Nobles' Club 268: Victoria of England

[AcaMetis]

The Nobles' Club series started out as a way for Noble-level (and below) players to improve their game. Most of the original participants now play at much higher levels, so this has become a way for advanced players to help others learn to play better. You can play your own game at any level and with any mod, but it would be nice to comment on the games of other players and give them advice.

Our next leader is Victoria of England, whom we last played in NC 226; we last played the English under Churchill in NC 230. The English start with Fishing and Mining.

• Traits: Victoria is Financial and Imperialistic. Financial adds +1 to any tile that already produces at least 2. Imperialistic adds +100% to Great General generation and +50% bonus to Settler production (note that the settler bonus doesn't apply to excess directly converted to ).
  
• The UB: The Stock Exchange, a Bank with an extra +15% generated over a standard bank. Banks are rarely build buildings as they are somewhat expensive (200 on standard speed) and maintaining 100% slider isn't hard to do when you can build Wealth, sell resources and excess techs, or just punch money out of weaker civilizations. That said, if you're planning on going conquering a few Stock Exchanges in economic backbone cities will keep your economy safely afloat. Unless you send an army that would make Genghis Khan faint to take over an amount of land that would make the Romans call you completely crazy, of course .
  
• The UU: The Redcoat, a Rifleman with +25% vs. Gunpowder units in addition to Mounted. These guys have an edge against the most common unit types they're likely to fight against, including their intended counter unit, making them an all-around excellent unit to use in their era. Rifling is a lengthy detour from getting "any" decent attacking unit on the way to Cannons, but Redcoats do have an advantage in that they can be drafted, and Banking is on the way to Rifling.

And the start:

Spoiler map details :

Inland Sea, Temperate Climate, Medium sealevel, +1 AI to balance out the board.

Spoiler edits :

A few resource swaps were done to give AIs nearby strategic resources.

The WB-saves are attached (zipped; they are bigger than standard saves). To play, simply download and unzip it into your BTS/Saves/WorldBuilder folder. Start the game, and load your favorite MOD (if you use one, if not, check out the BUG MOD), select "Play Scenario", and look for "NC 268 Victoria Noble" (or Monarch, etc., for higher levels). You can play with your favorite MOD at the Level and Speed of your choice. From Quick-Warlord to Marathon-Deity, all are welcome! We stuck with the name "Nobles Club" because it has a cool ring to it.

Spoiler what's up with specific difficulties :

In each scenario file you can select your level of difficulty, but that doesn't give the AI the right bonus techs by itself. Use the Noble save for all levels at and below Prince. The Monarch save gives all the AI Archery. Emperor adds Hunting; Immortal adds Agriculture; Deity adds The Wheel.

Spoiler for players on Monarch or above :

You should add archery as a tech for the barbarians (if you don't, the AI will capture their cities very early). This cannot be done in the WB save file and must be done in Worldbuilder as follows:

Spoiler how to add techs to the barbarians :

1. Zoom in all the way so you can't see the rest of the map.
2. Use the CTRL-W key (or the menu) to enter the worldbuilder. Avoid looking at the mini-map in the lower right corner.
3. By default you're in "player" mode (look in the box in the upper right; the icon that looks like a person should be selected). You'll get a drop down menu labeled with your leader's name. Barbarians are at the bottom, so cover the rest of the list with your hand if you don't want to see who else is on the map. Select "Barbarians".
4. Select the "Technologies" tab in the box on the left.
5. Find Archery (the arrow head icon; 8th row, 3rd column from the right) and click it.
6. Exit the worldbuilder.
7. Zoom out again after the map fades, and start playing.

If you're playing at higher level than Monarch, consider also giving them Hunting at Emperor, Agriculture at Immortal, and The Wheel at Deity.

Spoiler huts and events :

Note: The standard saves have no huts and have events turned off. If you want tribal villages and random events, choose the saves with "Huts" in their names. If you want huts but no events, select the Huts saves and use Custom Scenario to turn on the option that suppresses events.

 

[AcaMetis]

SIP looks more than fine to me. I guess move the warrior 1NE to check the other plains hill in case there's like gems and double corn or something hiding out in the fog, but barring something ridiculous like that I think SIP is the best move.

