Pong 3: Turns 129 - 143 of Russia

This wasn't the first thing to happen in the session, but it was pretty close. 

Nate declares war on Japan. He had denounced them a short while before this and as mentioned in my last report I was pretty sure he was going to finish the war he lost long ago, when Kyoto rebuffed his longships.

With Frigates and Berserkers, I figure he'll make quick work of Kyoto. It's the largest city in the game at this point, and he'll be able to pick up two luxuries he doesn't have yet, which is something he's been lagging behind in all game.

Based on the shape of the continent, I don't believe he can get his ships to the other side, where the two other Japanese cities are. He'll probably take Kyoto and not push forward.

Kyoto is the holy city for Buddhism, and having it out of Japanese hands means it's likely to shrivel and die, allowing the glory that is Moo to spread more freely throughout the world.

Picking up where we left off.

I'm just starting to build the beginnings of a navy, and I'm terrified that Nate's frigates will stop harassing Japan and Hong Kong and swing by St. Petersburg. At this point I'm pretty sure he could take it with a concerted effort. There's little I could do to rebuke a gang of 4+ Frigates.

I don't have any screenshots of it, but I also start the session by going to each AI, establishing an embassy if I didn't have one already, and securing an Open Borders deal, paying whatever is needed.

culture dominance + religious dominance + open borders + trade routes = TOURISM TOURISM TOURISM



I look through my city report and confirm that I don't have stellar adjacency bonuses for my Holy Sites. I don't have a lot of natural wonders or large mountain ranges within my borders, and it turns out that the Scripture policy card is only netting me +9 Faith per turn.

I decide to swap that out for Invention, which gives me +2 Great Engineer points per turn. Because...



... At the end of the last session, I noted that I lost the race for a Great Engineer, and rather than save up the 2,870 faith it would require to buy the next one I bought three Apostles.

Reading my own report during the week, I regretted that immensely. There's a wonder that I have my eye on, the Venetian Arsenal, and I want it bad. It makes it so that whenever you complete a naval unit, you get two of them.

I see this as an effective way to counter Nate's naval dominance. It may not come with Frigates, but at some point he's going to launch an invasion of my heartland, and a large navy is certainly going to be part of that. He's got a solid head start here, and the Venetian Arsenal is a great way to catch up, and ensure that I've got a real chance at sea.

So I vow to save up my faith to recruit Mr. Eiffel. I kick myself a bit for buying the Apostles last session, but I'm sure I can find a use for them. With Mont St. Michel, if they die, they generate relics, which is more culture and faith for me!

Each Great Engineer point I accrue shaves 10 faith off the purchase price, so the Invention policy card is effectively +20 Faith per turn while I'm saving for the Great Engineer.

I'm also working on getting Industrial Zones up and running in two cities, with more to follow. I've put them off too long, and if I'm going to be churning out naval units I'm going to need the production.



I start spying on Nate! At first, I just have him gain sources so he'll be less likely to fail at things, or worse, get caught and die.

I still see very little of his land, an issue I should remedy soon. I've got some Apostles that could take a look!



Kyoto is going down fairly quickly, as I expected. His ships are going to have even more XP and promotions when they eventually come for me.



I went shopping around to see if anyone would declare war on Nate, but no one even had the option. I still don't understand how he has everyone as his declared friend, being such a warmonger with so little to trade.



A trade route expired in Kazan, where I was previously boosting production to finish Mont St. Michel. Looking around I saw that Brussels had a quest to establish a trade route, so I decided to send it there for the envoy, even though it was otherwise sub-optimal.

I didn't notice that on top of the envoys I sent to make peace with them last session, this made me the Suzerain. I check what they offer, and lo and behold it's a bonus to building wonders! That's good news, because I'm freeing up some build queues soon.



Nate establishes a naval base of a city southwest of China.

Not a whole lot going on there, so I'm kind of surprised. His other city would serve well enough to repair and rush ships, so I'm not sure why he'd need another.

Maybe there's a resource there I can't see. Coal?



Kyoto falls, roughly five turns after Nate declared war.

I'm terrified, because I don't think St. Petersburg would fare much better at this point.

I begin moving my Apostles and ships in wide arcs to ensure that nothing is creeping towards my shores after this. Fortunately, I didn't find all that much.

Shortly after this, Nate uses an Inquisitor to wipe Buddhism from its holy city. I thank him!



