Whosit Tries to Sharpen His Skills (Critique Thread)

[GermanJoey]

I'm just gonna keep throwing 50 turn games in here. I appreciate the feedback. Maybe some day I'll even remember to save the 4000 BC files....

Tokugawa of France
Lakes, Standard, Monarch
Barbs on (I figure it keeps me more honest)

Turns 0-25

T0 - Settle in place. Besides the 2 pigs, plains hill start, and 8 forests, there's nothing to recommend this site. There's only one mineable hill, so there's not a ton of production available here. No river, so limited commerce. Pigs require Animal Husbandry opening to improve them. I probably need to locate some new city sites quickly and just chop things out.



T3 - Spot a dry corn to the west, and also the edge of (probably) Dutch territory. Once again, there's a peak where I'd like to put a city.

T4 - It's actually Pericles of Carthage. Creative neighbor.

T8 - While exploring, I see a Lion. I decide to pull the Warrior back. I could advance into jungle and would probably win the fight, but would rather not take the damage now.

T11 - Run into a scouting Archer from Ramesses of Rome. Isn't Commodore playing that in one of the PBEMs?



T12 - Worker completes, start Warrior. AH 1 turn from finishing. I could either put a turn into a road on the grassland pig, or move onto the hill and pasture that next turn. I'm not sure which is more useful. Grassland pig will provide more food, but since I'd waste a turn moving on to the hill anyway, might as well do it now. I go for hill pigs.

T13 - AH reveals Horses only in the frozen south. I begin mining, planning to get Bronze Working. Worker is going to run out of things to do soon, though.



T19 - Warrior finishes, city size 2. Could go Worker next, but it will finish long before I have Bronze Working, and won't have much to do besides build roads. I could build another Warrior and get to size 3, though. The best spot so far seems to be in the north, where a city could get cows, gold, and corn. I'd probably settle to get the cows and gold in 1st ring. Dry corn is 1 more food, but grassland cows is an overall stronger tile than dry corn. Will need Mysticism and a monument for a border pop. Working gold early would be nice.

T22 - I made a bad move last turn and lose my scouting Warrior to a Bear. I knew a Bear was in the area, but moved carelessly anyway. Whoops.
Other Warrior meets Roosevelt of Spain.

T23 - Bronze Working still 12 turns from completion, I'm opting to build an 8 turn Settler instead of a Worker.



T25 - Overview.

Turn 26-50

T31 - Settler finishes, settles same turn. Worker starts in capital. Warrior in new city. Worker starts pasturing cows.

T35 - Bronze Working completes. No Copper anywhere in sight. Start Hunting so I can get Archery for defense. Will delay Slavery to next turn after 2nd Worker pops out. Worker 1 moves to gold hill instead of finishing cow road.

T36 - Slavery revolt. Worker > Worker in capital. New worker goes to chop.



T39 - Tough choice, but after Warrior finishes at city 2, decide to work Cow, Gold, and build an 8 turn worker. Will put a chop into it, after roading gold though.

Not sure where a 3rd city should go. I identify a spot that can get wet corn and borrow the hill pig from the capital, but it's otherwise not a strong spot. There's not a lot else to pick from, though. Jungle is lush, but need Iron Working.

T40 - Decide to grow cap to size 4 on Warriors before swapping to Settler.

T45 - 2 pop whip settler in cap.

T46- Put whip overflow into Worker as most would be wasted on partially completed Warrior.



T47 - Barbarian Warrior appears out of fog near new city spot. Decide to build city anyway. Will delay corn farm, though. Not sure what to build in Orleans, though. Don't want more Warriors, but nothing else to grow on besides a Barracks. Go with Warriors because at least they can fog bust?

T48 - City defends, start teching Mysticism.



T50 - Overview. I think I definitely ended up better than my first few attempts. I think perhaps I should have put more chops into things, maybe went for more workers? A lot of my hesitancy came from a perceived lack of good places to settle new cities and a lack of strategic resources (I teched Hunting and Archery when I'd rather have gotten Pottery, for example). Iron Working is probably something I'd tech in the near future post turn 50 both to find iron and to allow myself the option of expanding into the jungled areas. I'd definitely need a lot more Workers to do that. I am not sure if my second city was in a good spot, but when I have small cities with few improvable tiles, I'm not sure what to build there when I have few options.

Looking much better! If this had been your start in a MP game, you would have strategic resources close by rather than being forced to research Archery, although doing so in your actual circumstance here is perfectly reasonable I think. One question, though: why did you choose to settle the cow/gold site before the wet corn site? Not that doing so is necessarily the wrong choice, but I'm curious as to what your thoughts were there.

[Whosit]

At the time I settled the gold first because I thought I could make use of the increased commerce and happy cap while forgetting that those things don't usually matter in the first 50 turns. I kind of just get drawn to early happy resources.

For these test games, should I set the resource distribution to "balanced?" I don't think I've ever used that setting.

[GermanJoey]

Sure, might as well try it.

[haphazard1]

Another oddball start -- you can really roll 'em, Whosit! This one is certainly nicer than the previous few.

I like the positioning of Orleans -- good first ring tiles, reclaims a desert tile. I do not really like Lyons, though. I would have put it 1N -- you don't pick up very much jungle, and it brings the gems into the BFC. With the sizable number of excellent resources in the jungle region and the lack of nearby strategic resources, early Iron Working will be a major priority. So the jungle on the gems will be cleared soon enough that you would be happy to have them in the BFC. The rice/ivory/other gems would be an obvious candidate for city #4.

With early gold, multiple grassland gems, and ivory you should have fantastic early research plus enough early happiness to grow your cities larger than normal. That should be enough to grow and tech your way to victory. If there is some iron around (quite possibly at the capital, with nothing but food sources visible there) you should also be safe against ealy AI aggression.

[Lord Parkin]

I'm just gonna keep throwing 50 turn games in here. I appreciate the feedback. Maybe some day I'll even remember to save the 4000 BC files....

You know there's an autosave folder (Saves -> single -> auto) which keeps the 4000 BC autosave from the most recent game you started, right? It's only overwritten when you load up a new game.

[Whosit]

I didn't realize that the autosave specifically held onto the 4000 bc save. Thanks. I have mine set to hold onto the last 25 turns before overwriting, so I figured it was gone.

[Hashoosh]

Balanced means you'll have copper, horse and iron very close to your capital. Of course, that could mean behind some peaks or over water, but generally, it's good for this kind of thing.

Maybe try a PB or PBEM map from an old game?

[Gawdzak]

If you are looking for maps to practice on,I suggest Seven's Torusland Map Script. The script usually gives you a nice capital and good land all around,and was used for PB15 and PB20.

Give it a try,I would go with a 40x40 with 6 AI's and Monarch difficulty.

[The Black Sword]

Why did you grow the capital to size 3 with no good tiles to work? I think an immediate settler at size 2 would be better. It looks like you have enough worker turns to get the road in place in time. Then probably another size 2 worker.

I like the choice of second city, because you have so little early research with no rivers. That definitely does matter in the early game, the speed with which you pick up the ancient techs can be pretty important. Either spot could probably be made work though.