Tutorial: Greece Border Blobs

[hokath]

This is a thread showcasing an example start as Greece pursuing a border blobs strategy. Border blobs is a "christmas tree" strategy that involves using two Policy Trees on the same era.
The idea is to combine Authority's

and Tradition's

with the God of the Expanse pantheon

This rewards you for any Culture gains in Cities, including from the Authority on-kill effect.
Note: this used to be very OP which is why that yellow text in parentheses exists now.

We're going to do this as Greece, but there are a variety of Civs that support this style: Russia, Spain, Celts (with Epona pantheon instead), and Denmark are all examples.
I've chosen to play on Large Oval, High sea level, no events. This generated a map (spoilers!) like this:

Spoiler :

I'll play up to the Medieval Era Trees are unlocked. I'm also running a few mods, most notably 4UC, which at time of you reading this might even be integrated so clever me.
The difficulty level is Emperor (6).

Here is our Turn 1 screenshot

Spoiler :

Marsh Sugar. A great tile at 3,1,1 that is very hard to improve.
A good example of when Authority is the go-to pick, since Progress's free Worker doesn't have much of a payoff.
And a good example of Border Blobs because in terms of pantheon choices Goddess of Springtime requires those Plantations we have trouble making, and Goddess of Purity buffs Marsh, but only +1 which is not usually enough to Found a Religion without also having Lakes.

 

[hokath]

We go Monument first since we want our for Policies ASAP
We tech directly to Trade for the Market, which improves Sugar and later on is buffed by our UNW (Unique National Wonder)
Our surroundings look like this.

Spoiler :

We find 0 Ancient Ruins. They have all been taken. I am at war with Siam because I was being unethical and tried to zone of control him away from one. Sadly Venice came in and stole it anyway.
At this point I would say we are in big trouble since Ancient Ruins are so important -- I guess this is when people snap and turn them off
I got extra tilted because Siam stole my first Barbarian camp from off-screen with a ruins-upgraded super-Scout.
I won't comment too much on general strategy since it's a targeted tutorial but the two City-States nearby are good news for our UA.

Turn 46 we get our Pantheon

Spoiler :

Things have gone from bad to worse: both God of the Expanse and Goddess of Springtime (Herbalist at least is decent here for +1 on Marsh) have been taken. Since we have no Lakes to speak of and I want to get Hoplites etc., I opt for Renewal and consign myself to having to conquer a Religion. I have a Market in Athens and 2 Jungle, so this is immediately +2/+3/+1/+1
If I weren't getting screenshots for this I might restart here tbh.
Notice I have spent my from Barbarian camps on more Warriors. They hunt even more barbs and we'll upgrade them to Hoplites for our Spearman attack.

As if it couldn't get any worse...

Spoiler :

Muang stops me from settling next to the Sugar (important to get those immediate yields) and is in general a sh*t City, sharing a Sugar with Si Satchanalai.
Siam also has improved Ivory, which means War Elephants. Oh dear.
Someone was getting Spearman rushed and we have a volunteer. As if reading my thoughts, Sweden asks for a joint war and I tell him 10 turns.
We bully some City-States and used the to buy our half-built Monuments in both Cities. This pays itself off with border blobs and we can still manage to upgrade our troops!

Let's take a moment to talk about the tutorial part: Since our start was *so bad* we had to take the free Settler in Authority to rush out the third City.

The City will be to the east, and I barely got there before China was going to forward settle us. Pocatello has also settled toward us from the south (you can just see the borders on the bottom), and will put another one even closer soon. Tribute here can be a good choice, especially if you Bully some City-States for extra Culture. Sadly our army has other duties at the present time so it would have been nice to open Tradition. A shame we lacked the tempo, but it's good to have options!

Here's an action montage of the war on Siam, anticlockwise from top left.

