Venice, Deity, VP+EUI only

[crdvis16]

Settings:

Standard size/speed, continents++
7-17 patch (VP+EUI only)
No ruins, events, tech trading, or research agreements

I set out to get a tourism win on the back of Venice's 2x trade route UA with all that completion trade route bonus. See if it works out below!

The first 100 turns:

Spoiler Turn 0 :

I settle in place. Contemplated moving to the Gem to my SW but decided against burning a turn to do so. Those wheat tiles mean I'll want a worker ASAP and will save gold in order to buy him. If I didn’t have tiles that were immediately worth improving I would use that initial gold for something else. Gems are a fine monopoly lux (10% gold) and the marble might help with wonder building a little bit.

My initial tech order will be Wheel-Pottery-Calendar to grab Pyramids and its free MoV. Then Trapping-Trade(maybe grab Petra?)-Writing for my UB (and maybe Great Library?). That would be the greedy plan at least.

Initial build order will be Monument-shrine-granary/council/warrior (order TBD) with Pyramids in there ASAP (not going for a religion so I don't mind getting my pantheon a tad later, hence shrine 2nd).

Spoiler Turn 38 :

Just opened my 2nd policy (went for Justice for the GE to work) so starting on Pyramids now. I'm locking my stronger production tiles to get it built faster. My immediate neighbors are not particularly aggressive (Ramses is a little maybe?) but they are settling close to some spots I had my eye on. The sooner I get Pyramids built and Trade researched the faster I can get my first 2 MoV and claim my spots! I may detour into mining before going all the way to writing, though, in order to start improving my gem tiles and increase my production.

Spoiler Turn 46 :

God of All Creation was probably going to be my default choice but it's been taken. From what's left I'm thinking either:

God of the Sun = 2 gold, 6 food
Spirit of the Desert = 3 production, 3 gold

I don't really care about the faith of either since I'm not trying to found. I think I'll go for God of the Sun- 2 of my potential puppet settle sites have wheat, too.

I've almost got Pyramids and then hopefully Petra will still be available since it has that desert requirement that eases competition for it a little bit.

Spoiler Turn 58 :

India managed to spoil two of the spots I had my eye on- one due West of my capital and one Southwest. I don't really think the suggested spots East of Eraclea are very defensible. I might just annex Kyzyl with this 2nd MoV and then figure out later what to do with any subsequent MoVs.

I had a previous Venice game right before this one that I used as a way to get a feel for how to play him and this did not happen to me- I had plenty of time and room to settle 3 puppet cities (Pyramids, Trade, and one spawned from working merchant slots) and make a nice little claim to my immediate area. It looks like I'm just a little unlucky this game to have India settle those spots so fast, maybe because I happen to be on the slightly crowded 5 civ continent.

Spoiler Turn 82 :

I've satisfied the policy requirement to start building Great Library. However, Portugal, Egypt, and Polynesia also have the policy count and likely the tech for Great Library. It would take me 8 turns to build it and I won't have the gold to rush build it. I'm thinking I should skip it- we'll see if someone else builds it by turn 90 or if I should have went for it (spoiler- Kamehameha builds it 3 turns later so I was right to not be greedy).

Meanwhile, I've built some caravans. I think you should always build caravans/cargo ships via production rather than purchasing them. If you do the math, outright purchasing them is way less gold efficient than investing in buildings so save your gold for your infrastructure and just build those trade units with hammers.

Fun fact- Venice is really high population relative to other civs (some of which are known for high pop capitals!). Venice is at 11 while Delhi is at 8, Thebes, Madrid, and Honolulu at 9. God of the Sun plus farm triangles make my wheat farms beast along with 2 food ITRs. I want to pump my capital’s population in order to work all the specialist and GP improvements I’m going to have.

Spoiler Turn 89 :

Hmm, what to do. I've been friends with India for a while now. I just recently became friends with Spain who then asked me to join a joint war against Polynesia- I said yes because often they end up forgetting that they ever asked you. However, now I'd like to be able to say yes to this friend request as well but that means I will potentially have a tough decision later if Spain does in fact expect me to honor my promise to war in 10 turns. I think I will go ahead and say yes to this request and if Spain does indeed ask me to war against Polynesia I will probably back out and break the promise to her.

