[SPOILER] Ikhanbod

[Ichabod]

So the gold: hammer conversion ratio varies not only based on the bought object being a unit or building, but even different units and buildings have differents gold: hammer conversion ratios?

That's pretty... interesting. Yeah, let's leave it at that.

I'm debating about buying a Watermill for 300 gold, since a settler would take long to be bought (I'll be at 293 gold (+7) next turn and I need 370). I also thought about buying a worker, but decided to build one instead (1 worker isn't sufficient, my cities are growing too fast). Guess I'll wait to buy the settler, even if it takes a while. I'll use my scout to explore a bit more - even 15 gold from a CS can help.

By the way, I've just realized: the 10% food bonus from the Landed Elite SP only gets added to the city food surplus... This doesn't seem to make that much sense...

By the way, full report will be tomorrow, because I received the save pretty late today. I'll end up with a joke, though:

Azza thinks I'm an AI! I actually laughed when I've seen his proposal.

[T-hawk]

Yeah, the purchase costs are really weird, everything has its own small modifier on top of the standard formula.

I'm debating about buying a Watermill for 300 gold, since a settler would take long to be bought (I'll be at 293 gold (+7) next turn and I need 370)

This is an interesting dynamic - even though the watermill is worse hammers per gold, it might actually return more because you can buy it now instead of 10 turns from now. Waiting for the settler traps your gold idle until you accumulate enough. This is never an issue in single player because you can always grab an AI loan to cover such a deficit. I don't have a good sense for the dynamics of this when gold isn't so freely available so you're on your own.

[Ichabod]

Yeah, the purchase costs are really weird, everything has its own small modifier on top of the standard formula.

I'm debating about buying a Watermill for 300 gold, since a settler would take long to be bought (I'll be at 293 gold (+7) next turn and I need 370)

This is an interesting dynamic - even though the watermill is worse hammers per gold, it might actually return more because you can buy it now instead of 10 turns from now. Waiting for the settler traps your gold idle until you accumulate enough. This is never an issue in single player because you can always grab an AI loan to cover such a deficit. I don't have a good sense for the dynamics of this when gold isn't so freely available so you're on your own.

Yeah, I'll have to think more about it. It's frustrating that I'd actually be pretty close to buying the settler (2 turns, I think), if it wasn't for the bought tiles in my second city. I had to do it, though, because I couldn't afford losing those to Pindicator. Anyway, I'll think a bit more, since I still have a turn to go before having the needed gold. I'll see how my Capital looks like at size 6 and try to figure out what's best.

---

I'm taking care of some annoying barbs with my archer and my two cities. There are 2 other barbs in sight. I have 1 scout, 1 warrior and 2 archers as my army right now. It's enough, but as long as I keep improving tiles, it'll become harder to defend workers and avoid pillagings. For now, everything is alright, though.

My capital is still oriented for max growth. The global happiness mechanic still makes a bit confused about how to properly manage my citizens in each city. The way science works too. I want to always grow my city, I guess. But when should I start focusing on gold and production? Usually I'd do that at happy cap in Civ IV, but happy cap is stranger here. Well, what is always right is using the free production/gold from each new citizen, like I'm doing in the screenshot above.

I decided to build a worker in capital, because one worker takes too long to do stuff. I want to farm all riverside tiles in my capital, which will become very powerful after CS. I have good production in it too. My objective is to start working hills when I anticipate reaching Chivalry, to build Horsemen and Keshiks.

Demos are fine, I guess. I'm high up in Crop Yield, which is very important. I think a lot of my neighbours are racing for wonders, so that explains the production focus. GNP I'm listed as 4th, but the leader is only 1 point in front of me. I think Jowy is really owning us in terms of Crop Yield. He probably has a powerful desert Capital, with lots of wheat.

Speaking of wonders, finally one of my opponents discovered a tech. It was mathematics, the cost went from 70 to 67. maybe that's two people discovering it on the same turn, I don't really know. I still think that maybe everyone figured out the stupid bonus you get when your opponents finish a tech and everybody is sandbagging the techs. That's really bizarre. Well, I started it, so I really can't complain.

Ah, but what does Math has to do with Wonders? Well, I think Pindicator beelined Maths so he could build the Hanging Gardens, which give 6 food and a free garden (+% GPP) on the city its built. That's the only thing that can save Pindicator's Capital, which is really bad, with almost no food. I really like this, to be fair. The wonder will greatly delay Pindicator (and he'll deny it to a more powerful opponent) and I'll end up conquering it for me later. Poor Pindicator, he really got the short end of the stick regarding the map...

