at last, greenline is playing the kind of game he wants to

[greenline]

Another turn since the save got around in an hour, nice.




Whosit looks to smack the barb camp around. I also maneuver my warrior to hit the camp without crossing the river. Hard to guess which of us will be able to claim the camp gold.

Builder done in 2, AH done in 2. Will we get horses by the capital? 

[greenline]

Another turn today, really blitzing through the early game.

Whosit blocked the spot I was going to move my warrior. Now I definitely have to invade him.

[greenline]

AH is in, and we do have capital horses.

Since I have the commercial envoy and income from the truffles, I think it's worth it to buy the horse tile for the capital. The extra cog compared to the 3/1 wheat will pay for itself rather quickly in the early game - oftentimes that saves a turn or two on a settler when running colonization. Unfortunately, I will have to buy the tile for the future seowon, too, which won't be cheap. Have to reserve some money for future slinger -> archer upgrades.

Missing out on the irrigation eureka for the time being is no big deal, as there are no plantation resources in sight. It also would make God of the Open Sky a slam dunk pantheon to grab, but there is a slim chance it lasts that long with my piddly faith income from god king.

[greenline]

Builder done next turn instead of this one, I miscounted.

Will hook up the sheep, then the horses, then the truffles. The extra food on the horses should be good for getting capital to size 3.

Whosit continues to smack the barb camp around. Wonder if it's worth trying to snipe it from him or if that will immediately set him into grudge mode.

Need to build another military unit before the settler. A barb scout got away and is running to another camp, so that is 3 units incoming.

[greenline]

The builder is done and goes to improve the sheep, revealing some more of the coastline. If I can build a capital harbor, the crabs eventually will provide some food and housing with a lighthouse. Maybe I can shove a water park there too if the game goes long enough.

I redid the pins for the original plan involving the government plaza. While moving the second city closer is technically more efficient for the IZ, I just didn't have anywhere to put the plaza in a realistic timeframe. It's better to have the plaza built faster than to maximize the adjacencies in the lategame. The free river tile by the capital could be used for a wonder, Ruhr Valley or more likely Great Bath / Hanging Gardens in the midgame (both are pretty cheap housing when you are looking to get a city to size 10).

The capital builds a slinger next before settler. I don't expect the barbs to come from the south or the northeast, so a slinger should be able to hold them off, especially once I swap to discipline when Code of Laws finishes. A warrior + slinger pair should also be good to guard the settler when it finishes if Whosit does anything.




Since I have plenty of gold income at the moment, I decide to leave the barb camp to Whosit and keep scouting. I find Whosit's borders up north where I thought they'd be. If he settles straight south, we will already have set up a long term border with our second cities. I want to poke further in and scout his capital terrain before he discovers early empire.

Any questions from the lurkers? Trying to be thorough as I can for the early game. Unfortunately I can not get worldbuilder to work for simming purposes.

[greenline]

Sheep pastured. The extra cog shaved a turn off the slinger's completion, nice. Builder en route to the horse tile, revealing some of the land to the north near Zanzibar. Seems like there could be room for a costal filler city here. Might be a liability to future frigate attacks.




Scouting near Whosit's capital of Bombay. I'm guessing that he skipped going builder first since he has the 3/3 spice tile and a forested plains hill. I think long term his capital will not be as good as mine due to the lack of rivers and hills, but in the short term, it will be a powerhouse. I will move my warrior away next turn to not signal ill intent for the time being.

Here's another RB balance mod change that should be added - giving Maize a base yield of +1cog. Seriously, it's such a sad resource right now, farming it gives you a 2/1/2 or a 3/0/2 tile. Completely worthless unless you need the irrigation boost badly.

[greenline]

Purchased the horse tile for 75 gold, pastured. The last improvement to make could be the truffles or the wheat, I think the gold and amenity outweighs having a 3/1 tile. The next builder will be primarily chopping and setting up city #2. Terrain further north seems pretty barren, but offers another way to get to Zanzibar.




Warrior is leaving whosit's capital and circling back home. The abundance of spices in the area makes me wonder if whosit would prefer goddess of the festivals for his pantheon. There is hope I can get god of the open sky, however slim!

[greenline]

Mining in, pottery next. Don't have any tiles I want to mine right away, but I wanted to be able to chop forests if need be. Writing is the first tech goal, then archery.

Slinger is completed, settler next. Currently due in 10 turns, will drop when Arirang grows to size 3.




New city state found, and the reason why archery is a key tech goal next. Venice has a crappy suzerain benefit, is way more exposed, and is prime annexation snowball material. I don't have the free first envoy either, and the quest (recruit a great writer) is of course unworkable.

I heard the barbarian pop up noise when the turn rolled, so expecting to see barbs pouring in. Good thing I built the slinger.

[greenline]

No barbs showed up in the next couple turns. So the barb notification must have been for the next player. Odd thing about hotseat.

Just continuing to scout around the capital / Venice while the settler is built. 

[greenline]

The barbs finally popped up from the scout that got away 10 turns ago. Bad news is that it is a bard horse camp. Good news is that it is not in position to pillage any tiles. I will need my warrior back by the capital to escort the settler. In the meantime I will look to wear the horses down with the slinger.

The settler will be done before I complete craftmanship for Agoge. So there is a question of what to build before I get the 50% boost to units. I think another builder would be ideal, since I could farm the wheat and improve some tiles for the second city. I'd want to buy the banana tile right away, so I could mine one plains hill, which would give it a 3/2 and 1/3 tile, and then a 2/2 rainforest hill.