LotR29 Odd Aztecs

[Arathorn]

Roster:
Arathorn
Methos
Sparthage
Jaffa Tamarin
Corbeau

We are playing as the Aztecs, going for a cultural win, without the ability to build any of the cultural-centric buildings (no monument, no Stonehenge, etc.). We will be depending on cultural city-states, our special ability, and puppets for much of our culture.

The settings are as follows:

Slightly crowded, though lake maps tend to have a LOT of of land from my brief testing. The world does wrap east/west though north/south appears to be unpassable ice.

We start here:

Since this may be the only city we settle, we should probably discuss it a bit.

Also, policy trees to complete: piety (free religion for two free policies) is a no-brainer as is freedom (free speech for -25% policy culture costs). That leaves us three trees. Autocracy and Rationalism don't live nicely with freedom an dpiety respectively. I think Honor is a no-brainer, given our probablistic war tendencies. I like Patronage since we'll need to buddy up to several city-states. Beyond that, I can see arguments. What do others think? Or are even those four off-base?

Also, please check in here.

Arathorn

P.S. Sorry for the slow start. Work and family have been BUSY lately.

 

[Corbeau]

I'd suggest that we start by moving the Jag to either the western jungle hill or to the sheep hill. I don't see any other good options for info-gathering on this start.

Honor is pretty much a shoe-in for our early policy development, I would think, followed by piety. Patronage, Piety, and Liberty all make sense, but I'm less sure about our fifth choice. Probably Tradition, if only for the capital bonuses (we'll be on one or two huge cities, ideally) and the massive combat bonus within friendly lands.

 

[Jaffa Tamarin]

Checking in. I think I'd move the jag NW-NE to see what's further up the river. I don't think we're going to want to settle anywhere that isn't on the river.

Edit: or maybe move the jag NE-NE to see more to the E. I think my city site would be NW across the river, to pick up more grass and fewer mountains, but if there's nice stuff to the E, settling one tile NE would save a turn.

 

[Methos]

Just got off work and too tired to post anything helpful, so here's my 'checking in'.

 

[Arathorn]

I liked Jaffa's idea and went 9-9 with the jaguar. Two cows, deer, incense, marble, sheep. All kinds of stuff.

I'm thinking that where the jag is might actually be the best spot....

I'm away at my son's volleyball tournament nearly all day. Comment until this evening, and then I will play.

Arathorn

 

[Sparthage]

Checking in.

I also think that the Jaguar has the better city spot.

Just a head's up that I won't be able to play very often as my parents restrict access to my Dad's computer (The only one that Civ5 works on). I can play on Mondays and Weekends. I might convince them to add some more during the week.

 

[Corbeau]

Yeah, call me converted: settle on the Jaguar's tile. That's a lot of river grasslands. It'd be ever better, for a militant start, if they were river plains, but take what you can get.

 

[Methos]

In either spot, we'll have plenty of food. Assuming we farm the river grass then after Civil Service that's +16 , counting the two improved cows.

In our current spot, I count five hills plus a sheep hill with what appears to be more hills both south, east, and possibly west of us.

In the jag spot I count three hills, with the higher likelihood of more grass tiles then hills. The jag spot does have the possibility of more river grass tiles, so if we're going to go for specialists then the jag would be the better spot.

I'm more inclined to stay where we are.

 

[Arathorn]

Exploration.

My general plan was to build 3 jags -- one to send east, one west, and one to keep around Tenochtitlan and deal with barbs. After they were built, I started a worker. I've explored a LONG ways and met a bunch of AIs and a few city-states. No alliances or quests or anything yet. I did sign a Pact of Cooperation with Cathy, though. No battles. Culture would be nice, but I want to explore first.

Research-wise, I went with Animal Husbandry (no horses in our city's range), because we have a couple cows to improve. We got Archery from a hut. I picked up Minig, too, simply because I really like that worker ability. Then I started moving us towards the Oracle, which we can build, to get a free social policy.

No policies yet, but we'll get one next turn. I figure Honor is a no-brainer to start with.

We have a near-by barb camp. Our "local" jag is moving towards it. I would kill some units but not disperse the camp until we either get a quest or we risk losing the gold to another civilization.

I did buy the deer tile for Tenochtitlan, so we could get a second hammer going.... You can see various AIs scattered about. Lots of scouts are around, but they can't fight at all. Darius of Persia might make a good first target....something for us to think about.

Roster:
Arathorn
Methos -> UP NOW
Sparthage -> ON DECK
Jaffa Tamarin
Corbeau

Methos, if you can't play tomorrow, let's move Sparthage up, since he has limited playtime.

Arathorn

 

[Methos]

Methos, if you can't play tomorrow, let's move Sparthage up, since he has limited playtime.

Arathorn

I can play tomorrow, but I can also play during the week, so I have no problem letting Sparthage take it due to his limited play time. So...

