RB Pittboss #1 - SPOILER - Washington/Carthage

[ZPVCSPLFUIFDPEF]

My exploration has started to bear a little fruit, and my borders have popped, showing a couple of other nearby landmasses. I'll try to build a work boat to explore them before too long.



My warrior has continued to the north, and has seen a couple of flood plains from afar, and also clam and wine resources next to each other.



Why have I explored this way, and not closer to my capital?
A couple of reasons. This starting warrior is the most likely unit to walk a long way, so I sent him along a coast, so that trade routes would be possible with any rivals I meet.

The second reason is that I will research Hunting next, and build a couple of scouts before my first settler. This gives me three explorers, total; the starting warrior, and two scouts. I sent the warrior to the north, because there are lots of forests there, and the scouts would not be able to use their two-move advantage. In the west and north-west, there are enough clear tiles to be able to explore quickly.


edit: I see resource bubbles are turned off. I'll make sure they're on in future screenshots.

[ZPVCSPLFUIFDPEF]

A couple more things I haven't mentioned yet:

Three players had their score increase in between turns
(Dreylin, Krill, shadyforce). The only way for that to happen so early is that they researched a tech, and my guess would be Hunting, because it is cheap.

Also, notice that there is Ivory in my capital's BFC. This gives me access to powerful War Elephants, but makes me wonder whether other players also have easy access to this resource.

[ZPVCSPLFUIFDPEF]

Time for some more news.

I've learned Agriculture, and have started Hunting, due in 5 turns, and the worker is due next turn. Hooray for Expansive starting on a plains hill!

My exploring warrior has revealed a second clam resource, making for a good city site:



However, I don't think that will be my second city; I would prefer something closer to home with very small maintenance costs. I'm thinking about somewhere in this area, although that will depend on there being a suitable resource there.



If you look at the scoreboard, you will see that only three players have yet to research a tech, so they must be researching more expensive 2nd tier techs.
Among these, dsplaisted and regoarrarr have both grown to size 2, so I'd guess they are both researching Bronze Working first, to whip a worker after learning it.
Sunrise, being Spain and Financial, is probably going for a religion, so it will be interesting to see which one he chose, and when the other one will fall.

Finally, here is a look at the demographics screen.



The main point of note here is that I am now the leader in Life Expectancy. This means that whoever had all those forests has less health, so they must have grown. The best candidate for that is Suryavarman/dsplaisted, since he is Expansive

[Iamjohn]

Remember that according to the game the map is quite large, so I don't think distance is as much of an issue at the moment.

[ZPVCSPLFUIFDPEF]

Remember that according to the game the map is quite large, so I don't think distance is as much of an issue at the moment.

You're right - distance maintenance will not be huge, but I'd still expect the site with 2 clams to cost about 3gpt. Contrastingly, a city 3 or 4 tiles away will cost only 1 gpt, and bring instant trade routes if it's connected by river or coast in my cultural boundaries.
That makes quite a big difference this early in the game.

There are also a couple more reasons I neglected to mention.
Barb defence/escorts - it's much easier to defend a closer site with one warrior.
Shared tiles with the capital - I will be working cottages in the capital, using auxilliary cities to work them early in the game, so that when my capital can switch out of production mode, I'll have several villages already.

[athlete4life10]

Shared tiles with the capital - I will be working cottages in the capital, using auxilliary cities to work them early in the game, so that when my capital can switch out of production mode, I'll have several villages already.

This is an interesting tactic one I will need to learn to MM in the future...I love being a lurker this time around

[ZPVCSPLFUIFDPEF]

A momentous turn has taken place!

First of all, I finished Hunting, to improve my Ivory and build scouts,
and also, my worker finished the farm on the wheat:



Now, I think my choices deserve a little explanation.
Why hunting? Grassland Ivory isn't that good a tile.
The short answer is the extra commerce from the camp will be very useful, and will definitely pay off compared to waiting until I have a Library.
It also gives me the extremely useful Scouts, which will be important because it looks like I have a lot of land to explore quickly, to find the right city sites.

Why finish the warrior immediately, instead of pausing it for a scout now?
The scout (and the next one ) will finish on the same turn anyway, and this way, the warrior has time to move to the square 3W1N of my city and back again before a settler is ready.

Why research Bronze Working next?
I have lots of forests, and chopping those will give me a large production boost early in the game. I will make limited use of slavery, but since I have a high happiness limit, I will try to attain large cities as quickly as I can.
Without BW, I won't be able to improve the majority of my tiles, and may be more suseptible to choking.

You might also notice there is a warrior called Bob in the screenshot. Indeed, I have just met dsplaisted/Fenton Denton Smith.

[ZPVCSPLFUIFDPEF]

Here is a log of my first contact:

Greetings,

I am pleased to meet you, ZPV, and I look forward to many years of peace and friendship between our two great nations.

1. There shall be peace in our time!
2. Your head would look good on the end of a pole!

Our civs have met in-game. We are to the east of you, and haven't met anyone else yet. Have you met anyone else, and would you care to share any map information?

Please send diplomatic messages for this game to both Fenton and me.

Thanks,
dsplaisted

and my reply:

Hi dsplaisted and Fenton!

I've just noticed we've met in-game. Good luck!

You are the first civ I've met. (Must make sure not to say "the first enemy civ" )

Since Suryavarman's head would look decidedly ugly on the end of a pole, I think it would be best if there is peace between our two nations.

As for map info, we are on different landmasses, as far as I can tell, or else your warrior will have to walk a loooong way to enter my territory. As such I doubt we will be competing for land before sailing at the very earliest.
How far away are you?

I can also tell you that you have 12 or 13 forests in your capital, and you have researched Bronze Working and revolted to Slavery. :D

ZPV

[ZPVCSPLFUIFDPEF]

Here is my lastest email exchange with dsplaisted:

We are 13 tiles east of your capital.

Our warrior Bob found you at the end of a peninsula, and is now making his way back. Based on the fact that your capital appears to be on the southern end of your landmass (and the snow on the trees), we think we are in the south of the map (and hence will want to focus further exploration northward, since going south will be a dead end). However, we aren't entirely sure. Have your explorations supported this hypothesis?

We appreciate the information on our capital and on what we have been researching. I do think that this type of information about another civilization would be somewhat more useful to us.

Thanks,
dsplaisted

Indeed, the colour of the trees would indicate that we are at the southern end of the map, and my explorations have found nothing to contradict this.

Regards,
ZPV

This tells me some interesting information. If he is 13 tiles east of my capital, then my warrior must not be too far away from him; I'll be able to see if there is a passage south to his capital quite soon.

Also, with his capital so close, I'm somewhat hesistant to think about trying to sneak a settler onto his landmass - although I see no need to tell him that

[Sullla]

Glad to see your two civs make contact! I think it will be very interesting watching how you and dsplaisted handle things. Obviously the relationship could go a lot of different ways, depending on what the two of you choose to do.