Civilization VI Turns 141 to 150
Welcome to the Renaissance!
Yup, as soon as I hit the next turn button, I was presented with a notification that we have now entered the Renaissance. Woohoo! We also learned Printing, and I’m not sure if that was the impetus for us marching into the Renaissance or not. Still, it does give us access to the Forbidden City wonder and adds another level of diplomatic visibility. A pretty good advancement, but as usual, I am now presented with the dilemma of what to research next…
Table of Contents
Aiming for the Boomsticks!
First things first, it looks like we are far and away the furthest along in development. Gilgamesh is midway through the Medieval era, and the other four civs look like they just figured out that two and two equals four. It’s nice to be so far out ahead, but I know this often causes envy and fear, particularly among uneducated and backward types. They seem to be focusing more on their religion than their scientific efforts, and well, we’ll see where that leads.
Looking over the technology tree, I could finish off the Classical Era techs by spending five turns on Shipbuilding. Still, there’s really not much water to put boats into around our empire – think of that…the great British Empire without a navy. I could also keep the pressure on by researching Education so I could build Universities, but I think we’re doing just fine in the scientific realm. As usual, though, I am concerned about our military advancements. While I don’t think we need a navy on this map, at least not in the foreseeable future, I do see that we’ve already boosted Stirrups and Military Engineering, both of which lead to the wonderful Renaissance invention of Gunpowder.
I’m thinking we can make an impressive show of deterrence with a few boomsticks walking around our empire. Who’d want to tangle with us if we have guns and they’re stuck with knives and pointy sticks?
I’m gonna head towards Gunpowder, and while I won’t be leading our great nation when the decision is placed upon us, I would like to get us set up to bring down the hammer if future leaders want to move in that direction.
With research set, there doesn’t seem to be much to do right now except advance the calendar.
The Striking of Fear
And as I expected, we get a ‘threat’ from one of the lesser evolved nations. Pedro II of Brazil denounces us to the world, but I’m not so sure this is something I should worry about. I’ve seen his missionaries wandering around, looking for weak-minded people to prey upon. Still, the English are a proud and resourceful people who are striving to establish our own religion. One based on the might of the British scientific advancements, not some backward Catholicism of Brazil. For now, I will let his words wash off my back, but the Empire will remember.
Eureka!
The world turns, and builders build. My London builder dug into the ground to establish our third mine in the Empire, which unlocked a Eureka! moment.
We now have boosted our ability to research Apprenticeship, which will help in our progress out of the Classical Era so we can more fully experience the Renaissance in the entire Empire. For the most part, though, while we may have entered into this new Era when my reign began, there hasn’t been too much going on to worry about other than the pesky words from Brazil.
Best Buds
Oops, I spoke too soon. Cleopatra showed up on our doorstep as soon as I relaxed and has offered to announce our friendship to the world. As far as I can tell, this is a genuine offer, and probably one made because she observes how great our Empire has become. Certainly, by sharing borders with a nation as impressive and advanced as ours, a leader would look to gain whatever favor they can achieve. So I went ahead and agreed. It may turn out poorly, but I have faith in our forces to defend us from any outside enemy and simply see this as a lesser nation looking to protect itself.
Getting Closer to the Boom!
And as we improve our diplomatic stance towards Egypt, we soon finish our research into Military Engineering, and since we still want to create boomsticks, have given us a boost towards that with the previously built mine. Gunpowder requires Military Engineering, Stirrups, and Apprenticeship, and now that the first is complete, it’s nice to see that the rest have significantly less research required because of boosts.
I’m gonna go ahead with researching Apprenticeship since that might help out our production as well as our military. With this technology figured out, we’ll be able to build workshops and industrial zones that will bump up our production and give us another step towards getting all techs out of the Medieval Era.
War-Carts Near Crater Lake
I think I might be pushing us to Gunpowder just in time since I keep seeing Gilgamesh building up his War-Carts and Catapults near Stoke-Upon-Trent. He hasn’t indicated any ill intent towards England, but I don’t like his military buildup near our borders. Right now, I can see two of his cities – Kish, with a population of 5 and Ur, which was just founded and grew last turn to a population of 2.
