Pong 7: The Glory of Poland

For Pong 7 we ran a draft again, and I chose Poland for their balanced abilities and flexible policy card slot. I hadn't really played Poland much in single player so I was eager to test them out in Pong.

Tons of food but no hills in my starting spot. My capital is definitely going to be hurting for production.

I meet Greece's warrior VERY early. Not a great sign since Gorgo is a capable early warmonger civ.

Then I meet Nate's China. Also way too close for comfort. This would pretty much be the story of the game. Our 3 capitals were in a 8-9 tile triangle, all but forcing early aggression in order to expand.

Poland can convert Military policy card slots to Wildcards, so I take 2 economic cards to start out. This helps me get my pantheon early while keeping up in production.

I found my second city in order to get access to some hilly terrain.

 Pete immediately gets frisky, planting Ephesus right in my face. Unfortunately for him this causes all kinds of loyalty issues due to my nearby cities growing faster than his capital.

I first-meet Bandar Brunei which gives me some nice gold income.

And since I have 2 close neighbors I decide to get God of the Forge as my pantheon. I wasn't planning on early aggression this game, but I don't really have any room to expand.

I meet Antioch for even more gold to fuel my army.

Without much resistance I conquer Greece. He later told me his units were out of position from fighting barbarians and Indonesia. He also couldn't produce units quickly out of his 2nd city due to loyalty hampering his production. It all makes sense, but I don't think he should have settled toward me unless he was ready for a fight. GG Pete.

I pick up Oligarchy as my next government since I'm already on the warpath. 

Earlier I had offered Nate a peace deal so that he wouldn't interfere with my conquest of Greece, but he refused. And now that I have a huge army and lots of production it's time to turn toward China. I chop out a project to get the first Great General in preparation for my attack.

At the end of the first session, our armies are ready for the impending battle. I'm still behind in science, but I have horses and soon swordsmen who will be pretty difficult to take out with archers alone.

Boudica leads my army against the Chinese.

Although I lose a few units, Beijing falls quickly to my swordsmen. 

China is the 2nd victim of Polish brutality. It was unfortunate that we all spawned so close, and this led to further discussion of the rules and game settings on Discord. In the end we decided to extend the mulligan to 10 turns to prevent cases like this from happening again. GG Nate.

I meet the AI Aztec empire who, despite me already conquering 2 civs, are way out in front in almost all categories. I later find out he has been rapidly expanding and wiping out city states in his wake.

The Pyramids of Sparta!

Indonesia thinks I'm a warmonger (I am), and decides to sneak attack me.

It does not go well for her.

Holy missionaries! The Aztecs are pumping out a scary amount of faith, and quickly convert my entire empire.

I rush a quick Colosseum which is in range of 7 cities- giving me +14 culture immediately.

I'm starting to pull ahead, but the Aztecs are still looking formidable.

Golden Medieval Age! I take the Free Inquiry bonus in order to further boost my science.

I build my first unique market building. These were so clutch this game; I think they are one of the strongest things about playing Poland. They enable you to run lots of internal trade routes without missing out on gold. Usually you have to decide between the gold of international routes and the production/food provided by internal ones, but not with Poland. This was a boon for me due to my isolated position at this point in the game.

I make peace with Gitarja since her last cities aren't even worth taking. At this point Nate has reincarnated as the Aztecs, so I'm afraid he might come up from the south to attack me as well. I need to have my units in position to defend if that is the case.

My wonder production continues as I complete Petra in Wroclaw. With 5 desert hills in workable range this is going to become one of my best cities.

I snag the Town Charters policy card in order to boost my gold and science due to my Golden Age dedication.

Although I'm doubling his science per turn, Nate still has the tech lead. More importantly he is making around 200 faith per turn. At this point I'm honestly worried about him getting a sneaky Religious victory like I did last game.

I claim the last Great Prophet, but I need to build more Holy Sites before it will be safe to found my religion. Otherwise Nate will convert my holy city easily.

I meet Joe (Spain) and Tel (Germany). They're pretty far from me so I doubt we will have too much interaction.

My initial diplomatic efforts with Spain go well, so I hope to stay friends as long as possible. Being on opposite ends of the world tends to make for natural friendships. However our distance might prevent us from getting any trade benefit from alliances. 

I also chat with Joe and Pete (who has reincarnated as Nubia) to warn them about the Aztec missionary swarms. Hopefully they can hold him off until I manage to get a religion of my own.

Talks with Germany don't go quite as well. I believe that he is already in bed with the Aztecs, so he may regard me as an enemy. This would end up being the extent of our communication this game.

I switch my government to Merchant Republic pretty early thanks to my healthy culture output.

And I finally meet Nubia.

The Apostles start coming and they don't stop coming.

Nate is dangerously close to a religious victory. I'm praying that Spain and Nubia have some inquisitors to fend him off.

I fall into a Normal Age in the Renaissance, and take Reform the Coinage as my dedication in order to take advantage of my vast trade network.

Poland is attracting quite the array of great people! In addition, my Holy Sites are finishing up so I should be able to found my religion soon.

Nate plops down Tepexpan just southeast of his previous Chinese capital. This is a little too close for comfort, so I begin preparing for battle. I'm far ahead in the tech and civic trees, but I know he has a ton of units due to his sky-high military score. 

