Neighbours
I met Alexander's scout in the northeast. It's unclear whether Alexander is anywhere nearby, but if he is, he is probably to the northeast of me. I've already acquired enough points to spy on Alexander (see the graphs below). He doesn't seem particularly impressive. He is low on money, and yet he decided to invest in religion. He invented Judaism two turns ago, meaning he doesn't even have BW. Pity that he won't need my Buddhism, but at least I can feel somewhat safe.
Alexander (blue) vs. Hum (red) - the graphs:
Power:
Production:
Money:
Food:
Global Affairs
I'm doing tolerably well compared to other players. Looks like almost everyone is focusing on food at this stage; hardly surprising.
Hinduism was invented by MYKI a long time ago, Buddhism was invented by me, and Judaism by Alexander recently.
Expansion
I built the second city where I intended. Sadly, I had a retarded moment and invested all the prod left after the Settler into Barracks rather than a Boat.
Building
The rough plan for Delhi is to:
- expand to 5
- whip a Granary
- spend the leftovers on a Boat
- whip a Worker
- finish the Barracks
- whip a Settler
The plan for Bombay is to provide money for research until I build the improvements.
I'll make a more coherent spreadsheet later on this week.
Improvements
- irrigated rice in Bombay
- copper mine
- connect copper to Bombay
- chop the nearby woods for Delhi
Technology
- finish Pottery to get Granaries
- get Sailing for the food bonus
- Husbandry
- Priesthood to grow a Great Prophet? Writing?
I made an alternative run in which I started by making a Worker instead of the Workboats, and not pursuing Buddhism and Archery. The picture is grim. By 53, I would have been much better off.
Developments:
Actual:
Alternative:
(capital has Granary)
Rankings:
Actual:
Alternative:
I hope I'll crawl out of this sorry state of affairs.
not crippling though, and sometimes a big capital early can be powerful. anyway, wilingness to learn is usually the biggest factor in long term success. Keep it up!
my first game I picked a bad civ for my starting resources, but eventually overcame the gap. good luck.
(December 10th, 2013, 18:24)Ceiliazul Wrote: yeah, 'king corn' is usually the way to go.
not crippling though, and sometimes a big capital early can be powerful. anyway, wilingness to learn is usually the biggest factor in long term success. Keep it up!
my first game I picked a bad civ for my starting resources, but eventually overcame the gap. good luck.
Thank you. I hope the lurkers aren't too disgusted with the state of affairs. Either way, I hope to see some massive criticism in the lurker thread afterwards.
Falling behind on money. My earlier technological advantage will persist for a few more turns, but then I'll really be the retarded civ. I suppose I'll need to start building cottages soon, but there is a shortage of workers. In the future, I plan to make a specialist economy, but it will take a while to get Monarchy.
Neighbours:
I'm still doing well compared to Alexander, who will possibly be the weakest player. He is also concentrating on his capital, which has grown to 5. Since Alexander is seemingly my only neighbour, I can relax a bit with regards to defence.
Someone, probably Gavagai, has just finished the GL.
I made a plan of development for the next fortnight or so: Cities
I changed the naming scheme to 'Poverty':
Capital = Poverty Point (the red dot on my flag)
City 1 = coastal city in the north = Bumbay
City 2 = tundra city in the south = Down-n-out
City 3 = city on the west coast = Doledale
I'll finish this worker without whipping. The by-turn plan is this:
Up until 64: PovPo builds worker without whipping. Starts building archer for the southern city.
Bum keeps building Granary.
Turn 64: Worker finished, goes to build ivory camp.
PovPo starts building settler due to happiness limit.
Turn 65:
Ivory camp finished. Road for the ivory camp began.
PovPo builds archer to grow. The Archer is needed for City 3 (Downout).
Turn 66:
Bum grows to 3, whips Granary for 1 pop. There's no good 3rd tile to work since I didn't get a boat.
PovPo keeps building an archer to grow.
