[SPOILERS] Pindicator, God-King of the Egyptians

[pindicator]

Turn 7

Well, that hut sucked...

[pindicator]

Turn 8

In which the first scout continues his ruin spree, the second scout validates himself, and the spear gets to join in on the fun

We found Azza with our first scout, and as he seems to do every other turn, another ancient ruini:



I feel better seeing Azza that far north; I thought he was closer with how his warrior was, but that warrior must have come straight at us. Sniping a hut out from under Azza will make me feel good, too

Not to be outdone, the second scout came out from his wandering in the desert and stumbled upon a ruin of his own:





Okay, that makes me feel a bit better about building a second scout! Next turn we'll be able to start down the Tradition tree

And not to be outdone, our spearman found is own discovery north of Ichabod.




More demos:



Interesting that someone has 80,000 land points - that means expanded borders. So someone went for an early monument or bought a tile? Likely the monument.

[SevenSpirits]

When I played and got a culture ruins, it wouldn't prompt you, but you could choose a policy immediately that same turn. Has that changed?

[pindicator]

When I played and got a culture ruins, it wouldn't prompt you, but you could choose a policy immediately that same turn. Has that changed?

Yeah, it's next turn now. I've gotten that in SP games I've played with recently and there was no prompt when I got these ruins

[pindicator]

When I played and got a culture ruins, it wouldn't prompt you, but you could choose a policy immediately that same turn. Has that changed?

Yeah, it's next turn now. I've gotten that in SP games I've played with recently and there was no prompt when I got these ruins

Wait, I just realized I read that totally wrong. Maybe I could have done it and didn't realize it.

[T-hawk]

Yes, you could have taken the policy now, when the culture counter said 20/15. The same thing happens if you gain culture mid-turn from the Honor opener or Aztec UA, no prompt to take the policy but it is available.

Religion works the other way, if a religious CS puts you to say 16/10 faith on the pantheon, you can't take it until after the turn roll.

[pindicator]

Turns 9 & 10

A turn later than I could have, I grabbed Tradition:


Turns out that mishap means I delay my next culture policy by a turn. Yuck.
I took a peek at my neighbors, and neither have gotten a policy yet:



And I dug around and found out which pantheon was found by the first person in the game:



Interesting choice. I assume someone has to be very seafood heavy. Which really would suck, almost as much as my capital


I left us with a ruin up north to pop. When it came time to open the save, it looked like we got there right in time:



It gave us a map, so Azza didn't really miss out. But we know we need to go north now:



It also showed us another ruin, but Azza spotted it and will get there a head of us. So for some reason I went west this turn. Don't know why; I need to head north and meet those city-states, even if Azza will get there ahead of me.

Also, bad news so far: Azza looks like he is in the middle of at least 4 city-states. As Siam. Great...

The picture out east is the fourth city state:




And finally, another moment to cry over: my granary comes to 39/40 at end of turn.



I finished AH at end of turn, but with Civ 5 the map gets blacked out when you end turn, so I'll have to wait until next turn to see where any horses are.

Demos:

[pindicator]

Turn 11

Can you spot all the horses?



Also, I like how I can count 2 tiles in my capital radius that have a base of 2 food.
But speaking of the capital, The Wheel is coming in 7 turns. That means it will finish end of turn 17. So let's see how that lines up with our other builds...

Granary will finish end of turn 11, and have 8h overflow (48/40)
Worker will finish end of turn 15, and have 8h overflow (54/46)
So I have 2 turns (16 & 17) at 9hpt + 8h overflow, or 26 hammers, before I want to start building the watermill. (Or war chariots...) And coincidentally there are two things I can build that cost exactly 26h:

- Archer
- Shrine

Shrine is tempting, because I'll eventually want to build a temple, and getting a pantheon soon could help. There are a couple pantheons I'm thinking about, but I haven't made up my mind on which one to grab yet either.

But I don't think a shrine will be necessary for a Pantheon, because I stumbled across something out east:





So now I'm just 1 Faith away from the next pantheon. And remember we have Jeruselum up north to still meet - once we meet that city-state we'll get 4 faith even if we're not first to find it. So I think a shrine can be delayed. Although if I want to get a quick religion then a shrine could still be a good idea.

Besides, building the archer will just make me want to mass war chariots at The Wheel instead of watermills

[Commodore]

What Pantheon are you gunning for?

[pindicator]

I've got it down to a short list, but I'm not nearly decided:

Fertility Rites: 10% faster growth
God of the Open Sky: +1 culture from Pastures
Goddess of Love: +1 happy from cities with 6 pop or more
Monument to the Gods: +15% production to Ancient & Classical wonders
Religious Idols: +1 culture & +1 faith for each Gold & Silver
Sacred Waters: +1 happy from cities built on rivers

Fertility Rites seems like a good fit to my "build food" strategy, but 10% of not-a-whole-lot is still not-a-whole-lot. So maybe not that one. So I'm likely not to pick that.

God of the Open Sky would be good for early culture: I'm going to have a lot of pastures in my capital and will likely be working every one of them. That'd be a good culture boost early to help me gun for the Landed Elite social policy (+2 food & +10% food in the capital).

Religious Idols is along the same lines, but also gives me a passive boost for faith. I have 3 gold tiles at the capital, so that'd be +3 faith just from working those. My only problem is getting enough food so I can work all 3 gold tiles...

Sacred Waters & Goddess of Love are both attempts at gaining happiness. Sacred Waters is probably better with what I've seen of this map: there's a lot of river to settle up against. And since my UU is a +2 building, it may be worth emphasizing this and building wide.

Monument to the Gods is if I go full steam on a wonder strategy. Huh, maybe I should build Temple of Artemis for the +10% food that wonder gives too

And maaaaybe throw in Ancestor Worship: +1 culture. I'm only thinking about that if I'm going for a super-shrine strategy, but nah. Even with that strategy, +1 culture on shrines is still pretty weak.


Okay, there's one more I'm thinking about...

God of War: Gain Faith if you win a battle within 4 tiles of your city.
That would be the one I'd take if I decide to build a quick settler and settle up in Ichabod's face. It'd also be the one to take if I was thinking about taking Holy Warriors for when I found a religion...

I'll have to think about it. I'll have to figure out just how much God of the Open Sky will speed me along to Landed Elite; if it's significant then that may be the winner. Otherwise Religious Idols or a happy gainer.