Deity Isolation Workshop (Stan/Norm/Fractal/NH/NE)

[unas876]

Spoiler :

Just I was super impressed with how Lain handled the barbs in his videos and he was in no position to get that nice spot first so he said it mighta been better to go Archery. Now you come along saying you managed to grab the nice spots first without Archery and you didn't even play risky? Thats ultra impressive then

 

[Pedro78]

Spoiler :

Well the only risk I took was losing 1 or 2 warriors, map knowledge helped a little here as I already knew that I had that nice spot.
Here is how I dealt with the barbs, nothing impressive there :

Black marks are were my warriors/scout were, and moved (remember the second city was settled over a forest).
Red mark is were the barb Archer was.
Blue marks show how the settler moved (warriors moved first).

Overall, almost the whole West of the island was fogbusted, and I left only very little windows were the barbs could spawn so yeah, it felt quite safe. Could have lost 1 or 2 warriors to the barbs, but it still wouldn't be much compared to the cost of going Archery.

Hope this makes things clear for you

 

[Lain]

Spoiler :

Looking good, Pedro. Curious to see how the Astro dates will compare. So hope you post more saves (1000 BC, 1 AD?).

Not sure about the whole barb situation. There is a lot of contrary advice to be found here but I genuinely start to believe that going Archery is a good decision more often than not. I am a fan of removing RNG from the early game where one bad roll can be detrimental. Archers allow for great map control and allow to survive early DoW (generally speaking).

This map probably doesn't require Archery, but maybe I played too conservative knowing that I only had warriors to defend with. I had a few barb archers swarming around though from what I remember. Until all fogbusters are in place, it would be a brave decision to just settle under those circumstances. But a slow start like this probably favors the bold player. Such a big deal to get the good cities up a bit quicker. Maybe I will give that a try aswell, just to see how it compares.

I already have a map for our next game, if you don't mind. One that for me was completely hopeless . Maybe we should do an easier one. Hmm...

 

[Pedro78]

To T100 (375BC)

Spoiler :

I tried to set up GP production ASAP, but the slow start and mediocre landmass didn't help out. I got 4 cities by 1160BC.

All got granary + monumeny + library. Vienne is slowly growing cottages, maintenance remains pretty low (-21GPT @ 100% research).

The GP production is now set up, so this will translate in T150 (800AD) Astro, which is pretty late but well... I don't think I could have done much better, maybe 2-3 turns with better micro? I really don't see how to get 600AD Astro on that map : for early Astro you need either lots of food to justify going CoL, or a quick start with a strong capital which allows you to setup GP production by T90...

The situation now :

Capital :

Really not proud of my micro management here... Though bad micro management only delays Optics date here, not Astro

City #2 :

Kind of getting there, but sloppy worker management. Only have 3 workers now, don't feel like I need more, but I could have optimized tile improvement a little better.

City #3 and #4, not much to mention here...

Now I will grow the capital (while finishing the first GS), turn off research until I get an Academy in city #2 ("only" techs remaining are IW, MC, Compass, Machinery and Optics). I will grow city #2 as fast as possible and slowly build the Palace there (no hurry as it won't really be useful until Civil Service). Cities #3 and #4 will pretty much stand by until Astro (city #3 will be used to whip Caravels after 2nd GS comes in). After capital is grown to size 12 or so (didn't calculate it yet), I'll chop out a 3 more settlers to settle the remaining spots so the cities are functional when Astro comes in :

Don't rant on me about the Eastern city's location, I know there's Iron on the hill 1N of it (or is it the opposite? well you get the idea )...

Not sure how early I can get Optics, getting it before 500AD would be nice, not sure if it's possible, though. And then I'll have to figure out a way to win the game

I attached the 925BC and 375BC saves if anyone wants to look at them.

 

[Pedro78]

To T130 (375AD)

Spoiler :

Nothing special going on for the most part, I remain at 4 cities and cottage the hell out of the capital and future capital. Other cities are in GS production mode, the one 3S of the capital is particularly useless... However, after cottaging + academy, research goes a lot faster than I expected (I remember getting Optics in 500-600AD on the first try).

Joao finds me before I get to Optics...

Tech situation looks ok, he seems to have beelined Optics, do isolated AIs always do that? Or maybe it's specifically Joao cause his UU is a Caravel?

Finally, 375AD :

City overview :

Vienne (new Capital) :

Right now hampered by unhealthiness, but should become pretty decent after bureaucracy + Astro (ressource trades).

