Dreylin Blues 2000 is on (another) mission from Cod

[Tarkeel]

Maybe a liiittle bit of sign spam there (BTW, is there a way of switching them off without deleting them?)

Not that I'm aware of, unfortunately.

[Dreylin]

Ah well, I guess you have to put up with them then.

I also meant to note that turning on culture for this was the first time I confirmed ljubljana's location; Elwood will follow the coast in that direction. That does mean I need to find another way of defogging the coast between myself and Ginger. Another Scout seems excessive, but the alternative is to send the Chariot which may be taken the wrong way and provoke an arms race. Will think about it some more.

[Dreylin]

T048 -

Ginger has sent a settling party to reach for a Copper:


And we're all watching him!

Back home and the Settler for "Elwood's Horse" (probably Trout) is en-route and Haddock's borders popped for Wheat improvement.

I umm'd and ahhh'd and eventually decided to revolt to Slavery this turn rather than waiting. Much as I would like to max out my run for Polytheism, all the units out of borders at the moment are costing me too much to make it straight off and I /think/ my costs go down once Trout is settled ... and even if not my GNP goes up.

Ultimately, this push for Hinduism has enough opportunity cost already. And if I miss by a turn then I can second guess myself for the rest of the game!

[Dreylin]

T049 -

Alright, let's see what we have here:


OK this is excellent news because it means Ginger is focused on the big obvious threat from the West and not on me.  He'll need another city to link & provide support to this one, which is also in a favourable direction.

It's a bit unfortunate that Elwood got bounced back, but it might be good in a way; I'll follow Ljubljana's scout along the South of Ginger and defog that coast between us.

A liiiiiiittle bit farther afield:


Wow that angle looks weird, but I wanted to squeeze the minimap in for reference. Green borders I think means it's GT who is (checks notes) Boudica of Ethiopia.   Assuming that spacing is the roughly the same, that makes them Ljubljana's other neighbour. Ginger may not have to worry too much about Impis after all!

Oh, and if anyone else was getting tired of scouring the sign-up thread for the final combos, I editted them into my first post for my own reference.

I need to do some sort of "impressions of neighbours" post, but since a lot of those impressions are from an ongoing game I can't really lean on them for justifications. Once I get a little more info on their land, maybe I'll do some sort of strategy post. Maybe.

Finally the home front (again multi-tasking image):


Trout founded as planned giving me +3commerce, which is a ~20% increase. Bringing the Chariot back in borders also reduced my unit supply back to 0, so I'll keep him at home for a while. You can also see that Cod has borrowed back the Cows for a turn to get the 3fh needed to be at exactly 40fh at the end of next turn for the 2-pop whip. (Unless my calculations are wrong and it needs it for another turn). I was last amongst my neighbours to 3 cities, but we'll see if I can get to 4 first.

It would be great to be regrowing while building Granaries, but my quixotic religion quest has put paid to that. As you can see we're on a 4t clock to Hinduism.    Unfortunately that would be the turn before I can found Stone - at this point I should probably just name it "Stonefish" - so it would either go North to Trout or South to Haddock. Either way would work, but have different implications probably.

I also owe a post on tech priorities, which I'm thinking about but will probably save until after I know.

Anything else you guys are looking for an update on?

[Dreylin]

T050 -

Well that was fast!

This turn will be remembered for 2 things:

1) unlike PB74, I am not dead. 

2) new friends!

Met GT as expected:


But when I went to check Foreign advisor I had also met Mjmd ... ah, there he is:


Mighty Mack successfully slipping around greenline's borders.

OK, so what does the Foreign Advisor tell us:


As expected, GT & Ljubljana have contact. Can't draw any great conclusions from the greenline-Mjmd contact since their scout is right there, but we can strongly propose that Mjmd is from the South or West given he does not have contact with GT yet. Oh, and Mjmd built Stonehenge.

It feels like we are all on the same continent then, probably in a large ring or sausage-shape around the massive desert. Mmmm, sausages.

