Random SG 01 - The Randomness Begins

[Optional]

1600 BC, turn 60, inherited turn:
We have a policy that garrisoned units cost no maintenance, but our units are standing just outside of our towns. 2 of them with a purpose as they are blocking Persian settlement, but the other 2 seemingly without a purpose. I'm going to move those in our towns to save money. Allowing them a little detour though; we have Kilimanjaro nearby, I want to give them altitude training, that can really make a difference at some point.

Research I'm setting to Calendar. It was on The Wheel with nothing in there yet, but without Calendar we can't hook up our Wine.

In Utique I'm moving a citizen from the unimproved Fish to the unimproved Wine; it's simply a better tile, and if the Fish gave more food, the Wine will give us a quicker granary, so in the end we might not even lose food this way.

1560 BC, turn 61
Carthage: archer >worker.

1520 BC, turn 62
The quinquereme sees that Darius wasn't originally blocked south; there's land there, but he is blocked now by Harar and mountains. We're really on the same continent as everyone we've met sofar. The quinquereme will go back south next turn; no way ahead.

1480 BC, turn 63
The Ottomans have founded a religion.

1440 BC, turn 64
-

1400 BC, turn 65
And also Ethiopia founds a religion. I forgot to check how many religions still can be founded, but I don't think we stand a chance. Even with a faith giving pantheon this would have been difficult, we would have needed a faith mountain.

1360 BC, turn 66
The Great Lighthouse has been built somewhere.
Utique: granary > library
I was actually in doubt between a library and a cargo ship. A cargo ship to Harar seems fairly safe. In itself I think it would be better than a library; also a cargo ship would give science due to knowledge share with Haile Selassie, but I picked the library because it enables the National College.
Calendar completes > Philosophy - route to National College.
Social Policy > Landed Elite. Only 1 Tradition policy remains, that's the one with the discount for wonders and -1 unhappy for every 10 citizens in a town.

1320 BC, turn 67
Oh, hello there!

We are introduced Attila because a scout of theirs meets our quinquereme:

Spoiler :

Carthage: worker > library.
Attila asks for an embassy exchange. I say no, to keep the possibility open that a CS will ask us to find their land. Although we've only met 1 CS sofar, that's disappointing.

1280 BC, turn 68
A worker needs something new to do, after finishing a deer camp. I'm deciding to by a Truffle tile, the governor has set his eyes on water tiles again. I checked the finances of the civs we've met, any lux we hook up we can probably sell, so in the end we should make money from buying this tile now.

1240 BC, turn 69
-

1200 BC, turn 70
Darius has completed Parthenon.
Utique wants Dyes.
Some unknown civ gets a pantheon.

So the situation is now that Darius is still stuck and can't expand. Optics would give him more options; there is a shallow water route for him to the lands south of us, but there is a one-tile bottleneck in that, and our quinquereme is only one turn away from it (I should have taken a screenshot, which I will still do). I would advise moving and keeping it there, there's not much else to do for it anyway, because exploration options are all blocked off by AI settlements.
We'd need Optics for ourselves to be able to explore our continent further, but I find that less of a priority then the National College.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Here is the line up:
Bugs
Optional <= just played
Polus <= UP
Teproc <= on deck
Gurra

Teproc - stand by to take if Polus doesn't show up.

Optional - you moved us ahead nicely. Some solid decisions. What did you mean by altitude training on Kilimanjaro?

 

[Sir Bugsy]

I also see that Darius has immortals. Those things are a P.I.T.A., especially if in a golden age. Any warmongering against Persia will probably require at least five ranged units.

 

[Optional]

What did you mean by altitude training on Kilimanjaro?

I mean this:

Any unit gets this when it's passing Kilimanjaro, just like any unit gets double healing when it passes the Fountain of Youth, I thought it was well known. For an archer unit it means that it can move onto a hill and still shoot. A scout can even move 4 tiles on hills with altitude training.
So if we see a chance we need to move a unit next to this mountain if a unit hasn't been there yet.

I moved an archer and a scout next to it, I think, but I see the other archer I've forgotten about. It's now blocking Darius, that's more important for now, but if we see a chance we shouldn't forget letting our units visit the mountain.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Very cool! I have learned something new. Thanks Optional. I am assuming other natural wonders have traits like this. Looks like I need to spend more time reading the civilopedia.

 

[Teproc]

Kilimandjaro and the Fountain of Youth are the only ones.

It really is a powerful ability, big help to warmongering actually (thoug I haven't looked at how good it is on this map specifically).

