As I mentioned earlier, this start was chosen because I wanted to continue experimenting with the NE/NP combo that I tried in the previous game. Like the previous game, the capital starts with a high amount of food and forests. One key difference, though, is the presence of flood plains nearby. This makes it more likely that a neighboring city to the west, for example, will have enough good tiles in its own area that it doesn't need to borrow many good tiles from the capital--allowing the capital to keep more forests while still working good tiles.
I settled in place and looked forward to the great start I could have with the pair of cities near these food resources and the flood plains to the west.
After feeling the initial rush of finding such great land to settle, I saw Wang Kon's city appear to the south, just next to my capital, long before I could get my 1st settler out, leading to a sense of urgency to hurry my settlers--and also stealing some of the precious land nearby that I considered as mine only a moment ago.
In the hurry to get out settlers fast, I was a little weak on defense, as I counted on Wang Kon, to the south, to take care of much of the fogbusting tasks that I would have had to do otherwise. But the north, however, was still at risk, thanks to a narrow stretch of land east of the mountains to the north, from which Barbarians could come raiding southward...
The lone Chariot I had in the capital was therefore critical to its defense.
This area to the north formed a bottleneck and had several resources, including Clam, Bananas, Cow, and Rice. But because of the appearance of a Barbarian city there, it became difficult to peacefully expand there, and Wang Kon was able to capture the city before I could. Should I have closed borders to prevent Wang Kon from taking that city? Perhaps, but even if I did, it was still likely that another AI would take the city first.
In any case, there was a hidden benefit for Wang Kon taking the city first--it could serve as a buffer between my own territory and Kublai Khan's. This would make it less likely that I would be attacked by Kublai Khan to the northeast.
Meanwhile, I settled my 2nd city near the flood plains and my 4th city 1N of the Pig, gaining access to the Clam and the Pig at the same time.
The 3rd city was settled near the Marble and Clam to the east, and it was a good thing that Wang Kon had enough good land elsewhere to distract him from this city site. In short time, Zara's Creative trait provided the city enough early culture to gain the tile from Pyongyang, the holy city of Buddhism that was the thorn in the side of my early expansion efforts.
After some time of economic growth, we see that in 1000 BC there is still a narrow strip of land to the east, on the northest edge of Wang Kon's territory, that still has enough land to make a decent city as our 5th city. Again with the help of Creative, I was able to look forward to gaining access to one of the 2 Silk tiles in that vicinity. With coastal access and ability to share the Clam with the 3rd city, we see here how the Creative trait can turn a junk city into a decent one.
A beeline to Aesthetics allows us to get there when only 1 AI, Kublai Khan, has Alphabet. I make the trade here so that I can tech broker Alphabet to other AIs--but only after making sure that I have enough of a lead on Music to get there (using normal research) before the other AIs do.
The high-commerce start allows me to get Music in 450 BC, though with a competitive effort from Gandhi as well. Seeing the opportunity to gain surplus gold, I cash in on Music in this tech trade.
As it turned out later, I was able to make a few other tech trades for surplus gold, putting my treasury above 1000 gold in time for the Liberalism race.
I then went for Compass and Drama, further building up my pool of trading chips and opening this trade.
The 1st GS was spent to build an Academy in the capital. Seeing that I had a good chance to build the Great Library there, and also considering the extra commerce from the Palace, I anticipated a good likelihood for high science output there.
In time, our Marble access allowed us to build the Great Library in the capital.
Combined with National Epic, the 2nd GS appeared not too long afterward, allowing me bulb Philosophy to unlock Pacifism. Considering that our cities were already climbing into unhappiness, this moment came not a bit too soon. A switch was thus made to Hereditary Rule and Pacifism.
But my building ambitions didn't stop with the Great Library. Gondar, our city to the west, also tried for a wonder, the Parthenon. Out of a stroke of bad luck, we missed it by 1 turn.
As you can see in the screenshot, I was researching Theology as a prerequisite for Paper. Before that, I researched Horseback Riding. Looking back, I realized that researching Horseback Riding this early was a mistake, as it hurt my chances in the Liberalism race. But to my credit, having possession of Ivory and Horse meant that the tech potentially had some value...so one can argue that the decision was not a mistake after all.
As we all know, many things in the game come down to a 1-turn difference. The Parthenon was no exception, and neither is Liberalism. Although I probably could have done something to secure production of the Parthenon, I was content with getting the failure gold instead...besides, the point of this series is not to show how many wonders we can build in the game.
Now Compass and Drama, despite being techs outside the main tech path, were solid moves because of their role as trade fodder techs. We already saw that with the earlier tech trade with Gandhi, and we see it here again with a tech trade with Wang Kon.
After a quick buildup of AP buildings to enhance our hammer output, I am finally ready to make the switch to Vassalage. This time I chose Caste System instead of Slavery. We were able to do this partly thanks to patience in waiting for the tech to unlock the civic, and partly because of help from Creative in saving us hammers on early buildings.
We will have a slow military buildup with Vassalage in this game, due to lack of surplus cities and Heroic Epic. However, thanks to Caste System, we have good reason to extend the period of Vassalage and Pacifism. As I will show later, our empire has 4 good GP Farms that we can steer toward completion of their Great People, with some help from the free Great Artist we got from Music.
