RB Pitboss #1 [SPOILERS] Willem of Persia

[shadyforce]

Turn 6:
Fishing complete. Research switched to mining (due in 7)
Central Comand switched to work boat though I'm still working the Ivory (2,1,1). When I grow to size 2 (in 5 turns) then I'll switch to 2 grass/hill/forest tiles (1,2,0) which will finish the work boat in 4 more turns.

Projection:
Turn 13 - Mining in, switch to Bronze Working
Turn 15 - Work boat complete, 3 shields left of warrior
Turn 16 - Fish netted, warrior complete, start worker (due in 9 turns with netted fish + raw ivory)

I see that myself, Team Lin and Team Krillphus have all jumped in score, presumably because we all researched fishing (none of us started with it). Broker has not yet logged in and could well do the same. Also, my amateur demographics interpretation suggests somebody is working a (0,3,?) tile, presumably someone who started with fishing and wants their work boat out asap, or an expansive civ building their worker first with a 3 shield tile.

Edit: It seems score is added when the turn changes, not when the player logs in, so only 3 of us researched fishing.

[shadyforce]

I do not really understand why you wanted to avoid Fishing as a starting tech, since Sulla did mention water invasions would be possible (implies at least a modest amount of water). But I guess excluding Myst and Fishing means more early worker techs, which has its advantages.

I knew it wasn't going to be a pangea but I guess I still hoped for an inland start, or a coastal start that at least had inland food resources. I'm not fond of workboat first starts. It just seems to delay early expansion.

[shadyforce]

[shadyforce]

Justin Specting makes first contact with India (regoarrarr + Dantski).

On the next turn, I'll take a peek into the capital. I'm curious as to why there is a warrior there. India does not start with Fishing and they did not research fishing, but their city has grown to size 2. I can also see through tile bleeding that their capital is on a plains hill. My guess is that they built another warrior at the start working a (3,0,?) tile. So they completed a 2nd warrior and grew to size 2 on turn 8 and are presumably starting a fast worker now.

[Sullla]

Contact! Well, now things will get a lot more interesting for the readers.

Any early thoughts on how you'd like to develop the relationship with regoarrarr's team? Peaceful cooperation, early attack, something in between...?

[shadyforce]

I have exchanged a few emails and chatted with regoarrarr. Here's what I know so far:

The continent we are on is made up of (at least) a north and south segment seperated by a narrow isthmus on which the Indian capital (Cincinnati) is built. India started with a warrior and built another (complete on turn 8). The first warrior went north where he is currently exploring. The second has just emerged and is heading south west I think but not straying too far. But we are tentatively co-ordinating our exploration directions to make sure we're not covering the same ground. That we way we can learn as much as we can about the continent's size, shape and the absence or presence of other civilisations as quickly as possible. India has not yet claimed to have made contact with any civs in the north, but there seems to be plenty of land up there and we would be surprised if he didn't eventually find someone.

Oh, and regoarrarrr suspects that every team's capital starts with Ivory.

Both regoarrarr and I are multiplayer newbies. He seems communicative and eager to share information, which is a big plus in terms of potential ally. A lot depends on where the other civilisations on this land-mass are, if there are any more. And of course, the more he settles north of his capital and away from me, the less reason I have to invade him. :)

[shadyforce]

Turn 11:
Central Command grows to size 2 and is set to max production to complete the WB in 4 turns.

It's an ok spot. It starts off slowly but it will make a decent production/commerce hybrid city once those forests are chopped and mines/cottages put up.

Incidentally... I spent a few hours coming up with this excel spreadsheet below. There's probably plenty of little mistakes in through it but it gets the gist of my plan for the first 50 turns.

Click me

(I don't do this every game)

Another thing I was thinking of was that no religion has been founded yet. 4 civs have started with Mysticism. Meditation costs 120 and Polytheism cost 150. Anyone working a tile with at least one commerce, like a flood plain or ivory or wine, will make 10 base beakers per turn, multiplied by a 1.2 (I think) for having the mysticism pre-requisite. They would have had it on turn 10. Does this mean that everyone is going for polytheism? (Due on turn 13 at the same research rate.)

[shadyforce]

Ok, I checked in game. Both religions have been founded. Poly this turn and Buddhism a turn or 2 before that. Sunrise, being spiritual has switched to Poly. I missed those messages.

Not to self: Be sure to monitor the game's log more carefully after every new turn.

[athlete4life10]

Not to self: Be sure to monitor the game's log more carefully after every new turn.

Not doing this has burned me in the PBEM. I'm too used to having it pop up and tell me on screen!

[shadyforce]

Yes, so it's good that I realise it now rather than a few turns into a war I didn't know I was fighting or something!

Turn 13:
Mining in, research set to Bronze Working. WB due in 2 turns.

With a score of 42, I'm on my own at the top of the leaderboard, woohoo! My Indian neighbour and Mali must have both started researching BW as they haven't registered a tech yet. Perhaps regoarrarr was researching a religion but switched to something else when he was beat to it?

While I didn't plan on prioritising early research, I reckon I am going to get the starting worker techs fairly quickly and probably stay near the top of the leaderboard because my 2 best city tiles, once improved, give me 3 commerce each. Also, Animal Husbandry is going to be my next tech and that will be super cheap with the double pre-requisite multiplier. 15 commere will become 21 beakers. I never realised before just how valueable having the pre-requisites really is.