[SPOILERS] Pindicator, God-King of the Egyptians

[pindicator]

Okay, I tested it and you do get a free amphitheater when you discover Drama. So kudos to Firaxis for fixing that. Not sure that's worth the extra scout though, especially since I probably will be taking the lower part of the tech tree at first.

[T-hawk]

I'd be really interested in hearing how you would have done this start, T-Hawk.

Reroll the map for more food, of course.

In single player, I always go scout - scout - granary - shrine (or flip those last two). Use a culture ruins pop for the Tradition opener, which accelerates into Legalism for the monument. Buy a worker as soon as you have 310 gold, getting typically 135 of that from AI loans.

Problem is, much of that doesn't translate to multiplayer, without rerolling for ruins pops and borrowing from stupid AIs. 310 gold can take quite a while, 40+ turns. So you need to fit in a worker build somewhere, or commit to Liberty for the free one (which means you need the monument.)

I said granary before worker before, but now thinking the other way, at least depending on when Animal Husbandry would arrive. The granary is +2 food while the worker produces +2 food by way of sheep pastures and then keeps working. But I don't have any good sense at all for how that compares to the priorities of the monument or second scout, or if the Liberty worker policy is the better route after all.

[pindicator]

We'll tell oledavy that we need to reroll then

If I would have crunched the numbers on turn zero and found that I could have built a worker in the same time that it took to research Pottery (which it would have lined up exactly), I may have done that instead of 2 scouts. I could have farmed the plains tile for a 2f1h1g spot, and in thie time it took to build a farm teched AH after Pottery and then moved straight to improving cows. But now that I'm in either delay granary or half-finish worker, I think two scouts are better. (Well, scout -> monument is nagging on me, so I'm hoping I find lots of good stuff with my scouts.)

Actually, this has me really considering going straight for Wheel and skipping The Great Library. And it makes me think I should have built the damn monument, because that would have sped me up to Landed Elite and +2 food, +10% food in the capital. With Granary, Watermill, and Landed Elite, then this city would start to become a real production king - even moreso if I get Hanging Gardens.

So since Hanging Gardens is obviously the big fish to land, the question I need to ask is if going for The Great Library will slow that down. Or maybe I'll be able to time building The Great Library in time to catapult to Mathematics? (And will all those hammers in turn slow me down from other stuff I could be building?)

[T-hawk]

Yeah... Rethinking it now, actually worker and Animal Husbandry first might have been the best bet. That gets food ramping sooner than any other plan, since the worker can start building before you actually have the food tech, unlike pottery/granary.

Two scouts isn't a bad plan though. If the second one finds a culture ruin, that's equivalent to 10 turns of monument.

I think Great Library is overrated in general, turning 110 hammers (normal speed, its cost minus the free library) into typically 220 beakers, not a particularly great ratio. It's nothing like Civ 4's Oracle slingshots.

[pindicator]

Turn 4





The world is feeling a lot less spacious than it did a turn ago. I think that's Maya in the east? Mongolia is a darker read, if I recall correctly. And city-states have dashed lines for borders.

Good news is I'll get to the ruin ahead of Azza's warrior. I'm starting to feel better about building all these scouts early instead of a worker.



Azza has the same amount of gold as I do, so I'm guessing he just grew to size 2 last turn and is now working an additional 2g tile. Must be nice to be able to grow...

Having two neighbors in this proximity also has me leaning against Great Library. Hanging Gardens is enough wonder for me. Or maybe I'll build the Archer and War Chariot wonder...

[GreyWolf]

Naw, it's Mongolia. Maya has an even lighter shade of brown. And Mongolia has a slight orange border, while Maya have a blue one.

[pindicator]

Turn 5

The new scout went Southeast and it looks like we've got our backs to the ocean.



Man, that capital keeps looking worse and worse...
My spear has 10 more turns before it needs to be back, so I may head northwest another turn and see if there's anything to see in the jungle. The north scout will dig into the jungle, and I think the south scout will swing east along the coast. Maybe I'll have my spear come back and scout the southwest then, that may be a better use for him.

Demos, and while Ichabod's capital has more food than me, he's got the short end in terms of production:



Oh yeah, I popped the hut with the scout too. Here's what I got:

Looks like the game agrees with the Wheel tech plan!

[NobleHelium]

You're hemmed in on all sides by steep grey walls! PANIC!

Why does your spear "need" to be back?

[pindicator]

You're hemmed in on all sides by steep grey walls! PANIC!

Why does your spear "need" to be back?

To keep my worker from being sniped. I could do it with a scout, too, but I'd rather have the scouts out exploring (and possibly sniping other people's workers)

[pindicator]

Turn 6



Hopefully we'll collect our third ruins next turn.

Granary due in 6, AH due in 6.