Like many others, I am reporting an incomplete game. 
Just too busy with too many things through the holidays to finish on time. But I do plan to complete the game and will update my report later. For now, a quick summary.
I drew Asoka of India, not a leader I have played very often. Spiritual/Organized should be interesting, and of course the fast worker is excellent. I decided to not make any special effort to claim the special Christmas trees, and just focus on the game as usual. I would try to keep track of how many I ended up with, but I suspect many will easily out-do me. On the trees, and on the game!
I decided to go for an early religion, even though it would almost certainly be suboptimal play. I rarely do so, and thought it would be interesting. Since the pot luck info told us all Spiritual civs were in the game, I went for Polytheism and hoped others would all try for Meditation. The gambit worked and I founded Hinduism in Delhi, which I settled 1E of the start on the plains hill just north of the clams.
I got a map from the hut, revealing Egypt to the west. My exploring warriors (built while chasing religion, since a fast worker would have had nothing to do for a while) rapidly found Spain and Mali as well. Justinian took a while to show up but I eventually had a good idea of the world. I decided the key to the game would be pushing hard to the west to claim the center of the apparent pangaea and gain enough territory before the AIs locked down all the land. I would have to avoid early conflict so I could focus on grabbing land and then hold it until I was strong enough to start eliminating my rivals. An economic crash was likely, but getting cut off by the AIs did not seem like a good path to victory.
I began expanding west, and got very lucky with two barb cities spawning early in good locations with only warriors defending. I had an axe at the leading edge of my expansion and was able to capture the first city despite Hatty having a warrior of her own buzzing around looking to take the city. Libyan was located just east of the two tile lake with the Christmas tree tile. Using the XP gained, my axe took woodsman II and rushed further west to capture Teoihuacan, located by the plains cow at the river bend. Hatty again was present with an archer and tried to take the city but failed, and I managed to poach it right out from under the nose of her other archer.
With this foothold in the west, I then rushed settlers forward and claimed the ivory/dye cluster location with Calcutta followed by Lahore even further northwest than Teoihuacan at the horses/wines/gold/clams/flood plains location. Placement of Lahore was a difficult choice, and I ended up putting it one off the coast to claim the horses. I would have to find a way to get a work boat up there eventually, but Mansa had claimed the nearer horses with Djenne and then founded Christianity in the city to make it culturally unassailable.
With all these distant cities my economy completely cratered, falling to 2 gpt at 0% research with Lahore's founding. Ummm, oops? It took a long while to start digging out, but library scientists and adding more and more cottages eventually got me to Code of Laws and my organized courthouses. Still lots to do to rebuild my economy, but 30% breakeven is a lot better than zero.
The game currently stands at 200 AD. I have the most land and cities, and am leading easily in food while being close to the leaders in hammers. But I am dead last in GNP and soldiers, and am behind at least a couple big techs (Currency to Hatty, Theology to Mansa and Justinian). I don't have Alphabet yet to know exactly where I stand, but it is not good. At 200 AD I do not yet have Hunting , or Masonry or Meditation or Mono. I am closing in on Calendar to hook up the multiple plantation resources I control -- the dyes at Calcutta will be especially welcome for the commerce. Currency will be next, and maybe eventually I will be able to run science above 50% someday.
The big question is will I get attacked before I can consolidate my economy and get back into the technology race. My power is back of the pack but not by much. However, I really only have axes and my neighbors' chariots could tear me apart with ease. Probably need to get Hunting somehow, but even that is a multi-turn tech right now. (At 200 AD!) Isabella and Mansa are Buddhist and like me a lot (but not friendly, despite +10 from Izzy). Justinian is the only Hindu (that I founded but never adopted ) and hates everyone. Hatty is Confucian and is the biggest rival power, and our relations are right at breakeven. If I can somehow survive the next few centuries I expect it will come down to her or me.
Here is a look at my western holdings. On the mini map you can see that my empire is...rather strung out, isn't it?
But at 200 AD the game is very much an open question. To be continued (hopefully soon)....
And oh yes, current Christmas tree count is five. The cows by Delhi at the start, the forested farm on the island south of Delhi, the forested lake tile by captured Libyan, forested horses at Lahore on the north coast, and the forested city ruins at Pataliputra a short ways northwest of the start. There are several others just outside my cultural control, but I am unlikely to get most of them before the AIs reach them and chop them. As noted, this was not a priority for me.
Thanks to T-Hawk for sponsoring and handling the admin of this game! I hope we see more games here at Realms Beyond, and I hope to participate and actually finish on time.
Just too busy with too many things through the holidays to finish on time. But I do plan to complete the game and will update my report later. For now, a quick summary.I drew Asoka of India, not a leader I have played very often. Spiritual/Organized should be interesting, and of course the fast worker is excellent. I decided to not make any special effort to claim the special Christmas trees, and just focus on the game as usual. I would try to keep track of how many I ended up with, but I suspect many will easily out-do me. On the trees, and on the game!
