Spoiler **** Cut More Crap Pitboss **** Spoiler

[Shabbaman]

That's one big cluster of elephants there in the east.

[akots]

Also, I've finished scouting the hub we are given by our mapmaker. It is strange but we have only two land-connected neighbors, Grahamiam and Azzaman. There is no land bridge to the south or west. So, we would have to get to war with either one of them and make alliance with another. The hub we are given is pretty large but not enough to win the game peacefully. There is room for about 20 cities and IMO, we would need 30 to 40 cities, the more the better. While war seems to be inevitable, we have to be sure that the conquered hub can be maintained and defended. So, I would say that any war prior to turn 120-150 of the game would be very unhealthy for us.

[akots]

Here is complete map of our hub and attempt at dot map which I don't really like. It will create a few powerful cities but there is not much food in others up until biology. Overall, the location is quite rich in hammers and a bit low on food for early growth. There is room for at least 12 and at most 15(16) cities on the hub.



Capital will be very good production center but very poor commerce center and there is no great people factory. Some option to farm for GP points will be in northern coastal cities but later through the game. For now, it seems that happiness shortage will delay growth and I'm undecided about cottages. Normally, in a Pitboss game on a huge map, there is no sense in building cottages. Irrigation can reach almost every corner here and of course, elephant plains will be quite useless until Biology.

I'm also undecided about wonders and religions. Again, normally, both of these can be neglected to provide for faster development but here, with marble, there is a chance for Great Library which seems to be very powerful early in the game.

Another priority will be gaining contacts to decrease cost for known techs. There is an open way through Grahamiam's and Azzaman's lands to get hopefully two more contacts but if there are more contacts to be found, remains to be determined. I strongly suspect that barbu cut the map in 4 continents each with 4 hubs connected to each other by severing some land bridges. That would offer an option to conquer the whole continent at a certain stage and it should be enough to be comfortable with space race. On the other hand, neither Grahamiam nor Azzaman are easy conquest and the fourth neighbor remains a mystery. If that is the case, contact would have to wait until Optics or substantial border expansions and probably can be acquired closer to the end of the game.

So, for now, there are too many unknowns here. A settler will be rushed next turn and I expect 3 more settlers ready within the next 20 turns with granaries in both capital and second city. Any suggestions city names are welcome. I'm not very creative with that stuff and would probably name the capital Orenburg.

[akots]

It is 1400BC. I've made peace agreements with Grahamiam and Azza to turn 70 and 100, respectively. This turn was a first major setback. I was rushing to Code of Laws mostly to get a religion and courthouses would be nice as well. However, somebody discovered it this turn and got Confu. Well, cannot blame anybody but my dear self since I spent 1.5 turns to research fishing to get clams connected for a coastal city for more food. The backup plan is to research Meditation (takes 4 turns) and then, after 3 turns (7 turns from now), I would have a Great Scientist in Orenburg who can be used to get Philosophy. This should give me Taoism in 8 turns unless somebody will beat me to that as well. This gamble is a bit more severe since I would waste 4 turns of research completely because without religion, Meditation is completely useless. Well, with 16 players on a map, it would be very hard to get wonders or religions. I could not get any wonders with 10-11 players in previous games. However, wasted wonders give at least some cash while religious techs are somewhat useless in the early game.

I think I'd try to extend peace with Grahamiam and it looks like the only other neighbor is Killer and that's it for our continent. Distances towards Grahamiam and Azza are huge and war would be very inconvenient.

[akots]

I've got a Great Scientist on turn 71 but cannot take Philosophy until I get Math. Also, I completely forgot that in BTS Alphabet has also preference to Philosophy. Math is 7 turns away and Alpha is about same. I'm not sure what to do since to get these techs, I would have to postpone research on Monarchy which was 7 turns away. And somebody already founded Christianity. That is quite bizzare indeed.

