V2 - Hello BtS

[namliaM]

Roading the rice is something I wouldnt have done... we dont need the health, we need happy... did you road the gems?

Beeing late revolting to Slavery *ouch*, If the settler is that late whipping that it is only 1 pop... I would probably have finished building it and whipped a worker for 2...

Writing allready? Dont we need AH for our second city?

 

[ScubaSteve]

we do, we do. but i was still under the impression that we were going to beeline calender after archery, so i put beakers into a tech thats along that road and something that can broker us some happiness amongst the other civs. I dont want to be attacked by someone in our weak position, and every little build up of a relationship with the other civs will help us later in game.

 

[dl123654]

I would like to warn everyone that I will be going on vacation tomorrow (20th) and will be back 26th. I should be able to find internet (I mean steal ) and will update when this happens. This is a more just in case if I can't find any internet. So if you don't hear from me put me on skip.

IBT- North warrior gets killed by lion even though were on forest…

Sounds like you had the same bad luck with barbarians as I did.

 

[Lucky1972]

Got it. I either play now or we will have to wait for tomorrow evening. I will look at the save and post some thoughts if I feel we need some discussion.

Your right about the details, ScubaSteve. I got used to spend some time on turn 0 when I get a save from a SG, checking all the information screens, diplomacy, cities, civics, techtree, etc. When I can, I play at least some hours after my first look at the save, for things to sink in. It is not uncommon for me to mix information from 2 different games I am playing. But you cannot always avoid mistakes. About whipping, I usually point the mouse at the button even when it is not available, to see the reason. Many times I get the message that it requires slavery (even in SP I sometimes forget that I swiched to Caste System or something).

 

[Lucky1972]

Looks like I have to justify my name here! Hope I can do it!

Our scout is about to be eaten by a lion (open terrain, 0.7 health), but I will rely on my luck to have him survive.

We have a good number of hammers overflow in the capital for next turn. The build is currently set to a Granary (would complete in 4), which is very useful for us, but since our army consists of 1 warrior and we badly need another worker, I want to change that. My first thought was to put the overflow to a worker then swich back to the Granary (or military). But now I am leaning towards building an archer to scort the settler. If we again lose a battle to a lion (or bear ), we lose the settler, which would be disastrous. With the overflow, the archer takes 3 turns, so we would be losing 4 turns (It will take 10 turns to get there, so the city would be founded just at the end of my turnset). I think is the best move here, and I will do it unless someone says otherwise.

It is ok to research Writting now, a library in the capital will be great and we have time until our worker can get to the new city.

I will probably play later tonight to keep us moving, but if the team wants more discussion (and post in the next 2 hours or so), or if I feel we need to decide something important during the turnset, or if it takes too long and I need to go to sleep I will finish and post tomorrow evening.

 

[Lucky1972]

Update: already played, but It`s past 1am here and I need to rest. Will post the report tomorrow (morning if I can).

 

[ScubaSteve]

well ill assume nothing major happened, as you would have posted it right away

 

[LlamaCat]

we're off to a good start. in the meantime I'll just give my thoughts on the early play: I would not bother with a granary so early, we actually don't need it yet, city size is going to stay small with our happiness limit and whipping.

we only have 1 city, and at this point I've found the best results come from chopping/whipping out at least 2-3 more settlers, another worker, and defense units, and that's it. no time to bother with granaries or other infrastructure so early, it's about priorities.

also I personally would not have bothered researching archery as we can always trade for that later and in my experience we don't need the defense this early from the other AIs - barbs will eventually be a bother but warriors and fog-busting will take care of that. BTS seems to be a bit more manageable in this arena. having said that, I don't think getting archery was a mistake, just a different strategy and I think we're in good shape.

 

[Lucky1972]

I wouldn`t have researched archery either, but boy, am I happy we did it! Same about the Granary. In SP I would not build it yet, but for me SG gaming is about adapting your play to the team`s plans, specially the plans of the player before you, that`s why I went on with the Granary, after some urgent builds. The Granary will be very useful for whipping (We will be able to grow back faster and sometimes not needing to work only food tiles). But lets go on with the report.

