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So for the first time in...A While, I won a full-length game of Civilization! On difficulty level 2/8, but you know, baby steps.
I was Shaka of the Zulu, who have advantages in building special military districts (ikanda), and forming "formations" (corps/armies with linked units) earlier than other nations can. So the comparative advantage in military bonuses led me to want to try a military strategy, but not necessarily antagonize the AI civs. Ultimately I went to war with a couple city-states and wore them down, capturing Brussels and Auckland. By that point, the other civs decided I was a warmonger (especially later-game when unprovoked wars are bad), so they picked on me for a while, but we were eventually able to resolve things semi-peacefully. Except for the Netherlands, who refused to make any trade concessions as part of a peace treaty, so we never declared peace and just continued to be "at war" through the modern era, but nobody actually attacked anything. (Oh, and I built a nuclear weapon just in case, but fortunately never had to use it. Especially because we didn't have any planes/submarines/equipment that could deploy such a weapon.)
I wound up focusing on science (and military) and not so much culture/religion, I think it's probably strategically better to specialize even though there's an urge to do everything at once. We wound up winning a science victory by completing a satellite, moon landing, and three-module Mars mission.
In the "Rise and Fall" mode/expansion, there's a "timeline" that gets updated with great moments in your nation's history that give you an "era score." You get penalties for a low score that puts you in a Dark Age, although you can also adopt "Dark policies" that are good at some stats and bad at others if you do. If you get a high score, you get a Golden Age, with extra bonuses. So anyway, at the end of the game you can export that to relive your triumphs, but it saves as a JSON file (at least I know what those are now, thanks work!) in a hidden folder tree so a bit clunky. And it turns out it also has saved all the AI's historical moments too, including "Egypt and Norway fought a battle this year, this may be useful for future archaeologists" which was not relevant to me as I never got into archaeology that game.
Anyway, amid the irrelevant data there are several amusing/detailed ones:
"Our Impi has captured the battle standards of a veteran enemy!" (if the other unit has promotions and you don't)
"Skeptics may ask: "What good are Horses?" But we know now that they are a formidable weapon for our Horseman." (who could have ever guessed??)
"After deliberation, Jeanne d'Arc chooses to bring their talents to the Zulu." (Almost as good as taking your talents to South Beach. Many other Great People have similar lines. This is especially funny in hindsight because two of the historical figures in an unrelated project* I'm working on showed up as my Great People in this game!)
"Soldiers march by in formation, calling cadence: I don’t know but I been told/Life in Ulundi gets real old." (when you build all the possible buildings in an Ikanda/encampment)
"The laughter of families and the sighs of lovers fill the air as the world’s first Seaside Resort opens in Ethekwini of the Zulu."
"A new front opens in the war between Norway and the Zulu, as control of Bandar Brunei changes on the borders." (you can send envoys to city-states, and whoever has the most envoys there above a certain threshold will become the Suzerain and get some bonuses)
"They say that people are drawn to the Commercial Hub of Nobamba just for the excitement of buying and selling in the market. But the money is pretty good, too."
"The armies of jealous civilizations fail to stop our people! The Military Emergency dissolves in recrimination and blame." (I captured a small Egyptian city and people got mad about it, so they declared an international crisis to recapture it. It gave me bonus loyalty, which helped, because shortly after the city would rebel and become independent, eventually rejoining Egypt. Oh well.)
"The Biplane of the Zulu went up, and did not immediately come down, to great rejoicing." :D
"Previous mercenary contracts are subject to renegotiation, when the Zulu overturns the old Suzerain of Mitla." (the envoy bonus can even flip a city-state who's previously been at war with you!)
Anyway, will probably go back and forth between shorter scenarios and longer games for a while. The * project I was talking about before, I'd confused it with a different thing whose deadline is December 31, but nope, it's in two weeks. So I keep re-focusing. :)
I was Shaka of the Zulu, who have advantages in building special military districts (ikanda), and forming "formations" (corps/armies with linked units) earlier than other nations can. So the comparative advantage in military bonuses led me to want to try a military strategy, but not necessarily antagonize the AI civs. Ultimately I went to war with a couple city-states and wore them down, capturing Brussels and Auckland. By that point, the other civs decided I was a warmonger (especially later-game when unprovoked wars are bad), so they picked on me for a while, but we were eventually able to resolve things semi-peacefully. Except for the Netherlands, who refused to make any trade concessions as part of a peace treaty, so we never declared peace and just continued to be "at war" through the modern era, but nobody actually attacked anything. (Oh, and I built a nuclear weapon just in case, but fortunately never had to use it. Especially because we didn't have any planes/submarines/equipment that could deploy such a weapon.)
I wound up focusing on science (and military) and not so much culture/religion, I think it's probably strategically better to specialize even though there's an urge to do everything at once. We wound up winning a science victory by completing a satellite, moon landing, and three-module Mars mission.
In the "Rise and Fall" mode/expansion, there's a "timeline" that gets updated with great moments in your nation's history that give you an "era score." You get penalties for a low score that puts you in a Dark Age, although you can also adopt "Dark policies" that are good at some stats and bad at others if you do. If you get a high score, you get a Golden Age, with extra bonuses. So anyway, at the end of the game you can export that to relive your triumphs, but it saves as a JSON file (at least I know what those are now, thanks work!) in a hidden folder tree so a bit clunky. And it turns out it also has saved all the AI's historical moments too, including "Egypt and Norway fought a battle this year, this may be useful for future archaeologists" which was not relevant to me as I never got into archaeology that game.
Anyway, amid the irrelevant data there are several amusing/detailed ones:
"Our Impi has captured the battle standards of a veteran enemy!" (if the other unit has promotions and you don't)
"Skeptics may ask: "What good are Horses?" But we know now that they are a formidable weapon for our Horseman." (who could have ever guessed??)
"After deliberation, Jeanne d'Arc chooses to bring their talents to the Zulu." (Almost as good as taking your talents to South Beach. Many other Great People have similar lines. This is especially funny in hindsight because two of the historical figures in an unrelated project* I'm working on showed up as my Great People in this game!)
"Soldiers march by in formation, calling cadence: I don’t know but I been told/Life in Ulundi gets real old." (when you build all the possible buildings in an Ikanda/encampment)
"The laughter of families and the sighs of lovers fill the air as the world’s first Seaside Resort opens in Ethekwini of the Zulu."
"A new front opens in the war between Norway and the Zulu, as control of Bandar Brunei changes on the borders." (you can send envoys to city-states, and whoever has the most envoys there above a certain threshold will become the Suzerain and get some bonuses)
"They say that people are drawn to the Commercial Hub of Nobamba just for the excitement of buying and selling in the market. But the money is pretty good, too."
"The armies of jealous civilizations fail to stop our people! The Military Emergency dissolves in recrimination and blame." (I captured a small Egyptian city and people got mad about it, so they declared an international crisis to recapture it. It gave me bonus loyalty, which helped, because shortly after the city would rebel and become independent, eventually rejoining Egypt. Oh well.)
"The Biplane of the Zulu went up, and did not immediately come down, to great rejoicing." :D
"Previous mercenary contracts are subject to renegotiation, when the Zulu overturns the old Suzerain of Mitla." (the envoy bonus can even flip a city-state who's previously been at war with you!)
Anyway, will probably go back and forth between shorter scenarios and longer games for a while. The * project I was talking about before, I'd confused it with a different thing whose deadline is December 31, but nope, it's in two weeks. So I keep re-focusing. :)
