Posts: 7,658
Threads: 31
Joined: Jun 2011
I really like the idea of having our WCs exploring and soaking up XP as soon as possible. Also, I don't think anyone was ever harmed diplomatically by having their WCs out in the field as a visible presence. And if we don't land our own religion I wouldn't despair too much, we may be able to acquire a holy city somewhere along the line anyway. :aar:
Posts: 4,416
Threads: 34
Joined: Dec 2010
Theology is a decent bulb - better than COL I would argue, assuming COL is even possible. But an early Academy is even better. Religion's something that's nice to have but not crucial until later (late classical onwards). This isn't Always War, so one will spread to us eventually - though then again, it seems like a pretty heavy land map so it may take a while to get trade routes to someone with a religion.
Posts: 4,090
Threads: 28
Joined: Jul 2008
Yeah, a religion isn't necessary, but it's quite nice to have once you start to enter the mid-game. And if we have control of our own religion then we can use it as another diplomatic tool, by gifting missionaries. We shouldn't gift or trade them lightly, but they can make a great addition when wrangling over a deal.
As for wonders, I think we should focus on those with Civ-wide effects. That gives us a nice tech-wonder synergy:
Sailing (GLH)
Mathematics (Hanging Gardens)
Calendar (Mausoleum of Maussallos)
Ie, three nice wonders which follow each other in tech progression.
Posts: 4,443
Threads: 45
Joined: Nov 2009
I'm surprised that only a handful of people are talking about snagging an early/mid game religion normally. As kjn said, it is a good bargaining chip and a good way to make friends. As Sullla said, we could also go for a shrine to help us generate more gold for teching and expansion. We don't have to use the prophet to bulb for us.
Also is AP not banned?
In Soviet Russia, Civilization Micros You!
"Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."
“I have never understood why it is "greed" to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else's money.”
Posts: 4,090
Threads: 28
Joined: Jul 2008
The AP is not only not banned, it's explicitly referenced in the rules:
2c. City Gifting - Conquest, culture flip, UN resolution, and AP resolution are the only permitted methods of city transfer.
This brings up another point? To which degree are we to abuse all the mechanics that we often talk about banning here? Espionage is the first and obvious one, AP might be another. And if so, who should we target?
Posts: 2,892
Threads: 16
Joined: Sep 2010
kjn Wrote:This brings up another point? To which degree are we to abuse all the mechanics that we often talk about banning here? Espionage is the first and obvious one, AP might be another. And if so, who should we target?
Civ Fanatics, obviously 
Quote:I would ignore early game wonders with the one exception of Great Lighthouse. That one, I think we can make a serious play for. Put city #3 on the coast by the fish and use some workers to chop it out. We already know that all capitals are landlocked from C&D (not complete confirmation I guess, but extremely close to it) so no one will be rushing the wonder out of the gate. It shouldn't be too hard to get enemy teams to sign Open Borders with us, and Great Lighthouse is stupidly powerful even in an Always War context, which this is not. There's a reason why we keep banning it in recent PBEMs. The upside of this idea is that if we don't see much water by the time we're ready to plant our third city, we can always scrap the idea. But I would think very hard about chasing Great Lighthouse. It's a gamebreaking wonder, much like Mausoleum (which we also want and should have a good chance to get).
I like this plan. From what we've seen of the map so far, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of coast, but there is some. So the GLH will be useful, but not worth a dedicated beeline. 3rd city sounds about right. If someone else rushes for it with their second city, they'll beat us, but that's fine.
Posts: 4,443
Threads: 45
Joined: Nov 2009
kjn Wrote:The AP is not only not banned, it's explicitly referenced in the rules:
2c. City Gifting - Conquest, culture flip, UN resolution, and AP resolution are the only permitted methods of city transfer.
This brings up another point? To which degree are we to abuse all the mechanics that we often talk about banning here? Espionage is the first and obvious one, AP might be another. And if so, who should we target?
Abusing the crap out of the AP would just be fun.
In Soviet Russia, Civilization Micros You!
"Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."
“I have never understood why it is "greed" to want to keep the money you have earned but not greed to want to take somebody else's money.”
Posts: 6,686
Threads: 246
Joined: Aug 2004
I don't place that much priority on the Apolstolic Palace. We aren't Spiritual, and we don't get cheap temples. It's one of those "nice to have" things that we might be able to take a shot at, but it's not worth pursuing at the sake of the really important stuff in the medieval era: Currency, Civil Service, Literature/Epics/Great Library, and Mausoleum. That's a sizable list, and I rate all of them as significantly more important that chasing after Theology and a very expensive Apostolic Palace wonder.
Posts: 4,416
Threads: 34
Joined: Dec 2010
antisocialmunky Wrote:I'm surprised that only a handful of people are talking about snagging an early/mid game religion normally. As kjn said, it is a good bargaining chip and a good way to make friends. As Sullla said, we could also go for a shrine to help us generate more gold for teching and expansion. We don't have to use the prophet to bulb for us. It's because of the opportunity cost. In a vacuum, of course it's better to have a religion than not to have one. But in the real game, a lot of the time there are other tech options which are better for you than pursuing a religion (not to mention less risky).
I wouldn't even think about Buddhism/Hinduism/Judaism when we have five rivals starting with Mysticism. Confucianism is probably touch and go, it's a fairly popular tech. Best bets are probably Taoism or Christianity, much further down the line (probably with a bulb). If all else fails, we can always just invade someone to gain a holy city. 
Posts: 999
Threads: 5
Joined: Apr 2011
I just want to pitch in for getting scouting units to find the other teams as soon as humanly possible. If we get a Heroic Epic out from it, even better!
It's just that diplomacy is such a huge deal in this game and we need to make contact with as many teams as quickly as we can.
|
