RB Civ 5 SG 4 - Ryder Cup American Team

[Sareln]

Okay yeah, I think we should SIP.

I also agree w/ the SIP.

[T-hawk]

So as promised, we settled in place. The best tile available to work was the 2-0-1 fish. Pottery ordered up, and the monument.

The warrior wandered north, finding an ancient ruin...



popping Mining! Not bad. Further north he met Dublin, a militaristic city-state.



I used Dublin's gold to buy this tile as soon as possible, hoping that the culture expansion will get that wheat quickly.

The warrior found another ruin after looping around to the south...



and now we have a spearman.

Pottery came in, and I started the granary right away, since it doesn't look like we have much need to scout and since the wheat would come quickly. I went for Animal Husbandry second, reasoning that the sheep is a better snowball push than spending 50 hammers for a work boat that would give only +1 food. I worked max hammers for the granary (1-2-0 hill and 1-1-2 incense), figuring that growing to the third citizen wasn't very useful when the only tiles to add are 2-0-0 bare grass. Better to line up growth and worker labor at the same time.

The first policy came in on turn 13, and I did go directly for Liberty first, we need that worker labor as soon as we can get it. Second policy was the free worker on T22.

Animal Husbandry revealed horses at Kyoto! I ordered up Calendar next.

A barbarian appeared at Kyoto, stepping on the hill tile to delay my carefully micromanaged granary by exactly one hammer and one turn. :P The spearman had to come back home to kill him.

Culture expansion got the plains incense first. Then, even though the wheat had been highlighted, somehow we got the silver next. :P Well, the worker can stay busy on the sheep and horses until we get the wheat.

But then two more barbarian brutes approached. The spearman took out one, but the situation with the second is a bit sticky. Here's the big overview.

We're on a very awkward-looking peninsula, and haven't contacted anyone besides Dublin. I didn't scout past Dublin at first, which turned out to be wise, since we need that spearman at home defending against the two barbarian camps. The first scout is sneaking past the northern camp.

The worker had to leave the sheep, so moved to the horses. I'll leave it up to the next player how to handle this tactical situation. There's a fresh scout in Kyoto, a heavily damaged spearman northeast, and a barbarian at 5 HP on the sheep. My best guess is to hide one unit on the horses tile and put the other in Kyoto; we'll have to rely on the city's attack to wear down the barb.

Next build is up to the next leader, but almost certainly need a warrior to go take out one of those barb camps. Not sure of the next tech, we might need Archery.

Save: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19112178/sg4/sg4...c.Civ5Save . Next leader should go 15 turns, then 10 each from there onwards.

[Sareln]

Eww.

Incense, Silver, +Dublin's Wales. Small amount of land. Perhaps we should just go hard Culture as our Victory Condition?

Probably a warrior so that we can take out those barb camps and then try and scout past Dublin to see if there's anything worth having on the other side of them? This might be a weird naval game in the works...

[NobleHelium]

Hide the spearman inside the city until it heals, the scout can run away if it gets too damaged. The city will wear down the barb no problem, we'll probably lose some worker turns but that's not catastrophic.

The wheat was probably highlighted at the same time as the silver and it randomly picked one of them.

[Gaspar]

Yeah, concur on "ewww." That is one ugly looking piece of land. Might be worth getting a boat out sooner than later to do a little exploration. It'll be pretty critical to see what's past Dublin. If we've not been placed on a random island somehow, we might just have to plan to take Dublin and damn the consequences so we're not quite so hemmed in.

In terms of next steps, I think a warrior is probably required.

I'll probably play tomorrow afternoon so if anyone else has any grand thoughts, have at it.

[T-hawk]

We'll need to decide the next city location before the end of the next turnset. I think on the northeasternmost incense is the least-bad option? Two fish, two sheep, and a horse, making it worthwhile to build a lighthouse and stable. After the resource tiles and one mined hill, it's got crap, but that's the same as any other site in this wasteland.

Yeah, culture seems the natural way to go here. But I'm not sure how interesting that is, or how meaningful it is to compare to the other team. Maybe we should ask in the original thread if the Euro team also thinks the same way, and turn this into a race to culture?

