SAT - #2 Pencil only Please

[Sareln]

The SAT and the ACT are tests taken in the last year of high school here in the United States. Your score plays a role in determining college admissions. Parents rightly worry about how well their children will do on the test, giving rise to the test-preparation market. Does Europe have an equivalent exam? /shameless lurker trolling

[Commodore]

So we're still debating elements of the map, but the start position is done. As you've picked both leader and civ, have a start shot:



Map is Emperor/Small

[Kyan]

The SAT and the ACT are tests taken in the last year of high school here in the United States. Your score plays a role in determining college admissions. Parents rightly worry about how well their children will do on the test, giving rise to the test-preparation market. Does Europe have an equivalent exam? /shameless lurker trolling

UK have "AS" Levels and "A" Levels (where an "AS" is worth half an "A" Level). Traditionally, you take "AS" Levels on your 2nd to last year and "A" Levels the year after providing you did well enough the year before to continue the subject.

They're something that are useful for getting to Uni, but after that, provide little benefit to job hunting. I work for a bank and they don't place any requirements on "A" Levels. In fact, most CV's just state how many they passed without even writing what grades or what subject.

[Sareln]

Results of the Snake Pick:

• the(Bigger)stick - Peter (PHI/EXP) of Ottomans (Janissary/Hamman), (Wheel, Agriculture)
  
• SAT - Isabella (SPI/EXP) of the Mayans (Holkan/Ball Court), (Mysticism, Mining)
  
• Sian - Bismark (EXP/IND) of Byzantium (Cataphracts/Hippodrome), (Mysticism, Wheel)
  
• Tankra - Hatshepshut (SPI/CRE) of the Native Americans (Dog Soldiers/Totem Pole), (Fishing, Agriculture)
  
• Nicolae - Ramesses (SPI/IND) of China (Chokonu/Pavilion), (Mining, Agriculture)
  

Initial Commentary: In our discussions Peter was a first choice. A double-down on the two strongest econ traits left after you pull out FIN. Took Isabella with the thought of having EXP and then doing fun civic flips etc. ala PB4 L&C (or S&S). This will be an interesting game for me because I haven't done the mass-civic switching style before.

EDIT: More pick discussion

Generally speaking AT & I talked about our preferred traits, and decided that we'd probably aim to pick ECON/ECON traits and hide behind a UU if things got hairy later on in the pick. With the priority on Econ, we targetted EXP, PHI, SPI, and CRE. This lead to the following priority list.

Leaders:

1. EXP/PHI - Peter
   
2. EXP/SPI - Isabella
   
3. PHI/CRE - Pericles
   
4. PHI/SPI - Gandhi
   
5. CRE/SPI - Hatty
   

When considering civilizations we tried to pick based on good/solid early/mid impactful UUs and UBs. Given that we had picked EXP/SPI we considered Mayans for their Ball Court & Holkan, Korea for their Hwacha, and Arabia for their Maddrassa (if we wanted to force the Great Prophet out early in order to bulb religion or build the shrine).

Civilizations:

1. Maya
   
2. Korea
   
3. Arabia
   

[AutomatedTeller]

That's an interesting start.

My first thought is to move to the PH by the lake. But there's ice near that. in fact, there's a lot of ice to our east, too! With exp, being on freshwater is less important.

the(Bigger)Stick will love this start - GP farm at the cap is pretty strong
Sian and us will be able to go worker first if we want.

Hmm - so, my original thought had been to go BW and grow to size 2, and whip out a worker. But none of these are 3 food.

I'm now thinking we go worker first but use the foresthills and go hunting first! (deer+ivory)


I did want to point out that IND was probably our 5th trait and Bismark was a thought. Given our discussion later about early-game wonders, maybe we should have gone IND

I guess a lot of people thought that SPI was the 3rd best trait, after EXP/PHI, since it was very popular.

[Sareln]

That's an interesting start.

My first thought is to move to the PH by the lake. But there's ice near that. in fact, there's a lot of ice to our east, too! With exp, being on freshwater is less important.

the(Bigger)Stick will love this start - GP farm at the cap is pretty strong
Sian and us will be able to go worker first if we want.

Hmm - so, my original thought had been to go BW and grow to size 2, and whip out a worker. But none of these are 3 food.

I'm now thinking we go worker first but use the foresthills and go hunting first! (deer+ivory)

I'll sit down and sim it but my first inclination is to settle the closer of the PH and actually go AGR -> BW while building a worker. It loses the 20H from the chop though, so I'll have to look at it harder. Wet wheat is a 5/1/1 tile so I'd want to get that up ASAP.

We can also move the warrior to scout the other PH to see what's going on up there.

[AutomatedTeller]

Hard to pass up a 5-1-1 tile - I agree, now that I think about it. AGR->BW is the right path. Ivory isn't so strong that you want to rush to it.


I like the PH - the problem is, going to that one means we won't ever work the sheep, unless that land north of it is a lot nicer than I think it is (and I think it's half ice)

We could go E of the ivory, but then we lose the deer and the sheep, and that's not good.

So, yeah - I'm thinking I agree on the PH, unless the warrior shows something wild north.

[Sareln]

I like the PH - the problem is, going to that one means we won't ever work the sheep, unless that land north of it is a lot nicer than I think it is (and I think it's half ice)

Land doesn't need to be *that* nice. We set up a filler city on the white dot and it can work both the sheep, riverside farm, and deer when the capital doesn't need the deer. We whip workers out of that city and everything is fine. Later on we can chop 3 forests into it if we want to try and grab a wonder there.

[AutomatedTeller]

I've done mass-civic switching in SP games - it's a different way to look at it, I have to say.

There are the direct benefits, too, because you don't have to wait to switch into a civic if you get it. And, on quick, turns saved on anarchy are even more important.

the other thing is the temple economy, should we be able to do it (not always easy with Ind civs out there) - but a couple of religions along with the ballcourt, and we may not ever even have to run HR!

On the north city - that could work.

One thing I have to get used to is not playing SP games for space, where I place cities at least partly for how good they will be when they are size 15 or so.

[Sareln]

I've got a simulator up here.

I've only done one playthrough, but I suspect that we may both be wrong, and a agriculture/hunting start might be stronger. As an aside, going Agriculture -> Bronzeworking means we can hit Stonehenge @ 2560BC. When I next go through the sim I'll let you know what turn number that is (T24).