[SPOILERS] New setting, same RNG. yuris125, Civ6 PBEM26

[yuris125]

Tbf "border expansion based on obscure algorythm players hae no control over" was a low bar to improve on hard to believe it stuck around for two games

[yuris125]

T41

I hit 25 faith, but no pantheon prompt. Maybe it is founded on turn rollover, not as soon as I hit 25? I did a test game, and it was 25 there - hopefully I didn't do something wrong with testing

Switched to these policies. Still don't need Discipline, so decide to boost production of my archer instead




Monument in Bogota will finish in 2 turns, and Early Empire is currently showing 11 turns, but should be much faster with the Monument. So I will get another opportunity to change policies soon, if needed

Bought a trader in Quito. 185g, less than I thought, but also more than it cost in the test game - does its cost scale with builder cost?

Farmed rice and completed Irrigation thanks to the eureka (think a few beakers could've been wasted there, but not many). Started Writing next

Ran into Pindicator's slinger. Now I have no idea what his army composition is. Could be 2 warriors, scout and slinger?

[yuris125]

Contact with Japper to the south of Quito. He's only on 2 cities and has a bit more military, perhaps he got slowed down by barb troubles? Or has a closer neighbour and has to be ready for a potential aggression? I was worried about my start being slow, but so far it doesn't seem to be the case

Pantheon did get founded




Fertility Rites was available, but after giving it some though, I went for culture from pastures. The point of Fertility Rites was to give more food to cities near the starting area, when I expected a tighter map. But map doesn't seem to be tight at all, and settling food-poor cities is not a priority. What is a priority is claiming that river valley with a lot of sugar between Mogadishu and Hattusa (Hattusa is the city state to SW of Quito, borders of which I saw when I settled there). And that valley is anything but food-poor

Main conclusion is that I have very few tiles which are already claimed and would benefit from Fertility Rites, whereas God of the Open Sky would give me 2 culture/turn immediately, another one in a few turns from improving the cattle at Queto, and there are two more sheep tiles at Bogota which I will want to improve

I really should learn to play a religious game one day, but this is yet again not the game where I will do it

[yuris125]

Pindicator's land located. Would like to get eyes on at least one of his cities, so that I can keep track of his garrison power if nothing else




So as it turns out, the Matterhorn wasn't contested after all. But the sugar valley certainly is

I think the plan is to build a second archer in Quito after the first one while I finish Early Empire, and then build settlers in Bogota and Quito for this area, with Colonisation

Getting a builder in Bogota while waiting for that, didn't think I would get another one without Liang, but need to improve the sugar and build a couple more pastures, and will want to focus on settlers once Early Empire is in

The map looks spacious enough that I will want to go Currency before HBR. Don't think early aggression is necessary, I have room for 10+ cities naturally. But I do need roads

Amenities remain the biggest concern in the middle term, 10+ cities with only 4 luxuries will be tricky

[yuris125]

Got sight on Pindicator's city, and it is his capital




Looks like he expanded away from me, and I probably should ensure the land between us falls to me. 2 archers and a warrior should be enough to stop his settling party at this stage, should he send one

Thinking I will want to claim 2 sugar cities (although the western one may be unnecessary?), then one on the Yenisei river between Hattusa and Geneva, and one on the southern coast (there's whales in the water, no pictured, but they're there, and reason enough to go for it). Can see capturing Hattusa at some point - not sure about it, the city spot is not great, being 1 tile off fresh water is annoying, but it is going to be in the middle of my territory if I claim everything I want

Research-wise, think I will want BW and HBR after Currency, I'm not planning aggression at this time, but want to be sure I have horsemen for defence before going for the next milestone tech, which is Apprenticeship. BW is needed for jungle chopping, which I will start doing post-Serfdom, and may also need to do for district placement (haven't really started thinking about proper district setup yet)

[yuris125]

Revealed the remaining tiles (except one), and here's what I'm thinking in terms of city plan




I moved the eastern sugar city SE of the previous spot, because the tile where Hattusa's warrior is is a good hacienda spot, so I want it to be in range

The western spot is as good as it gets, on a hill, with two 2f/2h tiles, and covering most of the valley

Then in the south, there's jungle with a lot of plantation resources, and the spot on the Yenisei river should cover everything

Both westernmost cities are behind rivers in Pindicator's direction, and with me building a couple archers, they should be defensible, despite being quite far from my capital

I'm planning to get 3 settlers during this period of running Colonisation, two out of Bogota and one out of Quito, and these are the spots they will go for