A timely bulb toward Liberalism, thanks to the extra scientists from the Great Library, gives us an edge in the race at this rather early date, and tempts us further to go for a bigger prize...
As it turned out, we were in a sticky situation, as I had to decide between Printing Press and Chemistry as the prize for Liberalism. Printing Press was virtually guaranteed, requiring only a trade for Machinery, but Chemistry required a trade for Engineering as well and self research of Gunpowder.
With a careful look at the GNP graph, I determined that I had barely enough science to beat Wang Kon to Liberalism, if I were to try for Chemistry. Granted, my goal would have been easier had I not made the mistake earlier of self researching Horseback Riding, but considering that I lost the Parthenon by 1 turn, it seemed like close races like these were destined to be a part of this game...
Besides, I had little use for Printing Press, at least in the short term, and gaining Chemistry would give me much more help toward my goal of Steel for the upcoming war. To help my science rate, I switched some merchants to scientists, even though I knew clearly that I would probably want Great Merchants more, by the time the Great People were completed.
A trade for Engineering with Education was done, after I determined that trading the tech to Gandhi would not endanger the Liberalism race.
Liberalism is won in 560 AD, for the prize of Chemistry. On the same turn, I find out that Wang Kon is willing to give a World Map, Archery, and 10 gold for my new tech--a total worth of 200 beakers.
Finally, my 1-turn failure to complete the Parthenon is avenged!
The tech screen at 600 AD.
Our southern cities. Aksum is in a culture duel with Pyongyang and appears to be winning. Although Pyongyang's birthplace of Buddhism and the Mahabodhi make a formidable combination, Aksum's Great Library + National Epic + Academy combo is even stronger, with double culture from the Great Library, along with a +25% bonus from the Stele.
Our northern cities. Wang Kon has positioned his stack in his northern city. This will make military strategy a little different, if not harder. For one thing, the vulnerability of Pyongyang as a military target (in directly bordering our culture) makes it very tempting to place at least small stack near it to take it over in a single turn. On the other hand, our northern border deserves more attention so that we can oppose Wang Kon's stack in his northern city, if we were to attack him.
Do you notice something unusual here? That's right...we're at 100% science with a positive net flow of gold. How was it done?
Resource trades...along with some merchant specialists and extra gold from the Organized trait. But I need to keep an eye on my exported resources. Both of my Ivory are being traded away, but I will need them again if I start a war, in order to boost happiness. And my Horse is being traded to Wang Kon. Since he has Guilds already, I will want to cancel the trade soon. At the very latest, I should cancel it before he gets Military Tradition, as the stronger mounted units require Horse to unlock the upgrade.
Our capital, Aksum. Because of the Great Library, it has enhanced GPP output. But as a side effect, our chances of generating a Great Merchant are weakened. We will need to rely on other GP Farms to generate our Great Merchants.
The city is about to exceed the health cap, so the +3 health bonus from the forests will be useful. If I decide to pause GPP farming in my northwestern city (to give other GP farms priority), then this city will be working the Pig again, resulting in an additional surge of growth. Once the city gains another population point, I can decide to either add another specialist or an extra forest tile, depending on whether I want to slow down GPP generation to allow other GP Farms to gain priority. This is necessary so that their GPP costs do not rise too high.
Here is one of our secondary GP farms. Because of the rush for boosting science to win the Liberalism race, this is the only city with 100% chances of generating a Great Merchant. Therefore, it will be a critical GP Farm in the turns leading up to the Golden Age.
But since this city is far behind the other 3 GP Farms in terms of GPP progress, at least one of them (probably Addis Ababa, our northwestern city) will need to pause GPP farming to allow this city to catch up.
Since we have 4 GP Farms, it will take some amount of planning to ensure that all 4 GP Farms can pop a Great Person by the end of the Golden Age. By my estimation, we will want to wait at least 12 turns before starting the Golden Age. I arrive at this number by the following calculations:
1) Our main GP Farm cannot be paused (because of the Great Library and National Epic), so it will inevitably generate the 6th GP. Even if we could pause the GPP flow, it wouldn't be in our best interest because we would then lose the bonus from National Epic.
2) Because this city, Lalibela, is our only GP Farm with 100% chances of generating a Great Merchant, it gains top priority to generate the 7th GP. Therefore its GPP cost will be 700.
3) Because it is the 1st GP farm out of a total of 4, ideally we want this city to finish in 4 turns, in order to ensure that is has the lowest GPP cost.
4) In 4 turns, this city can run 8 specialists without losing population. With bonsues from Pacifism and the Golden Age, each specialist will generate 9 GPP. This makes the total per turn 72 GPP.
5) Since the city already has 132 GPP, we will need to generate 700 - 132 - (8*9*4) = 280 GPP before starting the Golden Age.
6) While stagnating, the city can run 4 specialists before the Golden Age, for a GPP output of +24. This means we will need to wait at least 12 turns before starting the Golden Age, if we want to ensure that this city finishes its Great Person in time.
7) Any other GP Farms that have higher GPP progress at the moment, except for the main GP Farm, will need to temporarily pause or slow down their GPP flow to allow this city to generate the 7th GP. After the main GP Farm generates the 6th GP, it will also need to slow down its GPP flow to allow the other GP Farms to finish first.
However you have done a great job with vertical growth to increase your technological level. Clearly I need to learn more about managing Great People generatin within 3-4 cities.
