[Spoiler]Capria Crusadin' Crew - Bannor

[Mist]

Wow. Just wow. Now, if any lurker wants to convince me not to settle on the pink dot, now's the time. And you better put hell lot of effort in that



But just for the sake of completeness, alternatives :

[SIZE="4"]Black dot :[/SIZE]

Pros
*Plains hill plant
*River silk
*9 river tiles

Cons
*No fresh water
*No food resource ( plains cow counts as a hammer source )
*Low production potential
*4 Jungles

[SIZE="4"]Purple dot :[/SIZE]

Pros
*Fresh water
*Wet wheat
*River silk
*Plains incense

Cons
*Only 5 river tiles
*Forces dyes city to be coastal

[COLOR="Pink"][SIZE="4"]Pink dot :[/SIZE]
[/COLOR]
Pros
*Fresh water
*3! dyes, 2! riverside
*Strong locations for cities 2 and 3
*I love it

Cons
*4 jungles
*No food resource

[Rawkking Goodguy]

None of the above! Head northeast with the settler and get that flood plain :P

Settling 1NW of pink dot lets you grab the incense, wet wheat, and two of the three dyes while still getting fresh water, but since it's not technically on the river I don't think you'd be able to get +1 happy from the dyes until exploration. Plus you can't build dereptus in your capital, something you will probably want to build early with an industrious leader. Oh, and you'd lose a turn moving there even with the starting settler bonus.

Seems like pink dot is the best choice.

[Mist]

None of the above! Head northeast with the settler and get that flood plain :P

Tempting, but that will probably be cultural city no. 3 and Thousands Slums site if I get it

Settling 1NW of pink dot lets you grab the incense, wet wheat, and two of the three dyes while still getting fresh water, but since it's not technically on the river I don't think you'd be able to get +1 happy from the dyes until exploration.

Least of my problems, as Bannor start with Exploration. And yes, I also have them pegged more as Ancient Chants lot. Anyhow, I don't like wasting good commerce specials, and that would make the third dye unsettleable. Unless...

City of a Thousand Slums in capital?

Nah, too far in the future.

Plus you can't build dereptus in your capital, something you will probably want to build early with an industrious leader.

That, and an early academy. I was on the fence about both, but with this start it's a nobrainer.

Seems like pink dot is the best choice.

Pink dot it is, for the first time, for the second time aand...

NobleHelium, any objections?

[NobleHelium]

My first glance at the map appeared like Mardoc was trying to inflict a Maksim on everyone in revenge for PBEM 6, but then I noticed the grassland in the southwest.

I'm really not a big fan of a no food resource capital plant. I don't really know how it works out in FFH since you can't expand nearly as quickly as in BTS...but it still seems intuitively very wrong. If the land around purple was grassland and not plains I'd say you're insane not to plant there, since the incense is equivalent to the riverside dye and the silk is equivalent to the dry dye. But, as it is...

Pink dot and warrior first followed by a worker (after growing) looks best. Pink's best advantage is definitely that it allows for better second and third city locations. Probably like warrior-worker-worker, which should get all three plantations worked as fast as possible.

Did the players come to an agreement on anything about the map? Was a mapscript picked, or did Mardoc pick that? Any map-related rules at all?

[NobleHelium]

Also, potentially huge tidbit: there are three other areas in the minimap that are revealed, and they're fairly evenly-distributed.

I think techwise the obvious path is Agriculture -> Calendar -> Mining. You're going to need to mine those hills to get any infrastructure produced, and you'll need to chop that riverside forest to put down a couple farms so that you can feed the miners. What's the happy cap going to be on Immortal with the dyes?

[Mist]

I'm really not a big fan of a no food resource capital plant. I don't really know how it works out in FFH since you can't expand nearly as quickly as in BTS...but it still seems intuitively very wrong.

It's mitigated by Agrarianism a lot. Farmed grass becomes 4f and we'll have four of them once forests get the chop. That will easily push the capital to the early happy cap. After Construction and Sanitation, assuming I'll farm all the grass pink dot has a food ceiling of 60, that's enough for 30 pop if we had enough health.

Did the players come to an agreement on anything about the map? Was a mapscript picked, or did Mardoc pick that? Any map-related rules at all?

We left him a free hand as long we're all on one continent and no Erebuslike script is used ( no flavour, it tends to send stuff haywire ).

[Mardoc]

My first glance at the map appeared like Mardoc was trying to inflict a Maksim on everyone in revenge for PBEM 6, but then I noticed the grassland in the southwest.

That might have been appropriate - if Maksim were playing .

[Mist]

Also, potentially huge tidbit: there are three other areas in the minimap that are revealed, and they're fairly evenly-distributed.

I decided not to speculate on it until I see the save.

I think techwise the obvious path is Agriculture -> Calendar -> Mining.

Agri -> Calendar -> AC -> Mysticism

I really want an Academy with a start like this. Then

Crafting -> Mining

For chops, mines and copper spotting. This gets followed by a

Feudalism beeline ( via AH and HBR ), I need some decent defenders around turn 100 and Royal Guards seem to fit the bill.

What's the happy cap going to be on Immortal with the dyes?

5 basic. 6 with dyes. 7 with Ale.

[NobleHelium]

Whoops, forgot Mining requires Crafting. I guess the basic two-hammer tiles should be enough to build an Elder Council, I was concerned about the lack of hammers before Mining.

Also, I bet those three revealed spots are the big 3 features. Those are enabled, right?

[Mist]

Whoops, forgot Mining requires Crafting. I guess the basic two-hammer tiles should be enough to build an Elder Council, I was concerned about the lack of hammers before Mining.

God King and forest tiles should tide us over.

Also, I bet those three revealed spots are the big 3 features. Those are enabled, right?

Yes. And it's quite possible. Would make sense at least.

In other news, I played few more games to get a feel of the cultural goal. My best time on Prince is under 200 turns. All successful attempts at Immortal end around t300, but I do have terrible luck when it comes to rolling maps for some reason ( RNG loves to dump me inside an endless forest )

One clear conclusion coming out of all the games is that Sacrifice the Weak speeds up the ending tremendously. So yeah, expect Krill.