[Spoilers] rho21 follows the works of Homer... D'OH!

[rho21]

Worked out some bugs in my spreadsheet. I think the builder will actually be done on turn 13 and the settler on turn 21 if following that plan.

[rho21]

Turn 5
After a quiet couple of turns, this one's a big one.

I'm greeted by the news that Geneva is in the tundra just a tiny distance to the north of the capital. So that's +2 per turn, starting from the income at the start of this turn. Geneva is a really fortunate city state to having sitting in my back lines: their suzerain power is +15% science income when you're at peace. Its quest is to get a great writer. That will take a while, but at least I'm Greece so expecting to grab the first one.

Then I moved my warrior SW as discussed. And it looks as though it might have a longer detour, because the settler view shows a city off to the SW. This should be a city state, I imagine; hopefully I can meet it next turn and get the warrior moving back east.

[Garath]

I don't think I've ever played on a Tiny map, so for all I know that might the expected spacing to another player. How many total city states on the map - eight, was it? But it doesn't really matter - you should fairly clearly meet them anyway, even though I'm definitely starting to get a bit worried by how far from home the warrior is. You don't seem to have the initial grace period from barbarians being awful that some previous iterations of the game have given.

Geneva is fantastic, as is the fact that it's hiding back in the Tundra, on land you won't feel bad not taking for yourself, is also excellent! It does mean you should probably assume everyone else will also have one of the power city states - and the question of whether the mapmaker believes that includes Religious may be quite relevant to whatever your future plans in that line are. Though giving one to the Kongo would probably be a bit cruel. These are the city-states that will show up pretty easily in demographics, at least, so you should be able to tell.

[rho21]

As I understand it, the mapmaker currently gets control over where the city states spawn, but not which ones they are. Though a reroll might be possible if they're horrendously biased. I'm watching the demographics closely for any sign of other people finding city states. Should also know next turn if anyone's been working a 3-food tile from the start.

[rho21]

Turn 6

Advancing the warrior one square reveals the red-brown borders of a military city state, so I take another step and meet Valletta. Sadly I'm not first to meet them; the boost to building all units in the capital can be huge in the early game but rapidly becomes weak. Still, I should be able to get a little bit of advantage as the quest is to train an archer.
Valletta's suzerain power is the ability to buy city centre and encampment buildings with faith. It's really nice to be able to buy granaries, monuments and water mills with spare faith, as there aren't any bonus cards for building these. Buying walls somewhere critical can be useful too (they're really cheap, something like 80 ).
Positioned (presumably) in between two civilizations suggests this is unlikely to be relevant, as it will probably be an early target for conquest for someone.

Score news:
Egypt has gained a population, which is consistent with working a 3-food tile from the start.
I am now listed in second place for faith behind Kongo (I've previously been listed in the lead for whatever reason). This presumably means a religious city state (but perhaps just working a faith tile). That will give Kongo the first pantheon, but it's otherwise a pretty bad deal for the civ that can't build holy sites. I'd expect to see that one conquered sooner rather than later.

So if nothing else changes:
Kongo will get first choice of pantheon at ~T17.
Egypt will be first to Code of Laws at ~T15, which will presumably result in second pick of pantheon at ~T40.
Aztec and Greece will reach Code of Laws at ~T16, getting choice of pantheons in turn order at ~T41.

If the borders pick up the dyes after the stone, it might well be worth me working them for a few turns just to jump the queue a little.

Slinger is complete next turn. Map, with short-term scouting plan:

[rho21]

Turn 7

Slinger is complete; Pythagoras gets going on a builder. Growth next turn, stone claimed in 2 turns.

The slinger and warrior move as planned. The slinger uncovers more lovely hilly country SE of the capital. The warrior reveals a promising fertile river valley to the east of Valletta. This river system is turning out to be big and complex.

Nothing interesting on settler view; no changes in the score. In particular, Kongo (who founded on turn 2) did not grow, so has been working a 2 food tile.

Lastly, I switched research to Mining. This has no obvious drawbacks and two minor benefits: it hides my science boost from anyone who isn't using CQUI / isn't paying attention and it keeps the cost of purchasing a tile at 50 just in case it feels necessary.

[Garath]

I'm a little surprised that whole area isn't turning out to be choked in rainforest given that one found earlier, to be honest. All looks like nice land, though - the only fly in the ointment these last couple of turns seems to be not being first to that city state. But even though we did go straight there I'm not at all surprised by that, since I very much doubt that on such a small map the average distance between players is as much as twice the distance between you and Valletta, and therefore there was almost certainly someone else rather closer to it.

The slinger's going to be a pretty slow-moving scout on this terrain, but that's fine. As you say, it's nice terrain so long as something else shows up around it. Presumably the slinger can veer east while the warrior comes back and fills in the space directly south of your capital?

Agree that as there should be absolutely no cost to switching techs for a bit - it's not like they do anything before you have the builder - but I'm pretty sure there's no gain either. It would be quite surprising if it fooled anyone.

And so much for no turns over Easter, eh?

[rho21]

Slingers are pretty poor scouts generally anyway: far too squishy. I'm thinking the slinger will just make a circuit around the mountains to the east of the capital, then either look to kill a barb or return home to cover a settler. Meanwhile the warrior will fill in the area south of the capital then hopefully head for a barb camp.

The tech rates are really not obvious without CQUI until you've met. I've no idea where CQUI gets those numbers from. But yeah, I doubt it will fool anyone.

Once we have enough scouting information, hopefully a location will present itself that allows for two improvements at the second city. One of them should really be a quarry, as getting to masonry is going to be a priority (for harvesting the stone for the campus location).

[rho21]

Turn 8

Now top of the domination rankings. Not overly surprising that I'm first to finish a military unit as I suspect the Aztecs are building an Eagle Warrior, Egypt have probably been working a 3 1 tile and Kongo is a turn behind from moving before settling.

Anyway, Pythagoras has grown; the builder is now due in 5 turns.

Scouting reveals a fourth mountain next to the campus site, and another 4-mountain site SE-SE from it.  The only other noteworthy thing is that the third luxury on this continent is marble. The new hills visible to the SE of the slinger are dry, incidentally.

[rho21]

Turn 9

Score news: Kongo has finished a slinger and grown to size 2.

Scouting news:
The slinger reports that the river heading east from the capital has its source not far away at all, close enough that there are no places to found alongside it in that direction. However, there's a new river starting SE of the capital with a grassland hills marble next to it. A lot of potential for this to be the best second city site. The slinger's top priority now is investigating this area.
Meanwhile the warrior has found another marble and is moving NE next to clear the fog from the other potential second city location.

Pythagoras has claimed the stone and looks to have selected the dyes as the next tile, as predicted. It is due in 12 turns. This brings back the question of whether it is worth buying the wheat tile. It costs 50 before I finish any tech, which I now have on hand. It would give the capital a 3-food tile (post improvement), which would help a lot to speed up regrowth, e.g. after building a settler.
On the minus side, the could be used for other things, plus the capital's later expansion isn't very interesting (grassland hill, plains forest, plain, desert hill, then 5 mountains to round out the second ring), so it doesn't feel as though it's worth rushing that along.

I think I'm going to wait and see what the scouting over the next few turns reveals before committing either way.