In this round, I learned to stop worrying and love the Sword (or, in this case, the Axe).
To begin, I temporarily abandoned production of the GLH to get Satsuma founded on the home islands:
The (one and only) Japanese worker is, as you can see, up there and ready to start mining the Silver, which came in handy. In Satsuma, we built a Monument, borrowing Kyoto's Copper mine for two turns to get a kick start, then switching to the Silver (soon to be a silver mine). It hit pop 2 and completed the mine around the same time, so I burned the population point to complete the Monument and get a Warrior out in one turn.
Unless something
truly bizarre happens, the homeland will be safe throughout the game, so there's no need to garrison with real units, and, with Hunting researched this round, the days of the Warrior were limited. I then started on a Worker, which was probably a stupid thing to do, but with no real food resources there (and with the Silver mine only providing one surplus food per turn), I figured we really needed a second Worker.
Kyoto, meanwhile, started back up on the GLH. It worked on it until growth approached the happy cap, at which point I moved to an Axeman, whipping him out for two pop and applying the surplus to our World Wonder. The Axeman, obviously, boarded the S.S. Shogun for transport to Tokyo. Osaka and Kyoto also balanced hammers and the whip throughout the round, building up a small final force of three Axemen outside of Tokyo plus one garrison unit in each city (Warriors all around except for Tokyo, which gets an Axeman).
Anyway, in 850, Kyoto finally finished the hub of our early strategy:
So there's where we stand. We have four cities, none of which are very developed, and a small fighting force. We do, however, have a lot of potential, with China (supposedly) ripe for conquest, 90% of the Pacific Rim open for our colonies, and the Great Lighthouse to make those colonies and conquests profitable.
What we lack, mostly, are Workers to till the soil. I regret only having one in 850 B.C., but there was so much else that needed building. That could reasonably change, though, in the very near future:
That Worker looks to be converting the Farm into a Cottage. He should be easy pickings.
Here's a better look at the Empire of Japan:
As you can see, a fourth Axe and a Swordsman will be joining the party real soon now, especially if I flex my itchy whipping finger. That Worker fiasco in Satsuma continues. Maybe I should switch to something else just to let the city grow someone I can put in chains.
Kyoto is working on another Settler to claim that Gold. I'm still conflicted on where to put him. If I build it on the mainland, the Gold will be available immediately and the incense will be able to be worked. If I put him on the tiny island, it'll improve its trade income in the long term. In addition, if we're going to be driving our enemies before us, we'll need to put our capital on the mainland eventually. Isn't three cities the magic number for colonial maintenance? We might be better served only having two cities in Japan proper.
Anyway, here are the Domestic Advisor and the Power Graph:
As you can see, the Chinese are stronger than us, but not by a heck of a lot. I don't know that we have enough to take a city yet. Should we Declare, steal the Worker, and let Qin build up his forces until we have a proper stack, or keep him in the dark and hope he builds us some Wonders while we sharpen our Axes?
Another concern for the next round: If I remember correctly, the AI sucks at settling China. Tons of cities one off the coast. Should we keep these substandard cities or raze them and risk letting the Mongols reap our rewards?
So there we have it. I think I've made some good decisions so far, but I don't feel like I have a lot to show for it. Thoughts?
(are you playing on normal or epic btw?)
