Dave's Not Throwing Away His Shot

[oledavy]

Turn 21

The turn pace in this game continues to be phenomenal. I'm super glad to burn through all these early relatively boring turns quickly. 

The spear disappeared between turns, but the scout couldn't escape. His sacrifice will be remembered in the coming empire. 



20 Science for Archery! 4 XP! And a gentleman's 5 culture. That's 15 from my ability so far, the first of much more to follow I hope. 



Moved next to the barb camp in the north. Here's hoping they attack out!

Campus will be going down next turn, otherwise, work continues on my settler. 



Hong Kong cleared the camp to the west. Just as well I suppose, I wish I could have gotten it, but I can't say I'm unhappy with how things have turned out. I got to explore what I wanted, got my warrior back to protect my builder and escort my settler, and got to kill a warrior north of Hamilton.

[Zero_1627]

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

Sure good! This means more military sooner rather than later too though! 

[oledavy]

Turn 22

I walked away from this turn feeling a little more apprehensive than the last 21. Two minor setbacks, and one potential setback on the horizon, first off:



I checked the diplo screen to make sure. 



Yeah, he bought that tile. I hope just for the yield and not to send me a message. I moved my slinger into his territory because it is the fastest way to get where I want to go, and backtracking only increases the odds that he might intercept me. Still, that slinger of his is already promoted and could easily move to attack me for a first strike, then chase me down for another attack next turn. 

Hoping this doesn't end in war between me and Singaboy, I really just want to explore at this point. He may not know I backtracked to kill the scout, so he may think I'm hanging around to mess with him. I hope that is not the case. 

In the north, the spear didn't attack out :/



This is going to take a little longer than I expected. I need to heal up enough to suffer a major defeat when attacking and not get killed on the counterattack. This, in turn, will allow me to promote, then attack again. It would have been a lot easier if the spear attacked out, and the delay creates more of an opportunity for another unit to spawn. 

On the plus side, building the quarry got me the Eureka for Masonry, and shaved a turn off the settler. The city of Schuyler should be built on t30. 

I finished writing this turn and queued up BW. Writing being in meant I could place the campus.



That's a little more expensive than I expected.   I only have five techs and civics researched for crying out loud! 

Anyway, it's still only a six turn build with my industrial city-state bonuses, so I guess I shouldn't complain too much. 

I recall that the formula for district costs was floating around not too long ago on the site, can someone point me to where it is?

I would mostly just like to know how much each tech/civic is increasing my district costs. 

Anyway, with any luck, Singaboy and I remain at peace for now. After I finish the settler, it will be time for a monument. I'm seriously considering slotting a trader into there right after the monument to make a trade route to Seoul ASAP. I'll soon be beelining Mathematics, so I need the trader for the currency bonus. The extra gold will additionally be necessary to buy forests into the borders of Hong Kong to be chopped for Petra. More importantly though, if I complete their quest before I reach the Classical Age, I get a Classical Era Eureka, which might be worthless, or might be Mathematics - which would in turn make my life a hell of a lot easier. 

Getting a trade route there ASAP will also mean as soon as I get the mysticism envoy, I can get up to three and become their suzerain, giving me vision on my eastern frontier and adding a cool 2 beakers to my campus. When that campus completes, my science is going to explore relative to other players. Still a ways away though. There's still Hong Kong to take in the meantime 

Current plans I'm juggling: 

1. Hong Kong Conquest.
2. Great Scientist Rush.
3. Seoul Early Suzerain.
4. Petra Rush (Including attempting Mathematics Eureka).

I think I can pull all them off in fine style, and put myself in a really strong position going into the rest of the game. For now though, I need to get my second city out.

[kjn]

Here is the formula thread I found over on CFC, sparse as it is.

One thing to note is that district costs doesn't seem to scale with the number of researched techs and civics, but with the larger of the two.

There are plenty of inferences and micro notes that can be drawn out of this, I think, especially interaction between Eurekas/Inspirations and district placements or tile purchases.

[oledavy]

Here is the formula thread I found over on CFC, sparse as it is.

One thing to note is that district costs doesn't seem to scale with the number of researched techs and civics, but with the larger of the two.

