Pong 6: Scotland

Hey there Pong fans! This is Zach, back with coincidentally another Scotland game blog. I never got to finish the interim game with Basic a while back so I figured I would give Robert another go in Pong 6. My other options in the draft were Macedon and Spain, both of which are strong civilizations in their own ways. However, I didn't want to get pigeonholed into a domination game with Macedon, and I don't like how so many of Spain's bonuses rely on continents and random map generation, so I was happy to play Scotland again.

Not the best start to be honest. I actually spawned on the river to the southeast, but I didn't want my capital to be in tundra so I moved and settled on turn 2. I have some decent growth tiles and 5 potential pastures visible, but that's where the good news ends. No river, not much production and poor luxuries could make this a tough game going forward. But I decide to play it out anyway.

I first-meet Armagh and Muscat giving welcome boosts to Faith and Gold. Muscat's suzerain bonus could be nice for the amenities later since I will need to keep my cities happy to take advantage of Scotland's bonuses.

Joe's Aztec empire is not far from me. That is a scary neighbor to see so early. Joe is obviously a strong player, having won the previous two Pong games, and Eagle warriors are no joke. I hope we can be peaceful, but I start to produce some slingers just in case.

Soon after this I grab the first Pantheon of the game: God of the Open Sky. This more than doubles my Culture output after I improve the 2 cows and sheep in my capital. 

Our livestock are so Cultured!

Turn 26 I meet the ill-fated Spanish empire, and Nate's America soon after. It seems he wants to take advantage of the +5 combat bonus on his home continent, and I can't blame him. Madrid falls by turn 31.

I meet Hong Kong and somehow first-meet Palenque, nabbing a science boost. You can also see that I've completed archery and am working toward bronze working tech in case I need to defend against the Aztecs.

Instead of coming directly for me, Joe decides to take out some city states. My second city Dumfries was founded northeast of my capital to get access to the horses, incense (which I settled on), and salt.

Although I'm not happy about my city states dying, I decide to make friendship with Joe. He's sandwiched between Nate and I, so it would be pretty difficult to defend both fronts. A truce will give both of us some peace of mind and allow us to develop our infrastructure a bit more freely.

I don't have a screenshot, but just prior to this I adopted my Tier 1 government: Autocracy. Since Joe and I are at peace, I won't need to the combat bonus from Oligarchy and Autocracy's bonus yields to my capital will be useful.

At the end of the first session (turn 51) I'm sitting in the middle of the pack. I've got 4 decent cities, and I've already placed my first Campus, hoping to grab some early Great Scientists. However, I don't have much room to expand, and Joe is killing all my city states, so I don't feel great about my position.

I go into a Classical dark age. Joe takes over Muscat, which is dangerously close to Los Angeles. I predict there will be war up north very soon.

 On Turn 60 I switch governments to Oligarchy, and finish the Audience Chamber government building, boosting my amenities and housing in cities with governors.

Turn 62. Nate and I also sign a declaration of friendship since he's busy fighting Joe. I finish construction on an Encampment in my captial, and have Pingala placed there in order to get the extra Science, Culture, and eventually Great person points. I've moved Magnus (my first governor) to Cullen since there's nothing left to chop in Stirling right now. 

Notice that I have also bought out the iron tile north of Cullen. This actually will prevent Joe from getting iron and upgrading his Eagle warriors for the entire game. Now that his army cannot be upgraded, I plan to go for a Knight rush whenever our friendship expires.

I meet Egypt and Kongo around Turn 70. During this time I've also been building up an army of archers and heavy chariots in anticipation for my attack on the Aztecs. 

Turn 82. I achieve a Heroic Medieval age, and declare a Liberation war on Joe. Since he had captured New York from my American allies, I was able to use this to get +100% production for the next 10 turns. Not bad.

The state of Great People. Tel's Kongo is going insane. But I was able to pick up my Classical Great General, so I'm satisfied.

My Knights and X-bows make quick work of the Aztecs utilizing the +2 movement bonus from Scotland's Liberation war bonus. Most of his forces had been depleted fighting America, and not being able to get Swordsmen or Knights due to lack of iron pretty much guaranteed his defeat. 

At this point I'm somewhat shocked to see that Kongo's armies have made their way to our continent and already taken some American cities. I decide to get in on the action and finish Nate off, razing New York and capturing Madrid. He concedes with only Washington remaining under his control.

