LK149 - WM, Indonesia

[LKendter]

4000 BC (0)
We have a two cow start. That should help with getting going. I know Indonesia is going to be very tough with being scattered among islands, and NO starting luxuries.

I start with a 50 turn run on writing.


3300 BC (14)
Hut gives 3 barbs.


3150 BC (17)
We have contact with Australia, but nothing to trade at the moment.


3100 BC (18)
Seafaring pays, as we can jump the gap towards India.


2950 BC (21)
We land our warrior next to an empty India city. They don't show up yet in the foreign advisor screen.
(IT) Good riddance to another barb warrior. There is one more to go.


2900 BC (22)
We can now talk to India, but no trades possible.


2800 BC (22)
We have first contract with Persia. Alphabet and $25 gets us masonry. Masonry is a major winner with Australia giving us burial, warrior code, and $10. We are still short 2 known techs that are known by all.


2670 BC (27)
Surabaya has been founded on the next island. The borders locking gives fish for growth, and it will get better once banana is jungle free.


2630 BC (28)
We have first contact with Babylon, but no trades are possible.


2590 BC (29)
Our warrior lands by Babylon to head north and hopefully contact some European civs.

 

[LKendter]

2510 BC (31)
Once again we get 3 angry barbs from a hut.
(IT) One of them is toasted.


2230 BC (38)
We meet China, and I am surprised to find he still needs alphabet. It lets us get bronze working, and $25.
We also meet the Zulu, but no trades possible.


2190 BC (38)
Bandung, our first continent city is formed.


2030 BC (43)
We make our first European contact with Germany.


1950 BC (45)
We meet France, but no trading.

1870 BC (45)
Bekasi is formed in mainland Asia. Still have no luck with a luxury city.


1790 BC (49)
Medan is formed. Once the banana is cleared, it will have spare food.


1750 BC (50)
The majority of civs still need writing. It goes to India for worker, $50, and iron working. It goes to Babylon for writing and $65. It goes to France for mysticism and $30. It goes to Germany for $2 and horseback riding. We are almost at tech parity for the moment!

 

[LKendter]

Summary:
We have one ship working its way around Africa that should hopefully meet the Songhai. We have one ship running along Siberia hopefully getting to America at some point. The warrior in Europe needs to head east to meet Russia.
The Mongols are still MIA despite us being in Asia. China is the tech dud at the moment, as we have 4 techs above him.

After the temple in Surabya, it can build a settler to claim more of that island. We really want to abuse our UU, and claim as many islands as possible before AI ships appear.

We have visible horses at the tip of our island. We want to settle that soon even if the city will be a dud.
We see one iron, but I don't think we can win the culture war with India for it.

Bekasi needs a temple quickly to reduce a minor flip risk once Indian borders expand.

Our military effort needs to be building up Southeast Asia. This will be our base to expand from.

Our next settler may want to go on the ship and explore those islands for iron.

This is the beginnings of our empire.




ROSTER:
LKendter (just played)
Northern Pike (up)
Greebley (on deck )
Elephantium

 

[LKendter]

And the save

 

[Northern Pike]

You've certainly learned how to make distant contacts quickly on this map.

I've got it.

It's unusual to me that we're producing settlers out of our capital while it's at low population, and doesn't have a granary. My strong inclination would be to spend my round building a granary there, with the goal of setting up a four-turn settler pump as quickly as possible. But I hardly know this mod, so if you think we have to have the next settler before a granary, just let me know.

 

[LKendter]

You've certainly learned how to make distant contacts quickly on this map.

With Indonesia being Seafearing, and starting with ship access, it has a big advantage to get out there.

My strong inclination would be to spend my round building a granary there, with the goal of setting up a four-turn settler pump as quickly as possible.

Go for it - I was in a rush to at least get some cities on main land Asia, and fresh cities to start building what will be a LOT of workers to deal with all that jungle.

In addition, we are in a race to get the islands before the AI knows about galleys. That is where Indonesia's advantage is. I've fooled around with it some before we started this game.

 

[Greebley]

Checking in.

My name appears twice on the list. I am going to assume the first one is right and I go after NP

 

[LKendter]

My name appears twice on the list. I am going to assume the first one is right and I go after NP

Yes, you are after NP.

Not sure how your name showed up twice.


Can NP milk more from Writing? Even some more workers would be worth it with all the jungle...

 

[Northern Pike]

View attachment LK149-1500BC.SAV, end of turn

 

[Northern Pike]

1750 (0): I change Jakarta's settler build to a granary.

The Germans (and soon other civs) have Mathematics, but no twofer is available so there's no rush to buy it.


1700 (2): We're able to trade Writing to the Zulus for a worker and 3 gold.


1650 (4): Medan warrior --> warrior. The capital needs a second warrior for MP duty.


1625 (5): Our exploring warrior in Europe meets the Russians. They have seven cities and they're one of the tech leaders, meaning that they're ahead of us by Mathematics.

The Russians have three workers in their capital, which means that they're probably at war with Germany, and also presents us with a difficult decision. It would be nice to buy one or two workers when we have so much jungle clearance to do. But before too long we'll have our capital at +5 food with a granary, and workers will be nearly free there; while OTOH, it would be a huge setback were we to miss a twofer or threefer for lack of the gold spent on workers. Thus I pass on the opportunity.

