We are indeed moving northwards! The scout should get a good view of the surroundings from that forest hill 2NE of its current position. I think it is just too slow using 2 moves going SW and back again.
Okay, two civs have completed Fishing. The other EXP civs without FIshing will complete it eot I think. If someone does not complete a tech for a long time then we have to assume they are going for BW. I think we should keep an eye on this. It is good to have an extra couple of turns warning, just in case.
Agreed on all points. Some of the Exp civs may be teching something else - e.g. Gav doesn't start with Hunting - but we'll see when the turn rolls! (In ... about ten minutes if nobody can pause for CML.... I posted in the tech thread in hopes of avoiding another reload.)
So it turns out Gav himself had already paused the game when I posted the above (civstats apparently only updates its timer information sporadically). And now that the game is at last continuing, his Sury-led Ottomans indeed turn out to be teching something other than Fishing! (Or switching techs around precisely to fool analyses like this one.) We'll know more in a few turns. If he opened with Hunting, that would put him in a similar position to what we'd have been in if we opened with Agri instead of Fishing. I feel like that's inferior for us, but it might not be for him - and there's a chance he's going for a highly unusual opening, for instance by teching Pottery!
CML, like us, and playing the combination we wanted (non-Zulu category) did get Fishing IBT, but Dark Savant (Shaka of Ethiopia) is another one who didn't get a score increase. Could be pursuing Agriculture of course, or imaginably The Wheel, or sandbagging and planning to get Fishing in a few turns ... or he could be going for a very early Bronze Working. Dunno, but BW before Agri and Fishing ... doesn't seem very good to me.
No animals or players encountered so far. Here is what the scout found. Another food, this time a dry corn. If we can find a way to pop our borders that spot with 3 seafood and corn looks very strong!
Our scout is now at a crossroads. I would probably rather head eastwards now, but it is going to take a while.. Instead we could go WNW in order to see if that awesome spot is a safe backline or if it needs to be planted soon. What do you think?
Fog-gazing makes the area northwest of the scout look like back lines to me, at least until boats: The corn appears to have water 1N and peaks NE and NW, and the western forest and plains look like a small peninsua (probably on a larger peninusla if that corn really lacks fresh water). ...and I suppose if I'm right about that, we should probably scout eastward in spite of the rough terrain.
Also, based on the demos and the order of play in civstats, I believe Ventessel (Wang Kon of China) is teching Bronze Working. (After finishing Fishing last turn.)
If Ventessel is going straight for BW, I think it is because he values slavery a lot. It is the most powerful civic early in the game.
The NE is the last area we don`t have any information on, so I agree: Let`s head straight east with the scout. It seems you are right about the NW being backline. Taking a closer look at that tile north of the corn, I think it is water. Could any of the tiles north of the mountains be regular (non-water) tiles?
Quiet turn. Our scout revealed a few tiles. No new resources were found. We could head for that forest hill 3E of the scout. Another option is following the coastline on that northern sea.
Either scouting option looks okay to me. The forest hill provides slightly better defense against possible animals. The northern route gives us information about tiles further away from our capital a little sooner. Either way, that would happen on turn 10 - when we also produce our first Worker! I've been thinking about posting some possibile choices for extended microplans (up through roughly turn 36-40) - I'll try to get a couple ready for different second-city locations in the next couple days if you'd like.
Yeah, I expect Ventessel is teching BW for the whip. Between the rice and the clams, to say nothing of the oasis and FP*, there's certainly plenty of food at the mirrored capital site, but hammers will be tight before Bronze Working. (The truth is though, thanks to RtR and the sparse forests, they'll be tight even afterward, especially without a granary.)
* - He could even imaginably build a floodplains farm: He's FIN, and some people have argued that FIN shouldn't cottage river tiles in RtR, but I think that's like spending $10 on gas to drive out to a distant store where your groceries will be $5 cheaper.
Also, correcting myself from several posts up, Gavagai is definitely (either sand-bagging on fishing or I guess imaginably mining or) leading off with Hunting. If he were doing something crazy like a Pottery opening, he'd have (taken something Pro instead of Sury and) shown up on the demos with more than 18 GNP before Ventessel overtook him by working the clams and teching Bronze.
