Dave's Not Throwing Away His Shot

[oledavy]

Turn 13

4th turn today, not bad!

Grew to size 3. I could bang out a monument in 5 turns if I would like to.



However, I switched it to a worker, as originally planned. Currently making a gentleman's 9 HPT, which will go up to 10 next turn with Code of Laws. 

Likely Build Order: Worker -> Settler -> Monument -> Slinger -> Slinger -> Warrior -> Campus

The worker is going to improve the copper, sheep, and northeast stone. If the tile picker had chosen rice instead of stone, I would improve that. However, as things stand, I'm going to wait to pick it up naturally then farm the rice. This in turn will give me the Eureka for irrigation, at which point I will build a plantation on the copper. The final build action for the second worker will likely go to a chop. That's a ways down the road though (probably after campus). 

I would like to have enough gold to: 

1. Buy the best tile for my campus
2. Upgrade 3 archers
3. Buy a trader in my second city. 

However, it's likely I will at best have enough gold to do 2 of these three, and maybe not even that. In any event, I'll need to make a decision between best possible campus location and having a trader sooner. 

Anyway, in the west: 



Both of those locations are pretty good for a city. The northern one is on a plains hill, and so has a faster start. It additionally allows me to build a campus to the north and CH to the west for a neat city-plan and lots of adjacency bonuses. 


The southern location scraps that city plan, wastes a forest, and is slower starting, but has most of its critical tiles in the second ring rather than the 3rd, including those horses. 

This site also inclines me to try to take OLORAM, as that's four tiles that benefit from it in my first batch of cities. 

To the east: 



I'm going to go one more tile southeast before turning northeast. I don't think I can catch that scout. 

The interesting thing here is that river flows south. I may be closer to the southern sea than I thought. It may end in a lake, but if it ends in the sea, that would instead put me towards the eastern end of the pangaea. 

I'm expecthing this slinger or my western warrior to uncover my neighbors very soon. 

My 2nd warrior is heading north along the main river, I'll be following it to the sea and seeing if there is anything fun to my north. 

Me and Alhambram (iirc) are both at size 3. Everyone else is at 2. The notable thing is that Woden has 2 civics 

Guessing Code of Laws and Foreign Trade. He definitely opened with two units, as his power is higher than mine. So, no monument to muck things up. He may have a cultured luxury at his capital. It's most likely, however, that his early 2 Civics are a result of China's ability and 2 cultured city-states. 

Still, I feel like I've had a pretty strong start here, so I won't complain too much. It is certainly feeling like Woden may be a major player in this game, especially given his frequency updating and rapid turn pace. I'll definitely be keeping my eye open for him if he's my neighbor.

[oledavy]

Oh last note, Woden switched to God-King, so he will likely get the first pantheon anyway.

[oledavy]

Turn 14

Time for the first government!  



Urban Planning or God King you say? 

I discovered something very interesting to the southeast, something that will change my slinger's course. 



There's a city down there. Moreover, the distance suggests it might be one of my opponents. While I really want to complete the loop around Seoul, if that's a CS, I want to meet it, if it's a player, I would like to know who they are and get the Eureka for writing. This does run the risk of leaving the area east of my capital unexplored for quite some time though, and takes my slinger really far away. I'm hoping I can meet the player/CS, then come up from the south around the mountain range. 

So, I was taking a screenshot to highlight my district plan for my western city, now that I've decided upon a location, and then I noticed something I missed before making my moves. 



A barb camp spawned in between turns. I guess I don't get a sound in MP. 

Gah, on the one hand, I've been really wanting to find barbs to farm. On the other hand, my slinger is on the other side of the world, and both of my warriors are on the cusp of defogging a lot of territory that I really want explored before making a settling decision. Additionally, there's still a decent chance one of them finds yet another CS. 

The risk here is not so much that they will get out of control and overrun my capital, but that the CS's will clear the encampment before I can. I wish I had noticed it before moving this western warrior, but I wasn't observant enough. Anyway, I think he's going to move 1 SE to get a good idea of what lays to my south, then head back up to the encampment to begin laying siege to it/get me some culture. My northern warrior will keep going northeast for now. I'm just going to kick myself if there was a CS a stone's throw in that direction up the river and I missed it. 

