SG: Queen Teuta

[Dux_]

I decided to go for Pottery, I hope it's worth the gamble.

Turn 1 Wheel is a turn away.

Turn 2 (4060 BC) Our worker finally gets a job. Starts building a road north of Skondra. Agriculture is 13 turns away.

Turn 3-7 Not much to say.

Turn 8 (3910 BC) Worker finishes road north of Skondra.

Turn 10 (3850 BC) Settler's done. Switch working forest plain to river grassland. We grow in 6 turns. Set production to Warrior, should be done in 7 turns.

Turn 12 (3760 BC) Dyrrahu is founded where it'll give us wheat & horse. Work starts on a Warrior.

Turn 15 (3700 BC) Worker finishes road 1N 1NE of Skondra. I suggest we move him to hook up wheat. Dyrrahu should switch to tavern, since Agriculture just came in. We're -1 already on gold, so we need it. Skondra grows in a turn.

Jet, you're up.

 

[Jet]

The Council of Elders has spoken: it's Copper Working or bust. I did Pottery before Tools because we already have a worker.

I sent the worker to farm the wheat and built warriors and a settler in the other two cities. I sent the settler down to Greece and set the warriors to bust fog in the south to guard the settler and prevent barb cities from popping up.

I figure the first two cities can build taverns as soon as they have access to wheat, which is in 3 turns for Dyrrahu and a few more for Skodra. Sooner would also be reasonable - I don't usually wait for wheat to get hooked up, but I figure in this game we could use the warriors: behold the barb warrior near Dyrrahu, and the power graph:

 

[Hypnotoad]

So let's cut to the chase.

That's on about turn 11 or so.

What had happened earlier is that I had founded our third city down in the pimp Greece spot, built a warrior in our capital and then started back up again on our cemetary. I went for the cemetary rather than a settler because I wanted to build a worker as soon as we invented tools. But Ceaser put a stop to that.

I had sent our three warriors to scout things out a bit more -- one to the east to scout out Romania, one to the west to find Iberian allies, and eventually one to the north to see if the fruit/cattle spot was still available for settling. Ceaser attacked my scouting warrior that was in Austria or so (in the hills). My warrior survived and has headed east to heal in the forested mountains and to be on the lookout for approaching armies (he will see any units that come from south of the alps).

That left one warrior directly north of the capital.

I started building a warrior in the capital (two turns to complete) and sent the warrior from the capital to defend our road between Skodra and Dyrrahu.

The enemy went to cut off our supply of cattle. Again, I moved to cut it off from the road to Skodra and I brought my second warrior into the hills to directly to the west of the cattle. The Roman attacked and killed my warrior in the hills. I then moved onto the cattle (and built a warrior in the capital). He attacked my cattle-warrior and died. There are now no known roman warriors.

A great debate took place in the council of elders. I argued that we stick to our course and learn how to master copper. We've come this far -- surely we can hold the Romans off a bit more. So I've started down that path, but fear for our immediate survival may convince the more short sighted to immediately research hunting

It's 18 turns for Copper working, 8 for hunting.

 

[Shqype]

Turn 1 - healed Tribal Warrior in Shkodra
Turn 4 - Cemetary built in Shkodra, Harbor started
Turn 7 - Met Viritio, Dyrrahi built Tribal Warrior and began construction of Cemetary
Turn 12 - Shkodra produced Harbor, began construction of Granary

Not much happened during my turn; no battles and no sight of the Romans. Copperworking is almost researched, however. It would be nice to get another settler and then another worker out of Rome to better build up Illyria. I propose founding a new city northwest of Rome, since we've already been blocked off at the top by the Germanic Tribes and the area between Shkodra and the Peloponese is ours anyway. For the city in that space I suggest 3E and 1S of Jet's picture here, between the Fruit and Sheep and above the Fish.

We have enough warriors in the area to hold off against any immediate threat.

It's your turn again, SrWilliam.

 

[Hypnotoad]

I think it would be good to build some workers. We need to build up some cottages and connect our cities together. On the other hand, as soon as we get copper working we'll want to build weaponsmiths and Kambsors.

