Pong 9: Spain
Session 1 -Turn 1 - 4000 BC
I won Pong4 as Norway and didn’t feel like going Viking again yet. Kongo is a very strong civ and can do very well in MP, and Sweden is extremely good at the diplomacy game, which is one of the highlights of playing a large MP game with 8 people, but in the end, I decided to play Spain because the map is a Continents map – so there will be large oceans to deal with and Spain gets earlier naval armadas – and because I noticed that few of the drafted leaders had a religious focus, so I felt confident that I could have a strong religion game if I picked them.
After 3 mulligans, the
game finally got started officially. My start was a weird position at
the foot of a mountain chain. I climbed the nearby hill to get the
ultra-strong plains-hill bonus.
The first thing I
noticed was a ton of wheat in the area but also a couple of
floodplains that would make them dangerous to settle near. I decided
to focus on a chop-economy for early, explosive growth to make up for
the uneven and unpredictable land.
The world entered the
Classical Era on turn 31 – 1600 BC, and I entered a Dark Age. Once
I could see that it was going to be close, I intentionally fell dark
to keep my era points costs low. I also like the “come back”
mechanics of some of the Dark Age policies, and grabbed monasticism
as soon as I had the wildcard slot to put it in.
I created my religion
of Pongitaism the same turn. Took Choral Music and Tithe (and Divine
Spark) because I’m focusing on cultivated my own strong religion
rather than pushing for a religious victory, and both of these work
well even if you don’t spread the religion.
Diplomatically, there
isn’t a ton of room nearby. Maori (Pete) is to my west and we’re
getting along very well. Zulu (Tel) is north of me, and it seemed
like we might have tension because of how close we were, but Canada
and he ended up in an early war. England (Spanark) is northeast and
we’re getting along, but I’m not sure where north of us England
is. Straight east of me is a cluster of city-states that I seem to
reach first. Not sure how they’re going to fit into all this.
Turn 1: Start
5: Capital, Madrid, taking shape
12: We meet Maori (west)
13: The first of many, many floods
18: First city-state, Preslav (east)
31: Religion founded (Pongitaism!)
34: Meet Zulu
43: Spanish World
Session 2 begins: Turn 43 - 850 BC
I start to have
problems with barbarians to the south. I lost my only warrior guard
down there, and the barbarians trashed my new library.
My lead started
slipping around turn 55. The others expanded more efficiently, and
while I have an amazing capital city, my growth is stalling.
On Turn 59, the Zulu
(Tel) invades the Maori (Pete). I was actually nervous for a few
turns that the Zulu were going to invade *me*, but some diplomacy did
the trick and he decided to focus on the Maori. The war is long
fought and pretty brutal. He’ll take Ngaruawahia a few times but
lose it to rebellion. Eventually he just burns it down and moves on
Opango.
In the Medieval Era I
enter a Heroic Age, which actually hurts my tech development since I
lost Monasticism. The benefits are more evenly distributed though,
and I tried to spread out.
The first Congress
meets and the world condemns Pongitaism as a heresy. It was
particularly annoying because the Maori and Zulu, people I thought
had accepted the religion and were friends with me, voted against it.
Apparently this was at the encouragement of Canada (Zar), but who
knows?
I finally wiped out the
Maori religion on turn 74 leaving me with the only religion of note
in Asiamerica.
By this point, England
is absolutely stomping us in Science. Their civ is aligned along a
nice mountain range, and they probably all have good campuses. Their
proximity to Fez means they probably get full bonuses to all their
campuses. At one point I was seriously considering conquering Fez,
mainly to take it away from others, but I came into a whole bunch of
envoys early in session 2 so it just seemed easier to become their
sovereign. This turned out to be a good deal for me, because every
city I converted to my religion started giving me between 80-120
science each, but I am going to be facing a very powerful England in
the future as a result now.
The Inca have surged
ahead using a combination of Goddess of the Harvest and Golden-Age
Monumentality. Super-chop economy creates explosive growth. Canada
has a strong, solid north. And England has a major technological
lead, but is pretty narrowly hemmed in by geography. I don’t really
know what advantages I have other than space. At one point I was sure
that I had the largest city in the world, with all the wheat and
Temple of Artemis, but now it seems like the chop economies of the
world have outpaced me. Oh well.
51: The first of many waves of southern barbarians approach.
59: The Zulu-Maori war begins
This prolonged conflict will continue to ages and eventually see the Maori driven from the region.
