Adv45, Jowy presents: WTF!

[Jowy]

Had my first adventure earlier this month Thx for the sponsor for finally luring me in! I had alot of fun for as long as it lasted lol. I didn't take any notes so this might be a bit vague report in details, but I did take a hundred screenshots atleast.

I went for a cultural approach, something I've never done in Civilization before. I picked The Eiffel Tower for it's free broadcast tower on all cities (+50% culture) and a happy face from the charismatic trait. The second wonder I picked was Sistine Chapel, which gives +2 culture from specialists and +5 culture from all state religion buildings. I thought that research boosting wonders will probably be better overall, even when going for a cultural win, but I wanted to go all out on culture and concentrate on that. Another decision I made was to play this as 3-city-challenge, again to focus on the culture (not a good decision competition-wise!).

I built some workboats first and had a slow start. My second city was founded on turn 44 and third on turn 60. I had alot of trouble with barbarians because I didn't have any metals, however Utica was founded on a horses resource to help me out.


Mild barbarian trouble.

I went with a specialist economy, hiring many on Carthage and Utica, but I cottaged Hadrumetum because I couldn't farm those lands until CS. Carthage was a huge scientist pump and I generated alot scientists throughout the game. Utica in the other hand was generating artists to settle (and bomb near the end). Hadrumetum really had to play catch-up on infrastructure for most of the game.


Hadrumentum early on, and one of the many war declarations to come. I popped whales one tile west of the clams soon after this screenshot.


The Main Event Mafia on 760 AD. Suffering from some health problems, soon to be removed after harbors and some trades kick in.

After I had researched the culture techs I thought I needed the most, I turned down the other glider and turned up the culture glider on full power. My scientists were still creating a good amount of beakers so I was able to achieve more techs just at the right pace so that I rarely had nothing useful to build.


Carthagian scientists and a weird Great Person pool. See, health problems gone!

I started to fall behind in pretty quickly as the Immortal AI's got their machines oiled. I had a pretty good diplomatic situation, no close neighbours thanks to my underexpansion, but some nice religious blocks to slide myself into. I did favours for the AI's, traded with them and agreed to their demands. This got me some very good positive modifiers with most of the people (IIRC Alexander was the one everyone hated, so he was the only one I wasn't really friendly with). There was some tension with Mali as they refused to talk to me for some hundred turns because I canceled trades with them. That actually got me very nervous, but the other modifiers and my (early) strength kept them off me.


Demos somewhere between T233-237. Justinian's power beats me by... over 1000%!


T241, this is what, World War XII?

It was then a nail-baiting race to legendary culture. There must have been some fifty wars declared during this game! My heart skipped a beat every time I heard the declaration sound, but over and over again it was someone else getting the short end of the stick. Not just that, but for pretty much the whole game I had a barbarian archer stuck on a beach surrounded by my culture, so I had the 'hostile enemies are near' sound every turn.


Muskets versus Rifles, who would have won? We'll never know! He walked through my lands to Mali. Must have really hated that Mansa Musa guy!
[SIZE="5"]
* Drum rolls *[/SIZE]


They all hit legendary culture in the range of 1 turn.

Against all odds, at 1822AD (turn 281), I achieved my first cultural victory!
Again, thank you for setting up the game! It was great fun! I really went into the game to just wet my feet in the ocean that is Epics and Adventures, so it was really a big surprise that I actually beat it. On immortal. Whoa! Maybe next time I'll pay more attention to details and remember to take notes.


Final screenshots on the cities before victory.


Here are some random / funny / weird screenshots!:


Alexander's reaction when he realises I have three cities by 1100AD.


Oh shit oh shit! Panic! He was already piling rifles on the border. A quick swap to Judaism and then Justinian/Louis dogpiling him got me off the hook.


Justinian feels so bad for me that he gifts me a tech! Never had that happen before! Little did he know that I would soon win the game right under his nose..


15 tanks, 5 anti-tanks, 22 infantry, 4 SAM infantry, 8 mobile SAM, 14 marines, 14 cavalry, 5 artilleries next door. I had a couple of muskets and some longbows.


Time spent: 2 hours, 13 minutes.

[T-hawk]

Awesome! Really, all the way to a culture victory on just three cities? Nicely done. Which means just one of each religious cathedral - how many religions did you have and how did you get them?

That's how I envisioned this scenario playing out - the Muse wonders providing just enough oomph to win on high nominal difficulty. Well done! I was hoping Eiffel would make for some cultural wins, and it sure made the difference for you. You managed the cities pretty well in the end - 600 culture per turn isn't the highest around, but pretty good for only being able to have one of each cathedral.

What you did was exactly how to win on high difficulty. Use diplomacy to keep yourself safe. You can do fine with no military at all while the AIs plow their bonuses into killing each other.

Were you racing against any AI win conditions (space, culture) or just against the possibility you might get attacked?

[Cull]

That was amazing. Even better is the fact that you did this game in under two and a half hours.

[Rowain]

Congrats

[darrelljs]

I'll echo the other comments...simply amazing . Again, a combo I didn't even consider, but a great date for Culture, on Immortal, as a 3CC. Nicely done!

Darrell

[Jowy]

how many religions did you have and how did you get them?

I wish I'd remember! From what I can tell from the screenshots, founded hinduism, had judaism spread by Egypt's missionaries and also had confucianism. I recall spreading some of these faiths myself for the buildings.

Were you racing against any AI win conditions (space, culture)?

Yeah kinda, Justinian was the powerhouse in my game. He had Ramesses and Mansa as his vassals and he was technologically superior to everyone else. However it wasn't really a close race, I won when he had two casings completed of his spaceship. I think that without the culture from the extra starting wonders, he would have won by either launching a spaceship or by domination.


Thanks for all the positive comments!

[novice]

I'll echo the other comments...simply amazing . Again, a combo I didn't even consider, but a great date for Culture, on Immortal, as a 3CC. Nicely done!

Darrell

+1

That was amazing. Even better is the fact that you did this game in under two and a half hours.

+1000

[RefSteel]

Wow ... wow! I'm embarassed to admit how much time I spent on my game (all of which was supposed to be spent doing more important things!) - winning in two and a quarter hours, and with just three cities ... that's amazing!