***** Plans
Build Great Library?
Not in a million years. (Well, not until sid level.)
Capture Great Library?
The effort must really be worth it then. Every dead horseman or knight is an unborn sipahi.
Take detour to Chivalry?
Well, it's sensible, although time consuming. I could research it while the AI are doing Gunpowder, however.
Wonder-induced, pre-sipahi Golden Age?
Almost unfeasable without Chivalry. And it's not very important. One cannot expect to have a huge pile of cash ready when Military Tradition comes in. Those cash might as well come from the Golden Age.
Build Leo's Workshop?
It's definitely a goal, but it sort of conflicts with the Chivalry detour. There are three main options:
1) Build it, skip the Chivalry detour and hope to survive without a strong attacking unit. IF: Reasonable access to shields and especially expansion room.
2) Build it, go the Chivalry detour but do not waste money on upgrading horsemen to knights. This would allow for a small target force, mainly defensive. IF: Reasonable access to shields and especially expansion room.
3) Do not build it. This certainly forces us to get Chivalry early: upgrading a horsemen to sipahi costs 210 gold; upgrading a knight to sipahi costs 90 gold.
I'm leaning towards alternative 2, if I can research Chivalry and trade it for Gunpowder so as not to waste time.
First to Philosophy?
It's not impossible, but the republic sling shot is. Literature would be a nice free tech. We would have to trade Literature instantly because it's the AIs favourite extortion object.
Better governments?
The most obvious way to get one is to trade away our free tech. I don't really care which one it is, although Republic could be too expensive this time if we want to stock up horsemen. If we somehow manage to cram in many towns it's a different story.
Other tactics?
Trade away Masonry soon if the tech pace is slow. It would be ideal to trade Literature for Currency or Construction. (Polytheism is more unpredictable and Mysticism tends to come in too late for the human.)
The Start?
Very straight forward looking. A neat little settler factory going from size 4-6. It needs one mined plain to be autoselected on growth. Because the settler factory is likely to be closed down really soon, I'd like 2-3 towns within reach of the wheat to up their populations quickly.
Early worker? Early settler for the incense?
There's a risk that a town near the incense would be food poor. The one plain visible north of the wine can probably not be irrigated without lots of extra worker moves, BUT there is another vine on the hill that would work as an unmined bonus Grassland. Without the incence, our maximum no-luxury size is 4.
Facing the risk of losing the incense altogether to another civ, I feel there should be an early settler.
What about that early worker?
No, the settler will keep the pop down and the industrious trait must count for something. It's not very interesting wheather we have time to irrigate and mine everything before the granary is finished.
Build order, then?
I feel a belated desire for a spread sheet - belated in my CivIII career. But here goes the usual haphazard me:
warrior
warrior
warrior? For exploration
settler
granary
worker/settler
Warrior exploration route?
It will be very limited because we need MP. Towards the incense, for sure.
Starting research?
Pottery to be safe. After that it's hard to predict. I'm not doing 50 turn research. I'm sure 50 turn research on Alphabet would mean we'd have to waste all our gold to trade it and not until maybe 30 turns have passed. With beakers in stock, we could in fact be able to trade it earlier for, say, Pottery and Masonry. This is one of the hardest decisions of all, though.
Worker orders and worked tiles?
I'm gonna agonize over those things when I get started.
Domination, then?
Yes, Culture 20K is more fun in PTW.
***** STARTING *****
*=build order subject to change
4000 BC - Settled on the spot. Pottery 14 turns. Worker to wine, but working wheat. Building warrior.
3950 - Roading wine.
3850 - Mining wine. Dang, should have roaded the othe one.
3650 - Worker NE.
3600 - Worker roads.
3550 - Warrior back in Samarqand. Warrior #2 ready.
3500 - Warrior #2 moves to wine hill, sees cow. Worker mines. Building third warrior. Pottery finished, researching Alphabet at max.
3350 - Warrior #3 ready. Building *granary.