There are plenty of inferences and micro notes that can be drawn out of this, I think, especially interaction between Eurekas/Inspirations and district placements or tile purchases.

This is an amazing resource kjn, thanks! 

[oledavy]

Turn 23

Singaboy didn't attack! 

Looks like he's just going to see me away from his borders. I also finally got around the mountain range that separates the two of us. 



I think that warrior just dispersed the encampment the spear came from. That camp was really close to Aachen if that's the case, no wonder he went with so much military early.

It is worth noting that our capitals are only 11 tiles apart. I will definitely want to keep an eye on his power rating at all times, and set up a defensive perimeter as soon as possible. I want to drop an encampment by the campus to serve as a speedbump on the most direct path to my capital, and protect the southwestern approach to Seoul. That's a ways in the future though. 

Also, I can't believe I didn't notice this:



This is the first turn I noticed it, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's been there for awhile. I just haven't been looking 

This all but guarantees there is someone to my southwest, or to my east, or perhaps both. I expect my slinger will find them within the next 5 turns or so if they are to my southwest. 

Meanwhile, in the north: 



Yet another reason Hong Kong is slated for death. They are already size 4, have three farms, and are currently building a granary. It will be a rich prize.

[oledavy]

Turn 24

Moved my slinger north and west, and....



Hello Archduke! I don't know how close he is, but this all but confirms that he is the presumed neighbor to my southwest. I will make a separate post in a bit regarding the impact of this on my settling plans, and my settling plans in general. For now though, holy cow, look at those tiles north of Kilimanjaro. I may move my proposed city one hex southwest to get those tiles in the second ring, but I'll post more about this and the potential consequences of pursuing such a course of action in my previously mentioned settling post. 

For now, let's see what Archduke has going on. 



He has hooked up horses at his capital, and he's either been working a gold resource, already cleared a barb encampment or two, or met a commercial city-state. Perhaps some combination. Point is, that's a lot of gold compared to what me and Singaboy would have even if we hadn't both bought a tile. As a side note, this means both of them have horses at their capital. I'm having to stretch a little farther for mine, but my capital is amazing, so I'll deal. 




Confirmed Archduke is the person Singaboy met. It may be that the three of us are on the main part of the Pangaea and the other two are off on a subcontinent, kinda like I was in Civ 5 PBEM 1. It's too early to gather draw any firm conclusions though. Since both Singaboy and Archduke are farther east and west than me respectively, I'll be watching closely to see which one makes contact first to indicate which end of the pangaea we're on. 



Hamilton grew to size 4, just in time to finish the settler next turn. Schuyler is now 6 turns out. My warrior is in position to either cover the worker, or escort the settler. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I hadn't been so cautious with this warrior and done mroe exploring down south. When my slinger arrived at Singaboy's capital, I had a sudden terrible thought that if someone was scouting towards my capital from the east, they would probably arrive about this time too, and might threaten to capture my builder. Those fears remain hereto unfounded, but there's still time left. 

Archduke definitely hasn't met any scientific or cultural city-states, based on demogs. Maybe me and him can actually make good on my Pelopponesian War II joke at some point 

[oledavy]

Settling/Geography Thoughts

Some overview shots of my surroundings. 







I have a very well defined area of influence, except to the south. The north seems to be all backline, with the only risk being that an eastern neighbor might try to beat me to the city-site at the mouth of the river. However, even if one does, owning Hong Kong will mean I still have access to my northern peninsular backline (if there is someone up there I will eat my hat). 

To the west, I have room for one solid city between Hong Kong and Buenos Aires before the land gets squeezed between mountains and the sea. I doubt anyone could contest me for this city, as their path to it would have to be extremely convoluted. Conversely, this will likely be my westernmost city for awhile - though there is the possibility of a plant beyond it on freshwater by the sea that I've marked. 

The northeast is the big hole in my exploration, but my cursory efforts have revealed no freshwater, and with that in mind, I don't think I'm missing out on much up there. Eastward is blocked by Seoul, and I've already gone on at length that I want to maintain them as a buffer state. Even if I conquered Seoul, settling that far afield would be ill-advised at this point, as I have land to contest closer to home. 

