Dave's Not Throwing Away His Shot

[kjn]

The Great Basin Desert.

[Ituralde]

Love the naming of the features. Unfortunately I have nothing to add to it, but I like looking at it just the same and look forward what you or other Lurkers come up with.

[oledavy]

Turn 29



Alright, BW in. Let's see where iron is. 



I was Singaboy, I'd put my 2nd city 1 SE of that iron, it's a pretty awesome spot. that will be a 4/3/1 science tile with an apprenticeship mine. 

Where's my iron?



If there was a smidgen of doubt about me taking Hong Kong, there is none now. It's looking like I will have to buy quite a few tiles around Hong Kong early. I definitely am going to be putting off buying the tile for Schuyler's Encampment for a bit. At the same time, having at least one encampment will be critical to allow me to upgrade warriors to swords, assuming I can't find another iron. 

I'm also a little bummed that it's in the best campus spot by the city. That being said, realistically, with Petra and an Apprenticeship mine, that tile will be a 2/4/2/1 science hex, so I wouldn't want to lay down a campus anyway, even for that massive adjacency bonus. 

Anyway, moved the settler to the Schuyler location, settling next turn. Queued up Archery. I think Schuyler is going to open with a worker. Even though it will be 12 turns, I don't see how I'm going to get a worker there to improve its tiles in any sort of decent time frame (including the coffee to keep me in good shape amenities wise) if I need to wait on a worker from Hamilton. The debate now is if I want to take advantage of my time in Agoge to cram out a slinger/warrior from the city. I will probably make a decision at the time based on what Singaboy and Archduke's militaries look like. It's notable that Singaboy is now at 62 strength and Alhambram is still more powerful than him. I think Singaboy has 3-4 units, and him going up over the last few turns has been a result of his two wounded warriors healing. This likely means Alhambram has a military of at least 4 units. Either he's facing barb problems, or is planning something. 

Completing the monument took me from 1.9 CPT to 3.9, big difference. I'm now in second, but still below Woden. Considering his pop is the same as mine, this all but confirms that he did indeed get two cultural city-states early. That, combined with his extra 10% on Inspirations, means he will undoubtedly get to Political Philosophy first. I anticipate getting there second though, even with my Mysticism detour. My ability, combined with all the extra culture I'm going to start raking in from this monument is just going to be too much. 

Btw, for any people counting, I've killed 3 barbs for 27 culture so far. I don't know how representative that is of an average Gorgo game, but it would seem to indicate the ability is worth about 1 CPT early in the game. 

By the way, I discovered yesterday in SP that militaristic city-states apply their production to building workers and settlers. That makes them a lot stronger than I previously thought. I wish one of my Industrials was one.

[oledavy]

Updated map of geographic features.

[oledavy]

Turn 30

The big turn. Unfortunately, I had to play it in a hurry so Woden could get the turn before he went to bed. Realistically however, this would not be a turn I would spend more than a couple minutes on in SP, and lingering over it longer realistically would not have done me too much good. 

Internationally, Singaboy surpassed Alhambram in score, but remained at 62. This means Alhambram went down. Could just be fighting barbs though. I don't recall anything else of note happening elsewhere in the world. Without further ado though: 







I'll post more tomorrow during our blitz, but I'm definitely the first to a second city. I'm also tearing up the charts in tech at the moment. It's hard to tell without me seeing the starts and knowing the exact circumstances people faced, but I think I've managed the second strongest start of the five of us, edged out only by Woden, and only because he got 2 cultural CS's.

