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Better to be lucky and good

Ah, it feels good to be back in the saddle again. My last SGs ended over a month ago, and I haven't played a game opening since Epic 36 in August. The opening plays of a Civ 3 game are still a thrill.

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Naturally the worker moved to the wheat, and the scout found more wheat. The starting tile looked good enough, and a four-turn settler farm will certainly help us climb out of this ditch.

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We start with Pottery. Still planning to head for Republic as fast as possible, I set research to the minimum on Alphabet, and just pray I somehow get some tech (Warrior Code or Bronze Working) to deal with the raging barbarians.

Then this happened:

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What was that about better to be lucky...? biggrin.gif 15x15

With a second city so soon, I can push far up the growth curve while still putting together some sort of barbarian defense. Salamanca immediately switched to a granary and built that before anything else. Niagara put out one scout in addition to the starting one - it doesn't appear we have a whole lot of land to explore - and then started on a barracks. Veteran warriors will make for cheap and reliable barbarian defense even if I don't get some military technology, and I should be able to get some out before the barbarians start arriving.

Of course, this whole plan was aided by plenty of micromanagement as usual.

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In this picture, the worker is about to finish his irrigation this turn, so 8 food for growth can be reached in 2 turns by Salamanca. The other wheat tile can be very helpfully shared between the two cities as needed. Without Niagara there, I would've mined the second wheat tile to hit the +5 surplus food threshold for the capital, but since Niagara can take the extra food whenever Salamanca doesn't need it, irrigation is the way to go.


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The next hut gives me maps. Some may remember the last time I got maps from a hut this early...

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... but the gods of fate are certainly with me this day. I also got maps from another hut. (Did Sirian put all those huts there?)


The granary completes in 3100 BC, about as early as I've ever done so.

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By this time I've explored the entire continent, and determined that we're alone. It's obvious that Sirian broke up the continent down there by the cattle; the map generator doesn't make water gaps like that. He probably added that grassland down south of the desert, too. You can see a border visible over the water down there, but I actually missed it while taking and saving the screenshot.

OK, not the entire continent; there was one hut I missed...

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Less useful than Niagara, sure, but still quite helpful.


After the granary, Salamanca built a worker, then a settler. No military would come from this city until the middle ages, thanks to Niagara Point Military Academy over there.

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