[Spoiler] Team slowwalk of the Reservoir Cats (Suleiman/Korea, slowcheetah + Catwalk)

[haphazard1]

No such luck! The two of you get a kitty cat each in the opening picture, and so does Commodore. Ceiliazul gets the bold menacing one, haphazard1 gets the cautious one staying back and Commodore gets the sneaky one who's about to wander off.

I am honored to have a kitty cat in the opening picture. Although it seems my kitty cat must have committed a terrible faux-pas, as all the other kitty cats are leaving him.

Some interesting choices ahead on where to place your cities. Have you considered the tile NE of the ivory? Coastal, crab, plains cow, river grass ivory...very nice food and pretty good hammers, especially if you add some mines. It doesn't share corn with the capital, and of course a lot depends on what is in those fogged tiles to the northwest.

[Catwalk]

That would be pretty nice yeah. It has fresh water, better long-term potential and matches the NE dotmap better. It will start out slightly slower and has fewer forests (not enough for 1-turn oracle without overflow whipping). slowcheetah, what do you think?

[slowcheetah]

Hi haphazard; I agree that the crabs, cow site is the best long term site. However, I don't think it's a good option for the fast starting second city site we'll need if we are to beat an IND civ to a wonder.
Firstly, we'd need to research either animal husbandry or fishing to make the site viable.
Secondly, it can't share the capitals corn for a boosted start.
Thirdly, it has substantially less forests, which even if we don't need for the oracle will be useful for REXing a bit once the oracle is complete.

On the topic of the second city I ran a quick sandbox at the weekend, and got a second city settled west of the ivory on turn 24, with buddhism founding turn 25 (in the city). Tech's researched were, Agr, BW and the Wheel, and we had two workers and two warriors as well.

Scouting wise, exploring the tundra for goodies sounds best.

[Catwalk]

I thought about it some more, and the eastern ivory site won't have any good tiles until borders pop. If we time it with religion (as you've investigated) then it might be worthwhile. 4 forests would be sufficient for the oracle, and I think that's the main concern. If the second city shares corn with the capital then the capital will lose out on the corn. If that means working a FP tile instead, I'm not sure how much has been gained.

I'm going to try to simulating an early settler and early Buddhism. Did you manage to refine the sandbox? What did you use the workers for?

The scout will be able to dip a bit further south and still return in time to uncover the black area near the ivory before the final settling decision.

[Catwalk]

It looks like we have very different ideas on early game development. Which hopefully means that we have an even greater chance of coming up with a really good plan I'm going to run a few simulations tonight, pursuing the early settler and buddhism theory.

Also, I have an idea for you (if you have the time and energy for it, else np): Research the openings of a few strong players and find out how often they go double worker and how often they go worker - settler. Also find out how early on they switch to Bronze Working, assuming a Mining start.

[Ceiliazul]

my kitty cat must have committed a terrible faux-pas, as all the other kitty cats are leaving him.

Your big faux-paw is passing up a bad cat pun!

[Catwalk]

*rubs Ceiliakitty's tummy*

slowcheetah, we have contact with spacetyrantxenu. He was kind enough to supply a screenshot showing that he's encountered our scout down by the peaks. This is quite surprising, he's encountered us from the south east with his own scout. This means there's a whole bunch of land down there, and I'm going to wager a guess that this tundra hub connects all four civs.

What should we do? I see no harm in buddying up with him, we should tell him that we've met Sian to the west. Are you cool with offering map exchange to him as well? Proposing the following message:

Greetings Chairman Meow.

It is a delight to meet our fellow asian kitties at last, you're welcome to help yourself to our catnip stash anytime. You may have heard in the news lately that we've gone and died. Rest assured that this is but yet another fascist ploy against our great nation, and those pictures don't even look properly photoshopped.

Do you have any interesting tales to tell of the world? We have done a fair bit of exploration ourselves, and would be interested in letting our cartographers share their findings. We do indeed have a grail, and ours is the holy one! Make sure to pay its splendours a visit. Should you prove reliable and cooperative, we'd also be very interested in closer coordination of early plans.

Best regards,
Catwalk of team slowwalk, proud advisors to Suleiman of Korea

[slowcheetah]

I have to say I wasn't expecting him to come from that direction. I'm fine with initially friendly relations (don't fancy fighting PRO bowmen anytime soon), and a map trade seems a good idea. Very nice introductory message as well , I was a little startled by reliable and cooperative but then remebered the dictator angle.

[Catwalk]

Sent him the above. I'm still in bewilderment about our early plans, and our worker is done soon. I think the NE spot could work out really well. Sharing the corn with the capital really only serves to bump the capital on a FP tile instead, which is no better than working the unimproved ivory tile. I don't think farming the flood plains and building a warrior is worth it early on.

Also, I can't help but feel tempted to push for a FP location for our second city. The closest PH (the unforested one) is not all that aggressive, it gets +1 hammer right away and it would be an excellent place to put a lot of culture (Oracle + Buddhism). The culture would be somewhat wasted in our other two locations.

[slowcheetah]

Ok assuming we continue with an oracle race (against an IND civ) I think the second city site needs two things.
Firstly, an agriculture resource.
Secondly, plenty of forests.

The only agriculture resource (settlable with a second city) we know of is the corn at the capital. All of the rest are animal husbandry or fishing resources. Animal husbandry is an expensive technology early game, we wouldn't have time to research it and found buddhism quickly in our second city for border expansions (note that all of our dots have the resource second ring). Fishing is a cheaper technology, however the city is slow starting due to the nessecity of slowbuilding a workboat, clams and crabs are also not that powerful until lighthouses. Another point is that no coastal location I can see has sufficient forests to chop out the oracle (without crippling the capitals health cap).

The corn shouldn't be particularly missed from the capital, we can micro it so that the corn is used by whichever city wants to grow. There is also a large possibility of a further food resource within the yet to be revealed western tiles. The corn site also definitely has sufficient forests with which to chop out the oracle.

The assumption I have made within all of this is that the oracle should be chopped out in the second city. This is because the capital only has 6 forests, one of which was chopped down to produce the settler, chopping the rest of them down will ruin the capitals health cap. Whereas the second city clearly has sufficient forests.