[SPOILERS] Suboptimal's Arabian Adventure

[suboptimal]

Turn 3

Moved the warrior across the river as planned and….



didn’t reveal enough to officially meet Jerusalem.    Eh, I’ll move west to the hill next turn and that will fix that.

Here’s the current selection of Great People available:



I’m not planning on getting into a race for Boudica, even though she might be useful in the event a horseman rush shows up.    Isidore would be handy as that’s a one turn Stonehenge build or more of the Oracle, but there won’t be any GE points until the Renaissance at the earliest.  Zhang Qian is likewise useful, particularly for internal trade routes.  Might be a race to that one and I might have to get involved.  Aryabhata?  Maybe, maybe not.  I might get there first if I get a religion with Jesuit Education out fast enough, but if I don't I don't know that it's a major miss.

[suboptimal]

Turn 4

Move the warrior onto the hill to the west, reveal Jersusalem.  Gain the first to meet envoy & the quest is….



Well, that’ll be an easy one!  The terrain wasn’t fully revealed but note the hex SW of the city center – it shows 2F/1P/1 Culture.  The tooltip for the hex says that it’s Grasslands Forest but doesn’t show any resources.  Since the tile has no other yields and none of the natural wonders provide only one culture without providing something else, I’m going to assume it’s another dye resource and the UI won’t reveal that until I uncover the tile fully.
That's not the immediate scouting goal, since there’s something more important to explore – there’s another set of white borders to two hexes to the west!    The warrior will head 1W 1NW.  If the path to that city center is flat I’ll get the 2nd city state.  Otherwise I’ll move further west and meet it on the following turn.  The question becomes whether I should then turn north or see what’s on the other side of that city state first….

[suboptimal]

Turn 5

While waiting for my next turn to roll around I’ve realized that the close proximity of two religious city-states will present a bit of a dilemma.  The extra 4 faith per turn will get me to a pantheon on Turn 11.  That leaves me six turns to reveal more territory to make an informed decision, since many of the pantheons are terrain/resource based.  The question becomes what to choose?

Right now I’m leaning towards one of Sacred Path, Oral Tradition God of the Forge and Divine Spark.  I’ve ppreviously considered Goddess of the Harvest but I think, given the start, it’ll be of limited usefulness.

Sacred Path: I’ve covered the choice between this and Goddess of the Harvest previously.  With this pantheon I could build a +3 adjacency Holy Site on the current marsh.  With Jerusalem suzerainty it increases to 5 per turn.  If I were to get three envoys with the second religious city-state, that could go as high as +7 faith per turn with no additional production.

Oral Tradition: Right now this affects two tiles.  I am on a continental border and since luxury resources are generally split up between continents (at least, as far as I have seen) I should see more silks to the west and dyes to the east.  It would make the existing dye tile a reasonable 5-yield tile and effectively be a half-monument with no production.

God of the Forge: Bonus military production in all cities.  Could be useful early, especially since I’m in a production-meh region right now.

Divine Spark: bonus Great Person points for prophets, scientists and writers.  It’d get me to a religion quicker and help out in the event of a race to the first prophet.

In the meantime, let’s see who the neighbor is….



and they want a trade route.  Another easy one.  Their suzerain bonus (Colossal Heads) is meh.  I'll take the faith generation, though.

Geographically I think I may be in the north-central or north-east portion of the continent.  There are three current lines of reasoning for that:

- When I was checking out random maps the continental divides that ran NW-SE usually occurred on the eastern portion of the continent.
- La Venta has a river that flows west while the river that Tomatin is on flows east.
- North of the rainforest belt had more grassland than south, and everything here is green.

I've seen some pretty odd river placement and flow directions generated by this map script, so the river flow is not necessarily a good indication.  Right now the settler lens isn't any help because it's a sea of red.  The warrior will turn north along that river and then perhaps cross to go between the forks.  I'll get about 6-7 hexes north of Tomatin then turn east and head back to the city.  The scout will go east along the river until I either find someone (barb camp, city-state or player) then loop south.  

Bug Hunting

I have also found a bug in the game as it relates to Arabia/Saladin.  Saladin’s Righteousness of the Faith has the effect that the worship building is enhanced to add 10% to the faith, culture and science output of Arabian cities.  In an SP game I played Cairo was getting the +10% bonus despite not having a Holy Site and not having a worship building as part of the religion.  It appears that as soon as an Arabian city becomes religious it gains the bonus.   I haven’t yet determined if that occurs if another civ’s religion is predominant in a city or if the religion Saladin founds is required.

I’ve also learned that the faith being generated by a Madrasa is not displayed in the tile's pop-up tool tip or with the religion lens.  It only appears in the tool tip for a city’s faith generation or on the city's district listing.

[suboptimal]

Turn 6

The warrior moves NE onto the rice tile and we’ve found our first barbarian camp of the game.  The good news is that they’re closer to La Venta than to me.  Instead of going right past the camp I’ll cross the river and head upstream from there.  That'll also give me a better look at the mountains as they're right by a potential city site (1 NE of the northern stone).