Do any experts disagree and have better alternatives to suggest? If so do tell .

 

[krikav]

I agree with your opening analysis @AcaMetis !
And <3 for a new NC game!
Wonder if I should put my nc248 game on hold for this one...

Regarding the opening itself, I'm sure we won't find anything up north and SiP, and then we will be rewarded with dry rice or something like that....
But with IMP and starting with mining, thats no big deal! Worker first could mine two riverside grassland hills and then we can do a lovely imp-settler working those two hills at pop2.
(Early BW is likely too, whipping imp-settlers is lovely!)

 

[krikav]

@AcaMetis You seem to have forgotten to attach the zip-file?

 

[AcaMetis]

@AcaMetis You seem to have forgotten to attach the zip-file?

Fixed .

 

[krikav]

Deity NH/NE

Spoiler T50 :

7 AIs, and 1300 land tiles or so, and flat worldshape, this combined with rivers made me think we where in a inland sea rather quick.
We have Washington to our west. Saladin to our east and, nice and peaceful neighbours. Saladin usualy takes care of religion and Washington can be a pushover quite often. I put my points on Washington because he isn't PRO and is my most likely target for agression, want to see what he is up to.

I was very glad to see the grassland piggies, such a lovely tile. Hunting->AH there was a dry rice but meh. Hunting is also nice if I need to go archery in a hurry.

AH is in, and there are horses by that clam, where I planned a city on the desert hill. But now I want second city 1S of clams to get horses in first ring.
I go out on a limb and opt for TW->Pottery->BW, 2 hammer city center and alot of mines, I should be able to spam out warriors to take care of barbs and there are alot of rivers to play around with chariots giving attacking archers river penalty.
I want pottery early to get cottages on those floodplains running early.

There is alot of traffic and I tag along Saladins archer to get a good fogbusting position for a warrior up north.
The warrior that is tagging along had a brawl with a barb warrior over the river by the spices, but a fresh warrior takes up position there instead.
I built 3 warriors before settler, reaching pop3 abit later than if I would have worked two floodplains instead of floodplain+mine and later pigs+mine.

At pottery now. I have some hammers invested in a warrior up in York in case I need one in a hurry. Barb city spawned in the west. Thats sweet because they usually start to chill more once they start settling cities.
There is at least one warrior and one archer somewhere in the southern fog.

Disaster strikes, looks like it's the barb pulse, and Saladin of all people finish TGW the same turn. I might be in serious trouble here.

I have decent luck with rolls, winning most 80+% fights.

Wonder if Lincolns archers was injured? If not, that barb warrior was lucky.
My barb warrior wasn't lucky, but his sacrifice ensured some xp for the chariot.
Not that much more action.
I lose this warrior, and in total I kill 6 warriors and 2 archers.

Another barb city spawns in the west. I should get IW or HBR early to take those cities.
BW is just in, and I think I'll whip a settler to make sure I get a spot 1N of that copper.
Also I want to make at least a try for pyramids, if nothing else I should get some failgold.
I'm building a scouting workboat, and I'm thinking I should get sailing rather soon too, as that would make it possible to settle some cities connected along that eastern river.
I think the worst of the barb troubles are over, I'm alive and and my economy is intact. Now I just need to stake out some land!

 

[krikav]

Spoiler T71 :

2 warriors and 2 chariots where here to follow up after Ragnar suicided 2 chariots (leaving 1 uninjured and one injured archer left), apparantly it was not enough.
But this turn (T61) another warrior was within reach, and also the winning chariot got to go again.

Have just finished chopping pyramids in London. Settled a city south of london to utilize the pigs while London was busy with mines.
York is basically just slow-building settlers/workers at pop3, one of those settlers sprinted up to block off Washington.
Ragnar and Wash really hate each other so I hope Washington will be too busy to bother about me.
A lot of barb cities spawned in the east too, all on hills which is nice as it keeps Saladin preoccupied.
With pyramids in, and financial cottages, I think I'll just go on a rex-rampage now, and not pay too much attention to techs.

 

[Pangaea]

SIP looks fine to me too. Hopefully there is real food in the fog to the south, but unfortunately not a sure thing with floodplains present. Will have to farm some in that case. Stone in the capital is a nice bonus, makes me think of Pyramids. Not a lot of forests, but enough to get us by.