I decided to go for an early religion, even though it would almost certainly be suboptimal play. I rarely do so, and thought it would be interesting. Since the pot luck info told us all Spiritual civs were in the game, I went for Polytheism and hoped others would all try for Meditation. The gambit worked and I founded Hinduism in Delhi, which I settled 1E of the start on the plains hill just north of the clams.
I got a map from the hut, revealing Egypt to the west. My exploring warriors (built while chasing religion, since a fast worker would have had nothing to do for a while) rapidly found Spain and Mali as well. Justinian took a while to show up but I eventually had a good idea of the world. I decided the key to the game would be pushing hard to the west to claim the center of the apparent pangaea and gain enough territory before the AIs locked down all the land. I would have to avoid early conflict so I could focus on grabbing land and then hold it until I was strong enough to start eliminating my rivals. An economic crash was likely, but getting cut off by the AIs did not seem like a good path to victory.
I began expanding west, and got very lucky with two barb cities spawning early in good locations with only warriors defending. I had an axe at the leading edge of my expansion and was able to capture the first city despite Hatty having a warrior of her own buzzing around looking to take the city. Libyan was located just east of the two tile lake with the Christmas tree tile. Using the XP gained, my axe took woodsman II and rushed further west to capture Teoihuacan, located by the plains cow at the river bend. Hatty again was present with an archer and tried to take the city but failed, and I managed to poach it right out from under the nose of her other archer.
With this foothold in the west, I then rushed settlers forward and claimed the ivory/dye cluster location with Calcutta followed by Lahore even further northwest than Teoihuacan at the horses/wines/gold/clams/flood plains location. Placement of Lahore was a difficult choice, and I ended up putting it one off the coast to claim the horses. I would have to find a way to get a work boat up there eventually, but Mansa had claimed the nearer horses with Djenne and then founded Christianity in the city to make it culturally unassailable.
With all these distant cities my economy completely cratered, falling to 2 gpt at 0% research with Lahore's founding. Ummm, oops?
It took a long while to start digging out, but library scientists and adding more and more cottages eventually got me to Code of Laws and my organized courthouses. Still lots to do to rebuild my economy, but 30% breakeven is a lot better than zero.The game currently stands at 200 AD. I have the most land and cities, and am leading easily in food while being close to the leaders in hammers. But I am dead last in GNP and soldiers, and am behind at least a couple big techs (Currency to Hatty, Theology to Mansa and Justinian). I don't have Alphabet yet to know exactly where I stand, but it is not good.
At 200 AD I do not yet have Hunting , or Masonry or Meditation or Mono. I am closing in on Calendar to hook up the multiple plantation resources I control -- the dyes at Calcutta will be especially welcome for the commerce. Currency will be next, and maybe eventually I will be able to run science above 50% someday. The big question is will I get attacked before I can consolidate my economy and get back into the technology race. My power is back of the pack but not by much. However, I really only have axes and my neighbors' chariots could tear me apart with ease. Probably need to get Hunting somehow, but even that is a multi-turn tech right now. (At 200 AD!
) Isabella and Mansa are Buddhist and like me a lot (but not friendly, despite +10 from Izzy). Justinian is the only Hindu (that I founded but never adopted ) and hates everyone. Hatty is Confucian and is the biggest rival power, and our relations are right at breakeven. If I can somehow survive the next few centuries I expect it will come down to her or me.Here is a look at my western holdings. On the mini map you can see that my empire is...rather strung out, isn't it?
![[Image: T123westernholdings0000_zps31abec7a.jpg]](http://s196.photobucket.com/user/haphazard1/media/RBCiv-Adv59/T123westernholdings0000_zps31abec7a.jpg.html)
But at 200 AD the game is very much an open question. To be continued (hopefully soon)....
And oh yes, current Christmas tree count is five. The cows by Delhi at the start, the forested farm on the island south of Delhi, the forested lake tile by captured Libyan, forested horses at Lahore on the north coast, and the forested city ruins at Pataliputra a short ways northwest of the start. There are several others just outside my cultural control, but I am unlikely to get most of them before the AIs reach them and chop them. As noted, this was not a priority for me.
Thanks to T-Hawk for sponsoring and handling the admin of this game! I hope we see more games here at Realms Beyond, and I hope to participate and actually finish on time.
The horses are at 50/50 with Justinian's culture, but Lahore is 2 turns from popping borders again which should keep them under my control. Probably. I have put a lot of hammers into cultural buildings to try to stem the erosion.
He is annoyed with Justinian and cautious with me, but they have roughly equal power rankings while I am significantly weaker. My defenders barely even qualify as cardboard cutouts. 
and get busy.