[SPOILERS] Emperor K, Cornflakes, what could go wrong?

[Cornflakes]

Scout first is fine, but I would seriously consider going for a production focused start in that case. Shaving 3 turns off the build time is potentially 6-9 extra tiles covered by the scout, increasing the chances for meeting extra CS. It also shaves a couple turns off the builder which earns a few extra and also shaves a couple turns off the next builds. The extra pop will be working the rice, so not producing , just food plus a little science and a tiny amount of culture.

Forgot about Lady of the Reeds as an option for the pantheon. That is indeed another viable option depending on the local terrain.

Silk tile should be acquired first, followed by horses.

[Emperor K]

So work sheep, and a second production tile from turn 1. Getting the scout faster then getting a builder, with intent of improving the sheep, horse and rice. With what you are suggesting at size 2 keep the production going by working another production tile. If I understand you correct.

Now for the warrior, head west -> south and circle around the area to find city site #2?

[Cornflakes]

So work sheep, and a second production tile from turn 1. [....] With what you are suggesting at size 2 keep the production going by working another production tile.

Yes, we have a couple 2/2 Sheep and hill forest. Once Silk is acquired lock that tile (90% sure that's a hill tile for 2/2/1 due to warrior not having vision over it).

then getting a builder, with intent of improving the sheep, horse and rice

Now for the warrior, head west -> south and circle around the area to find city site #2?

Sounds like a good plan, with scout heading east/NE. That river in the west looks promising. Check the settler lens before founding the capital to see if the water to the north is lake or sea. You should be able to tell lake vs. sea by the status of the plains hill to N and grassland to the NW (but once you found the capital, those tiles will all turn red).

[Cornflakes]

Further musings on victory conditions:

Science and Culture victories have never even been close to achieved in any of the PBEM to date. 
PBEM 1, 3, 4, and 6 were won by Domination (i.e. concession resulting from dominant position).

PBEM 2 was won by Religion on T182 after Oledavy came a couple turns short of founding his own religion. Military played a strong roll in eliminating Woden including his competing religion, and a fortuitously timed declaration of friendship gave Alhambram the window of opportunity to convert Oledavy without resulting to military means. Alhambram's ending faith per turn was about 80, and this includes a faith-oriented Pantheon.

Looking back at PBEM 3, Bacchus was far behind Ichabod in terms of science which resulted in military inferiority ... yet it looks like he had a credible chance at pulling off a religious victory if he'd sent some knights along with his missionaries and apostles in the T130 time-frame. The knights would surely have died, but might have lived long enough to escort the religious units one more layer of cities deep. Bacchus's faith per turn was less than 30, and it looks like a significant proportion of his faith came from chopping with God of the Harvest. So Religion looks like it has at least some potential as a last-ditch effort from a losing position in addition to a victory to shoot for from a dominant position.


I think as Arabia, taking our playbook from Alhambram is well suited to Arabia's science and faith leanings. A strong mid-game science from Madrassa and Wats worship building can translate into a military edge. Military edge can conquer a neighbor and get us into the final showdown. Once the field is whittled down to 3 or so major powers, Religion can be used for the ultimate victory condition. We don't want to show our hand too early on the Religion front, probably just stockpiling faith. Once we achieve Theocracy government we can use our stockpiled faith-purchase and army to take out a neighbor, and then purchase a swarm of religious units to convert.

The key to Arabia looks to me like unlocking Theocracy ASAP. Culture as an early priority with monument builds and investing the first envoy in cultural CS that we meet ASAP. I will make another post looking at the eurekas along the culture tree so that we can trim our districts and builds to hit those inspirations.

[Emperor K]

Unlocking Theocracy is an ASAP goal. Depending on what pantheon / beliefs we go, we need to keep faith generation in the back of our minds. Like you stated, I have had issues with getting there two quickly and not having enough faith to make it worth while.

[Cornflakes]

Mandatory civic pre-requisites to Reformed Church, along with the corresponding eureka

(spoilered for length of table)

   

Civic	Inspiration	Additional Requirements	Difficulty
Code of Laws	NONE	N/A	N/A
Craftsmanship	Improve 3 tiles	Builder	Easy
Foreign Trade	Discover a 2nd continent	Scout	Easy
State Workforce	Build any district	early district	Moderate
Early Empire	6 population civ-wide	2 cities	Easy
Mysticism	Found Pantheon	God King, or Religious CS	Easy
Games and Recreation	Research Construction Tech	Much more than available	Impossible
Political Philosophy	Meet 3 CS	Scout	Easy
Drama & Poetry	Build a Wonder	Pyramids!, Oracle????	Almost Impossible
Defensive Tactics	Declaration of war	A tossup	????
Recorded History	Build 2 Campus districs	2 cities to pop 4 early	Moderate
Theology	Found a Religion	Patience for free prophet	Easy
Feudalism	Build 6 farms	Many builder charges	Moderate
Civil Service	Grow city to 10 population	Granary, Aqueduct?	Difficult
Guilds	Build 2 markets	2 Commercial Hubs	Difficulty
Divine Right	Build 2 Temples	2 Holy Sites	Easy
Reformed Church	Have 6 cities Following Religion	1-2 missionaries	Easy

Looking further at some of the Moderate / Difficult inspirations, here is what will be required:

• Districts: 2 campuses, 2 Commercial Hubs ... likely an Aqueduct ... definitely Holy Sites at most cities. This means 3 cities to size 7 at a relatively early date (HS + CH + Campus)
  
• Religion: Ideally we would have Holy Sites constructed in at least 3-4 cities prior to founding the religion with the free prophet in order to auto-convert. I found in my last duel game vs. TheArchduke that 3 converted cities with HS was critical mass for auto-converting cities newly founded within 10 tiles of the Holy City.
  
