T1-4: Temple of Doom

[Swiss Pauli]

Yup. Darnation. Will see whether deleting the other mod I have does any good (Blake's latest version).

EDIT: No joy. Let's see whether I have any more luck when I'm up. If not then I'll have to bow out...

 

[Jet]

You know what ---- **** this. frankcor has not posted "got it" yet, so I'm making an executive decision to restart with no Lock Modified Assets. I'll do it right now.

 

[Jet]

Right. Welcome to the Jungle. No, really.

Same settings as before but using the 11-07 version of Better AI, and not Lock Modified Assets. I rejected 2 starts, then played from this one. Poly/Scout as before and moved Scout uneventfully, popping one hut for 25 wealth. Here we are in 3820 BC, ready to press Enter to end turn 7:

Temple_of_Doom_BC-3820.CivWarlordsSave

I strongly suggest we get things moving by continuing from this save. frankcor, you're up.

 

[Meatbuster]

Oh. My. God. 5 food resources. Excellent start. I'd love to see how many priest you come up with. Hopefully you can get the Angkor Wat at least.

 

[Bede]

Just so's you know, I can see it and it loads just fine.

 

[Swiss Pauli]

The save works for me, too!

 

[Jet]

Looks like that's 24 for frankcor. Sorry, everyone, for all the startup confusion. Swiss Pauli, you're up.

 

[Swiss Pauli]

Got it and will play tomorrow when my headache goes...

 

[Swiss Pauli]

Not much to report, except that we missed out on Hinduism. Ok, I'm lying: Hinudism founded in BC 3430. Other than we we popped a couple of huts for 70 odd gold, met Capac who's capital is to our NW. Boney's archer came from the east to say 'hi'. Our second scout is in danger of being eaten (after popping a hut).

We're producing a warrior, but I suggest a switch to a worker when we hit size 3. Agri will be researched in 12.

 

[Bede]

Got it. <goes to reread the variant>

 

[Jet]

We might consider something like

Agriculture
Archery
Priesthood
Writing
CoL (Oracle) -> temporary Caste System -> 2-3 scientists somewhere
Alphabet
etc, including Meditation and Mathematics but not Sailing
Philosophy (scientist lightbulb) -> chop Angkor Wat

This is really a mix of 2 strategies: a dual CoL/Philo slingshot, and early Alpha. We could do one without the other.

The dual slingshot:
* CoL gives us a religion, our UB, a civic, and an advanced trader tech
* Philo gives us a religion, a lead on Angkor Wat, and an advanced trader tech
* religions in general, I see the main benefit as enabling another temple/cathedral in the capital, but also enabling temples elsewhere, and in the very short term, culture.

Early Alpha: I believe that timing is roughly necessary to get it in time so that most other civs won't have for example Writing and Poly. Much later (eg Mining/BW instead of Archery) and I think we'd miss some of those early trades. I'm not saying I think Mining/BW is bad, just that there's a tradeoff if we want early Alpha.

One middle-of-the-road option might be Agr, Mining, Priesthood, Writing, BW. That option is fairly noncommittal as to whether we go for early Alpha, and as to how early we attack a neighbor. And it gives one food tech and one hammers tech. It might be a little late on barb defense, not sure.

Of course we don't a lot about our surroundings yet, so I don't mean to jump the gun.

 

[Swiss Pauli]

That's not an unreasonable strategy, though I'd say we'll need Mining in order to build the Oracle. I'd go for:Agri-Mining-Archery-Priest-Writing. Then see how things are going (barbs, economy) before deciding on our next mid-term goal (though I do like a Philo lightbulb).

 

[frankcor]

I apologize for missing my turn -- I spent the weekend winning my first Monarch game ever! I did get up twice to go to the bathroom but that was about all I did all weekend except for play. It doesn't get much better than that.

So, no excuses. I was a self-indulgent fool.

 

[Jet]

I spent the weekend winning my first Monarch game ever!

Congragulations!

 

[Bede]

The threatened scout on an open plain survived the lion but has been running east to avoid a bear. The first scout died to a lion while on a jungle hill. Worker started at pop3, research set to Mining (muddle of the road, but I want a hammer tech to complement the food, and archery without a way to train them in this lifetime doesn't seem worth it).

Capac met the Buddha and has an archer parked outside our borders.

Judging from what can be seen we are at the edge of one belt of jungle that feeds into some arid plains with a long river to the north with lots of floodplains.