Queued up Craftsmanship for now.

[oledavy]

Turns 15-16

We're in the throes of another blitz right now. Just as well, because everything I would have teased on t15 was paid off on t16. 

Without further ado, the big news. 



As I guessed, my slinger was close to finding another player. It's Singaboy! Good, although Woden has recently emerged as one of the most likely to win this game, I still see Singaboy as my primary competition. Having him close by guarantees my ability to try and stop him should he start running away with things. 

Took a look at his trade screen. 



Nothing too interesting here. I have a little more gold than him, but since I never worked a gold tile, I'm not sure how that worked out. Is it just because he hasn't played his turn yet?

Where is he exactly? 



I was vaguely considering making a settler push for that nexus of rivers south of Seoul, it's pretty awesome land. However, I suspected it was somebody's 2nd city expand site, and indeed it is. I have no guarantees of being able to beat him there, it's too far away from my capital to defend well at this point, and would result in a game-long feud with Singaboy. Given my buildery nature and plans to pursue Petra/not go on the warpath until later in the game, I would just as soon rather stay on good terms with Singaboy. 

The one downside here is that I don't have room for a front city in this direction, or at least not one that isn't dry as a bone. 

That being said, I think Seoul's location is fortuitous in that regard, as it looks like it will serve as a nice buffer zone between me and Singaboy. It's in a pretty terrible location without fresh water or good tiles, so it won't be worth it for him to try and take. Meanwhile, I can become it's suzerain and maintain it both to boost my economy and protect the eastern approaches to my capital. 

I do wonder what the land is like east of Seoul. But without the city under my control, that will be difficult terrain for me to settle. There may be another player over there. I'm still not sure if I'm on the eastern or western end of the Pangea, although I do feel safe in saying now that I don't have anyone north of me and any territory up there will be backline. My current best guesses are west along the coastline between Hong Kong and Buenos Aires, south of Buenos Aires, or east of Seoul. Or maybe all three....

Who knows. In any event, I have basically made up my mind where to settle. 



North is almost certainly a backline, and there is no particularly solid city site within 5 tiles. The immediate east is dry and blocked off by a city-site. I have a nice city-site to the west, between Buenos Aires and Hong Kong, but I won't have to compete for it. Someone would have to take a really convoluted path to get to the location, and then they would have a city 4 tiles away from me that I would just take. 

So, the south it is!

I've marked in the screenshot above my most likely spot for a second city-pending further scouting. It only has one first ring tile that's any good, but accomplishes a number of things in the long term. 

1. Secures access to a second luxury, Coffee. 
2. Secures horses. 

I was going to put it on the hill 1 NE, but then noticed I could make it a much better long-term city at the expense of 1 2/2 tile in the immediate ring. It also keeps a hill nearby for an acropolis. I am designing this city as a potential front city (perhaps dumb on my part, but I can accomplish this while also rendering the city a solid long-term plant). The location is protected on three sides by river, making it very difficult to attack.  

My warrior is going to finish scouting to the east before coming back up to the capital, which might prompt me to move the city east, or dotmap another one close to the mountain range - which would serve as a western front city against Singaboy. Either way, this southern river will be my frontier for now, and does seem to form the best defensive line against Singaboy and my imagined other southern neighbor. 

Two other things of note in this screenshot:

1. I moved the campus location again. It wastes a forest, but saves me a lot of gold on buying tiles for a more permanent 2 mountain adjacency bonus rather than 1 mountain and 2 jungle. 
2. Singaboy found a scientific city-state first - that's why his science is so high. 

It occurs to me, since I found 3 city-states first, Singaboy found at least 1, and Woden probably found 3-4, it's extremely unlikely I'm going to be first to any more city-states.   The other two likely fell to Alhambram/TheArchduke.

While I'm super jealous of Woden's double cultural coup, I feel like I can't really complain too much. Finding three was awesome. The fact that two were industrial sucks, but I will do my best to leverage them. Seoul was super nice to find. And who knows, maybe there's still one out there I can find first. 

