Woden's Rise and Fall from Civ VI glory

[Woden]

Turns 4-7

Seven turns in and I am already behind in reporting, but not much time to write up stuff during the holidays...

Turn 4

Open the game to a little surprise...




Early barb scout. If that horse was not there I would have left him alone and invite a barb rush to get the bronze working boost but I don't want to be bothered by a horde of horseman this early. I decide to chase the scout away with the warrior. It will delay scouting to the west a few turns but I think it is the safer bet and maybe there is a city state to the northeast?


Turn 5
Move warrior east and find...




That camp is really close. Good thing I moved this way. The warrior will probably soften the spearman up until I can get a slinger to finish him off after the warrior is finished at the capital. 

Turn 6

I move to the forest tile for added defensive strength....




I look at the settlers filter and see no cities to the north. Not sure how much land is up here but it looks like the camp is on the coast. 

Turn 7

I attack the camp...




Will heal the next few turns. Warrior finished next turn and I will start a slinger, which will take 4 turns with overflow and population growth, then a settler. Warrior will scout south and slinger will move north to get the boost then return to  protect the settler.

I really don't like not being able to scout for city states now but I don't like early horseman hordes more.

[Woden]

Turn 8
Warrior finishes, start a Slinger. Warrior moves south to explore. Northern Warrior heals.





Turn 9

Southern warrior finds more desert but maybe a potential city site along river. Northern warrior heals and will attack once more next turn to soften the Spearman up before moving west to look for a city state. Capital grows to size 2 and works the sheep tile, shaving a turn off of the Slinger (due in 3).




I am leading the military power and probably am the only one to start with warrior. Suboptimal leads in religion and science. Natural wonder by him is something that provides science? And he probably settled on lake or coast for faith.


Turn 10

Southern warrior moves south and finds a Carthage Warrior. Somebody has already meet them for the first meet envoy. They want me to get the boost for State Workforce. 




Looks like somebody might be directly south of me or west of Carthage. Northern warrior hits barb Spearman, softening him up for the Slinger. 


Turn 11

Southern warrior finds a nice spot for city #2. Northern warrior heads west to explore. Slinger due next turn. interesting news on the international front. TheArchduke is now leading science and religion. I think he is first to finish a tech and must have found a religious city state. 




Need to explore before all city states have been found. 


Turn 12

Start turn off with...




Start Mining. Slinger finishes, start Settler. Due in 8 turns, along with a population growth. Move Slinger north, northern warrior moves west, and southern warrior moves south to find...




Another horseman barb camp! So much for exploring for city states. I think the warrior will defog a path to Carthage for a trade route and road, then hit the barb camp after I finish Code of Laws. Not sure if I want to wait to settle my second city for the extra era point, we will see.

[Woden]

Turn 13

Not much going on this turn as my units move in there respective direction. Southern warrior will hang around barb camp a few turns. I am sure the scout will move north and see my city and I will not be able to wait until I get my 2nd city settled before taking the camp for the extra era point. 




The score break down is in the above screenshot. Rowain is the only civ that has not grown and TheArchduke, Alhazard, and I have each finished a tech. 


Turn 14

Yep, barb scout finds my capital. I will need to block teh scout from reporting back to the camp and take out the camp soon. 




I reworked my dot map. Not sure yet where my second city will go. The southern cities are far better for fast growth than the desert city or northern city. My third city will probably be the desert city, to get the copper hooked up and have maintenance income for a large army. 


Turn 15
 Slinger was attacked by the northern barb spear and I throw some rocks at him, almost killing him. Southern warrior will attack camp next turn. 




Suboptimal added a pop growth and +2 era points and probably got his pantheon. Rowain (wgh) and TheArchduke add +1 era point. I think they may have met each other, but possibly something else. Code of Laws finishes next turn.

[Woden]

Turn 16

Open the save to...




Third civilization to finish a civic. Suboptimal finishes this turn and Alhazard finishes last turn. Alhazard must have a culture providing tile that he worked for a few turns to finish it last turn. I suspect everybody else will finish it this turn too. It also means that nobody has found a cultural city state yet...




Checking settler vision, I spy a city. The desert tile between the 2 mountains in the far west does not belong to my capital. Pretty sure it is a city state, too close for another civilization. I am going to let this city state determine where I settle my 2nd city. If I get the first met envoy, my neighbor is more south than west and I will settle to the south. If the city state has already met someone, then my neighbor is more west than south and I will settle the northern city or look for a spot southwest of my capital on the other side of the mountains. Of coarse, there may be both a neighbor to the south and to the west and it really won't matter. I will know in a few turns. 

