Pong 2: The first 69 turns of England (Nate)

Ping-Pong Civ Game 2

Settings: All Standard except Quick speed and Fractal map.
Civs: Random
Game opens and I'm dealt Victoria of England in an icy strait in the corner of the world.

Our story begins with a small but hardy band of pioneers that settle on a strip of land at the edge of an icy continent. London is founded immediately in 4000 BC between a pair of wheat fields, cotton, fox-fur, and whales. Though the land looks rugged, with hard work, this could be the start of a great nautical power.

I beeline Sailing to figure out what the surroundings look like and begin to explore the ice. It takes almost no time for fur-clad barbarians to begin attacking us in the snow fields, but we gain things from their more peaceful neighbors, including the secrets of Craftsmanship, gold, and a bit of faith that helps us found a pantheon.

Pantheon: Dance of the Aurora - So much tundra should make for great fountains of faith as our people worship the south pole. Perhaps we'll become a nautical and religious power?
Initial policies: Discipline and Urban Planning – Lots of arctic barbarians to kill.
My early plan at this point is to focus primarily on exploration and the sea, with a secondary focus on Holy Sites and religion if I can get the arctic bonuses up and running fast enough.

Turn 25 – 2560 BC: Found Newcastle upon Tyne on the nearby (Tyne) river. Although not quite as wonderful as the London strip, the sheep, stone and forests will make this my industrial (and military) core. Around this time I also discover my first neighbor, Kabul, a military city-state that irritatingly blocks a key peninsula north.

Turn 36 – Switch to Maritime Industries to start building a fleet. The first of many in the game, I expect.

Turn 37 – Montezuma conquers Kabul! (Third city, Sheffield founded nearby)

Our northern neighbor turns out to be a rather belligerent Montezuma of the Aztecs. Over the course of the first session, he will oscillate between liking and disliking me, but we're eventually able to establish an Open Borders treaty that makes it possible for us to investigate one another.

We discover Celestial Navigation, making Royal Harbors (England UB) available.

Turn 44 – An unmet player has been defeated. Probably a city-state. Joe later claims credit for this because “they were in my way.”

Turn 49 – Irritatingly, the Aztecs found Catholicism first before I can get a prophet (I still don't have a religion).

Turn 50 – A shot of London at night in 1060 BC.

Turn 51 – We found a Classical Republic in 1020 BC, focusing on wonders and the sea.

Turn 54 – An Aztec force approaches Newcastle!

Turn 58 – But surprisingly they never attack. Possibly because I got shipbuilding and my military score starting climbing with ships.

The Aztecs advance to Medieval probably means an AI beeline for Theocracy. Ugh. This is going to be super annoying. I have a super religious and militaristic neighbor immediately north of me. Their beliefs are primarily faith based right now, so it might be worthwhile to just follow their religion for diplomatic reasons, but it's not at all what I would have preferred. I'm still waiting on a prophet of my own (2 holy sites and 2 shrines are working).

Next turn Monte completes the Hanging Gardens and soon after the Mahabodhi Temple. He is now in first place by several measures.

Turn 62 – I discover Joe! He's Spanish and protected by a significant mountain range.

Turn 63 – Neither Joe nor I is especially dominant yet though.

Turn 64 – Monte is nuts and hates the world. He also shifted to the more balanced Autocracy, an unexpected choice.

Turn 67 – Joe beats me to a religion! Turtles All the Way Down founded. He takes Tithe suggesting that he plans to spread it far.

Turn 69 – The Aztecs look but don't touch as my Prophet, Adi Shankara, is born.

I'm not as happy with my opening as I expected to be when I first started developing the land. The Aztec and Spanish beating me to religions is going to make for a tough religious game, and the might of the nearby Aztec complicates my situation relative to Joe. I am strong at sea, the forthcoming harbors are going to give me many traders and then gold, and I still generate more faith than anyone else thanks to the aurora. The question is what to do?

Trying to work with the Aztecs by essentially capitulating to Catholicism seems like a good plan in the short term because a strong Aztecs provides a check on Spain that I can't really do personally (and the synagogues would compliment my aurora faith focus), but it seems like a mistake in the long term. Montezuma is going to betray me eventually and any fighting between us will ultimately help Joe.

Looking ahead, my plan right now is going to be to create Protestantism with Jesuit Education and Gurdwaras, which will mesh well with Catholicism if it should come my way. I won't encourage or resist Aztec Catholics and see what I can get from religion either way. Jesuit Education will let me focus on using my strong faith per turn to get solid culture and science buildings for cheap. Otherwise, I haven't found many luxuries until recently when I discovered a foreign continent. England is good at colonizing so I'm going to continue building up my navy and start trying to settle overseas. The nearby island is an obvious take positionally, but I think I may want to focus on the luxuries on the new continent first. Either way, controlling the central seas is going to be key.

Turn 69 – End of Session. The world in 280 BC.