Alhambram toast his first PBEM game with Russian vodka

[Alhambram]

Well, my first turn of this PBEM! When I opened my save, I saw this:

   

A fairly fertile river valley, with some desert tiles at west and tundra tiles at south which isn't surprising since Russia tend to start close nearby or middle in tundra tiles. Good job from Sulla to prevent a total bad tundra start.
I decided to settle at place, any other tiles doesn't seem offer better city location and I rather don't want waste turns by moving settler around. Normally any civilization would pick up all tiles adjacent the city and start work at 3food/3coin tile to grow. Russia however at other hand gets eight free tiles when founding city and result is this.

       

I can work five food tile with sugar to grow my city quickly, this is one of advantages being an Russian civilization. I decided to build scout first, I need information about surroundings.
My plan is build in this order: scout-worker-warrior-settler-slinger-monument. Maybe monument bit earlier since culture is slow in beginning, however I want settle second city as fast as possible.
I research animal husbandry so than my builder can build two camps and a pasture. 

     

Now general things and strategy. I aim for religious victory, so sooner or later I have to found religion. However in first 50 turn I am going invest in expansion of my civilization, at least three or four cities by turn 50 that is my short term goal for now. While expanding, I should also start tossing down Lavra's due district production cost that are rising as longer the game progress. Also I should get some sort of deterrent army by turn 50, a mix of warriors and archers. At turn 50 I am going review and decide how to continue the game (although this might happen earlier depending the sudden change of situation for example declaring war on me).

I have make a important decision regarding pantheon: for religious victory I usually get Dance of Aurora for boost of faith generated in Lavra for every adjacent tundra tiles due Russian tendency to start nearby tundra tiles. In best cases i got 6 or 7 free additional faith when placing Lavra middle in tundra area, here however I get 4 additional faith for Lavra placing three tiles south of St. Petersburg at least. The presence of desert tiles at west however make me think to pick Desert Folklore instead, a Lavra at third ring of St. Petersburg at west would indeed grab 6 or 7 additional faith. And to make my decision making worries worse: there is four marsh/floodplains tiles inside my cultural borders and i can pick up two more in future, which make Lady of Reeds and Marshes a strong choice here. At least that mean I can generate less faith, but in return I get more production. I still have to see whether I am able to pick up Lady of Reeds and Marshes, in PBEM 1 it proved its strength and is probably desired by many players now. The player who get to meet religious city state is likely the winner.

At this moment I think i am going in this order: Lady of Reeds and Marshes - Desert Folklore - Dance of Aurora. This order might change depending more scouting and whether who get pick pantheon first.


Regarding long term religious victory plan: If I found religion and start spread it. There are two ways for other players to stop me:

-Found religion themselves and counter my religion so my religion don't get majority. I might attempt to build Stonehenge to deny them easy religion picking up, but I don't see stone in my surroundings at this moment.
Finishing Stonehenge while I already got religion myself, generate a apostle for me instead Great Prophet, so I might found religion first with doubled GP points from my Lavra's and then grab early apostle with Stonehenge to enhance my religion by evangelizing belief. The danger here is that after I found religion or even when I just am collecting GP points to found religion, other players might react quickly by building Stonehenge, especially Woden with China's ability to rush wonders. 

-Another way to stop me, is eliminating me before I spread enough zeal over entire map. That is why I am also planning to build some defensive units to fend off the attacks and try prevent a 4 vs 1 situation. 


Things are just beginning! 

[Alhambram]

Turn order shenanigans aside, there was a new turn today! Just not much, just moving warrior to reveal more tiles. There seems to be an sea at west, I am going explore with my warrior bit more at west and then have it walk northwards. Once scout is finished, he is going explore area east of St. Petersburg looking for potential site for second city. 

   

I took time to make a screenshot of World rankings. Since all players start with same scores, I should stand at second place in every category's. However at Culture Victory screen I am standing at third place while Woden took the first place while he is standing at fourth place in other category's. 

   

This does imply that Woden is working at tile with at least one culture, for example Coffee, Jade, Marble or Silk. Because I have a hard time imaging Woden already met up with culture city state or an starting spot next an natural wonder. Regarding amount culture per turn, I need to keep myself in mind that I should take oledavy's culture per turn with a grain of salt when I have visibility of his statistics. Gorgo's ability gives oledavy free culture for every killed units and that don't show up at culture per turn. Instead i should look for amount civics that oledavy posses, that is more reliable way to rate him.

[Alhambram]

Turn 3:

   

Just moved warrior to west and from now he goes north. 

I pinned down a decent city location: it can start work at wheat from start (4 food or 5 if farmed) and it also can hook up with two forested hills. The southernmost forested hill have a deer resource and it is also an tundra tile. With Russian tundra bonus and building an camp it becomes an 1food/4production/1faith/1coin tile, not too shabby. 
Lastly it is at coast which halves the research time of sailing and I can build galleys to explore coasts to get idea about map and maybe locations of my opponents and city states. At this moment it seems that I am situated at southwestern part of Pangaea landmass, but maybe there are some surprises in store.

