//I've noticed graphics were a bit fuzzy and turns out I was playing at zoom. Standard zoom was applied so the world map things might look a bit smaller compared to Update 0, oops!
Update 1: Exploration, Expansion, Encounters!By year 3800BC we finish researching Horseback Riding, just as Beijing conveniently finished that Catamaran. Now we will scout both land and the coastline.
You might notice Horse Equipment; it's a custom tech I added. Normally, to research Chivalry, you ned Feudalism and Horseback Riding. In my mod, you need Horse Equipment and Feudalism. We will get to Horse Equipment details later, once we research it.
Writing + Code of Laws (which we started with) => Literacy.
Ceremonial Burial => Mysticism.
Mysticism + Literacy => Philosophy.
Our Catamaran was sent southwards along the coast for the next few turns, discovering a village. Now it is 3640BC and our Horseman unit is on his way to the village!
PSYCH!!
Well. Cash is always neat, but early game you don't have a lot of it so this is a relatively significant boost. Later on however 50 gold might not be as useful as, say, free tech or a developed town.
Few turns later, while our Catamaran manages to not sink after some dumb moves, our horseman stumbled upon 2nd village. This one had mercenary unit of Elephant. This thing has 4 attack and basically can stomp any unit and easily conquer cities till your enemies get a good defensive unit (pikeman, for example) behind some City Walls or on a hill. Elephants also cost quite a bunch so a free one is truly a good fortune.
However for now we will use him for scouting alongside our Horseman.
Our brave horseman stumbled upon advanced tribe; this earns us a city, Shanghai. Unfortunately, it's just 1 population without anything inside, but hey, free city!
Bunch of uneventful turns pass.
Then our brave horseman stumbles upon a village containing scrolls with secrets of Bronze Working. Phalanx are best Ancient-time units for defense; putting them behind City Walls renders the city very resistant to anything weaker than Catapults. Elephants might have a chance, though.
And while our brave horseman finds all the goodies, the Elephant stumbles in some jungles and the Catamaran sails around buncha islands in South East Asia. You would think they would try to be like Horseman but no.
Our horseman was a bit down on the luck, as the (yet another) village he stumbled on was empty. This happens
very infrequently, but does happen.
The Catamaran finds a village on an island. Fortunately, the Elephant we found earlier is nearby so they gonna team up for some spelunking!
In the meanwhile, the brave Horseman finds another Elephant unit in a village north of Beijing. Unfortunately, 2 Elephants, the horseman and the Catamaran consume 3 shields, so we gonna send that new Elephant to the city for disbanding; this will relieve some upkeep and speed up construction of Pyramids a little bit.
PS: Next turn Catamaran+Elephant team discover 50 gold in that island village.Okay Horseman, I know you like to make buddies with everyone but please stop! That's yet another unit straining Beijing's supplies, and the Pyramids are now trickling 1 Shield per turn. Jesus Christ will be born faster than we finish them at this rate. Archers gotta be disbanded too.
Or actually, I will have Beijing stop using one of grassland tiles (2 food, 1 shield) and get supplies from that one Forest adjacent to it (1 food, 2 shields). This way I can keep the Archers as Beijing's garrison. 3 atk, 2 def is nothing to sneeze at this early in the game.
Shanghai's horseman found some Settlers! We will use them to build a road between our two cities and irrigate some tiles for extra food production.
DUN DUN DUNNNN!Who are they? Are they gonna murder us or are they friendly? We have no soldiers in Shanghai whatsoever, so this might be a tough situation...
...perfect moment for a commercial break! Cya in next update!