The Pen vs The Sword (Gandhi of NA)

[The Black Sword]

I haven't been able to put enough time into this game unfortunately, but an update is sorely lacking here.



Huts have gone gold, scout, gold. I'm reasonably happy with that, particularly the second scout. That second scout is in the North East, he'll probably try loop around the Northern lake to determine whether or not it's an inland sea and has islands. The southern scout by the dyes loops back West.

I think I made a mistake by not going Wheel first at the start. I finally got a chance to do some simming tonight and I like switching to Wheel now rather than finishing BW. So, if I had went Wheel first at the start, I could have redeemed those two worker turns and ended up with a better opening IMO. As it stands though, I'm going to continue the BW research. The difference between the two options is pretty small and knowing the location of copper is worth that trade off IMO, plus the ability to emergency whip.

The default plan then is to grow to 2 on a WB, grow to 3 on a warrior, pick up the wine mine, grow to 4 on a WB which is chopped to completion then settler. I still need to consider a size 3 settler though (and that's another path where Wheel first comes out ahead probably). Second city site is provisionally set as the clam and sheep spot but is also still up in the air. My gut says deer/sheep or even deer / double sheep requires a bit much tech for my second city but I should check. North West for first ring crabs and sharing the wheat for a good start should also be checked.

The one thing I think I do have though, is a good medium term plan. I'm going to get to Writing, whip in a Library in Weldyn and generate an Academy. Then I'm going to go straight to CoL through Priesthood, hopefully founding Confucianism. That should give me a very good shot but it's not the main benefit. I'll switch to caste and pop my borders with artists and generate a GM to bulb Civil Service while I tech Maths. Then I use my Priesthood path again to grab Monarchy, and a further 2 happy per city, more in the capital. Dog Soldiers might allow me to keep copper disconnected longer than usual for more warriors. I want the best city in the world come turn 100.

With regard to wonders, I think I'm going to ignore them for a while. Pyramids is tempting with that stone, and me being Philo obviously, but I want this early monarchy for the wines anyway. Oracle is also tempting, since I'm going up priesthood anyway. But without marble, the exchange rate is only around 1h to 3g. I think I'll have a very good GNP anyway, it's my hammers and expansion I'm worried about. The prophet points are very tempting though, generating a reliable Great Prophet looks to be tricky, assuming I grab Confu. I really need a second religion to get 2 temples and run 2 priests in a city. I don't think it's worth delaying Writing and the Academy in any case and in a 33 player game, I think that means it will be gone by the time I get to Priesthood. I might try to set something up as I hit Priesthood if I feel I can afford it, we'll see how the situation develops. Final wonder to consider is TGL, because I can have quite a few coastal cities thanks to these inland seas. I quite possibly want Sailing before CoL so it is possible, again though, it's trading hammers for gold and I'm feeling pretty confident in that department. I might take a shot when I feel the payback is worth it, but I'm not going to sacrifice unnecessarily.

[Ceiliazul]

so... what's the plan again?

[The Black Sword]

Keep on the first page but I've already failed that .

[The Black Sword]

Pause to chop out a worker at size 3, seems to be the best plan yet, and delays the settler just enough to sync up with the tech.

[Ceiliazul]

Just spent 10 seconds wondering who you got 2 workers and a settler already... oh, it's a sim.

[The Black Sword]

We found a friend victim (shut up Ghandi)!

I'm not waiting 9t for Jessica to heal, so she's just exploring 1 square at a time instead. Hopefully we won't get ambushed by panthers.



New hut, nice. I didn't want to explore North yet, on the assumption that tundra means it's unlikely to be a high priority. I want to find my other land neighbour over here instead. It does look like inland seas though and I do need to send something up there eventually. If everyone has the same thought as me, could be huts up there too.

[The Black Sword]

More gold, 45g, from the hut. Guess I'll have a fair sized bank account for my Academy to run through at least.

More interestingly, my rival is Hashoosh, Stalin, Aggressive/Industrious of Inca. That's mildly anti-synergistic, with both Barracks and Granary giving a good source of culture. Still, Agressive Inca is a good early game combination and one I should be wary of. In PB16 he seemed to be strongly considering some earlyish agression against Goreripper so i shouldn't rule that out either. I'm glad I have Dog soldiers to compete with early Agg axes. I'm hoping he'll be one of the civs for which Industrious is a bit of a dead weight. Even with Ind, you're going to need some good planning to land a wonder in a game this size and my read is that Hashoosh won't do enough of that. He's a reasonably good opponent to roll IMO, unfortunate that he's got good early game power though.

[Commodore]

I found him certainly worth respecting.

[The Black Sword]

Not an ideal copper location.



I built a workboat to work the fish at size 2 and have been putting further hammers into another workboat. Plan now is to stop and chop out a second worker, the wine mine has just completed. I don't think this copper really changes anything.

I hope Harper, my second scout can survie long enough to find my rivals to the East, otherwise I'll see about building a chariot once I get AH for the Deer. Need to figure out how much of that riverland I can claim. In the south, I'm thinking of a plant on the hill 1N of the wheat. I'm not sure it's advisable to try steal anything else down there from Hashoosh.

[The Black Sword]

Hashoosh double-moved me!


Nice show of peaceful intentions.

I'm not sure the barbs will be quite so kind: