RB PBEM #2 - Justinian (SPOILERS!)

[Dreylin]

A new Glorious Leader:

[Dreylin]

Well the first thing I notice is that Justinian is not particularly well-suited to an Archipelago map: no Fishing, nor any particularly useful UU/UB. So as far as attributes we have:

Spiritual - I've been intending to play a game as SPI for a while, since it's been long since I've had an Anarchy-free game. I shall endeavour to make the most of this trait during this game.

Imperialistic - accelerated Settler production is useful, but it's always worth noting that it is only the Hammers which are doubled and not the Food contribution. This makes it far less useful in the early game - when Food surplus is mostly used - than later, and particularly so on a water-heavy map. The increased GG production rate has proven useful for mh in PBEM1, and I anticipate that this will be a more fractious game than that (with full tech-trading, six players ... oh and Krill in the works ).

Wheel - probably the least-useful starting tech, but at least any early Worker will always have something to keep him busy.

Mysticism - obvious use is as an intro to the Religious Techs, as well as allowing Monuments for border expansions.

Now first thing to note is that I am the only one who starts with Mysticism, so would be guaranteed the Religion of my choice should I choose to pursue one. However that also allows the option of researching something else prior to grabbing a religion ... Fishing would seem to be the natural choice.

So a tentative initial research path of: Fishing - Meditation. (I seldom gain Buddhism, and early Monasteries would serve well).

With no starting Worker Techs and none on the horizon, building a Worker first is a less appealing option. However there will undoubtedly be Seafood at the start and with Fishing as first research it may be an option to part-build the Worker, switching out to a WB once Fishing comes in. Either that or a Warrior build if it seems there's a fair area immediately to explore.

[Dreylin]

t1 - version1

So here's the start for Justinian I:



Nice food reseources, but very few Hammers: the Cows, a probable Plains Hill to the NNE, and a possible Grass Hill to the WSW. Also, the selection of Food resources each require a separate Tech to be researched before they can be connected, so I may want to change the speculated research path.

What can we learn from the movement of the Warrior? Two choices open up the most additional visibility: SW onto the Hut, or NE towards the lake. There is a hint of Tundra(?) to the NE over the lake, so I decided that more fertile lands likely lie to the SW, and that I would pop the Hut with the Warrior.

I suspect that the results of this will be different when the game is re-started, but on this go around I got 16gold (woohoo...) and this expanded view:



Now we see that the Villagers had chosen the perfect spot: trading the Irrigated Corn for a second Clams and a Coastal Fish is a great improvement in food potential for the city, but we also increase the Hill quotient from a likely 2 to a guaranteed 4. Also of benefit is that the Plains Hill is un-forested, and can therefore be Mined immediately - although it could be argued that the added hammer from the Forest would have greater short-term benefit. (I would also have to wonder whether it indicates the presence of a Metal?)

So the decision is made to move the Settler to follow the Warrior and found the city next turn. Though there is no Score or Demographics screen, we can still see from the "Top 5 Cities / Wonders" tab that all previous players have already founded their cities; so either on the spot or after a move on un-forested flatland.

[Dreylin]

t1 - New Edition!

Well I was right about the change in random seed; this time the Hut pops a map:



nothing additional revealed on the current island, and the new island revealed is out of reach of Galleys for now.

[T-hawk]

Your image link is broken - replace "dreylin/net" with "dreylin.net".

[Dreylin]

Your image link is broken - replace "dreylin/net" with "dreylin.net".

Bother, I thought I'd checked that. Thanks!

[Dreylin]

Diplo already!?

yazilliclick: Hey Dreylin

me: hi there

yazilliclick: Diplomacy appears to be off to a roaring start already lol

me: Heh, well I think I'll be keeping quiet for a while
After all, I only know about a ~5x5 tile area!

yazilliclick: True. I was a bit surprised but then figured better jump in before I find myself on the outside.

me: Hmmm, maybe so

yazilliclick: I ended up signing one deal and was wondering if you were interested in same thing. Just a simple no rushing into an empty city, no worker steal or settling to close to each other's capital until turn 40 or there abouts.

me: Well this is an Archi map so the chances of two civs sharing an Island are pretty slim
Plus 40t on Quick is quite a while

yazilliclick: True. But then it also means the deal isn't really restricting unless somebody by fluke happens on you. And who wants to lose a worker, or even their capitol, because of that?

me: Well it is restricting if I were to come across an unguarded Worker / city....

yazilliclick: You wouldn't be that cruel to steal my poor defencely worker now would yoU?

