You know the river, cattle and luxes y'all wanted...?
Sounds like someone up there has been listening to your prayers.
This is the 4000BC save in case anyone wants to shadow along or just for general reference.
Turn 1, 4000BC - Since we are on a river and coast, I found Delhi where we start. 2 more furs become visible as well as a second bonus grassland tile. Start building warrior. Worker moves to cattle square. Start max research on bronze working, current ETA 30 turns.
I think the startegy I will follow for the moment is my usual OCC strategy, which is to start quiet and unassuming but try to make early contacts. We should cave into demands as we would be trounced in any war. We'll just build quietly for the moment, lulling the world into a sense of false security, to take them fully by surprise come 10AD. So I intend to build a few warriors to explore, a spear for defence, a temple for really early culture, and then start a wonder.
Turn 2, 3950BC - worker begins to irrigate cattle
Turns 3-5 - nada
IT: warrior ------> warrior
Turn 6, 3750BC - irrigation of cattle complete, begin road. The first warrior will explore southwards
IT: Delhi grows to size 2
Turn 7, 3700BC - luxes to 20%
Turn 8, 3650BC - nada
IT: warrior ------> warrior
Turn 9, 3600BC - road complete, worker moves to bonus grassland square, the second warrior will explore northwards
Turn 10, 3550BC - worker begins to mine bg tile. The southern exploring warrior spots a silk enclave amidst the jungle. With a river and coast also next to the silks, that could be a prime target in the future, as the commerce that city will generate once all the jungle is cleared will be ridiculous.
IT: borders expand
Turn 11, 3500BC - nada
IT: Delhi grows to size 3
warrior ------> worker (lots of jungle to clear)
Turn 12, 3450BC - the latest warrior fortifies. The southern warrior spots a brown border. I am working a forest square with the 3rd citizen for 5spt to complete worker in 2 turns exact w/o waste.
Turn 13, 3400BC - nada
IT: worker -------> temple
Turn 14, 3350BC - we now have unit costs with 5 units overall. New worker moves to the other bonus grassland tile.
The southern warrior makes contact with the brown border - Russia. Cathy is annoyed, has her starting techs and we have ours. She has 10 gold in the kitty. I trade burial for bronze working and 10 gold (we had 9 turns left on our research so we got a discount).
I change Delhi to a spear for some proper defence. I am not thinking so much as defence vs the AIs (if they declare war we are screwed anyway) but against the raging barbs on emperor difficulty - what would be disastrous is if we were working on a wonder and had accumulated many shields, but barbs managed to pillage the work...so I'm going for a spear defender rather than a warrior. With this thought, I send the Delhi warrior to explore westward. Set research to Masonry, current ETA 30 turns at 80% science.
Turn 15, 3300BC - goody hut spotted near capital but I am not going to risk popping it yet with the capital undefended. 2nd worker starts mining the bg. Our northern warrior spots gems among the mountains.
Cathy now also has WC, probably from a hut. She must also be researching alphabet as she won't even give us pottery for it. No trades for now, as we need neither tech for the moment.
Turn 16, 3250BC - 1st worker completes mine, starts road
IT: Pink warrior appears close to our southern warrior.
Turn 17, 3200BC - the pink warrior is French. Joan has Masonry and 10g, lacks burial, and has spices already hooked up. Cathy now has the Alphabet, so is up on us 2 clear techs. Research time for Masonry drops a couple of turns thanks to the contact. I consider selling Burial to Joan for 10g, but pass for now, as it is well below market value.
IT: Delhi grows to size 3 again
Turn 18, 3150BC - with a spear due in 1 turn, I risk popping the hut near Delhi, and we get...a settler!!! In normal games this would be massive, as this is an OCC it's not as good, but we can nevertheless join the settler to Delhi for 2 free pop points.
Another goody hut spotted in south. Luxes to 40%.
IT: spear -------> temple
Turn 19, 3100BC - worker completes road, moves onto a normal grassland. Spear fortifies in Delhi. One of our exploring warriors meets an English warrior (Gandhi's getting a lot of female attention). Liz is up pottery and already has a second city. No trades. Luxes down to 20% thanks to the MP.
Turn 20, 3050BC - warrior who met the English beats them to a goody hut by a turn, but it is deserted. Worker on normal grassland starts mining.
Turn 21, 3000BC - worker on bg completes mine, starts road
IT: Bede's most advanced nations list has India last
Russia is top.
Turn 22, 2950BC - the settler we popped joins Delhi. Luxes to 50%.
IT: Delhi grows also, and is now size 6.
Turn 23, 2900BC - Luxes increased to 60%, we're running out of gold.
IT: temple ------> Collosus (Pyramids prebuild)
Turn 24, 2850BC - worker completes road on bg, moves to fur forest tile. Luxes lowered to 40%
I plan to bring one of our exploring warriors back to act as a 2nd MP.
IT: Russian warrior and spear pair appear next to Delhi's borders...I hope they're not up to anything...but another reason to bring a warrior home
Turn 25, 2800BC - worker begins to chop the fur forest. The 10 shields from the chop will be wasted as we are building a wonder, but once chopped, the furs tile will act as a pseudo-bonus grassland (and will of course, get us a lux).
I ahve to lower science right down to 20% as we are about to go bankrupt otherwise. Masonry is now showing in 29, but this will drop as Delhi grows again and roads are completed, and if perhaps, the French trade Masonry around (at the very least, we can get a discount if we have to buy it).
Diplowise, everyone we have contact with has 2 cities. England is annoyed and is up pottery, Russia is annoyed and is up pottery and warrior code, France is polite and is up warrior code and masonry, but lacks burial still. France also has 2 workers for sale but we can't afford them. I could make no possible trade, but that may change in the next few turns, so keep an eye on this Meli. We obviously want to get hold of Masonry, we don't really need the other 2.
Also, my thoughts for next player: One of our warriors is close to Delhi and should, I think, head back into Delhi as 2nd MP and as caution against any AI or barb moves (better safe than sorry). I have kept Delhi on max food as I think we should get it to size 12 ASAP, and then we can look to maximize shields and commerce. The lux taxes hurt us but they are undoubtedly the best option for now and we'll get a much greater return from getting Delhi to size 12 ASAP (also, once we are size 7, we will get the extra commerce from the city square for being commercial).
I played 25 turns to get us up and running, play however many you feel fit to get yourself a feel for the game.
This is the world so far explored....
And the
save
Nad....just played
Meli.....UP NOW
Jack Merchant.....on deck
Aggie
Krys
Grimjack
So unfortunately, we take whatever the map generator gives us...
