[SPOILERS] Suboptimal's Arabian Adventure

[suboptimal]

OK....I've PMed Sulla and officially chosen Arabia as my pick.  I'm debating if I'll stick with the default city names or go food-themed....either names of salads or varieties of lettuce for obvious punny reasons.

After playing through several starts (~50 turns) as Saladin I've come up with the following ideas for the opening (first 30 or so turns):

- Build order of Scout, Slinger, Builder, Settler, Warrior.  After that it'd depend on barbs and neighbors.  A monument would probably be build #6 or #7 to get culture up.
- I'd be looking to place three districts in the first two cities: Holy Site, Campus, Encampment.  Preferably the holy site and campus would be in the capital and the encampment in the 2nd city.  They'd be built/chopped out after a couple more military units.  If there are no mountains around the capital I'll either swap the districts or wait for city #3 to get those up.
- For techs I'm prioritizing Mining, Astrology, Animal Husbandry, Bronze Working, Archery, Masonry and the Wheel, though not in that order.  Of the 4 techs with eurekas Astrology is the random one, so I may have to research the entire thing.
- For civics I'd be looking to pick up Mysticism right after Political Philosophy.
- Pantheon pick would be Goddess of the Harvest unless the terrain really lends itself to one of the adjacency boosting pantheons.  

Mid-term the idea will be to get a 3rd city settled, a reasonable military deployed and move forward with getting a religion.  Once the prophet is in I should be in position to found the religion and build out a campus with faith.  After that, survive until the expansion phase sometime after Turn 80.

[suboptimal]

OK...everyone's made their picks...time to look at the opposition and make some guesses. I've also got a bit of commentary on the map type...

Kaiser: Japan/Hojo
Frankly, this is the civ I was hoping would be among my picks as I've played several games with it. Divine Wind allows for quick building districts and the Meiji Restoration doubles their adjacency bonuses. One thing I wonder is if Kaiser is aware of how Civ implements Divine Wind's district construction. The “produce in half the time” bonus of Divine Wind is implemented as a 100% production bonus when producing those buildings. That means lots of production overflow if builds are well-timed. In SP games I've been able to chop out the last bit of an encampment and have ancient walls up the following turn. If he is aware of this fact and uses it effectively that's going to really change the character of the game. The electronics factory comes later on but, if we get that far, can be quite the boon, particularly if in the middle of a district cluster.
I don't know how useful the coastal bonuses (+5 for land units next to the coast, +5 for naval in shallow water) will be on a pangea map.

Rowain: America/Teddy Roosevelt
This is an interesting pick – all of America's uniques don't arrive until the modern era. The +5 strength for units on their home continent makes attacking early more challenging and having them as a neighbor could be dangerous as a result.  

Bacchus: India/Ghandi
The bonus +5 faith per turn per civ that has founded a religion, including India, gives them a leg up in the early religion game. The Stepwell provides extra housing, potentially extra faith (when next to a Mountain or at Feudalism) and can be used to build up cities with no nearby fresh water. Then there's the Varu – a strength 40 unit that reduces the strength of adjacent enemy units by 5 per Varu. It's slower (2 vs 4 movement) and 50% more expensive to build, so that might slow things down.  

Ichabod: England/Victoria
Another interesting pick given England's uniques. I don't know how useful the Sea Dog will be, though the Royal Navy Dockyard would help get trade routes up faster due to its cheaper cost. Redcoats are quite powerful when not on their own continent but don't arrive until the Industrial Age. Victoria's free melee unit in conquered foreign cities can also provide quite the boost, but there's the question of continents....
Regarding the people behind the civs, I know just about nothing. Bacchus is dedlurking The Archduke on PBEM 2, which provides a little bit of insight on his strategy & tactics. I'd expect military conquest with Varu to be on his to-do list, with Kaiser also being a good threat for early military action. Best case is that India and America are neighbors on the same continent – that'd even things up a little bit. I think if someone gets wedged between Japan and India they could be in for quite a handful.

