Assyria SG

[vadalaz]

@rickyvaughn and I are going to play a succession game as Assyria on a Deity/Large/Continents map with random opponents and default everything else. If anyone else would like to join, feel free to jump in. Lurker comments are also welcome.

I rerolled a few times and saved the start that seemed worse than others. Here it is:

Edit: Nevermind! We're playing a different map.

I think we could do 15- or even 20-turn sessions at first and then switch to shorter sessions later.

 

[rickyvaughn]

I like it. Warrior SE-SE prob. Assuming nothing good shows up, settling Dyes was also my first thought.

AH first sounds good unless I see a couple of granary tiles after moving W.

Lib sounds good. Was thinking of getting into Honor after free settler, so Trad opener may be a bit much. I could def be convinced otherwise pretty easily, though.

I like to go Scout-Mon-Scout with Lib, but the Large Cont is giving me pause. You like dbl Scout better?

I’ll def do 15t this round unless 20 just makes more sense. When are you normally on? I’ll play here in a couple of hours.

 

[vadalaz]

Agree with Scout-Monument. Lib/Honor mix also sounds good to me unless we're on a very small continent with just one or two AIs.

I should be able to play almost every day, either around the time I posted the thread or ~12 hours after that.

 

[rickyvaughn]

I don’t have the Scrambled Continents Map Pack or Scrambled Nations. Are they worth getting? I can’t open the save without them.

 

[vadalaz]

Nah. Maybe you can roll a map then?

 

[rickyvaughn]

Yup. I’ll roll a few and see if I can find something. Sorry about that.

 

[rickyvaughn]

Coastal Jungle West:

Gems, but not much else:

Rolled a half dozen. These were the 2 worst. What do you think?

 

[vadalaz]

Mining lux starts are really strong, so I'd skip the Gems. Of the other two Jungle seems to be the more challenging map, should we play that? I'd explore for a couple of turns to try and find a better spot to settle there.

 

[rickyvaughn]

Oof:

The warrior has moved on second turn, but I can still move the settler. Look to be completely surrounded by jungle instead of just west. Coastal River or keep moving inland?

 

[vadalaz]

Coastal river adjacent to the Spices looks really nice. Triple lux, deer in second ring, a bunch of forest chops, and the little lake gives us some extra food. I'm thinking Tradition here?

 

[rickyvaughn]

I’m glad you said that…because I had already done that for the exact same reasons. I got culture with first ruin, so I’m going to need to decide pretty quick. You don’t think we’re gonna need Citizenship with all these jungle tiles?

 

[vadalaz]

With a culture ruin I think opening Tradition first is a good option even if we go full Liberty next. It's really up to you though.

 

[rickyvaughn]

Nice...I just saw your last post and we're on the same page so far. I went ahead and took Trad opener. Lots to talk about. Here goes:

t0: happened as shown above

t1: Moved Warr NE, found coastal deer. Was going to head SE to head for ruin, but opted for hill E for max info. Found another ruin and nothing else but more jungle as seen in screenshot above. Decided that coastal river with 3 lux was prob as good as it will get. Moved Settler NE-NE for river spot next to Spices to keep deer and dyes in 2nd ring.

t2: Warr grabs N ruin in screenshot. Culture. See cow and fish, but don't think it worth it to continue moving. Settle cap. Work spices. Start Scout. Start Pottery for possible granary, plus we're going to need Calendar before long.

t3: Moved Warr S towards other ruin.

t4: Ruin gives 95 gold. Purchase deer (50g). Work deer.

t5: Oof. Before turn starts, see Aqua-Blue borders pop up 4 tiles E of cap. Looks like the Shoshone are our CLOSE neighbor. Warr hops on jungle hill SE-SE from dyes. Confirms Shoshone. Reveals blocker city to S on river hill w/ Bananas-Cocoa.

t6: Warr steps on Cocoa. Reveals barb camp (Brute) and another banana.

t7: Start moving Warr back W due to rough terrain for days E. Since we got culture ruin, I went ahead and took Trad opener. Don't see any duplicate luxes close for cash to buy tiles. Plus, if we do eventually want Lib, we aren't too far behind.

t8: Head E w/ Scout to scope out Shoshone lands, and I want to snipe a Worker in 3rd ring of some city. Meet Pocatello. He has Gold hooked up. Start Monument.

t9: Scout heads 1 E and sees a worker building a pasture on the cows. The dream is alive. Only see one PF next to expansion city after stepping on hill. Pocatello is already dark red coveting lands, so no way to avoid conflict, imo.

t10: PF moves away. Worker finishes pasture. Our scout grabs worker. Our cap grows to Marble. 1st pantheon goes far away land (GoProtection). Cap grows. Work spices. Warr heads towards ruin Settler saw on t0. Still there. Sees more bananas and ivory SW of cap.

