Geek Greek?

I'm starting a new game. I plan to play 30 turns this Saturday and then 10-15 each Saturday there after. I'm playing with BUG v3.6 loaded as a mod and the following settings:



Here is my start ...



Any suggestions?

I'd like to move 1 SE gaining cow and settling by a river, but I hate to lose 1 turn to do so. Even so, gaining extra riverside squares makes it worth it, but move the scout 1 SE and 1 NE to be sure.

I was actually thinking 1S and settling, but 1SE works too. I think it is pretty obvious what is to the East (2 x grassland forest, 1 x plains) but I cannot see what is to the West. I think the better move is Scout NW, SW.

Yes, that sounds good. I would recommend you to found your second city 1 NW of the marble and use the forest for some production. This is also because you then wont disturb the early 2-plot working radius of Athens, but there might be other good places for founding hidden in the fog that encloses the world.

Moved scout NW, SW revealing not much except a hut. Moved Settler 1SE and settled on turn 1. Popped the hut for another scout (best result possible!). Current position ...



More details Saturday morning.

I decided I couldn't wait until Saturday so I played the first set. Nothing happened except I got 2 more scouts from huts, some gold and a stupid map. I have yet to meet an AI ... is this game going to turn into a Lonely Hearts game?

Here is my currently known land. I have already marked 1 city site.



Re the city site shown ... don't you hate it when the map puts fish down like below and gives you only 1 option if you want that fish in a city BFC? I do.



Barbarian animals are starting to turn up. They have already killed 2 of my free scouts. On the tech front, Agriculture is in (initial build of worker has finished and he is farming the corn), mining is in (worker will be moving to mine the gems to get my tech rate up) and I have started on Animal Husbandry (my #1 fav tile is plains cow - 3 food and 3 hammers - I'll work that tile all day).

I lost both of my scouts. I actually had to build one

This set was about getting my capital up and running. I farmed the corn, teched mining and animal husbandry, mined the gems for the increase in tech rate and pastured my favour tile (plains cow!). At this point, I was left with a choice regarding what to do with the pigs on a grass land hill ...



What would you do?

I also lost a forest to a bush fire, decided not to spend any gold and my city hated me for 15 turns because of it ...



The really small city picture is due to the BUG / HOF slider that we are using. We have put in code to correct this when you flip from city to city with the city screen up, but it is always 'broken' when you first open your city screen. With only 1 city, I cannot flip forward / back to get it to reset.

I think I have my city up and running pretty well. The funny thing was that, 2 turns after I lost the forest to a bush fire, another one grew a few tiles over - my citizens didn't say thank you for that - ungrateful dorks.

I finally found another leader ... way way way down South ...



I have tonnes of room to expand but I guess I should grab land towards him rather than in my back yard. His archer and my scout ended up right next to a hut ...



I'm hoping that the lion attacks, injures his archer and then the archer heals allowing me to nab the nut. I have seen that happen before. Unfortunately, the lion isn't a panther and so cannot get to the archer this turn. He got the hut and I missed out. Probably another stupid map anyway.

Q1: Which tech next?



Q2: Where would you settle first?

I'd go for Pottery or the Wheel infrstructure as soon as possible!


The land is quite difficult.If you need more production, settle yellolw dot to the north. If you are trying to grow, red dot to the east.

The general advise I have received is to start acting like a geek. I guess that means making people smarter. And attracting smart people. Ok, I can do that.

Research begun: Mysticism (6 Turns)

The settler I was working on went South to the gems location. Early tech is king. The only problem with that is that the gems are covered by jungle and I am a long way from Iron Working. I need a good tech rate to get Iron Working and I need Iron Working to get a good tech rate. Sometimes I hate this game.

After Mysticism is in, I naturally start my capital on Stonehenge. I nearly always try for this wonder if I am not creative as it acts as half another trait. It also saves me early hammers in my other cities.

Turn 63/750 (2425 BC) [08-May-2009 16:39:42]
Sparta founded

It doesn't have many good tiles to work before the border pop but it does have a grassland river tile - even better once I put a cottage on it. This is actually a pretty good city location - even counting the gems I cannot work. Here is a pic from later in the game to illustrate.



See, lots of hammers, some grassland tiles to work - this will grow into quite a powerful city. I started a workboat there and sent him out exploring - I don't think the barbarian animals will be able to eat him as they have eaten all of my scouts.

Turn 77/750 (2075 BC) [08-May-2009 16:54:00]
While defending in the wild near Oporto, Testing loses to Barbarian Warrior (1.20/2) (Prob Victory: 50.0%)

Bloody Warrior - and this is after I got 'Testing' to Woodie II too. Oh, did you notice my cool unit names. This is an overhang from some name testing that I was doing for a BUG user. I've created a suitable naming convention for this game ...



So, capital building a wonder, first city not expanding and building an exploring workboat, scouts are feeding the wild life - pretty dull, not much to do. I do want to speed up the Stonehenge - so this means some forest chops ... but I only had 1 worker ... hmmm

Turn 72/750 (2200 BC) [08-May-2009 16:50:28]
Athens begins: Worker (5 turns) - 9 turns to go on Stonehenge
Civics Change: Ruff the Geek(Greece) from 'Tribalism' to 'Slavery'

Turn 74/750 (2150 BC) [08-May-2009 16:51:46]
The whip was applied in Athens
Athens finishes: Worker

Turn 75/750 (2125 BC) [08-May-2009 16:52:30]
... and back onto the Stonehenge with some hammer overflow - now due in 8 turns. Hmm - Henge due in 9, 3 turns spent putting some hammers into a worker, revolting to slavery and whipping the worker and now Henge due in 8. So I guess I spent 2 turns of production for slavery and a worker. Seems like a good deal. Especially, when the workers now chop and ...

Turn 78/750 (2050 BC) [08-May-2009 16:54:21]
Athens finishes: Stonehenge

So, that 8 suddenly became 3 - perfect!

I spend some time building up some infrastructure - roads connecting cities, granaries in cities, extra warriors, etc, then

Turn 87/750 (1825 BC) [08-May-2009 16:58:20]
Tech research finished: Masonry

And I start on Ozbenno's suggested Pyramids. Wrong - I start on the Great Wall and throw in another whipped settler for my 3rd city ... but more on that next time.

Hi Ruff,

I am too lazy to subscribe the other forum right now...but from the overview you posted there (GW, 70% slider, 4 cities, tones of room, alone with Joao), I would switched from your current wonder builds for full scale REX builds (workers/settlers/axes). Unlock the HE by capturing/razing those barb cities is also a nice move before going for Joao.
Good luck anyways

Cheers,
Raskolnikov

That is my current plan - with one small change - finish Great Library to (almost) guarantee a stead stream of Great Scientists and then rex like there is no tomorrow.

I assume you are building it in Athen? it's a good idea to try a philo bulb then (running 2 scientists together with the 2 free ones) after COL to get a religion. the other 3 cities can carry out your rex I guess ... could you post a little something here when you update the game (or perhaps we just have to wait next week end?)