[spoilers] Off balance, missed the bus

[DaveV]

First event:



Which essentially turns the grassland tile NE of the capital into a floodplain with +1 commerce and only requiring 4 turns to farm. Yay for +1 commerce; could certainly have been worse.

[DaveV]

I had two free money events follow right on the heels of the one shown above, so now I have a respectable bankroll. Borders popped at EoT, giving me vision over more of my surroundings:



Nothing spectacular. I'll send my scout south to the reagents tile and expose a few more tiles safely. Note the C2 griffon; maybe that's the killer of mackoti's scout.

[DaveV]

Southern exploration revealed (drum roll) ...



Not much. I'm thinking my civ choice may work out better than I expected, because this is not the usual full-of-goodies map.

[shallow_thought]

Hmm. I'd have liked to have seen some Tailor resources.

It's a while before this becomes relevant, but what are your thoughts on how to use adaptive?

Also, what civics do you favour for the Kurios in EitB? Foreign trade seems more interesting than I thought it would be, at least for a burst, because of the cottage growth, but it competes with conquest, which seems like a natural way to compensate for the lack of build queues.

[DaveV]

Also, what civics do you favour for the Kurios in EitB? Foreign trade seems more interesting than I thought it would be, at least for a burst, because of the cottage growth, but it competes with conquest, which seems like a natural way to compensate for the lack of build queues.

I've been pondering the same question, with the additional issue of having a lot of competing tech paths. The manual recommends God King, and that sounds like a good idea. Mysticism would also unlock cheap Elder Councils, but doesn't get me any closer to a real military tech.

It's a while before this becomes relevant, but what are your thoughts on how to use adaptive?

I'm expecting to get exactly one switch, and I'm waiting to see how the game is going at that point. Right now I lean heavily to ARCane, since magic is another good force multiplier.

[DaveV]

I finished Mining at EoT, and revealed copper:



Not bad. The one to the east is on a tundra hill; the one to the west is a desert hill. I could work both if I'd settled 1S  . Still, the tundra copper hill will be 5H1C when mined, or 10 hammers when building a settler. Conveniently, the tundra copper will be connected as soon as I mine it.

[DaveV]

mackoti has his second city before I've even started building my settler.

[DaveV]

First two-legged, non-winged, barbarian spotted:



You can see the escorts strung out for my settler. Settler scouting reveals the forested plains hill 3N1W of the goblin is an invalid city location; mack is settling up on me already !

[DaveV]

Mack is *really* trying to settle up on me:



Mack is, basically, a bully. He will try to intimidate his neighbors into giving him more land than he deserves. In 53, I did what you're supposed to do to bullies: pop them in the nose. Mack won every combat, was able to get super promoted units because of his low-odds wins, and ate my lunch. I'm still not going to sit passively while he steals my gems.

[DaveV]

I'm sure this is not where he planned to settle:



My new plan is to settle 4E of the blue circle in the above picture. Gems will be third ring for both of us, but I should be able to grab them with my world spell.