t11: Map ruin. Sees a couple more spices and 3 bananas next to 3 tile lake. Scout pillages pasture and moves out. Wishing I'd have gone Mining at this point. And, can see coast W of Spice Lake. Also, map showed ruin deep in jungle in north of revealed territory. Maybe 2nd scout can head that way at some point.

t12: Oof. See Roman Spearman next to Spice Lake. Lots of early XP to be had around here. Pottery done. Go Mining for chops.

t13: Worker puts 1 turn into farm on plains next to Cap Lake. He's headed towards grassland river tile to 3 food tile, plus plains tile looks suspiciously bare, so maybe horses there? Scout skirting Shoshone lands headed SE. Warr heads S to find Roman lands.

t14: Warr finds Sofia (15g, Norweigan Ski Infantry for all the snow tiles around here). I do not Pledge since Rome is close, but you may figure differently. Your call. Scout finds ruins w/ Barb Archer standing on them. Pocatello claims he still has business to settle. Rome still doesn't know where we are, so I'll let you decide what to do with that.

t15: All yours. Policy to adopt. Cap grabs dyes. Warr sees Roman caravan headed to Sofia. Barb archer stays on ruins and shoots our Scout. 1 turn til Monument. And, worker was going to start farm on tile he is standing on. Whatever you think, though. Not much else to do at this point.

No point in trying religion, imo. I'm def thinking full Lib at this point, as well. Need hammers. Although, we do have 5 luxes in range, and 3 good city locations, so maybe Trad would work out. Included Initial Save just in case. Good luck.

 

[vadalaz]

T15: Opened Liberty, Warrior found the city of Antium.
T16: Pop ruin, sweet. Lots of Salt near Antium. Rome first target? Started second Scout.
T18: Met Antananarivo - Irrational, Dyes Jewelry.
T20: Stole a worker from Augustus. Mining finished, started AH.
T21: Re-pillaged Pocatello's pasture. Scout done, started Granary.
T23: Found a barb camp to our west. Some mountains blocking the way there as well.
T24: New SP: Republic. Barb Hand-axe near Assur, have to defend our worker with a scout.
T25: Warrior in position to plunder Roman caravan.
T26: Met the Huns. Attila's scout came from the east, I think, so he might be bordering Pocatello. AH done, no horses in the capital. Started Calendar. Insta-healed a scout.
T27: Met Morocco, seems like Ahmad's our western neighbor. Finished Granary. Made peace with the Shoshone and started building a Caravan. Shame I couldn't get a second worker from Pocatello or sell anything to him in the peace deal, but I wanted the early caravan.
T28: Great Library goes. Plundered Roman caravan. Warrior coming home for barb control now (maybe?)
T29: Worker finds a 1-tile island with Horses in our capital's 4th ring. Western Scout finds Pearls, pretty far from our Assur with tons of rough terrain inbetween though. Bought a forested hill.

Screen:

Spoiler :

Workers are in position to chop... Could alternatively buy another hill for 90g and mine it for more production. Barb camp to the west will be an annoyance, noone's gonna clear that for us. Warrior has some options: go home, or wait and steal a worker from Sofia's Wheat, or see if Rome has any more workers for us.

Haven't thought about expo spots yet. Nothing seems particularly exciting.

 

[rickyvaughn]

Agreed. Expos are just meh. Still like the river hill 4 tiles south of cap as first expo. Cocoa in 2nd ring. Farms and hills as well. 2nd expo on hill between horses and mtn SW of cap? Banana, wheat and ivory in 2nd ring. There’s a spot on Spice Lake that gets 4 bananas, 2 spices, the ivory and horses, but no production. I was hoping there was something coastal to our NW, but that peninsula looks pretty nasty.

My first impression is to take some better land from Rome sooner rather than later. Although, Antium on a hill with that river to the NE and Sofia to the NW isn’t the easiest early game target I’ve ever seen.

 

[vadalaz]

Something like this maybe?

Spoiler Expos :

Not sure if we can plant Yellow in time, Rome is on Liberty 3 and might be rushing that area. Pink isn't great, but it's a potential caravan target for Ahmad if he's close enough, and it gets us an excess Spices immediately to sell. Has a couple of hills in the second ring too, but those will be expensive.

Edit: Or maybe plant Pink farther to the west, like SW of the sheep.

 

[rickyvaughn]

Yeah, we’re 15 turns from yellow at the earliest. Hadn’t thought about that spot, but I like it. Backfill cocoa and ivory.

Calendar into archery or masonry or something else? Only 1 possible trade rote at this time, so no need for Sailing yet. I was thinking archery, but I’m not convinced it is best. Could use it to clear that NW camp to see if anything more useful is up there.

 

[vadalaz]

Yeah, building a quick archer between settlers is a good idea here. I'd go Archery - Bronze Working.

