[SPOILERS] Dark Savant leads the noble Inca as half-noble Churchiill

[Dark Savant]

Q's are still good as cheap city garrisons. You can build them much further into the game than warriors, which are gone by the time you hook up your bronze.

Oh, I thought quechuas were also gone by that time!

That's actually quite convenient, I don't have to worry about delaying hooking up copper then.

Thank you for the tip!

[Dark Savant]

yuris125 took Saladin after I was considering it myself as the main alternative -- he must disagree that Spiritual has too little early-game value (although one reason it has value is because I didn't take it myself).  I like his position if he can last; one way that happens if we are neighbors.  That would lead to some unusually friendly neighbor relations -- by this game's standards, I have a very low-threat trait/civ combination.

Boudica and Genghis Khan round things out.  That's a lot of Aggressive leaders this game, oy.

I'm not going to try for early religion, meaning I don't think so much as think about it before turn ~30 at the very earliest.  All of these Aggressive (and one Creative) leaders aren't going to be in a hurry to get so much as Mysticism, either, so I can probably land a religion late.

No one is Financial (not a surprise), or Philosophical (ditto), or Industrious (somewhat more surprising), or Organized (even more surprising).

The other three combinations I was seriously considering (Exp/Pro, Agg/Pro, Spi/Pro) were all claimed, which I suppose is encouraging in its own way.

I'm wondering if we're going to see an incredibly late Stonehenge this game.  I actually have more reason to build it than a majority of other players.  

[Boldly Going Nowhere]

Q's are still good as cheap city garrisons. You can build them much further into the game than warriors, which are gone by the time you hook up your bronze.

Oh, I thought quechuas were also gone by that time!

That's actually quite convenient, I don't have to worry about delaying hooking up copper then.

Thank you for the tip!

Most (all?) UUs are available for a generation of units after their standard replacement would normally obsolete.

[Dark Savant]

Most (all?) UUs are available for a generation of units after their standard replacement would normally obsolete.

I knew that happened in some cases, but didn't think about whether that would happen with quechuas -- thank you!

Looks like everyone is rarin' to get this game underway.

I was intending to claim a Protective leader the moment I committed to the Inca (which shouldn't be a surprise to veterans), but that sort of fits with this game's prisoner's dilemma theme of everyone having some sort of extra early military capacity.

I'm not sure how much early war action we will see.  Probably quite a lot, actually. 

Also ... (PB38 spoilers not involving me):

Half the field being Aggressive cuts down on the chance of players getting hosed by barbarian attacks.  Man, there's been a lot of that in PB38.  I doubt we'll see that kind of influential early military action here.

[Dark Savant]

Okay, let me play Guess Everyone Else's Strategy!

• ipecac (Agg/Imp Genghis Khan of ihkanda/impi Zulu)
  I get to play as a rival to ipecac this time!
  
  I expect him to expand fast and assault some n00bs -- he's the most likely candidate to pursue early aggression.  I mean, he wants to win after all, right?    He's going to want to support all that expansion with Aggressive Ihkandas.
  
  Spoiler for PB38:
  
  Based on PB38 lurker comments ... he probably wants to start next to superdeath.  War chariots against Agg Zulu don't end well even without the skill difference.
  
  
  
• wetbandit (Agg/Chm Boudica of ger/keshik Mongolia)
  This game's candidate to try to build a commando factory early enough to matter.  He'd have to play early aggression game successfully to get enough Great Generals early enough for that, though he only needs three to build commando cuirassiers.
  
  
• yuris125 (Spi/Pro Saladin of mausoleum/fast worker India)
  The most likely to pursue an early-game strategy like mine -- build early on and hold on until later game, only getting aggressive later.  As in my case, this strategy probably won't end well if someone else ends up huge from conquering other players early enough.
  
  
• Ghostpants (Exp/Pro Mao Zedong of mint/skirmisher Mali)
  Likely wants to get off to a good peaceful start (expand quickly, stake bold claims with Protective skirmishers), and see where he is later in the game.  Aside from aggressive settling, unlikely to actually want to attack anyone else early.  The second-best player for me to have as a neighbor.
  
  
• Charriu (Agg/Exp Shaka of baray/ballista elephant Khmer)
  I'm not sure he'll actually be any more aggressive than I was in PB37.  He might well have chosen both leader and civ for similar reasons to me that game -- expand quickly, deter being attacked simply by being Agg/Exp.  Who knows, though -- you have to especially suspect early attacks from Shaka anyway.  (It's not like I didn't consider it myself.)
  
