RBC4a - Mesoamerica - Mayans

RBC 4 - Mesoamerica - Team A - Mayans
A 5CC C3C Scenario (Deity level, normal aggr)

Among the Mayans rose an influential but somewhat deranged leader known
as Weed-Jaguar, who had become far too fond of smoking a certain pungent weed.
He had a grand vision and philosophy that became the driving force for his
nation. "Our nation will have five great cities, one for each of the great
tribes on our continent. Chichen Itza is our native capital, and our own people
will shed their blood in devotion to make it great. We shall create one city for
each other tribe, and there will the blood of the people of that tribe flow as a
testimony to our cultural greatness and superiority. We shall show our supremacy
by being the envy of all other nations. In doing so we will neither take nor
receive credit from any nation, for amongst the wickedness of man, only gold is
of value, not a promise of later riches. Finally, we must enact a Blood Cult govt.

It's a 5CC so that: i) the lack of FP will be a total non-issue, ii) we'll need to
wage significant war to enslave workers to sacrifice, so limiting ourselves to
five cities will help keep this a challenge, iii) we have a chance with five cities
to develop enough culture for a civ-culture 7K win. *EACH* city however must have
a culture of 1000, making things a lot more interesting! That means that every civ must
be hit to reach 1K per city, that if we wait too long and let one civ die out things
will get very rough for us, and our capital will need to make some attempt at wonder
building to see it's own culture reach 1000. All settlers must come from capital.

Each of the non-capital cities must have a Sacrificial Altar, while this is not allowed
for the capital (which will never sacrifice any units EDIT - correction, five foreign tribes, so they will sacrifice if you get enslaved units from every foreign civ!)). Pop-rushing is ONLY allowed in
the capital, and in fact at least one pop-rush must occur there (the blood of the native
tribe representing each city and ONLY that blood must be spilled.) City borders must
have zero overlapped worked-tiles. The cities closest to the capital SW and SE will
be designated for the two lesser tribes closest to us, while the two cities past them
will be designated for our biggest rivals, the Aztecs (Westernly) and Incans (Easterly).
We do not wish any foreigners to trample unwanted across our homelands, so when we have
enough units for it, we'll institute human walls to block entrance to our lands.

Here is our starting city, Chichen Itza.



We're scientific and industrious, starting with Masonry and Craftsmanship.

To players - read the Civopedia carefully, the differences are enormous. There will
be no irrigation, for example, until the next era. With Espionage near end-of-game
comes a 5.3.2 Silent Hunter with Stealth. Enslavement can be carried out by our
Jav Throwers, the Aztec Jagged Warriors, and the Incan Chasqui Scout. All are 40 hp,
2 attack. Jav has 2 def, Jaggs have 2 move, Chasqui have all-terrain-as-roads. One
third of their victories will capture (enslave) a unit, to be used for sacrifice.
Note the jungle is two food, one shield! And we can build a jungle road in just 3 turns.
Keep in mind there is a turn limit of 175 turns. First player will go 15 turns,
then 10 turns each after that. (In this scenario we can buy workers, but may not
sacrifice them if bought)

Team A Roster:
Charis
Grimjack
Kylearan
Dwip
Justus

Good luck, gents!
Charis

==== EDIT: VARIANT RULES SUMMARY FOR RBC4

- Only 5 Cities, period, the capital plus four cities founded by settlers coming from the capital. No worked-tile overlap plz.
- Only the capital may pop-rush any buildings
- We may never give nor take gpt in any trade
- We must shift to a Blood Cult govt at some point (even if it's right at the end)
- Win condition: 7K culture win (+ double culture of next civ)
Style points / secondary win condition: 1K culture in EVERY city
- There are FIVE other tribes, so each must be designated as the sacrifice center for ONE other tribe. This occurs and is fixed when the first foreigner is sacrificed in a city - that city then can only sacrifice those from that same tribe. Note that a sacrificial altar with no blood spilt on it would be an abomination to the deities, so don't built an altar unless you have an enslaved foreign unit in hand, or are sure you will before the game ends or that tribe disappears!
- We don't like foreigners trampling in our lands at all. At some point when a full mil-unit roadblock is possible, set one up or plan to give defiant 'get out' orders.
- 'Bought' workers should be renamed and used for actual work, NOT sacrificied. Captured workers otoh must be sacrificed. Please limit early worker purchases to 1 per tribe. Later after you've gone to war with a tribe if they want to sell you more, that's fine.

Reminders about some key points from the civopedia, etc.:
- We'll have too few cities for a Forbidden Palace
- The best way to amass culture is to fight win enslavement UUs and capture as many as possible, sacrificing in city with sac altar
- Later on the Silent Hunter unit rules (5.3.2!), giving a decent but limited window of opportunity for the UU's to do their thing
- Jungle is like bonus grass: 2 food, 1 shield, and can be irrigated for +1f or mined for +1s, road in 3 turns for +1 comm. No death from disease in the jungle.
- Mountains are nice, +1 food, +1 shield, irrigate for +1 food, mine for +2 shields, road for +2 comm! Hills are normal except you can irrigate for +1food. Grass/plains/desert are normal. Rainforest and ocean are useless. Do NOT clear jungles!
- Resources are very different. Strategic ones are stone, rubber, llama, exoctic birds. Jade and tobacco are new lux. Cacao plant, maize and salt on the coast are new bonus resources. Note maize is +4 food!
- City improvemenst are different: tambo, ball court, sacrificial altar are quite nice. Some wonders are extremely nice.
- Suggestion: since the capital is best suited to getting culture by other means, it might want to choose the foreign tribe that is weakest (first likely eliminated) or furthest away, as the one it will sacrifice.
- Turn limit is 175 turns.

