Dr kossin #6

Welcome to Dr kossin #6, which stands for Daily Round.

Yes, I will aim to get in a update every day - as long as I have the time (work, girlfriend, etc). I might skip a day here and there but I will compensate by playing an extra round here and there.
Now I don't plan on very long updates, sometimes just 10 turns, and will stop at strategic times.

That being said, I'm not a great player but I can manage at times. My goal is to improve and, if possible, help others improve as well. I couldn't beat Noble when I started reading this forum (could barely beat Warlord) and I am now in the process of getting comfortable on Immortal.

That's where you come in. I need your ideas, your criticism and everything else you can throw at me - even if you can't beat Noble. Since I plan on an update everyday, there will be mistakes from my part and I might not always get the best advice going forward. That's life!

You are also welcome to shadow this game, although I would prefer you post it in spoilers and no further than I have already played. You can still shadow the whole game and post it but it is important that no one uses that knowledge (land, AIs) to help me.

Without further time wasting, let's go to the game.

Dr kossin #6

Round 1 I did my homework this time
Round 2 Infrastructure and jungle clearing
Round 3a Not an easy cruise
Round 3b The price of war
Round 4 New round, same war
Round 5 Another starts before you finish one
Round 6 Holding off
Round 7 Peace after all
Round 8 Just like cutting butter with a knife
Round 9 Another Shift+Enter round

Game settings:
Immortal
Fractal (I've had a friend check that it is not isolated or semi-isolated)
Normal Speed
No Huts/Events
BULL 1.0+BUG 4.2 in Custom Assets
Everything else normal.

The leader this time is Pericles! One of the strongest leaders in my opinion.


Fast libraries, Odeons, Universities, Theatres, +2 per turn in each city, +100% birth rate!

His UB: a Colosseum that gives 2 and 3. It works very well with Creative.


His UU: An Axeman with 100% defense bonus against Chariots. Really good for an Axe rush as you don't need to tag along Spears.


We start with Fishing and Hunting.


It's an okay combo. It might come handy should Archery be required sooner this time.

And the start:


Here's what I think is in the fog:


Plenty of food (the corn is irrigated), plenty of commerce,3 more hills...
This could be a very easy game given this capital and the promise of more green land to the north in the jungle strip but we'll just have to see.

I'll research Agriculture first. Mining next would increase the research rate towards Bronze Working and Animal Husbandry. It'll slow growth a bit though...

Since the last game ended abruptly and since I couldn't play yesterday, the first round will be played today.

1 off coast always bugs me off but it's just 1 tile so settling in place looks tempting. Either that or 1S, which might or might not be better.

All things considered, I'd go ahead and settle in place.

Double gems, double 6 food yield tiles... this game is as good as done.

But it isn't 1 off the coast, a quick mouseover of the corn shows it has Fresh water ->lake, not coast.

It's not 1 off coast, since all the water we see are lakes. Settle in place, Agri/AH/Mining, Worker first.

Oh yea it's not, my bad. Somehow I processed that the water tile to the north would be coast but clearly it's not.

Settling in place remains to be a good idea.

Even 1 off the coast, in place is about all you need. If this doesn't scream bureaucracy capital, I don't know what does. Lots of green to cottage, a few hills, food, gems. Could be a monster, which you'll need since the north looks like it's got a lot of jungle.

I think Mining before AH is better. The worker will be unemployed otherwise, and 2F gems at size 2 is great, especially with a 6F tile. I'd beeline Writing here via AH, with only a sidestep to Archery if needed. Cheap lib > cheap GS with 2 gems is insane.

I haven't memorized turns.

If you can get Agri/AH in before finishing building the worker and finishing the farm, then I think the extra early food is worth it. If you can't, then yeah, going for mining between to get the gems online will certainly help the early tech rate.

I suggest settling 1 E, In the lake.

Hey, you could call it Atlantis.

Looks a good start. Inland lakes for 3 food and some trade. 2 good food resources and gems.

Will you get 3 food from al the inland lakes if the city is not connected to them?

Try to get some fog busters out this time.

No coast = no lighthouse = lakes are only 2 food tiles forever.

Great series so far. Love the premise of an update every day.

Might be looking too far ahead here, but I find when i get a great capital site the rest of my land is usually subpar. Will be interesting to see if some sort of civil service beeline is appropriate (this capital looks to have great food commerce and production to me)

Well, a Writing beeline is definitively in order...
size 6 = 2 x gems + irrigated corn + pigs + 2 scientists . Add an Academy after 13 turns of running those 2 scientists...

How would you handle a capital like this in the long run?

Lotta food/farmland for specialists but the gems sway me toward cottaging the hell out of it for a nice bureaucracy capital while running just a couple specialists with the excess food.

I vote buro capital. It does have food, but the gems mean that some other area can be a GP farm. Can run specialists early since philo will spit out a couple scientists, then buro and cottaged all the way.

The only sad thing is the lack of rivers.

Commerce-wise, the impact of Bureaucracy won't be all that big. You'd get another 7-ish commerce on top of the 100+ of your entire empire for those two gems.

The trick to utilizing Gems, Gold and the like is to make their impact felt early on when the percentage of the bonus relative to the whole output of your empire is at it's largest. A gems tile by 1AD is already not something spectacular anymore. You've got to leverage their bonus long before that.

My argument is whether to run a buro capital or to use it to pop GP(as a GP farm). Given that buro will probably be run anyways I feel it is best to set up this capitol for commerce vice GP. I do realize the mathematics.

Lake tiles withouth a lighthouse are pretty average in your capital, I would suggest maybe settling 1S to get rid of 1 or 2. Doesn't really matter though... 2 gems, pigs and irrigated corn... with Pericles! I consider this game already won, bring on DR Kossin 7!

moving 1 south will lose 1 turn to get rid of 1 lake tile and probably lose you some forests. All to get rid of a lake tile you wont even need to worry about for-ever. Settle in place.

Round 1

I settled in place, as pointed out already, the lakes won't be a factor until late game when the capital is size 17+.
Worker first while researching Ag>Mining>AH>TW>BW>Writing>Alphabet(a gamble yes, given the 2 gems it turned out ok).

The neighbors are many and very close.

To the south


To the northwest


To the east


To the northeast - note that my Scout actually defeated a bear!


I hurried out a couple settlers and neglected workers to grab some land. Even though it's mostly jungle, it's that or OCC. The close proximity of all the AIs also meant there were very few barbarians this time around.

Alphabet was completed early enough...


I have a settler in position but can move him somewhere around this spot I just found


Land overview...


Techs


Unfortunately Peter just completed it as well, and Willem is working on it, the only thing he will give me for it is:


Peter went into WHEOOHRN mode just recently. I'm not feeling too good about that since hidden modifiers have him at Pleased with everyone but me. I'm guessing he's after a barb city as it's quite early but you never know.


OTOH, he is quite far...


Tech tree... I need IW and Pottery. Sailing would be a nice bonus.


I put HBR as a place holder as I might need a war to acquire enough land for 6 cities. Right now I have 3, a settler ready and at least 1 more spot that can be settled. Not sure I'll make it in time though. There also might be some room to the west, I have a warrior going in that direction, we should have intel in 4 turns or so.

Without enough room, Elephants+Catapults should allow me to take someone out. HC grabbed a religion and built Stonehenge, so he might very well get a shrine soon. He also has marble in his territory which could be useful.