Adv 35 - Mach Blunder

[Olodune]

Adventure 35 – an always peace builder challenge with a permanent Golden Age. Louis XIV is our chosen leader (Ind, Cre). No tech trading.

The permanent golden age gives most of the benefits of the spiritual, philosophical and financial traits to us (and the AI). Additionally, tiles with both hammers and coins are more valuable than normally (plains cottages, the wine, etc). Finally, the Mausoleum of Mausollos and the Taj are completely worthless (except for GA points :rolleyes: ) – I bet the AI will build them however.

Because I had a bit a “detail overload” from a certain RB Epic , I played this quick adventure very intuitively without too much micro. The basic plan was to focus on scientists for academies, hoping to avoid most other GPs. I made one very significant strategic mistake that probably cost a century of launch delay (more on that later).

Since I wanted to work the cows while building workboats, research started by focusing on Animal Husbandry:



A few scouting warriors quickly map out the Isle of Greater France – I think I can fit 9 total cities here:



Since all the cities are coastal I chopped the Great Lighthouse to completion in Silver+Horse city -- a nice wonder for this adventure

When a scouting workboat finally makes it around to reveal the last tile, a neat puzzle presents itself. Because of mountainous terrain either marble or stone can be hooked into out network, but not both {not exactly true, but I thought so at the time}. I’m going for the marble since I want to build the Great Library and the National Epic as quickly as possible in Paris.



That marble city would become a fantastic production cite with the Moai Statues (my Ironworks actually went here):



For Liberalism the classic Lib->Democracy sling rolled in:



A few spare Merchants help to keep the science slider high:



While my scientists build academies as planned:



I focused on getting the Kremlin for rush buying some infrastructure, which is normally a good plan – but not in this game. It was around this point that I realized my strategic blunder: because of the duel size map corporations are insanely powerful with just a handful of resources. If I could replay this map I would try to get a Great Engineer early and get Corporation + Railroads as soon as possible (maybe even with a Liberalism sling). I’m nearly certain that most of the games with an earlier launch time than me will have made better use of early corporations.

By the end of the game my corps were very powerful (one or two resources are coming from AI trades):



The two engines are timed with the ETA of Life Support:



And a space race victory (1710):



This game was a lot of fun, and played exactly as advertised (thanks T-Hawk ).

Generally I’ve been hoping that the average difficulty of RB games will increase, but this game was played nearly independent of any AI interactions (so no problems here).

Fun times. Hopefully I have a reasonable finish time -- but I suspect a launch around 1600 to be the fastest.

[haphazard1]

Very nice game, Olodune!

I also did not realize early enough how powerful corporations would be on this map. I did get good use from Mining Inc for building the space ship parts, but did not pursue any other corporations. Looks like that would have helped speed the finish.

1655 AD is the earliest launch date I have seen so far. No one reporting to this point has gone for diplo -- having spiritual AIs each founding their own religion made that a pretty steep hill to climb.

[T-hawk]

Well played. Very nice work on that second SS Engine; that made the difference between your win date and mine.

Yeah, I intended the difficulty to be a bit higher. I got fooled into thinking the AIs would be competitive when Asoka beat me to several wonders and to Economics. But the AIs petered out in the industrial age and ended up completely noncompetitive by the advent of corporations.

Is Liberalism -> Democracy considered classic for builder games? I usually delay the slingshot as long as possible to get the highest beaker payoff. (Commonly Medicine, sometimes as late as Assembly Line.) But maybe having the Liberalism and Democracy civics ASAP pays back more beakers than the difference between Demo and a bigger freebie.

[Olodune]

Is Liberalism -> Democracy considered classic for builder games? I usually delay the slingshot as long as possible to get the highest beaker payoff. (Commonly Medicine, sometimes as late as Assembly Line.) But maybe having the Liberalism and Democracy civics ASAP pays back more beakers than the difference between Demo and a bigger freebie.

It's an interesting question. Actually for this game I think Liberalism was much less powerful -- only really saving 2-4 turns of research. I wanted to get my remaining cottages growing as quickly as possible, since I was planning on US to get +2 hammer towns. It would be a difficult calculation to see if the beakers payed off -- especially since early beakers are better than later ones.

Generally I consider Democracy and Biology (for specialist heavy games) as the two mid-game economic boosts. Assembly Line would count as well, but I usually need a while to sort out "health issues" (In this game I got Refrigeration first, and Genetics just one (or maybe two) techs after Assembly Line.

[timmy827]

I've come to agree that Lib->Demo is best, starting with my Epic 17 game. It is somewhat map dependent - usually if I'm going really fast in techrate on a standard or larger map I still have a lot of young or yet-unbuilt cottages, so early Emancipation is a high payoff. On this smaller map I didn't get quite as much mileage as I did in Epic 17 or some other games.

I think that waiting for a later tech than Democracy probably only makes sense for minimally cottaged games - if your cottages are mostly mature Emancipation isn't great but Free Speech is immediately gratifying.

[haphazard1]

I wanted to get my remaining cottages growing as quickly as possible, since I was planning on US to get +2 hammer towns.

A very good point, Olodune, and one I did not really consider. I need to learn how to use US more effectively -- this is a weak area in my play style.

[Olodune]

Very nice work on that second SS Engine; that made the difference between your win date and mine.

It's was actually a little funny towards the end -- I was counting on settling the Fusion GE in Paris and had to replace a couple of towns with mines, then I popped another GE right before the end (who was entirely useless). The space race ending is actually interesting enough to make the last few turns of micro fun. (These days I always skip robotics, however -- I can't justify the Space Elevator).

[TheFerginator]

Obligatory apologies for necro, as I'm a long-time civ v player having recently converted to civ iv and playing the sh*t out of all these adventures and epics.

Anyways, couple comments. Why was Grenoble founded? A 2-pop city in the middle of tiles already worked being made 10 turns before you win doesn't seem to make much sense to me. Also, why no Sid's Sushi co? IMHO that is clearly the best corp here, since on quick/duel each sea resource and rice gives much more than 0.5 food (I think it's around 2, don't quote me on that). With sushi you could simultaneously run a specialist AND cottage economy and still be growing.

That being said, you still finished 13 turns before me. I suspect it was due to me generating too many GM and not generating enough scientists to pop academies, as well as not switching from commerce to hammer focus (workshops) later on, leaving me to twiddle my thumbs having built all parts that could be built while researching the last SS techs. Great job, though!

Also, did you by any chance build GLH? With the +2 trade routes virtually EVERY city in this map before corporation, it felt downright broken.