I am not a very good Civ player. I usually play at Prince level, and win most of the time, but Monarch is a bit above my capabilities. Desert Domination seemed just about right for me, so I decided to try it. I did manage to win the game, under the specified conditions, with a Domination victory in 1927. That is rather late (I would not be surprised to get the consolation prize for the latest finisher), but I am content that I at least managed to finish.
I decided to follow the scenario's suggestion to build a monk economy. My initial goal was to found three cities, and get a religion for each of them. These cities should be my economic power houses, and the rest of the civilization should rest on them.
I founded Mecca two tiles to the west of the initial position, to get rid of the two mountains, and immediately set research to Meditation. I also started on a settler from the get-go, for the second city. My warrior started exploring to find a nice site for the second city, and the first hut that popped was a scout, who got the same duty. Several more huts provided basic income, some barbarians, and the Masonry tech. Mecca founded Buddhism.
I decided to found the second city, Medina, pretty far to the south, on the eastern border of the river, catching the gold and the cows, and one oasis. Normally I try to place my initial cities a bit closer together, but I did not want to lose the gold in this game, and I could not really waste a lot of money on several small cities close together. Medina became the holy city for Hinduism. I founded Damascus to the east of Mecca, in between the two rivers. Judaism went to Medina again, but Damascus got Confucianism. My three holy cities were in place.
In the meantime I had met my opponents, and the first enemy was clear: Napoleon. Not only because he tends to be an enemy in every game, but also because Hinduism spread to him, while I had decided on Confucianism as my religion, and spread that to Catherine, Washington, and Frederick. I made Open Borders pacts with my three friends, and traded lots of stuff with them, but I ignored all pleas from Napoleon to do the same with him.
While I had my eye on my first enemy, I decided not to attack early in the game, out of fear that I would grow my empire too big too quick, and that I would not be able to raise the cash needed to support all the conquered cities, thereby losing the game after France had been eradicated. Perhaps I was too cautious in this respect (out of a lack of experience with early wars): I expect that other players will go for an early war and thus win the game much quicker.
I captured Parthian from the barbarians, west of Medina, south of Mecca, in the mountain area. I founded Baghdad to the east of Damascus, right of the river along the coast, and Narjan south of Baghdad, to squeeze the French. For some reason, when I founded Taoism and Christianity, both went to Medina again, but Islam went to Parthian. Now I had four holy cities, and controlled all religions. It had not been my intention to get all religions, but somehow it worked out that way.
By 1500 AD, the land was more or less divided, the north-east part of the map was mine, I was great friends with the Russians, Americans, and Germans, and had my economy going strong. I did not suffer much from the lack of courthouses, although I made sure that I got Versailles in Medina (close to the map's centre, could be important later), founded all holy buildings, and spread almost all religions to many cities. Now I had to think about getting that Domination victory. Obviously, the first target was France. I declared on Napoleon in 1520.
The fight against the French was fairly easy, me using mainly Cavalry and Catapults against French melee troops. Frederick joined the fun, which was actually not what I wanted, out of fear that he would become too big. Clearly, he would be my second target. By 1620 AD, the French empire was destroyed, and I controlled most of the east of the map, apart from the far south-east corner where the Russians had a base. I had razed two or three of Napoleon's cities, because I thought they were too close together, and I did not want to waste money on supporting them.
While Napoleon had been behind in tech, Frederick was fairly equal to me, so I decided to first build some more troops and wait for attacking him until I was close to building tanks. In 1802 I felt ready, and declared on Frederick. I captured Dusseldorf quickly, but after that I could not really make any progress. The Russians joined in, making Frederick fight on two fronts, which helped a little. It was not until 1858, however, when I had half-a-dozen tanks available, that I started to make progress again, and by 1882 Germany was gone. I had razed some of Frederick's cities too, but still controlled most of former Germany. Unfortunately, Catherine had also profited from this war by capturing Essen and Dortmund. While I was close to a Domination victory, I still needed to capture a few more cities.
Since I had a Defensive pact with Catherine, and since the power of the Americans was clearly less than the Russians (even though they were ahead in score), I decided first to bribe Catherine to attack Washington (fairly cheap too, I just needed to give her Radio), and after George had moved some of his troops, I declared in 1888 on the Americans (requested by Catherine).
I needed to build bombers and artillery to mow down American defenses and some Infantry to hold cities, but besides those I almost exclusively built tanks. By 1927, I gained a Domination victory, having reduced the Americans to one city (San Francisco - which I had just visited the week before, so I was a bit averse to attacking it). By this time, Catherine had built her first spaceship part, but was still far from a spaceship victory. Final score: 21125.
Surprisingly, despite the complete lack of Courthouses, and the limits on Markets, Banks, and Grocers, money was not an issue during this game. I had research at 100% for almost the whole game. I switched to 90% for a short while during the time I was at war, to raise cash to upgrade some units. After the war with the Germans I set it to 50%, while culture was set to 40%, to make conquered cities grow faster to reach the required land mass size. By that time I did not need research anymore, but cash flow was still no problem.
I had played a few of the adventures before, but never finished them, either because I lacked the time, or because I did not care for the direction in which the game was going. I liked Desert Domination for several reasons. First, it was a pretty short game; I needed about eight hours of gameplay. Second, it required me to do something I am usually not going for, namely turn a well-oiled economic and scientific powerhouse into a warmongering state; in games like these I normally go for a spaceship or cultural victory. Third, I thought the restrictions of the scenario where interesting, but not overly limiting; that obviously makes Desert Domination gentle as an adventure, and frankly, that is about where my capabilities end.
