Since the game's been paused for a while now, I figured I'd take the chance to actually get an update out for a change.
Here's my land as of T121
As you can see, my land consists of two completed isolated peninsulas with my sole land connection to other empires being that kind of crazy series of choke points where my and OT4E's lands meet. On the plus side, this means I didn't have to worry about early aggression and had very little in the way of barb issues save for a few stray axemen and that...
unfortunate barb city currently mucking around my borders that I never should have let happen. On the other hand, very few land tiles and an alarming lack of fresh water means I've had to go heavy on the coastal build and rely on a couple risky gambits to get my economy rolling into gear. Fortunately those gambits thus far have worked out.
I didn't have much land, but what I DID have was a very close source of stone, separated from my cap by two tiles of ocean. The plan was clear then: Settle the stone ASAP, chop out Stonehenge after hooking it up with the forests near the city, and then rush Mathematics to chop out the 7 forests around Ravenna (grabbed conveniently with the culture from the free monument) to get Pyramids for that sweet SPI Representation-Caste System goodness down the line. Missing either of those wonders would probably have crippled me and left me a sitting duck, and even now my food and hammer totals are lacking from having fewer cities than most opponents and focusing so hard on commerce.
I also rushed Currency for the trade routes and CoL for the religion, as I really wanted to make use of OR and Theocracy without having to rely on RNG getting me a religion from another player, and I even managed to get a prophet from Neapolis at 50% odds to build my shrine
After backfilling some techs I went straight for Civil Service, as I desperately needed irrigation to get some further growth going in cities that lack more than 1, if not 0 good food tiles. That's about where we're at now.
Tech path is not final obviously, as I'm pretty torn on what to do. I can go greedy and try to hardcore rush the Music artist, as I'm confident I can get there pretty quickly with Wealth and/or Research builds, but I suspect OT4E is heading there already, as he just finished Aesthetics and is doing Polytheism and likely Literature next. He could just be going for HE and NE but why wouldn't you also try for Music if you were going that direction? My economy is certainly better than his, but better by enough to beat him to it? Not sure about that. Maybe with 10 turns of Caste System I could do it. Not to mention I have no idea if anyone else is going that way (No one I knew had Literature last I checked, but that was a couple turns ago and with the game paused I can't really check right now).
Alternatively, I can just forgo any of that stuff and go for the bottom techs, Machinery/Feudalism/Theocracy etc etc. Also finally get Iron, kind of ridiculous that I've delayed that tech for so longer considering I'm Rome, but hey you gotta play the hand you're dealt
I have Civil Service already so Machinery would get me maces which, combined with crossbows, would make any pre-Knight attack from OT4E quite difficult. And with Vassalage/Theocracy/Colosseum/Stable/Barracks I can train 10XP mounted units which would be quite helpful against an AGG neighbor to say the least. And get me Heroic Epic as well. And Knights are just a step away from there... So yeah, plenty of options to work with all things considered.
Got open borders with pretty much everyone, so I have a chariot exploring into Krill and OH's land and am finally getting a good look at what OT4E's land looks like. Judging from how much land Krill has I'm going to guess he's on the "Big" part of this Big and Small map.
And now finally the city screens and some comments.
Capital doing Capital things. Currently stagnant as Antium is using the corn, but all in all as nice a coastal cap as you're going to get. Oh, and popping a random gems tile helped a lot too (that REALLY saved my bacon in terms of happiness early on. Don't know how I would have managed without it...) One interesting thing is how I just ended up farming the Spices tiles. Heck, I don't even have Calendar yet, between the gems and gold, Representation, and my religion I just don't really need it yet.
Equally strong second city, especially now that the wheat is irrigated and the cottages are starting to mature. Will probably get back to working specialists after I whip out the courthouse and finish the Settler.
Copper city, also my Moai city. Settling on the copper might have been better, as it would have been in range of a fish and second copper I didn't see at the time of planting, but being able to share the cottage and farm below Antium will suffice, and it's shaping up to be a pretty strong city.