Continuing the poor Pindicator saga, take a look at this:

Azza settled his second city in Pindicator's face! Look at the minimap below. Azza's second city is really far from his capital, it's actually closer to Pindicator's capital. No wonder Pindicator is running with his settler to the bad land between me and him. That picture also shows how Pindicator's capital will be exposed against my Keshiks. They can hit and run attack his capital from 3 different tiles. If I play this right, Pindicator has no chance.

Ah, just now I realized that Pindicator has a Pantheon. Is there anyway for me to see which Pantheons were already founded?

---

Regarding Social Policies, just now Serdoa and Pindicator got their third one. Azza is still on his second one. I'm on my 4th and close to my 5th, while having 2 cities. Who would have thought that Legalism would make such a big difference?

---

Overview picture. The western barb moved closer to my city. I'll have to cover the sheep with the archer to avoid pillaging.

[T-hawk]

Ah, just now I realized that Pindicator has a Pantheon. Is there anyway for me to see which Pantheons were already founded?

Yes, click the faith counter on the top bar.

[SadGit]

Scroll icon top right corner just under the turn marker has access to all the diferent stats, including a list of relegions founded and the connected bonus to each. Cant recall if it states which player has which, perhaps just the ones you have met or can see founding city of.

[Ichabod]

Thanks, guys. I'll take a look at that info next turn.

[Ichabod]

Damn, my pictures failed to upload to my dropbox account. Anyway, quick written report:

*Pindicator settled the no happiness city by the wheat. It's so close to me that I can attack it with a ranged unit from inside my borders. Pindicator has a city at size 4 and one at size 1 (I have a size 6 and a size 2 city), with no happiness resource. I think he's in unhappiness.

*Pindicator bought two tiles near Azza's second city, much like I did with his. It's a sheep and a horse. I don't think those two are in good terms. Lucky me, I'll have Salt from Azza soon, I think.

*If I remember correctly, the chosen beliefs are:

-Pindicator has God of the Open Sky (+1 culture from pastures).
-Serdoa has God of Craftsmen (+1 production from city with 3 or more citizens)
-Azza (I think it's Azza, can't remember exactly) has Goddess of Love (+1 happiness from cities with 6 or more citizens)
-Someone has God of the Sea (+1 production from Fishing Boats) - Strongly think that's Oledavy. Jowy's score is too high for a coastal start.

This leaves me some possibilities:

*Sacred Path: +1 culture on Jungle tiles - Could work, since I'm actually working quite a lot of jungle tiles - problem is, by the time I get this, i'll probably won't be working them;

*Messenger of the Gods: +2 science from TRs - I think that's pretty good for a MP game - i'll be slow to religion and I don't want to invest much on it, this is just a small but good bonus, I'll want TRs sometime, anyway;

*Fertility Rites: +10% Growth Rate - Fairly marginal, but could help - problem is, it only affects surplus food... So, It's likely meaningless for most cities...;

Basically these beliefs I think are useful. Most of them are fairly marginal. I just don't have the resoures avaiable to invest in religion...

[Ichabod]

Someone got construction. Run to the hills!!

[Ichabod]

Game had some delays and Steam refused to save my screenshots. Everything is pretty normal, I guess. I had to delay growth a bit to wait for the improvement of the gems. I think I'll kill a barb camp next turn to get gold for my settler buy (I'm killing it with an archer, I killed a warrior and another one covered the thing, since I couldn't attack and move on the camp - now, I killed the second warrior, but I'm afraid an enemy scout on the fog can snipe the unprotected camp).

Finally received a city satte mission to clear the northern barb camp, exactly when I moved away from it. I'll try to dedicate some units for it soon. Capital is building another archer after the second worker. Better safe than sorry (and military units are useful even without war in CIv 5).

Another City State mission is building the ToA (+10% food growth on every city, +15% production of ranged units on the city which it's built). How much influence do I get from these missions? It might be worth it, since the wonder is kind of good (it's pretty cheap - Keshiks are archery units) and it'd be worth some gold (in form of CS influence).

[T-hawk]

Building a wonder for a city-state gives 40 influence I think. It's somewhere between 40 and 50.