Courthouses are mostly finished everywhere and three more settler are being built to expand the empire. I guess Monarchy is not that important for the time being since Alphabet can be used to produce beakers when science rate will drop due to maintenance. Also, cheap libraries enable to hire some scientists early on. This additionally makes worker deficit less malignant. Anyhow, capped with size 5 in all cities, there are very few worthy improvements to be built.

I have not extended peace with Grahamiam yet. He is not in a position to attack and with Azza, peace is secure until turn 100.

[akots]

Surprisingly, the Philosophy slingshot worked and Ethiopian Empire got Taoism founded on turn 86. Now, the path lies to Monarchy (both Grahamiam and Azza are already in Hereditary rule) and then I am still hesitating between Feudalism and Construction with priority given to Currency.

I'm still undecided on wars. It might be possible to wage a rapid war (40 turns or so, quite OK for this size of map) against Grahamiam who is somewhat weaker. But this would need a secure peace with Azza which would only be possible if he will wage a war against Killer. I'm not sure if he is able or willing to do just that. He migh as well barricade himself on his piece of land and wait until Cataphracts which is not that far away.

I would prefer maintainig long peace with Azza because he has a spare luxury to trade. I'm even willing to trade him ivory. Will offer some deals within the next few days otherwise, may be Killer or Grahamiam will take upper hand in negotiations. I should be able to beat Azza later in the game.

Cheap Libraries and Courthouses really help with research rate and maintenance, so I'm almost finished settling the starting area. There is room for 4 or 5 more cities but only one (may be two) is really worth it before Biology because others will be useless without irrigation. There are also some gaps between already settled cities (see dot map above) which can be settled later in the Modern era if I survive that long.

Demographics is OK, I'm 4th in GNP and manufacturing and only bad thing is small cities (capped at size 5 before Monarchy) so population is low. But this will be corrected with Taoism spreading and with Monarchy and hopefully Azza can be persuaded to trade in a luxury.

[Shabbaman]

Grahamiam is offline atm, seems like a sitting duck. By the way, I took a brief leave of absence from this spoiler since I substituted for Killer, but I figured that that was long enough ago to start giving you my priceless advice again

[akots]

Actually, I sent a message to Azza offering peace extension 2 turns ago (on turn 95) so that he can go kill Killer and I can go kill Grahamiam in the near future. The war is estimated to take about 30 turns (plus 20 turns recovery) and I offered Azza to trade him ivory in exchange for silk. He has not replied yet but he has not visited cdz either so I sent a message in game as well. I'm afraid that if he does not reply, I would be forced to wage a war against him and with grahamiam being mostly idle, my hand would be free from his interference. However, Azza seems to be quite in a nice position with rather developed empire of his. This war would take longer, may be up to 50 turns and would be a huge setback now. I have some scientific lead over him but not much. It will be also necessary to build a lot of war elephants and catapults. I estimate roughly something about 60 units of these total within 30 turns. Grahamiam will not require this much, probably half of that will be enough.

[Shabbaman]

Communication seems to be a problem in this game. I heard similar complaints from other players.

[akots]

It is OK, Azza just replied. He will take the 75- turn peace deal. Thus, we are at peace up until turn 175/180 with 5 turn warning. I'm free to reunite grahamiam's empire with her rightful owner which is Great Orenburgia as you might have guessed based on city names already, just need to build some troops. Research will go to construction with immediate start to build cats, then followed by horse back riding for Elephants and then Iron Working for some swordsmen. Meanwhile, will build occasional axemen for reinforcement but mostly all of the cities are building either cash or research. Only newly founded towns are working on granaries, courthouses, and libraries as needed. Even if Grahamiam puts a lot of effort into spearmen and even if he gets a few longbowmen by the time the forces arrive, this would not help. ETA is in 20 turns, plus 10 turns to march there, plus about 30 turns to do the job and 20 turns to recover. This puts me right at the end of the peace deal with Azza. By then, there might be already some cannons and grenadiers moving around so his cataphracts will be useless. I can then decide to make a firm alliance to help either one of us to win the game or to go for total ownership of the whole continent.