Woot! I finally finished a game and report! Its only been what.... two years since my last one?!?
My plan for this game was to establish as many different holy cities as possible. The rules state that only holy cities can build Market/Grocers/Banks, to multiply the cash generated by their shrines. Iâm not sure if putting these improvements in cities where I have no intention of building a shine is strictly in the spirit of the variant, but I need 5 banks to build Wall Street so I think that it should be fine.
My religion plans are this: Buddhism and Hinduism would be founded in the capital. After Bronze Working and a whipped settler I will found Judaism in my second city, Oracle to CoL for Conf city three, and a prophet lightbulb Christianity for city four. By the time I would get around to Divine Right or Philosophy I would have some more cities under my yolk to accept the faith. I would make one of the capital religions the one true faith and spread it as much as possible, with the second spread when convenient. In order to secure the needed GPs for this endeavor I would do the unthinkable, I would build Stonehenge in my capital. I normally HATE Stonehenge, but since this game didnât have many Calendar resources it wasnât too bad to hold off researching it. Along with the Oracle and some hired holy men, I got all of the early prophets I needed for lightbulbs (Theology, Civil Service, part of Divine Right, and Paper), two shrines, and half of a GA.
On the war front, Axes, Spears, and Swords would be the weapon of choice for my first opponent â Catherine. Unfortunately, as I was ready to roll a stack of about 15 units (including Archers for garrisons) into Russia, Nappy decides he wants to be first in the ass kicking parade and declares on 75AD. I start to move my stack over to oblige him, but a few turns later Cathy gets a little jealous and declares in 150AD. Some emergency whipping and a little troop diversion took care of the French situation to my south (luckily they were never able to disconnect my Iron down there) and I sent my stack back over to Russia to give Cathy the attention she craved.
The early melee units went through her outlying cities like butter, and Construction allowed me to send in some Cats to help take out her core. At the end of the first Russian War (640AD), Cathy was left with two meager cities and a permanently crippled empire. Since she declared war, I was able to make peace and had no residual diplomatic effects from the struggle. Meanwhile I was able to hold off the French until they were finally ready to make nice.
With Cathy crippled, Nappy on the other side of the map, and Washington the most advanced AI, I turned my attention to Fredrick. Thanks to a lightbulbed CS and a hasty detour to Machinery, I upgraded some key CR3 units to Macemen and headed towards Germany. I was able to steal two cities away from Freddie, but I soon began to run out of steam against his entrenched forces and had to call the war short (1270AD). Cathy had settled an annoying city right in a clear zone of her former territory and was dropping culture bombs in there to squeeze out her former holdings. Since she was still so weak I wheeled my stacks back around to finally snuff out the Russians once and for all (1535AD).
After the second Russian war, I focused on building up my economy, including spreading Bud/Hind, chopping Versailles in former Russian territory, building Markets, Grocers, and Banks in qualifying cities, and building the Spiral Minaret and Wall Street in Mecca. By the end of the game Mecca was pumping out 177g a turn, which I donât think included the Minaret money (can anyone confirm this? It didnât look like it was counted towards the total for the city, which means it didnât get multiplied by the improvements⦠what a gyp!). Liberalism was used to grab Economics for a Great Merchant to generate some trade mission income. I built the Taj in Mecca, the golden age was then used to help accelerate to Chemistry and a second Golden Age facilitated construction of a swarm of Grenadiers.
Being backwards technologically and harboring a good chunk of land, I turned my attention to the French, and with great speed obliterated Nappy (1680AD). After a while to solidify my borders and rebuild my forces, I rolled through Germany. With the fall of Berlin my pent up border culture put me over the top for Domination victory in 1824.
Wonders built:
Mecca â Stonehenge, Oracle, Spiral Minaret, Taj Mahal, Kremlin, Statue of Liberty, Bud Shrine, Hind Shrine, Ironworks, Wall Street
Damascus â Great Library, Oxford University
Medina â Great Lighthouse, Globe Theater
Rostov â Versailles
I didnât build either Epic, I think because I didnât want to pollute the GP pools where they would have been most beneficial. For some reason I canât get a total on my GPs, but I had a crap load of Prophets, about four of Scientists (one from Physics and another coming on the last turn), and an Artist and Merchant from techs.
Overall I think I did pretty well. Iâm not a warmonger by nature, usually I take just enough to secure my core and develop enough of an economy to win by Space. My religion plan worked perfectly, and I only really felt the pinch financially when I started running culture to combat WW and enforce my borders. Aside from the double team in the beginning, the AIs played nice and rolled over as expected. I was able to stay just enough ahead in techs to out gun the enemy, but not so far ahead that it was uninteresting (except the French⦠who would of thought it :P).
