Civilization 6 Adventure 1 - Sonnet 6 [Complete]

[Thespian]

[Word of Caution - This is all stream of conscious with minimal editing. Reader beware.]

"If ten of thine ten times refigur'd thee:
Then what could death do, if thou shouldst depart,
Leaving thee living posterity?"

    ~ William Shakespeare, Sonnet 6


    I was drafted to pick England. Shakespeare's sonnet felt appropriate since... this. There's certainly a lot of British offspring. They still have a few remnants of their Empire, so maybe I can't be too critical. [On a side note, while getting that link apparently the UK fought 90% of all current countries. 2012 news, groundbreaking stuff.]

Introduction

So, what's my goal here? Need to get some strategizing before I hop in. I'm somewhat blind - I watched a guy flail around in a pre-release edition of the game for a couple of hours. He wasn't very good at it, but it kept me entertained. Things I did learn from that, however.

1) If I wanted to, I have a free run at any of the early wonders. Stonehenge is the only thing that seems to be really at risk in the early game based on what I saw. For the early game wonders, I have these to choose from.
    -Stonehenge (+2 faith, free great prophet based on the wikipedia): I'm not planning on doing anything really in depth with religion, so useless to me.

    -Pyramids (+2 culture, +1 additional improvement for each worker): I'm not sure how strong Builders are in this game. On paper it seems good but based on what I've seen: Farms and Lumbermills seems to be the main usage of Builders, but mines and quarries when combined with the Industrial Zone is good too. I'm going to pass this one and accept that this could be a stupid move.

    -Hanging Gardens (15% faster growth): This seems really good to me. 15% growth flat seems like a nice bonus. Out of all the wonders in the early game, this appeals to me the most. It's really hard to screw up and misuse this. But, I could be sinking some turns into this and a tile. If I'm planning properly here, I don't think I'll have tiles to spare.

    -The Oracle (+1 Culture & +1 Faith, Great people cost 25% less faith, districts earn +2 GP points): Depending on how religion shakes out, this could be pretty decent for gearing towards a religious victory. 25% less for GP seems pretty stellar to me... but I'm not convinced Great People are that uh, great. They seem to reside in the 'nice' category. If you land one, that's pretty nice. If you don't, that's pretty nice too. Great Prophets seem to be the only ones that really matter that much for religion.

    -Sea based wonders: I don't think I'm at any risk of losing these if I wanted them.

2) Barbarians are merciless. There were a lot of barbarians flooding the area and two civilizations I saw in that game were completely handicapped - capital was completely toast. A strong military early on doesn't seem to be that optional, but I may be overestimating them. I'm going to try and play it safe as possible - which considering my farmer gambit tendencies may be a standard size military. Scouts seem to come at you from multiple directions quickly so I don't think killing them is doable. Offing one or two to stem the flood would be possible and is my goal.

3) Exploration is of mild importance. Finding city states and national wonders? Important. Finding civilizations? Not so much. The entire AI seems too wonky to be reliable and I'm not seeing much benefit to hunting them down.

4) Cities main priority seems to be the following (in order). This is based entirely on what I've seen.
    Resources
    Fresh Water/Coast
    Forests on river (lumbermills!)
    Grasslands (farms + vassalage + amenities/housing, can't remember which one it is)
That's what I'm going to be going for as far as settling goes.

So, what I'm getting down here is this.

Early scouting run to find a spot for a second city. Possibly go after the Hanging Gardens if I feel like it's worth it. Build a few warriors and slingers (that's what they're called, right?) for defense and try and get a second city out as soon as possible. I don't think there's any limitations placed for more cities other then cost so getting them out quickly is a top priority.


Now, on to the bonuses we get for being England!

British Museum and Sea Dog, well, I have absolutely no idea how good they are! Royal Navy Dockyard with +1 Movement seems solid. Nothing over the top but a good boost. This being pangaea is uh, less useful then it typically would.

And for being Victoria...

Pax Britannica is okay. Since this is a pangaea map, it could be more useful then I expect since I could found cities on other continents. Could be a bit cheesy if I start on one continent with another continent two or three tiles away. I'll just have to wait and see.
Redcoat ironically is probably better on pangaea then it is on a continents map! Conquer your way to the divide for the next continent and use redcoats to go on the offensive. Expends no disembark cost but I don't see myself using any naval invasions unless this is one wonky pangaea map.


And all this before I even start up the game. I think I've got a good basic plan down that I'm going to try and stick with.

Rising Action

Open up the save and it's pretty nice. Not on a river which is unfortunate (not sure how big of a deal that is though). I can't see what the cattle tile produces as far as yields go which I guess is part of the reasons for the complaints about the UI? I suppose the one thing about being a Paradox veteran is that this doesn't faze you anymore. If you wish to send condolences, I like roses. Diamonds/Stone/Hill to mine seems to make for a very good Industrial Zone one east of the diamonds. I don't see any compelling reason to not settle in place. Mountain is 4E so I will have limited contact with it if I need it for anything.

Bright side of being here and on a weird little inlet: less barbarian trouble. This should make things much easier for me in the early going and I should be able to do more scouting then I would have risked otherwise. Game started me on Code of Laws, wonder if that's the only option I can research. I'll have to check once I'm done rambling.

Yes, yes it is my only option. Bit hard to screw up this start. London's founded and I don't see any way to rename the city. Maybe I'm just missing something obvious.

Also, while I really am going to try and keep the nitpicking on the interface to a minimum... I had to joggle my camera to see what the cow tile produces after I settled London. Mildly annoying. I have London start on a Builder since that seems to be the best option. Curious to see what other players go with - I don't know this game at all.