I decided to follow the scenario's suggestion to build a monk economy. My initial goal was to found three cities, and get a religion for each of them. These cities should be my economic power houses, and the rest of the civilization should rest on them.
I founded Mecca two tiles to the west of the initial position, to get rid of the two mountains, and immediately set research to Meditation. I also started on a settler from the get-go, for the second city. My warrior started exploring to find a nice site for the second city, and the first hut that popped was a scout, who got the same duty. Several more huts provided basic income, some barbarians, and the Masonry tech. Mecca founded Buddhism.
I decided to found the second city, Medina, pretty far to the south, on the eastern border of the river, catching the gold and the cows, and one oasis. Normally I try to place my initial cities a bit closer together, but I did not want to lose the gold in this game, and I could not really waste a lot of money on several small cities close together. Medina became the holy city for Hinduism. I founded Damascus to the east of Mecca, in between the two rivers. Judaism went to Medina again, but Damascus got Confucianism. My three holy cities were in place.
In the meantime I had met my opponents, and the first enemy was clear: Napoleon. Not only because he tends to be an enemy in every game, but also because Hinduism spread to him, while I had decided on Confucianism as my religion, and spread that to Catherine, Washington, and Frederick. I made Open Borders pacts with my three friends, and traded lots of stuff with them, but I ignored all pleas from Napoleon to do the same with him.
While I had my eye on my first enemy, I decided not to attack early in the game, out of fear that I would grow my empire too big too quick, and that I would not be able to raise the cash needed to support all the conquered cities, thereby losing the game after France had been eradicated. Perhaps I was too cautious in this respect (out of a lack of experience with early wars): I expect that other players will go for an early war and thus win the game much quicker.
I captured Parthian from the barbarians, west of Medina, south of Mecca, in the mountain area. I founded Baghdad to the east of Damascus, right of the river along the coast, and Narjan south of Baghdad, to squeeze the French. For some reason, when I founded Taoism and Christianity, both went to Medina again, but Islam went to Parthian. Now I had four holy cities, and controlled all religions. It had not been my intention to get all religions, but somehow it worked out that way.
By 1500 AD, the land was more or less divided, the north-east part of the map was mine, I was great friends with the Russians, Americans, and Germans, and had my economy going strong. I did not suffer much from the lack of courthouses, although I made sure that I got Versailles in Medina (close to the map's centre, could be important later), founded all holy buildings, and spread almost all religions to many cities. Now I had to think about getting that Domination victory. Obviously, the first target was France. I declared on Napoleon in 1520.
The fight against the French was fairly easy, me using mainly Cavalry and Catapults against French melee troops. Frederick joined the fun, which was actually not what I wanted, out of fear that he would become too big. Clearly, he would be my second target. By 1620 AD, the French empire was destroyed, and I controlled most of the east of the map, apart from the far south-east corner where the Russians had a base. I had razed two or three of Napoleon's cities, because I thought they were too close together, and I did not want to waste money on supporting them.
While Napoleon had been behind in tech, Frederick was fairly equal to me, so I decided to first build some more troops and wait for attacking him until I was close to building tanks. In 1802 I felt ready, and declared on Frederick. I captured Dusseldorf quickly, but after that I could not really make any progress. The Russians joined in, making Frederick fight on two fronts, which helped a little. It was not until 1858, however, when I had half-a-dozen tanks available, that I started to make progress again, and by 1882 Germany was gone. I had razed some of Frederick's cities too, but still controlled most of former Germany. Unfortunately, Catherine had also profited from this war by capturing Essen and Dortmund. While I was close to a Domination victory, I still needed to capture a few more cities.
Since I had a Defensive pact with Catherine, and since the power of the Americans was clearly less than the Russians (even though they were ahead in score), I decided first to bribe Catherine to attack Washington (fairly cheap too, I just needed to give her Radio), and after George had moved some of his troops, I declared in 1888 on the Americans (requested by Catherine).
I needed to build bombers and artillery to mow down American defenses and some Infantry to hold cities, but besides those I almost exclusively built tanks. By 1927, I gained a Domination victory, having reduced the Americans to one city (San Francisco - which I had just visited the week before, so I was a bit averse to attacking it). By this time, Catherine had built her first spaceship part, but was still far from a spaceship victory. Final score: 21125.
Surprisingly, despite the complete lack of Courthouses, and the limits on Markets, Banks, and Grocers, money was not an issue during this game. I had research at 100% for almost the whole game. I switched to 90% for a short while during the time I was at war, to raise cash to upgrade some units. After the war with the Germans I set it to 50%, while culture was set to 40%, to make conquered cities grow faster to reach the required land mass size. By that time I did not need research anymore, but cash flow was still no problem.
I had played a few of the adventures before, but never finished them, either because I lacked the time, or because I did not care for the direction in which the game was going. I liked Desert Domination for several reasons. First, it was a pretty short game; I needed about eight hours of gameplay. Second, it required me to do something I am usually not going for, namely turn a well-oiled economic and scientific powerhouse into a warmongering state; in games like these I normally go for a spaceship or cultural victory. Third, I thought the restrictions of the scenario where interesting, but not overly limiting; that obviously makes Desert Domination gentle as an adventure, and frankly, that is about where my capabilities end.