So I started a game with Attila on the new patch just now on Diety (Huts off, events off, tech trading off, RAs on), and I thought the position I ended up with was rather interesting. I paused at what is probably the critical turn because I feel like this is a good place to get some opinions.
I got a river start that had some dry plains too with marble and tobacco nearby. I settle and go Shrine first, thinking I want to maybe get spicy with early God of War, and go Pottery because the start is pretty dry and I'm fearing being stuck at 2-3 pop forever. I get to 2 pop on turn 8, and a turn or two after the Shrine finishes and I decide to play a little wild and go Granary instead of Monument to get out of the food squeeze, while teching Trapping.
My warrior and scout have traveled around and I realize I'm on the southeast corner of my Oval-based mapscript (there are smaller ocean-separated continents with no civs on them; all the civs are on the one large oval pangea.) Japan is very near to the West, Polynesia rather far to the Northeast, and the Uluru roughly between me and Polynesia.
Finishing trapping and the granary I find a deer and switch my city up to race from size 3 to 4 quickly while building a Monument and rushing it to finish it in 3 turns with my excellent production. I consider both Trade and Animal Husbandry, picking the latter for now to get abreast of the critical horse situation. After the Monument finishes, I still have not found a single barb camp and there is not a huge area for them to spawn, so I go Worker, trusting in my current army for the non-existent needs of the present. A little later I do find a camp, but it is 100% in Polynesia's area and not mine.
This brings me to the current situation:
Tech done now, Policy+4 pop in one turn, Belief and Worker in two turns (No AI has yet picked a belief; all visible AI are Tradition; Pyramids are also unpopped) A huge amount of leverage is obviously available over these next two turns.
I think the biggest decision is what policy tree, and everything else should flow from that. Authority is natural for Attila, but with very few barbs around early aggression means running headlong into Japan, and there are only 2 horses available to me. If I wanted to go Authority, I think I'd need to commit to blitzing early or sit on my heels; with no camps really around there isn't much middle ground. Probably God of War in this option, though lack of barbs around really makes it feel a bit bad.
Another interesting option is Tradition, with the immediate pop 6 city. God of the Expanse is available but it's a little bad with the Hunnic ability. A lot of the pantheons are looking kinda mediocre though. Also, if I get beat to too many settling spots in this area I could be pinned in too deep to dig my way out; I'm more cramped than average for this mapscript.
I've found Progress to work well with the Huns before, but considering the lack of space I don't think it's a reasonable option here.
As for tech, it depends on what I want to do but there are a lot of options. Mining opens up MilTheory; Wheel opens both my lux techs; Trade opens Ekis. Trade is probably the sexiest with so few horses but leaves me with a Warrior Archer comp for quite a while and might make aggression impractical.
What to build is a question too, though I'm mostly inclined to go Settler and try to get one of the two good nearby spots (near Japan and taking Uluru respectively.) Even if I go Authority I don't really have the right units to support building into a rush right this second, unless maybe massed Archers and Warriors->Spears?
I've included the save if people want to try it, but I'd prefer this thread bases itself in current events and not actual future ones for now, and request spoilers for any info from beyond the current turn.
I got a river start that had some dry plains too with marble and tobacco nearby. I settle and go Shrine first, thinking I want to maybe get spicy with early God of War, and go Pottery because the start is pretty dry and I'm fearing being stuck at 2-3 pop forever. I get to 2 pop on turn 8, and a turn or two after the Shrine finishes and I decide to play a little wild and go Granary instead of Monument to get out of the food squeeze, while teching Trapping.
My warrior and scout have traveled around and I realize I'm on the southeast corner of my Oval-based mapscript (there are smaller ocean-separated continents with no civs on them; all the civs are on the one large oval pangea.) Japan is very near to the West, Polynesia rather far to the Northeast, and the Uluru roughly between me and Polynesia.
Finishing trapping and the granary I find a deer and switch my city up to race from size 3 to 4 quickly while building a Monument and rushing it to finish it in 3 turns with my excellent production. I consider both Trade and Animal Husbandry, picking the latter for now to get abreast of the critical horse situation. After the Monument finishes, I still have not found a single barb camp and there is not a huge area for them to spawn, so I go Worker, trusting in my current army for the non-existent needs of the present. A little later I do find a camp, but it is 100% in Polynesia's area and not mine.
This brings me to the current situation:
Spoiler :
Tech done now, Policy+4 pop in one turn, Belief and Worker in two turns (No AI has yet picked a belief; all visible AI are Tradition; Pyramids are also unpopped) A huge amount of leverage is obviously available over these next two turns.
I think the biggest decision is what policy tree, and everything else should flow from that. Authority is natural for Attila, but with very few barbs around early aggression means running headlong into Japan, and there are only 2 horses available to me. If I wanted to go Authority, I think I'd need to commit to blitzing early or sit on my heels; with no camps really around there isn't much middle ground. Probably God of War in this option, though lack of barbs around really makes it feel a bit bad.
Another interesting option is Tradition, with the immediate pop 6 city. God of the Expanse is available but it's a little bad with the Hunnic ability. A lot of the pantheons are looking kinda mediocre though. Also, if I get beat to too many settling spots in this area I could be pinned in too deep to dig my way out; I'm more cramped than average for this mapscript.
I've found Progress to work well with the Huns before, but considering the lack of space I don't think it's a reasonable option here.
As for tech, it depends on what I want to do but there are a lot of options. Mining opens up MilTheory; Wheel opens both my lux techs; Trade opens Ekis. Trade is probably the sexiest with so few horses but leaves me with a Warrior Archer comp for quite a while and might make aggression impractical.
What to build is a question too, though I'm mostly inclined to go Settler and try to get one of the two good nearby spots (near Japan and taking Uluru respectively.) Even if I go Authority I don't really have the right units to support building into a rush right this second, unless maybe massed Archers and Warriors->Spears?
I've included the save if people want to try it, but I'd prefer this thread bases itself in current events and not actual future ones for now, and request spoilers for any info from beyond the current turn.
