[SPOILERS] Ceiliazul is Player One: Louis of Egypt

[Ceiliazul]

Why do I keep joining games where I don't get to pick my leader? In Single Player I often chose random, so I guess this is no different.

Except that a SP game takes ~10 hours... a full Realms game may take hundreds!

Game details:

[SevenSpirits]

[Lewwyn]

That's an interesting start. Whatcha gonna do Ceil?

[Ceiliazul]

That's an interesting start. Whatcha gonna do Ceil?

It looks like 1S and 2S are also coastal/riverside. I'm thinking warrior SE and see what we see... hopefully soon!

We start with Ag/Wheel, so worker first is almost certain. Big & small maps tend to give quite a lot of security, so hopefully I won't get mugged.

Techwise, likely fishing-mining-BW unless good foodies present themselves.

[Ceiliazul]

I blew it. My exploring warrior went south revealing ivory. I was thinking of settling on the grass hill but didn't because I'd lose the ivory. Big mistake!

However, I'm pretty pleased with this land! Shadow analysis suggests the land poking out of the NW is actually the same landmass I'm on... not sure yet.

[Ceiliazul]

Holy Cow, what beautiful land. Tough to dotmap though. I'm hoping some seafood will solve that conundrum for me:

Edit: If the land curves prove true, I sure hope I'm not on an isthmus between landmasses... at least the jungle band should give me breathing room from the south. I hope.

[Ceiliazul]

Met Plako. Here's what we know:

• He hasn't grown. This indicates a worker start- NOT A warrior
  
• No sign of his starting warrior, so it's likely exploring way out of position
  
• He's Plako... unlikely to be screw up and be dislodged easily later
  

So early aggression is approved with extreme prejudice. It helps that my warrior lucked into the best possible spot, right in his corner pocket:



In the fog we see a plains-hill capital square... if he had even 1t of production into a warrior, he could swap to it and finish before I get there. The only way his capital is undefended is if he just started the warrior, AND his starting warrior is way out of position.

And since I was last to play, the turn rolled. Here's my first opportunity to honor the "casual" ruleset. I'll wait until Plako responds to move.

[Ceiliazul]

Uh-Oh Plako

Looks more like Mortius than Plako... still, there's a decent chance a warrior pops up on the turn roll. Next turn will be pivotal.

[Ceiliazul]

One Down

Plako's empty capital was razed this turn for 23 gold. It's always good to eliminate a rival, but in this case it's a huge swing: Plako had almost no land to expand into and would have almost certainly have used early military to escape from his peninsula. My flood plains are going to be great for early growth, but not for production... Plako could have put the hurt on me very easily.



Plako opened workboat/worker, and kindly improved the clams before his departure. If I had his techs and his really nice start, I surely would have done the same. If my warrior didn't stumble right into his corner pocket, his 2h capital would have been able to get a warrior out in time for defense. Bad luck for Plako, sorry dude. I hope your efforts in PB7 go better!

Lines drawn in using shadow analysis. I'm really hoping that water to my West is indeed a closed lake. I'm kicking myself over and over for not founding on the hill, at least a lake would give my capital some security.

[Ceiliazul]

t23 - Better and better

Worker completes next turn, and the lay of the land is getting clearer. Not only that, some nice villagers taught me how to stack rocks!



How lucky am I? Three sentries can guard all overland routes to my core. Wahoo! Plako's vacation means I'm looking really good here. If we had to share this land... it would have been cramped and likely bloody.