[SPOILER] Ikhanbod

[Ichabod]

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

It's the Grand Mesa. It does have an icon, not sure why it isn't showing. It's one of the, if not the, worst Natural Wonders in the game. For instance, the Krakatoa gives 5 science, which would almost double my science rate. The Cerro de Potosi gives 10 gold. A lot of them give faith. The Grand Mesa is worst than a riverside hill.

[Ichabod]

Anyone got some info about the power value of each unit in Civ 5?

[T-hawk]

I don't. Try searching Civfanatics.

[Ichabod]

I don't. Try searching Civfanatics.

As far as I can tell from further going in the game, the power ratio is connected not only to the units, but also the units HP. So I wont bother trying to track it with detail, I'll just watch out for big rises.

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Quite a bit happened since my last update. Everyone who already read a thread made by me knows that I lose focus on the updates after a while. I don't see it being different here, so be warned.

Anyway, I've played from turn 17 to 23. Let's see what happened.

Tracking enemies techs, I've discovered that my 3 opponents have a combination of 2-Writing, 2-Masonry, 1-Wheel, 1-Pottery. I think each of them has 2 techs. I know Jowy and Serdoa are responisble for the writing techs (accept embassy on diplomacy screen). Why is this important? Because I need to track if Pindicator is going for Construction and Composite Bowmen. Constructions pre-reqs are the wheel and masonry, so there's a chance he's doing it. I think, on the other hand, that he went Masonry for his marble + Calendar, likely eyeing a second city + the stoneworks building, maybe even Stonehenge as a wonder. I think Serdoa went for the wheel, to get a watermill running, I suppose. Anyway, that's frightening, because Pindicator can very well be going for Construction. Luckily for me, his lands seem to be not very well suited for growth, so he probably has a not-that-good tech pace.

Because of this, I took some defensive measures. First, I finished AH, to see if I have and where are my horses:

So, my planned second city has 2 sources (4 and 2 horses each), albeit they are in the third ring. My planned third city has a source directly under it. So, I think we are covered here. I just can't slack that much and I'll have my horses. There's a risk that Pindicator is eyeing the southern horse region for a city of his own. That would be suicide, though. The land is closer to my capital and it doesn't have a happy resource for him. No happy second city is very bad in Civ 5. If he ends up doing it, though, it's game over for me and him.

You'll see through my next screenshots that I'm accumulating quite a bit of gold. My land is very gold heavy and I'm not paying that much in maintenance. This will let me buy a second settler pretty early, to settle my third city, getting me horses before I need to improve the second city. That's pretty good. I think we are covered on the happiness issue with Gems + Citrus and later silver (pearls will have to wait a bit).

Speaking of settlers, I'm currently building my first in the capital.

Why build it now? Because I'll soon have a boost in my food production and I want the city to be ready for growth once that happens (and settelrs get diminishing returns on food surplus conversion). I'm starting to improve the land with my worker (can be seen improving sheep - since improved sheep and improved wheat give the same +1 food, it's better to go sheep first, I think, due to wroker movement) and the food policy in tradition tree will come soon (I already got legalism for free monuments). It's risky play, but I'm bringing one of my scouts to cover the settler, which will probably be alright. After the city is settled, it can defend itself.

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Regarding tech, after finishing AH, I finished Mining too, getting a big overflow into The Wheel. Why The Wheel? Because I need some sort of defense/attack unit to be ready for Pindicator, if it comes to that. The Wheel is both a prereq for Construction and CBs and Horseback Riding and Horsemen. So, I finished Calendar and The Wheel too and now I have to choose between Trapping (HR prereq) or Masonry (CBs prereq). The economic benefit of these techs is little and very similar (I don't have any luxuries for both these techs). Construction would give me Colosseums, 2 happy, 1 maintenance, 67 hammers. Trapping gives me Circuses, 2 happy, no maintenance, 50 hammers, only buildable in cities with an improved source of horse or ivory. My 2nd, 3rd and 4th planned cities all have the needed resource, but not the Capital. I'll probably go horses, though, antecipating a quick Civil Service and Guilds run (HR is a prereq of CS, Construction is not). Besides, we are the Mongols, we need horses (hopefully they'll help me get some city states favour by clearing barbs, though I'll probably get them when the barbs hit spearmen - horsemen are a really terrible unit now, after all the nerfs due to abuse in the Vanilla version of the game - they are good against CBs, fortunately).

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Regarding my units:

*The archer found too much barbarians going through that narrow path of land and decided to go back. He's trapped by Pindicator's borders, so I'm healing the unit before I do a declare war to pass through move.

*The second scout is going back to the capital to help escort the settler. He revealed the barb camp that Venice wanted cleared as a mission on his way. Unfortunately, Venice let go of that mission after some turns (no one did it, I think, it just went away).

*The warrior managed to get past the barb warrior blocking its path (the barb moved away to give him space). That was pretty fortunate, because I managed to get the warrior to protect my warrior before the barb invasions began (I think I'm safe here, since the capital hits pretty hard and I have defensive bonuses).

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In foreign news, the City-State abuse began when Pindicator stole a worker from Valletta. Free workers ahoy! And I slow built mine . Hopefully Pindicator is going wonders, I wouldn't like the guy planning to rush me to get such a boost. Of course, it's in the rules, so I can't really complain. In any case, that's 46 free hammers.

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Demographics, for anyone interested. I'm actually doing well, I guess. Pindicator lost power in the last few turns, so I'm hoping to be safe. Can't wait to settle my new cities and look at this again.

Azza's crop yield makes me think that I might have missed him allying Venice by clearing that barb camp. I'll take a look at that later. Well, if I can't ally Venice, I'll just capture it, so no harm done. They have sugar and I want sugar. They are a City-State and I have City-State attack bonus.

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Any questions?

[Ichabod]

Now T-Hawk goes back and says that Liberty is better than tradition?? Why do you do that to me, T-Hawk? I can't change my Policies now...

[T-hawk]

No, I still say Tradition is generally better. Liberty can win only for the narrow case of near-maximum ICS plus tons of happy from Ceremonial Burial and uncontested city-states. In a multiplayer game, you won't get the 20+ cities and 60+ free happy that I get in my cooked single-player setups.

[Ichabod]

No, I still say Tradition is generally better. Liberty can win only for the narrow case of near-maximum ICS plus tons of happy from Ceremonial Burial and uncontested city-states. In a multiplayer game, you won't get the 20+ cities and 60+ free happy that I get in my cooked single-player setups.

Yeah, I was just kidding. I really agree with your point about the timing of the policies. Tradition fits perfectly, Liberty always feels awkward. Anyway, I just got my 4th policy, used it on Landed Elite, just as my settler was ready and the capital could grow again. Tradition perfect timing for the win! Apparently, both Pindi and Serdoa went for the Wonder Policy in tradition, because they only show with 2 Tradition policies (I'm guessing the opener doesn't count, there's no way I'd have 4 policies while they have 2, since I didn't even go monument first). There isn't any way to save policies, right? So, I guess they went for the Wonder one and I surpassed their culture to get to more policies first, due to the free Monument.

I think there's a major race for TGL between my neighboors. Serdoa has writing and improved Marble + the policy, I think. That likely means he has the upper hand. His production number is also pretty high in the demos. I think Pindicator got Writing too... Should have checked better... I don't know what Pindi is up too, maybe he got owned by bad terrain. His power is down, he doesn't have much tech or population, he doesn't have a second city (mine will be founded next turn, so he can only tie me for a second city), he is lacking on policies... No luxury improved too...

I'll have 3 cities soon. I can buy the 2nd settler in some turns. I'm heading for HR, since having a standing military isn't that dumb in Civ 5. Most tech are useless right now, since I can't even build what I have avaiable now. So, I'll go for passive bonuses and that means Civil Service beeline (likely detour to BW too).

[Ichabod]

No report, so picture dump:

The worker finished the sheep pasture just in time to shave 1 turn of the settler build!

[NobleHelium]

Your mid-game crisis is directly related to your mid-game reporting crisis you know. Reporting keeps you focused on the game and verifying the correctness of your decisions.

[Ichabod]

Your mid-game crisis is directly related to your mid-game reporting crisis you know. Reporting keeps you focused on the game and verifying the correctness of your decisions.

Yeah, you are right. I'll try to keep things updated longer in this game. Next turn (which is really taking a long time to reach me) I'll found the second city and report with some thoughts about the game.