[Spoilers]Luddite- Isabella of Aztec

[luddite]

My city is the first to grow, which makes me #1 or tied for #1 in all economic categories

Of course it won't last, it's just an artifact because I go second, and for some reason GES's city didn't grow. Meanwhile, someone's power has increased a lot. I guess that's Amelia having the wheel, mining, and bronze working.

[luddite]

I spent some time calculating the different growth options. Here's what I came up with:

Option 1: build a settler (9 turns), grow and build warrior (3 turns), build a worker (3 turns). Total: 15 turns.

Option 2: grow and build a warrior (3 turns), build a settler (7 turns), build a worker (4 turns). Total: 14 turns.

Option 3: grow and build a warrior (3 turns), build a worker (4 turns), build a settler with help from chopping (6 turns). Total: 13 turns. This also has the workers chopping already to assist the next settler.

So, I'll be going with option 3. It delays the first settler slightly, but that's fine, a new city without a worker is worthless anyway.

My current plan is to drop the first settler directly on the marble. A plains marble hill is a great city tile anyway, and with the gems speeding up my research, I can research both priesthood and masonry easily, to get the oracle super fast. Meanwhile researching fishing, wheel, pottery, and writing so i can oracle Code of Laws.

Then, If settle my 3rd city by the eastern clams and turn it into a scientist farm, I can bulb philosophy (3 religions ) and switch to pacifism, for some early gpp people.

[luddite]

Arg, someone else beat me to buddhism by one turn ><. Not a big deal, but it's annoying because it's totally my own fault for wasting turns on mining first.

[luddite]

Wow, half of the other people still haven't grown their city yet. Mine grew two turns ago, and will grow to size 3 next turn. I might lap somebody

[luddite]

I DID IT! I lapped two people in city growth

Someone is putting up a lot of GNP though- I guess that's either from pottery with two prereqs, or someone mined the gems before farming the corn.

[luddite]

The only other team to have reached pop 3 this turn is Mardoc/Seven. I think they're following the same opening build as me. Two other civs are still at size 1- they're going for a worker-worker opening I guess? With two power tiles, I still think that's a mistake, though. I've met Tatan, and he's still not improving his gems, so I guess he's doing that.

I've begun building my second worker. Now that I'm pop 3, I have enough hammers to get the expansive bonus, and the worker will finish in just 5 turns.

[luddite]

I completed my gems mine this turn.


This shoots me up to number one in GNP, so I assume I'm the first to mine the gems.

Also, whoever founded a religion grew their land, and someone increased in power. Two more people have grown to size 3, but two remain at size 1. Interesting note- someone is at just 55% approval. For that to happen, they must have whip unhappiness right now, and be at size 3.

Unfortunately I'm still 4 turns away from bronze working... really regretting going for meditation now, I should have known better than that. I wonder what the lurkers think of my build order?

This is what I can see of Tatan's land:

He told me in an email that he has bronze working already. Since the yield on the lower hill hasn't increased, I can conclude that there's no copper there, and since our starts are identical, it means I don't have copper there either. I can't see the upper plains hill in his start, but I'm GUESSING that it has copper. I'm just very suspicious of its position, in the mountain cross but it's the only tile there with no resource, and no forest either. Also, I sort of doubt that Ruff would leave us without anything to defend ourselves. I'd bet good money that it has either copper or iron.

This is all speculation... maybe I can persuade someone to just tell me where the copper is. The reason I'd like to know, is that I want to mine it and get a 6 hammer tile. With 6 hammers there, 2 from the gems, and 1 from my city tile I'll have 9 total, or 11 when building workers. If the plains hill doesn't have bronze, i'll only get 7/8 hammers, so I'd be better off just chopping forests instead.

[luddite]

So I've been thinking a lot about where to go from here. Basically, I'm confused.

First of all there's worker micro. I was hoping to mine the plains hill for copper, but I got a message from Seven saying that there's no copper there. And, from what I can see in others' territory, there's no copper in the southern hills either. So if there is copper, it has to be in the hill on the right, far away from my worker. It might be better for him to just wait in the forest and chop as soon as bronze working finishes.

Next there's the question of the oracle. I have a feeling it's going to quickly- everyone has that same marble location, and whoever was crazy enough to beeline meditation (I suspect Adlain) might be go for the oracle really early too. Also, GES is industrious for what that's worth. So if I go for it, there's a good chance I'll be beaten unless I really hustle for it. In order for me to tech priesthood and writing (to oracle CoL) will take 17/16 turns (depending on if I pick up fishing), which would finish at turn 36. That's not bad but it's not as early as I'd like, even assuming I can finish the oracle on that same turn.