Scouting to the south reveals that London has a disgusting amount of food (+2 bananas for resources). There's some desert resources in the south but there's a city that can be founded on the coast to grab most of them. Not sure if it's worth it. Of other important news, a barbarian scout is at half health. I may be meeting my first rival.

Nope, it's just half damaged for some reason. It's moving towards London and I can't kill it with the warrior that met it. With the builder I've made, I should be able to improve enough tiles to get a warrior out in 5 turns to meet it.



Spoke too soon! I've met Teddy and uh, he looks a bit weathered. Not sure why, animated leads are at medium. My leader (Victoria) has the same odd white filter. Didn't have it in my game where I was seeing if I could run the game. Odd. In the next turn I unlock policies - Discipline and Urban Planning are the two I chose immediately.


(ignore the fact that I'm accidentally hovering over a tile)

The map as it stands. It seems a bit crammed but this is on Standard and they could've shrunk it, so who knows? I see one city that I would like to found in the desert (with Petra this could be a very nice spot), one roughly close to America, and then I've got no information on any northward settling. I think, assuming everything goes well, six cities at most. Hm. Also of note: right next to the barbarian camp is a barbarian scout that has just... been sitting there. Seems like someone's having a row on their job description.

London is almost out of housing at 3/4. Bit harsh for a capital. Guess I need to work on a settler next. I also choose Pottery to get a Granary which is +2 housing. I clear out the barbarian camp near me.


I suppose it's a good thing I sent my warrior to go explore the north. There's... not much, is there? I really hope I don't have to go to war with Teddy - 1UPT warfare is just a headache for me. Two scouts pop up - one's in place to block them from reaching London and the other's in place for smacking it down. Think I made a smart choice going Builder -> Warrior. This is keeping my growth curve pretty nice and high while keeping me secure. Something I also noticed - Washington is on the coast. Must be a snaky continent.

Both scouts run away next turn! Fear the might of the... London warriors? Need to talk to our marketing department about this. Teddy stops by and thanks me for keeping peace on the continent. I... uh, yes? I am glad to be taking part of this peace keeping initiative. UN, you say Teddy? I say US. Seriously - I like the idea of quirks. But this is just silly. I'm getting bonuses for doing nothing with no other option?

Settler -> Granary


Newcastle is placed in a heck of an aggressive plant. I buy copper since I can't tell any way to prioritize a tile to expand - would have thought that was an obvious conclusion but oh well. I also dropped two tentative pins on where I think the city should go. The one far east with the crabs I'm not solid about - a lot of overlap with Newcastle. But I'm not seeing any other obvious places. London will finish a Granary and start on a third warrior.

More words on scouts: is the AI kind of wonky on these guys? They seem to be making weird decisions. Also, the scout stays if you destroy the barbarian encampment which is... odd. Who do they report to?


These are quiet turns in England. The barbarian threat is mostly under control with three warriors and an archer in play. London cracks on with a monument to try and plod along the dreadful culture pace. Based on the America's civilization score, it appears they have a second city. I'm not entirely sure how that breaks down, but it appears to be my guess. (America and I are both at 18.) Need to get expanding. Newcastle starts on Water Mill for the +1 food for wheat.

Stonehenge completes 49 turns in the game. Slow? Fast? I'm not sure. I use some of my gold to expand Newcastle's borders to England to grab disputed tiles. The AI may actually be acting intelligently and expanding towards me to secure all the tiles they can get.

Gripe 2# of the game: The music. I'm not a fan - it's kind of dull and repetitive. Might get better in later eras but as far as the ancient era goes? Thumbs down. Might end up shutting the music off entirely and listening to my own.

In other news, settler 2# begins production. After a bit more playtime, I think I kind of mucked up on how good the wonders are. The Hanging Gardens seems mediocre at best since I'm growing really quite quickly and the Pyramids seem much stronger. I've got a lot of things that need builders.


Planned maps of my cities.



London



Newcastle

Is this over the top? Is it really silly? Is it pretty terrible? I don't know! Gives me a plan though and lets me play through my turns a bit quicker. The big improvement was that I was going to try and place my campus in a place that would have hurt my industrial zone, so I'm glad I've done it anyway. Although this should definitely verify: Overlap is hell. It's a bit of a logistic nightmare trying to get both cities working in tandem. Newcastle needs a good science district, and London badly needs a neighborhood since it doesn't have fresh water. And Newcastle has a ton of desert tiles that working may be beneficial for the boost to production later in the game. Going to have to do it again for city 3#.

I've been doing a bit of exploring and right by Washington is a great spot for my third city. It's very far away but... I'm mostly baffled to why it hasn't been taken yet. If I can swing it, I think that's going to be my third city. After this, I can backfill with my two other cities. The best part is that it has a full corn which seems to translate to 5 food in it's three range tiles. I'll just have to spend money to get it before Teddy does. He's... not going to be happy with me.

Swap to land surveyors in preparation of this move. I find a settler of his heading south east, away from me. What's Teddy doing? Tempted to declare war and swipe it but I'm not going to cheese.

Teddy opens trade with me. A few notable things are in here.



Firstly, he wants Open Borders and is willing to offer me cash. Maybe I'm paranoid, but he really wants in for some reason and I don't want to give it to him. He's got Charleston, a city I can only vaguely recall. In South Carolina, I believe. Are the cities randomized? It would explain my own. Either way I was correct in my assumption that he had a second city out. This means this settler is his third and we're essentially tied. He also has something called a grass cutting sword and I have absolutely no idea what it is other then it's a great work. I feel like someone should tell the poor guy that it's called a scythe.

