[SPOILERS] Cornflakes - PBEM 17

[Cornflakes]

   

As last in turn order I can confirm that Pindicator, TBS, and TheArchduke all moved on T1 while the rest of us settled on T1. Suboptimal must have settled near flood plains and earned a historic moment. 

I have a scouting decision to make now that may have big implications:
1. Do I send my warrior straight west in search of the Foreign Trade inspiration? With ocean to my east I’ll probably have to go quite a bit west to reach a continent boundary, unless we are on a map like PBEM16 where the water to my east was an inland sea. If I don’t start heading west immediately it is unlikely that I’ll hit the Foreign Grade inspiration in time. 
2. Do I send my warrior south in search of city states along the coast? The warrior I’m currently building will head northeast along the river, so if I don’t send the starting warrior south now then I may not get a unit into this area until I build my scout in 30 turns.
3. Do I split the difference and maybe achieve both or neither of the scouting objectives? I’m leaning this way now. SW > SE to peek over the PFH and then decide from there whether to continue south/southeast, or strike westward. 

   

Here is the great person starting lineup. Overall it’s a decent set. This great merchant is more useful in the expansions now that trade routes are harder to unlock early game. Hypatia is the always-sought-after GScientist, and the wonder building engineer is probably my top-ranked of the options. I suspect that Hypatia I’ll tempt a couple players to chase GS point still too early for their own good, and over build districts at the expense of early expansion.

[Cornflakes]

No earth shattering exploration knowledge yet. There is a line of mountains running south of the volcano Stromboli. I don’t know how far they extend but so far they have forced my hand into scouting southeast along the coast instead of “splitting the difference” like I was planning. Hopefully I can turn west soon otherwise I may end up backtracking and not revealing much territory at all.

[Cornflakes]

T5: How do I have 8 empire score? 1 city (6) + 1 pop (1) + ? ... Where is that extra point coming from? Is is something unique to one of the expansions?

   

I've got some good news and some bad news. The bad news is no city states on settler radar yet. The good news is that the mountains ended so I can turn westward, and coastal tiles confirm that I don't need to continue southeast any further. I'll be able to split the difference after all and start circling west now.

   

The way the river delta is bleeding through I suspect that the tile 3SW of the warrior is water so probably SW > W will be the next moves. With all this brown terrain there is plenty of production potential if I can just figure out a way to feed the hungry laborers. This might actually be a situation where Feed the World religion pays off   Not for an early religion, but maybe for a mid-game religion after Russia and someone else take Jesuit Education and Choral Music? Food for thought ...

[varcharmander]

Rome's free monument in the capital providing +1?

[Cornflakes]

Rome's free monument in the capital providing +1?

I didn’t think monuments (or any building) contributed towards score, but I loaded up some early saves and even end of turn 1 after founding I already had 8 empire score compared to 7 for everyone else. 

Nothing exciting found yet. The warrior completed this turn and moved NE revealing grass floodplains along the river. 3SW of the warrior in the last screenshot is indeed water so I turned west and will continue west for now. It appears I may be located on the southeastern region of the Pangaea. No tundra or jungle observed yet though so no definitive bearing points yet other than the ocean wrapping around my east to the south. 

I started a setter now immediately after the warrior. That was part of the motivation for going with a warrior instead of scout. I want to get another free monument online ASAP, and with 7 turns growth to size 2 the prerequisite and warrior also 7 turns it was perfect. I don’t yet have a good 2nd city location identified but I’m confident I can find something along the river to my north/northeast. I’m looking at 9 turns to settler completion (EOT16) with enough food in the box to remain at size 2.

Code of Laws completed and I chose Urban Planning over God King. I have already dropped below middle of the pack on the religious rankings so it looks like there are several religious city states out there or faith generating resources. As last in turn order I would also have to wait anyway in a tiebreak situation so I’ll plan to pick up a late pantheon this game.

[varcharmander]

I believe any building in the capital gives you one empire point.  If you can’t explain it otherwise I think that is the answer.

[Woden]

I didn’t think monuments (or any building) contributed towards score, but I loaded up some early saves and even end of turn 1 after founding I already had 8 empire score compared to 7 for everyone else. 