 

[krikav]

Spoiler To T115 (1AD) :

I continue to develop/expand and I also tech toward aestethics as Zara & Saladin reached alfabet.
I got there T81, but even though I had fishing I couldn't get alfabet for aestethics+fishing from Saladin, so I put about a half-turn into alfabet and get it T82. I also get math that same turn.

Washington lost some units, but the city wasn't damaged badly enough for me to snipe it.

Saladin takes Harappan, I plan to gift him a city down there, as that would make it impossible to settle cities closer to me, I want his nasty madrassa-culture far away and I don't want border tension with him if I can help it.
I did end up settling a city there, but at 1AD I have yet to gift it... I figured I want to utilize the chops first, and the fur is nice resources too!

This is how I plan to settle.

I didn't get IW for only math from Mao, but I gave him both techs for IW and got abit of diplo points too.

T91 I get a 65% chance GSci and make an academy in capital with him.

One barb archer is moving out from Zhou? Washington attacks and loses some catapults, next turn he attacks again with 1 injured catapult and that one injured sword, leaving a lone injured archer in the city for me.

Saladin had a settler in that city, good call to whip this guy from Canterbury.

T101 Boudica wants me to join her war against Darius. I agree since Saladin hates him too and I'll be safe.

Ragnar started to plot this turn. He DoWs T109 and take San Fransico T111. Trigger happy dude!

T111 I also reach Philosophy and get Taoism. I wait until T112 to swap to Caste+Paci because I wanted to make a pair more whips.
Then I revolt to Hinduism too.

 

[krikav]

Spoiler T115 (1AD) Situation :

Dead last in all demographics, but I have gotten a good chunk of land and I'm completely safe for now. I even settled Liverpool in Washingtons face to get marble. Traded away copper and pillaged the iron to spam out 1 warrior/city and plan to grow abit now.
I lack cities that can do some heavy lifting with great persons. Starving out one in capital now to increase odds for a GSci.
Vandal should get that cow in a turn or so as it just popped borders again.

I swear it feels like I have 3 workers... Always need more!

I'm going compass now so I have something to trade for small stuff I need, then it's off to CS->Paper->edu->lib to get something shiny.
Not sure if I can get a good cuir setup going, but I for sure want to make a try for Taj.
I also have my eyes on Kremlin, with the idea of cottages everything and making markets/grocers/stock exchanges in commerce heavy cities and rushbuy an more modern army.

Very nice fracturing.

 

[Pangaea]

Played some 70-odd turns.

Spoiler :

Settled in place after moving the warrior SE. Warrior Worker first. Built two mines. Improve the pig. Perfect. Mines ready for IMP settlers.

Can't know yet if the map was set up for this or if I was unlucky, but Saladin built the Great Wall right next door. That meant barbs kept streaming in, which wasn't too nice. Thank goodness I had settled that copper city pretty early on, and that I was able to get out an axe to deal with the first one. Later this happened (several times), and I had to 1-pop twice to deal with it.

Spoiler :

Perhaps it will keep happening until the whole area between ourselves and Saladin is filled out, which will be frustrating.

Situation at 1000-ish BC is that I'm still working on Mids. Hopefully I can get it, but not a sure thing without more forests. Right now the barb situation is under control, and I just spotted a second barb city out east. Too far away, but at least it's not on a hill.

4 cities, but economy broken from unit maintenance. Worse than it could have been, tho, as the capital is working hammers.

Spoiler :

So early, this is quite a few barb kills. And I also had to spend a good bit of the early game side-stepping 3(!) bears. They were indeed different, because all were on screen at one time.

 

[Kernigh]

I had a Prince game as Wang Kong of Korea, where I had stone near my capital, and completed both Stonehenge and the Pyramids. I forgot to make a road to my stone before I completed Stonehenge. I know not to repeat that mistake.

