Long Live the Queen – Eyes to Mars (Turns 391-400)

My word, the world has changed since I last was trusted with the reigns. We’ve become an absolute monster of a Cultural powerhouse for one. To such an extent that I wonder whether this may end up being our path to victory ahead of science, simply by power of the fact we meet its criteria first.

But admittedly, I’m not terribly familiar with how fast the tourism scene changes in a game of Civ 6 as it isn’t really a path I’ve pursued before. I do know though, that France and Brazil occupied first and second spots, with England dead last over turns 321-330.

France had 35 tourists to our, er, 9. So over the course of just 60 turns or so we’ve come this far. I’ll have to keep an eye on how culture tracks over the course of my turns and see if I can work it out before I hand over. :)

This is not to say that Science is slacking though.

It really isn’t.

All requisite research is complete. We know exactly what is needed and how to establish a colony on Mars.

It’s just a matter now of getting it done.

To wit, we have our Space Port in Stoke-Upon-Trent working on launching a Mars Reactor.

And we have the Space Port in Leeds… sitting idle. Wait, what? Leeds is currently constructing a world wonder – the Hermitage.

It has been a while to say the least since some of the posts, so I go through and refresh myself on the thinking on this before I make any decisions about it and I quickly find the answer. When Krikket played out her turns last we were still in need of more research to commence work on further space projects. Krikket did get us to the moon, but after that, there was no option to utilise the spaceports!

I’m really sorely tempted to scrap the Hermitage project. But it only has 11 turns to go and, honestly? We could probably use the score. While we’re still in the lead the gap has closed more than I’m comfortable with.

Balancing out that fact though, in one turn — i.e., when I start playing — we will complete research on Telecommunications. The significance of which being it is the last actual research to do in the entire tech tree. After that we can cycle through researching ‘Future Tech’ which will improve our score for each completion.

If one of the other leaders had started the Hermitage for any reason at all other than not being able to use the Spaceport, I wouldn’t even consider it. By my calculations, with 24 turns remaining on the Mars reactor launch, and 44 turns required for each the habitation and hydroponics modules we do not have enough turns left in the game to achieve this victory if we continue to run these projects in a linear fashion through a single space port.

We do have time if we run the projects in parallel once the respective projects finish. If we don’t do too much else. We’re still running this to the wire. Hehe.

But… With the possibility still there of achieving it, I won’t be changing anything. I think I feel better about not overwriting anything directly that a predecessor has done even with the reason being no other choice (in the sense of this project, at least).

So, reacquainted with the game and the current state! Let’s get started!

Eyes on Mars- Ooh, or maybe Culture! No! Definitely Mars! (or…)

Turn 390

Telecommunications research finishes — and boosts our progress (if we can call it such) toward the Social Media civic. Hah.

I start on Future Tech, and it will only take us 8 turns for this first go around. Score, here we come!

Turn 391

Bradford completes production and asks me what’s next. Bradford is behind on Amenities, unfortunately, so I start work on an Entertainment Complex which will take 20 turns to complete.

A request for orders also comes through from two religious units sitting outside of Ur. There is threat of Ur converting to Islam as the majority religion which perhaps makes sense given we uh… *cough* …Kinda took this city from Gilgamesh in the past.

Still- with the Missionary and Apostle both here, I can do something about this and perhaps start to put more pressure in the other direction for our founded religion — Buddhism.

After both units use their ‘Spread’ action — the threat of conversion is abated… For now. But there is still a lot of inward influence for Islam. It will be something we need to keep an eye on a little, so I looked at what units I might be able to purchase with Faith right now.

Turns out — from Ur at least — just one. But its’s a Naturalist. Naturalists can found parks that improve tourism. We have a lot of faith right now so this seems like an appealing option! I take one.

Turn 392

I renew the counterspy mission to protect London from any potential foreign interference and then look to use our new Naturalist.

For a moment, I think I might’ve made a horrible mistake. You can’t just plop down a natural park willy-nilly you see. Oh no. There are quite specific requirements. Namely:

National Parks can be built on a cluster of any four contiguous hexes that meet the following requirements:

• The tiles must be natural wonders, Mountains, or a tile with an Appeal of Charming or better.
• All four of the tiles must be owned by the same city.
• The tiles must form a (vertical) diamond shape (not a slanted diamond).
• No tile can have an Improvement or District on it.

(Source: Civ6 Gamepedia)

Fortunately though! We do in fact have such a space — over by Sheffield. It’s quite a hike, but the Naturalist doesn’t mind and will make it there in five turns.

Sheffield is also in need of new production orders. It looks like our Lighthouse has been damaged, so I’ll spend two turns on repairing it.

Sheffield, Sheffield, Sheffield this turn! The newly produced builders here would also like to know what to do. I set them to work building the Mercury mine nearby.

Turn 393

I go through a round of upgrading our military units to current technology. Not that I’m expecting to need to use them… Just… You know. To be on the safe side.

Bristol requires instruction on what to build next. It could do a Space Port in 51 turns. Not required for us to win by this path — but it still wouldn’t hurt. On the other hand, there are some Wonders of interest too. Given Bristol’s proximity to Paris, there is a certain appeal to beating them to the Eiffel Tower. Although admittedly beyond score and smug-points, it doesn’t really further either of our main goals too much.

