Ethiopia Photojournal: Random Tec Challenge 2

[CrazyG]

Hello everyone.

I'm repeating a challenge I did not finish before!

Spoiler Game Settings and Rules :

Standard Speed, standard size, Deity difficulty
No ancient ruins or tech trading
I meant to turn off events, but I forgot to.

Special Rules
Everytime a new tech is available, I will roll a dice to determine what I research next.
This includes any free techs I receive.

Spoiler Starting Position and Ethiopia Thoughts :

Its a nice start, good production. However, it needs a lot of science and I can't predict what I will research.
Ethiopia is a flexible civ with good early game. The Stele is great but the UU isn't.
I settle in place, I don't see much reason to move. Stele first is obvious. My social policies and pantheons will depend on the surrounding area, and on what techs I roll.

Spoiler First Tech :

Trapping is the first roll. Its alright, I want pottery.
I met a city state for some free culture. Cool.
The first tile I worked was the wheat. After growing, I'm choosing to work the forest here. The governor will default to the 2 food coast, which is really stupid.
I want to build a Stele ASAP, working the production finishes the Stele 2 turns earlier. That's worth 10 yields. Growing right now isn't very valuable.
At this point, I'm thinking about Progress.

Spoiler Second Tech :

The wheel is chosen. I discover some deer (excellent) and some Fish that can't be worked. My pathfinder takes trailblazer. I met another cultural CS, but I wasn't the first. China appears to be to my north.
Look at that natural wonder. Hopefully I discover pottery in time to settle it before China does. There are many good settling locations.
I build a worker next. I bought that floodplain after my tiles grew to amber. I want to grow to 3 population, then focus on production.

Spoiler Third Tech :

Pottery. Hell yes. I also took progress, speeding up my research by a lot. My pathfinder is defending my first worker, who is building a farm on the flooplain.
I put a couple turns into an archer, then switch to settler once I discover pottery. I also bought that amber tile because it speeds up the settler one turn. Normally not a big deal, but I don't know where China is and I want to settle that natural wonder.

Spoiler Fourth Tech and Pantheon :

Animal Husbandry is chosen as my next tech. After choosing my pantheon, I will get another free tech (still random).
Also, I sighted a comet and took 100 GAP points. I left events on by accident, oh well let's see how they go.

What pantheon to take? They are all available.

 

[amateurgamer88]

I wonder if you can make Goddess of Nature work. You're going for the Natural Wonder and there are a couple of mountains nearby. Where you settle exactly is your choice but this Pantheon seems the least reliant on what tech you get.

 

[Minh Le]

Nature is a bad pick IMO, I would go for the pantheon that gives science, or food, but I think I like science.

 

[civplayer33]

God of Craftsmen would turn your Steles into beastly buildings indeed, and with all that Amber you'll have plenty of Quarries...although who knows when you'll get the tech for that

God of the Expanse synergizes nicely with your Stele and you could try and make this game about wide border expansion yield triggering but I guess that would require Authority and war.

God-King is probably also nice, especially since you don't need much extra Faith right away what with your Steles and it scales up nicely.

If I was picking techs deliberately then I might try GoC, but GK is also really nice; those two would be my favorites.

 

[amateurgamer88]

Nature is a bad pick IMO, I would go for the pantheon that gives science, or food, but I think I like science.

If you look at my wording, I was wondering if @CrazyG can make it work. He's a pretty good player so I want to hear his thoughts as to why it can or cannot work.

 

[Han_YOLO]

I would say Wisdom. You have plenty of faith already with Stele and will not have much trouble founding so can afford to defer short-term faith gain pantheons for longer-term faith gain and short-term science gain of Wisdom. Extra science will help if the RNG does not go your way on tech selection.

 

[CrazyG]

I wonder if you can make Goddess of Nature work. You're going for the Natural Wonder and there are a couple of mountains nearby. Where you settle exactly is your choice but this Pantheon seems the least reliant on what tech you get.

Deity + random tech is actually really hard, I don't feel the need to make it harder. Goddess of Nature is okay here, but having a pantheons that does nothing in your capital hurts a lot.

Wisdom and Expanse are both decent options, but I went with God-King. Its a pantheon people like to bash, but Craftsmen would have been really good here. I didn't pick it because of my random tech order, I don't know when I'll have quarries unlocked.

 

[CrazyG]

Spoiler Fifth and Sixth Techs :

My free tech was Calendar (useless at the moment).
Next is mining (also usless)
For my next social policy, I took the free worker and the gold. My wokers improved the wheat, deer and horses (which were revealed). I get +1 faith on horses, with the improvement its a great tile.
Second city is down, builds a Stele and works the natural wonder. My pathfidner is just scouting the area for barbarians, it appears that the CS took out the camps.
Capital is building another settlers, my workers move towards the newer cities.

Spoiler Seventh Tech :

Fishing (boo)
I also get another social policy, I take the food and science. Another settler is in position.
Steles get invested, I built an archer so I have another combat unit, and so I could grow. I got an event for +50 food.
Both CS gave me quests to discover China. China has built both Stonehenge and the Pyramids, it looks like she will snowball to become a huge threat like basically every game featuring China. I sell her some horses because I have a ton on my land.

Spoiler Eighth Tech :

Military theory takes only one turn to research, due to the CS quests.
I get +1 faith on all monuments. The other options are so much weaker for this decision.

Spoiler Ninth and Tenth Techs :

I forgot to take pictures.
Ninth tech was Mathematics (boo)
Tenth tech was Construction (hooray)
Two more cities go down, and my third and final settler is moving into position.
My happiness is really bad, you can't settle if its lower than -9.
My farms were pillaged by an event, by repairing them, I get my happiness one point higher, high enough to settler my final city.
All cities built Stele first. Then either council or worker. I need 8 workers for this land.
I need city connections to increase my science and fix happiness issues.

Spoiler China is Snowballing :

She builds the Parthenon on turn 77. Jesus that's fast. She also has the Great Library, and is far ahead in culture.
I've met Songhai and Greece on another continent (but still very close). Songhai still has only 1 city.
All my cities have their tiles locked on the high production options.

Spoiler Religion :

Religion on Turn 83. Two religions have already been founded, I haven't met the civs.
One is Islam, with Divine Inheritance and Mastery. I suspect this is Arabia.
The other is Protestantism, which could be just about anyone. They took Way of the Pilgrim and churches.

What religion should I take?

 

[nemoens]

Hmm, tricky one. If you have any idea whether China are likely to found, it would help, because if they're not, they're sitting there as a very juicy conversion opportunity for either the science + production or food + GAP spread options. You could also really do with the positive diplomatic modifier for shared religion if they're going to snowball and be your main northern border.

That said, if they found, you may need to take choices aimed at fighting them off culturally/militarily.

 

[Minh Le]

This game looks really hard. Looking forward to see how you can win this. China will probably found, Its very rare China cant found a religion.

 

[Gazebo]

What version are you on?

 

[CrazyG]

I'm almost certain China will found a religion and we will go to war. My final city is actually settled mostly for defense. My three border cities are all settled on hills.

What version are you on?

Not the most recent. December's I think