[Tarkeel]

1) unlike PB74, I am not dead. 

[Commodore]

Just wanted to say I've been really enjoying your reporting here. On the early turn 50 era, how do you feel about your start vs. others? How do you see your game going forward?

[Dreylin]

Just wanted to say I've been really enjoying your reporting here. On the early turn 50 era, how do you feel about your start vs. others? How do you see your game going forward?

Thanks! It's nice to know that people are reading, even if there's not been much interaction - although thinking back, I don't thing my reporting style has ever really encouraged it. I do think that my decision not to run a micro sheet this this game has meant that I've done big chunks of thinking as I've been in game and while writing up the reports so it's been a bit more stream of consciousness this time.

I also think that my CIV brain has warmed up again so while there's still some unfamiliarity with the mod, I'm feeling reasonably confident with my short-term play. I think my opening has been solid; I'm happy with my Scouting effort (although I want to see more!) and think I have a better understanding than both of my immediate neighbours. I might have more Workers, but am maybe not using them as efficiently - demos certainly say I've built too many roads verses tile improvements! I'm about on par for expansion, maybe a half-step behind but city4 should be back with the pack.

I've come to the conclusion that researching Polytheism was/is a mistake. It was very much a "well if no-one else is" decision, but there's not even an immediate need - with CHA giving me plenty of happy cap to work with I'm already running around with no MP and that can change if I need to whip more. It will definitely be a "nice to have" down the road, but I think being able to chop in some Granaries now would have been more beneficial.

T51 (which has rolled, but I have yet to play) is the "Damnit I could have had Buddhism" turn that everyone who chooses the flexibility of targeting Polytheism goes through. So we'll see.

To some extent talking about plans and comparing with neighbours will need some pictures, which I'll grab this turn, but in the meantime I can talk some about tech and a few other bits & pieces in the next post...

[Dreylin]

So turning attention to tech; in the short term it's really going to be driven by the terrain.

And by the terrain, I of course mean this:


The river that winds past Cod, Stonefish and on to 9tiles is all very well, but the Dye river is going to be the economic core of my civ. That makes Iron Working and Calendar the top priorities; where most limp to Currency to save the economy, I will be limping to Calendar to supercharge it.

That means I need the following techs (from L to R on the tech-tree):

• Fishing
  
• Sailing
  
• Writing
  
• Iron Working
  
• Mathematics
  
• Calendar
  

But I'm going to distract myself from that, right? At minimum I need Granaries, so:

• Pottery
  

Then you get some what-if cases:

• Priesthood - if I land Hinduism, I want a temple running a Priest pretty soon for the eventual shrine
  
• Masonry - Moai really wants that 30% discount from Stone
  

OK that's it. No souped-up Metal Casting, no Currency, and definitely no Monotheism, honest!  

But then what order? Well Fishing makes Pottery cheaper and Pottery & Priesthood make Writing cheaper and I'm all about discounts, right! Well not the first one anyway. With only 1 seafood even visible on my stretch of coast and my quixotic detour under the belt, I think Pottery has to be next.

After that conventional wisdom would say Writing for Libraries & Open Borders, but I'm still going to be building Granaries & REX'ing, so I think Iron Working is the play. It frees the Gems at Stonefish (and I guess the Cursed Rice), and lets Haddock start cottaging the river.

I reserve the right to slip Priesthood in there under my caveated scenario, but I can't see anything else. As a bonus, that means I should get some good KTB by the time I return to the top of the tree to push for Calendar. Then it becomes a question of where to fit in Fishing->Sailing, which is a decision for later.

One thing that this tech order means is that I need to continue to prioritise Workers. It's all very well to pop an early IW, but if I can't efficiently clear the Jungle then it's just a waste. Expect me to try to push beyond 1 Worker per city over the coming turns. (AKA: expect more Roads! )

[Commodore]

I'm hearing a lot of "blah blah blah" to cover up the real motivation: Capital bananas.