This game might not be that easy after all. Yes, I have some good land, but so does my neighbours (some have even better starting locations) and Darius and Willem are very good techers. Furthermore I don’t have any real commerce resources, just a bunch of riverside tiles. Normally I find my games are more successful with poor/mediocre land and some natural resources rather than a bunch of good tiles which needs to be worked. The cities will become very powerful, but it could take some time and time is something you don’t have a lot of in deity games—especially vs. Darius and Willem coupled together. I wanted to showcase a strategy of getting steel from liberalism with lots of GS usage, but that might not work here as I probably can’t hold off on liberalism.
I decided to get that 3rd worker out before the settler after all. After finishing it I put some hammers into a granary while growing to size 5 and then started on another settler.
Darius researched the alphabet very early this game, he had it when I randomly checked at about 1800 BC. Furthermore he does not have mysticism, so I decide to opt for the Oracle. I have a lot of forests and a capital with a lot of production. I also need to make sure I have something to trade around to these big techers. If I end up too far behind there’s no real way to catch up. Darius and Willem tend to go for religions too which means philosophy can't be relied on as much.
Whether I’d successfully get the Oracle was questionable at the time, but at any rate it’s not a big side-track here. The techs required are cheap and with Cahokia producing a lot of
I could simply take the gold from not finishing it in time and use it to fund more expansion. It’s pretty much a win/neutral situation—can’t hurt me much but there’s a lot to gain. I finished pottery since last stop and now start on meditation -> priesthood.
I’ve finished my settler but I decide to settle south-wards instead of approaching Darius. As I mentioned above the one thing that I lack is commerce resources to get me started and the closest thing to that is down there—a riverside wine tile. I usually don’t pursue wine that actively, but being riverside it’s a very good tile. Furthermore the city can borrow the pigs from Cahokia (has enough food) and share the cows with Poverty Point. It can also start maturing cottages for Cahokia in time for bureaucracy—I’d rather have Cahokia work the riverside grassland hills.
I saw some threads where people were complaining about the AIs city placement. I can’t relate too much to that—I find the blue circles and AI cities to be founded in good spots most of the time. Here’s an example:
Perfect spot; exactly where I wanted it. This city might prove marginal later on in the game, but I tend to go for the immediate gain in most scenarios. Being able to work the pigs the moment it's settled is a very big boost and time-saver. The important thing is to keep up with the AIs early on and be able to get some trading done.
Also note that nobody’s sharing religion here. I’m happy that I have a philosophical civ because chances are I won’t be able to use pacifism this game as I’m not spiritual. With spiritual I could sneak in and out in burst but I’d have to commit here as anarchy is troublesome—staying in paganism will probably be my choice unless something happens.
At some point between 1600 and 1400 BC Darius finished researching currency as well.
It was quite scary at first, but the benefit is most certainly there. As I mentioned earlier Darius did not have mysticism, so now I get to sell him all of my Oracle techs. Selling does not count towards WFYABTA (only received techs) so these are great deals (although the last 2 were very cheap for him). I start off by selling him mysticism for 40 gold.
The Oracle is still up for grabs at 1320 BC so I decide to go for it aggressively now. I had prepared a bunch of forests (pre-chopped) and whip out a settler for overflow.
By turn 70 / 1200 BC I can relax a bit—the Oracle is mine. I’m going to pick metal casting for trade bait.
I sell meditation to Darius for 30 gold and priesthood for 20.
Time to use that whipped settler for something. I decided to grab some land to the west now.
I didn’t agree with the blue circle this time (the AI wanted the city 1N of where it is now)—moving it 1S has some big benefits to it. For starters I'll get to work the pigs much earlier (no need for a border pop) but it also borrows a riverside grassland from the capital meaning that this city can start maturing a cottage for Cahokia too. It can work the pigs, the grassland cottage and a farm and then whip a granary and a library once it reaches size 4. After the initial whipping I will probably run a lot of specialists there. It will have a lot of food with the banana and as I mentioned in one of my earlier threads I almost never cottage regular grassland without a financial leader. It simply takes too much time to get something in return in my experience. On lower levels you work yourself through the technology tree at a slower rate which means you have more time to work your cottages, but on deity everything flies by so fast. If I work more tiles there it would have to be the grassland hills.
A look at the technology screen:
- metal casting to Darius for monarchy, sailing and 10 gold.
- metal casting to Willem for the alphabet.
A second look at the technology screen shows that Washington is lacking knowledge of writing (and thus the alphabet)—I’ll use that to trade for IW with him soon.
Willem is Washington’s worst enemy already. It seems I won’t get attacked early on this game.
Pausing this at 975 BC, here’s a look at the land and city builds.
I just found out about the iron and getting it is a big priority. The settler in progress in Cahokia is going to settle the yellow X. I have a chariot on his way to fogbust the spot.
I’m going to grow Poverty Point to size 4 and then hopefully whip out a settler for the red X. The rice is in Gordium’s 2nd ring so I should be able to take control of it. I’ll have the irrigated banana too thus I can whip out buildings producing culture with ease. Mound city will probably be set to getting some more workers.
I haven’t been able to get an early GP this time, there’s been so much else to do. As things stand my first GP will probably be a prophet—that’s the downside to getting the Oracle, that stupid GPP pollution.
I'll probably have research at 0% for some time. I want to get some libraries up before devoting my commerce to
and I also want to see what the AI is getting and plan my research accordingly for some trades.
I guess it wasn't meant to be.
?
