Using +2 naval movement on pangaea. yuris125 of England

[yuris125]

T9

Scout finished, and as it turned out, the river I was so excited about is not very long



Just two riverside tiles, both hills.... not exactly what my food-poor city needs. The idea of buying the tile SW-W from the city (east of the cow) looks more and more attractive

In the south, after I moved the Warrior the game said that I met fire&ice, although I can't see him anywhere

[yuris125]

T10

So here's the plan. Next turn I'm going to get my free Settler, and found Magenta dot



This city has a luxury, some food resources, and can claim all five available riverside tiles (unless Florence gets them first). It is at the minimum allowed distance from the capital (4 tiles), this will let me save on roads. The main concern is that it doesn't have any production tiles in the first ring, and the border expansion algorythm doesn't proritise hills. But if this starts to bite me, I can always buy those tiles

Also note that the timing works out perfectly. The new city will push me into unhappiness, this means -75% to growth. But I will found the city on the very turn Boeing grows to size 4, and that's where I want it to be for now in any case

I also marked Blue dot, which is likely to be a city in the future. It doesn't have luxuries of its own, so is not a high priority city. But it has food, it has production, it even has Magenta's ivory in range, so is... erm.. Circusable. A decent spot

I'm going to turn the Scout around and send him exploring the NE next. There ought to be more luxuries nearby

Also, here's the first look at the demos



Doing well, although lucky results from ancient ruins is a big factor in it

[yuris125]

T11

I decided to uncover all tiles in the west before turning the Scout towards the east, and was rewarded with a valuable piece of information



A barb encampment!

Let's talk about Civ5 barbs then. In Civ5, barb units don't spawn by themselves, they only spawn near encampments. Encampments are pre-placed, so there are barbs on the map from T0. They can also appear on any tile no one (including city states) has vision on

Each encampment has a defending unit, which only leaves the encampment if it can attack a nearby unit at overwhelming odds. Other barb units are spawned at certain intervals, and those units will go to nearby cities and attempt to do damage. They won't attack the city itself, because a single unit can't do much damage to a city. But they will pillage, and they will attempt to capture Workers and Settlers

If a barb manages to capture a civilian unit, it will escort it to the nearest encampment. If you disperse the encampment, you get the unit back. You can also get Workers which belonged to other civs and city states this way. When you capture a Worker which belonged to a city state, there's an option to return him and earn 30 influence over that city state (could be worth it if you attack an encampment on the other side of the map)

In general, it is not necessary to attack barb encampments in the early game. As long as you're careful, you can avoid them, and defend against barbs with city attacks. If an encampment is near a city state, there's a good chance it will issue a quest to kill that encampment, and you can earn a lot of influence this way. The most important thing is to protect your Settlers when they're moving, and be careful to defend Workers or move them away when they're threatened

When you build 2 or 3 units and can move out and start killing encampments, you get 16g for every one you disperse, plus whatever civilian units they captured (if they captured a Settler which belonged to another civ, it becomes a Worker on capture - you can't get free Settlers this way)

It is also important to note that barb units don't heal, so you can move your Warrior to an encampment, attack, retreat, heal, repeat. Something I might do. The first priority for my Warrior is to steal a Worker from Florence, then he will return to my territory to defend against incoming threats and escort Settlers. But if he becomes free from other duties, it's very possible that I will send him to try to take out this encampment all by himself

[yuris125]

While I have time, I'll also have a shot at explaining the demos. They're not as studied as in Civ4, but there is some interpretable info anyway

Population is calculated in the same way as in Civ4. I never figured out what the formula is, but it's still 1000 pop for a size 1 city, 6000 for size 2, 21000 for size 3, etc.

