Crenor's E13: Native Americans

[Crenor]

So I guess the exciting thing about getting the save for a potluck game is that I get to find out
which civ I get to play. There are a lot of good civs in this game. I was hoping to get the Dutch
or Mayans, but the Khmer, Portugal, or Ethiopia would be good too. My least favorite of all the
civs would have to be the native americans, due to Sitting Bull’s traits. First, he is protective,
which I believe to be the worst trait in the game. He is also Philosophical, which is a good trait.
However, I like building a lot of cottages and don’t assign many specialists, so I don’t find it very
useful.

Anyway, I get the e-mail and of course I ended up with the Native Americans. Ugh! Well,
maybe I can put the philosophical trait to good use by going for a cultural victory. If I can find
Marble, then I can build a lot of wonders that generate great artist points and 10 culture per turn,
with the Sistine Chapel and the Parthenon being the most important of them for a cultural
victory. If not, I guess I can go for a space race win. By the way, this is my first Monarch game,
so don’t judge me too harshly.



I open up the save and find that I have TWO warriors. What’s with that? Oh well, I play the
hand I’m dealt. Maybe they are compensation for my poor traits. I move both of them to nearby
hills so I can see more terrain near my settler. I’m not happy with the starting position of my
settler. Founding one square off a river in BTS is a no-no in my opinion. I move the settler NE
and found on the flood plain. With all the hills and river squares, this city could be a good
Ironworks city. I select a worker for the first build and animal husbandry as the first tech, as I
have a cow near my capital.




In 3775 BC one of my warriors discoverers marble, so I decide for sure to go for a cultural
victory. Philosophical for many great artists and marble for fast wonders should make for a
relatively quick cultural win. I also get lucky with the free techs from goody huts:





Also, Copper is located in the cross of Cahokia! I’m not going to rush, and even without the
variant rules I wouldn’t rush. However, it’s good to know that I have some, and it will increase
the production of Cahokia. Also, after completing Animal Husbandry, I notice that horses are
two squares north of Cahokia’s fat cross.

I meet Ethiopia in 3475 BC, and they are very close, SE of me.



After completing my worker, I start on a settler so I can get a city in the flood plains between
myself and Zara before he does.

In 3100 BC I get a powerful bonus to my melee units:



Poverty Point founded in 2900 BC. Note where my border with Ethiopia is now, because it's
going to change.



Stonehenge completed in 2200 BC.



I go for Monotheism to try to found Judaism, and miss by 1 turn:



However, this is not a major setback. I complete the Oracle in Cahokia in 1350 BC and take
CoL, which gives me Confucianism in Mound City, my third cultural city.



Then, in 1225 BC, I use my first Great Prophet to lightbulb Theology and found Christianity in
Poverty Point.



In 925 BC I meet the Maya. You can also see where I put my fourth city, Chaco Canyon, which
will be my military city.



After researching Alphabet, I make this deal with Pacal, which is the first of many tech trades
between myself and the Maya:



In 600 BC I convert to Christianity, partly because I need the extra culture it gives me to secure
Poverty Points borders, but mostly because it has rapidly spread to other civs, so both Zara and
Pacal have adopted it as their state religion. I use my next Prophet to build Church of the
Nativity in PP, which further helps my cultural struggle in PP, which is built next to the capital of
a creative leader. I meet the rest of the civilizations and by the Ad turnover I have 6 cities and
have run out of room to expand in every direction except for a piece of land to the NW.

In 25 AD my lone dog soldier gets shock to add to its cover:



During the next 1000 years or so I start building up my culture. Cahokia has a lot of culture
already in it due to the ancient wonders of Stonehenge and the Oracle, but I do build the
Apostolic Palace there. I build the Parthenon, the Sistine Chapel, and the MoM in Poverty Point.
I run a few artists and build the national epic and Confucian Shrine in Mound City, which has a
lot of extra food. (Clams, cows, and rice) I also settle all of my great artists in Mound City. I get
my economy running by cottaging my all of my cities except for Chaco Canyon. I adopt HR,
Bureaucracy, Slavery, and Pacifism as soon as I discover the techs for them.

