RBtS1b - The Thief Economy

[Swiss Pauli]

25 would seem a good number in this game.

I wouldn't switch to the Wheel. BW will let us train Holkans, and let us chop the forest, which we need to do. Seeing stone in a nice site by Darius is a bit of a concern. It would be better to get a settler out before the wall, but I think our plan for the variant is predicated on getting the wall, so let's not get too greedy if we see Darius take the stone site.

@sunrise - that was a bit of a forward looking statement: barbs don't enter borders until after 2000BC, by which time I am sure we'd have Holkans and/or chariots on line.

 

[pindicator]

Played 25.

A word of warning: a design problem with Espionage. Ctrl+e is REALLY close to Ctrl+w. As soon as I realized I was opening World-Builder, I just closed the game down, so I didn't spot anything (thankfully). It was on the First turn, so nothing lost. So be very careful when opening the Espionage screen.

Since in re-reading previous posts, it sounds like the settler was too much of a gamble, I built 3 warriors & a worker. Our workers are pre-chopping forests by constructing mines. They are 8 turns from completing each mine, and Masonry is currenty due in 10 turns.

In exploration, I surveyed the remaining dark spots around our lands, and sent warriors out to map more around Hatty and west of Darius. Another warrior is heading east to fog-bust, and our first Holkan is in production.



We have bronze nearby, but Darius has just switched to Slavery, so expect him to try to claim in.
Take a look at that northeast peninsula. 5 resources and any one city can only grab 3. That will be fun to dot-map.



Hatty has settled a second city to the south. Haven't seen anything from Darius yet.

 

[Tatran]

Lurker's comment :
A spy specialist gives 1 and a settled Great Spy 3 .
Not allowing to use them would be illogical for the variant.
Good luck.

 

[Swiss Pauli]

sunrise is up for 20.

One thing I did notice is that Hatty has built a horse farm at Thebes. Hard to believe she doesn't have AH yet...

Advice: scout around Darius' capital to see whether he blocks us from the copper; stop the workers before they complete the mines, so that the hammers go to Great Wall; I suggest Wheel after Masonry. Good luck!


Preliminary dotmap (I'm sure Kodii will come up with a more handsome model soon enough):




Roster

Kodii
pindicator (just played)
sunrise089 (up)
Swiss Pauli (awaiting parole)
ungy (on the run)

 

[sunrise089]

Lurker's comment :
A spy specialist gives 1 and a settled Great Spy 3 .
Not allowing to use them would be illogical for the variant.
Good luck.

The whole idea here is to steal the tech, not use specialists to grab beakers.

EDIT: Crosspost. Got it - though for literally the past FIVE TIMES I've been up in a SG I've been up in multiple games at once - crazy.

@Swiss - I agree with your map. We might want to consider Colossus later with all of our water tiles.

 

[ungy]

I'm on the road here w/o civ, so I might be missing something here but:

I agree with the decision to skip the settler and start on GW. If we get beat to the copper we can go for the early war with chariots/UU. I'm assuming that we should ineligible to research IW.

Since getting a tech advantage will be difficult, I think taking out most of our opponents makes sense. We will also have to worry about them using the spy mission to add 200% to our cost later.[/B]

 

[Swiss Pauli]

@sunrise - if you'd prefer to swap, let me know as I can make time to play today, otherwise, take your time as there's no great rush.

 

[Kodii]

I'm sure Kodii will come up with a more handsome model soon enough

I wasn't aware I was known for nice dotmaps.

Considering I only open up Microsoft Paint and put lines on...

There is someone at RB who makes the prettiest dotmaps I have ever seen. I would like to learn how to do them like that.

 

[sunrise089]

Turns 1-9: We kills animals + bard warriors. We finish pre-chopping forests.

Turn 10: Masonry comes it, Wheel is selected.

Turn 12(!!!): I start Great Wall. Sorry for the completely pointless delay. Now we know who to blame if we miss it

Great Wall is due in 9, with one chop due next turn.

The World:



The Roster:

Kodii
pindicator
sunrise089 - just played
Swiss Pauli - up!
ungy - on deck


The Save:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/91988/RBtS1b_BC-2225.CivBeyondSwordSave

 

[pindicator]

Good turns!

Not to rub it in, Sunrise, but you would not believe the amount of wonders I am missing with 1 turn left to go in BtS. It's uncanny, like the AI is whipping it just ahead of me on purpose. Or it's just a bad string of luck.

It'd be nice to chop out a settler right after The Great Wall finishes. I don't want to waste any time to claim that copper.

 

[Swiss Pauli]

It's in my swag-bag for tonight.

Wall => Settler => Granary...then we'll see.

 

[Swiss Pauli]

Wall => Settler => Granary...then we'll see.

Granary, eh? Would be nice if we had Pottery. A touch of cross-game infection here (possibly foot-in-mouth disease?).

