Round 2: 3975 BC to 3200 BC (30 turns)
All right, time to get on with things.
I really liked 1N and so I moved the Settler there and settled.
I recently played an offline game where both my own capital
and a captured capital only had one food source, and it made both cities sub-optimal. Hammers might win the game in the long run, but without food, ya got nothin'. But, keeping my thirst for hammers in mind as well, I wanted the stone. In addition, this city has 9 riverside grassland tiles. I anticipate cottaging all of them. Yes, I'll be running a specialist economy, but every time I play a SE I cottage the capital to leverage bureaucracy. And all those forests for chopping! All told, I think this will be an awesome capital for Saladin, well worth the sacrifice of a couple of moves. If a strategic resource shows up near where we started... well, that's why you build Settlers and found additional cities, innit?
First build: a Warrior, to allow the city to grow to size 2.
Hmmm, all the special resources wound up outside the inner ring. No biggie, that would be fixed in a few turns.
My Warrior headed east onto that forested hill to enjoy the view. He spotted a tribal village further east, and it popped for...
A Scout! Very nice--he would help tremendously with the early exploration. I decided to send the Warrior north while the Scout curved around south. I was thinking that it would be good to get him near the hut by the capital ASAP, just in case it needed to be popped before the capitals borders did.
My fear there was somewhat justified, as the neighbours began to show up awfully quickly. It seems I live in a rather crowded neighbourhood!
I haven't encountered this leader introduced in BtS very often. I know he has a formidable Musketman-based UU; he's also Creative, so I'm hoping he's not
too close by--we saw what a pain it can be to have a Creative neighbour in the previous attempt at a Saladin game. Any tips?
Along with the newbie, another neighbour is a golden oldie who's been with us from the start of Civ IV:
Hmm, Industrious. Seems my nemesis Louis' traits have been distributed across 2 nearby leaders in this game. Will that be better, or worse? Only time will tell. Both he and Zara are Organized, too, so they'll have an economic advantage over me, especially during the early and mid-game.
Roosevelt is usually pretty easy to get along with, in my experience, mainly because he isn't a religious fanatic. Unfortunately, as you'll see, he is my nearest neighbour--
extremely near, in fact--and may, therefore, have to die.
The capital's borders popped the hut for some gold, and my Scout survived his first encounter with outer Arabia's fauna:
And in the meantime, my third (and thus far, final) neighbour showed up.
Suryavarman is another BtS leader and one I've only encountered a few times before. IIRC, he's always been on another land mass in my other games where he's been around (such as the Ragnar ALC game). He's not a religious fanatic, but nonetheless seems difficult to please. He doesn't strike me as terrifically dangerous in the early game, and he's a bit of a pushover later on (he's not a tech monster, from what I've seen). But this close by, for me at least, he's a bit of an enigma.
A couple of religions have been founded, but none, it seems, by my neighbours.
I finished researching my first technology.
The Warrior was completed in the capital in the exact same turn the city grew to size 2. I sent the new Warrior SE, since both the Scout and original Warrior were heading north. Around this same time, the first random event occurred!
Oooh, I like this one, especially this early, when its negative impacts will be negligible. The first option would have given me +1
for 10 turns ("So friggin' what" was my response at this stage in the game). Behind door #2 was 1
, a 20% chance for -1 pop, and a 35% chance for 1
. Obviously, this early, option #3 was the most attractive. And it looked like it worked out!
As you can see, I was building a Worker in the capital, so I wasn't too concerned about having some unhappy citizens since the city's growth was frozen. The extra health means those forests are for choppin', methinks, since I don't need them to keep Mr. Yuck away. I think the Pyramids are an even more definite possibility. (I think we've all agreed to give Stonehenge a miss, but I'm leaving the door open for the Great Wall. Convince me.)
I was following Slobberinbear's tech path, so Mining was next, to prepare the way for Bronze Working, and to reduce the price of Masonry.
And I ended the round here on a significant decision point.
Oooo, so very very tempting. It's always nice to be able to snag a Worker from a rival, especially one so close by. Since the Worker is on a forested tile, I think my Warrior will be safe from reprisal.
However, there's the long-term implications to consider. Of my three neighbours, as I said, Roosevelt is the easiest to befriend, and this early declaration of war would sour our relationship. Of course, he is close by, so he may have to die anyway.
But I think a look at the map will help with this decision:
By the looks of it, there's a lot of good land on this map, and I also get the impression that most of it is available for REXing. You can see that Washington is not far away to the north, however, I haven't encountered Ethiopian nor Khmer territory yet. I get the impression they're off to the north as well, which would leave me with a lot of good land in the south to settle. Which would make an early war with American unnecessary, despite their proximity. Many of you suggested that Saladin is best suited to a peaceful waiting game, and that may be the best approach here.
But hey--free Worker! Decisions, decisions...
Other thoughts on the map: there's some early happy available, what with the jumbos to the west, gold to the south, and gems both east and west. Lots of calendar resources too--silk (though America has those), dye, bananas, and spices. All three grains are available as well, and look at all those rivers! Quite a contrast to the tougher terrain in the previous game.
On another note, one of my Warriors is far to the southeast and is next to a goody hut... and a lion. If he survives the encounter with the latter, we'll see what the former yields at the beginning of the next round.
On other notes, I'm researching Masonry, and it's 5 turns from completion, so I could begin construction of the Great Wall or the Pyramids soon, though I'd prefer to at least build on Settler first. Slobberinbear's tech path then calls for Bronze Working, which I agree would be a good idea so I can start chopping and whipping, and see if there's copper around for the 1st Settler to claim. After that, the bear suggested either Hunting and Archery if I
don't go for the Great Wall, or AH - Pottery - Writing if I do. Thoughts?
As for builds, my Worker will be complete in two turns, and I was thinking of building a couple of Warriors while the city grows to size 3, then a Settler. After that, I'll consider commencing a wonder. I think it would have to be the Great Wall this early; the AI is fond of it. If we decide to forgo the barb barrier, then I think I can afford to build another Settler before starting on the Pyramids.
Diplomatically, both early religions appear to have been founded on other continents. That could bode well for using the Madrassa to generate a Great Prophet to lightbulb a religion-granting tech such as Monotheism or Theology, then spreading it to make my own continent into a happy love-fest. That may also argue against stealing FDR's Worker.
At any rate, here is the save, and I look forward to hearing your opinions!
somehow...
