[Spoilers] Ichabod, the Civ King

[Ichabod]

If someone else clears the camp you'll lose the quest and it won't be replaced until the next era.

Thanks. By the way, I'll see what I can do about being more thorough with my plans, but the truth of the matter is that I don't plan very much, I only think I should be planning.

Hey, if not formally planning has worked in the past no need to change now.  

One thing I did find in the PBEMs was that by putting my plans into reports (and then hashing them over in later posts) it helped me on the economic side of things.

Planning absolutely helps and my best displays in Civ games relied on heavy planning (but I'm not good with spreadsheets, so even those were limited to my lack of competence). What I enjoy about Civ 5 and 6 is that it's easier to go without all that careful planning. Right now, it just isn't fun to plan too much. So, it's more of a matter of enjoying it or not, and I don't enjoy it now as much as I used to.

Hey, I love your comments on my threads! Makes me feel not so lonely - I guess I should return the favor. There's just not a lot to ask about yet - move the warrior, click next turn, etc.

Even if you don't make formal plans, I'm curious what your general gameplan is to win the game. Tech to Cossacks and victory, like PBEM2? Try and do something interesting with faith and religion? Use the extra great people for a crazy cultural push? Russia is a strong civ - much stronger than England :P - and you have so many choices!

Of course, your opponents are strong, too...

Your threads are really good, so it's easy to find things to comment on. The plan right now is to get more than my fair share of land with cossacks, while nabbing the best religious bonuses with Lavras. Pretty standard. I felt more like doing power play than going for interesting gambits and strategies (like Aztecs would have been).

If someone else clears the camp you'll lose the quest and it won't be replaced until the next era.

Thanks. By the way, I'll see what I can do about being more thorough with my plans, but the truth of the matter is that I don't plan very much, I only think I should be planning.

What occured to me earlier is that Russia's TR ability fits well with deep beelines into the tech tree (meaning less, but more expensive techs as target). And you know what is an interesting deep beeline? Cossacks! Food for thought.

You can always check my PBEM 2 thread, I did start beeline Military Science there after when I signed 3rd DoF with Woden (around turn 120, before that no beeline, just grabbing all techs), because I wanted to get Cossack when that DoF ended.
I did finish Military Science which was an industrial tech earlier than classical tech mathematics which leads to education/universities in PBEM 2.
And I did make good use of TR Ability, especially with Woden as neighbor who was 6 or more tech ahead of me and all that routes to his cities was put at good use by Cossacks later.

I really enjoyed your PBEM 2 thread, it was the one I followed the most and I was rooting for you. Let's see how the game goes, but getting Unis before or after the Cossack beeline is one of the main things I'm wondering about.

[Ichabod]

News of the past 3 turns:

1. We found the barb camp that Carthage wants destroyed and a barb scout from there (presumably) found us. I'm still debating how to protect the settler to the second city site and if I can clear the camp before that or not. Yes, we are going settler before builder.

2. Scout was finished and went southeast, as stated. Capital will be size 3 next turn, where I'll finally work some micro out to try and get a settler fast and still be at size 3 when it ends. Even the advisor suggested a settler.

Pictures:



There was no way to catch that damned 3-move bugger, so I didn't waste any turns. Perhaps Carthage army can finish it off for me, it would be helpful.






So, do I stay here clearing the camp and risk a lone settler on the woods??

[Ichabod]

By the way, I didn't finish AH and changed to Astrology. I really don't need to finish the tech right now and perhaps I can place a Lavra with the lowest cost possible (well, I'll have CoL anyway you slice it, I guess).

[Ichabod]

My screenshots just don't seem to work half the time... As you can see in the minimap, I met the religious CS Yerevan to my southeast (quest is the archery Eureka, which should be trivial). The suzerain bonus is really powerful for a religious victory, as it lets the player choose whatever Apostle promotion he wants. The city is coastal, near lakes and on very mediocre terrain, so there's really not much point in capturing it, considering we'll get Lavras and faith anyway.

My uninspired C&D seems to indicate I'm the first one with a religious CS, which means first to pantheon. I'm not too worried, as I'm not focusing on any specific pantheons (I was even thinking of going for the +1 hammer anyway and just acquire the pantheon through Lavras). But if we can have first choice that would be really good!

The settler is coming along nicely and I'm backtracking the warrior to not only fogbust, but to keep the planned city tile clear from Carthage units.

[Commodore]

Aren't city states basically always worth capturing, if for no other reason than if you don't one of your rivals will?

Religious victory is the Russian Handbook Preferred Method, it seems.

