[Spoiler] OW PBC1 Chaotic Neutral

[Bruindane]

Year 1: The Artisans of Carthage

I move to the northeast and settle, promptly forgetting that I could have chosen the settler and control click to set the garrison location. It's ok, there isn't a ton of room to build for adjacencies and I want to reserve the trees for lumber mills to take advantage of the 20% artisan bonus later.




I spy ruins and two city sites before moving.




Didn't quite know what to expect with competitive events, but early scouting :orders: are imperative. I chose Aristocracy, opening up my first set of Laws

• Centralization:
  [All Cities] Can build Farms on Marsh
  [Capital City]: +2 Science.png/Turn per Culture Level
  Legalism opinion: +20
  
• Vassalage:
  -50% Unit Consumption
  Riders Opinion +20
  

I might be a little slow with worker builds, but with two workers I'll be fine.



My settler that I am building is slated to found the Riders seat to the southeast of the scout. That will give me two scouts, and I'm hoping for some quick scouting cognomens to boost legitimacy.

[Ginger*]

Centralization was changed and is now pretty terrible, vassalage is good, but I might hold off on adopting it just yet since the bonus is marginal, might want those civics for other things first

I logged in to have a look around, Make sure to appoint Ozmelek governor of Carthage before starting your improvements next turn as he is a builder archetype. Yeah that Garrison placement is unfortunate, especially because Artisan Capital can quickly construct barracks, but you can probably ignore those adjacency bonuses or work around it

Given that you have a lot of forests that will eventually come into your borders (via rural specialists or urban encroachment), I wouldn’t sweat over fully chopping even 5 or six of them to build urban improvements like shrines and what not if you need to, after all the main bonus of the artisan capital is faster worker development, not a small wood uptick, although that’s always welcome ofc.
The meta thing to do with spare workers and orders is to chop everything (but not clear it, then let them grow back).

Marble is really strong, produces *a lot* of civics with a Stonecutter specialist, great for a statesman family seat that can pump decrees later in the game.

[Bruindane]

Good call on Ozmelek for governor.

We discovered two marbles, though I don't think I can reach the western one on settle with my presumed Statesmen seat to the north. I have yet to build a scout in single player, but I'm thinking I might as my first statesmen build to scout our backlines while the other two head east.

Fixed the description for Centralization, thank you. I'll use https://www.oldworldwiki.org going forward as opposed to finding stale descriptions on the internet.

[Bruindane]

Year 2: A Sacred Tomb




I discover another ruin, this time a sacred tomb yielding 50 . Our founder, Hiram who is 19, had an option to become gracious increasing our charisma, but my focus is to control the seas, and we are in a presumed race with Babylon.

As a Tactician General we stun our targets, which will be fatal in ship to ship combat if I don't attack first or bring two biremes to mitigate Kaiser striking first.

[Ginger*]

Ships get a Grappler promotion equivalent to the tactician leader, also I’m not sure you can stop someone from producing ships so I think it makes sense to focus on land expansion more than tunnel vision on the sea.

Amphibious landings can be blocked by carpeting the shore with units, while it’s a tactical advantage sure, it’s neither decisive or absolute. The basics like unlocking tile improvements, workers, barracks and garrisons are probably more important

Steel or Phalanx are a great early tech target for tier 2 units because they don’t require horse or wood, just copious amounts of iron (but hurray you can build mines from the beginning)
Chariots and Archers require wood

The other option for tier two units, slower but a little better than Axes and Spears is 4 laws and Onagers (Sovereignty beeline)

Also improving growth resource (wheat) is an early game priority for faster settlers

[Bruindane]

Turns 3: Objects are closer in the mirror

Contact. Honestly assumed a little more space between us.




El Grillo Forest appears to be the mid-point, though the nearby resources and the ruin I popped last turn are not symmetric. Would Kaiser settle aggressively at El Grillo if they discover it?

Our scouts appear to have taken similar paths, though I do move first. I might catch Kaiser's scout in the open next turn, but I wonder if that might expose my slinger to their slinger. We'll see next turn.

I'll be doing a warrior build in my Rider Seat first thing.

[El Grillo]

I feel called out Is that really a default feature name in Old World? According to Google, it doesn't correspond to a real-world location.

[Ginger*]

First to discover a landmark or any large feature like a volcano a river valley or big forest can choose to use the default name pulled from their Rolodex or give it their own name. in this case it seems that Kaiser found it first and named it after yours truly

As for the distance between you yes it’s very close and I wouldn’t mess around with ships, (straight to steel), but there is a lot of vertical and backwards room for you to expand. If you can catch their scout with the tactician slinger that would be excellent, although getting caught out yourself would be ugly
I’d also pull the scout back to camp the city site

[Bruindane]

I named the forest last turn, so Kaiser knows my scout is in the area. Just something to acknowledge the die roll for moving first and is much more memorable for a place name.

Steel it is. Ships made more sense in my random map first look that had a mountain range down the center to the water.

[Ginger*]

Some advice I'd offer is to use your worker that just finished the nets to chop out a path (I believe just chopping not clearing will be enough) through the forest towards the city site to allow your settler to get there first if possible because it is

Also keep your slinger in the woods at all times, his slinger is likely around too and also hidden, remember that the first strike is deadly with the Tactician stun lock.

Furthermore, when you settle the rider seat, if his slinger is hidden in any neutral forests that enter your territory it should be revealed mid turn and vulnerable.

Also ruins location should be mirrored so you might be able to navigate towards and snatch some of his if he missed them, and you know where they are