[Spoilers] Slowcheetah has a witty thread-title

[slowcheetah]

[slowcheetah]

Some pregame thoughts.

1) Early culture is very important. Will mean either taking CRE, grabbing henge or attempting to found early religions for border pops.
-CRE has additional advantages of a possible early academy, which strikes me as a good idea in a limited cities environment. Get the most out of what you have.
-CRE can also allow you to found in safer locations (e.g. on hills) and still grab resources that need border pops.
-If I'm going to build 'henge I might as well take CHA as a trait. CHA will obviously be helpful in the AW situation.
-Grabbing religions is riskier but does produce stronger culture then CRE. If I'm going this route coupling with SPI and grabbing anarchy free OR/Early monarchy (growth, production) seems a very good idea.

2) Great people bulbing will be powerful. PHI gets a boost from this. SPI also gets a boost because of pacifism access. However, in AW I may have to many units to make that viable for large stretches.

3) I'm probably seen as the weakest target, as the least experienced/least warlike. Grabbing Agg or Cha could give me a boost in this regard.

4) I want to go last in the snakepick, so I can see what everyone else is doing. If they all go CRE going CHA and grabbing henge seems like a very nice option. If few go CRE, then obviously CRE looks more attractive, because more competition for religions and things.

5) My top guys in those situations would be Lincoln (CHA/PHI) if everyone goes CRE and Pericles (CRE/PHI) if few go CRE.

6) I've made at least two points assuming I'm last in the snakepick. Given I have 25% chance of that I'm going to stop that now.

7) The Pyramids would be just dandy.

8)Civwise I quite like Carthage (especially if I'm CHA). Mali, or China.

9) Commodore is definitely the big dog in this lineup/type of map.

10) I just wanted to get to ten.

[slowcheetah]

Brief thoughts on opponent picks.

Commodore-Stonehenge much? Then probaby run up the bottom of the tree. CHA knights guarded by muskets will be nasty. Please choke him Sian.

Boldly- CRE and Inca. Completely nullifies the terrace. Did they just want Quechas? They could be annoying but have a very short window of opportunity on

Sian-Likely to end up founding religions due to having a faster techrate than Commodore early (FIN). I hope I'm not the target for a skirmisher choke.

By the way does anybody know when human barbs start to spawn on emperor?

[scooter]

Everyone gets this question. Byzantium not considered?

[slowcheetah]

Hey means I get people in my thread .

I did consider them briefly but didn't take them for two reasons., they're sort of linked actually

1) The starting techs are exceptionally slow, this would put me down on expansion on a very land limited map. It would also put me in more danger from early chokes due to the distance to BW/AH.

2) I'm probably seen as the softest of the four players in this game. I haven't fought many wars have less experience and have tended to be more buildery. Enlarging this target by making everyone worried about phracts didn't seem at all wise.

I actually think Commodore has picked an 'abstract version' of byzantines, by going for the french. If he rushes for gunpowder he can have a protected force of knights which aren't beaten back by pikes (like cataphracts), and he gets good starting techs to boot.

On my own China pick, because I haven't really explained:
1) Starting techs, v.quick vision on copper and horses.
2) Slight synergy with CRE, the pavillion will be a good way to help control my borders (and I have a bit of a thing about owning culturally pinched cities).
3) Cho-Ko-Nus may allow me to delay construction slightly. Which might let me get ahead economically (this is a weak reason).

[slowcheetah]

Turn 0




Settled in place, went worker first and BW, due in 9 turns with no possible way of speeding up (I'll be working a one commerce tile the entire time). I can get hunting after BW in time to improve the deer straight after the corn if wanted.

Ran a quick sandbox earlier and got a city settled on the silk (which I didn't know was there at that point) on t25 with the fish hooked up two workers and I think 4 warriors total. Although the fish site wont be my first hookup if I cant find copper. This world is truly tiny.

Capital remains sadly unrenamed because I haven't thought of a naming scheme yet.