On turn zero I notice capital is size 3 and is already at happy cap:

So we`re already have lack of protection unhappy. We need troops immediately. We also do not have the gems roaded. Whipping unhappiness will fade in 8 turns. This means we have a +3 happiness short term potential. So I set the archer build as I anticipated and then MM capital for growth (with help from banana farm that is being finished).

I put the camera onto the scout...

Cross fingers and press enter. We kill the first hungry lion...

But the next one got his lunch:

Not lucky enough

Since I decided to wait for the archer to scort the settler, I sent the warrior ahead to fogbust the way... I guess if I am careful enough I might be able to move the settler a bit faster...

Meanwhile we get some slightly good news:

The forest is south, just outside capital`s BFC. More forests is always good, right?

The scouting warrior spots some trouble

And I guess this makes the decision of waiting for the archer the right one. It is true the warrior, being in a forest, might survive the battle, but I would not have liked to see this battle with the settler in the same tile... Notice I had a movement point left on the settler, he moved back with the archer...

I hit enter and the barb archer charges...

We win! It was about time we had some luck! I promote the warrior immediately (strength) to heal him faster.

Foreign news:

Here, there was another barb archer in the forest 2S of the settler, he disapeared when I moved, I missed the right screenshot. I did not see him again, but watch out!

Besides founding Judaism, HC also revolted to OR. Then he comes with this:

I see no harm, and I remembered ScubaSteve said something about this, so I accepted.

Once again the scouting warrior proves his worth and allows us to safely get to the settling spot 1 turn earlier!

And we found Hari:

I set the build to a worker. City gets 1 extra hammer from being over a plains hill, the worker is due in 10 turns. There is no way we can get a worker there before that time (he would need to be escorted). (small note: when connecting those cities, remember to use the rivers and build less roads).

When AH comes in, I notice one of my of the turnset: it leads to Writting, so I should have swaped them to get the bonus...

Here is how our capital looks like:

I decided to build that mine before roading the gems, because we have time, and the production and added coin are nice. The worker can get to the gems next turn, road it, then I suggest building the mine on the other river grassland hill. I put the chop into a worker (35 hammers exactly, more than half the cost) then changed back to the Granary.

And Hari, our new city:

And yes, we have horses:

If I am not mistaken, that rice near the horses is unfarmable I don`t see a good city to grab them, I guess better let our culture get there.

On a last note, the gems in the capital let us have better GNP then a financial civ:

Not bad.

Save is attached.

 

[Lucky1972]

I did no scouting, the north is still unknown

Once the Granary is up, we can go whip happy! I suggest whipping a Library for 3 pop at some point (maybe after another settler and some troops), not only for the 25% bonus that will be huge, but also because we could run 2 scientists in this city almost all the time (GS rocks at early game, academy in capital will be huge).

 

[LlamaCat]

great job founding that second city, and because we are creative it shouldn't be a problem claiming that copper source despite the cultural pressure there.
another thing to keep in mind is that because we are expansive with extra health, we can maybe chop a few more forests than normal, to speed production of some key things this early on. (that forest growth was helpful!)
taking advantage of the leader traits for these little things can really pay off in the long run. I think creative + expansive is a great combo for this very early critical growth curve.

 

[ScubaSteve]

Now I really am glad I grabbed archery when I did! With all the barbs, its the only smart way to get settlers to there positions. Also, i think we should sign OB with all the civs on the continent for the time being, itll give us a very good early + to the relations w/ them, plus, when we are forced to grab a religion for whatever reason, the + will help negate the - we get from being a "heathen religion" from the other religions. The longer the OB policy is in effect, the more + we get I believe...

 

[ScubaSteve]

P.S.- Good turnset Lucky! I kinda left that scout in the north in a bad way but i couldnt see that lion until it was too late

 

[Lucky1972]

No problem. That scout did explore a lot before getting eaten, we can't really demand too much more from them. About the OB policy, I tend to agree, we just need to look for opportunities to block some land and close borders if the need arrive to frustrate any annoying settling from the AI.

