[SPOILERS] TheArchduke blasts into Space as Russia

[williams482]

Appeal modifiers from the Civ6 Wiki:

+4 if adjacent to Uluru.
+2 for each adjacent Pairidaeza, Ice Hockey Rink, City Park, Sphinx or Natural Wonder (other than Uluru).
+1 for each adjacent Golf Course, Château, Holy Site, Theater Square, Entertainment Complex, Water Park, or wonder.
+1 for each adjacent Mountain, Coast, Woods, or Oasis.
+1 if the tile is next to a River or Lake.
-1 for each adjacent barbarian outpost, Mine, Quarry, Oil Well, Offshore Oil Rig, Airstrip, Industrial Zone, Encampment, Aerodrome, or Spaceport.
-1 for each adjacent Rainforest, Marsh, or Floodplain.
-1 for each adjacent pillaged tile.
Mountains have a base Appeal of Breathtaking (4), which is unaffected by surrounding features.

As I outlined in my previous post, we have a whole bunch of breathtaking tiles, many of them the same tiles we would be working even without bonus faith. Several of the others will be boosted over the line by Lavras. As for the rest, if we are willing to eat a useless promotion and go Liang III relatively early, we could throw down a few city parks and get +2 faith on bloody near everything, with some extra culture and amenities to boot.

I am not playing so my aesthetic preferences are a very low priority, but I would really enjoy trying to plan out an empire for this, and with Monumentality and eventually Warlord's Throne, it would pay serious dividends.

[TheArchduke]

Turn 22

New turn is already in. We belatedely find an excellent military CS. Cuts the builder down to 2 turns.

   

And establish Fogger and a 8 turn lavra. We start with the truffles, although I think dyes would be the better call, I will switch over.

   

[TheArchduke]

Turn 23

Next turn we a have pantheon as we are first in turn order. I am curious what is left or if we are first. I doubt it, but maybe I am proven wrong.

Fogger switches  to the +1 culture tile and the warrior moves closer.

I think I am going with this build order:

Hell March:

1t builder
3t slinger (or scout)
3t slinger
10t settler

I could go with a quick third settler after the builder and keep barb duty to my lone warrior.

I think I am better off to get another settler out pre early empire.

Fogger:

7t lavra
5-6t religious project?

Question is also if I improve the camp if I do not go goddess of hunt. I think yes, I want to inspire craftsmanship asap.

   

CS warriors force me NE. I will zigzag there and then SE again.

   

[Sullla]

The city state turning up as Militaristic is excellent news! Given your capital's high production capacity, plus that city state's bonus production, plus the awesome local terrain, I also think that a second settler pre-Early Empire could be a good choice here. Is there any way to finish Craftsmanship before building military units (?) That would be ideal but it's going to take a few turns to move your builder onto the tiles themselves and improve them. Probably not, although it would be ideal to wait until you have Agoge in place before training too many units. One other suggestion here on build choices at the capital: I wouldn't recommend any more scouts. One scout is good to do some deep exploring on the map, but at this point warriors and slingers are better for local defense and future upgrading into real units.

Which three tiles are you improving with the builder? The rice at the capital seems mandatory given the need for the Irrigation boost, then it's a little bit more subjective after that. Probably the deer at the capital for the gold boost and then either the truffles or the silks at Fogger, I guess? It likely depends somewhat on what pantheon you pick up as well. That's the big question for next turn; I think this would be my final ranking order:

1) Goddess of Festivals (+1 culture on plantations)
2) Earth Goddess (+2 faith on tiles with Breathtaking appeal)
3) Goddess of the Hunt (+1 food/production from camps)

That map with the appeal lens turned on is downright impressive, you have a TON of tiles that are already sitting at Breathtaking appeal. I see four tiles at the first two cities alone that you would want to work that would get the bonus: the rice and a forested plains hill at the capital, the truffles and the cows at Fogger. As williams said, you could also boost a number of other tiles up to 4 appeal with some careful city management, and I can easily see your civ pulling in dozens of faith each turn completely for free via this pantheon. It might even be better than Goddess of Festivals although you do seem to have a ton of plantation resources. I think Earth Goddess would come out ahead of Goddess of the Hunt pretty quickly since there aren't that many tiles with camps. I'll be really interested to see what's already been taken when you get to choose next turn.

