Swiss plays Khmer

[Swiss Pauli]

Epic 13 – Potluck

In the previous potluck game, I steamrolled to a Domination victory, so this time round I fancy a peaceful win.

C’mere

The dice roll has landed me with Suryvaraman of the Khmer. Slightly disappointing, as he’s one of the two civs in the list with whom I’ve completed a BtS game. His CRE and EXP traits make for a reasonable culture win combo, and the Baray’s 1 extra food has a pleasant synergy with the latter trait, so let’s go get some Legendary cities. The Pangaea map (yup, I didn’t read the signup thread properly) might make for interesting times: land-grab and border tensions could cause some (un)welcome complications.

The New

The settler starts out on a tile that will block off the fish two tiles southwest, so it gets moved 1 tile west, founding Yaso on turn zero. This spot has huge amounts of food and looks good for a Globe Theatre/National Epic combo. Unusual for a capital, but not unheard of.




The jungle to the north doesn’t look so enticing, but I’ve already got those coastal elephants lined up for city 2. With Fish and two freshwater lakes, it should be able to work that gold and still grow strongly.

Who do you think?

On turn 4, I pop a hut and get a scout. I was training one anyway, but on this map (Pangaea in my head, at least) the more the merrier. A few turns later I pop a map and meet Justinian. The map reveals the FP-rich Dutch lands. Hmmm. If he can make the most of them, Willem could grow powerful indeed.

Once Fishing is in, it’s on to AH for cows and to locate horses. I pop a hostile, but see him off. I meet Willem, pop three hostiles (with a lion there too), and someone founds Buddhism. Justinian, of course. My warrior died, but took out the lion and a warrior.

Thus far, I’ve been scouting to the north and northeast, but I meet Hammurabi on turn 16 and seems to lie to my east. AH comes in, and the ponies are out of reasonable range, so BW is next. Hindu is FIDL. Somewhat to my surprise, it’s Willem and not Pacal, whom I meet a few turns later.

Obstacle 1

I’ve scouted out the land immediately beyond the Jumbo square, and the planned city would also get an FP and river cows in its BFC. Woo and yay. I’ve timed a settler to complete just after BW, in case of a need to detour to grab some copper, but there’s none in range. So Archery is now on the priority list. As we start with Hunting, this isn’t too terrible.





Workboat is the obvious initial build, but first a turn of anarchy whilst we adopt Slavery (I should have done this while the settler was is transit for max efficiency, but ho hum).

The worker gets whipped and after Agri then Archery is researched. An event in 2350 BC gives me 13 beakers (1 turn’s output) towards the wheel. Could be a lot worse, seeing as those Dutchies suffered a research setback earlier.


The third city was a tricky one: as you can see below, the north is covered in jungle, so it’s between a plains hill with Corn and an FP, and a cows, two spice site to the south. I decide that the southern site is a bit too close to the aggressive Hammurabi for comfort, and I don’t want to risk losing a jumbo source.





Joao’s borders are also visible to the east of Hammurabi, as are the very edges of Byzantine and Dutch lands. Scouting informs me that Justinian has muscled in on the FPs, so maybe Willem’s wings will be clipped.


Obstacle 2

I lack Copper, Marble & Stone, which are the Cathedral accelerators. I’ve already got Ivory and Gold at hand, so I can grow large (aided by HR) and whip Cathedrals when they come into play. NE and Hermitage will be slow builds, too, and Sistene will take more or less forever. The Oracle will be very helpful as it will allow me to found Confucianism and whilst I lack Marble, I can’t see any in the lands I’ve scouted so far either, so with Hari’s production and plentiful forests, I think I can get it with 3 cities, seeing as there’s no IND Civs around.





Hammy has founded Akkad, so I made the right choice of sites. I tech through Priesthood and Writing and then switch to Pottery whilst waiting for the Oracle to be chopped to completion.




Confucianism is founded in Hari, and the missionary is sent to Hammy, as I plan to get on his good side. I’ve come up against him before, and one good thing about him is that close borders don’t bother him too much, which is very convenient as I’ll being crushing his borders heavily.

Soon after the Oracle is complete, I meet Zara and Sitting Bull to complete the list.

[Swiss Pauli]

Pace is the Trick




That jungle is deterring me from founding cities, but Justinian forces my hand somewhat by looking to settle aggressively into the jungle. Damn that IMP trait of his:




His Settler pair is on the dyes, and I rush another settler to claim the gems:







IW had revealed Iron by Angkor Thom, which is turning into a production beast, so I’m contemplating taking some cities from Justinian by force, seeing as he lacks copper, is hugely annoying to boot, and IMP Civs’ rate of expansion can sometimes leave themselves a little stretched military. Which just about ends my contemplation ôn this subject: it shall be!

Willem is first to Alphabet, for which I trade him CoL. Aside from anything else, this allows me to give into demands from Joao and Hammy for Poly. Justinian seals his fate by stealing another site I had in mind:




I’m in no desperate rush, so I build Statoo of Zoos in Yaso for the artist points, and Shwedagon Paya in Hari for the prophet points, after the Oracle prophet allowed me to build Kong Meeow in 95BC, boosting my economy considerably as Confucianism has spread like wildfire.

