Day 1 ends in a great place, the world has been wracked by calamity and nobody feels safe or confident.
To set the scene, we are playing in the Central Map with 7 players (with another joining day 2). Hatti, Assyria, Egypt, Babylon, Nubia, Saba, and Persia are in the game. Parthia joins on day 2. We assign civs randomly, I get Persia - this is a nice and cozy pocket until day 2, although Persia has some weird early expansion contraints. My neighbours are Babylon and Saba for now, and Parthia on day 2. Babylon is a comfortable player to be next to, they will generally stick to agreements and are not aggressive. Saba is a bit of a wild card. I've been great friends with the player for a long time and they are a solid gamer, but have not been part of the play group for the last couple years due to them living abroad.
The early game progress without much of interest, except I decide to do something a little off beat.
On turn 5, you need 3 cities to continue progressing on AST - and it is optimal to build 3 or 4 that turn.
I decide to delay my AST a bit so that I can invest in a more secure set of cities, on Turn 5 I build only 2 cities.
This is so that I have the population to build wilderness cities along that awkward 1-pop line along my future Parthian border.
I think this is okay, usually you lose an AST at some point anyways and this way I have a couple cities that are harder to build in the future.
The end of T6 is fine, we get a Slave Revolt and a Superstition and the trading phase ends with me and Saba trading them, leaving me with the Slave Revolt and all but 1 Livestock.
All things considered, I am happy with my position.
I don't purchase any advances, a few players get something cheap. Hatti trades in a full set of Salt to purchase Public Works.
Although definitely a big lead, I don't mind this. Hatti's player is probably the newest at the table, and I convinced them out of purchasing Agriculture last turn to instead save up and get Public Works on this one - it's a win for me when newer players try out things that aren't Orange gang.
Turn 7 is when things start getting interesting.
Expansion is normal, theres a tiny bit of politicing and one or two minor areas of conflict - but nothing of real note happens.
However, after trading there are 4 calamities.
Assyria gets hit by an Earthquake, and also take down an adjacent Egypt city.
Egypt then immediately loses a city to Sabas Treachery.
Next up, Egypt gets hit by a flood. This is devastating to Egypt early on - they haven't even had the opportunity to purchase Engineering.
Finally, Assyria suffers a Barbarian Invasion, taking out 2 cities and an extra tile.
4 calamities, spread amongst only 2 players - a rough turn in the levant.
I don't feel too bad about this, I think Egypt and Assyria are my two strongest opponents - at this table and I think in the broader play group as well.
I don't have to worry about conflict cascading towards me if these two are dealing with their own problems internally.
However, Assyria is the only real neighbour to Hatti, and Egypt is the next closest - so this puts them, already the leader, in a very strong position.
Again, not much if note happens during the movement phase of T8. I think maybe there are some minor border skirmishes, but everyone stays friendly.
Trade begins - I ended last turn with all but 1 livestock, and I have 7 cities to draw cards with. This should be a very easy full set of Livestock by the end of the turn, I even have an okay chance of just drawing the final one. I draw a Civil War as my 5 instead, and my 6 is an Epidemic. This means I have very little to work with the get that final Livestock. I end up trading away my 3 and 4 to get it, which is not optimal, but I don't think I had much of a choice as I needed to make sure to rid myself of the Epidemic too. I manage to get a couple Wax and an extra 7 card while tracking that Epidemic (Civil War + Epidemic is just a bit too devastating of a turn) to scrounge up some extra points.
Calamities hit hard this turn: Treachery, Famine, Slave Revolt, Flood, Superstition, Civil War, and Epidemic. About as bad as it gets at this stage of the game.
They are spread around okay this time, I end up with the Superstition and, of course, the Civil War that I drew.
I lose my territory on the Arabian Peninsula to the Civil War, with Egypt as the beneficiary - this could be very annoying. As mentioned before, Egypt is a strong player, but they are also known for being very aggressive and willing to just fuck shit up, I don't look forwards to the task of clearing them out.