 

[crdvis16]

On the to the next 100 turns:

Spoiler Turn 110 :

Never had to make the decision to follow through on joint war with Polynesia so that's good- I get to be the neutral friend to everyone. I've been able to do some trade route and barbarian defense quests for nearby CSs and that's always good- free food from Panama City and free science/units from Budapest is always nice. I'm a turn away from grabbing Colossus at which point I'll have 4 more trade routes to build. I'm going to try to stay on good terms with neighbors so that my multitude of trade routes don't get pillaged.

I'm teching toward Sankore now as my next wonder to target. Oracle hasn't been built yet but I don't think I necessarily stand a good chance of getting it so better to not be too greedy.

One weird thing I've noticed in other Venice play throughs- I never get a lux request in Venice for WLTKD. It usually takes until circuses when I get a bonus WLTKD from its completion before the bug or whatever fixes itself and I start getting lux requests. Dunno what's up with that but I guess I'll file a bug report.

Long term my goals are to:

1) stay near my unit cap to dissuade any aggression- wars just mean I lose trade routes
2) stay at my trade route cap and rake in the gold/science/culture as well as food/hammers in Venice
3) scout the map and see if there are any defensible locations for 2 more settled puppets or good CSs to puppet
4) tech toward Guilds which will get me my choice of bonus UB

Spoiler Turn 127 :

I teched to Education for Sankore. There's 3ish other civs with fully completed Tradition and enough techs to maybe have Education so I have to burn my newly spawned GE to ensure I get it. Would have been nice to just plant him on a diamond mine but so it goes. State of the game:

Tier1
Polynesia = 26 techs, Tradition, 3 wonders

Tier2
Egpyt = 23 techs, Tradition, 3 wonders
Iroquois = 22 techs, Authority, 3 wonders
Portugal = 21 techs, Tradition, 3 wonders
Venice = 21 techs, Tradition, 3 wonders

Tier3
Spain = 18 techs, Authority, 0 wonders
India = 20 techs, Tradition, 0 wonders
Unknown civ = ? techs, ?, ? wonders

Spoiler Turn 143 :

I think I might send my next MoV over to this peninsula. India seems like a bro this game (and I'm sure we'll have his shared religion once his pressure converts me) but there's also a copy of marble. I think I might be able to get a marble monopoly if I add this copy to the one from my capital along with East India Co. to give me 3 total. That's a nice little 10% culture monopoly bonus . Also- something I've noticed in the mid game whenever I play Venice- I'm always so damn poor! I have Petra and Collosus for 10 trade routes (I assume everyone else has like 3 right now??) and yet I have the lowest GPT of anyone:

Egypt = 100 GPT
Iroquois = 93
Polynesia = 22
Spain = 52
Portugal = 80
India = 90
Venice = 32

Ok- so I have more than Polynesia. But still- how am I so poor relative to the field? Fewer cities when cities are typically net positive in gold flow I guess? At least my expenses are less than others- I only really need to rush build in a few cities (usually just my capital) and my standing army is no doubt smaller.

On the note of rush building- the only things I'm rush building in my 2 puppets are buildings that increase my unit cap (walls/castle and barracks/armory lines). The puppets for some reason will ignore these forever which is bad because when playing Venice you REALLY need that extra unit cap. If you let your unit cap get too low you'll suddenly find yourself in lots of wars when your neighbors decide that you are easy pickings. At that point all your trade routes go bye bye and you're stuck wondering why you're playing as Venice if you can’t even benefit from the 2x trade route UA.

Spoiler Turn 155 :

A little real-politik: Spain seems to be at odds with both Egypt and Polynesia. I share a border with Egypt whereas Spain is quite far away. I've decided to denounce Spain even though we had a DoF- I'm hoping this will ingratiate me with Egypt and Polynesia and I can join in their little friendship circle. A few turns later India will ask me to do a joint war on Isabella and I will agree- pretty low risk for me since she is far away.

Also, I can't build national wonders. I've had the tech unlock for Oxford and East India for a bit now but I don't have the national population to build either. I guess this is one drawback to not having a chance to settle more puppet cities.

Spoiler Turn 163 :

Finally found the last civ and it's Greece. Seems like Portugal and Iroquois both dislike him so he's probably been acting up as Alexander tends to do. I'm at the point now where I have so many specialist slots and great person tiles that I am having trouble working them all so despite having the biggest capital in the game. So I'm alternating my specialists around to get great people of one type and then switching them to a new type and back again every time a great person is born.

Also, Egypt stole my planned marble puppet location. No fair- I totally called dibs

Last- it would be nice if someone would convert my freaking cities. Spain sent a missionary over and converted one a long time ago and I promptly bought 2 missionaries to convert my other two, but since then passive pressure from religions have made me lose Christianity but haven't built up enough to fully convert me so I'm just sitting here not getting any follower bonuses

Spoiler Turn 186 :

Now that I'm exploring the other continent it occurs to me that there are quite a few CSs still missing. The Iroquois conquered Zanzibar so that's one, but there's still a bunch unaccounted for. I'm hoping I'm going to find a little subcontinent with 3 or 4 CSs on it (this often occurs in continents++ maps). If I do I'll likely spend my next MoVs puppeting them- being on a subcontinent together would potentially make them safer and they could pool their units for defense. My explorer is good at exploring the land but pretty crappy at finding things out on the ocean. I may delete a few crappy pikemen in order to rush-build some caravels and send them out to find this fabled land!

Other than exploring, I am teching for Acoustics in order to try for Sistine Chapel. My theory is that Venice is going to have no problem generating tourism from all my trade routes but I will have difficulty getting two tier3 tenets in a timely fashiong. Sistine's culture boost will help with that.

State of the game:

Tier1:
Polynesia = 36 techs, Tradition/Artistry, 6 wonders
Iroquois = 35 techs, Authority/(4)Fealty, 6 wonders DENOUNCED ME!!!
Egypt = 36 techs, Tradition/Artistry, 5 wonders
Portugal = 35 techs, Tradition/(5)Statecraft, 4 wonders DoF

Tier2:
India = 35 techs, Tradition/(4)Statecraft, 2 wonders
Greece = 34 techs, Tradition/(4)Statecraft, 1 wonder
Venice = 35 techs, Tradition/(4)Artistry, 4 wonders

Tier3:
Spain = 32 techs, Authority/(4)Statecraft, 0 wonders DoW'd ME!!!

 

[crdvis16]

Turns 200 to 300:

Spoiler Turn 200 :

Yay I got Sistine. There were other civs with enough policies/techs so I was a little nervous going for it. I wonder how close the race was. Next stop is Archaeology for the Louvre- it's a tech that you can beeline to quite hard so is usually gettable- the AI doesn't seem to beeline like that. Also, I finally got enough national population for all those national wonders... hooray!

Global politics-wise, Egypt is at war with pretty much everyone for some reason. But he's not at war with me so that's good. I've got a small army but it's at least up to date. That might change while I'm teching for Louvre- I'm delaying some military techs to do so. Hiawatha is eating Alexander- Greece is getting ganged up on. India stupidly has a defensive pact with Greece and so is now at war with Egypt and Polynesia too. Not sure if he's going to get hurt or not. Somehow I've mostly stayed out of everything. What I'd really like is to be friends with Egypt/Polynesia- they are the two culture run aways currently so I want 100% uptime on trade routes to them going forward.

Spoiler Turn 210 :

Looky here! A mini continent with CSs just as predicted??!?! I know where my next few MoVs are going Also- fun fact: I'm now in second place in GPT with only Hiawatha ahead of me (he has by far the biggest empire at 14 cities). I plan to open Industry as my Industrial policy tree. More trade routes! And accelerated MoV generation now that I've found CSs I want to puppet.

Last- I decide to backstab Iroquois. They've angered everyone with their merciless dismantling of Greece and have gotten denounced like crazy. Being friends with them has become a liability and I'm much more afraid of Egypt/Polynesia/India considering the borders I share with them. Also, Polynesia and Egypt are the culture runaways so I need trade route uptime with them non-stop. A war with either would just result in a bunch of pillaged trade routes and no more tourism bonuses to them.

Spoiler Turn 229 :

UGH! Ramses beats me to the Louvre and you can see I have 2 turns left to build it myself. Right before hitting 'next turn' I invested to rush build it. Ah well.

I'm now teching for Arsenal to hopefully increase my unit cap a little and keep myself safe. I may even try for Brandenburg Gate and it's flat +10 unit cap- that would set me up for practically the rest of the game and maybe ensure I don't get DoW'd. I'll also go for Corporations- I only have a Gems monopoly so I'll need to make sure I get Civilized Jewelers. Civilized jewelers will put my specialist generation and gold into hyperdrive. As far as I know I’m the only one with a monopoly that qualifies for CJ.

Spoiler Turn 232 :

Just bought Bratislava which promptly lost all of its wall/barracks line buildings. Which means Bratislava can't contribute enough unit cap to account for my newly acquired units. I think this should probably be changed for Venice- I don't see why a purchased CS should lose those buildings from either a realism or gameplay perspective. I mean- Bratislava only has 5CS at this point- it would be very easy for Melbourne to send any unit over and cap it if they got close enough to do so.

I'm pumping out some archaeologists- Venice is very productive and gets them out in ~2 turns each.

Spoiler Turn 247 :

Despite tons of green modifiers, being friends with his friends, DoWing and denouncing the same civs, and sending tons of trade routes his way... Egypt has finally DoW'd me. It doesn't seem like he's very serious about it though. He doesn't have an army or navy massed at my borders ready to swoop in. It didn't explicitly say it or not but I wonder if he was bribed into it or something (I'm not sure what determines if you get the message "so and so brokered war against you!").

In any case, my cities were settled with Egypt in mind- he'll have to cross rivers and deal with hills/forests blocking his line of sight so I am fairly confident I can weather whatever he throws at me. I don't like losing a bunch of trade routes but I can rebuild those once it's safe to do so. The real danger would be if Gandhi stopped role playing the nice guy and DoW'd me as well.

I'm close to having the policy count to go for Brandenburg- that 10 unit cap would be great right about now (I end up buying a GE with faith and investing to knock it out 4 turns later). I'm also continuing to invest in defensive/military buildings in my puppets for the precious unit count. The puppets otherwise don't prioritize those buildings at all. My unit cap will be mostly filled with muskets which will later be upgraded into gatlings. I think a mostly ranged army is ideal for defense and gatlings are just strong anyway.

I join in a joint war with Portugal against Iroquois. Everyone dislikes Iroquois so I may as well get the diplo bonus for going to war with him even if the bonus is minimal- He's too far away for us to actually fight each other. Polynesia, on the other hand, wants me to go to war with Spain with him but Spain has a DP with India and having to fight on both my West and East front is the very last thing I want right now.

Spoiler Turn 255 :

8 turns into the war and I'm doing OK. I've lost tons of trade routes, of course, but few units and with my unit cap increased substantially I'll be able to add more and ensure my safety. Hopefully the extra units will also dissuade future DoWs. I'm working toward Gatlings and the Eiffel tower- another wonder (like Sistine) which will help me get policies faster and work toward 2 tier 3 tenets ASAP. After that I will be getting my corporation.

State of the game:

Tier1:
Iroquois = 46 techs, Authority/Fealty + 3 Imperialism. 8 wonders. I'm at war with him because everyone hates him.
Polynesia = 46 techs, Tradition/Artistry + 5 Imperialism. 6 wonders. DoF because he's a culture runaway and I need trade routes to him.
Egypt = 48 techs, Tradition/Artistry + 5 Rationalism. 11 wonders. I'm at war because he's a meanie, I wish we were DoF because he's the other culture runaway.
Portugal = 46 techs, Tradition/Statecraft + 3 Industry. 5 wonders. DoF because why not, but she's probably going to get eaten by Hiawatha.
Venice = 46 techs, Tradition/Artistry + 4 Industry. 6 wonders. I'm doing A-OK and will hopefully add Eiffel and Broadway to my wonder list.

Tier2:
India = 46 techs, Tradition/Statecraft + 3 Rationalism. 2 wonders. I would like a DoF maybe but I don't think he will DoW me anyway cause Gandhi.

Tier3:
Spain = 43 techs, Authority/Statecraft + 2 Imperialism. 0 wonders. Looks like the next lame duck in the game, might get eaten by Polynesia.
Greece = bye bye. Eaten by Hiawatha primarily.

Spoiler Turn 261 :

I almost lost Eraclea but luckily the arsenal finished just in time. The good defensive location wasn't quite as strong once Egypt put out field guns that could shoot over the hills, though the river/rough terrain does still make other units fairly easy pickings. I'm hoping the newly created citadel will help discourage him a bit.

I've also grabbed another CS puppet over on that little mini continent in the center of the map- got me 4 muskets, a rifleman, and an ironclad! Not to mention 7 coal which is currently the only coal I have. I'm 1 tech away from Eiffel and will probably burn the GE waiting in my capital to help ensure I get it (I get it 2 turns later!). Hopefully this war ends soon and I can rebuild my trading fleet (war with Egypt does indeed end a few turns later- I will have to rebuild some military units and then will rebuild the cargo/caravans).

