(0) 550 - I would like to change Sala off of Colosseum, but the price for Monotheism is still out of this world, so I wait. I do notice a new gray border west of our continent, so I dial up Ghandi and give WM + 11 gold for his WM. I want to see what's out there. It's just a small island, but never underestimate the value of intelligence information.
I put a NF citizen on floodplain from the desert, because growth is always important. Allegheny has its citizen from a mountain and an unimproved grassland both go to gold mountains, costing no food nor shields but gaining a slew of gpt. OS citizen moved from unimproved grass to silk grassland. St. R citizen moved from forest to irrigated plains to encourage growth.
I then move on to my first turn.... In SGs, it's always critical to review at the beginning of your turn (and good practice to review at the end, but to not change too much, noting what might be available).
(I) Egypt connects a luxury for us with a road -- thanks! Stevetown completes temple, begins harbor.
(1) 530 - Most workers continue where they are -- roading a mined square, mining a roaded square, roading first by Sala because I'm not sure whether shields or food will be more important next. I even road the forest by Catt, as it's a good shield source, but the commerce bonus is necessary. (Catt is OK on food for now -- needing an aqueduct) Settle heads for hill NW of iron. Worker moves off of iron mountain to let the Russian pair pass back south, if they so desire.
I check in with Egypt to see if there's any chance we have a trade route. Probably we will, once we get the harbor in Stevetown down, we'll be set. Can't afford full-price rushing at this point.
(I) Russians continue retreat, Egypt looks like it might be offering more free labor. Sala completes Colosseum, begins settler, amazingly enough. It's still high growth and we have one area yet I'd like to lock up.
(2) 510 - Worker by NF continues to next flood plain. Two workers by St. R. go north to hill on route to new city. One heads south to mountains to road faster route south. There are probably better places for him, but I like quick troop reinforcements.
Settler moves again, into final position. Worker by MC west to grass there (mostly en route to Centralia). Other workers are obvious.
Harbor in Stevetown too expensive to rush-buy. It should connect our mainland with the luxuries AND connect us to Egypt's trade network. Egypt has horses. I'm very interested. I just can't afford it yet.
Egypt has Monarchy and Monotheism. So does India. China has neither. Russia just has Monotheism. To buy or not to buy.... I want to rush the harbor in Stevetown ASAP. Monarchy, we can probably do just fine without. Monotheism is on the track to a TON of techs, but I don't want to spring for it just now. I grimace but wait.
(I) Moscow completes GL. Cascade to Oracle and Hanging Gardens and Great Wall and Lighthouse. Oy! At least that might end the cascade soon. I much prefer seeing the AI waste a ton of shields, but... This also heightens my resolve to crush Russia. The Great Library can save a ton of cash. That, and building a ton of wonders leaves few shields for anything else!
(3) 490 - Scout continues "pushing" Russian settler pair south. Akwesasne founded NW of iron hill. It has some potential but mainly locks up our land from prying AI. Temple ordered. Workers nearby start roading and MC looks to get a new mine.
Still can't afford a harbor in Stevetown but we will be able to next turn if we don't waste our cash.
(I) Sala completes settler, begins sword (hoping to change to MW if it can be swung). OS completes granary and begins marketplace.
(4) 470 - Worker by Sala irrigates, as I would like to work hills to get even more shields. Sala at 20 shields/turn would be nice. 18 is a good number for knights, too. Settler from there heads for last "open" square on our lands, N and a little east of GR.
Stevetown purchases harbor for a SLEW of gold, hopefully giving us access to another luxury and lux/resource trade next turn.
Errant NF citizen put BACK on floodplain again -- cuts growth time in half. Catt citizen moved from forest to mined grass for no loss in true shields but faster growth.
(I) Egypt connects another ivory for us -- thanks, Cleo! GR completes harbor and begins courthouse. Stevetown completes harbor, begins walls (this area will probably be a hotbed if/when we go to war with Egypt -- something we want to strenuously avoid at this point) and experiences a cultural growth. Russians begin Sistine Chapel, meaning they at least have theology.
(5) 450 - First things first, what new trade options do we have? Just Egypt. But Cleo has two extra horses. She says it'll cost ivory and incense to get horses, WM and 7 gold. Hmmm... What else can I swing? Ivory, incense, and 1 gpt gets horses and furs? That sounds much nicer. Getting a tech makes the deal too expensive, but horses are critical for us. I make this deal. It costs us all our extra luxuries right now, but the horses are the weighing factor. Extra happiness via luxuries isn't to be overlooked lightly, either.
Only one unit moves -- a worker who mines a bonus grass by Allegheny. Of course, with rented horses, I have to reevaluate builds. Sala, at least needs changing.
Boy, I wish other cities needed changing. As it is, we're getting one MW every other turn from Sala, the only city I changed. It's a start but there's still a LONG ways to go.
(I) Sala completes MW and begins another. Russians start Hanging Gardens -- at least they're not building a ton of troops.
(6) 430 - Workers by All split -- one moving to an unimproved grass, the other to the gold hills. All is going to need an aqueduct soon, to use all these squares, but it's a good thing to be prepared, IMO.
Lux tax is reduced to zero. Should've done that last turn. That's $26 up in
. Sigh. Sala now bears VERY close watching, however, as it is on the brink of revolt.
(I) T completes temple and begins Aqueduct.