[NobleHelium]

I don't think it's necessary at all to intentionally pursue the same victory condition. If anything deviating approaches is probably more interesting.

Yeah on the northeasternmost incense looks like the best spot we have available. Northwest of the southeasternmost incense looks like the best spot for the third city if we don't find a better spot in the fog?

[T-hawk]

There is one more fish that didn't make it into that screenshot, south of the deer. Either on the southeasternmost incense or 1 SW of it gets all three fish.

Or we could reconfigure the overall plan to get four cities total with two fish each (besides the capital). On or near the north barb camp for a fish on each coast; far east of Kyoto for two fish; and south for two fish.

Where is Sid's Sushi when we need it?

[Gaspar]

Ok, so goals for this turnset:

• Don't die.
  
• Don't lose a worker.
  
• Get 2nd city founded.
  
• Explore.
  

Log:

Inherited Turn: Poke around, set build to warrior. Decide to throw the scout at the warrior and then that leaves great odds for the spear. Might as well take advantage of "Bushido." Anyway, warrior dead. Not sure if you can make it out in the picture but both units are redlined.



T26: Healing, moving.
T27: Meet the Americans outside of Dublin. Must be an annoying Boston tourist getting drunk. (You can see him half-health from a probably bar fight.)



Wheat also comes into culture.

T28: Meet Temujin outside Dublin as well. We're definitely either going culture or killing Dublin. Calendar in, decide on Sailing over Archery. Our lands are cramped enough we shouldn't see too many barb camps and I think getting a scouting Trireme out would be a good play, even beyond the fish. Also spot Songhai borders right past Dublin. This will not be a peaceful SG, ladies and gentlemen.

T29: Formally meet Songhai.

T30: Noticing I normally play on quick - is the worker ever going to finish the damn pasture?

T31: Warrior done - torn a bit on worker vs. settler. I've become a fan of getting to 3-4 cities quickly. But I guess I'll do a worker. Horse Pasture done, I move to Sheep because Sheep > Incense > Wheat is most efficient use of worker turns. Also prefer to get that camp cleared before putting the worker there.

T32: Moving units. Scout gets attacked by a barb on the IT, down to half-health.

T33: Flanking the barb camp before attacking. Will attack next turn.

T34: Barb idiotically attacks our scout emptying the camp to redline the scout. This will make cleaning this up trivial. After IT:



After killing:



T35: Bring scout in borders to heal. Warrior will fog-bust in north, Spear in south.

T36: Sheep pasture done, onto Incense. Policy in, take Settler. Decide to rename cities after victorious 2008 US Ryder Cup team. Had to google both year we won Ryder Cup last and names of golfers as I couldn't possibly care less about the event. Capital now Boo Weekley.

T37: Sailing in, decide on Wheel next to connect cities.

T38: Barb Trireme pops up outside of Boo Weekley. Shoot at it.

T39: Spear cleans out a Barb in the south. Anthony Kim founded on the Incense. Start on a monument.



Worker done, move him towards Silver. Start a Settler in cap, due in 5t.

T40: Here's the situation on T40, end of my set.



I was a bit conservative with the units, so we didn't get much exploration done. Probably would have played riskier in a garden variety SP game. Anyway, situation pretty much the same as it was 15 turns ago. Instinctively, I think I might try and get a Settler over in the west to that Spices/Banana/Wheat spot. Probably need another Worker after the Settler.

Save

10 turns apiece from here on out.

Sareln: Up
NobleHelium: On Deck
T-hawk: In the hole
Gaspar: Just played

[T-hawk]

Nice moves on the inherited turn, I didn't see that line of play at all. Civ 4 players aren't used to attacking with a scout, and it didn't seem possible that the already redlined spear could attack without dying.

I agree with running the next settler past Dublin ASAP. We'll have plenty of time to backfill, and need to grab contested land first. There's also three fish over there!

Going to need happy for that city, can we fit in a Circus at the capital? Build it while the settler is moving.