You can also see my first wave of inquisitors attempting to convert all my cities to the new age religion of Taoism. Somehow I forgot a screenshot of the religion page, but I took Choral Music and Tithe as my beliefs.

I'm able to recruit basically all of the powerful great scientists this era. Most importantly I get Isaac Newton, who boosts my universities' science output.

Thanks to my great scientists and policy cards I've more than doubled my science per turn in one era.

Can't forget about Wonders! I have at least 5 cities on a different continent than my capital, so Casa boosts my gold and production nicely.

 I use the free governor titles to max out Amani so I can control more city states. Her last promotion is insanely strong, and I probably should have rushed for it sooner in the game to be honest.

Nate gets aggressive taking over Toronto. Unfortunately for him this triggers an emergency which I am more than happy to accept. Nobody kills my city states and gets away with it!

Infantry corps against horsemen and pike and shots does not bode well for my Aztec opponent.

Even during war Poland does not neglect Wonders.

I liberate Toronto with few casualties and gain a cool 2000 gold for my trouble.

That wraps up the Renaissance era, and I've earned another Golden Age. Naturally I'll be choosing Heartbeat of Steam as my dedication in order to boost my production.

My tech advantage is showing. With my first observation balloon I'm able to shell Nate's units from 3 tiles away, out-ranging anything he currently has.

Poland turns to Communism. This boosts my production through the roof, and gives me a lot of flexibility in which policies I want going forward. Again Poland's extra wildcard slot is really handy with Military card heavy governments like Communism and Fascism.

At the end of this session it seems that I am in sole control of the game. Nate's religious threat has subsided, and I am dominating in all other categories. Spain is closest to me in science, but I'm nearly doubling his output.

Furthermore, I have reached my tier 3 government miles ahead of everyone else, so I'll be able to snowball even faster toward victory. Even if everyone gangs up against me it will be difficult to attack due to my geographical isolation and lack of coastal cities. Yet we play on.

I raze Tepexpan to secure the northern side of the mountain range and prevent Nate from spawning units too close to my borders.

I need more population for my next wave of districts, and no one else had built it so why not?

Wroclaw begins production on the Royal Society government building. Then I can use my builders supercharged from Liang and the Pyramids to finish space race parts.

Big Ben also plays into my science victory strategy by doubling my current treasury. This gives me plenty of gold to buy Spaceports with Reyna. 

Joe and Tel have gone to war over an (allegedly) stolen settler and border disputes in the tundra. This is great news since the longer they fight each other, the less time they have to invade me. Plus if Spain takes out Germany this will significantly hinder the Aztec's trade options. 

I congratulate Joe on what looks to be a swift victory.

Nate's knight admires the completion of Alhambra, and I add another policy card to my collection.

Nubia's zealots are starting to swarm my lands, and I can't be bothered to fight them with just my religious units. To war!

My science has been good up to this point, but this is the tipping point into absurdity.

The Earth satellite is complete! I now have full vision of the map and everyone is alerted to my plans to launch into space if they hadn't figured it out already. From this point on I just need to run science projects and protect my spaceport to secure the win.

While I'm busy exploring the cosmos Spain delivers the crushing blow to Germany, causing Tel to bow out of the game. I expected as much considering Spain's superior technology, but according to our chat it sounds like having Defender of the Faith and Spain's religious combat bonuses gave him a huge advantage as well. GG Tel!

At the beginning of the last session I reach the end of the Civics tree at Globalism. I plug in the International Space Agency, Ecommerce, and Police State cards to boost my science, production and protect my Spaceport from spies, respectively. 

(I actually didn't think Ecommerce applied to internal routes, but it was changed in the Spring update. This was a boon for me since almost all of my trade was internal.)

Joe, my only friend this game, tries to make a last ditch attempt to attack me, but I have a reasonable naval force waiting for him. At least enough to slow him down.

Fittingly I'll end the game in a Golden Age.

My first Pong nuke. She's a real beauty.

I use them just because it would be a waste not to. I think only took out 5 units total with both my nukes though. This is revenge for Pong 4 when Joe and I were in swapped roles of scientific recluse and invading force.

My science is pretty good.

My governors at the end of the game. Magnus was strong early, but Reyna's gold production and district purchasing definitely helped me finish this game quickly. Having Amani fully promoted was also incredibly useful for maintaining control of city states throughout the game.

Victory! As Nate and I discussed on Discord, this game was pretty much over when I controlled 3 capitals in the Classical era. We hope that the 10 turn mulligan in future Pong games will prevent lopsided victories like this in the future. Nevertheless, it was an entertaining game and there were some interesting moments defending against the Aztec's religion. Plus getting nearly 900 science per turn in a multiplayer game is insane.

I quite enjoyed playing as Poland. On paper they don't seem that strong, but I feel that their bonuses are pretty well-rounded if not overly powerful. I regret that I didn't find any relics or get to do much combat with their Winged Hussars. I would have liked to test out the knockback ability, but it wasn't in the cards this game. The most useful abilities for me this game were the extra trade route gold from their unique building and the military card slot being converted to a wildcard. I did take over a few tiles with the Encampment culture bomb, but it didn't do much other than save me from using gold to buy extra tiles. I would have never chosen Poland given the choice, but I was pleasantly surprised this game! This is one great thing about using the draft system to choose our civs- we all get the chance to try out new leaders and strategies.

On to Pong 8!