Gothmog vs. Skyfish ***Spoiler***
 

OK, my second PBEM. I am playing against Skyfish and we decided to keep it real by having me play as America and he as France. I know, I know, I don’t get a UU – but I figured the little Chieftain could use all the help he can get! ;) Plus he has to have pink units. Here’s my start:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...61148_GvS1.jpg
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Not bad, I’ll be able to make 5fpt as soon as I can get that FP irrigated. I haven’t played as an expansionist civ in a while so I set out to build 4 scouts, then a Granary. I’m going to do zero research and save my cash for trades. I find four huts pretty early and get: nothing, conscript, nothing, conscript. Eh, not so good but at least I got some free MP’s.

Pretty soon I spot an Iroquois scout to my NW. I don’t do any trades with him right off, hoping I’ll meet someone else and do a bit of middleman trading, maybe even lower the price of certain techs. This pays off as a few turns later I meet the Germans to my south. Here are the trades I make, first with the Iroquois:

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...61224_GvS2.jpg
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Then with the Germans.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...61252_GvS3.jpg
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I’m still up Masonry on the Germans so I check them every round. The very next turn I get lucky and Biz has a worker for sale. I take this trade even though I’m not getting full value (from the AI perspective at least) out of Masonry. Extra workers are great, and I’m learning not to think about exploits any more.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...61322_GvS4.jpg
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I pop another hut over by the Iroquois and get nothing. My second conscript is heading home, being replaced on Northern scouting duties by my fourth scout. On his way he pop’s a hut and I get that expansionist dream – advanced tribe! Of course I would have preferred a settler, and the location isn’t ideal, but this is great! Cheap granaries are good, but as an expansionist you need to get some bonus from early huts or you’ve been shortchanged.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...61348_GvS5.jpg
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That's all for now, we're only on turn 14 atm.

LOL, I started a game agaist Sky yesterday. He Persia, me Iroquois. 2nd turn I pop a settler from a hut, seems playing against sky gets you free cities [lol]

So RCP at distance 5 then Gothmog? ;)

I pitty the poor chieftain.

Heh, I don't have much good land around my capital (big pile of jungle between me and the Germans to my South) so I may do a ring at even closer range, 3.5 or 4. I haven't mapped it out yet (don't even have a granary yet). Exploit my ass.

No thanks, attractive though it may be. [:o]

Ah, the pun. By far the most advanced form of humor.

Hehehe, I got a free settler from a hut! I sent him up to a 3.5 distance spot on the river east of the grapes.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...52930_GvS1.jpg
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Meanwhile the Iroquois researched Warrior Code so I wasn’t able to profit from that sale.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...52953_GvS2.jpg
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I bought another worker from the Germans.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...53022_GvS3.jpg
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And another from the Iroquois, they actually had two for sale but I could only afford one. Wish I had Warrior Coded them.

http://www.civ3duelzone.com/forum/up...53117_GvS4.jpg
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I produced a settler and built one to the West of Washington. I put it at distance 4 because the location on the river on the coast was too good to pass up. I just learned about the ‘round down to nearest integer’ rule in RCP. My territory really doesn’t lend its self to RCP so I’m not worrying about it. I put another city to the East of Washington at distance 4, so I guess my distance 3.5 and 4 cities are in the same ring - that's cool.

I had forgotten that we are playing on continents, that does mute my bonus from being expansionist somewhat. I probably only needed two or three scouts.

So The Iroquois and Germans are my neighbors, and Sky has the Greeks and Chinese. I’ve explored the whole continent and am not too impressed with the territory, I am sending a couple scouts home to be disbanded. I'll try to get MM asap, but am not sure how to proceed.

The Iroquois and Germans both have Iron Working, the Germans have mysticism and the Iroquois have The Wheel, but I can’t afford either due to my worker purchases. I’ll get the rest of my cash back in a few turns. I am somewhat unsure how to play the research game in this situation, currently I have a min run going on Alphabet – but I am guessing somebody will research it before me. Tech’s are pretty expensive @ miser for brokering purposes. I guess I need to tag along, get horseback riding and do some pointy stick research on Germany. I don’t really want to deal with Mounted Warriors.

Opinions?

- So it is 3-3-2(?) on the continents?
- With 2 bonus cities and 2 extra workers you can go for a war-economy quite fast
- So do the Germans first and then the Iroquios with Knights, I agree

Without a map of your continent it is difficult to give a considered opinion, but going for MM seems the right thing to do, and taking out neighbours early has obvious benifits...

Yeah, I thought I had a screen shot from last night's turn, but I guess it didn't get saved. I'll bring in a better picture next week.

It's a small map with max land, there are six civs as you can see in some of the above screen shots. I'm just assuming that all the remaining civs are on the same continent. I guess there may be three though.

I actually have three slaves, I got one from Germany for Masonry earlier in the game.

The question is how to get MM asap.

I have to buy at miser to be able to broker - that is not cheap. Is it better for me to buy @ miser and broker (when possible) while doing min research, buy @ 3rd while doing min research, research a tech one of my opponents has @max and hope to sell to the other, research a tech both of my opponents have @ max, or try to research a tech neither has @max?

Currently I am hoping that the brokerage will still be on the table when I get my gpt back from Germany, and doing 40 turn research on alphabet (about 10 turns in now). I am worried that I'll buy The wheel from the Iroquois @ miser and that my owning it will devalue it so much that I wont be able to afford myst from Germany. I could just wait and buy the Wheel @3rd and forget about myst.

I have about the same # of cities as my opponents and should overtake them pretty soon.