(April 28th, 2017, 12:05)Bacchus Wrote: The plot is laid: if all things fall out right,
I shall as famous be by this exploit
As Scythian Tomyris by Cyrus' death.
Great is the rumor of this dreadful knight,
And his achievements of no less account:
To come again to Carthage.
Knowing that Fortune favours the bold, I have already decided on my strategy for this game: monopolizing the goodwill of Roman deities.
On that note, these are the sacred walls of Rome, Remus; and whosoever jumps across them unbidden marks himself as her enemy (or spoils himself on a Civ4 Pitboss game):
Third in picking order, and I'm wondering whether to pick a civ or leader first. With starting areas revealed, civ first gains the appeal of hand-picking techs while not ending up with a mediocre UU/UB, and the playing field is small enough that we could probably still find a good leader on the tail end of the snake. It would also allow us to better gauge the value of IND, based on how many others take it.
Re traits, the defogged start could make some of them rise or fall in value (e.g. IMP and EXP gain power with every early forest; FIN works with non-riverside grassland, seafood and fresh water lakes). All I know right now is that I can probably not use SPI well enough to make it worthwhile. -- Edit: I've noticed that, at 5*5, the defogged area isn't as large as I'd been remembering (Mardoc has successfully argued against Krill's 9*9 proposal).
India is powerful indeed, but it comes with two trade-offs: first, they get the weakest of starting techs (Mysticism/Wheel).
Second, while Mobility-promoted Workers ensure an advantage nobody else can have, and the 1t chop speed-up is a frequent strong benefit, they don't deter a Classical or Medieval attack by themselves. As a newcomer to MP, I will probably be kept eyes / demos / espionage on as a potential soft target during these eras, no matter your skill and experience. I should take care to appear as not worth the investment of conquest -- while remaining competitive nonetheless (well, those two tie into each other). That's also a disincentive to founding a religion or building early wonders, decreasing the value of Mysticism. Maintenance reduction from AGG, by contrast, or (extreme case) Commodore's Canadian IMP feitoria FIN coast in PB13 are growth benefits that a potential attacker could not directly take. -- But AGG doesn't work well with India: +1 culture from double-speed RtR Barracks clashes with Mysticism as well; I'd never build a monument.
I'd still take India gladly, but if that's not going to happen and Inca isn't either, a civ with a "built-in deterrent era" (knock on wood) such as France could work well. 80h -1 str gunpowder knights that receive defensive bonuses: formidable both in enemy terrain (covering knight stacks) and one's own (lower cost compared to knights, shortened supply lines compared to muskets => more cities can contribute to defense at the focal point). I think at least some of the players will try for the Knight assault, and e.g. AGG or PRO musketeers could more or less subtly point them to other players, giving us time to build into a strong Renaissance and get some Cavalry rolling, perhaps. We'd have to survive to Gunpowder, but how hard can that be?
The field of players excites me (it may include mackoti at this point, he has posted in CML's thread). Here's hoping you'll have fun!
Mardoc Wrote:although you're certainly welcome to read more into it than is actually there
I may or may not be good at recording my own footprints as the tracks of some rare animal.
Now then, if the fog doesn't lie, there's coast to the south and east of us.
Assuming settlement in place, here's what I'm thinking:
t0 worker 12t
t12 >1 pasture (4t). Can work grass forest 2t (2fpt, 3hpt) then oasis 2t (3fpt, 2hpt). => 10/22 food, WB 10/30
t16 pasture done. work plains cow 4t (3fpt, 5hpt) => @t20 22/22 food, WB 30/30
t17 Worker moves onto fplain, farms 1t, then onto rice, farms it, back to floodplain.
t20 size2, work cow + clams (6fpt, 5hpt, 3cpt / 4 with FIN) building warrior (most likely). Rice online soon (T21-ish)
The trouble is that the bedamned lake 2 of the capital blocks the way for the worker. I don't think we can get Pottery by T17 to have him 1t-cottage river grassland 4 and 8... maybe if we start with Fishing/Hunting, but even then. So we'll lose a turn moving towards the floodplain and rice (Fast Worker doesn't help much, but gets rice online 1t faster if he moves 96 after pasturing).
Will think about WB first later -- and make a sandbox, although I don't know the map dimensions (yet) to get the correct tech modifier. Probably Large size given 9 players. Edit: Large size confirmed in signup thread.
Opening techs: with the plan above, we'd need Hunting by T12, Fishing by T16 (unless this is a version of RtR where workboats can't be built without Fishing... then we need it T12), Agri by T18/19 (-ish), and while Mining isn't that important, BW will be; so will AH (furs; find horses), Sailing (lighthouse for clams) and Pottery (of course). There must be a strategic resource somewhere in this area, I bet. Few hills and forests in sight: that makes me doubt India further... but that might be a greenhorn's madness.
Floodplain could (should?) be farmed with the food surplus we have (+7; +9 with farmed floodplains). It's as good as our dry rice (except for taking longer to improve) and irrigates the rice post-Civil Service. Could always watermill or cottage it later, and helps with growing onto (mostly) riverside grass cottages. 11 cottage tiles in total => strong commerce city and Bureau capital.
I doubt the forested fur is worth moving off the plains hill, but a second or third city could go there, sharing rice.
I hope the clams lake doesn't harbor a barbarian submarine.
I'm considering SPI now after reading your AlaePB1 report, Bacchus.
Edit: I think the clams actually give us a 5-food tile due to the low-sodium environment; that means 6 food at size 2, i.e. growth to size 3 in 4t with an empty bin. If we pick IMP, rather than farming the rice, mining the 22 grass hill first might pay off: IMP bonus [8 hpt * 0.6] = 4; that's 17 fhpt at size 3 working clams, cow, mined hill. Chop a forest into that (32h) and we're talking a T28 settler with the capital still at size 3.
(March 28th, 2017, 07:49)Bacchus Wrote: I say we have to have IMP here, but will think more about this in the evening.
What convinces me is how we can repeat the exact 4t settler build up to four times, and growth onto riverside cottages doesn't skew the arithmetic. With the second grass hill mined, 5t settlers (21fhpt) at size 4 or higher without chops/whips also become possible.
News from the signup thread: the rice isn't actually dry, so if the eastbound river flows into another bijou of a lake, then possibly the only seafood waiting in the east might be Krill, rankled by his one-clams start (even when it's fish masquerading as clams).
Sandbox attached. I picked SPI/IND and SPI/IMP of America for this, but maybe AGG would have been better to simulate a "blank trait" in the first 30 turns (although RtR mod AGG isn't blank at all).
![[Image: PB37%20Start%20for%20Players.JPG?]](https://dl.dropbox.com/s/ld41oljwkwqyom3/PB37%20Start%20for%20Players.JPG?)
Reworking it.