Not sure about techs. IW definitely, but then I'm rather for staying off Currency and Apprenticeship -- we save more hammers on the discounts than we gain on the +1 to mines. Camps and Theatres are not a bad way to go, and of course we have no choice but to unlock entertainment districts.
Rome does NOT declare war as soon as I open the file, instead he shufles some units.
Military Tradition finishes. I put us on Mysticism for a turn to see how likely the boost looks after Kyoto grows. Policies stay the same - we'll get the pantheon at exactly the right time to finish Myst and swap out.
I look around. Mediolanum looks like it has a Holy Site in progress, since Rome doesn't have any GP production yet. In fact the only GP points being made are our General point and someone else at 1 Scientist point/turn.
Kyoto builds another Archer - we can only upgrade two warriors, I think.
Rome continues dancing for the next turn. I continue not upgrading the Slinger because I've been playing Opus Magnum where you use right-click to scroll the map and left-click to move stuff...
A bit more movement, and then... Rome's entire army runs off. Wha?
Okay, well, time for plan Take Mediolanum Before It Finishes Its Holy Site.
Rome pops up and asks us if we're going to attack us. I decide to ignore him. Hopefully that won't hurt our standing when we do declare. Also America has some annoying units in the way.
Turn 46, war was declared!
Rome has scouts in Mediolanum... and completed the Holy Site. Damn. Don't think I could gotten it quickly enough anyhow. Rome also founds Antium north of Ostia.
I pillage a Mine to finish Iron Working, then decide to finish Astrology. We get our Pantheon, which gets an Envoy in Hattusa. I choose Divine Spark. This also finishes Mysticism. We already have more army than we can afford, so I swap to Conscription and Ilkum and start hammering out a builder.
Next research target is Pottery so we can get Tea. I lock the Holy Site between our city center and encampment.
Rome completes a Spearman in Mediolanum, which puts it probably to strong to attack until we get more swordsmen. Too eager to attack, I lost a couple warriors getting blindsided by archers on roads and our forces around Mediolanum are too strung out, but we do have a scout in his backline in a position to pillage a quarry. Should have pushed towards Ostia, but I was hoping to stop Mediolanum's district.
Right now retreating our southern warrior should be a priority, as well as minimizing losses asap.
We still have a serious archer force, but without besieging a city we can not really shoot it down at our leisure.
Our best bet is retreat and come back with swordsman and god knows what we do if legions rear their ugly head here.
I suggest immeadite retreat, recovery, upgrading that warrior to a sword, taking Vilnius, defending our capital with another archer after that builder and redouble our efforts, raze roman cities and resettle that land.
You're going to make me load the save to follow this, aren't you ? I'm a lurker, and by definition lazy.
More seriously, experience from MOO SGs tells me that teammates really appreciate full, step-by-step reports.
FWIW, I'm keen to see what you're doing - I've not found getting over the inevitable AI rush / early lead at Emperor quite as easy as some others have...
It may have looked easy, but that is because it was done correctly - Brian Moore
I'm afraid I set a bad precedent, we do need to post more pics and explanations, especially when stuff is actually happening. It's also ok to ask for tactical advice in the middle of your turnset.
Sorry for the recent absence, I returned to work this week and was a bit busy. I got the save for the next turnset and will likely play today or tomorrow, after reading your suggestions (I'll post a report with pictures).
We are indeed in a difficult position, so I think it's better to discuss things before playing on.
Overview:
Let's tackle economic stuff first. On the cultural side, we have teched both Mysticism and Military Tradition before Political Philosophy. I don't agree with this decision, because PP is by far the biggest boost we can get in the early game. I understand that the idea was to wait for the Early Empire boost, but it was pretty clear that we weren't going to get it, since the plan was to go without a second city.
At least we got some things to work with, the support bonuses and an envoy. The support bonus is almost everytime worse than the Oligarchy bonus, so going PP would still be a better idea, I think. Anyway, I suggest that we use the envoy to get 1 envoy in Nan Madol, which will give +2 culture and speed up PP. Here are the options:
We don't need science right now, as no tech will give any significant boost in the short term, and faith and non-unit production are far from useful right now.
What does everyone think?
On the science department, I think we should go for Masonry. The "build a quarry" Eureka will be almost impossible to achieve (the only stone avaiable is very far into the south, that I could see), so there's no harm in finishing it without the Eureka. As previosuly stated, I think we should go for XBows, due to the lack of better options and the need to avoid district techs. We could also go for Wheel, but we have a CS quest for that Eureka and we can get it by capturing Ostia, so perhaps we can wait a bit.
Opinions?
Finally, on the city micro department, our only city was looking like this when opening the save:
I suggest changing the grass hill to the plains hill. There's no advantage to growing right now, as we are already on -2 amenities. I think we should finish the builder, since it's so close to completion, but I don't see why there was a need to build another one. We can improve the tea for the +1 amenity, which is fine, and perhaps build the plains hill mine. The other charge, I'd just save for now, due to the lack of options. The short term advantages of the 2 charges we are going to use don't compensate for the cost of the builder, so I think that wasn't a good option, especially when we are fighting a war.
Opinions about micro and what the builder should do?
And what to build after the builder is done? A swordsman? We can't adopt the Agoge policy without going broke, so that'd have to be without the production bonus (yet another reason why we shuld speed PP as fast as possible, the possibility of 2 military slots).
Anyway, I'll do some house chores and then post the military part of the report. I won't play the turn today, it's better to have some opinions and consensus going, since we are on a difficult position.
Ugh. I can somewhat understand Military Tradition in our situation, but Mysticism? Ouch. I was too preoccupied with military matters discussed above to even notice it on screens. Early Empire inspiration just wasn't happening, and sometimes that's life, you are right. Maybe we can lemonade by harvesting the rice and shooting to 6 pop? We are not gonna need extra food at this city for a long time.
Grass hill to a plains hill is a good change, I was even working the plains hill on some of my turns.
Tech progression to XBows is fine, as is Masonry as a placeholder, as you say, there is not much that we want out of the tech tree that's not apprenticeship, and it's too early for that.
? I'm a lurker, and by definition lazy.
