I`m thinking of moving the scout 2NW next turn in order to defog that area around the sheep. I really hope we don`t see any Incan units next turn, that`s for sure!
Scout plan sounds good. I'm obviously concerned about Krill too. And 5 tiles was assuming he planted this turn! Since he didn't, his city could in theory be up to 7 tiles away from his starting hill - or, if he keeps wandering, even more!
Teching mining-bronze before agriculture isn't completely crazy. If we aren't interrupted first, we can still (for example) get our first Settler out t30. The cost would be significantly delaying the rice farm, a size 2 capital instead of size 3 (whipped) and less food in the bin. (We'd still have 2 warriors for defense.) There'd be gains though: We'd be able to see copper before committing to our second city site, have a slightly better road network (although we wouldn't know which direction to road toward the copper city except by guesswork until late...) and have the ability to chop and/or whip as needed. I can post a detailed microplan for that version if you'd like, and obviously there are other possible alternatives. We don't have to make the call until turn 7 when Fishing comes in, but if we do have to go that route, it won't wreck our game.
(A Quechua rush would wreck our game if it comes early enough, but in that case, I think we could make sure it wrecks Krill's game too. And the probability is still high that he's nowhere near us at this point anyway.)
Thanks for all the screenshots! I'll try to work out a rough idea of what the map looks like based on what we know so far - and therefore how far Krill is likely to be from his possible victim right now.
So we have 1,514 total land tiles, plus an apparently large number of little lakes. If Mardoc followed Krill's instructions about ICTR islands, there are also several inland seas with 20+ water tiles apiece. Mardoc made it pretty clear in the tech thread that we're looking at a big toroid with everyone spread out, not a pangaea with toroidal water around it like Krill apparently wanted, so all the land and water tiles are relevant to distance between civs. We may not be laid out in a perfect grid, but the distances should hopefully be close enough for an approximation, and anyway if not, Krill has as good a chance of running toward a "distant" neighbor as a "close" one. (More so if the "close" neighbors are separated by inland seas.)
So let's talk numbers. A 42x42 map gives a total of 1,764 tiles: That would be 250 water tiles, meaning an average of 27-28 per player, including inland seas. Given what we've seen so far, this is about the smallest the map could possibly be. (It doesn't have to be a square of course, but 1,764 is right around the lower limit, and there's no reason not to make it square with this set-up.) It also gives each player exactly a 14x14 square on a perfect grid, which would mean...
Conclusion: I think players actually start at least 14 tiles apart. (I'd say 15 at a guess, and even more is possible, but I don't want to count on more than 14.) That means even if Krill beelined directly toward another player and didn't get slowed down by lakes/hills/forests/jungle/sea, if he founds next turn, his Qs will still have to march at least 7 tiles to hit someone's capital - or 8 if Krill founds his city on a hill. Plus he has to build the Quechuas, and unless his victim lets him capture their worker somehow, going Q-first means he probably has no workers on the board until at least T20. But going worker first probably means no Quechuas until T20, which means at most one (or maybe two with roads) hitting somebody's capital on T27 (or say T25 if his worker starts with roads, leaving the second Q a couple turns behind and his capital an undeveloped wasteland).
This could work for Krill if he captures his target intact and quickly; for one thing, it's possible his target won't see any warning signs. If it turns out to be us though, I think we'll have a chance to ensure his attack stalls fatally or fails outright - and unless he's very lucky, maybe even to turn the tables on him. Burning three turns on movement as a non-expansive Myst civ is not a recipe for getting ahead of your neighbors quickly.
My preferred tech path is still Fishing-Agriculture-Mining-BW unless there is a concrete threat to us. Going for early BW will be safer, but we have to sacrifice some development. I agree that we should wait until turn 7 to commit to the next tech.
A quechua rush should end in a stalemate I think. He would still have to get through several warriors in order to capture Borte, and we will probably have more production and more food (at least until the cows are pillaged).
As for the map dimensions: I hope you are right in assuming that there are 14 or 15 tiles between the starting hills. I was counting on about 11 tiles to the closest neighbour, so that should buy us an extra couple of turns.
Btw: It is a bit funny how obsessed we are with Krill right now!
(April 29th, 2017, 15:50)JR4 Wrote: Btw: It is a bit funny how obsessed we are with Krill right now!
I know, right? Everybody else is just a jumble of similar mirrored numbers on the demo screen, but he's doing something insane! All this worrying and planning will look really silly when he turns out to be on the far side of the map.
I agree that Agri before mining is nicer if we feel we can do it safely - and excited to see what the terrain looks like in the west and north!
Look at that. Another early happy and an ocean fish. We found one of the inland seas as well. Good to know that we have something resembling of a safe backline for now (although enemies could still appear from the direction of the silver tile).
Wow ... yeah. I guess I should have realized we'd have inland seas on opposite sides. At least there's no jungle this way (so far).
So we're again in a position where (this time for sure) our next scout move or two if we go north would mainly just be checking for seafood. I'd be inclined to head that way nevertheless to see what the north is like over the next few turns, but this area certainly has some promise!
We should head north now in order to reveal possible second city sites. We could go 2N or NNE. I really hope we found a food source near the clams later on. Just two turns until our border pops. That should give us some more information as well.
Our south certainly looks like a good area. Roading the cows after the pasture is done seems worthwhile in order to get the southern cities up and running.