 

[rickyvaughn]

Sorry. My wife filled up my Saturday. Here goes:

t30: Start chops. Warr takes another look by Antium, but prob have to wait on Sofia to cook worker. No good sniping spots.

t31: W Scout see CS borders. E Scout sees Barb Axe headed to cap. Warr sees Sofian worker pop out. Will take.

t32: Rome hits Classical thru Math. W Scout meets Genoa (15g, Irr, Gold). I pledge. Decide to wait on Sofian worker to finish farm. Not much for him to do yet anyway. Heal Warr.

t33: Barb Axe steps in cap. Caravan finishes after chops. Have to wait to see where Barb goes before sending. Deer worker starts farm. Hill worker starts mine. W Scout finds camp by Genoa. E Scout ZOCs Axe. Start 3 turn Warr in cap.

t34: Sofian worker finishes farm. Steal worker. Pillage. Eastern Ortho est far away. Cap grows. Works Dyes. Barb Axe takes shot at Scout. Start caravan.

t35: Got Calendar. Killed Axe. Started Archery.

t36: Warr finished in cap. Start 3 turn Scout to matchup with Collective Rule timing. Warr headed to clear SE camp. Scout heals.

t37: Rome offers peace. I decline. Maybe peace after Salt settlement? Or just stay perma? Other Warr and Worker head towards Salt City site.

t38: Farm finishes. Work farm. Attilla killing SE camp. Archery finished. Start BW. Peace treaty w/ Pocatello ends.

t39: Stonehenge goes far away. Scout finished. Heads towards NW camp to help Warr. E Scout heads E to S of Shoshone lands. Start Settler. Worker moves to chop forest and start plantation on dyes. Take Collective Rule. Settler heads towards Salt City. Worker with nothing to do yet prechops forest hill north of wheat.

t40: ToA goes to Ahmad. W Scout finds Moroccan lands more than 10 tiles from Pearl City w/ lots of jungle between. Scout sees at least 2 Barb Archers to NW of cap.

t41: -

t42: -

t43: Warr slams Barb Archer entering cap. Worker finishes farm. Will move to Spice to chop jungle.

t44: BW done. Start Masonry. Settler done. Start Archer. Settler heads S to either Cocoa City or Ivory City. Settle Salt City. Start Mon. Purchase W Salt tile. Salt City has iron in 2nd ring. Cap has iron just outside borders. Some more iron SE, if we want to move Cocoa City a little E. Unhappy, but plantation in 3 turns. Spices being chopped. And, Masonry in 5 for Marble after Worker finishes dyes.

t45: Hinduism founded far away.

Worker in Salt City can finish chop and then go mine salt with Warr for protection. Not sure if we want to grab more workers from Sofia. We could move the Scout that's helping clear the NW camp down there. I know I saw an archer in Sofia before we left. I'm thinking at least 1 more Settler and troops. We need Construction sooner than later for Rome? Or, maybe Philosophy for Oracle if we can get enough troops out? Other than that, we still need Trapping to hook up Ivory eventually. Good luck. I'll probably be asleep for 6 hrs, but then I'll check in.

 

[vadalaz]

T45: Embassy <> 1 gpt w/Pocatello; I don't know if he's seen our capital or not, and I want him to send us a trade route. We meet Ethiopia.
T46: Antananarivo becomes allies with Rome and DoWs us. Roman settler with a warrior escort appears on our borders.
T47: Two Roman horsemen also appear. Might have to make peace here soon, but I'll try to capture the settler first.
T48: Roman settler is retreating unfortunately, and Ballistas are coming in, so I make peace with Rome. Finished Archer, started Settler in the capital. Settled Nimrud.
T49: Masonry > Trapping. Nineveh finished Monument, starts Worker.
T50: Met Sidon (Conquistadors).
T51: Hanging Gardens goes.
T52: Attila declares war on Augustus. The Huns must be next to Rome then. NW barb camp has spawned a Spear and an Archer. Met Kabul.
T53: Terracota goes. Trapping > Sailing.
T56: Repillaged Sofia's Wheat. Turns out Nineveh's on the coast of an inland sea.
T57: Settled Kar-Tuk. Sailing > Wheel.
T58: Attila and Augustus make peace.
T59: Found King Solomon's Mines.

Misclicked and moved a worker accidentally. :/ It's the one on the bananas - was chopping Cocoa before that. Spices jungle in capital is partially chopped down. Here's a screen:

Spoiler :

I considered settling Kar-Tuk on the coastal marsh but decided against it because I felt it was too far from the capital.

Rome has a lot of units. Trade route to Pocatello will end soon, so we could just go for him instead. The problem with this plan is that we'll probably have to eliminate Pocatello who is just on two cities, so everyone will hate us, and focusing on the Shoshone leaves our southern city exposed. I was also kind of hoping for a DoF with Poca.

We could wait until the Huns-Rome peace deal runs out which should be T69, then bribe them to fight and maybe join the fun as well. Or just play peacefully until XBs or even later.

5th city by the single-tile mountain in the west I suppose? And possibly a 6th depending on what's in the fog to NW?