me: Well it's not my normal playing style, true
but is it so wrong for me to want to keep my options open?

yazilliclick: Sure it is when the option you want open is to keep poor Doug from digging his ditches

me: But that would only happen if you were silly enough not to give Doug an escort, right?
There's Barbs out there as well as "Civilised" folk

yazilliclick: Well to be honest nobody really likes Doug, he doesn't shower near enough, so we'd be hard pressed to get anybody to spend days outside with him. But we do like his work at ditch digging. He's a true master.
If you don't want to though that's fine. we'll just tell Dough to wear camouflage or something.

me: TBH, on t1 of the game I'd prefer to keep my options open
My feeling is that 40t is too long for such a deal
I'd be happy to sign something for ~20t to take away the complletely random element though
after that I think everyone should be prepared to defend / protect themselves
I know I will be...

yazilliclick: Fair enough I was only bringing it up because somebody else started it and signed with them. Plus I'm one of the poor unfortunates with a scout and not a powerful warrior.

me: Ah true
Well, does 20t sound reasonable then?

yazilliclick: Turn 20 works for me if that works for you.

me: Yep

yazilliclick: Give you a bit of a reprieve from my immortals perhaps heh

me: Riiiiight.

yazilliclick: Considered it signed then. Good dealing with you

me: Cool, you too
(now to actually discover more than 12tiles of the map and actually find you in-game!)

yazilliclick: Good luck with that
I think it's going to be quite the maze

me: yeah
We got some pretty dud civs, didn't we!

yazilliclick: Been a long time since I've played Cyrus. At first I mistook Charismatic for his old creative trait (yeah I don't have all them memorized)

me: (memorized, hah! Lucky if I remember my own!)

yazilliclick: Didn't fare too badly though. Certainly wouldn't feel bad at all with any advantage over some of the other damn good players in the game.

me: Oh yeah, I think we've got a nice mixed-bag of Civs in the game
No CRE, EXP or FIN
gives the ol' SPI IMP guy a fighting chance
... now if only I started with a useful tech....

yazilliclick: lol
maybe you can get them to change them for you again

me: lol

As I said in the chat, I don't really think there's much chance of any of us starting on the same Island as each other, and anything else will require Sailing and building a Galley to open up. OTOH, if I go through all that effort then I'd like the option of poaching someone's stuff!

The 20t deal is pretty meaningless, but it shows willing without seriously tying my hands if an opportunity should arise.

[Dreylin]

Oh, and there's this e-mail from Darrell:

All hail Emperor Dreylinian and his witch like Avatar!

Okay, with the diplomatic butt kissing out of the way, I'm sending this e-mail out as a feeler on what type of alliances you are looking at this early in game. I realize we haven't met yet and probably wont' for a while, but I'd still like to get disucssions under way on anything from a round of tech trading all the way up to the kind of relationship you had with Ruff in the first PBEM.

Darrell

P.S. I am not sending a note to everyone, so while I in general don't mind you discussing this with other players, please just check with me first before doing so. I'd like to avoid an awkward diplomatic incident this early in the game.

Hey New Dealer,

I must admit I hadn't expected to be starting in on Diplo before I even get to play the first turn (again)! Right now I haven't thought much past "Mmm, Clams", to work out the greater shape of the game. All I can see at this point is that with full-trading enabled, people are going to be being a lot more careful with who, what and when they trade.

Personally, it just feels too early to be engaging in any sort of long-term diplo without knowing anything about where people are positioned, etc. Let's just say I intend to take a relaxed approach and see what happens around me before committing to any sort of long-term agreement, though I am ruling nothing out for the future.

One of the others just grabbed me in chat and pursuaded me to sign a "no-poaching" agreement. (i.e.: no grabbing of un-escorted Workers or un-guarded cities) I find it doubtful that any of us are near enough each other for that to be meaningful, but would you be interested in signing something similar?

Dreylinian I (or Andy, whichever)

I intend to take a much more relaxed approach to the diplo in this game than the first RBPBEM. The Geographical situation in that game dictated that I secure a long-term alliance with one of my neighbours and I chased that pretty hard. This game I expect to be much more fluid in terms of alliances, and I certainly don't want to commit to anything before I know where peaople are and what sort of land we all have available.

[Mr. Nice Guy]

Map info? Don't tell me you will have 3/4ths of the map revealed by T10 again?

[Dreylin]

Map info? Don't tell me you will have 3/4ths of the map revealed by T10 again?

Well I can hope, but I don't think Huts can pop WB or Galleys!