[SPOILERS] Gira under Pindicator's surveillance

[giraflorens]

Okay!  If you like Russia then we should pick it.  It will be a late-blooming civ so it will be important for us to play well early or maybe to pick a trait to help us out early so that we can get to Cossacks.

Done.

[pindicator]

Okay, good pick! Do you have any ideas about leaders you want to pick? Is there a trait that you'd like to play as this game?

And maybe this is a better question: what kind of game do you want to play? Do you want to be aggressive early and often? Or do you want to focus on building up your own civ and economy and then use Cossacks to get aggressive late?

[giraflorens]

Okay, good pick!  Do you have any ideas about leaders you want to pick?  Is there a trait that you'd like to play as this game?

And maybe this is a better question:  what kind of game do you want to play?  Do you want to be aggressive early and often?  Or do you want to focus on building up your own civ and economy and then use Cossacks to get aggressive late?

I prefer the second option.  I do not like aggressive play, and I rather overwhelm by production.

I would like to try PROtective,  as you commented in PB52 it seems to yield good finances.  And I don't know about the others: PHYlosophical to work the GPP's (Sitting Bull), or CREative for culture bonus (Gilgamesh). Also we could try ORGanized (the new leader Lieu Ye)

[civac2]

Organized does sound nice but it is a mid-late game trait also. PRO ha been nerfed compared to PB52. It's utility now depends on whether and how fast you get Open Borders.

[giraflorens]

Organized does sound nice but it is a mid-late game trait also. PRO ha been nerfed compared to PB52. It's utility now depends on whether and how fast you get Open Borders.

I see, that PRO bonus of commerce is "+75% domestic trade route yield".  What's the difference that "domestic" introduces?
On the other side, I don't think I will last until the mid-late game, so may be a more strong trait for initial should be considered.

[Charriu]

It means you only get +75% trade for trade between your own cities

[pindicator]

Yes, PRO will be very good up until we get open borders, and then it will only be marginally good for economy.

I would also look at the traits that help speed up your production early game: CHM and CRE help expand borders faster and let you work 2nd ring tiles. FIN is of course amazing with all the water that we seem to have; I think it will be better than PRO on this map already. EXP makes the best building in the game cost half-price (granaries). IMP makes settlers cheap and gives cheap stables for those Cossacks. But I also like PHI because of the University Unique Building. We can make a lot of great scientists to get to Education quickly. Then PHI also makes our unique building half cost too.

I really like PHI because i think it can be very useful. I would suggest pairing it with either EXP, IMP, or CRE so we can save hammers on early turns and get our cities up faster. But that is just my recommendation, we can make it work with anything.

[giraflorens]

Ok, what about Pericles? He is PHI and CRE.

[pindicator]

I think Pericles is a good choice. CRE gives us cheaper libraries and that will help with bulbing up to Education too!

[giraflorens]

I've doing some simulations and I have different options:

Option 1: worker boat warrior settler
T12- worker -> boat            AH- fishing
T20- boat -> warrior      2pop
T24- warrior –> setter   3pop
T30- settler –worker     BW-> wheel
T35- whip worker -> boat 2pop
T39- boat->warrior     3pop   WHEEL->pottery
 
Option 2: worker  boat boat
T12- worker -> boat         AH- fishing
T19-                                2pop   FISH-> Bronze                    working food advance in pop
T21- boat -> boat 
T24-                                3pop
T26- boat-> warrior
T29- warrior – settler        4 pop    BW-> wheel
T33- whip settler -> warrior   2pop
T36- 2warriors->worker     3pop   WHEEL->pottery
T40- worker   could be avanced if chop
 
Option 3: boat- worker- boat
T8- boat->boat      FISH-animal
T11-   ->worker   2 pop
T19- worker->boat   AH->bronze
T24- boat->warrior 3pop
T27- warrior->settler 4pop
T30-                                       BW-> wheel
T34- settler->worker               WHEEL (T35 or 36)
T38- worker   whip 1 or 2 pop (choping)   

Indeed I see very small differences:
- making 2 boats is good to advance Wheel 2-3 turns so the workers have something to do. So I would discard option 1
- I think option 2, makes in advance the Cows and the mine, which is interesting in case of production, but in option 3 we have the worker 2 or 3 turns in advance.