Expansive Dreams

[sturick]

The Reign of Shaka Sturick

Everything in the land looks good...

(1) 2625 BC

I begin moving the warrior to the second city site and begin mining the plains hill for hammers.

(2) 2600 BC

Now that the chop is in I need to decide whether I want to 2pop whip out the settler
There is 31 overflow now with 12 growth so I will wait and do it next turn for max overflow into a worker!

I also move the other worker to the riverside hill to get a mine up over there.

(3) 2575 BC

I whip out the settler with 43 overflow...gotta make use of our abundant food resources.

As the warrior moves into position we meet this guy...

Grandad...I have a question for you.
Did you mess around with the settings for this game and not tell us?
Because if you take a look at the demos page it shows that Willem is the founder of Christianity?!?!?

Either this is a wacky bug or you have been sneaky Grandad...

(4) 2550 BC

Moving on...

The overflow lets us build a four turn worker so I get started on that.
Coulda built a one turn ikhanda but I figured the worker is more pressing what with two cities to improve upon soon.

(5) 2525 BC

Nothing of note...I am still quite baffled by the whole Christianity thing.

(6) 2500 BC

Pretty boring...

(7) 2475 BC

Umgu is founded...well thats what I'm calling it anyways!
It gets started on a 15 turn monument...gotta love the plains hill hammer bonus!

The mining worker finishes so I send him to road to the copper.

(8) 2450 BC

Nothing to write home about...

All the workers are now feverishly working to hook up the copper.

(9) 2425 BC

Pottery arrives and I queue up a 35 turn Iron Working....UGGGHH!
I get started on a granary for Ulundi.

I think I might actually change my mind on the Iron Working...I hope this isn't too big of a blunder.

Here is why...Ulundis borders will pop in about 12 turns and will allow us to mine the gems just NW of Ulundi that are unjungled...we have copper so we can build impis and axes.
Why spend 35 turns researching a tech to chop a jungle we don't need to yet and
for the hope that it will pop in our BFC...that blank mine could be coal for all we know!
Or worse yet...it could just be blank!

But if I don't research IW the only techs that make sense are masonry to hook up the stone...well we won't have stone for at least another 20 turns so that would be a waste.

Or potentially writing to build libraries...writing makes more sense than masonry.
But since I whipped we won't need to run any science specs for a while so that would be a bit of a waste too.

Well after much hemming and hawing I decide to stick with the plan and tech IW.
Please chime in with your thoughts on the subject...wish I would have noticed this yesterday so we could have discussed it further!

(9) 2400 BC

Nada...

(10) 2375 BC

We meet two new rivals...

Mao

Sury

Neither has founded Islam so that is good news
Both came from the south.

(11) 2350 BC

Still making roads...

(12) 2325 BC

Mine is built and will be hooked next turn!

(13) 2300 BC

Copper is connected!

(14) 2275 BC

Workers now fan out to improve both cities...making roads to hook up gems and farm Umgus corn.

(15) 2250 BC

Yawn...

(16) 2225 BC

Willem founds a city...

(17) 2200 BC

Umgu finishes its monument and begins the granary.
Crazy...a monument and a granary in 18 turns!

Ulundi is now ready to grow to size 4 so I whip its granary for 33 overflow into the scouting impi.

(18) 2175 BC

Workers now building a mine at Umgu while they wait for Ulundis border to pop for the corn farm.

I also have a worker with a warrior escort building a road to the gems.

(19) 2150 BC

Waiting for a border to pop...

(20) 2125 BC

A forest grows near Umgu...yay for chopping!

(21) 2100 BC

Well I was wrong in thinking that Ulundis border pop would give Umgu the corn tile.

Here is a pic of our empire as we know it.

Spoiler :

No harm...it is roaded and ready to be farmed in 11 turns when Umgus borders pop.

Wrapup

I feel like I stunted Ulundis growth a little with the two whips...
However, I did get Umgu founded about 5 turns ahead of schedule and added an extra worker to the workforce.