Edit- Picture made less blurry but more offcenter. I had a laugh at the civilisation names as well

[scooter]

Commodore was actually named "Commobyzbyzbyzdore" because I kept yelling at him to take Byz and go for a Conquest victory, but he wimped out. Apparently he didn't like that name as much as I did.

[slowcheetah]

Password is Pericles if anyone ever needs it. Yes my passwords are about as original as my thread title

[slowcheetah]

Ok, while RB was moving house, we've moved onto turn 13.

In all honesty not very much has happened. With two CG3 warriors nobody has been in any real danger or these two turns.

Here's the land I've revealed. Sian's warrior actually moved right up to my borders so I believe I've been much more cautious than some. However, I've met everybody so have the known tech bonus and the revealed second city sites so I'm happy for now.

So far I've built a worker and a warrior and researched BW->Hunting->Fishing (I wanted to hve the ability to slowbuild a WB or city 2). Next technology is the wheel followed by pottery/AH. Probably AH, I'm rather worried about Sians skirmishers and chariots are a better counter than axes/spears. Although I really, really want to get some cottages down so I may take a gamble here.

Here's the land:

The North



A couple of major points from up here, firstly, my second city is almost without doubt going on the plains hill NE of the fish. This grabs copper, fish and cows in the first ring, and an oasis in the second. All very strong tiles this early in the game even with some unrevealed tiles in the fog.
Secondly, Iron on the desert wwest of the incense. Would give greater meaning to the flooplain region, which frankly looks pretty barren to me.

The South



The South has a bit more to discuss:
Sian and Boldy's borders are there. Sians are 3S of the Lion, they are pretty hard to see.
Sian being positioned thusly is important. I would have liked to have founded my second city 1E of the outdated C sign. This would grab the gold in the second ring and speed up my research. However, because Sian can use skirmishers I need access to some better units before founding there. Conseqeuntly, I'm founding the Copper spot (which is a fine site don't get me wrong). This site is very likely my third city.
The stone island which looks more than one tile also intrigues me. Not just for stone (duh) but if I could get the site it would give me a strong Moai city which is very difficult to attack. Ideally I'd found a 4th city one NE of the clams and then the fifth could claim the stone. If I get there fast enough I may be able to claim multiple islands.

Overarching plans

In an ideal world I'd like to get out to four cities or so and then oracle Metal Casting. Forges are strong for happy (gold and silver clearly visible) and because I'm PHI I can run an eng and get a GE. This could be used for the 'mids in a repeat of mine and Catwalks strategy for PBEM29g (I'm sure Sian would find it hilarious if I did this). Alternatively, bulbing metal casting, especially as china (cho-ko-nus) sounds all sports of appealing. So, forges give me greater options. Additionally metal casting opens up the colossus, which would be great for any island strongholds I can gather on this map. The problem is I'm not sure whether I'll have the ability to build the oracle and land the islands, and I don't really like the religious line at all. I'm also not sure whether I'll find time to sandbox so who knows.

Thinking a bit more about it I probably want the islands. The oracle is just gravy.

[slowcheetah]

This game has a fun pace . Turn 19.

I completed the Wheel. I am queueing up pottery next, granaries will come into play before the cow is needed. Barring tragic circumstances my second city will be founded on turn 27, and be able to work the fullpowered fish from the word go, and the copper once it grows to size 2.

Build order is workboat->slavery revolt (t21)->Settler (2 whip on turn 24).

The workers will road there in the meantime, allowing an immediate hookup of copper.

In more worrying news, a fresh produced quecha has appeared SE of the silks. I'm not overly concerned. I have a warrior in the city and can protect it further by pulling the CG3 back if he moves towards me. If he heads to the second city site, I can fortify my CG3 on the hill he's on and move my other warrior up the forest W of copper. Between the two they can deal with the quecha and stop my copper being pillaged. Additionally, Cuzco's still at size 2 ,which loosely indicates he's building a worker/settler rather than going for an all-in rush, plus his power just went down so I'm guessing he lost a warrior to a barb.