Epic 13 - Playshogi's Portugal

[playshogi]

CHAPTER 1 – EARLY DEVELOPMENT



Joao II, the Portuguese leader, is expansive and imperialistic. Expansive is nice with +2 health and cheap granary and harbor and a slight production bonus for workers, but the other trait offers 100% great general emergence and 50% production boost for settlers.

The unique unit is a carrack that is a caravel that can carry 2 units of any type. The unique building is a customs house that adds +1 commerce bonus to water tiles. Neither item will figure in the early game. Finally, I start with fishing and mining. The start features an extra warrior like Epic 8 potluck. I have a reasonable start with corn and clams and the fresh water health bonus, so I settle in place.







The question is now, worker first or workboat first. Workboat first enables me to pop rush the workboat (with slavery) and use excess hammers to start the worker (with 25% trait bonus) or worker first and chop rush (again with bronze working) the workboat. I opt to build workboat first while studying Bronze Working. I will follow this up with worker, warrior, settler and study Agriculture next.



I guess I won’t have to worry about barbs too much, as I meet Babylon uncomfortably close. Coincidentally, someone made a nice BTS-data sheet the same day I played this and I learned the Hammy is not a warmonger. Favors culture and wonder building vs. military. Let’s hope I can expand to stone city (#1), deer/corn (#2), silver/fish can wait, and a city by west river (#3) seems too much to dream for. I popped 2 huts receiving maps, and a scout. I sent the scout exploring and kept the warriors back for zone defense. When I learned Bronze, I discovered copper in Lisbon which made me feel better about my start.







I build my second city in 2850BC. I must say that the imperialistic trait is really helpful for building settlers. I chose the deer/corn site. I made another worker and settled the stone city site shortly thereafter. With access to stone, why not try to build the pyramids? This was duly built in 1200BC, but I neglected to revolt to representation for a couple turns. My early research path was BW, Agri, wheel, hunting, AH, masonry, pottery, writing. My 1 advance scout, popped maps, another scout, a warrior and some gold. I met 4 civs on this continent and Maya showed up on his own later. After writing, I made open borders with everyone and discovered that Hammy was shockingly weak with only 2 bowman defending each city. My next research is mathematics and construction, for catapults. Obviously, the plan is to attack Hammy, but not before 1000BC.



And that was all I wrote while the game was afoot. What follows is written after I had played the whole game. My plan of playing just a few turns and writing the report as the game went (sort of like a solo succession game) fell victim to “next turn syndrome”.





CHAPTER 2 - CONQUEST OF BABYLON



This is a picture of the empire on the eve of war with Babylon. I was lucky that Hammy did not expand towards me and I was able to fill out my original dot map as planned.







You can see in the upper left that Hammy’s workers have just hooked up a copper mine. It’s his only source and he has not discovered iron working yet, so now is the time to attack if I don’t want to face stronger units. Bowmen are strong enough with 50% bonus vs. melee, so I was glad to have maintained peace until I had built some catapults. I march across the border with my chariot expecting to capture the 2 workers and pillage the copper mine, but I neglected to declare war first and the workers escaped because of open borders. That’s just as well because I’ll capture them later and save myself the maintenance cost of 2 workers I don’t really need right now.



War breaks out for real in 5BC and it could have been a disaster. Hammy had a galley parked near my capital and if it had even 1 bowman in it, I might have been toast as my capital was defended by a single warrior. Luckily, all it did was pillage the fishing net. Now that I think about it—why was it there? Initiation of hostilities should have teleported it out of my cultural borders.



At this time, I receive my first quest, the National Sports League. I know from reading the forums at CivFanatics that if I complete it my colosseums are worth 2 happy instead of 1 or if I own the Statue of Zeus I can get a free golden age, but first I have to capture a few cities because I need to build 7.







The war was very easy as my stacks of catapults, swords, axes, chariots and spears made mincemeat of Hammy’s light defenses, which mostly consisted of bowmen and the odd axe or sword he managed to build after hooking up his iron. I captured 4 cities by 450AD. Unfortunately, Hammy fled to the Babylonian version of Taiwan and I had to build a galley to ferry over a few troops and smite him for good in 640AD. You can’t see it in this photo, but there is another fish directly north of the island, so I rushed a settler there to found Lagos.







By this time, I had met all the civs, except Sitting Bull who I assumed might have an isolated start on another island. This was supposed to be a fractal map. Also, because I read in the BTS-data sheet, that Sitting Bull “never” built wonders, I took a look at the tech screen and saw no one had metal casting.







So I endured 2 turns of anarchy while building Colossus in Lisbon. First, to curry favor with Byzantium, my new neighbor in the northeast, I adopted Buddhism as the state religion and second, to please my neighbor in the northwest, Khmer, I switched to his favorite civic Organized Religion. I ended up losing Colossus by 1 turn. The cash was nice, though, as I got Civil Service a lot sooner, since otherwise I could only keep the science rate at 30%.



To celebrate the overwhelming victory and to prepare Hammy’s final resting place in Babylon, I built the Mausoleum of Maussollos.