That brings us to my two frontiers with other players, where the majority of conflict this game will take place. I've already talked at length about the corridor between me and Singaboy. I'm going to try and control it by controlling Seoul and placing an encampment. I did consider reaching to plant a city, but deemed it too much of a stretch and something that would ultimately lessen my chances of victory. I'm just going to have to deal with Hamilton likely being my easternmost city for quite some time as I prioritize expansion in the other 3 cardinal directions. 

This brings us to the south. With well defined borders on all sides, at least in terms of initial expansion, this is a region ripe with potential for conflict between me, Singaboy, and Archduke, who I presume isn't too far southwest. 

Since I'm switching to military and infrastructure builds for awhile after this settler, it's extremely important that I put this second city in land that might not be available to me further down the line, which is why I've been stressing out so much about where to settle. Now I finally have all the information I need. The big question now is if I want to move the southern wine city 1 southwest to pick up a couple 5 food tiles from Kilimijaro in it's second ring. I think yes. It's not dramatically less defensible, as it now would control the pass between the mountains from Singaboy. It would be closer to his capital than mine, but arguably is in my sphere of influence due to the lay of the land. Indeed, it would be quite a stretch for Singaboy to try and settle the location. That being said, he might just see it as an aggressive plant and use it as a causus belli. We'll come back to this city when I actually have a settler for it though. On the map, I've marked potential encampment locations that would give me control over the entire river valley and make it extremely difficult for either Singaboy or Archduke to attack me. 

Logically, to win this game, I'm going to need to overrun one of them at some point, as they're likely my two closest neighbors. Due to the open-looking nature of the land between me and Archduke, he looks like the best candidate. However, I want to establish a border towards both of them with an eye towards being defensible, as once I declare war on one, the other will likely pounce on me. With this in mind, I need to be prepared to defend either frontier efficiently with a minimum of forces while my main army is assaulting on the other. My Southeastern frontier will be protected by Seoul and an encampment, while this frontier will ideally be safeguarded by the overlapping fields of fire from two cities and two encampments. 

No though, this river valley is likely to be the primary conflict zone, and looks the be the most contested territory in my vicinity. With that in mind, even if I don't get to settle the city for Kiliminjaro, it's critical that I secure access to the area and create a front that I can safely backfill behind. 

With this in mind, my settling order for my first 5 cities (not including capturing Hong Kong) will be: 

1. Southern River/Coffee City
2. Western City (Between BA and HK)
3. Southern Wines/Kiliminjaro City
4. Northern Yosemite City
5. Northern Coastal City (At the mouth of the river). 

Beyond that, I'll look to backfill the peninsula to the north, settle the land to the east and northeast, or stretch and settle the land to the far west. 

I don't think I'll settle beyond these two cities to the south, as they currently give me a very defensible frontier and settling farther would leave me vulnerable to being flanked by Singaboy. We'll see how far away Archduke is though before committing to that. 

So, south it is! I wonder how long it will be before the sparks fly in this region.

[oledavy]

Turns 25-26

The cat woke me up early this morning, but it had the pleasant side effect of allowing me to get in a very groggy Turn 25, which in turn allowed us to get in Turn 26 before I left for the day.  

First off: 



Archduke is very close. In point of fact, here are the distances between capitals: 

Hamilton to Athens: 12 Tiles
Athens to Aachen: 11 Tiles
Aachen to Hamilton: 11 Tiles

I'm definitely going to want to watch power numbers very closely this game, as an early rush may be in the cards. At the moment, Singaboy and I have comparably sized militarizes, and Archduke has I think one unit less. 

If you cram, this means there is in theory room for 2 cities between each player. In practice, there is room for one. The river valley between me and Archduke for example, while there is a decent freshwater spot 3/4 tiles away from Hamilton along the lake, there is no such spot for Archduke that would allow us to split the valley equally. In practice, this means that whoever got here first would get the border city, and control the river valley. He may be building a settler currently, but he definitely hasn't finished it yet, so I think I just get my spot and claim the entire river valley. To be clear, the city will be equidistant between our capitals, but very difficult for him to attack, and he will be unable to settle a city between Athens and Schuyler. 

If a settle does emerge from Athens, I have the option of trying to interdict it with my slinger. However, I haven't noticed his pop go down from 4 yet, so it's unlikely he has one out. 