[Zero_1627]

 I'm growing very tempted to start naming geographic features on this  map, both for reference and to make the game more fun. There are quite a few very distinct geographic areas, like: 

1. The great northern desert.
2. The long river my capital is on.
3. The complex river system to the west. 
4. The river valley to the south between me, Archduke and Singaboy
5. The mountain range between me and Singaboy

Great idea! Would make describing locations easier, and later make it something else than usual cities as references.
Also, I see that You write faster than I read

[oledavy]

Turn 31

Turns out I wasn't the only one to get out a second city last turn: 



I also fell to the back on power, which means Woden and Archduke both finished a unit. My power is currently a little depressed because both of my warriors are injured. I still don't think anyone has in excess of 4 units though, which makes my military on par with the field for the moment. The mobilization begins in two turns. 

Meanwhile, in the north: 



Barb scout. I may be able to score some free culture on the way to Hong Kong if I can kill him. If I don't get time to heal before arriving there, I'll pillage the farm. 

As an aside, strategic view is great for looking inside cities at a glance to see if anything is under construction. I'm liking it more and more.

[oledavy]

Turn 32

Hong Kong grew to size 5. 



Alhambram settled his second city abroad, bringing him to third place iirc. 

Trader completes and mobilization begins next turn.

[oledavy]

Turn 33

Craftsmanship In!



Checking that I didn't have any barbs to fight this turn first, I then made the long-planned civic switch. 



Six turns from now, my military will more than double in size, going from 3 to 7 units. Schuyler switched to a slinger. The countdown to integrating Hong Kong into Hamiltonia begins 

With that trader complete, I made the connection to Seoul. 



I thought it would give me 4/5 gold   I should have checked the formula beforehand. Still, that 1 science is pretty nice, and the gold will serve a purpose. This puts me at 2 envoys with Seoul. 6 turns until my Pantheon, 7 turns until Mysticism, and becoming it's suzerain. I am just a tiny bit short of halfway done researching it. On the one hand, this means an extra turn in Agoge and God-King. On the other hand, I would rather eat that cost than lose ~3.75 culture going over. Just the way it goes sometimes. 

Still leaning towards OLORAM, especially with the discover of more flood plains in the north. By the time I finish expanding, OLORAM will be worth an estimated 8-12 hammers per turn, well worth the investment IMHO, but especially for what it will do to Hong Kong's production. Still vaguely considering Divine Spark, but it will probably be a matter of what's up in a few turns. 



60 Free science, currently barreling towards the completion of Currency and Irrigation, Archery is 1t from competition. 

I did one impromptu thing this turn: 



I realized that Schuyler will not acquire either of the tiles in the second ring I want to improve in any sort of quick time frame. So, I made the decision to purchase one before the price could go up, I will definitely need the tile before I have the 20% tile discount civic slotted in. I decided on the coffee, and the second pop will start working this tile. This will have the effect of quadrupling the cities culture output and speeding the output of the horse tile.

Archduke completed a settler, I'm curious to see if he tries to settle towards Singaboy in their contested frontier. 

Neither of them have gotten eyes on my capital yet.

[oledavy]

Turn 34

Really interesting turn. 

So, I checked the civic screen and noticed something intriguing. 



Archduke researched a tier 3 civic. I immediately checked his borders to see if they had solidified. Seeing that they hadn't I was about to chalk is up as State Workforce when I had another thought:



Someone is very determined to avoid a repeat of PBEM1. I bet he's been anxiously checking the GP screen/the civics screen every turn to see if I was pursuing Sun Tzu. This also makes the barb camp that he likely sniped from Singaboy all the more critical, as it enabled this. 

So, this is Archduke's plan. He's going to leverage Plato's Republic into a practically guranteed first GG. He may be doing it purely for denial, but it seems more logical to assume he intends to attack someone with it. 

The countdown now begins, he should get it on t63 or a little sooner if he gets into Classical Republic or builds an encampment in the interim. 

So, I now have a checklist to meet by t65-t70. I assume he's going to go after Singaboy, but that's not something I can count on. I will need to be ready to defend Schuyler. So, that checklist. 

By t65-70, I need
 - That iron mined and in my borders
 - Iron Working researched
 - Schuyler's encampment completed
 - Enough gold to upgrade at least 1 warrior

If I have met all these conditions, which I anticipate being able to do, I should be rush proof. 

