(0) 2550 - Egypt has BW, Masonry, Alphabet, and the Wheel. Russia has BW and Masonry. India matches Egypt. China has BW, Masonry, Alphabet, the Wheel, and Mysticism. So, our time to get most benefit out of Mysticism is already past. Check with China on cost. Mysticism costs 18 gold vs. 20 in research AND we get it faster to shop it. Trade made. Mao now polite. And now I shop Mysticism. Mysticism and 9 gold to Egypt for the Wheel. Mysticism to Ghandi for BW and 5 gold. Ghandi now polite. The Wheel to Russia for Masonry. Mysticism to Russia for 26 gold (not the highest price she's willing to pay (highest able, though), but it gets us a net positive gold for our trouble). I see NO horses anywhere.
Next tech to research... Polytheism -- back at 10% science for 40 turns. I doubt we'll get it this way, but running 0 science always worries me. Buying/selling/trading is usually the best route to go.
I see a way to steal one extra gold in Niagara Falls. The "current/passed state":
Note that there is three extra food but that only two is required to grow. We can try to get an extra shield, but that's lost to waste...
We can, however, get one extra commerce by working the ocean -- for this turn only.
Now, is one gold, in and of itself, important? No. But the principle of this move can amount to MANY one/two gold opportunities over the course of a game -- enough to get several hundred gold, and that does make a difference.
Drunken worker on the mine will finish in 2 turns, which means it's probably too late to switch him off, would waste more than it would accomplish. I'll probably even have him build a road
(didn't realize there was one there already, at the time), while muttering under my breath.
I'm finally ready to go to the next turn and I hit enter.
(1) 2510 - It's faster for the center scout to go south and then west instead of west and then south -- I use the "goto" command to check this and then move the scout manually. South scout goes south one and sees a pleasant valley with Egyptians around. He waves and moves east onto a hill to try to see better. West scout stuck in the jungle goes south.
Put the NF worker back on the flood plain for growth in NF and off the ocean. Check that NF, after growth, is still happy. Sala can't afford to move a citizen off the forest to the grass, as I would've liked to increase growth. But I check the worker and the mine will finish in one turn. That means I can move the citizen and all will be well. I do it. (The mine will finish before the shields are counted, thereby giving us the one extra food I want while not costing us any turns of production.)
Attacking the barb on the mountain would just be stupid, so I don't. I just hope we win when he attacks us. At least we're on a hill.
Nothing good for trade.
(I) Salamanca completes its settler, as per orders, and begins a warrior -- I would like to escort the settler AND be able to go barb hunting before too long. Troops are getting important. We defeat the barb easily, but no promotion. Egypt founds a city in our sight, by some furs.
(2) 2470 - I wake a warrior in Salamanca and send him ahead of the settler. I'm aiming for the forest three west of Salamanca -- has some overlap with Sala, but has two bonus grass to start with and leaves room for a great "fishing" village in the NW by the incense. Also begins to cut off the road north. This is a very conservative location -- something further south is a bit bolder but probably acceptable on emperor. This location cuts off the north from non-water access.
Sala's worker heads south onto the mountain to start a road to GR. I'd rather keep him near Salamanca to develop it, but the prospect of a luxury is too sweet for me to pass up. Roading west in the grass SW of Salamanca is at least as good a choice. Desert worker notices a road already in place and hurries to the wheat north of NF.
Center scout S. S scout S, E. W scout S. It's important to keep fog-busting as much as possible, so that our map will hopefully buy us something, even if it's just another world map.
NF actually considers the mined desert, but the cut in growth rate is too severe. Its citizens stay on the flood plain. Sala on the 3/3/5 shield plan again.
(I) Chinese warrior clearing a way (fighting barbs) south for west scout. He'll bear watching.
(3) 2430 - S scout E to hopefully discover something different. Center scout SW to next land bridge. W scout S.
Worker on mountain roads and worker on wheat irrigates.
Warrior climbs mountain BEFORE the settler moves, as a precautionary move. Then, as the coast is clear, the settler follows.
Cities look good. Nothing for trade.
(I) NF hit by disease. Youch. That's gonna hurt. Why am I the only one to get disease in this game?
(4) 2390 - Warrior again procedes settler west.
Center scout blocked by Chinese warrior pair from his intended route. He goes S instead, undecided on east/west next. S scout also blocked and goes SE, SE to mountain for view. W scout S again, through an endless morasse of jungle -- but he notices coastal access west -- exploring this will be a priority later...now it's just a point of interest.
Sala will grow with any food supply, so citizen moved to a mined bonus grass, helps warrior faster. Hmmm...evaluate that warrior decision.... Barbs seem queit/quelled by others. I switch to a granary, ostensibly due in 11 but will appear much faster in reality. NF citizens obviously diseased and stupid. Put 'em to work on both wheats and the hilltop (second shield very nice).
Egypt, India, and China all have iron working. Russia doesn't and has NOTHING to trade to us. It would cost ~80 gold, but there's no pressing reason why it can't wait. Eventually, knowledge of the location of this resource will be important, but we have about three high-priority cities in the west -- for food and establishing a line -- that need founding first. I wait.
