[SPOILERS] Chevalier Mal Fet and Marcopolothefraud lead a Soviet Down Under

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 11

Good call on not researching Animal Husbandry. You'll want to finish Writing first so you can get your campus down, Marco:




My own horses are (sadly) more distant from my capital, at the two possible expansions of Knyaz Suvurov or Imperator Aleksandr:




With a wider look, I'm increasingly inclined towards the warmer Suvurov site, which will be lower on production than I'd like but has plenty of food and luxuries nearby. I have NO good production sites, really (not one 3-hammer tile in sight, and almost no 4 yield tiles at all apart from the high food cottons and rices). Basically, Russia is starting to look very grim from a production standpoint.

I have two options, as I see it. God of the Sea would be a decent pantheon (with 7 fishing boats visible already) and would scale well, making those very nice tiles to work. But every tile would need a builder charge to take advantage, and they'd all be vulnerable to Norwegian raiders, besides. So let's say that's a lower priority pantheon.

That leaves Dance of the Aurora and OLORAM. Our Lady gives me instant production without any investment of builder charges - 7 tiles visible would also profit from it. Now, there's no guarantee that I'll find more marshes, but at the capital I'll instantly get a bevy of 3/1 and even 4/1 or 5/1 tiles. No further investment needed - that's a nice boost at the beginning, when the snowball is most important. 

The other option, Dance of the Aurora, is longer-term but honestly might pay out nearly as quickly. So far every city except Suvurov would have tundra nearby. Lavras in Tundra can easily get +5 or more adjacency with DotA, and since I'm stuck in the tundra may as well make the best of a bad start and try to get that plus Work Ethic going. If we lose out on Work Ethic to China, then I'm sort of screwed, production wise, but can salvage something from Choral Music. It's a risk, but in the long run it would pass all the other options. 

For your part, Marco, I would focus on high yield sites first. It does no good to settle some breathtaking districts if we can't get those districts up quickly. Better to delay those until we're closer to Recorded History and the other civics - for the snowball we want cities that can be up and running fast! In your place, I'd almost certainly go for the site just south of the capital. You can settle that by turn 25, same as me, and we'll be up to 4 cities relatively quickly. Plus, that city won't need builder love to get going, which is good. 

A monument right now just isn't a good return on investment - we would waste all the extra culture burning through Mysticism! (thank God we didn't take Rome...). Right now, I am thinking to take God King to double my faith generation. That will give me a pantheon 15 turns from now, on turn 26. I'll be 10 turns into researching Mysticism at that point, so should just barely be able to inspire it before wasting culture. That will, in turn, inspire you, and I can drop God-King right away for Urban Planning. We pay 10 production to save a bit of culture for both of us, essentially. 

Thoughts?

[marcopolothefraud]

Turn 12

I play right after Roland of Gilead, and our timezones/timeslots never seem to match up. Today, I played the save at 5:57am, which was already 4 hours after Roland had finished playing. How did our time slots malfunction this badly?



I bumped into a barbarian scout this turn, who I really should've crossed paths with earlier had it not been for the rough, foresty terrain. Camps always spawn 7 tiles away from a major civilization's city. I marked the most likely spot that the barbarian outpost is located, which would be on a peninsula... The southern body of water is real coast, not a lake, so I will have to kill it slowly with only one warrior. I wish I had an Archer so I could take care of peninsulas and chokepoints.

I think I'll reroute my western warrior further west, away from the tundra and into the corridor between Illmatic and Borodino. Astrology due in 17 turns, and then Writing next.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Sorry, I should explain my pins, btw - those are roughly the boundaries where we can expect to find a natural wonder, assuming starts are roughly balanced. Roland found a Natural Wonder within 5 turns' march of his capital, so I marked about the same. Unless we're supremely unlucky and there's one in the narrow strip of unexplored territory between us, it looks like your NE or my SW is our best bet. I just pinned those, but there's no great urgency.

Be sure not to waste science on Astrology - we also need our basic builder techs. I'll be grabbing mining after Astrology, and then sailing, so I can get my builder out and improving.

[marcopolothefraud]

Sounds like a great tech plan and production plan.


