Noble SG: No Improvements

[Commodore]

So we built ourselves a save game here.

So I know it's been done half a decade ago, but I was recently reminded of a fun variant SG that Sullla/Darrell/Zaviz/Compromise played back in the day:No Tile Improvements

Would some 3-4 others be up for a Succession Game reprising the variant? I'm thinking:
Noble Difficulty
Like before, Standard, Ice Age/wide, Epic speed, vassals off, events on, etc, etc...
Saladin of Arabia (less rush ability, but nice resource-less mainline unit).

Someone willing to roll a few maps to weed out stinkers might be nice, but heck, we can try it blind too.

Sign ups:
Commodore
Shoot the Moon
Bigger
Brick

Finally Ready for Noble - The Next Generation


You are SALADIN


Your Start:

First Start too!

Good Luck! (You're gonna need it...)

Let's get started! I'm kicking things off with 25 turns, then next it's 20, then 15, and from then on, 10.

[Bigger]

we're just going in order of sign-up, I assume?

What is the argument for settling one south? Seems to me it just trades forest for water - not a good trade, with no real benefit.

[Commodore]

First 25 played.

I knew the seductive blue circle wanted us to settle in place, but the saucy wrench was seeking to deny us a potential hut tech! Not only that, but we might want to share the food () with a northern fishing village if possible. So south I went, and darn it, I like those clams.


Given the variant, this is a frankly ridiculous capital. With a lighthouse, it can make its way up to a six food bonus, great for whipping. And once those forests spread (please, oh please RNG) we can work all tiles in the capital BFC for actually decent hammers. Now Moai Stones are certainly worth consideration here, but honestly we might be better served putting them in another place with zero utility otherwise.


I set research to Polytheism first. We need one religion at least, we don't need a lot of worker techs, so why not chase it? And Polytheism works better with us:
-We want Masonry soonish, to also open up Monotheism and OR.
-It's on the line for the per-city-bonus boosting Theology/AP/monk economy.


...so I think it was a good direction. We have Hinduism, folks.


But that was not, in point of fact, the first tech I discovered. On turn eight, Mecca's borders popped, and the friendly villagers had a different direction to suggest.


Our starting warrior hadn't been out for long when who should he bump into but Sitting Bull of the Native Americans. We made peace, as he wistfully told us that last time RB tried this in a SG, he was the star.


Sitting Bull's borders were discovered soon after; the ivory you see here is merely 40% of his total supply.


...as helpful villagers were happy to inform us soon after. This long, long river leads north to the sea, so should Sitting Bull both annoy us and somehow not spam a ton of well-promoted archers and dog soldiers, we can profitably steal his city. That's a ways in the future, however.


South along the river is a massive flood plains bonanza. Remember: Flood plains are basically the best tiles we can ever find, particularly given the lack of roads in Arabia.


25 turns, and it's off to Shoot the Moon to play the next 20. Here's what we've discovered so far:


Fishing has just come in. Our choices are basically now in between Bronze Working and Sailing; we need food and hammers badly, but not badly enough to chop the capital, which will be hurting for health too. Long term plans are going to be "settle all the coasts" for whatever that's worth, but I think we have a little time before having to finalize a close dotmap. Growing on a workboat explorer is probably what I'd do, but I could see several options here.

Shoot, you're up:

[Bigger]

SIP would also have picked up both clams

damn, settling on one of those ivorys would be so nice, what an inconvenient spot for there to be an AI

[Qgqqqqq]

Its also 50% of ivory.

[Ichabod]

SIP would also have picked up both clams

damn, settling on one of those ivorys would be so nice, what an inconvenient spot for there to be an AI

In my opinion, settling 1S was the best move by a big margin, only due to the chance of settling on a strategic resource (that SIP doesn't have), that is likely to be on that tile (only unforested tile, subpar capital resources). Of course, if it's coal or aluminium, it won't make much of a difference.

[Bigger]

SIP would also have picked up both clams

damn, settling on one of those ivorys would be so nice, what an inconvenient spot for there to be an AI

In my opinion, settling 1S was the best move by a big margin, only due to the chance of settling on a strategic resource (that SIP doesn't have), that is likely to be on that tile (only unforested tile, subpar capital resources). Of course, if it's coal or aluminium, it won't make much of a difference.

ok, well thats a good argument for it . Copper or Iron would be nice .

[BRickAstley]

There's literally no rivers until that big native America one. Obviously we have to kill them with fire and fast.

[Commodore]

Brick! In the southeast! We should settle on deer!

[Bigger]

bwahaha.

I hope there are horses on the coast, so we can have an easy way to kill dogs.