• Wonders: Is it even possible to build a wonder in time for D&P? Stonehenge is the most obvious early wonder, which we will definitely not get. Pyramids would be wonderful if desert is in reach of 2nd/3rd city, oracle is a questionable choice that might be OK if we wait and hit the top part of the Civics tree and build it later (terrible use of early production). 
  
• Builders: 1 early for Craftsmanship, 2 solely to farm for the Feudalism inspiration, 1-2 per city early (pre-Feudalism), 1-2 per city later (post Feudalism). I often find it difficult to achieve the Feudalism eureka without feeling like I'm wasting builder charges to farm a couple naked grassland/plains tiles.
  
• Farms: I find it usually hard to come up with enough farms to get Feudalism. Often there are better tiles to work than a farmed plains wheat, and it feels like a waste of builder charges to farm naked plains/grassland. The farms however can also double as housing-boost for achieving growth to size 10 for Civil Service.
  

Based on this we do not want to delay Writing + Currency too long, perhaps back to my initial gut feeling of Campus as the first district for the Early Empire eureka. Encampments should be lower on the build priority early on. If we can find a resource to mine for The Wheel eureka I'd say even delay BW/IW for a long time, building heavy chariots and teching towards knights first. Naval techs and infrastructure at the top of the tree can be completely ignored in the short term.

If we have desert I think we should seriously consider Pyramids. When I built them in my last duel game vs. TheArchduke I had a couple other builders with 1-charge remaining that got immediately boosted up to 2 charges. So the net result was that the cogs from the free builder + extra builder charges + culture-equivalent of a 60 monument was actually more than the cost of the Pyramids (not to mention the 1-shot 55 for the D&P inspiration). A pair of agoge-boosted chop/harvest through Archer + Warrior 1-2 turns apart should build most of Pyramids. Here's to hoping an eligible desert tile is available close by

[Japper007]

I wouldn't call Games and Rec "Impossible" per se. It's just hard and often not worth the investment, but with a Water Mill it's doable.

[Emperor K]

Unless we some how mass a fortune, we probably want to get mercenaries for the upgrade policy. So that can be used to stall some of the inspirations.

Pyramids is a nice wonder to work towards.

I also do like the oracle with having faith on hand later in the game to spend on Great People is a nice tool to have, also cuts the cost to buy a GG that we will want. If any thing else it will also force other teams to spend turns on projects or purchase great people that they want. I think the pyramids has more value early, but the oracle stays good the entire game.

To soon to rule either wonder in or out I think, like you mentioned we would have to have a spot to put the Mids.

Now that I look over your idea's, I really like the idea of science first. We should probably skip holy site tech and get two campuses down in the first two cities. If no other districts are available I think the second one will be discounted, then we can make the third district a discounted Holy site.

Since we are going builder first this should give us plenty of time to find city site #2, which I think should focus on as much production as we can get it. With several districts and possible a wonder build it will need some good hills.

[Cornflakes]

If I understand the discount mechanism correct, I think the earliest the discount can apply is with 2 district types unlocked and 3 districts completed (2 of one type, 1 of the other type). In that case the 2nd district of the 2nd type could be placed at a discount. Therefore there isn't any particular need to delay Astrology. In my duel vs. TheArchduke I built 2 campuses, captured 1 HS, and then achieved the discount on every district I built from that point forward.

I agree that production should be the focus for city #2 location. I'm eager to see this start so we can begin uncovering tiles and see what type of CS spawned near us!

[Emperor K]

Turn (1)

Alright we are under way! Settled in place and headed west.

Looks like Rome did not settle in place. (People have different Realms Beyond and Steam names). Not much in the hill department so far. Excellent site for a city and a second amenity, but I would like to find more production. Forests next to river's are nice for later unless we chop them.

That is in fact a lake to the north.

A city 1 tile west of the warrior is not a bad spot later down the line. Maybe have our warrior head north around the sea and then back east. Our scout can head straight east?

Not sure if we want to follow the river south as there are what looks to be plenty of hills in the north east.

Also grabbed a shot of the great people. 

I think our first two districts should be Science. Hypatia is really good early game. Would not mind getting the great merchant though. Trade routes are always useful.

Looking over the pics again, I think sending the warrior across the river then west and south is a good plan. That way the scout can just head North east without double scouting. Just don't want the warrior to get to far away, he will be needed for builder defense.

EDIT: Also I am working a 2/2 tile since we discussed that is the superior strategy