In 970 AD I make my first major blunder:



I planned to build a city that would have FOUR food resources where I have the marker, but a
barb city appears there and Zara takes it before I can. I really should have settled here sooner, but
I was busy building up my culture and my economy. I found Islam in PP and build its building
soon after. In 1000 AD I get banking in a trade with Pacal and switch to Mercantilism and to
Caste System. Here is mound city in 1020 AD:



I get a useful random event in 1130 AD:



In 1240 AD I am the first to Liberalism and I take Printing Press for the additional commerce:



Here is my cultural progress so far:



Cahokia is still the highest culture, but its culture rate is way below the other cities, so I build the
Hermitage there. Here is the city in 1375:



In 1420 I get a major disturbance:





Sury decides to come after me, even though I’m on the other side of the world. This is one thing
I don’t like about the civ 4 AI. That is, how they will often come after the player even if the
player is very far from them. Sury doesn’t like me very much, mostly because he’s made a lot of
demands, and I haven’t given in to any of them. He has 15 units outside of Snaketown, and I
only have 3 inside. However, they are all longbowmen and crossbowmen with drill 1 and CG 3.
It’s time to put the protective trait and the Totem Pole to the test. I do move 2 more longbowmen
into snaketown from other cities. I Also start building Musketmen to help in the defense.

In a completely unrelated note, I get my first culture flip:



Anyway, back to the war. After three turns, Sury attacks and I get him down to five units, but he
kills three of my defenders.



Note the macemen that are running away. Weird. Anyway, Sury
manages to take Snaketown despite the army mismanagement the next turn.



Part two to follow later....

[Crenor]

One thing I forgot in my last post was to mention that I adopted Free Speech when I got
Liberalism (this should be obvious).

So the war looks bad at this point, but I bride Zara to enter the war. I could also bride Pacal, but I
don’t want to be giving him any more techs as he has a tech lead on me. I decide to build rifles
in my three culture cities and trebs in my military city and then use them to retake snaketown.
Before I can do that, however, Sury sends his diminished stack to Cahokia. I’m not really
worried about him taking the city, but I am worried about him pillaging, so I propose peace to the
Apostolic Palace when the vote comes up:



Interestingly, Suryvarman is now a part of the AP since he has my Christian city. Even more
strangely, everyone, including him, votes to end the war:



I realize that I’m not doing too well on the military front here, but there are reasons for that. The
most important is that I am Friendly with both of my direct neighbors, so I am not expecting an
invasion. Usually the AI doesn’t wage distant wars this early in the game. Also, I’m protective,
so I thought I was ok with a light defensive military. In retrospect, I should have put a lot more
defenders in Snaketown, as it’s the obvious first city for any invasion from a civ other than
Ethiopia.

Losing Snaketown is not that bad, as it was only a minor research city. However, I keep the plan
to retake it when I get more rifles and trebs built. Just before I am ready to attack, the AP vote
comes up again, and I choose to try to assign the city to me. Meanwhile, Zara is sieging
Snaketown with a stack of his own units. I’m afraid that he will take the city, so I consider trying
to take it first, but I eventually decide to see what happens with the vote.



This turns out to be a poor decision. Zara takes Snaketown on the following interturn, and the
AP vote fails because Sury voted “never!” I find it ironic that Sury voted never even though he
lost the city, and Zara voted yes even though he captured the city. Anyway, unless I get another
vote to assign the city to myself, it looks like I won’t get control of Snaketown again. I’m not
able to go to the trouble of declaring war on one of my closest allies.

I switch to Rep about this time, and I realize I should have switched earlier. I was planning on
going to Universal Sufferage, but my tech rate was slowing down, so I decided that getting 3
beakers/turn from all my artists and settled great artists would give me a needed boost.

Here is my cultural victory progress in 1595:



Since it looks like I won’t get Snaketown back, and I have unused tiles anyway, I found
Nacogdoches in 1630.




