[SPOILER] Ikhanbod

[Ichabod]

Hm... lurker thread posts...

Could it be that Pindicator also wants to attack me? C'mon, dude, you are Egypt. Build Wonders. Let the war to me.

Need to study about how to get a composite bow rush going. If only Pindi haven't gotten a free archery tech like myself... Well, Horsemen + CBs should suffice, if Pindi goes wonder crazy. If he does not...

[Ichabod]

Interesting turn!

First of all, Serdoa is the first to a Social Policy, going tradition. That's either a culture hut or monument build. I'm hoping its a monument, but since he went tradition and he's Maya (Pyramid is really good), i'm guessing it's a hut pop. Anyway, it seems T-Hawk is inspiring the basis of RB Civ 5 play.

Venice, the city state close to me, is already complaining about barbs. That's a very easy way to get influence with them, but my units are out of position to deal with it. I know Pindicator has a spearman near the city, so he can have a head start. That's OK. I can be friends with Venice and attack Pindicator or attack both of them. I don't mind the either choice.

All my scouting units found something interesting. The scout-now-archer found another hut. And Pindicator is locking me in this peninsula with his border expansions. Maybe I'll have to declare war to get through him, since I don't even know the tech that enables open borders.

The second scout found Azza (Siam), even though we haven't made contact yet. More tech discount, here I go!

The warrior found a Natural Wonder! The Grand Mesa. Actually it's one of the worst ones (2 hammers, 3 gold, worst than a gems mine), but it gave me happiness, which is always nice. Ah, if only I was Spain (and maybe Serdoa hasn't discovered this first). It seems that I can't get back home through that path, though, so I'll have to get back. I'm thinking about trying a Declaration of Friendship with Serdoa. I think he haven't met anyone else, so may be won't want it.

Any questions? Let's hope for a Sailing pop with the hut!

[Ichabod]

You know when you are feeling confident about something, without knowing why? I was feeling this way when I was loading the turn to play. I was seeing a Sailing pop in my head with that hut. It made sense. Everything was seemingly fitting into place.

Damned barb! I moved 1NW and shot at him. I get at least 1 more free shot before he can attack me, so I think I'm good. Sailing pop is put on hold, though.

Exploration continued in other places. I'm yet to meet Azza, since seeing his borders is not enough. I'm craving for some ore tech discounts, with Mining and AH put on hold. I wonder if my opponents aren't doing the same thing. That'd be very interesting and possibly stupid.

Speaking of tech, I chose Calendar next. I need to get happiness from Citrus, which will be the hapiness resource of my second city. Yes, I'll settle on top of the Citrus, getting instant happiness. I can't really wait for a worker to dejungle + plantation that tile, it'd take forever. I don't want to eat unhapiness in the meantime.

Also notice in the picture above that I'm growing to size 3. Yet again I'm using the "emphasize production/gold" technique, to get the most out of my new pop point in Civ 5 bizarre order of factors. I'm building a worker, by the way, to help improve my land. It appears that my adversaries prioritized monuments (either that or culture huts), since they already got their Social Policies (Pindicator went Tradition too). It's a bit counterproductive to go Tradition and building a monument, since you'll get one for free soon. The amphiteather is way down the tech tree and it requires a specific tech. I think the hammers are best spent elsewhere, to emphasize the snowball. But, oh well, who says I'm right?

Worker build might be risky due to barb activities. They are really annoying in Civ 5, especially with the "almost-no-vision" borders. They pop from everywhere, treatening workers and improvements. Luckily, my position is pretty secure against barbs, what with all the rough terrain, sea and close neighbours.

Of course, I could be a responsible guy and bring my warrior back home. But I couldn't hold myself and I decided to keep exploring. Maybe there's a passage southeast of the warrior that leads to my Capital getting two huts on the way. Who knows?

Talking about long term plans, this screenshot shows a possible expansion further to the east, getting a city with loads of riverside and salt as a luxury resource (SE of the lake, possibly). I'll have to beat Azza and Pindicator to it, but I think it's more on my sphere of influence. After that, it's either getting rid of Pindicator or capturing Venice to keep expanding. We'll see.

The eastern cities are very production poor. Luckily my capital and the Silver city to the north of my capital are production heavy.

[T-hawk]

Yes, I'll settle on top of the Citrus, getting instant happiness. I can't really wait for a worker to dejungle + plantation that tile, it'd take forever.

Also requires Bronze Working to dejungle. Settling on luxuries is a great move. They're not that interesting to work as tiles, for just a couple extra gold. And if it's a grassland under the jungle, you'll still get the 3rd food on the city square.

[Ichabod]

Yes, I'll settle on top of the Citrus, getting instant happiness. I can't really wait for a worker to dejungle + plantation that tile, it'd take forever.

Also requires Bronze Working to dejungle. Settling on luxuries is a great move. They're not that interesting to work as tiles, for just a couple extra gold. And if it's a grassland under the jungle, you'll still get the 3rd food on the city square.

Yeah, settling on them will give me great flexibility regarding tech path. Fortunately, I also have a unjungled gems and I have no problem on leaving the other jungled anyway for more time. If only I could settle on top of silver to my north, that'd be great. But there's not a good spot to do it, they are not quick enough.

---

I met Azza. His land look pretty good, with riverside wheat + salt, one of the best luxury resources (is it 2/2 or 3/2 when improved, can't remember - being food neutral is already a plus on most other luxs). He already has a granary, so his opening was similar to mine. He already has a Social Policy, though, being the first of my opponents to go Liberty. It'll be very nice to compare strategies later.

