Epic 11 - haphazard1

[haphazard1]

Without further military conflict, I began focusing my efforts on culture accumulation in my big three and pushing through the tech tree. A key point was the completion of Assembly Line research, and the construction of factories and power plants throughout the empire. This was greatly facilitated in 1734 AD by the birth of a Great Engineer in Boston. I would have preferred a Great Artist (odds were about 25%), but the GE worked out well:



Thus began the Golden Age of Factory Construction. Here's an F1 shot from 1740 AD, a couple turns into the golden age:



You can't see the whole list of cities, but out of 26 cities total, 20 were building factories, with 2 more building forges. Three new (founded or captured) cities were building granaries, and Zhou was building a library. Not sure what was up with the people in THAT city.

Obviously, I place great value on the additional hammers available once Assembly Line is completed. Since you can turn hammers (directly or indirectly) into anything else you need, it just seems crazy not to prioritize factory construction in all but the weakest production cities. Admittedly, I was playing an Industrious civ, and already had cheap forges almost everywhere. And a golden age helped immensely as well. But I noticed as the game continued that even once they reached the appropriate tech, the AI civs waited and waited and waited before researching Steam Power and then Assembly Line. They were not at war during this time, so why weren't they pushing for this CRUCIAL tech and improvement? Is this normal behavior for the AI, or just something odd about this game? Maybe the aggressive AI setting affected this?

Anyway, I continued pushing forward with the plan. I finished Scientific Method and went for Biology to boost city growth (and artist specialists) further. A note here about Scientific Method -- one of my pet peeves in Civ IV is how researching Scientific Method, if you've built monastaries in key cities, actually REDUCES your total science output. It just totally makes no sense that this advance is something to put off as long as possible, because it will actually cut your beaker output.

In my case, I never went to Organized Religion (not having a state religion), so I had built monastaries widely throughout my empire. All three of my key culture cities had built 6 monastaries each (forgot to mention that I "acquired" Christianity from Russian cities), and many other cities had 2-4 apiece. My research per turn fell from ~1600 to just over 1200 when I finished Scientific Method, which was a big blow. I guess this is one more game mechanic pushing towards having a state religion and using organized religion to enable missionaries, but it seems poorly handled.

The discovery of Scientific Method also revealed 7 (!) sources of oil in my territory, 6 land and 1 sea. Another sigh of relief at having plenty of this key resource.

Once I finished Biology and triggered a growth boom in my cities, I went for Physics, Electricity, Radio, and Mass Media as a straight drive for the remaining cultural wonders. I planned to build these (or at least most of them) in Washington, with New York and Boston focusing on cathedrals. (Each had already built at least one, and would resume once factories and coal plants were done.) Boston had also built the Hermitage some time ago, as it was the cultural laggard among the big three.

1754 AD - New York generates another Great Artist, and he joins the others waiting to unveil their masterpieces.

A couple turns later I finish Physics, and find 4 sources of Uranium in my territory, including one at Washington. There is also one under Chicago -- no wonder so many inhabitants of the holy city are a little...odd.

I use the Great Scientist to lightbulb part of Electricity, saving about 3 turns. Again, I probably should have built an academy in Boston purely for the culture, but I was thinking I should accelerate getting those last culture wonders, especially the Eiffel Tower.

1776 AD - Electricity is completed and Radio started. Since it is almost Independence Day, this seemed a good year to step back and look at the state of things. First, the globe (and I have finally scouted and map traded for a full view):



Technology:



My push for the final culture wonders has left a couple things behind. Toku was the most advanced civ other than myself, and he pushed heavily for military techs. He would be the military leader through the end of the game.

My cities, with the big three starting to accumulate significant culture:



And my core cities with score displayed. I never could quite get to twice my nearest rival. Note the lumber mills everywhere -- this is the payoff from not chopping, and railroads will only boost it further.



Diplomatically, things were stable. Everyone but Peter was 'Pleased':



I'm not sure how people get the nice screenshots with all the modified displayed, but here's the standings: Peter -5, Huayna Capac +7, Monty +8, Temujin +9, and Toku +10. Note the defensive pact between Toku and Huayna.

[haphazard1]

The years flew by rapidly as peace reigned and culture accumulated:

1780 AD - Washington generated Great Artist #5 at ~60% odds.

1784 AD - Toku (yes, Toku!) offers a defensive pact! I agree, despite the universe seeming to tilt off-center.

The following turn, the Incas are the first to adopt Emancipation. I had no intention of abandoning Caste System, not with New York and San Francisco running 9 and 10 artists. Fortunately, I had oodles of happiness from resources and free religion + temples for multiple religions per city.

Resources were actually pretty ridiculous by this point. I had everything possible except clams and crabs (and aluminum from Industrialism was yet to come of course). Apparently there were so few clams and crabs that no civ had more than one, so it was never possible to trade for them. Maybe this was another effect of Sulla's tampering with the AI civs' starting positions? I bet Rome at least originally had more seafood resources.

I agreed to some very lopsided trade deals to maintain and boost diplomacy -- Biology to Toku for 30 gold, etc. Only Peter was rebuffed, as he was of no consequence anymore. Having him declare on me could have been amusing.

Once I finished Mass Media I went back for Railroads and my idle workers got busy again. Normally I push railroads earlier, but there was no need in this game and culture had to come first. Too bad the United Nations was disabled completely -- my population was 10 (!) times my nearest rivals, although that would shrink as the AI civs got biology tech. I could have pushed through some useful resolutions.

