[SPOILERS] Serdoa as DeGaulle of Maya

[Serdoa]

Tried to sim that start, but it's worthless. This start is absolutely horrendous, especially with my pick. I start with Mining / Myst and the only hill I can see which is not forested is a PH which I should probably move to. At least if my fog reading skills are correct and I still have access to the water-body and therefore to the clams. Well, I probably should move to the PH even if not, those clams are not really going to make this start better at all.

Now, if I move on the PH, I can't go for a worker-build while getting BW, as it won't finish in time and my worker would have nothing to do. If I instead research Agriculture, then I can choose between farming the grassland after the rice - which means wasting 5 worker turns just to get a 3/0/1 tile that I don't need as there is no reason to grow my cap as there are no good tiles to work with that grown pop - or I can simply sit around twiddling my thumbs till BW gets in. Of course, I can instead not settle on the PH, at least in that case BW will line up with finishing the worker. I could then chop a second worker out in 8 turns and use those to workers to chop a settler till T30. But that assumes I can find a good second city spot - and right now this looks like I am pretty much surrounded by water, so not that likely.

But even if I find a good second city spot, my capital will still be size 1 at T30 with at best an improved wet rice (5/0/1... great) and no good tiles to grow onto. Oh, and without ANY military whatsoever. I think we play with Barbs on, so that plan probably does not count as "sound". Of course, I can grow in 5 turns more to size 2 and then whip a workboat... oh, wait, still no military at that point.

Quite honestly, if there is not at least some kind of better tiles nearby I don't see a reason to even try to play this even half-serious. Lets hope we start soon so I can at least move my scout on the PH and see what is in the fog.

[Qgqqqqq]

That makes me doubt that cities will actually be able to be grown that big.

Um, doesn't lower happy cap make CHA stronger. (e.g. +2 happy with normal cap of 6 is +33%, while +2 at normal cap of 10 is +20%)
Also less is better comparatively as best tiles are being worked (if you have 10 great tiles, then being able to work 8 is better then being able to work two rubbish tiles, as in previous example).

Apologies if I'm being thick, but that sentence,(and its premise) doesn't make sense to me. (also I don't think happy is massively balanced (haven't seen map) just a little around the capital)

[Serdoa]

That makes me doubt that cities will actually be able to be grown that big.

Um, doesn't lower happy cap make CHA stronger. (e.g. +2 happy with normal cap of 6 is +33%, while +2 at normal cap of 10 is +20%)
Also less is better comparatively as best tiles are being worked (if you have 10 great tiles, then being able to work 8 is better then being able to work two rubbish tiles, as in previous example).

Apologies if I'm being thick, but that sentence,(and its premise) doesn't make sense to me. (also I don't think happy is massively balanced (haven't seen map) just a little around the capital)

Well, first, you should not read that sentence out of context, which was "[Land will be...] certainly much less lush than we are used to from PBEMs." Therefore a higher happy cap might simply be not that helpful because you don't have the food to grow into it early. Thats not just a question of having good tiles to grow into, it is also a question of how long it takes you to grow. Look at my start and tell me why the heck should I grow into 2/1/0 or 1/2/0 tiles? Especially for 30+ food per pop (because every growth before that has nothing to do with CHA as it can be worked with the standard happy-cap just fine)? I'd be better off whipping away from 4 to 3 all the time, as I can get a +8 food-surplus at size 3. And even that is btw not really great, as I just miss the good tile to work at size 4. It's basically an endless whipping-cycle every 10 turns, producing a settler and a warrior in that time.

Anyway, back to CHA. As I said, without lush land, the higher happy cap might not come into play early. And later on? Well, there is HR, there are happy-resources, heck, there is even the culture-slider if you so desire. Of course you'll get your 2 happy per city cheaper than everyone else, but everyone else will be in HR and work his really good tiles anyhow, so what your 2 happy are gaining you is at best some savings on MP-maintenance and some hammers to produce those MP-units.

Not saying that CHA is bad, but I certainly would rather have PRO, EXP, FIN, SPI instead.

[Serdoa]

I owe an apology to Krill (and the others who did check the new map). Sorry guys, I shouldn't have been that much of an ass before I haven't actually at least made my first scouting move. *

Now, why do I apologize? Because I have scouted and it isn't nearly as bad as I thought it is



Dry corn gives another tile to improve with Agriculture. Two clams are also obviously better than one. I did move my settler also on the PH in the SW and will settle next turn. 12 turn worker after that, improving corn and rice, while getting BW. Unfortunately it seems BW won't finish in time, so I'll probably farm the grassland on which the settler sits in the screenie as well. After that I'll chop and whip settlers and workboats. I have to see when I can get in a warrior as Barbs are on, so I certainly need them sooner than later. On that note, can someone tell me by what turn Barbs will start to enter my borders on Monarch?

[Krill]

The average number of cities per player on the continent you are on needs to be equal to 3. If you are on your own island, you would need 3 cities, if there were 4 players on your continent there would need to be 12 cities on the continent.

[Serdoa]

News of the turn:

[Serdoa]

Yuris, I should have access to Civ. But if for whatever reason I can't get on, it would be great if you could do the following

Capital: Just finish the Warrior. Switch to the Corn as soon as it is farmed.
Worker: Finish farming Corn. Move 1NE. Move 1NE onto the rice and start farming it.
Scout in the south: Go back north (obviously as he is at the end of a penisula)
scout in the west: carry on northwest, either on the coast or via forests / hills. As he moves in the dark, I can't really give any clear movement directions. If there should be a hut somewhere, grab it. I've only got 2 so far and the first one gave a scout while the second one gave a map, so I need some more hut luck.

And that should easily cover the next few turns.

Password: rbpb8dj

[Serdoa]

This game moves sooo slow - and it seems part of the reason is that some players (which I will not name right now) are not ending turn consistently... I thought this should be a game without clock games?

As for the game: I am completely surrounded by jungle. I do have 1 (!) site I can settle, after that it is jungle, jungle and more jungle. I can think about rushing Azza, he has 2 gold-sites nearby his starting-spot. But I think I will not be able to tech fast enough to take them from him and I doubt I can pink-dot him. We'll see. I probably will also expand on to an island I can see next to my starting spot, simply because why not?

[Serdoa]

Thats what you get for double-moving me!

[Qgqqqqq]

How did e double move you?