After spending a bit more time mucking about in the diplomacy system, Teddy is willing to offer Open Borders and 1 GPT for... free? I guess? I obviously refuse.

Teddy founds Baltimore in a slightly annoying spot. Not sure if it's going to cause me to move or not.

Find Zanzibar as in the city state. Becoming the suzerain offers me uh... +6 amenities for two special luxury resources. I think that's really worth going for. It gives me the quest to find my inner spirituality and pop the Eureka for Astrology. We'll get right on that.


Woah! In between turns somebody got destroyed.  What happened to the er, them? Those guys? Am I playing Civ III? Better go check the box art. Seriously, I'm not sure whether I'm impressed by the AI or unimpressed. Either the AI is great or it's utterly terrible. Going to get some more units out just in case. Being wiped off the face of the earth is not a welcoming proposition.

Setting course to Petra, I really want to land that.



Say hello to Birmingham, the city that could! Accidentally mucked up - I should have been able to buy one more tile but I miss clicked. Need to buy two more tiles before I'm secure on that front, but if what happened with Newcastle is any example, they might not be around for long. Got one heck of a supply line however.

Teddy complains about how close I'm settling - get over it. You didn't settle this estate and allowed me to pull this off! Grow up man, and build some more settlers. I look at our relationship and...

-3 Unknown Reason
-3 Unknown Reason
8 Unknown Reason

Why did they bring this back? Sigh. Time to put on my detective hat.

-3 Unknown Reason - This is probably from settling Birmingham.
-3 Unknown Reason - Might be because I rejected his trade deal? This one I'm the least confident on.
8 Unknown Reason - I think this is possibly from the message he sent me about fulfilling his agenda?

So I guess it's not impossible to figure out what's going on, but dear gods couldn't they just tell me?

I meet Saladin next turn. Nothing particularly special - he has his capital and one other city. His second city's not exactly even at an impressive size. What has he been doing? Also of note - I have no iron. I didn't even realize that I lacked it, I just wanted swordsmen. And now that I think of it, I'm lacking horses too. Nothing to do but soldier (heh) on, I guess. Since this appears to be my entire 'things I've just noticed' section, nobody has captured a capital. What happened to that civilization then?

Swap into Classical Republic for the +1 Amenity per district because Newcastle really needs it.



Leeds, a very sad desert city has been founded. Remember that I'm putting (or attempting to at least) put Petra here.

Saladin declares war on Teddy! We live in interesting times. Will anything come out of it? I'm curious. This just mandates my usage of London as a military pump. Too slow to grab the screenshot of the event.



Well, we certainly do live in interesting times. Victoria of England of Rome, which is presumably ourselves with a bad case of dissociative identity disorder. Let's see what happened when I hit ok.



And uh, what. Hi. We're back again and this time it's wild. Americans are in for our blood. My best guess: Rome and America just declared war. While at war with Saladin. Not the best thought process in the world. Going to swap over to some military builds and hope Saladin takes the beating.



AND THEN FOR THE FINAL BIT OF DIPLOMACY: Saladin wheels and deals this trade. I accept for the better relationships of our nations against the terrible American cause. We're getting one heck of a bizarre colonial streak going. Thank the gods that Egypt hasn't decided to lend a hand.

Teddy moves no units against me. Which is probably a good thing since my military can best be described as 'disorganized rabble'. Need a few turns to get a fighting force together. Might try my hand at taking Baltimore if I can. Or Washington. America will pay! Ish. If it's convenient, I guess. We are the British after all.


Meet Kongo, walk a warrior up to America's capital and... there's nobody. Absolutely nobody. Except for a slinger that I'm calling Steve. I do not think this was the best planned war. I think I can take their capital.



I've spared you the details of the war - it's been me tossing a lot of units at them without much effect. Then this deal comes in. It's quite good - in fact too good! I mean I do surround Washington but it's not a big threat to the city. This is the full deal:

Diamonds for 30 turns
Gypsum for 30 turns
Horses for 30 turns
39 gold
17 gold per turn for 30 turns

It's a hard call... but I turn it down. I want to take Washington.


And more turns pass! This war isn't anything exciting. My winning is an eventuality but it's slowing me down. After more slogging, I agree to peace for Baltimore. He agrees! And some other things too I guess.



The updated map in the end. I wish I could have taken Washington and I very well could have, but it would have been pouring more time I could have spent building up my civilization down the drain. The warfare was absolutely terrible. It was a slow, slow grind that meant that I had to spend so much time trying to batter down Washington. The 1UPT system didn't help with the mountains. This has been the first legitimate black mark on an otherwise pleasant experience. I really hope I don't have to go to war again. I also founded Plymouth at one point for what it's worth. Don't remember when I did. I was a bit busy being frustrated. I end my session for the night here because I'm a mixture of annoyed and tired and I don't want to make any silly mistakes.

Upon recollecting... I'm not entirely sure what's happening with Trajan. Is he still at war with us? It's a bit difficult to pop in to use a telephone for a bit and ask him about it since the most sophisticated form of communication we have is shouting. The next best hope is a pub and we don't even have wine. This makes diplomatic affairs quite difficult. Plus, we'd have to talk to Teddy about the whole Baltimore thing and can we really be bothered to talk about that? I think not.

So, we fall back on the age old, tried and true method of sophistication... hoping the paper work got lost.

