[spoilers] Mr. Cairo Steels himself for another Pitboss

[Mr. Cairo]

Another thought about my medium-term plans. It seems a good tech path involves going to CoL via Priesthood then bulbing Philosophy with a GS to enable Caste + Pacifism. Popping a GA at the same time seems ideal, which means I'd want to get at least 2 GS before this, maybe 3 if I want to bulb Maths instead of teching it manually, since a GS will get Maths before Philo.

Also, Great Prophets aren't very useful until after Theology is researched, since it'll bulb every one of Theo's pre-reqs before it, so there's no way of forcing the Prophet to bulb something like CoL or CS. That makes the Madrassa less attractive. By the time I'll want a Prophet for a Shrine or the 3rd/4th part of a GA I'll hopefully be able to build a couple temples in a city for it.

Edit: GS will bulb Alphabet as well as Maths before Philo, so that will require a little more thought (perhaps an Oracle play?)

Edit2: Madrassa is 20 hammers cheaper than a Library, to go along with the production bonus from CRE. So looking a little better once again.

[Mr. Cairo]

Alright, I decided. Let's roll the dice once more and send Arabia back. Obviously still keeping Pericles.

Keep: Pericles

Re-roll: Arabia

[Mr. Cairo]

superdeath - Isabella (SPI, EXP) of Carthage

Mr. Cairo  Pericles (CRE, PHI) of Sumeria

Rusten - Saladin (PRO/SPI) of the Celts

Gavagai - Zara (CRE/ORG) of the Dutch

Commodore  Gilgamesh (CRE/PRO) of Mali

naufragar - Suryavarman (CRE/EXP) of Babylon

Donovan Zoi - Hannibal (FIN/CHM) of Ottoman

BGN/Xenu - Mao Zedong (EXP/PRO) of Persia

Sumeria: Wheel, Agriculture. See my previous post about having the Wheel. Still not an ideal set of starting techs but still better than Agri, Myst.

UU: Vulture, an Axe replacement with 6 strength. Just a strictly better version of the Axe, so nothing to complain about there, although not very impactful if there's no Ancient/Classical era conflicts.

UB: Ziggurat, a Courthouse replacement that costs 30 less hammers (90 vs 120), and requires Priesthood tech instead of CoL. Again, nothing to complain about, earlier and cheaper courthouses are clearly a good thing.

as far as UU and UB goes, they're not all that better than Arabia's (and the Madrassa is better for a PHI civ), and the starting techs aren't that much better. But whatever, there was never any guarantee that I'd get a better civ so no point complaining now.

Note: no IND civs, so that makes going for the Oracle more of a possibility (of course, others will have the same thought, and I'm not going to sacrifice much to go for it, so perhaps it's better to not even try )

I'll do a sim, but my tech path currently looks like Fishing -> Hunting -> Mining -> Bronze Working -> Pottery -> Writing -> Mysticism -> Meditation -> Priesthood -> Code of Laws -> Maths/Alphabet (one with a bulb) -> bulb Philosophy.

edit: hunting, not AH. forgot about RtR for a moment there.

[Mr. Cairo]

First sim:


This was kinda unusual in that I started my settler while at size 3 and completed it by T29 without a chop or a whip. The Fish, Cows, PH mine, and PH start gives 20 foodhammers, which is pretty good for size 3. I have the worker roading to the southeast, since fog-gazing the initial screenshot tells me I'm pretty far north, and the land to my west appears to be the end of a peninsula. Or at the very least not very appealing.


I tried a variant where I go for Mining -> BW after Fishing, skipping Hunting so I can chop into the settler earlier, and it's just much worse.


If I go for a second worker before the settler, it's a lot slower, since that worker comes out well before BW, so I can't use it to accelerate the setler with a chop or two, and while I have lots of hammers, I can't grow my cap to size 4 fast enough to make it worthwhile to do so. 


Next one, I farmed the grassland after pasturing the cows (instead of mining the PH), while going for a second worker and growth to size 4 before the settler. It resulted in a much later settler than the first plan, but I was able to start a second settler right away (I had a bunch of warriors built while growing), so I had my second settler out by T41, with a size 4 cap and 2 workers. However, I extended my first sim and ended up with my second settler built, 2 workers, and a size 4 cap by turn 42. So only 1 turn later, and with a much earlier second city.


So I think I'm going to lock in that first plan, of 'slow-building' my first settler at size 3, to be finished by T29.

[Mr. Cairo]

And we're off, nothing really to show, since the scout move (1SE) doesn't reveal anything new, but there is this:


Specifically the soldiers stat. Don't we all start with scouts in RtR?
Nevermind, me being dumb. Good thing I don't do a lot of demo sleuthing.

[Elkad]

Soldiers count is modified by techs.
Wheel 4k, Hunting and Mining 2k each. (rest of the starting tier is 0)

[Mr. Cairo]

Soldiers count is modified by techs.
Wheel 4k, Hunting and Mining 2k each. (rest of the starting tier is 0)

aah, right, of course, I knew that. 

[Mr. Cairo]

Turn 3 scouting report:


Where the scout is would be ok for a city, or I give up the plains hill and go onto the river 1N or 1 NW of the deer, but then I wouldn't be able to have a city on the forested hill 1SW of the deer, so I think I'll stick to the plains hill. It's not the best city spot, and I would need AH sooner than I had planned. Hopefully there's more food in the fog to the SE.

[Mr. Cairo]

Looks like I was the only one to go Fishing+Workboat first.

[Mr. Cairo]

This is what I've scouted so far, not at all what I expected, I don't know if I'm connected to the land across that narrow straight to the north-east, but that's where I'm sending my scout next. I'll dot-map this at some point soon.

edit: that southern bit is pretty bleak, looking like 1.5 food resource per city down there