As for pantheon choice, I agree that you should run God-king and get it as quick as possible. I still think we should wait until the last possible moment to make a choice. As we uncover more of the map, we're seeing more tundra and not as many oases/floodplains/marshes. Furthermore, I really think you will struggle with faith unless you get a faith-based religious pantheon or religious belief. (The +2 from shrines and +4 from temples just isn't enough, especially since they cost significant production). Now, the main use of faith is to buy builders and settlers, and the occasional missionary if we take the Crusade belief. Therefore, you might not have to invest too much into faith, and get away with OLORAM if you'd like.

In conclusion, there's a good argument for both pantheons. All three, since my argument for OLORAM applies to God of the Sea as well.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Regarding turn order, the main issue is our overnights. Kaiser typically gets the turn after I've gone to sleep, and then it sits for 4 or 5 hours until I wake up. I'll try and play it before work on weekdays, but often that's still too late for sub, and so the turn sits until late afternoon. By the time it gets around, the Europeans have gone to sleep - as today - and so it sits again.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

All quiet on my front. Warrior is healing back to full before I resume camp clearing (once Discipline unlocks). I think my exploring warrior will head north once he runs into that lake next turn, and defog the area between Russia and Australia. 

Roland hasn't finished a tech, which indicates to me that he is either deliberately sandbagging or swapped (presumably to Pottery -> Astrology), which means he is indeed determined to be first to a religion. Hopefully he distorts his gameplan to land Stonehenge early at all costs, that can sometimes be a benefit! 

Sub and Kaiser both have cleared barb camps already, which is impressive - my guy was pretty badly mauled. Maybe theirs spawned on more favorable terrain or something.

[marcopolothefraud]

Turn 13

So, the Barbarian Outpost wasn't where I thought it would be. It has to be east of the lake, so I'm going to send my warrior there soon. Hopefully the scout takes the "short" route back to the camp and runs into my warrior, so that I can kill it before the camp spawns an invasion force against Illmatic.

I said I was going to send my western warrior even further west, but I saw the Appeal lens and noticed that there was a Breathtaking tile in the Tundra. False alarm - it was because of all the coast, as well as the lone Mountain that bordered it. Next turn, I'm really going to send my warrior west to look at the corridor between Borodino and Illmatic, and I hope that I haven't been too delayed.

[marcopolothefraud]

Turn 14

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Found your barb camp, marco:




In two turns' time, when I have discipline, I'll resume clearing both camps at once. We'll get +100 gold that can be used for a worthy purchase (a trader or builder, I think?) down the road. [url=https://solarmoviez.ru/movie/the-leftovers-season-1-11863/watching.html][/url]

[marcopolothefraud]

Turn 15


Hmm... 2 barbarian camps must've spawned 7 tiles away from Borodino, and 1 camp seems to have spawned 6 tiles (?) away from Illmatic. More money for us. It's located on Lake Mackay, so I'm going to call them the "Mackay Barbarians" to clear things up.

I found a Reddit post that explained the rules of barbarian spawning in Civ 6:

Barbarian camps, if they spawn, they are 7 tiles away from a non-city state city. So with your initial warrior, don't go too far, but make sure you check out all the corners in a 7 tiles perimeter.

The above applies reversely, when you see a barbarian outpost at a random place, unless it's late game on a tiny island, that means some players city is 7 tiles away. Yes, every camp is associated to a certain (non-city state) city. 

The 7 tile rule ignores water tiles. So it could be like: city center - 4 tiles - several tiles of sea or lake - 2 tiles - camp, but I'm not 100% sure about this.

Some things:

1. Are the Mackay Barbarians associated with Illmatic, or with some civ located far to our east? Does it mean we should scout eastward once we have Sailing?

2. The Mackay scout will (in all likelihood) successfully get away from my warrior, and will trigger an invasion of Illmatic - should I build another warrior to fight it off? My western warrior would have to take 6-7 turns to come back to Illmatic and defend it, but I'm worried that 2 may not be enough. CMF, could you please check if the Mackay barbarians have horses nearby?


3. How likely is it to get a Russian Golden Age? So far, all the guaranteed events are: 
- 4 era score from defeating both barbarian camps
- 4 era score from the unique Lavra
- 1 era score from a Pantheon
- 2 era score from your civilization's first seafaring unit

That doesn't get you very far. Should you get Dance of the Aurora so you could have +3 era score from a high-adjacency Lavra? Or should you shift gears and go for a Classical Dark Age instead?