Bibracte (old capital) :

Not very well developed yet, early game micro here wasn't really good, plus it was slowed down by building settlers + getting out the first GS. I think I'll keep the cottages after Astro to get to Steel faster. Will get at least 1 more settler from here.

City #3 (first-GS city) :

Lots of food, so it was able to build some (kind of) infrastructure while generating GSP. I'll whip 2 or 3 caravels from here.

City #4 (second GS - city)

Was crappy 30 turns ago... hasn't changed much


Now I think I might as well get the second GS from Gergovia, and switch into Caste system when I get CoL to get the third GS from Tolosa, this would result in a better Astro date. I do still need Slavery a lot however, so I'll have to think about it. Right now I am set for 800AD Astro, not sure how much earlier I can get it with CS... Does a 5 turns earlier Astro date justify 2 turns of anarchy? Not sure about that... A shame that this map had such a slow start, otherwise 500ish AD Astro would have been very doable...

Now the "easy" part of the game is done, and I'll soon have to think about how to turn this into a (rather unlikely) win

Attached the 375AD save

@Lain

I think I've found out a few general thumb rules for isolated starts on deity, especially about early expansion

Spoiler :

Everything I will say here applies only to a game where you intend to double-bulb Astronomy

Only settle cities that will either...

a) Highly increase your overall commerce output. I'm not talking about distant, single desert gold + 1FP spots, but about cities that have at least 30-40BPT potential by 1AD, you really need to keep maintenance as low as possible. Remember that settling a new city increases the "number of cities" cost in every city? Therefore, the single desert gold + 1FP (let's say 12) spot doesen't pay for itself when you have 6 grown(ish) cities around 1AD. Cities that only provide hammers should be avoided, unless you're going Alpha anyways, then a really strong production spot can be a good settle even on isolation.

or...

b) Pump out GS for your bulbs. Here is the more tricky one. These cities don't always have to be high-food cities. Here there are different cases :

- 1) You have marble and a decent GL + NE spot. Then you only need 1 GP farm (maybe 2 if there's another really nice spot), and you should rather focus on a), as GS production isn't gonna be a problem, but getting Aesthetics + Litt + all the needed techs to free up the Machinery + Optics bulbs requires a lot of commerce.

- 2) You have spots with very high food (2 5+ food tiles or more) Then you should generally settle the high food spots and tech CoL, Caste System will get you the necessary GS easily enough. In this case it's usually better to get 4 GS total (Academy, Optics + 2xAstro), but you still have to tech Alpha and Maths

- 3) You are on a low-food island. Then you can't justify going for CoL, as you won't be able to run more than 2-3 scientists in most cities, even in those that you want to generate GPP with. Thus you have to generate 3 GS (Academy + 2xAstro) and self-tech everything. If you have a lot of high-commerce spots you might even skip Academy, which makes GPP production easier (see a)). To generate 3 GS by 600AD (this date varies a lot, but 600AD is usually a good Astro date), you have to run 2 scientists for 50 turns as the third GS costs 300GPP. This means that you're forced to have 3 different "GP farms" -otherwise 600AD Astro is off the table - set up by turn 90, i.e. 3 cities with a library at a high enough size to run 2 scientists by 625BC. However these cities don't need to have high food, so they can simply be the best non-commerce spots you find on your island. For example a copper + horses + dry wheat spot is better than a clam + dry rice spot, although the latter has more food. The main reason for this is that the better (lower food) spot will be more useful as soon as it is done pumping out GS. Now for the GS production order, the best you can do is to get the first GS in your best city (among those dedicated to GPP production ofc), the second in your second best city and the last in your crappiest city. I'm saying that because even if your crappiest "GP farm" happens to be your second city, you're usually better off getting the last GS from here and the first two from elsewhere, as you will be wasting less "potential" by putting less specialist pressure on your better spots. Here's an example (in spoiler cause it's taken from the current game) :

Spoiler :

I could have set up a library and started running scientists in Gergovia 2 turns earlier than in Tolosa. However, I decided to get the second GS out of Tolosa and the third GS from Gergovia. The reason for that is simply that Tolosa is a much better city (it has fish not shown in the screenshot), and it will help me whip caravels and more settlers when I get to Optics, which it couldn't do if it had to spend 17 more turns producing GPP, while Gergovia is pretty much useless anyway, so I'd rather have it spend more turns in GS-production mode. Hope this makes things clear

You can always catch up on expansion after Astro anyways, no one is gonna settle your island

