The State of the World, 930 AD
As I said, let's have a detailed look at the map. Starting off with an overview of the globe--the hemisphere containing the Viking empire first:
I left off the resource indicators at this magnification to make the cities clearer. I have some larger scale maps below where the resources are visible.
Here's the other half of the world.
Now let's zoom in a little bit. Here's the Viking empire, up close and personal:
Just on the main land mass alone, I could plunk down three to four more cities easily. My borders extended to include the crabs NE of Uppsala, so I built a workboat to claim them.
Here's a closer look at Khmer territory:
Like I said, a tempting target. Mind you, the only resource he has that I don't is gold. Still, the extras could be handy for trading.
Here's America.
Very interesting, I think. On the one hand, he has some terrible land--all plains, hills, tundra, and ice. On the other hand, look at those resources!
Five deer tiles,
three silver, and enough seafood to make it all work. And he somehow managed to build the Great Wall. I dunno, it's very tempting to go after him and build the Forbidden Palace down there just for the resources. The Financial trait will have a field day with those silver tiles, too.
Here's a closer look at Babylonian and Ottoman territory.
Yes, Hammy has some awfully nice land and resources, which I suspect has a lot to do with why he's in the top three. Also interesting are those two large islands that, for some reason, are as yet uninhabited except, perhaps, for barbarians. Each one has a couple of handy resources--gems on one, incense on the other. And once again, seafood to support the cities.
Perhaps I should prioritize sending a Settler down to gem island ASAP before either Mehmed or Hammy beat me to it. If barbs are there, I may have to send Berserkers first.
Here's a look at the Germans, Spanish, and Carthaginians:
There isn't much that's tempting about Spain. But look how Hannibal managed to expand and cut off poor Bismarck! I know you can't see its full name, but is that city north of Hippo a former barb city? If so, that would certainly explain how this came about.
And yes, Hannibal probably has the best land mass on the map. I can already see a couple of candidates for my beloved riverside ironworks city. I still have that iron deal going with him. I know, I know... but cripes, he offered me
all his GPT and surplus resources for it when I revised it! Dang.
And finally, here's another territory that's ripe for settlement.
The island with the barb city doesn't have much to recommend it besides the sheep, but the smaller island to the east has whales and two fish. (There's another island to the NE of me that can also claim whales, but it's a 1-tile island with no other resources.) So this is another possibility for settlement thanks to that Astronomy gambit.
Okay, now here's a quick look at some of the advisors, starting with domestic to see the current builds:
I mostly focused on infrastructure this round, but look! I'm building my first Berserker!
Civics:
So I want to switch back to Representation after my brief foray into Universal Suffrage to help out Bjorgvin. I'll probably stick with the other civics, though, even Paganism. Why?
Well, as you can see, I still only have Roosevelt's useless little faith in my cities thus far. No way am I converting to that just so I can tick everybody else off. And without a state religion, a religious civic makes no sense. Well, except for Free Religion, but I don't have access to that yet. If things stay this way, though, I'll probably go FR very early in this game.
On the other hand, I now have access to Vassalage and Theology, so I could also say to heck with diplomacy, spread Christianity, and build uber-promoted units in all my cities if we decide to pursue the military path in the next round.
Foreign advisor, Glance:
A couple of shifts there, but they may not be permanent.
Active trade deals:
With all the elephants I'm trading away, I may need to research Engineering soon and send along some Pikemen if and when I attack anybody.
Techs:
Not doin' too badly here, I think. I think I have an excellent chance at Liberalism, even without using Great Scientists to lightbulb any of its techs. Though I am waiting to see if I get a GS out of Nidaros in a few turns before researching Education. Hence my pursuit of Guilds. But if anyone has any better research targets, I'm all ears.
I like the idea of Chemistry from Liberalism for extra-early Privateers. Sounds like fun. Since I won't be warring against everybody at the same time, those units would give me a chance to cripple my rivals, especially with the importance of seafood on this map to many cities and civs.
Demographics:
First in GNP and production--amazing, frankly. I can't remember the last time I had that this early in a game. Looks like the military could use a little beefing up, however.
By the way, I don't get the meaning of the imports/exports line--I mean, I've got trade routes comin' out my yin yang and I'm trading resources all over the place, so what's that about?
So like I said, a short round, but I think I'm coming up on some critical decisions that must be made in the next round that will largely determine how the rest of the game is played.
On the one hand, I have some overseas territory and resources (incense, gems, whales, sheep) that I could claim by peacefully REXing thanks to my fast Galleons. On the other hand, the next round could see the Berserkers terrorizing coastlines all over the world. This will affect my civics decisions, of course, as well as builds and diplomacy. And based upon the maps, techs, and so on, who would be my first target(s)?
Should be interesting!
By the way, I'm out of town on business tomorrow, so I won't be posting a round update until Thursday at the earliest. So we have some time to discuss our options.
That's definitely a first.
In my previous post I listed 5 advantages of getting Astronomy, and galleons filled with berserkers was one of them. The others could be just as important in the overall plan to achieve victory. I think there's a strong case that can be made in favor of military action in the near future, but right now I think we need more info from some additional scouting before deciding how to proceed.
So conquering that continent may not be so hard after all.)
boost.
