Ruin Preference on T3

Okay, you're on T3, you find probably your only city ruin. Which reward would you prefer on Marathon and why?

+1pop to Capital;
Culture: 60/75 for 1st SP;
Faith: ?;
Gold: 100;
Tech: Animal Husbandry;
Tech: Archery;
Tech: Mining;
Tech: Pottery for granary/Shrine;

Haven't been able to pop the faith award after 2.15 hrs.

You won't be able to get a faith ruin. Faith ruins only appear after Turn 20.

Oh, Okay. TY.

How many ruins do you anticipate popping? If 5 or more go for pop you'll get another pop later
Is the ruin isolated? If it is leave the ruin til t 20
and then geta faith boost

Definitively the culture ruin. Probably the strongest ruin before you jump to 2 . If you hit a ruin when you jumped to 2 then a free pop is very good, probably at par with a culture ruin at that point.

In fact culture is the normal first pick of Shoshone. They will tend to cycle thru Culture, Religion, Pop, promoting each UU to Combine Bows first few times thru then gold.

I only expect to able to hit one ruin for sure. I have 38 other civs no CS. But I might get lucky. Not counting on it.

Jon that is interesting. By the time I cycle through Scout, Monument/Shrine, It might take a bit to get the culture up.

I made a separate save for each reward condition in order to see what the consequences of the early choice would be. Thought I would see what others thought.

A 38 Civ Marathon game is ... wow. But I have to vote Culture as well.

I always hope for a first culture ruin. Except if I'm the Huns where I hope an upgrade for my warrior.

My general rule of thumb is that if I am pop 2 (I might even circle the ruin for a turn or two waiting to grow) and am confident I will be able to get another ruin very soon, I will go pop then culture, even though an early culture ruin is by far the most important. This is so I can grab another pop with my 4th ruin (I am sure you've noticed that you must pick two different rewards in between two of the same one). I do not ever pick another culture ruin outside of the first one, so this works best for me.

However, in your case, it's turn 3 and there is tons of competition for ruins from all those other civs, so definitely go ahead and grab that culture reward Can't go wrong with it.

Edit: This is for Shoshone specifically, I didn't realize your question was just what to hope for as civs that have no control over what reward they get.

Flash1 said:

Jon that is interesting. By the time I cycle through Scout, Monument/Shrine, It might take a bit to get the culture up.

Click to expand...

It's because as Shoshone once you use up one of them (say Culture) you aren't allowed to pick it again until you've taken a few other things.

I might have miscounted, but as soon as they can pick Culture a second time, they'll probably do so.

The culture ruin is even more important to grab in a marathon game than on standard speed, because if how much longer it takes to build up the culture. With it giving 60 or the 75 needed for the next policy, you'll hit Tradition opener very quickly. That in turn leads to a snowball effect for your culture and after a few policies, growth as well.

Hmmm, Okay, I buy the Culture arguement.

As a test I went with it. Then I took Liberty as Rome and made through liberty. I got a total of 6 cities in a very tight europe 12 civs. Eventully I should have all the strategic resources with these 6 cities if everything works out. The culture helped and gave me a great head start in SP tree. didn't help me diplomatically with most of my neighbors found that while I was happy they weren't. Good Army keeps them away, but hurts gold for building up.

Anyway, on Marathon, which helps better for Rome... Liberty or Tradition with the culture reward?