AU 504 Glory of Culture DAR 6 - Modern Era or Industrial Endgame

[nbarclay]

This DAR covers the period from 50K culture until the player either enters the modern era or finishes the game early.

Have you managed to win your 100K cultural victory in the industrial era, or are you moving on into the modern era? If you are finished, how did you go about securing your victory? If not, where do things stand at this point and what are your remaining plans?

[Modo44]

Gandhi the crazy builder

Monarch level, AU mod

I tried to keep a steady tech pace while buying improvements but that prooved not enough with the huge Iroquis KAI. But even with odds against this idea, I decided to try and not kill them.

The large Iroquis fleet did finally drop it's load. They settled on two last unclaimed islands near my continent and put two groups of 8 units in my territory. Of course, in places where I could not handle 8 Knights. So they got 160 gold for peace, big deal. 5 turns later heavy reinforcements arrived and the Iroquis were told to beat it. They did in fact (I was certain they would declare war instead), teleporting away from the continent. Things happen...

It seemed they started gaining in culture again, so we had to act. For something like 15-20 turns research was completely turned off, gaining around 1100 gold per turn and buying Universities. AIs stayed behind in tech. The Iroquis researched Democracy and switched out of Feudalism. This was one turn of Anarchy and one turn without them catching up on me in culture. But after that they started to regain ground in research.

I had few trades with anybody, because somehow they didn't want to make gpt deals. To my knowledge I didn't brake any treaties, but they seem to think otherwise. So no draining the AI economy. Only got luxuries for old techs. [edit later] It turned out they just had no money while in Feudalism, even with such a vast empire. By the end of the game they were in Democracy and could make gpt deals, albeit small ones.[/edit]

Now it's 1510 AD and I only have to research Military Tradition before going to Industrial technologies. The Iroquis lack Free Artistry, Theory of Grafivt and Magnetism. I have between [edit]25 and 30[/edit] turns to go before reaching 100K culture, maybe less depending on culture doubling from Catherals. It doesn't look like I'm getting to play with Modern Armor. Again.

It seems that the Iroquis KAI, though very strong, won't endanger my win anymore. Still I'm going to load Cavalry, Riflemen and Crusaders on Galleons and have them floating just outside their cultural center. Taking no chances.

[Modo44]

Gandhi the Wonderful

Monarch level, AU mod

In 1645 AD the last University was bought. On the next turn all Indian cities would have all cultural improvements in them, except for some wonders the Iroquis got. Three turns later the game ended.

No overseas invasion was necessary, or even feasible. I was aiming for a "don't tuch the biggest AI" game and it worked out just fine. The only thing I didn't expect was that big a KAI. The Iroquis ended up destroying the Arabs and the Ottomans, owning more landmass than I did. The 6 cities not in Iroquis hands by the end of the game wouldn't make more than a turn or two for my cultural victory, so I didn't go for them at all.

The Indian empire was making nearly 1000 culture points per turn in the end. The game ended after Nationalism, Steam Power, Industrialization and Medicine - the only Industrial techs researched. The Iroquis lacked the last two of them.

The game as it was turned out very easy. If I had to, there would be no way to stop me from wiping the Iroquis from the face of Earth. Also, I could have taken them on much earlier. But that would mean commiting resources to the war, diverting them from my constant culture rushing at home. Since I'm the first to post here, I can't compare how good my strategy was in terms of winning as fast as possible. We'll see.

[nbarclay]

Emperor Level, AU Mod Rules

The march across Germany was slow but certain, with minimal losses. If greater transport capacity had been available in the area, it would have made sense to ferry over more war elephants to conquer territory more quickly (albeit with greater losses), but too many transports were still up north after the brief war with the Iroquois. During the German war, in the year 1425, India reached a point of more than doubling the Iroquois' cultural growth rate. The war with Germany ended in the year 1525, with India cramming in additional cities where it could (snatching tiles away from the Ottomans in the process). The build pattern in Germany wasn't quite ICS, but it was certainly denser than normal.

