Round 1: 4000 BC to 2950 BC (42 turns)
As I pretty much indicated I would, I settled in place on the plains hill. As I'd been hoping, doing so revealed yet another food resource to the north.
Daaaaaaaang, that's a lot of food! Irrigated corn, no less. If I live to see it through, Washington will be an extraordinary Great Person farm (unlike the real-life version
). Still, I can't go counting chickens--or clams, in this case. Even with the extra happy citizen from Charismatic, this city won't reach its full potential for some time. In the near future, however, it will be whip central, don't you think?
Well, with nine civs on a standard sized map, I should have known that the neighbours would start showing up pretty darn soon.
Wow, turn four and he's already rearing his feathery head? I figured he must be extraordinarily close by, and as you'll see, I was correct. Huayna will be trouble, he always is--not Monty or Shaka-style trouble, but tech trouble. He's up there with Mansa Musa when it comes to tech-whoring in my book, but is not as willing to share. I may have to kill him before he gets a chance to run away with the game.
I sent the Warrior scouting to the south, as recommended. He discovered a that the land there was a tundra-encrusted peninsula, though not completely bereft of resources. I also had a little luck with the goody huts, popping this one for gold.
The next neighbour showed up exactly four turns after the first one. Hoo-boy.
Yeesh, talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place--or in this case, a tech whore and a psycho. One of them's gotta die, methinks. More on that later.
I finished researching my first tech...
...and then went after Bronze Working.
Then another neighbour came by, this one much more to my liking.
I can usually get along quite well with Hatshepsut provided she isn't right next door. Interesting how all three leaders I've met so far have been in the game since vanilla.
I finished my first work boat and then started work on a Worker. I was rather proud of the timing here, seeing as how the Worker would finish on the very same turn that he'd be able to chop things:
I lucked out and found another goody hut!
I considered that quite extraordinary, considering all the nearby civs and their scouts souring the map. Then again, sometimes the AI starting with Scouts--which I think they do at Immortal, correct me if I'm wrong--does them a disservice. The AI seems to keep trying to move Scouts 2 tiles every turn, and as a result, my units sometimes find huts deep inside "slow move" territory that the AI has obviously neglected to explore, as in this case.
And it turns out the neighbourhood is even more crowded than initial indicators warranted--our first non-vanilla leader finally put in an appearance:
Well, I did load the map up with a couple of extra civs, didn't I? Of course one of them would be a wingnut, the other a techmonger. Hammy, on the other hand, is another leader I quite often find myself chummy with. But he can be nearly as deft at research as Huayna, so he'll be a long-term threat.
I finished researching Bronze Working, and as you might be able to tell by close examination of the screenie, it appeared quite nearby.
Let's have a closer look, shall we?
Wow, copper
and gems! Mind you, the gems are inaccessible until Iron Working thanks to that jungle. The only problem at first glance appears to be a lack of food in the area. This is why I decided to keep going a few more turns; I wanted to use my Warrior to thoroughly reveal the area around that copper tile so we could make the best decision around where the city should go. So I decided to go a few more turns until I'd done that.
Oh, and did you notice the barb Archer? Unless he appeared from a hut (hostile villagers = Archers!?! Yikes!), the barbs do indeed appear a lot earlier on Immortal, making the level scarier already.
So I kept researching and exploring. My Warrior managed to survive several encounters with animals and even a barb Archer, so he now has Woodsman II for super-scouting. I chopped another work boat and started work on a Settler while my Worker started farming the corn. I ended the round when I finished researching this tech:
So now I'm ready to get that copper on line as soon as the Settler founds my second city.
The Settler is coming along, assisted by the two working clam tiles and a flood plain:
The Worker has 4 turns left to complete the farm, and that should accelerate the build of the Settler a little faster. Should I have chopped instead? The optimizers among you can debate that point; I'll be interested to hear the result. Frankly, I think the Worker's next few moves will be road-building to ensure the copper is ready to go ASAP.
I'm a little nervous about having so little protection, especially with barb Archers already wandering around the map. I would imagine that if they appear sooner, they'll also start attacking within my borders sooner. So after the Settler is done, I'm thinking of building some Warriors just to be safe. On the other hand, if those of you with experience tell me that the barb Archers are abnormally early and therefore likely the result of a very bad hut pop, then I could save my hammers for the copper and axemen.
