[SPOILER] Asoka of the Vikings (Nakor & Gaspar)

[Nakor]

FInally BW in!
We go for Red dot first, but shouldn't forget to get that crazy site south. There is a lot of commerce there.

We could also settle far to E, W and N and then backfill.

Agri is ok if we go Myst afterwards. We do need border pops...

[Gaspar]

I'd go for Mysticism first if I thought we could land Hinduism, but surely its going to fall soon. If only I could talk myself into C&D, we might be able to figure it out. I'd like border pops, but I'm not so concerned about them just for the sake of them. Given we aren't going to be growing past 4-5 for quite a bit yet, its not like we really need those 2nd ring tiles. Religion for border pops is more appealing, because you get the pops, and you also get Civics/Potential shrine income/cheap temples, etc.

Still, there's an unimproved Corn resource at our second city, and we need Pottery to get cottages down. Researching anything other than Agriculture seems pretty silly.

I agree on Red Dot next. I think we should grab the horses after, since I think this is far more likely to be a more traditional MP game, and military options will be more important. Mostly, we just need to be plunking down settlers til our Economy busts at this point, then build troops to defend them. We have a bit left on our NAP with plako, so as long as we keep an eye on Locke, we have plenty of time/room to expand. That backline city will be nice, but its ours no matter what, so its lower priority.

[Nakor]

Hey Gaspar, looking at the turn, I see you moves our Vinland worker down towards Greenland. What was your plan behind that?
Went with a road towards Helluland since we need that as well. We could have kept it near Vinland to chop that worker....

Third worker done, going to chop a hill near Greenland to speed up our next settler/worker pair. Settler ordered in Greenland.

What more to tell? Turned science back on (10T to agri).

[Gaspar]

I was just speeding him over to Hellu to get the copper mine up fast, in case there was a need. Sorry, should have signed that!

[Nakor]

No problem! Working on it now.
Another scouting turn. Things are really slow...
Locke settled that uber spot to his east and LP wants a reply to his last mail. Maybe I'll have time later today.

[Gaspar]

Here's the overview Krill asked for, albeit a turn late:



Our lands, the two yellow dots representing our next 2 settlements. Cows/Gold first, the Horses.

Here's the cities, starting with the Capital:



Second city:



and Third:



Techs:



A word on techs. I think we were hurt by playing several games on quick, where starting techs matter less. Fishing/Hunting has absolutely crippled our opening. As much as Hunting was a necessary tech early with the start Krill gave us, if we had Agriculture or Mining, it would have completely changed the early game. We really, really need Pottery, like yesterday. We've had to use Barracks as placeholder early builds instead of Granaries, and we won't have our first cottages until 65+. Super, super on our part. I like to pick a Civ/Leader combo for fun first, power second, and hence our Asoka/Vikings move, but it was really, truly, terrible. Also, while the map will allow for some cute Nav 1 Galley moves should we want to make them, certainly water-influenced UU and UB really are far from necessary. I'd give my right arm to be either of the Civ combo's we're sandwiched in between. We've researched a little bit too much in a paint-by-numbers sort of way, and ultimately have been way too cautious. More on that when I discuss diplo.

Units:



Doing ok here. The extra warriors will make useful HR-MP down the road. Another worker and settler coming soon. Like to stay at about 1.5 workers to cities in the short term.



We've 4 neighbors left to meet. We've had minimal relations with our neighbors outside plako, primarily because Nakor's busy and I suck at diplo. I think we REALLY screwed up by giving plako such a sweet deal though. We've given him a border agreement so he can expand aggressively to his west, while we're right on top of Locke to our east. By giving him Carte Blanche to beat up Greece, we've put ourselves in a situation where we're either going to have to rush Locke or go to war with plako to maintain liebensraum, as well as keep up with plako, surely the early favorite. Its not just the extra city, its the part where he's got his foot on WK's throat, and can probably stomp him whenever he likes. Regardless, we'll need to think about what our military objective is here, because tech to zerkers and go dagger somebody is probably not a recipe for long-term success. If it weren't for everyone researching Hunting, I'd seriously debate chariot-rushing Locke.

And here's our cities at 100% science.



Clearly, lots of work to do!

FWIW, Krill, I like the map from what I've seen, though I'd have liked a little more water. Mostly because we picked the Vikes.

[darrelljs]

For my tired eyes, can you hit ctrl-r for your sceenshots ?

Thanks,
Darrell

[Nakor]

What does that do, Darrell?

[Krill]

Brings up the resource bubbles.

[Nakor]

Aha, that explains!