My plan for this game was to establish as many different holy cities as possible. The rules state that only holy cities can build Market/Grocers/Banks, to multiply the cash generated by their shrines. Iâm not sure if putting these improvements in cities where I have no intention of building a shine is strictly in the spirit of the variant, but I need 5 banks to build Wall Street so I think that it should be fine.
My religion plans are this: Buddhism and Hinduism would be founded in the capital. After Bronze Working and a whipped settler I will found Judaism in my second city, Oracle to CoL for Conf city three, and a prophet lightbulb Christianity for city four. By the time I would get around to Divine Right or Philosophy I would have some more cities under my yolk to accept the faith. I would make one of the capital religions the one true faith and spread it as much as possible, with the second spread when convenient. In order to secure the needed GPs for this endeavor I would do the unthinkable, I would build Stonehenge in my capital. I normally HATE Stonehenge, but since this game didnât have many Calendar resources it wasnât too bad to hold off researching it. Along with the Oracle and some hired holy men, I got all of the early prophets I needed for lightbulbs (Theology, Civil Service, part of Divine Right, and Paper), two shrines, and half of a GA.
On the war front, Axes, Spears, and Swords would be the weapon of choice for my first opponent â Catherine. Unfortunately, as I was ready to roll a stack of about 15 units (including Archers for garrisons) into Russia, Nappy decides he wants to be first in the ass kicking parade and declares on 75AD. I start to move my stack over to oblige him, but a few turns later Cathy gets a little jealous and declares in 150AD. Some emergency whipping and a little troop diversion took care of the French situation to my south (luckily they were never able to disconnect my Iron down there) and I sent my stack back over to Russia to give Cathy the attention she craved.
The early melee units went through her outlying cities like butter, and Construction allowed me to send in some Cats to help take out her core. At the end of the first Russian War (640AD), Cathy was left with two meager cities and a permanently crippled empire. Since she declared war, I was able to make peace and had no residual diplomatic effects from the struggle. Meanwhile I was able to hold off the French until they were finally ready to make nice.
With Cathy crippled, Nappy on the other side of the map, and Washington the most advanced AI, I turned my attention to Fredrick. Thanks to a lightbulbed CS and a hasty detour to Machinery, I upgraded some key CR3 units to Macemen and headed towards Germany. I was able to steal two cities away from Freddie, but I soon began to run out of steam against his entrenched forces and had to call the war short (1270AD). Cathy had settled an annoying city right in a clear zone of her former territory and was dropping culture bombs in there to squeeze out her former holdings. Since she was still so weak I wheeled my stacks back around to finally snuff out the Russians once and for all (1535AD).
After the second Russian war, I focused on building up my economy, including spreading Bud/Hind, chopping Versailles in former Russian territory, building Markets, Grocers, and Banks in qualifying cities, and building the Spiral Minaret and Wall Street in Mecca. By the end of the game Mecca was pumping out 177g a turn, which I donât think included the Minaret money (can anyone confirm this? It didnât look like it was counted towards the total for the city, which means it didnât get multiplied by the improvements⦠what a gyp!). Liberalism was used to grab Economics for a Great Merchant to generate some trade mission income. I built the Taj in Mecca, the golden age was then used to help accelerate to Chemistry and a second Golden Age facilitated construction of a swarm of Grenadiers.
Being backwards technologically and harboring a good chunk of land, I turned my attention to the French, and with great speed obliterated Nappy (1680AD). After a while to solidify my borders and rebuild my forces, I rolled through Germany. With the fall of Berlin my pent up border culture put me over the top for Domination victory in 1824.
Wonders built:
Mecca â Stonehenge, Oracle, Spiral Minaret, Taj Mahal, Kremlin, Statue of Liberty, Bud Shrine, Hind Shrine, Ironworks, Wall Street
Damascus â Great Library, Oxford University
Medina â Great Lighthouse, Globe Theater
Rostov â Versailles
I didnât build either Epic, I think because I didnât want to pollute the GP pools where they would have been most beneficial. For some reason I canât get a total on my GPs, but I had a crap load of Prophets, about four of Scientists (one from Physics and another coming on the last turn), and an Artist and Merchant from techs.
Overall I think I did pretty well. Iâm not a warmonger by nature, usually I take just enough to secure my core and develop enough of an economy to win by Space. My religion plan worked perfectly, and I only really felt the pinch financially when I started running culture to combat WW and enforce my borders. Aside from the double team in the beginning, the AIs played nice and rolled over as expected. I was able to stay just enough ahead in techs to out gun the enemy, but not so far ahead that it was uninteresting (except the French⦠who would of thought it :P).
Why is it that you hate Stonehenge though? It's useful for a lot of different gameplans, especially those involving religion due to the Great Prophet points. 
+1 (gold icon)".