CHAPTER 3 - RACE TO LIBERALISM.



After discovering Civil Service, I gambled and followed the path towards literature and the Great Library. Since, I was no where near the first to learn that tech, I didn’t expect to get the Great Library, however, I was surprised and in fact I did get it, built hammer by hammer without marble.







Shortly, thereafter I met Sitting Bull, and traded maps. It’s a pangea, after all. This was followed by completing the National Sports League quest and I selected the extra happy face for my colosseums, instead of the +4 culture points for them. I did not own the Statue of Zeus. You can also see in this photo my science rate is up to 40%







A couple turns later, I get the challenge of the Horse Whispering quest. This one wants you to build 7 stables. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t build these, but I learned on the forums that satisfying this quest provides +1 food for each stable. “Let them eat hay.” I cry, and plan to build stables in 7 cities. While compiling this report, I see that I fail the quest if I don’t build the stables before entering the Renaissance.









My next door neighbor, Suryavarman, builds the Apostolic Palace for Judaism. He is uncontested in the election for pope and I vote for him to gain some “you voted for us” diplomatic points. I had been trying to build it in Coimbra, my Maoi Statues city, but I can’t complain about the nice cash infusion.









Here is a picture of my lands at 1000AD. According to the power graph, I’m in the middle of the pack, practically even without my closest neighbors.













I can’t afford to gamble on engineering, but I appreciate the free beakers for engineering which is the other option.







Here is the result of completing the Horse Whispering quest. Apparently, I did it just in the nick of time because you can see that I’m only 2 turns from discovering Education. This enters the Renaissance and would cause me to fail the quest. Lucky!







The first Apostolic issue put to a vote is the one for diplomatic victory. Every civ on the block has at least 1 Jewish city. I carefully compute the odds and realize that Suryavarman has enough votes to block the election of Zara Yaqob, so I vote for Zara, again for the “you voted for us” points. I know I got them for voting for Zara, but they went away quickly, for some reason. What I did not know at the time was that civs with the state religion of the AP get votes for the citizens of every Jewish city times two, whereas being Buddhist I only get 1 vote for each citizen in a Jewish city.







Also, on this turn, I used a Great Scientist to start my first Golden Age. You have to experience 15 turns of Golden Age to appreciate the value of the MoM.







Pacal wants me to adopt Hereditary Rule. I’m in a Golden Age, so I agree. I love the anarchy free civic switches during Golden Ages.







I was absolutely floored by the election results. It seems Zara was friendly with Sury and voted for Sury despite being on the ballot! Had either Justinian or Willem voted for Sury the game would be over! Since when does an AI not vote for itself?







Earlier I had been building the University of Sankalore, but decided half way through that I didn’t want it. I pocket 543g as consolation at a crucial time. Only 10 turns to Liberalism, the exact length remaining in my extended Golden Age.







Here I am 3 turns from Liberalism. Thanks to passive espionage, I can see Zara is 7 turns away. Probably it’s safe to say that the extra turns of Golden Age I received by building MoM enabled me to win this race.



CHAPTER 4 – I WANT SHRINE INCOME!







I choose Astronomy as my free tech as it is the most expensive tech and I would like to build privateers. Attacking caravels with privateers is like shooting ducks in a barrel, but the combat counts for Great General points, which I get at double speed for being Imperialistic. Unfortunately, I need more than astronomy before I can build them. I thought about taking Nationalism and trying to build Taj Mahal for another Golden Age and frankly I think I should have gone that route because of MoM. I certainly didn’t need astronomy to settle any other islands because I had the unique unit of Carrack which would enable me to cross the sea with settlers long before galleons. So, I guess it was [smoky move].







Finally, on my last turn of Golden Age, I adopt the Jewish faith as my state religion and for some reason, no one opposes the re-election of Sury. I think I’ll abstain this time.







I had religiously spread Judaism to every one of my cities and built Jewish temples throughout the land as I expected to pick up 2 hammers for every one as my entitlement for being a Full Voting Member of the Apostolic Palace. But I never got them. Bug?

At least, I can block any AI Apostolic victory now.







While building my economy up, I was not neglecting my military strategy. I was assembling Maces, Knights, and more Cats, because I’m thinking I have to own the Apostolic Palace to get my temple hammers. That’s not how the Civilopedia reads, but I want my hammers and I need the Jewish shrine income, too, since it was in the same city. Then, the game through me a curve. Sury volunteers to be my vassal! I agree and I focus my military strategy towards Justinian and the Buddhist shrine in far off Constantinople. Also, I secure territory for my cities that were on the border. Regardless of cultural influence, a vassal cannot claim any squares in the master’s cities’ fat cross.







Meanwhile, no joy for me in the Apostolic election which happens every 14 turns. I was hoping he would propose ‘open borders’ because Sitting Bull had some nice large cities I was eager to trade with.







A popped a vanilla random event.







Round about 1400 I declared on Justinian and captured the border city of Nicea in 1405 without much trouble. Except that War Weariness grew quickly to economy-killing levels. Justinian had built the Statue of Zeus which doubles my war weariness.







