[SPOILERS] Bacchus and India's many gods

[Bacchus]

Yeah, I made a mistake. The Trader should have been a builder, as I'm running out of time to get the craftsmanship civic, and I also need to chop a forest before placing the holy site. Swapped capital to a builder, it's a bit of a mess, but still better this way.

Rowain has settled his second city finally, to the west, my scout can just about spot its borders. The desert west of Hattusa is apparently huge.

My scout will now push north a little I think -- there is a break in rough terrain, and I imagine that if I proceed west onto Rowain's second city, I would run into his warriors. Rather not take the chance.

Got the Early Empire inspiration, I am now making 8.2 science per turn, and once the second monument completes in 2 turns will be making 6.8 culture. Due to the upcoming settler spree, these numbers will stay flat for a while now. Warrior started the slow work of clearing the camp and got a weakish dice roll -- took 29 and dealt 25. That means he really needs to heal right now, because the damage results in a -3 modifier for my guy, but only -2 for the barb. One turn healing, two turns attacking, one turn taking a promo, and final attack -- 5 more turns should do it. I might well need that gold for the tile buy.

[Bacchus]

TWAWKI:



As you can see, Agra is a great city and will be outputting a Settler at 10 cogs per turn with Colonization. Capital will be doing the same at 16. Before that, the capital will complete it's Trader (the route will go Agra-Brussels, building a very needed road), whilst Agra will build a Slinger. Actually, that's probably a lie, I need another builder first. The capital builder will farm the rice, and chop the tile where the holy site goes, that chop will go into a builder at Agra, the capital builder will then move to make a plantation on the coffee (about to be brought into capital culture), whilst the Agra builder will plantation the citrus. The Agra builder will then have 2 charges left, which are to be used to for two chops into Stonehenge (hopefully at +30% modifier from Corvee and Brussels' suzerainty).

Scout has revealed a settlement to Rowain's north-west. Probably a city state, will go to check it out. Who knows, might get a reasonable quest.

[Bacchus]

Land Surveyors in action:




Buy tiles at T36 for a price less than T0! Screenshot also demonstrates the current problem, I still seem to have a 50% chance of picking up a useless stone tile instead of the crucial marsh tile. If I do pick up stone, I will consider re-districing and placing Stonehenge in Agra. Because of this uncertainty, I can't yet pull the trigger on the tile purchase.

Also, note the numbers at the top. Also add 1 to culture, it's actually 7.8, as I switched the capital to working the coffee tile. For comparison, here's Woden's T36 from PBEM2, and he had met two cultural city states:




Barbarian scout appeared in the south further delaying the camp clearance. I now can't do the planned attack that would have redlined both my warrior and the spear for the fear of my warrior getting killed by the scout. I hope the scout will suicide on the interturn.

[Bacchus]

Scout suicided, I attacked the camp again. Next turn is promotion time, the turn after that -- camp clearance and tile purchases. Also next turn I see which tile Agra picks up. I really, really, really prefer it to be the rice.

Internationally, people are militarying up a lot. Rowain has 85 power, and he is second, Ichabod is first. Only Kaiser has less power than me, and one of my warriors is at death's door, so he must have just two-three military units total. The reason is that he built a Holy Site instead, using the Japanese cost reduction, he is now making 2 points per turn towards religion. That will land in another 27 or so turns, unless Kaiser also builds a shrine. I may have Stonehenge quicker than that, not sure.

Military advancement is about to happen, Archery should be dropping all over the globe presently, and certainly within 5-8 turns. Mine will come towards the tail of that, probably -- I'm currently deliberating whether gold or cogs are a scarcer resource for me at the moment.

Builder leaves the capital next turn, and moves towards the rice, which I hopefully don't have to buy. Capital will complete it's trader for a currency boost. I will be sandbagging techs and civics until I get Currency, so I can place my commercial hub cheaply. This probably means building slingers rather than archers. After Currency, I will complete Irrigation and Archery, then probably move to Horseback Riding. Varu will be key to my continued low military presence, as having one pushes the ungarrisoned city strength to 30.

