Round 3: to 2440 BC
To add to something aelf said above, this is not only my first patched Warlords game, it's my first Warlords game,
period. So there is a lot to get used to and his idea to be a little more conventional this time around makes sense. We are coming off three ALC games with different strategies (Frederick's SE, Alexander's hybrid economy, and Huayna's strange, isolated start), so we're overdue for a game where we get back to basics. This is also why I'm playing slowly--only 15 or so turns this round.
But that's also because on the very first turn of the round, everything changed.
Jumpin' Jehosephat. Copper! Right beside one of our planned city sites! And a tribal village too! Oh, and a trio of decidedly unfriendly local fauna. I'll start the discussion surrounding the implications of this discovery at the end of this update.
Fortunately, the Warrior made short work of the kitties:
I gave him Combat I for two reasons. First, I think his exploring days are done, and I'd like to use him to escort my Settlers. Second, there's that tribal hut on open ground. I didn't want to risk losing it while he healed in the forest, so CI gave him a slightly better chance of surviving if he got attacked on that tile.
The hut popped for a map, which only confirmed my instinct to retire the Warrior from his Explorer role:
After winning the lottery with that BW hut previously, you won't hear me complaining. In fact, this map revealed something of strategic significance: the identity and location of the 3rd civ on the continent.
Vikings!
Another new civ. Okay, early Warlords adopters, what is Ragnar like? I myself tend to translate the word "Viking" as "trouble". (That's not just my Scots/Irish ancestry talking; I'm married to one of their descendants, so I know whereof I speak.
)
Lessee... Aggressive and Financial. Huh. So he copped Huayna's old traits; that could be troublesome, as it was with the Incan. He starts with Fishing and Hunting, so I'm surprised I haven't encountered one of his Scouts yet. His UU replaces Macemen and has a 10% bonus attacking cities as well as an automatic Amphibious promotion. That could be trouble, though more so on an island map. Given how the AI still sucks at war, is it even capable of mounting an amphibious assault on a city? His UB also isn't the most spectacular for a continents map, seeing as how it's essentially a scaled-down drydocks. How is he for teching and trading thereof?
Anyway. At the end of the next turn, my Fast Worker finished pasturing the pigs, so I swapped the tiles worked in Delhi, which shaved a whopping 4 turns off the completion of the Settler, down from 12:
My CI Warrior survived a panther attack--barely--so he started resting in a forest for 9 turns, though I will likely have to move him before he's completely healed to help guide the Settler. I moved the other Warrior, who had been exploring the southeast, looking for Japan, towards the southwest to meet up with Ragnar. Meanwhile, I finished researching my next tech:
I then began researching Hunting. My reasoning here was as follows. First off, having the elephants near Delhi camped will not only help with happiness, but also with building the Oracle (Priesthood is next). Since copper is now within reach, Spearmen will be available soon. As we'll discuss shortly, we may decide to build copper city before horse city, in which case Mehmed may claim those horses on us, making Spears vital to protect a stack of Axes from Chariots. I'd also like to bring both Warriors home and maybe build a Scout to continue exploring, especially after Writing and Open Borders (though I know Toku will probably never agree to one).
My Warrior finally got close enough to meet up with Bachelor #3:
I already discussed/asked about Ragnar above, but let me just add that this is not exactly the most reassuring initial greeting I've ever received from a civ leader. And that way he wipes his nose on his forearm--charming.
Nice hat, though. Still, I can't help wondering if real Vikings ever wore those. "How will we inspire fear and terror in the peasants we attack? I know! We'll dress up as
cows!"
On the same turn, my 1st Settler finished in Delhi:
Which made me stop right there, so we could discuss where to send him.
(Oh, by the way--I've noticed that the flying camera, for some strange reason, makes the resource icons in the bottom 3-4 rows of tiles disappear! So please be aware that there are other resources down there--Ragnar, you may recall, is close to silk, stone, wine, and gold, though none of their indicators appear in the above screenshot. He's also very close to the southwest horses, close enough to claim them before me.)
So now begins the great debate of this round: where should the Settler go?
I think most of us will agree that the blue city from my dotmap, 1E of the west coast copper, has risen in priority. But should it be next? We would have copper quickly--no wait for a border pop required. Our dream of an early war to take out someone--probably Mehmed, he's closest--is alive again. As I mentioned above, copper and Hunting will allow us to deal with mounted units.
Aye, but there's the rub. If we don't get those horses now, we may not get them for a long time. Mehmed will probably grab the NE horses, Ragnar those to the SW. In a vanilla Civ game I probably wouldn't care, but Chariots are now much more formidable, and that's a double-edged sword. They're a valuable unit to have in your cities and stacks, but they're also something you need to counter. Can we afford to take the risk of not having horses until after a conquest?
The problem with going after horse city first is that a decent city out there would require a border pop to claim the horses (our dotmap specifies the forested hill 1S/2W of the horses as the city site, and I see no reason to change it). So we have to either cross our fingers and hope for Buddhism to spread to the new city quickly or we need the first build to be a monument. Probably both. Meanwhile, we build our next Settler (notice I've chosen that as the next build) to go after the copper. We can then fill in the other cities as the opportunities arise.
That would also leave our cities poorly defended, even undefended, for a
long time--possibly a monument build and then a border pop if religion doesn't spread on its own, which it often doesn't, especially when you most need it to.
Time is passing; I haven't seen any barb units yet, but they can't be too far off. And I've heard that the improved AI is not averse to declaring war very early if it can raze or claim an undefended city.
I dunno. My vanilla instincts are screaming "Copper! Copper, you fool!" My Warlords instincts are nascent and therefore uselessly quiet at this point. Which is why I stopped here and came to you guys.
Horses or Copper?
