Long Live the Queen — Establishing an Empire (Turns 1-10)
The Civilisation VI blogger succession game is here! And we have a whopping 8 players at this stage. For the sake of those reading along, I’m going to (more or less) jump right into the action. But if you’re a player, I have a section for you right at the end! :)
Speaking of players, if you’re curious who they are and what the line up looks like, here they are!1
Right, on with the show!
Establishing an Empire
Turn 1
Things could certainly be worse, so far as starting locations go. But it immediately throws up a question: Should I stay or should I go (to the next tile over)?
If I move the settler, I can’t found a city this turn. That means the loss of a turn of production, scientific research and cultural research. And so, it isn’t a decision to be taken lightly. However, settling on the spot will destroy the forest here and reduce the productivity.
It’s very unlikely to change my mind, as deferring settling any more than a single turn is far from ideal — but nonetheless I still move my warrior first to extend the view of what’s around me.
Moving the warrior reveals a river, and desert dunes to the north. I decide to move the settler as the area isn’t exactly rolling in high productivity tiles — I’ll found next turn and preserve the forest.
Turn 2
Settling on the coast has boosted our understanding of sailing — something I’m sure will be useful for later research.
But for now — I’ve tasked the city with researching pottery. It will grant access to the granary for additional food and housing to speed our early growth. Not to mention it lets us grow into the art of writing, to boost future scientific endeavours.
I’ve also tasked London with the training of a scout; but until such time as the scout is ready the warrior will continue to explore (nearby) lands.
Turn 3
A barbarian scout enters view at the start of the turn. It’s a little closer than I would like, but I don’t think it would have spotted London from there. If it has spotted us, we can expect an influx of barbarians over time until we deal with their encampment(s).
I know my warrior has almost no chance of catching the scout, but in order to chase them off I ford the river (shown above) and make threatening gestures in the scout’s general direction.
Turn 4
Yep. That scout ain’t having none of that, and is out of there pronto.
I might have pursued for another turn to see if it did something foolish, but as my warrior crested the sand dunes they saw a barbarian encampment just over the way.
It looks like a close match, even though the Barbarians wield spears to my clubs and are fortified. But given the Warrior is currently the only military unit we possess I would prefer ‘overwhelming superiority’ rather than just ‘close’.
So I tell my warriors to fortify their position and keep watch. I do feel a little exposed to my east and west; if that scout vanishing into the north decides to swing around and explore down that way — they could easily spot us with very little warning.
Still; here is a clear and present danger, and so we wait.
Turns 5 – 7
Turns 5 to 7 pass uneventfully. The barbarians must surely know my warriors are there but they also know that their fortifications are to their benefit. Better to make me come and get them, if I’m going to.
No sign of the scout over this time either, hopefully it is exploring further afield and finding other targets to go after.
Turn 8
London completes training of the scout, and I start him on the journey to aid the warrior. Or at least, to explore the surrounding area. Possibly expand the sight lines in at least one of my exposed directions.
Given the proximity of the barbarians, I decide the next thing for London to work on is the training of a slinger.
I considered spending gold to speed up the training of the slinger — but this wasn’t going to be happening any time soon. This would have been quite an expensive exercise, certainly more than our coffers could stand at this stage.
Turn 9 — Nothing of Note
Turn 10
London grows a population and a tile naturally, and I also see a tile worth purchasing to speed up our growth — it’s a tile with three food and one production. For an unimproved tile? Pretty happy with that.
The scout has made it perhaps halfway out — the terrain around London is certainly not the flattest. But given the barbarians and my warrior are — so far — content to merely glare at each other, I’m not so worried about my scout taking a scenic route to get there. Really, I think the slinger is going to be better suited for this battle anyway. Still — it is in the back of the mind that if I let the barbarian encampment grow too comfortable that they may train and send additional units out.
Next turn, our research on pottery will complete. Code of Laws — our first civic — is still a little further out, but the progress is pleasing! It should land during Rakuno’s reign.
For the Players
- Please remember to (if you haven’t already) turn all DLC off before loading and playing the game!
Details on how to do that can be found in this post. - What turns exactly to play?
I did 1-10 inclusive, I played out turn 10 but didn’t hit end turn when I was done. Rakuno upon loading the game will hit end turn to enter turn 11 and begin his reign, playing through from there to turn 20 until the point where he would have hit end turn.
Paeroka would then play turns 21 to 30, and so on. - Where are we keeping the save games?
Tessa had the fantastic idea of keeping in a singular repository for potential future use. That repository is here. You can save your games to this folder and provide the link to the player after you.
Rakuno: Direct link to the save game for you though is here. :)
I’ve put both the Turn 1 and Turn 10 game saves in there for now! - Wait, where are the save games on my computer? And where do I put the save game so that I can load it?
Civilisation VI saves to your ‘Documents’ folder, specifically from there it goes to:
My Games -> Sid Meier’s Civilization VI > Saves > Single
You can drop the .Civ6Save file straight into this folder and you should be able to load that when you launch the game. - Oops. I played an extra turn… or three… What should I do?
Civilisation VI by default will auto save every time you hit end turn. (You might want to check your game settings for this before starting, even).
So if you can, load an autosave from during your turns and finish up to where you should end (which will be the end of an ‘x0’ turn, as noted above. :)
Any questions or issues with any of this, let me know!
I can’t wait to see how the game unfolds for us. :D
This was a post for Blapril 2020, the annual blogging event (albeit usually as Blaugust), brought forward to help bring a sense of community during the challenging time of COVID-19. Blaugust is an event aiming to welcome new blogger blood into the fold and revitalise those who’ve been at it a little longer.
The Blaugust Discord is still available to join in, year round!
