Kuro's 52 Flavors of Civilization - A Game Report Thread

[Kuro]

Tacitus is right about the borders. His plant is the best. And in that case I'd actually raze Toku's copper city, 1NE by the cows is much better.

Definitely agreed on razing Toku's copper city most likely, the location feels bad. I'm thinking 2E of Horses is better than 1E to not make City 2 an invalid city location?

[Brian Shanahan]

I dunno city 2's kinda crappy without exclusive fish access. If you're not planting city 1 everything bar 3 is filler really. I'd rather have three decent cities for phant and pult whips than two and slow growing fillers.

[v8mark]

I'd also be tempted to put a city on the grass hill below the one tile lake. It would share the capital's cows to grow, and over time will turn into a middling production city. It's also a decent front line city (esp with the hills plant) vs Toku.

Looking forward to more of this!

[Kuro]

That...is a pretty interesting spot. Not very good long term, but with sharing the Cows it can get off to a fast start and is at least self-food-sustainable. Very good spot defensively. Could just sit it at max pop for a while working hills and crapping out units. I think I like it.

I will try to play more at some point today, tomorrow or on the 1st, depends on if I get as much free time today/tomorrow (or bored doing work).

[v8mark]

Exactly - relatively quick to get going, and it'll be sat at size 4-5 at about 12-15 hammers. Not tremendous, but it's what you're likely to need in the short to medium term. Plus its strategic position effectively blocks off everything else from Toku - he has to go through a hills city to get at anything valuable, were he to attack.

[Kuro]

Various lifethings have kept me from giving the attention I would want to in turns, so it has taken until today for the next report! I hope that I will be able to go faster in the future, but given the scale, once a week would not be too bad, right?

Anyway, to start with, I ended up going with Terror's plan for the city, on the basis I am worried more about how good it is quickly than long term, especially since the other spots were not great and it fits well and I will probably need to raze some Tokugawa cities anyway. Tech path is set for The Wheel -> Pottery and then I will see how things fall from there, but I figure I need cottages on sooner than later.



Welcome to Argos! Ignore the Lake being worked, I changed it to the Cow ASAP. None of the other options are appealing and I feel more Workers would be a good idea as I am about to balloon up in cities some, so I set it to a 9T Worker, capital will finish Settler in 3T which will head to the Rice/Horse city for quick bootstrapped citifying.

Research is down to 70% with just one city founded! Okay, definitely need those cottages! This makes me feel more like going for TGL too for the finances and I need stuff to do before warring anyway in an area constricted for expansion. Although I am sure this descision will be weird, I set the capital on a 4T Work Boat to scout, and will plan to 2-pop whip a settler for my 3rd core city and overflow into a Warrior or something. Stonehenge is built in a far away land in 1880 BC (T53). Work Boat finishes and is sent to scout as I make a 2T Worker and my Workers connect my horses. Thebes puts points into a Barracks to grow and now I am unsure about founding a 4th city as costs certainly get higher faster on Emperor than Monarch! Pottery in 16T?!

Okay, I am going to have to work a Lake tile or something to get that faster. Haha, this is my first Emperor game in a while...is 3 cities by T55 too much? I decide to have Athens slowbuild the Settler while working two Lake tiles, which will get Pottery in 8-9T and feels superior. My Workers primarily focus on roading to connect resources and get a road to Argos for defensive purposes: This takes very little time thanks to the double Workers and is very helpful when shuffling stuff around and I want to make sure Argos has emergency horses or whatnot. Argos finishes its Worker and sinks hammers into a Barracks as the Worker goes to improve the horses so that it may grow. The coin in Thebes' horse tile ends up shaving a turn off of Pottery, which I didn't realize was so close!

After connecting Argos, the two Workers finish up the Ivory and with Pottery coming in 1T and the Settler having prime time to be 2-pop whipped, I do so, planning to overflow into a Granary. I probably underutilize the whip, but this start is also slightly low food due to needing to share around some, so.



Pottery comes in next turn and the capital overflows into it, allowing it to complete in 6T while growing, and Thebes and Argos both swap to it as well. I now need to decide on if I want to go Writing or Sailing -> Masonry, I could also try going Writing -> Sailing -> Masonry, but that feels perhaps too slow...but I do need science quickly and so I think I will do Writing and then see if perhaps the early scientists and Great Scientist can feed into TGL and then Construction or something (You need Masonry to get Construction anyway, after all.)

T66 has the settler finish and it goes off to settle the Fish/Stone city. The roading to it will be done the same turn thanks to being so close to Argos' horses and my scouting Work Boat will serve to boat the fish as soon as borders pop. Mycenae is founded and it, too, begins on a Granary. Ivory is connected and makes me people happier.

The Great Lighthouse falls on T70! Maybe it is just me, but that seems early, The Oracle usually falls before TGL, right? Well, no more need to dream about chasing it! Maybe the Stone can be helpful later, though? It'll help with Moai, ofc, but maybe I end up with Notre Dame or something? Hanging Gardens? Gardens don't seem very good here but I am probably going a fairly early Maths / Construction given the game plan. How soon do you have to attack with 'Phants on Emperor, anywho?

T72 Athens' Granary finishes and I work on a Chariot to give Mycenae a defender and for power graph in general, while Mycenae's borders pop and the fish comes out. Workers chop down a forest at the capital to make room for a cottage and I put it into a Barracks because it seems useless to put it into the Chariot.

