[SPOILERS]Novice, Spacemanmf and Athlete4life10 are HUYANA CAPAC OF CHINA

[spacemanmf]

I'm hoping TT's gameplan is focused around the Organized trait and the maintenance reduction of the Ikhanda.

Now that's optimistic thinking, although as you say he may have no choice if we are all far away from each other.

Are impis that much scarier than chariots? Granted, they can get better promotions, particularly since they will start with Combat I, but there is still a direct counter, just as for chariots.

Obviously stacked impis and chariots are a danger, so we need to build lots of axes and spears in response.

[novice]

They also get defensive bonuses and ignore terrain movement costs. We need a good internal road network to avoid being pillaged.

[athlete4life10]

And are resourceless...I haven't seen a save yet but if there's some space between civs then we should still have time to hook up some copper...defending it might be an issue. Still I doubt TT will be rushing anybody.

[novice]

And are resourceless...I haven't seen a save yet but if there's some space between civs then we should still have time to hook up some copper...defending it might be an issue. Still I doubt TT will be rushing anybody.

I would be surprised if we don't have copper within easy reach. Btw the coastline is clearly artificial; maybe we're on islands, that would be awesome. Out of interest, why do you doubt TT will rush someone?

If you like you can grab an old save from our email account, just don't move any units.

[athlete4life10]

Hey athlete, good to have you back. Good Christmas break?

Hey Spaceman,

Didn't notice this till now as I have a more solid read through. You guys sure did manage to fill the thread up fast! Was a great Christmas apart from the 15 hour days of travelling which really should have only been 5 hours each! Stupid weather causing delays/cancellations.

Good holidays all around here?

[athlete4life10]

I would be surprised if we don't have copper within easy reach. Btw the coastline is clearly artificial; maybe we're on islands, that would be awesome. Out of interest, why do you doubt TT will rush someone?

If you like you can grab an old save from our email account, just don't move any units.

I'll be able to have a look next week. So as I read through again it looks like we went:

T0, 1, & 2 into Myst. and then switched to BW right?

Your plan looks to be pretty solid to have a settler out asap. Having the scout come down and scout any potential city site will give us the best idea of where to put it. I prefer some high food/high prod site over a nice commerce site - but that's just me.

No real reasoning behind TT not rushing. If there really is some distance between starts it just won't make any sense to do so. That and they can be just as good for defence - agg settling etc...

That would make more sense to me...

[spacemanmf]

Ouch, that's some solid travelling time. We drove up from Manchester to Edinburgh and back, despite the snowy weather, but it was only 5 hours each way. But yes, I'm very much enjoying my 12-day break.

Can you tell that we've been a little bit bored and impatient and, as a result, spammed this thread like crazy? There's no threat of us losing the thread count race. Not that it's a race of course.

By the way, I don't think the Impi is resourceless. According to the CivFanatics website, it requires copper or iron.

[novice]

Happy new year everyone!
I've had great holidays, thanks for asking. We kept it simple and stayed at home, with as little stress as possible.

That also meant having time for spamming this thread, as you've seen. Speaking of free time, I hunted through the forums for finish dates on the Oracle from all the RB games, partly for fun, and partly to see what date should be competitive. Here are the results:

Realms Beyond history of Oracle building

Normal speed:
PB1: Broker, playing Zara Yaqob of the HRE, oracled feudalism on T75.
PB2: Rego et al, playing Peter of Byzantium, oracled iron working on T72.
PB3: Krill, playing Ghandhi of Egypt, oracled alphabet EOT 62.
PBEM6:

SevenSpirits, playing Isabella of India, oracled feudalism EOT 75.

PBEM9:

Pegasus, playing Pacal of the Ottomans, oracled metal casting EOT 82.

Quick speed:
PBEM1: Dreylin, playing Mehmed of the Ottomans, oracled code of laws EOT 46.
PBEM2: Krill, playing De Gaulle of France, oracled metal casting EOT 38.
PBEM3: TT, playing Bismarck of Germany, oracled metal casting EOT 41.
PBEM4 AW:

Cyneheard, playing Peter of Egypt, oracled code of laws EOT 38.

PBEM4 NTT:

Kyan, playing Catherine of Maya, oracled metal casting EOT 48.

PBEM7: Serdoa, playing Joao of India, oracled metal casting EOT 53.
PBEM8 AW:

Serdoa, playing Hatshepshut of Byzantium, oracled feudalism EOT 50.

PBEM10:

TT & Ilios, playing Genghis Khan of Sumeria, oracled metal casting EOT40.

Multiplying the quick speed finish dates by 1.5 gives an average finish date for all games of T69.
For what it's worth, we can easily build a 1t Oracle (three marble-powered chops) for metal casting around T54 in our second city, but it won't put us much closer to founding a third city.

We need to try and keep track of our opponents' research, as the main tradeoff in this game is how fast to tech to priesthood, and whether or not to research masonry. Especially for Ad Hoc, who will have marble in his borders by T25 at the latest (sooner if he founds a religion).
There are some competing priorities, as we want all of Pottery, AH, Writing, Fishing, Masonry, Priesthood and Monotheism in short order.

[novice]

New sim: By delaying our second city 4 turns (until T39), and building Stonehenge in the capital, we can have the Oracle (in our second city), three workers and three cities by T52. Third city can then hopefully produce a GSci before any prophets are born.

Building Stonehenge could actually speed up the Oracle as it gives us earlier access to the marble. And with room for 15 BFCs, stonehenge should be a useful wonder.

Btw, these sims I'm referring to aren't über-optimized, I'm just testing out different ideas with regards to build and tech priorities.

I take back my earlier statement that Metal Casting is not expensive enough to Oracle. The Oracle is cheap for us, the tech rate isn't that accelerated, and the wonder will be contested so we can't hope to oracle anything better anyway. We shouldn't let an Oracle run slow down our development too much, though.

[spacemanmf]

Cripes, you're up early.

Btw, these sims I'm referring to aren't über-optimized.

Damn right! We're getting sucked in too much as it is...