Another "Play along" game.

[PeteJ]

Good dotmap. I can't tell exactly where you've discovered seafood/no seafood, and am especially wondering about the coast near rice/banana; as Ragnar you probably want to favor coastal cities. In the context of dotmapping I think a global view with resources would be helpful. The show detailed city info option might also be helpful in general.

There is absolutely no seafood on this map so far besides the clams in my capital and some whales up in the tundra. Hopefully there is some near the rice/bananas, but I doubt I will be able to get a city there before HC does(his capital is about 8 squares south of there). I don't know where anybody else is except that Kublai Khan has a city or 2 on the giant river.

As for research, I was planning on researching Alphabet next. I don't think I'll need any pastures until Alphabet is done and I would like to get some good techs from the AI before they research everything I have.

And what does the "show detailed city info" option do? I selected it but I see no changes.

 

[Jet]

Number of turns to city growth and build completion.

 

[PeteJ]

I think right now I'd hurry to settle 1N of your cow red dot. It doesn't yield quite as good an overall dotmap as yours, but it's not bad, and expands towards your neighbors, and gives you axemen ASAP, and it's right on the river, which is nice. You must be on a pretty big continent, if you have 3 neighbors and have explored that far without seeing their borders. But I'd try to get at least that one city built in their direction.

I see your point about settling a city closer to my neighbors that also grabs the copper. I was thinking I could pump out 2 settlers ASAP. The first one grabbing the copper location and the second one grabbing the spot next to the cows. Since I missed the Oracle I feel like I have a little head start towards my next settler. I don't really need any more military right now since my neighbors are nowhere near me, so I can use both of my cities to build a settler each. However, if you see any flaw in that plan, please let me know.... I am too lazy to do any sort of complex calculations/plans.

 

[Jet]

I see your point about settling a city closer to my neighbors that also grabs the copper. I was thinking I could pump out 2 settlers ASAP. The first one grabbing the copper location and the second one grabbing the spot next to the cows. Since I missed the Oracle I feel like I have a little head start towards my next settler. I don't really need any more military right now since my neighbors are nowhere near me, so I can use both of my cities to build a settler each. However, if you see any flaw in that plan, please let me know.... I am too lazy to do any sort of complex calculations/plans.

My reason for axemen was barb axes, but I don't have a sense of how long you've been seeing barb archers for. My reason for a barracks was a personal distaste for building units without one. If your current army is 3 archers and 2 warriors and you added 2 more cities, I'd think you'd have to endure some barb problems. But with Huayana that close, I don't know, maybe you should try the 2 settlers in an effort to get banana/rice before he does. (Or send the settler/escort straight to the banana coast to check for seafood).

 

[PeteJ]

I played another 1000 years this morning....

I decided to go with the 2 settler idea... I immediately switched the production in each city to a settler. Each settler was due in 22 turns if I remember correctly. I used one of my archer sentries to check out the coast near the bananas/rice and there is in fact no seafood. And it turns out that I was beaten to the spot.... not by HC but by barbarians. So I used my 2 settlers to set up the cities I had planned out in my last post. Coppertown immediately started on a monument so my borders would expand, followed by a worker, then a barracks, then Axemen. Cowtown started on an archer followed by a courthouse. Once I had enough Axemen, I captured the barbarian city to the East.

Oh and speaking of COL, I successfully discovered Confucianism. I used my missionary on my capital, but after I did that, I realized I should've used it on Coppertown to expand the borders.... No worries though, Confucianism spread to that city naturally shortly after it was built. After COL I set reasearch for Alphabet, followed by MC. HC already had MC but there was no chance of him giving that up any time soon. Once I finished MC I started on CS. After that is finished, I will probably research towards Catapults, then Machinery for my UU. It turns out that I am the tech leader on this continent thanks to my early cottages. I used Writing and Polytheism to trade for all of the techs that I missed. After my trades, I converted to Confucianism and reaped the happiness bonus. So now I am the heathen on a continent full of Hindu's. It won't be long before somebody attacks me.

So now I have 5 cities, soon to be 6 or maybe 7 if I decide to take the barbarian city to the south. I am running at 80% research with -1 gold, and I am in the process of pumping out axemen to secure the surround land. HC is expanding like a madman so he will need to be disciplined very soon. But I also have no wonders and no great people yet. My Capital is running a Priest right now, and as soon as it grows a little but, I will run 2 scientists as well. I figure a Great Scientist or a Great Prophet would be equally helpful at this point in the game.... but the sooner the better. Probably the great Prophet since I am planning on some serious military action soon and I will need the gold.

OK some screenshots:

And the south:

I definitely need to take that barb city before HC does because HC is definitely expanding his way towards me.... The question is what to do with it.... Here are a couple of shots outlining the possiblities:

If I keep the city, I could squeeze in another city to the north that would share the rice and work some hills. The barb city would turn into a commerce city, and wouldn't need the rice. This seems like the best choice to me, but lets check out the other options.....:

Both of these sites would give me a monster production site with 3 food sources and more hills than I can count, but they would leave a lot of wasted tiles and no reasonable way to squeeze in more cities. This is why I'm favoring keeping the barb city... but I'm sure there are other options I haven't noticed.

Here is an overhead shot of the continent as we know it so far:

 

[voek]

Expand south first towards Inca. Build a stack of axes and capture/raze his copper city. Then it depends. Continue war if resistance is low or sue for peace and return with swords or better, maces (and cats).

 

[aelf]

I think your failure to build the Oracle was very harmful to you. It delayed your expansion and war preparations. You can still win the game, of course, but it could've been a lot easier.

You really should go and pick a fight soon. It will make you stronger in the long run and a neighbour weaker (whom you can finish off later).

 

[PeteJ]

Yeah, I really screwed myself.... I was definitely being too ambitious attempting the slingshot on Monarch, at least with this particular set up. If I had settled in place in the beginning, then my capital would've been able to build the Oracle. Oh well, live and learn. Right now I need to focus on at least slowing down HC if not totally destroying him. With CS and the cottages in my capital, I should be able to take 2 or 3 of his cities without bankrupting myself. Ramses and Khan have been at war for a little while so they shouldn't be too strong at this point. But if I don't act now, HC will soon become very strong. His copper city might be worth keeping because it fits nicely into my empire and will be a very solid city once improvements are made.

Overall, I think I am still in pretty good shape despite my set-back. And with berserkers coming soon, I will probably be able to finish off HC and cripple either Ramses or Khan. But in the mean time I should probably convince them that they still hate each other and have them go to war again while I take care of HC.