RBPB3 - Gandhi of the Egyptians

[Krill]

Is going for an early religion, via Priesthood for example, as your first tech a good strategy in MP?
I ask, because in the pitboss 2 game - no-one went for a religion at the start. In fact, just about everyone spoke against even considering it. The opening religions went unclaimed for quite some time.

Assuming you do go for it, do you think it's likely that you'd have competition for the religion?


By the way, I really enjoyed following your aggressive diplomacy in your Pitboss 1 thread
Looking forward to seeing how you play Gandhi, as getting the best from PHI is something I've always struggled with!

Pfffh, no, going for a religion first in MP is standard n00b play, to use MP parlance. Standard MP play is warriors/BW>slave worker/foodtech>pottery>Monarchy>HBR, growing on cottages and slaving out HA and warriors on overflow. I've done that enough times that for the past year I've made it a requirement of games that I play that no "standard" strategies will ever be used.

With 7 teams with myst, I can't really see myself researching Hinduism or Buddhism first, but they all need to grab the food techs so I can see myself reaching mono first if I can beeline it from the start of the game.

I can't really see myself doing much aggressive diplomacy in this game unless I get a nice defensible position on the map. I am going to try something that I never do, which is roleplay Gandhi, and not be a warmongering evil bastard that steals workers. Unless I absolutely have to, of course. And truth be told, I'm not the greatest of PHI players out there either, it's something that I've always underrated. I can handle anything on the map OK, but behind the scenes stuff like espionage, shrines, and great people I've always ended up neglecting.

This game is an attempt to rectify that situation.

[Krill]

I would think #2 would be the most straight-forward roleplay. Having an early shrine will let you expand more quickly and provided you have enough food will allow 5 priests in the second city, so generating an "extra" prophet to bulb CoL (relative to #3) shouldn't take too long. It might force city #2 into the highest-food location (as opposed to towards a resource), but I'm not sure you wouldn't want to do that anyway.

Good point. #2 should probably be number 1 choice of strategy.

I would be disinclined towards #1 (unless you have Marble) because you'd be effectively giving up a city for the wonder and you don't need a measly 2 GPP/turn when you have the Obelisk.

Yeah, the Oracle is damned expensive when you are making only 10 hpt with no mines. I reckon I could get it by t50...with 1 worker and 2 warriors, and basically nothing but farms and roads.

#4 and #5 aren't really strategies to decide on before the game, rather they are responses to the situation/terrain you actually find yourself in. Planning on #4 a priori is a great way to lose the game, and #5 is fairly boring.

But what do I know anyway ...

True. WC rushing isn't exactly easy to time either, and 5, well, see the previous post

[Krill]

Something else to consider. Emp barbs effectively make scouts worthless, and warriors tend to die a fair amount. The best long range explorers are going to be chariots...and that first exploring warrior better stick to forests. That's something that definitely favours heading for AH early on and getting out an early settler for horse.

[Krill]

OK, unirrigated corn, plains river sheep and jungle river silver. Plains hill to move to that removes teh corn from teh city, which isn't good.

Need to think this one through, but I think worker first is required. I'm not growing to size 2 and slaving, that is for sure.

[Krill]

Rough idea: worker first/AH, grow to size 2 on the sheep (need the commerce, and corn grows to size 3 which isn't worth it without mining. OK, I'll look at that as well), and settler after 1 warrior and go settle city #2 for horses/high food site.

[Krill]

Anyone got any ideas for themees I can use for city and warrior names?

[Krill]

Metagaming: This is a balanced start, lots of forests to chop favours teams with mining, the food layout favours agri starting civs. Wheel will come in useful connecting cities to the river for trade.

But the real humdinger? That jungle silver shouldn't be present, the map generator removes jungle frmo the capitals' starting tiles. And I'm either in the far north or south of the map, which I can tell from the trees snow. I need to head either straight north or south to figure out which I am (and if this is a torodal map neither really matters).

I think this is a real MP mapscript, not some SP mapscript balanced for this game, and that Sullla probably gave everyone an identical start, with unirrigated corn, river sheep and jungle silver. But that's just a guess based from the idea that there are an extra 6 players on this map, and players wanted less land present, which is what most MP mapscripts do, and it makes it much easier to balance for Sullla.

Note for Sullla: remember when I complained about the jungle in the SANCTA start, how it had no purpose? Nice move adding that jungle to the silver to keep the tech pace slower as everyone seemed to want it after RBPB1. It is an interesting option as if everyone got that (and I can't see why you would give anyone a jungle silver unless you gave everyone one, or everyone a jungle precious metal in various positions of goodness) then IW, steep at 360 beakers, will be high in some players agenda. Personally I'll try to trade for IW, I'm definitely not researching it at any rate.

[Krill]

OK, after running some (rough) numbers, I think I need to go AH first, and make a settler at size 2. The other option takes mining and uses the two western grass hills at size 3, which is faster to Mono but slower to the city site, and on a map this cramped I'm not sure if I want to risk that, especially as it leaves me with no strat resources even visible. One advantage of the mining route is I can go myst first...and then if I really luck out I can consider going for one of the original 2 religions.

[Krill]

TBH, I can't think of a reason to move, which I'm pretty sure was Sullla metagaming to make sure I don't move and left horse in the outer ring of the capital. Now, let this be a lesson to everyne: Metagaming isn't always a good idea! I should probably just thank my lucky stars and settle in place, this start is more than good enough for what I wanted to do, provided that my competitors aren't 5 tiles away.

[Krill]

nah, I'm pretty sure I need AH, which means I'll probably have to settle in place, build a worker and and tech AH. Then I'll move the warrior, no point moving him if I'm sure I'm going to settle on turn 0.