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.