On the bright side, England's been at war with 2/7ths of the world or 29%. We're on track!


South England


Leeds


Plymouth

^ Tile improvements

Climax

I open up the game again. First thing: I have a battering ram apparently. Secondly, it does beneficial things that probably would have made the slog less painful. Huh. Thirdly, I was dazedly researching towards catapults. I'm not entirely sure what was wrong with me last night.

Fourthly, I'm working on building Petra in Leeds that will finish in... approximately the 18th century. I'm obviously not going to land that so I stop that. If I had more time to build up the city then the odds would have been better. Washington is also building it so... yeah. I was playing pretty awfully yesterday. Let's get back on track. Builders, army, and building up the next districts will be the plan.

For the fun of it, I check around to see what strategic resources the people I've met have. The answers come in and it's uh... not the most in favor of the RNG. Nobody has iron (England, America, Arabia, and Kongo) and only America has horses which they have two of. Now the AI could have not expanded at all which could be the cause... I guess.

America wants to send a diplomatic delegation. I thought you hated me? I decide to let them in since I don't know what it actually does. This is of course an intelligent decision.

Now I've hit a roadblock. I can't build farms on the tiles I was planning on farming. I'm not sure why. Is it because it's on a hill? Is it because there's no access to fresh water? The game sure isn't telling me. Same with lumbermills, but at least I can puzzle that out through glancing at the map. If the farms are restricted by needing fresh water that's an absolutely awful way. A lot of things make being on fresh water really important! However, the main handicap that comes without being on freshwater... you can't even fix. It was less terrible in Civ IV since you could irrigate but I don't see any indication that tells me I can do that. Can I, even? I'm not even sure. But everything in this game is specific, making your cities work as a jigsaw. Sigh. Birmingham's never going to be able to work all the tiles I want it work since it doesn't have enough food. Not much I can do about it no-

I just glanced at Baltimore. It has a farm with no possible way to get fresh water. Right there! It's one thing to have arbitrary, frustrating requirements and it's a whole other thing to be inconsistent! I find myself involuntarily sighing. Do the AI play on different rules then the player? I don't know and it's starting to look like I don't really care that much either. At least I can swap my Commercial and Neighborhood and recoup there in Birmingham.

Oh look, I can also build a farm here according to the UI. Right next to Birmingham. I give up. The game's sure not telling me why I can build a farm there and why I can't build it anywhere else.  I'm just going to try and make out as best as I can.

Met Rome, was at war, white peace immediately. All that happened. The Kongo declares war on Kandy (Area in India, on the small island next to it. That's all I know.) Victoria angrily mutters about barns and target practice some more. We get better pointy sticks to launch at America. Industrial zones go up and they turn out to be really bloody expensive. Are we covering them in gold? A statue for every lane? Gods.

The player begins to have nightmares of farming implements outside their home. I can't build a mine on a hill which I guess is because it has a forest. I remove it. If that's serious why... well, at least if I burn down every major forest they will have significant difficulties building more barns.

I just realize Leeds is pretty much worthless since farms are esoteric arcane knowledge meant for the dark arts. Sigh. I need to stop griping. I have two great cities - London and Newcastle, one good city - Birmingham, two okay cities - Plymouth and Baltimore, and the Libyan Desert.

Andddd Saladin hates me. Sounds like it's a situation that calls for more units. And sadly, more warfare.



Oh and for gods sake you guys. Japan? Egypt? Who knows! Who's the other guy in this mess? Saladin? Probably Saladin. No, no following message arrives. Jerusalem, a city state, has declared on me. I haven't even met them.

Trajan goes to neutral for my big empire. I thought Rome was supposed to expand a lot? They've got three cities. Not exactly that impressive, really. On the military front, I'm second at 353 militaries. Teddy is first at double that. He's got two bloody cities. How is he beating me at this?

Begin building pikemen. Rome declares on Arabia, yeah! I really want to see the AI accomplish something here. I get ice for my back which helps my attitude a bit and I decide to keep playing. Some city state named Nan Madol declared war on me at some point and I never received a notification but I did receive a peace notification. Still haven't met them. It's gone from frustrating to amusing really.

Astronomy also pops at this point. Didn't research it or anything. Medieval era, just entered, did nothing special. I wonder if this is some kind of mechanic. The medieval music is also so much better then the previous two era's music - it's not even comparable.

Met Egypt, turns out she's a 'winner' civ. She has three cities to her name which is comparable to the top dogs. I have six. She's denounced some other civ and knows no one else. I'm trying to remember who I haven't met. Japan and China, I think?

Kandy has declared war on England. Zanzibar, Jerusalem, Nan Madol, and Kandy have all declared war. Has every single city state declared war on me? That would be pretty amazing.

I grab a Great Engineer and his bonus apparently lets a city build a district over their population limit. I send him to Leeds since if anyone's going to be hurt by their pop in regards to districts, it'll be them. I misplace my Royal Navy Dockyards ™ and end up losing a +1 bonus to my Neighborhood. Unfortunate, but considering our food predicament in Birmingham, I doubt I'll need it.

Printing comes in and I begin on the Forbidden Palace, one of the wonders that stuck out to me as useful. At best, it comes in at 33 turns so I start it at London. I hope I can land it. AI seems to be pretty spotty about what it chooses for wonders so I think I can make it. I think.

I can now see what the AI thinks of me. Did this unlock at some point and I didn't realize it?

Either way,

-1 Different government
-4 Moving troops near their cities
4 Kept a diplomatic promise (stop settling towards them)
-2 Troops on borders
8 Kept peace on continent

If I moved my troops away

12 positive/1 negative

So... I could easily turn Teddy positive with a bit of unit maneuvering. This is what I needed to know!

