My name is Ozymandias, King of China: Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Let's have some fun!

Useful things to know:

My opponents, in turn order:

Thestick: Peter (PHI/EXP) of Ottomans (Ag/Wheel/Jannisary/Hamman)
Tankra: Hattie (SPI/CRE) of Native America (Ag/Fishing/Dogs/Totem)
SAT: Isabella (SPI/EXP) of Maya (Myst/Mining/Holkan/B-Ball Court)
Me: Ozymandias (SPI/IND) of China (Ag/Mine/Chu-Ko-Nu/Pavilion)
Sian: Bismarck (IND/EXP) of Byzantium (Myst/Wheel/Cataphracts/Hippodrome)

Growth on quick speed:
1 (14), 2 (16), 3 (17), 4 (18), 5 (20), 6 (21), 7 (22), 8 (24), 9 (25), 10 (26), 11 (28), 12 (29), 13 (30)

Whips = 20H/citizen

BFC chops are 13H pre-maths, 20H post-maths
1 ring outside BFC chops are 10H pre-maths, 15H post maths

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Seriously, I did really well in PBEM18, but my skills have stagnated so badly since then that I'd get owned by most players on this site. You learn more from defeat than victory.

More thoughts forthcoming. Needless to say, I'd have preferred other SPI leaders (especially Isabella) though having the only IND is always useful.

Starting techs are great, of course. SPI/Mining let's you go BW first, so you can whip your first worker. Ag is the best initial food tech as usual, though whether or not Commodore gives me a grain is beyond my power. Doing so is pointless if I have a 2H city plant (aka plains hill, flat plains marble/stone).

Oracle-Metal Casting would be pretty useful, though I've done it before. Monotheism will also be important.

PS Commodore, if we're getting a picture of our starting locations, then getting the dimensions of the map (aka "size" and difficulty) will be important. I'm not planning on putting a ton of effort into this game, but I'm still going to sim out the first few dozen turns.

[Commodore]

Okay, so we're still debating elements of the map, but the start position is done. As you've picked both leader and civ, have a start shot:



Map is Emperor/Small

[luddite]

Hmm... Spi/Ind of China eh...

Have you considered... (PB6 spoiler)

culture victory?
You've got basically the perfect combo for that

[oledavy]

Love the thread title Nicolae

I memorized Ozymandius for a regional poetry competition a few years ago. It's one of my favorite poems (mostly by virtue of hearing Leonard Nimoy say it countless times upon researching Construction).

I'd love to see you try to pull off Luddite's suggestion.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Argh, it's not "upon my works", it's "on my works" I always screw that up. That's okay, the "up" in "upon" is mostly silent, so they're both 1 syllable.

T-Hawk request: Change of thread title to "I am Ozymandias, King of China. Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!".

The moral of the story is to never put up your first draft.

And I can already tell this will be a tricky start, it already torpedoes my idea of growing to size 2 and whipping the worker. Settle on the plains hill to 4? No fresh water, but we already see 3 health resources, and Commodore maps tend to have alot of resource diversity. The current position is off-coast, though I can't yet tell if the coast connects to some larger body of water. Settling 4 isolates the plains hill sheep until I get a weak filler city to 99, which can of course grow the capital's cottages. And daym, will cottages be strong in this bureaucapital, lots of riverside grasslands. Not very many forests to make BW first particularly strong, I should have picked Egypt to get a quick pottery.

Blind picking traits ain't always useful, but we've seen enough Isabellas and Hatties of Ag/Wheel. How about someone different? And now I am considering a cultural victory, it's especially strong with the 'mids as you can still tech off artists and channel your culture to your holy cities.

I'll be away for a few hours, I'll come back and try to set up a sim of 4 and 47.

Nevertheless, I'll be moving warrior 7, and the settler 27 to check for seafood. If yes, I may end up settling 2 if it's particularly strong. Moving the settler 2 will defog the coast to 223, 33 and 36.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Damn, now I'm totally regretting not picking Egypt for Ag/Wheel, as this map just doesn't call for early bronzeworking. If I settle 4, I want to tech Wheel/Pottery before BW, as there are too few forests to chop. The whip is great as usual, but that needs a Granary first.

Neither is mining that useful, I already have enough hammers to build early warriors (plains hill plant, plains wheat, forest deer, ivory), meaning I don't need mines. I'll want early cottages, which could be used for cottages in the bureaucap and farms/specialists in the periphery.

The question is, should I go Worker-Worker-Settler (Settler out on T26) or Worker-Settler-Worker (Settler out on T23)?. Assumed are warrior to help me grow to size 3, the former gives me 2, and the latter gives me 1. Plus, the former let's me pre-improve some tiles, and offers more flexibility. We'll see as the map gets revealed.

I don't think it's worth chopping forests into workers and settlers, I'll want to save them for the Oracle. What are the known Oracle times for the last couple of games? Sian is my big competitor for the thing.

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Yuri got Oracle T36 in PBEM23, Seven got Oracle T38 in PBEM29.

But you know what? Screw Oracle, one thing at a time. Let Sian go for it. I'm spiritual, meaning I want Monotheism. To get Monotheism, I want Masonry. Hence, I want the pyramids instead. Seven got it T53 in PBEM29. Now, how to get it while balancing it with expansion and military...?

[Ichabod]

Yuri got Oracle T36 in PBEM23, Seven got Oracle T38 in PBEM29.

But you know what? Screw Oracle, one thing at a time. Let Sian go for it. I'm spiritual, meaning I want Monotheism. To get Monotheism, I want Masonry. Hence, I want the pyramids instead. Seven got it T53 in PBEM29. Now, how to get it while balancing it with expansion and military...?

I'll give you half the answer:



:neenernee

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Yeah, you know what? No one is going a-conquering, those early UUs are far too defensive. At most, they could choke, but they're more scared of being conquered than going on the offensive. My bluster in the set-up thread sure helps! I also expect easy access to copper, especially after what happened to poor Commodore in PBEM31

Let's farmer's gambit!

For Sian, he wants to lay low until he gets Guilds. I want early Machinery, and that means early Engineering. Phracts are beasts, but they die like any other to collateral. I'm SPI, meaning I like religion, and if I can get strong borders on a front city, I can probably get collateral initiative on Sian's big stack of 2-movers. In any case, he bears close watching. He may want to get revenge for PBEM23.

If public diplo is on, I want to bluster that I want the Oracle, and if I don't border Sian's phracts, I hope to be so obnoxious that he races me for it. Joke's on him, I want the 'mids. After that, CoL will be important, plus getting that extra religion may prove useful. If I end up pulling ahead, I want to scare everyone away from any kind of CoW. If not, I want to unite everyone against the dude who's going to go and conquer two cores and win the game . Otherwise, play wise with the person on the other front.

I don't want to wonderspam, I want to play my cards close. My general strategy has always been Get Swole --> Then Win.