[SPOILERS] Ceiliazul is Player One: Louis of Egypt

[Ceiliazul]

It is more and more clear that Plako's early departure was a gigantic boon for me. Instead of a strong rival on my immediate border, I have a large backlines empire ready and waiting for me. Instead of early skirmishes with Plako, I can set up a judicious sentry net and expand in peace.



I've confirmed that the yellow lines represent coast, so my enemies need galleys to reach that Northern land. Plako had literally nowhere to go.

There's over 200 tiles represented on this picture, and it's all mine until people start settling with galleys. I'm Industrious with stone and marble in range, with multiple floodplains and multiple gold to grow on for economy. If I'm not a classical-age powerhouse, I have no one to blame but myself.

So the city sites highlighted with signs are immediate goals. Basically it's the tried and true "vapor defense" and sentries will be important. Perhaps the barbs will be nice enough to set up some tundra villages for me?



So, RB mod did a number on the old whip wisdom. In the base game, two-pop whips at size 4 are like crack cocaine on the growth curve... not so much here. I have pottery in hand, with the initial plan to build a granary after the current settler... perhaps that's not the best idea after all. Gotta think about it some more.

[Ceiliazul]

Poised for launch:

My demos are really really bad. Why? I have 2 size one cities! I'm worst in real pop, crop and mfg:

But the fun's just getting started. In the next 2 turns, crop will DOUBLE. 5 turns from now the first gold resources comes online.

The bigger event in the next 2 turns is the horse reveal. Huge for my copperless egyptians. If there's no horse to be found... well lets hope that doesn't happen!

[Ceiliazul]

I'm a bit freaked about the size 6 city... and also about a team that already has 3 cities!

t49:
Rival pop max: 151k
Rival pop min: 13k



But I really like the variety of starts we're seeing. Makes C&D mostly impossible, but adds to the flavor.

[Ceiliazul]

Good news is, there's a horse! The bad news is it's the wooly variety. In the tundra (yuck!) but at least it's in range of the sheep and marble. It won't be a bad city... but it'll take quite a hump to get a settler up there.



My 2nd city is going to be a powerhouse: Double gold, good food and good mfg. My workers improved rice just as the city settled. Each other special is going to finish in perfect time as well. :yes:



I enjoy this city much more than my capital, which just whipped a granary and will be gaining respectability soon... just not soon enough! Both cities will hit their stride at size 4 soon enough.

Also, who's creeping up the scoreboard: Plako! (Ghost of Whosit, I banish thee!)

[Ceiliazul]

Next turn we grow onto the gold in Ludus... I'm stoked! The following turn sees my capital grow with granary food box full. It will never be size 1 again! (Incidentally, I simmed whipping the granary from size 3->2, and 2->1. Both iterations reached size 4 on the same turn. :shrug:

I'm not doing much C&D at all, but old friend Commodore just got a pop increase in the middle of his turn. Unless I missed something, that's actually his 2nd city. Ouch.

Krill meanwhile, has to be the one with a size7 capital. I've talked before about how the RB mod nerfs slaving... He's got to be applying his deep knowledge of the mod to decide to go vertical. Even with the nerf, I still think 4->2 whips are the way to go, and I'll be pushing that direction next. We'll see who grows faster!

[Ceiliazul]

Scooter's score jumped A LOT at the turn roll... gotta be a wonder. Stonehenge?

A word on wonders: Even though I'm IND, I don't see myself landing any ancient wonders in this game. The 2 other IND opponents are both crackerjack micro teams... and I'm just not putting in the work required to meet Pindicator or Scooter on their level.

My next 2 cities will both be excellent growth curve cities... I'll settle them in ~15 turns. If any ancient wonders remain, I'll look at them at that time. It's all a silent auction, with people bidding how much growth curve they want to sacrifice for a wonder. I'm not willing to sacrifice half my production (one city) at this point. If Scooter is, hey, good for him.

One interesting idea: the great wall. Normally a loser with no barbs and no spies enabled, the Wall isn't quite so silly in this setup. I can even steal techs before they can be traded! maybe. Something to think about.

One *more* interesting idea: The hanging gardens. I intend to be the first to math, and who doesn't love some Engineer points?

One *less* interesting idea: The Oracle. My tech rate is a strength, and with CRE I don't need a religion yet. I want Confu, not Buddha.

Just some rembling thoughts. I haven't even opened the save since the turn roll to seewhat Scooter actually built!

[Tankra]

Did you find out the cause for Scooter's increase in score?

Also, do you have any plans for the Engineer from the Hanging Gardens, assuming you get him?

[Ceiliazul]

Also, do you have any plans for the Engineer from the Hanging Gardens, assuming you get him?

The Gardens is likely lost.

I've been gradually decreasing my time on the forums due to reallife obligations, but I'm still fully plugged into the game. That's why this was a kick in the head:

t68, barb warrior appears near my new city. No sweat, my guarding warrior is perfectly positioned to meet him.

Except that the barb warrior wins the ~10% battle, killing my warrior.

No sweat, I've got 2 workers adjacent to the city, and a forest with 1 prechop done. I can retask them from the quarry they're building and finish the chop for an archer.

Except the barb warrior moving adjacent to my workers doesn't break them from their task! (It always has in my past single player games!) Instead of those workers chopping the archer, one of them finished the quarry and the other had to chop for two turns

End result: BOTH workers died to save the city! One died cuz he finished the quarry automatically. The other died because he had to chop out the archer to save the city, sacrificing himself. I have 4 cities and 1 worker. I still don't know why the worker didn't break his task when the barb came near. Crap.

In short, I have bigger things to worry about than Hanging Gardens.

[Nakor]

Oh my...

Ceiliazul asked me to help him out a bit... so I took a look in game...

Seems like we need a lot to do with not a lot of time to do it...

We lack workers and MP. Only 2 of each while we have 4 cities.
No MP makes our cities unhappy earlier and very vulnerable.
2 workers makes improving our cities very, very slow...

So that's what we need to remedy first. Krill is our neighbour so the southern city needs at least 2 MP.

Here's what I would do:

OASIS --> change build to an archer (T73), let it grow next turn, change build to worker (T74) and whip after 1t (T75). Overflow in an archer while growing back on more archers. A library can wait there, not a lot of commerce.

Ludus --> Need MP and a Library (2 gold mines!). So, same trick. Start an archer (T73), whip next turn (T74). Overflow into the worker. Finish the worker manually and build a Library next.

Middletown --> Barb south, so change build to Archer (T73), whip (T74), finish Granary

Thebes --> Change build to WB. Better connect clams before starting the granary.

Techwise, let's finish Currency, then tech towards Monarchy for HR hapiness and to connect Wines. Then towards MC for Forges.

That's my first thoughts. I'll leave it to you to change things or not.
I'm going to read a bit more about the mod and will check back soon.

[Nakor]

Sorry for that post... might be a bit rude...
Did I mention that you've done a great job so far! Just getting a bit unlucky with barbs and losing workers.

If we manage to get a nice border with Krill and backfill slowly our huge amount of land will help a lot!

So: GREAT JOB SO FAR!!!