Post by Kaez on Apr 16, 2014 20:47:22 GMT -5
All things considered, there are worse places to start. Two sugars and an incense, lots of food, could skyrocket on faith with Desert Folklore. I've a suspicion that I'm sitting on the bank of the Nile, which if true can be a really interesting place to start. Africa is one of the less predictable continents and this north downstream would place me just a few tiles from the Mediterranean and whoever's stationed over in Europe. In any case, I'm definitely going to need to use that food to push an expansion. There's no production to be found in the plains and the desert. I'm gonna' have to head to the hills soon enough.
For now, Beijing settles in on the river.
After a handful of turns, things got going pretty smoothly. Desert Folklore means I'm getting +7 faith per turn, which is just insane this early on. I've got a religion brewing here for sure. Really great amounts of gold and food coming in from the oasis, sugar, and the river -- and I've got my workers having a go at the incense to bring that into the swing of things as well. My suspicions were confirmed: we're on the Nile, just south of Suez and only two tiles from the Red Sea. I'm either going to be compressed down into the Sahara or I'm going to secure a really crucial global crossroads. First things first: get an idea of the surrounding area and start to lock down some territory and work on getting some production into the equation.
Rock of Gibraltar across from Morocco, of course. Unfortunately, there's a city state sitting dead between Beijing and the Rock, so I don't really see my expansion taking the North African style.
Pro: my scout was turned into a fast-moving archer that destroyed anything in its path with ease. Con: there is so, so much to destroy. Africa is plagued with barbarians and I can't travel very long without encountering a camp. I make it a standing policy to take them out on sight. Beijing's unprotected and flourishing thanks to improvement. One barb could slow my progress by thirty-turns before city defense volleys got to them and I don't want to risk it. So rather than making a quick exploratory trip, it's turned into an anti-barbarian crusade and, before I knew it, I was deep in the Congo, far from anywhere I'd consider settling, shooting down barb camps left and right.
A few small, relatively insignificant city states dot the landscape and there aren't, really, that many desirable resources. A wheat here, a banana there, a stone or copper somewhere or another. You could build an empire around that, but it's not very interesting to me. Yet here I am, nearly in South Africa. I decide to let it go and just designate it an exploratory mission and fully scout out the continent. I do find a few useful ruins along the way.
As you can see in the left of the above image, Amsterdam is sitting around Gabon. William of Orange isn't a terrible neighbor to have and I'm pretty content to let him do whatever he wants with most of Africa. The Dutch will likely expand along the coast and eventually cross the Atlantic or climb up to Europe or around the cape. I don't really see him making any kind of movement in my direction. Trading buddy, perhaps.
All my barb camp destruction won me the favor of a city-state and I was gifted some spearmen. I promptly shoved them up into Arabia and Asia Minor to get a feel for the area. This, I suspect, is going to be the most important scouting of the game. If there's nobody nearby and I can quickly and quietly secure the eastern Med, I can see that being a pretty powerful location. If I've got a nearby neighbor... that might mean an early-game war or that might mean I dive headlong into the near east and play the long-game for oil and religion. There is one city state in Iraq, but I can work with that.
Those desert tiles paid off. Daoism was founded in Beijing and I got my beliefs flowing.
Europe only has one civilization (unless there's one on the British isles, which I can't access yet): Poland. Poland is a versatile, powerful, fast-growing civ. They're pretty high on the list of "excellent friends or horrible enemies". Too soon to say what's going to become of that, but they've already got a second city in Europe and they control so much of the France/Germany/Poland area that I can't see the coast. If I'm going to try to control the Mediterranean, I've got to get into Europe south of the Alps pretty quickly.
Shanghai was founded near Adana. If Cyprus was in-game, it'd be just off the coast. It's got hills all around, it's sitting on top of a gold resource, has a river and a coast, even a few desert tiles for faith. It's a pretty killer city spot... but it's the full six tiles from Beijing and it's going to be a while until I can connect them. It's going to flourish pretty well on its own, though, and it secures Asia minor for me. I'm glad to get that in place and set me up for the future. It's a long-game strategy, but I'll take it.
A few dozen turns later, the Classical Era rolled around.
In the meantime, I dropped in a third city in a location that was a really difficult call to make. Ultimately, I'm going to want Arabia. The resources it can reach from its position are varied and appealing and it sets the foundation for expansion both upstream of the Nile (one city down there for some cotton and such a little later wouldn't be a bad idea) and across the Persian Gulf. If I want to really claim the tri-continental crossroads, branching out like that could be a smart move and it would lock Beijing up in a very secure, almost-impossible-to-access position.
My priorities for Beijin moving forward are to secure the land passage to Shanghai and to snatch up that wheat to increase resource diversity. I've brought my archer back home sitting in the capital keeping an eye on things and I've got a settler brewing to keep pushing the expansion.
Shanghai's doing really well. All that production means it's my ideal location to try and grab a world wonder. But if I want to really get it growing, I need to get some food from Beijing. I've got to grab those few southern tiles.
My Red Sea city is all about the resources available to it. Getting those and slow, steady growth is all it needs for now. I don't see myself expanding south or east for a little while.
The red dots are the edge of Shanghai's possible ownership. Pink dots are possible ideas for city locations. Dropping one between the Black and Caspian seas would be the beginnings of a really serious Eurasian wall and the resources up there are quite different from what I've got down in Africa. Alternatively, I could start wrapping over into the middle east.
