[SPOILERS] Eridan Ampora's Little Shop of Hipsters(Kuro - Justinian of Persia)

[Kuro]

Hello and welcome to Eridan Ampora's Little Shop of Hipsters!

You've probably never heard of us.

You're probably asking "wwhat's an eridan" right about now. I don't blame you. You probably haven't heard about him.



This is Eridan Ampora, Seadwelling Purpleblood, Wielder of Ahab's Crosshairs, Conquerer of the Land of Wrath and Angels, Hopeless Romantic Of The Many Alternian Seas.

Also a hipster. You can tell from the scarf.

Considering the theme of this PBEM was "Rarely used leaders/civilizations", he fits perfectly as a leader.



This is a Greens game where we will be playing as Justinian of Persia, so I'm hoping for a relatively good finish and some fun strategies to be employed!

So then, are you ready to step into a world of mystery and intrique? A place of magic and science, a land of angels and wrath, a tale with many ups...and many downs?

Strategies that run abound and simplicity you can wrap your head around? Wares for the simplest man to gifts for the highest king?



Then please, come this way, enter the door and pull back the curtain of reality.

Watch your step now...and welcome to Eridan Ampora's Little Shop of Hipsters.

I hope you'll enjoy your stay here.

[Commodore]

And I hope you enjoy your stay here:



Settler has Mobility, Sentry, and is on a roaded tile. World is small, Prince level.

[Kuro]

Oh, interesting...not my turn yet, but there shall be some thought put into this.

[Kuro]

Aisle One: Grains, Meat and Bones!

The foot is a-game!



Just for re-reference, we started with...



With a Settler with Mobility(-1 Terrain Movement Cost) and Sentry(+1 Visibility). In addition, the tile he is on is roaded.

So we can move the Settler onto one of the hills for visibility or stuff. But first, we move the SCOOT.



After that, it makes more sense to move towards the Flood Plains than towards the water...



Ooooooh, that is actually a really nice find!

Forest Plains Furs are a pretty awesome tile for a civ that starts with Hunting. It'll become a 1/2/5 tile and a sweet happiness resource, comparable to Silver. In a pinch, I can also cut down the forest for hammers. And it gives a use for Hunting.



Warrior shows nothing of importance.

With no food resource shown other than the Sheep above, I have to settle around the Corn, so the choice is 1S or 1N. 1S seems obvious to me, as I can then settle a city to grab the Furs/Sheep/Leftover FP.

It will also have 6 forests in chopping range, five hills + a settled Plains hill and Wet Corn, Riverside Ivory(A decent 2/2/2 tile) and a Plains Cow at 3/3/0, so it can be a pretty nice production palace.



Moving the Settler on the hill reveals some things...but I'm not settling first!

Demographics screen!



Everyone's Crop Yield is 5, indicating a three food tile is being worked. Most likely, everyone has wet Corn at their capital.

Default GNP is 16, but everyone has 17 or 18 it seems. My guess would be their Corn is riverside and I got some kind of compensation for that OR someone also has Flood Plains AND they are smartly working them over the Corn(3 food either way at this point, but FP has an extra commerce) for the commerce. Nobody is Creative, so that is not a GNP Factor. Why does one have 18 and not 17, though?

Most likely, they are researching something with a Prereq. My opponents are Babylon, Sumeria and Korea.

Korea: Mysticism/Mining
Babylon: Wheel/Agriculture
Sumeria: Wheel/Agriculture

Therefor, it is either Sumeria or Babylon researching Pottery(I don't think they get an AH boost w/o Hunting? If not, can be AH) OR Korea researching Bronze Working or a religion.

If it's a religion, we'll know. If it's AH, their soldier count will go up when they get their tech. And if it's Pottery, it won't.

The 6000 soldiers is Babylon/Sumeria, as The Wheel is 4000 Soldiers and a Warrior is 2000. Me and Korea have 4000, because we have a Warrior and, respectively, Hunting(2000) and Mining(2000).

The FP theory is furthered by the fact that someone has 80 health(Unhealthiness from somehwere) and someone has 87(Expansive Mao).



Final shot, post settling. Research path is Mining -> BW -> AH, as the Worker will still have stuff to do going AH third, while forest chopping will get out Workers/Settlers. I need to improve the wet corn before the cows anyway.

[Kuro]

Turn in. Somewhat sad nobody named themselves.

Move SCOOT.



Ooooooh, nice city. Can get Furs/Wheat/Fish/Sheep all in one, for a lot of city and some commerce in the ocean. For that matter, the Great Lighthouse was not banned and there are little pockets of water...but that's probably too off-path.



Also the Warrior.

No change on the demo screen.

[Kuro]

Turn in. Demographics say that border expansions give two teams one piece of water, like me, and one is all land. In addition, Mao is working a 4 production tile, to get the Expansive Worker bonus.



Nice FPs there, broski roastki.



Over here we see some corn, possibly a city to share the Fish or an even better one below with it's own food resource.

End turn.

[Kuro]

Turn in, no demo changes, so just SCOOTing.



Next turn, to either the Corn or Plains Forest next to it for scouting out a city there.

I gotta discuss my long term thinking at some point, but right now I'm actually in a bit of a rush, so maybe later tonight.

[Ceiliazul]

Mao is working a 4 production tile, to get the Expansive Worker bonus.

A 4-hammer tile on t2 would make a winner out of Dan Quayle! Do you mean Mao's whole empire? :neenernee

[Kuro]

No, just Mao. The rest of his empire is just, you know, kinda chillin'.

Suleiman's score went up by 6, and by looking at the Demographics screen...



We can see that it was NOT population, though intellectually we already knew that(How would you grow a city in four turns from T1?)

There are only three techs that can be learned in 4T with this commerce: Fishing, Archery and Mysticism. Korea starts with Mysticism and no soldiers went up, ruling out Archery. Considering that three of us have one water tile in their city's BFC(As I am #2 in land area w/ one water tile and no rival's worst is as low as mine), it is possible they have a fishing resource in their BFC. If they don't, the selection is simply baffling(Racing to the Lighthouse? Anticipating a city with seafood?)

Either way, Slowwalk Catcheetah has Fishing.

Catwalk/Slowcheetah:
Fishing T4

Spacetyrantxenu:
Building a Worker

As for myself...



Desert incense isn't as good as a Flood Plain, but it is a happiness resource, so yay. The Warrior is going to circle the capital by going north, then return to it to prevent empty capital ganking.



My Scout meanwhile finds a crab to go with the corn. Odds are that plains tile is the best for a city, but the grassland forest as a city would also allow the fish sharing city and to become a fish/corn sharing city, but is only wworthwwhile if we get the lighthouse. I still doubt we will, but I won't rule it out.

EOT, Mining is in, BW will take 8 turns.

[Kuro]

ffffffffffffffffffffforgot to post this last night, so this is the report for last turn.

So, turn in and we've got some demo changes.



The 19 GNP is most likely Suleiman/Catwalk. My big question is why the lowest is now 18 and not 17. Unless someone was researching Fishing but somehow isn't getting it until T6, this means they either worked another commerce tile(Catwalk working the Lake and a tech w/o a pre-req?), they grew(Jossed by the population demos and score), switched techs(why?) or Catwalk was the 17(I should check the old saves for this in a bit).

That's the only real change, so on to scouting.





Nothing really important revealed yet, Scout will move to the plains forest.