Survivor Spinoff- The Real Pangaea Edition

[Qgqqqqq]

Ah sure. Tbh, I don't really intend to participate in betting, it was more for trying out my own praet rush with a 15 resource city

[Tasunke]

I feel as though Germany and Russia are both strong choices ... however, Rome is certainly going to be a bit of a wildcard with its 'supercapital.'

Often having 1 supercapital can be a lot more useful than having a lot of empty semi-useful land, so we will see

[Lord Parkin]

Lots of resources means few cottages though. All depends on the AI's happy cap I guess. (Haven't looked in any detail at the map by the way.)

[pindicator]

[spacetyrantxenu]

Obviously players in Commodore's current games need to sit on the saves for a day so he has time to write this report.

[pindicator]

Survivor Spinoff Report
Turns 2-25

I offered to start this off for Commodore since he's busy, and I can see why it's taken a while to get the report going. The first 25 turns are going to see most of the good spots taken, and a lot of the more cramped areas filled to the brim. Hopefully Commodore can jump in, or if I continue the reporting I may do a more abridged version just to keep the story flowing.

And with that, welcome to our fortress of solitude!






North American Bracket

We start things off in the deep south, where Spain and Americans are looking to have themselves a real battle royale. Second Cities come fast and furious in Diety and Spain led the way with a city on turn 5, settling South Carolina. Although, something about the plant makes me suspect Brick may have been playing this one manually...

Not wanting to give up the South without a fight, America headed down to New Orleans and settled that the very next turn. Spain retaliated, as only Spain can: reinventing the Bible Belt with the world's first religion on turn 12.




America would later add a third city on turn 22, to the east of its capital, bracketing in Madrid. But Brick didn't send me that pic


*****


Up north in the wild recesses of Nunavut, Ragnar of the Vikings decided he was going to embrace his watery home. His second was on the north coast of Ontario on turn 5, and on turn 19 he decides on a very unusual gambit:




It lasted all of 2 turns before Ragnar got wise and switched back to unit production. His third city would go west, into the wilds of the Northwest Territories.




He is still far from any neighbor's borders, and could possibly claim a large swath of this frigid land. Though he will have to contend with Diety-level barbarians.


*****





In the south, the Aztecs have been able to expand unmolested, first heading to the southern bank of the Rio Grande to block off the Americans, and then out east to Cuba for their third city.


*****





And bringing up the rear of the north-american group are the Native Americans. They went south to the arid deserts of Baja, settling on turn 7. Then on turn 25 they went northwards to Vancouver for a lush third city. I have a bit of a rooting interest for this civ, since I live somewhere 1 tile north of Cahokia. But dang, these guys are slow.


South American Bracket

Down in the Pampas of Argentina Inca planted city #2 on turn 5, somewhere south of Rio. Inca started Stonehenge late, but is in contention for building it; as of turn 25 it is 4 turns to finish the wonder. They've got a good hammer location, but there's another contender that has had a faster start.




In the north, Maya settled city #2 into the jungle, before settling native inca lands for city #3. Now he's trying to pull off the tried-and-true strategy of building Stonehenge in one city while building a monument in the other. Maya's Stonehenge attempt is maybe not quite as serious: just 57 turns to go!




Across the jungle, Portugal has had to contend with Ethiopia in the east, but in the west has tons of land to expand into. Except it's all jungle. He also planted city 3 on turn 19, tied with HRE for the fastest to 3




And north of Portugal, Mali is just farming away on those flood plains.




All in all, south America is pretty awesome!

[pindicator]

Sub-Saharran Africa & Southwest Asia Bracket




Arabia settled it's first city south towards Ethiopia, taking an excellent defensive position. Arabia needs to expand into some better lands if it is going to have a chance, and there are some lush lands east of Ethiopia.




Ethiopians was content to ignore the Arabians and settled west, into the jungle. And then became the first civ to attempt a wonder, starting on Stonehenge on turn 15. Inca may have a better production city building the wonder, but Ethiopia's head start looks like it may triumph, at least at this point.


*****


In the far south of the continent, the Zulu settled northward with their first city. They have quite a lot of land to claim down here as well:




Meanwhile, India established a potentially dashed Arabia's dreams of getting to the lush Indian jungles by not only founding it's first city northward, but then founding Hinduism in Bombay on turn 12




India and Zulu then both settled towards each other with cities #3. Still, lots of land down here.






Australia & East Indies Bracket

Starting in the west...




Sumerians is heading east, towards the nicer parts of Australia in its northeast.




The Dutch are heading for the same lands from their start on Australia's southern shore.


*****





The Khmer are in an odd spot to contend for Australia; water channels and mountains hem them out a bit. Brick has a note that he forgot to add forests to this region and only noticed after the Khmer settled their second city. But they can go northward into the jungles of southeast Asia and contend for land with the Chinese.




However, China misses an opportunity to box in the Khmer and instead sends its settler north towards Mongolia and Korea.


*****





And somewhat isolated on the north shore of the Himalayan Sea sits Persia. They've used their isolation to expand in either direction, first settling west on turn 6, and then east on the edge of the southeast Asian jungles with their third city, on turn 24. They still have quite a bit of space to grab land with Cyrus' Imperialistic trait.




Northern Asia Bracket

Most of the action is in the east, with Korea, Japan, and Mongolia all fighting over the same land. Ocean is to the east. An ocean of barbarians are to the west. Russia kind of fits in here, but as in real life Russia is being affected more by events in Europe than it is by events in Asia.