At that point, I was torn between the idea of attacking the Iroquois and the idea of trying to win in a pure cultural competition. As of 1525, I had 73,197 culture and grew by 936 culture that turn. The Iroquois had 39,621 culture (which doubles to 79,242), and their culture grew at a rate of 414 per turn. My rate of cultural growth had increased by about 150 points per turn over the last twenty turns, while the Iroquois' had grown by only 18. The problem was, while I could certainly win a cultural victory with double the Iroquois' culture without attacking them, it was far less certain whether it would be the fastest possible cultural victory. At the time, the most likely possibility seemed to be that India would reach 100K culture just after the Iroquois reached 50K, forcing India to spend a little extra time reaching the double point.

So I decided to adopt a wait-and-see attitude. If it looked like I could win with no more than a minimal delay without attacking, I would allow the Iroquois to remain intact. But if it looked like the delay would be more than just a handful of turns, I could send in the troops.

Then, as the year rolled over from 1535 to 1540, the situation changed. The Iroquois decided to demand furs in spite of the fact the fact that they would be hopelessly outmatched in a war. (Cavalry and musketmen against over forty infantry and over thirty artillery, plus four dozen war elephants and a few war elephant and crusader armies? Suicide.) With the cultural situation looking iffy, India decided to refuse the demand and leave it up to the Iroquois whether or not the game would end peacefully.

The Iroquois made the mistake of opting to declare war, so India started preparing its strategy. The Ottomans were enlisted as a buffer state to absorb the brunt of the Iroquois offensive, while eight infantry and eight artillery boarded galleons for the northern part off the Iroquois lands. With the Iroquois offensive forces occupied on the Ottoman front, it was hoped that the landing would meet minimal resistance - and such proved to be the case. Indian forces also seized the one Iroquois city on the island southeast of the former German homeland and, when an Iroquois naval landing captured the Ottoman city on that island, grabbed that too.

The Iroquois captured two cities on the Ottoman mainland in the course of the war, one of which India took away from them. The sixteen Indian units landed in the northwestern corner of the Iroquois homeland captured two cities and, reinforced by another two galleon-loads of troops, then went on to capture a third. Iroquois cultural growth was reduced from a peak of 416 per turn to 351 per turn, ending all hopes of the Iroquois' reaching 50K culture before India reached 100K, so India decided to stop trying to attack the Iroquois core (although a former Spanish Gem city might be a target if the war lasted long enough).

As the year rolled over from 1580 to 1585, the Iroquois and Ottomans made peace. That freed India from the obligations of its alliance, so India made peace as well.

[nbarclay]

As the game wound down, India's cultural growth proved a bit better than I had expected while the Iroquois' rate of cultural growth stood virtually still. India achieved cultural victory in the year 1650, with 101,176 culture. Extrapolating from the pre-war Iroquois cultural growth rate, India would almost certainly have acheived cultural victory at the same time even without the last war with the Iroquois. As it was, the Iroquois ended with only 48,162 culture (thanks in part to a last-minute decision by the Iroquois to change governments - they ended the game in Anarchy).

For a long time, the Iroquois capital was ahead of Delhi in culture (thanks to its having the Temple of Artemis and the Sistine Chapel). But near the end of the game, Delhi added the Theory of Evolution and, with a handful of turns left, the Sistine Chapel to its roster of wonders (which had previously included Sun Tsu's and the two medieval science wonders). That gave India the first, third, and fifth of the world's five most culturally advanced cities, with the Iroquois having the other two. (I deliberately decided not to use military means to alter the "top five cities" race insofar as overseas civs were concerned.)

Technologically, after going back to pick up Music Theory and Free Artistry very late in the game, I ended up four and a half mandatory techs away from finishing the industrial era. I had Refining but not Steel, so I needed the last half of Steel plus the four following techs. With all my cities that were finished building city improvements focusing on Wealth, I might possibly have been able to manage a sustainable four-turn tech pace through the remainder of the industrial era, and certainly could have gone at a five-turn pace. Thus, although the tech race was was lagging far behind where it would be in a normal game, its rate of advance from then on would have been reasonable.

[nbarclay]

Here's the top five cities at the end of the game.

[Arrian]

Good game, Nathan.

[Aqualung71]

A Great Hosannah – The Saga of the Guru Ravi Shankar, Chapter VI
Emperor Level, AU Mod

1370AD: Theory of Gravity researched, and Palace pre-build switched to Newton’s, which would be finished next turn for the loss of 20 shields.