Roster:
Arathorn
Sparthage -> UP NOW
Methos -> ON DECK
Jaffa Tamarin
Corbeau

It's yours Sparthage!

 

[Sparthage]

Okay, Methos go ahead and play.

For future reference, where do I save the save from the site? I can't find the folder to put it in. I have a Vista Dell Laptop to play on.

 

[vmxa]

Lurker:

Probably the same as Win7:

USER\MY Doc..\MY Games\Sid M...\Saves\Singles

 

[Methos]

Okay, Methos go ahead and play.

Well, okay.

Turn 25, 3000 BC:

IT: The Iroquois meet us. I try and form a pact of cooperation, but he doesn't go for it. Granted, at first meeting I'd be surprised if he did accept it.

Turn 26, 2960 BC: We adopt the Honor tree and I move in to try and take a barb encampment before the Russians get it. We meet the cultured city state Florence.

IT: Russians grab the encampment.

Turn 27, 2920 BC: We remove a barb, but leave the encampment since its so close to a CS. We earned +3 from the battle.

Turn 31, 2760 BC: We meet the cultured CS of Seoul.

Turn 32, 2720 BC: We meet the maritime CS of Genoa which is being protected by the Irogouis. Russia declares protection of Seoul.

Turn 35, 2600 BC: We finish Writing and begin research on Philosophy, which is what I understood Arathon as wanting.

Turn 36, 2560 BC: We finish our worker and he moves to the cows. Since we're going with either a single city, or only two or three, I start work on a library for the additional science.

Turn 40, 2400 BC: As you can see below, a barb is dangerously close to our worker. Whomever plays next needs to move the worker. I was about to do it, but I was curious if anyone thought we should risk it, or had some other alternative.

I met several city states and had both Washington and Gandhi approach me about OB. I refused them both on the grounds I was thinking about selling them our OB for , rather then their OB.

Here's the 2400 BC save.

Roster:
Arathorn
Methos
Sparthage -> UP NOW
Jaffa Tamarin -> ON DECK
Corbeau

 

[Jaffa Tamarin]

Turn 40, 2400 BC: As you can see below, a barb is dangerously close to our worker. Whomever plays next needs to move the worker. I was about to do it, but I was curious if anyone thought we should risk it, or had some other alternative.

Move the worker one tile towards the city, let it be captured, and then we have an easy fight against a barb on open ground to retake the worker, instead of possibly having to fight the barb in forest.

Also, Iroquois? Cool! They're my favorite of the C5 Civs.

 

[Methos]

Sparthage did say he wouldn't have access during the week, so should Jaffa and him swap?

Roster:
Arathorn
Methos
Sparthage -> UP NOW ???
Jaffa Tamarin -> ON DECK
Corbeau

 

[Arathorn]

Yeah, Jaffa, why don't you take it and play?

Methos, thanks for helping me keep this on track.

Arathorn

 

[Jaffa Tamarin]

Okay, got it.

 

[Jaffa Tamarin]

Okay, I have a rules question: what counts as a cultural wonder? Obviously anything that has >1 culture, but does it include anything that gives Great Artist points? (See e.g. Hanging Gardens gives GA points, but is otherwise entirely uncultural).

If it's okay to build wonders that give GA points, can we then use those GA to build landmarks?

Also, can we build gardens, which don't give culture directly but have a cultural/GA specialist slot?

And what about the National Wonders (Oxford University etc) that have one point of culture, but aren't really cultural buildings?

 

[Jaffa Tamarin]

Stuff which happened: I moved our worker as described above. As expected, the barbs captured the worker. And our jag beat up on the barbs and rescued the worker.

Our exploring jags found a couple of barb camps for extra money, culture, and promotions. I started moving them both back towards our capital. I think our next move should be to assemble an expeditionary force (probably buy an archer to go with the jags), and go after one of the nearby city states as our first culture-puppet. I vote for Hanoi, which has horses and gems, and will pick up bananas and dyes eventually.

Do we want to pick our first AI Civ target? I sold Open Borders to Japan for 50g, but no other diplomatic actions. Is the idea that we declare war and hope they send a stream of units for our jags to kill and get culture from, and then try to give us cities for peace? This is what happened in my solo AW game, though (of course) I didn't accept the peace deals. Can you puppet cities from peace deals?

We finished Philosophy, and I picked Masonry next. I bought the marble tile near Tenochtitlan, and as soon as Masonry finishes we should quarry the marble to help with wonder builds. Our library finishes next turn, so (I assume) next build will be The Oracle.

Oslo has targeted a nearby barb encampment, which appears to be just outside Warsaw. If it was a quest for a cultural CS (like, say, Warsaw), I would be all over it!

Arathorn
Methos
Sparthage -> UP NOW ???
Jaffa Tamarin
Corbeau -> on deck

 

[Krystalshield]

lurker's comment:

Can you puppet cities from peace deals?

Yes you can. The game will scroll through your new acquisitions and asked about each one in succession.