[SPOILERS] Pindicator digs up the past with Kongo

[pindicator]

Here we go again, this time trying some balance mods and playing as Kongo.  (Now what will I blame my loss on except bad play?)





There are a couple things to focus on with Kongo.  Early on we are going to want to get our government plaza down and tier 1 building for the free relic.  That means a lot of early culture.  We can also get lucky from huts ... Wait, there are actually huts this time, right? 

District choice will be biased towards theaters and commercial hubs, as the Mbanza gives adjacency bonus to both.  So that pulls me away from a religion opening, I think - we'll be getting our trade routes with Commercial Hubs rather than Harbors.   Yet the only way to reliably generate relics is through Apostles and the Martyr promotion ... which relies on them dying in religious combat, and doesn't feel great either.  Let's just hope we find Kandy on the map closeby.

Militarily we have our unique unit fairly close with the Ngao Mbeba, a swordsman replacement that does better against ranged attacks.  Considering Kongo's jungle bias, we will be wanting to go to Iron Working for this as well as the inevitable jungle chopping that will have to happen.

So let's look at the start:




Settler spawned a tile to the northeast, but after I confirmed that there wasn't a 3f spawn enabled for capitals I settled where you see here, on top of a cow.  This was lucky to also uncover the Chocolate to my southwest.  There's Salt by where we originally spawned, and a rice hidden by the city name to the NW of the capital.  I will probably open double scout because I want to find huts, and then we'll see who and where our neighbors are before deciding.

[pindicator]

005

Warrior has found coast and a good spot for a city:




Either on top of the warrior or on the bare plains hills to the east. Campus goes on top of that sheep.

[Ginger*]

What's your favorite moment from a civ 6 game?

[pindicator]

I haven't played all that much - PBEM25 was me coming back to it after a long time away and obviously that didn't go great.

I guess the first game I played here, where I won the PBEM - that was fun getting observational balloons online and making my artillery untouchable.

[pindicator]

010

I haven't come across any other people or city states, so I went for a double scout opening:




I know that didn't go so well last time, but I'm not going to send my starting warrior as far away. Will start a settler next turn and probably settle downstream where I pointed out last update.

The warrior did find a Natural Wonder - but I'm going to leave it "undiscovered" for a little bit, just in case I have Kandy nearby.

[pindicator]

012

Finally found a city state: Mogadishu up in the northeast




Gives me an immediate +2 gold/turn. If I were to become their suzerain then my trade caravans could not be pillaged.

And then found another one!




Another Science per turn is very nice!

[pindicator]

019

Nothing big to report, that's why it's been silence here lately.




Settler finishes end of turn and will go downstream to the spot I first located. Not a lot of great options outside of that unless I reach for the natural wonder in the north. It looks like I'll have to reach for a 3rd city regardless of the direction just due to how the fresh water is set up on this map.

Did end up uncovering the Chocolate Hills and perhaps this means I should be going for an early religion? I'm still resisting that direction.

Uncovered a second continent in the south. Have a decision to make whether that scout goes left or right, but that's a very sturdy mountain range dividing me off from whatever is to my west.

[pindicator]

024

Second city settled. Still looking for my nearest neighbor

[pindicator]

026

Met Russia

[pindicator]

Turn 029

Foreign Trade is in.  Immediately bought a Trader in Behemoth, my second city.  Settler for city #3 is 3 turns out and I'm still trying to decide exactly where he goes, so I finally put together a rough dotmap:




Most of this is constrained by how the fresh water goes, so I'm going to have to settle to the north and then east.  Next city should grab some of the culture that Paititi is putting out, but I'm just debating whether I go for the coastal spot first (farther away from what I want to claim, coastal so needs infra for housing, but immediately gets good culture tiles) or if I grab the nearest river spot (not great tile yields, but city has to go here to fit in another city along the river between there and Mogadishu).  Leaning river spot with a quick tile purchase to get the 2-culture cows working immediately.  Actually, I think that's the answer.

Regarding tech, was very tempted to go Animal Husbandry and get a +4 campus going in Behemoth fast, but that would mean a completely different build order and tech path.  I think we slot that in after Currency, however, so I can get the quick Commercial Hubs down.  Oh, shoot - I've forgotten about chopping requirements again.  And that's why I should have not settled on the bare plains hill by the river - now I need to figure out where Behemoth is going to put its Commercial Hub.  I always forget that requirement early on.