Civilization Thread!

[Sousa]

His name is Modest Mussorgsky. And we'll all float on, all right.

I just had what can be classified as a very interesting game. It was Portugal on a continents map (small size because my computer blows). My continental neighbor was Dido, and Oda, Sejong, Maria, and Ahmad rounded out the other continent. I did something I don't normally do and went wide with Tradition after a typical four-city start, got Temple of Artemis and Hanging Gardens for a really massive Lisbon (lots of green, a loooooong river, and food trade routes--a very nice capital despite being inland and lacking a mountain). Dido launched an early war, but she'd been shuffling her swordguys around for centuries with nothing to do, so I knew it was coming and drove her back with comp bows. Didn't get anything nice for the victory, but it did give me a chance to meet the other continent and oh man Ahmad was killing it.

Morocco had pretty much half the continent, including Oda's capital, and was allied with every city-state on the continent in some kind of hideous Iron Curtain thing. I found the Great Barrier Reef (I also got Rock of Gibraltar... this would've been an awesome Spain map) on the other continent and planted a city... six tiles from Vienna. So naturally, Maria declared war and brought Dido along for the ride because SISTERS ARE DOIN' IT FOR THEMSELVES I guess. It was a fruitless war that went on forever until finally Ahmad said "uh hey declaration of friendship y/n" and we became super-great buddies, and at that point he just got TIRED OF MARIA'S SHIT and took Vienna from her, all the while setting up research agreements with me like clockwork.

So while Ahmad is growing this super-massive empire, taking out all of Japan and Austria for himself (Sejong was pretty much irrelevant), I was just flying through the tech tree thanks to Rationalism, lots of cities running lots of specialists, ridiculous cash flow to buy new science buildings as they came online, and plenty of academies. I took Freedom to run even more specialists (dovetails with Secularism) and was setting a ridiculous tech pace considering I couldn't get science from trade routes at all.

So as the game ends, Ahmad finally makes it to ideologies and goes Order. The problem is that he's been warring forever, so he has a massive influx of cities and puppets, no real excess happiness to trade away, and suddenly (thanks to unhappiness) no gold to trade for luxuries. I check the Tourism screen and find with glee that he's at -24 happiness. Next thing I know, BAM, revolution kicks in, Morocco goes from Order to Freedom, and I get the Tear Down This Wall achievement a few turns before hitting space in 1901.

So basically, Morocco and Portugal simulated the Cold War in just a few short years. We were allies of convenience for a while, then we were split apart by differing world views, and then the iron curtain came tumbling down.

[Plubby]

Monty seems pretty strong here. I got "stuck" on a small continent, but i've already cleared it.

[Mick]

1810 Domination Victory as Arabia, on Prince!

I'm thrilled with my startling location, because I know Petra's gonna go there. My only neighbor is Pedro. He gets pissy with me over where I settle Medina, and I promise not to expand near him (It's not like there's a lot of fucking room here ). I guess, in spite of being further west than Medina, plopping down Baghdad pisses him off to no end, and I realize that it's him or me. At that point I'm closing in on Chivalry for Camel Archers, and he's building wonders like he's going for a culture victory, including the Great Wall. Well, once I get a decent army raised, I take Sau Paulo (which itself had Terracotta Army, not that it helped), peace treaty. Take Rio (lots of wonders here), peace treaty, leaving him with one crappy town, which I take just for the hell of it. At that point, I had only met Montezuma on the other continent, and since he had gone war wacky over there, he made a decent trading partner.

I discover the other players to be Isabella and Wu Zetian. Izzy had lost Madrid to Monty, and Wu lost Guangzhou. Exchanging embassies shows Beijing, Tenochitlan and Madrid all on the same part of the coast. My development of Pedro's land had given me a nice science boost, netting Industrialization, and, with coal pouring in from allied city-states, I beeline for Navigation. I've got lots of iron, so...Frigates and Privateers. The factories finish, and I choose Autocracy.

The biggest bitch in the yard is Monty, so I decided to take him out first. Turns out Izzy was his vassal (mod), so I brought on the wrath of her sad army, which consisted of a trireme and a spearman that somehow got in my territory. I have three fleets set up, consisting of four Frigates and one Privateer each. Tenochitlan puts up some resistance, but falls, and though Monty sues for peace, I notice that Madrid isn't even an option. The war continues. Madrid falls next, and I get a crappy size one town from him, which I promptly torch, cause evil.

I set my sites on Beijing, which falls after three turns of bombardment. VICTORY!

[Mick]

This is why Venetian Culture Victories are null and void. In the time since I posted that game above, I won another game on Prince, this time Venice/Culture. Small Continents, Standard World, every victory but time (fuck that ). Other civs include: Sweden, Assyria, England, Denmark, Poland, The Iroquois, and Egypt (who I didn't meet and fell victim to siege towers). 1916 victory, everyone LOVED me but pretty much hated each other. So yeah, Venice culture victories suck

[Benji]

God damn, I started a game as Egypt and wound up with Rome, Zulu, Greece and Mongols all as my neighbours on my continent. It did not last long.