I sailed my galley around the continent a bit and found Japan. China must have been the civilization that got wiped out by... something. Rome is the first civilization other then me to four cities! We've found a winner. Er, second place one anyway.

According to the diplomacy screen, there's still one civilization left to discover. It's China. So... who got killed? Is it a bug?

Sent my first two delegations - Egypt and Japan. Nobody else wants them. Egypt likes going after Great People as their secondary agenda and Japan likes making their people happy. Kongo likes productive civilizations since I have a boost with them over that. Egypt founds a fourth city also, counting the capital.

Egypt and Rome, the two biggest nations. Huh. I get a Great Admiral which seems befitting of being England. More city states decide to pile back on in, Nan Madol and Kandy are back at it. I have met none of them. Also, I think I missed the memo on the whole population limit bit.

Apparently it's not a straight 1 pop/1 district. It scales somehow. My fourth needs to be at 10 population. 2 pop/1 district? I can't be sure.



Trajan pops up with a deal. They want to buy me into a joint war with Teddy. Now, I would refuse... but I haven't made any allies. This looks like the only way to bring someone on side here and I haven't forgotten what happened earlier. Teddy is still unhappy after all of that so... I acquiesce. Back in the Saddle: Electric Boogaloo.

I check Trajan's diplomacy screen and...

-24 Bad Boy

What the hell? He called me into this war! I shouldn't be getting penalty from the guy who asked! This system is awful.

Everybody denounces me next turn except for Egypt and Rome. Considering my luck so far, Rome'll denounce me too and I'll just have to sit on my hands. Did nobody test this system?

Egypt denounces me, Rome is unfriendly.



War front in regards to taking Washington. It'll fall soon and then I'll try and make peace. This entire affair has left a terrible taste in my mouth. And of course, a barbarian camp spawns in one of the few places it possibly could when I have all my units down on the front. Of course. I'm blaming it all on the farmers.

Second Great Engineer pops in to say hello. +1 Amenities, +1 Housing which I don't really associate with Great Engineers but... whatever, I guess. Hi and bye Mima. Used them in Newcastle which is growing to be pretty good and could use a fourth district sooner. We also get a Great Scientist this turn which gives up +3 Eurekas in technology. I... guess it's worth something?

Oh my gods this diplomacy is awful.

Teddy declares on the Kongo. Kongo is still angry at me even though I'm on their side.
Saladin declares war on America. KONGO DENOUNCES ARABIA! I don't even know, really.

I preemptively denounce Trajan since that's probably what he's going to do once I get out of this war. It feels great! I am definitely in control of my destiny. In other news...



Washington falls. Now to get out of this war.


Next turn peace is made after killing some of his units. Roosevelt surrenders with all his gold, cedes Washington, gives me some beautiful horses and everyone hates me now as a consequence. To summarize, this has been a red letter day. I could have destroyed Teddy but he has so many units that I didn't want to slog through so I didn't bother. Forbidden Palace in 8 and you can see the trouble the barbarians are causing me.




The British Empire as it stands after the end of the fighting. London is working on the Forbidden Palace still, Plymouth is slowbuilding a commercial district, and Leeds is actually producing something. We live in odd times.

Washington is completely screwed up in regards to tile placement - I just decide to give up and let it sort of do its own thing. The pyramids are kinda poorly placed - that's where you would want to slap down the Aqueduct. Unfortunately... I can't. Removing the sugar resource is a no go since that's 5 food.




To relax, I attempt to frustrate historians.

Mvezimba and Teddy make peace probably because you can't assault much with a stack of warriors. Trajan complains that... I don't have enough land? I swear this entire system is an abstruse morass. I'm breaking out every verbose word I have to describe it at this point. I have seven cities. No one else is even close. What measuring stick is he using? Land area? I think I'm pretty solid there too.

Denouement

Now I've had a galley out exploring for quite a while at this point. There's a few islands out there that I can see. Now, everyone on the continent absolutely loathes us and each other so it's time to participate in our historical past time: colonizing other lands by force! Yeah! Settlers are on route to set up two colonies.

I land the Forbidden Palace! Some good news is in for a change. This game hit a serious rough patch in regards to the diplomacy but I'm getting back into the groove and it's becoming fun again.



I decide to take a screenshot of the government screen. I've been mostly silent about this, but I want to talk about it a bit. I have a lot of policies, an almost overwhelming amount. Yet most of them are pretty terrible. I think I've gotten most of the really good policies here in Monarchy (revolted this turn) - although getting a 100% adjacency for commercial districts and +2 build actions for builders is quite good still. Yet, it's missing something. It's rather quite obvious what it is, but I'll give you a second to think. What problem could I possibly have with this system? (Besides an absolute swarm of policies.)

The answer is that this doesn't let you do anything completely out of the box or different. Just using Civ IV for example in regards to labor civics, one out of the five lists of civics, has different ways to play the game. Slavery lets you turn population into production and caste system lets you run an impressive amount of specialists. Serfdom is a flat 50% boost to worker potential and emancipation is 100% boost to cottages and adds unhappiness to your opponent's cities who aren't running this civic.

Slavery/Caste System makes you run a completely different sort of game. Serfdom is pretty much useless unless you're hacking down tons of jungle and emancipation makes you consider how worthwhile is it to put your enemies cities in unhappiness until they can reach it or if its worth running the unhappiness not being in emancipation. They offer interesting alternatives. This system just lets you do things better.

