RBP7 [SPOILERS] - The Chronicles of Nyania

[Lord Parkin]

There's a bit of land for us to settle I see. Not the greatest cities, but there can be a decent amount of them. Now I'm curious as to what lies directly to the south of our capital.

Well, it all depends on how close our neighbour(s) are. If they're quite far away (or there aren't any) to the west, then sure, we'll be able to claim that land without much trouble and we should do alright. If we have a western (or south-western) neighbour quite close by though, then that land may well be impossible for us to safely claim without heavy military investment. After all, 10+ tiles from the capital is getting to be quite a lot given the likely average distance between civs.

I'm also curious to see what's to the south of us. Think I'll double back one of the scouts to explore that way shortly.

[Lord Parkin]

Another turn, another hut. This time we got a "high gold" return: 85 gold to be exact. Not bad, and roughly equivalent to the cost of an early tech... but it'll take ages until we can actually use it. A tech still would have been so much better, but oh well.



Up north there's a crapload of Furs in the middle of absolutely awful land. Also a Whale, for what it's worth (almost nothing). Maybe if there's a Fish or two in that area, a city could be worthwhile... but as things stand so far it doesn't look promising.



Doesn't look promising down to the southwest either... no resources found there so far. Maybe something will turn up in the next few turns though.

Also, our capital's borders expanded. Looks like there's an island - or more likely part of the same landmass - immediately to our east. Let's hope it's an island, though given our luck so far it probably won't be.

[luddite]

Up north there's a crapload of Furs in the middle of absolutely awful land.

At least you'll be warm if you settle up there!

[Lord Parkin]

At least you'll be warm if you settle up there!

Heh, fair point. An abundance of beaver does has its uses.

[Lord Parkin]

Okay, decided to send the northernwestern Scout to reveal the immediate north and then head south. Heading further north/west seems pointless for now as we're not going to want any early cities amongst all that icy tundra.



As for the southwestern Scout, he'll continue to head west along the coast for now to see (a) if there are any resources at all down there (seriously, it seems pretty desolate at the moment)... and (b) how soon we run into another civ (if we do - probably too much to hope that we don't though).

Our Warrior is now back defending our capital.

[nabaxo]

It's odd that we haven't actually met any yet...

[Lord Parkin]

Well, it's only turn 6. And so far we've been focussing on revealing the area immediately around our capital, rather than picking a direction and heading that way until we hit someone.

I'm pretty sure it won't be long until we meet some civs though. Will be interesting to see who our neighbours are - and what sort of land they have. If they're similar to us then we might have a chance at competing. If they're massively better off though, we may have bleak long-term prospects unless we manage to rush someone. And given that with our slow start we won't have The Wheel until almost T50 even assuming we have Horses or Copper, we may not have much of a chance anyway. Unless a strategic resource could be connected through a river... though I don't think that could even work with our start.

Guess we'll see though. Maybe we'll luck out with another hut... although we already failed 3 chances at techs with them, and there probably aren't that many remaining in our area now.

[Lord Parkin]

Well, good news and bad news. We found a Fish up north... but we also found the edge of the land mass, and there's no hills or worthwhile land to make a decent long-term city including the Fish. Might be a mediocre Worker/Settler pump, but with almost no hammers there's little future potential.



To the southwest, there's absolutely nothing in the way of resources so far. What the heck's up with that? Not that we'd probably be able to settle that area anytime soon anyway, but it's bizarre how desolate it is.



So, the land around us basically comes down to a choice between some food and barely any hammers, or some hammers and barely any food. Hardly any rivers for commerce too. Yuck.

[Lord Parkin]

Also, looks like Plako grew to size 2 this turn. It's only turn 7, and 22 food is required for the second citizen. So generating 3 food per turn isn't enough... at least one turn you'd need to generate 4 food per turn. The only way that's possible before any tiles are improved is if you're working a 3 food tile and settled on another 3 food tile. So we can deduce that Plako must have settled his capital on a food resource of some kind. Interesting stuff.

[Lord Parkin]

A little ray of hope at least this turn... looks like another potential island up north. If we have 2 islands easily accessible from our start, then this might actually work out for us (especially as Roosevelt with the Great Lighthouse an easy build). Of course, it's also possible that one or both of those "islands" will turn out to be part of the main Pangaea landmass, in which case we won't really have any hope of holding claims there... or they could be so small as to be useless even if they are islands.



Down to the southwest, finally a single resource has been revealed (Pigs). That's also something I guess... although given that we'd have to travel a minimum of 10 tiles to settle it, it's likely going to be out of our reach. We'll see anyway.



Time to start heading the northern Scout down to see what's to our immediate south. Whatever's there (or not) is likely going to either give us a ray of hope - such as a tasty city spot and/or coast boxing us into a safe corner - or seal our fate, e.g. with a continuation of crappy land and/or multiple other civs down there.