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Strategy
In my recent game as Egypt, I won the space race with a basically peaceful builder strategy centered around building the GL, followed by the FP, BC, and TOE. Afterward I realized that the same strategy could have set me up nicely for a domination win, even earlier than my original efforts as the Aztecs, in which the space-race option was off. Technologically, I was even with the AI; the question would have been whether I could keep the space racers from launching while I took the longer road of domination. (You can win much more quickly via domination than via the space race at every level from chieftain through emperor, but the opposite seems to be true in deity.)
In my next game, I decided to try to see if I could play deity with a more flexible approach, rather than devising a strategy for one specific mode of victory. My intent was to try to follow the Egyptian GW tack, starting with the GL – but to flex my military muscles whenever it was convenient, and see if this approach left me with more options than with either of my earlier ones.
Given these parameters, I wanted a civ with the trait most likely to get me the GL – industrious – combined with the best chance to win via domination if I missed that key wonder. Militaristic seemed like the ticket to me, over religious’ advantage of cheap culture and maximizing governments. That meant China, with a UU which would come in handy if the GL gave me chivalry shortly after its discovery.
The ancient era: expansion and the GL
China started on a pangaea-like continent with five other civs: Egypt to the south, India to the north, Rome, Greece, and then Japan to the west. The capital served as a settler factory, a river city started work on the GL, and I built three more to both stock the wonder city and build archers. By the time my wonder city hit size eleven, my luxury rate was at 50%.
In 875 BC, my archers attacked Egypt, and steadily mowed down their WCs. In 800 BC I built the GL, and learned that I had no iron. The war ended with the capture of Thebes and Alexandria, with Egypt paying 186 gold and 30gpt. China had doubled its size, and entered the Middle Ages competitive technologically.
In my recent game as Egypt, I won the space race with a basically peaceful builder strategy centered around building the GL, followed by the FP, BC, and TOE. Afterward I realized that the same strategy could have set me up nicely for a domination win, even earlier than my original efforts as the Aztecs, in which the space-race option was off. Technologically, I was even with the AI; the question would have been whether I could keep the space racers from launching while I took the longer road of domination. (You can win much more quickly via domination than via the space race at every level from chieftain through emperor, but the opposite seems to be true in deity.)
In my next game, I decided to try to see if I could play deity with a more flexible approach, rather than devising a strategy for one specific mode of victory. My intent was to try to follow the Egyptian GW tack, starting with the GL – but to flex my military muscles whenever it was convenient, and see if this approach left me with more options than with either of my earlier ones.
Given these parameters, I wanted a civ with the trait most likely to get me the GL – industrious – combined with the best chance to win via domination if I missed that key wonder. Militaristic seemed like the ticket to me, over religious’ advantage of cheap culture and maximizing governments. That meant China, with a UU which would come in handy if the GL gave me chivalry shortly after its discovery.
The ancient era: expansion and the GL
China started on a pangaea-like continent with five other civs: Egypt to the south, India to the north, Rome, Greece, and then Japan to the west. The capital served as a settler factory, a river city started work on the GL, and I built three more to both stock the wonder city and build archers. By the time my wonder city hit size eleven, my luxury rate was at 50%.
In 875 BC, my archers attacked Egypt, and steadily mowed down their WCs. In 800 BC I built the GL, and learned that I had no iron. The war ended with the capture of Thebes and Alexandria, with Egypt paying 186 gold and 30gpt. China had doubled its size, and entered the Middle Ages competitive technologically.
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