I have to say, it's a tiny bit temping to pillage those mines for 25 science each. He probably has a warrior around though, so it would be a death sentence for my slinger, and I'm not interested in an early brush fire war, I have a lot of other things to do. 

So, he has coffee, which explains why he's making 1 more culture than he should at size 4. If I recall correctly, he also is making 1 more science than he should, I need to double check. If that's the case, he likely has mercury too. He built a builder at some point and constructed two mines and a horse pasture. He has less military than me and Singaboy, so he might have skipped a second early military unit and went straight to a builder. I'll move northwest next turn and get actual eyes on his capital. At that point, my slinger will move north to defend Schuyler, subbing for my warrior, which will head north to begin setting up for the siege of Hong Kong. 

Abroad, Woden finished another civic. I'm guessing craftmanship. I'm generally but not super closely monitoring score changes. If someone was paying very close attention, they'll know I have a settler out right now for example, as my empire score went up 1 and then down 1 for the pop point. It occurs to me you could disguise this if you wanted by rigging your city to grow the same turn the settle completes. 

My science continues to lead the pack in a tie with Singaboy iirc, but my culture rounds out the bottom. That indicates there are probably only 2 scientific CS's. 

So far, that means:

2 Scientific Confirmed
2 Industrial Confirmed
2 Cultural Confirmed 
1 Commercial Inferred

3/4 to Woden
3 to me
1 to Singaboy
1 to Archduke? (This will become clearer when I see if he has a good gold tile in his capital or not). 

Notably, nobody has found a religious one. I think this means I will get second/third pick of pantheons, as I tied for second getting to Code of Laws. I think I tied with Alhambram. If I recall correctly, Singaboy and Archduke are bringing up the rear in that regard. 

I'll be finishing a monument soon to take care of my lagging culture though (Just the same, I will note that I'm having to invest 4 turns of production, even with extra hammers from 2 industrial city-states, to get half the benefit Woden has been getting for quite some time now  ). I think he's having barb trouble at the moment though, as the barb sound has been playing with his last few saves. This would indicate that he has barbs in his territory he has been unable to dislodge thus far. 

I completed the copper mine, and: 



YES. I didn't go over on Craftsmanship! I have about half of a culture betwen me and finished the civic. This means I can continue plunking away at Foreign Trade/Mysticism, and then the turn before I begin my military build-up, finish Craftmanship to grab Agoge to make a civic swap. In the interim, this means I get to continue to enjoy the benefits of Discipline. 

This also gave me the Eureka for the Wheel. 



Here's what Hamilton looks like now, building a monument: 



16 hammers with two Industrial City-States.   The extra gold is going to be pretty nice too, as it will give me to option to get down Schuyler's Encampment early if I so choose. Still need to decide where to put it. I think it may come down to if I decide to take Buenos Aires or not, which I have been considering doing in the aftermath of taking Hong Kong. Considering how close it is to Archduke's capital, I'm really surprised I found it first. I guess he scouted in the wrong direction. Anyway, Seoul and Hong Kong were effectively 'mine' to find first, although Seoul feasibly could have gone to Singaboy - I'll call it 60/40 that I would have gotten there first. Anyway, getting the envoy with BA was just gravy due to Archduke's presumed scouting decisions. 

I definitely will be cranking a slinger out of Schuyler while I'm in Agoge to take advantage of the extra hammers and help defend the city. I need to be ready for Archduke to try and take it. Otherwise I think the city will begin with a monument. Walls, when I masonry, will also be a high priority. 

As an aside, if Woden or Alhambram have a suzerain when I find them (presuming they're both more distant of course), I will be declaring war on them so their suzerain declares war on me and I get the Defensive Whatever inspiration. 



In the north, I healed, attacked, got my promotion, and am now healed up to full with Battlecry. Clearing out the camp should be a lot easier now.

[oledavy]

Also, I have been noticing in screenshots that there is one grassland hill tile south of BA that gives an extra 2 gold. I expected this was because of copper on the square. I reopened the save and looked closely, but this was not the case. More puzzlingly, I can't find a natural wonder that gives just that bonus to adjacent tiles. I'm not sure what's going on over there.