The Cristo Redentor however might.

The catch being, to replace it I need to take out a good production tile.

Although this appears to be true if I place anything at Bristol now other than a building inside an existing district.

Oooh.

Except the Sydney Opera House. That one I can place on a chunk of ice. The Sydney Opera House doesn’t remove the Enlightenment debuff upon our tourism rate — but it does at least improve our Culture generation by a whopping +8 (alongside a faith increase, and production points toward Great Musicians and Great Works of Music).

Given it doesn’t disrupt anything already there — this is what I go with.

Turn 394

Sheffield is done repairing the lighthouse and I set it to work on a Seaport. Not so much for the ship combat experience, but more so because it provides housing, food and gold. All things we could use more of.

The builders here also finish the mine. I remind myself to steer clear of improving the tiles soon to be our natural park and see instead if they might be able to… *waves hands* …make a farm in the snow or somesuch on the tiles below Sheffield. They’ll reach those spots next turn, so I’ll find out then.

Turn 395

Halfway through my reign, I decide to check in on Tourism, and see how it’s been going.

We’ve gained 10 tourists, or +2 / turn. If that’s a rate that remains steady — and I have no idea whether we can expect it to or not — we’ll have won a culture victory in 32 turns. Wow! I’ll check this once more before I hand over.

As for the rest of the turn — in a turn of events that will surprise no-one, you cannot, in fact, make a farm out of tundra. I CAN however plant some woods there for a production boost, so I’ll definitely take that for the time being.

While going to wrap up the turn… Cleopatra comes with an offer of an Alliance.

A quick google later — lord I’m rusty on all the mechanics of this game now!! — I verify that entering into the alliance will not automatically give her any access to our research or the like. So I accept. Or at least, I would have- had I not misclicked. Whoops. In any case, I would have also accepted a defensive pact if one were put on offer but I see no need to pursue one. I would not accept a research pact though at this time!

Turn 396

The Globalisation civic research completes, and it is as far forward as we can go on this particular track! We cannot look at Future Civics until we better understand — even if we choose not to embrace — the way other cultures may choose to operate.

So I take us back to see if we can’t at least understand the Class Struggle and gain an insight into why Communism might seem appealing to some.

The builders near Sheffield complete planting the woods, and I set them to now build a Sawmill there to further improve production.

At last, our Naturalist reaches the site of our park and I instruct him to designate it so!

It looks like we can sill have citizens work these tiles for their resources without breaking the park, which is good. The only restriction is on further improving them which in this case does mean giving up access to quarrying the Gypsum — but I think this is something we can live with in the name of Tourists.

Turn 397

We lost Suzerain status over Hong Kong! Fortunately, with the envoys we had waiting in the wings I was able to correct this, and send ol’ Teddy packing again.

Despite this, Teddy appreciates the fact we setup a natural park and sent us something oddly close to a complement. Huh. Wonders never cease.

Pedro then comes in with an offer of taking our Salt for 30 turns for a one-time offer of 39 gold. No, Pedro. As much as it amuses me that you feel the need to have more salt- no. I refuse.

Turn 398

London wants to know what to do next, and I set it to work with a Campus Research Grant. While we don’t particularly need the extra research points right now it does also grant Great Scientists points, which can in turn rush one of our Mars projects to completion which would be a huge boon.

Birmingham, the same.

Norwich I set to work on the Archaelogical Museum.

Adab, also a research grant.

Plymouth… A set of sewers. Apparently this provides housing. I choose to believe it improves housing density and not that people will move down there.

Turn 399

Future Tech completes its first iteration! It starts the second go-round.

Teddy attempts to take Suzerain status of Yerevan this time — but we also this turn gained another set of Envoys and send him packing again.

Catherine comes to us with… Well… I don’t know. I think she thinks this is a deal worth considering. But… No?

The last thing I want to do is provide a great work to our greatest cultural rival!

I send her a polite, but firm, ‘No’ response.

Turn 400

Ur is looking for something to do, and I set it to work on a Theatre district. Ur is actually already OK on both housing and amenities, so why not try further cement our cultural lead?

Also… Our researchers informed us that we understand Communism and the people’s struggle now. I imagine Victoria nodding and smiling at this over her gold-embossed China teacup. Nonetheless, we progress to… Professional Sports. Hmm.. I guess I can see a linkage there. If a squint a little and look at it sideways.

And… I think that might be it! The reigns go next to Rakuno!

Unfortunately I didn’t get to further our project to Mars directly. Neither the existing running project, nor the other city with a Spaceport (Leeds) freed up in my turn. Stoke-Upon-Trent still has another 16 turns required to launch the reactor, but Leeds will be available from Rakuno’s very earliest of turns which is good.

Teddy Meanwhile has finished researching Satellites, and appears to be in progress of launching them which would complete phase 2 of his track here. I’m even starting to wonder whether some military discouragement might be required here although it probably isn’t necessary. I think we can keep ahead, given Teddy hasn’t researched most of what he needs for Mars yet.

On the Culture front, we jumped another +10 tourists over the next 5 of my turns, but! I just noticed that the amount required is going up slightly too as the world population increases.

Whichever way we go, fun times ahead. A hundred turns to go!