Here lies the tale of the start of the nation led by the most pungent one,
Weed Jaguar-Charis

[0] 300 AD - With one city already in place and a settler in hand, it's rather tempting to
start another settler immediately to get three cities before long. But there are
several other key factors. We only get 5 cities total, so exploring to find out WHERE
is vital. Second, we already have a barracks, so any initial units will be beefier
than usual. Third, might there be barbarians near?! I start a warrior, and for research,
go right after the temple-altar line with Ceremonial Burial. (Hmm... yet we already
have a temple in the city?)

[1] 310 - Movin'
[4] 340 - Our initial warrior spies a barb camp.
[5] 350 - One barb beaten, and we see a lux tobacco. Still unsure exactly where to
settle. The camp is dispersed and we see jade on a nearby mountain. I also see some
light green borders to the south. It looks like settling on the coastal river seems
good. Hmmm, but the harbor equivalent, a fishing dock, doesn't come until SO late
in the game we might never build one. I forsake the coast for better shields and
to pull in the tobacco and cacao plant right away. Copan is founded.
[7] 370 - Spear done, back to a few warrs. We disperse another camp. Copan starts temple
prebuild (to help goal of cultural victory and to speed the altar).
[8] 380 - We see dark green borders west, and east we meet the Tolmecs. They have
WC and CB and lack our Craftsmanship and Masonry. They'll give us WC+5 for Masonry
and we'll finish CB ourselves in 3 turns. Chichen swaps to archer.
[9] 390 - Hit a hut now, or move forward to contact other civ. I like the latter choice,
as if we get another tech the hut could be nicer.
[10] 400 - We meet the Olmecs as their border expands next to us. Leader looks like
Shaka (Tolmecs look like Aztecs). They have Pottery and CB and lack all 3 of ours.
They also have the Exotic Bird resource and a worker. The bird is for a wonder and
for the Quetzal bowman. For Masonry+WC we get those techs and his worker.
Chichen swaps to granary, with the archer due wasting way too many shields.
This will help in popping 3 more settlers. For research we start Enslavement, and
as it's over 30 turns at best, we take advantage of the 40 turn min sci this scenario.
[11] 410 - Note temple requires only 20 shields, but stone. Our slave workers heads up
to connect stone when our capital borders expand. That means Copan will have time to
make a spear before the temple (or swap to granary if next ldr prefers)
With no defense at Copan, our warrior goes past the hut to keep exploring.
We'll want to send one deep north, one deep south.
[13] 430 - A further out hut, this should be worth hitting. Skilled warrior. Better
that than an angry one.
[14] 440 - Worker starts road on plains - that'll be 2 turns with our industriousness.
[15] 450 - South warrior rests to heal, as our northern ones did last turn.

Next ldr: Chichen is due granary in 2. I would cut food to make it's growth slower,
but we're already size 6 and not on fresh water. Immediately settler after this.
Copan is due spear in 1, but feel free to swap to granary or barracks (or archer).
Either keep with 2 warriors exploring north, or pull one back for MP duty and/or hut.

Our land: (eep!! pardon the errant cropping!)
Pink circle looks like the best spot we can see for next city.



Roster:
Charis
Grimjack <-- UP
Kylearan <-- On Deck
Dwip
Justus

RBC4 MesoMaya 450AD Save

Good luck!
Charis

I have it. I will see if I can sneak this one in before LK58 tonight.

Grimweed

I have browsed the civilopedia for this scenario a bit, and this really looks like fun! Some thoughts...


* It looks like jungle can both be mined and irrigated, making it essentially functioning like a bonus grassland. Clearing the jungle would actually be bad for us, removing one shield!


* Depending on the tech pace, we need to wage war early and fast, as only our 2/2/1 special unit can enslave. The first row of techs in the next era give all civs a 3/1/1 and a 1/3/1 unit, making enslavement harder for us, and one of the last techs gives all civs the silent hunter, a 5/3/2 stealth unit! It could take a while to get there, though.


* The Blood Cult government is also one of the last techs, but it allows support for 8 units per city, drafting and mobilization (which should be avoided because it probably halves culture output). Unfortunately, it has war weariness and the same food/production penalty as despotism, -1 food/shield for tiles that produce more than 2.

Monarchy, on the other hand, has neither war weariness nor the production penalty, and we can cash-rush things - but we must enter blood cult as a variant rule, right? This raises the question whether to revolt to monarchy or not, forcing us two times into culture-less anarchy. I would like to do this anyway, to enjoy at least some turns without the production/food penalty. The lost culture shall be paid for with more sacrifices!


* Because our capital won't have a sacrificial altar, we may need to build a wonder there. Which one?