[Ichabod]

Aren't city states basically always worth capturing, if for no other reason than if you don't one of your rivals will?

Religious victory is the Russian Handbook Preferred Method, it seems.

You don't necessarily need to capture CSs. If they are in the open, investing in them will likely end up vulnerable to another player's capture, but if they are close to your homeland, it's not easy for other players to mess with them. Yerevan in this game is a prime example. The location is very defensible for me and I suspect a lot of the players won't even meet the CS for a long time. And some of the CS bonuses can be pretty powerful, even when compared to adding a mature city to your empire, so it can be profitable to leave them be.

Religious victory is not possible against decent competition (perhaps as a faux-domination startegy, but faux-domination allows any sort of win, anyway). Passive conversion is non-existant and it's too easy to destroy religious units, if they are not defended by military (and if you can defend them, again, faux-domination). There's certainly no better option to go for a religious victory than Russia, but religious victory in itself is not possible against the likes of Krill. If we were to do that, though, Yerevan is the best thing we could ask for.

All that being said, capturing Yerevan will depend on quite a bit of factors. How many free envoys do we get from quests, how early they build a HS district (in PBEM 3, Jerusalem built one in the first 40 turns or so of the game, while Yerevan still didn't have one when I captured them past turn 100), perhaps even a harbour district, and how useful will the suzerain bonus be.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I think, but am not certain, that city-state districts are dependent upon envoys - but that might just be city strength.

[Ichabod]

I think, but am not certain, that city-state districts are dependent upon envoys - but that might just be city strength.

I don't think they are, because Yerevan had way more envoys (I had around 6, I think) than Jerusalem and La Venta (which spent most of the game without a suzerain, La Venta even for the whole game), in PBEM 3. It's just an item they can slot in the build queue, and they have massive boosts to the production of the district. The problem with Yerevan, I think, was the lack of a free tile (the city had only jungle and coasts). The CS had BW, as they chopped and farmed 2 tiles, but perhaps they don't place districts on top of features. or it was just fate.

City strength is dependent on number of envoys, as is the border expansion of the CS (CSs actually start with only 5 border tiles and they only get the sixth when the first player meets them).

[Ichabod]

My scouting progress is being hindered by the need to guard my settler and the annoying barb camp near Yerevan. The spear was really hurt, with no defensive bonuses, so I tried for the kill. Unfortunately, my scout missed it by 1 hp or so.

The silver lining is that another attack goves me a promo. I'm not sure I can attack a fortified spear without risking losing my unit, though. We need to wait until next turn to see what happens anyway, since a new barb could very well mean disaster.

[Ichabod]

Just to show Yerevan's land. The city is not so bad for Russia, as Tundra tiles are actually useable, but it has a distinct lack of food. TRs may fix that and we can find other ways to magick some food, but it's certainly not a priority for now.



We are finishing the settler this turn with the exact 80 (?) production needed. Working the heaviest food config to try and stay at size 3. I haven't made the math to see if we'll manage to, but I worked top food while still getting the settler ASAP, so I wouldn't do anything different wether we'll make it or not. We are going for a builder next, as waiting for Ilkum is simply not worth it. Perhaps going builder first would have been better? Who knows... Water under the bridge.



To add to my colection of ill-advised moves, clearing that barb camp didn't earn a promotion to the scout, rather a mocking 14/15 XP. Well, I figured I should better head out with the scout to try and find some first to bonuses, rather than spend 10 turns healing. I can either luck out into something that gives me an XP point or get him killed. I think the risk/reward works better this way. On the bright side, we already got the Military Tradition Inspiration and some more gold, as well as getting rid of a Camp. Not the best trade, I should probably have just circled the Camp...



The second city plan is also hindering my scouting. At least the path seems to be free of troubles and I managed to occupy the city tile, so delays on settling the city aren't likely. Settling on the coffee takes an extra turn, but it gets a +1 hammer, +1 culture advantage, as well as insta luxury (for a slightly boost in yields). The culture advantage disappears once we reach size 3, but the hammer advantage lives on. The +2 gold from the eventual pasture there is basically meaningless.

I have a certain feeling of yuck from my opening, but it should be at least competitive. I got my average 2 CSs, I'm heading towards a pantheon already. Finding a Natural Wonder/new continent would be the main things right now, but it's not a game breaker (I can "waste" the astrology science and I have a long time still to find the second continent (and I plan to field some more units soon).

Worth noticing that I'm simply swimming in luxuries. I counted 7 (!) different ones in my vicinity. That's easy mode, really.