Objection! [SPOILERS]

[NobleHelium]

It's a legitimate educational game. Some schools have granted credit for beating it.

[El Grillo]

That's neat, a good friend of mine is in his second year of law school, and he got a kick out of hearing about it.

While waiting for the turn, I thought a bit further ahead. In 74A, I felt it was absolutely essential to win the Oracle, so I sacrificed early expansion and especially my worker count. This game, I don't have to deal with two IND civs, so I want to make sure I get a fast return from the early granary (I'm thinking at least two or three whipped settlers out of the capital). I also want to get more comfortable stacking whip unhappiness to do something like 6->3 whip a settler, regrow to 4, 4->2 whip a worker. Of course, that will depend on what my access to luxuries looks like, and how scouting unfolds, but I expect to have cities sharing the corn and the pig ASAP.

Might as well make use of PRO archers to settle confidently and lean on FIN to help me keep up in tech. Other things I want to think about:

- timing a GA for civic and religion swaps (can I start a GA, swap to HR/OR/religion, and tech to Bureau in time?)
- doing something with Citadels (a GE can bulb Engineering but Machinery and Construction are both expensive and militaristic, and honestly it might be better to just rush the Pyramids; though with a Byzantine player, pikes would be handy)
- how to build courthouses and lighthouses effectively without the ORG discount (beyond making use of OR, I'm considering having enough workers to not just chop, but also temporarily farm for new cities until they can whip through the desired infrastructure, then pave them over with cottages)

[El Grillo]

T1:

Our scout peers northward and finds a riverside grassland hill Silver. Silver is the weakest precious metal, but it's still the earliest happiness resource I can access, and a 1/2/7 tile is still quite impressive. Ideally there'd be a second food resource nearby.


I think the next scout move will be NE onto the grassland hill. Otherwise, we proceed according to plan. Hopefully Jowy won't take 48 hours with the turn this time


Everyone else having a GNP of 18 can be accounted for as CRE/SPI Byzantines researching a tier-1 tech and EXP/CHM Natives researching a tier-2 tech. Jowy could be researching Fishing or Hunting, and Khan is most likely on Animal Husbandry. I'm already a bit confused about the MFG/crop numbers, it appears that greenline and I are working 1/2/0 tiles while Jowy and Khan are working 2/1/0 tiles, but shouldn't I be 4th in crops and not 3rd? I thought the demo screen always displayed the active player as losing ties.


Unsurprisingly, everyone settled in place.

[El Grillo]

T2:

Borders pop, revealing:


No food near the silver

Demos show someone swapping to a 3/0/1 tile.

[El Grillo]

T3:

Why hello there, wet corn! That brings us to an actual decision over where the place the second city. Our answer:



The tricky thing is that the spot 1E of the sign can't work any 3-commerce-producing tiles on the turn it's founded (other than the lake, which the capital would be working at the time), so I have to rule it out. Contrary to what I said before, working a 2/0/1 tile that turn won't be sufficient to finish AH (curse the 10% increment), and having the capital work a 1/0/3 delays growth on key turns. Furthermore, getting the silver hooked up immediately means being able to whip 6->3 without waste, and also allows me to tech a religion faster, which will pop borders when there are free worker turns to improve the corn.

No change in the demos.

[ReallyEvilMuffin]

Re the demo ties, the lowest turn order player always wins, not the active player.

[El Grillo]

Ah, that's handy to know. I'm probably getting confused with SP where you're always first in turn order and the active player.

[El Grillo]

T4:

More 4-food tiles and water to the east:



No change in the demos.



T5:

We finish teching Mining and building our workboat, net the fish, and proceed to grow to size 2. Next tech will be BW.

We'll swing by the east just in case there's another resource to the southeast, a riverside grassland gold would be ideal



Demos and score reflect Jowy finishing Fishing and starting a workboat, and greenline finishing his workboat. Khan's worker, despite EXP, should still be 3 turns away.

[El Grillo]

T6:

We've found our first preplaced tile improvement, a riverside lumbermill plains Dye with a yield of 1/2/4 (equivalent to a plains forest Fur camp) and an expected pillage value of 5g. Unfortunately, it's too far for a second city.



Greenline gained 14 points, which means a tech and a growth. Indeed, the top 5 cities shows 1 other size-2 city. I did a quick sim, and it is indeed possible for him to finish AH, just barely, by swapping onto his 5/0/2 fish on T5.

[El Grillo]

T11:

Sorry for the lack of updates, it's been exciting Civ times with setting up PBEM75, playing for REM in PB35. Now we're back to our scheduled programming:

Our scout found Jowy to our southeast, and it's inevitable that he'll find my capital, likely before I find his. I'm sure he wants a peaceful early game until he can leverage his cataphracts, and unfortunately, this time I don't have the option of Impi to slow him down. Let's hope we manage to settle a good choke point like the plains hill my scout is currently on, and that he finds softer targets elsewhere.



I've lapsed on following the demographics, but I went back and jotted down score changes:
Jowy: tech on T8
El Grillo: pop growth on T7, BW on T11
Khan: tech on t7, tech on T11
Greenline*: tech on T10



*Previously, I thought greenline started with Agriculture/Fishing and not Fishing/Mining, so he can't have teched AH first, which means he must have teched BW first, but then the numbers stop making sense. Fantastic.