(SPOILERS) Donovan Zoi Fights in Honor of Japan's Bad Name

[Papa Bear]

Can't you move the archer S or W before choosing (and bring it asap to city after) or is getting away from settler forbidden by the rules....

Hi,

as this hasn't been answered yet:

no, that is exactly the thing that is not allowed 

I think it great to have a few players from this Forum in the PB88 and wish you guys lots of fun!

(I use the same Nick at civforum, btw and participated in the original 52-Player-PB back in the day)

[Cornflakes]

As AGG/PRO we have some extra insurance against sharks smelling blood. Most of our military can go into triremes and PRO archers. Two mental luxuries make Forges more valuable as well. You mentioned a sim, did you make one or just back-of-the-envelope?

I think Agriculture is better. Food/production should be the limiting factor rather than research. And I don't think that AH needs to necessarily be a priority. The worker can mine the other grass hill(s) while waiting for tech. And with rice + crabs we'll have enough food to feed the tiles for now.

Is the world map from the previous game publicly available?

[Ramkhamhaeng]

Is the world map from the previous game publicly available?

Yes https://www.civforum.de/showthread.php?9...ost7303535

[Cornflakes]

Logged in to grab a screenshot and fog gaze:

   

If I remember correctly, the score mouseover shows the total number of land tiles ... 5331, or approximately 100/player. I count 36 tiles in the immediate vision including the immediate ring of fog all around. So our peaceful sphere of influence is about 3x what we can see.

Gems on our home island will be nice to fuel the early economy. Between silver and two gems we'll tech well through the very early game. RED dot pick up all those resources 1st ring and would be great for ignoring early culture but that might limit us to just two cities on the home island if it ends just in the fog.

A spot of tundra suggest that we're far south? Also the total lack of jungle. I loaded up the previous map and was struck by the amount of jungle throughout Indonesia. I did find this though ...

   

Mountain in the center, spot of tundra to the west, another island to the north ... This map has about 1000 more land tiles than the previous map (nearly 25% more) so this region could have received a facelift. Either this, Japan, or England [with the map flipped 180 degrees] fit the best given lack of jungle and presence of tundra (oddly there is tundra near Japan on the last map even though it is near the equator)

[Donovan Zoi]

Turn 7

I'm back! The game ground to a bit of a halt over the holidays as the turn timer was pushed out to about 12 days, and then was held up by 3-4 usual suspects that let the time run out (and some continue to do so).  The wait was extremely annoying, and this is coming from RB's own resident slack-ass. 

We're now back on the 48 hour clock, which seems like a breakneck pace again.  A few more turns have transpired and we can get a good look at Manifest Destiny 1.0.




With access to roads, I agree on the city #2 spot. The extra Deer closes the deal.  Settling there will allow us to plant 4 cities on this island, though I think we should save the last two for back-fill while we settle the two islands with an abundance of valuable minerals.  My screenshot is not the best, but there is more Silver 1N of the northern crab.  

 That's 4 big commerce tiles, which will support our bid for the Great Lighthouse > Colossus parlay.  Early Metal Casting would normally be a pipe dream at its base BTS cost, but GL + overseas bonus will help get us there faster.  AND then put us just one step from Machinery and XBows.  From there, it seems advantageous to chase the Feudalism or Theo path to make them Amphibious -- ouch!

But I am getting way ahead of myself here.  I still like what we've been given so far, and that most of our tech path writes itself for now.  We'll just have to wedge in Pottery (for MC), AH and Writing appropriately.

Culture Watch

We popped borders last turn and I was fully expecting to see a rival's radius by this point.  But there's still no other sign of life and we already have 95 tiles in view.




I'm torn between WB-scouting for neighbors, or hanging back and preparing a surprise coastal attack on another civ that still holds on to the adorable illusion of security.

[Donovan Zoi]

Now to catch up on some prior comments.  Sorry for being such a lousy host!

I think it great to have a few players from this Forum in the PB88 and wish you guys lots of fun!

(I use the same Nick at civforum, btw and participated in the original 52-Player-PB back in the day)

Welcome, Papa Bear!   All of us playing from RB appreciate the invitation to play in such an epic game.  Thanks for jumping in for me to answer Jabah's question, and both of you feel free to stop here anytime

Logged in to grab a screenshot and fog gaze:

If I remember correctly, the score mouseover shows the total number of land tiles ... 5331, or approximately 100/player. I count 36 tiles in the immediate vision including the immediate ring of fog all around. So our peaceful sphere of influence is about 3x what we can see.

Looks about right, based on my T7 screenie. That is more than I expected to see since the game was advertised with 4-5 viable starting cities for player on average.

Gems on our home island will be nice to fuel the early economy. Between silver and two gems we'll tech well through the very early game. RED dot pick up all those resources 1st ring and would be great for ignoring early culture but that might limit us to just two cities on the home island if it ends just in the fog.