I think you said you were the third player to get a second city, that feels pretty good since you finished a district first. Seven more turns to the Lavra at Fogger means you found your religion on Turn 38. It's exceedingly unlikely that anyone beats that given that even China only finished Stonehenge on Turn 32 in the last game. In a non-China game it would take extraordinary measures to get 60 Great Prophet points by Turn 37. No one else has any Great Prophet points yet, right? In terms of boosts, you've also gotten most of the big RNG-based ones out of the way (Foreign Trade's continent and Astrology's natural wonder) and you've also managed to finish an early district for State Workforce. You pretty much just to need to meet someone else to boost Writing and find a third city state for Political Philosophy and you should be set. I think you're on track to reach Political Philosophy for your first government sometime around Turn 50-55, excellent for anyone who hasn't found an early Cultural city state.

All in all, things looking pretty good at the moment.

[TheArchduke]

The city state turning up as Militaristic is excellent news! Given your capital's high production capacity, plus that city state's bonus production, plus the awesome local terrain, I also think that a second settler pre-Early Empire could be a good choice here. Is there any way to finish Craftsmanship before building military units (?) That would be ideal but it's going to take a few turns to move your builder onto the tiles themselves and improve them. Probably not, although it would be ideal to wait until you have Agoge in place before training too many units. One other suggestion here on build choices at the capital: I wouldn't recommend any more scouts. One scout is good to do some deep exploring on the map, but at this point warriors and slingers are better for local defense and future upgrading into real units.

Which three tiles are you improving with the builder? The rice at the capital seems mandatory given the need for the Irrigation boost, then it's a little bit more subjective after that. Probably the deer at the capital for the gold boost and then either the truffles or the silks at Fogger, I guess? It likely depends somewhat on what pantheon you pick up as well. That's the big question for next turn; I think this would be my final ranking order:

1) Goddess of Festivals (+1 culture on plantations)
2) Earth Goddess (+2 faith on tiles with Breathtaking appeal)
3) Goddess of the Hunt (+1 food/production from camps)

That map with the appeal lens turned on is downright impressive, you have a TON of tiles that are already sitting at Breathtaking appeal. I see four tiles at the first two cities alone that you would want to work that would get the bonus: the rice and a forested plains hill at the capital, the truffles and the cows at Fogger. As williams said, you could also boost a number of other tiles up to 4 appeal with some careful city management, and I can easily see your civ pulling in dozens of faith each turn completely for free via this pantheon. It might even be better than Goddess of Festivals although you do seem to have a ton of plantation resources. I think Earth Goddess would come out ahead of Goddess of the Hunt pretty quickly since there aren't that many tiles with camps. I'll be really interested to see what's already been taken when you get to choose next turn.

I think you said you were the third player to get a second city, that feels pretty good since you finished a district first. Seven more turns to the Lavra at Fogger means you found your religion on Turn 38. It's exceedingly unlikely that anyone beats that given that even China only finished Stonehenge on Turn 32 in the last game. In a non-China game it would take extraordinary measures to get 60 Great Prophet points by Turn 37. No one else has any Great Prophet points yet, right? In terms of boosts, you've also gotten most of the big RNG-based ones out of the way (Foreign Trade's continent and Astrology's natural wonder) and you've also managed to finish an early district for State Workforce. You pretty much just to need to meet someone else to boost Writing and find a third city state for Political Philosophy and you should be set. I think you're on track to reach Political Philosophy for your first government sometime around Turn 50-55, excellent for anyone who hasn't found an early Cultural city state.