For policy cards, I go for God King and Discipline. God King because I want to get the pantheon out of the way and I think I want a culture providing pantheon to help with the early game, unless Earth Goddess or Goddess of the Harvest is still around for faith to buy builders and settlers. If both the good faith pantheons and both cultural pantheons are gone, I will go with God of the Forge. 

Unit-wise, my slinger throws a rock and kills the spearman for the Archery boost and the southern warrior takes a whack at the spearman in the southern camp. Slinger will take the northern camp next turn and I will get the southern camp in 3 turns. Settler finishes in 4 turns, along with Mining. I start Craftsmanship for my next civic and will research it down to 40% before switching to Foreign Trade.

[Woden]

Turn 17

Open the save to find...



Damn barb warrior spawned in the camp. I retreat the slinger to open ground and will promote him next turn and attack the warrior in the open field. Sans a few bad dice rolls, I should be able to take him out before the slinger dies. In the west, the warrior moves west to see if I can get vision on the city. Instead I find...



Mountains, more mountains. I can see that it looks like a scientific city state, so lets hope we are first to meet them. Warrior in the southeast takes a whack at the southern camp. 


Turn 18

Western warrior crosses the river and notice after I move him, it would have been quicker by a turn to move southeast. Hopefully I don't lose first contact by a turn. I promote the slinger to have +5 against land units and southeast warrior attacks camp, expecting a kill but gets bad dice roll and spearman survives another turn...




Turn 19

Move western warrior closer to city state and will make contact next turn. Slinger throws some rocks at barb warrior and should survive another attack and be able to kill warrior next turn. Southeast warrior kills spearman and takes camp, will promote next turn...




Turn 20
Big turn. Start off with...



and move western warrior to find...



Hattusa and I am first contact. Should give a nice boost to my tech-rate. Looks like whoever met Carthage must be more south than west, so I will send settler south. Settler finishes at capital and I move him south. Let's hope that barb scout is east and bother my settler. I will move the southeastern warrior north to watch over him. I start working on a builder. I kill the barb warrior with the slinger, getting my 3rd barb kill and the boost for Bronze Working, which I start. Looked at my military power and it is 9 before I promote the southeast warrior. Isn't a scout like 10, my military power is less than a scout, my units are hurting.

[Woden]

Turn 21
Couple of uneventful turns today. I heal the western warrior so he doesn't die if I stumble upon another camp. Slinger moves towards empty camp and will take it next turn unless another barb spawns. Southeast warrior moves towards river to watch over settler. 





Turn 22

All that happen this turn is my slinger taking the camp and a barb scout appearing by my western warrior. Here is the current score... 




Most notable thing is that suboptimal has 3 techs and dropped a population. TheArchduke also dropped a population. Everybody is getting their 2nd cities out. Who will win the race to 2nd city. Probably not me since I am traveling to a 2nd ring city.

[Woden]

Turn 23
Uneventful turn. Barb scout in the west attacked my warrior. I fortify and heal and will let the scout suicide against him. Slinger moves south and finds the scout from the southern camp. Settler moves closer to city site. Here is how it looked at the end of turn...




Turn 24
Barb scout did suicide against my western warrior. I move the warrior and reveal a bunch of coast. Slinger moves to wheat tile and will move to horses to heal. In the southeast, settler moves on a hill to get much needed vision in the area and finds...



A really nice city spot. Double sugar, deer, sheep, cows, and spice plus a bunch of hills. I will buy the northern sugar for fast growth and can share it with the desert city when I settle it. 


Turn 25
I settle my second city...



Third person to 2nd city. Alhazard settled last turn and suboptimal settled this turn. TheArchduke does have a settler out and may settle this turn. 

I promote the western warrior and start heading south with the southern warrior. He will move south to see if he can find anymore city states or my southern neighbor. New city starts a builder and capital will finish one next turn and start another settler for desert city.

[Woden]

Turn 26

Uneventful turn, builder finishes at Pella and I start a settler. Builder moves up to horses...




Turn 27
Pasture the horses at Pella, giving boost to horseback riding. Western warrior moves south and reveals coast. Southeast warrior is heading south to see if I can find a city state or my neighbor; reveals coast to the south. Unless this is more of a fractal type map, this might be the smaller continent with only 2 people but land might branch out in both direction in the south, we will see. 