Worker 1 starts building green hill mine. The river hill is too far away.
Turn 67:
Bum starts building workboat for itself.
PovPo keeps building archer and growing.
Turn 68:
PovPo expands to 7. The green hill mine is finished. Worker goes to chop the river forest.
Turn 69:
PovPo finished archer, archer goes south to fogbust. Overflow goes into Lighthouse.
Both workers start chopping at the wooded river tile.
Turn 70:
PovPo grows to 8 and whips settler for 3 pop. Workers finish chopping.
Turn 71:
Settler is built, overflow goes into Lighthouse.
Workers go to chop the forest at City 2 (might reconsider if I see barbarians).
Turn 72:
Lighthouse is finished, starts building Buddhist temple.
Bum finishes workboat, starts Lighthouse.
Turn 73:
Bum grows to 4. Keeps building Lighthouse.
Workers start chopping wood near City 2.
Turn 74:
Wood is chopped for the capital, goes into temple.
City 2 (Downout) is founded, starts building granary.
Workers start building pig pasture.
Turn 75:
Nothing new.
Turn 76:
PovPo finishes temple, starts settler.
Bumbay whips lighthouse.
Worker goes to chop the coastal forest next to Downout.
Turn 77:
Bumbay: overflow goes into worker.
PovPo: starts buddhist monastery.
Start researching monarchy to get specialists.
Very rough outline for turns after 77 (likely to be altered):
Turn 78:
Nothing new.
Turn 79:
PovPo whips buddhist monastery, gets upset for 1 turn.
Forest chopped in Downout, goes into granary.
Worker finished in Bumbay, starts building another worker.
Turn 80:
Worker finished cottage at Downout.
Overflow from monastery goes into settler.
Turn 81:
PovPo starts Buddhist missionary.
Turn 82:
PovPo whips missionary.
Turn 83:
Overflow in PovPo goes into settler.
Missionary goes to Bumbay.
Turn 84:
PovPo starts another settler. (by turn 84 the workers must start wood at City 3)
Turn 85:
Buddhism spreads in Bumbay.
The tech plan is:
Priesthood
Animal Husbandry
Writing
Monarchy
Alexander is a bit hopeless at this stage. He will finish researching Mining in 2 turns. Conquest may be a possibility, but I won't be able to get enough axemen without major economic drawbacks. I seem to be dragging behind everyone but Alexander.
I am far away from the ongoing oriental drama, trying to catch up with the rest of the world.
Current situation in the world
I managed to improve my income and production, chiefly because everyone is busy beating the crap out of each other. However, it came at the risk of being conquered due to military backwardness. Thankfully, both of my neighbours probably feared an attack from Gavagai, and thus were reluctant to move their armies in my direction. Perhaps Furungy was merely being merciful, though his low production levels may have something to do with this. For a long while it was worrying that Zanth would attack me, since it would likely destroy all my trade routes. It's no longer such a terrible prospect now that I found a cunning path through the ice and then got Astronomy.
Demographics
My Gold is inflated because I am researching Gunpowder:
Graphs:
My cities with their actual commands:
National wonders:
Poverty Point (capital) = Moai Stones. Wallstreet in the future.
Bay of No Pigs = Oxford. National Epic in the future.
Budget Drain = nothing. Possibly Heroic Epic and Ironworks in the future. Pity since it has no sea access.
Not sure where to place the Globe and Forbidden Palace.
Geography
I discovered the path to the "Pacific" islands with my galley, but it happened too late, so I decided to get there using Astronomy. The islands will be vulnerable and slow to develop, but at least I'll have Stone (needed for my Minaret), Incense, and a Gold mine. I already have a galleon with two settlers and a missionary in it, and another galleon shall deliver two workers.