The Map
After having played about a dozen starts (through T50 or so) and using the debug console to look at several more maps I've noticed that the Pangea map generation script has some peculiarities. Just about every map has a belt of rainforest on the 19th row of tiles up from the bottom edge of the map. In many places it is 2-3 tiles thick, with the northern tile row being a mix of regular forest and rainforest and the bottom row being rainforest. In the east it is usually only broken by mountains or desert, while in the west open grasslands or plains provide passage. A remarkable example of this is visible on the minimap of the resource comparison shots I posted in the organizing thread – the green line is this belt.

Another oddity is the distribution of continents. In most cases about one half or more of the map was a single continent while the other two “continents” shared the smaller remainder of the map. Frequently the border between the large and two smaller continents was along a single diagonal line of hexes. There was only one map in which the continents were evenly distributed with roughly vertical borders. This could have implications for both England and America, especially if they get “buried” deep within the interior of a singular large continent.

The abundant resources setting doesn't seem to have much of an effect upon land resources. However, bonus sea resources do seem to get a slight increase . If there are any temperate coastal regions it might be possible to find a spot where a Harbor has more benefit than the Commercial Hub.  I expect that England will be able to exploit this more effectively with the dockyard and their coastal start bias.

I've been working on refining my ideas for strategy and tactics, but that's another post.....

[suboptimal]

Time for a “thought in progress” update on my theorycrafting (or providing a very large entertainment value for the lurker thread).....

Religion
Religion could wind up being a three-horse race – myself, Bacchus and Kaiser. For India it's almost a must as the synergies with the civ's abilities are great and the extra faith is nothing to sneeze at. For Japan it's more of an option. Great Prophets go up 60 GPP in cost once each is taken and after the second one goes the third becomes a long wait. An early Holy District + Shrine generates 2 GPP per turn, that can be raised to 4 once a government is in and Revelation is used. Waiting around for the free prophet would most likely result in no prophet at all as a small map has four religions and only three players might go for one. So, what's the approach?

Barring a finder's bonus for a religious city-state or settling on or next to one of the faith-providing bonus resources I expect pantheons to start to be founded around Turn 35, give or take a few. I had been considering Goddess of the Harvest for a chop-based faith boost but the jury is still out on that (partly because in SP games the AI seems to love that pantheon and take it first, reducing my ability to experiment with it). The terrain-based faith-giving pantheons may be more beneficial earlier on.

Regarding Holy Districts I think my approach will be to get one placed early to be completed later on, say in the Turn 40 to Turn 50 window. My tech path would be to get Mining and Animal Husbandry out of the way first, research half of Astrology, then switch to Bronze Working. If no natural wonder is found by then I'd finish Astrology without the Eureka and get the district down early. Done right that could keep the cost under 80 cogs. The district would then be built/chopped to completion later on. Economics permitting I'd consider gold-rushing a Shrine once the district completes in order to boost GPP production. For beliefs my preferences remain Meeting Houses and Jesuit Education. Wats or Pagodas would be the backup building with Zen Meditation or Religious Community the backup. Looking forward to evangelized beliefs the goals remain Papal Primacy and Defender of the Faith.

Late-classical faith will come primarily from Campus districts and Madrasas. With Madrasas generating faith based upon the adjacency bonus of the district, good placement and a scientific city state with three envoys could result in +4 or more faith, increased to +8 once Natural Philosophy is available. Back line cities will provide the bulk of the Holy Sites if/when I get to the expansion phase.

I don't plan on spreading the religion beyond my borders unless I see a concrete opportunity for a religious victory. We might see religious combat, though, if India gets any ideas....there might be an inquisition.

Military
The heavy chariot to mamluk upgrade route is still “under investigation” as I've focused my practice games mainly on the first 50 turns or so and Stirrups generally won't come in until Turn 90 to 100, depending on tech path. I'll try to follow the “usual” tactic of warriors + slingers → swords + archers with a mix of horsemen and chariots early. An encampment or two on frontier cities, along with walls, is also on the to-do list. The intent will be to closely match my nearest neighbor(s) but maintain a defensive stance barring a good opportunity.

Techs
Beyond the initial tech path I've already mentioned Writing, Wheel and Masonry are the priorities on the tech tree. Mysticism, Political Philosophy and Theology are the target civics.