I’m not too worried, but I did go through previous gossip to see if good ole Gil made any comment about us settling so close to Crater Lake. I know he wasn’t pleased, but apparently, he never said anything about it…probably because he heard the war drums from Egypt, America, and Stockholm back then. The fact that we announced our friendship with Egypt a few turns ago may prove beneficial in keeping him from rattling his sabers, but only time will tell. In any case, I am gonna keep a decent defense force over by Stoke-Upon-Trent just in case.
Gunpowder Diplomacy
Oh goodie! We completed the Military Training Civic…oh, and it was boosted by our building an Encampment out in Stoke-Upon-Trent. This should help protect us from those Sumerians if they turn belligerent. And to make things even more secure, I set the city to start building a Barracks in the Encampment. This will help us create more experienced soldiers and pave the way towards the development of an Armory, which will once again push us closer to Gunpowder.
If you haven’t figured out my goal yet, I am working towards becoming the first Empire, by a long shot, to discover Gunpowder so we will be able to defend ourselves against any and all who want to contest our superiority.
Wow, and as a nice bonus, we get a new Trade Route capacity because of our Encampment and our bonus from Carthage and with a new Envoy available we can send him off to Preslav in hopes that we’ll be able to influence that city-state to grant up Suzerain Diplomacy which can help out with our war of words with Brazil since they’re neighbors.
And…it worked!
Not only do we become Suzerain of Preslav, but we also learn of the Piopiotahi natural wonder. This beautiful fjord is pretty incredible, and while it’s part of the South American continent in the game, it’s not too far from Mu where London sits. It looks like Cleopatra has a city near this wonder, but at least with the friendship of Preslav, I can see the beauty of this wonder.
Oh yeah, as Suzerain of both Carthage and Preslav, I have an excellent barrier between England and Brazil if they ever want to start coming our way.
Don’t Forget the Arts
And not to let our culture slip by the wayside, we built up a Theater Square in Leeds. We could easily follow the recommended build suggestions for Ancient Walls or a Great Library wonder, and while I would usually love to have the Great Library (at least in previous Civ games), I’m going to instead look to the future of our religion. I am pretty sure we are close to founding the 4th and final religion of this world, and I want to get us off on the right foot. So I’m gonna work on building a Shrine in Leeds to grant us some extra faith and set up a meeting place where we can recruit Missionaries and eventually build a Temple.
I think Culture and Faith go together and I think Leeds will be an excellent place for both.
Or the Sciences
Ok…we also finished off building our Campus in Birmingham, and I like the idea of keeping our science level improving, so I’m gonna set the citizens of Birmingham to collecting books and building a Library to house them all in.
I really feel like I’ve contributed to the Renaissance nature of the Empire I was handed. I helped build up faith, culture, science, and our military. England is truly a nation experiencing a breakout in all areas of human pursuits and is moving into the future as the preeminent power in the world.
And finally, I’m not sure it’s the best idea, but I kicked off the building of a Royal Navy Dockyard in Bristol. Perhaps this location won’t be land-locked as Bradford is, but it sure is far away, so I’m not really sure what to do with this city, so a dockyard sounds appropriate for the British.
Gunpowder and Religion
Finally, on the last turn of my reign, the great British scientists discovered the wonders of Apprenticeship. This’ll allow us to build Workshops, Industrial Zones, and also gives our mines better productivity. It also moves us closer to…Gunpowder. And what else will do that but Stirrups? Hey, we’re England, so I’d expect us to figure out how to recruit Knights before everyone else so…there you go. My final technology focus will be Stirrups, which will let whoever comes after me to move on to Gunpowder – if they want, of course.
As a final note, I finally figured out how to see how close we are to recruiting a Great Prophet to found our religion. We’re at 229 of 240 needed to get Madhva Acharya to come our way, and it looks like we are generating 6 points of recruitment power a turn, so we should be good soon.
Actually, I see that I can spend some Faith to recruit him now, but I’ll leave it to Kanter to bring our prophet onboard and get our religion running since I think I’ve done enough damage.
Here’s the save file…good luck!
Ramble 2020.02.30 | Civilization VI Turns 141 to 150