I read somewhere that they changed some of the empire scoring at the last patch but now can't seem to find it. I think since you get a monument as part of your civ ability, like varcharmander stated, it probably is for that.

[Cornflakes]

   

Here's the scouting update from the south. It appears I have an empty backlines region there. Look at all that brown terrain! The production potential is huge but there is literally 1 single tile with a 2 food yield. I will need probably need to get a couple internal routes going in order to support a city there. One nice thing about Rome is that internal trade routes yield a trickle of gold in addition to food and production. Likely scouting path is sketched in yellow. In order to cast a wider net for city state meeting I'm going to make a little wider circle and leave a strip of unexplored terrain that I'll pick up later.

   

Here in the north is EXHIBIT A: WHY YOU SHOULD BUILD A WARRIOR FIRST. This barb camp spawned 4 tiles from the capital. Unfortunately it is located in the exact direction of the most promising terrain for city #2. There is no way I could use a scout to escort an early settler. As-is it will be dicey whether I can escort the settler immediately or have to fortify and deal with barbs. My two options are either (a) ORANGE attack and eliminate the barb camp ASAP (3 turns of attacks, 4 turns from now) leaving me no additional time for scouting. Or (b) follow the PINK route and explore more territory but maybe get beset by a barb outbreak that forces the settler to sit idle. I think I have to take out the barb camp now. Unless I get very unlucky I should be able to easily take out the camp in 3 attacks and earn a promotion in the process. Maybe I'll get luck and a flood will wipe out the spear 

Moving 1NE will confirm if the east branch of the river stops immediately (the graphic appears to be a river source). Then moving to coffee and subsequently the barb camp tile will reveal another ring or two of terrain.

[Cornflakes]

T10:

   

Barb scout moved W rather than approaching last turn. I may get lucky here if the barb continues W and doesn't spot Rome. I decided that an extra turn of scouting at the river source to the east was worth it since I have at least one more grace turn on barb eruption. There is a lake as pinned providing additional fresh water beyond the river so I will have more flexibility in locating a city this direction. I plan on continuing one more turn east to the cows and then decide if I want to advance one more turn from there or turn back. The rice tile would be a barely adequate city site. The cows are about the same quality but the fog may have additional resources.

With land continuing to the east/northeast I may not be on the eastern part of the Pangaea like I initially thought. Maybe I'm just in the south. Or maybe there is an inland sea like PBEM 15 and I'm in a position similar to Alhambram?

   

In the south, land unexpectedly ended. This is a true backlines peninsula and unfortunately there were not any city states to meet in this direction I could try to cram 3 cities down here with one between the western wheat but I think two would be best ... one as pinned and one on the east coast. As Rome I'll have boosted housing for larger cities so I can space them wider. Also a river city can build a watermill to boost food from the three wheat tiles. The three wheat with watermill will bring be to +9 surplus which will be enough to feed most of the hills. A couple trade routes can still help speed growth. Watermill is a prerequisite for construction so I may drop city #3 here even though it is backlines, depending on what other option I have to the north and west. I plan to hit Construction early in order to unlock juicy 1/5 lumbermills around Rome.

[Cornflakes]

From the pinned barb location in the screenshot above, the scout moved SW-SW and has not yes spotted Rome thanks to those forested hills

Northern warrior found a large lake N/NE of the cows so no good tiles to work there. Southern warrior ran into another mountain blocking NE of the wheat. Fortunately there is a pass E of wheat so I would have to go all the way back.

Horses popped directly SE of Rome right where I was planning to place the Bath. I was afraid that might happen. Bath is now penciled in on the plains hill NE of Rome. 

One think I haven't discussed yet is the pin noting "Scout purchase?" ... The thought there is that maybe it makes sense to purchase a scout while building the builder instead of waiting. I think the biggest deciding factor will be whether I need an immediate builder to improve city #2. If I go NE to the rice/cows area then I will need an early builder to improve stone/cow/coffee because there is only 1 4-yield tile to work. If I can find a location that doesn't require a builder for the first couple tiles then the scout purchase might make sense. Otherwise I'll save the gold and cash-buy a builder at city #2.