ADV 45 - The Reverend Doctor (Cristo Redentor + Hagia Sophia)

[The Reverend Doctor]

Before I emailed T-Hawk for a save file I thought about what my goals for this game were.
1st. Have fun, of course.
2nd. Provide an entertaining report. I figured if nothing else I'd get destroyed by the Immortal AIs I'd never faced and there's nothing better than reading about a devastating loss.
3rd. Pick a unique combination of wonders! (Success!)

While I probably should have picked a more powerful combo, this being the first game of not fall from heaven Civ I'd fired up since my first Emperor win in Adv 44, I valued having a unique experience and tried to think of some wonders that wouldn't be as popular but would still be fun.
Cristo Redentor I chose because if I ever build it it's too late to have a lot of fun with, and Hagia Sophia because I thought some double-speed workers chopping and laying down cottages just might keep me in the game with the Immortal AI. A tiny bit of synergy lay in the fact that both provided Engineer points, and even a settle GE is a great thing to have 20 turns into the game!


This group of recent hunter-gatherers sure have a nice view!

My opening was worker (an irrigated corn is just too good to waste time building work boats first), workboat, 2 warriors, workboat, settler (slaved)
Technologies went Hunting (from that hut), Agriculture, Bronze, Animal Husbandry, etc...


An unforseen consequence of the muse, that's the 3rd ring border pop before I research my first tech!

I sent the warrior we started with exploring East and met Ramses fairly early. A few turns later and what do I see leaving his borders but a settler and two archers!


This was turn 23.... I'm thinking twice right about now about signing up for this Immortal game!

I revolt to slavery about the same time we meet our Egyptian neighbors to the East. By revolt I mean switch I guess, had already forgotten about the Wonders back in my capital. The 1st GE is born on turn 25 and settled for a big early game boost of 3 beakers and hammers!

Five turns later Louis shows up to my west, and I'm definitely not happy about having a creative pushy neighbor! Although it turns out he just walked by Mansa who was actually next to us over there.... didn't meet him for another 25 or so turns till I sent a scout that way.

The same turn I meet Louis the first barb archer is spotted! Better hurry up and connect those horses. My second city goes on that small isthmus that grabs horse, fish, and pigs. My third goes probably more east than I could afford to cut off Ramses' expansion my way with plans to backfill later. And iron ends up being right under the city!


What is it they say about luck around here?

As this photo shows... I built a lot of monuments this game. Even after Ramses spread Hinduism and Judaism my way, the extra happiness from a monument meant it was still worth squeezing in some times. Or maybe it was a complete waste? Who knows. I don't have much experience playing charismatic leaders... and I certainly didn't leverage the trait for experience.

So I build one more city between the cap and Hadremantum to the east and my economy crashes spectacularly!



30% science with 4 cities!? I was not expecting this. I had just Oracled metal casting and was limping my way to monarchy when I had some serious thinking to do. How exactly did I plan to win this thing? I'm not sure trying to tackle one of my neighbors and their ancient, strong UUs is in the cards, and I'm a bit stifled by these Immortal maintenance costs. So what's left? Hey... Culture only needs a few cities for a victory!

And so, despite choosing wonders that didn't really aid it all (except by virture of providing great engineers for wonders) I made plans to go for a culture victory. Luckily Ramses had spread his two religions my way, so at nearly the 1AD mark I decided it was temple whipping time!

I rushed colossus to boost the coffers and bit and beelined for Music to get the artist and build the Sistine Chapel.


Here's the state of my empire in 450 AD. Out to seven cities with plans for a tiny whipping village by the northwest clams and another on the island with banana and stone for the magic number of 9. The filler city with wheat/seafood/and 9 cottages would become cuture city 2 while number 3 went to the sheep/seafood/gems city out west with plenty of grassland itself.

I caught a break when Mansa spread buddhism to on of the border cities, now I was in business! So the plan (as boring as it is) for the rest of the game is to keep my head down, cave to any demands, and hope no AI running out of room sees me quietly building absolutely no military and gets an idea.

I slow built the Taj Mahal and was beaten to Liberalism during the golden age by Mansa by 2 turns! Getting there first would have been quite a coup on Immortal.

Once knights burst onto the scene the war horns started blaring and I shuddered a little each turn when I'd hear one before I could read the little note assuring me I wasn't involved.

When Ramses came around offering this it was a no brainer...