City States
It seems that city-state conquest is part and parcel of a typical strategy. I think for front-line city-states it'll depend upon circumstances and opportunity. For any back line city-states I would probably try to surround any commercial or scientific city states with cities  and milk them with short-duration trade routes. If Valetta is in the game and nearby I'd most certainly try to keep that one independent and under my control. If I can get a faith-based economy up and running that city state's suzerain bonus could be huge. Mohenjo-Daro would also be worth suzeraining as it frees up city placement.

Progress Goals
Since I have no MP experience and PBEM 1 was a bit of a steamroller operation my only reference point is PBEM 2. Based upon that game I've come up with a list of “checkpoints” to use as a rough guide for my initial progress. It's only a “guide” since my opponents can throw a large spanner in the works. Spoiler time (sorry, PBEM 2 guys)....

Turn 30: First settler complete & en route to location. Bronze Working completed.
Turn 35: Pantheon selected.
Turn 40: Population 6 unless in a food poor start.
Turn 50: Second settler complete & en route to location. First district should be complete.
Turn 60: Currency and Political Philosophy completed.
Turn 75: Apprenticeship completed. 2nd and 3rd districts complete or close to completion.

Given my previously casual style of SP game play and no MP experience I fully expect that I'll make multiple   moves during the course of the game. I do have a name to live up to, after all....

[Ituralde]

Thanks for the analysis. I look forward to see you play. Weed moves or not, the most important thing is to keep a positive attitude. It's a learning experience.

[suboptimal]

Turn 1
I figure opening the save for your first MP game is kind of like getting a puppy at Christmas. You don't know if it's something that will give you a warm fuzzy feeling a few months down the line or if you'll have a terror that chews up the furniture, craps in the living room and leaves you huddled in the corner looking for a way out. Let's see what we've got...



When I took this screenshot the resource icons were turned off (whoops). Dyes 1 SW of the settler, silk 3W, sheep 2 NE, deer 1NE, cows 2 SW and rice in three different spots. Food will not be a problem at this location. Production, on the other hand, could be a little sparse to start.  No mountains for a Holy Site or Campus and hills are lacking for an Industrial Zone.  I'll get a better idea and work out a plan once more of the map is revealed.

I wasn't sure if moving the warrior to the dyes would provide good visibility on the other side of the river to the south, so I moved it directly west to start exploring. I want to see what's around the silk and start following the river in that direction. With the settler I debated moving onto the dyes and settling there next turn to start building faith (and a pantheon) early, but that leaves a 2F tile open. I decided to settle in place, making the 2F a 2F/1P tile. I've also decided to use a different naming theme, figuring the salad thing may have already been done (and I'm not that much of a fan of salad). I'm using single malt scotches instead. The capital was named Tomatin and a scout was started. Animal Husbandry is the first tech and at the end of the turn the city was working the rice tile to the east.



My immediate plan is to build Scout → Slinger → Builder → Settler. I'll be switching to working the deer tile next turn and continue to do so for the time being. The sheep tile will be in my territory by Turn 11, either by culture or by gold purchase. At pop 3 I'll start working the dyes for faith generation. This could get the settler out on Turn 21, though the drop in population back to 2 would crimp things a little bit. I'll spend 3-4 turns putting cogs into a slinger then complete the settler on the turn that Tomatin will grow to size 4 (Turn 25).  The slinger would complete the turn after that.

It appears that I'm in the northern part of the land mass, given the sporadic rainforest to the SW of the settler. The warrior will head west then loop around to the north. The scout will cross the river to the SE then head east before looping around to the south. The slinger will check the immediate area around the city to the north then return for guard duty when as the builder pops out. I'd like to find the probable rainforest belt to my south as it'd be a significant geographical barrier for southern opponents and a reasonable landmark for sorting out the map.

In international news, while there's nothing to look at on the diplomacy screen, the score has a story to tell...



Both Bacchus and Ichabod have decided to move their settlers on turn 1. In Ichabod's case I have to wonder if England's coastal start bias put his settler right on the coast and if he's decided to move to a nearby river.

[RFS-81]

I was a bit worried about production looking at the map, but with the faith from the dyes, you can run Urban Planning as soon as you have CoL, and you have a bunch of decent production tiles in the second ring, so that's ok. (I hope!)

The "Goddess of the Harvest" pantheon seems like a good choice here, with the three rice tiles, so you can set up your worship buildings quickly.