Just out of curiousity I will go back and see if not whipping would have been the better play. I promise...no cheating...just a bunch of whacking enter.

I also didn't get any scouting done...which disappoints me since I usually champion scouting efforts.
I will comfort myself by remembering that I am setting up the next player for some scouting success.
Ulundi is ready to start cranking units and workers/settlers again.
We will have two scouting impis ready to roll in 8 turns..one in two and another six turns later.

Umgu will be a early powerhouse!
At size 6 and working the corn, gems, copper and three mines (one plains two grass) it will generate 17 hammers!
That is pretty much a 3 turn axe or impi!
We could stagnate at size seven with another grass mine...with a forge we would pump out 25 hammers here!
Thats a 2 turn axe or impi!

The gem mining worker is now unescorted...so keep an eye on him.
I had the warrior back to Ulundi to prevent unhappiness when growing to size 4.

And finally...if anyone has a reasonable explanation for how Willem can found Christianity in 3350 BC I'd love to hear it.
Not to mention the fact that while no one has founded Judiasm he is running Organized Religion which requires Monotheism.

Roster
Grandad1982--->up next
Charles Li --->on deck
Pigswill--->in the hole
Sirloin
Cripp7
Sturick--->just played

 

[sturick]

Okay so took a quick trip back through the save.

Ulundi is about one size smaller than it would be...
In my game it is size 3 growing in 2 and impi in 2
In the unwhipped game it is size 4 growing in 3 and impi in 2.

However, Umgu is founded 4 turns earlier.
In my game it is growing in 2 granary in 3.
In the unwhipped game it is growing in 6 and granary in 6.

The earlier worker resulted in a few more roads being built and the gems mine and mine/chop at Umgu will be done a few turns sooner than they would have in the unwhipped game.

I did lose us 20 beakers towards Iron Working...

So all in all it was a mistake but a small one...sorry gang.
I think I just assumed that whipping in a city with 2 corn was the optimal play...live and learn.
But its nothing we can't overcome!

 

[cripp7]

Once writing is in, OB with Wang to scout his land. 2-3 impis for scouting, get an Ik in both cities.

 

[Sirloin]

Sturick, there is a custom setting for "Choose Religions" that lets you pick any unfounded religion when you research a tech that would found one. So, Christianity was picked when Willem discovered Poly (would have been Hinduism). Its purely cosmetic.

 

[grandad1982]

As Sirloin says its choose religion. I get fed up with hindu and buddist blocks so I like to see some variety.

cripp7 do you want to take the game for the weekend as I have a wedding to go to and don't want to skip again (I want a turn!).

Roster would be....

Roster
Grandad1982 - on deck
Charles Li
pigswill
Sirloin
sturick
cripp7- up now

In terms of game plan for the next set I'd suggest getting a settler out and starting on another settler pod after that.

Us Ulundi as the settler pod pump and get uMgung to start pumping some troops.

After IW, I think writing. Not really for the Libs but because its on the way to currency which is a priority tech fo me usually (need to rescue my REX economies somehow).

On the stone front if we did hook it up (via masonary before writing) would we try for the mids?

How are we planning on getting our beakers and cash? Specs? Commerce from cottages? This might determin the what path we take in terms of tech and strat quite soon.

I normally go cottage heavy with a GP farm and maybe specs to cap growth. I settle my GPs in cities that I know I'll put the corisponding national wonders. Not so good at spec heavy and bulbing routes. If someone wants to teach me thats fine by me!

 

[Terrance888]

Well, Currently, you have 18 Production with -8 food with 4 Citizens (Mine the Hills,) and +8 food with two more Citizens on the Corn. In the Mid term, a 6 Citizen City stagnating growth at 18 production is good, and it gets the 25% bonus for 4.5 more Worker production for 22 production of workers. (5 Turns when Grown). If you settle in place, this will be able to pump a Worker every turn, and 3 Axemen in 5 turns.

Yeah, I predicted Ulundi's Massive production capacity from settling in place by page 2. Keep up the good work! Checking the Map to see any god spots to rex!