Argos, Size 3 and having finished Granary and Barracks, will put 2T into a Chariot to grow to Size 4, then swap to a Worker and then finish the Chariot. Thebes essentially does the same thing when it finishes its Granary at Size 3, except it puts the 1T of hammers it needs to grow into its half-finished Barracks. Writing comes in T78 and I decide to take one quick detour: Archery! Probably not the best idea, but...to be honest I feel nervous against someone with metal only having Chariots, a single Spear could destroy me! Archers help at least somewhat with that. Athens ASAP works on a Library, with a chop coming in 2T (from T78 when I discovered Writing) to aid it. After finishing the Library, I let Athens grow to full size in 2T and then will run two Scientists at happy cap to get Great Scientist. After Archery for defense comes Mathematics, as I am clearing some forest down and I could use some tech to help out, plus it heads me towards Currency and Construction. 

Argos builds an Archer for defense after the Chariot, because I see a Swordsman wandering around Tokugawa's territory and a Library does very little for the city. 



Um, what Phalanxes?



On T88, Geronimo is born in a distant land, indicating SOMEONE out there is warring! Hopefully they'll drag themselves down and help us out here. You can also see Argos building a Library after the Archer because it is so cheap (3T!) and to culturally pressure Toku more, plus nothing else much appealing unless I want to carpet the world in Archers and Chariots. In 650 BC, the Diao Miao is built, so someone's getting a pretty priestly penny. 

T93 sees Rene Descartes born in Athens and he instantly makes himself an Academy, having the capital go from 18 BPT to 25! With no need to build more buildings until Construction or a Wonder or something and the improved tiles not being cottages to work there, I kinda wanna chop Elephants out or a wonder or something, I keep the Scientists on duty both to help research a lot and, hey, great people points! (If I keep them on for 16T I can get another Great Scientist)

After Mathematics, I decide to take 3T to knock out Masonry, because it will both allow me to get to Construction when I wish and because I want to hook up the Stone for Mycenae. 

Shockingly, on T525, Tokugawa discovers Buddhism! I believe it was via Code of Laws, as I saw him researching it via Espionage. If we kill Tokugawa, it looks like we might be able to snag a religion for happiness too, although a Great Prophet may be hard to come by.

Masonry comes in on T98 and, personally, I am all for just heading right for Construction: With our happy cap being 6, Colosseums would be nice, it gives us one half of War Elephants (still need Horseback Riding) and will let us construct Catapults, and the only other noticable options right now appear to be Currency (which can comfortably come after due to lack of room to REX into) and Iron Working (Soon to be obsoleted by War Elephants), Metal Casting possibly too but with no precious metals it feels more back seat. Feels like I should crush Tokugawa as I research Currency and MC and then use that to build my empire up. 

On T100, I decide to stop, both to see if y'all have any thoughts and because I have to go in half an hour anyway, so why not pick a nice, round number to sign off on? Empire roundup!



Athens, with its nice big ol' Academy, is doing a lot for the empire here, currently working on an Aqueduct because I don't want to worthlessly produce Archers and drive up unit costs, Workers have already improved most of my empire and it could let me perhaps get out The Hanging Gardens very quickly, perhaps Hanging Gardens into empire-wide Odeon whips? It won't be a problem if they finish anyway. 



Argos here is finishing up a Settler for the Filler City because I didn't want to make MORE Archers and until the Aqueduct there was nothing else to build. My Workers have also improved a decent number of tiles near Filler City and therefor it can provide some immediete if small benefit. Will be a solid military pump, but doesn't have the surplus for much whipping.



Thebes will be given one of its hills back once it has Catapults and such to build and could really use a Lighthouse in the post-Odeon/Tokugawa era, after which it will become a decent coastal city and perhaps a great place to put Moai with 14 water tiles and the Horse + Hilles to self-build? Archer build is filler.



THE Production City! It can comfortably work 3 Plains Hills and a Plains Stone without worry and will be my primary place to pump out WEs and Catapults. I considered Moai here, but it feels like overkill? Plus, as-is, could get Ironworks + Heroic Epic in here perhaps. 



Tokugawa diplo screen. The two cities he just added are pretty new, because I checked diplo screen about 10T ago and they were not there. Toku will never give me borders ofc so no way to check on anything.



We can plunk an island city here at some point. Will send a ship down here at some point to scout too. I could just have Thebes shit out a Work Boat to scout which seems like a good idea.



And finally, a big overview shot of my lands that reminds me I should really get to Flying Camera already. I feel I have largely done well but IDK if I actually have? Next plan is pretty simple, mass Cataphants and murdering Toku. I figure I should maybe go for Optics and Astronomy earlier than normal both to find people to trade and also because there may be off shore cities to settle if I get there early. Currenct, Metal Casting and such for econ, of course. Anyone got thoughts?

[Brian Shanahan]

I'd build a few horse archers at least. If nothing else they'll be good for scouting, and if Toku leaves a badly defended city that's a quicker conquest. Regarding the Lighthouse, if there's a wonder hog like Louis out there and religions fall first it can easily go early.

Chop out the phants and pults and rip Toku a new one and then you can evaluate your position. Though with a semi isolated start early optics and astro is probably the wisest path.

[Tacitus]

Only comment I would make is that you usually do not want to build aqueducts until the industrial era when your cities become health constrained. If your cities are not up against the heath cap, then they are not a good build. I would go for horse archers like Brian suggested instead.

[Kuro]

Only comment I would make is that you usually do not want to build aqueducts until the industrial era when your cities become health constrained. If your cities are not up against the heath cap, then they are not a good build. I would go for horse archers like Brian suggested instead.

Horse Archers would be great to build if I had Horseback Riding yet. As I mentioned, I still need to research it.

[Brian Shanahan]

Only comment I would make is that you usually do not want to build aqueducts until the industrial era when your cities become health constrained. If your cities are not up against the heath cap, then they are not a good build. I would go for horse archers like Brian suggested instead.

Horse Archers would be great to build if I had Horseback Riding yet. As I mentioned, I still need to research it.

Well get to it, you can't build jumbos without hbr.