Victory Condition: Cultural Victory
Victory Date: 1541 AD
Base Score: 2920
Final Score: 48661
Entry Class: Contender
After winning an award for the fastest Cultural Victory (my first award, by the way), I felt that I ought to write you a game report. It seems that there was some pretty tight competition, with 5 other Cultural Victories being submitted and all of them occurring within the same or the next century.
From the start, I decided to chase after a Cultural Victory. I felt that the Creative trait had been sufficiently boosted, what with all of the bonuses to production on cultural buildings, to make this effort worthwhile.
I began my exploration northward and then eastward, coming across a dead end. Next, I went westward, but I completely missed spotting Brennus' city. I believe that Mansa Musa was the first AI whose location I found, while Brennus was the first AI whom I met, followed by an encounter with a US Scout.
My build order went as follows:
Work Boat -> Warrior -> Work Boat -> Worker -> Worker -> Work Boat -> Settler -> Worker -> Barracks
I built an early Warrior for the purpose of a Worker Stealing mission. Instead, since I couldn't find a nearby AI, I used one Warrior for exploration and another for defense. It was good that I kept a Warrior around--Fortified on a Grassland Forest just outside of my second city, he managed to fend off a Barbarian Archer in 2545 BC. Of course, he'd been promoted to "Woodsman I", thanks to a couple of early wins against animals, but this defender allowed me to focus on building Workers and Work Boats.
My research path went as follows:
Bronze Working -> The Wheel -> Iron Working -> Pottery -> Writing -> The Alphabet
I managed to research The Alphabet in 1300 BC and I began trading with anyone that would offer me a deal. If I recall correctly, Brennus was a terrible trading partner, so he became the #1 Enemy of the State. Further, Brennus expanded quite quickly, blocking me from grabbing my chosen city locations.
In 3355 BC, I found a hut. I was shocked. I was certain that we'd been told that there were to be no huts on the map, so, I left it to the AI. I thought that because the hut was hard to spot, with it being hidden in a forest, it just got missed when editing the map. Later, I could not find such a claim in the pre-game discussion thread, but I'd already passed up on the hut. Perhaps I had recalled this information from a previous WOTM.
I built my first Praetorian in 2065 BC, sealing Brennus' fate.
As it turns out, I first declared war on Hannibal, in 2170 BC. My exploring Warrior had run across two undefended Workers and I felt that the opportunity was too good to pass up.
In 1825 BC, I launched a war against Brennus. Praetorians were extremely effective against Archers. Even the Barbs were offering better resistance than Brennus, as my autolog claims that I beat up a Barb Spearman in 1495 BC.
In 590 BC, I finally captured Bibracte. It was the only city of Brennus' that I liked enough for me to keep.
In 400 BC, I managed to finish off the last Celtic city.
I retook most of Brennus' lands slowly, placing cities where I thought that they would be best situated. Neither my capital nor my second city became Legendary cities--I picked all three locations from land that Brennus had previously occupied.
My Legendary cities were Cumae (founded as my third city, in 1525 BC), Neapolis (my fourth city, founded in 1270 BC), and Ravenna (my sixth city, founded in 370 BC).
Meanwhile, I'd converted to Judaism, to match Mali and the US. I missed out on the Circumnavigation Bonus to the US, so I tried to stay at Peace with them, in order to avoid losing my Fishing Boats to speedy Triremes.
Further, I was also beating up on Hannibal and Huayna, razing their cities left and right.
I didn't make a friend out of the Indians, as I had declared war on all of their buddies, so in 430 BC, I also declared war on them. India, however, had placed almost all of their cities on Hills--their cities, for the most part, were too tough to crack. I believe that I only managed to raise one or two of their cities throughout the game.
I did, however, manage to get a war ally of Mali against India, so I obtained a relations bonus while slowing the global tech pace. Unfortunately, Mali was very successful in capturing India's cities.
As it turned out, my wars against Hannibal and Huayna kept their lands really tiny. The downside was that the US and Mali were the ones to occupy the land, making for two super-power opponents.
Eventually, Hannibal was eliminated, while Huayna was relegated to an island to the South of his original starting location.
I actually kept a couple of each of their cities and built a Forbidden Palace in Carthage. I'm not sure if it was a mistake to keep these extra cities--I eventually had 4 cities in my mini-base out there--but I didn't want the land to be eaten up by the US or Mali, both of whom were big enough and advanced enough as it was. I only ended up with 8 cities near my capital, so I would have at least wanted one more city (for building Temples) located somewhere, if not way out there.