My second point is that when playing isolation, the most important thing (pre-Astro) isn't to maximize your commerce or GPP, but to find an equal balance between commerce and GPP

Don't get me wrong, in 99% of the cases you will need to build an Academy somewhere, however, you don't always have to build an Academy before Astro

For example, in the Boudica Game, I could have stored my GS and gotten 500AD Optics instead of 375AD, but I would also have had 600ish AD Astro, and 800AD Academy, instead of 100BC Academy and likely 800AD Astro. Ideally, you should finish teching Optics / getting the last Astro prereqs at the exact turn where your second Astro-GS gets born. As Astro gives such an enormous boost in isolation games, this kind of timing is very important, and you sometimes have to make sacrifices for it.

I'll take the Boudica game as an example again. I decided to settle cities #3 and #4 as soon as possible, at the expense of capital infrastructure and cottaging (though I made a mistake not building one more worker early on ). But it still was a good choice, because this is a relatively high-commerce island, but it's very low on food and had a slow start, so getting the necessary GS to bulb Astro was the main issue. On the other hand, if you have a high-food-low-commerce island, you should often priorize increasing commerce (build cottages etc.) at the expanse of GS production.

Thus, I think we can all agree on a general guideline that applies to 99% of isolation games : if you have to work coast or unimproved tiles to generate the necessary commerce to free up the Astro bulbs, OR if you find yourself waiting 10+ turns for the last Astro GS to come, you are probably doing something wrong

Hope this helps

 

[Lain]

A lot of good thoughts there . Yeah I think I learned a lot by playing this map and I would change a few things if I replayed now (like you did compared to your first try?). That being said, I am a bit surprised that you are doing so great with only 4 cities . I settled the Copper-Helper-City too, because I felt that there are too many FPs nobody uses for a long time otherwise. Increases maintenance, but what do you think? In your 375 BC save for example, Tolosa is running scientists and can't work a few of the cottages.

Think I also didn't have 3 cities dedicated to GS. Only 2. Another mistake. I had to use Caste System in the end... also Optics came later for me. Hmm. Settling the (future) capital first instead of that clam-crap probably helps. Could you have chopped the settlers in Bibracte instead of whipping them? You whipped away decent early tiles (Wine-Farms) for a few turns and it probably took a while to grow back. Probably a price you had to pay though? Since you wanted the cities up asap for GS production.

I am still not sure what to do when you have tons of food but no rivers. Go for CoL? That solves all GS problems, sure. But does it produce enough research to clear all pre-reqs (including Maths, Alphabet) for the bulbing? Reaching CoL + Monarchy without much commerce can also be kind of tough . We should play a game like this next.

Well I think you could win from this position. At least there is a decent chance. 375 AD Optics is very nice. So good luck

PS: You know that a barb could have spawned N of your new capital? 2 tiles from borders is not safe if you don't have vision of that tile. I am pretty sure about that.

Here:

Spoiler :

 

[Pedro78]

About my game :

Spoiler :

I don't think the helper city helps a lot : copper mine is nice for production, but without Alpha it won't give you many beakers. It would only have 1 FP cottage to work on its own and would be rather weak in the late game as it wouldn't have any food. I'll settle that city next and farm the FP, will be important in order to whip trebs/cannons. Overall I don't think it would have paid for itself before Optics : not only would it barely pay for itself in terms of commerce hammers, but it would have hampered capital development even further.

Tolosa didn't work some of the cottages but it grew back fast enough. I just started GS production as soon as I could, even now Astro will come in pretty late... I might even single-bulb it and tech the rest, use the second bulb for Edu maybe, if there's still a chance that I win lib, will have to meet the other guys before I decide on that.

I chopped the settlers in Bibracte, just I didn't have enough workers (only 3), the problem is getting another worker would have delayed GS production by another 3 turns at least... Not sure about that. Bibracte only whipped Granary + Library, but building Settlers with low hammers, + having to borrow rice + sheep to grow city #4 quickly enough killed Bibracte's early development. I could definitely have optimized it better though. Btw I noticed that you've cottaged the wine plain, I think farming it is much better, as 2F1H2C is much better than 1F1H3C, and a winery is also superior to a plains village at least.