Barb scout shows up at Methone and will probably suicide against city since I already took his camp. 


Turn 28
Barb scout did attack city. I will just let the city take care of him and continue south with warrior. Methone grew to 2 population and I assign the second citizen to the spices to get my pantheon and out of God King quicker...



Move builder to mercury to mine it. I also buy the 2 encampment tiles. Will place the one at the capital next turn but the one at Methone will be chopped into a slinger to speed production.


Turn 29

Open the save to...



I have a second ring iron at the capital and it should be the next tile picked for expansion. Southern warrior continues south and has not found anything. Will continue south. Western warrior is also heading south and finds more coast. Looking at the score...



Suboptimal has 2 civics and 4 techs already, compared to my 1 and 3 respectively. TheArchduke has 1 civic and 2 techs. I look to be keeping up to suboptimal with my science city state plus I just finished a more expensive tech and he may just have the first 3 techs. I start archery but will switch with 1 turn left unitil I chop a slinger for the encampment.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

So I just finished a reread of JFC Fuller's "The Generalship of Alexander the Great."

I've got Macedon on my mind - following along with interest!

[Woden]

CMF, good to have you following along but I am not sure you are going to like what I have to say this turn...

Turn 30

Big turn! I start this turn by moving my southern warrior to find...



Nan Madol, and someone has already met them. This leads me to believe that some is located in the middle of...



Of coarse, they could be east of Nan Madol but since Nan Madol is on the coast, it is unlikely. My working hypotheses on the map right now is that I think I am on the 2 person continent with someone (I think I know who, get to it in a little bit) located south and west of Carthage and Nan Madol. 

Now for Nan Madol and the part CMF might not like. Nan Madol provide culture for each district (including city centers) on coastal tiles or lake tile. CMF showed how powerful they can be in PBEM 7 and MJW is right that they are too powerful. I can't let them live and have someone else benefit. Nan Madol will be Target #1. Plan right now is to send a trade route to Nan Madol ASAP to get a road to the south then take the city and use it to launch an attack on my southern neighbor, 

In other news, I buy the wheat tile at Pella and move builder towards it to farm and get the boost for irrigation. I have lots of sugar and spice to hook up and get the 10% happiness boost. 


Turn 31
 I decide to move the southern warrior west and find...



I have a nice, protected valley here with mountains and coast surrounding my cities. It will be really hard to attack me. I wonder if my neighbor has the same. And speaking of my neighbor, I don't think I want to meet them quite yet. The longer they don't know I am their neighbor the better. Less time for them to ramp up military protection. The plan will be to defog around Carthage and southwest of my capital. I don't think I will scout south of Nan Madol yet. The western warrior will move to the horses next turn and then circle back to defog on the western side of the mountains. I think I will push south of Nan Madol when I am ready to attack it. Hopefully whoever is down there won't have much time to prepare for my invasion and hopefully they are located where I suspect. 

I think I know who it is...



I am second in culture and suboptimal is first. The difference with the people behind me can be chalked up to population differences but I have the same population as suboptimal and someone has found Nan Madol for the first meet envoy and +2 culture. I am pretty sure it is suboptimal and he is located southwest of me, somewhere in the fog. This is not ideal since he has a natural wonder and plenty of faith. The minute he finds me, he should go all out for a religion and take Defender of the Faith. That could be problematic, as it would get us on equal terms if I have a great general. I will have to have superior numbers to take him out, especially with Cornflakes in his corner. 


Turn 32
Turn came to me as I was writing the last few turns up, so one more turn to report. I start by moving my warriors...



In the west, coast continues south. Warrior will start moving east to defog north of Carthage and make his way back to my capital. Southern warrior will go to the bananas and head over to the eastern coast to look for seafood and a good spot for a coastal city. 

Looking over the city states, I find...



Someone (suboptimal?) has a 2nd envoy into Nan Madol. Must have completed a quest as he only has 2 civics and no Mysticism. If I were him, I would be heading there ASAP. I will have to check after he finishes his next civic because it could be Mysticism for the envoy. I will have to give Nan Madol and their units lots of room if I don't want to be found out yet. Might have 2 or 3 turns before he finishes his next civic. Will have to go back and check the numbers.

Edit: Now that I have a better picture of the game, I am going to try to get a strategy post up sometime in the next few days. I am thinking I can take Nan Madol safely around Turn 70.