Pong 2-2: Full Report (Joe)

For our second game, I drew Gorgo! Another leader I haven't played much, but I feel pretty confident in my ability to use her well.

At first I was really excited to see that I had so many luxuries within range of my capital, as last game the lack of variation was pretty rough.

There's not a whole lot of food around, though I can probably make up for it with production.

Having the extra wildcard policy slot is a pretty great Civ ability! I'm happy to not have to decide between the two economic policy cards, and essentially am guaranteed a pantheon with no effort.

11 turns in, and things are not looking up.

The mountain range to the north of Sparta is pretty oppressive, and the rough terrain makes it slow going.

The hills of Sparta give way to... Desert and desert hills. Still very little food out there.

I'm working on getting a Barbarian hunting force up.

The next turn I find some grassland and rice! And Scythia.

The land northwest of Sparta looks alright, if I can clear the barbarians!

Turn 24, and I complete a Settler. Sparta barely grows, as can be expected.

Looking at the locations to settle makes me sad. That mountain range and Scythia's close proximity force my hand and I send it east.

I forgot to take screenshots after this point, and things continued to go downhill. Scythia beat me to a city placement near the mouth of the mountains, causing my Settler to wander around the desert hills for decades.

Sparta stayed stunted for another 30 or so turns, even after I made use of the fish and sheep, and I fell woefully behind in pretty much every category.

I had pondered playing it out, fighting Scythia and making a mid-game culture play, but in the end I believed myself far enough behind to warrant a mulligan.