My own suggestion would be to build a weaponsmith in our capital and a Kambsor in our second city (in case the Romans show up). Then start on a weaponsmith in our second city. My only question is whether we should build a worker in our capital first. Probably not. I suppose that could be built down in Greece.

Oh, and I forgot to use the Tavern to expand the borders of our second city. If Shqype hasn't done so, you may want to SrWilliam.

 

[Hypnotoad]

Not much happened during my turn; no battles and no sight of the Romans. Copperworking is almost researched, however. It would be nice to get another settler and then another worker out of Rome to better build up Illyria. I propose founding a new city northwest of Rome, since we've already been blocked off at the top by the Germanic Tribes and the area between Shkodra and the Peloponese is ours anyway. For the city in that space I suggest 3E and 1S of Jet's picture

What about a city to the east of the capital on the river to take control of the gold and the sheep (and stop others from settling there)?

I wonder if we just want to leave empty the city space you suggest, Shqype. If we are going for a domination win, we need to be careful of maintance cost.

 

[Jet]

Ha, ha. The Germans are blocking the Romans from attacking us until Boat Building.

Shqype, I didn't understand what city plot you meant. Did you mean something like this site B? This dotmap is just an idea. We should hear the voice of the whole council on core city placement. F is iffy, but I'll refrain from posting an 800-page treatise on its pros and cons - for now.

I agree that as soon as we get Copper Working we should build a Smithy in Skodra (and then hire an engineer), and Kambsors. And more workers would certainly be good. But it looks like we'll need to be cautious with units, since we're at our free unit limit now, and I assume we'll want to research Masonry before Nature Cult and Tribal Law? (I think the free unit limit goes up with population however.)

 

[Hypnotoad]

I am fairly sure he meant your site C. Right over your C, NE of the Fish, East of the Olive, North of the Sheep.

I meant your site A.

How did you do the line drawing thingie? I tried to figure that out, but failed.

Also, is there a turn counter somewhere so I don't have to keep on figuring out how many turns have elapsed (after forgetting to mark them down)?

 

[Jet]

Zoom way out and click the leftmost button above the minimap ("Shows the strategy layer"). Then you can draw lines. Some people just copy and paste into paint programs.

I'm finding it hard to count turns, too.

 

[SrWilliam]

I will run my turn tonight. I plan to toss up a new city, build a few workers and one or two Kambsor. I am not sure which city to build first.

Site C has the most long term potential.
Site A is essential for the Gold.
Site B/E is most likely to see a Dacian city soon.

If we feel strongly about a B/E city I think it has to go up next. It's a poorer location, I am tempted to say let the Dacian build this city for us.

With so few health resources hooked up, is it too early to build smithies?

 

[Jet]

> Site A has to most long term potential.
> Site C is essential for the Gold.
??? the Gold resource is near site A... are you referring to commerce from olives and cottages?

> With so few health resources hooked up, is it too early to build smithies?
If Skodra grows one more and builds a smithy it will only be at -1 health, which is no problem for that city. IMO early is the best time to build one smithy, anyway, because if your first great person is an engineer you can rush an early wonder. Since we've beelined for Copper Working we should have a good chance of it. Furthermore Skodra will be in a good position to build the Colossus later, if we want to try building it there.

 

[SrWilliam]

My bad I mixed sites A & C, now corrected.

Lots of priorities, I would also like to quick-build a work boat in the capitol and swing it down to the Clam so the southern city gets quicker traction.

If we do the Engineer/Smithy trick, I think it should be with the Sphinx in mind, thus the great engineer would have to be done about when we get masonry.

Not that we should do this, but I have had a some success financing my early empire's by failing to complete wonders.

 

[Shqype]

Jet, whenever I play I always take both B and C as cities; although C is more beneficial it may make sense to take B just so it's not taken by the Germans or Dacians.

I'de say that A is unimportant right now but might be a nice idea for a third city. But Hypnotoad brought up a good idea about maintenance costs if we're going for a Domination win.