- Pyramid: 4 culture, only 250 shields, granary in every city. Lots of culture per shield, but effect not so great for us

- Palace of Inca: 4 culture, 400 shields, makes three citizens content in one city. Less culture per shield, even weaker effect

- Sipan's Tomb: 0 culture, 450 shields, heroic epic. No culture? Question: Can jav thrower armies enslave?

- Temple of Kukulcan: 3 culture, 400 shields, three content citizens. Similar to Palace of Inca, but less culture

- Temple of Moon: 6 culture(!), 400 shields, +2 advances. The tech needed for this is a required one, it gives lots of culture *and* two advances...very nice!

- Temple of Sun: 6 culture, 450 shields, suffrage & battlefield medicine combined. Comes rather late (next era), so may be hard to get against Deity opponents.

- Tezcatlipoca's War Rage: 2 culture, 450 shields, Sun Tzu effect. Not much culture and expensive, and the effect is only worth it for denial purposes, IMHO.

Our capital is not shield heavy, so we need to prebuild if we want to have a chance on one of these. In my opinion, we should either go for the Pyramid (most culture per shield, early to get) or, even better, the Temple of Moon, which has more culture and a nice effect. But this might be hard to get with our sorry shield situation.


Hm, I had more thoughts when reading the civilopedia, but I forgot. Must be the pungent weed...

-Kylearan

One question: You just opened the thread and have a full roster. Is there a forum (or something else) to prediscuss the games?

mfG mitsho

Kylearan - thanks for pointing out those factors about the game.
We're going to run into two problems actually...

i) As T-Hawk noted, the 7K also requires double the culture pts of next highest civ. (Why did I think that was ignored in this scenario?! ) This is going to make things quite significantly more difficult. It may come down to having to wipe out a rival civ at the end.
ii) Without sacrifices in our capital it may have a hard time amassing culture. We might hold out the option of sacrificing 'barbarian' slaves in the capital

The Temple of the Moon is simply a sweeeeet wonder, especially for this game. From my OCC test game, I'll say that it might be very important to start a prebuild for this asap, and to get to that tech and/or wonder techs in general to be able to prebuild *asap*.

Mitso - sorry about that - yes this game was not only prediscussed but was triple-filled before it even started. We sometimes like to toss around new ideas for games or hammer out details there rather than flounder about in the start of a game thread. We don't always pre-signup though. The thread is:
RBCiv SG Discussion Thread

Thanks, (and good luck, Grimjack!)
Charis

Another thought on the wonders, is the Temple of the Sun also provides a Neocaztls (sp!) Court in each city. This is a combination Courthouse/temple (1 content, 1 culture). With 5CC it's not huge, but that is still 5 more cpt for free, and reduced corruption. Looking through the tech tree/improvements, almost every building generates culture, even markets, the Tambo, etc.

I also agree on the jungle, it is harder to develop, but pretty valuable as is. Like Charis mentioned in the pre-game, irrigation is a long way out, so I would be happy with lots of 2 food 1 shield tiles for now.

Uneventful set of turns. Made one mistake with workeractions, but I suspect it is repairable, as we do not have the tech to use stone yet.

Mayans, 450AD, and Grimweed the mayan takes the throne.
Mission, placate the gods who have left us stranded in this awful jungle.
I will let the spear complete, just in case the nearby spirithuts will reveal angry spirits in manshape when they discover our presence.

IBT: Copán Spear->Granary,

460AD I send one of the two northern scouts southwards along the western coast. The other scout heads northwards, and reveal a dark green border.
My it is crowded.

IBT: Chichén Itza Granary->Settler

470AD Western worker reaches Copán, and starts to road the Jade.

480AD Our northernmost scout reveals the Aztecs. We are up Craftsmanship, Masonry and Pottery on them. They have 47 gold and are ing their Tobacco.
Since both the other AIs know Masonry, I sell him Masonry for 47 gold. It is cheap for a monopoly price, but the window for monopoly was closing fast, and I wanted his gold.

490AD Nada

500AD This is deity, so our lone southern scout carefully tries to bypass a barbarian camp. I think he is more valuable if he gets an early contact or two, than if he gets eaten by the Cannibals.

510AD Jade is roaded, and I start to road in some Tobacco. It will help with our 40% lux tax
Chichén Itza is due to make a settler, and it cannot grow, so I make a couple of taxmen, so I can get a couple of extra gold. ( Yes, you may call me a miser
This of course lets me lower the lux tax so we can make another couple of gold this turn.

IBT: Chichén Itza Settler->Settler ( Was thinking of a possible worker here too. Lots of roading to do, but I think it is important to settle fast, as it is crowded here. We will need our production.

520Ad Settler heads for the spot Weed-Jaguar Charis suggested with a spear escort. There be barbarians about, so settlers should not go alone.
Olmecs have research all techs we have, and they now have parity with us. Toltecs are still down Pottery, but they only own 3 gold. Aztecs have managed to get some gold again, and I trade him craftsmanship for 41 gold.
I hope Olmecs or Aztecs get another tech before Potetry goes out of style.

530AD Our southern warrior gets surrounded by barbarians, and I fortify him on a hill, hoping he will survive.

540AD The barbarians bypass our warrior, and he can continue his southern journey. The Olmecs steal a site I had hoped we could have had our fourth city on.

IBT: Tobacco road completes. Another barbarian attacks our warrior and makes him a vet. I will still not risk him trying to raid the camps of cannibals.