[Bacchus]

I lose the lottery on tile acquisition, marsh rice will have to be bought. Can't have everything go your way, amirite? The stone acquisition is not much worse anyway, it means I can build a quarry for a 5-yield tile in Agra, and the Masonry boost.

Judging by the score, Ichabod has three cities. Ugh. It's still about 5 turns until I have Craftsmanship and will switch into Colonization. Lurkers can have an interesting time comparing a more vertically-oriented development versus a more horizontal one. I assume Ichabod doesn't have monuments, and I myself start to think that a second monument may have been excessive. However, this all does push me very nicely towards Political Philosophy, which has a pretty large per-turn yield. Stonehenge is projected to begin once I get Corvee, and Brussels Suzerain bonus for a nice +30%.

Map-wise, the next order of business is clarifying the contested area to my north and Rowain's east:



You can just see the scout making his way east at the top of the screen. Also, Rowain has OLORAM, which gives him at least +2 cogs right now. Overall he has really strong starting tiles -- dyes for a quick pantheon without God King, floodplains to take advantage of that Pantheon, good balance of food and production.

[Bacchus]

Suboptimal somehow still doesn't have a second city, I'm guessing Rowain's agression is at fault. Rowain has severe culture problems, he is only making ~2 a turn, I'm up to 8.

I'm proceeding with the plan, and bought the Stonehenge tile this turn having cleared the barb camp. Now ready to swap out of Land Surveyors, but that will only come in a while, once I finish three improvements. I might just forgo the extra culture and develop Craftsmanship directly, but this turn I switched to Mysticism, which I will also need for the extra envoy. Builder builds rice farm next turn, then moves, then moves again, then chops. Agra Builder then quickly get out the spices plantation and the stone quarry. So something like 7 more turns... Yeah, I will have to develop Craftsmanship directly, and should have done it this turn even, bah.

[Bacchus]

Ichabod is the second to 3 tourists (300 lifetime culture, inclusive of inspirations) after Kaiser. That's a little worrying now that I have the Political Philosophy inspiration, there shouldn't be major differences in boosts, so it's just pure culture advantage that he's got. And he has 3 cities! Very strong start.

Returning to the post above, not finishing craftsmanship was the way to go, what I forgot was that completing Craftsmanship increases district costs, and I have two to place very soon. A faster swap into Colonization gives me nothing anyway, as I'm not yet building settlers. Trader comes out of the capital next turn, will relocate to Agra and then go on a route to Brussels for extra production, gold and a crucial road. Builder completed the marsh rice farm this turn, will move (T+1), move again (T+2) and chop the Holy Site tile in Agra (T+3). That will complete Agra's builder, who will move towards the stone, and Agra will start on a Slinger. Tech wise, I will complete Currency. On T+4 I place the commercial hub and complete Irrigation, I probably also complete Craftsmanship here and swap into Colonization. T+5 -- quarry stone. On T+7 I plantation the Citrus,. T+8 sees a plantation on Spices. Next two cities will be founded as Ecstatic, which is always nice.

[Bacchus]

Ichabod somehow just jumped to 4 tourists, 400 lifetime culture in 41 turns. I don't really understand how that's possible, except through an inspiration to Defensive Tactics. Which means someone declared war on him. It's not Rowain though, if I read the screen correctly. I doubt its suboptimal, so probably Kaiser. Not sure what to think.

[Bacchus]

Rowain planted Charleston, his third city in a very convenient, passive location -- we are likely to have a very stable border unless one of us goes after Hattusa. I chop the forest and place a Holy Site, next turn I will get currency and place a commercial hub in the capital. The turn after next Craftsmanship comes in (no boost), and it's Colonization time.

[Bacchus]

Not sure where Charleston gets fresh water from actually.