Korea is trying to break out of it's peninsula, but the other AIs have done a great job of boxing them in. Japan has settled west, into Siberia, and Mongolia's first city struck south towards China just as China's first city struck northwards. While there is some beautiful land still northwest of Korea, it is going to be heavily fought over.




After the Mongols settled Beshbalik, it began to have a serious problem with barbarians. It tried to venture out twice with a settler and archer and twice it turned back to the capital. Finally, on the third attempt, on turn 24, it was able to plant a city, shown below:




Mongolia had built the settler way back on turn 16, which would have made it one of the first civilizations to get a third city down. Instead the settler wandered back and forth for nearly 10 turns.

Mongolia is also one of the civs that decided to make a late play on Stonehenge. As of turn 25, they are still 20 turns away from building it, and very much out of the running.

*****





Seriously, Siberia should be given up for dead. Or at least renamed to Barbaria.


*****




Russia may have thought they were going to be semi-isolated, but the Ottoman Turks are having none of that. Russia first went west towards Germany and then east towards Barbaria. And in the same form the Ottomans first settled west into Crimea before going and planting a little welcome mat right on their front porch. Islamic Rus in the making?

[pindicator]

Northern Europe Bracket


It's a race!




England and France are both headed for the same position out of the gate. In crowded Europe there's a lot of this, and a place to watch for future turns as the the land is going to run out fast here. This race was won barely by the English, which not only caused France to have to move somewhere else to settle their second city; it also means France has effectively been shut out of the east. France responded in turn by going the only direction it had available:




Into North America! France's third city has given them access to horses and elephants. Now Spain is in turn boxed in place. The Vikings and the Americans still have plenty of land to the west. There's a peek of Rome in this picture too, but they're going to be covered in the Mediterranean bracket.

Meanwhile, England is expanding into the lands available to it:




Grabbing Iceland, and access to iron with a border pop. The only direction left for England now is a conflict with the Vikings over the North American tundra.




To the east you can see the Celts, and where they planted their second city. It's already growing like a weed. It claims no strategic resources, but the Celts already have the basic three in their capital. And since the Celts went west with their first, they went east with their second, into the tundra of the Kola peninsula.




Germany (psuedo-Prussia) went northward with both their cities, first striking towards the Celts, and then settling a rather dubious looking city to the northeast. They need to grab some of the strategic resources to their south, also to get their hands on some good production for the wars that are sure to come. You can see how they are already squeeze between Russia to the east and the Holy Roman Empire to the west. Prague in the picture is the HRE's second city, sent right up against Germany in the opening turns.




HRE then went southeast for their next city, heading into direct conflict with Greece. But also securing the elephant resource in the area. Greece we will cover next, in the final bracket!


Mediterannean Bracket

Starting with the fan favorite, Rome!




Antium was actually Rome's second city. Pressed right up against the Spanish border. It wasn't any surprise that Rome would be in an early war, but I don't think they needed to go instigating for one either. Then Rome backfilled with another city right up against the French border. All-in-all, 3 cities is probably more than anybody expected this early. Now Rome just needs to tech Iron Working...




There isn't much mention of Greece in Brick's notes, and considering the congested area they have that can't bode well for their long-term future. I have a screenshot of them settling northward with their second city; but as we've already seen the HRE repaid the favor and box Greece in with their third. Greece is going to also have to go the war route soon, but unlike Rome they lack the killer UU to make it easier to pull off. At least they have the right personality (Alexander).




Byzantium has a lot of plains hills. I mean, a LOT of plains hills. It shows in their city cizes. Their second city was planted on turn 11, so I'm guessing there was some settler redirection going on there. But they ended up on the southern doorstep of the Ottomans. City #3 bridged it and the capital - actually, a pretty savvy move by Byzantium to stake out some land. But man is that a lot of plains hills.

Byz also joined the Stonehenge hunt on turn 24. But at 9 turns out, they're currently running third in that race, behind Ethiopia and Inca.




Heading south to Babylon, it looks like we find the winner of that before-supposed settler race. Babylon went straight for Mesopotamia and has a potential powerhouse of a city in the future between all those flood plains and hills. And then for their third city they managed to strike east to grab land from the Persians and also grab the horses that they are going to need for unit production. A strong opening from Babylon; they could be a regional power I think.




Meanwhile, Egypt is just content to build sandcastles all by itself. Settling up the Nile makes sense for a second city, but city #3 could possibly have been better served by grabbing the horses in the east. War Chariots, Egypt! Use those War Chariots! Instead I think we have stone and a potential historical re-enactment of the building of the Pyramids? That's way too early to say. Or as Brick put it, "Egypt is doing Egypt things."




Say what you want about Egypt, at least it's building cities. Carthage has been given a rather nice start and has done absolutely nothing with it. They settled west into Morocco, claiming the rest of the Maghreb. But they haven't done anything else yet. That's not bad land between them and Spain; one of those two civs needs to hurry up and claim it. But Carthage also has plenty (relatively speaking) of land to the south before they reach Mali.




The World: Turn 25







I think we can all agree that Rome needs to hurry up and tech Iron Working. What have they been dabbling around with?

[Ichabod]

Go Brazil!!

Joao needs to free me from the inca, though. I live approximetely on the incan second city.

Awesome report!

[Whosit]

Thanks for the report! That was a lot to cover!