Some of my cities had 7 unhappy faces already because of WW and with the emancipation penalty approaching, I satisfy myself, with my small gain of Nicea.







CHAPTER 5 – NEW LANDS TO CONQUER



It wouldn’t be a fractal map if there weren’t some vacant islands out there and my carracks and found this juicy piece northeast of Portugal.







Here was a nice little random event to speed the growth of New Portugal.







However, I had to hurry with settling the island if I wanted it all to myself because the other civs knew astronomy now. Unfortunately, colonial expenses are quite severe. After I built 4 cities, I posted a settler and Jewish missionary on spots I wanted to settle and would only found the city if somebody else made landfall there.



I trigger my second golden age in 1625 with 2 GP, I don’t remember which kind. I take this opportunity to switch to Free Market and Emancipation without anarchy and also Nationalism to ease the burden of civics maintenance cost. Nationalism is free and quite useful for drafting military units. I quickly get to the top of the power graph now.







The Statue of Liberty is built in Nippur.







#1 in soldiers.







Time to reclaim what is rightfully Portugal’s. A brief colonial war ensues. The size of my stack is overwhelming. The game is in the bag, so it’s like playing SimCity with combat.







So much for corporations. Every civ is in State Property!







It’s time for a new pope, but I still don’t get my temple hammers.







The colonial war ends with a random event. I had achieved my objective of driving the infidels off of New Portugal.







To help with colonial expenses, I was able to build Versailles in Braga. I think this is the first time I ever built this wonder. Although it lowers distance maintenance, it does nothing for colonial expenses. However, I’m keeping up in tech, so I didn’t create a colony just yet.







Why isn’t the ‘open borders’ proposal on the menu? I’m beginning to not like the Apostolic Palace. I won’t sign defensive pacts, since I still covet Justinian’s Buddhist shrine income.







Nippur builds Pentagon. I also put my Ironworks there. This is the most productive city that I have ever built in Civ. It has the Forbidden Palace, Statue of Liberty and Mining Co. HQ, too. I also made another [smoky move] around this time. I put Wall Street in Coimbra, instead of my capital. Because of the crippling nature of corporation payments on top of my severe colonial expenses, I did not spread Mining Co. to any of my other cities. If I had put Wall Street in my capital, I could have founded Mining Co. there because my capital had enough food to run 7 merchant specialists without Caste System. Coimbra only had enough food for 4 merchant specialists, so I lost a lot of the power of Wall Street with my stupid choice of Coimbra. Additionally, I had trouble popping a Great Merchant so I could found Sid Sushi Corp. which is my favorite corp. The extra food is worth the extra expense of corporation payments. The capital had Oxford and I would later build Rushmore there, too, but really Rushmore could have been built in Coimbra.







I should change Nippur’s name to Copper City as I pop another one there.







Sitting Bull had also settled the other large island on the map and caves into the pressure and creates a colony. In keeping with the Epic 13 theme, a new leader introduced in BTS is chosen, Mr. Lincoln.







Another photo of Nippur. The city appears profitable, but the effects of inflation are pernicious, indeed. Well over 100% by this time. On the other hand, if you don’t expose corporation payments to inflation then it becomes trivial to decide to spread them to your cities only as you can easily control expenses with a courthouse and Wall Street. It would be less advantageous to spread them to foreign cities.









CHAPTER 6 – ENDGAME WAR



I’ve been building infantry and artillery and I feel the need to expand and attack Justinian in 1826. My stack is overwhelming. Meanwhile, I direct my vassal-ally to attack Angora in the west.







Finally, the war weariness is eased by capturing the Statue of Zeus







Since I started this war, this proposal seems ridiculous. Luckily, I’m in charge and offer no resolution to vote on.







The game throws me a curve ball here when Nippur revolts! My good vassal is trying to win a cultural victory and heretofore his cultural pressure has been masked by the vassal being unable to claim any square’s of his master’s cities. According to the city screen, I have an 8% chance of losing this city with 5 wonders in it. I didn’t lose the city, but I spent the rest of the game building cathedrals and more wonders as well as culture bombing the city with 2 great artists increasing Portuguese ethnic population to 53%.









Justinian is destroyed in 1849 and meanwhile I had declared on William as well to give my vassal some targets to attack.







William is destroyed in 1855.







At this point I might have gone on to domination victory, but chose to consolidate my gains and aim for a peaceful victory. My attempt to win diplomatically fails by 27 votes in 1890.







Corporation maintenance and colonial expenses are killing me. I’m struggling to keep science at 60%. Here I conduct a trade mission to boost science for a few turns.







Somewhere, around 1930 I launched the spaceship and now in BTS I have to wait a few more turns to win. You need 2 engines, now, as well, and it turned out for me that it was quicker to build them back to back in Nippur than to build 1 in Nippur and 1 in another city. This throwback to civ2, of waiting for the spaceship to arrive in order to win, I could do without.



Finally, a space win in January, 1941. Whose idea was it to introduce months into the date? It won’t display properly on the Hall of Fame page.











Great game and I’m looking forward to the next potluck.