To begin this game, after I settle in place, I might run to Pottery and build cottages on all 4 flood plains. Each tile would yield 1 commerce from a flood plain, plus a 2nd commerce from the cottage, plus a 3rd commerce from Victoria being Financial. I checked the tech tree, and because we have Fishing, we need to research only the Wheel before Pottery. My capital would build a Worker, who would make mines or roads until I have Pottery for cottages. I suspect that the capital has a food resource (like corn or pigs), and by running to cottages, I would delay my farm or pasture. This is a weird order, because in other games, I make farms or pastures before my 1st cottage. I will check the resource before my final decision, but I guess that the flood plains yield enough food to delay my farm or pasture.

I might build Stonehenge in my second city, if I want my capital to build more Settlers. In my Korea game, I put both Stonehenge and the Pyramids in the capital.

 

[Qactus]

Spoiler IMM OCC Raging Barbs AD1120 :

Originally, I only wanted to try out the timing of the Great Wall against Raging Barbs when having BFC stone but not settling on it. Tech path was Masonry-TW-Pottery-Writing-Alpha.
This is the turn of the Great Wall finishing. Warriors held London really well until then, lost only two of them while killing 10 warriors and 8 archers.

But after that I played a bit further, one more turn, one more turn, you know the rest.
Followed up with Pyramids obviously, then targeted Bureaucracy, then Literature for the Great Library and NE, next was Oxford and now on my way to Lib->Biology for the Park, preserve those forests and then probably replace those beautiful FP towns with farms.
Lib race for Bio is quite tight, because I made some detours waiting to get Engineering in a trade. But thanks to the GW spies I have tech visibility on both competitors who are teching Education and can track their progress. Since I have only one turn of Lib left, should just be enough to squeeze in Scientific Method.

 

[Pangaea]

Immortal to 1AD.

Spoiler :

Washington kept stealing my spots, which at one point made me want to declare war on him and steal them 'back'. However, some opportunities arose with the barb cities. The one furthest east was outraken taken (one dead Axe). Some promotions make a difference, and being on flatland. Several civilizations were camped outside the PH one, and then Saladin came over with HAs. The first one attacked plus the host of Chariots. Killed one of the four archers (two with city defender promo) and injured two others. I had a few units nearby, so thought we could do it. The first Axe actually took down the full-health archer at 57%. Next one wins at 47%. Very lucky! Last archer was almost dead, so we won that one too (95% iirc). Washington, Saladin and Ragnar had to turn around. Saladin had two more HAs on the way, so unless we acted, he would have taken it.

Also broke the economy from settling a bit too many cities. Mids and Rep certainly helps, but I didn't have that many libraries. Also need to work a pile of all these cottages. Not always easy to know what to prioritise in the different cities.

All in all, the research rate is way below the one reported by @krikav above, but I'm still reasonably pleased with how things have panned out. Big problems with barbs early, and all that unit maintenance was a drain on the economy. I deleted some warriors over time, but they were on fogbusting duty as well, so had to keep them until all those spots were stolen by Washington. Also had a settler on the fish spot for a long time, and I postponed settling it. Didn't see a settler yet, but Washington came over with a spear, so it was obvious he would come soon. So when I was able to finally get Alpha and then Sailing, I settled it.

Tricky religious situation, so haven't picked on yet. We have four different ones (nice if going for culture), but the only religion we have in more than one city is Judaism, which nobody has, so that's not feasible. Also potentially dangerous to pick a side with this crowd, so I have postponed it for now. Once CS is in, I may have to double-switch to Buro+OR, and then pick either Hinduism or Buddhism, and make some missionaries by myself (always a drag).

12 cities with 46 population (but will 3-pop library in Coventry). Civil Service is due in 3 turns.

Spoiler :

There have been some wars, and the usual torrent of demands to stop trading and join wars. Boudica is totally killing Darius, and she has taken two cities. Ragnar declared on Zara, but they're back on semi-peaceful terms now. Don't think cities changed hands there. Just noticed that Zara has started plotting again when viewing the above picture, so that must be very recent, possibly in T115. Maybe they'll go for a round two.

Awkward happiness situation here, so I was glad Boudica offered me Wine (steady...). Have improved a Fur for a crummy city down by the edge, but not been able to hook it up to the trade network yet. Once that is done, and the capital temple is up, the city can grow a bit more. Current cap is 9 I think.

 

[krikav]

Spoiler T144 :

Ofcourse I get a GEng when I don't want one.
I'll keep him around, could rush Taj with him.