Turn 99, and the end of the 2nd session. Despite the fact that my conquest over the Aztecs and Americans was extremely successful, I am not in a winning position. Kongo has taken over Egyptian and Australian AI opponents, and is raking in ALL the Great people. (Making 25 Great Scientist points per turn!)

Furthermore, he is nearly doubling my Science and Culture outputs. I honestly don't think I can catch him, and am wondering what kind of amazing start he had to get that far ahead.

But I have an idea. 

Due to his cities near me losing loyalty, and possibly his fear that I would start attacking before his army could assemble, Tel offers me a Cultural alliance. We come to an agreement which opens the door to what I see as my last hope: Religious victory! I recently conquered a bunch of faith-producing buildings from America, and started work on my own Holy Site. For some reason, nobody else bothered to get religions this game, so I can still get some nice beliefs and possibly convert Kongo during the 30 turns of forced peace.

I complete Temple of Artemis because I can, and the era score points are nice.

Turn 104. Washington is mine.

I also found my religion: Peanut butter. I take Zen Meditation and Scripture as my beliefs. Zen is nice for the extra amenities, particularly as Scotland. And Scripture will help me spread my religion rapidly after I get Printing tech.

I use my first apostle to get Mosques, which will give all my units 1 extra religious spread.

I switch my government to Theocracy and plug in some faith and gold boosting cards. This bumps my Faith per turn from 31 to 57. Still not amazing, but I'm getting there.

I barely get a Renaissance Golden age, supercharging my religious units with +2 movement and +2 spreads. This turns out to be a huge boon for me.

And now I see one reason Kongo got off to such a hot start. He met Kandy early on and used their suzerain bonus to produce a ton of relics, each giving +2 Food, +2 Production and +4 Gold in addition to their usual bonuses. Insanely lucky, and he took great advantage of it.

At this point my Faith per turn is over 100, and my missionaries (armed with 6 spreads each) are blanketing the Kongolese cities with Peanut butter. And he can't do anything about it due to our alliance.

On Turn 122, Kongo is still comfortably in the lead, but my religious game is starting to look pretty threatening. My goal will be to convert the majority of his cities before our alliance expires and then move on to Norway and Korea (neither of whom have a religion).

Kongo taking all the Great People.

I convert Kongo to Peanut butter on Turn 125. Now to evacuate my religious units and convert the rest of the world before he can attack me.

I finally meet Pete's Norway, and I offer him friendship. At this point I'm terrified that he'll declare war on me and try to eliminate my religious units before they can convert him. He doesn't seem to have many units though, and I have another huge wave of missionaries coming from the southern sea just in case. Either way I'm sure I can convert him, but it will be much easier if he is not actively hunting my units.

Unfortunately he doesn't accept, but also does not declare war. It seems he is content to stay neutral in the battle between Kongo and I for first place.

I'm close to Cavalry, which will help me defend against Tel if he decides to attack. I also move my units back to my core cities in preparation. I just need to buy myself time, not win the war.

I also build the Colosseum with a wonder-building Great Engineer. Kongo has been wonder whoring the past 20 turns, so I'm surprised this one was still available.

The Norwegians are receptive to our Holy teachings.

Kongolese troops preparing for the attack. He's got upgraded Infantry at this point, so I'm definitely dead if I can't finish off this religious game.

I find the last remnants of Korean society holed up on this tiny peninsula. They are enthralled by our apostle's words and convert almost immediately.

Victory! Can't say that I expected to get a religious victory with Scotland as my first Pong win, but I'll take it. To be honest, Tel should have won this game, (he was tripling everyone's Culture by the end) but my sneaky religious push paid off. 

The alliance we made earlier in the game ended up biting him pretty hard and probably caused him to lose the game. However, I didn't have a religion or any Faith production at that point in the game, so I can't blame him for not seeing that coming. In the end I think this game shows that being flexible and creative can trump pure power and yield output in Civ 6. Religion is definitely not my preferred play style, but by utilizing something outside of my comfort zone I was able to pull out an extremely unlikely victory. 

Well played to everyone involved, especially Tel who created one of the most powerful empires Pong has seen thus far. Looking forward to Pong 7 starting soon!