However, the Epidemic follows up. My neighbour Babylon is the primary victim, their secondary victims are Egypt and Hatti (I think).
Hatti is in the lead, and has been largely undamaged - an obvious choice.
Egypt is a curious decision, but makes some sense from the perspective of the Babylon player. Egypt just took barely over 10 units worth of my board, and Babylon holds a small grudge (or maybe is just afraid) because of previous games. I'm certainly not complaining, but Babylon should have targetted me to capitalize on my weakness from the Civil War, instead of effectively undoing it.
After all this, I am in a safe board position, however only have 2 cities in play. I already dropped a turn of AST, so I don't want to fall behind much more.
I have a full set of Livestock, which I was hoping to be super greedy with and buy Mathematics. Instead, I dump the rest of my hand (3 wax and 2 Incense) to get myself a Wonder of the World. It's not my favourite starting 6, but it provides pretty decent economy and let's me keep moving up the AST.
Turn 9 continues on as normal, a mostly passive game. I am beginning to worry about my border with Saba.
Saba has not been passive or meek this game, and I look over and note that they have Metalworking and Agriculture - somewhat worrying, I was hoping to remain peaceful for as long as possible.
My trading phase starts out weak, and I drew Epidemic again. I end it with a solid hand of 5 Wool and some chaff; not buying anything this turn, but certainly ready for a big purchase next turn once I get the rest of the wool.
Calamities:
Volcano, Treachery, Barbarian Hordes, Cyclone, Epidemic, Civil Disorder, Piracy.
I steal a city from Saba with Treachery, then kill of cities when I am the Secondary victim of Epidemic.
Ultimately, none of this matters, as I am hit by Civil Disorder in the end and reduce down to only 3 cities. It's super easy to rebuild the central core cities of Persia, so I make sure to keep my border wildnerness cities and don't care too much.
Saba gets hit by the Barbarian horde, which is nice - any distraction there is a bit of extra time for me.
More tragically, Egypt end up being the primary victim of Piracy, and loses two more cities. At least one of the Secondary cities is in Saba - even more distraction and time for me.
Saba purchases Military - which does not look so good for me.
Hatti trades in all but one of the 9 value cards and purchases Wonder of the World - putting them very far in the lead points wise.
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The day ends overall well.
Hatti is far ahead, but is also the least experienced player.
Egypt is in a bad place, but is a very strong player.
I think we are still in a position where Egypt could overtake Hatti, with a bit of good luck.
I'm happy with my current position. I have a strong eco Advance, and my board position is good.
Day 2 will shake thing up a bit, as I will suddenly have a new neighbour, with the largest front opening up.
I'm also worried about the plans of Saba, hopefully they decide to target the weaker (but less attractive) Nubia.
I enter the next day with a plan to finish a full set of Wool, but no idea how I intend to spend it - I'd love to be greedy and get some more eco, but that might just not happen.
My insights from Day 1 would be that I got stuck on contested sets in trading and was unable to get a big buy, me and [Egypt] kinda did that to each other. I am getting saved by the fact that [Egypt] has such a bad reputation from previous games that they are eating all the secondary calamity effects from my neighbors. Also I am gonna need to do something about [Hatti] at some point but I need more tech/econ to do so.
Day one was incredibly in my favour. Being next to only [Assyria] was incredibly useful as we have an effective non-aggression pact thus far meaning I need no major defence strategies. [Egypt]’s tragedy meant neither of us were majorly pressured making the game laid back. The trading phase was incredible with the 9 salt early on and then followed by the 8 9-value cards meant I could buy above my pay grade. Avoiding pirates in the final turn and giving it to [Egypt] for the last pearl was massively useful and the epidemic I received was minimal damage. Biggest takeaway of the day is that I avoided all non-tradeable calamity’s and aside from the epidemic was not hit in any meaningful way by any secondary effects