RBC14G, Incan supremacy.
1490(0) I will start on the road to a temple of the moon gambit.
Sacrificing workers will be saved as a last resort, not to be done unless absolutely necessary to reach the cultural goal.
If we need to sacrifice workers, I would consider the game a draw unless it is impossible to reach single city culture before game ends.
I send out our Chasquis in several directions, and start work on an spearman. Siad spearman are supposed to guard workers from barbarians.
Research is full speed on Blood Cult. I am counting on our superior trading skills and barb camps to supply the 200 we do not have
On second thought, I set Cusco on worker. It is twenty turns before we can prebuild, so Cusco ought to have grown back by then.
1491(1) Scouts find iron to the far south. Another scouting pair frag a camp right next to us, but despite two victories, no new worker. I am surprised by the worker only eneding one turn to road the grasslands. This shaves two turns off of research as well.
1492 I heal the barb hunters, and send the southern and northern scouts on their way. The northern scout has as goal to reach Panama before it is blocket, and he is not to deviate until he has the contacts we need.
Southern scout is also not to engage barbarians, as he is mapping for some value to our maps when we meet the Europeans.
1493 Tiwanaku is founded on the hills to get water to the two irrigation targets. Worker starts to irrigate. Tiwanaku is set to granary. It is supposed to get all our new workers/settlers once we start to build culture in Cusco.
Despite what I just said about our scouts, I cannot resist a lone archer on the plains, and we get our first captured worker.
Irrigation is three turns, also an odd number.
Blood cult is down to 24 turns, so not to destroy growth in Cusco, I switch worker to spear.
1494 I reach Panama with our first scout. I will send a second scout towards this, in case we want to send a settler here.
1495 One of our interior scouts nets us another slave. Lets hope he can reach home.
I spot green borders in the north, but no contact. ( Not even with ctrl-shift-D)
1496 We have contact with the Mayans, and of course no trades are possible.
1497 Complete a spearman, and start another. Discover mines are a four turn build.
I can almost traverse the Mayan lands, but almost is not good enough. I hope he wont kick me out though.
I think of something sneaky, and I sell our granary. Cusco can only reach size 5 this side of Catholicism, and I would rather merge captured workers than letting it grow by itself.
Also an even more important benefit is that we now have a 60 shield prebuild.
1498 Spot the dark green borders in the north, and we have contact with the Aztecs.
Get another worker and 25 gold from fragging a camp. There are a lot of camps, and as far as I know, new ones can sprout. If new ones cannot sprout, then perhaps we need to change tactics.
I find horses way south in Argentine.
1499 Scout some more.
1500 Even more scouting. I kill a barbarian on the plains, but no worker.
1501 We manage to get past the Aztec lands as well. No sign of the rumoured white devils though.
IBT: Well, speaking of the devil, here they come. Isabella offers Alphabet for 100 gold, but I decline. This would interfere with our own research. Then William and Elizabeth does the same. At the end, all five Europeans offered of the same 100 gold for Alphabeth.
1502 Mayans and Aztecs both used up their money buying into Alphabet.
The Europeans are fairly unanimous, and I sell our world map to Netherlands for 1 gpt and Alphabet + territory map.
I notice Aztecs are up Writing and currency as well. Mayans have neither tech.
Iroqs are up Currency, and I smell a good twofer.
With Spain I get Writing for Mayan Contact, world map and 32 gold.
Hmm, Currency was doubtful with the Iroqs.
I get Mapmaking from the Portugese for 8 gpt and 28 gold. Since we are building Temple of the Moon, There was no use for Storytelling. Map Making will let us trade maps with the natives, and clean out everyones treasury.
I get Currency, world map and 25 gold from the Mayans for Map Making.
World map and 3 gold from Iroqs for Writing.
Get 101 gold from England for World map.
Get World map and 55 gold from Isabella for World map.
I proceed to sell stuff around, and at the end of the day, we have 317 gold, complete world map, and running -12 gpt instead of -6. We can buy any tech we want, but I save money, to make sure next tech is at least a twofer.
1503 Thats new. I spot a barbarian camp guarded by a pikeman. I put a citizen to work in the goldmine, and we cut Blood cult to nine turns. Granary is a ten turn prebuild, so I start that. We lose one food, but we have some 12 stored, so I do not see that as a problem.
I earn some 40 gold selling new world maps to people.
IBT: Hmm, the pikeman attacks, but the archer stays at home defending.
1504 Kill the barb camp on the plains. I am not comfortable on the odds of a regular Chasqui attacking fortified units on hills.
1505 More scouting. Make 40 gold selling maps.
You may want to move out a spear to guard our goldmine from the barbarian. Be aware you will need to either move the scout from our other city, or get a lux tax to keep Cusco from rioting.
Here is the save, take us to glory
It is a bit of time before we can build our first settler, so it may be premature for a dotmap. Jungles are 48 turns to clear for slaves, so it might be better to merge them into cities, and get real workers instead. I would prefer to settle along the rivers, to get some river trade, although snagging iron and horses would be good too.
All in all, this is easliy one of the worst starting positions I have ever seen.
It will be the end of the game before we get productive.
Grimjack
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