Then the other two spots both lack fresh water and therefore are lower priority. The southernmost city would claim the rest of plantation resources as well as the whales, so I consider it quite important. The other one will claim some good jungle area, but is more fillery. This spot also is not quite set in stone, as I think there's a bit of land I haven't revealed yet

After that, I still have the eastern area to claim. I can get 5 cities there as well, and will look at settling them as amenities allow

[yuris125]

T50

I am on three cities, working on settlers for three more




Research - I have all three techs in the first column, plus




Noteworthy that Pindicator is already in classical era. From his connected luxuries, I know he has Mining and Irrigation, but he may have skipped AH and Archery and went straight for Currency? Myself, I expect to enter classical era in 7 turns on both research and culture (Currency and Political Philosophy respectively)

Culture - on the main path to Political Philosophy, not deviating for now




Policies - I'm running Colonisation for the settler building period, military policy is not relevant with no barbs around (currently slotted in Survey again after completing the two archers I wanted)

Governors - I started with Liang for extra builder charges (no builders in production right now, but they will be back on soon). Will finish State Workforce and get another title next turn. Don't think I need Magnus yet, and Liang's Agriculture promotion looks like it will be pretty insane in Bogota. So taking that, unless something makes me change my mind before tomorrow. Reina or Amani are alternatives, but don't think they will be helpful enough, and I don't need extra governors for loyalty reasons, all planned cities are currently outside Pindicator's loyalty pressure




The big news of the last few turns is that Japper is at war (with a civ I haven't met, but most likely Archduke, who is the one most incentivised to go to war early), and lost his second city. Explains his slow start, but looks like he couldn't hold off eagle warriors anyway. Think it's happening even without a great general? Haven't seen great general points being generated

I am sending my scout south, which is where Russian scout came from, to find the war theatre and understand how fearful I need to be. At present I'm planning to go HBR after Currency and MilTrad after Political Philosophy, but may need to change priorities if there's danger of Archduke taking out Japper and coming for me. Probably won't happen, I expect he's far enough away and will need time to regroup even if he does take out Japper, so I should have time. But need to be sure

[yuris125]

After reveaing more land around Mogadishu, I'm thinking about moving the NW spot 2SW




Puts both coffees across the river in range, and doesn't lose anything important - the north is pretty barren. Still a hill plant and behind rivers. A bit closer to Pindicator - but Pindicator is still on 55 power, and while he probably doesn't expect me to get aggressive, I feel confident about claiming the land between us

The first settler is out, will take forever to reach the valley of course

Japper is holding off his war opponent for now, last turn he was down to 26 power and I thought he was as good as gone, but his power went up this turn - he at least had an opportunity to heal. Which gives me confidence to continue with Currency before HBR. I wouldn't want to switch at this point in any case, I need to finish both researches currently in progress, so that I get era score for reaching Classical era and adopting Classical Republic before the in-game era ends in 8 turns. And I really want to build commercial zones while researching HBR

[Chevalier Mal Fet]

[yuris125]

T57

Currency and Political Philosophy come in. I adopt Classical Republic and these policies




Land Surveyors was a mistake, took it because I will need to buy some tiles in new cities, but didn't realise how soon I will get another switch. Should've gone for Caravansaries

The bad news is that I got less era score than I hoped for (probably because I wasn't the first to these milestones, Pindicator beat me to them). I'm only at 14/15, with the era ending in 4 turns

However, I also discovered that Pindicator has a natural wonder of his own




Expect to reveal it before the end of the era, getting the last point I need to avoid a dark age. Dark age loyalty penalty would've been problematic, considering I'm planning to settle close to Pindicator's zone of influence

I also finished revealing the land in the south




Ignore the coastal city pins, I haven't reworked them yet with the new info. But the important bit is, that is not where Japper is - and more importantly, not where his attacker (Archduke?) is. They're further south, beyond Geneva (which I didn't include in the screenshot, but it is visible in the minimap to the west of my scout). And Pindicator doesn't have contact with Japper's attacker, so they're not very close

This means that I'm almost certainly under no military threat for the foreseeable future - even if Japper is eliminated, if his attacker wants to continue their campaign, Pindicator is the next logical target rather than me. Looks like Pindicator is my only neighbour, and he seems happy to sit on next to no military. This is what convinced me that I could afford to go for an economy-focused setup at this stage

Now, Pindicator is ahead of me in economy, he got to Currency well before me, and is already accumulating great merchant points, and even a few great scientist points as well. So I will want to keep him honest and potentially poke at him with some units - which is why I'm still going for HBR next (not that there're many more useful techs available right now). I don't anticipate making many gains, I may not even declare war, but I do want him to invest in some military, to slow down his economic development as well as make sure he is better prepared to defend from the other direction later on, should that be necessary