Round 2: 2140 BC to 1240 BC
Well, all of you certainly gave me a lot to think about!
With the most attractive target, Kublai, being Creative, I decided to forgo a Skirmisher/Chariot rush. This meant I needed better offensive units. Thus, a change in research started the round:
You see, forgoing an early rush meant that I'd be expanding peacefully, and knowing the location of iron would be crucial.
Even so, I had a Settler to use, and following Sturge's dot map I settled him on the "green" spot to claim pigs, wheat, and ivory:
Yes, lots of barb units wandering around! There is a grace period in the game when barb units will not enter your territory. I figured I was still in it, and thus took the risk of founding the city without an initial defender. Still, I didn't want to take too many chances, thus its first build:
That would give the city time to grow, and that Skirmisher would indeed prove useful.
My explorers were also noticing the barb units. My Scout survived thanks to a lot of ducking and weaving, not to mention ending turns on hilltops to see where he should go and where he shouldn't. My Warrior survived an encounter with his barb counterpart and became a super-scout:
Nifty.
Then, in 1540 BC, I finished that very important metal tech:
I then started on Mysticism. Lots of my potential cities need border pops ASAP, and no religion spread to me this round.
So where is the iron? Not within my two initial cities' borders, of course--that would be too easy! There's one source north of Djenne:
And another to its west:
The northern location is kind of
meh. It would have to share the pigs with Djenne, and would have a lot of useless desert in its fat cross. The western location, though, is choice. Founded on the plains tile 1N of the silk, it claims that resource along with the iron, pigs, and stone, and has some hills for production and grassland for either farms (with Civil Service--no water source nearby) or cottages, or a mix. There's no way to move the city south to claim the dye without giving up both the pigs
and the stone, unfortunately. Does everyone agree that this should be the next city?
And yes, it's a good thing I
didn't found the second city 1S of the stone as I was originally thinking.
Meanwhile, Kublai continues to annoy me:
Well, I guess he went to the trouble of founding that city for me. Still, he's threatening my 2nd gem tile. And he's just plain annoying. I mean it, he's really ticking me off in this game. Screw the strategic thinking, once I have iron for Swords and Axes, I want to build a mess of them and kill him dead.
Okay. Deep breath. Ahhh. Now then. Next tech:
Because of the timing, I didn't start on a monument in Djenne right away; I was in the middle of a Worker. Timbuktu had built a couple of Skirmishers and then worked on a Chariot before getting the Settler for iron city ready. After Mysticism:
I was going to need it for the northeast fish city (4th in priority now), and it shaved another turn off of Pottery, so hey. Speaking of which, I decided to research Pottery next and get it done while it was only going to take 3 turns.
Now, this is where I left off, since we have some more decisions to make. First of all, here are the builds in my two cities. The Settler is almost complete in the capital:
While in Djenne, here's what I was contemplating:
I haven't put any hammers into it yet because I wanted your opinions on it. Have I left it too late? I could chop 2, maybe even 3 forests to speed it up, along with putting a mine on that hill NW of the city. And the Great Prophet could prove useful, no?
Even so, it could take a while. In addition, I may not want to wait all those turns to put a monument in iron city--I'd want the iron on-line ASAP. Lessee... 2 turns to finish the Settler, 4-5 turns to get the Settler over there, the monument will take... ah, crap, someone else work it out for me. Should I go after Stonehenge or just say screw it and build a monument?
To help our thinking further, here's a look at the map. North...
...and south.
Like I said, after making the move to Fractal to get different maps, it keeps stubbornly giving me continents!
The good news is that no one has beaten me to fishville yet, and there's even room still to expand into the western jungle and claim the dye. I can see why Kublai's expanding in my direction, since it looks like he's out on an isthmus and the land to his west is not terrifically attractive (though that desert tile 1SW of the copper would make for a half-decent production city, what with cows and clams).
I still think the iron/pig/stone/silk city is the next priority. That's too choice a spot to leave to the AI. I was thinking of building another Settler right on the heels of the current one in Timbuktu in order to claim fishville before anyone else. I have a Chariot and a Skirmisher in the capital, so one can go north to fogbust/defend the city.
After the cities are founded, I think I have to beef up my military. Some barracks, then more Skirmishers and Chariots, followed up by Axes, Spears, and especially Swordsmen once the Iron is available. I'll need more Workers, too, so I'll have to slip those in. Is everyone agreed?
What to research next, once Pottery is done? I was thinking of going after Writing and Alphabet next, leaving the 2 early religion techs (now founded, along with Judaism, too, in Barcelona) and Priesthood aside, forgoing the Oracle.