Settling the cottage spot first helped a lot, short term and long term. It gave me quick commerce to reach early(ish) writing and Monarchy. After Bureaucracy + Astro (in 800AD, maybe even sooner, havent calculated yet) I'll probably have 400BPT, which will lead me to Steel quickly enough. Don't remember when lib went in your game or in my first game, but I'm pretty sure the lib->Steel move is off the table

The cities #2 and #3 in your game were pretty crappy (you had to settle them at some point, but a single-clam second city usually sucks). They did only bring you very little early commerce and hammers, and there was no long term benefit in settling them early. Don't get me wrong, had I not known the map already, I would have built one more warrior before settling the cottage spot

Yup I know that a barb could spawn, I just didn't feel like dedicating a warrior for only one tile to fogbust (1GPT maintenance + 15h for a single tile ). I had several warriors in Vienne by that time, so there wasn't much risk anyways. The chances of a barb Axeman spawning are pretty low, right? That would've screwed me up lol

Not sure about winning. If I manage to launch a 1200AD 15 cannons attack I'll probably win, not sure if that's possible though. I probably won't get out any GMs this game, food is too low, no marble etc... The cities with decent food will be whipped to the ground. I'll upgrade some trebs for sure, but these are pretty cheap to upgrade, so I won't need GMs for that (unless I'm first to Economics lol).

Generally speaking...

Spoiler :

I think no food + no rivers would be the real problem. Here's what I would do with lots of food but no commerce tiles (it's all theory, definitely have to try this out) :

Settle the two best cities the island has to offer and spam ugly (plains, hils, who cares?) cottages, which means getting Pottery ASAP. Then, while teching Monarchy + CoL, slowly set up 2 other high-food cities for GS purposes (first GS comes from capital most likely). Even with no rivers, you'll probably be able to get a decent Astro date this way, and you'll be in a good position for the late game. I'd even have high food / no rivers over high commerce / low food. The main problem with low food is very few mid-game GPs and low whipping potential, which is crucial when launching a naval invasion with ~6 cities. If you manage the early game well, you'll still have a good commerce output by the time you reach Astro, even without rivers.

If you have some kind of high food / low commerce isolation map with a non-philosophical, non-financial leader I'd be very glad to play it

 

[Pedro78]

Update to 840AD (1/3)

Spoiler :

Built 2 Caravels, sent 1 South and 1 West (kinda abused the map knowledge as I would normally have built one more).

Met Sally first...

Then Giggles...

These guys didn't even have Compass yet, early Optics really helps out.

Then my other Caravel arrived to the other continent, and I met Ragnar, Qin and Sury. Big time lovefest going on there, they're all friendly towards each other.

Tech situation doesen't look horrible, except for that ******* Joao who got 560AD Astro

I put some beakers into CoL and...

I get whatever I can from Optics, especially as Giggles and Sally haven't met anyone on the other continents, so I don't fear the "we fear you are becoming too advanced" thing.

Joao having Astro can be kind of useful...

(Took me some time to connect the copper lol)

Joao hasn't met anyone yet, that's kinda weird, so I close borders ASAP so he doesen't get any intercontinental trade route.

 

[Pedro78]

Update to 840AD (2/2)

Spoiler :

I circumnavigate, sell my maps etc... all the basic stuff...

800AD :

AAAARGHHH...

Sury was third in score, 7 cities, and still peace vassals to Qin... damn...

I get another settler and Galleon to settle the fish island to the south.

840AD Gilgamesh lib's Astro

I guess it's time to trade around and backfill :

Tech situation :

Stupid Joao still hasn't met anyone, WTF

Capital finally getting better (after Bureaucracy) :

Empire overview :

I guess 350BPT by that time isn't too bad for this kind of map, and I don't fear everyone switching into mercantilism, as Qin is in free market already and he's got twice as many cities as I do.

Really not sure about what to do there, probably take out Gilga + Sally with cannons, they'll most likely have rifles by then, it's gonna be a grind. Then take out Joao and develop until Artillery, I don't see space as an option here, maybe I'm wrong. Looks like it's gonna be a painful game.

Edit : sorry for multi-posting, but somehow I have a 10 screenshots per post limit

 

[Lain]

I took a look

Spoiler :

Think it's looking quite good. Steel will come soon enough. Next turn you can get Education+Engineering and start on Gunpowder right away. If anything, production will be a problem. Drafting would be good.

Sell Clam to Raggy for 11 gold? More important than 1 health I think. Maybe even the sheep for 8 gpt.

Maybe build Forge in Gergovia (rather than Harbor), you get to Steel quick enough as it is.

I feel strongly about taking out Joao first . Finish what I couldn't do. But I think there are good reasons for it...