(I) More disease in NF.
(5) 2350 - Found Allegheny first thing. Start another warrior. Soon, one city will need to build a barracks and start creating "real" troops. Warrior already there fortifies.
Center scout decides east is less crowded and goes SE. S scout goes NE, E. W scout continues plod S.
Sala reclaims wheat from the non-bonus mined grass. NF works N wheat and hill. Usually, disease is a two-turn thing, so hopefully NF can start growing again.
Egypt and China have horseback riding. Ghandi is behind. We could probably afford it, but with no horses, it's rather a moot point. Still, for that price, we could probably sell it to Ghandi and get another tech out of the deal. Two-for-one price? I check. HR costs 57 gold from Egypt and only 55 from Mao. I buy from Mao and sell to Ghandi for Iron Working, kicking in 21 gold to complete the deal. 76 gold for two techs -- not necessarily the best deal but not horrible.
There is iron north of Salamanca and on one of the "worthless" mountains that will lie between Sala and GR. Sigh.
(I also note the "bad" GR location has one shield lost to waste and the "good" didn't. I'm this close to whipping a settler at size 3 and moving the darn city to where it belongs.)
(I) GR completes warrior and starts the temple it needs to get any more good squares. Growth in 10 over temple in 10, as growth will help get temple faster and is better in the long run.
(6) 2310 - GR warrior fortifies.
C scout SE SE. SE scout E, E. W scout SE along coast.
Russia got Iron Working somehow -- probably researched it themselves.
(7) 2270 - W scout SE into jungle as Egyptian cut-off nice straight S option. Miserable AI. C scout S and sees horses! And east onto a hill. Too bad those horses are between Egypt and Russia. We'd certainly like them. E scout goes E SE and sees ivory on the coast. Worker on wheat starts road.
Cities look good. Nothing new on diplo front.
(8) 2230 - W scout SW, S by Chinese city. C scout E, E south of Russia. E scout N NE and sees a goodie hut! Some reasonably nice plains down here, but we'll never get a chance to claim them peacefully.
Put the new NF citizen back on the floodplain where he belongs. He might go to the desert next turn, if it saves one whole turn on the settler, which I think it will. Diplo front boring.
(I) Barb warrior appears SE of our SE scout. He can run safely, though.
(9) 2190 - Pop the goodie hut first and see what it contains. Stupid maps! More iron down here. He then goes E to save area N of him for C scout. C scout E E. Iron near Russia. W scout S S. Not much there.
The hill mine finally completed!!! Those workers split -- one goes SE to flood plain and the other goes W SW to grass by Salamanca. I want both worked. It hurts short-term (because the two combined can finish one improvement faster) and might not help long-term (but it might because no turns are wasted), but I like seeing lots of developed squares and NO wasted worker turns.
I agree with the AI's choice of the forest by Salamanca. Granary in 4 and then growth in 5 -- that saves 8 food by being timed right. NF citizen moved from flood plain to plains, getting the settler one turn earlier but not hurting food as much as being on the desert would -- costs one science beaker (no use anyway) and one entertainment dollar (3 content citizens anyway). Definitely the right place. All else continues on track.
At some point, we'll need Alphabet as a pre-cursor to writing and mathematics. With 109 in the bank, we're starting to be a lightning rod for demands. I buy Alphabet from Ghandi for 46 gold -- about the cheapest price and he's in the worst shape (by score and power graphs). That gives us tech parity. Wow. I expected to see at least one tech beyond that for sale. Shrug.
Lux tax up to 20% for Salamanca's sake -- another MP there will be needed before too long.
(I) NF completes settler and begins another. Allegheny completes warrior and begins a temple -- get those incense in our borders.
(10) 2150 - New Allegheny worker headed for Salamanca. Grass warrior roads and floodplain worker irrigates. Settler crosses river west. Wheat worker SW to floodplain.
C scout NE NE to see how wide the sea S of "our" peninsula. E scout E to coast and done to stay out of barb range. W scout S S and into Chinese territory that I missed the border of. S coast seen there.
NF working wheat square like it should -- after any pop change/project completion, you should check. Growth is gonna be slow for a bit while we're still recovering from the disease. All else looks good.
Arathorn
Save at
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Edit: Not sure what happened to my 3rd picture. I hope you got the idea.
Evaluation: One of my better 10 turn sets. Allegheny in a very conservative location but still allows good cities around it. Excellent tech trading -- one of my rare fine moments in that arena. Why am I the only one to get hit by disease??? And every shadow turn? Sigh. My pop's way behind because of that. All-in-all, though, about as good a set of turns as I'm likely to demonstrate.
I figure we are going to use this city for workers and settlers almost exclusively, with two MP's, I think we can manage the 20 turns of extra unhappiness. As for the loss of population, I pondered that for awhile, but since we have SO much food in that city, it seemed worth it to use it to get more cities with shield output. Call me crazy.
Start irragation of another fp by nf.
We have no potential horses
...