Here are my current cities on the map. Ignore their current commands, see above for the real commands:
Building plan on the isles, followed by a few fish cities:
Capital:
I probably won't settle the small island to the east of Poverty Point, at least not while I have Bureaucracy. An upgraded lumbermill with bonuses from the capital will be more useful. I might chop down the forest for the Minaret in favour of workshops once Divine Right is discovered.
Improvements
I want to knock down the Elephants at PovPo and replace them with a farm, to irrigate the Corn at Doledale. I am not doing this because it might disturb Bacchus, who is currently giving me 18 Gold per turn. He seemingly forgot about the deal, so it's best not to remind him.
I also started building workshops a few turns ago.
Beakers
I often had to resort to building wealth to make up for the drastic lag in income. The golden age was helpful in bridging the gap. Even though my income at present is solid, millennia of poverty mean I don't have certain crucial technologies. At present, I am torn between making up for my military disadvantage and generating income. For now, I am leaning towards the latter.
The current rough research plan, no doubt to be disturbed by some belligerent neighbour, is this:
189. Gunpowder
193. Chemistry
196. Divine Right - +40 gold from Spiral Minaret
201. Nationalism
206. Constitution - will switch to Representation
210. Corporation
212. Philosophy - will switch to Pacifism and focus on getting great men
___
Further plans:
Alphabet/Printing Press - if all goes as expected
Military Science - will slip it in earlier if I see Furungy or Zanth preparing for war with me
Democracy - if I get another Engineer
Building
I intend to beef up my army for a few turns using Theocracy. I'll focus on longbowmen, since they are both cheap and provide good defence, considering the fact that my cities are generally hilly. I'll also build a few macemen to get some City Raider II units for posterity. Once I switch to Pacifism, I'll keep building knights, though at a modest rate.
The idea is not to appear seductively defenceless. No doubt my current low power might entice people into an attack, even if they aren't especially warlike. It's a shame I have to waste money on crap units though, but I'm too poor to go for Military Science. Still, I think I can afford Gunpowder+Chemistry, especially because of the +1 workshop bonus.
National news:
Sadly, I got a great prophet in the Bay of No Pigs, though the chance was something like 5-7%. This is unfortunate because I have a 35% chance of getting a prophet in Poverty Point, making the next golden age problematic. I wouldn't want to spend my engineer on that. I therefore divided some of the capital's resources between neighbouring cities, so that it could have more merchants. This should reduce the chance of the prophet to about 30%.
World situation:
Furungy has a golden age, and his gold/prod just shot through the roof (see demos). He has started building knights in border cities, which is worrying. I fear he might be planning to attack me, though his trebuchets are far away. Furungy has at least one ship of the line and will probably build more, so I'm defenceless against him on the high seas even with Chemistry.
He has two engineers, which he'll probably use for the Statue of Liberty - a grim prospect, since most of his cities are on a single continent, even though functionally they are divided with a rock. He might go for the Minaret/Versailles, since he'll have a lot of spare prod. Looks like Furungy is winning - or, at least, he has a lot of room to become even more powerful very soon. It's likely he'll be focusing on Levees for now, as he shall discover Steam next turn. He retained Organized Religion for those purposes.
Here are his current units:
His trebuchets, pikemen and longbowmen are far away. He has some crossbowmen and macemen next to me. That said, he also has several Indiamen, so he might attack my poorly protected coastal cities. Overall, he seems to be focused on defence, and is reluctant to build catapults - perhaps he's planning to go straight for cannons. My hope is that Furungy just wants to isolate himself and develop peacefully; that would suffice for him to win the game.
It's a distant possibility for me to conquer some of his neighbouring cities, since his forces are inevitably dispersed, while mine are concentrated on the border. It's too easy for him to make his defence impregnable by getting machine guns, however.
(March 20th, 2014, 14:40)Commodore Wrote: Sounds good, don't underbuild catapults...enough siege can make even horse archers kill rifles...
Indeed, thank you for stressing this point. I've been somewhat neglectful of them.
yeah, 'king corn' is usually the way to go. 