This city sucks. And it doesn't even matter cause the only reason it exists is to grab the stone and have Stonehenge sit there. And I somehow got a Great Prophet out of it
Resting place of the Pyramids, and most definitely my Heroic Epic city when the time comes. By far the biggest immediate beneficiary of Civil Service irrigation as it's well on its way to comfortably working all those mines. Also hosts the Ravenna canal
Another beneficiary of irrigation and a city with good potential, though it lacks a good second food tile to become a true powerhouse. Might not be worth stymieing its growth to work the gold but a bit late to worry about that now.
"This city only exists for the overseas trade routes" #1, though it's better than most by virtue of having a copper tile to work and an actual food tile.
A filler city to grab the wheat that's honestly better than I expected. I tend to forget pigs are really good food tiles. Unfortunately, there's no way to irrigate that wheat without killing the stone quarry so that'll have to wait for stone to no longer be useful to me (currently trading it to OH for marble, which I hope to use for NE at the very least)
Convenient barb city that spawned at almost exactly the right spot meaning I had to build one less settler. It even spawned before barbs got Archery, so one Axeman was able to take the whole thing out... once it got to pop 2 of course, which it took its sweet time doing. Could be a monster city with State Property but just doesn't have the food to truly compete right now.
Kind of kicking myself for not settling this sooner. Only one food tile but otherwise a pretty nice city that took no time at all to get running due to nearby forests.
And finally, Setia, settled mere turns ago. Will have sheep, gold, and farmland to work. Not the greatest city but it'll do its job.
Two more cities are being placed in that northern area and then hopefully two more cities around where that current barb city is after I kill it somehow, and that should do it for mainland cities. Don't think I'm in a huge rush to settle the islands around me , though I suppose stopping Krill or anyone else from doing so would at least be welcome. We'll see.
Here's my land as of T121
As you can see, my land consists of two completed isolated peninsulas with my sole land connection to other empires being that kind of crazy series of choke points where my and OT4E's lands meet. On the plus side, this means I didn't have to worry about early aggression and had very little in the way of barb issues save for a few stray axemen and that...
unfortunate barb city currently mucking around my borders that I never should have let happen. On the other hand, very few land tiles and an alarming lack of fresh water means I've had to go heavy on the coastal build and rely on a couple risky gambits to get my economy rolling into gear. Fortunately those gambits thus far have worked out.
I didn't have much land, but what I DID have was a very close source of stone, separated from my cap by two tiles of ocean. The plan was clear then: Settle the stone ASAP, chop out Stonehenge after hooking it up with the forests near the city, and then rush Mathematics to chop out the 7 forests around Ravenna (grabbed conveniently with the culture from the free monument) to get Pyramids for that sweet SPI Representation-Caste System goodness down the line. Missing either of those wonders would probably have crippled me and left me a sitting duck, and even now my food and hammer totals are lacking from having fewer cities than most opponents and focusing so hard on commerce.
I also rushed Currency for the trade routes and CoL for the religion, as I really wanted to make use of OR and Theocracy without having to rely on RNG getting me a religion from another player, and I even managed to get a prophet from Neapolis at 50% odds to build my shrine
After backfilling some techs I went straight for Civil Service, as I desperately needed irrigation to get some further growth going in cities that lack more than 1, if not 0 good food tiles. That's about where we're at now.Tech path is not final obviously, as I'm pretty torn on what to do. I can go greedy and try to hardcore rush the Music artist, as I'm confident I can get there pretty quickly with Wealth and/or Research builds, but I suspect OT4E is heading there already, as he just finished Aesthetics and is doing Polytheism and likely Literature next. He could just be going for HE and NE but why wouldn't you also try for Music if you were going that direction? My economy is certainly better than his, but better by enough to beat him to it? Not sure about that. Maybe with 10 turns of Caste System I could do it. Not to mention I have no idea if anyone else is going that way (No one I knew had Literature last I checked, but that was a couple turns ago and with the game paused I can't really check right now).