T118 Washington takes back San Francisco, Zara finishes MoM and I make peace with Darius for aestethics then sell CoL to him for the gold. Trade was fair enough that I didn't get bad diplo points.
Next turn, Boudica also makes peace with Darius.
I trade compass for Calendar+80g with Zara, and sell Compass to Washinton for 240g which gives me a -1 diplo with Ragnar+Mao.
I also get culture over the lovely cows!

Now Saladin is starting to do his work.

T122 I get CS, the only trade value I get from it is that I grab feudalism from Boudica, but I have to give her 125g in the deal too.
T125 Ragnar takes San Franciso yet again, and I remember that I forgot to swap to burocracy...

I reach paper, Zara has gotten Philosophy, but has no beakers into Paper yet.
I do some rounds and realize I won't be able to pull off more than one bulb safely without starting a golden age, which I really don't want to do yet because my cities are still not mature enough. So I start to self-tech education and shop around for machinery trades instead.

I tried to keep track of sustained beakers per turn, and since 1AD I have almost doubled research rate. Note the big cap between T123 and T125 when I finally realized I wasn't in burocracy.
Did the math with the GSci bulb (1500 + 3*total_pop) and ended up bulbing Education with only 13 beakers lost.

Then all hopes and dreams come crashing down as Ragnar makes peace with Washington, and not a single hothead wants to attack Washington. "We would have nothing to gain" they say!
I start to put hammers into maces/pikes and get ready to get a untimely DoW from my annoyed neighbour. If that would have happend I would have had to done a GA with my GEng, swap to police-state/vass/slavery and probably lost some city too

T135 I trade away Philo for Theology and for Machinery and T136 I lib Nationalism.

I rush Taj right away. Not taking any chances as Zara have had Nationalism himself for a few turns.
I also trade away Nationalism to Boudica for Engineering and to Saladin for Guilds.
I end up going for Banking, as I would finish it in 2 turns, and I want to get into Mercantalism (no overseas traderoutes on this map) and with rep/paci it's awesome.

T138 Mao makes a demand for 230g, I agree and then sell Philosophy to him for 400g.

I start to think that I was abit too worried about losing the lib race. I could have postponed longer.
Here I trade away both banking+education for PP with Saladin.

I finish economics and get that GMerch, and I pop a GSci. Ragnar starts to plot again which made me worry as I thought he had a peace treaty with Washington.
I'm on my way to Rifling to put up a good defence in case Wash comes for me, but he is still not plotting.
Saladin have now spread Hindu to all of my cities, the missionary on the screenshot is moving toward the tiny marble city which is last.

Then Zara gives me gunpowder, thanks!

The last turn of the golden age, I swap to slavery+organized religion, to get 6 universites and some stock exchanges up.

 

[krikav]

@Pangaea

Spoiler :

Seems you where abit more unlucky with barbs. I almost got a heart attack when Saladin finished TGW. Inland sea can be a pain even without such spanners in the works.
I went pottery before BW and tried to make sure to work cottages alot, I think that helped to get the economy kickstarted, although I can't blame you for taking a safer route. I certainly wouldn't blame anyone who went archery very early here either. This could have been a very tough map and if spears would have started to show up untimely for me...

I really regret settling a helper city south of capital. It was good for about 10 turns before pyramids when capital was struggling with working cottages and having too much food, but after that it have constanly have had problems with food, I like your Hastings helper city better.

I too think it's problematic with pyramids, especially with financial!
Partly one is happy for the increased happy-cap and want to grow, but partly one wants to run rep-scientists too.
In my game, I heavily prioritized working cottages, but eventually that screwed up my bulbing in the lib-race.
Perhaps it's just a lack of skill (or lack of confidence) but I like choosing risk free long term gains like a more developed economy instead of short term but vaning bursts.

 

[Pangaea]

@krikav

Spoiler :

I was worried too when I realised the Great Wall had been built right next-door. Had forgotten how much free space there is on these maps. It could definitely have gone badly if I didn't have Axes. A spear invaded for starters, and a lot of archers. This is from 1AD, so includes the 6 archers killed in the barb cities too. Otherwise it's units killed invading our borders or by fogbusters.

