Epic 17 - Gandhi - Cultural - 1768AD

[Alex]

Greetings. I'm new to Realms Beyond, and indeed to (sort of) competitive civ, so this has been a bit of a learning curve for me. I also normally play in LAN multiplayer, which meant a couple more shocks, and at the time I played this I was a Noble player (now Emperor). Given all that, I'm happy just to have won. Comments or indeed criticisms are completely welcome.

General Plan

I've played all the victories before, but I've never set out from the beginning of the game to win cultural, so I decided to do that here. In terms of picking a leader, I reckoned that the keys would be Spiritual (for cheap temples) and Mysticism (for several religions); from those leaders, I plumped for Gandhi, partly for the peace-orientated UU and also for Philosophical. The (rough) plan was to gain nine cities, found most of the religions, and build cathedrals aplenty in my three main sites.

Opening

Loading up, I didn't see any real reason to move (though 1N was vaguely tempting for the floodplains), and so settled in place. My normal strategy is to churn out three quick warriors and conquer my nearest neighbour before archery, so I got going on that. If there's no-one nearby, I can just use them for scouting and city defense.



A few turns into the game, luck was with me as I spotted the Mongolians and (even better), their borders. Aggressive neighbours are a bit of a pain, but he should still fall if I can get a 3:1 advantage, and then I should be in a pretty strong position.



My first Monarch game was going swimmingly - not only did I pop Animal Husbandry from a hut(!), but I founded Buddhism in Delhi. Someone else pinched Hinduism soon after, but hey - I could let one slip.



The icing on the cake came when, on turn 18, I finished my army and the vanguard finally gained a view into the Mongol capital. Given the early date, I was pretty confident that he'd only have one warrior doing guard duty.



...

...

...

An archer?!

I now realise that in single-player games, this is normal, and that the AI actually starts with archers. At the time, it was quite a shock, and I actually put the game aside for a couple of days to come back to. Needless to say, this was a bit of a rude awakening: not only was my strategy stillborn, but I'd wasted plenty of time (and delayed my city growth) building an army that was already outdated. Oh well; nothing to do but go on.

I founded Bombay for its copper, and only afterwards realised that it would inevitably play host to Judaism. I should have delayed my metal and founded a better long-term spot... I suffered badly for this mistake, as for most of the rest of the game I couldn't decide whether or not to make Bombay one of my top cities (when pretty much all it had going for it were age and the religion).



Next up was Vijay, a really promising city which was a sure pick for the cultural win and would also provide a cultural bulwark against Kublai. I was pretty confident of taking that gold tile before too long.

The barbarians also became a problem around this time - see that injured Roman archer? It just fought off a Barbarian counterpart which would have had a good chance of destroying my city. Time to get a move on in defense.



I got my act together with religions this time, and - through the Oracle - founded Confucianism in Vijay. At the same time, the Mongols finished the Pyramids... Karakorum was looking tempting.



For now, though, I was staying at peace as I strove to settle up the land (and deprive the Barbarians of spawn-points). Patal - my final potential cultural city, giving me a group of four to pick from - was founded West of Delhi, and built the Great Lighthouse to aid the increasingly-strained economy. Meanwhile, Christianity joined Judaism in Bombay. With 200 turns gone, I found that I'd settled enough to be going on with, and I was through the worst of it financially (ticking over at 20%, courthouses coming through). All that remained to do was look after my top three (well, four) cities until the end of the game.



Things could easily have become boring here, and, you could argue, they should have. The thing is, something unusual happened. The AI suddenly learnt to fight:





Naturally, I was worried. The Malinese were killed by the Carthaginians, and the Greeks fell to the Romans (post-Praets), so there were two competent and warlike AIs on the march. Meanwhile my power was low and my popularity had taken a hit as I refused to join in... I should have taken sides once the end became inevitable.

Still, I could see a way out. I was still on pretty good terms with Hannibal, so I cosied up. Resource trade, beneficial tech trades, gift of a unit... and friendly. I secured a defensive pact as soon as possible, and in no time I was going to have a Permanent Alliance with one of the strongest players on the board. That should see me safe.

Some people might not have thought of that strategy, but as I play with one other human I always have PAs on, so it was second nature to me (though usually I ally with the human).

...

So, I discovered Liberalism (first) and researched on to Banking, then turned off research and waited for Hannibal to get to Communism. About 100 years later, I remembered to switch to Free Speech and Mercantilism, which of course were the reason I'd gone that far in the first place... oh well. I still didn't know which three cities I was going to win with, but I had bigger problems when Hannibal arrived (strangely, he hadn't given me an alliance yet) and mentioned that peace didn't suit him any more. To keep the possibility of union alive, I agreed his request to go to war: with Rome.



I made it through the war and gained my first cultural flip, from Montezuma, on the very same turn. There followed about twenty turns of peace before my re-signed Defensive Pact caused a bit of trouble.



Everyone in the world was now at war - Caesar against me and Hannibal, Kublai against Montezuma. From time to time I had to defend a baby stack of Roman invaders (with my woefully outdated defenders), but by and large they left me alone. Believe me, though, I was very nervous. Thankfully I managed to trade something (Astronomy?) for Constitution, and then Representation & Artists got my tech back on some sort of track. It was also at about this time that I realised the Permanent Alliance option was disabled for this game *facepalms*.

Turn after turn, though, I wasn't attacked, and my victory was moving ever closer. In the final turns I brought out a whole bunch of Great Artists, and before too long first Bombay, then Delhi and finally Vijay achieved legendary status. I'd done it - and in a not too disappointing time, as well.



Hooray!



I was the proud owner of the top five cities in the world, a first for me, and received the highest honour in the scoring (though that happens most games, really). Overall, not bad for my first Monarch game, my second single-player game (after the tutorial), and my first online challenge.



Post-Mortem

Pretty good, really - but there are a few things I could have done which would have saved me a lot of time, effort and turns.

i) Attacking from the word go is not possible in single-player Monarch
ii) Always check the settings before you begin play
iii) If I'm targeting a cultural victory, make sure as many religions as possible are founded in the right cities. Bombay should have been on Vijay's site, and Vijay on Patal's.

I also should have done more in the way of barb defense. I had a good early warning and scouting network, and I settled the black land quickly, but I really rode my luck at times (especially when Caesar had to do my defending for me).

I'm sure the relative experts here must have some thoughts; and, naturally, I'm open to questions (I do have more screenshots left as well). So go on, hit me.

Cultural Victory in 1768AD (394 turns), with Gandhi, by Alex.

[SpazzMaticus]

Nice win!
Now wer're waiting for Cultural Victory, with Alex, by Gandhi

[LKendter]

OUCH, another one that beats my date using my leader choice.

[Sullla]

Thanks for the report Alex, and welcome to Realms Beyond! I thought you played an excellent game, given that LAN games are your usual stomping grounds instead of single-player. Reading this:

My normal strategy is to churn out three quick warriors and conquer my nearest neighbour before archery, so I got going on that.

I'm glad I've never started next to you in a MP game! I hope you enjoyed it even with all of the changes. I enjoyed reading your different perspective on this scenario.