The other news this turn came in the north.



Got the boost for astrology! For the little it's worth 

Finding Yosemite did give me a moment of pause, causing me to reconsider putting my 2nd city up here. The issue is still that the best city-site I can see is on that desert hill, and it doesn't have much going for it besides Yosemite. Moreover, those are bad tiles to work at size 1/2. Finally, I come back yet again to the backline issue. Although, watch me just have been completely wrong and find someone up here. At any rate, it makes the north more appealing, but not more appealing than potentially losing out on territory to the south in that river valley. 

The question now is what to do with my slinger. If I back track, I'm not accomplishing much. If I move forward, I risk making Singaboy think I want to pick a fight. Then again, his military score is super low at the moment, so he may not be able to stop me from wandering by... 

My northern warrior is going to continue exploring north along the river. Taking out the barb camp is on hold for now. It's more important that I get this exploring done now while my units are already in position, moreover, my southern warrior is shortly going to return home to defend my worker against other player's scouting units (I forgot about that potential until I showed up on Singaboy's borders with my slinger) and to escort my settler south. 

Any questions?

[oledavy]

Turn 17

GAHHHH



Right when I had made up my mind which direction was best to settle in. A city on the tile the barb is on could potentially be really solid. Flood plains wheat in the first ring, plains hill city center, fresh water, Yosemite nearby. 

I just now really need to know where my other neighbors are so I can make the most informed decision. This spot is a little distant, and that's a strike against it, but I would love to settle it - this is all provided it doesn't mean I concede land to my south. So yeah, slinger is going to head west and hopefully I can see if anyone is to my southeast. The northeast, by comparison, continues to be clear. 

Happy to finally run into a barb, now I can start whittling it down for XP and culture (thank you discipline!)

Speaking of flood plains wheat.



I'll get eyes on his capital next turn, and continue toodling westward. I think he has a unit healing, based on a 5 jump in his power in between turns, which I don't think is enough for it to be a full unit. Possible he's fighting barbs somewhere.

[Ituralde]

So all you need is three settlers round about last turn. Sounds like a typical civ early game to me. Good luck with choosing the best location for your second city!

[oledavy]

So all you need is three settlers round about last turn. Sounds like a typical civ early game to me. Good luck with choosing the best location for your second city!

Basically   We'll see what more scouting reveals. 

Turn 18



The barb attacked my warrior, taking more damage than he dished out. Good   I fortified. Hopefully he'll attack again. Closer to home, my builder finished this turn and I moved him to the sheep to pastuerize. 

Meanwhile in the south: 



Wounded scout, and a redlined German warrior in Aachen. Looks like barbs have been giving Singaboy some trouble. With any luck, I can skate on by. 



Moving another tile west revealed a couple of interesting things. First off, there's a German slinger. Guessing that was the second unit he built, and the first one found the scientific city-state. Either that or he build that warrior second, slinger third. That warrior has a promotion so it's seen some fighting though, probably too much to have not be his starting warrior. 

Second, notice that tile yield to the west. There's a natural wonder over there. I think it's Kilimanjaro, if I recall wonder effects correctly. 

In the northwest corner of the above shot, you'll notice the final turn of exploration by my  warrior before he heads home. Wines! I briefly debated moving my city-marker further east, but I think that river valley's wealth is better split between two cities rather than hogged by one. Moreover, once I settle the first one, I'm basically the only one who can cram in the other one. Those two cities will likely form my southern frontier, barring anything incredibly worthwhile being found right beyond the river.  

Almost missed this: 



Another camp, looks like I should be able to start farming barbs sooner rather than later 

[oledavy]

Turn 19

Interesting turn, to say the least. First off, time to build a pasture!



1 Improvement down, 2 to go.  Thanks to the hilly terrain though, it will take me 7 turns to finish them all. Same turn the settler will complete!

Stream of consciousness: I do need to figure out the finer points of how I'm going to handle the civic switching around then. I need a civic completion to coincide with my completion of a monument, so I can keep Discipline until I need to switch to Agoge at the completion of the monument. However, I'm not sure how exactly to accomplish that of yet, because the moment I finish that last improvement, the State Workforce completes. Which means in turn, I need to keep Foreign Trade unfinished and sink turns into State Property. That might in turn delay my completion of mysticism. I'll probably end up just prematurely switching to Agoge, and losing a couple turns in Discipline. 