India, after losing several cities to Mali, capitulated to Mali about as soon as they were able--Mali had just over double India's land area when the capitulation occurred.
India hated me but would trade with the US. Mali and the US loved each other. So the AI became quite advanced.
In 1080 AD, I made the following comment in my autolog: "11 turns to Liberalism: I am in a race against 3 AI".
In 1120 AD, two turns before I would research Liberalism, Mansa launched a Golden Age. I was quite upset that he'd resort to such under-handed tactics during a tech race, but I still managed to pull off being the first to Liberalism. Nationalism was my tech of choice, after which I began research on Printing Press.
Shortly thereafter, Mali and the US got into a war. Obviously, India was dragged into it. My relations kept suffering, as I refused to stop trading with either side and I refused to declare war on either side.
There were massive amounts of units on each side of their borders--I kept an eye on the battles as much as I could.
Mali essentially let the US eat up a few of India's cities that were close to the US. Then, Mali and the US exchanged control of Houston many times--a city built on a Horse resource that existed to the SE of most of US' lands and to the SW of most of Mali's lands. Not much else was accomplished during their exchanges, other than both sides getting several Great Generals and several promoted units out of the bargain. Each side also had a massive amount of units that they built and maintained--I would say that many of their cities were keeping 6 to 8 defenders, while they also had mobilized armies.
After researching Printing Press in 1280 AD, I began researching Military Tradition. It wasn't until 1448 AD that I'd researched it, so I must have switched my science rate to 0% at this point. This tech wasn't really useful, other than perhaps in a trade or for a couple of extra points, as it wasn't until a few turns from the end of the game that I managed to learn Gunpowder.
The next turn, I managed to complete The Taj Mahal, gaining me a Golden Age.
In 1290 AD, Mansa obtained a Great Engineer. Sure enough, he used it on a Wonder--Versailles. Yet, he really wasted it, in my opinion, as he placed Versailles in the city right next to his capital. A very tasty target, were I ahead in military technological research and military might, but since I was going for a Cultural Victory, I was actually quite behind in both regards.
It was around this time that I spent my budget on buying buildings. I had completed The Pyramids in one of my Legendary cities, when it appeared that the world was too busy with war to bother building it. It wasn't until 110 BC that I'd completed it. Regardless, with Universal Suffrage available, I bought as many cultural buildings as I could.
As for religions, India had founded Buddhism (in 3370 BC), but they mostly kept it to themselves. Brennus, of all people, founded Hinduism (in 3325 BC, even before Buddhism was founded). Judaism was, of course, founded by Mansa (in 2320 BC), while Confucianism was founded by Huayna (in 730 BC). I managed to focus on founding religions later on, founding the remaining three myself--Taosim in 750 BC (care of The Oracle), Christianity in 50 BC, and Islam in 280 AD.
With 12 cities, I was actually able to make many missionaries. All but Buddhism had spread to me or had been captured by me, so in the end, each of my Legendary Cities had 6 Cathedrals!
Perhaps I went overboard and could have gotten better gains by only building 4 or 5 Cathedrals in each Legendary City and thus starting with a 100% Cultural Rate a bit sooner, but I was content to make "extra" Cathedrals, since I had the budget for it.
Near the end, I had 4 cities which were competing to build Great Artists for me. I ended up only being able to build 2 of those Great Artists before winning the game, so I could have likely micro-managed generating them a bit better. I was actually able to choose between Carthage and Bibracte for 1 of those 2. I decided that with only Roads on which to walk, a Great Artist produced in Carthage wouldn't arrive in my homeland in time to be worthwhile--in fact, the one from Bibracte only saved me 3 turns.
Thanks still go out to godotnut and the people that I mentioned in my GOTM 13 write-up (you know who you are--and if you don't, you can go and look), who contributed to his Deity Cultural thread. I'd have never come close to this victory without all of your help!
jesusin, as you suggested (although I did it before you suggested it), I played a Cultural game with a greater focus on Commerce and Great Artists. Actually, I think that you wanted me to put a focus on one or the other, a focus which may have helped me out a bit more, but I tried to get both. I still built several early-game Wonders, but I did so mostly because no one else was building them, not because they were my cultural focus.
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