I like to check eastern area of St. Petersburg first with scout to look whether an possible better city spot can be found there, since pinned down location is safe in my backline from enemy settlers at first view.

[Alhambram]

Turn 4:

   

Moved my warrior to north to find more desert tiles, hopefully there is something interesting behind that desert hills. Otherwise I might opt to build a city there with Petra wonder, but it is going be difficult if Woden's China also start nearby desert and rush Petra with builder charges.

Meanwhile my city grew to two population, which allows me to work at two tiles. I had several choices for two tiles and I have chosen to keep sugar tile and add 2f/1p/3g tile. It allow to finish scout in 5 turns, it also grow city with another population in 5 turns and finally I get more gold per turn which I might spend if needed. At score list my civilization is only one with 7 empire points, which imply that I am first to reach two population.

[Alhambram]

Turn 5:

   

I moved the warrior to north and next turn he is going to stand on hill to overlook area above desert hills. After that depending what I see for example an possible city state, the warrior might return to city. 
The reason is that an barb scout appeared south of St. Petersburg, in my single player games barbs sometimes behave aggressively very early, sniping builders with an barb scout for example. 
So I don't want take any chances when I finish my builder after scout.

There isn't much else to tell, I am still only civilization with empire score of 7. That means others have yet to grow their cities, maybe they decided for more production heavy start to get early builders or scouts. Or there isn't any tile with 4 or 5 food in their first ring.

[Alhambram]

Turn 6:

   

Moved my warrior to north to find more desert hill tiles and another barb scout. However note that barb scout is injured, which mean it was attacked by another warrior. Which strongly implies that there is a city bit further north, either city state or one of my opponents. So I decided to move my warrior further north upcoming turns until he makes contact with unknown city. Then he beelines back to home when I finish my builder to protect it.

Meanwhile oledavy and Woden both risen in empire score list from 6 to 7, so they also have two populations now.

[Alhambram]

Turn 7:

All barb scouts moved into fog, moved warrior to north: just more desert tiles and an possible oasis (at settler map an green fresh water spot). No signs of other cities yet.
TheArchduke got 7 empire points (2 population) and only Singaboy is still stuck at size 1 city. That is all for this turn, hopefully next turn is more interesting.

[Alhambram]

Ah! nice pace today: another turn this soon. Turn 8:

   

Yes, an oasis which confirms my suspicion previous turn. However still not really good area to settle there except with Petra. Still no signs of any other city, my warrior shall seek further. Next turn scout is finished and he is going help explore area and I shall start creating an builder.

Major news this turn came from Woden: he jumped from 7 to 9 points thanks two points from civics, which means that he finished Code of Laws with average of 2.5 culture per turn which confirms my suspicion that he have been working with an tile with one culture. I shall find out which economic policy he uses in next turn: God King or Urban Planning. If he is using God King, he should take lead at religion category next turn with one faith per turn.
Meanwhile Singaboy also raised from 6 points to 7 points which means he finally doubled his population, by the way my population is going rise next turn to 3.

[Alhambram]

Turn 9:

   

My warrior finally finds a green grass lands in north after that all desert tiles, turning settler map on indeed do reveal that there is other city over there. Next turn or turn 11 contact due forest and marsh being in way with current movement rules.

My city grew to 3 population and produced an scout, he went to east and first impression is an positive one: some grassland rice and forested plain hill, he also found previously mentioned injured barb scout. Need to scout more in that direction to find good city location an maybe more surprises.

My city works now at 1f/3p tile too and produces builder in 8 turns, also in 8 turns my city is going grow to 4 population. When I reaches 4 population, I can produce warrior in 4 turns and then finish first settler around turn 30.  Also I completed researching Animal Husbandry, now researching mining due in 6 turns. Civic Code of Laws is due in 4 turns, then I can make policy swap grabbing Discipline and God King.

Speaking about policy, Woden didn't rise at religion ranking, so he took Urban Planning instead God King to get more production. I need to check it next turn again to be sure, since things as score are delayed by one turn on screen.

[Alhambram]

Turn 10:

   

No contact yet, however I discovered barb camp. It is an forested hill camp, which mean that even my warrior with 5 extra strength from policy that I get soon, have hard time.
Meanwhile scout keep exploring area east of St. Petersburg, still no noteworthy things to say about it.

Woden, oledavy and Singaboy, all of them got their first tech too, only TheArchduke remains (his turn is after me, maybe he do get first tech this game turn, but it don't appear at score while in my turn). Woden indeed did chose Urban Planning, since religion ranking remained same.
oledavy passed me in beakers ranking, which can mean one of two things: oledavy started to work at tile with beaker or he met science city state. That last one would be huge boost for him, since he is already guaranteed to get many culture with Gorgo's ability.