On the plus side, this reduces the chance that I will need to face an ancient era rush from him against Schuyler, as even if he makes the decision that he needs the city, he will likely defer until he has the GG for a higher chance of success. With this in mind, it's more likely I can take Buenos Aires. 

I will say, however, Archduke really needs to make this move pay off or he's going to be slightly crippled going into the mid-game. My side quest to Mysticism was completely funded by my Civ ability, and I'm still likely to be 1st or 2nd to political philosophy due to the combination of continued use of Thermopylae on Hong Kong and my early monument. 

However, even with that coffee, he has had significantly less disposable culture than me or Woden. This detour will probably cost him about 10 turns on getting to Political Philosophy - that's a lot of benefits missed. That being said, the payoff is potentially enormous. We'll see how it pays off for him. I'm tickled we both developed similar opening plans and went for the great people on opposite sides of the tree though. 

The end of the turn and moving of my trader revealed a Greek scout east of Hamilton between the city and Seoul. My second slinger is coming out next turn, so he won't be unharried if he attempts to pillage my resource tiles, but he will likely be able to pillage the trade route if he so desires. I was honestly really surprised that his scout appeared over to see it there - it means he likely looped this scout all the way around Singaboy in a counterclockwise oval. I will be pretty annoyed if he does, but at least it would help me establish what our relationship is going to be this game. I still don't think he knows where Schuyler is. I'm hoping, however, that he makes the choice to rush Singaboy, why might he be more inclined to do that?



Kudos to Singaboy, he snuck this one up on me. He must have produced the settler the same turn he grew. I would have settled the city 1 west to not waste the stone and get the iron in the first ring, saving him the trouble of purchasing the tile, but I imagine there were other resources out in the fog/other considerations. 

Archduke is now effectively boxed in. There is no room for a city between Athens and Schuyler, and only room for a dry city between Athens and Frankfurt. He can push to get the wines location, but it will be wedged between me and Singaboy and pretty indefensible. 

Now, it does seem we're all closer to each other than we are to the edges of the continent. I have a backline to the north, Singaboy probably to the east and south, and Archduke probably to the west and south (all this based on my limited map knowledge). So, he likely won't be screwed on land. On the other hand, Athens is now effectively his front line city. He can never slack on military, or Athens will fall first in any invasion from me or Singaboy and he'll be in big trouble. 

Archduke will be last to a second city, but he definitely has a settler out, so I imagine we'll see one soon. The other four of us got out second cities in a 4 turn period from 30-34. I wonder if his settler was heading east...

Frankfurt is building a monument first. 



It's notable that none of us have met Alhmabram or Woden yet. My notion that this Pangaea is roughly divided into two subcontinents with difficult access between them is looking more and more likely. This may be a trouble if it comes down between me and Woden, and I need to attack him to prevent a Chinese win. However, that's a long way in the future, and at present, I have two close neighbors who are significantly more credible threats. 



Archduke probably finished Bronze Working as well. If he has iron nearby, he can guarantee access to it with his second city. 

Finally, domestic news. 



Still continuing the mobilization and moving units towards Hong Kong. There is a barb scout just north of the city. I took a quick detour to explore the end of the river with my northern warrior. Not that awesome city location I marked. There's a wheat and two flood plains in a triangle for a great feudalism farm, made that much better if I get OLORAM. I may move this city up the settling order in front of the cities of lower Hamiltonia. It appears I've just about found the end of the peninsula, so maybe no tundra to farm barbs on. There is at least one camp though 

Speaking of farming though, I now know the size of Hong Kong's military: 2 warriors and an archer, AKA, 27 culture 

Joking aside, that is a respectable military, and it guarantees my campaign won't be a simple cakewalk. Nevertheless, with 6 units to 3 and a city, I'm still anticipating victory.