- Pyramids, Great Library, Parthenon, etc...
- If you don't take him soon, Ragnar/Qin will soon enough. They are going to absolutely hate him (peace-weight+religion).
- closer to your land, easier to reinforce
- Saladin + Giggles are both protective... Joao is not. Also he is a bit of a wimp.
- Take Joao out completely -> no culture pressure
- Police State and more cities to draft/whip from will help to provide the numbers for the Hindu continent

I like that you see numbers (+2 etc) for relations between each AI. How'd you get that? I have BUG mod aswell. Hm, is there an option in the menu for that? Or do you have other mod aswell (BULL?)

Apparently I need the BUG DLL (BULL)... hm, just get that extra or is there anything to consider, like reinstall BUG mod completely?

nvm I found it but I don't have pre-chop option or hidden modifiers ... I can live without that though, don't want to install new stuff~ Have smilies+numbers now, I am happy.

 

[Pedro78]

Interesting...

Spoiler :

I didn't think about taking out Joao first, but now that you say that it's probably a good idea, especially as I'll get cannons before he gets rifles. Will probably still be able to take the hindu continent before they get to Assembly line.

If I can get PP + Edu + Engi/Guilds next turn, I'll have 400+ bpt and Steel will come in under 20 turns, production is gonna be an issue though. Will pre-build some trebs for an upgrade, and pre-build some maces/muskets as well, but it's still gonna be slow as I need to build barracks everywhere.

Good point about selling clams and building forge instead of harbor (might even skip the forge and start on barracks + units, not sure about that).

I'm running BUG + BULL. The numbers for relations between the AIs can be activated through the BUG menu, not sure whether it requires BULL or not, it's here :

Spoiler :

But wait, if you don't have BULL, there's a whole lot of things you can't do, like automated pre-chopping, right?

 

[Pedro78]

I lost.

Spoiler :

I managed to trade for Printing Press, Edu and Engineering (could only trade with Giggles, Sury and Saladin because the others werein WFYABTA mode). Then I teched to Steel with 400-450BPT. Technically I could have had Steel by 1140AD, which is not too bad here, I guess. But production and happiness were a huge problem. I started pre-building maces, muskets, cats and trebs but the whip anger + emancipation penalty (which came really early) did really hurt my capacity to build units. I didn't have a religion so I couldn't switch to Theocracy, which means only CR1 cannons.

I landed a pityful stack on Joao's territory in 1340AD, even forgot to upgrade 1 treb and 1 cat, not sure how that happened lol

He didn't show too much resistance but I was still very slow taking him out, especially as fighting cuirs is a PITA when you don't have at least grenadiers. Whip + emancipation anger + unit upkeep really slowed me down a lot on my way to Rifling.

1500AD I have Rifling and Joao doesen't seem to have any major stack left, I can finish him off pretty easily, not very quickly, though. But Gilgamesh and Saladin are both 1 tech away from Assembly Line and it'll take me ages to get to Artillery + Infantry + Combustion... In the meantime Qin has completed the Apollo Programm, and is on his way to launch probably in the mid-1700s, so there's no way I can win domination before he wins space.

That last turnset was a bit sloppy for sure, I didn't plan quite as well as I originally wanted to but well... I was sooo far away from winning anyways. Even if I replayed the map once more I don't think I could actually win, the land is just too crappy and I'm not (yet ) a good enough player...

Anyways, I'm not pissed off about this loss as I've really learned a lot from playing this game, and I'm looking forward for the next map

 

[Lain]

Ah, that's a shame .

Spoiler :

Looked really good for quite some time, you found a lot of improvements for the early game (compared to my attempt). So I was fairly optimistic. That Buddhist continent is brutal though. 3 Friendly guys who are decent techers aswell. That's a bit much. Wonder what you could have done differently though.

Maybe a few turns could be shaved off here and there, but I wonder if that's enough for this game. You gave it a good shot though . Probably deserved a better outcome than that.

Still need a bit of recovery time before the next map. A bit sad that we were so far away from beating this one. Hmm.

Maybe you could have won UN? Take out Joao, farm everything. Qin will build UN? Switch him out of religion and stuff, make Ragnar like you. Might also need Saladin + Giggle votes though... but could be possible, no? Hereditary Rule for Giggle+Ragnar (use spy points/bribes to switch them. And Theocracy for Saladin, he likes that)

 

[Pedro78]

I could have shaved a couple of turns here and there indeed. Probably could have gotten Astro 3 turns earlier and Optics 5 turns earlier or so, had I really pushed it. But I would have needed to attack almost 20 turns earlier to have a decent shot at a Domination victory... I really have no idea of how to do this, would be nice to see some veteran here play this one.