550AD:Our northern scout investigates some spirit huts right next to the Aztecs, and he discovers they didn't want to be disturbed.
Hmm, I made a smallish error. I didn't realize it was a foreign worker, and he has spent most of his time roading the game, instead of the stones, because I thought they would have time to do both before the cultural border expands.
You may want to pop a worker out of Chichén after the settler. ( In case you even want a settler. Now that the prime spot is taken, we might not want the settler. )

Here there be some Weed

I am somewhat at a loss as to where we would want our next settler. I had hoped to get the one that the Olmecs got, but no such luck.



Grimweed

We are in a difficult situation already: We have two cities and one more on the way, but no clear spot where to settle our final two. The two spots I would have chosen are occupied by the Olmecs and the Toltecs; Tula (or better yet, on tile southeast of Tula) would be one, and Izapa (you can settle on mountains in this scenario?!?), or one tile northwest of it, the other. So it looks like we have to prepare for war already!

Unfortunately, we are still 25 turns away from enslavement, so our first war to establish our five cities will not be with jav throwers. Advantage: No early GA. Disadvantage: No slaves to sacrifice! But to reach the 1000 culture per city threshold we need our five cities ASAP, so I guess it's time for us to prepare for war.

I cannot switch Chichen Itza's production without losing shields, so I will let the settler complete - it can be used to resettle one of the cities we will raze. But I swap Copan from granary in 11 to barracks in 5. This hurts our growth curve for this city, but will help to get more cities sooner.


(I) Our conscript warrior defeats a barbarian and promotes. The other two barbarians head for the Aztec city.

560 AD (1): Our warrior near Izapa decides to pop the hut before it falls to the Olmecs and gets maps of the region.

570 AD (2): Chichen Itza settler -> worker. Lower lux tax to 10%. The Olmecs have a worker for sale, but since we already bought one from them I pass.

580 AD (3): Palenque founded, immediately starting a barracks. A lone Toltec settler is spotted two tiles south of it, looks like we've barely beaten them to the spot!

590 AD (4): Chichen Itza worker -> worker. Copan barracks -> spearman. While we have a lot of roads at our capital we don't have a single mine there, so our newly produced worker begins to change this. Our southern scout bypasses a barbarian camp.

600 AD (5): Still no new techs at our contacts.

610 AD (6): Chichen Itza worker -> archer. A warrior arrives in Chichen Itza for MP duty so I can set lux back to zero. The Toltecs now have a worker for sale, and I buy it for 130 gold.

620 AD (7): A road from our capital to Palenque is started.

630 AD (8): Our northern scout has reached the end of the map and decides to pop another hut: Again, maps. Better than barbs, I guess...

640 AD (9): Chichen Itza archer -> archer. Copan spearman -> archer. Our southern scout finds another camp. The Aztecs know pottery now, so I decide to sell it to the Toltecs for 132 gold.

(I) Our southern scout defeats a barbarian.

650 AD (10): Still no new techs available.


Jungle! Lots of jungle!


Roster:
Charis
Grimjack
Kylearan
Dwip - UP NOW
Justus - on deck


-Kylearan

[0] 650 AD - The new Great Instigator, Dwip, takes the throne. And unlike some other aspirants to the Great Instigatorship, Dwip has a Plan. Partaking most heavily of the sacred pungent Weed, he sets out to view the great murals in the palace known for some reason as the "Civilopedia." Unfortunately for Dwip and the Plan, a certain long-eared and slightly deranged rabbit sneaks into the palace and begins issuing orders instead.

The mural studying reveals many things to Dwip, including:

Rivers apparently give no defense bonus.

Looks like you can irrigate, mine, and do whatever you want to most of the terrain, up to and including mountains. This makes places like Tula look pretty nice.

Getting to the Temple of the Moon should be fun, considering we need to make a pit stop for Ritual Sacrifice at some point, plus Alphabet->Writing->Storytelling. Whether we go Sacrifice or Alphabet first is sort of unclear to me, and exactly how much culture we get for cutting people's hearts out is similarly unclear. In any case it's not my decision.

Too, there needs to be a war, but it's not going to happen on MY turn, so here's to some nice rabbit-undamagable builder turns.

[1] 660 AD - Salt off the coast looks a bit odd. Too, both the Toltecs and Olmecs show up with Enslavement, though it will cost 215 gold to get it from either one of them, with little chance of sale to the Aztecs. In the hopes of connecting up with the Inca, which we should be doing RSN, and maybe getting a better deal, I decide to hold off for a turn.

Switch Chichen Itza's archer to a spear.

[2] 670 AD - Chichen Itza spear->archer, hopefully prebuilding for a jav.

Everyone in the world now has Enslavement but us. Aztecs must've researched it. As we won't be fighting the Aztecs for a while, they get the 182 gold for the tech, and we start in on Alphabet, which we can actually pull decent research on, so I do.

Archers in Chichen Itza and Copan changed to javs.

[3] 680 AD - For some reason, I have our northern scout pop a hut, and he gets barbs. The barbs, among other things, completely own some sort of 4hp Aztec attacker, heal that same turn (!), and get slaughtered by our glorious scout.

