[Spoilers] Commodore as Darius of the HRE

[Ceiliazul]

I'm following on a sim perfectly all the way to turn 16. You finished the wheel then started Pottery. On turn 17, Pottery was half done. How'd that happen?

Then on turn 20 I was caught up again. I'm not sure what happened, but I'm back on track.

On turn 21, did Gaspar move SW and start a cottage on the riverside grass?

[Commodore]

Nope, Gaspar walked through the woods on 21 and 22 he finished the 1N road. I should be able to road the settler directly to the new city.

[Commodore]

Well, this game just got a lot more interesting!

Firstly, the victory screen as requested (after EOT):



First riverside cottage is down, thanks to Gaspar and Piet working together.



Aquilonia is looking nice now.



Finally, Sven the Scout move north along the isthmus.



But hark! What light from yonder tile breaks? It's blue/purple...Mr. Nice Guy, non-financial of late UU!

With...stone? Dangit. Back-of-the-mind plans for attempting the 'mids just went splat. Ah well, maybe a loan for Moai can be arranged late. I need to think about how my diplo should go with MNG. He's mentioned that he's not a huge fan of intensive diplomatic maneuvering, so I should be to the point. Seems like a nice guy, and one of the less experienced teams playing here, which is good. Objective #1 is to ensure he does not expand down the incredibly-close-to-his-capital isthmus, although the two "arms" on either side ought to be fine. I do not want to spend my early REXing time bumping up against creative borders.

Mark your calendars ladies and gents, 2160BC is the year we make Contact.

[Ceiliazul]

I agree with your pregame thoughts that Mr. Nice Guy's civ would be best served with a specialist economy. He must have thrown a party when stone was found directly outside his capital. Best to let him and the multiple industrious civs fight over the pyramids, your financial civ can put those hammers into an additional 4 (!) Settlers instead.

I wonder what the presence of stone so near to his capital portends about map balance. You have marble, but it's a 2nd ring city at best.

[Ceiliazul]

Victory screen shows your 21-tile capital is 3.14% of the landmass. This suggest total planet surface ~668 tiles. You haven't fully explored your starting land yet, but it isn't enough make 1/5 of the total. I suspect you're on the south-west blob of a five-blob ring, with a smallish central battleground on the other side of that tundra pass.

If this is right, explore that way for quick contacts and a good choke point up there.

As always, my ideas are free or your money back!

-ceil

[Commodore]

Victory screen shows your 21-tile capital is 3.14% of the landmass. This suggest total planet surface ~668 tiles. You haven't fully explored your starting land yet, but it isn't enough make 1/5 of the total. I suspect you're on the south-west blob of a five-blob ring, with a smallish central battleground on the other side of that tundra pass.

This is what I'm thinking as well. Only real question would be whether or not there are "outside" IC-trade islands and how the middle is divided into sections/landmasses.

Here's the first draft for sending to MNG:

Hey Mr. Nice Guy (MNG acceptable to you?),

Just dropping a line as we've just made in-game contact. You'll see my scout upon opening your save, he's just come up from the south. How are you doing? I recall you saying at the beginning you preferred not to make things too diplomatically intensive, so I'll try to restrain my normally verbose ramblings a bit.

First off, scouting/map situation. I know you had a warrior start and so have probably done less scouting than me, but my scout came in from a 1-tile wide land bridge that connects my home island to yours. I noted in the beginning of my thread that I prefer to avoid NAPs that lock players into long-term peace with runaways, but I can assure you that there's no conflict on my horizons for quite some time. I'd be willing to make a settling agreement for the near (meaning 'till ~t100 at least) term, I don't settle north of the "base" of the land bridge and you don't settle south of it. None of this is critical to get decided on soon, by the way, just some initial thoughts. I'm happy to discuss other trades/agreements/etc as they come up.

Finally, have you made contact with anyone else in-game yet? Sorry to go the twenty-questions route, but you're the first I've bumped into and I was wondering how far away most people were from each other.

Regards,
-Commodore

[Ceiliazul]

Maybe best not to start out assuming you scouted more than him. Other than that, looks good.

When do you suppose muskets will be available? (I havent played much quick speed), it would be nice if you could plan your NAPs to completely avoid the rather short musket age.

[Commodore]

Well, I absolutely assume that I've scouted more than him, but it does seem a little unnecessary to mention it. Got this back this morning:

Well met!

I am running late for work so I will have to put off a real response until later but I just wanted to let you know that I'm excited to have met your team this turn! (And yes, MNG is acceptable for me, more on that with my future missive)...

Until later,
MNG, Hattie of France

Poor MNG. +1 Diplomatic Sympathy for having to work on a Saturday.

Here's his borders, anyway, not very interesting.



Actually, knowing nothing else about his lands, where Sven is standing seems like a nice city spot, seals off the area, on a hill, claiming stone, sheep, horses, and a flood plain. If he places elsewhere I might have to move the cities around later.

Aaanyway, mining came in:



I'm gambling on a C&Dless jump here, but up next:



Depending on my micro I might have to delay it by one turn so Hinduism lands in the new city. If I can snag it, I'll be feeling a lot more relaxed about Stonehenge/monuments.

I'm almost certain the SE jungly arm also leads to a contact, but a mean pack (?) of panthers makes me nervous.



Amusingly, as I typed "mean panthers" our cat nipped at Mrs. Commodore. Global cat conspiracy!

[Ceiliazul]

I'm don't think the horse location is fertile enough for a second city. The second city will elevate your growth curve for the rest of the game, and getting max fertility is key.

I think the best spot is East from your capital. Settling on the bare plains 5E from your capital would net 3 flood plains plus dry rice and the marble. This is a freshwater spot thanks to the oasis.

At size 4 or 5, this city will massively outproduce the horse city in food and commerce. The disparity is so large that I think its worth the risk of delaying your horses. In addition, the horse site depends entirely on stealing the best tiles from your capital.

The more I look at it, the more convinced I become.

Respectfully,
-ceil

[Ceiliazul]

Have you been taking Demographics shots on each turn? Recording the scores?

I'm willing to crunch some numbers if you've got the info.