1600 (6): We finish exploring New Guinea, where we discover nothing--no resources, no luxuries, no good city sites.

Bekasi worker --> temple.


1550 (8): Jakarta granary --> settler, Bandung worker --> warrior.


1525 (9): There's a break in the tech pattern, as the French show up with Polytheism. However, we can't remotely afford it at the monopoly price, even though Joanie still needs HBR.

Surabaya is struck by disease. Working the jungle/fruit tile seemed like a necessary gamble when the town only has three two-food tiles, but it didn't work out.


1500 (10): Our Bangka working its way up the west coast of Africa discovers the Songhai. They have ten cities and they're behind us by HBR, so the contact doesn't change our tech situation.

Our Bangka in the far north appears to reach the Bering Strait, so we have hope of American contacts in the next round or two.

 

[Northern Pike]

Welcome to the jungle:

 

[Northern Pike]

Polytheism and Mathematics are both in play, but no advantageous deals present themselves at the moment. All we can do is check every possibility every turn.

The next player will need to decide whether he wants to grab the available gold (presently 90) from the Songhai for HBR or hope that they learn a tech we don't have before they get HBR. Of their neighbours, the Zulus don't have HBR and we don't know about the Egyptians. LK presumably has the most accurate knowledge of how quickly techs spread amongst AI civs in this mod.

Our next settler should found a city at 1 on the screenshot (the grassland tile between two BG)--almost the only attractive site available to us, and even it isn't very good. The Bangka to carry the settler there will complete a turn earlier than the settler, in Medan.

The capital can't serve us with full efficiency as a settler and worker pump until it's at +5 food. So I'd suggest that once the workers NE of Jakarta finish their long jungle-clearing job, they should irrigate over one of the city's mined cows, painful though that is. I just don't see any other good way of getting the capital to +5 food in despotism. To get the jungle/fruit tile to three food after it's cleared, without irrigating over any mines or doing another endless jungle burn, would require three irrigations, of which only one would be useful in despotism.

We have a Bangka carrying one warrior ready to start exploring the Philippines from the south. Then it might as well carry on to Japan.

Our exploring warrior in Russia is trying to push east to meet the Mongols. It's a long shot but the unit has nothing better to do.

 

[LKendter]

ROSTER:
LKendter
Northern Pike (just played)
Greebley (up)
Elephantium (on deck)

 

[LKendter]

Hopefully we won't be to hurt by my nothing thinking about the 5 food goal. I would have irrigated the cow and not cost us wasted worker actions.
My brain was too stuck on the limited time advantage we have with our UU. Once the AIs get map making we are in a race for the islands.

I have some thoughts on the next city.
The proposed spot can be covered Surabaya walking a settler over.
The earliest race is near the Vietnam area. We already have India heading into that area.
I thinking about fish / whale south of Bandung. I know it isn't great until temple and harbor, but long term is should be nice. I also want something south of Bekasi.
Once the AI knows ship building the horse city on our island becomes critical.

The challenge is a lot of our sites are weak until jungle is gone. To the east, the two banana site is nice once cleared. Short-term, it is yet another worker bottle-neck.

The other question is where our troop pump city is. At some point building up SE Asia will get critical. If China stays backwards, I know where we want to break out into.

Dont' forget all this jungle should hopefully be hiding rubber and / or coal for us.

 

[Elephantium]

Checking in.

 

[Greebley]

I got it. Will try to play tonight.

I will be away from my computer for the next two weekends May 24-26 and May 31-June 2. Elephantium, feel free to grab it if I come up on Friday/Saturday/Sunday and you have time to play before Monday.

 

[Northern Pike]

I noticed the whale/fish site south of Bandung too, and if you (LK) think it's most urgent to grab that one with our next settler, that's fine with me.

As for a troop pump, the hill five tiles basically NW of Jakarta will support a shield-strong city (by the standards of this position ) which will address that need eventually. It's not a quick solution when the city doesn't exist yet, of course.

Another way of looking at our problem is that even when we get all the jungle cleared, our cities just won't have enough land tiles to be productive in shields. Possibly we should move our capital to the Asian mainland once we're established in China or India. That strategy usually seems like too much trouble when the moment comes, but we should at least keep it in mind in this unusual situation.

 

[LKendter]

My logic is the AI can reach SE Asia by walking. The other spots are by boat. Until the AI has galleys, I'm more worried about those two land cities, and the horse location. You know the AI will grab that fast.

This probably is the rare game where moving the palace pays. Just make sure we plan for it and build courts in our current core. They may not be great for production, but this cities should be big money cities with all of the water tiles.

 

[Greebley]

I seem to be unable to log into Steam to get civ running, so I can't play as I wished. Oddly, steam itself seems ok from the website so I am not sure whats going on, but its failing from both computers.

I will need a skip (or swap) as I can't play until Monday.

I am trying to play on a new computer as my civ computer has just died, so its a bit of a pain.

 

[LKendter]

ROSTER:
LKendter
Northern Pike (just played)
Greebley (on deck?)
Elephantium (up)

We will see how fast the Elephantium can play, and then figure it swap or skip.