[4] 690 AD -

[5] 700 AD - Heeeeeeeere the Incans... Come heeeeeeere the Incans...

[6] 710 AD - Oh-ho! Red borders in sight, Cap'n! And our good buddies, the Toltecs, have had a worker camped out in Tula this entire time for some reason.

[7] 720 AD - We get our first jav at Chichen Itza. Shiiiiiiiny... So shiny, in fact, they start another one.

[8] 730 AD - Or the red guys could be the Moche, who look like the Mongols and are just as advanced as we are. Our scout continues onward in the Quest For the Incas.

[9] 740 AD - Copan jav->jav. The army is more or less parked out in Copan for lack of a better spot, minus our archer in Palenque who was defending our worker from errant barbs.

[10] 750 AD - We road up Palenque's silks, which lets us drop the lux slider down.

Great Instigator Dwip, still staring at the murals, suddenly drops over dead as the pungent weed wears off and old age kicks in. The rabbit is unceremoniously booted out of the palace.

I left a bunch of workers free to move. Hitting up the stone pretty soon might be a good idea, and if we're going to war with the Toltecs, getting that worker by Palenque out of range might be good. The army, like I said, is in Copan.

The Olmecs and Moche both have Ritual Sacrifice. I didn't trade, because we'll be getting Alphabet in 2 turns. Too, the Inca are down there...somewhere.

Save the Rainforest!

Roster:
Charis - On deck
Grimjack
Kylearan
Dwip - Off for some samurai action
Justus - Up up up

> And our good buddies, the Toltecs, have had a worker camped
> out in Tula this entire time for some reason.

That was the case during the last of my turns as well - maybe they are at war with someone?

Very nice that we can build jav throwers now! We will enjoy our GA with only three cities, but hopefully get some sacrifices for compensation.

I'm a bit unclear on the variant rules. Charis, do we have to designate one city per opponent and then only sacrifice their workers there, or may we sacrifice them in any city? And I guess we want to keep the slaves for some time anyway to work our tiles, or do we have to sacrifice them ASAP?

-Kylearan

P.S.: Hey Dwip, your link is not wo...oh wait. It is working! Oh no, that can't be the original Dwip! It has to be a doppelganger!

(Sorry, couldn't resist )

Toltec workers - I THINK it was because of a random barb running around they couldn't deal with. The worker might be gone now. I can't remember.

P.S.: Hey Dwip, your link is not wo...oh wait. It is working! Oh no, that can't be the original Dwip! It has to be a doppelganger!

Click to expand...

I checked it extra special, just for you.

Got it, I will review the save and past turns and hopefully play tonight. As I understand it, each town is dedicated to a specific tribe, for example Copan can only sacrifice workers from the Toltecs. But we may want the altar first.

Following the sudden (and suspicious) death of Dwip the Instigator, Justus, a former palace guard, stepped forward and claimed the title of Justus-Jaguar, and proclaimed himself to be the last remaining heir to the throne. He quickly looked at the status of the empire, and saw the cities were well-managed, although he offered more money to the researchers (combined with threats) if they would complete our new “alphabet” within the next decade. He also saw that while our neighbors knew how to build sacrificial altars, we did not yet have stone to build temples in our cities to house them. He quickly dispatched some of our foreign workers to build a road to the stone quarry. However, he first gave them the title “Servant”, since their services had been paid for. (He already had some ideas of what to do with future foreigners… ) Another native worker was sent to build a road to bring lovely Jade into Palenque.

(1) 760 Our southern scout sees a volcano, our northern scout sends reports of a barbarian Acali (curragh). Our researchers have completed an Alphabet, and several of our neighbors seem quite interested in knowing how it works. The Olmecs give us 210g, while the Moche teach us the secrets of Ritual Sacrifice and give us 70g. We now begin to research how to use this alphabet. Our advisors tell us it may strain us beyond our current tax revenues (-6gpt), but we can discover Writing in twelve decades, so we begin. Also, the Olmecs have moved a settler near Copan, so we see an opportunity. There was already pressure from several outspoken citizens, who seem concerned about this whole issue of Ritual Sacrifice, and how Justus-Jaguar might select the sacrificee. He reassured the people that no Mayans would be sacrificed, only our mortal enemies. However, to be believable, Justus knew we needed a mortal enemy. He had been eyeing the Toltec lands, but since the Olmecs seemed to be pushing people right under our noses, we might change our mind. Our newest Javelin Throwers moved to follow the settler and his archer escort.

(2) 770 Chichen trains another Javelin, starts on another. One worker moves out to Palenque and Copan to build roads. The Olmec settler is hugging the hills, and is now in Toltec land, so our Javs shadow them.

(3) 780 Palenque completes barracks, starts on Jav. Javs continue to move south. The Moche suddenly have 280g, they must have sold Alphabet to the Incas (who we still haven’t met).

(4) 790 Jade is connected, improving happiness. Worker starts to mine the silk.

(5) 800 Our Stone Quarry is finally connected. The Aztecs have a servant looking for work, and since we have not hired one yet, we teach them of the Alphabet, and give 5g as a signing bonus. The Olmec settler pair moved off a mountain, it is time for the ! I declare war on the Olmecs. Our first Javelin thrower attacks, and kills the archer, losing 2hp. This mighty success triggers a Golden Age for our Mayan people, and their settler converts into two sacrificial slaves. (OK, so I got them the old-fashioned way!) They move toward Copan, which will be the destination of many of them before we are done. Palenque switches production to build a temple, now that the stone is connected. Copan will finish their current Jav, then switch. The Toltecs do ask us to leave, which we do next turn.