All in all, things looking pretty good at the moment.

I think slinger (so that I am not overwhelmed by barbs.) and then we try to do size 4 and settler #3 at the same time. The spots available are worth a quick expansion and I do not think the wait on early empire is worth it. With the CS location not worth conquering we will go with a small military.

I agree with your ranking, although I am tempted to go Goddess of the Hunt. But yeah, we could easily look at +10 faith early on from Earth Goddess. Still I think I will go

Hell March: Slinger -> Settler -> (Shrine/Project)

I know you disagree, but if we get choral music it is worth it.

Noone has any GP Points whatsoever, I will put turn 25 up as soon as I have it.

   

[TheArchduke]

Well, God of Festivals if of course taken.

So, turn 25 comes around and we can choose our pantheon. The case for earth goddess is strong. With a quick religion, we will very reliable have a Golden Age and have a way to spend all this sweet, sweet faith. We are 10, we need 26. Religion with the GP means +3, lavar with +3 another +3 era score. +2 and maybe +2 for another barb camp. Then we need to need to meet someone and we are nearly there.

Gotta check what else brings era score.

Anyway, on the turn, earth goddess is chosen. Both capitals are +2faith as well.

   

2 turns until slinger, then 10 turns for settler.

   

I switch over from +1 culture to +2faith and +3 gold.
4 turns for a lavra and I have no idea what to do next, actually. Builder? Warrior? Settler? Shrine? I must admit without an aggressive play I am kinda aimless, so I need to think about this now. I am leaning towards a farmer´s gambit, another long built settler.

   

Getting some much needed barbarian action!

No Great Person Points from anyone. Aplenty from us.

   

This is a river in New Zealand. Australia lurks to our east. Which reinforces a farmer´s gambit play. Or is it a Maori River name? Does Russia have so few river names? I doubt that.

   

[TheArchduke]

A quick overview of available city sites. Barring a possible awesome site NW of Hell March, we are looking at the following plants over the next 70-80 turns.

I have 4 possible third cities: Beyond Timbermist W, Spice Melange SW, Funky Desert SE and Just do it NE.

   

Always at the back of my mind. Spicy Melange is great defensive plant south. Good yields overall, 1-2 earth goddess tiles, a bit of a growth problem food wise.

   

District planning West. Government Plaza by the capital. Harbours SW so the endgame is not once again screwed by my lack of a navy.

   

Act on Instinct has awesome districts. 
It needs Just do it as a connector which will awesome faith yields.

   

Funky Desert, thanks to a flood excellent yields. I am kinda leaning towards Funky Desert to stay compact and defensive.

And a quick overview. Earth Goddess is really second best to the festival pantheon.

   

[williams482]

Two quick points on the district dotmap, which otherwise looks quite solid:

- you will need to swap the pinned campus spots for Hell and Fogger. It is impossible to swap tiles which are directly adjacent to a city center, so Fogger cannot build a campus in the marked location.
- Beyond's Lavra should move one tile east, to the location we considered for Fogger. That's a +3 adjacency location, which also boosts to Breathtaking the appeal of the adjacent silks, plains forest, and very likely the grass hill that is currently slated to be placed on. You can even move that Commercial Hub over one to compensate for lost adjacency on that district.

As for the next city, I lean towards Funky because it will get the spices into play at the capital and probably hurry some other stuff along, but Beyond and Spice are probably similarly useful. Do note that all the added flood yields have given Funky some real production potential, and there are several grass hills which can be mined without interfering with any breathtaking tiles. This is a much stronger city site than it was a dozen turns ago.

[Sullla]

No question about it, Funky should be the next city spot chosen. It has double spice tiles, one of which picks up the Earth Goddess bonus and will be 4 food / 1 production / 2 gold / 2 faith with a plantation, plus a 5 food / 2 production floodplains tile, and then can grow onto some mineable hill tiles that won't interfere with the Earth Goddess bonus. It's a monster city spot and definitely supports the idea of getting out another quick settler.

