Strategy for Philosophical Civs

[Dactyl]

I've been messing around with the Alternate CS Slingshot strategy. Though I don't really care for the slingshot strategies, I came up with a way of playing philosophical civs that may be useful. (I've only tried this with Elizabeth who is also financial, but it should work on other philosophical civs.) My test of this strategy was on Monarch level, Marathon speed.

I normally like to play the Russians with Catherine. When I play them I will research Bronze Working, Agriculture, Wheel, Pottery, and perhaps Animal Husbandry or Fishing if they're of special value for my start. I'll then research Writing, Mysticism, Alphabet, Polytheism and Literature so that I can get to work on the Great Library. On the turn after I acquire Writing, I start on a library in my capital. As soon as I complete it, I create two science specialists in my capital in order to get a scientist GP to build an academy. I usually have that academy before starting the Great Library, so that I can remove the science specialists in order to get more hammers at work on the wonder.

The strategy that I stumbled upon involved researching Mysticism right after Agriculture. Basically I did everything else the same including creating those two scientist specialists, though I knew they'd give me a prophet GP. Also, even after I got the prophet GP I kept those scientist specialists in place until I actually started building the Great Library. That meant that I got a second prophet GP while I was building the Great Library. I used those two prophets to research Priesthood and the Code of Laws, giving me Confucianism. My third GP was a scientist, which popped out after I had finished the Great Library. I used it to build an academy in the capital.

I probably could have refined this so I didn't have to consume a GP to get Priesthood, but this left me with the best start that I've had in a long time. I was shortly thereafter well ahead of the AI civs in research and was in good financial shape as well. I don't know if this will hold up under more testing, but I wanted to share it.

[Nacht]

Re: Strategy for Philosophical Civs

Originally posted by Dactyl
Basically I did everything else the same including creating those two scientist specialists, though I knew they'd give me a prophet GP.

How do two scientist specialists give you a prophet GP

[Blake]

I don't understand how you're generating the prophets.

I prefer the Philo slingshot. Found a 2nd city (and remain at 2 cities), build the oracle in that city, pick Code of Laws as free tech, founding conf, build a temple and create a priest.
Meanwhile the capital has created a library and 2 scientists.

Research Mathematics while the GS is generating, then lightbulb Philo, founding it in the same city as Conf. Run Philo.
Use the next prophet to create a Shrine (for whichever religion has spread most), the next scientist for an acadamy, then the next prophet for the other shrine. Nice thing is there is no points-pollution, it's all predictable.

Anyway. Expand peacefully if you can, otherwise research construction (easy since mathematics is done) and expand forcefully.

A fun strategy for Saladin (or prehaps some others) might go like this:
Found Buddhism, create a priest.
Pop Code of Laws with the prophet.
Grab Philo with the Oracle.

Yay, three religions in the capital. Bear in mind it's probably not that great though because the religions would spread haphazardly, but if you have a high food capital you could create a whole load of priests once a shrine is up, and with Angor Wok it'd be pretty nice.

[Blake]

Seriously, try the triple religion Saladin strategy - build Stonehenge too if you want, it's easy. And Angor Wok of course after doing some expansion.

This strategy is MY WORDS ARE BACKED WITH NUCLEAR WEAPONS good.

edit: Also, I STRONGLY reccomend using the prophets like this if you have enough food to run 2 priests:
1st prophet: Code of Laws
2nd prophet: Conf Shrine (because you probably used the conf missionary to convert a neighbour, but if another religion has spread better, go for it..)
3rd-6thth prophet: Settle. This gives you rockin' hammers and income.
7th-8th prophets: The last 2 shrines. By now the conf shrine has had some time to get a majority in some other territories.

Then try getting some scientists, prehaps with Great Library.

[Dactyl]

Sorry, my bad. I left out the key point. In my capital I built a worker, a settler, and then Stonehenge. I then chopped to make sure I got Stonehenge finished before anyone else. (I had the second city build warriors to defend both cities.) The fact that you have built Stonehenge means that you will generate only prophet GP's until you get the Great Library built.

[Unimatrix11]

Angkor What ?! ;-) Excusemesan - Did you mean the kitchen stadion from iron chef (That would be a nice wonder, too, giving you xx smiling faces and occasional 'chicken battles' - hahaha) ? Cause the big Wat in cambodia is called Angkor Wat...

[Nacht]

Stonehenge plus two scientists still gives you a scientist GP three out of four times.

[Blake]

Originally posted by Unimatrix11
Angkor What ?! ;-) Excusemesan - Did you mean the kitchen stadion from iron chef (That would be a nice wonder, too, giving you xx smiling faces and occasional 'chicken battles' - hahaha) ? Cause the big Wat in cambodia is called Angkor Wat...

Whaaat? But I just learnt to spell Chichen Itza *pouts*.

[Unimatrix11]

i hope i didnt offend you - i just try to be funny.

[Dactyl]

Nacht, I will have to check when I get a chance, which will take a couple of days, but that's not what I recall.

[Manuel]

Originally posted by Nacht
Stonehenge plus two scientists still gives you a scientist GP three out of four times.

True, but only if you start generating Great Person Points from 0. I Imagine Dactyl had a lot of Great Prophet Points accumulated from Stonehenge already before finally building that library. That should skew the percentage towards Prophet rather than Scientist.

[Nacht]

True, the odds will be somewhat more in favor of a prophet. Still not something you can count on. Besides, his strategy involves creating a second prophet by keeping those scientists.

[Hermann the Lombard]

Originally posted by Blake Research Mathematics while the GS is generating, then lightbulb Philo, founding it in the same city as Conf. Run Philo.

I didn't know you could choose or force founding in a specific city. How is it done?

[Hauptman]

Originally posted by Hermann the Lombard
I didn't know you could choose or force founding in a specific city. How is it done?

Religions found in your MOST RECENT CITIES. thats why he said stop at 2

[Blake]

You can actually go to 3 (but not reliably) due to a strange quirk.

I think it works like this:
Religion first prefers to found in a city with no religion.
If there is no such city, it founds in a non-capital city.

I've had this happen:
Found city #2, founded conf in it.
Found city #3, conf spreads naturally to it.
Research Philosophy, Taoism founded in City #2.

I expected that it would prefer to found in a non-holy city (ie always city #3), but it apparentely makes no distinction between holy and just religious. I expect it's a total crap-shoot though which wouldn't make it a good thing to rely on.