RB1 - Let's get started

[regoarrarr]

Okay - so it's 2000 BC, turn 50, and I am (we are?) Washington of the Americans.

Darrell has left me with a settler to move, but the first thing I notice is that Elizabeth has apparently entered the Classical Age. I look for thoughts on where to settle, and the only suggestion that I see is to the NW near the silver and fish near England, so I send the settler that way. I also send our worker up there to improve the land, since Washington has a few improved tiles already.

But the big news is that I move my scout to the east of the Persian capital of Persepolis and... after all the whining about no Maritime states... we found one!!



So we have 375 gold. 250 gold buys 35 influence, and 500 gold would buy 75 influence. As I understand things, we lose one influence per turn, and it takes 30 to be friendly with them (and get their food). So if we spend 250 right now, we'd be their ally for 5 turns before we lost influence, unless we came up with some more gold. We could potentially get some gold from selling the whales that they would give us, if they have them hooked up yet. I think I'm going to explore around there more first.

And....



It appears that they are not hooked up, so that strategy will not work. I also check around and we don't have anything to trade, though people do have plenty of gold. Also, Gandhi has (1) Sugar available, which is what Washington is "demanding".

Turn 52 - Animal Husbandry comes in and there are horses everywhere!



Conveniently there is a set right where we're going to settle our next city. Dublin also has a set and so does London. There are 2 more sets to the east of Washington. I will be building on the coastal "blue circle". I set research to Mining (due in 5) so we can mine the silver up here.

Turn 53 (1880 BC) rolls in and I found Cincinnati up on the coast.



I buy the horse tile for 45 gold, and the worker who is right there begins improving them. I go to start work on a workboat but... we don't have Sailing yet I instead go for a Monument (30 turns) and decide to research Sailing next (after Mining is done)

I also decide to gift 250 gold to Genoa, and that brings us up to +4 food in Cincinnati and Washington. Cincy will grow to size 2 in 4 turns.

Turn 54 I have to interrupt the horse pasturizing because a Barbarian shows up. Also, Seoul wants Helsinki eliminated.

Turn 57 - some City State issues!



Hard to read in this screenshot unfortunately, but England has attacked Dublin. I'm not sure we can get involved right now but we probably want to if we can. The message says that if we kill 3 "enemy" units then Dublin will be "indebted to us"

Kuala Lumpur wants Brussels eliminated.

We're now on the last turn and it's time to hand over the reins. Washington just finished its library. I've tentatively put it on a worker as one of our farms got pillaged by a barb, and we also have marble there once we tech to Masonry. Another option would be a warrior. We have just the one, and it's currently playing "zone defense" between our 2 cities.

We did lose our friendship with Genoa and don't yet have enough gold to get it back. I was hoping once the horses were hooked up that we could trade that to someone for a lot of gold so we could gift it to Genoa. Alternatively, we could use those horses to build some horsemen to help out Dublin.

Sailing due in 3 - after that I think I'd go to Masonry, or maybe the Wheel (if we want to build Chariot Archers) or Bronze Working-> Iron Working.

 

[darrelljs]

Okay, I am back in action so I'd like to take a turn instead of getting skipped, that okay with everyone?

Best bet for Dublin is let England waste units on them. If they happen to win, we can liberate Dublin for virtual lifetime friends. I think we should try and get both our happy online, and sell them for gold. Is everyone okay with running two Scientists and trying to bulb Swordsmen?

Darrell

 

[Sciz]

I'm fine with that (and you taking the turn now)

England will most likely fail taking Dublin (I haven't seen an AI succeed in taking a city state yet) so we don't have to waste hammers building units I don't think.

Just hope we have Iron nearby

 

[darrelljs]

Chatted with sunrise089 and he is going to play next...I'll just have to take a skip this time around.

Darrell

 

[Sciz]

You can do your missed turn after him (before me), I don't mind, i got a bunch of stuff going on in the next few days anyways, like the fact that my dishwasher broke down and is leaking water all over the kitchen floor.

 

[regoarrarr]

The cost of getting a policy is based on how many (non-puppet) cities you own at the time you choose the policy. So if you save the culture and build a bunch of cities in the meantime it's inefficient.

So we may have messed up a bit there by founding a 2nd city before picking a policy

 

[darrelljs]

Yeah, maybe...we should adopt our Patronage policies ASAP. sunrise089, you still got it?