Speaking of Earth Goddess, holy cow what an amazing result! The pantheon is already worth 10 faith/turn including picking up the bonus on both city center tiles, something that I didn't think about at all. Getting into a Golden Age for Monumentality is now a must, and that should be pretty easy to land. You have about 30ish turn to pick up 12 more era score which should be a no-brainer. There should be enough faith piling up over the upcoming turns to get a fast missionary to spread your religion and then stockpile a whole bunch of faith for settler/builder purchases once the Golden Age arrives. This is going to be really, really powerful in the long run especially if it can be combined with Choral Music. (Still not worried at all regarding whether TheArchduke will land the first religion, it's coming in 13 turns and no one else has any Great Prophet points yet. And a non-China player landing Stonehenge before Turn 38 would be shocking.)

TheArchduke, you asked an excellent question about what your cities should be building next. I think that you have three things to focus on at the moment:

1) More units for barb protection and exploration
2) More culture
3) More science

Not necessarily to be prioritized in that order either. I'll take these in reverse order from what I listed. Culture will be coming eventually via Choral Music (we hope); in the meantime, cash-rushing a monument at Fogger seems like a good decision. That costs 240 gold and should be doable in about 10 turns. You'll also be able to work the silks tile for another point of culture when Fogger hits size 2 and that will help as well. This is still an area where you're going to want to think about investing more gold as the game progresses.

Science is also an issue due to the lack of finding any Scientific city states thus far. That river name in the far east (Waimakariri = the river that flows through Christchurch NZ) means that Australia has already scouted that area so expect to make contact shortly over there. That would be a good thing as I think you want to tech Writing quickly and place a Campus district for the capital. The tile pinned for the capital's Campus district (on top of the wheat) is a great choice but I think you'll want to move Fogger's Campus somewhere else, partly because you don't want to remove that forest tile for Earth Goddess purposes and partly because it's an illegal spot as williams482 mentioned. You can't build the Campus until you discover Writing but I think you should try to build one as soon as the tech becomes available, as that spot is worth +3 beakers that you need pretty badly right now.

So that leaves the first option I listed above, when and where to build units. If we agree that you want to get a fast settler out for the very strong Funky spot, then the second city becomes a natural location to train some units. I'm thinking therefore that your capital goes slinger -> settler - Campus (something along those lines) while Fogger goes Lavra -> military (hopefully with Agoge slotting in after finishing Craftsmanship). You can also drop God King for Urban Planning at the next civics swap, and fortunately you're doing a great job of not wasting beakers/culture by landing the key boosts thus far. Very open to discussing these ideas further - what am I missing/overlooking that you're thinking?

Don't forget to swap off Craftsmanship to Foreign trade next turn!

[TheArchduke]

Two quick points on the district dotmap, which otherwise looks quite solid:

- you will need to swap the pinned campus spots for Hell and Fogger. It is impossible to swap tiles which are directly adjacent to a city center, so Fogger cannot build a campus in the marked location.
- Beyond's Lavra should move one tile east, to the location we considered for Fogger. That's a +3 adjacency location, which also boosts to Breathtaking the appeal of the adjacent silks, plains forest, and very likely the grass hill that is currently slated to be placed on. You can even move that Commercial Hub over one to compensate for lost adjacency on that district.

As for the next city, I lean towards Funky because it will get the spices into play at the capital and probably hurry some other stuff along, but Beyond and Spice are probably similarly useful. Do note that all the added flood yields have given Funky some real production potential, and there are several grass hills which can be mined without interfering with any breathtaking tiles. This is a much stronger city site than it was a dozen turns ago.

Woha, excellent point about the campus for Fogger. It seems I have to redraw that dotmap.
Yes, with the uncovered Dyes Hills and the improved production, Funky went from so-so to hot real estate.

