[Spoilers] Chevalier Gives You Something to Cry Aboot

[Sullla]

Heh. That's about as early as a barb scout can possibly appear at the capital and trigger the little exclamation point warning. This is one case where I wish I'd been completely wrong about the need for a second military unit. Anyway, the immediate moves are pretty straightforward: the current warrior moves back down to the south to be in position to fight whatever barbarians are on their way. The scout under production right now in the capital can then head out to explore the map to the north or east while the warrior hangs out on combat duty. Builder is still the optimal second choice for the capital and hopefully the barbs won't be bad enough to force another military unit second. Without the early builder, the free culture from the city state is going to accumulate "too fast" and get wasted by completing Craftsmanship without the boost in place, undercutting the whole benefit. Really, really hope that you'll be able to train a builder second.

With that said, the extra culture from that city state is an enormous break of good fortune. From 1.3 culture/turn to 3.3 culture/turn in one stroke, almost tripling the immediate benefit. This has three simultaneous benefits, all of them significant:

1) Code of Laws will finish about 6-7 turns faster, unlocking Discipline sooner to fight the barbs
2) Code of Laws will finish about 6-7 turns faster, unlocking God King sooner to potentially land the first or second pantheon
3) The capital itself more than doubles in cultural output (since that culture has to pop up somewhere), greatly increasing the rate at which tiles are grabbed. This is a really big deal: the capital will quickly grab the sheep and the wines since resources are guaranteed to be acquired first, and then you can spend 70 gold to purchase the 2/2 grassland hill tile in the third ring. This will save both time and gold since it was going to take ages for the capital to grab both resources otherwise.

There's an argument to be made for skipping God King to run Urban Planning instead for the extra production point but I don't find that compelling. The early cultural city state find puts Canada on the inside track for one of the first pantheons and I think that's worth the investment of 25 turns in God King policy. God of the Open Sky looks especially good here given the double sheep at the capital. The culture on plantations policy could also be good since there are wines at the capital and silks not far away. I think it's worthwhile to try for a strong early pantheon.

No idea what the score lists mean either so I guess we'll find out tomorrow from Chevalier.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

On the weekends, it'd be nice to have someone to take the turns, because those are actually the hardest times for me - I'll often be travelling to see the country and can't nip into a PC bang. This Sunday, for example, I'll be in Yeosu and could use a turnplayer.

Anyway, commentary from last night:

1)What turns do barb camps initially spawn? Do we know? But yeah, that scout had to beeline straight for us. The obvious move is to recall our scouting warrior - he's met a CS so we'd probably have to push quite a bit deeper to find any more anyway - and have him in place to deal with the camp. Finish the scout and start a builder right away. We'll unlock CoL in 5 turns, down from 12, so right on time to slot Discipline for barb-smacking.

2)The scout I think I shall send east as the obvious choice. The northwest is a bit defogged now, and the barb showing up from the south, plus the jungle belt around Antananarivo, suggest that we're below the equator to me, so it's likely just chilly tundra below us. It's a shame Canada's tundra bonus is so terrible. I don't understand why they got such an obviously weaker one than Russia, it's not like Russia is even all tundra! Baffling. Anyway, that just leaves the east. 

3)Scores - Kaiser is in the lead in science, which he was not previously, and Woden is leading in religion even though Ichabod is player one. Those two jumped out at me as obviously out of place, and if everyone is meeting their initial city-states around now, it suggests that they met those respective types. Ichabod also either met one of the other three types or hasn't met his yet, ditto sub. Right now, barring someone working incense or something, we should be on course to nab the 2nd pantheon after Woden. GotOS is my first choice since we might still find horses, too, with the plantation boost being the second. After those, it's a drop off. EG and Dance of the Aurora don't appeal since I don't intend faith. Maybe God of the Forge, build a lot of horsemen, and surprise someone? Let some fool suzerain Antananarivo so we can eat it? I dunno.

[TheArchduke]

The most obvious issue with God of the Forge is, that it is a dead giveaway. But then so is milpower and people tend to blatantly ignore it.
Right now GotOS seems the best bet.

As said toss me the code and I can do a turn for you when it is needed. I would send the scout north along the river and cross it to go NE and then E at the earliest oppurtunity.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

The most obvious issue with God of the Forge is, that it is a dead giveaway. But then so is milpower and people tend to blatantly ignore it.
Right now GotOS seems the best bet.

As said toss me the code and I can do a turn for you when it is needed. I would send the scout north along the river and cross it to go NE and then E at the earliest oppurtunity.

Way ahead of ya! If you look at my first post on the thread (top post on page 2), I stuffed my code there for future reference, the same way people leave their Pitboss password on the first page of their PB threads. Saturdays and Sundays I'll often not be able to get to the turn. And some weeknights, depending.

Anyway, just played Turn 6

Nothing to report. The scout is out of sight, no doubt off to report to his wretched little friends what a juicy target the Blues is (the Blues are?). I am recalling our warrior by the shortest path. I intend to cross the river, slot Discipline on turn 10, engage the first warrior, promote, then heal and mop up the camp. The scout is out on turn 8 - so ideally Sunday if all goes as planned - and should head east, hunting city-states and possibly a natural wonder. I'd follow the terrain, but if in doubt, cheat north, since I think tundra is south. The warrior will confirm or deny that once he goes south for the camp around turn 10. 

Only interesting change in rankings is that Kaiser is second in culture. Otherwise everything is unchanged from the default order or previously mentioned updates.

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I don't know if you've advanced the save or not, but I won't be able to play today, either. I'll be in Yeosu!

I'm sure the Turtle Ship was a Korean UU in one of hte Civs, and Admiral Yi Sunsin is a Great Admiral in this one - Yeosu is the site of his last and greatest battle.

[TheArchduke]

Turn 6

Not much to report. The Warrior hurries south to cross to the river to hopefully fight barbarians.

   

[TheArchduke]

Shall I catch this turn as well?

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

If it's to us, feel free. I'll be able to play in a few more hours but with so little to do there seems little sense waiting.

Do we move the scout due E across the river, or NE first into the bend? Thick terrain means it'll be slow going either way. I lean towards due E first, since that should give us a glimpse of the coast and reveal a bit more tiles than going NE.

[TheArchduke]

Going east and doing turn so things progress quicker. Worker next.

Nothing on settlervision. A promising site east at least.

   

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

I'm a little worried by the hints of tundra to the south (around the hill tile labelled Huron). With desert right there to the north, tundra to the south, and the kind of flat terrain immediately west of our spawn, we don't really have good immediate prospects around our (already weak) capital. I know we haven't scouted much yet, so hopefully east-northeast has some good terrain, but right now it's looking like a VERY slow start, and unless everyone else has similar terrain, then our game might be doomed before it even really begins.

I'll log in this afternoon and check scores to see if anyone's started to distinguish themselves in pop or popped out a second unit. That will give us some idea of the rough strength of capitals.