[PB65 - Cornflakes] Rising from the Ashes

[Ginger()]

...rush MoM. Launch a GA with whatever GPP you have more of, take a bulb or three down the tech tree, chain a GA or three ...      ... 

Instead of the wonders, with two Engineers you could bulb Machinery and Feudalism (Skip Construction), and then with a merchant from a market power to Guilds/Banking 

I’m unsure about Nebu, as sweet as the forge bonus is, I feel Pericles gives an additional defensive cushion and Libraries are expensive too. Nebu also telegraphs very strongly.

What’s your backup Civ pick if the start is landlocked?

[civac2]

I agree with Ginger. If you want to make two libraries very early CRE is a big deal. Undiscounted libraries are kinda iffy early on.

[Cornflakes]

Pericles is my thought too. I was really impressed with Pericles in PB59 and almost priced again in PB63. It was too soon though and I needed to spice things up with Boudicca.

Backup for a landlocked start is still America. Starting techs are overrated

[Commodore]

[Cornflakes]

Unfortunately for my aspirations with America, random block pick method won out in the voting. Civs I rolled are English (late), Arabian (slow start, great border culture), Aztec (meh), Dutch (late/water?), German (late ... but is it?). Germany's UU has great potential to be a game changer on a naval map where ships can provide movement and the Riesengarde brings the raw power. Chemistry can be easily bulbed, and Astronomy is a reasonable bulb. Maybe pair Germany with a PHI leader. But based on our starting screenshot it doesn't look like our start at least warrants picking for a naval oriented game. We can see 48 land tiles out of 49 total tiles (including 1 ring of fog). Based on 110 land tiles per player guidance we have nearly half of our total land visible. How Commodore accomplishes the constraint of 110 land tiles with 12 tiles minimum distance with the miniscule amount of water that I see will be an interesting feat.

Leaders:

• Hammurabi (AGG/ORG)
  
• Mao Zedong (EXP/PRO)
  
• Pericles (CRE/PHI)
  
• Julius Caesar (ORG/IMP)
  
• Mansa Musa (FIN/SPI)
  
• Victoria (FIN/IMP)
  
• Cyrus (IMP/CHA)
  
• Justinian (SPI/IMP)
  
• Isabella (EXP/SPI)
  

Pericles  now who else can challenge as a contender? I didn't roll any other leaders that are either CRE or PHI. Those were the two traits that I was really looking for, so I will need an interesting combo in order persuade me otherwise. None of the civs look inspiring. Quick check for interesting synergy suggests ... Hammurabi of Aztec? Nahhhh. There are a few combos that are decent enough, but nothing that I want to play more than Pericles. With Pericles my leaning is towards Arabia or Germany.

Regarding the starting screenshot ... hello, hammer capital. Shall we skip Slavery again? Where will the cottages go? Shall we skip cottages too? Maybe we can chop those 12! forests into a large pile of rocks and just run specialists?

[Cornflakes]

LOCK Pericles of Arabia

[Charriu]

Finally somebody takes Arabia willingly.

(Ok to be fair Ramk played it in PB59, but he had less choices there.)

[Cornflakes]

The starting resources actually work fine with Arabia's start techs. I'll miss out on the Agriculture second arrow bonus when I research AH but otherwise I'll be fine. And if my scout finds a double wet corn paradise while I'm researching Hunting, I can easily swap in Agriculture first, delay AH, and build a settler at size 2 with Deer + forested cows. The priest slots on the Madrasa I'm sure will come in handy at some point (I liked having the flexibility to run priests with Obelisks in PB63). I will dominate the borders with culture, and in fact will be able to hold my own against a holy city! In a small map, the difference between a couple extra key tiles can be huge. And strategically extra culture provides extra vision, early warning of invasion, and better attack vectors.

The biggest puzzle for me will be cultivating commerce in the late ancient era so I don't fall flat. The plan is to focus on the basics! Don't get cute. Take the worker techs, build cottages early, keep an eye on neighbors from a defensive and opportunistic perspective, and play a solid early game to set up for a solid mid game. PHI will carry us through to the end if we can push forward into the midgame. By the way, I think PHI is the clear strongest trait now.

[Cornflakes]

Baseline sim:

   

Worker > warrior > warrior > settler ... delay 2nd warrior by 1 turn, in order to sync growth to 3 with overflow of a couple hammers off the warrior. Saves a turn on the settler.

Hunting > Animal Husbandry > XXX ... In the screenshot I chose Mining > Bronze Working and I'm still 10 turns away after factoring in the commerce boost from road connection. If agriculture is needed for 2nd city then the Bronze Working timing is pushed back even further. Hopefully I can settle for horses easily. CRE will help reach them if in a somewhat inconvenient location.

If I add Agriculture ahead of AH the settler comes 1 turn later and BW is about 6 turns later. If the situation allows for BW to be delayed significantly like in PB63 I could potentially go Pottery after Agriculture > AH. Two major differences between this start and PB63 [where I delayed BW until T60] are (1) the abundance of forests here in the BFC and bleeding through in the adjacent area, and (2) the lack of cottage-able tiles without chopping. Unless my 2nd city is a high-growth cottage paradise I think that I'll need BW sooner rather than later. However note the research timing in the above screenshot ... I desperately need to secure additional commerce ASAP so as not to fall woefully behind in tech. Two riverside resources instead of these forested resources would be a 20% increase in tech rate! Expansion without regard the economy will doom me to life in the bronze age for eternity.

[Cornflakes]

Today I fog gaze the starting screenshot while eating lunch:

• Mountains in the northeast, possibly connect to the mountain in the north. Could be a mountain chain there? It would be foolish to wander in the fog hoping for something better so I will settle first before confirming which way to send the scout ... actually, will settling reveal any more tiles? Commodore already defogged the whole 5x5 BFC area so I don't think the culture will add any more vision given all that rough terrain around.
  
• Tons of forest impede scout movement. Hmmm ... looks like there may be a clearing 1SE of the forested cows. Scout SW-SW, then SE-XX, then counterclockwise back to the deer area?
  
• On the other hand, Deer would be the best tile to split off to a 2nd city, and therefore information about the presence/absence/type of resources in the vicinity is more important in the decision of whether to research Agriculture ahead of AH. Critical info may take precedence over the most efficiency in terms of number of tiles uncovered.
  
  
• Wow, I keep being surprised at the number of forests here at this start. Random map generator typically throws in extra forests to compensate for weak starting resources, so likely a less edited map? What am I going to do with all this lumber? Early math bulb? This capital isn't screaming for an academy, but still the tech costs are so cheap on Small size that bulbing math hurts.
  
• Pine tree line suggests that we started in the southern hemisphere meaning there should be more map to our north, and nasty tundra to the south ... further suggesting that a northwesterly direction near the deer is better.
  
• That pine tree line though, doesn't it seem a bit ... taller than typical for a small map? Including the fogged row to the south there are 5 rows of non-tundra pines.
  
• uh ... grasping at straws here. Come one whoever is last to lock in pick, need some more food for theory crafting