Pacal has switched away from Christianity to Buddhism, which Justinian has put in just about
every city in the world (he tends to do that). I build missionaries in my other city with the name I
forgot, and then bride Pacal back to Christianity so he will ignore the WFYABTA limit. He is
about even with me in tech, but he isn’t going to get a cultural victory, so I figure trading with
him, as well as with Willem and Zara will help me win earlier, but not risk a loss. We are only in
the mid-Industrial Age right now. As a side-note, I must say that I’m not accustomed to the AI
keeping up with me in tech. I usually get a decent tech lead in my Prince games. However, the
AI tech bonus actually works in my favor, as I can befriend them and get them to trade me their
techs. Finally, I can win a cultural victory before anyone else can win a Space Race Victory.

I beeline for Electricy, Radio, and Mass Media for the cultural wonders, even skipping important
techs like Railroad. I build Broadway, the eiffel tower, and Hollywood in Cahokia, which needs
cultural help the most, and I build Rock n’ Roll in Mound City. Poverty Point has poor
production but is also my best science and gold city, so its production is used up by building
Oxford and Wall Street. I do settle a few great artists in it though.

Here is a nice event that I get in 1754:



I get my second Ethiopian city to flip to me in 1782:



Here is my civ in 1796:



In 1808 I decide to found Civilized Jewelers in Poverty Point, and then spread it to Cahokia and
Mound City. I have one of each type of gem in my borders, and I trade some musicals and
singles to other civs to get their surplus gems, silver, and gold. This is the first time I have
founded a corporation in BTS, as I usually run state property.



In 1820, the CAPITOL of Ethiopia flips to me, thanks to all the culture in Poverty Point:



Anyway, my cultural victory is almost at hand. I replace a few towns in my three cultural cities
with farms so that I can run more artists in these cities. Technological progress isn’t too
important at this point. Note that I don’t increase the culture slider, which I could do. However,
I feel that replacing towns with farms and then running more artists is a more precise method of
increasing culture, as it allows the rest of my cities (that don’t need culture) to continue gaining
science. Unfortunately, in my game, I have few other science cities, due to previously mentioned
incidents.

Here is mound city a few turns before victory. Its production is horrible, but it is running at least
8 artists and it has 7 settled great artists.



Finally, here is my capitol the turn before I win. It is slightly behind the other cities in culture,
but Miles Davis will take care of that with a great work.



In 1854 I win a cultural victory (and I get a silly random event). This is my fastest cultural
victory by quite a large margin, but I don’t go for cultural victory much. I also think that the
faster tech rate on Monarch helped me win a bit faster. I wonder if anyone else who is playing
the Native Americans will go for a cultural win. If you ask me, the Philosophical leader trait
combined with the close marble is just begging for the player to go for culture.

Here are a few replay shots:

I found the first second city in the game:



BC-AD crossover. Most of the land is used, although the Dutch did a horrible job at early
expansion (as did I, although I have a lot of land).



Ethiopia takes the barb city:



I lose Snaketown:



Final Map. That large island to the east of the continent is just begging for Joao to settle by using
his Carracks. However, in my game, he didn’t do that. Willem got astronomy very early and
settled the whole island himself, which gave him enough to be the highest scoring civ at the end
of the game, although I led in score the whole time up to that point.



Demographics:



Top 5 cities (I have the top 3!):



Anyway, I have to say that this was a fun game, especially considering that I made the most of a
leader with, IMO, rather poor traits. However, I do think that the Native Americans have the
most expanding room of all the civs, and the best overall start, except for the Dutch (so many
flood plains!). I wasn’t able to use all of this starting room, but I had enough for a cultural
victory, and I did flip about half of the Ethiopian homeland!

If anyone has any constructive criticisms of my game (or my report), they will be appreciated.
This is only my second RB civ event, and my first on monarch. In particular, how could I
improve my cultural victory strategies? Should I have expanded earlier and built a larger army at
the expense of early culture buildings and wonders? What about running US instead of
representation?