Okay, this turn rolled at a terrible time for me, so although I played, I'm tired as all heck and will have to delay the report + instructions + suggestions + thoughts + city specialization ideas + etc.
I think that we are overall in a very good position, but not exactly in the lead (it depends on who the other GNP and Crop Yield leaders are; I've not been doing the C&D necessary to determine that). I think that our game will be, mostly, won or lost based on how, if, and when we are able to devour Yuri, and whether the other leaders are able to do similar things.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
The turn had already rolled by the time I had logged back into the game to take pictures, so I played t109 as well. There is a decision to make next turn, based on something that I discovered. Should we change the location of our next planned city? Sian now has an island city (he settled it very recently, as I only noticed the extra international trade route last turn and I've been fairly consistently going in and out of the capital's city screen), and it is close, although seperated by a jungle strip, from an expansion site that I really want us to get. Because I was exploring with a workboat in that direction anyway, we are more or less set-up to go to either possible city location, but if we go to the other site (the one possibly contested with Sian), we need to pick up the by-the-galley axe next turn and recall the exploring one to take it's place.
Also, definitely Iron Working next. We need to free up the jungle-covered tiles on the mainland; we're running out of good tiles to use, though we still have some specialist slots.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
As one can see, slow declared war on us in order to move his exploring galley. I shouldn't have been surprised that he would do this. I am worried for our fishing/clamming boats now. I offered him a cease-fire with the intention of then offering open borders, but I couldn't figure out how to combine open borders and a peace treaty, or to offer him open borders while at war. I hope he realizes the intention and accepts it.
The Yuris Border:
The warrior here has mostly lost his scouting purposes as Yuris' borders have steadily pushed him back. I suggest we use him as military police somewhere.
The Southern Mainland and the Eastern Island:
I was originally planning on settling here after 1 more city on the most southern island. The closer possible city location is much better in the short term, while quite weak in the long-term without Moai (and where do we put Moai? There are so many possible spots!), and won't easily be able to build it. It is also more defensible. The further city is slightly better in the long-term, with more grassland, but only has 1 fish in the first ring and even less production. In addition, it is moderately less defensible and might invalidate a spot on the southern coast of the island if there is seafood there.
The Eastern Island and Sian's New City:
The Central Island (Ziti/Rotini):
The Most Southern Island:
South of the Southern Island:
East of the Southern Island:
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
City Screenshots: Warning: Lots of rambling. I didn't really think too much about this turn until recently.
Lasagne:
Note: The shared cottages, when running anything but 0% science, are most efficient when the capital works them. It's not really feasible right now to let the capital work all of them, but is definitely something to keep in mind for the future, once we have iron working and Spaghetti can grab some new tiles. Eventually, we'll want Spaghetti to have a lighthouse and work some coast or lots of specialists, giving every shared tile to the capital. 2/0/2 tiles aren't that great (which is why Spaghetti is a Moai candidate, though it also has little production), but at least slightly positive. Working the coast in Lasagne, with a lighthouse, will actually be reasonably efficient with Bureaucracy (later) and the Academy.
Spaghetti:
Working the 3/0/0 unimproved bananas here because it speeds up the settler by a turn. Historically used as a foodhammer pump and cottage worker. I'm not sure what it's future is.
Ziti:
I'm not sure if barracks are the best build here. We're going to produce a fair bit of military from here eventually (believe it or not, this is our highest production city), and we might as well start making the builds more efficient. In addition, dyes will let it continue growing (onto the plains hill, or a coast? Depends on the situation, I think), so it won't run into unhappiness for awhile. I thin kthat we eventually want to put the Heroic Epic here, unless we successfully capture a better city from Yuri, which is quite possible as he has mines freakin' everywhere. One thing that we want from this city before more military is another Confucian missionary for Fettuccine, but said missionary wouldn't be able to get the the city until a little while, since the galley is needed elsewhere. We need a second galley ASAP. I just can't seem to find a place to build one...wait...perhaps we should build a galley here. I'm liking that idea. We have plenty of time to decide. Even though I already ended turn, I'm only 1 of 4 to do so, and I know that it's 3:00AM in Denmark, for example, so Sian won't play for a few hours, at the minimum. Despite having our highest production, this city is still a economic city at heart, and is one of the few places that could both greatly benefit from and easily build Moai. Building Moai before unlocking the Heroic Epic isn't even a waste of hammers, if we do make this and HE city. Hmm, perhaps we should overflow into Moai...
Rotini:
I'm not sure what to build here after the lighthouse. A courthouse would be nice (for the espionage as well as the maintence reduction; we are close to city visibility with Yuri), as would a missionary, a barracks, or a galley. This is probably the other main Moai candidate, besides Ziti.
Tortellini:
It's a high-quality filler. There's not much else to say. We should probably build a barracks next and focus on military builds/whips. We might want to eventually build a light house here, as well.
Ravioli:
A solid city that will become much better with Iron Working. Our Great Scientist was born here. Probably best set as a commerce city/occasional great person farm.
Gnocchi:
Basically, I envisioned this city as a spring board to settling everything south of it. A mine will come online soon, and it should be able to really pump out the foodhammer builds, while adding a small amount of commerce and occasionally growing on military. Lots of whip/Caste System GP generation potential. A library will probably be useful here eventually, as will a forge if we plan on whipping the city a lot, but most other infrastructure can be skipped. This city would be good for Moai, but doesn't have the production. We could set up a bunch of whips overflowing into Moai, but otherwise, we'd never be able to build it efficiently here.