Sold!  Our first 2 cities will be ideal for getting out the Settlers, especially since we won't need as many Workers.  I'd have to imagine that other players will have many of the same benefits to accelerate their own progress.

A spot of tundra suggest that we're far south? Also the total lack of jungle. I loaded up the previous map and was struck by the amount of jungle throughout Indonesia.

Mountain in the center, spot of tundra to the west, another island to the north ... This map has about 1000 more land tiles than the previous map (nearly 25% more) so this region could have received a facelift. Either this, Japan, or England [with the map flipped 180 degrees] fit the best given lack of jungle and presence of tundra (oddly there is tundra near Japan on the last map even though it is near the equator)

Hmmm, jury's still out for me too. The remaining land still unveiled itself to somewhat resemble Malaysia due to the surrounding islands, and despite the lack of jungles as you mentioned.  I was also thinking Northern Canada or Russia.  The New Zealand angle looks possible as well, though it does not the surrounding islands.

One of these could be a doorstep to a major landmass, which could be good or bad depending on who we encounter.  I just want to live long enough to figure it out, and I like our chances so far.

[Donovan Zoi]

As AGG/PRO we have some extra insurance against sharks smelling blood. Most of our military can go into triremes and PRO archers. Two mental luxuries make Forges more valuable as well. You mentioned a sim, did you make one or just back-of-the-envelope?

I think Agriculture is better. Food/production should be the limiting factor rather than research. And I don't think that AH needs to necessarily be a priority. The worker can mine the other grass hill(s) while waiting for tech. And with rice + crabs we'll have enough food to feed the tiles for now.

Is the world map from the previous game publicly available?

Oops. one more.  Yes, you'll see that I stayed with Agriculture, as it's definitely the right call.  I didn't have an envelope or a cocktail napkin handy, so some mental math was enough to convince me to stay the course.  We end up hitting Size 3 at right about the same time we build a Workboat, an about T23.  We could have gotten the WB more quickly (and pocket a small bit of gold) earlier by going Mining first, but we'd have 3 tiles ready for use in a Size 2 city and to spur growth, Gems wold lose out -- essential giving back that early $$ anyway.

Added thoughts: I think the GLH should ultimately come from city 2 due to more chops available, but that's negotiable depending on the timing of everything.  I do think we should go Sailing after Mining, which is much faster than I usually tech it.

I am glad that Ramk was able to get us the map.  I will have to take a look at it.

[Miguelito]

When would you expect the lighthouse to be built? In the prequel game it came in the 40s

[Donovan Zoi]

When would you expect the lighthouse to be built? In the prequel game it came in the 40s

Hey Miguelito, good question!  And that's one thing I meant to ask Cornflakes regarding RB history and the GLH target.  I think we'll need to get our first Settler out and see where we are from there -- that Deer site is too good to delay.  Then again, with even more players in this game, it does make sense to aim for the late 30s then if it's possible.  We won't get BW before we can whip our first Settler around T30, so maybe there is something to be said for getting GLH before the Settler.  I can be easily talked out of this, but a straight run to Size 5 will get us 1 chop + 4 mines and puts us in a good spot to get our next Settler quickly right after.  If we preserve the Size 5 status for Settler whips, we can still expand pretty quickly afterward while easily building garrison units/Galley etc.

Settler first obviously helps our growth and tech with all its goodies.  Plus our Worker will run out of things to do if we delay a second city for too long.  So I think I am still  80/20 for Settler first as we can still build it pretty quickly without BW and save the production boosts for GLH.

Regardless of what we choose, this locks us in at Agriculture > Mining > Sailing > BW for our starting techs.  Depending on when we get Sailing (and working the Silver will help), we can start to put some hammers into GLH as we grow to Size 4 or 5, and then bring it home with Whips and chops later.  In Ieyasu, we are going to max out on 10hpt with 3 mines and then get up to 13hpt once we are able to chop and mine the NE forest in the capital.

[Donovan Zoi]

Turn 8

Here is the full map with the northern Silver.  I'll send the Warrior SE next turn to fogbust en route to the southern tip of our island.  Then after, fogbusting via the forests should get us a win against any animal that happens to spawn until we get City 2 online.





City screen
Also, I've never posted a city screen.  Once we have Gems and Silver connected on the mainland, we can theoretically get to Size 7 in capital (and size 6 elsewhere) which means that size 5 is sustainable for some timely whips.





Demographics
FWIW.  The one takeaway here is that there are some civs that are completely landlocked, while we are clearly not.  3 others have it the same or worse (better?).






Runaway Civ!
The player Frozen distanced himself from the pack by increasing from 28 to 29 score this turn. I verified the change via the Top 5 Cities screen, and am glad to see population granted 1 point instead of 6 as that will make C&D much easier.