Most interesting, Azza already has Writing, the first one to a Classical tech. I think it's Azza, due to a bug in the game. If I enter the tech tree, writing shows 36 beakers cost, but if I select the tech in the quick menu, it shows only 35. I think that's because I met Azza during the turn. It would make sense to see Pindicator going for it, though. I don't know. But my bet is on Azza. And I got a further discount in AH, down to 20 beakers, from 23!

About the warrior, part of my desire is apparently true. There's (or at least it seems to be) a land connection passing the mountain range to my capital. Now, I only need two huts in this stretch of land we are all set. Things to look forward to: steal that Ivory from Serdoa!

Domestically, I made some calculations to see how fast I can grow and get the worker done. I managed to make 4 turns to grow and 5 turns to the worker, which I guess is the fastest for both things. I may have to buy the gems tile, if the RNG chooses the Clams over it in the next cultural expansion. I'm considering going settler after the worker. That or a warrior/archer and than settler. It's a good moment to do it, because I'll have few food tiles to work and some good hammer ones.

The archer is set to get the hut, but not on the next turn. I attacked and got attacked this turn, leaving the Brute with very low HP. But I can't attack and move, so I'll have to wait. Hopefully we get some more turns this weekend.

[T-hawk]

Most interesting, Azza already has Writing, the first one to a Classical tech. I think it's Azza, due to a bug in the game. If I enter the tech tree, writing shows 36 beakers cost, but if I select the tech in the quick menu, it shows only 35. I think that's because I met Azza during the turn.

Yes, there's a bug there. In fact, the bug is that the F6 screen only recalculates devaluation discounts when you load a saved game (in MP of course that happens every turn anyway.) It's only a display bug there; the quick menu and actual game calculations work correctly.

[Ichabod]

I'm eager to play the next turn, but it seems the game will be delayed a bit. So, quick report of the previous turn:

First, I killed my first barb in the game, so hopefully I'll finally get the hut next turn.

Warrior found a barb camp and what seems to be a passageway to the capital. Still can't be sure if it's there, though. Fog reading made me optimistic, but I might very well be wrong.

New city state found, not met yet. Highly unlikely I'm the first. One can hope, right?

I chose my Social Policy, going tradition. I had made that decision already when I decided to delay the monument build. The thing that settled things for me is how weirdly placed the Liberty policies are. To use T-Hawks words, the policies always seem to come at the wrong time. If you go worker first, you'll get the settler after a billion years. If you go settler first, you won't get the worker to improve things soon.

Besides, the map seems to be not that big. Quick expansion won't be possible with not that many places to settle.

Anyway, choice is done now.

Cultural expansion in the Capital got a big boost with this, which is nice.

[Ichabod]

So, there was a bit of delay due to a problem with Jowy's mouse. Everything is solved now, so we are back on track.

As you canr ecall, I've been talking about a hut since forever. I found it and was about to get it when a barb warrior covered it. I took some time killing the barb, but then there was this delay. Finally, I'm about to pop it!

Dramatic pause!

That's a nice result. Way better than finishing my 1 beaker short mining tech . By the way, does anyone know what techs are poppable through huts? Just the initial ones or more advanced ones? Regarding my result, it synchronized things perfectly. I'll grow and finish the worker in 4 turns. No more need for the complicated micro I was planning to do.

But that was not all. I was thinking about returning to Harmonica with the archer, but fogreading revealed that there's quite a bit of land going down through that narrow path. I'll explore it first, since this region seems to have been neglected by Pindicator.

The warrior indeed found a way home through the mountains! The problem now is that it's blocked by a barb brute. That's really annoying positioning, seeing as the brute will likely occupy that hill tile, blocking my passage completely. Well, at least it's not delaying my worker while this is happening.

The other scout met the City State of Valletta, a militaristic one. I wasn't the first one to meet it, so only 15 gold. Can't really complain, though. It's pretty far away from my Capital. Anyway, I'll meet yet another City State next turn, a neighboor of Valletta.

I'll try and reveal that stretch of land you can see in the minimap between these city states and my Capital. I need to keep an eye on settleable land, especially since Civ 5 is a bit more lenient with spaced cities. There's furs near the scout, a luxury I lack near my core. But a city here would be really, really far.

On the C&D department, Masonry was discovered by someone. My guess is Pindicator and his marble + egypt. If he gets the Tradition Social Policy + the Religious Wonder bonus, he'll be able to build a lot of Wonders for me.

Good Guy Pindicator!

[Ichabod]

I actually just realized. Pindicator is a pretty competitive guy. Masonry is on the way to the most famous MP rush around, the Composite Bowmen rush (needs construction). He has a perfect capital for it, with a mining and masonry resource. And he popped Archery from a hut too, from what I can tell.

Oh, buy, the rusher becomes the rushee.

Time to finish AH, find some horses and start preparing. One Horsemen would help me a bunch, due to the big movespeed and the empty terrain between us. I'd like it to be a way for me to tell Pindicator that I know what he's probably planning, but I don't think there is. Maybe if I flash my archer and some units around...

Gotta keep an eye on his graphs. He can prebuild archers to upgrade later. I need to save money to buy units, if needed. If he's going for a one city rush (not sure if that's kosher around MP rushes), maybe I'll have to delay my settler.

Damnit!

[NobleHelium]

Is that a natural wonder? The mountain with the 2h/3g yield. I don't see an icon for it though.