[SPOILERS] Cornflakes - PBEM 17

[Cornflakes]

Play Order/Civs:
TheArchduke: Russia
Alhambram: Australia
TheBlackSword: Cree
Kaiser: Greece/Gorgo
suboptimal: Nubia
pindicator: Khmer
Cormflakes: Rome

Here we go again

[Cornflakes]

First thought is probably Rome. Sure Rome has been played more than most, but the free monument is really powerful. Culture is the most important yield early on. Free monuments get the civics unlocking at a rapid pace as well as making the first few tile acquisitions a breeze at new cities (think quasi-Russia, or Civ 4 creative). I feel like playing a straightforward game and Rome is just that. Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate.

I didn't realize until very recently that legions could chop! That is basically a free builder charge. Legions also get a stealth buff from the battering ram nerf. After my Varu rush in PBEM 16 my neighbors might be concerned about a repeat performance. But my initial thought is to use Legion for deterrent purposes and pump out settlers for the free monuments.

LOCK IN ROME

[Cornflakes]

Some notes from a couple quick test games:

Inspirations are somewhat hard to come by in time, so as not to waste the free Monument culture.
1st Start with a scout, send the warrior west (since it starts there) and the scout east. Continent boundaries run generally North-South so sending the units east and west give best chance of hitting Foreign Trade in time.
2nd is Builder for Craftsmanship inspiration. Make sure the warrior circles back in time to guard against pesky barb or neighbor interference.
3rd is settler, and 6 pop should come in time to not delay Early Empire
State Workforce inspiration I struggled with. Maybe just power through that one, or divert to Mysticism + Military Tradition. But probably just power through because the benefits of earlier governor title and 2nd Tier government outweigh the inefficiency of missing the inspiration. And the production for the district can go into half a settler so some of the missed culture will be earned back from the next city getting settled a few turns earlier. (Also tech to unlock a district was as much a limiting factor as production)

[Cornflakes]

Second round for those that wanted a re-roll:

Alhambram: China, Egypt, Mali, Poland
Cornflakes: Kongo, Germany, America, Dutch
Kaiser: Canada, Macedon, Sumeria, Arabia
Pindicator: Zulu, Korea, Khmer, Scotland
Suboptimal: Georgia, Inca, Persia, Aztec
TheArchduke: Brazil, Ottomans, Mongolia, Spain
TheBlackSword: France, Norway, Sweden, Japan

Also, TheArchduke was rolled to be Player 1

I'm happy with my first round pick vs. the options I landed with on the bogus re-roll

I don't think I really need to elaborate much on why Rome is such a strong pick. But here's the quick-and-dirty reasons organized by Rome's unique abilities:

• Free monuments at all cities. Culture is key to the early/mid game. Unlock tier-2 government quicker, reach Feudalism for +2 builder charges quicker, more flexibility from frequent policy swaps, etc., etc. Free monuments are a passive benefit which requires no special planning or investment to take advantage of. Free monuments take effect immediately from the turn you found your capital and scale up through the early game. Sure they get diluted through other sources of culture later on, but the fact that they get the snowball rolling from the very first turn for no investment is huge!
  
• Legion - sword that gets Oligarchy 4+ bonus for free, and can still add Oligarchy on top are no longer the most dominant unit around since the expansions have added the likes of Nubia's 3-move archers and Macedon's two UU but they are nothing to scoff at! As a classical unit they can get boosted by the first GGeneral. They can be upgraded from warriors for half the resource cost of swords at an affordable gold pricetag. Legions come right at on time to make aggressive territorial claims ... not necessarily through conquest but through deterrence and pushing into territory that would otherwise be contested. This is another bonus that doesn't require planning ahead or jumping through hoops to leverage. Just straight-up power in an area and era where it will be effective.
  
• Baths make mid-game growth explosive from the amenities + housing. Skip the granaries and go straight to baths! They are cheap enough to put everywhere without really taking a 2nd thought. The only pre-planning required is ensuring that a location is reserved when placing districts.
  
• Free roads - quicker movement is nice, no need for domestic routs to build your roads, and again no pre-planning required.
  
• Free trading post - A little gold bonus on the trade routes for no investment? Sure, thanks.
  

Some may say that the lack of planning required to make use of the traits drains some of the fun. I say I'll have fun dominating the field 

Side note: Combine Legions with a GGeneral + Oligarcy and they hit as hard as Knights for 1 less movement, but can crack walls whereas Knights cannot.

[Woden]

Confirm: Rome

[Cornflakes]

Confirm: Rome

[Woden]

Here is your start...
   

[Cornflakes]

Awesome! Thanks for all the work you put into the maps, really appreciated!

[Cornflakes]

To move or not to move, that is the question. Plains hill 1NE for the extra cog at the city center? If I build a warrior first the extra cog earns back the turn lost by moving and it completes on the same turn (EOT7). Everything after T7 is 1/turn profit, or the equivalent of a free scout by T36. The trade off is giving up the sheep to 3rd ring and pushing two of those juicy PFH's into 2nd ring. In fact, working the sheep at size 2 or 3 instead of the rice or PFH probably makes up for losing out on the extra city center cog. Also I know for sure that I will have 3 tiles for the Craftsmanship eureka (sheep + deer + rice). If I find a good 2nd city site quick I could also skip the deer camp and improve something at city 2 (horse?).

I have decided to build a warrior first rather than a scout. I played through a couple more early games and again was reminded why I prefer warrior first. I always ended up having to circle the scout back early and help escort the settler while the starting warrior skirmished with barbs. In that case, I would rather have a warrior escorting the settler instead of the scout. I'll stick with my classic Warrior > settler/builder [in some order] > scout opening. Possibly double scout given a standard size pangea. Knowledge is power after all

One lesson learned from PBEM 16 is make a slightly wider loop with the starting warrior, even if the terrain is initially unfavorable. I narrowly missed out on Valletta and Hattusa by turning the starting warrior back too soon. Just 2 more turns into the desert and I probably would have met one and maybe both. And really that is not an unreasonable distance to travel into the desert. I needed to uncover those tiles eventually anyway by the time I was deciding on the 3rd city location.

[Cornflakes]

Moved warrior SW, did not see any freshwater that direction where I could claim the sheep later, therefore I settled in place. Two reasons being not stranding the sheep on the 3rd ring, and wanting to preserve options for city locations upriver. If sheep gets picked up with 2nd border pop (after rice) then SIP will probably be equal or ahead of the production output from the plains hill as I work sheep instead of rice. No new resources were revealed to the northeast when I settled, just a lot of bare hills. This capital has huge production potential if I can figure out how to feed all those hills!

My rough T0 outline plan is to build a wide empire early defended by Legion. I’ll build few districts and many settlers. Pingala will probably be the first governor but for the science promotion instead of culture (thanks to all the free monuments). I still plan on adding the culture promotion once the extra culture won’t be wasted by pushing me ahead of my capacity to hit inspiration. The science promotion will help me maybe reach Construction in time to boost Games and Recreation. I would like to get Pyramids, and I think I can swing that with the production I save from not having to build monuments. Pyramids for the builder charges plus the Drama and Loetry inspiration are well worth the investment once I expand out to 4-6 cities. No clue yet what I’m leaning towards for pantheon. I may skip God King and plant to just take a later pantheon unless I find a religious CS.