Oxy breaks from convention(possibly)

[Oxyphenbutazone]

Keep going north, I think.

Do you have any thoughts on tech/micro? Everybody else better have no unforested hills; it's a huge disadvantage to not be able to improve anything before BW. Seems worth for the worker to improve the 3 resource tiles quickly, but there will be a pretty long lull where there'll be nothing for the worker to do. Maybe pick up the wheel before BW? Or BW before AH?

Man I'm kicking myself on this Maya pick(Though Pin and Commodore have it just as bad if we all have similar starts). Wish we hadn't lost at least 2 coinflips on Mongolia and the Ottomans.

[wetbandit]

Yeah, meant to say NE instead of SE.

The micro is awkward. Maya is definitely a bad break. Few ideas, without running serious numbers yet:

Hunting-AH-BW
You're going to have the three six-yield tiles, provided you go all the way to AH. If you do this, it would seem to make sense to grow that tall to take advantage of the improved tile. Grow to 3 on EOT21 and start settler. Settler builds at 14f/h initially, increasing to 17f/h after cows pastured. With Hunting, Worker will finish farming the wheat on T16, moves to deer on t20, and finishes the camp on T21. AH comes in 9-10 turns I think, with double bonus. So T25? Worker is idle for 3 turns, cows pastured on T28. Settler would also finish on T28. You've got the 3 strong tiles and presumably set up better for the long-term with this option, although BW finishes ~T40.

Hunting-BW-AH
Start BW on T15, probably a ~14-15 turn tech. Grow to size two to work wheat and camp, build settler at 13f/h once both are improved. Can get size two on T18. Start Settler on T18 and build at 11f/h and then 13f/h on T21, settler finishes EOT26 with 11 overflow, which will finish the warrior, assuming warrior is what hammers are spent on to grow. BW finishes around late 20s, so the worker will have absolutely nothing to do in the interim, except to possibly farm the wine.

BW-Hunting-AH
Start Settler after growing to 2 on T18. BW would finish early turn 20s. Worker can farm the wine after finishing farm on T17. Revolt after BW and then whip the Settler. Settler probably comes out around the same time Hunting-BW settler finishes, if not a turn earlier, depending upon length of BW. Seems somewhat weak to whip off the first citizen, but I haven't thought ahead far enough if that is superior to the other options.

It looks like the worker is going to be idle for some period of time regardless of whether you tech BW or AH after Hunting. I think BW makes more sense. Haven't considered The Wheel, possible oversight. BW has some extra value because you'll have a barb-killing unit regardless of having the resource, for whatever that's worth.

[wetbandit]

Annoying bear.




Logged in but didn't move anything. Worker finished, waiting to see how you want to do micro.

[Oxyphenbutazone]

I'm back so I can start playing turns. Thanks for playing turns while I was gone and doing the micro legwork!

I think the worker should start farming, and the scout should move northeast. I'll post later on the micro, but we don't have to make a decision for a couple days.

[Oxyphenbutazone]

I've done some simming and I think I have an optimal micro plan, for this lackluster start:

EOT14: Finish Hunting
EOT15: Warrior finishes, Cap grows and starts another warrior
EOT19: Warrior finishes, Cap grows and starts settler
T20: Warrior moves NW from deer and starts farming
EOT24: AH finishes, farm finishes
T25: Worker moves to cow and pastures, start research on BW
EOT27: Finish Settler
Turn 28: Finish pasture

So cap size 3, 4 improved tiles, Settler comes out turn 28. Not a bad start, but everybody has forested deer+plains hill, so everything will be super fast in the early game. BW finishes turn 37ish, Pottery before turn 50. Not great, but ok all things considered.

Anyway, important scouting revelations:




That's TBS there. Land is surprisingly mediocre up here, but still worth settling later. I think the name of the game here will be expansion, the important thing will be to balance at least some vertical growth with all of the settler whips.

Speaking of expansion, here's a quick dotmap for immediate surroundings. Subject to change with scouting NE and strategic resource placement. Any comments, specifically on my preferred first city?

The ivory city has clams 2S of it and the city that spilts off the capitol cows has clams N-NE of it

[wetbandit]

I think that plan makes sense given the tech limitations. Is that cow being worked over the forested deer? It does seem like the techs roll in a bit faster, so I guess that extra coin is making a difference. Worker after settler?

City 1 is where I would settle as well. I don't have any idea which spot to prioritize afterward, but I think copper's location will make that decision for you.

[Oxyphenbutazone]

-I experimented with working the cow, but it's at the expense of not finishing the grassland farm, losing a bunch of hammers and not getting a second warrior out before the settler. I actually work it for one turn so the second warrior completes as the cap grows to size 3, but working it over the deer the entire time doesn't seem like a good idea.

-After the settler, I think grow to size 4 on warriors and then hammer out 2 workers and a settler. There's not much for workers to do at the cap until BW comes in.

[wetbandit]

Sounds good. Not much to say until the scout finds TBS' borders or someone else. It's possible he's pretty far away.

[Oxyphenbutazone]

It seems like TBS is across this isthmus. Depending on how close he is, the marked choke city may be a good plant to claim land. Seeing that gold makes it seem like Xenu placed one pre-calendar lux per player, which makes Maya seem like a respectable pick. I'm probably just hoping for something to justify this train wreck of a civ.

This land is still surprisingly barren, plains suck until communism.

[wetbandit]

"Cylindrical, PB9-style Full of Resources lakes with islands added for IC-TRs. 200+ tiles per player (more spread out than normal)"

Who knows, it's possible that its balanced to take into account the obviously OP Creative Ball Courts.