Years of resource trades, unbalanced tech deals, and general sucking up finallly pays off!

My choice of Hagia Sophia wasn't really paying me back here, my workers had actually run out of things to do! Cristo Redentor, however, was awesome. I wasn't sure I'd be able to leverage its powers, but switching to slavery for a single turn every 10 was an awesome way to get temples built when I really wanted to be in emancipation for the cottage growth.

I think this screen pretty much shows the exact situation you want to be in going for a cultural victory. Everybody except myself and Ramses with whom I had a defensive pact was at war! Hopefully they'd continue to leave me alone!


I did run into trouble when a privateer showed up at my Astronomy-less borders poised to cause trouble. Luckily, as I've noticed when I built my own before, it seems the AI is programmed to take out privateers at all costs, regardless of whether it's bothering them or not. And because of this I offer this picture as a memorial to Julius' boat that mercifully saved about four of my seafood resources.


I tried to use some of what I've learned around here and resisted the urge to keep teching too far into the tree, those mass media and electricity wonders aren't really worth all those turns of not running culture right? I really didn't have a GP farm so didn't need biology and so I shut research down after printing press and steel. I set pretty much every city that was done with temples to build cannon or muskets for some semblance of defense. Although I still ended the game staring down sam infantry and destroyers.

I was incredibly lucky with great people in this game. I got 5 (including the free one at music) great artists, 3 scientists, and 5 engineers. No ugly priests or spies mucking up the works. And just enough scientists for academies in my big 3.


I cruised to a really not all that early 1790AD culture victory... and yes I was definitely defending with axes and triremes.

As proof any of the AIs could have sneezed and blown me off the map, here is the final power graph. I was even behind just been in a two-front war and was now vassalized Alex.



So did I meet my goals? I definitely had fun. I was on the edge of my seat from 1000AD till the end, just knowing each trumpet signaling war would be my downfall.
I chose a unique pair of wonders but I'm not sure I got full use out of them. Oh well, they guided me home to my first Immortal victory!

Thanks a lot to T-Hawk for the cool idea and his sponsor comments.
I'm sorry I didn't notice the Mediterranean theme.

And since I didn't know where else to stick this amusing picture... here it is.

What caused this barb worker to wander into my territory I'll never know... but it certainly was a wonderful gift

[darrelljs]

Heh...I don't think I've ever seen a barb worker do that. Maybe a city got razed to your east and he was going towards a city to yoru west .

Another interesting choice of wonders...Hagia Sophia was something I did think about, but went a different direction. Did you go the route that it would let you build less Workers, or did you build the same amount of Workers and try to go faster? I couldn't tell from the report .

Darrell

[T-hawk]

Nice job! Seems like the culture victory was pretty popular and a natural choice with these neighbors and difficulty. Well done, especially with a couple of wonders I would consider middle-tier. The power level of Cristo Redentor is really hard to gauge; it's all in how you use it.

Monuments are almost always worth building for a Charismatic leader. 30 hammers for happy is one of the best deals in the game. Not even a temple with Spiritual or marketplace with all four resources beats that. I think the only thing that does is a Creative theater with Dyes (25 base hammers.) And they don't expire if you win before Astronomy.

My choice of Hagia Sophia wasn't really paying me back here, my workers had actually run out of things to do!

Hagia Sophia was something I did think about, but went a different direction. Did you go the route that it would let you build less Workers, or did you build the same amount of Workers and try to go faster?

This is the same question as for Industrious civs in Civilization 3 (double worker speed), and I also ran into it in Civ 4 Epic 24 which was a map big enough for Hagia to be worth building fairly early. I think the right answer is to split the difference. You can build slightly fewer workers and still improve faster than usual.

I tried to use some of what I've learned around here and resisted the urge to keep teching too far into the tree, those mass media and electricity wonders aren't really worth all those turns of not running culture right?

Right, right, many times right. Culture needs nothing more than Liberalism and Music (and a deft diplomatic touch. ) Democracy can often be worthwhile (especially via Lib), and sometimes up to one of the culture corporations. The Eiffel Tower is tempting, but no it is not worth all that research, which also expires your monasteries (which should be enhanced by Sistine and often Apostolic Palace.) I don't go for it for culture unless I somehow manage to trade all the techs in front of Radio.

[novice]

Good job! Hippo is some filler city.

The barb worker is probably on a roading mission between two barb cities.