3300 - Worker SW,SW,Sw.
3250 - Size 4. Worker roads plain.
3100 - Worker mines plain.
3000 - Working wheat again to gain some food.
2950 - We meet China. They have our techs + WC but not Alphabet (8t for us.) Worker W. Granary finished. Building worker.
2900 - Worker irrigates.
2850 - Worker #2 -> *Warrior.
2800 - Worker #2 S to wheat. Eastern coast found.
2750 - Roading wheat. Build changed to settler.
2670 - Adjusted research, Alphabet due.
Worker #1 SE, Worker #2 irrigates wheat. GRRR, Mao has Alphabet and Iron Working. Max on Writing.
2630 - Worker #1 roads. Settler completed -> scouting warrior.
2590 - Scouting warrior departs in advance. (New MP warrior will coincide with growth.) Surprising lake revealed - thought it was coast! Settler NE,NE,E.
2550 - Settler NE, met a lonely Korean spearman! They have the same techs as China, except CB. New FP wheat found. Worker #2 north into Samarqand. I have 3 gold and -3pt.
2510 - Zero gold. Settler factory is now officially running. Founded - what? - Shakrisabz? Another proof that the combinations of utterable human sounds are virtually endless.
2470 - I'm starting to fear an invisible settler underneath that Korean spearman. He's headed straight for the incense.
2430 - Luxury applied. NOOOOOO!!! Our granary was lost!!!
2190 - Bokhara founded, incense connected.
2030 - Granary rebuilt -> settler.
1990 - Met India. This is good news since I will soon have Writing. Samarqand is size 6 and will spend a turn with a scientist.
1910 - We trade The Wheel, Math, CB from India for Writing. We trade IW and WC from China for Witing and Math. We trade CB to Korea for 20 gold. Researching Philosophy.
1870 - Settler -> settler.
1830 - Bokhara worker -> *palace
1750 - Arabia contacted. We trade Mysticism and 30 gold from them for Math.
1650 - Philosophy goes from 6 to 3 turns. I fear I missed it, but the civs I know don't have it yet.
1625 - Met Persia. Good, no Philosophy.
1600 - Philosophy, Literature -> CoL. Traded Philosophy to India for Polytheism and 13 gold. Traded Philosophy to Persia for HB and 14 gold.
1550 - Met Russia.
1525 - All mandatory techs except Currency are now out. It will be a race against time before someone demands Literature and ruins all for me. First library finished.
1425 - China demands Philosophy. We give it of course. We then trade CoL and 10 gold for Polytheism, still on the interturn. Map Making is autoselected.
1400 - We finally see the horses south of Samarqand. We trade MM from Arabia for Philosophy, CoL and 10 gold. We trade MM to India for 24g and eqworker. Researching The Republic.
1325 - India knows Construction. We sell Writing to Korea cheap, then trade Construction for Philosophy, Polytheism, Map Making.
1300 - We trade silks from China for wine.
1225 - I screw up the settler factory and so change to library. Korea demands Literature and we give it.
1075 - Samarqand is now a 5-7 turn settler factory, giving more science. India demands literature. Dehli completes pyramids. What a day for those scoundrels.
1050 - Horses connected.
1000 BC - Currency, Monarchy are out, Republic due in 2.
975 - The Republic comes in. We clean Persia's coffer and get Currency and Monarchy. Enter Middle Ages.
***** Middle Ages, 975 BC. We gift Russia to tech parity.
Persia, Korea, Russia and us have all gotten Feudalism! This will make it harder for us to build Leo's Workshop (and we started way too late.) There are many wonders still available and there will be some sort of cascade.
Where are the Byzantines? Apparently they are the happiest nation in the world. Probably because they haven't had to meet the rest of us.
Engineering is a whopping 19 turns. But we can increase science a bit.
We revolt and get 8 turns
I used barracks as a pre-built for the granary. Warriors for exploration came later.
