[spoilers] - pindicator is excited for the next Realms Beyond league mechanics

[pindicator]

Turn 019

Huh...




Is that worth changing my settler plans?  Honestly I'm not sure, I'll have to look into it.  But I have been thinking about what I would do if I found seafood within range of this grass hill - where I can share Pig & Cow with the 2nd city.  In general I was thinking that if I can get food first ring then it would be worth settling, but if I have to get a border pop first then it is not worth it.  So I will need to go crunch the numbers here and try to prove to myself that it is worth settling.

Wow, this peninsula really does suck

EDIT: Almost forgot to swap off that plains forest hill and start working the pastured cow!

[pindicator]

021

Warrior scoped out the rest of the peninsula and there aren't any other food resources. No first ring food locations to be found within 6 tiles of the capital, yikes. After looking at things more I feel like my gut has been vindicated and I don't like grabbing a city location north of the capital. If I grab north of the capital then I need to use the first work boat on the 4f1c clams at the capital, and it takes roughly 15 turns to build the monument and have the borders pop. For that border pop I get a good 5f3c tile but that is it. Meanwhile if I settle the clam then I get to use the work boat on a 4f3c clams right away and after 15 turns to build monument and pop borders then I get to have 4f1h wheat and 5f1h pigs. Plus I'm extending my influence east sooner which is the way I have to go eventually anyway, so the earlier I can grab tiles that way the better I'll be set up to grab good locations for cities 3, 4, 5, etc.

The work boat has to be at or beside the clams at end of turn 31, which roughly means I have 3 turns of exploration that I can use with it. (3 turns out and 3 turn back, 6 in total.) So the only other decision was whether I wanted to use those 3 turns exploring north by the Fish/Sheep or south to see what was overseas. Considering I expect to settle Fish/Sheep sooner I decided to go north.

[pindicator]

024

Roading towards the 2nd city site




I have half a thought to switch and try for religion - only 12 turns away - as that will save me 30 hammers for a monument in city 2. But really city #2 will get those city hammers from an earlier slavery - there just aren't many good tiles in its inner circle so might as well whip them. We did get a lucky forest growth up there: one of the plains tiles is now 1f2h, which may be used in the turns while we wait for borders to pop after the monument gets whipped.

[pindicator]

Just realized that the literal highlight of the turn was watching plants grow.

Say what you want about civ 6, at least they did a good job about speeding up the early game

[Thoth]

Just realized that the literal highlight of the turn was watching plants grow.

Say what you want about civ 6, at least they did a good job about speeding up the early game

Still not worth playing.

[scooter]

Say what you want about civ 6, at least they did a good job about speeding up the early game

I think the various mechanisms that reward scouting are the secret sauce of the early game. Quite a few eurekas/inspirations to be gained from that (both directly and indirectly), which effectively assigns a science/culture boost to the act of scouting. Then you have the first-to city-state bonuses which are big as well and do the same by giving you some sort of yield bonus. Building a unit for scouting purposes is much more likely to pay for itself one way or another.

[pindicator]

028

As much as I want for these early turns to fly by, we aren't doing that bad in turn pace.

Also: SOMETHING HAPPENED!




That is Old Harry's scout to the north. Victoria of Inca; one of the threats to take a religion but probably not an early one as he has more likely been pushing for Terraces. He just finished a tech this turn and is now taking his turn as the early scoreboard leader. Unfortunately I can't send my work boat any farther north as I need to turn back around next turn in order to get back to the clam. But I'm very glad I chose to send him north now. That's a whale that I will have to make sure I claim. Although with how large and expansive the world is Old Harry could be 20 tiles farther north.

I've mapped out as much of the south as I mean to for now. My scout is heading north, trying to dodge a lion but this turn the lion will have a shot at me. 0.8/1 with Woodsman 1 and on a forested hill. Probably the best odds I'm going to get. If he survives he'll scout to the north and east and see what the land looks like there.

Big Stitch shows just how empty this place is:

[pindicator]

First city!

Rusten gets the early lead with the first 2nd city.

My settler finishes eot btw

[pindicator]

029

Settler is out. Work boat is heading back south. Interesting enough, OH took two turns between me last playing so they aren't going to realize I've doubled back with my work boat right away. Doubt that is terribly important, but it just may leave them guessing a bit more.




There's one way a barb animal can slow my settler down a couple turns here, but the odds of that are very slim.

I would have thought OH must have finished BW last turn, but if you look at when he finished different techs it goes T6, T10, T14, T24, T28. To me it looks like that is all 4 of the first-rung techs in addition to BW. Remember, OH was the person we identified as going work boat first and hooking up a coastal fish: he's been given far better map luck than us this game and taken advantage of it to get an early tech lead. Clearly he was just waiting for the settler to finish before doing his revolt to slavery, and now has a 2nd city second only to Rusten in that category. I'm really trying not to be jealous here

It also appears he has a closer neighbor than I do.



So maybe these things can balance out down the line?

[pindicator]

030

I didn't notice the barbarian animal changes so my scout wasted some time before against that Lion. Now I know it's best just to push on and heal with promotions, at least until turn 40 when barbarian warriors start to appear. I probably won't try to save this scout unless we find that the northeast is a dead end as well. He'll just keep napping that direction as long as possible.

Settler was able to move up without issue. Still on track to settle Onslaught on t32.

One advantage of my peninsula is protection. I'm considering going settler > settler after this worker finishes. With just a single warrior for military. Next settler will found Domination on the north of the peninsula for city 3. I still don't love the spot but it would make barbarians impossible to spawn. Then the settler for Nemesis will go out to the mainland. That one will depend on where copper is located.

2nd city will pump warriors. How do I get border pops then? We'll go for religion right after BW.

I'm still worried about commerce though. Even with these new cities I'm not going to be working many commerce tiles until borders pop at Domination and I work there fish. Maybe there answer is really to go Sailing right after BW and grab an island location for better trade routes.