The First 69 Turns of Spain

Nate and I generally play random civs, and this time I drew Phillip II of Spain.

I haven't played too many games with him, and I tend not to focus on the Religious game. I figured I'd give it a shot this time around, try my best to found a religion, and then launch holy wars starting in the mid-game.

An okay start. Only one luxury visible (tea), but a decent amount of food, and some mountains for a Holy Site.

I start on a Slinger. I often build a scout first to explore as fast as possible, but I've had some good experiences rushing a city state with Archers and wanted to try that again. diving for Archery. Even if it fails, I end up with a decent barbarian hunting force.

My warrior heads towards the flat land.

A flat river valley with lots of rice! Lots of growth potential here. More tea. Wishing I could see some different luxuries, but it's early yet.

Building a second Slinger.

The initial policies practically picked themselves. I didn't build a scout, and I decided during the loading screen that I wanted a religion.

 The twin rivers of central Spain will make for a wonderful breadbasket. Or ricebowl, as it were.

I found Toronto, close enough to be the target of my early rush.

One slinger wanders north, finds a barbarian and kills him, helping the progress of Archery.

Another pokes south and finds a barbarian spearman it's not ready for. I start marching home for upgrades.

I consider this a mistake.

My initial slinger is so far north, across rough terrain and rivers, and I decide it would take too long to walk it back for an upgrade, so I buy a third archer after upgrading two slingers.

This dent to my economy (and the extra unit support) kicks me in the butt later.

The archers lay down ~50 damage a turn, and the city heals 20. The city state has no walls or ranged units, and doesn't attack me at all.

Toronto falls on turn 26, four turns after the siege begins.

I've found that rushing like this rarely fails, or even costs me a unit. I end up with a 2-pop city with some irrigation, but not much else. There's lots of food around and some hills, but surprisingly no luxuries.

Seeing the large expanse of desert in and around Toronto, I decide to milk it for faith.

Not sure how I feel about this decision, looking back on it, but I think it'll be alright.

Swapped both policy cards.

The unit support is to help get more gold. That archer I bought cost be a bit, and the upkeep is dragging me down. Also of note is that I had yet to find a second continent, and had Trade Routes half done, waiting for the eureka to pop. I should have finished it earlier, and sat without a trade route for too long.

34 turns in, I finally find an AI: Montezuma of the Aztecs.

I'm reasonably certain the landmass doesn't connect at the bottom, but I'm a little worried it might.

I've started a Holy Site in Toronto, near the sacred deserts.

35 turns before I find a second continent, and pop Trade Routes. I regret this a lot, as I've lost a ton of gold or production/food by this point.

I don't have enough to buy a trader, but start one soon.

Then the Barbarians came.

I generally don't have a problem with Barbarians in my games, and often time mock Nate when he does, but this time I let them get out of hand.

After rushing Toronto, my army split up and took out camps to the north and west, ignoring the territory south of my capital completely. This proves to be a mistake, and my capital is pillaged repeatedly before I can disperse them.

44 turns and I've got a government. I decide on Classical Republic, with the goal of getting a Great Prophet. I'm late to the game, but only one has been claimed so far.

I start churning out builders.

Four turns later I swap out the +2 gp from trade routes for more Great Prophet points.

Yay! Montezuma likes me!

Three turns later: Wait no he doesn't!

A galley finds Persia on the new continent to the west, and they pretty much immediately call us out for having a different government.

I don't fear them at all, but it's sad to see potential trading partners denouncing this early.

My builders done, I start looking for more money and bigger cities.

I misjudged the number of luxuries I had, stupidly believing that copper was one. Amenities would prove to be a limiting factor in my growth, especially as the Barbarians pillaged my tea.

The known world at Turn 53.

I've settled Toledo on the northern river. The city is pretty good, but it lacks productive tiles initially, and grabbing more teas instead of a fur or cotton doesn't work out, as no one has anything to trade for them.

Looking back on this, I should have went to Crab-town up north, or settled on the southern river near the cotton.

They're back!

I learned a hard lesson here: I was unaware that horseman could ignore the Zone of Control of a Spearman. It went right around one to kill an archer and take a worker. I take it back soon enough, but it's more than a little frustrating at this point.

Also, Nate's English have found me!

We're both teetotalers, and he has cotton, which is available in my west. Not a whole lot of diversity.

Not much else to see here, we both have three cities. I've got more cash on hand, but that doesn't mean a whole lot this early on.

He's really starting to not like me.

Around this time he founds Christianity, which is good, because I was planning to fight a holy war anyway.

Speaking of religion...

I actually had to walk my Great Prophet to Toronto, because the Barbarians pillaged my holy site in Madrid.

I took Tithe out of habit, and because my economy was hurting all game.

Zen Meditation is an attempt to deal with the lack of amenities from luxuries. It fixes a short-term problem, and will be a boon in the later game.

End of Session 1: Turn 69

I'll try to do a better job on these "End of Session" sections in the future, including trying to stitch together a single world map.

I feel like I could have expanded more, and taken more luxuries by this point, but I'm fairly okay with the land I've essentially carved out for myself.

Spain gets a bonus for settling / trading overseas, so I'm eyeballing any location with two luxuries. There's a decent Ivory + Wine spot near Persia.

Tech-wise, I think I'm doing okay, though some AIs are already in the Medieval era.

I went for sea-techs early, but only have one coastal city. Feel a little silly about that now.

Civics-wise, I think I'm doing well.

I'm feeling a bit aimless now, and not sure what I'll do after Theology.

I note now that I didn't mention anything about the city states and my envoys. I've been primarily popping 1 envoy per city state, focusing on science > culture > faith. I haven't seen any mercantile city states yet.

Here's the Score Screen with Nate and I expanded.

Pretty even at this point. Barely ahead in civics and techs, behind in empire.