Related to that is the issue of city placement. I'm thinking now that putting a city on the marble would be a mistake. It would delay my research by 4 turns to research masonry, which I think would kill any chance of getting the oracle. Also... from seeing Tatan's territory It looks like there's no food at all next to the marble. So if I settle there, it's a terrible city location. A much better location is 1W of the silver, on the plains hill, which claims wheat and deer when it expands.

So I guess that's my plan moving forward- settle 1W of the silver, and try to chop out the oracle on turn 36. I may not get it, but there's not much downside if I fail. It's still a good city location, and the techs along the way are all stuff I'd research anyway, except priesthood.

(possible alternative- tech masonry, settle on marble, oracle metal casting)

[luddite]

Tatan confirmed to me that we do not have copper anywhere. That's irritating- I was really hoping to get my 3rd citizen working copper ASAP. Maybe I should prioritize AH instead and reveal horses. If we've got horses, but no copper, a chariot rush could be really deadly. Or just jag rush someone lol.

But, in the meantime, I need to figure out my citizen micro. I guess I'll just go ahead and mine the grassland hills for +1 hammer, +1 commerce. Then... slave off a citizen? On the other hand, I need the 3rd citizen to get the expansive bonus on workers. Better to just keep working the 3rd citizen I think.

Seven tells me that they're going to research polytheism. That's fine with me, I wasn't planning on getting. I'm still a little tempted to try for monotheism and judaism to get the OR bonus... except...


Look at that jump in the GNP of someone! The only way I can think of for that to be possible, is that whoever founded buddhism just hooked up the gems mine, and is researching something with two prequisites. In fact, we can deduce even more than that! Someone must have assigned their third citizen to work an open riverside tile, AND they're financial to get the +1 bonus on the gems mine. Since I know it's not Mardoc, that means that GES is the mystery Buddhist boy.

Further deductions- GES is Zulu, so he starts with agriculture and hunting. So, what techs with two prereqs could he be researching? AH of course, but with no animal resources there's no point in researching it this early. (unless he really wanted to rush someone with chariots, but in that case, why bother getting Buddhism?) Pottery is impossible, he'd have to research both fishing and the wheel first, and there hasn't been enough time for that. My money is on masonry, which has the prereqs mining and mysticism, and we know he has both.

[/end deduction] [begin speculation] I didn't know anything about GES before this game started, but if he's willing to beeline meditation right from the beginning, when he doesn't start with mysticism, then he must be a bit of an oddball. Oddballs that beeline early religions like that also tend to really love wonders. And he's industrious. I think all the signs indicate that he's gunning hard for the oracle. That means I need to give up on it .

[luddite]

Nothing changed this turn, except that everyone's score increased from the land bonus. Time to do what I've been putting off as long as I could. Time for a real dotmap. In my opinion, this is the most difficult and crucial part of civ 4.


This map has been quite challenging to dotmap. Since I won't have a religion for a while, and I want granaries before monuments, every city should have a food resource next to it. Raising the happy cap is a priority. Also, I like to have some overlap between cities.

city 1 will be a high production city, with lots of hills. It also claims the silver when it expands, to increase my happy cap.

city 2 will claim the gold just above it, and can then work flood plain cottages. It's far away, but will pay for itself easily.

city 3 will become my GP farm by working two clams. That's not an ideal GP site, but it's the best I've seen. There may be another resource I haven't seen yet, too.

city 4 will be another production city, while claiming the fur. Deer and sheep will feed it.

cities 5 and 6 will just be pure cottages. Eventually my capital will be, also. After 6, I'll probably settle the rest to the south, close to my capital, working cottages. The idea is to get the capital BFC filled up with working cottages ASAP so that when beauracracy comes along, it's a powerhouse. At some point, I'll also settle cities near all the edges, to control the railroad connections and slow down incoming armies.

Doing this will commit to a peaceful opening game, without any wonders. Just good, solid expansion. I'll have a happy cap of 9 without any buildings or religion, which is great. Or 12 with a forge, so I'll make MC a tech priority. All those cities have a good food source and lots of forests for chopping. Another bonus is that, after I connect city 1 with a road, cities 2 3 and 4 will be automatically connected by the rivers. I'll reevaluate when I've got more of the map explored, but this is what I'm planning on now.