[Spoilers] AW with highly promoted LB!! (Liz of North America)

[AutomatedTeller]

Some things to think about for the short-term:

Go for an early choke? GII archers and dogs can do that. There's no way I'll be able to take out an opponent, though - not with CGIII archers on a hill. They defend at something like 9. I'd need something like 3 or 4 dogs to kill one of them, and then I'll have to deal with more archers or axes.

I think early aggression is completely out. I'd rather be on everyone's good side and hope wars start up between others. I might be able to get some XP and gold from killing barb cities, though.

[AutomatedTeller]

Played the turn, will add pics later.

Said hi to Maya, didnt' like that they had furs too and so wouldn't be able to trade, so I declared war. Well, the game did.

Also spotted red borders to my northeast.



Someone has a GNP of 21!! That's got to be egypt, no? teching AH with both agri and hunting prereqs? I don't see how they could get that any other way. Something I don't understand, though, is how Twinkletoes owns less of the world than I do.




I switched research to mysticism - I dunno if the effect of knowing maya changes things, but it'll kind of mess with anyone doing C&D stuff. Once I know china, i'll be able to get 2 prior civs knowing mining for the last turn, when I'll have a lot more research.

I'm a little vulnerable if a warrior shows up, but I can build a warrior in 3 turns, so I'm not too worried. I'll pull back Ostrich1 (down by maya) to cover the cap.

As I look at my screen shots, I'm probably not in danger, but I could be.



The light green are my units. The red is where a unit could appear and hit me before I can build a warrior.

Now, I don't think that will happen - in fact, I think it's pretty unlikely that there's anyone right there... but I'll pull back from Maya to cover while sending the archer to say hi to china.

My warrior will keep looking for egypt, then come back to look for settling sites.

[AutomatedTeller]

Some C&D (and I would really appreciate comments)

Soldiers are 8K (me), 1 with 10K and 2 with 2K.
Zero and Twinkletoes have both research a tech.
I think one got hunting, the other got fishing, because soldiers for someone went up 2K. It's possible both got fishing and one built a warrior, of course.

Someone is researching a 2nd level tech with a bonus - that's the only way to get 21 GNP with a non-creative civ this early.

That could be:

Pottery
AH
Masonry

Pottery requires 2 techs to get a bonus (wheel and one of agri or fishing), so Egypt could be researching that.

AH requires hunting and agri to get the bonus, so china could be researching AH.
Masonry requires mining/mysticism to get the bonus, so Maya could be researching masonry.

My guess is that china is researching AH and is working the wine to speed up research and picked hunting on the way to get the fur, because maya isn't in position to use masonry, so there are better options.

Though, Serdoa could be going pottery, to get early granaries, cause this is a good start for whipping. I guess?

[AutomatedTeller]

nothing exciting (not that that has stopped me so far)

Moved onto the hill by china, will move onto the gold to get visibility into their city.

Warrior saw a chinese archer to the west, so moved away

Moved the other archer back towards the cap, to make sure I don't get caught by surprise

get the workboat next turn and switch to a worker and working the crab.

[AutomatedTeller]

Found a very nice spot for a GP farm city. rice, 2 fish, 1 whale, 1 FP. All the "seafood" is on a lake.

Got visibility into beijing. Will continue to scout for site #3, which will be mainly military. I figure the cap will be a combination of commercial/military, the place I found will be GP sometimes, slave out military sometimes - the third will just be military.

It also looks like there is no salt water, at all.

Built workboat, switched to crab/worker. Mysticism in 1 more turn, overflow into mining, overflow in BW, which should come in in 10 turns or so. I'll have the worker in 8 or so and can go straight into henge. I'll have to sim whether irrigating the wheat, then building the mine on the forest is better than partly irrigating, then building the mine, then finishing the irrigation is best. My guess is that finishing the mine is better, since I have a ton of food, but we'll see.

There will be pics tonight...

[Commodore]

Hey, appreciating the updates. We're obviously spoiled so specific commentary isn't happening, but again, nice updates.

What is the plan for using the Great Prophet(s) if you land Stonehenge?

[AutomatedTeller]

Open-ended, right now.

My options are:
GA
Shrine
Bulb
Settle

It's too early for a GA.

Some of it will depend on if I have a holy city by the time I get the prophet and where it is. If it's in my GP farm city, a shrine is nice, because of the 3 priest slots. I'm ok with multiple priest GP's - prophets can bulb useful stuff, too, or they can settle.

if I don't have a religion, it will depend on the tech situation. I expect to be the tech leader at some point because of financial (unless I'm pillaged to death), but I don't know that I want that to be too early, or I might get dogpiled.

I'd say, now, about 50% likely to settle, 30% to bulb and 20% to shrine. (that last reminds me of Pink Floyd's great song, "Shrine on you crazy diamond")

[AutomatedTeller]

ok, some pics and analysis:

First, the great GP site I found (I'm sure ya'll know exactly what I'm talking about, up in the lurker thread, who have seen the map)



That is a thing of beauty. can hold 7 specialists at size 10 I dunno if that goes up before the military one or not, but... (1 for city, 2 for each fish, 1 for the rice, 1 for the FP), which is amazingly good. More important in the short term, I can run specialists and still whip infrastructure (to hold more specialists, or defense) and the fish are unpillageable AND worth a lot of money


ok - C&D:

Beijing has 38 hammers in something which I assume is a worker (since a workboat is less expensive than that and I doubt they are making a settler)
Soldiers didn't change, but Serdoa's score went up, so that has to be fishing (hunting would have increased his soldiers to 14000)

I guess I didn't get a full-empire screen of the this time. My other archer is hanging out near, but not in, the capital, ready to move in in case someone comes by, but also ready to go spy on maya, should that become necessary.

Warrior is going to continue wandering in the north, trying to find egypt, while the archer by china is going to start working his way back, coming south. Now that animals are about, I'll be careful with him - archers vs. bears are too close for comfort.

[AutomatedTeller]

the north got crowded - a TT warrior showed up, as did zero's archer. moved the warrior away from the lion into the woods - thought about staying where I was, for the XP, but wanted to be able to run away from the archer.

Still no contact with serdoa.

Mysticism this turn, worker in 5 (I have the most food, cause of the workboat). Mining next turn, then BW. I should get a fair amount of overflow into BW, too. My score will finally go up

[AutomatedTeller]

My post-stonehenge thoughts (success or failure) were to slave a dog, chop or slave a worker and then build another settler.

but with super-site there, I don't think I have to - I can maybe go settler/dog (that will depend on barbs, of course), without a second worker, because that site will be working seafood right from the start. Hopefully, with an automatic monument, so I can just slave out workboats.

Of course, that partly depends on where copper/horses are, too.

I wonder if I should get IW before I get my 3rd city out? It would be awkward if we got to knights and I couldn't build 'em...