Gah...if only I had thought in that much detail before I killed the barb....

On that note, spoiler alert:



He attacked me again between turns. I could have waited, healed, and hoped he attacked again, but I didn't want to risk him running away. 

Pro-tip from playing a bunch of SP games with Gorgo, make sure you're researching the Civic you want to be before you kill a barb. The culture just goes to that immedietly. I went beyond 50% on quite a few in SP. Here, other than the finer points of civic switching mentioned up above, I managed not to do it. 

Well, I think. I may have gone over 20 culture by a fraction of one, it's hard to tell from the meter. Either way, I'm not too bothered. Anyway, the barb disappeared in a cloud of +10 culture (which is 1/4 of a second tier civic btw   ) 

Moving north revealed: 



A barb camp! I'll start besieging it in a couple turns. I want to heal a turn, move, then attack to give me my first promotion. Also, note the coast up north. Seems my supposition was correct! This also strongly disincentivizes placing a city on the marked tile, as it would lead to quite a bit of the river being wasted. I think I can cram in two cities on this river for the freshwater bonus, the northern one (forested plain hill)looks pretty decent (pending exploration), the southern one  (2 west of Yosemite) isn't a top tier city but will be a very solid backfill - tons of production, just not much food. This just about clinches things in favor of the southern location, pending my slinger moving west. Speaking of which...



Very interesting...

I can't quite kill the scout. Note the just completed warrior in the capital btw, I think they just fought something southwest of the city. 

Killing the scout would have been a coup, but since I couldn't do that, I was faced with the option of hitting it for XP or moving west. I ultimately chose to keep moving west. I don't want to delay, there will be plenty of barb XP in the future, and remaining might give Singaboy the wrong impression/open up my scout to being attacked by him.  

I'll leave him and the barbs to duke it out for now, and get my eureka for archery another day.  

Kiliminjaro!



So, I learned something today:

 

I'm currently researching writing, which I will use to get the campus down early and lock in the cost. The tile I'm placing it on cost 80 gold last turn, but this turn cost 85? For a moment, I thought it might have something to do with tech scaling, which would have made me mad. But then I noticed that this was the turn I picked up the stone tile. 

So pro-tip, if you are going to buy a tile, do it before your city expands. I would have saved 5 gold had I known that. 

Unless buying the tile increases the culture cost of obtaining the next tile...I wonder if that's the case...That would introduce an interesting cost benefit analysis. Anyway...

[kjn]

From what I could find on the net, purchasing tiles with gold scales with civics and techs (like district costs).

But I wouldn't be surprised if there were some sort of relation between the costs of culture and gold tile expansions.

[oledavy]

From what I could find on the net, purchasing tiles with gold scales with civics and techs (like district costs).

But I wouldn't be surprised if there were some sort of relation between the costs of culture and gold tile expansions.

Turn 20

I will try and test this out next time I'm in SP. Could you show me what you found in regards to that online? Thanks for checking it out



Hard Choices...

So, a barb spear moved out to meet me and Singaboy. That means there's probably a camp north or south of Kilimanjaro. The scout also moved itself into the mountain pocket behind me. 

Priorities for this sort of situation are: 

1. Get the Archery Eureka
2. Get the most culture possible from kills (by killing the spear)
3. Clear the camp (unlikely, Singaboy has the inside track to get it with that warrior.)

With those priorities in mind, I moved the slinger 1 NE and attacked the scout. The scout cannot moved out of my range next turn, so I will be able to kill it. My rear will be protected by Singaboy's warrior exerting zone of control when he makes his most likely move into those woods. Finally, if the spear attacks him in the woods, I can double back and kill it for both the archery Eureka and the culture. 

This little engagement will put me at 2/3 barbs killed or BW. The third should come in the form of the encampment spear in the north in a few turns. 




Went ahead and bought the tile, shelling out 85 gold. The next thing I purchase will be archer upgrades for the three slingers.