(6) 808 Justus-Jaguar has the feeling that somehow, time just slowed down, but then again, that may just be a side-effect of that strange aroma in the palace. Chichen builds another Jav, and our forces move toward Copan.

(7) 816 Copan finishes a Jav, and starts on a temple. We move two javs to hills on the Olmec border. Our southern warrior finally spots a strange warrior in pink fur, and it is the rumored Incas. They have 11 cities and are even in tech.
IBT: An Olmec archer and warrior move out from the fog, a spear tries to skirt around to the north.

(8) 824 Palenque completes the temple, starts on a Jav, since Copan is the designated Olmec city. Our first Jav attacks the Olmec warrior, redlines it but dies bravely. Our second jav kills the archer and is promoted to Elite. The Toltecs have Stone Carving, but since we will soon know the secrets of Writing, we wait. The Incas have a Servant available, so for 125g we complete the set. (Hopefully, that is a ‘loan’ as I expect them to pay me that 125 back for Writing soon).
IBT: The Toltecs start working on the Pyramids.

(9) 832 Our lone archer dies softening up the Olmec spear (-1hp). Our Elite Jav then finishes him off, but is redlined. Another Jav loses 1 but kills a warrior, and finally another jav goes yellow but kills the redlined warrior, and is promoted to Elite. However, I can see another archer.
IBT: Ruh, Roh, the Olmecs have Jaguar Warriors? One moves up and kills our yellow elite jav. The Moche kick our southern warrior/scout out, he was trapped by their culture and the Rain Forest.

(10) 840 Our researchers run into Justus-Jaguar’s throne room with amazing news. Not only do we now know how to Write, but:


Ah Cacao, the chief researcher, is at our disposal! He recommends we use Writing to tell great Stories, and if inspired by the telling of epic tales, perhaps he could single-handedly build a great Temple of the Moon which would give us even greater knowledge. Obviously, such great Story-Telling would be the decision of Charis Weed-Jaguar, but for now we prepare to research the concept.

Now is the time to learn of Stone-Carving. Justus is able to verify that the Aztecs do not know of the Tolmecs, and none of our neighbors know of the Incas or Moche. The Aztecs do know the Olmecs, though, and certainly they will tell them of the Tolmecs soon. So we begin by trading the Aztecs Writing for Stone Carving, since they had no gold. Then we go to the Tolmecs, and sell them Writing and knowledge of the Aztecs (who they don’t realize already have Writing) for 185g. Finally, I approach the Moche, and Incas, and sell them the secrets of Stone Carving for 280g and 189g respectively. They are still unaware of our other neighbors, and also do not yet have the secrets of writing. Our Jav throwers pull back to heal. Our offensive has stalled, but reinforcements are on the way.

MM’ing during this GA is nearly impossible. Almost every tile produces 2 of everything, and the cities end up at some odd (wasteful) numbers. Chichen is at 13spt, trying for a 40-shield Jav. Copan is at 9spt, and can’t really get to 10 until it grows. Most worker actions will not show results until the GA is over, as the extra shield or commerce is lost to despotism. Here is our empire in 840AD:


Also, Copan finished their temple, and started on the altar. The two captured slaves are adjacent to Copan, helping to mine a tile until the Altar is prepared, should be done a turn before the altar. Their name was not changed.
Here is the Save

Charis - Up
Grimjack - On Deck
Kylearan
Dwip
Justus - Hiding from palace guards

Ououou...a scientific great leader, leaves humbled shaking head.

SKillful trading, and great luck on the leader

They have 11 cities

Click to expand...

This could get messy.

Grimjack

Lurker question...

Saltpeter off the coast? WTH? 2 tiles due west of C.I. What is it?

Arathorn

Sounds like a splendid term by the Jaguar Justus! The SGL is a huge boon, as it will allow our capital to produce much needed troops while we get an excellent wonder!

That's 'salt', not saltpeter, in the water, which has +2 food.

I'll echo the "eep! 11 cities?!" comment. We have but three and no current room for two more. I'll see what we can do

'Got it'
Charis

Arathorn, salt is a coastal bonus tile. It gives extra food and commerce, IIRC

The weed-meister known as Charis the Instigator took power when Justus could not
be found in the palace. The kingdown was in grand shape, some would say a Golden
Age. There was even a skilled leader waiting to oversee a great wonder.
The top wonders are probably Temple of Moon, Pyramid, and later Temple of Sun.
Hmmm, with GA production, we could spit out the Pyramids in 20 turns! Or that's
5 Jav throwers. That wasted 12 shield due to 13spt makes the former tempting.
The Incas are shaping up to be our major ally, way out in front on population,
and leading in score and power.

