[69] Ginger and Miguelito do as fortune commands

[Cornflakes]

If you put on your rose colored glasses, Joao actually looks Industrious. Instead of building moar fastr setlrs, take the savings from your first couple settlers and granaries and invest them in your wonder of choice! If you squint he looks Spiritual, take the couple of turns saved on your early settlers and granaries and spend them on your first couple revolts (plus you get the temple bonus hammers early at the granary)!!

[Amicalola]

Joao: the true swiss army knife of CtH.

[Mjmd]

I believe TBS was big into the idea of 'whatever your leader does best, use those saving elsewhere instead of just doubling down on the thing they do best'.

[Ginger*]

Yes, early leaders are flexible like that, you can divest to invest and run more cottages, or build a nice wonder, or push your luck with border "negotiations"
A Swiss army knife is a good comparison. Can do just about everything but poorly. 
TBS's idea is rooted in the importance of balancing your needs against diminishing returns. GLH or AP won't help you if you have only 8 cities, having double your opponent's MFG will not let you invade Rifles with Knights, having super-fast early growth will not help you when the happy cap is 4 and tech-limited to Calendar/Monarchy/Religion. So yes, use your surplus to cover your gaps
...
But
...
The best way to extract the most from traits is still to lean into them and build an empire that lets you exploit that multiplier *repeatedly* and enjoy the winnings rather than invest less. So I value traits that don't run into ceilings, and the expansion trap ceiling is one of the best-known ones in Civ 4 (this rubberbanding is the reason it's one of the best balanced 4x)
Joao is also considerably better on the normal handmade wonderland maps. I can easily foresee myself simply running out of good tiles to work as a result of happy cap and map poverty.

Joao's ideal game is when he has enough luxuries/commerce/contested juicy border land to make pumping moar stlrs fatter worthwhile. Because sure you can be a Swiss army knife doing other things, but you'll be a dull knife.
I don't want to whittle a whistle, I need a machete (Constr., Guilds) to hack off my neighbor's arm, or a rope (Taj, Monk Trinity) to choke them out.
Civ is a game about creating comparative advantage against the field. Using some combination of diplomatic gambits, tactics, and most importantly, development. To seal the outcome, you need either decisive offensive power or sufficient defensive power and superior economic scaling.
So, the big question is when does your advantage kick in? 

Axe wars suck, but Joao is going to struggle to reach Cats (God forbid we peer further into the tech tree) before Pacal or Vicky or Mansa unless there is some juicy cottage land and generous luxuries to support his growth.

Again, just like Monte of Spain jumps a tier if he starts with fish, Joao also benefits greatly from discovering a gold mine or fur camp. We've found a lot of forests so far, which is nice, but has me worried that we're going to be flooded with F/H and little useful to do with it. 

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Ofc the real reason I'm complaining is to lampshade and make my accomplishments this game seem more impressive.

[Ginger*]

Some good news, we’ve uncovered a source of Ivory in the SouthWest and Gems directly east of our capital. Both of these will be contested resources. Gems especially would be nice to settle on but probably difficult to hold. Its unclear if that jungled land across the strait from my Capital is an island or an extension of the same continent.

[Ginger*]

HURRAH
   
We're saved!
(From having an original idea) 

Of course the stone is closer to Nauf, whose capital I've located with fortify-scrying, but that's something that Joao can work with

Speaking of Nauf, definitely a relief not to meet Gav of the Romans first, and I wouldn't want Pindicator as Pacal either nearby, but he's very aggressive and crafty so we need to be careful.
It's with no little glee that I uncover a wide hill range along our border—we might be able to flex some of the Celtic abilities in coming wars.

[Ginger*]

So I’ve uncovered more of the river valley to the east, and despite it being all plains, the sight of several wet wheats and lots and lots and lots of hills has lifted my spirits for this game.
Celts will be seeing some action in the midgame for sure, and Joao will be helpful in settling up on this disputed boundary and big land to fill.
My intense hatred for the combo originally stemmed from the Hunt/Mys techs and mediocre capital annulling the advantage of having a fast leader, leaving us without an overmatch zone, or era of relative supremacy. And while a plains hill would’ve fixed so so much, I think our start will be acceptable.

Lots of forests around does demand an answer of Metal Casting or Math. As long as we only have that gem uncovered I think it’s Math as priority (probably by Rep Scientist bulbing)

[Miguelito]

Ginger is stingy with screenshots as per habit   so I logged in to see that blessed valley:


So we're trying to get more than our fair share towards naufragar.

From Discord:

Found a plains river valley along our Nauf border further north
Slightly on his side but trust in Joao?

The problem with that is of course that we're facing human Montezuma playing Montezuma. You remember how in PB64 he assaulted you over sea for reasons that might be viewed as a bit flimsy? Well now we're giving him reasons. It might be that those spots are as vital to him as they are to us. Not saying that we should cede them, but we need to be prepared for what's coming.

My questions would be: How many unpromoted axes do we need to meet his with shock? Worth getting a barracks? If we count on building walls we also need to occupy those hills for a time to shield the workers, and then prevent him from pillaging the tile? Can we achieve this before boosting our production with cheap granaries?

And then of course there's  the question how we get there. There are a few fogged tiles yet where we could hope for a deer or sheep, but otherwise it's a bit tricky? Settle the W/NW wheats first and then turn south?

Math as priority (probably by Rep Scientist bulbing)

So are we set already on good ol' mids over GLH? I can agree that the upcoming nauf confrontation will probably not leave us enough free hammers for GLH during the crucial timeframe. Now if we delay maths until mids are finished + the 17 turns it takes for a GS to come out I don't know, but that's for later

[Ginger*]

Sorry I’ve taken to writing reports from my phone

Players like that who can be relied upon to attack you anyways are at the very least predictable. And if he’s going to anyways, we might as well play like Gav and put on the squeeze.
He might get that eastern river wheat simply because of proximity, not sure there’s a lot we can do unless he slips up.

I think that with Masonry after pottery and stone-boosted Duns we should be fine to bunker down against Shock axes, not a lot he can do until Cats except cry.

I don’t think we delay Granaries for workers/settlers/axes, since we should be able to make that stone our 3rd or 4th city anyways, one question is whether to road all the way there for logistics, or pre move our military to the site and road on the return to save worker turns before founding, once we found the city and deny any of the hill settles that might block it, I’ll be feeling a whole lot better.

[Amicalola]

What is the reasoning behind the 6 tiles west capital sign?