scientists towards nanotechnology for X-Coms (I had sent a navy of battleships southeast, but once I saw there was no sea access to that capital, a beeline for X-Coms was the most straightforward option).
My bulb rush petered out halfway through the tech prior to nanotech, so it was a 15ish turn wait. During the waiting period I built Brandenburg + barracks + armory in Rome and then was pumping out triple promoted Paratroopers. These were an even mix of Shock x2 and 50% city attach bonus and Drill x2 + city 50%. I used a great engineer to grab the Pentagon and then upgraded about 8 Paratroopers to X-Coms.
I had Prague as an ally, about halfway to the two other capitals, so that was the staging point. Luckily Prague had captured another city so lots of tiles were open to drop into. The northeast capital fell easily. There were few troops adjacent to the capital so I was able to start the siege without mopping up many units. That city fell in 3 turns.
After a few turns of convalescing, the blooded X-coms zipped back to Prague to stage the final assault on the southeast capital (Cumae?). This one was much harder as there were units around the capital and 2-3 attack hexes occupied by water. I had to send in X-coms in waves. After 2 turns I was attacking the city 3-4 times per turn, but I was losing 2-3 units each turn once the airforce was moved back. Occupying the hills the the southeast of the city and the plains to the northwest was important to ensure I could keep up at least 3-4 attacks per turn. This attack took about 8 turns and a good 15-16 X-coms. It was pretty close, but it turned out in the end.
Thanks for a fun map, and a welcome diversion during a recent lockdown here in Nova Scotia
- How useful was your UA?
Not at all
- Did you use spying to your advantage?
Yes, nabbed 3-4 techs.
- Did the map type help or hinder victory and how?
It helped because the early game was totally pacifist, but the logistics to the other capitals was a real challenge.
- How did the difficulty level affect your game decisions?
Between the map and the difficulty, I knew any attacks would be made with late game units, so I planned my science strategy around that.
- What Social Policies did you choose and in what order? Which Ideology did you choose?
Tradition, Patronage open and philanthropy, Rationalism (open plus the good 3), scholasticism, finish Rationalism, Freedom tenets
- What techs did you prioritize ?
Writing, Education, science techs on the way to the final goal of nanotech.
- What did you think of the map and settings?
Great challenge. Definitely something new.