 

[Terrance888]

Commerance/Settler Pump

with Acceptable Production early game and strong commerance by Calender, this city will soon take the reigns as the Settler Pump, and then recover the economy soon after. However, if needed, the city can be placed west to 'steal' less tiles, or somewhere north for flood plains.

5 Hills, Gold and Stone

The Best Place over there, with 5 Hills (1 Plain, 1 plain gold, 3 Grass) Giving 3+4+3(3)= 17 hills production and not counting the Stone (or the Floodplain farms.) This would be a production monstar with a few farms. Contray it can be placed 1 west for the Sugar Food and 1 Desert, 2plains in exchange for 2 grass, flood and 1 hill. However, the Mountain restricts this powerful positon.

Image Soon.

EDIT: Image here, and look, With cities settled, THREE Hybraid Cities! Food/Production, Gold/Production, Gold/Production: All cities can generate a respectable 10 production by themselves!

EDIT EDIT: 1 North, you get a 3 Food City instead of Sugar, get two flood plains, loses spices and corn. Not worth it unless going for cottages as easily invadable and hard to defend teh FP cottages unless we scout out Wang and eventually destroy him.

 

[cripp7]

pre-Turn
switch tech to Masonry to hookup stone
hit enter

Turn 77
zz

Turn 78
Ulindi impi>Ikhanda Impi sent west scouting
mine done, roading to stone
granary in uMg for 45 overflow

Turn 79
uMg granary>Ikhanda

Turn 80
uMg Ikhanda>impi

Turn 81
gems hookup +1

Turn 82
zzz

Turn 83
zzz

Turn 84
Ulindi Ikhanda>impi

Turn 85
masonrr>iw

Turn 86
zzz

Turn 87
uMg border pop, moving to farm corn
Ulindi impi>axe sent e to scout/fogbust

Turn 88
uMg impi>axe sent nw to scout
Meet JC

Turn 89
zzz

Turn 90
found horse se of gold

Turn 91
zzz

Turn 92
Ulindi axe>settler

Turn 93
zzz

Turn 94
zzz

Turn 95
settler in Ulindi
Wang has 3 cities now

Turn 96
Ulindi settler>axe


stopped here
2t from IW and we need to discuss city options here as wang is moving towards us with a settler/archer right where the cyan spot is. Settler is waiting, threw up a dotmap (BUG3.6)
I think the yellow for chariots, Wang having def archers. axes,chariots,hopefully sword

Spoiler dotmap :

 

[Terrance888]

Nice Dotmap! I should have used the Bug Dotmapper but the Bug mod I have has Bugs in it.

Grandad is up.

 

[sturick]

Okay...thank you for the explanation on the choose religion tick on the setup.
It all makes sense now...I shoulda figured it out when I went to the tech screen and it said first to tech founds a religion.
Sorry Grandad...didn't mean to go all consipiracy theorist on you.

Regarding your set Cripp...well done sir...I do have one critiscism.

I question the switch to Masonry...curious as to your reasoning there.
What do we gain by hooking up the stone now when we will reap zero benefit out of it.
We aren't building any wonders right away are we???
Plus we won't work that tile in Umgu any time soon.

IW would help us make our dotmaps more efficient by pointing out the iron locations.
It also could possibly boost production in a current city.

Writing would give us OB with Wang for scouting purposes.

I invite people to critique my play as needed too...I only get better when I get feedback after my sets so bring it on when I deserve it.

Moving on...I think your scouting was spot on.
The desert wasteland to our SW is abysmal...uggh

I really like the dotmap...i agree with green, red and yellow.
Cyan is probably fine but I imagine Wang will settle that spot out of play.
Heck he might settle red and yellow out of play so I propose we get our hustle on and pump out another settler rather than the axe in Ulundi. If we switch now we can get the chop to go towards the settler. It will be ready to go in 10 turns that way.
We could redirect the impi just west of Korea to fogbust for it.