1375AD: Newtons finished, and immediately switched back to a Palace pre-build for the next Wonder. We can only manage 1 pre-build at a time since no other decent production city has anything left on its build-queue Magnetism in 7 at a >500gpt rushing surplus.

1410AD: Magnetism researched. Sold to Spain for Navigation + 140g + 12gpt.

1420AD: We’ve hit 1000cpt!

1435AD: Metallurgy researched, ending the effectiveness of the SoZ. We finished with 23 AD, plus about 7 killed in the Chinese war, making this the most effective SoZ I’ve seen in my games

Well, we’ve broken our plan of finishing the game in the middle ages Steam Power being researched at a 9 turn pace.

1450AD: Luxury trade deal with Hiawatha renewed, at 192g + 58gpt for 3 luxuries.

1480AD: Researched Steam Power and promptly sold it to Hiawatha for Military Tradition + 161g + 24gpt and Isabella for Gems + 37g + 72gpt.

Industrialisation in 9 at 40% with a surplus of 660gpt. Palace pre-build switched to Military Academy for a huge waste of shields, but big deal!

1485AD: After a few quick calculations, research has been dropped to zero. Even with a pre-build, we won’t get Universal Suffrage until the last couple of turns in the game, so there is more benefit from earning 1275gpt cash and using it to rush more Universities and Coliseums.

Bill Gates is now officially obsolete!!!

1505AD: Beijing completed RR’ing. All domestic workers killed , and foreign workers maintained for pollution clean-up. No more RR’ing to be done. Beijing was only done for the hell of it anyway

1535AD: All building has been stopped and all cities put on wealth production. Regardless of what we do now, the game will be won in 1580AD.

Final culture statistics:
Towns/cities: 91
Temples: 91
Libraries: 91
Cathedrals: 91
Universities: 56
Coliseums: 40
Culture-producing Wonders: 8
Culture per turn: 1220
Nearest rival (Iroquois) 331

Oh, and dumb Xerxes with his 2 cities declares war on the Iroquois

1560AD: Damn, the Ottomans surprised attacked us and captured one of our wonderful culture cities! Oh well, better deduct a Temple, Cathedral and Library from that tally above

1580AD: 100,000 culture points reached. Victory!!!

Ravi dies. Immortality is a myth after all

[Modo44]

Originally posted by Aqualung71

Bill Gates is now officially obsolete!!!

Finally.

Great game.

Stupid me, didn't think of switching everything to Wealth for the finish. Oh, well.

[Aqualung71]

Yeh, well it was only in the hope of getting another point or two in score, but may not have had any effect that late in the game anyway.

Actually, the last part of this game felt amost exploitative - rushing everything and not researching. On the other hand, the goal was to win by 100K Culture as fast as you can, so that's what I did

Now.....time to think about the post-game wrap-up. Funny, noone has posted to that thread yet

[Modo44]

I think if you really wanted to exploit the game, you would have stopped research completely, not even finishing the medieval tech tree. That could actually affect the score and the finish date some more.

The post-game thread should wait, I think, until more people post their whole DARs. Then it will provide more exhibits to compare and brag about.

[Aqualung71]

Well, I did shut research down mostly.....for the second half of the Middle Ages I was researching at around 30% - 50%.....and only then because I wanted Smiths and Newtons.

As for the post-game comments, people normally post their thoughts after they have finished and while the game is still fresh in their mind, so there's no reason not to. I will probably do so in a couple of days and I encourage you to post your experiences there too.

[Mountain Sage]

With much shame, we proceed to this DAR:


1786AD:
We completed the United Nations. Not that anybody will vote for us anyway… :

1792AD:
Arabia declared war on the Celts.

1812AD:
China joined the war against the Celts.

1822AD:
The Arabs declared war on us when we refused to give them Steel! Another suicidal civ….

1824AD:
The Celts were destroyed by the Arabs.

1826AD:
The Great Arab Invading Fleet is nearing our shores…

[Mountain Sage]

Our military before the Arabian Strike (pretty, isn't it )?

[Mountain Sage]

Our pitiful so-called culture...