Darrell

 

[weakciv]

Lurker Comment:
having withdrawl from RB SG. must have more!


But really, everything ok guys?

 

[darrelljs]

If sunrise089 doesn't post a got it soon, I'll play over lunch.

Darrell

 

[darrelljs]

Played, turn report in progress.

Darrell

 

[darrelljs]

t60 - Take a tour of where we are at. Its not very impressive, that failed Stonehenge bid really put us back. We need Settlers and Workers, I'm happy to see Washington is on the latter. I decide to let the Monument in Cincinnati finish before starting a Settler. Seriously, Cincinnati is the second city name for the U.S. ? I would say regoarrarr's to blame, but he's from Cleveland so I doubt it. I'm not sure on the Seafaring call, either...its going to net us 2g/turn AFTER we build a non-cheap workboat, which won't come until after we get a Settler out.

Our methodology is outdated already, and by that I mean the course we set ourselves for this game has already become somewhat obsolete. I'll still save up for Patronage, but ICS is looking like a better strategy. I also acknowledge that Horseman are uber, but still think Longswords could be fun to play with. We need to get Bronze Working -> Iron Working -> Metal Casting -> Steel (Bulb). Ideally we build some cheaper units and cash upgrade them, but we lack Trapping and therefore can't build Trading Posts. Worse, we only have one Maritime city state right now and so we will actually need sorry farms at least for a little while .

t61 - I bring our Warrior back towards Washington to try and deal with a pesky Archer.

t62 - Archer gets crushed:



Dublin also makes peace with Elizabeth, more's the pity . At least Dublin won't be allying with England. Ideally we at least have them at friend status before we go after Elizabeth. Our Scout finds a Barbarian encampment near Japan, which he has no interest in attacking.

t63 - Yay:



I set research to Bronze Working due in 5 turns. Its at this point I realize we don't have Scientists hired in Washington. Its a tough call, we are no longer getting any food from a city state, and with the pillaging that has taken place running two scientists will stagnate Washington at size 5 . Some quick napkin calculations lead me to believe we have to start right away (well, in the past) to get a Great Scientist when Metal Casting comes. Either that or I just guessed. In any case, the bullet is bit:



t64 - Cincinnapi grows and we are now unhappy. I need a new tile to work, so I go ahead and buy the Silver:



t65 - Alex comes asking for Open Borders. That's nice of him. We need to get in the habit of always doing this:



I now have enough gold to sign a research agreement with Bismarck (200). Maybe I should have saved it to bribe a city state. Actually, I should have saved it to bribe a city state, but when he came asking I had trouble saying no .

t66 - Our Warrior fisnihes off another barbarian and now has enough experience for a promotion (or two). Wounded barbs keep showing up, and I keep killing them. He'll make a fine Longswordsman one day . Dublin complains about a Barbarian Encampment. If its near them, its near us. I stick the Warrior in the capiltal to heal up, so he can go handle the situation. Military City states are nice friends when they are your buffer with an AI .

t67 - Yay:



Iron Working due in 9 turns. After that Metal Casting, then the world.

t68 - Our wandering Scout meets Hanoi, another militaristic city state .

t69 - Our wandering Scout meets Brussels, another cultured city state . This gave me a good laugh:



I told him to piss off, but I used the polite wording. I'm sure this matters somehow .

t70 - And, I'm done. Here is Washington:



And Cincicrappi:



sunrise089, you are up! Again .

Darrell

 

[ruff_hi]

Our methodology is outdated already, and by that I mean the course we set ourselves for this game has already become somewhat obsolete.

How so? Can you details regarding the above statements?

 

[darrelljs]

Check out this game for what I consider current state of the art Civ 5 strategy.

Darrell

 

[Kylearan]

Our methodology is outdated already, and by that I mean the course we set ourselves for this game has already become somewhat obsolete. [...] Check out this game for what I consider current state of the art Civ 5 strategy.

So ICS is the current optimal strategy now for playing the "perfect" game. Does this really make other strategies "obsolete"? Does it mean every game has to go ICS now?

 

[darrelljs]

So ICS is the current optimal strategy now for playing the "perfect" game. Does this really make other strategies "obsolete"? Does it mean every game has to go ICS now?

Okay okay...poor choice of worlds. Our current strategy is non-optimal, not obsolete .