61: The Medieval Era begins - Spain is Heroic
72: Spreading southern
74: The Maori religion falls to Pongitaism
82: The Spanish world
Session 3 begins: Turn 82 - 940 AD
In this session the Zulu finally conquered the
Maori heartland. We struggled with a barbarian horde in the south and
managed to create a few new settlements in the east. We fell into a
Dark Age but concentrated in district development and seemed to have
improved a bit since last time. Diplomacy was important this session,
with conflict erupting between the Canadians and Zulu. I’ve made a
solid alliance with the Canadians but remain good friends with the
Zulu. Crucially, we remained sovereign of Fez and converted a LOT of
cities this session (5-6?). With each one providing 150-250 science,
the bonus was considerable, and went a long way toward fixing our
flagging science problem. By the end of the session we actually were
in pretty good shape technologically but lacked the resources to
capitalize on anything. We had to buy 25 niter from the Inca as soon
as we met them just to be able to build conquistadors.
The political landscape is taking shape. The Zulu
are growing closer to the English and we grow closer to the
Canadians. Though we have tried to prevent a war with the Zulus, the
Canadians have attacked the Zulu.
85: The Spanish theocracy thrives
87: The Maori heartland has fallen
88: The neverending barbarian invasions (capture a settler)
91: The Renaissance Era begins in darkness
106: The Spanish world
Session 4 begins: Turn 105 - 1480 AD
War continued between the Zulu and Canada for much
of this session, but our focus was in the south. Dispatching
cuirassiers and coursers to put down the threat, we were fortunate
enough to get an Apostle with the Heathen Conversion promotion. This
allowed us to simply march into the horde and take all the troops for
ourselves. We now have one of the stronger armies in the world, and
we were able to settle the desert and southern coast, producing a
number of new resources including much niter and oil. We have the
largest supply of oil in the world as far as I can tell.
The Zulu managed to hold and stopped the Canadian
invasion. Now Canada and Phoenicia are vying for tech dominance.
The conflicts between Canada, great lord of the
Asiamerican peoples, and Zulu, our kindly neighbors, continued to be
a source of great anxiety for the Spanish people, and they labored
near constantly for a diplomatic end to the confrontation. Finally
after centuries of efforts, Pongita restored peace to the bountiful
continent and, as always, the Spanish celebrated (for Pongita is Lady
of Festivals so there is usually a party somewhere at all times).
The Renaissance and Industrial Eras flew past
in Spain as our people focused on two great callings: first, to
modernize our economy and infrastructure with the advantages of our
recent technologies imported from our Canadian and English friends,
and second, to end the tribal confederacy to the south. For too long
the barbarians had pillaged the valuable lands that rightfully
belonged to Spain. A modern army was dispatched to end them, but just
as they were about to depart, Pongita sent us a special Apostle – a
Heathen Converter – who marched at the head of the army and worked
miracles. The Spanish army swells with the ranks for the old tribal
confederacy and several new cities have been seeded. The future looks
brighter than ever in Spain. Pongita be praised.
111: The world enters the Industrial Age
111: Spain enters a Heroic Age
115: Finally drive the barbarians back and settle the south (40+ turns too late)
112: Spain is a diplomatic leader and friend of the world
129: Discover Incan insanity overseas
132: The world goes Modern (Spain normal)
132: A failing Zulu economy causes unrest in ex-Maori cities
133: The Spanish world
Session 5 begins: Turn 133 - 1770 AD
A quiet session as we settled into modern living
and advanced progress. I concentrated on getting a working power-grid
operational, which took longer than I would have liked. Our religious
conversion of the neutral states on the other continent go well and
we now have over 50 cities serving Pongitaism. Gold is not a problem,
but I’m beginning to brush up against housing and amenity
shortages. Canada’s ice rinks, natural parks, and rock bands are
now accumulating tremendous tourism. I’m not sure anything can stop
him at this point.
142: War in the west
148: Global warming threatens London
150: Canada is beginning its final dash
151: World goes Atomic (Spain normal)
152: Not looking good for Spain
152: The Spanish world
Final Sessions
154: The planet is melting
160: Coastal flooding is a thing
164: The Canadian nuclear war begins (v Inca)
164: Nuke all the things
166: The end is near
168: The world (note the western ruin)
169: Nuke all the things!
170: You're not the boss of us!
171: The Information Era (Spain is dark)
172: Incan culture dominates us, despite their radioactive state
173: Inca gives Canada a taste of their own medicine
175: Giant Robots walking around
178: Evangelion - Hashin!
184: Standings
184: Rankings
184: Fin
184: Wait, ENGLAND won!?!?
Congrats Spanarkel on a Science Victory!!!
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