The big question really is how much war? We need to get our other two cities
settled, that's the biggest priority. Yet we have NO land for this. Looking at
the map, the two best sites are probably right where the Tolmec city of Izapa
lies, and where Olmec's Tula lies. BTW... did you notice Izapa is founded *in the
mountains*!? So what is our goal then? This war should go at least until Tula
is taken, but need not go beyond that. If we can raze Teo that will give us
breathing space as well. How many/few units do we need to carry this out?
Our army is 'avg' compared to the Olmecs. We have 4 jav and 4 spear and 3 warrs,
which means they're kinda weak As we're past our unit supply limit anyway,
I'm going to see if we can do for now with less troops, and let our capital try
for the Pyramids. On the cities, btw, the intention was that the other cities could
not produce settlers, not that we couldn't capture one or more of our five. So with
the two other cities right in place where we want them, it's tempting to capture
rather than raze/replace, we'll see. We do have one settler sitting around, so for
sure we'll settle at least one. BTW, we're 'strong' compared to the Tolmecs.
Sheesh. I only see them with three cities. It's going to be rough to get a good
number of enslaved units from that! At this point I notice I'm being dyslexic.
Those brown guys ARE the Olmecs, who we're at war with, while the light Green are
the Tolmecs. That means we have plenty of units already vs Olmecs, and capturing/razing
Izapa should be straightforward.

[0] 840 - The Incans have a servant looking to migrate to a 'great' country, and
the Weedmeister would accept, but it seems we have one from the Incans alredy.
(For that matter, we seem to have an Aztec worker too. Only a Moche to go)
I move a spear out to cover the wounded Jav thrower.

IBT - Incas and Aztecs start the Pyramids.

[1] 848 - Jav beats archer.
[2] 856 - Borders expand at Palenque, pulling in the jade!
To avoid the appearance of changing rules midstream, I decide to go for a raze
of Izapa, and so bring up the settler with the war party. We beat an archer and
Jaggie, enslaving a worker on the latter. I look at where they're trying to build
the Pyramids, then the 'top city' list and don't see them. With us having the largest
city and a GA, we can win the Pyramid race, then later use the SGL to rush Moon
and kill the cascade.

[3] 864 - Archer and Jaggie fall, no slaves. We see an Aztec settler
pair heading past Izapa. IBT The Olmecs ask for peace but won't give Izapa. Sorry.

[4] 872 - Our FIRST Sacrificial altar completes, and our borders there expand. As Copan
is on a river, and as it has 13spt, I start a granary next rather than a jav.
Interesting choice to be made here. Aztecs will be looking to become quite strong
with their nearest neighbor getting torn up. There is now a settler pair next to
us. Also my scout up north is next to a worker of theirs. If I declare war,
they won't even reach us before they'll be ready to talk about peace, and they'll
slow their growth curve. The problem would be a rep hit - our scout is in their
land. I'm going to tail their settler and get out of their land first.

IBT The reason I like our javs - 2 defense. A hurt one is hit by an Olmec archer,
but we win (and promote to elite!). The Aztecs demand we leave. HA!! That just
gets me out of their territory one turn earlier, and still next to one of their
workers!

[5] 880 - We see if the Aztecs will declare on us if we ask them to leave. They don't.
A Jav defeats a spear at Izapa, not only promoting but enslaving. A second jav
wins and we have our choice of what to do at Izapa. With the settler on hand,
I raze it. We capture a worker in doing so, plus one more in the town. Aha,
the city itself is right on top of stone. The mountain is actually on the river,
so it's a fine spot to settle. The other choice though is a spot one tile NE,
also river. We would get more shields but not settling on mountain (1/3 vs 2/1).
Off the mounain is one tile closer to our capital as well, which might be important.
So I choose to settle next to the ruins, not on them.

Charis the Instigator (well named) pulls the trigger, and declares war on the
Aztecs for their insolence. Our waiting jav pops the spear-settler, enslaving one
for a net of three! Our new city nearest the Aztecs shall be the home for Aztec
sacrifices.

Up North, our warrior scout captures an Aztec worker. He takes out his ritualistic
dagger, and carves out his heart. (Oops, not a cultural sacrifice, but there was
no chance he would ever make it home safe.)

Palenque, seeing the war was under control, swapped off JT to Sac Altar.
Copan, otoh, swaps off granary back to JT, as Charis-the-sleepy realizes that
granaries are useless with Pyramids due in 15.

[6] 888 - IBT We saw a jaggie-settler pair run next to our warrior, and no attacks?!
We attack and... promote, woo! Although tempting to try to keep, those two
get the ritual dagger treatment as well.

Just before founding the city I catch myself -- it has overlap with Copan!
Sheesh, I have to play with more sleep. I go one more NW, still on river,
to a new spot that will pull in the birds.

IBT An Aztec jaggie finally knocks out our warrior.

[7] 896 - Copan rethinks production yet again as 14 shields are about to waste.
With Storytelling due very soon, we swap to placeholder for a Codex.

We found "Yaxchilán Aztecbane". It starts a rax, which might swap to Temple later
when road connected (or it might need that rax vs Aztecs!)
Elite jav beats a spear at Tapi (no slave ). IBT - Not much, but shifting Incans

[8] 904 - We beat two spears, redlining both our javs. The Moche have a worker for
sale, the last one we can buy from a civ we've not had a war with. It's ear is
pierced and he is name a Servant of the Mayan empire.

