This is what I see when I fire up the save game for the first time.
I have drawn Smoke Jaguar.
Smoke... on the Jaguar...
Smoke Jaguar is Aggressive, Industrious, and a Hunter-Gatherer.
We've changed traits around somewhat in C2C. Aggressive is still worth its free Combat I promotion for Melee, Gunpowder, Hi-Tech, and Assault Mech units, and it offers production bonuses for many buildings (not just Barracks and Drydock). It also has a +15% Great General emergence, +15% civic upkeep (which is actually less than other traits) and cities with crime rates over 150 generate 30 crime per turn; that little gray icon is actually a pair of handcuffs, and it represents Crime. I'm going to have to keep a very tight rein on crime or it will get out of control. 250 crime is where I start to get worried; with some work, it's possible to keep crime in the negative.
Industrious is now weighted more towards the beginning of the game than the end. It offers +35% Wonder production and +60-100% production of various buildings: +60% to Workhouse and +100% to Forge, Glassmith, Guild Hall, Stoneworker's Hut, Townclock and the Clockpunk buildings of Automation Clock, Clockwork Workshop, and Step Reckoner Manufactory. By the time I reach Industrialism or so, there won't be any buildings available for Industrious to affect, only Wonders. We will see what the final effect turns out to be; hammers that aren't needed in the future don't matter.
Hunter-Gatherer is a mixed positive/negative trait. The negatives are +15% civic upkeep, -20% Culture, and -80 food from Trade Routes (although I'm not exactly sure what this actually means. I have a feeling it's actually -80 PERCENT food.) On the other hand, Hunter-Gatherer grants +1 food only any plot with 7 or more food. I far, far prefer farms to cottages, and this only helps me out there.
Thanks to the Unrestricted Leaders option, I am the Viking civilization. Your civilization choice is almost meaningless in C2C, however. There are no Unique Units in C2C, and the only Unique Buildings are the Homeland Cultures, of which there are six: African, American, Asian, European, Middle Eastern, and Oceanian.
Homeland Cultures determine which Culture buildings you can build. A Culture (X) is a World Wonder; it generally grants you the ability to build a Culture Unit (mostly equivalent to a vanilla Unique Unit) and often allows one or two Hero units (we incorporated the Hero concept from World of Legends).
I think the European homeland culture is the best, because it offers a lot of Hero units when the cultures become available. The only problem is the European cultures take some time to appear; American and African cultures are weighted towards the Prehistoric and Ancient Eras, Oceanian cultures are mostly Prehistoric, Middle Eastern cultures are almost all Ancient, Asian cultures are a mix of Ancient, Classical, and Medieval, and European cultures break heavily towards the Ancient and Medieval Eras. There are also a lot of "colonial" American cultures that require a specific European culture to build. Having the European homeland lets you lock down the required Culture resources first, and then you can get the American homeland culture another way.
The starting location. The advisor is recommending I move one tile north, but I'm considering settling in place. I see from the starting players list that two other players (the Gothic Empire and the Lyran Commonwealth) have settled in place, while 4 players (the Hydron Empire, the Holy Empire of Britannia, the Vorlon Empire, and AstralPhaser's Empire) have played a turn without settling.
Also, we are playing with Start as Minors, so while everyone has contact with every other player, all players are at war and no one can conduct diplomacy. A civilization comes out of minor status once it researches Writing.
I actually start with 2 units in addition to my starting Band of Homo Sapiens Sapiens. One is a Stone Thrower; this is an early precursor to the Archer. The other is a Clubman. This is equivalent to BTS's Warrior, but it has an extra bonus against Melee units, so it is effectively a precursor Axeman. I'm fairly sure the extra Clubman is a bonus from Start as Minors. I move both units southeast to scout.
Moving both units southeast reveals that there is some pretty good land for a future city to the south. I spot a Tribal Village, which will be visited soon, and I can just make out a River south of it. I think that a good second city will be just south of the river, although the edge of the fog of war looks like it may be Rocky or Barren terrain.
As it is, the starting square looks really good. I decide to settle on it.
My theme for this game will be the Elements. I name my first city Whirlwind.
I then choose an appropriate leader name and civilization description.
In the current version of C2C, new players start with an additional unit in their capital; the Tribal Guardian. This is a fairly powerful unit with base Strength 2 and +200% city defense. This prevents players from being wiped out too quickly. Tribal Guardians used to start with move 0, but that caused a lot of problems. I think that the Tribal Guardian is defense enough for the moment and I will use my other two units to scout.
I have three main choices for what to build. I can build a Brute, which functions as a even weaker Clubman. I can build another Stone Thrower, which, as I've said, is a weak Archer. I can build Native Culture (European), which spreads the European Culture to every city. I decide to go with the third.
I can choose two technologies at the start of the game: Nomadic Lifestyle and Language. Nomadic Lifestyle allows me a Wanderer unit. Language offers a +1 happiness bonus and the Native Language civic that grants +5% culture and science. I ran some experiments and found out that Civ rounds down when calculating fractions of a beaker, so I decide that for the moment, the Nomadic Lifestyle tech is the better choice.
I end the first turn, and Housing (Homeless) builds itself in Whirlwind.
Housing is a changed mechanic since v16. New Houses automatically build themselves when the conditions are met. Without any other possibilities, Whirlwind winds up with Housing (Homeless), which inflicts -1 happiness and -1 health until I can build something better. (It used to be much, much worse.)
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Turn 1:
My city has its job, so I order my units. The Stone Thrower moves northeast to climb a hill, and the Clubman moves south, skirting the Tribal Village.
I give my units their orders.
This is what they see. Turns out it wasn't a river, just the edge of hilly terrain. I'm still going to scout southward for a possible new city site.
Apparently, at the end of my turn, I get partial credit for my hammers and beakers. The Wanderer unit (available at Nomadic Lifestyle) appears in my city screen, but I can't add it to my build queue yet.
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Turn 2:
I get Nomadic Lifestyle.
For those civilizations who are not American, the really useful thing unlocked here is the Wanderer. This is an early Scout unit. (For American civilizations, the Culture [Sioux] that is available here can be devastating. Culture [Sioux] allows training Dog Soldiers, which I used for a fantastic early rush in my last C2C Let's Play.)
My personal first commandment of the Prehistoric Age: THOU SHALT BUILD ONE, AND ONLY ONE, WANDERER.
Wanderers are good at two things:
- Wanderers explore tribal villages.
- Wanderers die.
The unit strength curve of C2C is much steeper than it is in BTS. For example, Archers are Strength 5, Swordsmen are 10, Musketmen are 20, and it keeps going up. Even Animals can have strengths anywhere between 1 and 5. Wanderers with 1 Strength, even with +100% vs. Wild Animals, die very quickly. I build one of them for visiting any initial tribal villages I spot, and then hold off on building others until I can build Scouts and Hunters instead.
I pick Gathering as my next tech. This will reveal most of the Plant resources around me. I don't really need Cave Dwelling or Language yet.
Whirlwind queues up a Wanderer after its European Culture is complete. I also decide to micromanage a little bit by shifting the city's one worked tile from the Grassland to the Forest. The starting unhealth eats up all my food so I won't grow anytime soon, so the extra hammer from the Forest is quite beneficial. I want to get the Culture going first, so I leave that in the top spot.
I order my units to continue moving the same way they did before; the Stone Thrower goes northeast and the Clubman goes south.
This is how things look at the end of turn 2.
I'm now out of images for this post (I like lots of images when starting out) so I'll have to create a few sub-posts for the rest of this episode.
