Turn 13 and General Strategy Overview
First I would like to mention that every time I go to my (this) thread and see new comment posted in the lurker thread, all I can think of is people posting "WTF is this Polack doing" or "That is the worst dot map I have ever seen" or "I cannot believe he is building that" or "Of all the strategies I have ever seen that one is by far the most likely to fail". Will be interesting after the game to read and see if my worries are warranted.
With that being stated there is a good chance my strategy will completely change every turn, and I will over think every decision I make.
Elaborating on my original posts my main goals concerning the beginning of the game are
- Get the first Great General - This is to mostly ensure that Archduke does not get it, which should hopefully delay is conquests. Macedon wants to build military, all of the civilization bonus encourage this. So even if i can't directly cause harm to my enemies, indirect harm will have to do. Also me getting the first GG may make the second one more contested, forcing either Archduke to commit more resources to getting the next GG and Giving Suboptimal and Alhambram a chance to contest them. All 3 of them fighting for GG #2 should really benefit me. One last thing that I will mention again is the first GG buffs Hussar's which is just icing on the cake.
- Get the first Religion - This is so i can grab Defenders of the Faith and deny my enemies this belief. It is looking like the weakest part of my empire before I expand past the west and eastern mountain ranges is going to be a naval landing around my capital. This belief and choice encampment placement from my surrounding cities is about as much as I can do to defend against a naval landing in the desert plains of southern Jess.
- Build the Colosseum - Jessica has the food to grow tall and with my planned district layout for the city, nearby cities can get extra food from the capital. I now have vision of 3 luxury resources (cotton and silver in the east) and elephants in the west. I would still like to get this wonder, with the new luxury info though this is no longer top priority.
So how do I best accomplish these goals
- In the civic department i would like to research worker civic followed by Military tradition and slot the GG card as soon as possible. My first builder is most likely going to be a ways away. Jessica may be forced to switch to a military unit depending on barb's, or at least build one after the settler. I planned city layout have city #2 building an encampment as well as city #3 building an encampment. (more on city placement later). I will most likely have to detour into foreign trade for some time possibly even finishing it before I get 3 improved tiles. This means that I will need some more culture. Short of meeting a culture CS I will have to improve my either with a monument build in city 2 at some point or hope that i get city 3 out and let all 3 grow to cover my culture needs until another solution presents itself.
- Getting the first GG is in my book more important that getting the first religion so I may have to settle for the second or even third. Since i will most likely get foreign trade while gunning for Military Tradition there is also the possibility to grab GP civic and run the Great Prophet card instead if something goes wrong with the GG race.
- Going for the Colosseum was my original plan when it looked like elephants were my only luxuries. Still I would really like to get this wonder and will prioritize Games and Recreation after PP.
Pantheons I am looking into.
- +25% to first district - this will benefit all 3 goals the best. My current plan is to get 4 cities with city 3 building encampment #2 to grab the tiles that my capital and city 4 need to place there Holy sites. Getting 4 districts down ASAP, should provide me a little more leeway as to which great person card I need to run.
- Divine Spark - with my holy sites coming in little late this may provide the catch up i need to secure the religion. Also if i can manage to get a theater district down at some point and snag homer that is an additional 8 culture a turn that i can possible get very early.
- +production to early wonders - With my focus on civics and long term goal of getting mercenaries (i think) for Hussar's this makes the great library a decent wonder to shoot for. As well as the colosseum this may be the choice if the other 2 are taken. I am also going to mention that when PP hits i will run autocracy to get 2 wildcard slots and can eventually slot both GG and GP cards if there is still contention. This government goes well since it gets +10% wonder production.
Well that's a wall of text. So now on to the turn report.
Lets start in the east.
FOUND A NATURAL WONDER!
FOUND A BARB HORSEMAN! He cannot be seen since i moved my scout, however he is positioned (44) or (WW) from the natural wonder. I am hoping he plans to chase after my scout instead of head towards the homeland. Next turn will tell.
My warrior in the west is headed back home to escort the settler when it finishes. I can still get back in time and do a little scouting around the lake and see what land is available to me.
I move the tile around Jess to get the settler out ASAP. I can not be sure when barbs will be knocking at my doors and I want a second city before I start on some much need Military.
This does however put the city at zero growth so it will go down to size 2 which is unfortunate. If there was not the possibility of two barb camps each sending horseman I would have gone the slower path but each game is different and city 2 will be a welcome addition. Also with a 4 food tile it should not take long to get back up to size 3.
Finally an overview shot of Polish lands. Which i need to start remembering to move my mouse into the corner for screenshots.
Well the only thing better than one wall of text is two. Pretty sure that's is Polish saying of some sort.
To continue on where i left off earlier this afternoon I have separated my lands into west, core, and east.
It looks like the area around the natural wonder will be my eastern front, and with lots of tundra this is not my most productive area. I would inevitably like to get at least 2 cities in that area with encampments and walls to have a decent fortified position. Taking advantage of terrain and the natural choke point the natural wonder provides. More scouting is needed and I probably will not set to put a city there until I finish the scouting with what ever units I use to remove the barb camp.
In my core i have a scouting heading south to see what fertile lands are available. This is the area I would like to expand towards, and get as much land as possible.
The west is back fill as far as i can tell, so while there are some great city locations, getting disputed territory is of more importance.
I played turn 14 and will continue my overall situation as well in my next post.