My first duel, and first Civ6 MP game! (One Civ4 PBEM & Pitboss under my belt several years ago) So a little bit on my thoughts for the civ selection this game:
1. I was strongly considering Russia as the civ pick. I think that they are incredibly strong even not considering the cossacks later on. However I expect this game to be decided one way or another before cossacks come into play. ... Since TheArchduke ended up picking Russia it is definitely my goal to end this game before they enter the world stage!
2. I knew that TheArchduke knew that Russia is a strong civ after the showing in PBEM 2, and thus I strongly suspected that he might go for Russia. Thus if I picked Russia we would end up crossing that off and going for 2nd choices.
3. I didn't really want to play Russia this game, and as I was looking through the options for other civs to counter Russia as TheArchduke's pick I realized that a duel against Russia would be the perfect place to showcase Arabia. I verified that there are indeed 2 religions allowed on a Duel sized map. With TheArchduke picking Russia with the half priced 2X GProphet production Lavra's it's almost certain that he will go for a religion. With Arabia's ability to automatically get the last prophet, I could rely on TheArchduke to build the early Holy Site and thus get a discount on mine, and then once I see the GProphet counter start I know I have X number of turns to build my own HS in time for the free prophet to land. Thus I can go for an earlier district of some other type (probably Campus since Arabia gets science bonuses)
Tech path generally will be targeting Education for the unique building. Civics path will be generally targetting Monarchy for the production card for the UU. Rough victory conditions in mind from T1 are either a Mamluk invasion with goal to storm the capital and ignore most of the rest of the empire, or religious victory. To the end of Religious victory, I probably won't take Jesuit education saving the faith for religious units.
My thoughts on the first 25 or so turns have evolved since my previous posts in the start of Japper007's PBEM4 thread. I still don't think that early builder is the way to go, but now I'm thinking that early Monumant has great value. Here are some of the options:
• For builder vs. monument comparison, the production cost is the same 60 cogs. The 3 improvements from the builder save a lump sum of 20 culture from the civics boost. So monument first pays back the 20 culture in 10 turns. Half the time, there aren't 3 tiles at the capital where improvements are readily beneficial anyway so a third of the builder is wasted on an unused mine, or the boost is delayed until the 2nd city is planted. Building a monument first speeds along Craftsmanship as much or more than a builder first, which in turn saves cogs on the first builder as well as military through the policy cards which it unlocks. Also with only 1 contienent the Foreign Trade boost will be impossible. Therefore early culture will be even more valuable in jumping out ahead of the competition. Add too this the fact that an early builder REQUIRES earlier military presence to protect improvements from the barbs and possible opponent pillaging.
• Early settler ... Settler as a 1st build is a no-go (not even possible until the capital reaches size 2). As a 2nd build I think it only makes sense with Warrior as first build to ensure it can be safely escorted. Warrior > Settler used to be my preferred start, however the 2nd city has been rather underwhelming in it's benefits. What does an early 2nd city provide, as compared to growing the capital early? Essentially it provides free yields from the city center, and cheaper food cost to growth (i.e. the cost to grow pop #2 at the 2nd city is much less than the cost to grow pop #4 at the capital). Food however is the red-headed step child of Civ6 yields. It is necessary for grown, but has rapidly diminishing returns as the city growth costs scale exponentially and the housing penalties cut the yields dramatically. I think the food inefficiency is more than made up in cogs saved by waiting until the capital grows to size 6, triggering the boost for the +50% settler production policy card.
• Early military ... without an early builder or settler to protect, the only value in early military is for exploration. Barbs aren't an issue for the capital, wandering barbs won't be able to capture an un-defended capital, and by the time the barbs build a full attack force of 2 warriors + 1 slinger I have time to slot in military as 2nd or 3rd builds with the Agoge policy.
• Early district ... I think that an early Campus has enough value to consider going campus before settler. For one thing there is the lump sum culture from the boost. Considering science, a +2 adjacency campus provides nearly the same yield as a size 3 city at 0.7S/pop.
If there are 3 tiles that can be mined/quaried that will all actually be worked, then moving the builder up probably makes sense as the cog payback time would then be relatively quick. Anyway, this is about all that can be done before seeing the map.
1. I was strongly considering Russia as the civ pick. I think that they are incredibly strong even not considering the cossacks later on. However I expect this game to be decided one way or another before cossacks come into play. ... Since TheArchduke ended up picking Russia it is definitely my goal to end this game before they enter the world stage!