In international news, Rowain’s capital has grown to Size 2 (empire score increased to 7).

[suboptimal]

Turn 7
No screenshot this turn.  I decided to move the warrior NE rather than crossing the river east, since that would open up a few more tiles.  The right fork of the river ends 1 hex NE of the fork.  The left continues north.  My recollection is that barbarians won’t attack out of their encampment this early in the game.  I’ll cross the river fork heading NE next turn and then make my way north.  

Tomatin will grow to 2 and produce a scout over the interturn.  Nothing new internationally, either.

[suboptimal]

Turn 8
Tomatin has grown to size 2, so the new citizen is set to work one of the rice tiles.  The city is set to grab the sheep tile next turn.  My plan is to work the rice for three turns, then switch to the sheep.  It takes away a little over 3 cogs of production but, based on running the numbers, working the rice for three turns and then switching to the sheep will get Tomatin its 5th population at Turn 25.  Actually, it’d only be the 4th as I plan on holding the settler in the queue until that turn.  Since the scout is completed Tomatin starts building a slinger.

The warrior was undisturbed by the barbarians and crosses the river to the NE and finds the source of the western river fork.  This area will be a good city site, I just need to figure out where to put the settler.  The hidden tile that is NE-NE-E of the warrior is another mountain, giving Tomatin some defense to the west.  It also provides really good sites for a Holy Site and a Campus (2 NE of the warrior is a +4 adjacency spot for both, 1E is a +2).  The warrior will go around the mountains and then head back to Tomatin, hopefully in time for the settler to be ready.

Over in the east, the scout crosses the river to the forest SE of Tomatin and spots the 3F/1C/1S tile.  I head east and reveal Tsingy de Bemaraha (+1 Science & +1 Culture to all surrounding tiles).   The eureka for Astrology is in, so that will be completed after I finish mining.   



Tsingy’s position does present two different dilemmas:

- I can’t settle a city along the river that puts any of the visible tiles in the second ring due to Tomatin’s proximity.  I’d need a river to the south of Tsingy or have to place a city off the river and build an aqueduct.  
- The rice tile and the forest SW of the rice are 3rd ring for Tomatin.  If I purchase my way down to those tiles I could plop the Holy Site there for a +4 adjacency, at the cost of gold and losing a culture and science-producing tile.  OTOH, the holy site’s production cost would be 81 cogs.  If I wait to get Irrigation and Pottery that increases to 97 cogs.  Hmmm….

I will send the scout onto the hill to the east and then decide if it will head NE with the river or keep heading E.  I’d like to have Tsingy scouted out completely before the settler is due – that task might fall to the slinger unless one of my opponents shows up.

Speaking of which, Kaiser’s capital has grown to size 2 and he’s finished a civic, so he’s probably met one (or two) cultural city-states.  Likewise, Bacchus has finished a tech and has had similar luck with scientific city-states.  Rowain and Ichabod have not completed any techs or civics and their population remains unchanged at 2 and 1, respectively.

Morning edit: Had a late night brain fart - the adjacency for a holy site next to a natural wonder is +2, not +4. That makes the original plan of putting the holy site at the marsh with Sacred Path the 'A' plan. Tsingy is better settled by a city, just a matter of finding fresh water within a reasonable distance.

[suboptimal]

Turn 9

I move the warrior 2NE to the source of the rivers.  It’ll cross and start the long trek around the mountains next turn by crossing.  I also tag my potential settling spot for Cragganmore.  The plan for this city would be a campus, holy site and commercial district.  I chose this one instead of the grasslands 1SE as it puts the campus location, wheat, stone and the 1F 3P forested plains tile in the 2nd ring.  If the camp is still there when I settle (doubtful) it should clear automatically.

The scout moves 1E onto the hills.  This reveals 2 stone tiles (one a 2F/2P tile), more available production and a city placement option that can capture three of the Tsingy tiles.  It’s just a matter of will this be a front line or back line location?  The potential site for Glenkinchie is marked accordingly.

Back at Tomatin expansion has grabbed the sheep tile.  The tile picker for cultural expansion is currently selecting the rice tile that is not part of my territory.  I’ll need to keep an eye on this as the cow tile might be equally valued by the algorithm….



Internationally, Bacchus and Ichabod have caught up population-wise so everyone is at 2 pop.  No one else has completed any techs or civics.  A look at the overview screen, however, tells a somewhat interesting story…



I’m presently first in religion (no surprise there, given the city-states) but also first in domination.  As I understand the score from spectating PBEM 1 & 2, ties on this screen are listed in turn order.  Since I’m last to go I’d be last to be listed for ties (in theory).  Based on what I’m seeing here I’m most likely the only person to go scout-first.  Anyone who put out a slinger first would have completed them this turn or last but have a lower position (as slingers have a lower melee strength), while warriors should complete next turn.  I’ll have to revisit the scoring order just to see if anyone might be going builder first (thus potentially staying at the bottom of the order).  

I’m also not sure about why I’d be listed 3rd for both cultural and science.  The other players with the same population as myself should be running the same science & culture rates as we have only population providing those, which should put me at the bottom of the pile (in theory).

