(Greebley, cities appear empty because 'Show Units over Cities' is disabled)
Sioux, 1750BC
Oh well, at first look I thought we managed to screw up this game big time already, especially the war preparations and research.
But after playing, situation looks a lot brighter.
Nevertheless, a few things I heavily disagree on:
·Building Workers from the Capital is an absolute
. Settlers, not great, but sometimes needed. Workers, NEVER! Especially when you need units like mad, and by all means need the Great Library, thus one city must be beefed up in size and structures as far as possible.
·What makes this so surreal is when another city builds regular Champions instead
. Bison River could have pumped out a Champ every turn while still growing for several turns. Wounded Knee is capped at size 2 without border expansion…a monument instead of two near useless regular Champs, and this city could build a Worker or even Cultivator already. Especially since we need to pull in the Sugar ASAP anyway…
Regular units hurt even more since we’re already paying unit support.
·Research: Mathematics was a gamble, but worked out well. No problem with that. After that, we should have headed for Dynasticism; however, while we did research Urbanization, we still lacked Ritualism (dead cheap, I bet it would have been possibly to get in a Math trade; and would have revealed Incense) and Writing (more expensive to buy than research, because of the Embassies).
·We definitely missed the window of opportunity for a war against Babylon. Checking for their Gov as indicator when they’ll have Spears is a good idea in general; but obviously, we would have needed to strike exactly when they’re in Anarchy, not start building up our forces. A Deity Civ in Monarchy and Golden Age should be able to research Bronze Working in two or three turns, while pumping out 2.2.1 Bowman in insane numbers.
The Save
Report:
Veto 2 of 3 builds
; no Workers from the capital (Champ instead), Wounded Knee needs a border expansion more than everything (Monument),
IBT:
Bowman defeats something, if Hammu wasn’t in a GA already, now he is.
Turn 1: 1725
Whack Barb, Elite Champ.
Turn 3: 1675
IBT:
Wounded Knee completes Monument
Barbs kill German Clan in the N.
Turn 4: 1650
Evacuate WK to absorb the 2 Barbarian Horses (didn’t work completely btw, one Horses kept moving toward Bison River, but could be slayed for the loss of a Champ)
IBT: Urbanization-> Ritualism
Turn 5: 1625
Declare on
Persia, move in: Reg TG, 2 reg Champs, 1 Elite Champ, 1 Vet Champ
I mean, if you have to choose between a Golden-Aging Civ right next to you with Spears and Bowman, and a far away Civ with TGs and Horses next to our borders, what would you do?
Turn 6: 1600
Capture Ashur. Was size 1, but expanded borders (see below). Waste the reg Champs first to take some HPs off the 2 TGs, we’re over the limit anyway.
Risk 2 Champs against Barbs, and the RNG is on our side.
Turn 8: 1550
IBT: Ritualism->Writing
Turn 9: 1525
We have Incense near Little Bighorn
Turn 10: 1500
Get a Slave from a Barb Horse in the Jungles S of Little Bighorn, but the Champ is a lost case.
Make peace with Persia, getting us – sit tight! – Mysticism, Caste System, Fermentation and Boat Building for 2gpt and 10gp
NOTES:
*Cultivator should by all means grab the Iron, escort him well; at least 3 units. Next Cultivator to the Gold.
*Capital needs Shrine, Granary, Palace Gardens. We can afford one Hardy from it for the Gold, but only one. Let me emphasize it again:
If someone dares to build anything but Infra (production boosters, Shrine, Granary), the Palace Gardens and units (but only when we really need them!) from the Capital, I will get *really* angry.
Remember, we cannot prebuild the Glib. We need to make 25+spt in a city to really have a shot, and the 80sp for the Library already in the box when we get Literature. Note we have 2 SCI Civs nearby, with Libraries at 24sp.
*Research: Dynasticism. Then straight to Literature. Try to trade for Construction by all means; trade away all required techs we’re eventually up in the lower branch (the AI will head for the upper techs first), but be careful with optional things like Drama.
*Ashur would be a good place for the FP (with 3 of those available, don’t wait to get it up ASAP in a 2nd ring city). If we decide on that, move the Gold Town 1 S.
Some general notes on Deity RaR
Compared to c3c Diety:
About equally difficult as long as everybody is in Chiefdom;
for a very short period (after Monarchy is spread around) you can outexpand the AI (they have to adapt to the more expensive Settlers);
from that until we get Crop Rotation, it will go downhill. Really downhill. Military situation looks brighter, but AI expansion and Growth compared to yours feels more insane than unmodded Sid! With their growth bonus on Deity, they’ll have lots of size 12+ cities…if we have one at size 8, we’re lucky. They also will outreseach us like nothing.
Once we can irrigate, we will catch up with ease (unless we are attacked by too many Cuirassiers). From that moment, it will get easier; the endgame will be a lot less tedious than regular Deity, simply because advanced units are so expensive even for the AI. No 50+ units SoDs, quality and proper tactics matter more. If we can field a single Tank Army, they game should be in the bag.
Note this applies for an AGR Civ; a SEA Civ on Archipelago feels different (should be able to keep up in techs, but will fall back even more in size). Neither AGR nor Sea, ouch.
Can we make it without the Great Library?
Seriously, no. This is not the usual pessimism; without familiarity with the mod, I’m convinced it is impossible. I think I could do it by pointy stick (the key are mass upgrades to Cataphracts), but that requires a lot of experience with RaR.
Could be a challenging concept for the next SG, btw
The expanded cultural borders of Ashur:
It’s impossible that it came by structures, they must have sacrificed a Slave. But: You should get only 2cp from a Slave. However, I’ve seen that several times already, so I’m convinced there’s a bug: The AI will always get 10cp from sacrificing, regardless of the settings – only the Human is affected from them. So far, I wasn’t able to verify that (simply because I never had an Embassy or peace treaty); if you observe an odd border expansion like the one of Ashur (which should have happened immediately upon capture, in the AI movement phase, not the production phase!), by all means keep a save.
I can pull out the tribal guardsman from Ogala, but that leaves the city without protection -> if the barb attacks, we'll lose all our shields already put to the Slave Trade. Other very possible situation is that we'll lose the worker. 