Spoiler :

Not sure about the UN...
Most of the world's population is on the Buddhist continent, and they're all friendly (by a wide enough margin) towards each other. So the whole continent would have voted for Qin. My votes + the Hindu continent's votes wouldn't have been enough to give me the win, at least with only 14 cities. Plus if someone else builds the UN, Qin will be the other permanent member.

On that kind of high-commerce, low food map, I'd almost go for culture. Even with really late religion spread, it's possible to get 3 strong cottage cities by Astro time, 9 cities and wait for religion autospread. Could most likely win culture in the 1700s on this map. Of course going for late culture means you're screwed if someone wins it before you do...

Maybe I'll give another shot at this map, trying to win culture.

 

[Pedro78]

@Lain

I happened to roll an "easy" isolation map. I thought we might play this next, this would probably encourage more people to play along.

Spoiler :

Very strong cottage capital with Hannibal, and juicy surrounding land (almost looks like it was cooked )

Edit : Attached the save if you wanna take a look

 

[Rusten]

Started playing the Boudica game and concerning the early game:

Spoiler :

Dry rice is a trap. IMO AH-mining is much better. Improve sheep and hills, hope for horses.
I settled 1NW on a wine tile. It provides another riverside mine (+original settler spot) in addition to +1 commerce from T0.

 

[Lain]

Glad to see you give it a go, @Rusten. We failed pretty horribly. Your input is greatly appreciated any time.

Spoiler :

Interesting that you found an improvement for the start already. Curious to see how it plays out.

And sure, @Pedro78, we can take that game... in a few weeks. The Boudica game kind of broke my soul for now, regarding isolation games. Maybe we can learn from Rusten in the meantime . Did you try going for culture by the way?

 

[Fippy]

Rusten's dry rice comment is so golden

Agri is really expensive with leaders like Boudi and her bad starting techs, but even on much better starts i look for excuses to skip when there are only few or weak farm tiles.
Sometimes the bonus on pottery and AH can be tempting, but it's so much more important to get stuff like BW & wheel sooner.
Hoping for horsies plays a role too, but it's imo just another bonus while a stronger start can be game deciding.

 

[Pedro78]

Very glad to see @Rusten playing that map, will watch this one carefully and hopefully learn as much as possible

The dry rice thing seems obvious now that you tell it... Anyways curious to see how you handle this map

Edit : oh and @Lain no I didn't try to go culture, kinda lazy right now

 

[Rusten]

I found some time to play on the last couple of days. Will make a spoiler with save and screens later. Situation looks pretty good overall.

@Pedro78
Looking at your write-up and 375 AD save some things come to mind:

You're unprepared for the Optics discovery. You should be ready to move caravels immediately upon discovery. You're only starting it from scratch in your cities.
To compare with my situation -- I only had 1 (western) city which was ready to whip/build caravels, so I pre-built a trireme and sent it to the eastern part of the island before optics discovery (and then upgraded it for 50 gold). And I pre-chopped a forest and had surplus production (whip) coming into the caravel city on turn of discovery.
As a result I had 2 caravels ready to move in each direction 1 turn after optics. How long did it take you? Faster caravels means faster trading for mathematics+alphabet = faster astronomy.
I also whipped a 3rd caravel to send south as we started so far north.

In general I don't like the bureaucracy-supercity plan.
-Making an academy makes it difficult to get the 3rd GS in time. I guess this (coupled with not finding AIs quick enough) is why you are later than me to Astronomy.

-You're at -7 health in your capital. I shared the fp/sheep spot between 2 cities to combat unhealthiness. Having 2 "good" cities rather than 1 great has many advantages. Especially post-astronomy (drafting/slavery will give a lot of unhappiness). While your commerce is very good you are also behind on infrastructure because of your city priorities. You are in no position to start whipping units any time soon. No forges ready and whipping at >size 10 is really bad. I have 6 cities compared to your 4 before Optics.

-Boudica is Agg/chm which means that running one of vassalage or theo is super-critical. When I got in contact with AIs I did not adopt bureaucracy, but vassalage, in order to pre-build units (5XP maces and trebs and a few pikes). After the first war the maces can even be upgraded to CR3 grenadiers. In short: Boudica has war traits so take advantage. I'd rather get steel a few turns later having units with 2 promotions available.

Also, don't trade for things like masonry. That's unnecessary WFYABTA.

@Lain I haven't had time to watch your LP video yet, so can't comment too much.