Across the sea, Hong Kong falls soon after Kyoto.

This is another beachhead on my side of the world, south of Nubia.

It's not too concerning to me, but I don't like him gaining power here. Part of me is considering colonizing Iceastan to the far south, and the more control and visibility he has the less enticing such a venture would be.



My Apostles are pretty tough. I'm trying pretty hard to get this one killed for the relic, but he keeps killing Missionaries.



My spy is successful in gaining sources, and I opt for a listening post next, so I can receive more gossip about Norway.

We've never exchanged delegations or formal embassies, so I don't get a lot of news items for him.



This Apostle cannot die. He's killed three wounded Missionaries with just a sliver of health left, and ended up with exactly 1 HP left. He is immortal! I want that relic, but I decide to heal him up and send him back out because I'm saving my faith for the Great Engineer and it'll be a while until I can buy another Apostle to replace him.



I change policy cards again.

I drop Retainers, which is really only affecting Tula at this point, and swap it for Professional Armies, which will let me upgrade my ships and army a bit.

I was hoping to build a bunch of Quadriremes and have them ready to upgrade to Frigates when I completed Square Rigging, but my coastal cities were busy with other projects and I only got one out.

Still, I get a Frigate and a Caravel, and I upgrade my remaining Archers and Warriors to Crossbowmen and Swordsmen, respectively.

Getting closer to that Great Engineer with faith, I swap out the Invention card for Public Works, which speeds up worker production and gives them 5 builds. I start workers in several of my cities, planning to knock out a lot of the improvements I've been neglecting.

I'm having housing problems in a lot of my cities, and some extra farms will help out. Additionally, there are a few mines and lumber mills I want to place in order to boost my production.



The entire world hates Nubia, and she comes asking to be my friend.

I figure it's not the best choice, diplomatically, but I take it. No one but Hojo wants to be my friend, and they're the weakest civ in the game, and possibly about to be wiped out by Nate's Vikings.

Nubia has the second largest army in the game, after Nate. At the very least, he won't be able to have her join a war against me while she's a declared friend.



It only costs 90 gp to upgrade a Quadrireme to a Frigate with the Professional Armies policy card! I really wish I had churned out more!



Nate makes peace with Japan.

I expected this. I didn't think he had the stomach for a protracted land war with them, and the cities he'd take aren't much of a reward. The only benefit to continuing the war in my eyes is that he'd be slightly closer to Kazan and Tula, in the Russian East.



I start converting some of Scythia's cities away from Taoism, and Tomy gets angry about it.

Again, I don't lie, because I plan to convert the fuck out of her cities.

After this screenshot, I successfully flip her Holy City to Moo by using an Apostle with 2 extra spreads. It only took 4 of them to flip it, and I plan to leave him there to fight any Taoist religious units she sends down.

There's still a lot of Taoist pressure on it, but I've got a bunch of Apostles inbound. I only see two other cities of hers have Holy Sites, and if I can flip them as well I'll cripple the chances of Taoism ever recovering.

With Nate's help eradicating the Buddhist Holy City and my previous de-Protestantisming of Nubia, this pretty much leaves Moo and his Eastern Orthodoxy as the only two major religions in the game.

I'm crushing him in Faith generation, and can pretty much run roughshod over the AIs if they're not actively defending with their own religions. However, I don't believe a Religious Victory is really possible against a human opponent who has any sense.

At the end of the day, after all the AIs see the glory of Moo, to win I'd still need to convert at least half of Nate's cities. Well-used Inquisitors sitting in cities are effectively unassailable by my Apostles, and can wipe out any gains I make. And if I ever made a serious effort at it, he'd certainly go to war to stop me, and then would be able to attack my Apostles with his normal military units. I'd need to be fielding an army in his land to protect my Apostles, and "fighting uphill" against the Inquisitors.

At that point, it would be easier to just fight a traditional war with Nate.



My spy is getting a little more experienced, and I have him go after some gold.

I'll probably move him soon after this. I should really place him somewhere with a Campus so I can gain science, which is where I'm most deficient now.



It felt like forever, but I finally have enough faith to recruit Gustav Eiffel.

I've been building the Venetian Arsenal in Smolensk, and have roughly 350 production left, which Gustav will provide handily. It'll take him 2 turns to move there.



I get a bunch of envoys and decide to take Zanzibar away from Nate.

