Adv 24 - A Wonderful Life

[Swiss Pauli]

A build-fest: no DoWs, no taking over aggressors’ lands as punishment for them choosing unwisely, and no Marble & Stone. How to approach this? A lot will depend on the other Civs on the map: Capac might go for an early Stonehenge, Monty will be mental, so a lot will depend on our neighbours. Everybody needs good neighbours.




Henge, GW and Oracle are likely to be the earliest Wonders to fall, so how do we plan to get these? Mining and Worker first is my choice: we have Agri and two grass hills to mine, so the next decision is between OCC and a 2 city gambit. Here are the attractive sites nearby:



OCC it is. Mysticism follows Mining, then AH after that. The latter reveals riverside horses in the BFC. Woo. I connect them in case we need to deal with barbs. Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism are all FIDL quite early, but we’re yet to meet any civs. On turn 34 (2640BC), Masonry comes in just as Stonehenge is completed, so GW gets started immediately. Onto Poly as the Priesthood gate (Temple of Artemis and Great Library). Great Wall is finished in 2280, but Priesthood is four turns away, so a Settler is started (size 5). The lack of sync with Priesthood was me putting some turns into Pottery and forgetting to switch back: we’ve discovered a good coastal city, so I want to grab Metalcasting with the Oracle if at all possible, although a bail-out to Monarchy is a reasonable plan B.

Pottery is completed and in 1960 BC I decide to delay the Oracle further to time with the completion of research into Bronzeworking. This delay allows me to get the Settler out (for rice/FP/hills) and build a granary in Paris. Et voila (and there’s Copper to our east, too):



You’ll note I’ve not met anyone yet. Where are this lot hiding? Aside from starting Pyramids in Orleans (which I’d like to dedicate to GE wonders: Mids, Gardens, Hagia) I can now use the ‘wonder-lull’ to expand: Lille is founded on the northern shore in 1160, shortly after I met Justinian the Buddhist. Well, I didn’t meet him as such: the low-odds great Spy made the introduction for me. I met Mansa soon thereafter, as he took the barb city of Bulgar which had sprung up in a juicy, FP-heavy spot. Although a Priest (for settling) would have been welcome at this early stage, I got my value out of the Spy by using him as an explorer before infiltrating Timbuktu once I had a reasonable idea of the lay of the land.

So, who do we have on our sceptred isle? Two pacifist techers (Mansa and Willem), an uppity hippy (Asoka), the witch (Justinian), Mr. All-bark-no-bite (Pacal II), and one loony (Suryvaraman), and not an IND Civ in sight. If I can share a religion with my nearest neighbours (Mansa and Justinian) I should be fine to run OR and build wonders, leaving them to feel the heat of religious animus. Byzantine is Buddhist, as is Khmer, with Asoka and Pacal being Hindu. Mansa and Willem are unaligned as yet.

My three cities are all pursing wonders: lighthouse => Great Lighthouse in Lyons, ToA in Paris (completed BC625), and Pyramids in Orleans. My eastern expansion was checked when the barb city of Yayoi sprung up at Cows/Copper. With Chariots my best unit and no barracks, I decided to wait until IW is in before deciding on an attack. Pyramids were completed in BC650 (I can see the AI getting these earlier in another game), but this was as important to me:





We have Iron under Orleans, so it’s time to get some Swords out and take Yayoi! Trading to Maths Mansa was not putting Hanging Gardens at serious risk because the Spy Bomb had let me see his production. You’ll also notice I’ve traded Mono to Mansa: the tech was learnt because I have a GP sitting around, and I wanted to LB Theology (Apo, Hagia). After discovering Jesus in Orleans, he missionary was sent to Mansa, as I had the idea to keep him open to a conversion to Christianity at some point in the future.




Lots going on in the above pic: there’s a Settler on a tundra hill to the north of Yayoi. Originally trained for the Yayoi site, I made an error in scouting and failed to see the Fish off this part of the coast, so this city (Rheims) was established maybe a dozen turns after it should have been. There’s another barb city to be taken as well. In this case, I would wait a while for another Settler and re-found 1 tile east to grab Furs and to contest Sheep with Mansa (unsuccessfully, as it turned out). Colossus constructed in AD50: very early, but I needed to whore the tech around as my research pace was woeful compared to Justinian, Mansa and Willem (who founded Confucianism).