[suboptimal]

Turn 10

I’ve (been) found (by) an opponent!  I open the save to find the eureka for Writing on my screen.  Closing that I see that we’ve met Rowain (America)…



It appears that he’s come from the northeast.  So let’s take a look around at America.  In the diplomacy screen…



82 gold!  Hmmm...my best guess here is that he met a commercial state 6-7 turns ago.  Too early to be clearing barbarian camps.  In looking at the score he’s generating 1 faith, 1.7 culture and 3.6 science per turn.  That means he’s most likely working a faith resource, probably dyes, as he has no civics completed.  He has also not built a unit yet as his military power is 20, which means I’m looking at the entirety of his forces right now.  If he's building a warrior I should see that next turn.  If not he may be going worker first.

Internationally, Kaiser, Rowain and myself all completed a tech this turn.  Ichabod has not, given his late population growth.  However, Ichabod does appear to be generating faith as he’s ranked between myself and Rowain (who’s 3rd).  Despite there being one or two ties it appears that the score screen isn’t listing things in turn order.  I’m ranked ahead of Rowain in both science and culture despite our generating the same amount.  

Back to the map, the scout moves to the spot where I want to found Glenkinchie.  It reveals two horses to the north of the river, cows and a dye that would be 3rd ring.  This is certainly a strong city spot and will be where my initial settler goes.  Based upon the appearance of America I’m going to have the scout continue to follow the river for a little bit, then turn north until I locate Washington.  The slinger will have to do some southern scouting until the warrior gets back.  I'll also have a pantheon next turn.  Given the presence of more rainforest to the east I'm planning on taking Sacred Path.



Ominously, when I hit next turn I heard the war horn sound.  I hope that doesn’t mean that camp over by La Venta is going to go bonkers. 

[suboptimal]

Turn 11
First off, after thinking about it some more I believe Rowain gained 25 gold from pillaging something.  My gold was 57 and his was that +25 – unless he’s got both gold and faith-providing resources around Washington a pillage makes more sense.

Open the save, see two things of note.  First, Rowain has moved his warrior to the rice SE of Tomatin.  Second, there’s a barbarian scout across the river from the warrior.   Checking out the score situation I’ve dropped to last place in Domination.  Rowain has built a slinger, Bacchus has built either a slinger or warrior (he’s now at the top) and Ichabod and Kaiser have either built slingers or scouts.  A quick look around also shows that Ichabod has complete both a civic and a tech.



Back to Arabia….first, some city management – Tomatin switches the citizen from the rice tile to the sheep tile.  Second, I choose Sacred Path as my pantheon, bringing in the Mysticism eureka.  I am tempted by God of the Open Sky but stick with my original plan.  

In the northwest the warrior rounds the end of the mountain range and finds diamonds, copper and the coastline.  Looks like I’m in the northwest corner or I’m in an unusually shaped pangea.  If I’m in the corner that makes both religious city states backline, which could be useful.  The proximity of diamonds, though, changes the layout as pinned.  I want to get two cities on that river and, for better or for worse, that’s the only way to do it.   The warrior will remain with the original plan of looping around the far side of the mountains, particularly since I’ll need to be settling up there.



Over in the east, I start inching the scout forward along the southern riverbank.  I meet Hattusa but I’m not first in the gate.  I do get the eureka for Political Philosophy and a quest to build an encampment.  That is the plan as Glenkinchie will be building an encampment to start to seal off the east.  



Interestingly (and a bit worringly) someone other than Rowain and met Hattusa first.  The scout moves east with its remaining movement point.  My options here are to seek out an opposing capital or loop south and finish out scouting.  I’m going to head to a hill tile that appeared SE of the rice, then turn south for a bit before going west.  I really need to see what’s going on down there since I might be having to settle my first two cities towards the southeast to establish my front and I’d like to see where that is.

[suboptimal]

Turn 12
Open the save, looks like the scout got chased away by Rowain’s warrior.  I doubt it got killed as an unbuffed warrior cannot one-shot a scout, even a barbarian one.  Nothing new internationally except for some ranking shuffling.  I’ve moved to first place in culture and Rowain is in last place – we’re all making the same culture rate if that is to be belived BUT given the fact that a couple of people have finished civics something’s not quite right there.  I did double-check the diplomacy screen – Rowain has definitely met a commercial city-state as his gold per turn is 9.

Back to the turn at hand...the warrior moves onto the diamonds and reveals a whale two hex rows directly north.  However, it is outside the workable tiles for Cragganmore’s planned site.  Back in the east the scout moves SE to the rice tile, sees nothing new and moves to the hill SE of that.  A second Hattusan warior and a couple of wheat tiles are revealed, along with some 1F/3P forest plains hills.  That area could be a good spot if there’s fresh water to the south.  

Slinger will complete next turn, will start a builder after that.



Question for the lurkers: I noticed while placing pins that they could be set to be visible to others.  I don't know if this functionality was present in MP games of earlier versions but, if it was, is there an established RB etiquette or unwritten rules for using/not using them in PBEM games?