Some Good Things happened. Some Bad Things happened.

Bad Things:

- Lost both scouting warriors to low odds barb attacks.

- Random event:




Do I not like that! The very hill we were chopping. And 1 . I've seen the AI get quite a lot of such events early in the game; I wonder if it struggles to deal with their impact, thus slowing progress?


Good Things:






Short Term Plan
Grow capital to size 4 (1 for 1 turn as I whipped the settler), then chop Settler from riverside grass forests. Send to the desert gold, using the Holkan (1 healing nearby, one on way SE) to clear fog. Finish Agri, then Fishing, then Pottery. Sailing is not a worker tech so we must steal it.

Long Term Plan
Pie Bomb Darius, attack Egypt (with cats) to claim a religion and more good land. This plan is very much open to discussion and change, as our game evolves.

Roster
Kodii - on trial
pindicator - loosening fingers
sunrise089
Swiss Pauli - counting his booty
ungy - on the run (skipped)

Let's play a loose 15 turns each (10 in war). By loose, I mean cut short or overshoot by a few turns if it seems best to do so. Better a smooth handover than a neat turn count.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/96651/RBtS1b_BC-1875.CivBeyondSwordSave

 

[Kodii]

Oops, I had read that I was up yesterday and forgot to say I got it. Well, I have it and will play today.

 

[Kodii]

T3 1800BC - Mutal grows to 4, I switch to Settler

T5 1750BC - Agriculture in; I'm not sure if Fishing count as a worker tech, but technically (pardon the pun) it unlocks worker actions

T11 1600BC - Mutal completes the Settler

T12 1575BC - Lakamha completes its Monument

T13 1550BC - Mutal completes a Holkan; I begin a Worker

T14 1525BC - Fishing in; Pottery due in 13

T15 1500BC - Chichen Itza is founded. I don't like how there are cities named after wonders (ie Angkor Wat). I begin a Monument, but this can be changed.



http://forums.civfanatics.com/uploads/96336/RBtS1b_BC-1500.CivBeyondSwordSave

 

[Swiss Pauli]

Roster
Kodii - fencing the goods
pindicator - up in court
sunrise089 - awaiting sentence
Swiss Pauli
ungy

Very steady so far. Surprised none of the AI has Writing yet. Only thing I'd change is to move the Holkan from Mutal up onto the roaded hill toward Lakamha, so it can get to either rapidly in case Darius or Hatty turn up with ill intentions.

Without Sailing, we need to switch the order of cities 3 and 4, as maintenance is already a pain. So I'd recommend to let Mutal get to size 5 after the worker is done then part chop, part whip a Settler for the coastal fish.

Lakamha can be a woker farm for a good while until we can grow our happy cap. Looking at the date Hinduism was founded, we will get some cultural pressure from Thebes into the second ring of the Chicken, but nothing too bad.

 

[pindicator]

Played 15.

T101 - 1475BC
Judaism FIDL

T104 - 1400BC
Hatty swaps civics to Slavery

T110 - 1250BC
Judaism spreads to Lak-whatever. It may be a good idea to convert: a diplo bonus with Darius (as he should be pretty peaved to have us stealing all the time from him) and a higher happy cap.

T111 - 1225BC
Pottery is in. Research to Writing.
Another reason to get a state religion. We get a quest!



I know that the basic reward is a free combat I promotion for chariots. I don't knwo what the additional bonus of having a state religion at the time is. If we are planning on going after Hatty, then it might not be a bad idea to go for the quest. But if we aren't planning on doing the troops, it may not be worth it. (BTW - imagine if you're Egypt or Persia and you get this quest early on! )

T114 - 1150BC
Chop & whip a settler in capital; whip a monolith in Chicken Eats-ya. It's set to a work boat now.

T115 - 1125BC
Settle Uxmel. Lucky us, our research rate is down to 30% at break even.



So I should have started a cottage in our capital; instead the luster of a quest got to me and I sent the worker to connect the horses. Uxmel is building a work boat, and working the corn so it can whip that out upon growth (in 6 turns).

We may want to pop out another worker in the next turnset, depending on how things go. Aside from that, we need to start planting cottages and improving our economy.

Great Spy is due in 37 turns, IIRC.

Pie in the face!

 

[Swiss Pauli]

We may want to pop out another worker in the next turnset, depending on how things go. Aside from that, we need to start planting cottages and improving our economy.

Yeah, what he said.

And sunrise is up.

 

[sunrise089]

Got it - and again, I'm up in two games

 

[Kodii]

Got it - and again, I'm up in two games

The SG curse? All my turnsets always come to me at the same time.

 

[pindicator]

Got it - and again, I'm up in two games

I've started to limit myself to one SG at a time for precisely this reason. I ended up needing to be skipped too often because I would be up in 2 or 3 at once all the time.