So our plan now is to get NC done, but what do we do after that ? Here are my thoughts :
- settling a third city near the Pearls should be a priority.
- then we have a choice between going straight for Education for fast Universities, or detouring to Machinery to attack Darius. Both seem fine to me, but it's important to start thinking about it now.

How many ranged units do we have now, 4 ? That should be enough for defensive purposes.
There might be considerations to give to Galleases (?) as well, with Persepolis being hard to attack with that many land unis at once.

The good thing about attacking Darius relatively early is if we itend to attack Ethiopia afterwards, it should be done before they reach Rifling, because Mehal Sefari are very, very annoying. But that's only if we want to win Domination really.

Edit : I didn't see Darius had completed the Parthenon... he's still wonderwhoring, he's gotta be pretty weak. Something to keep in mind.

 

[Optional]

I promised you a better picture with the expansion routes Darius has once he has researched Optics. Here it is:

Spoiler :

There are several 1-tile bottlenecks in both of those routes, as you can see, that's why I would strongly suggest to keep our only quinquereme roughly where it is now.

How many ranged units do we have now, 4 ?

Just 2. And little money to upgrade them, but we're working to get our economy in a better shape.

I didn't see Darius had completed the Parthenon... he's still wonderwhoring, he's gotta be pretty weak. Something to keep in mind.

He'll remain weak. He can't turn the odds in his favour without decent expansion possibilities. We have space to develop and grow stronger, he hasn't. He can only improve Persepolis, but that's the poor man's option. The pressure is on him as far as I'm concerned, we can always deal with him at a time that suits us. He got the short straw from the RMG. Our real opponents are elsewhere, maybe it are Ethiopian and Ottomans, we don't know yet.

About religion... I just checked, 2 religion slot are still open, but we would be extremely lucky if they don't get taken by the AI. No point in desperately trying to do something about that. We'll just have to borrow other civs' religious perks.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Borrowing other civ's religious perks isn't such a bad thing. I'm trying to play a level 7 gauntlet right now and I was able to build mosques, cathedrals, and pagodas using my faith and other religious traits. That has really helped my happiness.

As for this game. I suggest we pursue the following goals in this order:

1. National college - 50% science bump in the capital is huge.
2. Settle 3rd city (can we squeeze in a fourth city on our peninsula?)
3. Get education (universities and great scientists!)
4. Get machinery and go to war with Darius using crossbows. Crossbows rock.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Sent Polus an PM.

 

[Teproc]

Just keeping ourpantheon for as long as possible wouldn't be too bad either, the growth is going to be really nice.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

We'll give Polus until this evening (US East Coast time) to claim the game and then we'll hand it off to Teproc. By the way, my heart goes out to our French friends in time of trial.

Je suis Charlie.

 

[Optional]

I read that in the paper as well yesterday. It's disturbing, the amount of people having a problem with freedom of expression seems to be on the rise.
They turn to violence against people who aren't even putting up barriers against them, they turn to action because they cannot live with other people's opinions.

I suggest we pursue the following goals in this order:

1. National college - 50% science bump in the capital is huge.
2. Settle 3rd city (can we squeeze in a fourth city on our peninsula?)

Quite easily. I personally thought the river location on the west coast screamed for a city - blue dot on this dotmap:

Spoiler :

3. Get education (universities and great scientists!)
4. Get machinery and go to war with Darius using crossbows. Crossbows rock.

I would squeeze in researching Optics there somewhere. We have only met 1 City State out of 16, we probably need to embark a scout and go east over land where Haile Selassie and Suleiman are to discover more CS's, natural wonders, whatever.

I think we also need to know now what victory condition we go for. Going after Persepolis doesn't have to mean Domination all the way. We have a nice traders location; sea routes with Addis Ababa and maybe Istanbul. Also Persepolis could be a profitable harbour town. Carthage is very suitable for this type of game; the harbours are already there.
War would not allow us to trade intensively, but the map looks very suitable for naval warfare, although we know little yet about iron, which we would need for frigates.

I would ask the next player to check the towns and see what the citizens are doing. I've still got them mainly on production tiles, but what is probably best is to lock them on foody tiles with the focus set on production.
This is a good practice because of the moment a new citizen gets born: the first yield being counted is always food, if the food fills up the threshold, then a new citizen is being born and placed on a tile. Only then all other yields are being added up - hammers, gold, culture...
What this means is that a new citizen dropped on a foody tile with no other yields will do little, because the food was already being calculated before he was born, so that counts for nothing that turn.
But a citizen going to a tile with hammers and gold will still reward you with those yields, while not costing food that turn, as dinner time has already been.
The only tricky thing is that a new citizen on a tile with little or no food will start to eat the turn after, so you may want to move him to not hurt growth too much, and forgetting to move him is the thing that can easily go wrong!