So just to review, here's everyone I've met so far:
Which means that there are four other civs somewhere else on the map. It's hard to say with snaky continents; They could be on one or more other landmasses, or they could be on this one, but quite far away, or even blocked from reaching me at the moment because one of the other capitals is sitting astride a choke point. We'll see--if I live that long.
And now a look at the map:
So as I feared, the land surrounding the copper isn't exactly rich with food. I was trying to figure out where the second city should go. It should be placed on a tile immediately adjacent to the copper so that I can start on a mine without waiting for borders to pop. I'd love to put it on the desert 1N of the copper, as it would improve a tile that normally can't be improved, but that would lose the sole nearby food source, the cows. 1N of the lake, on the grassland, sacrifices a 3F tile in an area low on food.
Then I got inspired: what if I settle
right on top of the copper? It would mean that the resource would be available as soon as the city's founded and a road to the capital is in place. It makes the copper practically pillage proof. And the city would have the fresh water bonus from the lake, would have the gems and cows in its expanded fat cross, and could work Washington's corn and/or one of its clam tiles initially to fuel its growth. After all, as I said, Washington won't be able to grow to its full size and potential for some time, so why not share the wealth? I would sacrifice the extra hammers from a copper mine, but there are some hills nearby, not to mention the three hammers from plains cows. Eventually, when Washington needs to work all its food tiles, New York will be a mediocre city, but at this point, it will get the job done. Thoughts?
Oh, I should point out that Huayna is extremely nearby. The plains hill and the plains tile NE of the cows and S of the fish in the top right-hand corner of the map are his. So I'm thinking I should axe-rush him, because he'll just become a bigger problem as time goes on. What with this being Immortal, where the AI gets a research boost, we could see a repeat of the 1st Saladin debacle, where I'm attacking Crossbows with Swordsmen... or worse. Oh, and did I mention he has a holy city? He founded Taoism (Remember that Choose Religions is on, before you panic and think Huayna has Philosophy already!)
However, any talk of war on this map must take Montezuma into consideration. I still don't know where he is, but he's somewhere north or northwest, I think, and since he appeared on turn 8, he can't be far. Now, I could turn Monty into a pet dog--all I have to do is be lucky enough for his religion (he still doesn't have one) to spread to just one of my cities so I can adopt it. I also give in to his early demands for tribute--and yes, they'll be coming. Finally, if I axe-rush Hauyna, I should end up with a decent early-era army and power rating, and I hope that will be enough to deter Monty. Normally I'd count on taking him on later in the game when I have a tech lead on him, but this being Immortal, I can't assume I'm going to have a tech lead on anybody. So he may have to be attacked shortly after Huayna.
Hatty and Hammy I can live with.
I hope.
Now, I'll be interested to see your dotmaps. In some ways the map generator has been extraordinarily kind, as if it was throwing me a few bones for this, my first immortal game. There's a nice variety of both happy and healthy resources in the immediate vicinity and certainly enough food for some good specialist economy cities. With all that desert to the west, I don't see a good commerce/alternative capital city over there (all the more reason to capture someone else's). But definitely some spots for good cities, I think. I should have scouted onto the southern tip of the peninsula where the deer is to see if there's any seafood or whales hiding in the fog 2 tiles from the coast, but then again, I might have missed out on that jungle-based goody hut. So I'll have to swing by there again before making a final decision.
In terms of research, I was thinking that Mysticism should be next for monuments, followed by Animal Husbandry. After that, I think Pottery and Writing will be needed in order to get the SE up and running. I don't see a need for Hunting and Archery for a while; I won't be settling the deer site for a while, and with copper so close, Archers would be superfluous. If Huayna or Monty have horses, however, I might need Hunting for Spearmen, otherwise my Axes will be quite vulnerable.
Anyway, the proximity of copper is a relief and bodes well for the game, but I have to get to it before Huayna. The map looks promising but challenging too; I think this will be a very enjoyable game--provided the Immortal-level AI doesn't kick my sorry butt.