IBT Storytelling arrives, and I put sci to near zero (since we'll likely want
to rush Temple Moon before we get another tech, and it's bonus is +2 techs.
Actually!... What techs will we want? Expensive ones. Monarchy is one
and it's required, but then Ball games or Construction are best. Mathematics
blocks those, and we can research that in just 5 turns. Let's do that.

[9] 912 - With a mine done, Palenque can hit 10spt.
Finally, having completed his road, a captured slave from the Olmecs makes his
way to the sacrificial altar! The blood flows...



That's our nations' first sacrifice, but not our last. Culture points... 40! Wowza!
(Without an altar I guess that would be 20) That's quite high. It will dwarf the
culture received from buildings.

One other event last IBT, the Olmecs paraded two *warrior*-settler pairs right
next to Yaxi. That's too inviting, and although our units are hurt and tired,
we press the attack with those odds, and win. Eep, not enough attacks on hand now
to go after the two settler protected by one warrior. I can only hope he moves up,
not back. Copan goes to swap to Codex and sees it would waste shields? Ah yes, we're
scientific, it's half-price. 8-\ I leave it go to let our next leader decide what
to do. One thought is to finish Math in 5, rush the Moon temple next turn in Palenque,
and gain Monarchy and either Ball games or Construction, then swap Palenque to Ball
Court or Aqueduct. If the utter lack of a strong army and two wars scares you though,
take the Codex now and start cranking more javs.

At Tuji, our Jav is too hurt to take the fresh spear, and pulls back.

IBT Pre-programming in action. The settler whose warrior died backs up,
the other warr-settler pair moves forward!

[10] 920 - We beat an archer (enslaving) and barely beat the warr-settler. I'm
just glad these guys are all regs From the hill we see an Aztec archer coming
toward us. They must not have had a ton of loose jaggies. At least not yet.

Interesting trade situation. I had thought we were way up, but the AI took different
paths and have a few more techs now!? The Incans have Math and Monarchy (!) but
lack writing, and lack communication with three tribes (how on earth did they
do that???) Moche have Monarchy but lack Storytelling. (Do NOT trade away
Storytelling til after the Moon is rushed!! We must break the cascade!)

It's time for the Incans to meet the world. I can't, however, get both Math
and Monarchy. In fact, Monarchy is extremely expensive, it would cost 3 contacts
plus Writing and 800 of our 870g. But to get Math I would need to give up Writing,
3 communications and 150g. Sheesh! Self-research costs less than 200g, so forget
that. The problem is Math is a monopoly, so let's wait a turn or so. Keep a close
eye on this. Gah... I have to see what happens, the people cry one-more-turn?!

The Olmecs are tired of war, and would give a city for peace. I don't think we
want it though, Tula gives our national borders a much better shape. They also
have a worker and about 100g. If we just heal for two turns, there's no way
they can hold Tapijulapa, so no real need for us to rush peace.

IBT An Olmec archer attacks our Jav on the hill and loses, enslaving himself

[11] 928 - At Copan we sacrifice another Olmec, and behold, this expands our
borders *immediately*. Interesting

Over the hill are Aztec archer, settler, warrior, and Olmec archer and spear.
Ah, glad we didn't make the deal with Incans last turned. Quicker than hoped,
the Olmecs come up with new tech - both Monarchy and Math! It's time for
peace. Yes, Tapi could be ours, but we'll actually get more mileage out of them
if we knock them down to 3CC not 2CC - also with five units coming near our
western city, we can't divert any javs to Tapi.

What will they give us? Math, Monarchy, AND 3 virgins (workers), AND 54g also?!?
Woohoo! Done! The three virgin workers are told to road a path over to the
place of their sacrifice, Copan Olmeco. Our great leader now can rush
the wondrous Temple of the Moon, due next turn in Palenque. We turn research
to Construction which will come in free.

IBT - Construction and Ball Games come in, and we start the most expensive,
Theology, at a lower rate. For our free tech we got... Terrace Farming. It's
one of the cheaper ones, but a very helpful one - giving irrigation.
We're for the moment miles ahead of the world on tech, but as recent turns showed,
that might not necessarily last long. Copan goes to Palace of the Inca until
our next leader decides for that or Ball Court. Also... two jaggies move into
view and the archer-spear-settler stack moves next to Yaxchilan.

936 - It's start of turn, I'm turning it over now (finally??!?)
Our Southern scout just got caught by a border expansion to become right in the
middle of Incan lands with no place out. He should be booted soon.

We lack rubber, but it's fixable. There is rubber outside Chichen, we just
need to get a road over there. Rubber is needed for ball courts. 8-\

We're in great shape on tech and culture and wonders, but our army is in the
pits. The objective of build-while-at-war with Olmecs went well, but soon comes
the Green machine. Also, the 'age of enslavement' before Mil Tactics and later
Silent Hunters won't last forever. I would suggest at least some Mil build up,
and trying to replace Tula next with a Tolmec short war, for our last city.

Here is a mosaic of our lands and recent events...



A Servant-Worker has been bought every civ now.
City Tribe matchups:
Copan - Olmecs
Yaxchilán - Aztecs

Save file

Charis - Hiding from the turn-count police!
Grimjack - UP
Kylearan - On Deck
Dwip - Awaiting the happy new year
Justus - Glad they're 'after' a new instigator king now for crimes

Good luck!
Charis