Sciz, consider yourself up unless sunrise089 posts a "got it" before you acknowledge.

Darrell

 

[regoarrarr]

Seriously, Cincinnati is the second city name for the U.S. ? I would say regoarrarr's to blame, but he's from Cleveland so I doubt it.

And Cincicrappi:

Hey, hey, now. I'm originally from Cleveland, which is why I (unfortunately) root for the Browns, but I currently live in Cincinnati (again, given the state of the current baseball playoffs, unfortunately)

 

[darrelljs]

Which did you like better, Cincicrappi, or Cincinappi? You do realize this will be going on until the end of the game, right? I only hope everyone else joins in the fun .

Darrell

 

[regoarrarr]

Which did you like better, Cincicrappi, or Cincinappi? You do realize this will be going on until the end of the game, right? I only hope everyone else joins in the fun .

Darrell

I was just pleased that you used the correct number of n's and t's (or at least replaced them in a 1 to 1 relationship with alternate letters)

No Cinncinati or Cincinatti or Cinncinnatti, etc....

I really don't care so knock yourselves out!!

 

[Sciz]

Okay I got it, will play now or later today

 

[Sciz]

Not much to do early on, Washington working on a worker and Cinci on a settler. I notice the barbarian encampment Dublin wants killed, but decide to wait to attack it until we get another warrior so we don't leave our worker(s) unprotected at home. It's not like anyone else will take the encampment before us anyways.



On turn 72 the silver mine is finished!



Now we're on positive happiness again. I set the villager to repair one of our pillaged farms near Washington, I guess we'll switch back to those two (currently pillaged but soon repaired) tiles when our great scientist is done?



Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good is a phrase I see a lot in Civ discussion, and it proves here when a barbarian brute comes wandering in from the south, but luckily I had kept our warrior back to defend, so I could easily kill it. First washington bombs, and then our warrior cleans up:



Washington completes the worker, and I set it up repair our other pillaged hill farm.



I start building a Warrior in Washington, so we can use our existing warrior later to destroy some encampments without risking more pillaging.

On turn 76, Iron Working completes, and you can also see to the right that Gandhi completes the great library on this turn.



I see that we can get trapping in 4 turns and then use our great scientist that completes on the very same turn to grab Civil Service, but darrel wanted to bulb steel, and since i've not used longswords yet in Civ 5, i go for metal casting instead 15 turns though, and that's with the two scientist specialists in Washington, if we stop using them after our Great Scientist is done, it's going to take a while.



Iron is found to our north east. One resource with 6 iron, and one a bit to the east with 2. I guess we should place our third city here with the settler from Cinci. Either next to the river so we grab Horse, cow, iron, iron, silver and wheat, or near the coast with just the 6 iron and the sheep. We have to destroy that encampment first though.



On turn 79, Alexander declares war on Darius! Interesting things happening finally One sad thing though is that the purple city state message above Alexander's war declaration is a message saying Persia is now allied with Genoa, the only maritime city state on the continent so far We're going to need quite a bit of gold to bribe them to our cause instead. If we hook up that silver near the iron in the previous pic we can trade that away for some gold at least.



Then the very next turn Alexander asks us to declare war on Bismarck! Just one turn after his declaration on Darius Warmonger much? I say no though, for now. (but politely!)

At the beginning of turn 80 our great scientist is born, and Cinci produces our third settler! I set production in Cinci to a library for now because I didn't know what else to build for now, but you can change that obviously. Maybe a work boat for the fishes? (I'm unsure if we have the tech yet lol, i forgot to check) I leave the settler in Cinci for now, but we should probably settle near the iron to the north east as I discussed earlier.

Also important to note is that a barbarian archer showed up from the encampment to the north east. Our worker on the desert hill farm could see it but before i could screenshot it I moved the worker away into safety However, the archer is on the tile exactly to the left of the word "Terrain" in the terrain box in the following pic:



So, I have no idea who's up next but i'm guessing it's either Sunrise or Darrel. What we need to decide if we should keep the two scientist specialists in Washington on or not for the faster metal casting research, or switch to the two farmed hills, where to place our third city (north east near the iron somewhere imo) and what to build in Cinci (work boat?) Also I'm hoping that we can clear out that archer that's attacking pretty easily and that there's only a brute left in the encampment there after that, since we need to take it down before we can place a city in that direction.