[SPOILERS] yuris125: make the choice

[yuris125]

scooter - Willem (Fin/Cre) of Vikings (Fishing, Hunting)
pindicator - Montezuma (Agg/Spi) of Japan (Fishing, The Wheel)
SevenSpirits - Zara Yaqob (Cre/Org) of Rome (Fishing, Mining)
yuris125 - Elizabeth (Fin/Phi) of Greece (Fishing, Hunting)
dazedroyalty - Darius (Fin/Org) of Sumeria (Agriculture, The Wheel)

3 Fin leaders, perhaps not a surprise. Customs House has no effect in this setup, but this still is a very strong trait
2 Cre leaders - I guess it's also taken purely for the trait, free Barracks don't have too much of an effect
2 Org leaders - +1 food from Supermarket is going to be helpful in the early game, but we'll see how useful the trait itself will be

I'm surprised no one took Victoria, I think 4/1/5 and 3/0/3 tiles + fast Settlers would've been very strong in the early game. I was thinking her myself before picking the leader, but decided to go with the plan and stick to Phi. Quite possibly Victoria was a better pick than Willem. But what do I know

Pindicator's Montezuma pick is interesting, he starts with an Observatory and a Temple, so can work a scientist and a priest from the start, so will have a faster tech rate and means to produce two kinds of great persons. Is it worth picking Agg over economic traits? Again we'll see

Remarkably, no Exp leaders

Speaking of civs, I'm surprised with Seven's pick, Mining was the starting tech I was sure no one was going to take. I think losing a railrodaded hill is a huge deal. But we'll see

Almost everyone went with Fishing and no Agri, so whales will be worked. My only advantage is that I will be able to work them on T1; Scooter and Seven will get the tile on T2, Pindicator on T3

Dazed is the only one who decided to sacrifice whales. He also decided to sacrifice the town, so he will have no high commerce tiles in the early game

Finally, just to list who has what

Scooter: Customs House, Barracks, 0 culture, no forest on the elephants
Pindicator: Observatory, Islamic Temple, 0 culture, hamlet instead of town
Seven: Supermarket, Barracks, 0 culture, flatland railroaded tile
Myself: Customs House, Odeon, 0 culture, no forest on the elephants
Dazed: Customs House, Supermarket, no whaling boats, hamlet instead of town

[yuris125]

T0

The password is 39greeks

And here's my start



The capital has happy cap of 9 (4 base, 1 from Palace, 2 from Odeon, 1 from forest preserve, 1 from whales). Will go up to 10 when ivory is connected. Will be a long time till I can use all of that cap

I don't really need another Worker yet, and I do want to grow. So decided to open with a Warrior first this time. Considered an idea to go Settler first for a short while, but decided I don't want to do it in an AW game

The Worker moved to improve the ivory, which is all he can do at the moment. Researching AH for the pigs. With the whales, I should be able to finish it fast enough to not lose any Worker turns. I'm considering delaying Agriculture by quite a bit; working pigs, whales, ivory and the town at size 4 looks reasonable to me, and I do want to get Mining-BW sooner rather than later

The fort my Scout discovered might indicate the iron location, as it did in PBEM32. We'll see. In any case, the 2nd city will probably go somewhere near the fish, and the fort will probably be in the BFC. I'm currently thinking about the hill where the Scout is as the 2nd city spot, but of course I need more map knowledge before deciding

[timski]

Any chance of an update?

[yuris125]

Yes, coming up this evening

[yuris125]

So, as planned, I went ahead and researched AH (T6), followed by Mining (T9) and BW (T15). The capital built a Warrior, then a Workboat for the fish in the 2nd city. By T12 it grew to size 4, finished the WB, and started working on the first Settler

The fort to the east was actually on the horses, and the copper was in awkward spots. I felt I needed horses to feel safe, and they were in the BFC of the 2nd city I originally planned. So it was founded on T18, and I immediately connected the fish



I made a big mistake here, forgetting to adopt Slavery when the Settler was enroute. By the time I remembered about it, I felt a turn of anarchy was going to be too painful

On T19 I researched Agriculture, and decided to go towards Hinduism. 2 reasons:

* I wanted a religion
* Polytheism is the only early tech above Monarchy in GA's bulb list

Meanwhile, the capital immediately started to work on another Settler, finished T23

Hinduism was founded on T24, and the 3rd city founded on the same turn. Here I realised I didn't have the Wheel to connect the horses and started working on it. I also still lacked Pottery to build Granaries. Maybe the Slavery mistake wasn't too big of a deal after all



By T30 both remaining Worker techs were researched, and I started working on Writing. The capital was building another Settler. Meanwhile, Seven's Warrior came towards the village to my south; it was obvious he was going to pillage it. My Warrior was shadowing him to make sure he didn't turn towards my cities, but at this point I decided to try to save the village, as I wanted to use it for a future city. Seven's Warrior had Combat 1, so I had a 32% chance to succeed. Unfortunately it didn't happen, but it was worth a try



Meanwhile, my own Warrior was pillaging the village near Dazed, which gave me a nice research budget (about 30g received from pillaging)

On T33 I discovered Writing, and found that Priesthood could be researched in 1 turn. With Oracle not built, I felt it was a good idea. The plan I decided on was to get the first Great Artist, bulb Monarchy, then Oracle Feudalism. This would allow me to feel reasonably safe against all early units, except maybe Seven's Praetorians





And that's exactly how things worked out. The GA was born on T39, with Oracle finishing on T40 - which is the last played turn



Demos are ok, if not spectacular



My main concern was the military, my army currently consists of 2 Chariots and 2 Warriors, or something ridiculous like this. However, the power rating is surprisingly good

My economy is in reasonable shape, so my current plan is to research Archery for Longbows, then get civic techs, and start a golden age with the next GA, who I expect to be born around T52-53. Yes, an early GA is not ideal, but so is losing turns to anarchy. My goal is to research Civil Service and adopt Bureaucracy by the end of the golden age - didn't count if it's possible yet, but that's what I want to do. Meanwhile, I need to build Longbows and continue expanding, I suspect I will fall behind very quickly if I don't do so

[yuris125]

Sorry for lack of updates; unfortunately I usually get the turn on the lunch break, and only have time to play, not to take screenshots

It's T57, I'm up to 7 cities and my plan for early Civil Service backfired big time





Last time I was talking how my economy was in decent shape without Currency.. well, at 7 cities it's almost non-existent. I need Currency, I need IW to clear the jungle from resources I want, and both these techs are more important than early Bureaucracy. I have the second Great Artist, can start a golden age right now, and am thinking about it. At least I will be able to adopt Slavery and HR, and it will help me get to Currency. But then I will need to burn two great people to adopt Bureaucracy and probably OR. Not sure it's what I want, but default civics are really hurting



See what I mean? It's terrible

At the moment I'm mostly building Workers, I skimped on them to get faster expansion - probably another mistake, but I'm glad I was able to poach the flood plains spot from Dazed. Longbows should keep me safe for another 20 or even 30 turns. The plan is to improve the tiles, grow cities, research critical techs (Currency, IW and Calendar), then I will return to the Bureaucracy research. And I probably will have to use the GA very soon. Not too happy about it, but what can I do...

[yuris125]

Dear Seven,

Your wonderwhoring is annoying

Kind regards,
Elizabeth

Seven completed 3 wonders in the last 4 or 5 turns: MoM, Colossus and TGLH. He's also well ahead of everyone in crop yield and other important demos