Japper and Alhambram go bongo bongo in the Kongo [Spoilers within]

[Japper007]

Slinger just came up short for killing the spear, no matter spear will suicide into him or stay in place either way we'll have archery Eureka next turn.

[Japper007]

Barb decided to make it easy, Archery Eureka in the bag

[Alhambram]

Can you use wounded warrior to escort settler? It would be disaster if settler should be captured by barb scout or lucky opponent who happened to stumble upon our capital.

Next turn Code of Laws completed, discipline is a obvious choice for military policy slot. For economic policy slot you have two choices: urban planning for extra production or God of Kings for one more faith per turn to ensure that we takes God of the Open Sky and little extra gold.

[Japper007]

I think I'll take Urban Planning, we are not under any pressure to lose out on GoTOS, I'll check next turn but bar anyone finding a Religious CS we are ~15 faith ahead of the field already. I think it's more valuable to get the Builder out immediately.

I'm getting the Warrior back to escort the Settler yeah.

[Japper007]

or lucky opponent who happened to stumble upon our capital.

That is an eery 6th sence you've got there:



No worries, no way either rho's Warrior or the Scout can get to the Settler before it joins up with the Warrior (who is also one attack from a promotion)

I don't know what rho's gameplan will be with Pericles. Could be early Stategos GG rush especially with the now great hoplite UU, but he could just go builder-mode with some early Acropoleis for a quick culture boost. We'll just have to watch his score and GP generation over the coming turns.

I like that spot by the Lake, could be a nice third expand if rho doesn't claim it quickly. Not as good as 2x Horses.

[Japper007]

Oh right forgot: Builder in 4, and I went Pottery as next tech because I don't need to finish Archery yet and I might like a Campus now that we get the writing boost next turn or so.

[Alhambram]

or lucky opponent who happened to stumble upon our capital.

That is an eery 6th sence you've got there:



No worries, no way either rho's Warrior or the Scout can get to the Settler before it joins up with the Warrior (who is also one attack from a promotion)

I don't know what rho's gameplan will be with Pericles. Could be early Stategos GG rush especially with the now great hoplite UU, but he could just go builder-mode with some early Acropoleis for a quick culture boost. We'll just have to watch his score and GP generation over the coming turns.

I like that spot by the Lake, could be a nice third expand if rho doesn't claim it quickly. Not as good as 2x Horses.

Heh, I always assume worst case scenario for wandering settler without guard, which mean barb or other players. Also note that it is already turn 18, around that time mostly players start to make contacts with neighbors.
Good that settler shall be guarded, lake spot might be 3rd city spot, especially since rho21 came from north.
Greece gameplan is very flexible, you can go for GG rush with swords or horses (note that Hoplites is ancient unit, so no GG bonus for them) but rho21 can mass build them with Agoge now.
Or go campus and get early GS, or get religion as first player and finally go for GW as first player, Greece has all possibilities.

Good call to start with pottery-writing.

[Japper007]

Settler is now covered by the warrior

So some rho vs us stats:

mil strenght: 35 vs our 27 is that enough to be an extra unit for him already? I suck at C&D stuff...

making 5.7 science vs our 3.6 (also one more tech in the bank for him) Science CS? probably. I much prefer our extra hammers towards units though. Tech does less for him at this stage.

culture is equal for both, no early monument build for him either.

No second city for him yet either, but he also has only 2 pop in his capital so I expect he has a Settler out already as well (or he's working 1/3 tiles, but that would just be poor management). Across the field everyone has dropped back to 2 pop except RFS who is the only one with 8 empire score (so 3 pop capital).

[Alhambram]

Domination score of 35, that is one warrior (20 strength) and one slinger (15 ranged strength). Your score is 27 because you have injured warrior which causes score drop with 8 points.
Heal your warrior to full health and you have 35 domination score too.
Hoplite strength is 25, if you see a lot jumps of 25 strength of rho21's domination score, that might imply possible Hoplite rush, although archers are also worth 25 points. (by way upgrading slingers to archers is 10 point up).

5.7 science indeed do strongly imply science city state, however it is also possible that he is working with 2 tiles which gives science for example mercury, tea or natural wonder tile, though science city state is most likely reason.
You can maybe check it at trade deal page of rho21, see whether he do have some resources or not.

You can ask anything about C&D, I can help you with that.

[Japper007]

I was having a little ponder on our next capital build and the first build in new city (founds in two turns, and Builder in capital is 2 turns from completion):

I think Slinger in the expansion and Settler in the capital  The tech-timing does not work out to go straight into a Campus and I have been experimenting with a quick third city lately in Duels, it is pretty damn strong if you have three build queues that early. I'm also thinking of possibly going monument, we can use the culture to push for Theatre Squares and tier 1 governments. The safest option would be a Slinger in the capital as well but I'm not feeling that all that much tbh.

To avoid rambling lets just look at pros and cons for each option (going by capital build, I'm assuming Slinger in expand for convenience):

Settler:

Pro:

-Pretty obvious really. Third city out fast, this means more hammers, more efficient growth, and we can almost be sure to beat rho to that nice land by the Lake (unless it's his first planned expansion, but I haven't seen his Slinger around so I assume it's escorting his Settler somewhere else)

-Third city would have the Grassland-Hill-Forest-Deer (  ) in first ring, the best tile we currently have eyes on!

Cons:

-with the planned farm on the rice our capital actually has 4 decent tiles to work (1x 4/0, 3x 2/2). So we might be better off growing locally than expanding out.

-Imperial Overstretch

Slinger:

Pro: 

-safety, barb suppresion.

-We might have a neighbour who'll try to rush. (though I honestly think that'd be a stupid move on our opponents part since we have an excellent UU)

Con:

-No economic benefit, though we do get the chance for more growth in the cap.

Monument:

Pro:

-Culture! As Sullla has pointed out getting to the early governments quickly is very imporant and pindicator showed (to both our detriments, heh) how strong early mass culture is in civ 6. We also need to get to Theatre Squares quickly to maximally exploit Kongolese UA.

-Like the Slinger, more natural growth in our strong capital

Con 

-Expensive and the pay-off is later than Settler or Slinger (which both have almost immediate benifits)