2. I knew that TheArchduke knew that Russia is a strong civ after the showing in PBEM 2, and thus I strongly suspected that he might go for Russia. Thus if I picked Russia we would end up crossing that off and going for 2nd choices.
3. I didn't really want to play Russia this game, and as I was looking through the options for other civs to counter Russia as TheArchduke's pick I realized that a duel against Russia would be the perfect place to showcase Arabia. I verified that there are indeed 2 religions allowed on a Duel sized map. With TheArchduke picking Russia with the half priced 2X GProphet production Lavra's it's almost certain that he will go for a religion. With Arabia's ability to automatically get the last prophet, I could rely on TheArchduke to build the early Holy Site and thus get a discount on mine, and then once I see the GProphet counter start I know I have X number of turns to build my own HS in time for the free prophet to land. Thus I can go for an earlier district of some other type (probably Campus since Arabia gets science bonuses)
Tech path generally will be targeting Education for the unique building. Civics path will be generally targetting Monarchy for the production card for the UU. Rough victory conditions in mind from T1 are either a Mamluk invasion with goal to storm the capital and ignore most of the rest of the empire, or religious victory. To the end of Religious victory, I probably won't take Jesuit education saving the faith for religious units.
My thoughts on the first 25 or so turns have evolved since my previous posts in the start of Japper007's PBEM4 thread. I still don't think that early builder is the way to go, but now I'm thinking that early Monumant has great value. Here are some of the options:
• For builder vs. monument comparison, the production cost is the same 60 cogs. The 3 improvements from the builder save a lump sum of 20 culture from the civics boost. So monument first pays back the 20 culture in 10 turns. Half the time, there aren't 3 tiles at the capital where improvements are readily beneficial anyway so a third of the builder is wasted on an unused mine, or the boost is delayed until the 2nd city is planted. Building a monument first speeds along Craftsmanship as much or more than a builder first, which in turn saves cogs on the first builder as well as military through the policy cards which it unlocks. Also with only 1 contienent the Foreign Trade boost will be impossible. Therefore early culture will be even more valuable in jumping out ahead of the competition. Add too this the fact that an early builder REQUIRES earlier military presence to protect improvements from the barbs and possible opponent pillaging.
• Early settler ... Settler as a 1st build is a no-go (not even possible until the capital reaches size 2). As a 2nd build I think it only makes sense with Warrior as first build to ensure it can be safely escorted. Warrior > Settler used to be my preferred start, however the 2nd city has been rather underwhelming in it's benefits. What does an early 2nd city provide, as compared to growing the capital early? Essentially it provides free yields from the city center, and cheaper food cost to growth (i.e. the cost to grow pop #2 at the 2nd city is much less than the cost to grow pop #4 at the capital). Food however is the red-headed step child of Civ6 yields. It is necessary for grown, but has rapidly diminishing returns as the city growth costs scale exponentially and the housing penalties cut the yields dramatically. I think the food inefficiency is more than made up in cogs saved by waiting until the capital grows to size 6, triggering the boost for the +50% settler production policy card.
• Early military ... without an early builder or settler to protect, the only value in early military is for exploration. Barbs aren't an issue for the capital, wandering barbs won't be able to capture an un-defended capital, and by the time the barbs build a full attack force of 2 warriors + 1 slinger I have time to slot in military as 2nd or 3rd builds with the Agoge policy.
• Early district ... I think that an early Campus has enough value to consider going campus before settler. For one thing there is the lump sum culture from the boost. Considering science, a +2 adjacency campus provides nearly the same yield as a size 3 city at 0.7S/pop.
If there are 3 tiles that can be mined/quaried that will all actually be worked, then moving the builder up probably makes sense as the cog payback time would then be relatively quick. Anyway, this is about all that can be done before seeing the map.
This start just got exponentially better! Turns out the desert tile where the settler stands is actually fresh water due to an oasis! Horses in sight and hold on, a natural wonder! Looks like a pretty good one too. Pass the save and now time to decide whether to settle in place? Maybe the horses?
Good luck, I'll be reading along on your start with interest.
which means I need to decide whether I really want to spend those early hammers on a campus. The only other early district option is Holy Site. If I plant a holy site adjacent to the natural wonder, can I still get the +1 science yield from assigning a citizen to a Shrine? Early holy site is not nearly as useful for me since I get the free prophet anyway. I may need to re-think going for an early district.
