It's Chevalier's Thread and He Can Do What He Wants To

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

According to PYDT, Archduke chose the Netherlands. So we probably shan't need the Great Library.

Rowain has yet to join.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Rowain joined and took...America! o_o A shocker there.

I'll do player previews tonight now that we know who all our opponents are. The line up:

1)Japper of Indonesia
2)Chevalier of Arabia
3)Emperor of England
4)Archduke of the Netherlands
5)Rowain of America.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn One



As discussed, I move the warrior one tile west, revealing a stone tile and more water. There's nothing else of interest really, but this is important to note - the water to the west of the stone shows up under the tooltip as a lake, while the inlet the settler stands on is marked coast. Settler map seems to indicate the same fresh vs. salt water discrepancy. I think I will still settle on the spot I'm on - really need that outlet to the ocean. 

I queue up Astrology for research. Ichabod touched on this I believe in PBEM9, but it really is a fool's errand to wait for the inspiration here. In PBEM7 I didn't find a natural wonder  until 60 turns into the game, when I found it inside the borders of Japper's capital (I really wish our world builder could mess with natural wonders). So, we'll hard research Astrology to get a holy site up early. Sailing and mining are also important techs to grab, as well. Since I didn't settle, though, we didn't actually start gathering any science points, so it's not like I've wasted a turn if I think it's wiser to open with another tech instead. 

Great people, nothing special. Themistocles' retirement ability is almost useless. GG is Hannibal, who grants a single promotion - yay - so the only real GP of note is Hypatia, as usual. 




Personally, I don't really care for Divine Spark. I don't think the handful of extra Great Scientist it gets you is worth the investment - there's far better returns you can get from your pantheon. The Prophet points could be useful in a tight religious race, I guess, but I don't expect to see anyone besides me and Japper make a serious push, and there's enough good beliefs that I'm not bothered about being second to a religion. 

So far, no good resources jump out from my terrain, so one of the two Faith pantheons looks like the best bet. 

In international news, Japper settled.

[Ichabod]

This is really rough. 

You will finish the scouting unit before you grow to size 2, most likely, so you can't really start a settler before that. If you want to go builder before settler, you can't really go Astrology first. I see two options for such a builder: sheep, stone and a "useless" mine for the Crafts insp. or sheep, stone, chop (chop could be stone harvest, but then you'll need Masonry - which is doable, since you have the Eureka). If you go for the chop/harvest, you'll need Sailing and Foreign Trade (partially-luck based Insp., but the scouting unit will help), for 100% chop into galley (otherwise not worth it) or unboosted Craft for +50% military.

This is based on that second stone being on flatland. If it's on a hill, you can just improve it for the Craft insp.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you want to have a builder before settler as an option, astrology first makes things very difficult.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

true, it only makes sense to go Astrology first if I'm building the HS before the builder - and that's a long time to wait on the builder. I had a vague notion of putting a few turns into the builder before swapping to the settler at size 2.

So, I guess there are 4 techs to choose from: Sailing (improve the crabs -> Start a galley for exploration/chopping purposes), Mining (to start on all the hills), Animal Husbandry (for the sheepies), or Astrology. Sailing I think I can push down the line - it should arrive around the time I get Maritime Industries unlocked, so I can run +100% (which ought to quickly make up ground for starting the galley later). So let's say Mining, Animal Husbandry, or Astrology. Astrology should probably come AFTER a builder tech.

I think mining first, perhaps? If nothing else I can get a lot of mines down that way.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 2

We found our capital, Escobar ar Rahman:




I work the 2/2 tile to halve the growth time to 7 turns, and queue up a slinger, also due in 7 turns. We'll use him to explore the north and then east, while I continue sending the warrior west. Fog-gazing suggests that the random desert to the south is a peninsula, so we'll pass around the northern shore of the lake.

The warrior finds some more luxuries - double tea, and some foxes. It might be possible to build the Temple of Artemis out there to the west, but we'd probably need to use that flatland stone next to the capital to do it. I'm thinking about a city along the western banks of that lake, but need to scout more in that direction to nail things down. 

With 7 turns to growth and 7 turns to our slinger, we can start an early settler, which I'd like to do, given the poor growth at the capital. Still ordered up mining, since I think we'll want a builder before the holy site. Right now I'm thinking to get out a builder and get to Maritime Industries before the Holy Site, then chopping it out with a galley. 

In international news, Archduke and Rowain settled, while Emperor also moved his settler.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Got in two turns of scouting:




Island clearly extends to the north a bit using settler view - fresh water up there. A city MIGHT be okay-ish on the northern end of the western lake - grabs 2 luxuries, but the hills are all second-ring. Slow starter, and it precludes a city near the horses in the north. Need to scout up there more before I can settle (ahaha) on a second site (to be named Zobrist ar Raheem). 