Crop yield and MFG are the same as in Civ4. Yields from buildings are also accounted for - e.g. the Palace gives +3 hammers, and they're included in the demos

GNP is the total amount of gold produced. Gold only, beakers and culture are not included (and are not included in any of the demographic stats). Expenses are not accounted for. I don't work any gold-producing tiles, so my GNP of 3 comes from the Palace (it provides +3 gold as well)

Land is standard - the number of owned land tiles x10000

Soldiers is the most unclear stat. Each unit has Military Might value; I have a Warrior (MM=17) and a Scout (MM=9). I'm not sure what else is accounted for, and how the game comes up with the value of 10392 for me. Hopefully I will figure it out after a few more test games

Approval is calculated as 60 + 3 * happiness level. My happiness is +3, therefore approval is 60 + 3 * 3 = 69%. When happiness is +14 or higher, approval rating is 100%. When you see that someone has approval at 30% or below, it means they're in trouble (-10 unhappiness triggers production and military penalties)

Literacy is 0% before Writing is discovered, and % of the total number of techs researched afterwards. Last turn I discovered Writing, and my Literacy went up from 0% to 4%. I know 3 techs, and there are 73 techs total, so it matches

The Literacy stat can play an interesting role in MP. If others watch demos and know how they work, they will know someone went for early Writing when they see the best Literacy went up from 0%. This usually means that someone is going for TGLib, and it may discourage them from going for TGLib themselves. This, in turn, may allow me to build a couple of Settler before starting TGLib, and still land it

Which is exactly what I will try to do. In my test games, going for TGLib at just 2 cities was much weaker than getting the first wave of Settler out. So after I finish the Worker in the capital, I will build Settler-Settler, maybe squeezing in a Warrior for escort and extra security, and only then start TGLib

[yuris125]

T13

Here's my second city



The Brute (barb Warriors are called Brutes, but have the same stats) won't do any damage, and will be killed by city attacks. If I go ahead with the planned city on the blue dot, I can completely ignore the barb encampment for now, and kill it with city attacks when it is founded. Placing the Warrior on the forest tile NW of the elephant should block any incoming barbs

The next task for the Warrior however will be to steal Florence's Worker. He will come back to the border of Florence in 4 turns, the Worker should be out and ready to be stolen by that time

Still don't know where the 4th city will go. I really want another luxury to plant it. Hope there is one in NE

[yuris125]

T15

Don't think I mentioned it, Writing was finished 2 turns ago; with gems and silver as the nearest available luxuries, Mining was the obvious next choice. Mining completed this turn, and I chose AH next. I want to know where horses are, and AH is on the way to Trapping. Trapping will allow me to improve the elephants and build Circuses, and is a pre-req for Civil Service

Scout is in NE, didn't find anything interesting so far

[yuris125]

T16

Found a luxury. Would've been good news, but it's another damn silver



There are also another ruins, but if barbs decide to attack, I will have to delay their exploration. The Scout will survive, a Warrior doesn't kill a Scout in one attack, but will have to run for his life

Meanwhile at home



Worker is done, but can't start working just yet because of the barb. I'm building a Warrior. I need barb defence, I need escort for Settlers, and I need more military in general. I'm first in score and most demos, but last in Soldiers - not the best position

[yuris125]

T17

Barbs didn't attack, and I took 75g from the ruins

AH in. How about horses?



Um... these are the only two sources in sight, both in the same area. If I want them, Orange dot is probably the best city. Not sure I do though. England can muddle through without horses, and this location is 7 tiles of rough terrain away from the starting cities

Will depend on what I find in NE. So far I only saw desert there. If there are no locations to expand to NE, Orange and Cyan dots are my best expansion options. But I still need more luxuries! 4 cities on 3 luxuries is difficult to manage; if I found 5, they will all be stuck at size 1 for eternity

Also, a WTF moment: Florence still doesn't have a Worker. How incosiderate of them! Will bring the Warrior home to kill the barb harrassing me, then go back - I need this Worker steal!

Researching Trapping next to be able to improve the elephant and get one step closer to Civil Service

[Rowain]

Well Florence does have incense(if I read the halfcut sign right) so that is Lux nr. 4 .

[yuris125]

Yes, it does have incense, and yes, I thought about it The problem is, there are two ways of getting this incense, by allying with Florence or by capturing it

Allying is out of the question: the Worker steal will push our relations to -60, and they need to be over +60 to be allied. Won't happen any time soon

As for capturing, apart from the incense, the city is horrible



And capturing a city-state is sub-optimal in the early game. I can't raze it because it counts as a capital; I can't annex it because the unhappiness hit of an occupied city will make the extra luxury worthless. And if I puppet it, I will have a city which doesn't produce units, something I want early cities to do! Not mentioning that it will produce useless buildings and I will have to pay the maintenance

So - sorry, but I'm not going to war just yet