It's okay, but it isn't particularly interesting. Maybe you unlock some significantly more interesting things in the later civic tree that I haven't seen yet in which case I'll revisit this, but even if that is the case, then there's just nothing that interesting early on. 4000 BC to 1280 AD has been me looking over a list of policies, deciding none are really that good for me, and then exiting out without a swap. This is to me a critical flaw in the game. Not nearly as bad as the diplomacy system, dear gods no, but this is something that could have been great. The problem is that it is just mediocre.

Teddy wants to trade me the Odyssey for diamonds, dyes, and OB. I agree because what exactly is he going to do? Admittedly, it's no Iliad but I do like the Odyssey. I start work on both the Great Lighthouse and the Colossus for no reason other then I like having wonders. Having a +1 movement bonus for my naval units doesn't hurt, though.

Teddy denounces me. Pretty much everyone hates each other. Diplomacy 101 - Run and hide! I pop a second Great Admiral and decide to send both out scouting. Why not?



Great Lighthouse finishes and I will give the game this - having wonders built on tiles really makes the game look pretty.



Found Portsmouth, my first colony! It's not great but it gives me clams and could churn out some decent gold when set up with some districts. I'll rush buy a builder to start setting some of them up. It's also literally in the most inconvenient spot possible in the map, right under the little stylish hub thing, in the left hand corner. Also, my bonus gives me my first swordsman!

I'm at war with Qin Shi Huang, apparently. I don't know and I don't care at this point. Is he the one who was bringing in all those city states against me despite the fact that I've met approximately none of them? I don't even think any of the other civilizations bought China in. He won't accept a white peace, but I put in ivory and then take it away and that makes him accept it. Possibly exploitable, but I don't feel like I'm cheesing the game... considering everything.

I did some checking around on the diplomacy screen. I'm at eight cities and Rome is at five. Egypt comes in at four and everyone else sits at three. Hon Kong was at war with me and made peace with me.

China, Rome, America total 3/7ths of all the civilizations. We've been at war with 43% of the world! This is clearly worth a celebration. 

I begin work on Ruhr Valley in Newcastle. I'm two eras ahead of pretty much any other nation in technology. I think I can land this.

I guess I should mention I've found some natural wonders. Cliffs of Dover, Dead Sea, and Galapagos Islands are the three so far. Galapagos gets you bonus science which looks good and the rest I haven't bothered checking. They aren't particularly interesting.

I wonder if there's an x until declaration. They seem to come in pairs. China declares on Egypt at the same time Rome declares on me. I'm not particularly worried.

"In diplomacy, there are two kinds of problems: small ones and large ones. The small ones will go away by themselves, and the large ones you will not be able to do anything about." - Patrick McGuiness

I have never felt like a quote has described me more aptly. I'm also supposed to establish embassies with my friends and allies.



In other news, Rome moves approximately no troops against me. I move no troops against them. We've reached an understanding. Colossus finishes, proving that there was absolutely no danger of ever losing the ocean wonders.



I found Liverpool, my second colony complete with colonial garrison. There's enough sea food to put Hudson Bay to shame. I also rush a builder here too since no colony here will have any natural production.

Apparently denouncements are up for renewal as there is a whole new stack of them. Also, since almost all of my denouncements have warn off, I build a few embassies.

Qin Shi Huang - Hates people who land more wonders then him, likes airpower.
Hojo Tokimune - Likes strong culture, faith, and military, likes me making people happy.
Cleopatra - Likes strong military, hates anyone with more Great People then her.
Trajan - Like giant empires, hates anyone who builds more wonders then him.
Kongo - Likes people who spread their faith, likes industrial nations
Saladin - Hates people not of his faith, likes people who build up their faith
America - Doesn't like fighting on his continent, ???

My playstyle so far has matched with exactly none of them. Trajan, Cleopatra, and Teddy should have been my natural allies but the first two have policies that contradict with my current playing and Teddy I've half killed. China, Japan, and Arabia are all out due to faith. Kongo... was pretty much my only chance at an ally. Well, it's certainly been an... interesting diplomatic session.

Cleopatra vs Huang, Teddy vs Saladin is apparently what's happening. I've also landed one source of niter, meaning that in critical resource bingo I am not the most screwed person in the world. That person would be Saladin. He has no horses, no iron, and no niter (which I'll probably start calling gunpowder eventually). In more important news, Japan is finally to neutral with me, making him the one person in the world that does not hate me that much! It's unnerving seeing a friendly face after so long. I've gotten so used to seeing angry glares, heads sent in through the mail, and having my barns rebuilt in passive aggressive locations that it feels wrong. The question is how badly is karma going to kill me?

More utterly shocking news: Japan is now friendly! Tokimune is actually going to come to my barn burning social! And Egypt is back to neutral, too! Rome makes peace! My diplomats each get a private mansion.

Rome declares war on Arabia. Doubt much will come out of it - Teddy was under serious threat from Arabia for a bit... because he holds the prestigious city of Charleston. I don't think I need to make any snarky remarks about why Saladin could have taken it.

Rome appears to be my main competitor. They are the only one to six cities and pose any chance at beating me. It's... not a high chance, mind you, but it's the only bit the AI has.

Egypt uses an Apostle to clear out a barbarian encampment. China declares war on the Kongo. I'm pretty much hitting end turn endlessly.



I found Bristol, bringing my first source of native iron into the empire. That really about does it for the colonies, there's a one little tile up north that's practically useless and land that China hasn't grabbed, but that's a really long way away. And guess what happens when I settle Bristol?