It may, however, be time to get some definite power in Europe. Greece is a prime spot for that and I could actually reach that city's borders into Italy (also marked with pink dots), effectively locking down the Mediterranean for myself. Spain remains unconquered by Poland. Do I want to push all the way west?
And that's when an unexpected visitor showed up.
.....shit.
For now, Beijing settles in on the river.
After a handful of turns, things got going pretty smoothly. Desert Folklore means I'm getting +7 faith per turn, which is just insane this early on. I've got a religion brewing here for sure. Really great amounts of gold and food coming in from the oasis, sugar, and the river -- and I've got my workers having a go at the incense to bring that into the swing of things as well. My suspicions were confirmed: we're on the Nile, just south of Suez and only two tiles from the Red Sea. I'm either going to be compressed down into the Sahara or I'm going to secure a really crucial global crossroads. First things first: get an idea of the surrounding area and start to lock down some territory and work on getting some production into the equation.
Rock of Gibraltar across from Morocco, of course. Unfortunately, there's a city state sitting dead between Beijing and the Rock, so I don't really see my expansion taking the North African style.
Pro: my scout was turned into a fast-moving archer that destroyed anything in its path with ease. Con: there is so, so much to destroy. Africa is plagued with barbarians and I can't travel very long without encountering a camp. I make it a standing policy to take them out on sight. Beijing's unprotected and flourishing thanks to improvement. One barb could slow my progress by thirty-turns before city defense volleys got to them and I don't want to risk it. So rather than making a quick exploratory trip, it's turned into an anti-barbarian crusade and, before I knew it, I was deep in the Congo, far from anywhere I'd consider settling, shooting down barb camps left and right.
A few small, relatively insignificant city states dot the landscape and there aren't, really, that many desirable resources. A wheat here, a banana there, a stone or copper somewhere or another. You could build an empire around that, but it's not very interesting to me. Yet here I am, nearly in South Africa. I decide to let it go and just designate it an exploratory mission and fully scout out the continent. I do find a few useful ruins along the way.
As you can see in the left of the above image, Amsterdam is sitting around Gabon. William of Orange isn't a terrible neighbor to have and I'm pretty content to let him do whatever he wants with most of Africa. The Dutch will likely expand along the coast and eventually cross the Atlantic or climb up to Europe or around the cape. I don't really see him making any kind of movement in my direction. Trading buddy, perhaps.
All my barb camp destruction won me the favor of a city-state and I was gifted some spearmen. I promptly shoved them up into Arabia and Asia Minor to get a feel for the area. This, I suspect, is going to be the most important scouting of the game. If there's nobody nearby and I can quickly and quietly secure the eastern Med, I can see that being a pretty powerful location. If I've got a nearby neighbor... that might mean an early-game war or that might mean I dive headlong into the near east and play the long-game for oil and religion. There is one city state in Iraq, but I can work with that.
Those desert tiles paid off. Daoism was founded in Beijing and I got my beliefs flowing.
Europe only has one civilization (unless there's one on the British isles, which I can't access yet): Poland. Poland is a versatile, powerful, fast-growing civ. They're pretty high on the list of "excellent friends or horrible enemies". Too soon to say what's going to become of that, but they've already got a second city in Europe and they control so much of the France/Germany/Poland area that I can't see the coast. If I'm going to try to control the Mediterranean, I've got to get into Europe south of the Alps pretty quickly.
Shanghai was founded near Adana. If Cyprus was in-game, it'd be just off the coast. It's got hills all around, it's sitting on top of a gold resource, has a river and a coast, even a few desert tiles for faith. It's a pretty killer city spot... but it's the full six tiles from Beijing and it's going to be a while until I can connect them. It's going to flourish pretty well on its own, though, and it secures Asia minor for me. I'm glad to get that in place and set me up for the future. It's a long-game strategy, but I'll take it.
A few dozen turns later, the Classical Era rolled around.
In the meantime, I dropped in a third city in a location that was a really difficult call to make. Ultimately, I'm going to want Arabia. The resources it can reach from its position are varied and appealing and it sets the foundation for expansion both upstream of the Nile (one city down there for some cotton and such a little later wouldn't be a bad idea) and across the Persian Gulf. If I want to really claim the tri-continental crossroads, branching out like that could be a smart move and it would lock Beijing up in a very secure, almost-impossible-to-access position.
My priorities for Beijin moving forward are to secure the land passage to Shanghai and to snatch up that wheat to increase resource diversity. I've brought my archer back home sitting in the capital keeping an eye on things and I've got a settler brewing to keep pushing the expansion.
Shanghai's doing really well. All that production means it's my ideal location to try and grab a world wonder. But if I want to really get it growing, I need to get some food from Beijing. I've got to grab those few southern tiles.
My Red Sea city is all about the resources available to it. Getting those and slow, steady growth is all it needs for now. I don't see myself expanding south or east for a little while.
The red dots are the edge of Shanghai's possible ownership. Pink dots are possible ideas for city locations. Dropping one between the Black and Caspian seas would be the beginnings of a really serious Eurasian wall and the resources up there are quite different from what I've got down in Africa. Alternatively, I could start wrapping over into the middle east.
It may, however, be time to get some definite power in Europe. Greece is a prime spot for that and I could actually reach that city's borders into Italy (also marked with pink dots), effectively locking down the Mediterranean for myself. Spain remains unconquered by Poland. Do I want to push all the way west?
And that's when an unexpected visitor showed up.
.....shit.