(7) 410 - Worker by OS heads to newly cultured silks to get another lux online for trading. Scouts sees regular spear defending Tblisi. Worker by A roads to prepare square for later development. One on gold hill begins mining. More forest by Catt ready for roading. First MW reachs Catt.
Two warriors in Catt upgraded to swords.
A few stray citizens sent to better squares to work. Some of these are true improvements (citizen in A moved from unimproved bonus grass to fully improved non-bonus grass) and others are just tweaks as production/growth doesn't depend on their location.
China's inability to raise any cash has prevented techs from being fully shopped. It's annoying, as the costs are still high. We're at 125 gold, but some of that is ear-marked for other buys/upgrades. No easy answers here. At least nobody has feudalism yet.
(I) Apologize to Russia and promise to withdraw. Sala MW->MW chain. Rome completes Oracle (off-continent. Hmmm...Rome and Persia -- hope they've beaten each other to a pulp.)
(8) 390 - Move worker to silks -- will clear and then road. A warrior is sent as a protector. Worker by GR moves to other incense to get it online ASAP. Now that we have some trade options, those 2nd/3rd/4th luxes online becomes much more important.
SHOOT! Egypt has Feudalism -- that means the others probably do, too. India doesn't, but China has all three techs we can see we're lacking. CURSES!
I buy Feudalism from China for WM, 8 gpt, and 175 gold. Cash would be nicer, but if I'm gonna leverage this into Monotheism, too, I gotta move NOW. This can't wait. (In general, paying cash is cheaper than gpt. But the window of using Feudalism as a bartering chip will disappear in a heartbeat if I don't take it now.)
Monotheism STILL costs Feudalism, 3 gpt, and WM. Errr...actually Feudalism, 2gpt, 2 gold, and WM. That's a little cheaper. Two techs for 11 gpt and 178 gold. Almost adequate. We're now only behind in Theology and Monarchy. Russia's the ONLY one with Theology, though, so it's not too bad. Our income is still 72 gpt -- not shabby.
(I) Big cascade. English (York) finish Great Wall. Egypt moves a chariot near Stevesville. I hope and pray they're not coming after us. Wall will be rushed next turn regardless, though. It's scary down there.
(9) 370 - Worker near Sala on a hill begins to mine. Sala's shield output is getting important. Tyendenaga, a fishing village, is formed. Harbor begun immediately. Walls are bought in Steveville. I really don't want to fight the Egyptians at this point.
GR citizen given a brief break from fishing to work a forest to get one extra shield. Growth will occur in one turn either way, but it helps the courthouse along a bit. And Tye gets that fish, of course, to grow more rapidly. More tile borrowing going on here. Could bear close watching.
(I) Sala MW->MW. Sala is getting close to the point where it can return/give some high food squares to NF. The main problem is that Sala still needs a few more developed squares around it to make the return worthwhile. Then NF can resume the worker brigade, as we're still quite short in that area. All completes marketplace, begins MW. I would like to get an aqueduct there, but we might only get 20 turns of horses and I want to take full advantage of that while we can. Stevetown's walls complete (no Egyptians IN our cultural radius -- just close) and it begins building a worker.
Thebes completes Hanging Gardens. Other civs cascade to Lighthouse and Sun-Tzu.
(10) 350 - Another MW heads for Catt, to be near the front if/when festivities begin. Scout is nearing that area, too, to play recon man (spears or pikes in Russian cities?)
Hey -- Russia and China are now on the road network, too. More trade opportunities. China needs iron -- the sooner we can get our second source hooked up, the sooner we can export it for some serious value. We have no extra luxuries at this point, and I'm leery of trading away a source, as we would have happiness problems were I to do so (it sometimes pays to trade away your only source of a luxury for 20 turns -- the payoff can be worth it, depending on relative civ size). Once the next incense and the second silk are attached, we can start looking at that more seriously.
One Sala citizen is made into a taxman. He has no good place to work and luxury taxes cost a LOT more than just making him do something else. Once Sala grows to size 12, that one guy will have to become an entertainer. Yeah, a cathedral might be necessary and would do the trick, but, at this point, it's more important to get maximum value out of our turns of horses.
I leave all of GR's citizens on max sustainable shields. It's maxed out at size 6 currently, so it needs an aqueduct before max food makes sense. After the courthouse, skimming off a worker might be a good idea.
All needs to have its gold hills mined, so it can get 10 (or more) shields production each turn. MWs in 3 is a lot better than MWs in 4. When the worker(s) SW of All finish their jobs, they should move to help the worker on the gold hill mine.
Catt is the current front for our military forces. We are quite a ways from being ready to attack Russia -- like 10 MWs short. If chivalry appears along the way, we'll want to upgrade most (but not all) to knights. We want to keep some MWs to trigger our GA, though.
I also loan the fish from GR to Tyendenaga. This is a LOAN as GR is more important, but it can work the coast and stay at even food (size 6 anyway), whereas Tye needs the fish to grow more rapidly.
NF also gets a taxman, as it can't maintain its size (no marketplace) without rioting. I also temporarily slow its growth as we want the granary to complete before it grows again. Marketplace/cathedral/worker are next builds here.
That's it. Save file at
http://www.civfanatics.net/uploads/lotr3-iroquois-350bc.zip
Arathorn
on the worker purchase. More slave labor is always a good thing. Plus, it slows Russia.
.. Renew Horses only for Incense/WM
