Chapter 1 – Explore
Great start with nearby mountains, high output luxuries, and plenty of forest and jungle hills. I start building a scout to explore and find huts and city states, then a war cart to find barbarian camps. And wow there’s plenty to find!
Get first envoys for Buenos Aires, Brussels, Yerevan, and Valletta! They are surrounding my capital, but thankfully there Is plenty of space around them for me to settle. Hopefully no one else is around! I was lucky to get two envoys from camps which I sent to Buenos Aires to become suzerain.
But of course there is. Gitarja and her Indonesian empire are to the north. Since I’m jungles and she has mercury north that’s probably the top, box her in and I’ll have plenty of space to expand east south and maybe west. She turns friendly so I do not worry for a bit, but I keep an eye south of her territory.
And then there is Alex. Very scary. Send him an envoy immediately and pray he’s busy with someone else. Thankfully he becomes friendly in a few turns and I can declare friendship. Phew! One crisis averted. At least for 30 turns. Finally Hojo’s scout appears for my third neighbor. With alex and gitarja so close with water to the east, he must be further away so I share capital info. He’s not happy. Whatever, he has to go through Alex which I highly doubt will happen.
While exploring I feel pretty protected so I build a builder then a settler, as the area to my east looks great for production. Research mining then animal husbandry to improve my capital’s lands. Science continues with pottery and writing to get early campuses, then archery to upgrade slingers. Irrigation to improve the luxuries then bronze working to find iron. Turns out I settled on horses! That might come in handy.
I settle Kish on the plains hill surrounded by production with rice for growth. I first build a monument, then a campus, then a library. 6 turns for a campus in my second city. Lovely. Eridu I settle north west
I then build another settler, and I receive the parthenon with a free settler! Boom time to expand and stake my territory. First I send one towards Gitarja which should be far enough away she will not get angry, protected by my warrior and war cart. I sent the other settler south west to go towards the coast and block Alex from creeping.
With those settlers out I start to build a monument then a campus. I go for foreign trade and craftsmanship, drop in the card for 50% production and produce 3 slingers, while going for military tradition, drop in 50% production to calvary, and beeline political philosophy.
I’m keeping a watchful eye on the land to Gitarja’s south, and I see her start to bring a settler. I really want to take that land, but I’m going for a peaceful win so maybe I can block long enough to get my latest settler up there. Then, something magical happens. Gitarja moves her settler right in front of my warrior flanked by my war cart. Idiot. I was going for a peaceful win but this changes everything. I take the settler with my warrior, then move once tile per turn healing my warrior as he gets attacked, until I can transfer protection to my war cart and bring the settler to the river to apply pressure on her cities. I send my archers north and start building one in Eridu since it is closest and has great production. We are going to war!