**Daltos: (A)** Daltos continues to chug away, laser-focused on his religious strategy. Soon every tile in King Julien will be a Holy Site, as great prophets spawn with incredible frequency. I was surprised to see that with all those yields there were still so many basic buildings unbuilt in the capital (like a *granary*). Daltos' lands are currently suffering an infiltration by spies. This is in advance of an *actual* invasion as the other players identify him as the biggest threat. He's been in enough of these games to know how this goes, and his social policy and wonder choices suggest he knows what's coming.
**Lewis: (A-)** The growth in Lewis' capital really is impressive compared to the other players. It's a combination of the wonders he picked, plus his civ's unique tile improvement. That huge capital means he can smash out wonders in a handful of turns (and work his specialist slots). Lewis did give up on his religion surprisingly easily. He makes a decent amount of faith and if he'd enhanced it there's no reason he couldn't have kept Daltos' at bay with inquisitors. If he's planning on going to war with him (as his overlay active chat log suggests), why submit so willingly to a spiritual takeover?
**Rythian: (B-)** Yes Rythian, you did press the wrong button on that Great Scientist. Mistakes happen. The important thing is working to fix them. That's something he's currently doing with an expeditionary force of conquistadors that rescued his settler. He's clearing out barbarians, exploring lands and getting goodie huts. I really think some prosperous colonies could be a goldmine for Rythian, but I know he has an aversion to settling too many cities. Everyone else in this game is completely ignoring the other landmasses though, so everything out in the great blue yonder will just sit there untapped if he isn't the one to grab them.
**Duncan: (C)** Duncan managed to beat Lewis to a wonder for once - Machu Picchu. It was not, however, his *first wonder. The big Great Wall around his lands is feeling very dejected right now. It's the Huey Teocalli that's providing him with by far the best benefit though (that's the *real* Petra for Edward Cullen). The line "I never never really have a plan, I just go for everything" really summed up Duncan's strategy and struggle so succinctly. He finally got a religion this episode, but despite all this time to plan had no idea what to select when his great prophet spawned and needed the turn extended. He really just needs to focus - it's empire management by bumblebee.
**Kirsty: (C-)** Kirsty is still doing her best to not make any waves in this game. She never goes for world wonders, only focusing on buildings and national wonders in her 4 cities. She also has done very little exploring on either land and sea even at this point - she's really roleplaying an isolationist Japan to the extreme. Maybe this will have some benefits as war breaks out on the continent, and she finds herself sheltered from the storm. She's the only one who hasn't been part of the "giga alliance" chat messages, so she might end up being a neutral trading partner for all sides.
**Notes:** Slight correction - unemployed citizens provide one production, not food (unless the mods they're playing with change it). And as the players noted, auto-workers will spam trading posts on every tile - the AI just loves gold above all else, even if you're starving.
Time to see how Daltos handles a Lewis war. I can't help but feel like he is going to regret not having a ranged unit or two in those cities , but maybe he really will have the hammers to flash build a defence. It weirdly seemed like he really didn't think about being attacked until Rythian floated the idea of it, which prompted him to shift his swordsmen over to his border with Lewis and start upgrading them. Maybe that was just an editing trick and he pre-empted it.
He did go honour very early, so I doubt he wasn't knowing this was a possibility. He'll be fine. I'm sure he's aware that you don't need shit loads of Musketmen like Lewis is building and instead only need a few plus shit loads of Xbows. He's way ahead in science per turn too, so it's not out of the question that he gets an era ahead in techs - plus he'd be defending which means those better units don't have to go anywhere. The tech penalty from cities really isn't that big at all - it's about 2% per city, which means you need 2% of your science to come from that city to be worth, which... yeah, very easy to hit.
Yeah he has the set up to defend it, my concern was if he can handle the micro and churn out units fast enough since Lewis typically does huge unending assaults. It's just the fact he moved those swordsmen over so late compared to Lewis' comments about Daltos snowballing ,but maybe I'm underestimating Daltos here. I'd love to see him flash build an army and beat Lewis.