I only have one Commercial Hub, so the 3-envoy bonus isn't that useful to me, but there are two major upsides to being the Suzerain of Zanzibar: I've stolen 2 potent (6-amenity) luxuries from Nate, and as noted last session they're directly on my border. If Nate ends up going to war with me, I'd have a throng of Zanzibarbarians right in my heartland.

I keep some envoys in my pocket in case he tries to flip them back.

End of Session: Turn 143

The world.

Large areas are still uncolonized, but that's because the land there isn't too great.

Persia is creeping into Iceastan, and Nubia has conquered Buenos Aires, heading south of the desert that separates them from the land there.

The Great Wastes between the Russian East and Japan should allow me to notice any Viking army marching towards me with ample time to defend myself, but I need more units on watch.

I really need the Venetian Arsenal to finish so I can start churning out double Frigates and Privateers to make sure that I can hold my own at sea.

The Chinese have a decent army sitting on my borders. They're friendly, but not declared friends, which means they're a hop skip and jump away from declaring a surprise war on me.

I definitely need to build more units. I know not where the war will come from, but come it shall.



City reports. Everyone is still insanely happy, even though Smolensk is now the largest city in the world!

As noted above, I have Housing problems everywhere. I'm hoping the workers I build can drop some farms, and I'm ~3 turns from having the civic for Neighborhoods. I've already scouted out some primo locations for them.



Great People.

I'm still shitting out Artists of all kinds, and had to rush an Art Museum in Smolensk with gold to keep up with slots.



I'm an idiot and forgot about theming bonuses, and crammed stuff from the same artists in my buildings because I wanted the culture and tourism NOW NOW NOW.

Posts online say you can move things around, but under certain conditions that aren't explicitly written anywhere I can see. I believe they need to be there for 10 turns, and both museums need to be full. We'll see if I can get a swap going.

I've got another Artist headed to a new Theater Square in Tula, which means I'll have 3 pieces of art from 3 different artists, and could theoretically mix and match them to get some theming bonuses going if they ever let me move them.

I still don't have any relics! Ugh! DIE ALREADY YOU APOSTLES.



Techs and Civics.

I'm definitely falling behind in tech now, and that worries me.

I've just gotten Frigates, but Nate's 3 techs ahead of me. Did he dive for Steam Power? Does he have Ironclads?



My policies at the end of the session.

I plan to change my in-progress civic with 1 turn left until a bunch of cities finish workers, and then flip back to pop it and swap out the Public Works card.

I'm also done upgrading units for a while, so I can stand to lose Professional Armies. Not sure what I'd replace it with yet.

I haven't done much to overcome this difference this session, and am still falling behind in techs.

I've got a single Campus at this point.

My district priority has been Lavra > Theater Square > Harbor / Commercial Hub > Industrial Zone, and my science has suffered for it.

Peter's The Grand Embassy ability gives me bonus science/culture when I trade with more advanced civilizations, and trade routes with Nubia have helped a bit, but not a whole lot.



Nate's army keeps getting bigger and more experienced as he fights Japan and Hong Kong. It's only a matter of time before he turns his sights on me. He can't ignore my peaceful culture building for much longer.



Still killing it in faith, but not as amazingly as when I was tripling everyone else.

Nate's obviously made an effort to build his faith up in order to try to prevent me from sweeping him religiously, not that I think that would be a small task.

At this point I'm mostly using religion as a way to help build my Culture and Tourism. Being able to recruit Great People and recruit land units is also a nice side bonus.

As noted above, I don't think a Religious Victory is all that feasible, so I'm shooting for a Cultural Victory.

I'm crushing it there too, roughly doubling Nate and blowing the AIs out of the water.





Scores, Victory pane, and my target victory condition: Cultural.

I've gained 8 Tourists in the ~15 turns since the end of the previous session, and now that the wars have ended I've been focusing more on Culture and Wonders again. I've got the Venetian Arsenal finishing up in a few turns, and Kazan is working on the Forbidden City.

Nubia is the largest "hurdle," and the reason I need 56 Tourists to win. If they were knocked down a little bit, the next highest opponent is 44, a full 12 lower. I know I just declared friendship with her, but attacking Nubia down the line may be in my best interest.

For now though, I'm content to build my my base of Tourists in peace.




City States.

Two of them have been conquered since the last session: Hong Kong and Buenos Aires.

I'm keeping some Envoys in my pocket in case I need to flip someone down the line.