[Sousa]

Time to try the Sweden experiment again! I tried for Culture last time, but this time I'm going to go for either Domination or Science (because fuck Diplo, that's too obvious) because Culture wants me to keep my Great People. Strategy is going to be a Tradition open through Legalism -> Monarchy -> Landed Elite, then over to Piety to grab Reformation leading to To The Glory Of God. The strategy is going to involve generating a metric fuckton of faith by any means necessary, then using it to buy Great People to snatch city-states away toward whatever ends I wish. Early writer/artist/musician guilds are going to be part of this as well. Late game will probably go through Freedom for even more Great Person madness. I'll let you know how it goes since it's such a specific strategy (and weird for me).

[Pizza]

I think I'm going to start turning Diplo off. I've backed into it a couple of times when I had no intention of going that route, because I could hit it earlier than my expected condition. My last game my intention was Space as Russia on a Standard map, but I got fucked by starting point and ended up with no strategic resources except one oil patch. Austria and Venice both were buying up city states, which left 7 in the late game, all of whom I locked down as allies. I had 26 of 29 for the first World Leader vote, I just squeaked out the last spaceship part 3 turns before the third vote where I had 30.

[Mick]

Here's how my game as the Huns started:

First ruin, upgrade for the warrior! Next turn, POCATELLO! Three turns later, no more Pocatello.

Not going to be using settlers this game, boys:

[Pizza]

Decided to leave Diplo on and jump up to Emperor instead. I'm going total war with the Zulu.

[Mick]

1620 World Domination Victory as Attila!

I decided that unlike a few past games where I went domination thanks to asshole neighbors and losing time on development, in this game that was my strategy from the get-go. Prince, small continents, small map ( I think, might have been standard).

To my immediate north was Pocotello. I discovered this right after my token warrior got upgraded to a fucking battery ram from a goody hut within starting distant of the court. Fuck Pocotello. So, he was gone by turn 8. I thought it would be a damn shame to have that battering ram and not get any use from it, so I conquered the two city-states on my island. Four cities, ZERO settlers!

A little while a trireme shows up, and it's Isabella! She stupidly exchanges embassies, and I know now where she is, and more importantly, that I can reach it by disembarking. Four battering rams show up and bye-bye Izzy. I torch Barcelona and take the city-state just north of that.

At this point, I decide to start searching the world, and I find out that the other civs include Japan, The Iroquois and India. All of their capitals are on coasts, I have a major Iron surplus. I beeline right to Navigation and start producing Frigates and Privateers. Hiawatha falls first, followed by India and shortly after, Japan. I lost one ship. Not a bad way victory, kinda fun.

The battering ram is completely awesome, probably second to the Siege Tower in terms of fucking a city up early game.

Well, that's three games down on Prince!

[METALMAN]

Is battering ram a unique unit? Don't recall seeing it before.

[Sousa]

IMPORTANT UPDATE: Sweden still blows.

[Mick]

Is battering ram a unique unit? Don't recall seeing it before.

It is for the Huns, replaces the Spearman.

[Sousa]

Yeah, Attila is crazy fun if you get a lucky start and can just wail on someone early. He's very situational, but Mick got an ideal map for him.

[Mick]

I'd say where I got lucky was the separation I had with Spain only being through shallow water. I decided after I took that city-state that was on the same island to stop fucking with them, because I needed money and I didn't want to get drawn into a perpetual war with them.

I might try Assyria just for SIEGE TOWERS!

[Sousa]

Assyria is really fun, too. It's great because you basically don't have to worry about getting backfill techs at all; you can just roll straight down the bottom part of the tech tree, steamroll everyone, and get Compass and Optics and stuff like that without having to divert. Siege Towers are really good, but Treasures of Nineveh is what makes Assyria really great.

[Sousa]

IMPORTANT UPDATE #2: Egypt is still great.

[Pizza]

Emperor is very hard. I feel like I could keep up with a science friendly civ like Korea and a Great Library/National College beeline, but otherwise its going to take a lot of luck. The Greeks are on my continent with several city states, the Great Wall, Himeji Castle, an army that I can't put a dent in, and a very defensible location for Athens. I took Sparta via sneak attack but have been at a stalemate with them ever since. Hopefully upgrading my Impis to Rifles will make the difference.

[Mick]

No, no no, not in my house!

[Mick]

So, that game ended up with me winning by World Domination (out of boredom ); I could have won however I wanted, really, it was a run away. The only notable thing about it I noticed was that it seemed so goddamn easy that I thought I had set the game on Warlord by accident, but nope, Prince. I believe that's four. Conclusion: Poland is Best Land.

I think once I reach ten victories on Prince, then I'll make the jump to King.