In 115 AD, I receive a quest: National Sports League. Seven Colosseums by Modern Era at latest, with an extra reward possibility if I own Zoos on completion. Seeing as they’re half-price to CRE Civs, this seems very easy indeed.


The Heinrich Maneuver









I wait a few turns before making peace in the hope he might give me a tech, but when he refuses to yield HBR, I call it quits. I have the ‘magic’ nine that will allow me a cathedral in each of my Legends (and 4 religions already) so it’s time to press on to Music.

Slow Hands

To speed my passage, I sell off Aesthetics for nearly 500g and get a handy 305g cashback on Hanging Gardens when Joao completes it. Music is duly discovered and the Artist is sent to settle in Raja. Why Raja? Well the two gems make for prime slider abuse material and I want Angkor Thom to use its huge production for things like The Parthenon, Eiffel Tower, Heroic Epic and troops. The map is a bit crowded, you know.

I’ll hand-research Philo next as Taoism is unclaimed. As I’m not founding any more cities and all mine have religion, it’ll go in Hari for a Janus. I’m sure to get another GP for the shrine, too, because of the Prophet points there. Hari, meanwhile, will slog through Sistene for the next umpteen turns - started turn 198.

I took a break at this point, having made a few notes, but my brain can’t have been in gear when I resumed:




Must have been in Warlords mode :blush: That’s my excuse anyway. I check, and only Sitting Bull has marble and he was very backward. Pacal hasn’t any GE wonders so I should be fine, in spite of my gaffe.

Our Love To Admire
Taoism is founded and I complete Parthenon on consecutive turns. The extra 50% GPP will let me run Org Rel for construction bonuses, rather than Pacifism for the Artists. Drama’s the obvious next choice and when I complete it I splurge a huge wedding gift on Hammurabi. He’s now Friendly (+15, natch), and Joao is Friendly too, so my back is covered.

Time to tech on to Philo, whilst building the Globe Theatre (NE already completed), and finishing that stupid Chapel. Get a move on, Michaelangelo, stick men would be fine, y’know. Finally:




And the Dai Tomorrow on the same turn. Wunderbra.

Elsewhere, the Goths are revolting (aren’t they always?), and I’ve researched CS and adopted the Big B. Willem is teching at a good clip, as are Zara and Pacal, but they aint got Philo and I aint given it to ‘em, so there.

[Swiss Pauli]

A Time to be So Small

I decide to grab Nationalism to get to work on the Hermitage in Raja, which will be another long build, given my lack of marble. On completion of the Globe, I decide to move my Palace to Hari. Set Yaso to max artists (five).




Ahem. Time to spam myself Hindu and block their AP shenanigans. With my pop, I expect to be able to block an AP diplo win.






Completed the Quest and elected the culture boost. A GA seemed less powerful, and though the text hints at repeated GAs (‘periodic sporting events’), I think they’d have to been pretty damned frequent to beat 4 base cpt in this context.


Let Me Take You on a Cruise

Liberalism was completed in 1200 taking Nationalism as planned, and Free Speech is adopted. All is going swimmingly, when a funny thing happened on the way to the theatre: Willem asked to be my vassal, first in 1220, then again in 1300, by which time I’ve converted him to Confucianism. I tech on towards Radio (via Biology), an in 1390 I notice Willem has converted to Free Religion.




The only AI that doesn’t like him is Sitting Bull, so I do something unusual and take him as my pet, errr, Vassal. By this stage, I’ve completed Oxford (T288), Hermitage (T290), and started on Biology (T297). As the title of the section indicates, this is panning out very favourably indeed.

Willem tried for a AP diplo win and failed by 112 votes. I controlled 122. Sorry, Will. I further abuse my vassal by taking his stone and directing him to military techs (Steel, Rifling) with a sidetrack to Democracy.

EPs reveal a Dutch colony with Marble and Copper in its fat cross, but no workers. I send some over and road it up and let Will connect the marble before demanding it. Joao had control of the Copper tile, but I roaded it and blagged it from him (and later traded it after he cancelled.)

Wall Street is completed in 1680, and USUF and Emancipation had been adopted a dozen turns previously, so we’re in the stretch and ready to rushbuy. After completing Radio, I wondered about whether to try for a UN diplo win, seeing as I’m remarkably well-loved. After twenty turns of low research rushbuying of Cathedrals and sundry culture buildings, I decide to end the charade and whack up the slider to 80% culture and adopt Pacifism, now that Eiffel is complete (and the expected Great Engineer was born a Great Artist).

Turn on the Bright Lights

Gradually the slider gets bumped up from 80 to 90 as more cities finish cannon and switch to wealth. A few turns later, I can up to 100% culture, with Angkor Thom pumping 2 Rifles every 3 turns.












I did micro these a bit to improve cultural output (I think Raja was about 1200cpt), but thereafter it’s a question of standing back, bombing the remaining Artists and admiring my handiwork. In 1788, Yaso goes Legendary, in 1792 it’s Raja’s turn, and finally, Hari in 1794. A tidy 6 turn spread between first and last.




Behold the Wonders I didn’t bother with:





I thought this map would have led to quite a bit of , but I started the only war of the game! I finished up 4th in military which is quite respectable, and yet more secure when Willem’s soldiers are added in.