Spoiler :

Top left: I come in with the Hoplites on Muang Saluang -- Ramkaheng forsees my treachery and calls me out on being near his land ("his land") so I have to declare early.
Bottom left: We surround, mostly ignoring his Units. This gets the blockade bonus of no healing and 20% damage. We don't need it, the Garrison is yeeted into Hades dark as the Hoplites wreck his no-Walls, flatland City. I would raze it but we can't afford to yet, so it will have to burn later.
Bottom right: I go for Si Satch., sadly on Hills with Walls so not too optimistic, but any kills are yields here! A couple Hoplites go off with the Pathfinder (note Medic I) to get a Barb camp--cheeky! The Pathfinder is really useful for getting the flanking bonus as it can zoom around with 4 Movement.
INSET: around now we unlock Tradition. The +1 per 2 is great for extra pops in the Capital, and Marsh Sugar means we're on 8 pop after we take it = 4 Culture.
Top right: We get maybe 3 Units but the City is impenetrable and there is a War Elephant. We lose an Archer and sue for peace getting a Luxury and GPT. I'm happy for the timing because China is asking me to DoW Pocatello and I say 10 turns.

 

[hokath]

A moment on Authority. In general it lacks infrastructure early, with yields coming from Kills, yet settles many Cities. On top of that we aren't even taking the Happiness policy yet in this strategy. This causes a lot of Unhappiness to build up. When this happens we want to stay above 50% Happiness because of the Combat penalty. The best way to manage this is to stop Growth using this handy button:

Spoiler :

After all, we haven't improved much so it's not like working more tiles is worth much. 6 is already quite high, we were lucky here to get 3 Sugar. I go to 6 to work 2 Jungles for the pantheon boost plus the Merchant. Look at the yields! Town improvements are also very strong, we will put it on the 4-tile road we build from here west to our Capital. We've given up on the Religion so no Shrine. We won't grow so Barracks dominates Shrine.

Another war photo-montage

Spoiler :

Top left: Speaking of unethical exploitation of the AI, look at that Merchant of Venice! I know Azum wouldn't want me to give him a one-way ticket to Elysium, so I let him live.
Top middle: Overview of the map before the war. Sweden is somewhere above Siam.
Top right: Agadaika doesn't get reinforcements in the 3 turns that were available to it and falls easily. The march continues down to Te-Moak and I get the surround. A War Elephant appears but dies to 3 Hoplites and the Scout mega-flank. This City has Fountain of Youth, which is a big deal.
Middle: Turns out there was a City-State quest to capture Te-Moak, and I get a March Archer. I use the XP to get Medic II for my Hoplites and so my Trojan hero can tank some Shoshone Spearmen (he does and it's disgusting)
Bottom left: Pocatello thinks he can flank me but I sit around and farm kills. Remember, kills = !
Bottom middle: Everyone thinks I'm going to the Capital, but I go to Goshute, that's where I stashed the chandelier. Sadly he gets the Walls + reinforcements in time, but not before I kill many units. Would have liked the City, but at least I don't have to share a border with Venice (he might not like that and he's score leader).
Inset: I rush-buy the Gymnasion (currently called Acropolis in base VP) that I have beelined in my Capital. Now I get even more Culture from kills (and border growth!) This is the big-synergy for Greece.
Bottom right: I peace out with Pocatello for peanuts, but I took 2 Cities with a Natural Wonder and like 3 Luxuries I didn't have. Not to mention he is crippled.

Speaking of crippled, Siam is attacked by Sweden again and I notice the HP on his Capital going down. Drop everything and book it back to Athens (fortunately lots of Woodsman promotions from earlier!) in time to join the war.

Spoiler :

Top right: You can see here Siam getting plastered by Sweden
Inset: incriminating photo of us surrounding Si Satch. Fortunately I am very careful and secure the capture, but Sweden cuts off our Friendship :'( (the funny icon is an earlier, weaker Pikeman the Hoplites upgraded into, not important)
Middle right: You can see the border growths are common, often multiple in the same turn. If you look to the left you can see my 4th City which is being battered by barbs and has no good tiles to work right now. Yet, the Well will be almost completed by a border expand -- it says 10 turns but really it is 3 turns -- If you're paying attention you'll see it says 11 turns until border growth, but even that is misleading because the barbarian kills I'm getting next to the city will provide Culture, at least 2 turns at a time.
Bottom right: All the Religions have been founded. Maybe I could have snuck in with Purity -- China took forever. Fortunately she's just next door, so if Sweden behaves we might pay Beijing a visit with Trebs.
Top left: I went Writer's Guild after Gymnasion because Culture is king and I have the +% bonus to Writers and few good improved tiles with my decent pop. What's great is when other Gymnasion go up I can move the Great Works around to pop their cheaper border growths!
Bottom left: Conquering Siam gave me the Culture to get my last Ancient policy -- I take Militarism for the Happiness, Culture, and Gold.
Inset: is the culture output of my Capital. I will eventually fill out Authority, doubling the / border yield bonus and getting those amazing Combat bonuses, but first I open Artistry for its boost to Writers and Guilds.