Well I have more but I gotta finish up here...

 

[Sirloin]

Dotmap looks good, I would settle the western green spot with a quick followup on the eastern yellow.

We need to decide when to attack. I think Korea will be a hassle to take cities from with axes or swords, especially if he settles on the cyan hills, but his territory is clearly where we will be expanding at some point in the future. By zooming in, I'm pretty sure Seoul isn't on a hill so if we want to go for it, thats fine with me but its a gamble. Otherwise, we can just harass him now and take his cities later. If he doesn't have metal he's pretty screwed against Impi so we can shut him down hard without much effort. If we're going to expand, the southern desert area has mostly terrible city sites, so I would spam settlers to grab the good nearby northernish land, harass WK now to prevent any additional expansion, and plan to start taking his cities with cats/phants.

In the meantime (or at some point), lets grab the Pyramids. We haven't seen any industrious rivals, and we have stone, so I think its a good choice after 1-2 more settlers. Again, I trend towards a peaceful early game, so if you warmongers want blood now, thats totally OK with me too.

Northern dots:

Spoiler :

Worthless sourthern dots:

Spoiler :

 

[pigswill]

Worth considering that if Wang gets to construction for hwachas then swords/axes/impis are effectively obselete.

There's a site to the north east that grabs stone,gold and a couple of FPs and an oasis to feed the city but we'll have to be quick to grab the sites.

 

[grandad1982]

Ok got it. Won't play till monday as I'm about to go out and am away all weekend drinking champagne and eating nice stuff. Its a hard life.

I too am confused by the switch to masonary. Would have rather writing or finish IW. How ever now we have it we should consider the mids.

I agree with the dot map. Horse city will need at least 2/3 workers to make any good in the near future but seems a logical block to Asoka.

As for the second city I think pigswills city 1SE of the stone catching gold is a nice idea but probaly woin't happen. If we did though then we can put a costal river city working the fish to the S.

Tech wise I suggest our future path is Writing > Math > Construction > ?Currency?

Also we need to start to consider diplomacy. Wang and Asoka are in religion together but both not that strong. I now suspect Wang doesn't have copper as he is rated weaker than us. Who do we want to become our trading partners. JC could be a good war allie in the future. Willem a tech trade partner as could Asoka if he ever gets going.

Do we want to focus our limited EP on anyone in particular. Either a war target (not Wang) or a good techer for stealing in the future? Maybe Asoka as after Wang he could be next in our sites depending on what recon reveals.

So lots to think about.

Thats it for me ATM. Have a nice weekend and I'll play monday when I'm home.

 

[Sirloin]

Speaking of the NE, what do you think about sending our 2nd settler to the blue dot I marked "Unlikely" instead of the spot marked "Second"

 

[cripp7]

yeah that was my bad on the masonry switch. I should have gone IW >writing. Or at least switch to writing and then finished IW to scout out Wang. Pigs you saying that Wang's UU obsoletes everything? I did not realize that.

I agree with the city's settling order.

 

[pigswill]

Hwacha is a catapult that gets 50% bonus against all melee units. Eles and cats won't be affected however.

 

[grandad1982]

IW is in and I'm looking to settle the second city of the set.

c2 and c2* are the "second" and "unlikely" respectivally according to the previous Dot map.

As you can see there is a source of iron next to Wangs new city. The second and unlikely site don't put this in a BFC and would give Wang a metal (something we don't want).

I'm leaning towards settling alt c2 and trying to get a culture push on to keep the iron out of Wangs hands.

Please let me know what you think so I can finish the set!

 

[cripp7]

sounds goods on alt2 good, we'll need to run a lot of to get it eventually.

 

[pigswill]

Bit confused about Wang having access to metal. The reason for calling off the impi rush is that Wang had copper in BFC, if he's got copper then (in the short term) having iron as well is not a problem.

 

[Terrance888]

Except we didn't check his cap yet! What happened with scouting those two hills? The tiles are still dark and I Think a ten turn open borders won't do any harm.