[68] Miguelito's famous last words, and Amicalola's sighs

[Amicalola]

With tiny monarch I think we're probably good to have just one immediately useful starting tech,  so if wee want to we can go through with Stalin of Japan.
We're bordering Commodore with Boudicca of unknown hunting civ to the north and Thoth with KK of Rome to the south. 
With Japan we might attempt a chariot strike against Rome, if they don't take hunting,  although they provably will considering the low tech costs.  Horse is also in a quite unsnowbally position.
I don't see a specific anti Rome civ besides maybe NA, but probably not worth it. Agg Japan at least is somewhat buffed with C2 shock axes against C1 shock praets,  and if we Oracle MC we could get a machinery bulb reasonably soon - too late for the first praet wave,  but not too late after that.

If we get a holy city out of priesthood research I  the second city that Also pretty much neutralizes Cre annoyance

Let's do it! What's the worst that could happen anyways?

[Miguelito]

Don't know, eternal war? nah that's coming anyways.
Commodore picked NA, so now we have to kill him with catapults to prove our above point (and survive the dogs until construction, uh)

[Amicalola]

Don't know, eternal war? nah that's coming anyways.
Commodore picked NA, so now we have to kill him with catapults to prove our above point (and survive the dogs until construction, uh)

There's nothing I like better than dying to the thing I pooh-poohed during the pick phase.

[Miguelito]

uh.... I claimed the civ (PW sj), but no I notice that I don't even know whether we start WB first or worker.... we can delay picking a tech, but not a build queue,

Eh, with wet corn you always go worker first, right? But that also means we need to research agri before BW....
Plus for WB start is that they can't harass us.

Feel free to make that super consequential decision :D, else we hold up the game for a day (well, happens)

[Miguelito]

In a super rough sim with worker first and agri->BW I get city 2 founded t30 after a 2pop whip, with 3 warrior (1 on whip OF).

for comparison, my previous WB first had city 2 t27 after a 1pop whip, 1 warrior, and just one of the farms done.

In a normal game the first is clearly better, but a) not having to defend the fish compared with 2 pillageable farms and b) the 2nd city spot being at risk from being blocked by the Romans has me wondering.

what's worse, my phone is broken so I can't even sim during unresponsibly long pauses from work.

[civac2]

Use a spreadsheet. In the right job it will even look like you are working.

[Miguelito]

I do, but I'm hesitant to connect the google drive to the work PC. But maybe that step is necessary in extraordinary circumstances.
Side note, I've tried my best to eliminate spreadsheets as much as possible from how I do my job (replaced with Matlab where I could), apparently so I feel motivated to look at spreadsheets during playtime

[Amicalola]

uh.... I claimed the civ (PW sj), but no I notice that I don't even know whether we start WB first or worker.... we can delay picking a tech, but not a build queue,

Eh, with wet corn you always go worker first, right? But that also means we need to research agri before BW....
Plus for WB start is that they can't harass us.

Feel free to make that super consequential decision :D, else we hold up the game for a day (well, happens)

I'm not sure how to use spreadsheets to sim, sadly. It's a bit beyond me maths-wise, or at least intimidating.  

My gut would be to take the risk and go worker first. It does seem a lot stronger. But take that with a grain of salt, I haven't thought super hard about all the ramifications. I think the best reason to go WB first would be to guarantee the 2nd site away from Thoth (although perhaps you'd argue that could make us the more likely praet target, and thus a strategic loss anyway). 

Any thoughts on our opponents (picks or players)? I think we got unlucky, starting next to the other two main competitors (from a pick perspective; not sure how Yuris is as a player).

[Miguelito]

More light! (Goethe)



In the signs there's a little idea: We have until t4 (or maybe t3?) to decide on a research target. We can get 1 bonus on agri or mining, but that's worth 7.5%, so not enough to be worth a beaker with just capital research. However, if we don't select a tech, we get the whole package of 5 turns in one and it gets a (bit of a) bonus.



For that we have to make contact though. My first idea was to circle around the inner sea counterclockwise. However, Commodore could put his scout on our banana forest as t3, so should we better keep ours at home?



In the end I noticed where my sim had gone wrong - in my farmer's gambit autopilot I had queued a workboat after the worker. Building instead a second warrior and the settler at size 3 we do much better. To be simmed: is it better to farm wheat or corn first?

To be decided: Do we dare to found a second city with just 2 warriors?





On players' choices:

• I'm of course flattered that yuris prefers to border Commodore over us. Now his pick is a lot less terrifying than the other two, and I'm sure he would not disagree that he's expected to be the weakest out of the three, so of course would have preferred to neighbour him. Now we can only hope for him to do well. Can bowmen help with ultradogs? But if those take cover...
  
• Comm's out of the gate 2 promo + C1 dogs make me uncomfortable to think of. I don't really know how to respond, just more axes. Eventually (that is, once better units than the early axe/spear/chariot triad enter the field) we might hope to gain a leg up with the power of wonders, but it might become quite hard to get there.
  
• Agg Rome is Agg Rome, in this edition with pre-known capital iron. Again, more axes until better units?
  

The best solution would of course the scary opponents gearing towards the perceived softer target yuris, hopefully giving us the time we need to get to MC at least. At least that's my plan so far, I'd appreciate something more elaborate.

[Miguelito]

decided to run past Commodore's scout. If he camps our banana forest we do the same for him. In which case he delays our worker by 2 turns and we his by 1. So . It's always war but not zero sum, and I suppose Comm has a sense for that.