Alternatively, I can just forgo any of that stuff and go for the bottom techs, Machinery/Feudalism/Theocracy etc etc. Also finally get Iron, kind of ridiculous that I've delayed that tech for so longer considering I'm Rome, but hey you gotta play the hand you're dealt
I have Civil Service already so Machinery would get me maces which, combined with crossbows, would make any pre-Knight attack from OT4E quite difficult. And with Vassalage/Theocracy/Colosseum/Stable/Barracks I can train 10XP mounted units which would be quite helpful against an AGG neighbor to say the least. And get me Heroic Epic as well. And Knights are just a step away from there... So yeah, plenty of options to work with all things considered.Got open borders with pretty much everyone, so I have a chariot exploring into Krill and OH's land and am finally getting a good look at what OT4E's land looks like. Judging from how much land Krill has I'm going to guess he's on the "Big" part of this Big and Small map.
And now finally the city screens and some comments.
Capital doing Capital things. Currently stagnant as Antium is using the corn, but all in all as nice a coastal cap as you're going to get. Oh, and popping a random gems tile helped a lot too (that REALLY saved my bacon in terms of happiness early on. Don't know how I would have managed without it...) One interesting thing is how I just ended up farming the Spices tiles. Heck, I don't even have Calendar yet, between the gems and gold, Representation, and my religion I just don't really need it yet.
Equally strong second city, especially now that the wheat is irrigated and the cottages are starting to mature. Will probably get back to working specialists after I whip out the courthouse and finish the Settler.
Copper city, also my Moai city. Settling on the copper might have been better, as it would have been in range of a fish and second copper I didn't see at the time of planting, but being able to share the cottage and farm below Antium will suffice, and it's shaping up to be a pretty strong city.
This city sucks. And it doesn't even matter cause the only reason it exists is to grab the stone and have Stonehenge sit there. And I somehow got a Great Prophet out of it
Resting place of the Pyramids, and most definitely my Heroic Epic city when the time comes. By far the biggest immediate beneficiary of Civil Service irrigation as it's well on its way to comfortably working all those mines. Also hosts the Ravenna canal
Another beneficiary of irrigation and a city with good potential, though it lacks a good second food tile to become a true powerhouse. Might not be worth stymieing its growth to work the gold but a bit late to worry about that now.
"This city only exists for the overseas trade routes" #1, though it's better than most by virtue of having a copper tile to work and an actual food tile.
A filler city to grab the wheat that's honestly better than I expected. I tend to forget pigs are really good food tiles. Unfortunately, there's no way to irrigate that wheat without killing the stone quarry so that'll have to wait for stone to no longer be useful to me (currently trading it to OH for marble, which I hope to use for NE at the very least)
Convenient barb city that spawned at almost exactly the right spot meaning I had to build one less settler. It even spawned before barbs got Archery, so one Axeman was able to take the whole thing out... once it got to pop 2 of course, which it took its sweet time doing. Could be a monster city with State Property but just doesn't have the food to truly compete right now.
Kind of kicking myself for not settling this sooner. Only one food tile but otherwise a pretty nice city that took no time at all to get running due to nearby forests.
And finally, Setia, settled mere turns ago. Will have sheep, gold, and farmland to work. Not the greatest city but it'll do its job.
Two more cities are being placed in that northern area and then hopefully two more cities around where that current barb city is after I kill it somehow, and that should do it for mainland cities. Don't think I'm in a huge rush to settle the islands around me , though I suppose stopping Krill or anyone else from doing so would at least be welcome. We'll see.
The scientist came at something like 8% odds which is quite silly. Of course I immediately worked all artists in my capital to try and push that up and managed to get almost 50% odds on the artist but no luck.