  
• JR4 (Agg/Pro Tokugawa of pavilion/cho-ko-nu China)
  I doubt he's actually planning on early war, but I expect he'll be fast to pounce on an opportunity.  I do expect heavy aggression later in the game.  (Then again, you'd expect that from anyone who is still doing well by the Medieval era.)
  
  
• superdeath (Cre/Chm Kublai Khan of obelisk/war chariot Egypt)
  I read him as likely trying to build some fast war chariots.  If I happen to start next to him, I need some spears and archers quickly.
  

I was planning on relatively peaceful play, but I have to take conquest opportunities as they arise too.  As usual, who wins is probably going to be determined by who starts next to who else.

Spoiler for PB38:

At least my opening this time can tolerate anyone else starting only 11 tiles away.  

I have to hope that all the chosen military traits works in favor of the players choosing to play defensively early.

[Dark Savant]

Most people have the wrong starting techs -- it'll be a bit of time for that to get sorted out.

I'd personally prefer Agriculture and Hunting (which I currently have) in place of Agriculture and Mysticism.  I'd rather have The Wheel in place of Hunting if I were outright selecting starting technologies, but hey. 

I'm tempted to say that publicly, but that would suggest I'm not that interested in pursuing a religion.  

[Dark Savant]

One thing I'll need to work out, which won't be clear until I spend some time scouting, is how soon I'll need Archery.

I face four Aggressive rivals.  Building my own axes isn't exactly the greatest way to stop the Combat I + Shock axes they might be building early (and the odds that I will have at least one Aggressive neighbor are well over 75%), so I'll need Protective archers as cost-effective defense.  I'm not sure how long I can get away with not researching it -- I'm hoping to avoid it until I have Pottery, but odds are I can't wait that long.

I still need at least an axe or two relatively early, because otherwise they can just promote all their axes to Cover.

[Dark Savant]

Turn 0 (4000 BC)

Right, let's get this underway!



I have the correct Agriculture and Mysticism now.

Also of note: the Full of Resources pop-ups happen.  I'm not familiar enough with the FoR map scripts to have much familiarity with how they actually distribute resources, but I'll save that for later when I get a chance to take a look.

My actual start is this:



That water visible to the southwest is fresh.  The obvious thing to do with the scout is to move two tiles southeast, since there's a hill there.

I promptly turn up a grass sheep and an oasis, which is already a ton of stuff nearby.  It looks like I'll finally have a game here where it will pay to plant my second city close to my capital. 

It's certainly not enough to justify moving away from a plains hill plant and two riverside corn, though.  Besides, moving closer to someone else's start, when four Aggressive players and one player with war chariots are out there, is just asking to get rushed.

So, let's decide on a naming scheme.  I'm playing as a leader who is half English nobility and half American.

My civilization is not European, but it does have a lot of surprising similarities to medieval Europe at the time Pizarro ran it over.  The Incas didn't have writing, but they had halberds (despite not facing any sort of native horse forces), monarchy complete with succession rules and succession crises that would be right at home in medieval Europe, and record-keeping as elaborate as you can get without writing.

Also, they're well-known for incest among its nobility. 

So I have an obvious naming scheme.  Welcome to Westeros!



Let's leave aside the fact that this is not a coastal city, so the "landing" part doesn't make a whole lot of sense. 

I start worker-first and start researching Mining.  I won't have any real decisions to make, aside from scouting, until Bronze Working arrives 21 turns hence, so I'll have time to construct a sim and figure out whether I should build a second worker or a settler once I hit size 3, and whether it's worth revolting to Slavery to start whipping ASAP (rather than waiting until my first settler is already on the move) -- I'm Charismatic, I can abuse early-game whipping like no other trait can.

[Erwin]

Also of note: the Full of Resources pop-ups happen.

Could you elaborate on this? What do you mean with Full of Resorces pop-up? I'm not sure if I've seen those before.

[Dark Savant]

Also of note: the Full of Resources pop-ups happen.

Could you elaborate on this? What do you mean with Full of Resorces pop-up? I'm not sure if I've seen those before.

I got the map customization pop-ups for Full of Resources when I logged in -- the same ones that happen when you choose that script, except I don't think I can change anything (which makes sense, since the map already exists).

This didn't happen for PB37 or PB38, and it doesn't happen when I start a new SP game using RtR 2.0.8.3 without Full of Resources.

I don't really know, either.