A setback: just as I was building my third settler to go get Mt. Kili, Gustav settles it! I was going to keep him around for a trading partner and hopefully DoF but now he's got to be the first to go
I had a similar conundrum. The Swedes sent two caravans to me with 4 beakers (when my total beaker number was only in the 20s and 30s) which I would have to dissolve when declaring war. But there are a few reasons why I'm starting with Sweden. 1. Their land is quick to reach and likely to contribute to economy, production and research later. 2. The risk of being backstabbed would be overwhelming if I left them alone. So, below on turn 92 I have 6 CBs and a a couple of Mohawks on their way to capture Helsinki (or Helsingfors, as it is called in Sweden). Naturally, I want to draw out the swordsman next to Helsinki before targeting the city itself. Preparations have been slow but at least I had build National College by then.
- What did you think about before starting the game, what was your approach to this game?
I wanted to send a very big force of CBs and Mohawks on a "tour". But I also wanted to keep good relations for as long as possible to avoid unhappiness for long enough to make build of circuses and colosseums possible, after the army ismore or less complete. Mohawks were interesting because I don't usually build swordsmen to a great extent.
The warrior was soon hut upgraded to spearman and stayed rather close to the core area while two scouts moved on east and a third was upgraded to archer and searched out juicy barb camps.
- What tech path did you follow and why? Are you planning to use Mohawk Warriors?
Pottery was the obvious first tech, because of the dire need of a granary. Then I believe I picked archery to fend of barbs and break up the odd camp. I find archers much more effective than warriors, especially with barb camps, since they often require less healing time. The most important camp was one near Kabul, which I cleared once Kabul targeted it, and a Jerusalem one, which I’m writing about in the Religion section below.
I remember popping Trapping. The main focus was construction and later machinery, trying also to time philosophy ffor the sake of the National College.
A working hypothesis was to get a lot of the work done with CBs and Mohawks, but pushing on towards crossbowmen. So there was a lot of focus on the lower part of the tech tree. In the long run, this might also lead to cannons, but I hope they won't be needed because they would pose a great logistics problem, now that I started with Sweden. Maybe cannons will be good for a second army for India, which I will likely save for last.
- What Social Policies did you choose?
Liberty tree. T87 saw the discovery of philosophy and also the completion of the Liberty tree. Three turns later NC was hurried (17 turns worth). Science went from 32 to 45. But 4 of those, from trade routes, will soon be lost as war with Sweden is underway.
Next is the Commerce opener and then the Wagon Trains.
- Did you get a religion? What religious beliefs did you pick?
Pantheon was enabled by the 8 faith meeting with Jerusalem and a lucky barb camp quest and worker liberation completed by a lone scout. Not that interested in faith, I picked palace king.
A religion was founded in t87 thanks to the long-standing alliance with Jerusalem. Initiation rites (100 gold per city conversion) and Guruship (+2 shields if specialist) with the Longhouse in mind. I also want to use the longhouse to create a second great engineer down the road.
Unusual:
* Built my first lumber mills since I was a beginner, because of the longhouse in Onondaga, and perhaps in the spirit of the map.
* I was hoping that the uninterrupted forest that went in a curve all the way between Onondaga and the Fountain of youth town (my second town) would form a very early city connection, but realized like all the forest tiles must be within the territory. Because on turn 36 I had Wheel and later verified that there was no barb camp obstructing the path, but still never got a forest path city connection.
settled a single city near the Fountain of Youth
I like the way you combined a little road with the forest paths, to make the city connection. Myself, I didn't realize the forest paths had to be in our own territory, so I didn't get it quite right.