Ten cities in total!

"If ten of thine ten times refigur'd thee:
Then what could death do, if thou shouldst depart,
Leaving thee living posterity?"

Indeed, Shakespeare, indeed.

Egypt + Rome declare war and I can hardly bother looking up. They won't accomplish anything.

I get a writer who's full name is far too long. Marie-Catherine d'asomething. She produces Goldilocks in my theatre district in London and I'm sending her down to Newcastle to write something called The Dolphin. Now, I remember reading an absolutely dreadful book called the Dolphin when I was younger so if this is the same book, I feel pity for the citizens in Newcastle.

Land Oxford University in Newcastle. I enter the modern era from one of the techs it drew (Flight). This leads the somewhat humorous fact that two nations are still in the medieval era, three are in the Renaissance, and three are in the Industrial Age. Nobody even comes close in science or culture. My military strength is close to China's, but mine is heavily outdated due to a lack of any decent resources. I'm researching infantry right now and it doesn't look like they have any requirements which'll cause it to spike up.

I get a Great Engineer which lets me get a luxury called... Toys. Charleston is under new management. Bye, America! I'd say you were a worthy opponent but you got beat out by the agricultural department. Everybody did.



Buy a great work from Kongo. I'm trying to gun for a cultural victory with science as a back up. I've won this, so why wait until the space race to get it over with?

Takes a bit more wheeling, dealing, and resource exchanging but I manage to pick up a great work of art and more books too. Once these thirty turns run out I should be able to take everything Kongo has left.

Rome declares on Arabia and Arabia declares war on me.



The situation is pretty much dull. I just have to whack down the Mamluk putting concern on my campus and we'll be fine. I have no oil (a Great Engineer gave me the ability to see it) so I have a settler on route right next to Arabia to pick some up from the store.



Situation a few turns later. Arabia's been pushed back to Charleston and I may try and take it. Infantry and cannons cut through outdated units like butter. Down in the south, you can see the cannon and settler I've sent to secure the oil. Arabia's also sent a few units down there so it's been a pretty good investment already.



I just looked at the settler and it's a little RV Camper. That's brilliant. I don't care what anyone else says, that automatically makes it the best game. I am now willing to overlook the fact that we still cannot understand farming.



Down goes Charleston. I glossed over most of the details, you didn't miss anything. Infantry vs knights isn't much of a challenge. It feels like I'm playing on Settler. Saladin still won't make peace so I'll keep going until he's willing.

War ends two turns after that. I hit some of his units, he cedes Charleston and Mecca in the peace treaty. I could have kept going but I didn't see any reason to do so.



If only I could rename cities, poor people in Bradford. Their existence is cold and has oil. The Gulag is more than appropriate. Rome declares on Kongo, I need a counter. Archeologists are making their way around the antiquity sites and grabbing things from... America? You'll live on in our museums, I suppose.

Everyone has denounced literally everyone else but me. I am somehow the best at diplomacy since not everyone hates me. Arabia declares war on the Kongo.

Class Warfare or whatever comes in and we go communist for the 20% bonus to production. Hello, Oceania and her big sister Vicky. The masses are overwhelmed with joy.

Bolshoi Theatre is built. I built it mostly because I could and that my civics were lagging behind my research capabilities. I also discover rifling much later after I put infantry on the field. China declares on Rome.

"With your people enthused to try out Cold War..."

Big Sister perhaps has encouraged the public a bit too much.

Begin working on Eiffel Tower (tourism boost) and Big Ben (+1 Economic slot) in Newcastle and Birmingham. Rome declares on Arabia, Arabia makes peace with the Kongo. Arabia is the only one to have accomplished anything from these incessant wars.

Missed Big Ben, annoying but I had for a very long time and didn't notice the effect.



This is depressing. Someone give the AI a handout, please? For victory, I'm only at about 33% on the tourism goal which means that I'm probably going to have to launch my... mars colony? I think that's it. On the bright side, I'm finally exploring the rest of the continent so I'll know finally what it looks like.
(Also - hi Teddy! Well wishes from Oceania!]



Keep up the good work, Thurmond.



You meet me again a hundred years in the future. I've done nothing but explore, try and maximize both my production towards space race and culture, and look balefully at how much empty land there is to the east. I'm at 101/125 at the moment in regards to tourism. I'm getting about 3 tourists/per turn so I'll finish in about eight turns. I'll launch my first satellite in seven turns. This has been a particularly uninteresting part of the game. At least I'm not fighting a war, I guess?

Alright, looks like my final turn in this game before it's over. Took some shots of my empire, but there's no Mecca or Bristol since they're mostly pointless. There's no shot of the Gulag either, but it's hilarious so not unimportant.


North Oceania


South Oceania


Island Colonies

I take pride in these two cities since I used traders to get production and food in and turn them into very important parts of my empire on the commerce side. Well worth founding, believe me. I made 363 per turn and these cities helped a lot.

Since I couldn't resist, I took some night shots of my empire. I think they look really pretty.





Nothing to do now but click next turn and win a cultural victory.


Er, I reached 124/124 this turn but it takes another turn to do so. My satellite goes up and reveals the entire map, which means my earlier exploration push was useless. Oh well.



China took a city from Egypt. Barbarians pretty much killed China and Egypt. The east is entirely devoid of human life. Reminds me of Pennsylvania.

Conclusion

A nice little cutscene tells me I've won.

Now, stats!



Culture graph. The biggest rise is probably from completing a full set of archeological artifacts in a museum. That alone contributed 25+ tourists.