Spoiler :

Once I had those Axes, I didn't want to delete them (many hammers, and useful later), but early on I had 8-10 gpt in unit maintenance, which is a lot that early.

Looking at your 1AD spoiler, you gained locations in the west where I lost them, but then I was able to get a few locations further east, where Saladin filled in the land in your case. So looks like it was roughly even after all. But your economy is in a much better state.

The helper city south of the capital was settled pretty late in my case, and at that time it was kinda nice to hand off the pigs. But the main reason I settled it was because iron popped up. Normally I don't like to settle cities on green hills. Feels like a waste.

Tried to prioritise working cottages too, but probably not as much as you did. Since I don't have Caste, wish I had more libraries so it was possible to run more scientists. It does help a lot, but first I need a 90 hammer investment, which is a lot when you don't have all that much food. It's a very commerce-rich area, though, so once I can grow the cities a bit, the empire will be in a strong state.

Don't know if I will play it out, but I suppose a Cuir stomp is the natural choice here.

 

[krikav]

@krikav

Spoiler :

Don't know if I will play it out, but I suppose a Cuir stomp is the natural choice here.

I have played on abit, and thats not what I'll do, but someone with better focus and planning might manage it well.

 

[Kernigh]

Starting my game at Prince difficulty. My record for Prince is 1 win, 6 losses. My win was a Cultural Victory after I conquered about half the world. My 2nd-best game was my recent game of NC267 Montezuma, where I had the largest civ with the strongest military when my opponent got a Cultural Victory.

Spoiler 850 BC T81 :

• 4000 BC T0: Settle in place 1st city of Camelot, and begin to produce a Worker. See pig near Camelot, but decide to ignore Animal Husbandry and research the Wheel, then Pottery. (If I had corn, I might have researched Agriculture before the Wheel.)
• 3680 BC T8: Learn the Wheel.
• 3520 BC T12: Complete a Worker. Now want more Warriors.
• 3320 BC T17: Learn Pottery. Worker has made a road to the pig and now begins the 1st cottage. Decide to research Hunting, then Animal Husbandry for the pig.
• 3120 BC T22: Learn Hunting.
• 3080 BC T23: Meet Darius I of Persia.
• 2800 BC T30: Learn Animal Husbandry. Begin pasture on pig.
• 2600 BC T35: Learn Agriculture. Camelot grows to size 5. I move my new Warrior out of Camelot, but it becomes unhappy. An angry citizen demands military protection! I want to undo that move, so I cheat a little and reload the last auto-save from 2720 BC T32. I repeat the same moves as before, except that I keep the Warrior in Camelot. Now the city is happy; the 5 citizens work a grassland pig pasture, a flood plain hamlet, a flood plain cottage, a flood plain, and a plain stone. Settler in 8 turns.
• 2440 BC T39: Learn Mysticism, because I want Stonehenge.
• 2400 BC T40: "Darius I adopts Slavery!" I don't have Bronze Working for Slavery.
• 2280 BC T43: Learn Masonry and complete a Settler. I want a quarry on the stone, but first, I want a farm at my 2nd city.
• 2240 BC T44: Settle my 2nd city of Bywater, by a lake southwest of Camelot, between a sheep and a corn. Begin to build Stonehenge at Bywater. Begin farm on corn.
• 1960 BC T51: "Machiavelli has completed his greatest work, The Largest Civilizations in the World!" I am 2nd and Darius is 6th. Learn Bronze Working.
• 1920 BC T52: Meet Ragnar of the Vikings.
• 1880 BC T53: Meet Zara Yaqob of Ethiopia and Saladin of Arabia. Settle my 3rd city of Deephallow (east of Camelot). Deephallow begins a Worker, because my only Worker is too far west.
• 1840 BC T54: Meet Washington of America.
• 1720 BC T57: Worker connects the stone to Camelot and Bywater. Learn Writing and open borders with all 5 known foreign civs. There are 2 unknown civs.
• 1640 BC T59: Settle my 4th city of Rushy (north of Camelot). Rushy also begins a Worker.
• 1560 BC T61: Lose the race to Stonehenge, as Ethiopia completes it while I am 6 turns away. Bywater switches from Stonehenge to a Worker. The forest chop for Stonehenge will go to the Worker. I might have won the race if I would have built Stonehenge in my capital Camelot; but I wanted Camelot to produce Settlers. On the next turn, my lost Stonehenge becomes 65 gold.
• 1440 BC T64: Revolt into Slavery. I am the 5th of 6 known civs to adopt Slavery.
• 1400 BC T65: Settle my 5th city of Longbottom (northeast of a downstream from Camelot). Longbottom begins a Work Boat for a clam.
• 1400 BC T69: Camelot begins the Pyramids.
• 1120 BC T72: Learn Mathematics, because it boosts my forest chops for the Pyramids. Settle my 6th city of Waymoot (west of Camelot). Waymoot beings a Worker.
• 1080 BC T73: Meet Boudica of Celtia. I forget to open borders until Boudica proposes it 950 BC T77.
• 900 BC T79: Learn Sailing. My cities (except Bywater) are on rivers, so this connects all my cities to my trade network. I give a pig to Saladin, am not connected to other civs.
• 850 BC T81: Camelot completes the Pyramids! I used 6 forest chops at Camelot. It helps that I lost Stonehenge, because Bywater switched from Stonehenge to my 2nd Worker, who chopped for the Pyramids. If I had won Stonehenge, I would not have my 2nd Worker, and I would not complete the Pyramids now. On this turn, 2 barbarian Warriors attack my most eastern city of Deephallow. My only defender was new Warrior completed this turn, but 1 barb was wounded (by me when I sacrificed a Warrior), and the other barb attacked from the wrong side of the river.