Fettuccine:
A total filler city. At the time of settling, I had not explored the Eastern Island very well (it was also just convenient to settle there, with the military coming from Gnocchi and eventually a worker as well). It can eventually work a bit of cottages, and should probably build/whip a lighthouse. It would like Moai, but definitely doesn't have the production to build it.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
Most worker actions are delineated by signs. If they don't have a sign next to them, that probably means that I hadn't decided exactly what to do with them. For example, the two workers slightly north of the cap want to cottage that unimproved grassland at the cap, but should be in position to plantation the bananas as soon as possible, so should probably just spend some turns roading. I'll leave that up to your best judgement. In addition, where to move the most southern worker, down by Gnochhi, after he is done mining, depends on where we decide to place the next city.
Also, I can all but guarantee by looking at civstats log ins and differing demos on the same turn that the Serdoa/NH/Ichabod/Rowain team is our main GNP competitor. That's not a surprise, but is kind of worrying.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
(September 3rd, 2013, 19:25)Merovech Wrote: As one can see, slow declared war on us in order to move his exploring galley. I shouldn't have been surprised that he would do this. I am worried for our fishing/clamming boats now. I offered him a cease-fire with the intention of then offering open borders, but I couldn't figure out how to combine open borders and a peace treaty, or to offer him open borders while at war. I hope he realizes the intention and accepts it.
Highly unlikely he accepts peace if you didn't offer OB at the same time since you rejected it once before. Considering how much seafood we have, we should whip a galley on the west coast ASAP and block his movement before he reaches the islands to cut down where he can reach (also wouldn't hurt to minimize his map knowledge).
Edit: Double-whip a galley out of Spaghetti next turn, off the bananas until calendar. Spaghetti will grow into unhappiness this turn, since it won't be building the settler, so this isn't even a bad whip. The settler will be delayed by 1 turn, I believe. I marked a few blocking spots. Unfortunately, if we keep the current turn split (slow before use), he's past Tortellini quite easily, so we might lose the clams.
Later Edit: The turn rolled before I could get your input on some of the builds, so I switched Ziti to Moai before the turn roll (since we're getting a second galley out of Spaghetti). I think that's the best place for it. It just needs a large happy cap.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
Played 2 turns now. While I think we're handling our current cities superbly, we're still rather behind in the city count. Considering we have a entire backline to ourselves (to our knowledge anyway), this shouldn't be the case. I'll aim to have Rotini/Ziti and other southern cities focused on southern expansion when they aren't busy growing themselves, and the current settler should probably head for the eastern island spot with Sian since it's really the last contested spot available. It may seem a bit of skwed priorities considering that we've planned a Knight attack against yuri, but tbh honest we're still tons of beakers away from anything like that for now.
slow is worrying me a bit with his galley, but he didn't pillage a clams when he had the chance and doesn't seem to have any units on his galley (or else, he could've razed one of our warrior defended cites by now ). Now that I've blocked him, I wonder what he'll do next. (offered peace but fully expect it to be rejected at least until he sees that I've blocked him)
Yeah, we fell behind on expansion durin the CoL push, and I didn't switch to prioritizing it like I should afterwards. I'm glad that you're prioritizing that.
Merovech's Mapmaking Guidelines:
0. Player Requests: The player's requests take precedence, even if they contradict the following guidelines.
1. Balance: The map must be balanced, both in regards to land quality and availability and in regards to special civilization features. A map may be wonderfully unique and surprising, but, if it is unbalanced, the game will suffer and the player's enjoyment will not be as high as it could be.
2. Identity and Enjoyment: The map should be interesting to play at all levels, from city placement and management to the border-created interactions between civilizations, and should include varied terrain. Flavor should enhance the inherent pleasure resulting from the underlying tile arrangements. The map should not be exceedingly lush, but it is better to err on the lush side than on the poor side when placing terrain.
3. Feel (Avoiding Gimmicks): The map should not be overwhelmed or dominated by the mapmaker's flavor. Embellishment of the map through the use of special improvements, barbarian units, and abnormal terrain can enhance the identity and enjoyment of the map, but should take a backseat to the more normal aspects of the map. The game should usually not revolve around the flavor, but merely be accented by it.
4. Realism: Where possible, the terrain of the map should be realistic. Jungles on desert tiles, or even next to desert tiles, should therefore have a very specific reason for existing. Rivers should run downhill or across level ground into bodies of water. Irrigated terrain should have a higher grassland to plains ratio than dry terrain. Mountain chains should cast rain shadows. Islands, mountains, and peninsulas should follow logical plate tectonics.
Looks like there was another seafood in the fog. Going to settle in 2t, so we kinda need to decide now where to settle now. I'm leaning towards the SW one personally, although I don't think it's a wise idea to try and cram another city in for the clams in a border location.
Also here's our Iron:
Not really convenient, but at least we don't have to race for it. I'll have a settler ready to go for another S city next turn, although that one might be better off in the East for now. Should be sure to claim this one quickly though.
With IW done, I'm going to quickly grab archery then head onto Feudalism.
). Now that I've blocked him, I wonder what he'll do next. (offered peace but fully expect it to be rejected at least until he sees that I've blocked him)
![[Image: T115%20W%20Island%20Dotmap.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15873301/Pitboss%2012/T115%20W%20Island%20Dotmap.jpg)
![[Image: T115%20Iron.jpg]](https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15873301/Pitboss%2012/T115%20Iron.jpg)