I forgot to mention we are researching Mathematics, in our way to Calendar. I did it following the teem's plan, but I would rather research Alphabet first. In fact, I still suggest we change that, for a number of reasons:

1) We still need to research fishing and Sailing before Calendar, both are not very useful for us right now. With alphabet we could get them from a trade;

2) We need Iron Working (for the jungle resources). If we have Alphabet, we could probably trade for it while researching Calendar (will take long).

I am not sure how invested beakers decay with time, if we do change to Alphabet maybe we need to put another turn into Maths when we are halfway through.

 

[namliaM]

If I am not mistaken, that rice near the horses is unfarmable I don`t see a good city to grab them, I guess better let our culture get there.

See my dotmap from earlier... but yes.. the rice cannot be touched by a worker ...

If we whip anything, it should be a worker... Whipping = Hammers and we get 25% bonus on hammers...

Makes me up, I will whip us a worker... start some more busters & if possible a library & a settler?? Road the Gems, farm the Dye, mine the hill and try to do this tonight i.e. 16 hours from now... so you have untill then to comment

Might be a bit much for 15 turns but hey... shoot for the stars right?

 

[LlamaCat]

I notice we have a possible stone site in the north, but also marble + horses region to the south of the capital... which direction are we headed? Maybe grabbing the marble and building the Mausoleum of Maussollos would be good, since we are on the path to researching Calendar. I think we should switch to Alphabet... do beakers decay with time like hammers? I thought they didn't decay at all, I've never noticed it in my games before. Someone enlighten me.

By the way where is Ragnar - up north I presume? He is a real nasty one to deal with

 

[namliaM]

Well in accoordance with my dotmap I made a page back

I have not heard anyone protest... or make other suggestions...

Other than my suggestion of moving 7 (if it is still available at that time) one east onto the dye...

Edit:
Hammers decay after:
- 10 turns on units
- 50 turns on buildings

AFAIK beakers to not decay...

 

[namliaM]

First the save

Next, nothing happened.... basicaly...

Judging from my dotmap and no one objecting, we look to be expanding south / south westernly... So our logical oponent seems to be Hyuna...

I killed spy points towards him, if we are going to kill him anytime soon-ish its not gona do us much good. Feel free to change this if we are not going to target Hyuna soon-ish...

Next HC is nice enough to build us The Great Wall!

Bad thing about this is that any barbs from the south will wonder around his lands right to ours, so we need some warriors on the lookout while we connect up the copper and road back to the capitol.
We now have 3 cities and 3 workers, with the capitol mostly maxed out on improvements and roads....

With both the worker and the granary in for 35 someodd hammers allready, I desided to let them finish and do the following...

I whipped us a settler, which settled my 3 as #2 is obviously blocked by HC (another reason for a bulseye on his ....).

The "free" warrior wondered north and found two Villages, one was defended by a Barb Archer... the other was undefended but gave us some *ahem* usefull *ahem* maps.... This same warrior is about to die to a roaming barb archer Unless we get lucky, as he is on flat ground...


And finaly a shot of our capitol, now with roaded gems at size 5 (+1 from the whip) maxed at 6 unhappy, it will require some MM with the Whip going away in 6 turns, currently at max production. The whip overflow from the Settler + the Mine/chop south of the capitol helped the Library to rush to completion...

We have, I think, most the improvements we need here for a while. So the 2 workers just south of it can go ahead and connect our cities.... While one stays with city #1 to improve its terain, the other goes to our copper city to allow the bronze to flow freely from city to city

 

[LlamaCat]

I can't read your dotmap.... too dark. but think I get the general idea of where we are headed - pressing the Incas to the south and gearing up for war.
interesting that you kill the spy points against Huayna before we attack...my philosophy has been the opposite until now: concentrate the spy points against the enemy to at the least see what units are defending the cities. but I see your reasoning too.

are we running any scientists in the capital - looks like we have enough food to start generating some great person points, besides we are running out of money. I'm up next for 15 and should be able to play tonight in about the next 6-7 hours.

 

[Lucky1972]

Nice turnset there, namliaM

Good that we have the Library already. And another settler, great! We can abuse the whip now with the Granary, and if we need to halt growth there are those nice mines to work (and the specialists. I would run 2 scientists (almost) all the time, probably for an academy first, and then philosophy (as usual)).