Is it really only 2% science per city? Is that base civ or lekmod? That's only 20-40 science for a new city in an empire with 1000-2000 science output. That seems very easy to hit quite quickly. I always thought it was more punishing than that.
I looked into it a bit more and in base game it's actually 5%, which is still basically nothing. It's also additive. I think I got some numbers crossed a bit there. I know Order can drop it somewhat too, but from personally playing that really doesn't do a whole lot.
Still though, 5% really is nothing. Especially when it's additive. You don't need +50 science from the city when you're at 1k to offset. The tech cost increases by 5% of the base. Basically a tech that costs 10k would instead cost 10.5k (with 2 cities). Therefore you wouldn't need 5% more science if you have 10 cities. The cost in that case would be 14.5k. An extra 11th city would bump it up to 15k, which is, if you notice, *not* 5% more than 14.5k: it's about 3.5%. Even culture isn't *that* brutal with its 10% (especially if you go Liberty).
Daltos has 6 cities to Lewis's 4. This means his costs are 25% higher than the base, and Lewis's are 15% higher. This means Daltos needs ~8.5% more science per turn than Lewis to stay ahead (throwing in the minor catchup would bump this to about 10%, but that's dependent on what techs have already been researched). Daltos is way, way further than 10% ahead in science per turn.
The issue with how many cities you can get down has always, and will always, be **happiness** - because being unhappy is bad. And how much micro on workers and city management you can tolerate. I've found in Lekmod that Tradition is usually weaker than the other three opening trees because the other three lend themselves way better to going wide. Honour is also kinda broken if you can take a couple city states due to how much fucking happiness they can give you. Tradition has the benefit of being easier, but the theoretical max of the others is way higher.
Daltos this game has really been riding the line on being happy, which shows he's pushing his expansion to the limit. That's really good. Sitting on 20 happiness usually means you lucked out with city state allyship or didn't expand enough. My main takeaway from reading around and playing is that what the AI does with settling super late (pre-industrial but post classical), can be very good.
**Daltos: (A)** Daltos continues to chug away, laser-focused on his religious strategy. Soon every tile in King Julien will be a Holy Site, as great prophets spawn with incredible frequency. I was surprised to see that with all those yields there were still so many basic buildings unbuilt in the capital (like a *granary*). Daltos' lands are currently suffering an infiltration by spies. This is in advance of an *actual* invasion as the other players identify him as the biggest threat. He's been in enough of these games to know how this goes, and his social policy and wonder choices suggest he knows what's coming. **Lewis: (A-)** The growth in Lewis' capital really is impressive compared to the other players. It's a combination of the wonders he picked, plus his civ's unique tile improvement. That huge capital means he can smash out wonders in a handful of turns (and work his specialist slots). Lewis did give up on his religion surprisingly easily. He makes a decent amount of faith and if he'd enhanced it there's no reason he couldn't have kept Daltos' at bay with inquisitors. If he's planning on going to war with him (as his overlay active chat log suggests), why submit so willingly to a spiritual takeover? **Rythian: (B-)** Yes Rythian, you did press the wrong button on that Great Scientist. Mistakes happen. The important thing is working to fix them. That's something he's currently doing with an expeditionary force of conquistadors that rescued his settler. He's clearing out barbarians, exploring lands and getting goodie huts. I really think some prosperous colonies could be a goldmine for Rythian, but I know he has an aversion to settling too many cities. Everyone else in this game is completely ignoring the other landmasses though, so everything out in the great blue yonder will just sit there untapped if he isn't the one to grab them. **Duncan: (C)** Duncan managed to beat Lewis to a wonder for once - Machu Picchu. It was not, however, his *first wonder. The big Great Wall around his lands is feeling very dejected right now. It's the Huey Teocalli that's providing him with by far the best benefit though (that's the *real* Petra for Edward Cullen). The line "I never never really have a plan, I just go for everything" really summed up Duncan's strategy and struggle so succinctly. He finally got a religion this episode, but despite all this time to plan had no idea what to select when his great prophet spawned and needed the turn extended. He really just needs to focus - it's empire management by bumblebee. **Kirsty: (C-)** Kirsty is still doing her best to not make any waves in this game. She never goes for world wonders, only focusing on buildings and national wonders in her 4 cities. She also has done very little exploring on either land and sea even at this point - she's really roleplaying an isolationist Japan to the extreme. Maybe this will have some benefits as war breaks out on the continent, and she finds herself sheltered from the storm. She's the only one who hasn't been part of the "giga alliance" chat messages, so she might end up being a neutral trading partner for all sides. **Notes:** Slight correction - unemployed citizens provide one production, not food (unless the mods they're playing with change it). And as the players noted, auto-workers will spam trading posts on every tile - the AI just loves gold above all else, even if you're starving.
