Yet another quick report. Civ 5 has quite a lot of decisions to take early that I don't find interesting for a player to take by himself in a SG, so I'm stopping this more than usual. I'd feel bad to choose our SP path without consulting everyone.
Anyway, on to the game.
*I chose Goddess of the Hunt as our Pantheon, since everyone seemed okay with it.I think this will end up being a good decision, considering what the map revealed so far (a lot of camp resources).
*We met Ragusa (Maritime CS) near Monaco, a bit more to the West. It has an unique happy resource, as Monaco does. I forgot to pledge to protect it, I'll do it when I get back to the game. There's also a barb camp pretty near it, which can be a quick shortcut to Ally state.
*The scout proceeded NE, and found 2 opponents: Russia and Rome. Rome is very, very close, near a tempting city spot that gets Cotton, another deer and river tiles. I'm not sure we can settle in this direction without prompting Rome to attack us, so we need to be careful about settling choices.
*Our Capital is actually a bit better than we previously thought:
I thought about buying the tiles we need to get the deer and wheat in range, but didn't do it yet. The ocean tiles cost 100 gold and we still don't have enough to afford ocean tile + deer/wheat. By the way, if we buy the ocean tile, does our next cultural expansion goes for the wheat/deer or would it still prefer the fish? I'm not sure how this works. Something to consider, I guess, since we still haven't had any border pops.
*Finally, what made me stop is that we popped a ruin for 20 culture, which allows us to choose our first SP. So, Tradition or Liberty? Here's the map so far:
My opinion, after seeing the map, is that we should go for Tradition. We can't expand towards Rome or we'll put ourselves in danger of early war. So, we'll be boxed in in what seems to be a little peninsula, without that many cities, which favours Tradition. We can settle a city where T-Hawk suggested and another one near the Ivory, in the place with 3 adjacent forests, and start accumulating faith for Pantheon + units. With the faster development we get from Tradition, we can perhaps attack Rome and free more space for ourselves.
Actually, I might consider going Honor + Piety, like Wyatan suggested. With Rome so close, we might need to attack soon and having the combat bonus from discipline (+15% for an adjacent military unit) and a free great general (from warrior code) will help. + Piety opener, Organized Religion (+1 faith for shrines and temples) and Mandate of Heaven (20% discount on unit buys with faith). That's 6 policies, which is a lot, but I think we can manage to go with only 5 in an initial attack against ROme: we start with Honor, for the bonus versus barbs (+culture if we kill them); we go for Piety opener as the second SP, to get faster shrines and temples (we can delay building them until there); after that, Organized religion, for more faith; 4th policy, Mandate of Heaven, to get the discount on bought units; finally, we can get the free General or the Discipline bonus when we are ready to attack Rome.
It's a bit unorthodox, but that might work. We don't need to finish the Honor branch, just get the early policies. It also enables for us to build the Statue of Zeus, which gives +15% strength when attacking cities, also useful.
Perhaps I'm completely misguided about this, but I wouldn't mind trying this approach.
Anyway, on to the game.
*I chose Goddess of the Hunt as our Pantheon, since everyone seemed okay with it.I think this will end up being a good decision, considering what the map revealed so far (a lot of camp resources).
*We met Ragusa (Maritime CS) near Monaco, a bit more to the West. It has an unique happy resource, as Monaco does. I forgot to pledge to protect it, I'll do it when I get back to the game. There's also a barb camp pretty near it, which can be a quick shortcut to Ally state.
*The scout proceeded NE, and found 2 opponents: Russia and Rome. Rome is very, very close, near a tempting city spot that gets Cotton, another deer and river tiles. I'm not sure we can settle in this direction without prompting Rome to attack us, so we need to be careful about settling choices.
*Our Capital is actually a bit better than we previously thought:
I thought about buying the tiles we need to get the deer and wheat in range, but didn't do it yet. The ocean tiles cost 100 gold and we still don't have enough to afford ocean tile + deer/wheat. By the way, if we buy the ocean tile, does our next cultural expansion goes for the wheat/deer or would it still prefer the fish? I'm not sure how this works. Something to consider, I guess, since we still haven't had any border pops.
*Finally, what made me stop is that we popped a ruin for 20 culture, which allows us to choose our first SP. So, Tradition or Liberty? Here's the map so far:
My opinion, after seeing the map, is that we should go for Tradition. We can't expand towards Rome or we'll put ourselves in danger of early war. So, we'll be boxed in in what seems to be a little peninsula, without that many cities, which favours Tradition. We can settle a city where T-Hawk suggested and another one near the Ivory, in the place with 3 adjacent forests, and start accumulating faith for Pantheon + units. With the faster development we get from Tradition, we can perhaps attack Rome and free more space for ourselves.
Actually, I might consider going Honor + Piety, like Wyatan suggested. With Rome so close, we might need to attack soon and having the combat bonus from discipline (+15% for an adjacent military unit) and a free great general (from warrior code) will help. + Piety opener, Organized Religion (+1 faith for shrines and temples) and Mandate of Heaven (20% discount on unit buys with faith). That's 6 policies, which is a lot, but I think we can manage to go with only 5 in an initial attack against ROme: we start with Honor, for the bonus versus barbs (+culture if we kill them); we go for Piety opener as the second SP, to get faster shrines and temples (we can delay building them until there); after that, Organized religion, for more faith; 4th policy, Mandate of Heaven, to get the discount on bought units; finally, we can get the free General or the Discipline bonus when we are ready to attack Rome.
It's a bit unorthodox, but that might work. We don't need to finish the Honor branch, just get the early policies. It also enables for us to build the Statue of Zeus, which gives +15% strength when attacking cities, also useful.
Perhaps I'm completely misguided about this, but I wouldn't mind trying this approach.