Players:

Japper/Indonesia

Strong civ, especially with Jongs having quite a while to go around and ruin someone's day. Japper as a player though is always really slow to start. He likes late-game toys like Mbanzas - he seems to play in SP mode, where you have all the time in the world to develop and you don't need to frantically chop and squeeze every ounce of efficiency out of your civ or die like a wretch. As a result, he usually tends to get run over by someone more quickly developing (and tactically more competent than I am, although in my defense I knew I started that war without being fully prepared, because the Archduke was hurrying me along). Hopefully he gets seduced by kampungs and isn't too scary. Need to think about how to handle a jong attack on my civ, though, especially if I wind up losing a race with him for DotF. 

Chevalier/Arabia

I'm an erratic player at best. When I focus on things, I think I can do a good job reasoning through necessary steps and putting together a plan. And I think I have a really solid strategic sense - I know what the metagame demands at any particular time, I do a decent job identifying priorities and needs, that kinna thing. I make lots of silly mistakes, though, and I'm a sloppy player - I tend to fudge details unless I force myself to slow down and write everything, which is one reason for my long turn reports. And tactically I'm not the best. Probably should have taken Rome to compensate for my weaknesses, but let's see how well a science/faith play with Arabia can work. 

Emperor/England

Best water civ, but hopefully others (including me) will snipe some GAs from him. We only need one ourselves to equalize. Will have speedy ships, but thankfully the Sea Dog UU isn't any stronger than a frigate - it's just invisible, moves faster, and captures ships. o_o Emperor is tough for me to get a read on. He fell behind in PBEM7 despite playing Russia, but he did a credible job defending himself against Alhambram in PBEM6. In PBEM8 he died too fast and in PBEM9 he doesn't report enough for me to get a read on. He's got a strong civ, though, so I think of him as a wild card approximately equal to Japper in terms of threat. 

Archduke/the Netherlands

Obviously the favorite. Now has 2 PBEM wins under his belt, has come a long way since getting spanked by Sullla. Now a solid builder, and is unparalleled at reading other players, building an army, and savagely and effectively executing his attack. Look at him vs. Singaboy in PBEM4, vs. suboptimal in PBEM6, vs. everyone in PBEM8. At least this time he's not got a strong rush civ, so he'll need some time to build up to 7 Provinces. I hope Japper takes his jongs and goes to wreck Archduke's day, but he might come after me instead because of lingering resentment in PBEM8.

Rowain/America

Do continents work at sea? I dunno. Maybe I can find a way to test it, if I ever bothered to run those test games i talk about. Anyway, strange civ choice. Rowain reports but rarely, so I don't know too much about him. He did okay with America in PBEM3, but somehow failed to achieve anything with Sumeria in PBEM8 and got run over by Mongols. Slow to settle, cities in poor spots, a really strange choice of government district placement, no war cart rush, and he built the Oracle while being significantly behind the Mongols in power and a DoF expiring (I carefully made sure my own borders were secure before spending production on the Colosseum). I dunno. Not expecting wonders here. Maybe he'll surprise me.

[Banzailizard]

I am almost entirely sure that continents do not work at sea which leaves me really confused as to Rowain's civ choice. Only possible, though odd, strategy would be a film studio/seaside resort powered cultural victory. Both are so late though that it just does not seem practical.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 5




Horses seem like a decent spot for a second city. Fresh water, first ring you got 2 hills and some wheat, second ring you have floodplains wheat, 2 1/3 hills, a riverside forest for chopping or milling, and the furs. We could get up the Temple of Artemis here, it'd be worth 3 amenities - one from the foxes and one apiece from the two teas to the south.

Internationally, England settled at last (forgot to check on turn 4, but he had not settled as of turn 3).

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

Turn 7




I step across the river and make my first foreign contact - a warrior from the city-state of Granada. The quest is easy - train a galley - so I could suzerain this little guy without too much trouble. In return I'd gain the ability to build alcazars, forts which also provide +2 culture. This almost certainly doesn't seem to be worth it, I think - I'd need to build a LOT of alcazars to make up for the science, culture, gold, and production I could get from having Granada as a city in my own empire. If they count for the Ballistic Science eureka, I dunno, maybe worth keeping around, building 2, and then killing them? But I'm almost certain they don't. 

I also need to scout closer to the city more, to see if it can build an aqueduct. The city's tiles are pretty underwhelming desert, and it unfortunately appears like the desert extends most of the way towards me. 




Overview. Granda's bonus 2 cogs speeds up the slinger a bit, which means I'll need to sink some cogs into something next turn before swapping to a settler at size 2 (unless I want to wait for size 3 to build a settler? I should rough out some math to see which is the better ROI). 

I have two potential spots for city #2. One is on the horses, as I mentioned - the other is one tile closer to the sea. I'd get to keep the pasture, which would be worth +1 amenity for the temple of Artemis, and I'd bring in a wheat to the second ring, while also being on the coast so I can build ships without a harbor. However, I push the 4f wheat, the 1/3 hill, and the 1/2 river forest to the third ring, which I don't think is worth it. I'm leaning towards planting on the horses at the moment.

Forgot to check the scores for this turn, so no international news today.