Another picture that tells us plenty about my game:





I accepted Sury’s demand to cancel with Asoka before seeing the DoW. The GP got settled in Orleans, as I needed the hammers more than the shrine. However, my build order here was floored: I should have been working on an Aesthetics wonder, because, although I had the monopoly on Theo and Aesthetics, I – unlike the AI - lacked the multipliers for Temple of Zoos and Shwedagon Paya, but I was overly focused on GE points.

I lost ToZ to Pacal as a result. At this stage of the game, I can see many players missing out on a Wonder or two: with Mausoleum of Marsallos, Great Library, the Chicken, the 3 Aesthetics Wonders, Hanging Gardens, Apostolic Palace, Hagia Sophia, and Sistene Chapel all available, sound analysis (and a bit of luck) will be required to bag them all.

I would only miss 1 more Wonder in the rest of the game: having powered through the above Wonders using a GA sparked by the free Artist from Music (although I discovered that completing MoM during a GA doesn’t extend it), I needed to get to Philo for Angkor Wat: Mansa and Willem had it, so I planned to steal it from Mali. However, I got a GS in 980 and lightbulbed Philo, immediately switching to Angkor Wat (completed in max 9 turns).




Well, my Spies tell me that it’s not Mansa’s GE. So what are the odds on it being Willem?





. Not much I could do about that one, though.

I’ll spare you the details of th rest of my buildfest, but having converted to Buddhism late through my own missionaries (after J spread it in Yayoi) in order to build Apostolic Palace, I remained in OR and REP for most of the game. The Thief Economy was a huge boon: I lost just two Spies and stole Machinery, Feudalism, Guilds, Engineering, Optics, Banking, Education & Economics thanks to the three Great Spies (2 to Byzantine and 1 to Mali). The EPs also allowed me to switch research to Liberalism knowing that I’d complete it before Justinian (taking Constitution).

The AI helped me burst ahead in tech by frequent infighting: Pacal attacked Mansa in 1010AD, but Justinian immediately declared on Pacal; Sury declared on Asoka in 1460; Pacal attacked Mansa again in 1545, and once more around 1820. This was in spite of Mansa and Pacal running FR (as did Asoka and Willem) leaving three Buddhists (me, Justinian, and Sury).

Strategic trading in of part-researched techs (Astro, Sci Meth, Communism) from Mansa let me pseudo-beeline to Mass Media whilst grabbing Statue of Liberty and Kremlin. Willem was kind enough to trade me Steam Power, but the AI didn’t bother with Assembly Line, so I was easily able to claim Pentagon (possibly the first time I’ve built it), despite two GEs being born in Byzantine. Such was my Wonder-tech advantage, I had no need to trade Leccy or Radio until I had completed the Wonders.

I contemplated stopping before the Space Elevator was unlocked, as the game was beginning to drag, but I came back to the game after a few days break, and finished off by using two GEs (from Orleans) and a three Man GA on the Elevator, buy-rushing it after 1 turn of production, having used Cristo to swap civics (REP) to shave a turn of research, and again to allow max hammers and buy-rushing (USUF/SP).




An enjoyable builder’s game: it seems possible, but not entirely straightforward, to bag all the Wonders and I expect one or two players to do so. Thanks for the event, Sullla!

[sunrise089]

Looks like a good game as usual Swiss, but I didn't see your count. You certainly are right about that big group of wonders occurring all at once and it being hard to grab them all. Four of the eight wonders I missed were from that time (I think).

Love to see that RBtS1b thief economy being shown off as well

[Swiss Pauli]

The count is 32/34.

And I hope you don't have an early morning class...

[sunrise089]

The count is 32/34.

And I hope you don't have an early morning class...

Don't I wish....I'm working on a predictive legal memo for my legal writing class that was due.....about 16 hours ago. After that gets submitted and the penalty is assessed, then it's off to work at 9:00am

[Swiss Pauli]

SO no rest for the wicked, then

[Compromise]

Good show!

It seems to me that both of the wonders you missed could easily have been constructed by you had the RNG gone your way. I'm not sure from your report when the AI built the Temple of Zeus, but it seems like it might have been right around the time when others of us built it. And had Willem popped a Scientist instead of an Engineer, you would have built the Wat too.

I did have to laugh at the raw production capacity of the city you built the Space Elevator in: was that 9 base hammers? Brilliant!

[Swiss Pauli]

Mansa took the barb city in ca 1200 that was located where most people founded Lyons, so I missed out on the prime location for SE. It did tickle me to build it in two turns where I did.