[SPOILERS] The Rise and Fall of Whositania (all glory to Whositania!)

[Whosit]

Yeah, I said I wouldn't sandbox this, but that was before I lost my job and became unemployed again. Now I have too much time on my hands.

I'm feeling a little more confident in my opening because I've been doing a bit of reading in other PB threads, and I've seen some better players than I do a nearly identical thing in a very similar starting position. I'm also wondering if I should not select a tech at all until I pop that hut. Will investigate.

I also tested out to around T50. It's very vague because I didn't properly sim for city #2, but for the capital, I would either go 1x Warrior > Worker > Settler and get that Turn 48, or 2x Warrior > Worker (whip) > Settler on turn 49. Well, EoT, etc. I think in this case I'd favor having the extra Warrior out and about. City 2 is probably going to whip a Barracks as soon as it hits size 2, and I think I'll be going Pottery after Bronze Working, so it might be able to start a Granary. If not, build a Warrior while growing and then do a Granary. It'll be nice to have a 3XP unit out so early, even if it's just a Warrior.

I think the Capital will follow some sort of Grow > Worker > Settler plan for a while. Will certainly grow into a plains hill mine. Not sure if I'll bother building a 5th tile improvement, though I probably should, even if I'm just going to whip it off. An extra hammer from a mine would add up over time. Growth will probably be Warrior or something, or partially build a Granary until the city is the right size.

I think I'll also get a relatively early Archery. Maybe it's an SP mentality that I usually skip it for so long.

[Whosit]

Hm... looks like this won't be going anywhere fast any time soon. I'm assuming that when this actually does get reloaded and restarted, I'll be obligated to make the same scout moves I did here.

[Ceiliazul]

I'll be obligated to make the same scout moves I did here.

Yeah, definitely a good idea.

Also, Capital "grow -worler- settler": also a good idea... for every civ game ever!

[Whosit]

Yes, well, I have to spell out such capital plans because I think we can agree that I tend to get side-tracked if I don't carve this stuff into a stone tablet and then beat myself over the head with it! I'm just left wondering what everyone else is posting about. I guess people with a team can chatter and plan a bit. I suppose I might kill some time by tweaking my sim a bit to account for what land I can actually see and guess at for my 2nd city.

Assuming I don't see anything remarkable, I'm expecting to settle City 2 (I wonder what I'll name it) 1E (6) of the river corn. That will also give it Ivory in 1st ring. I suppose that may not be entirely ideal for a second city? I've been learning you usually want it to be able to share food with the capital. However... at least an irrigated grassland corn can feed a single city somewhat adequately. Plus the Ivory for early happiness would be great. I wonder if everyone gets Ivory, even with the War Elephant nerfs. We shall see, we shall see....

I suppose another benefit of that spot is that it is very close by roads. The most efficient route might be a road 1SE, 1SE of the cap, so units cross the river with their second move point, anyway.

[Whosit]

I also wonder about my general tendency to go for Maths as soon as it's available. I generally dislike doing a lot of forest chops before Maths, because I see that as wasted/lost hammers. Benefit now might be greater than later, but I usually like to get the most out of limited resources. My territory doesn't appear to be heavily forested, but I think I have enough to get what I need. I suppose I'll put as many chops as I can into Workers and Settlers. Maybe I'll run a few sims with chopping in it, but since there's little point going further than turn 50 or so, that's probably not enough time to really judge anything.

Also, I wonder how far I'll be able to expand before I really need Currency. And I want Archery early-ish. Maybe after Pottery? Or shortly after I'll have Copper hooked up so I can keep building cheap defenders so I'm not forced to leave costly axes as garrisons everywhere like I usually do.....

[Whosit]

I forgot I can't improve Ivory without Animal Husbandry. Also, I forgot that when you settle cities that nab some of the capital's food, the capital's ability to be a Worker/Settler factory diminishes. Hrm....

[Whosit]

Based on my own recent experiences, and based on some threads I've been reading, I have a new sub goal for me: Settle for copper with 2nd city if at all possible. Also connect that copper immediately.

[Whosit]

So, I logged into the new game with the new mod and things look good. I performed the same moves, though I haven't ended turn and plan to leave research unselected. I don't know if it would be best to ignore the revealed hut for now or beeline it, but they say "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." I don't know if I want to risk someone else popping it. The map could be cramped, I don't know.

I'm also not sure where the new "civstats" is going to be hosted but I think that's still being worked on?

[Whosit]

Ugh... the newest restart happened after I played. I'll just wait until tomorrow. I wish there was something new for me to say, but....

[Whosit]

I'm still pretty confused about the state of the game, but I don't think it's started yet? So I think I'll ramble about something just for the sake of posting.

I don't think I'm ever going to have much in the way of opponent analysis. I might try to comment on whoever my neighbors turn out to be, but chances are I won't know anything about them. Self analysis, though.... For strengths, I think I can do a pretty competent job if I'm focusing on a goal. Weakness: That goal isn't always a good idea, and I can also easily become side-tracked, too. Additionally, I tend to not expand quickly enough. Therefore, my goal in this game is to expand early and often.

That's why "grow > worker > settler" in my capital is something I'm going to strive to do, and I will try to expand until my economy is almost collapsed. Or something like that. I think that should inform my teching choices as well. I've already stated that my Agg/Org traits should be good for managing a large empire. There's another point I want to get to, but maybe I should go for a "fast" currency. I'm not exactly sure what fast should mean, but I think that I should research all the worker traits I need first, probably get Archery to be safe and smart, and then just plow through Writing, Maths, and then Currency. This path also opens up a direct line to Code of Laws, which would allow me to expand even further with cheap courthouses! Now, I imagine that diverging for some other techs may be wise, such as HBR, Alphabet (open border trade routes) and masonry > construction, but I think that if I try to focus on "worker techs and currency/col beeline" that should keep me from doing anything stupid.

I'm not going to build any Wonders unless I somehow end up with an Engineer. I doubt I'll found any religions, either, so settling for happy resources will be important. Maybe I can get religion spreads if I'm lucky. I suppose that with a "Code of Laws" beeline, there's the slim chance I'll get Confucianism, but I seriously doubt it. Someone going through the religious techs will get there much faster, and someone out there is almost certainly going to beeline it harder than I will.

Something else to consider is how to leverage my Aggressive trait. I think for the earliest parts of the game, the best way to leverage it is defensively. While I do want to rely on cheaper Archers for military police and basic garrison duties, I want to produce enough Axemen and Spearmen to remind any neighbors that I'm a prickly hedgehog that they shouldn't mess with. By the time I start running out of space to expand, though, I hope to have identified my weakest neighbor so I can make an opportunistic strike on them. We'll see how that goes, though.

If the game ever starts.