As the vanilla Deity players we are all used to one thing - the AIs are so damn rich, and they soon make us so damn rich. Since money buys everything except wonders, we rarely have to worry about production. That's not the case anymore! Most of my armies and probably every building will be made in Persian sweat shops (not to imply there are any in Iran, of course).
p.s. All of my screenshots are 960 x 600 (already shrunk from its original site). When they are posted on the blog, they become 640 x 480 due to the blog format. You can click on the pictures to see the larger (960 x 600) version.
001. So where should I settle the capital? If this is Vanilla Diety, I'd say go two tiles north for the riverside plain. River = Garden = faster Great People later. For Level 9, I say screw that river and I want to swim in hammers. Deers = 3/2 (Granary, camp). Cow = 3/1 (Pasture). Not bad!
002. I decided to found the Persian capital Persepolis (Perse-polis, Persia-city) on the Gem Hill. This way I don't waste any precious citizen on harvesting the Gem - I get a lot richer in early game while not sacrificing population growth at the same time. A tiny early-game advantage is equal to a medium mid-game advantage, and a huge late-game advantage, if it ever matters.
My initial Warrior got transformed into an Immortal from the very first Ruin. Normally I scream when they become spearman, which is utterly useless. Now I am actually quite happy because Immortals have a potential to become one of the best promoted melees with March promotion, only second to those motivated by a Mongolian Khan.
003. Early-game bonus is great. Even 1 extra food boosts population growth by 50% (since the surplus goes from 2 to 3). Early extra population = a few turns saved for early techs. A few turns could mean life or death all the way! So the first tile purchase goes to Cows.
004. Very soon the Immortal visited an Ancient Ruin that gives +30 Culture. What policies are good here? Liberty is still the best for rapid growth.
005. The Immortal explores east and I can see a good spot to open the first branch city of the Persian Empire. Citizens will be able to work on the deer camp, the Riverside wheat on Plain, the Cottons... nice.
I started Persepolis' production queue with 2 Scouts in a row to maximize my Ancient Ruin bonuses and to meet with potential buyers of Cottons. One Scout goes northwest, the other southwest. Both directions contain river tiles and probably the richer civilizations to sell my resources to. (Persia is in southern Mesopotamia.) The initial Immortal explores east.
006. There is yet another group of Cows to the west! Nice stuff! The second tile purchase also goes to the Cow.
Here goes my only chance to declare war on City States without penalty. I kinda regretted this worker steal later on, as I soon found that a City State close to me has multiple Sugar, which could be sold for great profits. Of course, if I later come back to finish off Hanoi, I can have its Ivory and Incense. That's indeed another possibility to seriously think about later.
008. Met the first neighbor, Harun al-Rashid of Arabia. Harun is located north of Persia with a good number of River tiles. So he should be able to afford high-quality Persian Cotton.
009. Met another neighbor, Queen Isabella of Spain. Spain is located east of Persia. While at first Isabella doesn't want to pay for Persian's Open Border, her attitude will improve later on.
Isabella is spawned in a very problematic location for both Spain and Persia. Problem for Spain - this location has no river and is therefore one of the many poor places on the map. Her land turns out to be quite resources-poor, so that's even more unfortunate. Problem for Persia - this location has no other place to expand into but INTO Persia!
Originally, I was thinking about getting rid of Spain first to secure my back. But then I looked at her income state... Those cities are probably not worth taking. I will have to burn most of them down, and then waste army to guard distant cities from endless barbarians from the southern desert. I should direct my precious first rush on somebody who can actually contribute to the Persian empire's financial state.
But then Spain will be a pain in the ass.
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