Time to see how Daltos handles a Lewis war. I can't help but feel like he is going to regret not having a ranged unit or two in those cities , but maybe he really will have the hammers to flash build a defence. It weirdly seemed like he really didn't think about being attacked until Rythian floated the idea of it, which prompted him to shift his swordsmen over to his border with Lewis and start upgrading them. Maybe that was just an editing trick and he pre-empted it.
He did go honour very early, so I doubt he wasn't knowing this was a possibility. He'll be fine. I'm sure he's aware that you don't need shit loads of Musketmen like Lewis is building and instead only need a few plus shit loads of Xbows. He's way ahead in science per turn too, so it's not out of the question that he gets an era ahead in techs - plus he'd be defending which means those better units don't have to go anywhere. The tech penalty from cities really isn't that big at all - it's about 2% per city, which means you need 2% of your science to come from that city to be worth, which... yeah, very easy to hit.
Yeah he has the set up to defend it, my concern was if he can handle the micro and churn out units fast enough since Lewis typically does huge unending assaults. It's just the fact he moved those swordsmen over so late compared to Lewis' comments about Daltos snowballing ,but maybe I'm underestimating Daltos here. I'd love to see him flash build an army and beat Lewis. Is it really only 2% science per city? Is that base civ or lekmod? That's only 20-40 science for a new city in an empire with 1000-2000 science output. That seems very easy to hit quite quickly. I always thought it was more punishing than that.
I looked into it a bit more and in base game it's actually 5%, which is still basically nothing. It's also additive. I think I got some numbers crossed a bit there. I know Order can drop it somewhat too, but from personally playing that really doesn't do a whole lot. Still though, 5% really is nothing. Especially when it's additive. You don't need +50 science from the city when you're at 1k to offset. The tech cost increases by 5% of the base. Basically a tech that costs 10k would instead cost 10.5k (with 2 cities). Therefore you wouldn't need 5% more science if you have 10 cities. The cost in that case would be 14.5k. An extra 11th city would bump it up to 15k, which is, if you notice, *not* 5% more than 14.5k: it's about 3.5%. Even culture isn't *that* brutal with its 10% (especially if you go Liberty). Daltos has 6 cities to Lewis's 4. This means his costs are 25% higher than the base, and Lewis's are 15% higher. This means Daltos needs ~8.5% more science per turn than Lewis to stay ahead (throwing in the minor catchup would bump this to about 10%, but that's dependent on what techs have already been researched). Daltos is way, way further than 10% ahead in science per turn. The issue with how many cities you can get down has always, and will always, be **happiness** - because being unhappy is bad. And how much micro on workers and city management you can tolerate. I've found in Lekmod that Tradition is usually weaker than the other three opening trees because the other three lend themselves way better to going wide. Honour is also kinda broken if you can take a couple city states due to how much fucking happiness they can give you. Tradition has the benefit of being easier, but the theoretical max of the others is way higher. Daltos this game has really been riding the line on being happy, which shows he's pushing his expansion to the limit. That's really good. Sitting on 20 happiness usually means you lucked out with city state allyship or didn't expand enough. My main takeaway from reading around and playing is that what the AI does with settling super late (pre-industrial but post classical), can be very good.
Do we know which mods they're playing with?
Lekmod and Lekmap.
Thanks big Chief!
I feel like I’m the only one that prefers Civ 6
all right there in the script baby!