In 850 BC T81, I have 6 cities: Camelot in the middle, Bywater to the southeast, Deephallow to the east, Rushy to the north, Longbottom to the northeast, and Waymoot to the west. I have my Palace and the Pyramids in Camelot, a Granary in Bywater, and a Monument in Deephallow. I have lost 2 Warriors to barbarians, and have slain 4 Warriors, 4 Lions, 3 Bears, and 2 Wolves. I now have 5 Warriors and 4 Workers.

The map seems large, with no foreign cities near my civ. I keep my units near my cities, didn't send any unit far enough to see any foreign civ. When I continue the game, I will probably use my Pyramids to adopt Representation.

 

[krikav]

Spoiler T182 :

Ragnar did DoW washington, which suprised me, I thought they had a peace treaty going on when Ragnar started plotting.
Very nice though! I immediatly stop teching rifling and continue to build up economy instead.
But first I join a phony war against Darius again to get shared war diplo bonus with Boudica & Mao.
I didn't dare DoW on Darius previously as I thought that might increse the chance that Washington would attack me.

Just a few turns later, it's obvious Ragnar is getting floored completely so I bribe in Saladin to ensure Washington will be preoccupied.

T152 Darius captiulates to Boudica which is really nice as that ensures frosty feelings between her and Mao/Saladin which hates Darius.
T155 Ragnar capitulates to Mao, which is also nice as Zara has Ragnar as worst enemy and now will hate Mao for taking him as a vassal.
It doesn't help Ragnar anything though, as Zara won't let Mao pass through, so Ragnar is continuing to lose cities.

Building Oxford is something I do very rarely but here I think it was fitting.

T161 I get a request from Mao to join the fight against Washington. I reluctantly agree even though it requires me to cold-whip a few pikes and build some redcoats ( I got the rest of rifling from Saladin which is now my friend).

Ragnar is pleased that I have joined the war and will not trade me Astro (and later steel).

T165 AP stops the war against Washington for Mao, Me and Ragnar, but Saladin who doesn't have any christian cities continues to fight.

Ragnar has biology!
I run a trade mission with one of the guys standing up in Aksum (ToAR city) and get Bilogy for lib+eco+RP+700g.
Me, I'm on my way to elecricity to get supercharged financial windmills.

This is a key wonder for the rushbuying I'm going do to, I saved alot of forests to get it done in this city.
1260beakers per turn sustained now, and 1400 after elecricity, I feel I'm doing ok, but I'm not that used to this later stage of the game.

I used this guy to get some musicals, I should probably have saved him for pentagon but I was obsessed with not losing that cow.