Gold! I had a big pile at the end that I spent entirely on some great uses - expanding the Gulag into the ice.



Now the problem graphs. I was able to shoot far and away with my campuses, which only picked up steam as my cities became more and more developed. The AI just... floundered.



The AI isn't building enough districts. I may have been fairly heavy on it, but... they're easily the best things to build in the game. Industrial Zone and Campuses are the lifeblood of this game and Commercial districts are just as important. I had a significant boost due to my special harbor and I built a lot of theatres for culture, but this is still pretty dismal.



Finally, war declarations versus the player. I'm not sure what this exactly means, but I'm on top. I fought a lot of phony wars. There's a total wars category that is completely foreign to me, so I didn't include that. AI fought a ton of wars without achieving much of anything. Interestingly, Rome ended up on top and fought the most. Is that because of the agenda it has or does having a war kicks some routine into gear that makes them simply better? I'm not sure. Could be with all the fighting the wars, they had units left over which they then used to beat back the barbarians? That could explain it. The Kongo and Rome were the strongest civilizations and Kongo was surrounded by AI while Rome fought the most meaning they had the most units. In which case, the AI isn't optimized to produce enough units to face the threat of barbarians.

Curtain Call at the Tampico

So, that's one game done with 18 hours sunk into it. I believe this game was one level over the standard difficulty. I'm not exactly impressed with the AI's competence. I'm kind of struggling to just pin it down to a few basic conclusions on why it was so easy. But, after some thinking, I think this is my best guess. [note - a lot of griping follows]

1) The AI just doesn't know how to use the districts.
     - They aren't using them intelligently and they aren't building enough of them. They fall far behind when they begin to come into play and it only gets worse the more prevalent the districts become.

2) The AI can't expand.
     - The best AI expanded the most - Kongo, Rome, and Egypt. Rome was the biggest competition at seven cities. Kongo and Egypt respectively had five. Kongo was heading a culture route and Egypt was going religious. These three posed the most competition. The rest of the AI didn't matter. They didn't have enough cities. (The AI did a bit of late game expansion pushing which is why these numbers are off. I counted what mattered.)

3) The Eureka moments seem like the AI can't effectively plan for them
    - This entire system seems like the player will just be by and large able to plan it out to achieve the most bonuses for the most important technology possible. It's also not a system I like very much. I hit a lot of them without even trying and they're for every technology. They're not interesting if it's for every tech and they aren't challenging to get. This would be the only way the AI could somewhat use them effectively - blunder into them.

4) Trade routes are silly powerful.
    - I shouldn't even need to mention this. Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, and Portsmouth were all massively improved from the traders bringing them either vital food for the first two cities or vital production for the last two. I was up to 20 traders by the end of the game and had the capacity for one more. Getting a good system running, ferrying production and food back and forth, is pretty much vital. I would have not had as much of an easy time as I did. It let me skip farms almost entirely and turned my entire empire incredibly productive. I like the system, but it desperately needs a cap on how many traders can exist.

I think those four are the reasons why this game was incredibly easy. The AI doesn't know how to fight at all but as I remarked, Rome fought the most and was the main competitor in technology. Warfare doesn't seem to slow the AI down that much.

There's three glaring problems that need to be fixed, but aren't exactly related to why the game is so easy.

1) The game desperately needs a faster way out. You have domination and that's it. I reached a dominant position much earlier then when I actually won, leaving an immense slog until I could finally eek out a cultural victory. That was probably faster then slowing working my way through and taking capitals.

2) City states are just incredibly broken. Their diplomacy sucks.

3) The AI diplomacy system needs reworked. I don't think it's because they're innately insane (although that could be it), the casus belli system just drags everyone into a constant grudge match. It takes one nation to declare a surprise war before the entire thing goes to shambles. There's also no good way to make friends. You have an embassy and following their agenda. That wasn't enough to get me even a pact of friendship. The entire diplomatic system is essentially worthless.

Then minor annoyances I found.

1) Music is the same for every era. There is two good songs and that's it. It's dull, repetitive, and I just didn't like it in general.

2) The UI needs improvement. This seems really easy to do to me.

3) The Great People are mostly worthless. Great Writers and Great Composers (is that what they are called?) are good for cultural victory. Great Artists are good for filling things to provide some kind of bonus. Great Merchants, if they provide a luxury, are probably the best. The rest just suck. Great Prophets of course found a religion and are less Great People then they are a mechanic.

4) Government system is really boring and doesn't offer any real interesting options.


5) I now carry an irrational grudge for farmers.

I'm sure there's others, but that's all that really sprung to mind while I was writing this up and I don't want to go on forever. :P

Thanks for reading this rambling report. The entire thing is 9,500 words, so my condolences.  Now, to read the other reports!

~ Thespian

EDIT: Corrected a silly mistake.

[Ruined Everything]

This report is a work of beauty. I laughed out loud at the Gulag/your archeologists sifting through the broken remains of America. The diplo commentary was pretty amusing too.

Thanks for posting it!

[Thespian]

This report is a work of beauty. I laughed out loud at the Gulag/your archeologists sifting through the broken remains of America. The diplo commentary was pretty amusing too.

Thanks for posting it!

I'm glad the audience found the diplomacy more enjoyable then the player. That was the hardest part of the report - trying to be upbeat about the diplomatic endeavors was difficult.

[fluffyflyingpig]

I have to confess I found diplomacy in this civ iteration completely infuriating and ignored it completely for my entire game. It was much better that way, though the constant diplo window popups were still annoying.