[suboptimal]

My plan is to work the deer tile to Pop 2, then work deer & rice until I can buy the sheep, then work deer & sheep through Pop 3 (turn 15).  At that point I'd work the deer, sheep and dye tile.  Pop 4 around Turn 25 and Settler at Turn 28.  

I expect Code of Laws to complete around Turn 15 or 16.  If I run God King I'd have a pantheon in the Turn 25-27 window and could swap out to Urban Planning once Craftsmanship is in (Turn 30-ish).  If I run Urban Planning the pantheon comes in at turn 39. I think I prefer running God King + dyes and getting a probable first crack at the pantheon. 

If I were to take Sacred Path the marsh can become a +3 Faith Holy Site.  However, I'd have to get Pottery and Irrigation done before placing the district, increasing its cost.  I'd get the Irrigation eureka on Turn 16 (worker out, farm E rice) then it's a bit of research from there once Bronze Working is half complete.  That also depends on finding a natural wonder early to get Astrology finished in a timely manner.  

Goddess of the Harvest is a possibility - harvest the marsh, 1-2 rices and maybe the forest 2 tiles SE of the city center.  That'd be around 90 food and 90 faith (which equals 45 cogs) at the cost of a builder.  Other than the forest 2SE of center I think leaving the river forests for lumber mills is a better decision. 

I'll be playing Turn 2 in about an hour, with the Turn 2 update (and a look at the Great People situation) following that shortly.

[suboptimal]

Turn 2
Take a look at the second screenshot in my first turn report.  Then take a look at this one:



Because city-states settle AFTER the last player’s first turn, those city-state borders showed up on the interturn.  Even better, it’s a religious city-state.  Which one?  I haven’t met them yet, but the UI does have its….defects…



Why, hello there, Jerusalem!  This changes the equation quite a bit.  Next turn the warrior will cross the river to meet the city-state and get the +2 faith per turn bonus (and a pantheon at the end of Turn 16).  After that, I’ll move it to the hill tile and make a decision as to whether to continue west a little bit or turn north.  In addition to the faith bonus, Jerusalem will help mitigate any barbarians that come from that direction.  
I didn’t grab a screenshot of it, but here’s the Continents filter:


I had settled right on a continental divide and got the inspiration for Foreign Trade when the warrior entered Silk Hill.  That’s one random crapshoot boost out of the way. 
In my last post I had outlined using the dye tile to get the pantheon.  I will probably stick with that plan as even though I won’t need the faith it’s still a four yield tile and building up faith now for later use is not a bad idea. Unless the tile picker changes its mind I also won't need to buy the sheep tile. Off to a good start here.

[RFS-81]

Goddess of the Harvest is a possibility - harvest the marsh, 1-2 rices and maybe the forest 2 tiles SE of the city center.  That'd be around 90 food and 90 faith (which equals 45 cogs) at the cost of a builder.  Other than the forest 2SE of center I think leaving the river forests for lumber mills is a better decision.

The main reason I was suggesting that was because a large lump sum of faith could help you to quickly build a shrine, temple, and finally your worship building with its associated science bonus. I think that an early head start in science could be very valuable. (You can faith-buy shrines and temples, right? Or am I misremembering that?)

[suboptimal]

Goddess of the Harvest is a possibility - harvest the marsh, 1-2 rices and maybe the forest 2 tiles SE of the city center.  That'd be around 90 food and 90 faith (which equals 45 cogs) at the cost of a builder.  Other than the forest 2SE of center I think leaving the river forests for lumber mills is a better decision.

The main reason I was suggesting that was because a large lump sum of faith could help you to quickly build a shrine, temple, and finally your worship building with its associated science bonus. I think that an early head start in science could be very valuable. (You can faith-buy shrines and temples, right? Or am I misremembering that?)

No, shrines and temples cannot be bought with faith.  The worship building can, as well as units with Theocracy, city center & encampment buildings (with Valleta suzerainty) and Theater District & Campus buildings (with Jesuit Education).  If anything the early faith could be put to use for a library or a Madrasa.  

The upside to Goddess of the Harvest is that the faith yield scales with the game, since harvest yields scale with tech & civic advancement.  The downside is that harvesting can be situation specific and has limited opportunity.  We have about twelve turns to figure out what pantheon is best for this start.