[SPOILERS] Yuris125 tries to win a game of Civ5 before it fades away

[yuris125]

Signed white peace with Nic. He rightly recognised that I now have enough units to hold him off, and continuing the conflict would let Ichabod and Dave run away ahead of us. I wasn't in position to negotiate for peace, and really want to go back to Settler spam, so was happy to accept

One option I need to think of, especially considering Nic's success with an Archer attack, is if it's worthwhile to turn around and attack HAK now that I have some units I don't need (and not far away from Composite Bowmen). The only problem with this idea is that capturing cities in Civ5 is not really profitable. Puppets add regular amounts of unhappiness and tech costs, but don't contribute much. They even add extra costs, considering buildings they construct are not necessarily useful, but do cost maintenance. Annexed cities require Courthouse to eliminate extra unhappiness, which costs 67 hammers to build, then 4gpt in maintenance for the rest of the game. So... I need to think about it

[T-hawk]

Even if you can't take a city, you could harass and delay an opponent, scare away their workers, maybe pick up some gold by pillaging. Or else your archers could sit around idle.

This post brought to you by an observer who totally doesn't just want to see more war for the entertainment value...

[yuris125]

There's been not much happening over the last few turns - I was building Settlers and moving Scouts round. Here's where I am on T47




Three cities, with another Settler on the way. Empire is not particularly happy, but that's largely because barbs showed up and pillaged my silk plantation, and my units were out of position to stop that. Should be back in greenyellow in 3 turns or so

Gold is also a problem, but now that we have barb camps popping up left and right, they should fund me for the next dozen turns




Here's that barb camp responsible for pillaging the silk. My army is out to get revenge. Once it's gotten... I actually decided what to do with my Archers, and I think what I would like to do is to take Hanoi while it doesn't have city walls yet. That's why I'm building a Spear in the capital, to have a melee unit for city capture. Once it's built, I will start working on those Pyramids - in addition to other benefits, I need the second GE point

Science




Philosophy is the immediate goal, I would like to start getting those Mud Pyramid Mosques up. Should be able to open Piety around the same time (the game is currently showing 11 turns, but it will change, as I will found at least 1 more city before then, build some Monuments, and also may or may not remain friends with Milan - we just became friends as I connected Truffles). With rolls for great prophet starting in 3 turns, it really is high time to focus on faith production - 6fpt is decent for this stage of the game, but with my plans for Pagodas and Holy Warriors, nowhere near enough

I'm kind of concerned that I may end up getting the GE before I get to Theology for Hagia Sophia. Maybe I'll actually change my mind and build a Library before Pyramids in the capital

Seems weird to finish all ancient era techs before advancing to classical, but well, that's what this game needed

Demos




Yeah... need to get back to where I was before the war. Holy cow someone has 66 land tiles already. That has to be Ichabod based on the score. Also holy cow someone has 30k soldiers. Things on the other continent are certainly heating up (I assume the other three players are on the other continent considering we haven't met for so long)

[T-hawk]

Holy cow someone has 66 land tiles already.

That doesn't sound right. Your value says 360,000 - do you have 36 land tiles?

[yuris125]

Misspoke there - any tiles inside borders, not just land tiles. But yes, I do have 36

[yuris125]

T51

Big huge turn. Just the facts now, analysis when I have time




I founded the 4th city (could've been like 6 if not for Nic, grrrrr)

Dave lost his capital (to Ichabod I believe). Guess the other continent wasn't peaceful either, but Ichabod's war was more successful than Nic's

Someone (Pindicator? it's someone on the other continent, don't think it's Ichabod, and definitely not Dave) built Pyramids. Good thing I didn't lose much production on them. Think I had no chance, especially after the war with Nic - my eta was around T55 even without it

And I got my religion (won the prophet roll on the second turn it could possibly spawn - quite fortunate)

[yuris125]

So....

Winning the great prophet roll so fast means that my unhappiness problems are not really problems right now. I'm keeping the capital on production, so it isn't growing anyway, and at this point it's beneficial to keep the new cities at size 1 for natural conversion. So Jenne is the only city affected by slowed growth, and even that isn't too bad considering it can work a couple of 2/1 tiles and the gold

Losing the Pyramids means that my plan of getting a natural great engineer to rush Hagia Sophia for an enhancement prophet is out of the window. At the moment I'm 41 turns away from the GE and - even with the current faith production - would start rolls for the second prophet in 34 turns. But in 6 turns I will unlock Piety and start building Shrines and Temples. So faith output will actually increase by a lot, and while I'm too lazy to count when I will get that great prophet (especially considering its randomness), I would expect it to happen in 20-25 turns. To be honest, I wouldn't have been able to get the GE by then anyway

This has two important consequences. Firstly, I no longer have to go for Theology. Which is an important tech because it's a pre-req for Education, but not for many other reasons. I'm now inclined to go for Currency after Philosophy (I need Markets... I want gold...), and then enter Medieval era through Metal Casting for Workshops

Secondly, I'm going to have a great engineer who currently isn't spoken for. Will decide what to do with him closer to his birth date - who knows how the world will look in 40 turns. But the fact that I can get a wonder of choice is encouraging

Finally, religion. You will notice that I took Church Property over Tithe. I actually had Tithe selected and ready to click the confirmation button. Then I realised that in MP, Church Property is just better. It is once again a matter of immediate benefit vs longterm benefit. In SP, you can have the next 100 turns planned out, and be confident that you will have more than 8 followers per city following your religion (which obviously is the point where Tithe becomes superior). In this game... I know for sure that Church Property will give me 2 gpt immediately (Tithe would only give 1gpt) and 4 more gpt in 12 turns when the two size 1 cities convert (Tithe would give nothing initially for those cities). Long-term, Tithe would likely be better - but first I need to get to that long-term

There's also a small chance that Tithe might still be available by the time I get the enhancement prophet. That would be amazing

So the immediate plans (the next 25ish turns) are - capture Hanoi, build up Libraries and religious buildings, explore the seas, don't die to Nic's second attack (I'm keeping an eye on him), enhance religion

[chumchu]

You can not have both tithe and church property as they are both founder beliefs.

[yuris125]

Yeah fair point, living in a magical Christmas land for a moment there, thinking that reformation grants the second founder belief

[yuris125]

Hmmm.... this is mildly worrying




However, on the same turn these units appeared, Nic offered an embassy exchange (which I accepted). Guess this means they're not coming for me?