Spoiler Turn 283 :

This is a fairly easy decision- Egypt and Polynesia are the two civs I need the most tourism with. By following them into Freedom I hopefully help create friendly relations with each in order to avoid war and I also get a tourism bonus rather than malus. Freedom is also probably the most helpful ideology anyway. The only drawback is that it will be harder to get the 'free policy' wonder if I'm competing against those two...

A few turns later I also accept Polynesia's request for a joint war against Hiawatha. It probably won't result in anything actually happening other than hopefully reinforcing my friendship with Poly.

Spoiler Turn 296 :

Civilized Jewelers is mine! It was maybe a foregone conclusion, though, since I still think no one else had the necessary monopolies to build it before me. It gets me increased great person generation and +10% gold for every trade route to a franchised city. I’m going for Statue of Liberty next with its free social policy. I'm not super confident I'm going to get it though- it's entirely possible someone is already working on it. I also nabbed Singapore with its nice little Navy. I've avoided taking Jerusalem to the southeast because I'm a little hesitant to create more border conflict with Polynesia. Everyone seems to be taking Freedom- Portugal along with Poly/Egypt/Me. Also, it’s taking me FOREVER to refill my trade units. This is why war is like the worst thing for me, losing all those trade units SUCKS.

 

[crdvis16]

The conclusion:

Spoiler Turn 313 :

Burned a MoV for gold and for the WLTKD in Venice. Venice wanted Cocoa which is a banned lux. The 4K gold from the MoV lets me just rush buy the rest of my cargo/caravans. I said earlier not to rush buy trade units but it’s going to take forever otherwise.

India went Order and then renounced our DoF He's still one of the most docile civs though and we have a lot of positive modifiers so hopefully he won't want a war. Also, Statue of Liberty is mine! Broadway is next and I will also work toward Sydney Opera house eventually.

I have 30 freaking trade routes. Once I get all my franchises up I'm going to have super high great person rates and a ton of gold from that 10% gold bonus. Worst thing that could happen to me: sanction. 2nd worst is a DoW by someone nearby who can choke off all my trade routes.

Spoiler Turn 349 :

Relations are starting to break down. India denounced me (and was first to complete manhattan project...). Spain denounced me. So far Poly and Portugal are staying friends but I can only assume they are starting to realize I might win somewhat soon. Egypt appears to be neither friend no foe.

I've just stolen India's Uranium here- it's currently his only source. So even if he uses his free a-bomb on me at least he won't have more to use later. He proposed a sanction on me which I REALLY need to defeat. Time to mass buy diplomats and try to steal a few CSs ahead of the next vote. I've held off doing things to try to not piss off people but getting sanctioned could really slow my tourism down.

I've gotten International Games passed. I know I probably can't win it but even if I get 3rd it's a boost to my tourism right when I need it down the home stretch (+50% for 20 turns!). I'm a few turns away from my 2nd tier3 tenet so all that's left is to get influential with Poly, Egypt, and Iroquois. I'm focusing all trade routes onto Egypt/Poly (most have been going to them for a while anyway). I've got passports passed and will send any subsequent musicians to do a tour. I'm also aiming for Computers (tourism boost and 2 more trade routes) and then telecommunications (more tourism wonders).

Spoiler Turn 357 :

India DoWs me. His Naga Mala are badly out of date and get mowed down. No nuke yet but I'm sure that's coming. It should be too late for any trade unit losses to matter much. A musician puts Polynesia into influential and the next one in a few turns will do the same to Egypt. After that it's just the CEP!

Spoiler Turn 371 :

Yay! 371 is a pretty decent culture win, at least for me. No other civ was threatening any sort of win- they were all at least 50 turns from winning and probably much more actually. Managing to stay out of wars with my neighbors for the most part was the biggest reason I came out on top. The one war with Egypt earlier on was REALLY bad for my trade routes so if that was happening more frequently it would have been a much tougher game and certainly would have taken longer.

Also, checkout my ending corporation:

 

[4CV]

That's a nice one! And good information for me, too. Especially, because I want to play "Bloodthirsty Dandolo" mod, but never played Venice before. Now I can at least try it once...