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Thanks for the dot map Optional. Looks with Orange Dot and Blue Dot we can corner the market on truffles. We'll need more happies to settle those two locations though.

As for victory type, I think it is too early to decide. Once we have a strong economy up and running and we have an idea about where iron is we can make a decision. I am a warmonger at heart, but I agree that the trading possibilities can make for a science or diplo victory.

Naval warfare requires ranged units. Frigates are a great start, but eventually you need battleships and submarines. It is just too early to know.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Guess we're going to have to skip Polus

Bugs
Optional <= just played
Polus <= skipped
Teproc <= UP
Gurra <= on deck

 

[EricTheGreat12]

Hello everyone

I know that I am no longer part of the 'playing group'. However, having contributed earlier I do believe I have a right to give some help

I would agree with Optional by saying that you guys should start on the blue dot. The river and all of the truffle resources + the fact that there are jungles/forests means that you will have a better starting position.

Also, one thing that you guys will need to consider if that Attila is in this game. I understand that he's on the other side of the island, but the point is that he's an obvious warmonger. Sooner than later he's going to start invading city states and maybe even other civs; this means that you will have to pick your alliances wisely. Not starting any alliances would be a good option as well.

Whenever people play strategy games with war/battles, it seems that most tend to underestimate their enemy and they end screwing up badly as well as losing most of their troops if not all of them. If you are going to send and army towards Darius my suggestion would be to send a scout near their territory first. {Tip from experienced Total War+Civ player: the greater part of siege battles is that siege weapons can be extremely useful against cities. But in an event of war you have to be balanced: for example, 4 crossbowman, 6 long swordsman and 2-3 siege weapons would be a nice balance to invade a regular city (if you can pay the maintenance of course) }

You also seem to be low on cash, which is not surprising considering this early on in the game. But my advice would be to check if you can purchase the tile which is right next to the warrior and archer (its on their left). I you were to purchase it you wouldn't have to keep those military units there so you can defend the front against Persia.

About religion: it may be early on, but keep in mind that Pantheons are more of an early game bonus, when you do found a religion be careful to take different bonuses that help the current game AS WELL as helping with your future goals/strategies.

So there's the advice on what I've read from your posts so far; Hope it might be of use for the group

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Thanks for your input Eric. Excellent point about Attila. Another reason I am a big fan of strong ranged units.

 

[Optional]

I would agree with Optional by saying that you guys should start on the blue dot.

To not get any misunderstandings: I don't have a preference about which dot first. I just find blue dot a very obvious town location.

And we need to be aware that it's not just Darius that we want to keep out of our backyard. Suleiman can easily get there too; he already has Optics, during my set I could see him floating about with scouts.

Thanks for still following this SG, EricTheGreat.

 

[Sir Bugsy]

Good point. Suleiman is notorious to grabbing every square meter of territory.

 

[Teproc]

Will check in later tonight, was a rather agitated week.

 

[Teproc]

OK, just played, fairly uneventful, on our front at least.

IBT 70-71 : Hanging Gardens built in a far away land, Catholicism reformed

T72 : Carthage finishes its Library, start on a Cargo Ship

IBT 74-75 : Attila declares war on Haile Selassie, we sell Truffles to Darius for 7GPT

T79 : Philosophy done, start research on The Wheel because a road will be profitable soon between Carthage and Utique (5 tiles).

IBT 79-80 : Attila captures Addis-Abeba.

T80 : Utique finishes Library, starts Archer. Carthage finishes Cargo Ship, starts National College (12 turns, so very good and we can even chop a forest).

I let the Cargo Ship idle for the next player to decide after we discuss it : we have two options there:
- sending it to Cape Town for 8GPT and 40 influence, also extremely safe.
- transferring it to Utique to send it to Harar for 7GPT and 4 science per turn. Now there's a chance Harar gets taken by Attila but that'd be fine, we'd just get it back and then we can send it to Cape Town or Istanbul. If Darius attacks us it's an easy pillage, but Darius likes us.

I'd go with the international trade route, but I think both are good options, so... discuss.

Also, as soon as someone denounces Attila, we should follow suit, that's a pretty good modifier. Mostly if Suleiman does it that's be nice, because he could be a good trading partner, being pretty far away.

I recommend building Settlers in Carthage once we're done with the NC. Maybe there's consideration to do it in Utique, but I don't thinkthat's very efficient.