Anyway more crazy nonsense occurs but we've run out of time.
I hope this was informative, educational, and entertaining Thanks for reading.

 

[Anarcomu]

The problem I have with instant yields, is that they do not contribute to happiness calculation. A no factor for faith, but for any other yields, per turn is better simply for that reason.

 

[msw1]

Great post. I will say the border blob strategy really comes alive when you fill out the authority tree and get the +100% border growth from Fealty. Having no religion makes Fealty a tougher choice though.

 

[hokath]

Totally. This wasn't the greatest example game of all time, but it does show you can pull the strat. off even with a poor start.
I don't actually know if Fealty 100% boost affects the Greek instant border growth from the UB, will have to check that (I assume it does).

 

[Alecto11]

Really appreciative of this guide, especially how it goes through a scenario where almost nothing goes according to plan! For a newer player, wondering if you’d be willing to expand more on early teching and production order.

You mention beelining trade and then go for gymnasium. Also need bronzeworking for hoplites. Is the order trade>bronze working>gymnasium(forget the tech name).

Obv this works in this setup given the marsh sugars, but for tiles that need to be improved sooner rather than later would you just prioritize that tech in favor of trade?

Similarly, this game really deemphasized workers. I understand needing a worker may be a push away from authority and into progress; but if you were going wnthis strat and 1)needed a worker and 2) werent shut out of religion, a shrine and worker compete for production w army and other buildings. This is the situation I often find myself in early game, so many things i need to build, and always feel like I’m just behind the pace of the game playing catchup. How do you decide what to give up on or prioritize in a situation game doesnt push you as hard as it did in this one?

Sorry for so many questions!

 

[hokath]

No these are great questions.

You mention beelining trade and then go for gymnasium. Also need bronzeworking for hoplites. Is the order trade>bronze working>gymnasium(forget the tech name).

Yes, that's basically what I did, but Pottery before Bronze Working for the Settler.

for tiles that need to be improved sooner rather than later would you just prioritize that tech in favor of trade?

Yeah this really depends which is why I glossed over it a bit. If I had for example 2 Copper (monopoly) and 1 Marble in my Capital, then I would go instead for the Forge. Now this also happens to unlock Hoplites! But it delays the UNW (at Writing) and Gymnasium (it's at Drama).
Next I would presumably take Pottery. But then I might ignore the Marble and tech to Writing. While I'm building the UNW I might come back for Construction.
So the moral is not to focus too hard on techs that improve resources -- remember if you aren't Progress you'll sit on them for a while before a worker even becomes available!

if you were going wnthis strat and 1)needed a worker and 2) werent shut out of religion, a shrine and worker compete for production w army and other buildings.

Shrine it will depend how much at risk my religion is, but even if I see some religiously-oriented civs, it's still going to be 3rd or even 4th build in a new city. We cannot delay the border expands as they also give Faith!
Workers do compete, usually I buy them with gold instead of units so I have 1 per City. The logic is twofold: 1) Workers are worth more immediately -- they start improving sooner -- units are only useful when they fight 2) You lose XP (if you have Barracks etc) from buying units rather than producing them, and this actually has a large effect, do not underestimate!
Also, it didn't happen this game but, you can steal workers from your Spearman-rush victim. If you think you might get several early on -- because you can see their terrain is very exposed and maybe you have an upgrade Scout -- then consider Statue of Zeus.

 

[Alecto11]

Awesome! Thanks so much - gonna try it out. Do you have a particular win condition in mind w this strat or is it generally just to use border expansion to get ahead and apply it to whatever civ you have - in this case either domination or diplo for greece?

 

[hokath]

Yes, whatever the Civ is good for. Here, I would go for Diplo (Domination I find more opportunistic, and you have to really commit), but remember you should always be fighting someone for yields.
Generally don't do Border Blobs with Cultural, because you don't really want to be opening Authority for that. However it is possible (aiming Order ideology), but you do need to watch out for the #city reduction multiplier to Tourism.