And a rice bowl grew some trees and vines. We are going to need iron working to keep up with the jungle in our territory.

 

[angeleyes]

From 2950 BC till 2500 BC we finished Mining and started Archery. Our scout popped a warrior who i send direction home, a few turns later our scout, completely safe on a jungle hill across a river, got killed by a lion.
Worker came in, warrior came in last turn (going to hut just outside our boundaries), put Stonehenge in queue but probably something else is much better. I'm a bit worried about our financial situation, how are we gonna lift that up?

 

[Swiss Pauli]

Looks like we've had some really poor luck with our scouts. Let's hope the other Civs find us before too long.

I think we might train a warrior then a settler for the Corn/FP site in Jet's screenie above. Metals tend to be located around the desert and we'll be needing some for our Conquest goal.

I think we can review the finances after the Oracle. We'll need Pottery, but maybe Bronze would be needed first.

 

[Jet]

0. 2500 BC: 7 turns to Archery. Another jungle tile has grown in our FC, threatening the southern rice. We have zero hammers in Stonehenge; switch to Warrior (due in 7, but mine will finish in 3.) and press Enter. In hindsight I'm not sure this was the best build - I think a Barracks might have been better, since with the mine it probably could have finished in time for Archery. I was feeling uncomfortable about the black tiles:

1. 2470 BC:

How reassuring. Moving southern warrior to hut and hut-popped warrior southwest through black tiles toward Mexico.

3. 2410 BC: hut pops a map:

I'll take it! Mine finishes. Worker skedaddles to farm southern rice before it's engulfed in jungle.

4. 2380: Warrior valiantly survives panther.

5. 2350: I slow growth and start a barracks. Now staying in Hind we're at our happy cap, with fear for our safety.

Send Warrior west.

6. 2320: Archery in, start Priesthood. Injured Warrior headed home; hut warrior headed toward France, new Warrior headed west. I'd like to explore the north but we can't yet.

7. 2620: Napoleon is building toward us:

8. 2320: I get glimpse of Paris and see that it's defended by only one Archer. If only...

9. 2200: Barracks done, start Archer.

12. 2110: Western Warrior, rashly exploring after surviving a Panther attack, survives a Lion attack and gets Woodsman I. I move him to a hill to heal. Meanwhile: Hah!

13. 2080: 54 gold from the hut.

14. 2050: Archer finishes. Move him north. Start another Archer.

15. 2020:
Army: 1 Warrior, 1 Archer in queue, due in 3. Growth to size 6 in 3.
Explorers: Warrior west, Warrior east, Archer north.
Priesthood in 1.

I think the western Warrior should explore, but it's debatable whether the eastern Warrior should come back as a fogbuster, or keep exploring around France (and probably die to a barb). He could probably safely bust the fog between us and the French colony. Since we're short of units, I think fogbusting might be better. Then our next build could be a settler, then the Oracle. I agree that we should settle somewhere by the Corn. Site A would be killer... thoughts? I'll leave my markings but feel free to erase them, frankcor.

For that matter, I suppose it's debatable whether the western Warrior should explore Peru or stay home to fogbust. I was thinking explore, but... he could fortify on a hill.

Wherever we settle, I suggest skipping the Monument. It hopefully will become the Confucian holy city, and we can easily pop its borders by going into no SR for a few turns. For that matter, if we get CoL we can pop any city's borders by going into Caste System and running an Artist for 4 turns.

 

[Jet]

Now that we have a slightly clearer picture of our surroundings I guess it's worth considering whether we're better off attempting a different slingshot, like Monarchy or Iron Working. CoL gives us some super-powers and opens the door to Philo, it just doesn't have a lot of immediate-term bang. What do you think?

edit:

On a little reflection I'm thinking CoL is worth it. From a purely numbers point of view, it lets run a few scientists for a short-term beaker injection, and if combined with early Alpha, should let us temporarily catch up in tech.

I think the alternative would be if we could find a different path that would let us overrun Peru fairly early. Is there such a path?

 

[Swiss Pauli]

I'd settle 1 tile west of A on the desert hill, for defensive reasons, but that could be because I just lost a city to bad RNG in the latest RB Epic.

Realistically, we're not going to be able to conquer until we have metals and catapults. With so little knowledge of the land a Jags rush (using Oracle for Ironworking) would surely be too risky.