1810 AD - Great Artist #6 is born in San Francisco at low odds (<30%).

The following turn, Washington wraps up yet another wonder:



Toku also pulls a 4-way swap (ouch on the anarchy), and the Emancipation pressure grows. I continue to ignore it.

Rock-n-Roll is built in Seville (Washington had enough culture compared to the other two), and in 1815 AD Mecca wrapped up the final big item on the list:



Some quick calculations showed that even without further improvements, I was about 75 turns from victory -- 1890 AD, give or take a year. I could still advance that a bit, as Boston and New York each had two cathedrals left to build (having 4 built, with 6 religions in each city). It was not yet time to switch to building culture.

A couple American revolts occured in Greek cities (captured Spanish and Roman cities, not Greek core), but so far nothing had flipped.

I pushed through Refrigeration tech and started on Medicine. My biology-boosted cities needed more health. Here's a shot of St Louis in 1822 AD - remember it was only founded in 1712 AD.



+25 food surplus! A size 18 city growing about every 2 turns; St Louis was ridiculous, but tremendous fun to watch.

1824 AD - Temujin became the fourth AI civ to adopt Emancipation (Alex had done so a few years earlier). The penalty in my largest cities was up to +9 unhappiness, but it really didn't matter. Here's a shot of Washington -- 50 happy faces!



Note the railroaded lumber mills - hammers galore! If there had been military conflict at this stage of the game, I could have swarmed under my opponents. Most of my cities were building wealth or research at this stage, with only Atlanta (West Point + Ironworks) still pumping units to keep my relative strength score high enough to deter attack.

1826 AD - New York generates Great Artist #7! I noticed at this point that the GPP required for each great person was now climbing by 300 per instance, rather than 150. I wasn't aware this happened, but I've never generated so many great people in one game before.

Also this turn, Greek-controlled Barcelona revolted and joined my empire. Poor Alex was getting crushed by my culture, and would eventually lose two more cities to flips.

The following turn, Damascus completed the scenario namesake:



1828 AD - Boston finished its 6th cathedral and switches to building culture. The final drive to victory is on.

1834 AD - New York finishes its 6th cathedral and switches to building culture.

1842 AD - I finish Artillery and perform a mass upgrade of catapults (I never had any cannon). Spend 5850 gold to upgrade 13 units - OUCH! It's a nice jump in power, but damn upgrades are expensive.

I continue working through techs - Plastics, Rocketry, etc. - and building wonders. The Kremlin and Three Gorges, national wonders for Scotland Yard, Mt Rushmore, Red Cross. I had cities sitting mostly idle, so why not? Plus it keeps the world wonders away from rivals.

1856 AD - Great Artist #8 is born in Washington! Quick calculations show that I will not get another great person before the game ends. Washington builds a Buddhist Stupa to help synchronize my three cities to hit legnedary status on the same turn, with the help of the Great Artists of course.

The next turn, Pisae flips and joins my empire. As it is the Taoist holy city, I finally acquire the seventh religion. Way too late to be meaningful...if only I had been a tiny bit quicker on Philosophy.



Here's a quick look at Toledo -- Alex was really getting crushed by my culture:



Small chance of revolt even with the pile of units Alex has in the city. But it didn't flip before the end.

Finally, in 1867 the long-sleeping Great Artists are awakened and unveil their works -- 4 each in Boston and New York. End turn, and the game is over:



Cultural victory, hall of fame score 30420, Augustus Caesar.

The scenario points are at the top of this thread. From Sulla's wrap up, I apparently got 3 scenario points for third fastest finish (not including his much faster shadow win, of course). I'm surprised by that, given that I hadn't played a cultural victory before, and made several blunders which probably cost me 10 to 20 turns overall. Not going to mercantilism for the extra artist specialist slowed me down, and I maybe even should have swapped to Pacifism to boost Great Artist growth further. I had the money to spare, even with over 100 military units, as I was running +280 gold/turn with 80% research and 20% science. (Check that last victory screen grab.) My Wall Street/Bank/Grocer/Market holy shrine with 54 cities, plus lots of cities building wealth, made for heaps of gold. And one or two more great artists would have shaved a dozen turns or so off my final time, going into New York and Boston while Washington could have built another cathedral or two. I held off on those because it was ahead of the other two anyway.

This was a tremendously fun game, and I learned a lot both playing and reading others' reports Many thanks once again to Sulla for sponsoring, and to all the RBCiv community. Wonder if I can squeeze in Adventure 20 before the deadline?

[Michelangelo]

That's some serious work on a report, 5 days if I count correctly. I'm not claiming I've read it all (it's massive ), but from what I've read you had great fun playing and reporting.

Well played and congratulations on the 3th place for fast finishes.

[haphazard1]

Thanks, Michaelangelo! This was a fun game, and I was surprised I ended up 3rd fastest (not counting Sulla's shadow). I thought I would be much later than everyone, as I had no cathedrals at all in 1502 AD, but the backloading of culture into the late game is even greater than I originally thought. Plus the 8 great artists, of course.

I did the report in two chunks, several days apart (due to work eating my life), but only spent a couple hours on each chunk. This was my first game report, and I'm thinking now I went overboard on it. I'll try to be more concise next time, really I will.

Any thoughts on the report itself -- too long, too short, too many screen grabs, too few, not focusing on the right stuff? I would like to improve, so any feedback you care to offer is appreciated!