No question about it, Funky should be the next city spot chosen. It has double spice tiles, one of which picks up the Earth Goddess bonus and will be 4 food / 1 production / 2 gold / 2 faith with a plantation, plus a 5 food / 2 production floodplains tile, and then can grow onto some mineable hill tiles that won't interfere with the Earth Goddess bonus. It's a monster city spot and definitely supports the idea of getting out another quick settler.

Speaking of Earth Goddess, holy cow what an amazing result! The pantheon is already worth 10 faith/turn including picking up the bonus on both city center tiles, something that I didn't think about at all. Getting into a Golden Age for Monumentality is now a must, and that should be pretty easy to land. You have about 30ish turn to pick up 12 more era score which should be a no-brainer. There should be enough faith piling up over the upcoming turns to get a fast missionary to spread your religion and then stockpile a whole bunch of faith for settler/builder purchases once the Golden Age arrives. This is going to be really, really powerful in the long run especially if it can be combined with Choral Music. (Still not worried at all regarding whether TheArchduke will land the first religion, it's coming in 13 turns and no one else has any Great Prophet points yet. And a non-China player landing Stonehenge before Turn 38 would be shocking.)

TheArchduke, you asked an excellent question about what your cities should be building next. I think that you have three things to focus on at the moment:

1) More units for barb protection and exploration
2) More culture
3) More science

Not necessarily to be prioritized in that order either. I'll take these in reverse order from what I listed. Culture will be coming eventually via Choral Music (we hope); in the meantime, cash-rushing a monument at Fogger seems like a good decision. That costs 240 gold and should be doable in about 10 turns. You'll also be able to work the silks tile for another point of culture when Fogger hits size 2 and that will help as well. This is still an area where you're going to want to think about investing more gold as the game progresses.

Science is also an issue due to the lack of finding any Scientific city states thus far. That river name in the far east (Waimakariri = the river that flows through Christchurch NZ) means that Australia has already scouted that area so expect to make contact shortly over there. That would be a good thing as I think you want to tech Writing quickly and place a Campus district for the capital. The tile pinned for the capital's Campus district (on top of the wheat) is a great choice but I think you'll want to move Fogger's Campus somewhere else, partly because you don't want to remove that forest tile for Earth Goddess purposes and partly because it's an illegal spot as williams482 mentioned. You can't build the Campus until you discover Writing but I think you should try to build one as soon as the tech becomes available, as that spot is worth +3 beakers that you need pretty badly right now.

So that leaves the first option I listed above, when and where to build units. If we agree that you want to get a fast settler out for the very strong Funky spot, then the second city becomes a natural location to train some units. I'm thinking therefore that your capital goes slinger -> settler - Campus (something along those lines) while Fogger goes Lavra -> military (hopefully with Agoge slotting in after finishing Craftsmanship). You can also drop God King for Urban Planning at the next civics swap, and fortunately you're doing a great job of not wasting beakers/culture by landing the key boosts thus far. Very open to discussing these ideas further - what am I missing/overlooking that you're thinking?

Don't forget to swap off Craftsmanship to Foreign trade next turn!

Zigzagging with that scout E, I might also need to send a warrior due W and the slinger due S (although I am worried about the barb camp down south in the desert). Yes, I think as soon as we hit 240 gold we could do a monument, although I think I will buy a shrine in Fogger rather in prepration for choral music. Another unit out of fogger makes perfect sense, whilst the capital builds a settler.

Science and culture needs to be fixed urgently. 

My main concern now is that I actually would prefer not to be scouted whilst at the same time I need writing as any inspiration/eureka is even more important if your yields are low. I think if there was a game where I can build my empire undisturbed this one is it.

Turn 26

Three more era score and some money.
Two horses pop up, but the one at the capital is not breathtaking, the one at fogger is. I might prefer to pasture the cow and camp the truffle for maximum faith and ignore the camp at the capital for now.

   

Question is where is Australia? E or S. I am going with NE for now.