[SPOILERS] NHs rise to number 4

[Serdoa]

Looks good. Scouting further east or southwest? I think southwest could be the better option, just because I think the first city to the east should be 1E of the sheep, for 3 food resources (NE?) and several tiles to cottage. But that's not going to happen before Fishing and Mysticism so definitely not the next city.

[NobleHelium]

Turn 8

Currently following the previously outlined scouting plan.

Turn 5



I think we'll scout along the red line like thus.

I'm not so sure that we can't plant eastward as our first plant - we could take the PFH between the sheep and the rice. That obviously means we won't get a three food city, but we'd have a strong city that wouldn't need culture for quite a while. I've also been toying with the idea of going Mysticism after Pottery (or possibly even before) and maybe even religion after that, but I haven't come up with anything that I'm really happy with.

[Serdoa]

Its unfortunate but I think it really will be important to see where (if any) Horses are. Without them I hesitate to delay BW till after T40. Especially as this capital screams to be whipped as soon as both corn and pig is improved. And the potential rice, sheep city as well. Should both be 6 food tiles with our traits, so +10 surplus at size 2. Unfortunately without Pottery again no other tiles to work that are worthwhile after that. That's pretty much the issue for every site so far I feel. Either BW+Myst (for border pop) or BW+Pottery (for cottage). Don't think without BW is really viable - well, kinda. Pottery into BW to grow up to 4 and produce Workers and Settlers till BW might be possible.

[NobleHelium]

Turn 9

Not much to talk about. It looks like that speck of plains to the southeast is probably an island though, which is good news of course.



No techs from anyone so far. Ichabod and Seven must be teching AH. dtay may be teching AH or BW.

[NobleHelium]

Turn 10

We've got sheep and riceland around here, folks...



That is unfortunately dry rather than wet rice in the south, but we do have two near-identical locations in the east and south now. 1N of the rice is the leading candidate for second city again, and I am pretty happy with it all things considered. I think we'll keep scouting southwest next and skip the small plains peninsula, because we can't orphan any seafood there by planting 1N of the rice. S-SW of the rice is also plains, so we won't orphan any seafood directly south either.

[NobleHelium]

Current hyperaggressive one-warrior sim:




AH -> [Mining] -> BW -> Fishing -> Pottery. Revolt to Slavery t40 during second settler (but it hasn't been used). It's not great because we get Pottery too slowly by about two turns, but I'm sure this will be modified when we find horse and/or copper anyway. For now it demonstrates that we could definitely go BW after AH. There is a nearly completed warrior at Counting Sheep that would get finished next turn.

Sandbox

Try it for yourself if there are any interested.

[NobleHelium]

Turn 11



Looks like dtay and Seven both researched AH. Seven has probably been working a 3f1c tile while dtay doesn't get the 1c. Seven settled one turn later and made up the difference with his riverside tile. I've only now realized how much a riverside tile vs nonriver makes a difference in the early game when your commerce base is so small.

[NobleHelium]

Turn 12

Well, we found horse, but it's a crappy location for sure.



I guess we'll just ignore it for now. Next turn we need to decide between Pottery and Mining. Despite my earlier posted sim, Pottery probably makes more sense because we can settle eastward for third city rather than the crab. Given the current scouting information it's a stronger location. Next turn I'm planning to send the scout southwest and then further westward. Sending the scout directly south reveals the grassland across the water, but I don't think that does anything for us. We do need to reveal all the sea tiles next turn as we'll decide on tech and likely second city location, and my previous fog read was incorrect when I thought that the tile S-SW of the rice is land but it's not. So we may orphan seafood by planting 1N of the rice, which we'll find out next turn by moving southwest.



Ichabod finished his tech, most likely AH because he can't tech BW. It's a little slow, I would guess that he started Mining and then thought better of it and switched. He could also be pulling a regoarrarr delaying techs intentionally until he needs them, but I find that unlikely. It could be something like Pottery if he swapped later or delayed the tech though.

[NobleHelium]

This is an okay sim...




AH -> Pottery -> BW -> Mysticism -> Fishing

[NobleHelium]

By the way, I am starting to think we should have picked Boudica even though we're not whipping until after t40. There's just not much these cities can do besides build workers and settlers. If we can find a luxury in the west I'll be a lot happier...

Oh also, correction on what I said earlier about Seven's tech. Seven is Zulu so he gets an extra beaker on AH anyway.