PS - about this "High Council" stuff... It's a good idea to post ideas and discussions about what to do next so that we play as one coherent unit, but ultimately it's up to the player to play his turn the way he wants. Just keep that in mind guys.

 

[Hypnotoad]

PS - about this "High Council" stuff... It's a good idea to post ideas and discussions about what to do next so that we play as one coherent unit, but ultimately it's up to the player to play his turn the way he wants. Just keep that in mind guys.

Absolutely. It is interesting to see the different choices people make. The discussion should be interesting for people, not put pressure on you to worry about messing up (or whatever).

It's not even clear to me that we really need to play as one coherent unit. We should discuss overall plans, but I think it is going to happen (and it is not a bad thing) that priorities are going to shift between turns. Part of the joy of discussing overall plans is to see what others consider important.

For my part, I think we should immediately get to work on the weaponsmith in the capital. That great engineer is just worth too much. That could be a Sphinx!

 

[Shqype]

I agree with you on that, but not for the Sphinx, lol. You get me that Great Engineer, and I'll build something nice

The Colossus sounds better and would be useful for Illyria.

 

[Hypnotoad]

!?!

I'm flabbergasted. It's just... I mean...

 

[SrWilliam]

I decided to make our southern city Lissus a settler/worker farm and did some boldish moves to that end.

T1 Lissus, shift squares to max build Tavern
T1 Dyrrahu, hire artist, shift squares to max build cemetery
T1 Skodra, Allow growth (it was clicked to no growth), build workboat

T2 Bronze working done, Woodworking
T2 Capitol size 6, shift squares to max build workboat
T2 The Dacians build a city in our map zone E

T3 Lissus finishes Tavern, hire artist and build caravans (-2 food) for 3 turns so it’s boarders grow super fast)
T3 Lone worker finishes road, build cottage north of Skodra

T4 Workboat done, build 2nd workboat

T5 Dyrrahu grows to fat cross, cemetery done, build kambsor

T6 Lissus grows to fat cross, build worker

T7 2nd Workboat done at Skodra, build smithy

T8 Woodworking done, research AH
T8 Workboat #1 arrives at Lissus clams, work clams

T9 Workboat #2 arrives at Lissus fish, work fish

T10 Our lone worker finishes cottage at Skodra, now build Skodra lumber mill

T11 Kambsor done at Dyrrahu, build worker

T12 Hunting done, research AH

T13 Make sure the cottages are being worked

T14 Lissus Worker done, build harbor. My thought is/was to build the harbor to size 3 (then use Lissus as settler/worker factory)

T15 New worker puts farm on Lissus wheat. Perhaps this could be put to better use, olives? I thought the wheat would produce the most for the factory.

I'm sorry I rushed a little bit. Maybe Lissus should have grown to size 3 before building a worker. Maybe I was wrong to get the timber on line with our first worker. We are 2 turns to our first smithy. A few turns from AH, a 3rd worker and a half-decent settler factory. We can chop settlers if we feel the need. I hope I correctly judged the risks; I will owe the team an apology if a Roman fleet shows up and sinks the work boats. My attempts to make peace with Rome were rebuffed. Dux is up.

SW

 

[Shqype]

No need to apologize SrWilliam; if Rome hits us then we'll just have to hit them back harder!

I'de say you did a lot during your turn and your micromanagement was very beneficial to our game. Thanks

 

[Hypnotoad]

Yeah, seems good to me. Our southern city could use a jump start, for sure.

Once we have the Weaponsmiths in place and some Kambsors, I think we should go to war! We have a huge military advantage right now with the Kambsors and raider. We could either go for boats to attack Rome or attack one of our closer neighbors.

Thoughts?

 

[Shqype]

Who do you guys think is a good candidate for war? I kinda like the Dacians and they don't pose much of a threat right now ... Rome is already at war with us so it makes sense to me to just wipe them out early instead of attacking a neighbor and being at war with 2 different powers.

I think it would be fun to build a couple of boats and send what we've got into southern Italy and move up. How about you guys?